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I've got five delightful new Pelgrane Press projects to announce.
Jason Morningstar, best known as creator of of the Shab-Al-Hiri Roach, is writing a Trail of Cthulhu adventure called The Black Drop. Something slowly gathers strength beneath the frozen basalt of the remote Kerguelen archipelago - a monstrous thing once worshipped and then betrayed, a terrible god from the antediluvian past. It's time has come again, and mysterious forces gather. Will they usher in its rebirth - or put an end to it forever?
Castle Bravo, a Purist Trail of Cthulhu adventure set in the Atomic Age, is being written by Bill White, who wrote the excellent Ganakagok. It is approaching playtestable form. The Investigators are sailors and scientists deployed aboard the USS Bairoko to the South Pacific as part of Joint Task Force One to participate in a series of secret thermonuclear test shots in the Bikini atoll called Operation Castle. After the first detonation, the PCs will have more than just radiation to fear...
Bill is also designing a complete stand-alone game, code name New World, it is inspired in part by Jared Diamond's work. The PC are in a colony at a crisis point and confront the combination of their cultural mores and limited resources in an alien environment.
Robin D Laws will be creating an SF iteration of GUMSHOE, as yet untitled.
Finally, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cavalorn co-creator of the Book of Unremitting Horror is writing a big book of GM'ing wisdom, provisionally called Bott's RPG Miscellany. You can see an example of his GM advice here.
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Graham Walmsley, author of The Dying of St Margaret's is interviewed here for yog-sothoth.com, talking about Trail of Cthulhu, and using the opportunity to pitch games to me.
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The latest Trail of Cthulhu releases are now available from Indie Press Revolution as PDF and PDF+Print versions. The PDF is free with the print version. Arkham is here, Rough Magicks here.
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Rough Magicks and Arkham Detective Tales, two new releases for Trail of Cthulhu are out now from the Pelgrane Press webstore.
Rough Magicks: a magic supplement for the best-selling and award winning Trail of Cthulhu
( Product info... )
Arkham Detective Tales: Cyclopean skyscrapers, bizarre cults, and eerie alleyways – the city of New York stands on the threshold between the modern age and the Mythos. Four labyrinthine and spine-chilling mysteries for your Trail of Cthulhu investigators! A magic supplement for the best-selling and award winning Trail of Cthulhu, written by the master of Lovecraft Lore, Kenneth Hite.
( Product info... )
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We are looking for playtesters for a new Purist Trail adventure,Watchers in the Sky the follow-up to the excellent Dying of St Margaret's. Email me simon@dyingearth.com if you are interested.
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A new five-star review of Trail of Cthulhu by OBS staff reviewer, Megan Robertson.
Overall, this is a masterful melding of the Gumshoe system with classic Cthulhu Mythos gaming, an inspired match. There's so much goodness in this that I'll be back again and again, not just to play but to mine for ideas whatever I am doing.
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I just hope I can get it printed in time...
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Trail of Cthulhu was nominated for an Origins Award for Best RRG, but the honours were taken by Mouseguard. I must play it. Oh, there was another game nominated, but it was fairly obscure. Read more...
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You might consider friending Jérome's journal for regular art updates. I repost his latest post as a taster.
I just love drawing menacing cultist ! I like the enigmatic face, questionning the viewer, is it a mask ! A cthulhu face ? my grandma ?
This last pic is for the "suprise" book for Trail of Cthulhu that might be (if the stars are with us) at gencon indy.
I now have my plane tickets for gencon so you will see me there (well if you want to !)
I will be signing books at Pelgrane place. Well, maybe not all the time, as it is the first time I come to this great convention. Simon Rogers will plane some signing sessions I guess.
I am pretty excited, mostly because I will be with the Pelgrane team (Kenneth, Robin, Sacha, Ralf, Steve), not only job partners, but enjoyable fellows that I don't see enough... lost I am in the east of France...
I also hope to play some game, wich I never have a chance to busy drawing for enthousiastic fans !!! wich is a very enjoyable feeling too ! and a great exercice ! you have to creat a cool drawing in about 10 minutes with no computer help or image references...
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James Semple, who has written music for Esoterrorists and Trail of Cthulhu, has just released a new superhero-oriented piece for Daring Entertainment, called City Rampage which is now available from rpgnow.com.
An excerpt from the Esoterrorists theme can be found here.
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Disguise“I jam the pieces of mirror in front of my eyes, like a toff with two monocles. Once I feel the blood flow from my cheeks, I just walk up to him and wait to see who he thinks he sees looking out at him. If it works anything like it does in my nightmares, he probably thinks I’m his dead brother.”
( Creepy art behind the cut. )
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The Armitage Files brings improvisation to the GUMSHOE system, and to Trail of Cthulhu. It's still Keeper-lead, but players contribute, too. The heart of the book is a series of documents and pictures sent from the future (or is it an alternate time line?) but Dr Henry Armitage. The PCs must follow the leads, and prevent disaster. The Files have been subject to rigorous playtesting, and now include extra practical material on improvising in actual play for both players and the Keeper. Oh, it's written by Robin Laws.
I'm also pleased to announce that Sarah Wroot, our amazing Dying Earth layout artist and illustrator has returned to create the documents themselves. Here is a section:
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A surprise supplement for Trail of Cthulhu will be released at GenCon, printers willing. This is the front cover image. You know who created it.
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There is a review of the Esoterror Fact Book over on the Pelgrane Press forums.
I just didn't get what Esoterror was supposed to look like ... The Esoterror Factbook changed all that for me.
...
The part that really struck me was the section on the Special Suppression Forces. To be sure, all the crunchy combat rules you could possibly want are available here. The good news is, they stick to the theme of genre and narrative use, and do not take GUMSHOE too far down the wargame path. But here's the better part: embedded in this section, along with the sample adventure, is a thinking man's wargame. Mr. Laws has managed to show how the GUMSHOE paradigms of resource management and clue finding can be used in a tactical combat environment. Now, taking down the bad guys guns blazing is more about managing your pools, and using your noggin to get the best advantage. And one by Pookie on Game Cryer for Trail of Cthulhu supplement, The Dying of St Margaret's: There is something awful about the Purist nature of The Dying of St. Margaret’s, but a stark beauty too, one that exemplifies Lovecraftian horror’s uncaring nature.
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Welcome to the CityScene Type: Introduction Clue Clue: The Moon-Tower The characters find themselves sprawled on an onyx parapet, in the middle of a bizarre alien city. Huge buildings loom above them like some opium-nightmare vision of Manhattan. Most of the buildings are featureless black stone, but others are decorated with intricate arabesques or green-gilded carvings. Few of the buildings have entrances reachable by the characters, as if the city was designed for things that could fly or at least levitate. The tops of the taller towers are lost in a thick purple fog. Shapes move in the fog far above. A 4-point Stability test is needed.
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I'm pleased to report that two Pelgrane releases made it on to the RPG Countdown top ten list. These were XPS 7/8 - Tooth, Talon and Pinion for the Dying Earth and The Dying of St Margaret's for Trail of Cthulhu. Listen here. In it, Graham Walmsley comes up with a good working definition for a Purist adventure. If you do use a gun, it will only be to shoot yourself!
Trail of Cthulhu has been nominated for an Origins Award. Let us say that we are up against somewhat stiff competition (D&D 4e and Star Wars Saga), so we won't win. Still, it's good to be nominated - that gets us more metaphorical silver for the cabinet. The excellent Mouseguard from Archaia Studios Press by Luke Crane and David Petersen also has a nod.
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Dan Harms has written a review of DoSM, here.
...this is a chilling scenario epitomizing Lovecraft’s cosmic horror. It not only recommends itself to Trail of Cthulhu purist players, but it’s also an excellent resource for Call of Cthulhu players who want more cosmic horror in their games. Also, Graham and I were also rather chuffed to note this comment from Dr_Locrian on the yog-sothoth forum: The Dying of St. Margaret's is an awesome scenario, all kinds of win! I just love the story, it feels like an old school Val Lewton production (is it a leftover from Shadows Over Filmland?). I'm tempted to contact the writer so I can write a screenplay adaptation!
I think it also has what I would consider the Platonic ideal for Trail of Cthulhu scenario writing format: a non-linear collection of scenes and clues and multiple ways of obtaining information listed. Also liked the hints on how to roleplay the key NPC's.
Bravos all around!
Finally, Indie Pete reviewed it on RPGnow.com. Watch out for the very early spoiler. "The Dying Of St Margaret’s" is a professionally presented and evocative Mythos scenario in the Purist vein...Cheerful stuff, presented in a no-nonsense fashion... this is great, more scenarios and RPG-writing should be so direct.
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Shadows Over Filmland for Trail of Cthulhu is out now! Pre-ordered copies have shipped, and you can get it at the Pelgrane Press webstore and IPR.
Following the success of the ProFantasy implementation of paypal, the Pelgrane store now takes paypal, too.
Dying Earth Update
Fields of Silver, a Dying Earth supplement was accidentally missed out of our PDF releases, and is now available until the end of May from our store and rpgnow.com. Read the author's article about her design intentions for this early-style campaign.
Since our sale began, we have sold over 1000 Dying Earth games. 100 people have bought the core book from rpgnow alone. I'm very chuffed; I am sure there is some element of "get it while it's available", but I've had a number of people emailing me, wondering why they hadn't tried it before. A few items are now completely sold out, including Turjan's Tome, and others are disappearing fast. Perhaps a closing down sale was the best thing for the Dying Earth! It would have taken until the sun died to sell that many, otherwise.
The Dying Earth rule set might not die though. I'm contemplating a use for it, but I'm open to suggestion.
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Shadows Over Filmland has been reprinted correctly following the flawed first print run and will be ready for shipping shortly. Now I have to decide what to do with 1500 books I am very unlikely ever to sell.
Before:
After:
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