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Ennie award voting is now open. Please consider voting for Trail of Cthulhu for Best rules and Best Writing, and Unremitting Horror in Best Monster/Adversary book. Vote here.
Edit: Due to some technical glitch, enworld lost all votes cast on Monday.
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We've released The GUMSHOE Book of Unremitting Horror. As an experiment, I've made the PDF immediately available both with the print version and also as a stand-alone. It will be interesting to see how it fares compared to Fear Itself (which is also now available as a PDF). I've also introduced a complete GUMSHOE Bundle - this was our top selling product at GenCon. I haven't yet decided how long to keep it on sale.
Details of new stuff:
- GUMSHOE Unremitting Horror, a crossover book for Fear Itself and The Esoterrorists is now out. For the first time, it is released simultaneously as a PDF and print book
- Get our three GUMSHOE releases The Esoterrorists, Fear Itself and Unremitting Horror as a reduced-price bundle. You can get either the print or PDF version.
- Lenny Balsera has completed his Esoterrorists adventure called Profane Miracles
- Ian Sturrock has completed his new Esoterrorists campaign Little Girl Lost
- The Trail of Cthulhu first round playtesting has begun
- Fear Itself is now available as a PDF from the webstore.
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A review (and mini-review) of all of our GUMSHOE releases here. Link courtesy of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pond823.
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Another great review for the d20 Book of Unremitting Horror here. I'm so looking forward to the GUMSHOE version. This is our best selling PDF product since Dying Earth.
"All in all, The Book of Unremitting Horror lives up to its name. From the art and fiction to the abilities and motivations of the monsters, this is more a book of nightmares than of creatures. The sections on how to use this book present great advice, and the creatures here are disturbing and twisted enough to make even the players scared, to say nothing of their characters. If you think your PCs and your campaign can handle it, you’d be well-served to inflict some Unremitting Horror on them."
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The d20 Book of Unremitting Horror is available now as a PDF from the Pelgrane webstore and RPGNow, and it's attracted a two very nice reviews, here and here.
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I've been going through Adrian's (cavalorn) GUMSHOE updated Unremitting Horror manuscript, adding comments.
One issue requires new thinking is the idea that the system should be player-facing. If a rule is asking you to make a roll for an NPC or creature behind the screen, that rule is most likely wrong. Does the creature make an Infiltration roll to sneak past a PC - no - the PC makes a Sense Danger roll to detect it. If the creature is very good at sneaking, it has an increases the Difficulty number. Conversely, if a PC is sneaking past a creature, the PC makes an Infiltration roll, against the creatures Difficulty number. This takes account of the fundamental difference in roles that NPCs and PCs take in GUMSHOE. PCs are the player's interface for interacting with the game; NPCs are just the GM talking, and placing obstacles for the players.
One funny quote from Unremitting Horror:
If the Organ Grinder is rendered 'unconscious' then further damage of the specific sort to which it is vulnerable can kill it; further damage from any other source merely makes it even uglier.
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Dave Allsop, who together with Adrian Bott created the d20 Book of Unremitting Horror has done this new cover art for the GUMSHOE version.
Bonus item: Why not share Ken Hite's Tour de Lovecraft?
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Fear Itself, our next GUMSHOE release, has an adventure specifically crafted by Robin Laws called The Ocean in the Forest, based around a LARP game. Adrian Bott, who is updating Unremitting Horror for GUMSHOE is adding a new adventure. That leaves an orphan adventure, The Final Case. It was originally in the d20 version of BOUH, but Adrian converted it, and the playtesters think it's a cracker.
The question is, what to do with it? I have three choices, release it on its own perhaps as a PDF, include it with Fear Itself as a second adventure, or add to Unremitting Horror as an extra adventure, on the basis that there is duplicate content in there already. At the moment, I'm tending towards the second option.
What do you think?
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Robin's GUMSHOE Horror book (formally the Game of Unremitting Horror) has passed through the playtest process. Robin rewrote the manuscript to include player tips, firm up a few loose ends in the adventure, add a new general skill Sense Danger, and gave excellent advice on running the very rules-light flashback scenes. We emailed back and forth with the two groups who had issues, and they are satisfied with the final version.
Adrian Bott (cavalorn), original co-author of the d20 Book of Unremitting Horror (d20 BOUH) has edited the GUMSHOE rules into the GUMSHOE Horror manuscript to make it a complete game. Adrian has also updated his Final Case adventure from d20 BOUH to the new rule set, and we'll be sending that out for playtesting in January.
The new rule set fits the adventure much more neatly, with flashbacks at the beginning to establish a relationship between the PCs and the missing private investigator and Risk Factors to explain why the PCs should continue in the face of terrifying opposition. The playtest results will be an interesting test case for "system matters."
Adrian is now working on The GUMSHOE Book of Unremitting Horror, incorporating the d20 book and adapting it to the new system, with a new adventure and new creatures, too. The creatures can be used as personal horrors with GUMSHOE Horror, or as in-your-face creatures summoned by The Esoterrorists. The adventure will feature low-powered ordinary folk, though.
We are looking for playtesters for the Final Case, so if you didn't playtest d20 BOUH and you are interested, email me simon@dyingearth.com.
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Bar a little more tweaking, the new Game of Unremitting Horror (GOUH) is finished. It's based on the GUMSHOE ruleset, and as it is currently written requires The Esoterrorists. I have two choices:
1. Publish Unremitting Horror as a stand-alone short game, and incoporate the GUMSHOE ruleset. This will require 20 or so pages worth of material taken and slightly reworded from Esoterrorists. Then, redo and release our existing Book of Unremitting Horror redone for the GUMSHOE system. Make it depend on GOUH. Advantage - we get a new, compact and complete book out in about three month's time. Disadvantage, the sales of World would be a lower figure than the sales of GOUH.
2. Roll GOUH and the GUMSHOE rules into the OGL Book of Unremitting Horror. Disadvantage - money tied up in development, and at least a six month wait for the book. Possibly lower overall margin. Advantage - a complete, stand-alone book and system
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Robin Laws has just supplied me with a new RPG based on the GUMSHOE system used in The Esoterrorists. Its called The Game of Unremitting Horror. If you'd like to playtest and are able to start within two weeks, please email me. The Game Of Unremitting Horror plunges ordinary people into a disturbing contemporary world of madness and violence. Players take the roles of regular folks much like themselves, who are inexorably drawn into confrontation with the creatures of the Outer Black, an unearthly realm of alien menace. With or without its distinctive mythology, GMs can use it to replicate the shudders and shocks of the horror genre in both film and literature. GUH is written Robin D Laws and is based on background material found in the Book of Unremitting Horror by Dave Allsop and Adrian Bott.
Please pass this on.
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We'll be doing a number of GUMSHOE-related products, including a new version of the Book of Unremitting Horror (called the Game of Unremitting Horror) with an adventure (which Robin Laws discusses here). This will concentrate on the actions of ordinary people faced with horrific situations, and has more narrative crunch with flashbacks and similar tools to reflect the genre. It will be open for playtesting in October.
I'm undecided how to release these games. The current Game of Unremitting Horror requires both the Esoterrorist/Basic GUMSHOE system and the d20 Book of Unremitting Horror. I'd be interested in hearing suggestions.
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At last, a full-blown review for the Book of Unremitting Horror. It was marked down a single point because the reviewer said it overstepped too many boundaries, as if that was a bad thing.The co-author Adrian Bott cavalorn comments in thread underneath the review.
Is it "too squicky" to use one commentator's phrase? It doesn't address any themes not covered in a Stephen King book, or even most episodes of Law and Order and CSI. However, roleplaying games are not television, as they require active participation, and some themes are very hard to address, and require the active consent of all players. It makes a big difference if the events happen to NPCs, or "off-camera." It's fairly obvious that the Book is only suitable for a mature audience, and the example adventure give the best template for the type of gaming we hope to encourage.
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