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e23 News Archive: March 20082005 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec2006 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2007 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2008 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2009 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov ( oldest first | newest first ) March 31, 2008: No, The Castle Doesn't Fly
The evil overlords that reside there get this question a lot. "Does it fly?" "Can it levitate?" "Will it float?" "Is it carried around by a giant falcon?" "What the heck does the name mean, then, anyway?" And so on. 0one's Blueprints: The Ruined Town, Castle Falconflight will, at least, give answers to some questions. Questions like "How big is the castle?" "Where is the dungeon?" "How big is the master bathroom?" Just don't expect wings or big rockets. Falconflight is only a name. Doesn't mean anything. It just looked really good on the stationary. -- Fox Barrett March 30, 2008: It's Like A Roleplaying Cage Match!
Except there's no cage. And you and the GM aren't trying to kill one another. And no crowd, announcer, fight bell - look, okay, it's actually nothing like a cage match at all. It's two people, playing a game, quite amicably. In fact, if you look at it one way, they're helping tell each other a story. So my analogy sucks, but can you at least see what I was trying to get at with 1 on 1 Adventures #9: Legacy of Darkness? I guess saying it's "like dancing a waltz" would be more appropriate, but what self-respecting level 8 to 10 wizard wants to talk about waltzing? Oh. That many, huh? Well, learn something new every day. -- Fox Barrett March 29, 2008: What Does Jack Burton Say At a Time Like This?
What Big Trouble in Little Oaktown lacks in Kurt Russel it more than makes up for in panache. I . . . don't actually know what "panache" is, I've never had any myself, but this Guide to Selling Things To Other People I have says "panache" is a great thing for a product to have. And who am I to argue with the written word? Anyway, if you're looking for a neat little True20 adventure about a bunch of kids saving a bunch of other kids, this book has you covered. If you're not looking for such an adventure, well, you certainly oughta be! I mean, just look at that thing. Panache going every which way. Divert yourself from your present quest and steer the ship towards this panachey adventure. . . . I think I need a new guide. -- Fox Barrett March 28, 2008: Greater Understanding Renders PDF Subsistent
Yeah, I was stuck for a "p"-word. Saying that the Basic Set is now available on e23 isn't really news these days. It was news a couple weeks ago. Unless, of course, I throw the words "third" and "edition" up there. "Revised" is even invited to the party, too. A more solid and linkified way of saying that is: GURPS Basic Set, Third Edition, Revised is here! It's the generic and universal engine humming under the hood of the Transhuman Space and countless other settings, adventures, genre books released in the 80's and 90's. And by countless, I mean over a hundred or so. It's really only "countless" in that I don't want to count that high. Point is, while we may have moved on to fourther pastures, the Land of Third is still green and vibrant with the SJ Games back catalog. So grab this PDF-shaped tour guide and see what happens when Steve Jackson mushes four consonants and a vowel together. -- Fox Barrett March 27, 2008: Traveller Ite Domum
. . . eh, that's more or less correct. Anywho. If you've played Traveller, you've probably heard of the Spinward Marches. I'd even go so far as to say you've definitely heard of them. They're what we in the Alliance of People Who Apply Labels to Things would call "well known." But do you know everything about them that you could know? New Era 1248 Sourcebook 3 Spinward States will take you on a little tour of all things Spinward, filling in any gaps you might have and previewing things to come for the hapless denizens of that little strip of stars. -- Fox Barrett March 26, 2008: Valley Of The Sun, Dungeon Of The Smackdown
Arizona! Land of . . . uh, dirt, and . . . rocks . . . and uh . . . Oh! Dungeon crawls! Yes, Arizona is home to the fine city of Phoenix, where within shall you find Xcrawl: PhoenixCrawl. Unlike most Xcrawl events, when you die, you might not die this time. There's a slim chance your group might decide you're worth bringing back. Of course, all that really means is that you're probably just going to die twice this time. But hey, anything worth doing is worth doing twice, right? -- Fox Barrett March 25, 2008: Things Were Going Great. Until . . .
When the first couple guys died, nobody thought much of it. Then a few more kicked the bucket and we figured "eh, that sort of thing will happen." Ten didn't seem like a number to cause concern, though 12 did tip off a few radars. Still, everything was hunky-dorey until Mr. 13 had to go and shuffle off our lovely little mortal coil. Now it's all "oooo, we've got a mystically relevant number, we're gonna rise from our graves and terrorize the living." Even got their own dungeon and everything, 0one's Blueprints: The Ruined Town, Dungeon of the 13 Undead. Lousy undead. I swear, you give them an inch of symbolism and they'll take the whole darn mile. Someone really should go do something about those guys. Saaaay . . . you've got an evening to kill, don't ya? -- Fox Barrett March 24, 2008: Little Big Guys
Do not stand on the shoulders of the Paper Miniatures: Giants Set. If you do, it probably means you're also standing on your gaming table. The other players will not appreciate this. Which will result in your little Newtonian tirade being quite short and rather brutish. Or, worse, you might be standing on your monitor. I'll warn you up front: we are so not paying for your replacement monitor in that case. There's a reason these things are kept on walls and desks. Please, enjoy the Giants Set, but enjoy it responsibly. -- Fox Barrett March 23, 2008: Woe Is . . . Um, Everybody!
It's the 1300s and absolutely nobody is having a good time. Which is exactly what makes Black Death such a great game. That's who you play: nobody. As a plague, your job is to hop from unwitting peasant to unwitting peasant, infecting, multiplying, destroying, and moving on in an unbreakable cycle of microbial shenanigans. Of course, with a lack of medical prowess, an understanding of simple biology, or, heck, soap, Europe doesn't exactly stand much of a chance against you. Which is why you'll be competing against other plagues. He with the highest body count wins! Sure, it's a little morbid, but thankfully there aren't too many 14th century Europeans running around to object to the subject matter. They're all much too preoccupied. Y'know . . . being dead. Probably from the plague. -- Fox Barrett March 22, 2008: And I Feel Fine
Oh, sure, when the world ended, I felt pretty bad. Achy, kinda bloated, a little dizzy. But now? Couldn't be better! I'm pretty sure it was the EarthAD.2 Enhancement Pack that did the trick. Yup, one little pack separated unfathomable despair from happy-go-lucky contentment. Must be a heck of a pack, then. Obviously they don't mess around when they stick "enhancement" on the cover. -- Fox Barrett March 21, 2008: A Level 14 Smarty-Pants
A new prestige class? Not quite. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 4: Sages gives dungeon-divers a new set of diving gear. But it's not the usual sort of "this kind of character can step on giants and laugh as he scrapes him from his sandal" thing. It's more of a "science!" kind of adventurer. The barbarian/monk/paladin had his time to shine. Now it's time for DF 4 to show the world of kobold crunching and orc obliterating that a big fat brain still has its place and purpose. And besides, all the best skills are IQ-based. -- Fox Barrett March 20, 2008: Ghosts And Generalizations
Who doesn't love a good ghost story? I mean - yeah, okay, besides necrophobics. Nobody, right? Right. Look, just work with me here, huh? Ghostories, by that logic, is a game we can all enjoy. Or at least, most of us. There are a few dissenters lurking about, trying to sabotage my point. But, for the most part: fun to be had by all. I've got to stop leading ads with questions . . . -- Fox Barrett March 19, 2008: Best Better Ever!
The HardNova 2 Core PDF is all you need to play HardNova 2. Need. But why settle? More is always better, and better is always . . . um, better. Just trust me on this one, you want "better." So! In the interest of making HardNova 2 better, there exist a number of shiny new PDFs for the line. PDFs like HardNova 2: The Intercosm. Or like HardNova 2: Miniseries Alpha - The Vanguard. And hey, there's also the "enhancement packs," which make the game so much better, they did it twice. They'd be HardNova 2 Enhancement Pack and HardNova 2 Enhancement Pack Beta. Begin your new, better life today! (If, admittedly, "better" in a fairly narrow scope. But some "better" is better than no "better," right?) -- Fox Barrett March 18, 2008: Perturbed Streets?
So I'm looking at this Mean Streets Enhancement Pack, a PDF-y supplement for the gritty, film-noir-inspired Mean Streets Core PDF and it got me thinking. If these streets are mean (and there's really no question there, that street said I had "stupid feet" yesterday), then what happens when you "enhance" them? Furious streets? Disgruntled streets? Mad-as-hell-and-not-gonna-take-it-anymore streets? And then there's the other question: do we really want these streets any meaner? What if they start rioting or staging coups? These are streets we're talking about. I need them to get to work! I think of all this, and then I have to go lie down for a while. -- Fox Barrett March 17, 2008: Expanding On The Expanding Frontier
Coyote Trail is more than just a PDF. It is, in fact, quite a few PDFs! Floating about on the server, occasionally mingling, all different and yet connected by a bond that transcends simple family ties. You're looking at me funny again, so I shall do some chase-cutting, yes? Okay, here's the deal. We've got a whole heapin' pile of nifty expansion PDFs for Coyote Trail. There's the Enhancement Pack which sounds a lot like what it is, there's Indian Trails which fleshes out something you can never have too much of in an Old West game, there Shady Gulch Revisited for the location interested among you, there's Mysteries of the Mountain for the adventure inclined, and finally there's something of an odd duck. Colonial Record turns back the clock a bit to the arrival of those eldritch horrors known only as "Redcoats." -- Fox Barrett March 16, 2008: Eggsistential Eggspounding
Need an eggstemporaneous adventure for your current d20 eggspedition? Feel your players need a new eggsperience? Like books with eggsaperating puns? I know I do. If you do too, you should eggsamine Quick Quests: Eggscellent Opportunity. Eggsactly what's inside this eggsuisite tome? Well . . . Eggs. Bah-dum, cha. -- Fox Barrett March 15, 2008: Kick? Punch? Truly, It's All In The Mind
The Mind Unveiled: Enlightened Monk is the book I'm here to tell you about in this most cyber of spaces. Now here's a book that takes monks and appreciates them not for their bodies, but rather for their minds. It's a nice change of pace. So good to see companies like Dreamscarred Press have such foresight and open-mindedness. (Oo, bonus puns!) -- Fox Barrett March 14, 2008: And Now The Circle Is Complete
The circle consisting of two books. PDF books, at that. It's something of an . . . odd shape for a circle, but there you have it. GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns is now available for download. Putting it together with its faithful companion Characters won't let you into Castle Greyskull, but it will open up a world of roleplaying possibilities. A universe of possibilities, even. Generic ones. -- Fox Barrett March 13, 2008: Mmmm. Pulp.
We've got a new book called Pulp Fantasy and it got me thinking. No, not about "dames" and "mugs" and guns and all that stuff usually associated with the two-fised pulp genre. Pulp. The juicy, orangey kind. Have I ever fantasized about pulp? Is that something worth spending time fantasizing about? Do I even like orange juice? This will take some soul searching. Um . . . right, you probably don't care. But you should care about the book I mentioned. Pulp Fantasy is pretty neato. -- Fox Barrett March 12, 2008: Everything's Better With Rockets
Some books have an unfair advantage over others. When you book has a title like Rocket Rangers: King of the Rocket Men, you just . . . I mean, you win. All the other contestants have to go home. Because there is no contest. You can't compete with that. It's king. Of rocket men. So all hail our rocket-powered sovereign! And buy the book. Because this would please the rocket men, and keeping them happy is in your best interests. They're rocket men. -- Fox Barrett March 11, 2008: Some Classics Are Classics For A Reason
Everyone hates the Sheriff of Nottingham. And with good reason. That guy is such a jerk. Prince John's not too popular either, and for much the same reason. Someone should really do something about those two before they render England into the Unhappiest Place In the Cosmos. "Robin Hood?" Well, sure, if you want someone else to hog all the glory. Wouldn't you rather go kick their collective rear-ends yourselves? It'd be much more satisfying, y'know, and the potential for woo fair maidens is quite. That whole "dashing, roguish outlaw" thing. You'll need Sherwood: The Legend of Robin Hood to get started, some polys to get playing, and a suave yet dangerous manner to succeed. I'm sure you already have at least two of those, so why not get the book as well? -- Fox Barrett March 9, 2008: Why Always Blue?
Blueprints. Never redprints, yellowprints, or even aquamarineprints. Always blue. Blue stands unchallenged on the print throne. But really, what did blue do to deserve this lofty pedestal? It's easy to be king of the hill when nobody's even bothering to push you off. I say we cast off the lame-duck color and give someone else a crack at being in prints! . . . I'm sure I had a purpose to all this . . . Oh! Right! Buy 0one's Blueprints: The Ruined Town, Old Observatory. You could probably use the map to a creepy observatory in at least one of your games, so why not this one? -- Fox Barrett March 8, 2008: Unvictorian Victoriana
Okay, so let's take the Victorian era. Now push in some gears, steam, clockwork, and all the usual fantastic gaslamp trappings. Now grab Queen Victoria and yank her out right out of the timeline. Huh. Well that looks a little weird. Something old and something new, GURPS Infinite Worlds: Britannica-6 views steampunk through a slightly different lens. I-SWAT agents can certainly expect to see a Britain running on all cylinders, but anyone expecting the standard-issue prim-and-proper morality of 1887 will be . . . "Surprised" seems so inadequate a term. -- Fox Barrett March 7, 2008: Malevolent Miscreants Masterfully Malign Many!
Misfits & Menaces: Mixed Villains is more than just a cheap excuse to me to throw around some alliteration. Indeed, its true purpose to provide gamers in need of a little villainy inspiration (say, you, for example) with some fueled-and-ready bad guys that they can drop into Mutants & Masterminds. Drop, ooze, float gently . . . whatever method of literary locomotion these make-believe masterminds require to get into your four-color fantasies. Good gravy, I seem to be alliteration afflicted again. I offer my absolute apologies. -- Fox Barrett March 6, 2008: Tights, Frights, And Hite's
For too long the work H.P. Lovecraft did in the field of comics has been ignored. Too long have his four-color forays gone unnoticed. Too long has nobody said "Hey, those Cthulhu comics are neat-o." Well, no longer. Ken Hite's Adventures Into Darkness breaks down everything that made this all-too-short comic endeavor great and provides it unto you in an easily digestible Mutants & Masterminds format. And if you're one of those poor souls that has been denied its joys, my friend, I must say to you that you are in for a treat. But you can't read my collection! I'd have to get them out of the little plastic baggies, and do you have any idea what Lovecraft's comics are worth these days?!* *(Hint: Nearly as much an oceanfront house in Arizona) -- Fox Barrett March 5, 2008: Heroic Travellers
Need a spaceship for Traveller? Running a Hero game? Doing both at the same time? You kooky nut. Lucky for you there are books to help with that very situation! In fact, there are several, but there are two in particular that I want to mention today. Traveller Hero: Golden Age Starships 3 Archaic Small Craft and Traveller Hero: Golden Age Starships 4 Boats and Pinnaces are the latest additions to our catalog, you see, and as such deserve special mention. So go ye forth, Traveller/Hero fans! Your slash now has a way to cruise the stars! -- Fox Barrett March 4, 2008: Savings Not To Be ThrownIt's GM's Day! Gamers don't get nearly enough holidays. Me, I'm waiting for "Guy Who Promises to Run a Campaign, Y'know, One of These Days if He Ever Gets Around to It But Never Truly Delivers Day." Until then, I shall honor those more proactive than I and celebrate GM's Day! And I'm not the only one. First, there's the stuff from Tabletop. Fine PDFs such as Bits of the Boulevard and Halls of Horror are now available at 25% off! In fact, the entire company got a good slashing, so click that yummy little link just north of this sentence and have a little look. There's also a slew - no, a smörgåsbord of GURPS books! And, as an added bonus, we've uploaded the GURPS GM's Screen -- just $1.95 for a limited time; see the Daily Illuminator for details -- and dropped the prices on the following classic GURPS products for the rest of the week:
Any of these books would make a good gift for your GM. Which is why you should buy them. And certainly not because I bullied you into taking advantage of this short-lived sale. Noooo, sir. When I say things like "hurry, this offer won't last long," it's just to inform you. Our sale only lasts until Friday and the Tabletop Adventure sale only until Thursday. What better way to say "thanks for not killing my fighter when he stuck his head in that hole" than with a shiny new PDF? -- Fox Barrett March 3, 2008: Life Is But A
Have you ever had a dream you were so sure was real? What if you couldn't wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the real world and a d20 supplement? Wait, I think I screwed that up. Lemme start over. Phantasmos gives your campaigns some dreamy options, with all sorts of critters and classes related to those funky beta waves. Yes, now your games can truly be the stuff dreams are made of. You groan, sure, but I still got paid to make that joke. Quickly, flee to the download link, lest I make another. -- Fox Barrett March 2, 2008: A Matter Of Perspective
Help! Help! Ravennora is besieged by the most diabolical of arthropods: centipedes! . . . stop laughing, this is serious! Centipedes, and they're attacking the town! What? Yes, of course we have boots, why? Oh. All right, smart guy, come and have a look. Why no, I've never seen a centipede the size of a house either. Now that you understand the gravity of the situation, perhaps you shall start rounding up some men-at-arms, yes? Mitarra - The Agenda of Itherelle: Centipedes! has the details you'll be needing. -- Fox Barrett March 1, 2008: There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
Free adventures, on the other hand . . . We're offering Hussle, a short adventure for d20, as a free download, and there's nothing you or the laws of economics can do about it! Take that, economics! -- Fox Barrett 2005 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2006 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2007 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2008 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2009 News: • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov |
