e23 News Archive: September 2009

( oldest first | newest first )

September 30, 2009: Go Green

Orcs are good for slaughtering. They bleed nicely, they're scary looking, and they make a distinctly satisfying wet "thud" when they hit the floor. Goblins and trolls are much the same, just scaled down or up in size. And yet, the idea behind Paper Miniatures: QUERP Greenskins Set is a much more benign one. The idea is that this is a collection of hobgoblins, orcs, and the like that you can use as player characters.

I know. It sounds crazy. And not that kind of harmless and lovable crazy that Grandpa Frank has where he calls everyone "Cheryl." Rather, it's the frightening kind of crazy, like when Grandpa Frank takes pot shots at passing squad cars. If it helps keep your brain in alignment, I suppose you could also use the set as a collection of monstery dudes your characters can cut down wave after wave of in a blood-soaked ceremony of fury and gore.

Just remember, you'll be misappropriating miniatures. Don't come crying to me if you get in trouble.

-- Fox Barrett

September 29, 2009: Oh, and There's Robots

I find myself having a hard time discussing a game like MetalKrushers. I don't just write it in bold and italics, I want to say it like that. MetalKrushers! Such a potent composition of English words. Metal. Crushers. Two of the primary components in heavy metal music. It even swaps out the C for a K! It makes me want to jump off a stage and slam my battle axe shaped guitar into a disco ball while bellowing a mighty Viking war cry.

The game? Oh. Uh.

I think it's about robots? Robots are pretty cool, too.

-- Fox Barrett

September 28, 2009: "Gimmie Something Weird!"

That's what I yelled at my computer when I needed one of our older products to write about. After a few minutes, I realized that this wasn't going to be enough to get me what I wanted, so I tried the mouse instead.

What I wound up with was a collection of books in a line called Growing Up Super. The idea is that it's a collection of medical papers about what is involved in supers, ahem, making little supers. If covers everything, from everyone's favorite part (conception) to everyone's least favorite part (puberty). Technically, they are all written with M&M Superlink in mind. But the bulk of the thing is descriptive fluff and medical info. Some of the stuff in here (such as the included adventure seeds) could be easily adapted to your superhero game of choice.

Superheroes have never been more sexy.

-- Fox Barrett

September 27, 2009: d20: Now with 100% Less Logo!

A while back, the whole d20 thing forced several of our publishers to ask us to switch off a sizable chunk of their catalogs. While you customers can always redownload anything you buy from e23, we can't sell some of those books anymore. At least, not unless the publishers send us revised files . . .

Which is exactly what some of them did! The most recent of these plucky publishers is Goodman Games. Much of their wondrously violent Dungeon Crawl Classics is now back up for sale in our humble little corner of cyberspace. Several just went back up the other day, and many more are on the way. So if you don't see one in particular that you're looking for, check back soon! We'll have you kicking in doors and delivering twenty-sided pain to vile monsters in no time.

Or I guess I should say "delivering open-gaming-licensed pain." Eh, whatever. Let's beat up some critters and take their stuff!

-- Fox Barrett

September 26, 2009: A Generic Universe for Your Roleplaying System

If there's one descriptor we can appreciate with regards to roleplaying games, it's "generic." We love stuff that can be used by anyone, anywhere, and with anything. You might even say we wrote the book on it! And if you did say that, you'd be right. Good for you!

But that's not what I'm here to jabber about. I'm here to jabber about Points of Light II: The Sunrise Sea. It's a generic setting that you can drop into whatever fantasy campaign you're running. Or, I suppose more correctly, it's a collection of generic fantasy settings. You could probably use them together, but each of the four areas presented in the book work quite nicely on their own. And not only are they geographically modular, but the book doesn't lean on any one particular system. So you'll still need to do all that nitty-gritty "build the NPCs" bit of the work.

Which is just as well. Making characters is the best part of any game anyway.

-- Fox Barrett

September 25, 2009: Repeating Ourselves

Some time ago, we released a book called All-Star Jam 2004. That must have been back, oh, around 2004-ish. One of the chapters in it was written by a fellow named Phil Masters, and it was titled "Alchemical Baroque." Well, we decided that idea was worth a second look and have rereleased it on its own! (Or, I guess, rerereleased it, since the All-Star Jam PDF constitutes a release. But let's not get silly.)

It isn't just a straight reprint, however. GURPS Thaumatology: Alchemical Baroque expands on the original and revises all the crunchy bits to fall in line with GURPS 4th Edition. How convenient! For those of you who didn't catch this one in ASJ the first time around, Alchemical Baroque is a fanciful look at the world as it never was. It's fuled by the imagination of the Baroque period, mixing fairies and gun powder. Or perhaps fairy gunpowder, as alchemy is very real, very functional, and very much an exact science.

And best of all? Not a single "then don't fix it" joke to be found.

-- Fox Barrett

September 24, 2009: Oldie? Check. Goodie? Check!

Warehouse 23, our sister site, was taking inventory a little while ago, and I was part of that. Between counting one tiny miniature after another and praying for death, I noticed we had some copies of the Nyambe. Now there's a neat idea that deserves a second look. Here's fantasy adventures not in the typical European fashion, in the slightly less typical Far East fashion, or even in the decidedly atypical Greek classics fashion. This is straight out of Africa.

I can't actually say much about Nyambe because, well, I'm not very familiar with it. And that's exactly what's so great about the book: you've never seen this stuff before! It has all those fantasy trappings we know and love (i.e., beat up monsters, take their things, get famous as a result), and is fueled by the legends and myths of Africa. It's simultaneously familiar and fascinating. And it certainly deserved another look by a particular e23 steward who enjoys playing unusual games.

Also? The name is just darned fun to say. "Nyambe." I'd easily put it just above "rutabaga" and just below "chimichanga."

-- Fox Barrett

September 23, 2009: Exclamation Points!

I love exclamation points! They're so exciting! Any boring piece of writing can be spiced up with the liberal use of exclamation points! See?! Isn't this exciting!

It's this line of logic that leads me to believe that Combat!: A Military Action Game must be incredibly exciting! There's an exclamation point right there in the title! It's like the game is saying, "I'm exciting, I know I'm exciting, and I'm going to yell it out at the world that I'm an exciting game!" I don't know about you, but I just can't help but get swept up in that sort of enthusiasm!

Also, I read something once that said advertisements with exclamation points in them make customers 400% more likely to buy your product! Is it working?! I hope so! My pinky is getting really tied from hitting Shift over and over again!

-- Fox Barrett

September 22, 2009: Lucky 7

That's what Dungeon of Terror #7: Mad Mage Chambers (South) is: lucky! Lucky to be part of the excellent Dungeon of Terror line. Lucky to be made by 01 Games, purveyor of some of the finest maps to hit the gaming scene. Lucky to be a new product, and thus featured on the ever-prestigious front page of e23, the world's most popular, successful, and down-right sexy online store.

In fact, it's so lucky that it barely seems able to contain all the luck within its corporeal shell. Some of the luck must be slipping through the cracks. By purchasing this book, you're not just getting your hands on an excellent map. You're making an investment in luck! Basically, what I'm saying is that by buying this thing, good things will happen to you.

No, really! It's science!

September 21, 2009: Think Big

Eventually, every superhero has to face down a Threat to All Life in the Cosmos. I'm certain that's in the contract they all sign. So, if you're running a supers game, you're staring down the barrel of inevitability on this whole "cosmic threat" thing. What to do?

Easy. You get a copy of Misfits & Menaces: Cosmic Threats. This puppy is filled with planetary doom-bringers of just about every persuasion. Mindlessly hungry hordes of monsters, aloof aliens who think little of blowing up other people's suns, giant dudes that just plain old eat planets. Pick your favorite poison, because they're all here. With any luck, your intrepid band of superheroes will pull together some last minute plan to save Earth from its regularly scheduled consumption.

And if not, well . . . there's always alternate dimensions!

September 20, 2009: The Best Gets More-Er

You may have read my electro-writings when Adventures into Darkness graced the front page the first time around. So you probably already know all about this neat Lovecraft-meets-comics "what if." What you don't know is that we now have two new ways of looking at that disturbingly enticing mish-mash of genres.

Adventures Into Darkness: HERO 5th Edition and Adventures Into Darkness: Truth & Justice join the already well-established Adventures Into Darkness: Mutants & Masterminds. This convergence of systems - HERO, PDQ, and M&M - form a magic triangle of gaming goodness from which no gamer can escape! But then, why would you want to? It's a Ken Hite book about supers! Not only is that Weird, but it's also a rarity!

Well . . . it was a rarity. Now there's three of them. I guess it's spreading. That's a good thing, right?

-- Fox Barrett

September 19, 2009: It's 1948

Do you know where your planet is?

If there's one thing Ken Hite does well, it's mess up the timeline. He take a perfectly good, perfectly rational series of events and turns it into spin art. In this case, everyone's favorite bad guys (read: Nazis) unleashed some Unspeakably Horrible Evil on the world and, well, basically made a huge mess of things. One Ragnarok later, the world is a place of crazed cultists, desperate revolutionaries, and snakes. Freakin' huge snakes.

That's the The Day After Ragnarok. As an added bonus, it's available in two flavors: Savage Worlds and HERO 6th Edition. Buy one! Buy both! Or don't. We're flexible.

September 18, 2009: This Magazine Is Going Places!

Get it? See, 'cause it's Pyramid #3/11: Cinematic Locations. It's about different places where . . . y'know, it . . . Sorry.

Hey, but you know who are a good writers? The fine gentlemen featured in this month's issue! People like our own Steven Marsh and Loren Wiseman. They spin together subjects and predicates with considerable skill, and use the written word to paint finely nuanced pictures of places for your characters to do what they do best. They are people you should support, via a purchase of this location heavy issue.

Me? Thankfully I'm just hourly. All I have to do is make sure my jokes don't inspire your guys to storm the office and lynch me. (Incidentally, you guys haven't got any torches or pitchforks, have you?)

-- Fox Barrett

September 17, 2009: e23 Welcomes Atomic Overmind Press

Or, more accurately, I am welcoming Atomic Overmind Press to e23. The store can't really do that itself. It, um, is just a website. In fact, if it did start welcoming people of its own accord, I wouldn't be posting about it. I'd be getting John Conner over here with a fearsome quickness.

What's Atomic Overmind Press? It's Ken Hite! Well okay, not exactly, but they sure have a heck of a lot of books written by the dude. I hope you like Cthulhu, because this place is R'lyeh Central Station.

So welcome, Atomic Overmind! We hope to have a long and prosperous partnership together! (And that our server doesn't suddenly develop sentience and kill us both in a terrible nuclear holocaust.)

-- Fox Barrett

September 16, 2009: Designer's Note: GURPS Banestorm: Abydos

GURPS Banestorm: Abydos is a fully-detailed fantasy city for GURPS Fourth Edition. While I designed Abydos for Yrth, I also created the locale so that it can be easily adapted to other settings, since Abydos is on an isolated island with a strange culture all its own. This death-aspected city is higher powered than much of the rest of the GURPS Banestorm world. So, with a few alterations to the background details, it can become a city-adventure source book for a GURPS Dungeon Fantasy campaign!

Adventurers may encounter necromancer-priests, a Norse-influenced Mafia (with werebear assassins), the monastery of the vampire monks, plus a dread school and library of black magic (whose arcane "flesh scrolls" are tattooed on the bodies of living slaves). The Silent Maze -- dungeons of the dread zombie-mage Gabrielle Boneshanks -- lies beneath the city. Who is to say deeper dungeon levels can't exist beneath it?

-- David Pulver

September 15, 2009: Designer's Note: GURPS Martial Arts

The biggest thing that comes to my mind about GURPS Martial Arts is reality checking. Not only did I research martial arts and interview stylists; I also trained in as many different forms as I could for the book. Two of them led to very direct reality testing. I competed in my first kendo tournament and fought in my first few MMA matches as a direct result of research for this book! Check out enough styles in person and you might end up reality-checking yourself.

The Grab-and-Smash! rules reflected my experience learning to clinch-and-knee. The Clinch perk was added to reflect striking-only styles that taught such moves. Biting Mastery came out of learning details of a whole body of biting techniques at yet another school. The Special Setup rules came out of training in kung fu. Those are just a few examples. The rules in GURPS Martial Arts were not only based on books and movies purchased with money, but on the blood and sweat and bruises of testing them. Personally.

So help an author pay for his bandages and bruises, and check out GURPS Martial Arts!

-- Peter Dell'Orto

September 14, 2009: The Age of Discovery

e23 has been around for a few years now, and I'm far from its first caretaker. So there's actually quite a bit of product in the store I'm not familiar with. And if there's something in here that I don't know about, then it's fair odds there's stuff in here that you don't know about. What say we correct two unfortunate birds with one well-placed stone? A few clicks here, a couple clicks there . . . and there we go!

Here's a product I haven't seen before: the Basic Action Super Hero Role-Playing Game. Or, more succinctly, BASH! A superhero game called BASH? Yeah, you've got my attention. Looks like it's a light-weight system designed to get you quickly and easily into four-color adventures. And it's cheap, to boot!

So a few random clicks was all it took to dig up a buried treasure. Hmm. By that logic, if I look around e23 long enough, I will find the greatest roleplaying game of all time! We better get to clicking.

-- Fox Barrett

September 13, 2009: The Universe: A Brief

Okay, so maybe Thousand Suns: Foundation Transmissions doesn't cover every darn thing one can find in Thousand Suns . . . but it sure tries. Which is why, if you play Thousand Suns, you need this book! It has lots and lots of words about Thousand Suns stuff in it!

Look, here's a section about military ranks. And there's this bit here about a race called the Aurigan. Got a couple pages here describing different planets. Some neat stuff about body armor. And, look, it's everybody's favorite: robots!

Pick up a copy today. If only by the simple law of averages, you're bound to need information on something covered in here.

-- Fox Barrett

September 12, 2009: Old School (Of Magic)

If there's one thing we all should have taken away from the Lord of the Rings films it's that old guys with long beards and longer staffs are way cooler than we've ever given them credit for. Screaming at balrogs, shoving each other around with telekinesis, intimidating hobbits. All of it reaffirmed the long-held fantasy belief that the older a character is, the more unspeakably awesome he is. That's sort of the idea behind Eldritch Ass Kicking.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. What I'm here to talk (well, write) about is Perilous Pool of Possibilities. It's an adventure for the above-mentioned RPG of the bestaffed magical elderly. It's built to get you on your feet and tossing around fireballs with a minimum off muss, fuss, or truss.

Now get out there and take your ridiculously big hat with you. Those giant whip-wielding demons aren't going to yell at themselves!

-- Fox Barrett

September 11, 2009: Gunderful

What is GURPS Gun Fu? It's people crashing motorcycles through church windows whilst emptying two guns into The Villain. It's drawing a hold out pistol from your sleeve by swinging your arm. It's sniping your target from half a kilometer with cold precision and professional flair. It's a collection of shell casings that could fill two football stadiums. It's all the best things about action movies smooshed together.

It is, in a word, "gunderful."

That the cover bears the names Fisher, Punch, and Vortisch is like a sweet candy shell on chewy bun of Happiness. Action fans, your (insanely well-armed and stylishly black) ship has come in.

-- Fox Barrett

September 10, 2009: That Man Is A Machine

That's really the only explanation I have for it.

We've got four more new Battle Axe sets for your perusal. We've got an Orc Shaman, an Orc Warlord, an Orc Brute, and an Orc Slayer. Looks like there's something of theme to this latest batch. Can't quite put my finger on it, though. Anyway, it's in your best interests to buy these, because that will please the other-worldly, mechanical, game-making entity that keeps cranking these suckers out at an incredible pace. You really don't want to be on the wrong side of this thing when the Robot Revolution comes and they start rounding up "fleshies" who have not cowed to their whims.

 I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

-- Fox Barrett

September 9, 2009: What's Better than Giant Steam-Powered Tanks?

More giant steam-powered tanks!

I admit, I didn't think very hard on that one. I suppose it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that other things exist that are better than giant steam-powered tanks. I mean, that's not unreasonable, when you think about it. In fact, there might be a great many things that are better than giant steam-powered tanks. I just hadn't stopped to look at it like that. Y'know, I think I'm beginning to reconsider my position on this entire giant steam-powered tank thing. Aaaah, now my head hurts!

Here, take Land Ships, Set #2, Mini-Game #91. I may be a while.

-- Fox Barrett

September 8, 2009: Dude, Ken Hite!

Normally, I'd try to extol the virtues of a book like Grim War in order to entice you into a purchase. Lay out why it's such a great product and all that. I'm a bit rushed today, however, so I'll just give you the Cliff's Notes.

Superpowers, secret societies, Ken Hite/Greg Stolze co-authorship. Mix it in a bag, let it simmer for 160 pages, and violà: roleplaying gold.

That's all you need to know. Unless you don't know who Ken Hite is. Which is something you should immediately rectify if you play roleplaying games. You shan't regret it.

-- Fox Barrett

September 7, 2009: One on One for Everyone

What can one say about the 1 on 1 Adventures line? It has adventures! It's sized for a solo party but has a GM! It has been collected into a single book!

Wait, what was that last one? That's right, kids, it's bundle time again. I've got a One on One Adventures Compendium right  here and it has fun written all over it. Oooh, uh, that actually makes it really hard to read. Well, whatever, it's a PDF. You can always print out another copy. Ah, the beauty of the future.

Anyway, if you've got a hankerin' for some dungeon hackerin', but can't scare up an entire party to follow you on your suicidal tendencies, this line is perfect for you. Which means this book, which collects the almost entire line, is doubly perfect you. (It's true! I did the math and everything.)

-- Fox Barrett

September 6, 2009: The War Civil

If there's one thing I took away from Ken Burns' definitive look at our country's greatest and most terrible conflict, it's the importance caped crusaders played in determining the outcome.

Wait, I may be confused. One sec', let me check something.

. . . Nope, This Favored Land backs me up!

September 5, 2009: The Sixth Dungeon of Terror Map Ever!

That didn't quite have the dramatic punch I was hoping for. Hmm. Eh, I'm sure we'll fix it in post.

Cheggidout, peoples! Dungeon of Terror #6: Lord of the Underworld! I've mentioned this set of maps five times before, so if you haven't heard of them by now . . . then I'll just mention it a sixth time! I'll keep repeating myself, over and over, incessantly, repeatedly, again and again, until you nice people come buy this map (and its mappy brethren). It's a good map, and it fuses nicely into its predecessors to make some kind of gestalt map of overwhelming mapness.

"Buy some maps," is all I'm saying.

-- Fox Barrett

September 4, 2009: Ah, The Halcyon Days of Youth . . .

Won't find any of that here. No sir, this is Transhuman Space! This setting would just as soon turn you into a robot dog as look at you. Doesn't seem like the sort of place you'd want to bring up a kid.

Or does it? Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 5 - School Days 2100 presents just that idea. Or, more accurately, gives you an opportunity to see what it's like to be a kid in the crazy-go-nuts world of The Future. Not just any future kids, either, but ones that actually go to school rather than having school come to them.

So pack your books, your lunch, and your personal AI. School is now in session.

-- Fox Barrett

September 3, 2009: Wherein a Book Is Offered for Sale and Lame Jokes Are Attempted

So, when everyone is wearing capes anyway, what do superheroes wear?

The answer may reside within the pages of The Kerberos Club. It's a campaign book for Wild Talents, itself a roleplaying game of superhuman mayhem. The Kerberos Club presents you with England, circa 1850. Creatures and men of the blackest, foulest, most vile intentions seek to destroy the wholesome lives of London's fair citizens. (And, given what I know of the Victorian era, I only assume they do this by smoking in front of women and forcing people to question their prejudices.) You, the super-powered defenders of all things good and decent, go out and trounce them soundly! As you might expect, a good time is had by all.

But you needn't take my word for it. There's a free sample right over here that has a word you can take, as well.

-- Fox Barrett

September 2, 2009: Revealing

Heya, folks! Got another new set of Paper Miniatures for you today and - yow, is that dude ever naked. Well. Hm. I suppose he's got that flap on the front of his girdle. Man. Can I even sell this? I better go check.

Okay, the Secret Masters said it's totally okay for me to sell you the Paper Miniatures: Sword and Sorcery Set. So come one, come all, and get yourself a heapin' helpin' of manflesh! This set is perfect for those "swords and sandals" games that are heavy on the "sword" and light on the "sandal."

I would suggest, however, that you keep your game in a nicely arid environment. A character like this going into the Icyfrost Cliffs of Snowdrift Mountain is going to have bigger problems than mere ice mephits to worry about.

-- Fox Barrett

September 1, 2009: Two Races Enter, One Race Leave

I return, and wrest free the news queue from Paul's oily grasp! Have at thee, Paul! Hah-hah!

Now that I've dealt with that roustabout, I can turn our attention and energy towards a new release. For today, that would be Castoffs and Crossbreeds. It's a collection of races and rules for some decidedly uncommon crossings. Like ashwings, a mix of a harpy and either a halfling or elf. Not totally off the wall, no, but certainly not run of the mill. For totally off the wall, you'd need to turn to the section on gutterlings. That would be the (as the book puts it) unpleasant blending of a halfling and a cockroach.

"Unpleasant" indeed. Why would you do that to the poor cockroaches?

-- Fox Barrett

News via RSS | News via E-Mail