SteamPunk RPG Beta Playtest

In the age of steam, coal is king…

ICOSAEntertainment’s Pure Steam is a steampunk campaign setting compatible with the Pathfinder Role Playing Game.  This isn’t your grandma’s steampunk.  Hillbillies and Yankees scatter the landscape, which is more Appalachian than Victorian.  The old, tired mountains rich in coal veins are home to the economic powerhouses of the setting.

This book focuses on the Federal State of Ullera, a relatively young nation born out of the Abolition War, founded on freedom from oppression and learning to cope with newfound economic prosperity. 

• Plunge into the setting with original subraces, each fresh and exciting.
• Test out the Chaplain, an original base class able to heal and buff without magic.  Representing her chosen association (each of which grants unique powers and options), she adventures for the betterment of society.
• Try your hand at one of eight unique archetypes.
• Aim true with new weapons, accessory and gadgetry.
• Kick the tires.  Brand new vehicles await for rapid travel and exciting combat.
• Experience the horror science can awaken with new monsters.

*The Pure Steam Campaign Setting was successfully funded on Kickstarter on May 9, 2012.

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Project Chrysalis #1

What is Project Chrysalis?

This debut issue from ID Comics begins in 1939 with a mystery that will resonate through the series.

Fast forward to the present:  a girl suddenly manifests dark powers in the center of Central Park.  Find out how a mysterious company named Tiber Corporation is somehow linked to the girl's extraordinary abilities.

Also, what is the link between Tiber Corp. and the mystery of 1939?

Project Chrysalis is part of the Tiber Saga.  Other books in the series include Experiment 692 and Morgue.  Both are available at DriveThruComics.

The Dice Tower Meets $50k Stretch Goal

Yesterday I blogged about The Dice Tower Kickstarter stretch goal of $50,000 and the Top 100 Games functionality that meeting this goal would add to the website.  Well, the goal has been met.  I am looking forwards to this game ranking app and to comparing how my board games favorites compare with those of other board gamers.

Predictably enough, a new stretch goal has been set: $55,000.  If this goal is met, The Dice Tower will add a voting function to the website.  Each month, The Dice Tower staff will review one game that users have voted on.  This allows for reviews of big releases that may be going ignored, a Kickstarter you may want to know about or an older game that should be discussed.

Dungeons & Dragons Goes PDF: Every Edition Available Again!

I almost entitled this entry How Nostalgia Broke My Credit Card.  The reason is simple, Wizards of the Coast, in association with DriveThruRPG, has made available for download in PDF format over 80 classic adventures and rulebooks.  I think I want to buy more than my credit card limit allows.

I still remember the first time I played Dungeons & Dragons.  It was 1980 and I was in 7^th grade.  I rolled a rogue and we played the adventure included at the end of the blue rulesbook edited by Holmes.  It had to do with a wizard’s tower and the sprawling dungeon he created under the tower, and ended with access to a seaside cave where pirate ships were docked.

While Holmes rulesbook is not available right now, Tom Moldvay’s 1981 Basic Set rulesbook is.  So are a lot of old time/original Dungeons & Dragons modules.  I quickly found some of my favorites: X1 - Isle of Dread, Q-1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, D-3 Vault of the Drow.  The list goes on…

With this renewed web offering, Wizards of the Coast is attempting to please players of all editions, all six of them.  You can search for your favorite rulesbook, supplement, module or adventure, by name, edition, setting (Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Greyhwak, Planescape and Ravenloft), as well as by product type (sourcebooks, core rulebooks, RPG media).

Many of these products are at very reasonable prices.  You can buy 1^st Edition’s D-3 Vault of the Drow or 3^rd Edition’s Bastion of Broken Souls for $4.99.  Compilations and sourcebooks, like 1^st Edition’s T1-T4 Temple of Elemental Evil or 2^nd Edition’s Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins, are going for $9.99.  Rulebooks are a little more expensive.  For example, be prepared to pay a hefty $19.99 for 3.5 Edition’s Dungeon Master’s Guide II.

Yes, you can find all of the products offered in DnDClassic.com as pirated torrents on the internet.  However, not only is that illegal, many of the pirated reproductions are of bad quality.  Buying them from Wizards of the Coast/DriveThruRPG gives you a high quality scan that has the added bonus of being searchable.  Good luck searching a pirated PDF for a particular NPC or item, particularly if it is several hundred pages long like the aforementioned T1-T4 Temple of Elemental Evil.  More importantly, buying legitimate copies rewards the authors for their work and encourages Wizards of the Coast to make more of their offerings available for download.

Finally, I wish you good luck accessing DnDClassic.com.  Apparently, this untapped market for PDF versions of classic and not so classic products from TSR Hobbies, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast is so large that the servers are frequently overloaded. 

The Dice Tower: New Stretch Goal and Rewards

While I love all gaming, generally, I have to admit that I am partial to board games.  A big reason for getting back into board gaming was Tom Vasel, his yearly Top 100 Board Games list and his video reviews in his excellent website The Dice Tower.  Thus, when I learned about The Dice Tower’s Kickstarter project to fund and expand their coverage of the board game industry for their 9^th season, I did not think twice about contributing.  While the project’s goal was $20,000, in 9 days they have amassed $48,954 with 882 backers.

A few days ago, The Dice Tower announced a new stretch goal, a new promo pack and even more rewards for both existing and new backers.  If the new stretch goal of $50,000 is met, The Dice Tower website will provide an app that will allow you to rate your games and make your own Top 100 Games list.  The app will import your game collection from BoardGameGeek to start your list of games and will allow you to add more game titles, as desired.  Then the app will assist you in creating your own list using the same method used by Tom Vasel and The Dice Tower to make their Top 100 Games list.

Regardless of whether the stretch goal is met, more rewards have been added to existing bonus packs, as well as new rewards since some bonus packs are already full.  There’s a detailed list of all the addon and new rewards in their Kickstarter project website.  

EN World: Helping Rebuild After The Hack

Every role playing gamer who has access to the internet has probably heard of EN World.  It initially started as a website focused on Dungeons & Dragons news and reviews.  However, EN World has expanded and now covers Pathfinder and many other role playing games. In fact, many of you are probably subscribed to their role playing game news and reviews newsletter.

In December 2012, EN World's website and server were hacked. The hacker's damage was deep and permanent.  As explained by owner Russell Morrissey a/k/a Morrus:

The entire site was destroyed, and I'm building it again from scratch.  While the basic functionality is there (news and forums), much of the functionality built up over a decade was lost.  I need to hire developers to recode all that cool stuff, but that takes time and - more importantly - money.  While EN Word ain't going anywhere, I'm turning to the community with whose help we can restore much of what was lost within a few months.

With that goal in mind, on January 15, 2013, EN World launched a Kickstarter.  EN World's Kickstarter goals are pretty modest in comparison with the usual Kickstarter project.  With a goal of $480, EN World can cover the costs of hiring a professional to optimize and secure the entire site, database and server.  However, there are stretch goals that add functionality and more to the services and tools to be offered by the new EN World.

Upon reaching $800 ("Campaign Manager"), EN World will add "a collection of tightly integrated campaign-management tools including campaign wiki, journal, links and files, picture albums, calendar system and more.  Together, they make a functional and convenient campaign website."  At the time of the hack, also referred to as "The Great Breach of 2012", there were 285 active campaigns being run on the EN World campaign manager.

There are many more stretch goals available, all the way to the $9,618 More Ogre Power.  At this level, EN World gets the functionality of the Online Generic Randomizer Engine or O.G.R.E.  It is a crowd-sourced continually growing library of interrelated random generators, or a "generator generator".  As explained in EN World's Kickstarter:

Honestly, you could create a generator to detail an entire town, and it could call upon already existing tables and generators that others had made before you - descriptions, names, stats, anything you can think of.

There's a plethora of pledge options, ranging from $1.60 all the way to $320.58 and just as many cool rewards.  You really should check out EN World's Kickstarter.  Not only is it about helping someone who has been helping the RPG community for years, it is also about Kicking it Forward:

As a community website, I felt it appropriate that this Kickstarter use the Kick it Forward system.  This means that 5% of the profits will be spent supporting other RPG-related Kickstarters as a way not only to give a little back but also to foster more cool RPG stuff!

As of right now, EN World's Kickstarter has been up for 3 days and has received $8,229.26 from 173 backers, and it still has 27 days to go.  Looks like we'll have O.G.R.E. to play with after all.  In any event, I can assure you one thing: as soon as I'm done writing and publishing this entry, there will be one more backer to this project.