May 2015: View from the Pelgrane’s Nest

This month most of our resources have been concentrated on getting the Dracula Dossier Director’s Handbook near to layout. Kevin Kulp has edited or rewritten 55% of the Timewatch core book. 13th Age Monthly features the Eidolons – bizarre, other-dimensional creatures present themselves as aspects of mortal concepts, and KWAS 3 offers an artifact with magical powers – the Spear of Destiny. Accretion Disk for Ashen Stars and Strangling Sea for 13th Age are on pre-order, for release in late June.

13th Age

I’ve been running a lot of 13th Age this month, combining sections of the city book Shadows of Eldolan, with adventures from the forthcoming Battle Scenes which include a diabolic circus and a collection of grudge-laden dwarves who wanted something from the PCs.  In the most recent session the bard, of all characters, finished of a black dragon who was holding gold dragon eggs hostage.

As a GM I can thoroughly recommend Shadows of Eldolan as a useful and approachable setting for your 13th Age games, and Battle Scenes as an enthralling way to provided exciting encounters which fit with your characters’ stories.

• Make Your Own Luck, last year’s Free RPG Day adventure is available for download as part of the 13th Age Monthly subscription.
• ASH LAW finished her final pass on Shards of the Broken Sky and Rob is taking a final look through before layout.
• The Strangling Sea, Robin Laws 13th Age adventure is on pre-order at the store and will be released in July (US) and August (Rest of the World).

Free RPG Day

Also out on 20th June, a retail exclusive for 13th Age and Night’s Black Agents – At Land’s Edge and The Harker Instrusion –  a great free introduction to those games. Look for a particpating store here.

13th Age Monthly and KWAS subscribers will receive the PDF as part of their subscription in July.

Dracula Dossier Cartography

We’ve been to work putting together cartography assets for the Dracula Dossier.

From Bucharest to Naples, from London to the Northern Carpathians, Gareth, Ken and the other contributors have pin-pointed safe houses, libraries, bunkers and gothic castles. Will Jobst (our lovely new intern) added these to a google map, we exported these into Mapbox (which you can play with here) and then I created a new style and exported those.  Chris Huth is taking them, and adjusting them for the final layout. Our plan is to have the final world map available both as a google map and in Mapbox online (though we don’t guarantee it).

Here is a detail of the (pre-Chris) Ravenna.

We’ve also been working with sister company ProFantasy on interior plans. You can read about the creation of the floorplans here, but here is a taste: Carfax Abbey.

Story Game Anthology

We’ve playtested the third game from the as-yet un-named story games anthology . I’m hoping to play the game with designer by Joanna Piancastelli after we return from Origins. Here’s the pitch:

 Everything Else

Accretion Disk, the Ashen Stars expansion book is at the printers, and available on pre-order for release in June (US) July (ROW).

We’ll be going to Origins Game Fair – catch us on stand 729.

Following on from the successful Series Pitch competition, look out for a One Sheet GUMSHOE competition in the near future.