View from the Pelgrane’s Nest – March 2011

Whether it’s death by flowers, by aliens, or by the final stutters of the moribund sun, this issue features the dying days of the Earth in multiple guises. And yet, I am feeling rather upbeat, because this means the release of the first part of the epic Cthulhu Apolcalypse, that The Dying Earth returns and that work on Razed and Ashen Stars continues. Also, thanks to the generosity of Trail of Cthulhu fans, we will soon have a Trail of Cthulhu online character generator, and perhaps one for Esoterrorists and Fear Itself.

New Releases

Out this month we have Cthulhu Apocalypse, Bookhounds of the London, The Occult Guide, The Mountains of Magnatz and the Lovecratian London Limited Edition, all available from the Pelgrane Press store. Because we’ve ramped up production, we include a new release summary, here:

Limited Editions

The Lovecratian London Limited Edition featured a faux leather Bookhounds signed by Ken with a Lovecraftian word, geniune 30s ephemera and a hardcover Occult Guide with no traces of modernity presented in Augustus Darcy’s haversack. It’s sold out now – I’m rather pleased, and was expecting to be annoucing remaining copies here.

If you want a chance to get limited editions in future, we send out pre-release emails to those customers who have pre-order, so to be sure to be included, get a pre-order. This works with stores, too; if the store is part of the the Bits and Mortar program, email us the receipt, and we’ll add you to the list.

The GUMSHOE Character Generator

We’ve tried a new way to raise funds to make a character generator for Trail of Cthulhu – crowdfunding. The ideas is, you offer perks to people, and use the funds to create what you want, then release it free to everyone. We raised sufficient funds in 48 hours to create the Trail character generator; now we have added further targets to support the extra rules in Bookhounds, Cthulhu Apocalypse, and now Esoterrorists and Fear Itself. If you’d like to see what perks are available and help us build this great free resource, see our IndieGoGo page.

Trail of Cthulhu

This month sees four big events for Trail of Cthulhu, the release of Bookhounds of London and the Occult Guide, the pre-order for the amazing Lovercraftian Limited Edition and Cthulhu Apocalypse.

Bookhounds of London and the Occult Guide

The standard release of Bookhounds will ship out to mail order customers on Tuesday, and be in the stores very soon afterwards. It’s available in the Pelgrane store.

The The Occult Guide, itself is now with the printers, and is available for pre-order, PDF now. It is an in-game artefact, in effect a book of contacts, clues and leads for London-based Mythos games. It ties in with many threads to Bookhounds, so it’s especially suitable for that. Next Page XX will feature a competition – solve the mystery of Augustus Darcy’s death.

Cthulhu Apocalypse – The Dead White World

Graham Walmsley, author of the Purist Adventures, has written an epic twelve-part campaign set in a world which follows the destructive rise of the Mythos, with a nod to other post-apocalyptic writers. It combines a Pulp background with a Purist aesthetic. In the first set of three adventures, out now, the Investigators awake to find that civilization has collapsed, and the country is covered with sinister white flowers. Further parts will follow over the next year, including the dreaded Apocalypse Machine, which will include new rules and Drives for post-apocalyptic adventures. The first part is out now and in the store.

To celebrate the launch of the Dead White World, Graham has put together  competition to test your knowledge of post-apocalyptic literature.

In Production

Three Trail of Cthulhu adventures are awaiting layout and artwork.

• The Rending Box, Graham’s final Purist adventure, is awaiting artwork.
• In Many Fires, by Black Drop author Jason Morningstar, General Pershing disptaches some hard-bitten gunslingers to dispatch an old foe.
• The Repaire of Reputations by Robin D Laws is based on the eponymous story by Robert W Chambers.  This scenario allows the players to recreate an alternate version of the story, in which their characters, who do not appear in the original, confront the nation-shaking conspiracy of its central villains. They either destroy it, or are destroyed themselves. It’s ready for art and layout.

Work continues on the mammoth Eternal Lies campign, which is under playtest.

Dying Earth

The Dying Earth is relaunched with Ian Thomson’s new adventure Beyond the Mountains of Magnatz, the fifth in the Footsteps of Fools series of adventures, and all PDF and in-print books  are available from the re-opened Dying Earth order page. The Dying Earth Revivification Folio is in playtest, for release in June, and next month, we’ll have a new Skulduggery setting, The Wedding.

Fear Itself, Esoterrorists, and Mutant City Blues

Brief Cases, a set of three adventures for Mutant City Blues is being illustrated. Pascal Quidault who worked on the original Mutant City Blues is illustrating this, as well as Invasive Procedures, a new Fear Itself adventure in second draft. The Worm of Sixty Winters, the sequel to Albion’s Ransom is delayed, but I’ll have an update at the end of the month. Gareth Hanrahan has also produced an Esoterrorists summoning guide, and Matthew Sanderson’s Love of Money is in playtest. I’ve heard a rumour he has run an Esoterrorists game featuring Elvis impersonators and the FBI, which I look foward to playing.

Ashen Stars

Jerome has nearly finished the layout design for Ashen Stars, and Chris Huth’s artwork is trickling in. I have made the rash decision to publish it full colour. We’ll put it up for pre-order in April, probably starting with a simply formatted version, then the finished PDF and finally the print version. Pre-orderers will pay a fixed and certain price, get access to exclusive content and be first in line for any limited editions.

Pascal is illustrating Dead Rock Seven, the large set of adventures for Ashen Stars. You can see an example here.

PATHSHOE

Our first attempt to inegrate GUMSHOE investigation into a third-party game is now being playtested, and it’s looking very positive. One playtest GM said:

“The most positive feedback is that with our current Pathfinder campaign drawing to a close, player 3 is starting a new campaign next week using the Pathshoe rules with the rest of the playtest group as players.“

Let us know which game you’d like to see get the GUMSHOE treatment.

Everything Else

Night’s Black Agents, our vampire/thriller game is still in first draft – not long to go, and you can read a taster here. New World and Razed are undergoing internal playtesting. You can read about Will Hindmarch’s Razed development here.