View from the Pelgrane’s Nest

This month sees Pelgrane Press and ProFantasy Software attend GenCon, but we still found time to release four new books – Dead Rock 7 for Ashen Stars and Out of Time for Trail of Cthulhu are on pre-order for release in August; And Thence to Almery for the Dying Earth and Repairer of Reputations for Trail of Cthulhu. We’ve also got an update on the character generator.

GUMSHOE Character Generator

The beta version of the crowdfunded- GUMSHOE character generator is uploaded on the Pelgrane Press server, and Graham is working on getting it up and running for beta testing by funders. When it’s been stress tested, he’ll open it up to everyone, and then add the extra features. GenCon has rather got in the way of doing any more, but it is looking good. Thank you once again to all the contributors.

GenCon

GenCon is chance for Robin, Ken and other Pelgranistas to have a conflab to decide what new goodness we can release next year – we might do something set in the modern era, for example. Read the GenCon article for full details.

Beth has us much better organised this year. Steve Dempsey will be running short demo games on demand at our stand for any GUMSHOE system. Many more games are being run than usual, although the scheduled ones are full. If any ad hoc games are being run, I’ll make a note of them at the stand; if you want to run ad hoc games, let us know. We should have limited numbers Ashen Stars, Dead Rock 7 and Out of Time there.

There are still places left at the Investigative Game / GUMSHOE seminar at the Marriot, Friday 3pm.

Ashen Stars

We’ve sold over 340 Ashen Stars pre-orders – thank you everyone! A few copies will be on sale at GenCon, and we’ll ship out the mail order copies when we get back.

Dead Rock Seven, a set of adventures for Ashen Stars written by Gareth Hanrahan and designed by Robin D Laws is available for pre-order, PDF download now. Find out more, or order it from the store.

Trail of Cthulhu

The Lovecraftian Limited Edition has been shipped to everyone, and is making quite a stir over on Yog-Sothoth as they delve into the mysterious death of Augustus Darcy. One person has already offered $450 for a complete copy. I was originally intending to do a competition for people who bought the Occult Guide, offering a grand prize for the best explanation, but I do not wish to break the spirit of cooperation.

It will be challenging to top this with future Trail limited editions, but we have Eternal Lies and Cthulhu Apocalypse as potential candidates. The interest in Steve Dempsey’s carefully gathered ephemera has also inspired a future release – Armitage Files meets real 1930s artifacts.

New Releases

• Repairer of Reputations is a PDF adventure by Robin D Laws for Trail which is based on Robert W Chamber’s story of the same name, featuring The King in Yellow in an alternative 1920s. I was fortunate enough to playtest this with Robin, and it is an excellent and enjoyable adventure. Beware the Lethal Chambers!
• Out of Time, a print collection of the four PDF adventures with additional material is being printed, and is available for pre-order to ship in August.

Other Trail News

Eternal Lies is in playtesting, and one playtester said “But not even in my wildest dreams would have I imagined such a masterpiece.” That is perhaps over-egging it a little, but it is really jolly good. We are hoping to have the playtest over by the end of August, and then have the whole ms ready by the beginning of October.

Many Fires by Jason Morningstar and Hell Fire by Adam Gauntlett are being illustrated. Adam has also written an adventure set in the skies over the Western Front, with a pitch I can’t reveal but couldn’t resist. He is also working on an adventure set in the Spanish Civil War.

The Dying Earth

And Thence To Almery completes Ian Thomson’s amazing Footsteps of Fools series, in which the PCs face Iucounu in the daunting manse of Pergolo. It’s out now, and is supported by a host of free downloadable material. Ian deserves our special thanks for all the hard work he has put in over the years, including a recent update of all the Dying Earth products on this website.

Jerome has been working hard creating new art for the Dying Earth Revivification Folio, which is due out in October.

Night’s Black Agents

Night’s Black Agents is in playtesting, and we’ve assigned artists. It’s written with great verve and enthusiasm. You can read a short excerpt about vampire creation here.

Esoterrorists

The Love of Money by Matthew Sanderson is being illustrated.

Gareth has written Station Duty (think Esoterrorists meets Burn Notice or Buffy), and a summoning Guide.

Other Releases

Lorefinder, our GUMSHOE/Pathfinder mashup is being illustrated by Ashen Stars artist Chris Huth for release in September.

Bill White is rewriting New World a second time – I think my rather breezy sounding brief is much more challenging than I intended. The latest version is less grandiose, but better for it.