View from the Pelgrane’s Nest – November 2013

The holiday season is sneaking up on us, and I picture our US readers slumping on the sofa (couch?) almost immobile; easy pickings for a hungry pelgrane. So, what new releases might consume you? We launch Dust and Mirrors, the Night’s Black Agents sound track album; the long-awaitied Esoterror Summoning, which is as dangerous as it sounds; the DramaSystem Pitch of the Month and the latest version of GUMSHOE Esoterrorists 2.0 in PDF form.

Here in the Pelgrane office we are making preparations for Dragonmeet and the arrival in London of the largest gathering of Pelgranistas current and honourary ever seen together. Robin Laws and Ken Hite, Rob Heinsoo, Gareth Hanrahan, Cat Tobin, and Ralf Schemmann, Paula and Steve Dempsey will all descend on the nest for feasting and mockery, and at Dragonmeet James Semple, Beth Lewis, Scott Dorward and Sasha Bilton will be joining us.

Poor old Cat is wearing an additional hat – that of Dragonmeet organiser – so I am keeping my squawking to a minimum so as not to disturb her.

13th Age

The Bestiary is in layout, we have samples of The Naga over on ENWorld, and that old stalwart the Orc remade for 13th Age. I am very please with how the Bestiary has turned out, and we’d love to hear how your players have dealt with these clever, fearsome and quirky adversaries.

You have until the 6th December to get the Hatchling edition of the Bestiary – after that, it’s straightforward pre-order only.

The Monk and the Commander classes from 13 True Ways are available for playtest and download from your Bestiary and 13th Age RPG order pages.

The Eyes of the Stone Thief, our living dungeon supplement is now 100,000 words in, and is full of inventiveness. We’ll put out a request for some playtesting next month.

Esoterrorists

The latest version of GUMSHOE is included in Esoterrorists 2.0, out now in ebook form. As well as advice on running GUMSHOE and creating adventures, it includes an entire new scenario, and additional creature of horror. To top it all Gareth Hanrahan adds a small-town horror which combines crack OV operatives with local PCs in Station Duty. Take a look at this Eso 2.0 Sampler.

Gareth Hanrahan’s Esoterror Summoning Guide is out now.

Esoterrorists now has a Russian version by Studio 101 to join the many others It’s the latest version, and they’ve used this attractive format:

Night’s Black Agents

• James Semple and his team have created an entire sound track album Dust and Mirrors, to add atmosphere to your games. It lives up to the cinematic quality of James’ previous work for Ashen Stars and Esoterrorists. But hearing is believing.

Urban Parkour:
[audio:http://site.pelgranepress.com/media/Urban%20Parkour.mp3]

• We’ve added a sampler for the music and The Double Tap Expansion book to Night’s Black Agents order download pages.
• Kenneth Hite is continuing to work on the Dracula Dossier frame ready for Gareth to get into the meat of it. I’m pretty certain we’ll be Kickstarting this along side Dracula Unredacted. There are so many opportunities for spy-themed goodies in rewards, as well as a limited edition Dracula Unredacted in a fascimile cover.
• Night’s Black Agents has really taken off in France, and 7eme cercle are creating a GM’s screen for it, and we will produce a British version.

TimeWatch

With The Day of the Doctor behind us, what better time to discuss Master Game Master Kevin Kulp’s take on GUMSHOE, the TimeWatch RPG? It is nearing a Kickstarter; it features GUMSHOE innovations such as a token-based refresh economy and Chronal Stabilty to avoid paradox.

 Ashen Stars

Ralf Schemmann, ProFantasy Master Mapper has been working on some sweet deckplans for the forthcoming Ashen Stars supplement – Accretion Disk. Here is the second:

The New World

New World, Bill White’s Narrative RPG of Freewheeling Mash-Up History has had another draft and is ready for more playtesting. The game now requires a native culture, a newcomer culture, and an outsider culture – which is more generalised than the original conception. The newcomers, for example, no longer need to be colonists, they could be migrants or even slaves.

It seems Kickstarter is the way of things, and this game positively demands a custom deck of cards and perhaps a dry-erase board. So we will probably do that.

Trail of Cthulhu

• I sensed an absence of frozen tundra in our Mythos Expeditions supplement, so the adorable Jeff Tidball (Eternal Lies) has stepped up and produced an sombre expedition Greenland which is in need of playtesting.
• The Book of the New Jerusalem (Paula Dempsey’s follow up to Occult Guide) has been delayed a little, but Steve Dempsey’s companion book of warring occult factions has now been playtested.
• Benoît Felten has been working on art for Dreamhounds of Paris
• We have a cover for Adam Guantletts’s Dulce e Decorum Est, a collection featuring adventures set in the Great War, and it’s awaiting layout and art.
• Cthulhu Apocalypse: Slaves of the Mother is being illustrated – we hope it will be out in February. Here is the cover. Can you recognise the location?

Gaean Reach

Gaean Reach is with Chris Huth, and in a reverse of our usual practice has been laid out before illustration, with Chris Huth, Rachel Kahn (DramaSystem) and Hilary Wade (Dying Earth. Skulduggery) creating the art. We hope to have it on pre-order in December.

 

DramaSystem and Hillfolk

This Page XX sees the first of the Series Pitch of the Month (the High Fantasy No Crowns by Sean Patrick Fannon on general release to which anyone can subscribe. The final pre-orders will go out next week, then Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow will be released.

Kickstarter Backers

We’ve emailed vouchers for your Series Pitch of the Month subscription. If not, email support.

Most of the rewards have gone out now, and most pre-orders and we are working on the ultra-limited editions hand-sewn covers. Wallpapers are still outstanding and we’ll get those out next month.

Thank you so much for making DramaSystem what it has become – way more than we expected.