May 2014 – View from the Pelgrane’s Nest

There has a lot of work on big projects this month – art and maps – and the first layout samples for 13 True Ways, which looks amazing.

New Releases: As Ken Writes About Stuff enters its second year with a double dose of Voodoo, we release KWAS Volume 1 – the first 13 episodes – as a stand-alone product. In this, the centenary of the Great War, we release Dulce et Decorum Est, a collection of Mythos-themed scenarios set in the skies, sea and in the trenches of those terrible years. The Series Pitch of the Month for DramaSystem is Art and Murder by Mr DramaSystem himself Robin D Laws.

A few copies of the Bestiary signed and numbered faux leather limited edition are available for preorder from the special order page. It includes a colour print of the Baby Owlbear and Bronze golem picture.

13th Age

Unaviodable delays mean it’s touch and go if 13 True Ways will make GenCon but we are pulling out all the stops, and Chris Huth is laying out as final text comes in, chapter-by-chapter rather than waiting for the whole thing. I’d not seen much more than backers have of this project, so when I got the layout draft  I was very happy that the wait was worthwhile. And the new character classes are eye-opening – in particular Jonathan Tweet’s twisted vision of a metamagical manipulator means that if you play the Occultist, you are the only one in the entire world.

We’ll put in on pre-order the moment we see the laid out final version.

The 13th Age Bestiary is ready to ship from the printers to mail order locations, and the Bestiary limited edition  is available from the special order page. We are using a new printer for the Bestiary, so I was nervous when I received the proof, but the paper stock is just as shiny, and the colours are as rich and vibrant as I’d hoped. If you haven’t bought it, you’ll get the fully laid out final now, and the print version in a month or so.

Shadows of Eldolan

I featured art direction on this project here.  Par Lindstrom is a cartographer who works with Campaign Cartographer 3 and PhotoShop, and he has used Mike Schley’s symbols from the ProFantasy symbol set The Dungeons of Schley to create maps for the Shadows of Eldolan such as this:

Eyes of the Stone Thief is in art direction, with Gar putting together sketch maps for Herwin Wielink the cartographer. The Book of Loot and Shards of the Broken Sky await Rob’s eyes, and Cal Moore has submitted an example for an icon themed encounter book code named dungeon delve.

Conventions

Cat Tobin has been developing our convention presence, along side ASH LAW, and we have a physical presence at a much wider selection of conventions, both running games and selling books. Cat will be at Games Expo and Origins and ASH was at MisCon last weekend along with Pelgrane regular artist David Lewis Johnson. All the Gen Con Pelgrane games are booked out, and we are booking in more. We are looking for more GMs to run games at Gen Con and Pax Prime – email Cat if you are available.  Gar has now written convention / organised play scenarios for all our GUMSHOE games, and theylre available for playtesting this month.

Trail of Cthulhu

Adam Gauntlett’s Dulce et Decorum Est is a Great War campaign frame for Trail of Cthuhlu which features one of his current adventures (Sisters of Sorrow) and two new ones. Sisters of Sorrow customers have been sent a voucher for this.

We are making long term plans for a second edition of Trail of Cthulhu, which we will kickstart, but I can’t see this happening this year.

Soldiers of Pen and Ink is currently being laid out.

Mythos Expeditions is waiting on editing and some maps.

Dreamhounds of Paris is in art direction. Dreamhounds of Paris was conceived by Robin D. Laws as a Dreamlands setting I would actually enjoy (I’m not a great fan of the Dreamlands), where you play actual, historical surrealists in Paris, who use their art to interact with the dreamscape. I’d love to play this, but it’s on a long list of other games the group wants to try. I am hoping to get to try it IndieCon – any volunteers to run it?

Other Stuff

Ken continues with the Dracula Dossier and Dracula Unredacted. Gareth is working on a personal project which involves a semi-autonomous drone and its controllers. Kevin is working on the TimeWatch manuscript, while Rich Longmore delivers art. Accretion Disk for Ashen Stars should be in its final draft shortly. Gareth has begun work on Fear Itself 2nd Ed – we’ve been discussing potential campaign frames and custimisation. Robin has delivered his first draft of his introduction to gaming book, and has begun his world-spanning Esoterrorists campaign book. The Gaean Reach and the Gaean Reach Gazeteer appear to be cursed, with PDFs returned from the printer a couple of times, but we have resubmitted them and hope to have them printed in the next month or so.