July 2014: View From the Pelgrane’s Nest

Our best intentions lay in ruins as we scramble, once again, to get all the books out for GenCon Indy. But our pain is your unalloyed pleasure, as we provide you with a slew of preorders and new releases for 13th Age, Trail and others. In addition, we have been nominated for a host of ENnie awards. Hideous Creatures: Serpent Folk is out now, and KWAS subscribers get Xeno-Archeology.

ENnie Awards

The ENnie Awards are an annual celebration of RPGs. Pelgrane has been nominated for a record 15 in all – and we would really appreciate you considering us in your rankings. Eternal Lies, 13th Age, Hillfolk Pelgrane Press, music  and Owl Hoot Trail have all been nominated – a full list is here, along with a sampler.

The voting booth is here.  You can rank as many or as few products as you like. Search for “Pelgrane” on the voting page to find all the noms.

ENnie awards mean so much more to publishers and creators than they do to customers. The recognition by carefully selected judges in the form of nominations against such a strong field is gratifying, and there are few greater pleasures than seeing shiney-faced writers and artists clutching their well deserved awards in their clammy hands. However, the journey from critical recogntion is tough, because it is a popularity contest, and this year the competition is partcularly strong – the armies of FATE and Numenara compete with Hillfolk and 13th Age, for example. We are honoured to be in their company.

GenCon

Skip this if you aren’t going to GenCon.

This will be our biggest GenCon ever in terms of events, with more than 80 games booked in and more to follow, a big 13th Age announcement, seminars and at least nine new releases. Gareth Hanrahan and Steve Dempsey have written convention adventures and we’ll have a constellation of guests including Robin D Laws, Ken Hite, Gareth Hanrahan and Rob Heinsoo.

We are emailing all Shadows and Book of Loot pre-orderers to offer GenCon collection.

Scheduled Games and Games on Demand

You can see a list of scheduled games and seminars at GenCon here. New ones are being added all the time, but they fill up quickly.

If you are a GM it would be great if you could sign up for Games on Demand – a fantastic and growing initiative which allows people to sample a wide variety of RPGs for the first time. If you want to run Pelgrane games, then you can contact us to get convention scenarios for GUMSHOE, or ASH LAW for 13th Age games. Games on Demand encourage diversity (both in games and people), so it’s best if you are able to run a variety of games – if you only submit one game system you are liable to be rejected. If you are accepted, please let us know.

13th Age

Printer willing, 13 True Ways will be shipping out in early August.  All US Kickstarter backer books and pre-orderers will be shipped before GenCon and we think most of them will arrive before GenCon.  Kickstarter Backers and pre-orderers will be given the chance to collect at GenCon. Kickstarter backers will hear through the Kickstarter interface, preorderers will get an email.

Rest of the World backers and pre-orderers will be shipped across the Atlantic to be on shipped from the UK. To make up for the fact that some GenCon attendees will get copies before Rest of World backers, Rob Heinsoo is putting a little something exclusive together for Kickstarter.

• The 13th Age Bestiary is out now.  Already described as “an A+++ product” and “my new all-time favourite monster book” and “everything I want in a monster manual” it has this 13th Age GM cackling with glee as I reskin Stirges as clockwork mosquitoes and Whispering Prophets as body snatchers. Get it from the store, or your FLGS.
• The Book of Loot is on pre-order, to be shipped at the end of August.  This “fracking awesome” tome is packed with goodies such as the Dolorous Bolt and Cauldron of Dead Men – reactions here.
• Shadows of Eldolan is also on pre-order. It’s a city-based mystery adventure is also “awesome” and you can download colour versions of all the maps from your order page.

I thought you might also like to see the cover for the forthcoming The Eyes of the Stone Thief by Ben Wootten.

The Gaean Reach

The Gaean Reach and Gaean Reach Gazeteer are set in Jack Vance’s sprawling, idiosyncractic SF milieu, and feature Vengeance In Space!

It feels like the Gaean Reach has been travelling at sublight speeds across interstellar distances, but it has finally arrived. Both books are available on pre-order.

Trail of Cthulhu and Fear Itself

Dulce et Decorum Est, adventures set in the Great War is out now and Soldiers of Pen and Ink and Mythos Expeditions will be on sale next month.

Dreamhounds is in art direction.

Seventh Circle, Matthew Sanderson’s creepy haunted house adventure for Fear Itself will on pre-order next month. It’s compatible with Trail of Cthulhu, too.

Esoterrorists, Ashen Stars and Night’s Black Agents

• Robin Laws has started work on Worldbreaker, a globe-trotting set of linked Esoterrorists adventures. It has a very gruesome and disturbing prologue and gets worse  from there.
• Accretion Disk for Ashen Starts is being illustrated.
• Ken and Gar are working on Dracula Dossier and Unredacted Dracula for Night’s Black Agents for a Kickstarter later in the year. Ken discusses it here.
• John Adamus has submitted a Night’s Black Agents adventure, The Dubai Reckoning for playtesting.
• Steve Dempsey and Gareth Hanrahan have written convention adventures for all our GUMSHOE settings.