View from the Pelgrane’s Nest – February 2015

Today, I can announce a big change for the better at Pelgrane Press, but before I get to that, let’s consider other Pelgrane news. First, our new releases. Accretion Disk – an expansion book for Ashen Stars, featuring new equipment, ships, deckplans, hot contracts, new alien enemies and new playable species. Temples of the Frogfolk is second edition of 13th Age Monthly and if demon summoning is your chalice of char, then GUMSHOE Zoom: Goëtia– the latest issue of Ken Writes About Stuff should be yours.

• An extensive DramaSystem collection is available as Hillfolk Bundle of Holding – pay what you want for DramaSystem and help a great charity, too.
• The Forgotten Monk novel set in the 13th Age is in the last few hours of its Kickstarter, and it’s within sniffing distance of $6.5K – back it while you can!

A New Regime at Pelgrane Press Ltd

It’s my great pleasure to announce that Cat Tobin will shortly be my full and equal partner in Pelgrane Press Ltd and the Managing Director of the company. In two short years her hard work, adaptibilty and professionalism has made Pelgrane as much hers as it ever was mine. Cat has overseen solid and sustainable growth, enthused the gaming community, and she’s developed Pelgrane into something bigger, better and more friendly. Cat challenges my complacency, and her commitment to diversity has transformed our approach to game creation.

 

 13th Age

The 13th Age Monthly offers 12 installments of 13th Age material, curated by Rob Heinsoo. It opened with Dragon Riding which I’ll be adapting for my next big  13th Age session for use with griffons. And in a call-back to the Village of Homlett, we hop over to Temples of the Frogfolk – those slimy, scary and fearsome foes, or, even friends – you can now play one. Jump on board and get both issues now.

If you prefer your content entirely free – get a bunch of free icon-themed adventures and a community of players to hang out with through The Tales of the 13th Age – our Organized Play program – sign up here.

The amazing 13th Age soundtrack gets 9/10 in its first review.”It’s a soundtrack waiting for a movie to be put to it. Very highly recommended”

The Eyes of the Stone Thief is off the presses and on its way to our shipping points. There is still time to pre-order and get in the first shipments.  For FreeRPGDay, Gareth Hanrahan is polishing a prequel to this monster megadungeon called At Land’s Edge.

Battle Scenes (working title) is all a 13th Age group will ever need to improvise their story around carefully planned and balanced encounters. It’s in playtesting.

Shards of the Broken Sky and The Strangling Sea are in editing.

The Forgotten Monk novel set in the 13th Age is in the last few hours of its Kickstarter.

 Night’s Black Agents

FreeRPGDay features an introductory adventure for Night’s Black Agents set in Marrakesh – a truly inspired location for intrigue, parkour chases and atmosphere. I playtested this, and as is so often the case with Night’s Black Agents, the players did most of the work. This supplement will be released in a rare flip book with a 13th Age adventure – grab it when it’s released in your FLGS.

Ken and Gar have been wrangling Kickstarter contributors, honing their Dracula Dossier text. All quiet is good.

John Adamus’ adventure The Dubai Reckoning is in playtest.

 

Trail of Cthulhu

We’ve just completed a new print run of Trail of Cthulhu, which will take this edition through to at least the end of next year.

Ken Writes About Stuff gives us a chance to test the waters for new supplements and new game ideas. Tomb-Hounds of Egypt is one such supplement – if it’s popular, a full Egypt setting is likely. It’s hard to restrain Ken’s enthusiasm, so our word count has once again crept up. Why root around in cursed tombs when you can just download the ebook?

New Trail adventures from Bill White and Ruth Tillman are in playtest, and Paula and Steve Dempsey are working on Fearful Symmetries.

The Poison Tree continues its slow but steady growth. Matthew says: “We’ve begun the first round of playtesting for A Poison Tree. So far, the players have made their way through the opening vignette and Chapter One set in 18th Century Wales. The second vignette has taken them to 18th Century London, and they are about to embark upon Chapter Two in New England of 1775. The second round of playtesting will begin as the first group reaches the end of Chapter Two. “

Ashen Stars

Accretion Disk is on pre-order now. It follows in the footsteps of Double Tap and the Esoterror Fact, in that it expands and improves the game for both players and GMs. My favourite section are the deckplans and ship description – each group of Lasers needs a spacecraft, and this really brings them to life. The deckplans were created by Ralf Schemmann in Campaign Cartographer 3