Expand, Contract (56)

I now have a new short-ish GURPS PDF up on Warehouse 23:

GURPS Vehicles: Transports of Fantasy

(Yeah, it seems to have been a little while. Been doing other things. Still, I’m quite fond of this one, even at just 32 pages.)

Another Review

I guess with all the blogs and stuff there are in the world, I should expect a fair number of non-professional reviews. It's nice, though.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2017/01/rpg-review-discworld-2nd-edition-gurps.html

The Continuing Saga of the Discworld RPG

Aaaand another review...

• http://oneyardhex.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/discworld-rpg-review.html

The book is definitely in UK shops now. There've been reports of limited supply in some outlets - apparently the distributors underestimated demand - but restocks appear to be coming in. So if your shop claims that they can't get hold of the thing, tell them to press their distributor, hard.

(Amazon UK still don't seem to have it, though.)

More Regarding That Book

A second review of the Discworld RPG is now up at http://www.letthedicefall.com/2017/01/the-discworld-roleplaying-game-review.html.

Also, the book will be hitting retail in the UK this week. British gamers who lack a friendly local game store may wish to mail order; I thoroughly recommend Leisure Games for this. See https://leisuregames.com/collections/new-releases-week-commencing-9-january/products/gurps-discworld.

Discworld Reviewed

The first (gratifyingly positive) review that I've seen of the Discworld Roleplaying Game has now appeared on the Web, at http://justroll3d6.com/discworld-roleplaying-game-review/.

It's Alive! It's Alive!

It's taken a while, but yes, today I held in my bare hands, irrefutable physical evidence that the second edition of the Discworld Roleplaying Game actually exists in material form!

The official street date for publication was this Wednesday just gone, the 21st, and I understand that people in the USA have indeed actually acquired copies from shops. The book doesn't appear to have made it to retail here in the UK just yet, but I guess that we can hope for next week.

Expand, Contract (48)

Hmm, I didn't follow up the previous post. Well, The Wars of Atlantis did appear (and still looks nice). But anyway, the other significant thing is the appearance of Transhuman Space: Bio-Tech 2100, my latest TS product, as a PDF from Warehouse 23 - an extended analysis of the place of biotechnology in the world of 2100, in both historical and game-mechanioal terms. Other stuff is still waiting. Print buying can evidently be a big job these days.

Expand, Contract (47)

Just in case anyone was wondering, yes, my writing projects continue.

• I've just turned in the first draft of another GURPS project. As usual, I can't talk titles, and I don't know how long this will take to filter through the several stages of the publication process... And the first draft came in seriously over-long... But anyway, it should be interesting when it eventually becomes a saleable PDF.
• The Discworld RPG is completely out of my hands, and moving forward rather slowly - but I gather it's definitely still moving, honest. I'll be running one of my demo scenarios at Stabcon this weekend, actually.
• The Wars of Atlantis is still scheduled for release on the 20th of this month - but I've now got all my comp copies, and they look very nice indeed.

Small, But Perfectly Formed

The wait is over; The Small Folk is out.

What's it about? Well, here's the blurb:

The Small Folk have been lurking on the margins of human society since before the dawn of history, but we humans don't tend to notice them. They're really good at hiding from us. They're also good at arguing, picking fights, sulking, and splitting up into cliques. But they're tough, clever (on their good days), and armed with an array of startling magical powers.

The Small Folk is a game of wainscot urban fantasy, built round the popular FATE rules engine. Take your pick of seven different cliques, from aggressive goblins to oh-so-superior brownies and technophile gremlins (or the cliqueless, because some people just have to be different), and an array of skills and magical powers, personalise your character with aspects and stunts, and get out there and get underfoot.

Oh, and watch out for cats, rats, hawks, mousetraps, and your neighbours.

 Some History, For Them As Are Interested

Ten years or so ago, I wrote a chapter for Guardians of Order's Dreaming Cities, an urban fantasy sourcebook for their Tri-Stat system. It was quite well reviewed, and some people seemed especially to like my chapter. Then GoO went broke, and the rights to the chapter reverted to me.

Over the next few years, I dabbled with various ideas about what to do with this material, and I eventually plumped for self-publishing. So I looked around for an Open Gaming License rule set to use for this purpose, and plumped for Fate, and specifically the "Free FATE" variant. After I'd plugged the system and rules together, filled and sanded the joints, and applied a layer of varnish (with the aid of some very useful peer review), I had a 116-page book which I could sell as a PDF with a reasonably clear conscience.

Then, well, stuff intervened for a while. But in due course, I commissioned Steve Stiv to do me a cover (and got a little bit of really good interior art out of the deal as well, because Steve is a great guy), and sorted out a business arrangement with Warehouse 23, and now, here it is. Yours for $11.99.

For Those Who Prefer Paper

 Although this is basically an electronic publication, just as an experiment, I had a few copies printed off by Lulu,  and I've now sold some of those on to Leisure Games. So they should be available from there soon, if not already.

Expand, Contract (46)

Hmm, I've got quite a lot of stuff coming along nicely at the moment, but not much about which I can be very specific. Maybe worth trailing some teasers, though...

Most of it involves Steve Jackson Games, which I guess won't surprise anyone who knows my work much. I turned in yet another Transhuman Space manuscript a little while ago, and that'll be working its way up the editorial to-do pile at the company right now. Meanwhile, the new edition of the Discworld RPG has finally escaped from the last stages of layout polishing and preparation, and so far as I know the cover design is about done, so it's basically waiting on things like print scheduling. Look for it later in the year (and look for announcements from the company for more direct news of The Process). And on top of that, I've just today signed a contract for another GURPS project, which hopefully will turn into a small string of PDF publications... But I can't say very much about that yet.

Which all comes out sounding a bit too cagey, so I'm pleased to be able to point out that one of my other projects has now been officially mentioned in public, so I can confirm its title: The Wars of Atlantis, from Osprey Books. That link goes to its Amazon page, mind you, as Osprey won't be putting it up on their own Web site just yet. And the cover will probably be different on the published book, I gather. Anyway, this was fun to do; let's just say that five parts Plato, four parts Diodorus Siculus, one part Internet lunacy, and a pinch of Athanasius Kircher's cartography, turned out to make quite a spectacular wartime epic (with an apocalyptic tragedy at  the end, naturally).

And the thing I recently said was Coming Soon is ... still coming soon, honestly. The writing, art, editing, and layout are all done; I just have to sort out the business arrangements for putting the thing on the market. Which hopefully won't need more than a few more days.

Expand, Contract (45)

2015 begins well, with my new Transhuman Space product seeing publication: Bioroid Bazaar. Excuse me while I quote from the official blurb:

Transhuman Space: Bioroid Bazaar completes the job started in Transhuman Space: Changing Times of updating relevant game templates from earlier Transhuman Space supplements to GURPS Fourth Edition, this time covering the setting's genetic marvels and half-human monstrosities. It also gathers a couple of Fourth Edition templates from other supplements, and features a few new designs, including the disturbing Leonardo and Bingmayong bioroids and the tragic J7-S53 "upgrade." ...