Update on the Swords of the Serpentine playtests.

Swords of the Serpentine: sword-and-sorcery RPG from Pelgrane Press, using the GUMSHOE rules.  Very Conanesque.

I’m going to do two sessions; one is this Friday, and it’s going to be in meatspace (I haven’t seen some of these folks in a while).  The online session is tentatively being blocked out for the weekend of either February 9th or 16th: I actually have to figure out who is available for that.  If you are interested, or you were interested and want to remind me, drop me a line via Contact.  You’ll need a computer that can handle Google Hangouts.

Looks like Swords of the Serpentine playtesting will be a go.

Shoot me an email or reply here if you’re interested in signing up for a video gaming session.  It’ll probably be on a weekend night, and everything has to be done before February 28th.  Also: the files are proprietary, so they will NOT be given out except as part of the actual Swords of the Serpentine playtest process. I’ve had a good relationship with Pelgrane Press in the past, not least because I take this stricture seriously.

Hope to hear from enough of you folks soon!

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t expect any of my readers are the sort to pirate the files, but better safe than sorry.  Also: Emily Dresner from the old In Nomine days co-wrote this book, and I’d rather cut off my left pinkie finger than have to explain what happened.

In the mail: Cthulhu City.

So pretty. And shiny!

Cthulhu City is one of Pelgrane Press’s supplements for Trail of Cthulhu, and it’s rather good.  I know this because I got the PDF ahead of the print book, and I’ve read it already.  It’s packed full of Lovecraftian goodness, all mixed in an excellent mix that works well for an urban campaign.  Plus, I like Pelgrane’s design aesthetic when it comes to Trail of Cthulhu. Very elegant and high-toned.

Looks like @PelgranePress’s Cthulhu City is finally out.

Time to make what Charlie Ross calls a save vs. shiny roll:

…Oh, who am I kidding? Cthulhu City is precisely the sort of Trail of Cthulhu supplement that I’d buy on sight, and Pelgrane Press knows it. There was never any hope for me. Save yourself!

Moe Lane

PS: Basically, it looks like they’re combining Cthulhu, urban noir, and probably Lovecraft’s deep-seated loathing of any city that wasn’t Providence into one big, happy pile. Fun!

Is The Yellow King RPG Kickstarter going to drop next week?

I suspect that it might, given that Robin Laws is doing half-taunting Tweets right now:

Continue reading Is The Yellow King RPG Kickstarter going to drop next week?

Pelgrane Press’s “The Yellow King RPG” Kickstarter to start soon.

Today in Shut up and take my money, damn your eyes:

Pelgrane Press is terrified to announce that The Yellow King Roleplaying Game is coming soon to a Kickstarter near you.

Written and designed by GUMSHOE master Robin D. Laws, YKRPG takes you on a brain-bending spiral through multiple selves and timelines.

Continue reading Pelgrane Press’s “The Yellow King RPG” Kickstarter to start soon.

Well, *that* was a pleasant enough billing error.

Pelgrane Press accidentally overcharged me ten bucks for a copy of The EsoterroristsWorldbreaker, so they gave me fifteen bucks in store credit to make up for it. Well, they also offered to just refund my money, but they know their customer base: I cheerfully said Feel free to make that mistake again, friends to the computer screen and then promptly ordered that copy of The Gaean Reach that I had been eyeing.  And that’s because six bucks net is a lot easier for me to scrounge up than twenty-odd for what is basically an impulse buy of a game I probably won’t get around to playing.

All in all, that is how you handle a customer problem: own up to it, show remorse, offer meaningful restitution – and you can end up keeping your customers happy and even make another sale.

Meant to note: TimeWatch is now available for sale.

TimeWatch is Pelgrane Press’s time-travel RPG (uses GUMSHOE), and the books are very very pretty and very very nice. I got the books early via the Kickstarter, and I think that it may very well become the go-to game for time travel campaigns (not that there are all that many RPGs that concentrate on that, of course).  Plus, I have a campaign concept rattling around in my head that I know that the game will support. So, check it out.

Ooh. Pelgrane Press is putting out a hardback Cthulhu Apocalypse campaign setting.

I thought that that was what the countdown on their site was for. Anyway, I’ve previously bought the gaming supplements that are acting as the backbone for Cthulhu Apocalypse; it’s basically all about how to roleplaying out the end of the world, Mythos-style. Which means, yeah, the world is going to end and that is the way of it. You don’t play anything with the title ‘Cthulhu’ in it for a Magical Sparkly Happy Ending and the Krogan baking you a cake, is what I’m saying.

Dreamhounds of Paris on pre-order!

Excellent. Quick primer: this is is a supplement for Pelgrane Press’s Trail of Cthulhu, which is an investigation-heavy cosmic horror game set during the 1930s.  As for the focus of the book, well, look at the title for guidance:

From the 1920s to the coming of the Occupation, a new breed of artist prowled the fabled streets of Paris. Combative, disrespectful, irresponsible, the surrealists broke aesthetic conventions, moral boundaries—and sometimes, arms. They sought nothing less than to change humanity by means of a worldwide psychic revolution. Their names resound through pop culture and the annals of art history.

But until now, no one has revealed what they were really up to.

In this comprehensive campaign guide for Trail of Cthulhu, you recreate their mundane and mystical adventures as you stumble onto the Dreamlands, a fantastical realm found far beyond the wall of sleep. At first by happenstance and later by implacable design, you remake it in the fiery image of your own art. Will you save the world, or destroy it?

The more-or-less predecessor to this – Bookhounds of London – is an excellent supplement in a game line that generates excellent supplements inthe same way that people generate dandruff; so I have high hopes for this one, particularly since the authors look to be using contemporary artists for NPCs and PCs*. As you can see from the date on the post, we’ve been waiting on Dreamhounds for quite some time; but it looks like it’s finally kicked into high gear.

Moe Lane

PS: Yeah, I’m seriously considering a pledge drive on this one.  Oh, what the heck: here’s the button.





*Something that Trail of Cthulhu has previously used to great effect.