An early review of Hamlet’s Hit Points is now up at Gnome Stew. If you’re wondering what’s in the book, look no further than reviewer John Arcadian’s very thorough overview of its contents. I am proud to know that HHP has earned a place in John’s manly Bag of Fame alongside Things We Think About Games. High praise indeed.
Pre-orders for Hamlet’s Hit Points are now underway. Go forth and acquire. Linkage gratefully appreciated.
My latest game, Skulduggery, is now scheduled for a July 1st release. However, if you pre-order the hardcopy now at the Pelgrane Store, you can get a jump start on its bamboozling, betraying and backstabbing. That’s right, the PDF is yours to connive over immediately! With its focus on freewheeling one-shot play, Skulduggery makes ideal Machiavellian fodder for the coming convention season. Be the envy of all your friends, before you set them at each other’s throats.
The Armitage Files, my new Trail Of Cthulhu setting book, is now available. Let’s quote the back cover text, shall we?
The Armitage Files presents a boldly innovative way to generate blood-chilling adventures for your Trail Of Cthulhu investigators. Players seize on clues presented in the ten mysterious documents.
They choose which leads to track down. The Keeper, using clearly broken down step-by-step techniques introduced in this volume, improvises suitably mind-blasting mysteries in response to their choices. Weave these together into an epic campaign of madness, dread and danger.
Terror Between the Lines!
Mystery takes on written form when pages from a disturbing manuscript fall into the investigators’ hands. Can your mind correlate the awful beauty of 10 stunningly distressed handouts realized by acclaimed illustrator Sarah Wroot? A series of scrawled messages, comprising a free-floating cacophony of facts, speculations, and fevered imaginings, portends cryptic doom. Preliminary inquiries reveal that they are written in the hand of Dr. Henry Armitage, director emeritus of the Mistakonic University Library.
Components of Calamity!
Combine the documents with pre-prepared elements such as supporting characters (in sinister, heroic or in between versions), organizations, locations and artifacts to create your unique version of the Armitage Files. An article on improvising GUMSHOE, by Steve Dempsey, shows you how.
With clear advice to players and Keepers on improvisation, extensive examples and advice, following the Trail of Cthulhu Will Never Be the Same Again!
Illustrations for Skulduggery, the Roleplaying Game Of Verbal Fireworks & Sudden Reversals, has started to roll in. Ace picturesmith Hilary Wade, who did so much fine and tonally apropos work for the Dying Earth, establishes visual continuity between the two games. Skulduggery grew out of the Dying Earth, preserving a streamlined version of its resolution mechanic and general spirit of one-upsmanship in a new, multi-generic game. Dig Hilary’s take on the game’s high school drama club setting:
Family Games: The 100 Best is now at the printer, meaning that it will be headed to your favorite game purveyor in about a month. It is of course a follow-up to the extremely well-received Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Like that book, it was wrangled by indefatigable editor James Lowder, published by the fine folks at Green Ronin, and consists of a hundred brief essays by industry luminaries on their favorite games. Here the focus is on games for the whole family, although some hobby titles that fit the bill may also sneak in at the margins. I was deep in the weeds on 40 Years of Gen Con when the first book was in the works, and so couldn’t participate—even though Jim is not a man you want to say no to. I’m happy to make amends with an appearance this time around. Its impressive contributor list makes for impressive company. The names of the games reviewed by this new cohort of 100 remains a tightly guarded secret, to be revealed closer to the release date. Until then, lodge the necessity of its purchase deep in your forebrain.
The Best Of All Flesh, an anthology of zombie fiction from Elder Signs Press, is now devouring its post-apocalyptic way to a bookseller near you. It contains choice cuts from the All Flesh fiction series from Eden Studios, as selected by editor James Lowder. Included among the shambling literary horde is “Susan”, a short story by yours truly. Get it before it gets you.
Thanks to a sudden sales spike, Mutant City Blues has reappeared on RPG Countdown’s top ten list. Listen to the podcast and my ensuing sound bite here.
