May RPG Deals at RPGNow

Hey folks...been crazy busy with multiple projects, but I did want to take the moment to drop a line and point out that you can get a slew of PDFs at RPGNow for 20% off using the code DriveThruApril (yes, they have been told that it is, in fact, May). These offers are good until June 14th.

Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion [Pinnacle Entertainment] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64257/Savage-Worlds-Fantasy-Companion&affiliate_id=15975)

Realms of Cthulhu [Reality Blurs] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/77953/Realms-of-Cthulhu&affiliate_id=15975)

Karma Roleplaying System Core [Bards and Sages] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/58683/Karma-Roleplaying-System-Core-Rules-Book&affiliate_id=15975)

FantasyCraft [Crafty Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/63884/Fantasy-Craft-Second-Printing&affiliate_id=15975)

Fat Dragon's Dragonshire Deluxe [Fat Dragon Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64254/DRAGONSHIRE%3A-Deluxe-Edition&affiliate_id=15975)

Paths of Power (Pathfinder System) [4 Winds Fantasy] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/65792/%5BPFRPG%5D-Paths-of-Power&affiliate_id=15975)

Spycraft: Real American H.E.R.O.es [Crafty Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/65785/Real-American-H.E.R.O.es&affiliate_id=15975)

Fellowship of the White Star Campaign Book [Thenodrin Presents] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/59997/Fellowship-of-the-White-Star-campaign-book&affiliate_id=15975)

Ninja Burger RPG (2nd Edition) [aetherial FORGE] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/11881/Ninja-Burger%3A-The-RPG-2nd-Edition)

Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded [Dream Pod 9] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/12646/Heavy-Gear-Blitz%21-Rulebook&affiliate_id=15975)

Hero's Handbook: Dragonborn [Goodman Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/59034/Hero%27s-Handbook%3A-Dragonborn&affiliate_id=15975)

Splicers RPG [Palladium Books] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64205/Splicers&affiliate_id=15975)

Noir Knights (Savage Worlds) [Savage Mojo] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/80633/Noir-Knights-%28Savage-Worlds%29&affiliate_id=15975)

I particularly recommend Noir Knights, Realms of Cthulhu and the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion.

Working on some new reviews to share with you over the next week, so look for those!

Christmas in July!

It is Christmas in July over at RPGnow, with a BUNCH of publishers putting a lot of products on sale for it. You have little over five days left to partake in the awesome, so get to crackin'!

Some End of the Week News

RPGNow Wants To Know About Your Character


I know, right? Well, RPGNow is holding a big honkin' contest with some great prizes for the person that not only impresses the judges, but the voting public. Click on through to check it out.

Pinnacle Gets Into The EBook Business


Pinnacle Entertainment, makers of Savage Worlds, recently announced that they are getting into the eBook business, with fiction lines based on their game worlds, such as 50 Fathoms and Deadlands. They followed that up by blocking my e-mails and phone calls so I couldn't bug them for work.

They were right to do so.

I'm excited about this...as you may recall, I purchased a Nook last year, and ePub is being supported by Pinnacle's new publishing efforts.

War of the Dead Chapter Three Goes On Sale 6/13/11


Daring Entertainment has made the release date official. I am particularly excited about this, because this is my first professional RPG gig (for those who missed the announcement, I was brought on as the editor) and I am gleefully enjoying the twists as turns as much as I know you will. Hurry up and take advantage of those pre-order deals, though...they are a freaking steal.

Next Week, Postmortem Studios Takes Over The Blog


Well, not exactly...but I have reviews lined up for four of Postmortem Studios' games: Chav the Knifing, Bloodsucker the Angst, Tough Justice and Agents of S.W.I.N.G...and I'm planning an e-mail interview with Postmortem Head Honcho James "Grim" Desborough. I'm hoping to have a couple of other reviews in place over the weekend.

Caladon Falls Fundraiser Is Still Going On


Caladon Falls, which I hope to be running online very soon, is getting closer to the end of its fundraiser period, and still has a deficit to make up. Really, if you like Savage Worlds and fantasy at all, I STRONGLY encourage you to chip in. It's not like you don't get anything for it, and it's a tremendous book.


The Part-Time Gods Kickstarter Just Keeps Going


Third Eye Games' Part-Time Gods Kickstarter started strong and just will not stop. Indeed, with 24 days left to go, they have raised more than twice their goal and rising.

Everything's Coming Up Aces


On a personal note, I just landed a new job that I start at the end of the month, and things are falling in place for my Hellrazer webcomic with the amazing Johnnie Johnson. We hope to be in full-swing with it by summer. One way or another, I will have something special lined up for Halloween this year for Savage Worlds fans...I am looking into a commercial release, but am skeptical about being able to meet Pinnacle's licensing requirements...either way, I'm prepping a Savage Worlds horror release that will be available by mid-October, one way or another.

Thanks for reading!
T.

RPGNow/DriveThru Relief Bundle for Christchurch, New Zealand

As they have done in the past, most famously with the Haiti bundle, RPGnow/DriveThruRPG are offering a new disaster relief bundle, this time for New Zealand, with proceeds going to The Red Cross.

A $20 donation scores you over $300 worth of RPG products, including Armageddon (by Eden Studios), Gnomemurdered (by Precis Intermedia Games), Supernatural (by Margaret Weis Productions) and much more...I note those three specifically because I currently own them, and there is some interesting stuff in there I've been meaning to get, like Tales from the Floating Vagabond, Ingenium and ICONS: The Mastermind Affair.

Wanna Help A Guy Out?

DriveThruRPG/RPGNow is running a little contest for their affiliates, of which I am one.

Whoever sells the most POD products through their affiliate link from now through the end of the month scores a new Toshiba netbook.

Now, I honestly don't figure I stand a snowball's chance in Hell of winning, but there you go.

If you wanna help me out, all you have to do is go through here and place an order. I have personally ordered Pendragon 5.1 and Wu Xing from them and was very impressed, both with pricing and print quality...(and I have sung the praises of Wu Xing on this blog for months). I've downloaded, but not read, Stars Without Number, but it has generated a LOT of positive buzz...

It's less than a week, so not a lot of time...and I'm NOT gonna beat you guys over the head with this...but it would be pretty awesome to win...;)

DriveThruRPG Sale and Blog Update

Hi peeps...just a few things:

1) Snow absolutely sucks.

2) This month's RPGNow Sale code is FebChatterTwenty11, and is good for a 20% discount on the following:

Weird War II Player's Guide [Pinnacle Entertainment]

Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade [Third Eye Games]

The Echoes of Heaven Bestiary/The Tainted Tears (OGL Version) [Final Redoubt Press]

USHER Dossiers (ICONS) [Vigilance Press]

The Floating Vagabond BarFly Bundle [Reality Cheque]

Of course, I have went on at length about Wu Xing and my love for it (my POD copy is sitting at the post office right now, thanks to the snow). USHER Dossiers is pretty great as well. I have no experience with the others, although I just added the Floating Vagabond BarFly Bundle to my wishlist.

3) My next article series will be "Scaling Savage Supers"...rather than taking a group from Novice to Legendary over a series of posts, I will take a character and scale them up, in one post, from Novice to Legendary, and see how certain iconic comic builds look in the Savage Worlds system.

4) The games in my IMMEDIATE review queue are Tools of Ignorance (a baseball game by Flying Mice Games), Demon Codex: Spectrals for Apocalypse Prevention, Inc., Zeeks for Interface Zero and Stormrift by Precis Intermedia Games. Immediately following that are Terror Network and the Agency Handbook, The Chronicles of Ramlar Character and World Guides, The New Gods of Mankind New Gods Handbook, Caladon Falls for Savage Suzerain and Invaderz...February should be pretty packed, review-wise.

Some Honorable Mentions

I recently named my Top Six...but here were some honorable mentions that I reviewed from January 1st to December 17th that didn't make the list, and why:

Deadlands Reloaded Player's Guide and Marshall's Handbook: While I absolutely love Deadlands, I neglected to name these for two reasons. One, they would be two books instead of one, and to keep any one company from holding too much sway over the Top Six, I couldn't do that. Two, it wasn't "new to me", which is kind of an unofficial criteria for the Top Six, as I've had a ton of experience with Reloaded already.

Smallville the Roleplaying Game: As I mentioned in the Leverage entry, the Smallville game is great, but I don't really care for the show...so picking between Leverage and Smallville for the "one book per company" rule became really easy.

Misfit Studios Savage Worlds Mini-Supplements: Misfit Studios jumped into the Savage Worlds ring last year with a line of mini-supplements. Unfortunately, I wasn't terribly diligent with my tagging of the review posts, but every one of these ranged from "GREAT" to "Really Good". It would have been incredibly difficult to narrow it down to just one, but I *really* love the Expanded Professions.

Vigilance Press' World War II Supplements: Vigilance Press made me learn to love World War II Supers...the only downside is that I'm not completely sold on ICONS...which knocked the chances of me picking any one of these supplements way down. Combined with the Misfit Studios problem of "How do I pick just one?" and well...that said, there were a few Battlescenes that were easily adaptable to any era, so that's pretty great.

Iron Dynasty: Iron Dynasty is very cool and very Savage Worlds...it just didn't GRIP me in quite the same way as the Top Six did, especially Wu Xing, which covers similar ground (though from a radically different lens). Still well worth checking out.

Spite: Spite is cool...but borders on the offensive pretty easily. Hard for me to make a "general" recommendation. Plus, the sales go to charity, so there's that.

Wild World Wrestling: One of the best d20 games just got better...and it is different enough to fall under the "new to me"...the main reason I didn't recommend it is that it is a niche product within a niche genre...gamers who are also wrestling fans is a very small group, unfortunately.

Apocalypse Prevention Inc.: Literally the only reason I didn't pick this as one of the Top Six is because it was made by Third Eye Games, who also made Wu Xing, and Wu Xing is completely amazing instead of just really, really great. API is awesome, Wu Xing is just a hair better.

You still have time to get your entries in for the Birthday Blog contest, as the deadline is this weekend. Plus, we have a couple of sales to pass along for those interested:

RPGNow is running their New Year, New Game sale, which features over 20 RPG books for $11 each. My personal recommendations are Buffy the Vampire Slayer Revised, Monsters and Other Childish Things, Little Fears Nightmare Edition and Savage Suzerain...and there are at least three or four there that I hope to pick up (if I can beat the sale). That sale ends in just over a week.

Also, using code BlogPodJan2011 at checkout, you can get the following titles for 20% off at RPGnow:

One Night Stand: The Warren of the Death Spider (Pathfinder) [Otherworld Creations]

Script Crypt Volume 2: Four Damned Scripts [Crucifiction Games]

Volunder (Mega Dungeon; D&D/OGL) [Stainless Steel Dragon]

QUEST CARDS Game Set 3 [Fuller Flippers]

Incorporated Volume 1 [Brutal Games]

Deadlands: Reloaded Player's Guide [Pinnacle Entertainment]

Enjoy!

Tommy

RPGNow Goes Print on Demand

My deepest apologies to the people at OneBookShelf for not posting about this sooner, but I had a couple of reasons, which I will get into in a bit.

The world's largest RPG download store is getting into the Print on Demand business, which could mean that many out of print games could see new life again, in more than just PDF format.

The pilot program was launched at the beginning of December, and I am only writing about it a month later because, for some reason, my order hit some awful delays that were either on the printer's end, or the post office's end (I know at one point it sat in a post office warehouse for SIX DAYS without movement), so I'm certainly not holding RPGnow at fault...but the fact is, my copy of King Arthur Pendragon 5.1 didn't show up until Christmas Eve, and then holidays (and a new PS3) took over from there. I DO think it was an anomaly, as Michael Wolf over at Stargazer's World get his from the UK to Germany in just a few days, and he ordered after I did.

Today, they officially opened it to the public, albeit with a small selection of available titles, but there are some good ones there. I particularly recommend Wu Xing.

I do want to say that the shipping prices seem pretty standard (I paid a couple of bucks for Pendragon), and the quality was good. I have a few POD books I've gotten over the year, and this is on the higher end of those. Most importantly, I paid $30 for the Pendragon softcover, so it seems like they have managed to keep the pricing reasonable.

Other than the bizarre delay in shipping (it took three weeks from the time I placed the order to the time I received it, with a three day print prep window), RPGNow's new service has exceeded my experiences with other POD services.

To see the full list of currently available titles, click here. I highly recommend getting Wu Xing if you haven't.

I'll have a review of Pendragon itself later, once I've had time to digest it...but RPGNow could easily have hit a game changer with this.