Archived News - May, 2001
RPG Dice Roller Update
010531 - Tony Moller sent me a nice e-mail to let me know that he has released an updated version of his RPG Dice Roller program for Macs and Windows. Improvements include support for Realms of Wonder and (my personal favorite) Fudge.
Dominion Rules 2.0 release
010529 (Updated 010530) - Dominion Rules has now released of Dominion Rules 2.0. I love free RPG's!
HackMaster Previews
010529 - Kenzer & Co. has posted previews for the upcoming HackMaster game. Why are you still reading this? Go read them now!
Touched by the Gods Ships
010529 - Atlas Games has shipped Touched by the Gods, the first hardback in their first Penumbra line of D20 supplements.
Adventure Keep Facelift
010529 - Alderac Entertainment Group is giving a facelift to its Adventure Keep line of D20 modules. Hopefully the facelift will include a good dose of proof-reading.
Recent SJG Releases
010529 - Steve Jackson Games has shipped Alien Races 4 (for GURPS Traveller), GURPS Atlantis, Planetary Survey 3 - Granicus (for GURPS Traveller), and Floor Plan 2 - The Great Salt Flats (really just a cute name for blank hex/square sheets).
Dirt Cheep Dungeon Expansion
010524 - MicroTactix has released Expansion Set #1 for its Dirt Cheep Dungeons.
Kenzer Discussion Boards
010524 - Kenzer & Co. has opened discussion boards for Knights of the Dinner Table, Kingdoms of Kalamar, and for the HackMaster Players' Association. Who can pass on that one?
Taverns of War?
010524 - Eden Studios announced two new titles for its Odyssey line of D20 supplements. Both titles are expected to ship this fall.
Waysides: The Book of Taverns will detail over 30 inns and taverns--big and small--to drop into your campaign.
Fields of Blood: The Book of War will provide rules for wargaming, leading troops, and governing.
GURPS WWII
010523 - No doubt timed to cash in on the Pearl Harbor craze, Steve Jackson Games announced that it will launch a new role-playing line covering World War II, beginning with the publication of the 176-page core book, GURPS WWII, in December 2001.
The GURPS WWII line will maintain GURPS' traditional excellence in supporting gaming that crosses genres or rules systems. The core book will provide a sweeping overview of the 20th century's defining conflict, while the following 128-page and 32-page supplements will contribute additional detail on nations that took part in the fighting, particular battles, etc.
The first supplements will include GURPS WWII: Hand of Steel, a 32-page book on special forces, and GURPS WWII: Iron Cross, 128 pages on Germany and its armed forces.
Gene Seabolt has been named GURPS WWII line editor.
Farewell Voyager
010523 - Tonight marks the last episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Be sure to catch it if you're a fan. (Though not directly gaming related, many gamers are fans...)
Playtesting Central
010522 - Guardians of Order and Grey Ghost Press have both announced that they'll now be offering playtest files through Pyramid Magazine. Already posted are Grey Ghost's Terra Incognita: The NAGS Society Handbook, The Deryni Roleplaying Game, and GOO's new edition of Hong Kong Action Theatre! Second Edition.
Barbarian Horde Errata
010521 - MicroTactix Games has posted a replacement page for purchasers of the company's Barbarian Horde Army Pack. It seems the original sheet had a unit missing.
Shinobi at Printers
010521 - Gold Rush Games announced that Shinobi: Shadows of Nihon (a historical ninja sourcebook for Sengoku) has been sent to the printer. It should be at your local gaming store around mid-to-late June. The company also has plans to join the growing trend and offer the volume as an electronic book.
Origins Update
010517 - Wizards of the Coast has posted an official errata listing for Origins.
Legions of Hell Preview
010517 - Green Ronin has posted a three page preview of its upcoming Legions of Hell. Go to the company's web page to download the preview!
L5R goes back to Alderac
010517 - Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and Wizards of the Coast have signed a licensing agreement for the Legend of the Five Rings property.
AEG will now design and develop all aspects of the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) CCG starting with the Gold Edition set. The company's rights are limited to non-electronic games, which include the CCG, role-playing game and the L5R Clan Wars miniatures game. The Wizards of the Coast book-publishing group will retain the rights to publish L5R novels.
The full press release can be found here.
Feng Shui Archetypes
010516 - Atlas Games has posted a .pdf of some Feng Shui archetypes.
WizKids Facelift
010516 - WizKids has updated its website with a whole new look.
SJG Forms Cartouche Press
010515 - Steve Jackson Games has established Cartouche Press as a nameplate for the company's up-and-coming non-gaming titles.
Another Online Convention
010515 - Someone else is trying their hand at running an online gaiming convention. So far attempts at these things have been rather lackluster, but maybe this time it'll work. They certainly have some big names and companies lined up. Details for Cybercon can be found here. We here at the RPG Gazette wish them the best of luck.
Rune Downloads Available
010514 - Atlas Games has opened a downloads page for its Rune RPG.
Grimtooth's Traps Too goes d20 & Fudge
010513 - Flying Buffalo is working on a re-release of Grimtooth's Traps Too. I remember buying this book, along with the original Grimtooth's Traps back in the early 1980's, and they were great! This release will keep the same 'any-game' format, but will also include stats for d20 and Fudge for each of the 101 traps!
2001 GROG d'Or Winner
010513 - The winner of the 2001 GROG d'Or Best RPG Award is Blue Planet. Congratulations to the crew at Fantasy Flight Games for this award!
Douglas Adams Dies
010512 - This story is not gaiming related, but show me a gamer who isn't a fan of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I'll show you a gamer who hasn't yet read the books...
Anyway, as you've already read in the headline, Douglas Adams died Friday of a heart attack. He was 49.
The Yahoo story can be read here.
So long, Doug, and thanks for all the fish...
Star Wars Adventure
010512 - Wizards of the Coast has posted The Storm's Edge, a free mini-adventure for Secrets of Tatooine.
Tribal Elves & Barbarian Hordes
010512 - MicroTactix expanded its line of Budget Battlefield Fantasy Army Packs with the release of Tribal Elves and a Barbarian Horde.
Traveller goes d20
010511 - QuikLink Interactive and Far Future Enterprises announced the pending publication of D20 Traveller, a melding of the far flung Traveller universe of the far future and the D20 game rules system.
The game will be set in Traveller's Millennium era, the period just before and just after the Solomani Rim War between Earth and the Imperium.
I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. To be honest, I was thinking about going after this license myself. That's what I get for snoozing! :)
Big Eyes, Small Mouse Preview
010511 - Guardians of Order have posted .pdf's of the Introduction and Table of Contents for its new BESM supplement, Big Eyes, Small Mouse. (No, that's not a typo).
Fudge GMs Wanted for Origins
010511 - Grey Ghost Games is looking for experienced Fudge GM's to run official games at the Origins Game Fair. Look here for more information.
Rune RPG Released
010511 - Atlas Games has released its Rune RPG based on the computer game of the same name.
Not wasting any time, the company has already posted errata for the game.
L5R Previews
010511 - There are some new sneak previews posted on the Legends of the Five Rings website. The previews are for Way of the Shadowlands, Way of the Ratling, and the Village of Mimura.
Battle Cattle
010509 - Wingnut Games and Steve Jackson Games announced a joint licensing agreement to produce Battle Cattle: The Card Game, a standalone card game that will be fully compatible with SJG's Car Wars: The Card Game.
Battle Cattle is a miniatures combat game similar to Car Wars -- except it's farm animals duking it out with cow-related weapons.
Steve Jackson Games is also relaunching the Car Wars line, starting off with a new edition of Car Wars: The Card Game this August.
Read the full press release for all the gory details.
Defenders of the Faith Stuff
010509 - Wizards of the Coast has posted an article on Dragon Mounts as a sneak preview. Also posted were two "web enhancements": a list of quests and some spell planning sheets.
GURPS Traveller Humaniti enters Playtest
010509 - Steve Jackson Games has placed Humaniti (for GURPS Traveller) into playtest.
Denizens of San Angelo Available Again
010508 - Hero Games now has Denizens of San Angelo available as a printed book and as a downloadable PDF.
Atlas Retailer Support Page
010508 - As a big supporter of the friendly local gaming store, I was quite pleased to see that Atlas Games has started a Retailer Support Page.
7th Sea Comic Books
010508 - Alderac Entertainment Group and Studio G have teamed up to produce a three-issue limited edition comic book based on the 7th Sea RPG/CCG.
SJG/Armorcast Cancel Deal
010508 - Steve Jackson Games and Armorcast have announced they are mutually agreeing to cancel their arrangement for Armorcast to produce large-scale resin-cast miniatures for the popular Ogre board game and miniature line.
"When we first went to Armorcast, we didn't have our own miniatures production staff, and we didn't have the Computer-Assisted Drafting (CAD) technology that we do now," Steve Jackson said. "Due to differences of opinion concerning sizes and scale of the models, we agreed it made more sense to just bring this back in-house."
Jackson also said "The Armorcast people are great, and it would have been fun to work with them on this. I really like their work, especially the large-scale things, and I'm sure we'll do something together in the future."
A Little Fire
010508 - Ubicorm experienced a fire late last week. If you have to have a fire, I guess this is the way to do it though, as the company's stock and mail rooms were completely unaffected. The company did lose its computer and much of the backup media stored in the main office. As a result, the release of The Hamlet of Windard is expected to be delayed.
Atlas Updates Submission Guidelines
010507 - Want to be a freelancer? Well, Atlas Games has just updated its Submission Guidelines. Check them out if you want...
Dirt Cheep Color
010504 - MicroTactix announced that the Dirt Cheep Dungeons Base Set is now available in full color. You can take a look at photos of the color set here. It's enough to make me think about buying a new color printer!
SJG Ships Haunted House
010503 - I'm sure that Steve Jackson Games bundles all these announcements just to make me struggle with the question "should I make this one story, or three?" :)
Anyway, also shipping this week is Floor Plan 1 - Haunted House, the first in a series of game aids designed not only for GURPS, but for any RPG. This set includes eight sheets mapping out an old house. One side has hexes, the other squares. . . so it will work for any system!
The set also includes some horror adventure seeds, and a sheet of new Cardboard Heroes.
Also shipping: Planetary Survey 2 - Denuli
010503 - Steve Jackson Games has also shipped Planetary Survey 2 - Denuli for GURPS Traveller. This volume is about the home world of a sentient race whose eggs happen to be precious jewels.
GURPS Lensman (Second Edition) Ships
010503 - Steve Jackson Games has now shipped the second edition of GURPS Lensman, based on the works of E.E. "Doc" Smith.
Really Big Character Sheets
010501 - Green Ronin announced that it's working on the d20 Character Record Folio, a 16 page character "sheet" for any d20 game. The product is scheduled for a GenCon release.
Otherworld Creations, Inc.
010501 - This one just landed in my mailbox. OtherWorld Creations, publisher of the Diomin d20 gaming world, has incorporated.
GURPS Seeks Submissions
010501 - Steve Jackson Games is currently seeking submissions for two new GURPS products. GURPS Historical Folks will be a collection of templates for "normal" occupations in low-tech (TL0 to TL3) settings.
GURPS Magic Items 3 is to be a collection of magic items from every time period and setting.
For more information, read the submission guidelines for GURPS Historical Folk or GURPS Magic Items 3.
Origins Awards Voting Opens
010430 (Updated 010501) - Online voting is now open for the 2000 Origins Awards. There's a new website just for the occasion.
Stories older than this are in the RPG Gazette Archives.
