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Iron Crown Enterprises has been designing and producing award-winning role playing and miniatures games for 30 years. Major designs include Rolemaster, High Adventure Role Playing (HARP), Spacemaster and Silent Death.

News from Guild Companion Publications Ltd (January 2012)

6 January 2012, 8:44 am
Director’s Briefing
Guild Companion Happy New Year from Guild Companion Publications Limited!
This is the sixth of our scheduled Director’s Briefing and will review the progress made in 2011 and where we expect to be across the product lines in 2012.

Let us begin with Rolemaster. 2011 was the year of rebranding existing products. We still have a residual trio of RMSS/FRP products that we wish to rebrand – namely Arcane Companion, Channeling Companion and School of Hard Knocks, all of which date from an era when Old ICE used more fonts than is sane and software did not preserve these rare fonts, and that is why they’ve been left to last. The next major stage of our Rolemaster progress will be to get as many as possible of the rebranded products into print-on-demand via OneBookShelf. I say “possible” because the risk is always that the state of the archives will not permit us to get particular products into print-on-demand in a timely or cost-effective fashion. Looking further out when our layout experts have cleared the rebranding/printing queues, we will have the fourth issue of The Guild Adventurer and additional adventure products – for example, we have one author who is currently writing a ten-scenario campaign. We will also be seeking to conclude our recovery of copyright limbo products that resulted from the original Old ICE bankruptcy.

Turning to Spacemaster, 2011 saw the pdf rerelease of almost all the Spacemaster 2nd Edition materials, including a set of classic adventures never before legally available in pdf. Our layout gurus are already attempting the rebranding of the Spacemaster Privateers. The aim is to rerelease in pdf and print-on-demand and to apply various errata fixes. The archives are, unfortunately, in a fonts mess, so triage may be necessary here. If we can get the whole of the Privateers line into print-on-demand, then we will seek to produce a compendium of the DataNets as a single pdf and print-on-demand product.

And onward to the Shadow World setting, which saw the release of the Shadow World Player’s Guide in print-on-demand as a full-colour softcover product. Behind the scenes, Terry Amthor has been toiling away on Emer 3 (120+ pages now complete), and we expect to see it in both pdf and print-on-demand this year. We will also be complementing this with Xa-ar in print-on-demand, the Shadow World GM Guide, one or more regional modules (approved by Terry Amthor but written by other authors), and all being well, the first of the system-specific rulebooks, the Shadow World HARP Handbook.

This brings us neatly to HARP & HARP SF. We opened 2011 with the release of HARP SF as a pdf product. We closed 2011 with the release of both HARP SF and HARP SF Xtreme in print-on-demand in multiple formats via OneBookShelf. Behind the scenes in 2011, we were and have been working to reconstruct the HARP Fantasy line, which was complicated by the fact that two major sourcebooks, Monsters: a Field Guide and Loot: a Field Guide, were in a copyright limbo. We were able to reach agreement with the author of Loot, and it will return in due course; we were unsuccessful with Monsters. This has had the knock-on consequences that we have needed to develop a new monster creation system (which we are still working on) and will also need to produce a new Bestiary product. It also has impacts on other unreleased products. As those who followed the progress of the Something Wicked project in my old Guild Companion editorials may remember, there are almost as many Demons, Undead and Elemental beings in that work as there were monsters of any sort in Monsters: a Field Guide. These were all designed using the MaFG rules set and so all need to be reworked to conform to the new emergent monster creation system. Our plan is that we will move most of these out of Something Wicked into our new HARP Bestiary product. We will move the Mystic profession, which was originally part of my College of Magics manuscript, into a reshaped Something Wicked. HARP Codex and the various HARPer’s Bazaar issues will not be returning as these have too many balance issues. Instead there will be future themed sourcebooks on divine magic, martial arts, and other topics; as the year progresses, expect to see calls for proposals on these. Construct Toolkit will also be brought into conformance with the new monster creation rules and concepts matured in HARP SF Xtreme. HARP SF will also see calls for proposals for expansions and adventures for it.

And finally to Cyradon, our second setting, which was on hold during 2011, due to its need for the completion of the HARP Fantasy reconstruction. Once all the improvements have been made to HARP Fantasy, we expect to be able to make the HARP version of Cyradon conform relatively easy, which will pave the way for new Cyradon adventure modules, which are already in progress.

That completes our rapid review of the product lines as they were in 2011 and as they will be in 2012. The next scheduled Director’s Briefing will be presented in early February.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd.

News from Guild Companion Publications Ltd (Christmas 2011)

19 December 2011, 11:34 pm

Director’s Briefing – Christmas 2011

Ho, Ho, Ho!

It is the season to be jolly, and the season to be giving gifts to friends and family. And perhaps if you have been a good gamer to give a gift to yourself as a reward! Well, Santa may have just the present for you …

Yes, the postman has been busy delivering test copies of HARP SF, HARP SF Xtreme and the Shadow World Player’s Guide to GCP and Aurigas reps in both the UK and the US. On my desk, I have a hardcover and a softcover version of HARP SF, four different versions of HARP SF Xtreme (softcover versus hardcover, full black&white interior versus part colour/part black&white interior), and the full in-colour softcover Shadow World Player’s Guide. They all look fantastic. I have now activated all of the various editions for public sale.

All of these are available from OneBookShelf. You choose the version(s) that suits your tastes (and your budget!), the shipping method that works best for you, Lightning Source will print your order and ship it to you. It really is that easy.


HARP SF


HARP SF Xtreme


Shadow World Player’s Guide

Now treat yourself! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

All best wishes,

Nicholas

Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd.

News from Guild Companion Publications Ltd (December 2011)

1 December 2011, 8:21 am
Guild Companion Product Update
Guild Companion My name is Nicholas Caldwell and I am the Director and sole shareholder of Guild Companion Publications Limited, the company licensed by Aurigas Aldebaron LLC to publish Rolemaster, Spacemaster, HARP, Shadow World and Cyradon. This is the fifth of our Director’s Briefings.
During the last month, we released a veritable library of classic products that we had recovered from the mists of copyright limbo following agreement with the original authors. Thus November saw the return of Sea Law, the original Spacemaster Companion, and all of the rest of the Spacemaster Imperium setting modules – League of Merchants, Beyond the Core, Tales from Deep Space, War on a Distant Moon and Imperial Crisis: House Devon in Turmoil. Expect to see Islands of the Oracle, a Shadow World adventure module by John Crowdis, appear as a commercial searchable pdf in early December. Sea Law

Although all of these are scanned pdfs, they are searchable pdfs (barring covers). A request was made some time ago on the ICE forums regarding the possibility of having the back catalogue of scanned pdfs made searchable; a more recent request wondered whether it would be possible for customers who had purchased non-searchable pdfs on the various Mjolnir-run ecommerce stores.

GCP and Aurigas considered these requests, and having consulted with Bruce of Mjolnir who indicated that there was no easy way of extracting the sales records from the old stores, have come to the following solution. Customers who have purchased scanned pdfs from the Mjolnir store between Feb 2008 and Dec 2010 should log into that store and make screenshots of the relevant parts of their order history. Email those screenshots to the following address gcp.store.transition@gmail.com and you will receive RPGNow discount coupons to purchase the updated pdfs at a nominal price of one US dollar per product. Customers who purchased the pdfs from the much older Mjolnir store (i.e. before Feb 2008) should have a rummage around in their email archives for receipts, as we will accept those receipts as proof of purchase.

I’ve worked my way through the older scanned pdfs – some were already searchable, a handful could not be made searchable (as the scan resolution was too low), but the rest have been upgraded and the new files already uploaded onto the OneBookShelf system. All the necessary discount coupons have also been created on the OneBookShelf system. A definitive list of the scan pdfs will be posted on the ICE forums.

As an advance notice, once the rebranding programme is complete, we will be extending this offer to other pdf products that were previously available on the various Mjolnir stores.

The other big news is that our layout gurus have created the requisite layout files for HARP SF, HARP SF Xtreme and Shadow World Player Guide – The World. OneBookShelf have already validated both the hardcover and softcover editions of HARP SF, the softcover Shadow World Player Guide (which will be in full colour), and two versions of HARP SF Xtreme (hardcover with colour interior, softcover with black&white interior). The other two editions of HARP SF Xtreme (hardcover with black&white interior, softcover with colour interior) are still working their way through the system. As part of the final quality checks, we will be ordering copies from both the UK and the US printing facilities. Assuming no problems are discovered, we will then activate the products for actual sale.

The next scheduled Director’s Briefing will be presented in early January, and will discuss the progress made across the various project lines.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd.

Partners and Allies Spotlight – 13Mann

30 November 2011, 10:18 am
13Mann Verlags- und Großhandelsgesellschaft mbH
13Mann Founded in 2007, we published our first German Rolemaster book on 07/07/2007, which was the “Rolemaster Grundregelwerk” (RMFRP, the base rule book from Rolemaster Fantasy). Located in Duesseldorf, Germany, our company published several more books under the Rolemaster license. This year the “Handbuch für Spielleiter” is hitting the big game fair in Essen, the “Spiel!”, completing the translation of the core rulebooks of Rolemaster. Next we will complete the translations of the companions (the Channeling Companion is already available).

Right from the start we have made a name for ourselves by producing the Rolemaster line in full color, hardbound editions. This has been a first for Rolemaster world-wide. The German Rolemaster books can hold their own when compared to industry leaders like the D&D books. Also, we are producing a line of soft-cover adventure modules set of the world of Aborea. Apart from Rolemaster, 13Mann also has the German license for Traveller, and we publish two lines of original games, the dark futuristic “Heredium” and the easy-to-learn Fantasy game “Aborea”. Aborea was presented to the public at the beginning of this year, it is a box containing a player’s book, a GM book, two great maps (one of the world Aborea in DinA0) and two D10 (all for 19,95 Euros). The game is designed to introduce new people to our great hobby.

The founding members of 13Mann have been playing Rolemaster themselves for years and years. The company’s CEO, Bernd Blecha (who is also writing this text), is looking back on the embarrassingly long time of over 25 years with Rolemaster. But that is also a credit to the game, since it is able to keep players interested for such a long time. A game cannot hold players if it is not good, and Rolemaster most certainly is very good. People in Germany enjoy the possibilities the character creation offers – only with Rolemaster you can create the character you had in your head exactly the way he or she should be. Here’s to 25 more years! HdS Preview

Proclamations from the Crown (December 2011)

30 November 2011, 10:17 am

Iron Crown

Aurigas Aldebaron’s Address
Aurigas Aldebaron Well, the train is finally starting to leave the station!

We had to work on a bit of “stoking the furnace” which makes it look like we were not getting anywhere, but behind the scenes, a lot has been done. All the legal agreements with third party licensees are now in place, and Nicholas at Guild Companion has made extraordinarily good progress in recovering “lost works” from bygone days and making those available for download.

At the same time, we are going through all the works and making some decisions about what is “intellectual property held in good title”. In a very few cases (fortunately) we have found some game product does not fit this definition and we will no longer offer that product for sale, though we may use some of the untainted material contained within in a future product. In a couple cases, we have found that the quality of the material does not meet the bar we have set for ourselves and those products will no longer be for sale, or again, may be re-worked into new products. Fortunately, this clean-up is coming to an end. The penultimate stage is getting the full, approved product array up on RPGNow.com, with the final stage getting the key legacy products in print-on-demand format. This final stage will take some time, but progress is being made.

What’s next? Well, I’m hopeful we can continue to make progress with our international partners to forge closer ties in working together, mainly by sharing the fruits of our collective labour across a wider audience. For example, if there is an adventure series tailored to Rolemaster authored by our German friends at 13Mann, we will work with them to get an English translation of that and get it up for sale, providing more support product for RM. We are planning some new links on the main ICE website to our international partners as well, and are looking to share resources, like art work.

I’m really excited about our plans for the future. HARP is a great product, but due for an update. Fortunately, not much will be changing, but the changes proposed should add considerable value in terms of game balance, playability and infusing the game with more “High Adventure”. In addition to HARP, the team is developing long range plans for Rolemaster, Cyradon and Shadow World, as well as looking at adding new support product lines and will do so if the right opportunity comes along.

In closing, I hope this all sounds exciting for you, our fans and customers. Many thanks for your support. And, a special thanks to our moderators, web people, authors, artists and licensees for making the effort to help ICE keep moving forward.

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