Author Topic: Director's Briefing - February 2015  (Read 2119 times)

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Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Director's Briefing - February 2015
« on: February 04, 2015, 11:27:40 AM »
Welcome

to the forty-fourth Briefing and the second scheduled Briefing for 2015. January has been a painful month for me of assignment marking (I have mentioned that I hate marking?), course specification writing, and dealing with dampproofers (so our bedroom was completely emptied and we are still inhabiting the living room as various bits of the bedroom are put back together). I can see now why green slimes and gelatinous cubes made it into the bestiary canon of D&D.

Rolemaster

In RMU, the residual examples for Rolemaster Arms & Character Law now exist and the team took advantage of the elapsed time to chase out a number of inconsistencies and annoyances in the text. Rolemaster Spell Law is now consistent with Arms & Character Law and I hold a copy of the full text and tables of it as well, while the RMU team are catching residuals. Every one they catch is one less to be caught in second beta, but I am painfully aware of the dangers of perfectionism.

Shadow World

Two pieces of art still needed for the Tales from the Green Gryphon Inn adventure module, namely final cover and a view of the greatroom of the inn itself. Terry has been drinking much tea as he battles to a conclusion of Eidolon and continues to edit Lethys. There's been progress with "Priest-King of Shade" as well.

I am delighted to report that Norek will be returning, and it will be returning as an enhanced sourcebook. Kevin Casey (the original author) and Terry are in discussion about updates. I should reiterate that the returned Norek will not be a scan pdf, it will be a proper rebuild, so available in pdf, softcover and, pagecount willing, hardcover.

HARP and HARP SF

In HARP Bestiary, John Duffield has created more dragons, adding Air, Earth and Water to his initial Fire Dragon. I have added the Ghoul and the Mummy to the Undead set. Ghouls will come in both Lesser (Type I) and Greater (Type II) variants, while the Mummies will have Lesser (Type III), Greater (Type IV), and Mummy King (Type V) versions. And there is a Curse of the Mummy ability so that a Mummy who has been disturbed by the living or has had even a copper piece stolen from its funereal treasures can inflict grave misfortune (pun intended) on tomb robbers.

Jon Cassie has already submitted his second draft of HARP Folkways so I am looking forward to an editing sweep soon there.

I have formally commissioned The Poseidon Gambit for HARP SF. This is a brand-new adventure module set in the Tintamar universe being written by Joel Lovell. (There was an unintentional error in the ICE newsletter where this was mentioned as an update product. It's not, it's brand-new.)

Until next time

The next scheduled Briefing will be in March 2015.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd
Dr Nicholas HM Caldwell
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
Publisher of Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Shadow World, Cyradon, HARP & HARP SF, and Cyberspace, with products available from www.drivethrurpg.com
Author: Mentalism Companion, GURPS Age of Napoleon, Construct Companion, College of Magics, HARP SF/HARP SF Xtreme

Online Hurin

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2015
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2015, 10:50:09 AM »
Great news about Norek! Looking forward to Green Dragon Inn and Lethys as well. And of course we all eagerly await the new version of RMU.

BTW, I think if you took a poll in my department, 100% of professors would agree that marking is the absolute worst part of the job... hang in there!
'Last of all, Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed'. --J.R.R. Tolkien

'Every party needs at least one insane person.'  --Aspen of the Jade Isle

Offline Wōdwulf Seaxaning

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2015
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2015, 03:53:32 PM »
Great news. I just hope the 2nd beta will be released sooner than later as I want to run a playtest with my group after our current 5e D&D campaign is over.
R.I.P. Frank Frazetta
R.I.P. Barry Blair
R.I.P. Drew Hayes
R.I.P. Gary Gygax

Offline Spectre771

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2015
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2015, 06:39:16 AM »
I love the new format of the Newsletter.  The links to current hot topics in the Forum are a great addition.  It will bring more people into the forum and maybe even grab the attention of members who may have some new ideas to contribute to the thread.
If discretion is the better valor and
cowardice the better part of judgment,
let's all be heroes and run away!