Author Topic: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013  (Read 6200 times)

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Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« on: October 01, 2013, 03:36:42 AM »
Welcome to the twenty-eighth Briefing and tenth scheduled Briefing for 2013.

HARP

I am very pleased to announce that Jonathan Cassie (author of Loot: a Field Guide) has agreed to write a new sourcebook for HARP Folkways, which will cover races, cultures and related matters. We have agreed the outline and the project can now be considered to be in Preproduction, with publication all being well around the middle of next year. ( Loot: a Field Guide will be returning in its enhanced form before that.)
 
The first PoD proof copies of HARP: College of Magics were delivered to Terry and myself middle of September. Although the artwork had behaved itself, the text came out looking too light grey to pass the "bad light" test of being easily readable when the illumination in a room is not ideally placed. So Terry has reworked the InDesign filters and an updated master has been submitted and new proofs ordered.

Progress is quietly being made on HARP Bestiary with the first monsters now appearing for team review.

The next release of AutoHARP is well underway and we should see the database files for College of Magics and HARP SF Xtreme appear as part of that release.

Cyradon

The new interior maps for Kausur have arrived making it rather less Strange. Another adventure module, "Escort Duty", has been commissioned and is now in Preproduction.

Rolemaster

I have completed a full review of the work in progress drafts of unified Creature Law and Treasure Law and provided my feedback to the authorial team. More work still needed to finish the drafts so that we can get them out for beta. Likewise some more work required before Arms Law, Spell Law and Character Law can be reissued for second beta.

The IP negotiations for Stone of Seven Souls have been successful with GCP purchasing the rights to use the 0One maps and reaching an agreement with the module writer, Ido Tamir. Neither had been paid by Mjolnir, rescuing Stone of Seven Souls required both to be amenable to working with us and fortunately both were and are. So Stone of Seven Souls can now be officially designated as being in the Strange state.

Shadow World

Terry is toiling away on additional adventure material for Emer 3 as well as working on the Early Edition projects. Both he and I have started our review of the Lethys and Priest King of Shade module "works in progress".

Call for Shadow World Adventures

We have been talking about putting out a call for Shadow World adventure material and  are now ready to make that call.

What we are interested in:
1) Adventures suitable for low level (to 5th), medium (6th to 10th), high (11th to 20th) adventuring parties.
2) Adventure locations, e..g. sites of interest to adventurers like outposts, fortresses, manses, cavern complexes, Coral Road entrances, etc.
3) Adventures and adventure locations for this round should be set in NW or NE Emer, or in Jaiman ( with Xa-ar and Saralis of special interest).
4) Adventures and adventure locations must be consistent with canonical material and must not "break" Shadow World - no blowing up cities, killing off canonical NPCs, or derailing existing plotlines. You may submit adventure plots where failure of adventurers to stop some peril will further an existing NPC or faction agenda, likewise PC success should only pose a modest setback to the NPC / faction. Do not create additional factions. All material will be reviewed by Terry for conformance with his vision and canon.
5) Please submit a 100 - 200 word synopsis to me at director@guildcompanion dot com for our initial review.
6) Assuming we are happy with the synopsis, we will invite you to write up your idea as a complete adventure or adventure location. Length should be five thousand to ten thousand words, plus Rolemaster stats ( Classic and RMSS/FRP). All submissions must include any required maps, though we reserve the right to redraw maps to production quality.
7) Our intended deadline for full submissions is 31st December 2013.
8) In return for copyright transfer, we will pay one US cent per published word, plus a complimentary copy of the final product in pdf and print-on-demand. You will get a full contract at the time of being invited to submit a full manuscript.

The goal of this is to create an occasional series of adventure collections for Shadow World along the lines of The Guild Adventurer. Frequency will depend upon sufficient contributions and sales demand; future issues will have additional regions available for setting adventures and locations.

Please post any questions on the Shadow World board on the ICE forum.

Until next time

HARP Bestiary and various other products are clamouring for my attention, so off to work on them. The next scheduled Briefing will be in November.

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

Offline Zut

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2013, 08:02:58 AM »
Happy news! I can't wait to see the HARP Bestiary and the adventure modules for Cyradon!
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Offline GrumpyOldFart

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2013, 11:00:05 AM »
 I realize I am very late in mentioning this, for which I apologize. However, I think it would be extremely useful (if it's practical) to make every entry in the Table of Contents (any product) a link to the section referred to in the PDF. Click on it and it takes you to that entry. What would be better still is if that could be applied throughout the product. For example, HARP Fantasy pg. 97:

Quote
Disarm Foe*: Instead of attacking, a character may try to
disarm an opponent by making a Maneuver Roll, adding
his Agility bonus and a value equal to the number of skill
ranks with the weapon wielded. The foe is required to make
a Resistance Roll (modified by his weapon skill bonus, plus
an additional +10 modifier)
against the value found on the
RR column of the Maneuver Table. A failed roll results in the
foe’s weapon landing 1d10 feet away in a random direction.

If instead,

Quote
The foe is required to make a Resistance Roll (modified by his weapon skill bonus, plus
an additional +10 modifier)
against the value found on the RR column of the Maneuver Table.

...the highlighted and underlined section is a link to the Maneuver Table... if that kind of pattern were followed throughout, it would greatly increase the value of the pdf, IMO.
You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out... Traditional Somatic Components
Oo Ee Oo Aa Aa, Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang... Traditional Verbal Components
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Offline dagorhir

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2013, 11:37:41 AM »
I also can't wait for the Bestiary.

As for AutoHarp, I have made database files for the Common Training Package pdf that is found in the vault. If there's any interest, it could potentially be made available through the vault (if the powers that be allow it).

Offline Zut

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2013, 12:55:27 PM »
I also can't wait for the Bestiary.

As for AutoHarp, I have made database files for the Common Training Package pdf that is found in the vault. If there's any interest, it could potentially be made available through the vault (if the powers that be allow it).

Wow!  :o
Please do so!
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Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2013, 01:08:23 PM »
As for AutoHarp, I have made database files for the Common Training Package pdf that is found in the vault. If there's any interest, it could potentially be made available through the vault (if the powers that be allow it).

Consider it approved... or will be once it is uploaded.  Feel free to upload it directly on the forums as an attachment.
Email -    Thom@ironcrown.com

Offline dagorhir

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2013, 01:37:01 PM »
As for AutoHarp, I have made database files for the Common Training Package pdf that is found in the vault. If there's any interest, it could potentially be made available through the vault (if the powers that be allow it).

Consider it approved... or will be once it is uploaded.  Feel free to upload it directly on the forums as an attachment.

I shall as soon as as the next version is released.

Offline Terry K. Amthor

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2013, 09:09:24 AM »
I realize I am very late in mentioning this, for which I apologize. However, I think it would be extremely useful (if it's practical) to make every entry in the Table of Contents (any product) a link to the section referred to in the PDF. Click on it and it takes you to that entry. What would be better still is if that could be applied throughout the product. For example, HARP Fantasy pg. 97:

Quote
Disarm Foe*: Instead of attacking, a character may try to
disarm an opponent by making a Maneuver Roll, adding
his Agility bonus and a value equal to the number of skill
ranks with the weapon wielded. The foe is required to make
a Resistance Roll (modified by his weapon skill bonus, plus
an additional +10 modifier)
against the value found on the
RR column of the Maneuver Table. A failed roll results in the
foe’s weapon landing 1d10 feet away in a random direction.

If instead,

Quote
The foe is required to make a Resistance Roll (modified by his weapon skill bonus, plus
an additional +10 modifier)
against the value found on the RR column of the Maneuver Table.

...the highlighted and underlined section is a link to the Maneuver Table... if that kind of pattern were followed throughout, it would greatly increase the value of the pdf, IMO.

I'll definitely be including the Chapter bookmarks in future Shadow World books, and hopefully also a list of major chart bookmarks. The internal hyperlinks you are suggesting would be nice, but those would require a greater degree of labor, I think.
Terry K. Amthor
Shadow World Author, Rolemaster & SpaceMaster Co-Designer, ICE co-founder.
Eidolon Studio Art Director


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-- Clarke's First Law.

Offline jdale

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2013, 09:23:24 AM »
Links in the table of contents and index are super useful, and the chapter bookmarks. I don't know that in-line links are that useful. To some extent, yes, but I think I'm more likely to click them by accident than use them on purpose.
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Offline intothatdarkness

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2013, 09:30:23 AM »
Links in the table of contents and index are super useful, and the chapter bookmarks. I don't know that in-line links are that useful. To some extent, yes, but I think I'm more likely to click them by accident than use them on purpose.

Agree. I tend to find inline links to be somewhat cluttering. If you've got a solid index you really don't need them, IMO.
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Offline VladD

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2013, 05:37:22 PM »
Such linkin will actually speed up play for those using tablets and such. Finding tables on such a device is hellish. I think internal linking is a good idea, eventhough it might clutter. Can't the links be presented more palatable? It doesn't need to be in underlined blue or purple? So clutter is reduced to a minimum with maximum benefit? Maybe even a small "table sidebar" where people will find, listed, the the applicable tables of that page?
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Offline GrumpyOldFart

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2013, 08:01:38 PM »
Maybe even a small "table sidebar" where people will find, listed, the the applicable tables of that page?

That's probably a better idea. From the responses, it sounds like it's just as important to have them out of the way of those who don't need them as to have them available for those who do. Sounds like something that needs an option to be able to toggle it on & off.
You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out... Traditional Somatic Components
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Offline dagorhir

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2013, 09:42:28 PM »
 just print the tables I need to have them on hand during the game. I don't really bother with the pdf.

Also, I just got an email notifying me that College of Magic is now available in print.  ;D

Offline KacyCrawford

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2013, 06:27:24 AM »
Wow! Great news.

Offline Old Man

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2013, 12:33:25 PM »

Did y'all want to copy and pin the SW call for adventures into the Shadow World forum?
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Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: Director's Briefing - 1st October 2013
« Reply #15 on: November 03, 2013, 09:58:31 PM »
Going with Dagorhir ideas, what would everyone think about me creating AutoHARP character files for the PCs and NPCs that are in the vault for potential inclusion in the vault? There will be slight variations as I think the character sheets were created with an older system of HARP. I created a test sheet already with Beren Ilik which worked out great. Perhaps people out there would like to include their own AutoHARP character sheets in the vault.  8)