Thursday, March 27, 2008

Voyage of Discovery d20: Charles Rice and Rick Hershey

Coming soon from Empty Room Studios: Voyage of Discovery d20!

Empty Room Studios and Charles Rice have teamed up to bring his popular web-novel, the Hellstrom Voyage, to life as a d20 RPG.

This setting will detail the devastating war of the Mad Emperor in his bid to conquer the world, a war waged on land and sea, as well as the nations who struggle for freedom against an unstoppable military machine.

Setting information will include the former nations of the Continental Kingdoms, now ruled by the Mad Emperor as the Mandelieu Empire, as well as the Island Kingdom, the lone free nation left to stand against tyranny, protected by the wooden wall of her navy.

Chuck says, "Hellstrom Voyage is a project I'm particularly passionate about and one I have a lot of plans for, as a novel, comic and game setting. Empty Room seemed uniquely suited to help develop the line in each of those areas, so I couldn't be happier about partnering with them on this project."

"I've had a chance to work on Steampunk Musha with Chuck, and can't wait to start really turning out work on this setting. I've been reading the Hellstrom Voyage web novel since the first post, and honestly get more excited about this project with every post and discussion," said Rick.

In addition to the setting, the core book will include new character classes, rules for naval warfare, mass combat and an all-new magic system. Future supplements will include adventure locations and battle scenarios.

Hellstrom announcements

Some announcements were made over at the Hellstrom Voyage blog today, big stuff, but very secret. Keep it under your hat.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Hulu

So I recently discovered a site called Hulu and I think it might just be the future of television.

Stream TV shows and movies, embed them, share them, legally and for free.

Ad supported TV and movies streamed online. It's a wonder it took this long really.

Check it out.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

It's a Giant Bomb! (cast)

So I mentioned Giant Bomb.com (blowing up this summer) around here before, and now it seems that the Giant Bombcast has officially launched, with wha-wha guitar and all!

On a related note

Celebrities obviously have WAY too much time on their hands.

I mean, the Sara Silverman thing I attributed to the strike, but clearly, it's money for nothing and Harrison Ford for free all the time in Hollywood.

Other shoe- dropped, Matt Damon-Jimmy Kimmel edition

So recently we here at RPGdesign covered the story of Sara Silverman f*cking Matt Damon, a beacon of hope for all of us in these troubling times.

Well now it seems that Jimmy has found his own soul mate as a result of this, yes, Jimmy Kimmel is f*cking Ben Affleck.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Vigilance Press dollar sale

Hey guys, I had so much fun during the recent GM's day sale that I decided to have an even bigger one.

For the rest of the month, all my solo books (with the exception of OSRIC Unearthed) can be had for the song-like price of $1.

I'm recommending folks use the ENW store for this one, since they get a taste (you have to say that like Tony Soprano) which is only fitting since the site has done a lot for me over the years.

Hellstrom Voyage: the campaign setting

So it's a little early for any type of official announcement yet, but as friends of the blog, you get the straight skinny earlier than anyone else, so here goes:

There will definitely be a d20 edition of the world of the Hellstrom Voyage coming sometime in 2008.

I know, shocking and unexpected.

The web-novel didn't start out that way, but it's become clear to me there's a lot of game-setting in my novel, and I find it as delicious as mixing dry-roasted coffee beans and dark chocolate.

The setting will likely focus more on the war than the web-novel has, but it is also my goal to make a setting where discovery is the watchword.

This was always a key component of D&D anyway, so focusing on it will be neat.

Friday, March 07, 2008

RPGObjects Podcast #3: Supers!

Check out our latest podcast in which we cover the supers topic like a blanket, and I talk about my horrible, horrible addiction to Oblivion.

Jeff Gerstmann: other shoe- dropped

Jeff Gerstmann launches game reviews site.

So it looks like him, Alex Navarro and Ryan Davis are starting a site to review games, do videos and have a weekly podcast.

Hm, that sounds vaguely familiar, like another site I used to be a paid subscriber at.

What was the name of it...

Monday, March 03, 2008

GM's Day Sales

Hey guys, wanted to let folks know that RPGObjects is participating in this year's GM's Day sales.

Among the bargains you can get are RPGObjects PDFs from RPGNow for 25% off the standard price.

But if you buy direct from us, it's an even better deal. We're offering bundles of our popular d20 Modern "Blood and..." books, and bundles of Darwin's World for 50% off direct from the RPGObjects store.

Remember that the bundle feature at the RPGObjects storefront only includes books you don't own, so if you buy a bundle, it will automatically be edited to include only stuff you don't have and you still get the 50% off discount.

Finally, you can get the Legends of the Samurai hardcover for less than 5 bucks, a mere 4.95 for the 160 page hardcover.

My personal imprint, Vigilance Press, is also taking part and you can check out those sale prices here.

So reward your favorite game master starting tomorrow, even if that game master is you!

Supers^20 first look: design philolsophy

There’s going to be a lot in this system that you recognize and a lot that will be new, but there’s a lot of things players of previous editions of Vigilance will be looking for and they aren’t here. We’ll take a moment to hit the highlights and tell you where they went, and maybe even why.

Origins: The origin of a character is now returned to where it probably always should have stayed: backstory. Instead of a set of free benefits based on where your powers come from, your origin is now strictly the background of your character.

Power Points: Power points have been replaced by the Power Level feat. This reduces book keeping and makes generating characters in Supers20 faster than ever before. It allows a “one trick pony” supervillian to be generated on the fly.

Power Stunts: Modern20 already has a version of this, called the perk and so the power stunt has been folded into the perk system as part of the new Power Control skill. See that skill for more information about how this skill will affect your powers.

What about skill characters? Since this will not be addressed elsewhere and is sure to be asked, let’s address it here. What about the cowl-wearing creature of the night skull t-shirt wearing type of hero/villain? You know, the guy who gets through on his wits and his skills.

Well, Modern20 was designed to handle that type of character right out of the box. A high-level Modern20 character is a superhero, whether you consider that character to be part of a four-color comics universe or the star of an over the top action slugfest.

So where is the balance between that character and someone who can punch through walls you ask? Since all characters in Supers20 are using the same resources (feats, skill points and perks), it’s all about choice. If you want to take a lot of Power Level feats, you’re going to be passing up on the feats available to a standard character and if you spend your skill points on Power Control and your perks on Power Stunts, well you’re passing up on other perks and skills.

Whether this makes the characters “even” is tough to say.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Hellstrom Voyage: Chapter 5 now up

Hey guys, if you pop on over to our sister blog, Hellstrom Voyage, you can check out Chapter 5.

Even better, if you go right now, you'll get to read it 4 hours early!

Chuck

Night Ride Part 1

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