News Digest: Lots of Starfinder News! Plus GURPS, a Graphic Novel on D&D History, and more!
Hello everyone, Darryl here with a LOT of Starfinder updates, Fantasy Grounds gets official Pathfinder content (retroactively winning me an online argument), a new graphic novel on the origins of Dungeons & Dragons, details on the new life for GURPS books, and more!
Starfinder details are coming fast and furious now as convention season ramps up. First EN World has an exclusive look at the planet Castrovel. “Castrovel is the second planet from the sun in the Pact Worlds, the solar system at the heart of Starfinder’s setting. Most famous for its steamy, continent-spanning jungles and dangerous megafauna, Castrovel actually hosts a wide variety of different environments, from rolling plains where ant-like formians build their massive hive-cities to frozen polar ice caps with their hordes of white-furred predators. It also plays home to not one but three major civilizations—yet even so, the planet’s native flora and fauna remain a constant threat, particularly the massive moldstorms capable of destroying all but the most robust technology.”
In their own exclusive, Dread Central has the undead world Eox. “Today, Eox is a world of the dead—and pretty smug about it, actually. After all, being undead comes with a lot of advantages in the modern era: Spaceships that don’t need air! A zombie workforce that doesn’t need breaks! While many of the other Pact Worlds fear and resent Eox, no one can deny that it’s better to have the undead working with you than against you.”
The Black Gate also has several of the ships from the game, the Atech Immortal and the BMC Mauler. Starfinder Creative Director James L. Sutter described the two ships, “Severe and pugnacious, the Immortal is the workhorse capital ship of Pact Worlds-based military fleets like those of the Stewards and the Knights of Golarion. Thickly armored and loaded with weapons, this cruiser rarely needs to fire a shot in most conflicts, as its mere appearance in-system can stop a conflict cold and send all but the most heavily armored militants running for the safety of the Drift. Manufactured by the Blood Mountain Clans, the Mauler’s distinctive Y-shaped wing arms and central cockpit make it one of the most recognizable starships around. While Maulers can be flown in combat by a single person, making them popular with bounty hunters and other lone wolves, militaries usually staff them with two: a pilot seated upright in the bubble canopy, and a gunner behind the pilot operating via screens. A staple of the Veskarium, the Mauler once chewed through squadrons of Pact Worlds defenders before the cease-fire, and today remains the default fighter on most vesk carriers, as well as the weapon of choice for vesk pilots engaging in honor duels.”
We’ve also gotten a peek at two of the classes, The Operative and The Envoy. Both seem comparable to “Rogue” classes in the fantasy games, though reflecting different aspects of the class. The Operative is the shadow assassin who relies on quick strikes, wits, and surprise to end fights before they start. Meanwhile, The Envoy is the con artist and trickster, working as the face of the crew or conning their way into places they’re not supposed to be. In fact, the first full description we’ve got on the Starfinder Iconics is of an Envoy, Navasi.
Starfinder comes out on August 17 with a full release at Gen Con. The hardcover for the Starfinder Core Rulebook will be $59.99 while the PDF will be $9.99, Starfinder: Alien Archive comes this October at $39.99, Starfinder Dead Suns Adventure Path (1 of 6): Incident at Absalom Station this August at $22.99 (with Part 2: Temple of the Twelve and Part 3: Splintered World at the same price in October and December respectively), and further accessories such as GM Screen, Flip-Mats, Condition Cards, Combat Pad, and Pawn Boxes coming throughout the rest of the year. You can preorder now from Paizo’s website.
For more details on any specific aspect of this massive deluge of Starfinder information, check the associated links from the original sources.
Fantasy Grounds now has officially licensed material for Pathfinder. Several add-ons to Fantasy Grounds are available currently from both the Fantasy Grounds online store and from Steam (soon from the Paizo store as well). In addition, you have the option to link your Fantasy Grounds account to your Paizo account in order to get a discount equal to the amount you’ve paid for PDFs from Paizo. Currently available are the Pathfinder Core Rulebook ($49.99), Bestiary 1 Pack ($39.99), Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition ($59.99), Advance Players Guide ($44.99), and the first three adventures in the Kingmaker Adventure Path ($19.99 each). According to the press release, the instructions to link your Paizo and Fantasy Grounds accounts for the discount are:
1. Log on at paizo.com and then head to My Account (the link is at the upper right of each page)
2. Choose My Partner Authorizations and Request a new Code. Copy this for use later.
3. Next, log in to our site and then go to the Help > Paizo Account Synchronization or directly by visiting the website.
4. Use the option to Authorize the Account and then Retrieve and Send purchase info.
Steve Jackson Games announced the return of many classic GURPS books in print thanks to Amazon CreateSpace and Print on Demand. The new printings will be softcover with black and white interior and full-color covers with current errata included as well as some updates to the original art for printing in black and white. The initial list of titles include the GURPS sourcebooks for Magic, Thaumatology, Ultra-Tech, High-Tech, Infinite Worlds, Bio-Tech, Mysteries, and Spaceships. This new service will join Steve Jackson Games’s in-house website Warehouse 23 as another method to get new options for GURPS.
A new graphic novel tells the story of the origins of Dungeons & Dragons and the origins of the roleplaying game industry. Rise of the Dungeon Master, written by David Kushner and illustrated by Koren Shadmi, uses interviews from Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson themselves along with other sources to tell the tale of the origins of Chainmail and Dungeons & Dragons in a first person point of view that changes viewpoints as the story progresses. It’s available now for an MSRP of $16.99 for a physical copy, or available on Amazon Kindle for $11.99.
You may know Steven Ratkovich better as “Bull” due to his character’s iconic status in the Shadowrun world. Originally, the character was added to Shadowrun simply as a tribute to Ratkovich’s fandom (which cause no small amounts of trolling online when he became a designer on Shadowrun). Now, Bull works as a freelance designer, fiction writer, and video maker touching on all aspects of gaming and geek pop culture. As a backer to the Patreon, depending upon level, you can get access to a monthly Google Hangouts, additions to his content (your own NPC added, pick a subject for a video, creating a character for short stories, and more), or even games run by Bull himself for you. I’d also like to put out a personal plea as Steven’s fallen on some hard financial times and could use the security and income boost from some attention to his Patreon, or even some additional purchases from his custom T-shirt store.
Dead Gentlemen Productions is Kickstarting a not-quite-reboot of their very first webseries, Demon Hunters: S.O.L. (Slice of Life…this is a family-friendly site!) From the creators of The Gamers and JourneyQuest, Demon Hunters is the story of divine warriors battling ancient demonic evil…and they’re in way over their heads. The series will be an anthology highlighting different areas of the Demon Hunters universe and focusing both on the Brotherhood’s battles against evil but also their struggles with everyday problems as they do so, along with the rarely-seen realities such as the Clean-up Crew (the hardworking folks that deal with the aftermath of the daring battles). A $12 pledge gets you early access to new episodes along with exclusive content, $25 gets your HD downloads and even more exclusive content, while $50 adds on a physical DVD with extra features. This project is more than halfway to its goal and has until Friday, May 19 to reach its funding goal.
Cubicle 7 and Make Believe Games have a new twist on the Lovecraftian/Cthulhu-style horror roleplaying game. In Unspeakable Sigel & Sign, you play as the cultists. The players take on the role of Outsiders, whether it’s as cultists, servants, cast-offs, or misbegotten children of the Old Ones caught between two worlds – the mundane world of humankind or the world of the Mythos. The Axiom System used in the game replaces character sheets for hands of cards in order to speed both play and character generation. You can get the core set in digital format for Ɯ29 (about US$37) or a physical copy for Ɯ59 (about US$76). This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, May 22.
Anyone who knows me in person knows I’m the suit-and-tie type in general when I go out, and while I do enjoy geeky and nerdy ties, I still want them to look stylish. The d20 Dice Ties from Kaleb Mankey definitely fit, as your average person may not notice the abstract patterns are actually D20s. Right now, the ties are available in red, black, and royal blue with stretch goals to add more colors as the campaign continues. You can get one tie for $15, two for $27, or three for $35 in any color combination you choose. This project is fully funded with its first stretch goal additional color about to be unlocked at the time of writing, but it only runs until Sunday, May 14 so hurry!
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news at the EN World RPG Kickstarter News website, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you even more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse if you want my laments on attempting to write an adventure path without knowing what setting or system to use, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Hello everyone, Darryl here with a LOT of Starfinder updates, Fantasy Grounds gets official Pathfinder content (retroactively winning me an online argument), a new graphic novel on the origins of Dungeons & Dragons, details on the new life for GURPS books, and more!
Starfinder details are coming fast and furious now as convention season ramps up. First EN World has an exclusive look at the planet Castrovel. “Castrovel is the second planet from the sun in the Pact Worlds, the solar system at the heart of Starfinder’s setting. Most famous for its steamy, continent-spanning jungles and dangerous megafauna, Castrovel actually hosts a wide variety of different environments, from rolling plains where ant-like formians build their massive hive-cities to frozen polar ice caps with their hordes of white-furred predators. It also plays home to not one but three major civilizations—yet even so, the planet’s native flora and fauna remain a constant threat, particularly the massive moldstorms capable of destroying all but the most robust technology.”
In their own exclusive, Dread Central has the undead world Eox. “Today, Eox is a world of the dead—and pretty smug about it, actually. After all, being undead comes with a lot of advantages in the modern era: Spaceships that don’t need air! A zombie workforce that doesn’t need breaks! While many of the other Pact Worlds fear and resent Eox, no one can deny that it’s better to have the undead working with you than against you.”
The Black Gate also has several of the ships from the game, the Atech Immortal and the BMC Mauler. Starfinder Creative Director James L. Sutter described the two ships, “Severe and pugnacious, the Immortal is the workhorse capital ship of Pact Worlds-based military fleets like those of the Stewards and the Knights of Golarion. Thickly armored and loaded with weapons, this cruiser rarely needs to fire a shot in most conflicts, as its mere appearance in-system can stop a conflict cold and send all but the most heavily armored militants running for the safety of the Drift. Manufactured by the Blood Mountain Clans, the Mauler’s distinctive Y-shaped wing arms and central cockpit make it one of the most recognizable starships around. While Maulers can be flown in combat by a single person, making them popular with bounty hunters and other lone wolves, militaries usually staff them with two: a pilot seated upright in the bubble canopy, and a gunner behind the pilot operating via screens. A staple of the Veskarium, the Mauler once chewed through squadrons of Pact Worlds defenders before the cease-fire, and today remains the default fighter on most vesk carriers, as well as the weapon of choice for vesk pilots engaging in honor duels.”
We’ve also gotten a peek at two of the classes, The Operative and The Envoy. Both seem comparable to “Rogue” classes in the fantasy games, though reflecting different aspects of the class. The Operative is the shadow assassin who relies on quick strikes, wits, and surprise to end fights before they start. Meanwhile, The Envoy is the con artist and trickster, working as the face of the crew or conning their way into places they’re not supposed to be. In fact, the first full description we’ve got on the Starfinder Iconics is of an Envoy, Navasi.
Starfinder comes out on August 17 with a full release at Gen Con. The hardcover for the Starfinder Core Rulebook will be $59.99 while the PDF will be $9.99, Starfinder: Alien Archive comes this October at $39.99, Starfinder Dead Suns Adventure Path (1 of 6): Incident at Absalom Station this August at $22.99 (with Part 2: Temple of the Twelve and Part 3: Splintered World at the same price in October and December respectively), and further accessories such as GM Screen, Flip-Mats, Condition Cards, Combat Pad, and Pawn Boxes coming throughout the rest of the year. You can preorder now from Paizo’s website.
For more details on any specific aspect of this massive deluge of Starfinder information, check the associated links from the original sources.
Fantasy Grounds now has officially licensed material for Pathfinder. Several add-ons to Fantasy Grounds are available currently from both the Fantasy Grounds online store and from Steam (soon from the Paizo store as well). In addition, you have the option to link your Fantasy Grounds account to your Paizo account in order to get a discount equal to the amount you’ve paid for PDFs from Paizo. Currently available are the Pathfinder Core Rulebook ($49.99), Bestiary 1 Pack ($39.99), Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition ($59.99), Advance Players Guide ($44.99), and the first three adventures in the Kingmaker Adventure Path ($19.99 each). According to the press release, the instructions to link your Paizo and Fantasy Grounds accounts for the discount are:
1. Log on at paizo.com and then head to My Account (the link is at the upper right of each page)
2. Choose My Partner Authorizations and Request a new Code. Copy this for use later.
3. Next, log in to our site and then go to the Help > Paizo Account Synchronization or directly by visiting the website.
4. Use the option to Authorize the Account and then Retrieve and Send purchase info.
Steve Jackson Games announced the return of many classic GURPS books in print thanks to Amazon CreateSpace and Print on Demand. The new printings will be softcover with black and white interior and full-color covers with current errata included as well as some updates to the original art for printing in black and white. The initial list of titles include the GURPS sourcebooks for Magic, Thaumatology, Ultra-Tech, High-Tech, Infinite Worlds, Bio-Tech, Mysteries, and Spaceships. This new service will join Steve Jackson Games’s in-house website Warehouse 23 as another method to get new options for GURPS.
A new graphic novel tells the story of the origins of Dungeons & Dragons and the origins of the roleplaying game industry. Rise of the Dungeon Master, written by David Kushner and illustrated by Koren Shadmi, uses interviews from Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson themselves along with other sources to tell the tale of the origins of Chainmail and Dungeons & Dragons in a first person point of view that changes viewpoints as the story progresses. It’s available now for an MSRP of $16.99 for a physical copy, or available on Amazon Kindle for $11.99.
You may know Steven Ratkovich better as “Bull” due to his character’s iconic status in the Shadowrun world. Originally, the character was added to Shadowrun simply as a tribute to Ratkovich’s fandom (which cause no small amounts of trolling online when he became a designer on Shadowrun). Now, Bull works as a freelance designer, fiction writer, and video maker touching on all aspects of gaming and geek pop culture. As a backer to the Patreon, depending upon level, you can get access to a monthly Google Hangouts, additions to his content (your own NPC added, pick a subject for a video, creating a character for short stories, and more), or even games run by Bull himself for you. I’d also like to put out a personal plea as Steven’s fallen on some hard financial times and could use the security and income boost from some attention to his Patreon, or even some additional purchases from his custom T-shirt store.
Dead Gentlemen Productions is Kickstarting a not-quite-reboot of their very first webseries, Demon Hunters: S.O.L. (Slice of Life…this is a family-friendly site!) From the creators of The Gamers and JourneyQuest, Demon Hunters is the story of divine warriors battling ancient demonic evil…and they’re in way over their heads. The series will be an anthology highlighting different areas of the Demon Hunters universe and focusing both on the Brotherhood’s battles against evil but also their struggles with everyday problems as they do so, along with the rarely-seen realities such as the Clean-up Crew (the hardworking folks that deal with the aftermath of the daring battles). A $12 pledge gets you early access to new episodes along with exclusive content, $25 gets your HD downloads and even more exclusive content, while $50 adds on a physical DVD with extra features. This project is more than halfway to its goal and has until Friday, May 19 to reach its funding goal.
Cubicle 7 and Make Believe Games have a new twist on the Lovecraftian/Cthulhu-style horror roleplaying game. In Unspeakable Sigel & Sign, you play as the cultists. The players take on the role of Outsiders, whether it’s as cultists, servants, cast-offs, or misbegotten children of the Old Ones caught between two worlds – the mundane world of humankind or the world of the Mythos. The Axiom System used in the game replaces character sheets for hands of cards in order to speed both play and character generation. You can get the core set in digital format for Ɯ29 (about US$37) or a physical copy for Ɯ59 (about US$76). This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, May 22.
Anyone who knows me in person knows I’m the suit-and-tie type in general when I go out, and while I do enjoy geeky and nerdy ties, I still want them to look stylish. The d20 Dice Ties from Kaleb Mankey definitely fit, as your average person may not notice the abstract patterns are actually D20s. Right now, the ties are available in red, black, and royal blue with stretch goals to add more colors as the campaign continues. You can get one tie for $15, two for $27, or three for $35 in any color combination you choose. This project is fully funded with its first stretch goal additional color about to be unlocked at the time of writing, but it only runs until Sunday, May 14 so hurry!
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news at the EN World RPG Kickstarter News website, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you even more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse if you want my laments on attempting to write an adventure path without knowing what setting or system to use, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
