Free PDF's for the Gencon Deprived

[Nellisir]

Alas! I am seperated from Gen Con by an ocean...wait, no I'm not.

Alas! I am but a lowly student...no, not that either.

Alas! My feline companions would wither and...ah, who am I kidding? As long as I died with the top off the cat food tin, they'd be happy.

Ahem. Back on track, here.

Alas! My many children...er, no. Not yet.

Alas! My cruel and restrictive parents...can mind their own business, thank you very much.

Alas! My shrewish wife...is off at a volleyball conference for the weekend, and considering how many weekend trips she's taken for dog shows, really wouldn't have a leg to support her objections with.

Nope. No good excuses. Gen Con just couldn't beat out working on my house and hanging with my puppies (and I mean that in a canine way -- we spent an hour at the river tonight).

And I'm hoarding all my "being good and staying behind while the spouse goes away for the weekend" points for a Gen Con I -really- want to attend...which will probably be when I have a 2-year old.

Cheers
Nell.

PS - Any chance of getting the "books" series in a portrait layout? And why doesn't the "masterwork" series get some kind of border treatment, like the "books" series?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

The Siamese twin demons of No Money and No Time are to blame. One or the other, if not both in tandem, has prevented me from going to Gen Con since 1983. Occassionally their younger sister - Other Commitments raises her head, to remind me that a wedding needs going to, or a concert needs sound and lights.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Hmmm, Rise of the Ghouls looks like something to purchase on my next round over to RPGNow...

The Auld Grump - longtime fan of the necrophage.

 

[arwink]

PS - Any chance of getting the "books" series in a portrait layout? And why doesn't the "masterwork" series get some kind of border treatment, like the "books" series?

To answer these in order:

Yes, almost certainly. The main hold up is that I'm still getting the hang of doing portrait layouts, and I haven't yet come up with a look that I like for the Lost Books series (or the Magic Merchants). I am in the process of converting all the OMNI superlink products though, and the Lost Books will probably be next on the list after that for a variety of reasons.

The lack of border treatment on the Masterwork series is similar to the delay on a portrait Lost Books - the blue bars didn't really work when I switched to the portrait layout, and I was largely trying to make the Masterwork series as easy to print out as possible since they were mostly crunch that could be used piecemeal.

Since the border treatement on the Lost Books was mostly confined to the first page, I simply left it out.

 

[mythusmage]

Continuing a thread tradition, I received The Log of the Gray Swan. Downloading and unzipping went well and the file awaits perusal. Now while I was looking at the title on the product page it have me an idea.

I was thinking of a standard ship's log. I asked myself, why would people be looking for a ship's log? A rather nasty locale on Dragon Earth came to mind. So ...

Adventure Seed (Horror, Fantasy): The Log of the Grey Swan

The Grey Swan was an elf owned and manned sloop. In April of 1965 she was cruising off the coast of Vietnam, in the area of the Imperial City of Hue, when the Great Desecration* occurred. The ship and her men were caught in the effects and made undead. since that day the Grey Swan and her crew have sailed the undead seas bordering the Dead Lands preying on all they meet.

In the confusion caused by the fell magic (for the spell did not take effect immediately) the log of the Grey Swan was thrown overboard in its protective chest. It was later retrieved by a tramp steamer in the Phillipine Sea. According to legend the log of the Grey Swan holds the secret needed to lay the cursed ship and her crew to rest. Unfortunately, the log was lost soon after the tramp steamer reached port.

DM Advice: Since most folks use a setting other than Dragon Earth I'd recommend changing a few things. The ship itself was targetted by the spell. Or the Grey Swan was sailing near, to , or from a port city that was struck. Use your imagination. Same deal applies as to how the log of the Grey Swan was later recovered, then lost again.

Enjoy.

(Now you know where I got one idea. )

*The Great Desecration was the dweomer that rendered the Vietnamese city of Hue and the area around it, in a word, undead. The effects later spread to take in the Republic of Vietnam and surrounding waters and lands. The spell also affected scattered areas around the world. While the lich who cast it was destroyed in 1980 the effects of the spell remain, and the blighted land is only slowly being reclaimed.

 

[Bibliophile]

I'll not be seeing Gencon this year for two reasons:

To start with, I'm an undergraduate university student.

And the second reason is that I'm currently in Poland, visiting family. Yay for good food!! But bad for Gencon -_- So even if I had the money to go, I'm still over here (not that I'm not enjoying it here...)

 

[Soel]

Really nice of you to do this, Arwink!

I've been really short on finances, and could not afford to take the time off to go to Gencon. Maybe next year...

 

[eris404]

Hey Clockwork Golem people!

Can I hijack this thread to ask if you guys are going to make more of those Magic Merchants books? I really like those.

 

[arwink]

Hey Clockwork Golem people!

Can I hijack this thread to ask if you guys are going to make more of those Magic Merchants books? I really like those.

The draft of Magic Merchants 5 is about half-written, and I've got plans for another two or three after that. I know Adam (aka Capellan) has expressed an interest in writing one somewhere along the line, but he tends to fit his CGW work in around other commitments (like full-time work) and has another couple of products he wants to get out of the way first.

The Magic Merchants have proven the most time-intensive products to write, especially as they start catering to higher-level characters, so they come out a little slower than the others. Cross-checking item prerequisites against the spell-list of the merchant eats up a lot of time, but I always feel lazy when I use the excuse "They order them in from a nearby craftsman/temple/wizard" if it's not entirely in keeping with the merchants concept.

 

[guedo79]

Well, you could try Amtrak when you have more cash. A friend who is at Gen Con took the train. He said it would take him four hours, compared with six hours of driving from Chicago.

Yeah but a trip from Albany, NY to Indy would take about 20 hours. I don't know if I'd make it out sane not to mention live through the trip back.

 

[dunbruha]

Why am I not going?

I would have to miss the 3 games I am involved in. The last time I missed a session, the rest of the party was killed and my character was left to wander around by himself...

Are you being left behind while the rest of the board goes to Gencon? Are you tired of hearing folks talk about the great swag they claimed at the dealers hall in the aftermath of the show? Do you have a tiny pang of jealousy every time someone mentions that they're off?

If so, post here and let us know why you're not at Gencon this year and I'll give you a free PDF of your choice from Clockwork Golem's backcatalogue. It may not be the same as bags full of swag, but maybe it can help take the sting out of your Gencon-less weekend

Claiming your free PDF is a three-step process:

1) Post your tale of woe on the thread, letting the world know why you can't make it to the biggest gaming event in the world this year.

2) Head over to the Clockwork Golem Workshop page at RPGnow and pick one of the PDF's discounted as part of our Can't Go to Gencon sale (for the record, that's any PDF we've published except our two most recent releases, Rise of the Ghouls and Born of the Sahdows)

3) E-mail me at Peter@clockworkgolem.com with your choice, and I'll send you a download link.

This offer ends with the close of the convention and the return of the rampaging hordes.