Hi all!
1) I didn't know the website had crashed. The guy who runs it for me does it for free, so I have difficulty complaining. The link works for me though:
http://www.parentsbasementgames.com
Check out this page for research:
http://www.parentsbasementgames.com/map.html
2) the PDF should still be for sale on RPGnow.com, only it's a hobby compnay so we're in that backwater category of RPGnow.com and I'm still unclear myself on where our website it is. If y'all are really interested, I'll put it up on ENWorld. I'm halfway to doing that already, but after losing $1,500 on the book, I kind of lost steam.
3) Paper copies are available from me directly. $29 + shipping. You can also find these on RPGmall.com if they haven't burned them in gleeful abandon.
4) I'm moving ML to Iron Heroes since IH supports the lowish magic nature of ML. The ML game I'm running now has more magic than a typical IH game though. I'll post my first adventure up for support and we'll see how things go from there.
5) Technically, we're a two man company. Only Dr. Kulander decided to become the most overeducated man in gaming and got his law degree. He is one geophysicist you don't want to tangle with! I keep swinging back and forth between officially closing doors and talking to Monte Cook about getting permission to pubish IH modules. For reference, these would be no graphics, 5 encounter adventures, with the style and layout that Parent's Basement Games has become known for. That said, the writing rocks as usual and the adventures have been playtested.
6) Why I would reccomend this book:
I designed ML with several goals in mind.
* It should lead powergamers to roleplay
* The players should be in control of the plot
* It should be easily accessible so that even your most bored player can follow what's going on.
How I did this:
* I made 1st level feats that were deliberately overpowered and attached them to nations. This encourages characters to adopt an archeytpe. Everything in ML reinforces these archetypes. Prestige classes, spells, magic items, holidays. Everything. The result is that your most powergaming player will be able to quickly pick up on roleplay hooks. There's even a nation that encourges you to know nothing about the setting and be a sociopathic warrior guy. So the player can legitimately ask questions in game, kill stuff, and still be roleplaying.
* We have the best Chapter 14 in gaming. In Chapter 14 you'll see the Campaign Tracker, which moves as time progresses and the players level. The only way to save the kingdom is to move it back. There are many ways to do that, peaceful diplomacy, finding relics, building castles, killing orc warlords, and others. It's up to the players to decide which route they want to persue. If they don't do any of them, the Campaign Tracker moves anyway and the orcs move in closer. Yikes!
* The cultures are pretty much what you'd expect to find in a swords-and-castles setting. There are some twists though, the Bright Elves have a dark past and the gnomes got themselves obliterated (kids, never do that!) There's also a huge empire, so if the PC decides he wants to be King of the Mango people, you can fit that in as a very, very, very, very distant place within the Empire. There are major gods, but there are hundreds and hundreds of minor "cult" gods. If the party cleric doesn't like what he sees, he can walk the past of the shunned cult priest, but he gets to make his own diety. Want to follow Ronson, God of Apathy? You can work that in, no trouble.
Anyway, I hope you like the book!
