Gift Guide 2021

Happy holidays everyone! As is customary this time of year, I have put together a list if things that I think might be good for the ICE fan or tabletop roleplaying game fan in your life.

HARP Garden of Rain

Garden of Rain is designed as a HARP Fantasy adventure module for 4 or more characters of 5th or 6th level. It is also statted for Rolemaster Classic and Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying.

The community of Vallegarde, a once prosperous village in a remote mountain valley, is beset by freak rainstorms that threaten to drown all its inhabitants in an unstoppable flood. Arriving in the nick of time, daring adventurers have the chance to save the villagers from watery death and win a temporary reprieve. Unravelling the mystery behind the unceasing rains and thwarting the supernatural foes of Vallegarde will be a test of wits, martial prowess and magic for true heroes.

Garden of Rain may be used as a standalone adventure module to slot into the GM’s existing campaign world.

HARP Garden of Rain is available now as a pdf and will be available in print very soon.

Buy it now

Lord of the Rings You Shall Not Pass Adult Ugly Sweater

I don’t know why they refer to it as an ‘ugly’ sweater. I think it’s beautiful. What better way to celebrate the holiday season than with this wonderful Tolkien inspired sweater.

You can also get another Lord of the Rings jumper called ‘Mordor’ but I would say that one is less festive than this Moria version.

Buy it now

Dice jail for misbehaving dice

As anyone who has ever gamed with me will tell you, I have the worst luck when it comes to rolling dice. I don’t know what I did to anger the dice gods, but they take every opportunity to smite me. If I put every misbehaving dice into a dice jail, I would very soon have no dice at all. Even so… These are beautiful and I want them.

These dice jails come in a variety of different styles and sizes and I think they’re just swell!

Buy it now

Dice stocking filled with goodies

I added this dice stocking to the list when I thought it was just a really nice stocking for fans of dice and tabletop roleplaying games. On closer inspection though, it will also contain a minimum 2 sets of dice, a method of storage and lots of other goodies.

A great gift for people who don’t have a stocking and don’t have any ideas what to put in a stocking.

Buy it now

HARP Bestiary

Ready your weapons and your spells to battle the fiends, dangerous and diabolical, described in this tome. Learn of the mundane and supernatural perils that prowl the wildernesses of the world, of the mighty denizens of the seas and oceans, and of the winged beasts soaring on the winds above.

Created for HARP Fantasy, HARP Bestiary contains descriptions, stats and adventure notes for 79 animals, 56 monsters, 4 weres, 14 dragons, 19 undead, 24 elementals, 26 demons and new talents, spells and overlays to create your own monsters.

HARP Bestiary is available now as a pdf and will be available very soon in print.

Buy it now
HARP Bestiary cover

Recipes from the world of Tolkien

Ever wondered what Lembas Bread, Cram, or Beorn’s Honey Cakes might taste like?

From Crickhollow Apple Loaf, Pippin’s Minas Tirith Lunch, and Brandywine Fish Pie to Dwarven Spiced Pickled Beetroot, Westfarthing Fairings, and Beorn’s Twice-Baked Cakes, Recipes from the World of Tolkien includes over 75 mouth-watering recipes that will take you on a journey through Middle-earth, delivering a treat for your taste buds and your imagination.

This collection of delicious recipes also features stunning illustrations and artwork throughout, as well as short feature essays that explore the compelling role of food in Tolkien’s works. This is the perfect, must-have addition to any Tolkien fan’s bookshelf.

It’s hard to tell how good this book is without owning it myself, but I love the idea of it.

Buy it now

Fantasy Grounds

Fantasy Grounds is just an absolutely brilliant way of playing Rolemaster Classic with friends who can’t all be around a table. This Virtual Table Top takes care of all elements of tabletop gaming, is easy to use, and has a very active development team regularly bringing out updates, improvements and new add ons.

Buy it now
ERA for Rolemaster Arms Law for Rolemaster Classic esupport database

ERA for Rolemaster RMFRP Arms Law (2003)

This product is an add-on feature package for ERA for Rolemaster.

With ERA you can create Rolemaster characters and then manage their adventures. Players can also monitor their characters from their mobile devices as the action progresses. But no adventure is complete without some gritty combat. Blows must be dealt, and damage resolved. In the free base ERA product you will find 2 sample weapons and 3 critical tables.

This feature package adds all attack and critical tables in RMFRP Arms Law (2003). Arm your characters with weapons from the sling to the battle axe, and your monsters with 11 different natural attacks. Or just go bare handed with martial arts strikes or throws. For increased damage, deal some of Rolemaster’s acclaimed criticals.

Buy it now

Hobbit Door Wreaths

Coming in a range of colours and designs, these door wreaths could be used all year round. Evoking the idea of the round doors on hobbit holes seen in the recent Tolkien inspired movies, these would be a great gift for any Middle Earth Role Playing or general Tolkien fans.

Buy it now

Dice set bath bombs

This site has a wide selection of different dice shaped bath bombs. The even cooler thing? They come with dice inside!

I won’t be held responsible for any injuries that may occur by people forgetting that there are now dice in the bath and sitting on them. Despite the obvious risks though, they’re great fun for any dice or gaming fans and they even come in D10s!

Buy it now

Please don’t kill my character T-shirt

This just seems like something that every Rolemaster player should own.

It comes in a range of different colours and sizes and I’m almost certain will have absolutely no affect on any GMs…It looks cool though.

Buy it now

Director’s Briefing – November 2021

Welcome

To the one hundred-and-twenty-fourth Briefing and tenth scheduled Briefing of 2021. I hope that you and yours are staying well.

Terry Amthor RIP

Terry’s sister, Tamara, has been in touch. Terry’s online obituary is at https://obituaries.virginiacremate.com/obituaries/charlottesville-va/terry-amthor-10382639.  Terry did not want a memorial service, so Tamara is encouraging friends and fans to post either on the obituary page or on Terry’s Facebook page.

Dragonmeet 2021

All being well, we will be attending Dragonmeet on the 4th December at the Novotel Hammersmith. Full details of the convention can be found at www.dragonmeet.co.uk

If you are planning on running a Rolemaster, HARP, Shadow World or Spacemaster or any other ICE game, please let Colin know. If you are attending, please drop by our stand for a chat.

HARP

Nick Morawitz has made vast progress on the layout of HARP Beyond the Veil such that it requires only a few tiny touchups before it can be published. He has also made good progress on HARP Subterfuge.

I have, however, cruelly interrupted him to return to the errata fixes on HARP Bestiary and the creation of new print masters. It is going to be a close run thing on whether we can get HARP Bestiary approved by Lightning Source and copies ready for Dragonmeet. We will also attempt to race HARP Garden of Rain to print for Dragonmeet.

RMU

More artwork has arrived for RMU Spell Law and Colin has been quietly commissioning artwork for RMU Treasure Law. I am stealthily working my way through RMU Creature Law.

Until next time

Please stay safe.

Best wishes,

Nicholas

Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd

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Director’s Briefing – October 2021

Welcome

To the one hundred-and-twenty-third Briefing and ninth scheduled Briefing of 2021. I hope that you and yours are staying well.

Terry Amthor RIP

As you have undoubtedly heard, Terry Amthor has passed away. I still cannot really believe that we have lost him. It feels like we have lost our very own Tolkien, but a Tolkien whom we all knew as a friend, not just as a creative genius.

Terry lives on in his work, through his contributions to Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Middle-Earth, and, most especially, in his most glorious creation Shadow World.

Shadow World

I know many of you have been wondering what will happen to Shadow World. Terry’s Estate have been in contact and are seeking to locate all of his manuscripts for us. We hope that their search will be successful.

We will continue to publish new Shadow World modules from other carefully selected writers, with Priest-King of Shade scheduled to be first. We will support Shadow World in both RMU and HARP.

HARP

Speaking of HARP, the HARP Garden of Rain adventure module was released at the start of October. Although it is formally named as part of the HARP line, it is statted for RM Classic and RMSS/FRP. We hope that you will find it a useful addition to your collection of ready to run adventures. If you find any errors, please let us know and we will remedy as part of the creation of the print masters.

We are expecting to create the print masters for HARP Bestiary shortly. Nick Morawitz has been undertaking a layout pass on HARP Beyond the Veil and has taken over the layout work on HARP Subterfuge.

RMU

I am back on the case of RMU Creature Law.

Until next time

Please stay safe.

Best wishes,

Nicholas

Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd

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Iron Crown Enterprises Announcement

To all in the ICE family

It is with the greatest sadness that we must inform you that the incomparable Terry Amthor has died. We extend our most heartfelt condolences to his sister Tamara, his family and his friends.

The cause and circumstances of his death are still under investigation, so we cannot provide any details on this and will defer to his family on what they choose to disclose in due course.

Terry was a founder member of the original ICE and a cocreator of Rolemaster and Spacemaster, writing and contributing to many of its most iconic products, and to some of the most exceptional 1st edition Middle-earth modules. Most of all, he has shaped our imaginations with his masterful Shadow World epic fantasy setting. He continued to develop Kulthea through his own Eidolon Studio company, before joining forces with Guild Companion Publications to create new sourcebooks and adventures bringing ever more of Shadow World to life, and working as our layout guru for most of our other products.  

Author, designer, world builder, and friend, Terry’s genius has enriched our lives for decades. His creations will continue to inspire us all for years to come.

Rest in peace, Terry.

Nicholas, Colin, John and Thom

HARP Garden of Rain is out now!

Iron Crown Enterprises are thrilled to announce the release of HARP Garden of Rain for High Adventure Role Playing (HARP).

This is a BRAND NEW adventure for the HARP Fantasy system and is designed for 4 or more characters of 5th or 6th level. It is also statted for Rolemaster Classic and Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying.

It is available now exclusively from DrivethruRPG for an introductory price of just $10 instead of the usual price of $12.

Once we’ve caught all thoughs pesky errata in the pdf, we’ll then be making it available in print.

Buy it now

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Director’s Briefing – September 2021

Welcome

To the one hundred-and-twenty-second Briefing and eighth scheduled Briefing of 2021. I hope that you and yours are staying well.

Apologies for August

Apologies for the absence of an August Briefing. I finally managed to have a break at the start of August and exhaustion caught up with me hard. A moral – I need to ensure that I get my leave more regularly – I will blame the pandemic for making that very difficult in the past two years or so. Alas, I returned to various work crises and by the time they were under control, it was too late for the briefing to be useful. Back to normal now.

HARP

Brad sent in the additional stats for the NPCs and these have now been included in the HARP Garden of Rain pdf. We are currently reworking the key of one of the maps but once that is done, we will release the pdf version.

RMU

The artwork for RMU Arms & Character Law and RMU Spell Law has continued to arrive. Additional artwork has been commissioned for RMU Treasure Law.

Until next time

Please stay safe.

Best wishes,

Nicholas

Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd

CTMTTYAC Competition

Welcome to the Colin The Marketing Troll’s Ten Year Anniversary Competition (CTMTTYAC) – I had ten years to think of a title for this, I really should have done better.

The competition

Throughout September I will be hiding secret codes around ICE’s various platforms and outlets. When you find a secret code, submit it using the form at the bottom of this page. At the beginning of October I will then collate all the entries (each code is a separate entry so the more you find the greater your chances of winning) and pick winners.

Each secret code will start with CTMT and be followed by four numbers (ie CTMT-1234). We will release a new secret code each day (so there will be 30 codes overall). They will be hidden across all ICE platforms and outlets including: Emails, ICE Facebook page, Rolemaster Facebook page, HARP Facebook page, Spacemaster Facebook page, ICE Twitter, Discord, ICE forum and of course the ICE website (only the ironcrown.co.uk site). Some will be better hidden than others but they will all stay in place from the day they are released until the end of the month (ie you don’t have to find them on the day they come out).

In short – Keep an eye on pretty much everything we do in September and if you see a code, submit it through the form below.

The prizes

1st prize – $30 voucher for DrivethruRPG
2nd prize – $25 voucher for DrivethruRPG
3rd prize – $20 voucher for DrivethruRPG
4th prize – $15 voucher for DrivethruRPG
5th prize – $10 voucher for DrivethruRPG

It would be great if you spent these vouchers on ICE products, but we’re not going to force you.

This competition is now closed. Thanks to everyone who took part. We hope you enjoyed it.

Terms and conditions

We want everyone to take part and enjoy this competition so we will only allow one prize per person. If you’re drawn as the winner of 1st prize AND 2nd prize, you will only get first prize and redraw 2nd. We hope you think this is fair.

Incorrect codes and duplicate codes (the same code submitted from the same email address) will be removed before drawing winners.

If I feel that a player is attempting to cheat the system I will remove all their entries at my own discretion

10 years with Iron Crown Enterprises

What a difference 3652 days make!

Can you remember what you were doing 10 years ago? I can. Roughly a decade ago I (Colin the marketing troll) was sat on a park bench in the quietest spot I could find trying to convince a man that I had never met, that I was the right person to run the marketing for his company. I’m sure you will have guessed that the man on the end of the phone was none other than ICE Company Director Nicholas Caldwell and (spoilers) I got the job.

Ten years on and a lot has changed for me and for ICE. I’ve made some mistakes, learned an awful lot and got more involved in all areas of ICE than I had ever imagined. For those of you that don’t know, I was an author on the recently released HARP Bestiary, I’m working on the Cyradon source book and adventures, I have taken on the rather grandiose title of ‘Art Director’ and have taken over the management of licensing ICE IP to 3rd parties. All in addition to my normal marketing troll work. What started off as a small job to gain experience and earn some extra money quickly became a passion project that I enjoy much more than anything else I do. I love the ICE team. I love the games and the projects we’re working on. But the thing I love most is the fans.

Over the past ten years I have moderated your chats like a creepy big brother, talked to a number of you about a variety of things and even played games with some of you. You’re a great group of people and it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you over these last ten years and I hope that we’ll all get to know each other better in future.

I hope you think that I have been a net positive for the games you love and the company that produces them and I’ll do my best to continue to help out in any way I can.

As a thank you for all your support over these ten years and to celebrate this amazing milestone, I have put together a little competition to give five lucky ICE fans the chance to win one of 5 DrivethruRPG vouchers ranging from $30 to $10.

You can find out all the details on the Colin The Marketing Troll’s Ten Year Anniversary Competition (CTMTTYAC) page which will go live tomorrow (and will be linked to here, on social media and just about everywhere else I can think of). Tell your friends, family, followers and even people that you’re not overly fond of. I’ve been toying with the idea for this competition for the best part of a year so I’m hoping a lot of people take part and that everyone enjoys it.

Once again I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your support, encouragement and just generally being lovely people over the past decade. Thanks to the ICE team, especially to Nicholas for taking a chance on me all those years ago. I hope I didn’t disappoint.

Here’s to the next ten years!

Love and hugs
Colin the marketing troll

7 alternative guilds for your fantasy tabletop RPG

Guilds and groups are a great tool in tabletop gaming. They could offer work to the party, they may be part of some political intrigue in the local area or might (for whatever reason) be opposed to the party’s activities. Whatever their role in the story, there are some go to guilds that are a common trope in fantasy tabletop roleplaying games. To offer some variety, here are a few ‘alternative’ guilds and groups that you might want to consider.

The beggars guild

The beggars guild is a philanthropic organisation that works to help people who have fallen on bad times by providing food and shelter for anyone who needs it. The guild is not particularly popular with actual beggars as they encourage local people to donate to the guild rather than individuals so that they can ensure that any money is spent on food, housing and safety for everyone who needs it.

Some people have suggested that certain branches of the beggars guild are up to no good, taking the money for themselves or forcing the beggars to work (or perform other, more troubling acts) for their food and shelter.

Argaton Academy Alumni Association

Argaton Academy is one of the most prestigious schools in existence. By sending their children to the academy the rich and powerful ensure not only that they receive the best education possible, but also that they form long-lasting relationships with others who will one day become very rich and powerful.

The Alumni Association ensures that everyone who has ever attended Argaton keeps in touch through numerous events and circulars. Some say that the Alumni Association is an attempt by the Academy to constantly drum up new funds for the Academy Head’s lavish lifestyle, but no one can deny the Academy’s impact in ensuring peace due to the fact that all rulers and their children have attended the great school.

The pilgrims of the burning flame

Deep in the old forest lies a holy flame that is said to have burned since time immemorial. The church of the burning flame have set up their home surrounding the flame. Their lives revolve around the worship of the flame and all that it represents. A special few are chosen to be members of the elite band known as the pilgrims of the burning flame. Each pilgrim is tasked with taking an anointed candle, lighting it from the flame and taking it out into the world to spread the word of the church of the burning flame.

Unfortunately due to weather and the size of the old forest, not one pilgrim is yet to reach anyone else to spread the word. Each time the flame goes out and each time they trudge back to the flame feeling unworthy.

The glutton club

The beginnings of the glutton club are unknown. It is less an organised club and more a lifestyle. Small groups of people (usually wealthy and usually men) make it their life’s work to try and eat every creature that graces the planet. Great acclaim is given to the member that brings the most exotic meat to the feast.

A number of members of the glutton club have been lost as they have tried to capture exotic (and dangerous animals) for their feast. Because of this most members will employ more expendable people to seek out, kill and butcher exotic animals.

The society for the prevention of cruelty

This group is a conglomeration of a number of smaller groups including the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, the society for the prevention of cruelty to plants and the society for the prevention of cruelty to children. The group is now against cruelty altogether, whoever or whatever it is aimed at.

The group may sound like a joke, but they’ve achieved a great many things since the group’s creation. They will often prevent the killing or capturing of magical creatures, protect lands and creatures against encroachments from towns and cities and have been instrumental in overthrowing any governments that are deemed to be ‘cruel’.

The wild farmer’s guild

Wild farmers do not believe in fencing creatures or plants in. Instead they forage for plants in the wild and will hunt creatures in their natural habitats. They claim that this gives their produce a more natural, wholesome taste.

In practice the guild applies pressure on governments to place taxes on more conventional farmers for using land that the guild claim could be put to better use. They are also not above causing problems for ‘conventional’ farmers that live and work in their areas.

The housewives’ guild

There are many who say that this guild does not exist, that it is an urban legend and nothing more. There are certainly no documented cases of anyone ever admitting to being a member of the group. Legend has it that the guild’s members secretly train in magic and unarmed combat to protect any women who require it.

There are no official rules of membership or political aims. There’s no hierarchy and no leadership. It is just understood by all that sometimes things have to change for the safety and continued happiness of an individual or of the group. The means through which they achieve this range from gentle political pressure to sudden disappearances of ‘problematic characters’.