Welcome
To the one hundred-and-fifty-seventh Briefing and eighth scheduled Briefing of 2024.
Gen Con 2024
The Rolemaster restock of Core Law and Spell Law copies arrived in time for Aaron. Equally happily, a batch of Rolemaster Treasure Law softcover books also arrived in time for Aaron’s road trip to Gen Con. All of the Treasure Law copies were sold by day 2. After-action reports still coming in from GMs and booth staff, but all reports suggest a really successful Gen Con for all involved. Thank you to Aaron, Monte and Jonathan for heavy duty booth manning and GMing, to our GMs and players, and to Pointy Hat Games for allowing us to share the booth again this year.
We hope to be back next year for Gen Con 2025.
Rolemaster
I was away for a few days in late July and returned to find the proof copy of the Rolemaster Treasure Law hardcover had arrived. All good with the proof copy. I put both the hardcover and softcover versions on general release at DriveThru a couple of days after Gen Con. I also set up a pair of discount coupons so that those who were early adopters of the pdf version could purchase either the softcover or hardcover at a reduced price, which would be less than the price of the pdf+print bundles. It’s only fair for customers who have helped us by diving into the pdf early and helping to make the print copes better through their feedback. I was incredibly pleased to see that 70% of Treasure Law pdf purchasers signed up to receive DriveThru emails and so will have received the coupons. If you didn’t receive an email, please ask Colin very nicely for the codes. I have deliberately not put any expiry date on the coupons and they can be redeemed multiple times.
Software – Roll20 for Rolemaster
Brett Nash is not quite ready to declare himself complete on the Roll20 datasets for both RMU Core Law and RMU Spell Law. As all software engineers know, the last niggles can be the most annoying, but it is also easier to cure them prior to general release. We will be announcing when they are available.
HARP and Adventures
There was an embarrassed cough from Phil Masters that he had missed including a critical table in the manuscript for HARP Steampunk. This has been fixed and I am patiently waiting to see the commissioned artwork for Steampunk. Phil has also helpfully posted a preview scenario for Steampunk to whet your appetite.
Further ahead in the artwork process is Banecroft: The Mage’s Tale. All the cartography for Banecroft is now complete. The interior and cover artwork is being commissioned. Some Rolemaster stat work still needs to be completed so that the module is fully dual-statted for HARP and RMU. Banecroft is almost certainly our next release.
Cyradon
As you may remember, Colin has taken on the epic task of bringing Cyradon back to life and into full alignment with the current HARP rules set. We have decided to dual-stat Cyradon for both HARP and RMU. Obviously we have dual-statted products before and for adventure modules, it is relatively straightforward – create versions of NPCs, copy equivalent monsters from HARP Bestiary and RMU Creature Law (or if need be, create a monster if it does not exist in one of those weighty tomes) and go through the main text seeking out any mechanics references and ensuring that both systems are correctly covered.
The main Cyradon setting book is not so easy. It is in four parts – the first part sets up the world but chapters on religion and magic naturally contain mechanics references. The second part describes the lands of Cyradon which is mechanics-free until the monster chapter which contains Cyradon-specific creatures. The third part is character creation so is the most mechanics heavy part of the text. The final part covers adventuring in Cyradon so has more stat blocks.
One way of dealing with this would be to separate out mechanics and create a system-neutral base book and then have a HARP system book and a RMU system book. Given the nature of the text, this would be messy and lead to an unsatisfactory outcome. A second way would be to bite the bullet and have dual stat blocking throughout and have a HARP character creation section and a distinct RMU character creation section. A third way is to have a HARP version of the Cyradon setting book and a RMU version. Currently I am leaning towards the third way as I undertake my first editing pass. The goal of this first editing pass is copy-editing on system-free text, highlighting any areas where optional professions etc from the newer HARP books could be applicable, and flagging places where RMU mechanics will be needed. Once I have completed the pass, I expect to have reached a firm view on how best to proceed with Cyradon. And yes, this process is also informing how we might approach the return of Shadow World (which has not been forgotten at all and will return).
Until next time
More updates on all these topics in future Briefings. Stay safe and keep gaming.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
