Welcome
To the one hundred-and-fiftieth Briefing and first scheduled Briefing of 2024, and a very happy and healthy new year to all of you.
My Christmas reading was SuperIntelligence (by Nick Bostrom, an insightful book on the perils of future artificial intelligence and how we might avoid truly bad outcomes for our species), a complete collection of the original Conan The Barbarian stories by Robert E Howard (classic but also of their writer’s era), and Gardens of the Moon (by Steven Erikson, the first of the Malazan: Book of the Fallen sequence). I have a suspicion that I will be reading the Malazan books for some time.
A Retrospective on 2023
For RMU, Core Law made it into print in both softcover and hardcover. RMU Spell Law appeared in pdf and debuted in print at Gen Con. Both are now Platinum sellers on DriveThruRPG – thank you to everyone who has purchased copies. As 2023 neared its end, RMU Treasure Law returned to my desk for final checking. The artwork for RMU Creature Law (both volumes) was appearing across the year.
In terms of HARP and HARP SF, HARP Subterfuge was published in softcover and hardcover. I edited Dave Martin’s Banecroft: The Mage’s Tale and his HARP SF The Corporate Worlds manuscripts.
In terms of software, ERA for Rolemaster received multiple updates as well as its RMU Spell Law dataset. ERA RMU Treasure Law should release almost in tandem with RMU Treasure Law. The full revision of AutoHARP is well underway. There have been a couple of new module releases for Fantasy Grounds.
In terns of conventions, we had an effective presence at both Dragonmeet and Gen Con, and both were successful events for ICE.
2024
Looking to our hopes for 2024 in terms of new products.
In RMU, the next big thing will be the release of RMU Treasure Law in pdf. I completed my final review pass over Christmas (that was my major Christmas reading) and what’s left to do is the inevitable to’ing and fro’ing as we all double-check that the final changes actually took effect and that the art will behave itself in print. Expect the pdf release next month. RMU Creature Law I is already in an advanced layout, but I am expecting some more tweaking and adjustments within the trio of Jonathan, Aaron and Nick, before they invoke me for my final review pass. Aaron and Joeri are deep in volume 2 of Creature Law, making additional text and rules adjustments. I have a full draft of Character Companion from Jonathan, biding its time for a proper editing review.
In HARP and HARP SF, the first in the queue for a full editing pass will be HARP Steampunk, and the only question is whether I will be editing it first or undertaking the review pass on Creature Law. Joel Lovell is determined to bring HARP SF Poseidon Gambit to completion so that it can finally be published this year. Dave Martin is busy making requested changes to HARP SF The Corporate Worlds.
I have indicated previously that we were likely to wish to dual-stat all future adventure modules. I will confirm that all future fantasy adventure modules will be explicitly for HARP and RMU. It makes sense to support both systems this way and gives economies of scale for adventures and settings. So, Dave Martin’s Banecroft: The Mage’s Tale will be receiving RMU stats while Colin commissions its artwork and cartography. Brad White is still working on Dark Harvest Dark Hunt and hopes to submit it with both HARP and RMU stats in the second half of the year.
Cyradon wlll definitely form part of the dual HARP-RMU setting support so I am expecting to spend some time working with Colin on how to smooth some of the setting-specific mechanics to make it easier for it to be used with both HARP and RMU out of the box. The Cyradon relaunch is a relatively big project, however, as we have the setting book and five adventure modules (already written) to restat and progress through to publication-ready status. We won’t release any until most are publication-ready at least to pdf status, so this will remain a behind the scenes project for now.
I am very mindful of Shadow World as well, whether this is in terms of doing justice to Emer IV or to Priest-King of Shade and Night of the Third Moon. With the first two RMU core rulebooks fully published and the next two safely on their way, the future context for Shadow World is now a different one. Various options are being considered.
On software, we can expect ERA for Rolemaster to continue its unrivalled support for RMU and all indeed earlier editions of Rolemaster. I am hopeful that the completely revamped AutoHARP will be releasable in the next couple of months. Our support for Virtual Tabletops will expand from Fantasy Grounds to Roll20 (at least for RMU) and we hope also to see a Foundry equivalent.
ICE will be present at Gen Con 2024 and I expect that at least one RMU book will debut in printed form at Gen Con. We will also be attending Dragonmeet (wherever it is) and perhaps a new product will be released there.
Another busy year beckons.
Until next time
Please stay safe and keep gaming.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
