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Welcome
To the seventy-second Briefing and the fifth scheduled Briefing of 2017.
ICE at GenCon 2017
Another month closer to GenCon. Colin is gathering information on who is available to assist on the stand, who will be running games, and so forth. We will be determining how many copies of which products we need printed and organising with Pointy Hat Games the sanest way of getting the books to GenCon. Lots and lots of details to sort out.
HARP
We made the very minor corrections to HARP Fantasy and the updated pdf has been uploaded. If you purchased the pdf and have not downloaded the update, please do so. We have also updated the print masters, and HARP Fantasy is now available again in softcover and hardcover. (Again, for the avoidance of doubt, none of the changes are significant – it is a handful of numbers in the monsters chapter and the category heading in the master skill table – so if you already own a printed softcover or hardcover of HARP Fantasy, you do not need to buy another copy unless you actually need another copy.)
The print masters for HARP Folkways arrived and both Terry and I can report that we are very happy with how they turned out. HARP Folkways is now available on OneBookShelf in pdf, softcover, and hardcover.
Buy HARP Folkways now >>
On HARP Bestiary, it is a three-writer race as to whether John, Colin or I will finish first. John has been making headway on statting the Demons. Colin could snatch victory at any point where there is a pause in GenCon preparations as he is down to double-checking his stats, and I’m a third of the way through totalling up skill bonuses on Elementals. Over the next week or so, you will find me on the Cambridge-Ipswich trains with the Elemental chapter open in Word and a stat array spreadsheet open in Excel on my tablet at the same time and a printout of the master skill table in my other hand.
Some time ago, we put out a call for proposals on various new HARP projects. I received a really strong proposal for HARP Subterfuge and am currently discussing it with the prospective author.
AutoHARP for HARP
Version 2.2 of AutoHARP Architect has been released so if you already own a copy of this software, please update at your earliest convenience. There will be a version 2.3 of AutoHARP and there will be a AutoHARP Folkways dataset, released with the 2.3 edition.
Rolemaster
Jonathan and Joeri are still crunching numbers on Creature Law. Obviously the second race is my hand calculations on 50 monster blocks for HARP Bestiary versus Jonathan’s mastery of the spreadsheet on hundreds of different monsters.
Shadow World
Terry is pushing himself extremely hard to get two new products ready for GenCon 2017. Haalkitaine is still first on his list, with an enhanced version of Jaiman being pulled forward to be the second targeted product.
Until next time
Now where was I? Climbing is Ag and SD, Chi Defense is …
The next scheduled Briefing will be in June 2017.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
Iron Crown Enterprises at Gen Con
In case you (somehow) managed to miss it: IRON CROWN ENTERPRISES ARE GOING TO GENCON!
We’ve been away for many years, but this year ICE is heading to GenCon 50. We will be sharing a stand with Pointy Hat Games (one of whose principals is Aaron Smalley who worked on Dun Cru and City of Archendurn) and will be selling our wares, talking to fans and encouraging everyone to get involved with ICE through its games, website and forum.
Due to a number of our senior management team being unavailable for the event, we will be relying heavily on members of The Order of the Iron Crown and other volunteers at the convention while we manage things from this side of the pond.
As our first GenCon in a long time, we will be ‘testing the water’ a little bit as to what is involved, what is required and how to make the most of it. While we’ve learned a lot from the past few years of attending Dragonmeet in London, GenCon is a different kettle of fish and we’re really excited to be taking on this new challenge.
So what’s next? In short: A lot of hard work. We’ll be sorting the stand, the products, the legalities as well as organising volunteers, promoting our attendance and encouraging people to come and see us.
What can you do to help? Tell everyone that will listen that ICE will be at GenCon 50 and encourage them to come and see us at the stand. If you’re attending GenCon yourself, feel free to let us know on THIS FORUM THREAD. If you ARE attending and want to run an ICE game or help out on the stand, feel free to GET IN TOUCH.
We’re really excited about once again running a stall at GenCon, re-engaging with fans from the past and gaining new followers. None of this would have been possible without you, our stalwart fans who have been with us through thick and thin. Join us on this next adventure and cry “Long live the Iron Crown!”
Creature modules for ERA available now!
Continuing the success of the brilliant Electronic Roleplaying Assistant (ERA), Iron Crown Enterprises are pleased to announced the release of two new modules for the amazing e-support product: ERA for Rolemaster RMC Creatures and ERA for Rolemaster RMFRP Creatures!
You can get these new modules from RPGNow for just $9.95 by following the links below:
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMC Creatures >>
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMFRP Creatures>>
Creature Modules
With the RMC Creatures package for ERA, you get 451 creature templates to choose from in your adventures. In the RMFRP package, you get 778 creature templates to choose from.
The RMC Creature module brings you information on movement, attacks, defenses and critical resolution for each and every entry in RMC Creatures and Treasures, while the RMFRP module brings you the same from the much loved RMFRP Creatures and Monsters
Dragons can be sent sweeping down to breath fire, and killer rabbits can be added to smile upon the party. Plants, demons, unicorns, and more, all included in these modules!
Electronic Roleplaying Assistant
This module is an add-on feature package for ERA for Rolemaster which is available for free from RPGNow.
ERA allows players to create their characters using a step by step wizard, level them up and configure all details in terms of stats, skills and special abilities. These characters can then be added to a running campaign in the adventuring module from which the game master can control all aspects of the game including resolving maneuvers, resistances, resting, and of course, spell casting and combat.
Try ERA for free >>
Love ERA? Check out our complete range of addition modules:
Rolemaster Classic
Character Law
Spell Law
Arms Law
Armory
Shadow World Module
Combat Companion
Rolemaster Companion I
Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing
Core and Character Law
Spell Law
Arms Law
The Armory
Shadow World Module
Combat Companion
Mentalism Companion
Essence Companion
Channeling Companion
Arcane Companion
Director’s Briefing – April 2017
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Welcome
To the seventy-first Briefing and the fourth scheduled Briefing of 2017. Much news and two more software datasets to announce.
ICE at GenCon 2017
ICE will be present at GenCon 50. I will say that again, ICE will be at GenCon 50 in Indianapolis in August.
We (*) will be sharing a booth with Pointy Hat Games, one of whose principals is Aaron Smalley , who has freelanced for us in the past (City of Archendurn, Dun Cru), is working on a project for us at the moment (No Quarter under the Crown), and is frequently on the ICE forums. Pointy Hat Games will be taking point for us on the ground at the convention. Colin will be masterminding various parts of the logistics and support.
Some of you will already have been contacted by Colin regarding GenCon. We are looking for volunteers to help with booth staffing and to run games. There will be prize support for GMs and players. Expect lots of news from Colin about GenCon and preparations from now onwards.
(*) is the corporate “we”. Unfortunately GenCon 50 is sufficiently late in August that it clashes with university clearing in the UK. I am expected to be available to make decisions on whether prospective students who did not apply to the University of Suffolk originally should be offered a place on our degree programmes. Hopefully I will get to GenCon 2018.
HARP
One of our customers reported that the HARP Fantasy printed book that he had just received did not match his pdf version and seemed to have errors in it that were not in the pdf. As a precautionary measure, I made the print-on-demand versions temporarily unavailable. A careful investigation revealed that the customer had not refreshed his pdf version and so was looking at an old pdf. Downloading the current version of the pdf from OneBookShelf ensured that pdf and print copy now matched. I have collated all the errata from the forum thread and asked Terry if he can gently adjust the pdf to fix these and we will update the pdf and the print masters.
Please Note: None of the changes are significant. It is essentially a handful of numbers in the monsters chapter and a category heading in the master skill table. So if you already own a printed softcover or hardcover of HARP Fantasy, you do not need to buy another copy. (Unless you actually need another copy.)
We released HARP Folkways last month as a pdf and the first wholly new fantasy sourcebook for HARP Fantasy. Many of you have already purchased the pdf edition (thank you), and some of you kindly spotted a handful of errors which escaped my editorial eye. We have corrected those errors and I have written and added several pages of new material providing height, weight, age and Blood Talents for all the new races as well as extracting more of the racial talents so that they are priced and purchasable by other characters. The pdf has been updated (so please download the new version if you were an early adopter) and will remain available at the discount price until the 11th April (so don’t delay). Terry has worked his magic and the print masters have already been submitted to and approved by OneBookShelf. Once both Terry and I receive our respective proof copies and declare our happiness, we will put the print editions on sale.
Buy HARP Folkways now >>
On HARP Bestiary, I have been toiling away on writing up the stat blocks for the Elementals chapter. There are six “groupings” of Elementals in the chapter – Servitors, Steeds, Destriers, Hunters, Savants and Warriors. However there are four Elements, so you might think that makes for twenty-four stat blocks. Incorrect. There are actually 72 stat blocks required as the Hunters, Savants and Warriors have five Classes of might for each element, so 4 (Servitors) + 4 (Steeds) + 4 (Destriers) + 20 (5×4 Hunters) + 20 (5×4 Savants) + 20 (5×4 Warriors) = 72. The only sane way of creating this many stat blocks is to employ the industrial process of an assembly line. Hence I constructed the skeletons for all 72 first, then populated it with treasure code, outlook, skills ranks and talents. I am currently working on the spell choices for all the Savants. Once that’s done, I will calculate skill bonuses, and transcribe the needful items such as RRs and so forth into the summary blocks, and then calculate the BMR for them all. At that point, all 72 stat blocks are complete and the only thing remaining for the chapter is the two master summary tables. I also took the executive decision in February that as John Duffield had completed his chapters ahead of me, it was only appropriate to reward him by letting him stat up the Demons. The serious reason is that I need to be off the critical writing path for Bestiary as soon as possible as there is a backlog of editing to be done and I need to be revising Something Wicked and organising other projects.
Rolemaster
John and I are not the only folk crunching numbers. Jonathan and Joeri are crunching a lot more numbers. Final tweaks are being made to talent costs (3 DPs for +5 resistance talents was cited) and to some racial stats. The spreadsheets will then be taking a pummeling as the creatures (and there’s a lot more of them than six or seventy-two!) are recreated.
ERA for Rolemaster
Everyone seems to be working on monsters. Max has been toiling away on two new datasets for ERA. These are RMC Creatures which has 451 creature templates from the creatures portion of RMC Creatures & Treasures, and RMFRP Creatures which has 778 creature templates extracted from RMFRP Creatures & Monsters.
Both datasets are now available from OneBookShelf at the following links:
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMC Creatures >>
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMFRP Creatures >>
You will need to update the core ERA package and if you have purchased any of the Rolemaster Companion I, RMFRP Arcane Companion and/or Shadow World datasets, then you need to download the updates for these as well.
Shadow World
Terry is reporting good progress on the new enhanced edition of Haalkitaine.
Until next time
I am going to do more elemental stat work and see if I can get this finally finished. Expect lots of news from Colin on GenCon in his newsletter. The next scheduled Briefing will be in May 2017.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd.
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
HARP Folkways out now!
In case you missed it in this month’s Director’s Briefing (in which case sign up HERE to get the briefing delivered straight to your inbox and never miss out again), Iron Crown Enterprises are pleased to announce the release of a BRAND NEW rules supplement for High Adventure Role Playing (HARP) Fantasy: HARP Folkways!
HARP Folkways is not a re-make or a re-print of an older product, but a completely brand new product written by Jonathan Cassie. With roughly 70% of the book being rules agnostic, HARP Folkways is a great buy whatever system you play.
For a limited time only you can now buy the new HARP Folkways for just $10 from RPGNow (normal price $15). However, this offer won’t last forever so buy it quick!
BUY HARP FOLKWAYS >>
Harp Folkways
HARP Folkways allows you to enrich your characters and your world with unparalleled cultural depth. Explore the diversity of cultures across twenty folkways drawing upon our world and fantasy classics. Make your own unique cultures by defining how they handle matters of kinship, authority and the supernatural, how they dress and what they eat, and more. With worked examples including cultures from Shadow World and Cyradon, this product is a must see!
HARP Folkways provides GMs and players with:
- The Twenty Folkways – a technique to create believable cultures for any setting
- A cultural perspective on well-known fantasy worlds from literature
- Practical examples of culture creation including examples from Shadow World and Cyradon
- Eleven new HARP races
- Six new HARP cultural adolescence packages
- Ten new HARP professions
- New skills and talents
- Twenty-three new HARP training packages
Buy Harp Folkways >>
Want more for your game of HARP Fantasy? You can also get the Martial Law, College of Magics and HARP Loot rules supplements or HARP-SF and HARP-SF Xtreme from RPGNow. In addition there are a number of e-support product to help run your campaign including AutoHARP.
Director’s Briefing – March 2017
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Welcome
To the seventieth Briefing and the third scheduled Briefing of 2017.
HARP Folkways
We are very pleased to announce the arrival of a new addition to the HARP Fantasy line, namely the wholly new HARP Folkways.
HARP Folkways is not an enhanced edition. It is a brand new shiny book written by Jonathan Cassie (author of HARP Loot which we released last year) and beautifully illustrated by Maria Duffield, Rick Hansen and Raymond Gaustadnes.
HARP Folkways will help you enrich your world by giving you new tools to create believable and unique cultures. Jonathan describes and explains how to apply twenty folkways to design cultures. The folkways cover the range from environment, through kinship, authority, and the supernatural to dress and food. He draws upon examples from our world and from fantasy classics, and presents four full-blown worked examples, including the Orsai from Cyradon, and from Shadow World, the Lydians and Ochu of the Vasai Republic.
HARP Folkways introduces eleven new playable, yet unusual, races. These are the Amarvish minotaurs, the draconian Bentaxa, the avian Faleeka, the Gordaz ratfolk, the Hehn centaurs, the feline Kenra, the amphibious Menomonee, the giant Navrothor of the frozen north, the bestial Queequayth, the gregarious Tomalak, and the Vengha who dwell in the underdeeps. Six new culture packages support the new races.
HARP Folkways introduces ten new professions – Artisan, Athlete, Hunter, Intellectual, Laborer, Sailor, Scoundrel, Seeker, Trader and Valet. As a GM, you can use these professions to represent the ordinary folk of your world. However, all of these have been designed to be balanced with existing HARP Fantasy professions so they have twenty professional skill ranks, level bonuses and appropriate professional talents. They are therefore eminently suitable for characters who have greatness thrust upon them through unexpected circumstances or players seeking a non-magical route that isn’t pure combat or stealth. For GMs running high adventure but low magic, these new professions will greatly expand the range of available archetypes.
HARP Folkways also adds over twenty new training packages, new skills and new talents to support the new races and professions.
HARP Folkways is available now in pdf from the OneBookShelf network. The normal price is 15 USD, but we are offering a special one-month introductory discount price of 10 USD.
Buy HARP Folkways now >>
Until next time
We will cover progress on other products in the next scheduled Briefing, which will be in April 2017
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd.
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
RPG Players’ worst habits
Roleplay gaming is fun. I think we can all agree on that. However, there are some things that people do whilst at the table that are less fun… Some things that drive us mad. So we decided to run a survey to see what were RPG players’ worst habits.
After surveying our fans and followers via the Iron Crown forum and our various social media feeds, the results are now in. It turns out it was a pretty close contest. There are lots of small things that people find annoying but no one things that really drives us all mad. With that said, here are RPG players’ worst habits:
1. Using their phone / device whilst playing
Nearly 62% of people that took the survey said that players using their phone or device whilst playing is annoying or worse. 9% went so far as to say that when players use phones or devices during RPG sessions, “someone’s going to get hurt!”.
2. Distracting other players
Whilst almost 89% of people agreed this was annoying or worse, a lower percentage of people classed it as “someone’s going to get hurt” meaning that it was just pipped to the post for the top spot.
3. Not participating
81% of people agreed that players who just sit at the table and take no part in the game are annoying or worse. The top three worst habits are relatively close in terms of their overall scores but there is quite a drop to fourth place which is…
4. Interrupting the GM
4th and 5th place actually scored exactly the same overall. However, I have put this one in fourth due to the slightly higher number of people who think “someone is going to get hurt”. 62% of people agreed interrupting the GM was annoying or worse with almost 10% believing that “someone is going to get hurt”.
5. Being late for games
While 66% find it annoying or worse, less than 5% believe it to be hurt-worthy. Perhaps lateness is annoying but doesn’t necessarily have to affect the game, or perhaps we are all just used to everyone being late to everything.
6. Being a stickler for the rules
The majority of people surveyed didn’t think this was annoying. In fact, only 41% said it was annoying or worse and less than 2% thought it was hurt-worthy.
7. Trying to be funny all the time
Only 38% of people believed that this was annoying or worse. It turns out that Iron Crown fans enjoy a bit of comedy in their role play gaming.
THE BEST OF THE REST
The survey included the option for people to suggest other habits that they believe to be players’ worst. Here are some of the best (or worst):
- Not paying attention and forcing the GM to explain the scene again
- Being a sore loser when the game or the dice goes against them
- Shutting someone else’s idea down by just saying ‘no’.
- Inviting a new player without asking the group, the GM or the person whose house you’re playing in
- Speaking for the GM when someone asks them a question
- When they have had all round waiting for their turn to decide what to do and then still take ages deciding
- Lack of hygiene
- Excessive off topic discussion
- Every character being a pyromaniac
- Bringing politics into the game
It turns out that playing RPGs is not without its problems. However, I am surprised by the positivity of the responses. It seems that, for the most part, players are well behaved and GMs are willing to forgive most things for the sake of a fun and enjoyable gaming session.
What do you think of our list? Think we’ve missed something off? If so, have your say on the “players’ worst habits” thread on the ICE forum.
Arcane Companion for ERA out now!
Thanks to the fantastic work of Maximiliano Tabacman, Iron Crown Enterprises are pleased to announce the release of another expansion module for the popular ERA for Rolemaster e-support package. Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you the ERA for Rolemaster RMSSFRP Arcane Companion.
Arcane Companion Module for ERA
The RMFRP Arcane Companion package for ERA includes 4 professions, 4 attack tables, 2 critical tables, 46 spell lists, and a brand new realm with 2 additional spell fumble columns.
The power and the risk of using magic reaches a new level with the addition of Arcanists and Wizards. This unstable new realm can be randomly exploited by the Chaotic. Those who abuse the use of magic will be tracked and brought to justice by the the Magehunter.
New attacks are available to those wielding Mana and Void spells. Apart from Ball and Bolt attack tables, the destructive Mana and Void critical tables are provided.
You will also find all Arcane spells. Open, closed and evil magic with a power that surpasses all other realms. Arcane Healing will fix most wounds, Bladerunes will give the friends of the Arcane caster a new edge, and several spell lists allow the manipulation of earthnodes. When Arcane spell users really want to boast, they just copy any spell from their friends using Realm Law.
Buy the Arcane Companion Module now >>
Electronic Roleplaying Assistant
This module is an add-on feature package for ERA for Rolemaster which is available for free from RPGNow.
ERA allows players to create their characters using a step by step wizard, level them up and configure all details in terms of stats, skills and special abilities. These characters can then be added to a running campaign in the adventuring module from which the game master can control all aspects of the game including resolving maneuvers, resistances, resting, and of course, spell casting and combat.
Try ERA for free >>
Love ERA? Check out our complete range of addition modules:
Rolemaster Classic
Character Law
Spell Law
Arms Law
Armory
Shadow World Module
Combat Companion
Rolemaster Companion I
Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing
Core and Character Law
Spell Law
Arms Law
The Armory
Shadow World Module
Combat Companion
Mentalism Companion
Essence Companion
Channeling Companion
Director’s Briefing – February 2017
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
Welcome
To the sixty-ninth Briefing and the second scheduled Briefing of 2017.
I am sneaking this Briefing out during an intermission in the post-semester marking nightmare – my marking is complete but my colleagues will at some arbitrary point descend on me with requests to moderate samples of their marking, but one way or another it will be all over by 10th Feb.
Software
Courtesy of Max, we have another new ERA dataset. Now it is the time of the RMSS Arcane Companion to step into the limelight. The new dataset includes the 4 professions, the 4 attack tables, the 2 critical tables, all 46 spell lists, and a brand new realm with 2 additional spell fumble columns.
This ERA dataset is now available for purchase on the OneBookShelf webstore network.
RMU
Creature Law is becoming tractable. The talents and flaws in Creature Law have been collated and winnowed down from well over six hundred to 280. That is still a lot but given the diversity of creatures covered in Creature Law, it is major progress and creatures can be reconstructed from this more concise foundation.
HARP
John Duffield has beaten the rest of us on the HARP Bestiary team to the punch by finishing his Lycanthrope chapter.
Terry is battling through the HARP Folkways layout and you can blame me for making a “helpful” suggestion that has slowed him down. HARP Folkways introduces various new professions and I thought that they should have their own dedicated page, so one page per profession. Terry implemented this and sent some samples, pointing out that there was considerable white space. I suggested that we could have the professional ability definitions appear in this space – this would avoid folks have to flip between profession and talent sections of the book for new talents introduced in Folkways, and more to the point, avoid the need to flip between Folkways and other HARP books. Now given the physical books, you are all well able to prop multiple books open and do the multibook hop, but is an inconvenience, and I find hopping between multiple ebook versions much more awkward (try following the witty footnotes in a Kindle version of a Discworld novel compared to just glancing at the bottom of the printed page.)
Clint Fell is currently working on a full proposal for a HARP SF vehicles compendium.
Shadow World
Terry is focusing on finishing Haalkitaine in terms of his writing. I will endeavour to keep him
focused.
Until next time
The next scheduled Briefing will be in March 2017
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd.
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
Roleplaying adventure hooks
Looking for inspiration for your next roleplaying adventure? Then look no further! We’ve put together these three adventure hooks to give you some ideas for your next gaming session. Enjoy!
The Silent Bard
The group have discovered a man on the edge of death living rough in a forest. A famous bard no less who was kidnapped and had his voice stolen.
Synopsis
A famous bard is found half dead, living rough in a large forest. After investigating it becomes clear who he is and that he was kidnapped and had his voice stolen. The group must restore him to health, lead him back to civilisation and help him reclaim his voice. If they do, fame will follow them and songs will be sang about their kindness and bravery until the end of time.
One Giant Lie
A small frontier town is being terrorised by a local giant at night. People will leave town if the attacks don’t stop. However, it soon becomes clear that the giant isn’t to blame.
Synopsis
A town is being terrorised by a giant that lives in the local hills, he smashes up property and steals livestock etc. Adventurers are hired to find and kill the giant. However, with investigation it becomes clear the giant is not to blame. He is old and sick. Someone in the town is doing the damage and framing the giant, but who and why?
The Cursed Crew
A wealthy port is set upon and looted by a ship of blood thirsty skeletons and it isn’t the first time…
Synopsis
A wealthy port is regularly the victim of attacks from a ghost ship. Skeletal pirates from the ship descend on the town to loot and murder. Whilst nobody knows for sure where they come from or why the keep attacking, legend tells of a secret pirate island off the coast which is now home to an angry necromancer.
Previous adventure hook posts:
Adventure Hooks #1
Adventure Hooks #2
Adventure Hooks #3
If you think you could turn one of these adventure hooks (or one of your own creation) into a full blown adventure module for publication, we’d love to hear from you – Get in touch >>