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Welcome
 
To the seventy-fourth Briefing and the seventh scheduled Briefing of 2017.
 
 
ICE at GenCon 2017
 
GenCon approaches. An order for several hundred HARP and Shadow World books has been placed through OneBookShelf to LightningSource. It’s a mixture of hardcovers and softcovers, so hopefully something for everyone’s budget. We will be watching with baited breath as the books are printed and dispatched to the Pointy Hat Games gathering point. We don’t know whether we have underestimated or overestimated demand and one of the jobs of our reps will be to keep a close eye on sales. Regardless, those boxes of books will be giving an important message to GenCon goers – ICE is back.
 
 
Shadow World
 
Terry is back from his short vacation and has been going all out on an enhanced version of Jaiman. Craig John is already working on the art. As soon as Terry can send me the complete manuscript, I will commission the RMSS/FRP stats and undertake an editing pass. Terry is hoping that he can get Jaiman ready in time to sneak some hot off the press print copies to GenCon.
 
Terry has put Haalkitaine and the editorial work into holding mode so that he can focus on completing Jaiman in this narrow time window. (We will aim to have Haalkitaine available for Dragonmeet. Which reminds me that it is nearly time for the call to book stands for Dragonmeet 2017 to appear.)
 
 
HARP, HARP SF and Adventure Modules
 
While Terry is focusing on Jaiman for GenCon, my focus is on A Wedding in Axebridge. Joel has transformed Chris’ sketches in a set of wonderful and effective maps and location layouts. I am labouring away on getting all the stat blocks in place. I still cannot tell if the final version will be large enough for print-on-demand. If it is, then it will be a softcover only, probably staple bound like the Shadow World Player Guide rather than the slender perfect-bound edition of Tales from the Green Gryphon Inn. Again, it’s a hard push to get it ready for GenCon, especially if it is a print-viable product.
 
 
Rolemaster
 
Jonathan and Joeri are working furiously on monster skill bonuses (so that you have plausible and consistent numbers for when you need a creature’s skill in Perception or Stalk/Hide). They are also figuring out the best split of Creature Law into two volumes.
 
 
Computer Software Projects
 
The validation event for the new MSc Computer Games Development degree at the University of Suffolk has been set for 1st August. A validation event is where a panel including external experts from academia and industry reviews a proposed new degree and determines whether it has been appropriately designed and developed, and whether the proposing department and staff are able to deliver. I may be invited to attend – if so, I will be attending as a Director of ICE to give my views on how ICE can work with course academics and students to create innovative computer games which will be good for the students in terms of gaining experience and building portfolios, and good for ICE fans in terms of new stuff to play with and to support all our games.
 
 
Until next time
 
Back to a mix of writing and editing as we race to GenCon. The next scheduled Briefing will be in August 2017.
 
Best wishes,
Nicholas
 
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
 
 
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