News from Guild Companion Publications (August 2012)

Director’s Briefing
Guild Companion Director’s Briefing – 14th August 2012 (updated 21st August)

This August Briefing is the thirteenth Briefing, which might be considered unlucky for some, but is merely a bit later than I would have liked. There is, however, good reason for being late, and it’s not just that I’ve been fiendishly busy with the day job (though that never helps).

The good reason for being late is that we have been very busy with lots of products.

HARP Fantasy is back!
Join the new road to high adventure with HARP Fantasy. Enhanced, remastered, HARP Fantasy has drawn upon years of actual game play experience, fan feedback, and logical reasoning to improve the rules from the original 2003 and 2004 editions without compromising their playability.

Here’s your checklist of rules changes:

  • The Professions have been rebalanced in terms of their professional abilities
  • Flat 50 Development Points is the default for calculating Development Points
  • Races have been better balanced in terms of stat bonuses, some racial abilities have been revised, and Humans now get Skill Flexibility (the ability to make a single skill in a NonFavored category Favored)
  • Blood Talents have been rebalanced in terms of Development Point cost
  • The Mandatory Subskills rule has been incorporated from HARP SF
  • Four new Influence skills have been added from HARP SF
  • New talents have been added from HARP SF and Development Point costs of existing Talents have been properly balanced
  • The use of Spell Adders and Power Point Adders has been clarified
  • Clarifications and improvements have been made to the rules for Light & Vision, Fighting Blind, Asphyxiation and Holding Breath, Drowning and Stat Loss
  • Life Points have been removed and the Stun rules made consistent with HARP SF
  • All of the spells have had their base costs and scaling options made consistent with the revised spell creation system (to be published in the enhanced College of Magics) and descriptions have been clarified in specific cases
  • Herb and poison prices have been rationalized
  • A new monster creation system has been used to rework the monster collection with some monsters being replaced with new creatures
  • Several magic items have had their effects adjusted
  • The guidance on customizing clerics and magic users has been revised to better fit with the rules given in the enhanced College of Magics and future envisaged sourcebooks.
  • The Language Table and associated rules have been made consistent with HARP SF
  • The “Non-Adventuring Professions” have been removed – these will return in in a future sourcebook in a form suitable for PCs

    • We have also improved the interior artwork, replacing virtually every filler piece with meaningful illustrations. You’ll love the new art.

    The proper price for the HARP Fantasy pdf is 20 US dollars. However, as we promised in previous Briefings, we are making a special time-limited offer for any ICE fan who would like to buy the new HARP Fantasy pdf. Use the following link to buy the HARP Fantasy pdf for a mere 5 (yes, FIVE) dollars
    http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?discount=91524
    (if you prefer www.drivethrurpg.com/index.php?discount=91524 and so on for all the other OBS affiliates. You may need to directly put in the discount code 91524 at the checkout screen.)

    This is a time-limited offer and will END on 15th September. Do not procrastinate, do not dither, just take advantage of it. Tell your friends, tell your players. This is a one-off bargain that you and they must not miss.

    The pdf version is already available. Softcover and hardcover versions will become available as soon as OneBookShelf approves the print files.

    Spacemaster: Privateers
    The rebranding of the Privateers is now complete! All seven Privateers books are now available in pdf and all eight DataNets are also now available.

    Three of the Privateers products are also now available via OneBookShelf print-on-demand as softcover books, namely Robotics Manual, Vehicle Manual and Blaster Law. Spacemaster Privateers and Privateers:Races & Cultures should be available in the next week as softcover books.

    Rolemaster Classic
    As we have firmly stated, the older editions of Rolemaster, i.e. Rolemaster Classic and RMSS/FRP, will remain available for purchase as pdfs. Where it is practically possible, we will be making them available in print-on-demand versions as well, so that fans who wish to stick with older editions can replace their threadbare copies.

    All four of the RM Classic books, Rolemaster Classic Character Law, Rolemaster Classic Arms Law, Rolemaster Classic Spell Law and Rolemaster Classic Creatures & Treasures, are now available as softcover print-on-demand editions.

    And Everything Else?
    And meanwhile we’re working on unified Rolemaster, other HARP Fantasy sourcebooks, and a lot more besides. For instance, the new Arms Law, Character Law, and Spell Law are currently incorporating feedback from the Gamma discussion ahead of the public playtest, while cover art is being commissioned, new layout templates developed and a new logo designed. In HARP, Martial Law has been handed over to layout, while a substantial fraction of the artwork for the new enhanced version of Loot has already arrived

    There will be a scheduled Director’s Briefing in September but there also will be a special Briefing to announce the Public Playtest of unified Rolemaster.

    Best wishes,
    Nicholas

    Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd.