Sticky: Where to buy and where to find me.
You can buy Postmortem Studios products at:
RPGNOW/Drivethrurpg/Paizo/Yourgamesnow/E23
Lulu (hardcopy)
You can find me at the following locations:
Personal LJ / Twitter/Myspace/Facebook/Tribe /RPGBomb/ Yahoogroup/LinkedIn
We have a hosted forum at UKRoleplayers:
Postmortem Studios Forum
It's November and in England that means two things. Fireworks and conventions! (Hopefully not at the same time).
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We'll be at Indiecon and Dragonmeet in November, running a few demo games and selling lots of hardcopies of our products just in time for Christmas. Leftover convention stock will be available for those who want to order it directly from me after these conventions and details will be forthcoming on our website. You'll also, soon, be able to get an updated and art-infested version of 100 Science Fiction Adventure Seeds, published in partnership with Cubicle 7 Entertainment. While you're checking out print products, be sure to look up Origins of the Specious, a gamer's humour book and compilation published under the Flaming Cobra imprint with Mongoose Publishing.
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This last month was 'Schlocktoberfest' for Postmortem Studios and saw discounted PDF products across our horror and other 'gross out' and B-movie type products. We also released a number of new items including:
Several Freakshow products for Blood! OGL Modern and MRQ (BloodQuest) as well as the demo adventure from last year's Indiecon, Blood Tales: The End.
The Art of Hentacle (Adult product!)
The Art of Final Straw (Violent product!)
And some new ZelArt.
If you're looking for images to spice up your games or to publish your own, be sure and check out our extensive library of stock art by Industry Veteran Brad McDevitt and by newcomers Zel and Toby.
This month will be concentrated largely on freelancing and preparation for the two conventions, but we hope to start work on Agents of SWING, a FATE powered mash-up of 1960s and 1970s spy TV and films. If there's time a rough draft and a demo adventure may be ready for Indiecon and - if so - will be turned into a special preview product that you'll be able to download in Christmas or the new year. Otherwise you can expect more Freakshows, more stock art and - perhaps - the companion volume to 100 Conspiracies, 100 Conspirators.
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We appreciate feedback and friendship here at Postmortem Studios, so if you want to follow us or communicate here are some of the many ways you can do so:
E-mail
Website
Twitter
Myspace
Facebook
Moblog
Roleplaymedia
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Lastly I'd like to make you aware of a couple of opportunities we have going. These are strictly volunteer positions but we're looking for people to help with raising awareness of our products online and with running demo games at conventions. There's no money, unfortunately, but there would be free products, PDF and print, and possibly t-shirts once a helper-monkey design has been settled upon. Please e-mail to above link if you're interested in helping out in either capacity. We're particularly interested in talking to people about running games at US, Australian and Irish conventions.
Thanks for your patronage in the past and hopefully more of it going into the future. Let us know what YOU want to see more of or what you'd like to see us develop. You never know, it might actually happen!
Today is the last day of Schlocktoberfest where you can get many of our PDF products half price! If you want to grab yourself a bargain before things go back to normal on Novermber the 1st then hurry along to our RPGNOW store and buy up everything you can, including this month's new releases, card game art books and new Freakshow monsters statted for Blood! Modern OGL and MRQ.
Spend your moneys HERE
1. Savagely Edit the Rules Descriptions.
Spirit of the Century and Starblazer Adventures are both weighty, weighty tomes in their respective sizes and while FATE is - ostensibly - a simple, narrative oriented system but sprawls like a demented monster over a huge number of pages. I'm a guy that likes to concentrate on background and feel and rules bogging down a book too much just isn't on. I'm going to assume that my readers have a passing familiarity with RPGs and so won't be quite so explicit and long-winded in explanations. I'll also try to avoid repetition.
2. Less Illustration, More Typography
I want Agents of SWING to be a stylish product, but also quite minimalist, a wipe-clean, plastic-fantastic, white formica, 60s future-vision. So I'm going to cut back on the illustration and use a lot of silhouette/flag/pop art imagery and work harder on the presentation and layout of the text, using that to greater effect. There will be illustrations for the example character dossiers though.
3. Streamline Character Creation
I think there'll be less emphasis on character advancement and characters need to be reasonable powerful at the start, roughly equivalent to the Standard Campaign level in Starblazer Adventures. I'll also drag some of the character generation options back towards a more traditional RPG role, less group creation, we already have our group-hook in the game setting and other than a few teams and partnerships, many of the heroes in the source material were skilled loners. If people want to play the IM Force or The Champions or whatever, players can do that anyway. It doesn't need to be worked into character generation here.
Important elements of a character would be:
- Career - Prior to joining SWING
- Cover - Their cover identity
- Section - The section of SWING they're attached to.
4. Decouple Stunts from Skills
At least as much as possible. The cross referencing in SOTC and SB can be a bit of a son of a bitch, a few stunts - obviously - need to be related to a skill, but others don't necessarily and getting rid of the need would free things up and make referencing easier.
5. More Stress?
You've got physical stress and composure, but perhaps add something in for social standing? 60s Britain (the default) is still a class concious society, more so than today, and scandals had more power then to harm than they do now. An ill regarded agent could be in trouble in many situations and this is distinct enough from composure to warrant its own treatment I think.
6. Gadgets
These need a big treatment, both for Bondian style gadgets and for the potential widgetry of villains.
7. Rationalise Skill Descriptions
Slim them down, they're very long right now and could be covered in much less space IMO.
8. Separate Out Special Rules
Special rules for car chases etc need to be in their own sections, not intermingled, muddling things up a bit.
9. Allow the Attacker to Choose Consequences?
Might be a little harsh, but allowing the victim to choose the type of consequence and the attacker to choose the actual consequence pushes narrative control more interestingly I think.
10. Skills Pyramid?
I don't particularly see the need to stick to the Pyramid arrangement for skills, it kind of got in the way of making Doc Savage-alikes and I don't particularly see why it should be kept.
11. Psi/Super Abilities
Essential to replicate some of the material from the time but I don't want to overemphasise it. Perhaps a few examples and expand on the material later in another book? Same could be done with gadgets.
12. Organisations?
Villainous organisations need to be detailed as do the various sections of SWING and the rest of the conventional intelligence community, a few examples perhaps and then expand on the rules in a separate book.
13. Clue Based Plot Structure?
I'd like to mix in some of the plot stress ideas in SB with some of the ideas from Gumshoe, perhaps plot stress advancement from section to section, splitting up adventures into investigative sections, interrogations etc which yield points of 'plot stress' that advance the game towards its conclusion.
14. Profit.
The third - and probably final - edition of the Neverwhere RPG, produced with permission and available for PDF only. This is the final, comprehensive edition of the game with an improved system, more detail an expanded A-Z and advice for running the game in tabletop, online or as a LARP.
Make sure to buy something that actually gives me money while you're there too, don't forget Schlocktoberfest is still going!
Job Title: Publicity/Sales Helper Monkey
Job Description: As my publicity/sales helper monkey you would make the world aware of new Postmortem Studios products, sales, convention appearances and other information thereby boosting the profile of the company and increasing sales. You would be a presence in social media and forums and provide feedback to me about discussions etc as well.
Requirements: Knowledge and enthusiasm for most - if not all - Postmortem Studios products, involvement in social media and understanding of the technology, preferably UK or US, good command of English, basic HTML and BBCode. Preferably already using Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and with forum accounts at major RPG forums - or be willing to make them.
Duties: Take announcements, work them into nice posts and spread them around the internet, provide feedback and promote the company. This should take a handful of hours every week during busy weeks, otherwise it might be much less, depending on workload and output here.
Payment: Hahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahaha. No, even if things weren't as tight as they are lately this would still be a volunteer position. However, you can have free PDF product and if you do well and stick at it, after a couple of months we can see if something more might be offered, done.
Apply HERE
- Finished and uploaded Blood Tales: The End.
- I finished writing about 2/3rd of a new Freakshow, a modern horror take on the Banshee. Out of practice with the OGL Modern rules writing!
- Submitted test pieces for a couple of potential pieces of work.
- Pursued some potential magazine work.
- Made some further notes from Starblazers towards Agents of S.W.I.N.G. - I'll do a more proper dev diary on that project as and when it actually gets into gear.
- Tryed to decide whether I can put any time and energy into Nanowrimo this year with everything else going on. No conclusion on that yet...
- Started reading through STARBLAZER ADVENTURES (my preferred implementation of FATE) with an eye to simplifying things a little, slimming it down and using it as the rules for Agents of S.W.I.N.G. (The 60s - 70s mash-up action game).
- Uploaded more Clipart Critters which will be coming out over the rest of the month. If you want to get some very good, and very chea, art to support your games or for your gaming projects, be sure and check it out HERE.
- Half finished writing up the zombie apocalypse demo scenario for Blood! which I wrote for Indiecon last year.
- Proofread the next installment in The Life of Angst, Chav: The Knifing, and commissioned the art.
- If you've got editing that needs doing.
- If you've got writing that needs doing.
- If you've got design that needs doing - pretty much any system.
Let me know, you'll get my devious mind at your disposal and I'll rush around like a blue-arsed fly to get it done.
All October if we sell it and it's cheesy, sleazy or makes you queasy it's half price, all month.
The products on sale include:
'45: Psychobilly Retropocalypse
100 Conspiracies
100 Dark Places
100 Horror Adventure Seeds
Autopsy 1
Autopsy 2
Blood!
Cthentacle
Final Straw: Highschool Revenge
Hentacle
Invaderz
Urban Faerie
So if you're looking for some naughty, bloody or puerile fun then Postmortem Studios is for you this month!
Buy HERE!
100 Conspiracies presents a hundred different conspiracy theories for use in modern investigative/spy/horror games. Each conspiracy is outlined and explored and comes with several adventure seeds to get you started. Perfect inspiration for the beleaguered Games Master in need of a little kickstart to their creativity!
You can purchase it HERE
Strange things are afoot in the town of Dunbitch on the edge of the Hockamock Swamp. The locals seem a little... strange and more than a little inbred from 'keeping their bloodline pure' and stranger things still have been seen and NOT seen...
Can Sheriff Cooter and BJ get to the bottom of the mystery or will they end up namesakes for the town?
The Dunbitch Horror expands Cthentacle with two new girls and a lot of new cards to take your Lovecraftian naughtiness to the next level.
CAUTION
Adult product, in the sense that it contains boobs, pee-pees and hoo-hoos, albeit not necessarily human ones. Not an adult product in the sense that it requires sophistication or a mature intellect.
The push got a grand total of 176 new followers spread across Twitter, Myspace, Facebook and Livejournal which is pretty healthy going I reckon! I'm now committed to producing a new edition of Neverwhere and commissioning some additional art (Raven, I'll be in touch soonish about that when I have a more definite plan for the book).
I'd like to keep this communication and rapport going between the people who've decided to follow me and who want to see the new edition come about. I want your suggestions - not that I'll necessarily use them - things you'd like to see, features of London that you think I missed, streets and stations that would make good features of London Below, maybe ideas from your own games that worked well. I've already slightly altered the title (see above) based on the negative feedback from the previous post, but try and make any comments a little more helpful and directing, eh? 'It sucks' doesn't much help me out.
The first thing I need to do, as I discussed, is to re-read and re-watch Neverwhere in its various original forms, book, TV Series and Graphic Novel as well as re-reading the old version of the game (something I've already done, wincing at the terrible presentation, something that will improve greatly I assure you.
I'll keep you all updated here on a regular basis, but I can't guarantee that being a daily occurance as it looks like I'm still going to have a lot of freelancing on my plate and I'll have to squeeze Neverwhere in around that.
Some initial thoughts I have are:
- Working The London Eye, The Millenium Dome and The Gherkin in, as well as any other developments in London that have come about since 1996 (ye gods I'm old) when the TV series first came along. This would include parts of the Jubilee Line Extension and the extensions of the Docklands Light Railway.
- Adding in some adventure seeds and expanding many of the A-Z entries.
- The system will remain largely the same, maybe a bit more finesse for the multiples/skill levels and better knack definitions. The major difference will be in (optional!) more codified consequences and working out negative adjectives and their implication. Basically I'm thinking that when you win a challenge you can dictate certain levels of outcome depending how much you beat the target by.
First things first though, reading! In depth reading at that!
The ‘100 Series’ contains titles such as 100 Fantasy Adventure Seeds, 100 Planets, 100 Horror Adventure Seeds and, the first to appear through distribution in September 2009 – 100 Sci-Fi Adventure Seeds.
The books are written by Origins Award Winner James ‘Grim’ Desborough (The Munchkin’s Guide to Power Gaming) and each contain one-hundred adventure seeds, or locations, to be used with any game system.
The books will appear, through distribution to retail stores worldwide, from September 2009.
“I’m very pleased to have Grim, and Postmortem Studios, on board. They’ve built a very good following and range of titles for their PDF business and having known Grim for the best part of the last 15 years I’m excited to see where this partnership leads.” said Angus Abranson, Director of Cubicle 7 Entertainment.
“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to move forward with Cubicle 7 and to take my books into print. I hope this is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between Postmortem and Cubicle 7. The 100 series is very successful in PDF and I’m excited to bring the work to a wider audience in print.” added Grim.
About Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
Founded in 2006 Cubicle 7 Entertainment was set up by Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas, two gaming entrepreneurs who wanted to create a games publisher fostering some truly iconic brands. Since then the company has published role playing games from a growing list of properties including Victoriana, SLA Industries, Starblazer Adventures (based on DC Thomson’s 80’s Starblazer comic series) and 7th Circle’s Chinese fantasy Qin. In June 2009 Cubicle 7 announced it had joined the Rebellion Group.
Victoriana is a fabulous fusion of Victorian adventure and fantasy myth, SLA Industries is a gritty futuristic urban horror fuelled by classic British punk imagery, whilst Starblazer Adventure is set firmly in the heart of classic 80’s space opera where gigantic fleets prowl the starlanes and devilish scientists operate enormous engines of destruction. The English translation of French publisher 7th Circle’s Qin propels players in to the epic fantasies and tragic events of ancient Chinese legend.
About Postmortem Studios
Postmortem Studios is the personal, self-publishing imprint of RPG freelancer James 'Grim' Desborough and has been in operation, full time, since 2004. Postmortem Studios embraces the digital age in producing electronic and print-on-demand gaming products of a quirky and unconventional bent. Postmortem Studios has had great success with the '100' series, with resurrecting the Blood! horror RPG from the 1990s and with various card games and support materials.
Cubicle 7 Entertainment
http://www.cubicle7.co.uk
Postmortem Studios
http://ww.postmort.demon.co.uk
| Congratulations! We've reached the target and stand at 105 adds for the month with a week still to go! This means that my next project, barring freelancing, will be Neverwhere 3rd Edition, before anything else. I'll commission a little more art for it in the next week or two but if you can get me to 150 followers before the end of the month I'll pump some more money in and get even more art. So, what you're campaigning for now is an even shinier, even better Neverwhere 3rd edition than before! Here's the various social networks that count for this exercise: MYSPACE |  |
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