Sticky: Where to buy and where to find me.
You can buy Postmortem Studios products at:
RPGNOW/Drivethrurpg/Paizo/Yourgamesnow/E23
Lulu (hardcopy)
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 | ‘Is it ‘cos I is black?’ -Ali-G Appropriate that an Ali G quote tops this study of a strange phenomenon amongst Chavs. This phenomenon is the Credo that is known colloquially as the Wiggaz. Like the Sasha Baron-Cohen character they are people from untrendy ethnic backgrounds who try to be members of more trendy backgrounds. This strange syndrome can take many forms but by far the most common is the pathetic middle class white boy who wants to be black so much he thinks he is. Deception, some say self deception, being a most crucial part of their lives Wiggaz excel socially. Combined with their affinity Cloud Talent Wiggaz are more than capable of blending in to the trendy race of their choice. It is however all a lie and can come crashing down spectacularly if the Wigga isn’t careful. Wiggaz have an affinity for each other. All sharing the same condition they are quick to come to the aid of their ‘brothers’ should they ever be in trouble. There is an exception to this though. Should a Wigga ever slip up and suggest that he is from the untrendy race he’s rejected he is shunned by all and sundry. The Wiggaz are by far one of the most organised of Credoz. Their Main Man is always in a position of some authority whether he truly deserves it or not and within the Credo there may not be a rigid hierarchy but a spirit of efficient cooperation permeates the credo. Wiggaz are distinctive in their appearance. Taking on the styles and fashions of their desired culture. Of course this looks ridiculous on someone of their ethnic origin. Cribz: Although some Wiggaz live in genuinely deprived areas most dwell in mid to upper range housing. They take great pains to add touches of the culture they are trying to emulate in the decoration. This clashes violently with their native culture (often kept alive by their parents) making a Wigga’s Crib a confusing mishmash of divergent styles. Talentz: Wiggaz have a natural affinity for the Cloud Talent (see below.) Other than this the Talentz theydisplay tend to favour finesse over brute force but it is not unusual to see Wigga with Chav Strength for example. Background: Wiggaz come from a wide variety of backgrounds. From genuine Council tenants to the black sheep of prosperous Upper Middle Class families. All have one thing in common, the desire to have a cool ethnic origin. Naturally those already of such an origin are never Wiggaz although they could easily be Hoodiez or Yardiez. Class Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Hide, Look Good, Sense Motive, Streetwise. Credo Weakness: No matter how hard they try Wiggaz just cannot be what they desire to be. They suffer a -4 penalty to all rolls to Jump or Perform. Credo Strength: Wiggaz are masters of deception (some would say self deception.) They start with the first level of the Cloud Talent free. Thoughts on Other Credoz Chemistz: Err yeah I’ve got a special request (whispers) Hoodiez: Bruvs right? Sick! Muppetz: Man check out the scars on this one. Pikeyz: Hey! Come back here with my beanie! Slagz: Hey baby how you doin’? Walliez: You’re even less black than a Bloodsucker. Fuck off. Yardiez: My man! How’s it hanging? |
A complimentary - but complete - product in the same line as Bloodsucker: The Angst, Chav: The Knifing allows you to play the arch nemesis of spooky kids everywhere, or to use them as antagonists for your Bloodsucker game.
What is Chavthulu? What's so special about bus stops? What are the secret powers of cheap cider and the croydon facelift?
There's only one way to find out...
On the way as I snatch time between other projects to do layout!
The End is set in the immediate aftermath of a zombie rising. The characters are a mismatched band of survivors, trapped in a fortified house on a housing estate in rural England. This is a small market town, not a metropolis and not somewhere where it might be easy to tool up with weapons and take on the zombie hordes.
With food and water running out the radio finally crackles into life, an army signal, looking for survivors but camped out at the church, the church on the other side of town...
Written for Blood! but comes bundled with Freakshow: Zombies to make conversion to modern OGL or the RuneQuest OGL easier.
If you buy before the end of the month it's half price as part of Schlocktoberfest!
Love and bunnies,
Grim
- 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.
Two new Freakshow products for you today with stats for Blood!, Mongoose RuneQuest (BloodQuest) and d20 Modern, which hasn't been replaced - yet!
Get them HERE
Bloodsucker: The Juice is the player's guide and companion for Bloodsucker: The Angst, written by newcomer Ian Warner. It contains new cliques, new professions, new powers and an assortment of other goodies to enhance your Bloodsucker: The Angst games and take them away from the original intentions of the game, just as happened with A Certain Other RPG.
Gaming nostalgia AND satire! Two for the price of one!
Buy Bloodsucker: The Juice HERE
Buy a bundle of both the main rulebook and Juice HERE
You can (or will soon) also get your copies at your other, preferred RPG PDF outlets.
You can also get hardcopy via Lulu HERE
Share and enjoy!
The Actual line couldn't be done under the 4th Edition license since it depends on the redefinition of existing classes to make them fit better and depict what they profess to be better. We could create alternate core classes that better reflect what they're supposed to be but the restriction on naming terminology and the necessity to terminate the entire line presents problems. Creating a new line called REAL wouldn't fool anyone and since the license says it's Wizard's say so on what constitutes the same line or not it wouldn't matter how much effort I put into differentiating them from each other if they didn't buy it. One way out might be to provide an 'Alternative Basic Classes' book, with alternative versions of all the core classes, and perhaps a couple of extra ones. These would have to be given new names though, EG: Hospitaller, Soldier, Templar, Warden, Scoundrel, Infernalist, Captain and Mage (And Berserker and Martial Artist).
Bloodsucker: The Angst
Bloodsucker falls afoul of the 'decency' clause, since it rips the piss out of goth/emo subculture and includes themes of sex and drugs. So this will have to continue to be published under the OGL.
Feast of Crows
Publishing a 4th Edition version of this would mean ceasing the sale of the OGL version. This is one of my strongest OGL/3rd Edition products so it is the best candidate for a revision to 4th Edition. To do so I'd fold it all together, Army Books and Main Books but I really dislike the lack of ability to continue to support the old edition. Nonetheless I think this will likely be my first/main foray into 4th Edition territory in order to test the waters.
Cloak of Steel
Thanks to the publication of the French version, Mantel D'Acer, I am no longer free to convert this to 4th Edition, though 4th Edition's mechanics may have been a better fit for the frenetic, anime style thematics of Cloak of Steel. I think the second edition is more likely to be developed either for Xpress (my house system) or for Mongoose RuneQuest, or both. There WILL be a new edition late 2008-2009.
Live System
Doing a 'fix' on the 4th Edition system as a whole simply isn't possible under the new license, so converting it to a classless, levelless version simply can't be done.
New Products
The main things that can be done with 4th Edition are setting books and adventure books.
I am hesitant to release setting books because the license restricts me from also/later publishing under the OGL. While this only applies to the Wizards OGL and wouldn't apply to, for example, the RuneQuest _logo_ license, the RuneQuest logo license is too restrictive to release a full and complete game and the open version used the Wizards OGL - which is what the GSL supercedes.
In my experience, adventures never sell that well and I don't like writing particularly structured adventures. I can do it, and I believe I can do it well - as people will hopefully find out when Cross City Race finally graces Dungeon Magazine - but they're not, normally, a fantastic amount of fun to write or to play, since they're hedged in and too structured.
One way might be to compound the two in a gazeteer type structure. A line of adventures taking characters from beginners to near-godhood travelling around a world describing it and expanding on it as one goes, with side quests and sub missions all along the way.
Class expansions are possible, so a series of toolkit books for the various classes might be a possibility, the threat is though that Wizards will release something similar/identical and demand that you stop publishing it, if, for example one did something on colour wizards replicating the various schools in new power selection tables that might bone you further down the line.
Lots to think about.
Q. Will there be a fee to participate? Do we still have to pay $5,000?
A. The Game System Licenses are royalty-free licenses and there is no developer’s kit fee associated with them.
This was the early-on idea of getting people to pay for the ability to access the GSL and to produce material before it becomes generally available to do so, which, IIRC, is in October. Due to all the delays with the license and various PR fubars this whole idea has been dropped, which puts all the publishers back on an even keel - which is good - but also means that as soon as it becomes possible to publish 4th Edition stuff we're likely to see a massive flood of it.
Q. Can anyone participate?
A. Yes. Interested third party publishers will be required to submit a registration card, agreeing to the terms of use. This registration card will be part of the materials available to publishers on our website beginning June 6, 2008.
As before with the d20 STL you had to fill out a card so they knew who you were, where you were and so on so they could collar you if you were breaking the bounds of that agreement or being a bit naughty. This is so the necessary cure period can be guaranteed so that everything remains cushty and above board. Personally I found some of the clauses of the d20 STL a bit restricting, much preferring the OGL - as did many others - so I'm likely to chafe under the restrictions of the GSL, but we'll see.
Q. When can we start publishing GSL products?
A. The effective start date for sales of D&D 4E GSL publications is set for October 1, 2008. The timing for the d20 GSL has not yet been determined.
Which is a shame as that paralyses my ability to update my d20 Modern compatible lines as there's no point doing more Freakshow material - for example - until I know what the state of play with the new modern rules-set and GSL is. Which puts me back in the 'wait and see' for now. Still, October is far enough in the future for many people to get some 4th Edition products out ready for the Christmas seasonal rush, I do think the market will be flooded though, especially the PDF market which will allow for 'rushed' projects which can be - later - patched or updated without having the expense of going to print.
Q. Is the new license finished yet? Can you provide a firm timeline?
A. The D&D 4e GSL will be released when we launch Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition on June 6, 2008.
So books and license together, which makes things easier on everyone and without an SRD as such, guarantees Wizards a few extra sales as companies buy them up for reference!
Q. What are the specific details of the license?
A. The specific details will be available to the public upon the release of the licenses.
While this new information is welcome and has caused many sighs of relief from the third party companies it does seem odd that the full terms of the GSL can't be released yet, unless it isn't fully finalised yet. Anyway, this means it's still not really possible to make any concrete plans as of yet, but there's a tolerably short amount of time to wait.
Q. How will the GSL interact with the OGL?
A. The two GSLs are new licenses, separate from the OGL. They are designed for companies that wish to publish 4th edition compatible products.
I think what happened with the kerfuffle on ENworld and across the net was that people on all sides, including Wizards, got the OGL and the d20 STL mixed up. The GSL license with its terms and conditions supersedes and replaces the d20 STL and not the OGL. The OGL is untouchable while the d20 STL always allowed for revision and replacement. This is what lead to the panicking about 'poison pill' clauses trying to kill off the OGL, something which was always legally questionable, especially in Europe. They're now separate entities covering entirely different rules sets that just happen to share common memes.
Q. Can companies still produce 3.x products under the OGL?
A. Yes, but we anticipate that interest in the 4e GSLs will be greater.
In my opinion we're going to see a split. If Wizard's marketing etc is successful then you'll see a younger crowd of more CRPG influenced people buying into 4th Edition while the more RP oriented will stick with 3rd Edition or migrate to other RPG systems. Personally speaking my products for 3rd Edition have never done particularly well, my Mongoose RunQuest stuff has tended to do better, but I intend to convert old products and support 4th Edition to test the waters.
Q. Can publishers release new products under both the OGL and 4E GSL?
A. No. Each new product will be either OGL or 4E GSL. If a new product is published under the 4e GSL, it cannot also be published as 3.x product under the OGL; and vice versa.
I think what is meant here is that if I have an old product under the OGL (3rd edition rules set) that can continue to be sold as a long-life OGL product - d20 products will have to be converted to OGL products to continue being sold - but any NEW projects will have to pick and choose one or t'other, not both. EG: If I create a 4th Edition version of Feast of Crows I can continue to sell the OGL 3rd Edition version, no problem, if the old version had been released under the d20 STL I would have to convert it to the OGL strictures to keep selling it. Meanwhile, if I come up with a new addition to Feast of Crows, say Feast of Gulls for naval combat, I would have to choose whether to release it under 3rd Edition OGL OR the 4th Edition GSL, not both. This is annoying, but fair enough really.
Q. I have multiple product lines. If I update one product line to 4th Edition, do they all have to be updated?
A. No. Publishers are able to choose on a product line by product line basis which license will work best.
As best as I can tell this is still referring to d20 STL products, not OGL products. Either way, each product line is its own 'thing' so far as the GSL is concerned.
Q. Will there be a different license for other lines, such as d20 Modern?
A. The d20 GSL will allow for other genres of roleplaying games.
Well this is the next waiting game I suppose, to see what they do with the d20 Modern rules set for 4th Edition and whether it'll be suitable to produce for. 4th Edition is quite abstracted and metagamey so if the modern rules set follows that tack it may be very hard to mangle it into shape for something more grim and gritty, especially with the 1st level superheroes and hit point bloat of D&D 4th Edition.
Q. Why are there two different licenses?
A. The D&D 4e GSL is specific to the Dungeons & Dragons brand. The d20 GSL allows for non-fantasy genres. Both licenses tie to the 4th edition rule set.
Oh dear, I can see a great deal of argument over the semantics of what constitutes 'fantasy' coming in the future. This really is rather woolly language to be playing around with.
Q. Do I have to give up my right to publish 3.5 OGL products in order to publish 4e compatible products?
A. No. Publishers are free to print product lines under either the OGL or 4E GSL. We would love to see our industry colleagues convert their entire product offerings to 4E, as we are doing, but we do not expect or require entire companies to convert to the new edition.
This is directed to allay fears about the poison pill clause that was perceived to exist from the earlier press releases and that caused 'the fear' in so many people. In other words, if you produce 4th Edition stuff you can still produce things for other lines.
A. Yes. Publishers participating in the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition GSL will be allowed, and encouraged, to convert their publications from earlier editions to the 4th Edition rules.
For my part, from reading this, I'm satisfied that there shouldn't be too many problems. The one grey area I'm still concerned about is multi-system books, my Freakshow line - for example - produces material with stats for Blood!, MRQ and d20 Modern. The MRQ uses the OGL, d20 Modern will be under the GSL... I think that, provided the open material is clearly marked, it should be OK to do both, we'll see.
I'm now happy enough, moving forward, to declare that Postmortem Studios will be supporting 4th Edition with a new line, converting old products and producing new ones under the 'Sally Fourth' imprint.
Writing these isn't easy and the further on you get the harder it gets as the ideas seem to become more repetitious, even when they're not. Hopefully this will give people a lot of good ideas for one off games, sections of their campaigns or even whole campaigns. Once 100 Dark Places is finished I intend to take a little break to deal with some business stuff outside of the writing, then to whip out my alien invasion comedy game before finally, after several years, moving on to complete All These Worlds a hardish science fiction system based upon the RuneQuest OGL.
Hentacle FourPlay continues apace and I have about half the cards handed in for this, so that should be out soonish. When it does we are also going to experiment with a new POD printer who offers card printing and will be presenting a Hentacle Deluxe hardcopy set, which will include every set for Hentacle in one double-box, everything you need to play. That will be the end of the product cycle for Hentacle for the foreseeable future, but work can then commence on Cthentacle...
What would YOU want to see in a running/climbing race across a fantasy city?
(Besides boxes full of chickens and panes of glass, clearly).
Feast of Crows is an abstract mass combat system designed to be scalable to most army size conflicts from skirmishes to nations and designed to be compatible both in spirit and in mechanics with the Open Gaming Licence material available, most especially that depicting the pitched battles of heroic fantasy.
You don?t need to spend out hundreds of pounds on figures or spend hundreds of hours painting them to a fiddly, detailed degree. You can make do with scratch paper, your dice and a calculator or any other method of representing the battle you wish to use from miniatures to just keeping the whole idea in your head.
Feast of Crows, by necessity, abstracts the nature of role-playing combat further than it already is. While some heroes, magicians and warriors alike, or some monsters, tamed or bargained into helping an army can make an impact, it is usually as leaders of the rank and file and not as individuals that they will make their mark.
Feast of Crows requires little more preparation than a normal game or a normal set of character sheets and battles involving thousands of troops can be resolved just as quickly, if not more quickly, than normal party-level combat encounters while retaining the heroic, magical feel placed in gamer?s imaginations by The Lord of the Rings or other fantasy works.
Feast of Crows is a feast, not only for the scavengers of the battlefield but also for the gamer seeking a good solution to resolving large scale battles as part of their epic campaigns.YOURGAMESNOW
RPGNOW
DRIVETHRURPG
E23
PAIZO
"Stimpy, it hurts! Why?"
- Ren Hoek
Welcome to A Life of Angst, a world not dissimilar to our own but no less frightening for it. Perhaps the nights are a little darker, the jeans a little baggier and the top twenty a little sparser when it comes to good tunes, but the world is as ours is.
With a few little additions, like vampires stalking the land by night, nothing to be too concerned about.
Some mysterious force has allowed those who most wished they were immortal creatures of the night to become them. Goths, punks, nu-metallers, spooky kids and the simply outcast of teenage society have found themselves transformed by one means or another into the very creature they would most desire to be.
The Bloodsucker roleplaying game allows players to take the part of one of these transformed subculture denizens and to explore the darkest nights in the world of the Bloodsuckers, discovering fell secrets*, attending dark and dingy nightclubs, pubs and warehouse parties, drinking far more absinthe than is strictly healthy for you and, perhaps most importantly, smoking cloves.
While most will play the part of alter-egos that they create, the Games Master will determine the world for you, describing the scenes to you and helping you explore the lives of your characters while placing obstacles in your path as you attempt to better the lot of your counterparts and advance them in the society of the Bloodsuckers until all fall before your might.
*Fell secrets may neither be as fell, nor secret, as advertised.
YOURGAMESNOW
RPGNOW
DRIVETHRURPG
E23
PAIZO
Fantasy games are full of medieval and pseudo-medieval imagery from the clash of chivalrous knights on horseback to the wily thieves making their way through cobbled streets, risking their necks to thieve a coin or two or a loaf of bread. The fantasy world is one of fields, villages, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Dragons and renaissance fair costume and pomp.
Quite where ninjas fit into that I am not sure.
When I think of Monks and of your usual fantasy fare I do not think of the 36 chambers of Shaolin, I think of Friar Tuck, I think of the chanting Monks from Monty Python & The Holy Grail. These are the images that come to mind, not a Jackie Chan time travel comedy.
This is not to say that martial arts aren?t cool or appealing, which is likely the reason that the kung fu Monk was chosen for the fantasy games, but the Monks that I remember could be pretty cool too. Friar Tuck was handy with a quarterstaff and a brewing kit after all; add some magic and clerical powers into that and you?re on to a winner.
The existing Cleric class is good, but it is something of a hybrid class and not entirely devoted to the scholarship of divine magic in the way that a Wizard concentrates on arcane magic. The Cleric can look after themselves in a fight, can wear armour and can cast a reasonable amount of magic but there is definitely room for tighter and more focussed divine caster, more limited in other ways. If the Cleric matches the Sorcerer somewhat in terms of versatility then the Monk found here matches the Wizard, a more scholarly and knowledgeable approach.
YOURGAMESNOW
RPGNOW
DRIVETHRURPG
E23
PAIZO
Everybody might like Magical Trevor, but they don't all like magical Assassins.
For those who prefer their killers to be less magical and more knowledgable, those who understand that even people who are 'good' will kill for the greater good or whatever cause they tie their flag to, for those believe that skill is more important than magical gifts, this is for you.
- A modified Assassin prestige class.
- Justifications for every alignment - Even the good may kill for their cause.
- Death Trance - A complete focus on the kill.
- Alignment Masking - Mental training can mask your nature, even from magic.
- Unafraid to Die - The most successful Assassins must be unafraid to die.
- Soul Destruction - Helps prevent pesky resurrections by mutilating the body.
YOURGAMESNOW
RPGNOW
DRIVETHRURPG
E23
PAIZO
The Live System is designed to be a more free-flowing, fast playing & looser interpretation of the Open Gaming system. It contains systems & rules that present a more flowing, less structured & modern updating of the system, stripping out unnecessary complication & updating with standard innovations, such as the removal of levels.
The Live System is faster & deadlier but is more suited to both cinematic style games & to ?harder? settings such as hard science fiction or gritty modern-day adventures.
The Live System may also be used to play standard 3rd & 3.5 edition games with a little conversion work & this SRD should contain enough information for you to be able to do so with little problem.
Reviews & Comments
'An interesting idea. It is essentially a way to make d20 become more of a points-based system. It is like playing GURPS with all of the d20 dice and characteristics.'
YOURGAMESNOW
RPGNOW
DRIVETHRURPG
E23
PAIZO
This creature release in the Freakshow line provides statistics, background information and adventure seeds for Zombies, the shambling horde of relentless undead so popular in games and film.
Freakshow is designed for use with the two leading OGL rules systems and with the Blood! roleplaying game.
The Zombie is a 'creature' from the Blood! corebook and the material here is reproduced with statistics for the two leading OGL systems.
YOURGAMESNOW
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DRIVETHRURPG
E23
PAIZO
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