Hackmaster Basic

Note the way cool Erol Otus cover (in homage to the old D&D cover images).

Take your next step out of the ordinary with the new edition of the HackMaster fantasy role-playing game! Play as a dwarf, elf, halfling, or human, and take the role of a fighter, thief, mage, or cleric, in an epic saga filled with danger and endless excitement.

The HackMaster Basic rulebook has everything you need to start playing, with easy to read rules for new players, and information for GameMasters - including descriptions of over 75 monsters - all with that award-winning, classic HackMaster feel. Come answer the call – adventure awaits!

(160-176 pgs est., b&w; ISBN 1-59459-103-2)

First Look At: The Shield...

As most of you know, come August, we’ll be publishing a number of books spotlighting the Red Circle characters, specifically The Shield, The Web, The Hangman and Inferno, under the watchful eye of writer J. Michael Straczynski. But before we get into all the specifics, let’s look at some cool art, shall we? Here’s a peek at THE SHIELD, from artist Jesus Saiz. Check back tomorrow for more. Enjoy the commute.

Here's a link to some information on the original Shield from a fansite.

GAMA Trade Show Attendance Down 18%

Despite a scaled down exhibitor roster and buyer attendance that dropped 18%, attendees and exhibitors at GAMA Trade Show were surprisingly optimistic over-all, with upbeat hopes for the hobby game business in 2009.

'The show was awesome for us,' Anthony Gallela of Bucephalus Games told us. 'We made 80 or more orders. I had seven salespeople here who were constantly busy. People were very excited, very optimistic about what was going on this year. I didn’t hear any pessimism at all. And they were excited about our line, but they were just excited in general about what they were doing.'

Mongoose to Publish RedBrick Games

Mongoose Publishing has announced that beginning in July it will add games from two other companies, RedBrick Limited and Cubicle 7, to its line. Games from New Zealand company RedBrick Limited will be published under its Flaming Cobra imprint. RedBrick titles planned for release by Mongoose include new editions of the Earthdawn, Fading Suns, Blue Planet, Age of Legend 4E, and Equinox lines. First up is Earthdawn Third Edition, which will be released in July. RedBrick retains full creative control.

Cubicle 7 titles will also be sold by Mongoose, beginning in July. Two releases are planned for July, Victoriana 2nd Edition Core Rulebook, and Starblazer Adventures: The Rock and Roll Space Opera Adventure Game.

KODT Tribute to Dave Arneson

Hasbro 1st-quarter profit falls 47 percent

Hasbro Inc. said Monday that first-quarter profit fell 47 percent as retailers cut back on their inventory, but the toy maker said products tied into new movies like the upcoming Transformers film should boost future results.

The maker of board games such as Clue and Scrabble also said it instituted a salary freeze and is hiring only for critical positions in an effort to cut costs.

'We don't believe these results are a reflection of the underlying strength of our brands,' Chief Executive Brian Goldner said in a conference call. Instead, he said, they were a by-product of retailers cutting inventory levels in the poor economy.

Cult author JG Ballard dies at 78

More than any other, it was Ballard who showed me that SF could be more than just genre fiction. That his death happened without being screamed from the rooftops is a shame for both fans of SF and literature.

The author JG Ballard, famed for novels such as Crash and Empire of the Sun, has died aged 78 after a long illness.

His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill 'for several years' and had died on Sunday morning.

Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Jim Ballard said his books were instead 'picturing the psychology of the future'.

His most acclaimed novel was Empire of the Sun, based on his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China.

Cult of Done

Cult of Done, originally uploaded by spatulated.

Done.

PulpLite20

I had heard much about the Microlite20 rules (and I had even downloaded them at one point) but I never really looked at them that closely. Now that I have, I really like what I am seeing. Enough that I've started working on PulpLite20, my own beefed up take on the ruleset that is focused on pulp gaming (all sorts of pulp gaming I might add).

The core (which I am currently developing) will have all of the rules for play and then the two supplements for it that I've got in my head will cover Modern Occult and Science Fantasy genres. Eventually, there might even be more...depends on my mood and how things are received I guess.

My goals with creating PulpLite20 is to build a ruleset that handles cinematic action in a simple manner with a minimum of stat blocks. I've always like the underlying simplicity of the OGL Fantasy rules (and you know what I'm talking about) but not as much the layers of complexity that have been tacked onto it. Microlite has given me a foundation that I can build upon in the direction that I want.

This is going to be a heavier ruleset than the baseline Microlite but still much, much, much lighter than other OGL Fantasy/Modern alternatives out there. If you're familiar with my Open Core Quick rules, I would like to think that I am developing something similar (maybe a little lighter) to those rules on the heaviness spectrum.

Now, I know that gamers are an impatient lot. I want people to realize that just because I am starting this blog and talking about PulpLite20 that doesn't mean that it is ready to be released out to you. This is just how my thought processes work. This blog just gives a starting point for discussion.

DC Comics Present: Wednesday Comics

The brainchild of DC Comics Art Director Mark Chiarello, WEDNESDAY COMICS is a unique and groundbreaking storytelling method — 16 pages, printed on broadsheet-size newsprint, featuring weekly stories by the best and brightest creators out there. It’s gotta look great, right?