Director’s Briefing – October 2013

 
Welcome to the twenty-eighth Briefing and tenth scheduled Briefing for 2013.
 
HARP
 
I am very pleased to announce that Jonathan Cassie (author of Loot: a Field Guide) has agreed to write a new sourcebook for HARP Folkways, which will cover races, cultures and related matters. We have agreed the outline and the project can now be considered to be in Preproduction, with publication all being well around the middle of next year. ( Loot: a Field Guide will be returning in its enhanced form before that.)
 
The first PoD proof copies of HARP: College of Magics were delivered to Terry and myself middle of September. Although the artwork had behaved itself, the text came out looking too light grey to pass the “bad light” test of being easily readable when the illumination in a room is not ideally placed. So Terry has reworked the InDesign filters and an updated master has been submitted and new proofs ordered.
 
Progress is quietly being made on HARP Bestiary with the first monsters now appearing for team review.
 
The next release of AutoHARP is well underway and we should see the database files for College of Magics and HARP SF Xtreme appear as part of that release.
 
Cyradon
 
The new interior maps for Kausur have arrived making it rather less Strange. Another adventure module, “Escort Duty”, has been commissioned and is now in Preproduction.
 
Rolemaster
 
I have completed a full review of the work in progress drafts of unified Creature Law and Treasure Law and provided my feedback to the authorial team. More work still needed to finish the drafts so that we can get them out for beta. Likewise some more work required before Arms Law, Spell Law and Character Law can be reissued for second beta.
 
The IP negotiations for Stone of Seven Souls have been successful with GCP purchasing the rights to use the 0One maps and reaching an agreement with the module writer, Ido Tamir. Neither had been paid by Mjolnir, rescuing Stone of Seven Souls required both to be amenable to working with us and fortunately both were and are. So Stone of Seven Souls can now be officially designated as being in the Strange state.
 
Shadow World
 
Terry is toiling away on additional adventure material for Emer 3 as well as working on the Early Edition projects. Both he and I have started our review of the Lethys and Priest King of Shade module “works in progress”.
 
CALL FOR SHADOW WORLD ADVENTURES
 
We have been talking about putting out a call for Shadow World adventure material and are now ready to make that call.
 
What we are interested in:
 
1) Adventures suitable for low level (to 5th), medium (6th to 10th), high (11th to 20th) adventuring parties.
 
2) Adventure locations, e..g. sites of interest to adventurers like outposts, fortresses, manses, cavern complexes, Coral Road entrances, etc.
 
3) Adventures and adventure locations for this round should be set in NW or NE Emer, or in Jaiman ( with Xa-ar and Saralis of special interest).
 
4) Adventures and adventure locations must be consistent with canonical material and must not “break” Shadow World – no blowing up cities, killing off canonical NPCs, or derailing existing plotlines. You may submit adventure plots where failure of adventurers to stop some peril will further an existing NPC or faction agenda, likewise PC success should only pose a modest setback to the NPC / faction. Do not create additional factions. All material will be reviewed by Terry for conformance with his vision and canon.
 
5) Please submit a 100 – 200 word synopsis to me at director@guildcompanion.com for our initial review.
 
6) Assuming we are happy with the synopsis, we will invite you to write up your idea as a complete adventure or adventure location. Length should be five thousand to ten thousand words, plus Rolemaster stats ( Classic and RMSS/FRP). All submissions must include any required maps, though we reserve the right to redraw maps to production quality.
 
7) Our intended deadline for full submissions is 31st December 2013.
 
8&#41 In return for copyright transfer, we will pay one US cent per published word, plus a complimentary copy of the final product in pdf and print-on-demand. You will get a full contract at the time of being invited to submit a full manuscript.
 
The goal of this is to create an occasional series of adventure collections for Shadow World along the lines of The Guild Adventurer. Frequency will depend upon sufficient contributions and sales demand; future issues will have additional regions available for setting adventures and locations.
 
Please post any questions on the Shadow World board on the ICE forum.
 
Until next time
 
HARP Bestiary and various other products are clamouring for my attention, so off to work on them. The next scheduled Briefing will be in November.
 
Best wishes,
Nicholas
 
Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd.