Director’s Briefing – September 2017

 
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Welcome
 
To the seventy-sixth Briefing and the ninth scheduled Briefing of 2017.
 
 
ICE at GenCon 2017
 
Reports from our representatives at GenCon 50 indicate that the convention was a success. Many fans of ICE’s products going way back were delighted to discover that there is still an ICE, that we still make great games and that there will be a new Rolemaster edition. Colin will be bringing you the after-action reports, but I would like to say thank you to Aaron, Monte, Mark, Bruce and Andrew and all the other volunteers for all their hard work in making it possible for this incarnation of ICE to attend and have a successful GenCon.
 
 
ICE at GenCon 2018?
 
Yes. We’ve already agreed with Pointy Hat Games that we should combine forces again for next year’s GenCon.
 
 
Shadow World
 
Terry is still hard at work on the enhanced version of Jaiman. Concurrently we have Craig John creating some of his splendid illustrations for Jaiman.
 
 
HARP, HARP SF and Adventure Modules
 
On HARP Bestiary, Colin has submitted all his updates for the normal and dangerous animals chapter and his water monsters chapter, so only has to write his portion of the introductory chapter (he and Thom were probably hoping I would forget that they owe me some designer notes!) John Duffield is still battling demon stats in the Abyss. I should have a clear evening or two this month to work out what new art we need to commission and what of our existing art resources can be reused for Bestiary. (I can work out the big list of required art on the train with my tablet, but playing match the art need to existing art needs more screen estate and easier multitasking.) If I am really clever, I will do this in a sufficiently systematic fashion that the resulting spreadsheet / database will make the same process for RMU Creature Law much less painful.
 
“A Wedding in Axebridge” (by Chris Seal) is with Terry for layout, jostling for his attention with Jaiman. A firsst layout draft is expected in a week or so. Chris Seal has already sent me several large chunks of the Caer Glais draft, his followup campaign module, and I’ve made a small preview of its deep history for the Guild Companion.
 
I completed my editing pass of the draft of the Garden of Rain adventure module by Brad White. It is really good. I have asked Brad to add in RMSS/FRP and RM Classic stats. Brad has already written RMU stat blocks (compatible with Beta 2). Dependent on timings and whether any elements of RMU change that affect what Brad used, the RMU stats will either be in the book or will be available as a free download.
 
I have started the revisions to the manuscript previously known as Something Wicked, carefully removing material from the professions chapter that has been covered elsewhere. There will be at least four new professions introduced – the Demonologist, the Mentalist, the Warlock/Witch, and the Wildmage. The Demonologist and the Mentalist are intended as additional variant Mage professions, such that the Demonologist is the magical counterpoint to the Elementalist and the Mentalist is the magical counterpoint to the Thaumaturge. The Warlock/Witch is intended to support the literary and fantasy stereotypes of the classical witch and witches’ coven. The Wildmage is a self-taught magical practitioner whose spell set is as individual as they are. In Rolemaster terms, the Wildmage is closest in spirit to the Rolemaster Arcane Companion’s Chaotic – unlike the Chaotic, the Wildmage does not have a fixed set of spells – they are assigned semi-randomly.
 
HARP currently lacks a full-blown caster of mental magic. The original College of Magics manuscript introduced a caster known as the Mystic, but for space reasons, it was omitted from the 2004 published edition. As the focus of the reworked “Mystic” spells will occupy the same conceptual space as Rolemaster’s Mentalist and Seer professions, calling it a Mentalist makes sense. Looking to the future, a HARP Mentalist profession will make it easier to support Shadow World using HARP mechanics.
 
 
ERA for Rolemaster and RMU
 
Max has been busy creating another dataset for ERA. This time he brings us the RMSS/FRP Fire & Ice: The Elemental Companion dataset. This is available now from OneBookShelf.
 
He is also carefully adjusting ERA so that it will be able to handle the transition to RMU mechanics seamlessly, and is in conversations with the RMU team on various rules issues and clarifications.
 
 
Until next time
 
Back to editing drafts, writing my own and gently nagging freelancers. The next scheduled Briefing will be in October 2017.
 
Best wishes,
Nicholas
 
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
 
 
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