It is with great pride and pleasure that Iron Crown Enterprises can announce that all three core rulebooks for Rolemaster Classic (Character Law, Spell Law and Arms Law) are now electrum pick products on RPGNow!
We’re proud of all of our products, but it is always good to see one (let alone three) surpass the bronze and silver pick products to become electrum. A huge thanks to everyone who has bought and supported these products. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Rolemaster Classic
Rolemaster offers advanced and expert role players the opportunity to take part in a game filled with gritty realism and exciting open-ended dice roles where the only limit is your imagination.
Character Law pioneered many of today’s gaming concepts and still sets the standard for fantasy RPG character creation. Character Law offers you the power to create the character of your dreams, from the toughest fighter to the most powerful spell caster.
Arms Law is about fantasy roleplaying combat – the kind that leaves you shaking and bragging to your friends about your character’s exploits. If you prefer safe, ho hum, by-the-numbers RPG combat then Arms Law is not for you. If you are looking for fantasy roleplaying combat that leaves you breathless your quest ends here.
Spell Law is at the heart of the Rolemaster system. Explore new realms of power and plumb the depths of magic without sacrificing playability. Why settle for less when your spellcaster can have it all?
If you haven’t yet tried Rolemaster Classic, you can get the core rules along with supplements such as RMC Creature & Treasures, the Electronic Roleplaying Assistant and Emer III and other Shadow World setting material from RPGNow.
Director’s Briefing – June 2017
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Welcome
To the seventy-third Briefing and the sixth scheduled Briefing of 2017. Its marking season again for me – the worst is now over, but there will be a second spike in the second week of July as summer term module assignments and resit exam scripts turn up.
ICE at GenCon 2017
Another month closer to GenCon. Colin is tracking availability of people to man the stand and run games. We have been asked by fans “Do I have to run game X?” and “Do I have to man the stand?” and similar sorts of questions. The simple answer is that we want all our fans to have fun at GenCon. So if you want to run RMU, HARP, HARP SF, Spacemaster (2nd or Privateers), Rolemaster (Classic or FRP) or Run out the Guns!, then go ahead. Run the game you want to run and run it well, so that you have fun and your players have fun. In terms of manning the stand, we believe we have coverage, but if you want to do some stand work for a couple of hours, let Colin know and he’ll add you to the supporting list.
HARP and HARP SF
Last month, I indicated that there was a three-writer race on who would finish their portion of HARP Bestiary first. I won! I finished the Elemental chapter. All 72 stat blocks completed. Since I knew the marking hurricane was coming, I rewrote the introductory chapter to bring it into alignment with the rest of the manuscript. I also performed an editing pass on John’s chapter on Lycanthropes. In terms of the race, it is now between John finishing the Demon stats and Colin finishing his stat checking. Once both John and Colin are finished, there will be a full manuscript editing sweep, the artwork phase and then the layout phase. As all the monster entries are known, we don’t need to wait on John or Colin. I need to create the big list of illos required, we (and it will probably be Terry and I) need to determine which illos can be met from existing art resources, and for which illos we would like new art, and then get artists underway on those new illos.
Last month, I indicated that we had received a very strong proposal for HARP Subterfuge. I am delighted to say that the author (who wishes to remain anonymous at this time) is now under contract with us. Elsewhere Jon Cassie is still working quietly away on HARP Beyond the Veil (the divine sourcebook) and Sam Orton is fortifying himself with work on HARP Strongholds. In HARP SF, I am equally delighted to report that Clint Fell is formally under contract for HARP SF Vehicles Compendium, and that Joel Lovell has been producing additional art for his Poseidon Gambit adventure module. I have distracted Joel, however, with some cartography work.
Adventure Modules
Andrew and Heleen Durston have asked to be released from their contract on the “Trail of the Corrupt” adventure module for personal reasons. They have generously offered their working notes to anyone who would like to take over the project.
Brad White has completed his full draft of the “Garden of Rain” adventure module and that is now in my editorial intray.
Having been released from the critical writing path for HARP Bestiary and with Bestiary now essentially stable, a number of projects can now advance (as they are no longer waiting on monster stat blocks). I have already completed a full editing pass on Chris Seal’s A Wedding in Axebridge module. We have a gorgeous front cover and some fantastic new additional interior art already – Joel is reworking Chris’ sketch maps and plans. I have to essentially drop in the new monsters stats from Bestiary and then this module will be ready for layout. The only question is whether the new version of A Wedding in Axebridge will have enough pages to be viable in a printed edition as well as a pdf edition.
Rolemaster and ERA
Jonathan and Joeri are still crunching monsters for Creature Law. I am currently trying to figure out how best to perform my editing pass on the other RMU books –I am fairly certain that large portions of the editing won’t be sensible to undertake on my tablet. Still experimenting with what works and what does not.
Max has been updating ERA to include RMFRP flaws in the RMSS/FRP datasets, fixing some bugs and preparing ERA for future support of RMU. Updated datasets can be downloaded from the OneBookShelf network.
Computer Software Projects
As those of you who read these Briefings on a regular basis are likely aware, I am a computing professor at the University of Suffolk. Officially I am Professor of Information Systems Engineering (so almost Professor of ICE) and one of my big tasks has been to expand the computing portfolio at Suffolk, sometimes in concert with other teams. The next degree we expect to validate will be a MSc in Computer Games Development, as a postgraduate taught progression route for undergraduates.
So why do you care?
Firstly in the UK, all undergraduates do some form of final-year project. For students on our BA Hons Computer Games Design and BSc Hons Computer Games Programming degrees, they do final-year projects and other projects throughout their programmes which typically involve the creation of game software artefacts of varying complexity, so that they have portfolios to show to future employers. Secondly, the intention of the MSc Computer Games Development degree is to go beyond this with student teams forming virtual companies to develop software from conception to release. Wearing my ICE hat, I offered my colleagues in computer gaming the opportunity to have their students create games for our rules systems and settings, whether these be desktop, web or mobile app games. My colleagues are keen to run with this.
We would be interested in hearing your ideas for what sort of computer games you would like to see created using ICE rules and worlds. I have already suggested that something like Baldur’s Gate but using HARP rules and the Cyradon setting would be great. Post your ideas on our forums.
I should note that there are still places available on our undergraduate gaming degrees for September 2017; once we have the MSc Computer Games Development validated, we will be able to accept students on that programme – we may even run a cohort in September 2017.
Until next time
Back to a mix of writing and editing. The next scheduled Briefing will be in July 2017.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
Magical businesses that should be in your RPG
There are a number of reasons that magical businesses may not be present in your roleplaying game. Perhaps magic is particularly rare or difficult to manage, perhaps magic is regarded with distrust by the majority of the population or perhaps the mages guilds restrict magical businesses to protect their own interests and ensure that the guilds remain the only place to go for magical help and advice. Even if all of these are true, there is always space for a black market ‘dealer’ in your campaign world.
So whether your businesses are ‘off the radar’ and demanding coin from a population who have nowhere else to go or established, respected businesses in large population centres, here are some ideas for magical businesses that you don’t often find in role playing games:
Long door travel agents
In a world where coach and horse is one of the fastest forms of transportation, the rich and powerful would no doubt be interested in ways of reaching their destinations quicker and with less risk of being held up by bandits. Businesses that offer (for a small fee of course) to use long door spells to transport people to popular destinations or teleportation spells (for a much larger fee) to transport people to exactly where they want to be would no doubt be a popular choice.
Illusion casting services
Beyond their uses to trick and confuse people, I imagine illusions would be pretty popular amongst the lonely (and perhaps perverse) of the population. A pet that doesn’t require any upkeep, a silent companion with which to while away the hours or an alluring member of the opposite sex to join you on the quiet nights in alone. Whatever it is you’re looking for, illusion casting services will no doubt be able to oblige and be very discrete in doing so.
Protections/security businesses
This one is pretty obvious, but if guards and common thugs are popular in your setting, why wouldn’t magical based security be just as popular. As well as enchanted vaults and mischievous traps, magical security businesses will no doubt make a lot of their money from common people who want to protect the few valuables they have or less desirable individuals who would like to avoid being taken by surprised or spied upon by their enemies.
Animal wranglers / Pest control
If Medieval times were anything to go by, fantasy settings would be rife with pests and unwanted animals. Rats, mice, insects, wolves, bears and dragons would all cause major problems. In a fantasy setting however, people wouldn’t just have to live with it. There are plenty of ways that magic could help cope with the problem. Whether using illusions to scare off animals, mind control to convince the animals to move on or familiars to chase off unwanted pests, there would be plenty of demand for magical pest control from all sorts of different people.
Spying/PI
With some magic users being able to eaves drop using magic, make themselves invisible or get into rooms that others simply can’t get into, commercial spies or private investigators would be in high demand in most fantasy settings. From guilds looking to steal secrets from competitors to poor farmers wanting to check on the fidelity of their spouses, there would always be demand for someone in this type of work. The flip side of this of course would be that gangs of stealthy magic users may begin spying on rich individuals and using what they find to extort money from them. Why spend hours spying on a farmer’s wife for a pittance when you can blackmail a rich noble for ten times as much in half the time?
Lie detectors
Perhaps there is a reason that lie detection spells wouldn’t be used to identify guilty parties in terms of crime (though I can’t think of one), but there will always be a demand for this kind of magic from the general public. I suspect it would mostly be jealous husbands and wives or business owners trying to weed out thieves. The cost of using the service would be relatively low, however, magic users in this kind of business could make money on the side by suggesting that the person is telling the truth and extort “a small fee” from them later as a “thank you” for not ratting them out.
Weather reporters
With farming and shipping relying so much on the weather, it is odd that weather reporters aren’t more prevalent in fantasy settings. Surely a magic user that focussed entirely on foreseeing changes in weather or being able to manipulate the weather when necessary would be worth their weight in gold aboard a trading ship? Because of this I imagine they would be freelance individuals touting their abilities at docks rather than shop-owning businesses.
There are plenty of other ideas for magical businesses; repair shops, demolition crews, fortune tellers, dream/sleep merchants and light sellers for instance. If you have ideas on other magical businesses, thoughts on the ones I’ve proposed or want to discuss how magic works in your RPG or campaign setting, feel free to do so on the ICE forum using this thread.
Creatures and Treasures II now a silver pick product
Here at Iron Crown Enterprises we’re really pleased with the longevity of our games and the fact that even our older products continue to be a popular choice. This is why we’re so happy when an older product reaches new heights of popularity. We’re so excited to announce that Creatures and Treasures II is now a silver pick product on RPGNow!
A huge thanks to everyone who has bought and supported this product and of course to everyone involved in its creation.
Buy Creatures and Treasures II >>
Creatures and Treasures II
Creatures & Treasures II is a Rolemaster bestiary offering complete descriptions and game stats for hundreds of fantasy beasts, including Composite Monsters, Artificial Beings, and Entities from Deep Space! Also included are revised and reformatted guidelines for generating random treasure hoards, along with a huge listing of Modest, Potent, Most Potent and Artifact magic items. There are also a number of random encounter charts specifically designed for the monsters found in this volume.
Creatures & Treasures II, in the tradition of the immensely popular original C&T, is an invaluable supplement offering information and stats for the three key elements of fantasy role-playing: creatures, treasures and encounters. Although designed for use with the Rolemaster system, it is easily adaptable to most other role playing systems.
As a bonus, this book provides a section on incorporating magic items into adventure narrative – a great aid for most GMs!
Creatures & Treasures II includes:
- Game statistics, descriptions, and illustrations for a wide variety of fantasy animals and beasts.
- Tables for generating random treasures and encounters.
- Descriptions for a multitude of magic items.
Publisher’s Note: This product was created from image scans and its quality is therefore imperfect. It is a searchable pdf
Buy Creatures and Treasures II >>
Director’s Briefing – May 2017
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Welcome
To the seventy-second Briefing and the fifth scheduled Briefing of 2017.
ICE at GenCon 2017
Another month closer to GenCon. Colin is gathering information on who is available to assist on the stand, who will be running games, and so forth. We will be determining how many copies of which products we need printed and organising with Pointy Hat Games the sanest way of getting the books to GenCon. Lots and lots of details to sort out.
HARP
We made the very minor corrections to HARP Fantasy and the updated pdf has been uploaded. If you purchased the pdf and have not downloaded the update, please do so. We have also updated the print masters, and HARP Fantasy is now available again in softcover and hardcover. (Again, for the avoidance of doubt, none of the changes are significant – it is a handful of numbers in the monsters chapter and the category heading in the master skill table – so if you already own a printed softcover or hardcover of HARP Fantasy, you do not need to buy another copy unless you actually need another copy.)
The print masters for HARP Folkways arrived and both Terry and I can report that we are very happy with how they turned out. HARP Folkways is now available on OneBookShelf in pdf, softcover, and hardcover.
Buy HARP Folkways now >>
On HARP Bestiary, it is a three-writer race as to whether John, Colin or I will finish first. John has been making headway on statting the Demons. Colin could snatch victory at any point where there is a pause in GenCon preparations as he is down to double-checking his stats, and I’m a third of the way through totalling up skill bonuses on Elementals. Over the next week or so, you will find me on the Cambridge-Ipswich trains with the Elemental chapter open in Word and a stat array spreadsheet open in Excel on my tablet at the same time and a printout of the master skill table in my other hand.
Some time ago, we put out a call for proposals on various new HARP projects. I received a really strong proposal for HARP Subterfuge and am currently discussing it with the prospective author.
AutoHARP for HARP
Version 2.2 of AutoHARP Architect has been released so if you already own a copy of this software, please update at your earliest convenience. There will be a version 2.3 of AutoHARP and there will be a AutoHARP Folkways dataset, released with the 2.3 edition.
Rolemaster
Jonathan and Joeri are still crunching numbers on Creature Law. Obviously the second race is my hand calculations on 50 monster blocks for HARP Bestiary versus Jonathan’s mastery of the spreadsheet on hundreds of different monsters.
Shadow World
Terry is pushing himself extremely hard to get two new products ready for GenCon 2017. Haalkitaine is still first on his list, with an enhanced version of Jaiman being pulled forward to be the second targeted product.
Until next time
Now where was I? Climbing is Ag and SD, Chi Defense is …
The next scheduled Briefing will be in June 2017.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
Iron Crown Enterprises at Gen Con
In case you (somehow) managed to miss it: IRON CROWN ENTERPRISES ARE GOING TO GENCON!
We’ve been away for many years, but this year ICE is heading to GenCon 50. We will be sharing a stand with Pointy Hat Games (one of whose principals is Aaron Smalley who worked on Dun Cru and City of Archendurn) and will be selling our wares, talking to fans and encouraging everyone to get involved with ICE through its games, website and forum.
Due to a number of our senior management team being unavailable for the event, we will be relying heavily on members of The Order of the Iron Crown and other volunteers at the convention while we manage things from this side of the pond.
As our first GenCon in a long time, we will be ‘testing the water’ a little bit as to what is involved, what is required and how to make the most of it. While we’ve learned a lot from the past few years of attending Dragonmeet in London, GenCon is a different kettle of fish and we’re really excited to be taking on this new challenge.
So what’s next? In short: A lot of hard work. We’ll be sorting the stand, the products, the legalities as well as organising volunteers, promoting our attendance and encouraging people to come and see us.
What can you do to help? Tell everyone that will listen that ICE will be at GenCon 50 and encourage them to come and see us at the stand. If you’re attending GenCon yourself, feel free to let us know on THIS FORUM THREAD. If you ARE attending and want to run an ICE game or help out on the stand, feel free to GET IN TOUCH.
We’re really excited about once again running a stall at GenCon, re-engaging with fans from the past and gaining new followers. None of this would have been possible without you, our stalwart fans who have been with us through thick and thin. Join us on this next adventure and cry “Long live the Iron Crown!”
Creature modules for ERA available now!
Continuing the success of the brilliant Electronic Roleplaying Assistant (ERA), Iron Crown Enterprises are pleased to announced the release of two new modules for the amazing e-support product: ERA for Rolemaster RMC Creatures and ERA for Rolemaster RMFRP Creatures!
You can get these new modules from RPGNow for just $9.95 by following the links below:
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMC Creatures >>
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMFRP Creatures>>
Creature Modules
With the RMC Creatures package for ERA, you get 451 creature templates to choose from in your adventures. In the RMFRP package, you get 778 creature templates to choose from.
The RMC Creature module brings you information on movement, attacks, defenses and critical resolution for each and every entry in RMC Creatures and Treasures, while the RMFRP module brings you the same from the much loved RMFRP Creatures and Monsters
Dragons can be sent sweeping down to breath fire, and killer rabbits can be added to smile upon the party. Plants, demons, unicorns, and more, all included in these modules!
Electronic Roleplaying Assistant
This module is an add-on feature package for ERA for Rolemaster which is available for free from RPGNow.
ERA allows players to create their characters using a step by step wizard, level them up and configure all details in terms of stats, skills and special abilities. These characters can then be added to a running campaign in the adventuring module from which the game master can control all aspects of the game including resolving maneuvers, resistances, resting, and of course, spell casting and combat.
Try ERA for free >>
Love ERA? Check out our complete range of addition modules:
Rolemaster Classic
Character Law
Spell Law
Arms Law
Armory
Shadow World Module
Combat Companion
Rolemaster Companion I
Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing
Core and Character Law
Spell Law
Arms Law
The Armory
Shadow World Module
Combat Companion
Mentalism Companion
Essence Companion
Channeling Companion
Arcane Companion
Director’s Briefing – April 2017
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Welcome
To the seventy-first Briefing and the fourth scheduled Briefing of 2017. Much news and two more software datasets to announce.
ICE at GenCon 2017
ICE will be present at GenCon 50. I will say that again, ICE will be at GenCon 50 in Indianapolis in August.
We (*) will be sharing a booth with Pointy Hat Games, one of whose principals is Aaron Smalley , who has freelanced for us in the past (City of Archendurn, Dun Cru), is working on a project for us at the moment (No Quarter under the Crown), and is frequently on the ICE forums. Pointy Hat Games will be taking point for us on the ground at the convention. Colin will be masterminding various parts of the logistics and support.
Some of you will already have been contacted by Colin regarding GenCon. We are looking for volunteers to help with booth staffing and to run games. There will be prize support for GMs and players. Expect lots of news from Colin about GenCon and preparations from now onwards.
(*) is the corporate “we”. Unfortunately GenCon 50 is sufficiently late in August that it clashes with university clearing in the UK. I am expected to be available to make decisions on whether prospective students who did not apply to the University of Suffolk originally should be offered a place on our degree programmes. Hopefully I will get to GenCon 2018.
HARP
One of our customers reported that the HARP Fantasy printed book that he had just received did not match his pdf version and seemed to have errors in it that were not in the pdf. As a precautionary measure, I made the print-on-demand versions temporarily unavailable. A careful investigation revealed that the customer had not refreshed his pdf version and so was looking at an old pdf. Downloading the current version of the pdf from OneBookShelf ensured that pdf and print copy now matched. I have collated all the errata from the forum thread and asked Terry if he can gently adjust the pdf to fix these and we will update the pdf and the print masters.
Please Note: None of the changes are significant. It is essentially a handful of numbers in the monsters chapter and a category heading in the master skill table. So if you already own a printed softcover or hardcover of HARP Fantasy, you do not need to buy another copy. (Unless you actually need another copy.)
We released HARP Folkways last month as a pdf and the first wholly new fantasy sourcebook for HARP Fantasy. Many of you have already purchased the pdf edition (thank you), and some of you kindly spotted a handful of errors which escaped my editorial eye. We have corrected those errors and I have written and added several pages of new material providing height, weight, age and Blood Talents for all the new races as well as extracting more of the racial talents so that they are priced and purchasable by other characters. The pdf has been updated (so please download the new version if you were an early adopter) and will remain available at the discount price until the 11th April (so don’t delay). Terry has worked his magic and the print masters have already been submitted to and approved by OneBookShelf. Once both Terry and I receive our respective proof copies and declare our happiness, we will put the print editions on sale.
Buy HARP Folkways now >>
On HARP Bestiary, I have been toiling away on writing up the stat blocks for the Elementals chapter. There are six “groupings” of Elementals in the chapter – Servitors, Steeds, Destriers, Hunters, Savants and Warriors. However there are four Elements, so you might think that makes for twenty-four stat blocks. Incorrect. There are actually 72 stat blocks required as the Hunters, Savants and Warriors have five Classes of might for each element, so 4 (Servitors) + 4 (Steeds) + 4 (Destriers) + 20 (5×4 Hunters) + 20 (5×4 Savants) + 20 (5×4 Warriors) = 72. The only sane way of creating this many stat blocks is to employ the industrial process of an assembly line. Hence I constructed the skeletons for all 72 first, then populated it with treasure code, outlook, skills ranks and talents. I am currently working on the spell choices for all the Savants. Once that’s done, I will calculate skill bonuses, and transcribe the needful items such as RRs and so forth into the summary blocks, and then calculate the BMR for them all. At that point, all 72 stat blocks are complete and the only thing remaining for the chapter is the two master summary tables. I also took the executive decision in February that as John Duffield had completed his chapters ahead of me, it was only appropriate to reward him by letting him stat up the Demons. The serious reason is that I need to be off the critical writing path for Bestiary as soon as possible as there is a backlog of editing to be done and I need to be revising Something Wicked and organising other projects.
Rolemaster
John and I are not the only folk crunching numbers. Jonathan and Joeri are crunching a lot more numbers. Final tweaks are being made to talent costs (3 DPs for +5 resistance talents was cited) and to some racial stats. The spreadsheets will then be taking a pummeling as the creatures (and there’s a lot more of them than six or seventy-two!) are recreated.
ERA for Rolemaster
Everyone seems to be working on monsters. Max has been toiling away on two new datasets for ERA. These are RMC Creatures which has 451 creature templates from the creatures portion of RMC Creatures & Treasures, and RMFRP Creatures which has 778 creature templates extracted from RMFRP Creatures & Monsters.
Both datasets are now available from OneBookShelf at the following links:
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMC Creatures >>
Buy ERA for Rolemaster RMFRP Creatures >>
You will need to update the core ERA package and if you have purchased any of the Rolemaster Companion I, RMFRP Arcane Companion and/or Shadow World datasets, then you need to download the updates for these as well.
Shadow World
Terry is reporting good progress on the new enhanced edition of Haalkitaine.
Until next time
I am going to do more elemental stat work and see if I can get this finally finished. Expect lots of news from Colin on GenCon in his newsletter. The next scheduled Briefing will be in May 2017.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd.
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
HARP Folkways out now!
In case you missed it in this month’s Director’s Briefing (in which case sign up HERE to get the briefing delivered straight to your inbox and never miss out again), Iron Crown Enterprises are pleased to announce the release of a BRAND NEW rules supplement for High Adventure Role Playing (HARP) Fantasy: HARP Folkways!
HARP Folkways is not a re-make or a re-print of an older product, but a completely brand new product written by Jonathan Cassie. With roughly 70% of the book being rules agnostic, HARP Folkways is a great buy whatever system you play.
For a limited time only you can now buy the new HARP Folkways for just $10 from RPGNow (normal price $15). However, this offer won’t last forever so buy it quick!
BUY HARP FOLKWAYS >>
Harp Folkways
HARP Folkways allows you to enrich your characters and your world with unparalleled cultural depth. Explore the diversity of cultures across twenty folkways drawing upon our world and fantasy classics. Make your own unique cultures by defining how they handle matters of kinship, authority and the supernatural, how they dress and what they eat, and more. With worked examples including cultures from Shadow World and Cyradon, this product is a must see!
HARP Folkways provides GMs and players with:
- The Twenty Folkways – a technique to create believable cultures for any setting
- A cultural perspective on well-known fantasy worlds from literature
- Practical examples of culture creation including examples from Shadow World and Cyradon
- Eleven new HARP races
- Six new HARP cultural adolescence packages
- Ten new HARP professions
- New skills and talents
- Twenty-three new HARP training packages
Buy Harp Folkways >>
Want more for your game of HARP Fantasy? You can also get the Martial Law, College of Magics and HARP Loot rules supplements or HARP-SF and HARP-SF Xtreme from RPGNow. In addition there are a number of e-support product to help run your campaign including AutoHARP.
Director’s Briefing – March 2017
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Welcome
To the seventieth Briefing and the third scheduled Briefing of 2017.
HARP Folkways
We are very pleased to announce the arrival of a new addition to the HARP Fantasy line, namely the wholly new HARP Folkways.
HARP Folkways is not an enhanced edition. It is a brand new shiny book written by Jonathan Cassie (author of HARP Loot which we released last year) and beautifully illustrated by Maria Duffield, Rick Hansen and Raymond Gaustadnes.
HARP Folkways will help you enrich your world by giving you new tools to create believable and unique cultures. Jonathan describes and explains how to apply twenty folkways to design cultures. The folkways cover the range from environment, through kinship, authority, and the supernatural to dress and food. He draws upon examples from our world and from fantasy classics, and presents four full-blown worked examples, including the Orsai from Cyradon, and from Shadow World, the Lydians and Ochu of the Vasai Republic.
HARP Folkways introduces eleven new playable, yet unusual, races. These are the Amarvish minotaurs, the draconian Bentaxa, the avian Faleeka, the Gordaz ratfolk, the Hehn centaurs, the feline Kenra, the amphibious Menomonee, the giant Navrothor of the frozen north, the bestial Queequayth, the gregarious Tomalak, and the Vengha who dwell in the underdeeps. Six new culture packages support the new races.
HARP Folkways introduces ten new professions – Artisan, Athlete, Hunter, Intellectual, Laborer, Sailor, Scoundrel, Seeker, Trader and Valet. As a GM, you can use these professions to represent the ordinary folk of your world. However, all of these have been designed to be balanced with existing HARP Fantasy professions so they have twenty professional skill ranks, level bonuses and appropriate professional talents. They are therefore eminently suitable for characters who have greatness thrust upon them through unexpected circumstances or players seeking a non-magical route that isn’t pure combat or stealth. For GMs running high adventure but low magic, these new professions will greatly expand the range of available archetypes.
HARP Folkways also adds over twenty new training packages, new skills and new talents to support the new races and professions.
HARP Folkways is available now in pdf from the OneBookShelf network. The normal price is 15 USD, but we are offering a special one-month introductory discount price of 10 USD.
Buy HARP Folkways now >>
Until next time
We will cover progress on other products in the next scheduled Briefing, which will be in April 2017
Best wishes,
Nicholas
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd.
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.