Friday, March 1, 2013

The Friday Roundup (030113)


Kind of late with this tonight, with everything else I have going on. I have a lot to share, so I will be doing a new VLOG in the near future (now that I have a decent camera thanks to housemate Joey).

In the meantime, on with this week's Roundup -

Bulletproof Blues

Bulletproof Blues is a "rules light" superhero roleplaying game set in the world-famous universe of Kalos Comics, creators of Paragon, Rook, Antiope, Doctor Arcane, and the rest of the Justifiers, as well as sinister organizations like Aegis and GORGON, and mysterious entities like The Bride. From the ancient ruins of Lemuria to the far reaches of the Hausdorff Dimension, the Kalos Universe is now yours to explore.

The Kalos Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles published by Kalos Comics take place, including those featuring Kalos' most familiar characters, such as Paragon, Swan, and the members of Vanguard.

The Kalos Universe is further depicted as existing within a "multiverse" consisting of a large number of separate universes, all of which are the creations of Kalos Comics and all of which are, in a sense, "Kalos universes". In this context, "Kalos Universe" is taken to refer to the mainstream Kalos continuity, which is known as Earth Zero or Earth-0.

The universe of Earth-0 has no particular significance in comparison to that of Earth-1 or any other universe -- the name is simply a convenience. A more technically accurate nomenclature would define the "Kalos Universe" in terms of its "location" in the multiverse within 196,883 dimensional space. Since this would require the listing of 196,883 coordinates, "Earth-0", "Earth-162", "Earth-4661", etc., is a convenient shorthand.

Complete Warrior (3.5)

Forge your name in battle!

The Complete Warrior provides you with an in-depth look at combat and provides detailed information on how to prepare a character for confrontation.

This title was not only compiled from various D&D sources, but contains new things as well, including new battle-oriented character classes, prestige classes, combat maneuvers, feats, spells, magic items, and equipment. The prestige classes included have been revised and updated based on player feedback, and there are rules for unusual combat situations. The Complete Warrior will assist all class types, including those classes not typically associated with melee combat. There are also tips on running a martially focused campaign and advice on how to make your own prestige classes and feats.

To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. A player needs only the Player's Handbook.

Reworking Class Options. The three new classes in this offering are the hexblade, the samurai, and the swashbuckler. At least two of these would previously have been prestige classes built for the fighter, and it's interesting that they've been broken out into full classes to allow players to embrace the concepts from day one. As base classes, all three provide solid and balanced character concepts. If you plan to be swinging on chandeliers and tossing cloaks over your foes' heads from early in your adventuring career, the swashbuckler is a good choice for you. The hexblade is even more intriguing, a cross between a fighter and a curse-tossing sorcerer who would make a superb anti-hero.

Even the previously published prestige classes revisited in this book have generally been reworked significantly for flavor and balance. Not all are 10-level classes, either, allowing players to expand their character options without major commitment. As always, beware the frenzied berserker (a common quote from a typical game: "Why won't he DIE?!?"), but the mixture of prestige classes gives players options that fill flavorful, specific niches. Several of these hearken back to earlier editions, with the cavalier modeling the original class in AD&D's Unearthed Arcana and the Bladesinger echoing 2nd ed. AD&D's elven “kit” for fighter/mages.

The best prestige classes are those that provide flavor without the expense of too little (or too much) combat power. The mindspy, for instance, is a 5-level prestige class often seen in doppelgangers and mind flayers. It allows the warrior to quickly scan opponents’ minds and anticipate their every move. Even in a game without psionics, this is a class that works just as well out of combat as it does within a melee.

Deadlands Noir Original Soundtrack (audio product)

Noir is about mood, and mood is made by music. Give your Deadlands Noir game a feeling you can’t get any other way—set the tone with the Deadlands Noir Original Soundtrack.

This download contains nine original tracks by Harry Mack. That’s a full hour of music made specifically for your Deadlands Noir game that you just won’t find anywhere else.

Deadlands Noir is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game set in the world of Pinnacle Entertainment’s award-winning Deadlands universe. It includes new Edges, Hindrances, and powers, as well as new rules for handling detective work, the state of the Union and the CSA in the Depression-era, a complete Plot Point campaign, and of course, more monsters and ghouls than you can shake a smoking .45 automatic at.

Deadlands Noir is not a complete game. It requires the Savage Worlds core rules to play. The PDF is fully bookmarked with a hyperlinked table of contents and index. The PDF is also layered to serve as its own printer-friendly version. Full color, full-size (8.5″ x 11″ pages), 144 pages.

Tenra Bansho Zero: Heaven and Earth Edition

Almost a decade ago, Japanese artist and game designer Junichi Inoue sat down to create what was, in his own words, a uniquely and unmistakably "Hyper Asian" Japanese world: a world of magic and technology, of samurai and Taoist sorcery, of powerful mecha and cultured geisha. The world was named Tenra, and the game was named Tenra Bansho, or "Everything in Heaven and Earth."

With a rulebook dripping cover-to-cover with high-quality anime-style art, a setting rich in culture both real and fantastical, and a revised and simplified rules system that focused with precision on roleplaying and character drama, this game took the Japanese tabletop RPG market by storm and spearheaded both a renaissance and revolution in the Japanese gaming industry.

Years later, this unique and revolutionary game has finally been painstakingly translated into English for play in the West!

TENRA BANSHO ZERO

Tenra Bansho Zero is a unique tabletop roleplaying experience, and it features the following:

PDF Optimization

This product contains two versions of the game:

The original high-quality art-filled, full-color setting and rules books, together in electronic tablet-optimized US graphic novel size (700 total pages)
A text-only indexed version of all of the content of the setting and rules books at US Letter/A4 size for easy reference and printing (510 total pages; with large font and spacing for readability; effectively 150 pages of text for normal book proportions)

Breathtaking Art

Over 300 unique pieces of art appear throughout; there are 33 full-color manga story pages that introduce players to the world and setting features, and ten rules explanations, also in manga form, assist with fast rules retention. The art is done by the formidable hand of Junichi Inoue, the fine brush-work of Hiroyuki Ishida, the comical impact of Hayami Rasenjin, and more!

With layout for the English edition by industry expert Luke Crane (Mouse Guard RPG, Burning Wheel RPG), you've never seen a game like this.

Incredible Content

Two books: A full-color Setting book and a black-and-white Rules and Play book. The books together boast a page count of almost 700 total pages! The huge amount of art, combined with the detailed deep-dive explanations and play advice, will give you your money's worth in usable content.

Incomparable Richness

A rich Japanese setting involving a planet in a constant state of war, where magic fuels technology and the culture is an analogue of the "Warring States" (Sengoku) era of Japan. Mecha, sorcery, samurai, geisha, monks, cyborgs, annelid-users, and more make this game a truly unique - and deeply Japanese - experience.

Quick to Learn

A simple-to-understand rules system utilizing regular six-sided dice, cleverly explained in both detailed text examples and amusing full-page manga art. On top of a woven system of skills, attributes, action, and combat is overlaid a deeper system of kabuki theater-style play: Focusing very specifically on play through Acts, Scenes, and Intermissions, the players of this game are both the actors and audience: As actors, they focus on roleplay in a scene with other actors; and as audience (much like the audience of a kabuki play), they focus on the drama that unfolds, rewarding the players for dramatic actions and cool ad-libbed lines.

Speed

An entire campaign, a story from start to finish, can be told over the space of one to two sessions! You can then choose to play the same characters in another tale, or perhaps retire them to look at another facet of life on Tenra.

All-in-One

The original Japanese game had a core rulebook, a supplement, and later several mail-order-only mini-supplements. The data/rules content and much of the art has been ported and folded into the English book set (originally $145 USD for all of that material if you were to buy it when it came out), including errata and designer suggestions.

This is a truly updated version of the game!

Due Vigilance- SixGun

Lock and load!

Vigilance Press is proud to present Due Vigilance Issue 3: SixGun!

Private Military Companies are becoming more and more common, exchanging higher costs for better trained and better equipped military specialists. In a world where people in spandex can juggle armored personnel carriers, they need to be even better trained and better equipped! Enter SixGun, a team of cybernetic super-soldiers who will work for anyone if the price is right. Author Rick Jones brings you a team of ruthlessly efficient, battle-hardened foes for your Mutants and Masterminds Third Edition campaign, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.

No battle theater is off-limits for these six cyborgs. Marauder, Camo, 3Chelon, Headcase, Deadeye, and “Spot” have the technology and the skill to strike anywhere the money leads them. With art by Alex Williamson, Yad-Ming Mui, Denise Jones, and Jesse Justice, this full-color book brings illustrations for the team, their gear, and their support personnel. We also include full-color standees for you to use at the gaming table.

If you’re not familiar with Private Military Companies, fear not, we’ve included an essay on their history and how they operate… both in the real world, and in the world of your own Superhero campaigns. We also include background and history for the insidious Orion Private Security, whose mysterious connection to SixGun is still classified “Eyes-Only” for the Game Master.

So make one final gear check, and prepare for a fierce battle. SixGun is ready, are you?

Sanguine et Aurum! Blood and Gold!

~~~

I think this is one of the better collections I've presented so far. Lots of stuff very worthy of your interest.

Have a great weekend, and I hope you rolls some dice at some point.

~SPF

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