This is an interesting system, using only 1D6 rolls for everything. It's also by some fairly good authors including Ken Walton, an active gamer in Britain in the 70s-80s and one of the authors of my all-time favorite story-telling game, Into the Dark Continent:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/OneDice

"This offer features the quick and flexible OneDice universal RPG system by Cakebread & Walton (Renaissance, Clockwork & Chivalry). With a OneDice rulebook, a solitary six-sided die, and just a few minutes of prep time, you can create characters and start running an adventure in any genre -- fantasy, science fiction, pulp, steampunk, superheroes, you name it.

To create a OneDice character, divide six points among the attributes Strong, Clever, Quick, and possibly a genre-specific ability like Magic or Cyber. These determine your scores for Health, Defense, and Move. Then choose a few skills and abilities, and you're ready to play. To accomplish a task, roll one six-sided die and add your relevant attribute and skill scores to beat a target number set by the Game Keeper. It's simple but never vague. There are rules for everything from piloting aircraft to investigating high-tech devices to negotiating with monsters, plus Stunt Points and a choice of two experience systems -- but the rules never get in the way. It's an ideal pickup system for novices and old hands alike.

Each OneDice title is a standalone rulebook, complete in itself, with the concise OneDice system, campaign settings, and special rules tailored to its genre. This bargain-priced bundle gives you a dozen rulebooks, each a springboard into a new genre -- or mix-and-match the rules for your own setting.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$102. Customers who pay just US$7.95 get all six titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $47) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the OneDice rulebooks for Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, and Pulp, plus the OneDice Universal rules to create your own worlds and backgrounds.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $14.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $55, including Space, Supers, B Movies, Robin Hood, and OneDice versions of two Cakebread & Walton RPGs we've presented before in their Renaissance D100 System editions: Pirates & Dragons (in our August 2015 Bundle of the Ages +2) and the steampunk fantasy Abney Park's Airship Pirates (in the September 2016 Steam-Powered Bundle)."


This is one I like - I've always been a big fan of simplified game systems, and this is about as simple as they get. The bundle price is also pretty good, and it's supporting Doctors Without Borders, which I've also supported with my Flatland RPG. Recommended, subject to all the usual YMMV things.
 
later - sorry, got the name of the story-telling game wrong, now corrected - not that it appears to be available any more.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2130891.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

 Running a bit late, but headed for Nine Worlds in a few minutes. See some of you there?

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2130643.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Something I really should have asked before the Brexit vote - if Europe is so horrible, shouldn't we also be withdrawing from the European Cup, the Eurovision Song Contest, etc. etc.? Come to think of it, will Britain still be part of Eurovision after we leave, and if so what does that do to British TV?

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2129930.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Another fantasy system I really don't know - Symbaroum, a Swedish fantasy setting with several supplements:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Symbaroum

"This Symbaroum Bundle presents Symbaroum, the tabletop roleplaying game of dark fantasy from the Swedish game studio Järnringen, copublished in English by Modiphius. Inspired by the films Princess Mononoke and Pan's Labyrinth and the Witcher computer games, Symbaroum conjures the foreboding primeval forest of Davokar, a rich setting of ancient ruins and barbarian clans, Iron Pact elven wardens and Blight Beasts, princes and rogues, treasure and corruption, all beautifully illustrated in full color -- check the spectacular Imgur gallery.

This bargain-priced offer of English-language .PDF ebooks includes the complete rules, supplements, adventures, game aids, and artwork -- everything you need to explore the depths of Davokar.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$99. Customers who pay just US$14.95 get all five titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $48) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the full-color 264-page Symbaroum Core Rulebook, the Advanced Player's Guide, the Map Set, the Abilities & Powers reference cards, and Adventure Pack 1 with two introductory scenarios.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $23.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $51, including The Mark of the Beast and Tomb of Dying Dreams, two "landscapes" (scenarios) that complete the adventure begun in the Core Rulebook; Thistle Hold - Wrath of the Warden, the launch of a new seven-part campaign; the Symbaroum Game Master's Screen; and the glorious art book The Art of Symbaroum.

Symbaroum resources

• The Iron Pact
• Järnringen's Facebook page
• Järnringen Symbaroum page (scroll to the bottom for the English-language section)
• Modiphius publishes the English-language Symbaroum line
• On the Nature of Davokar
• Symbaroum communities on Reddit and Google+

I really don't know what to say about this one - it's not really one I want to play, and I get the impression that it's a fairly old-school system (lots of different dice types, character classes, races etc.) which isn't my preferred way to game. The setting appears to be Nordic gloom with a side helping of darkness, crawling chaos, etc. The map has lots of mountains along one edge and a lot of forest, curiously reminiscent of certain fantasy sources. The art is very pretty, if you like gloom and trees. I think it's OK value if you like that sort of thing, it just isn't even slightly my cup of tea.
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Rifts is a venerable multi-genre system from Palladium Books - it's featured in these bundles before, this time there are two bundles - a basic set of rules etc. which have been on offer previously, and a new selection of game settings etc.

Rifts Essentials

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/RiftsEssentials2018

Kevin Siembieda's Rifts® from Palladium Books is set on a future Earth shattered by countless otherworldly invasions. This Essentials collection, revived and streamlined from its original run last July, give players and Game Masters the core books for a campaign of mind-blowing, dimension-spanning adventure.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to these two offers' designated charity, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The total retail value of the titles in this revived offer is US$79. Customers who pay just US$8.95 get all threetitles in our Starter Collection (retail value $33.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete 384-page Rifts Ultimate Edition™ (retail price $20), plus the Rifts Primer (retail $3) and Rifts Sourcebook One™ Revised Edition (retail $10.50).

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $19.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with three more titles worth an additional $32, including the Game Master Guide (retail $13.50), a 360-page equipment collection; the Book of Magic™ (retail $13.50); and the Game Master Kit (retail $5) with useful play aids and pregenerated characters.

Rifts World Books

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/RiftsWorldbooks

This all-new collection, a companion to the revived July 2017 Rifts Essentials Bundle now in progress, presents supplements and sourcebooks for Kevin Siembieda's Rifts® RPG from Palladium Books that stretch across a transformed North America from Free Quebec to the vampire kingdoms of Mexico.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$120. Customers who pay just US$14.95 get all five titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $58.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including World Book 1: Vampire Kingdoms™ (Revised), 13: Lone Star, 16: Federation of Magic™ (Revised), 20: Canada, and 30: D-Bees of North America.™

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $24.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $61.50, including World Book 11: Coalition War Campaign,® 15: Spirit West,™ 22: Free Quebec,™ Sourcebook 4: Coalition Navy,™ the Vampires Sourcebook, and Adventure Sourcebook 3: The Black Vault.™

I might as well be honest - I don't like Rifts. It's an old system and showing its age, and the overarching narrative behind the system doesn't really interest me much. It's fine if you want to run continuing evil invasion plots, not so good for other purposes. But as usual you do get a lot for your money, and if you're already into the system the new items are probably a good investment. But if you don't already own the core material I can't really recommend it - there are simply better alternatives out there. Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2129322.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This is a game I don't know at all:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/MutantYearZero

"Mutant: Year Zero is the latest version of the Swedish SFRPG Mutant, first published in 1984. Developed by the Free League design team (Tales From the Loop, Coriolis), Year Zero was published in 2014 (in both Swedish- and English-language versions), and became an instant hit. Year Zero goes back to the origins of the Mutant franchise: roleplaying after the Apocalypse. You play as one of The People -- heavily mutated humans living in The Ark, a small and isolated settlement in a sea of chaos. The outside world is unknown to you, and so is your origin. Where in the world the Zone and the Ark are located is up to you -- why not play in a post-apocalyptic version of your own home town? Year Zero's modular approach lets you place all of the campaign material wherever you like.

This offer presents the entire English-language Mutant: Year Zero line published to date, including the first Year Zero expansion, Genlab Alpha, a standalone companion RPG about mutated animals. Genlab Alpha was successfully Kickstarted in January 2016 and released in July 2017. (A second expansion, Mechatron - Rise of the Robots, will be published soon.)

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Vision Rescue.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$79.50. Customers who pay just US$8.95 get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $39) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete full-color 269-page Mutant: Year Zero core rulebook, two Zone Sector location mini-supplements (The Doom Sphere and Denizens of the Sink Hole), and the full-color Gamemaster Screen .PDF.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $14.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with four more titles worth an additional $40.50. Play mutated animals using the Genlab Alpha standalone companion rulebook (including the Zone Compendium supplement "Die, Meat Eaters, Die!"), and customers also get the other two Zone Compendium books: Lair of the Saurians and Dead Blue Sea.


This is a very nicely designed game that looks like it's relatively easy to learn, and might be fun if you like a grim and fairly hopeless game world, like Judge Dredd or Paranoia with the funny bits sawn off, but that isn't me. You're definitely getting a lot for your money, so if your tastes differ you might find this interesting. Recommended, with all usual caveats.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2128992.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

I really don't know what to say about this one, except that it definitely isn't one I want, although it appears that quite a lot of people do if a successful Kickstarter is any indication. If you're a fan of My Little Pony and related works your opinion may differ...

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Ponyfinder

"Why yes, it is a D&D 5E/Pathfinder setting about little magic ponies. Ponyfinder casts the players as equine fae in the magical realm of Everglow. As the Ponyfinder TV Tropes entry indicates, designer David Silver has conjured a campaign setting that captures many appealing aspects of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Has Ponyfinder found its audience? Check the impressive run of five successful Kickstarter campaigns, from the original July 2013 "Ponies for Pathfinder" Kickstarter through four sequels, most recently the July 2016 "Dawn of the Fifth Age" Kickstarter for a D&D Fifth Edition conversion.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Reading is Fundamental.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$134. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all five titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $58) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete 188-page Ponyfinder Campaign Setting core rulebook (the 2018 Unified Edition for both D&D 5E and Pathfinder), the Everglow Bestiary, and three introductory scenarios from Playground Adventures especially suited for younger players: Ghost of the Pirate Queen, The Lonely Pony, and The Sweetest Secret.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $19.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with four more titles worth an additional $76, , including the Tactics of Everglow rules expansion, Races of Everglow, Tribes of Everglow, and the full-length scenario The Unicorn's Crown (Part 1 of the seven-part saga To Found an Empire)."

Sorry, I am so not this game's intended audience that I can't even look at the thing without going wibble... Lots of pictures of ponies in silly armour and using ridiculous weapons etc., lots of D&D type stuff, and my eyes are REALLY glazing over. Bronies and others with an interest will probably love it, but that simply isn't me, and I think I'm going to pass on value judgements because I have no idea.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2128748.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Thanks to nelc I now have ID for all the planes in the RAF 100 flypast, so if anyone was wondering about any of them they're now labelled.
Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2128540.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Another revival of the classic system for medieval magic, plus a new bundle of add-ons:

Ars Magica 5 Bundle

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/ArsMagica5-2018

"The Bundle of Holding and Ars Magica go way back. We offered the current (Fifth) edition of the Ars Magica rulebook in our August 2013 Bundle of the Ages, a collection of historical RPGs, and in March 2014 we presented a collection of vintage ArM supplements that supported the earlier Fourth Edition (1996-2004). We admire Ars Magica hugely and regard it as one of the field's seminal designs. It was a harbinger of the acclaim awaiting both its designers, Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen. We're proud to revive this large assortment from August 2014 supporting the current edition. The new companion collection, ArM5 Mythic Europe, has many more supplements about this remarkable magical setting.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$125. Customers who pay just US$14.95 get all four titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Ars Magica Fifth Edition: The complete, current 240-page rulebook.
• Covenants (retail $15): The essential guide to help players improve the homes of their magi.
• Houses of Hermes: True Lineages (retail $12): A detailed treatise on four powerful Houses of the Order of Hermes.
• Apprentices (retail $7): Become a young student of the Art of Magic.
• The Living Covenant: As a convenience to our customers, we present over two dozen free characters and setting files from the Atlas Games website, collected here in one handy 42-page booklet.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $24.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Storyguide Collection with five more titles worth an additional $70:

• Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults and Societates(retail $15 each): The second and third treatises on the Hermetic Houses.
• The Lion and the Lily (retail $15): The Normandy Tribunal sourcebook about the many active covenants in densely populated northern France.
• The Broken Covenant of Calebais (retail $10): The first-ever ArM adventure, originally written by Mark Rein-Hagen and Jonathan Tweet, now updated for the current edition.
• Tales of Mythic Europe: Nine short adventures that push your saga to the limits of Mythic Europe.

 

ArM5 Mythic Europe

bundleofholding.com/presents/MythicEurope

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$120. Customers who pay just US$14.95 get this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $60) with DRM-free .PDF ebooks of four sourcebooks about the people and institutions of Mythic Europe: Lords of Men (plus its free Web Supplement), The Church, City & Guild, and Art & Academe.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $24.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with four more character sourcebooks worth an additional $60: Magi of Hermes, Legends of Hermes, Antagonists, and Grogs.


As I've mentioned before, I'm not really playing medieval fantasy games at present, but if I was I think that Ars Magica would be a strong contender for the game system I'd use. It looks like both of these give you excellent value - but as usual I have to point out that your mileage may vary, especially if you already own a lot of it as dead trees etc.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2128325.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Managed to drag myself to Waterloo and onto the South Bank of the Thames for the fly-past. A bit colder than I expected, and fairly cloudy, but I got some reasonable pictures - 178 of them, plus a lot of duds I deleted!

They're all on line here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/albums/72157693109405330/with/28455357067/

I need to go through and identify the aircraft types etc., and I'm not the world's best at aircraft ID. Any and all help will be appreciated, just add to the comments on the photos if you know them.

Some samples behind the cut:

( Read more...Collapse )
Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2127935.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This was on offer at the same time last year, this revival repeats all of the original material and adds more - at the time I said: This is one I know very little about - it's a horror RPG, it's set in 18th century America, and has things like Sleepy Hollow, witches, the Indian wars, the Cthulhu Mythos, etc. etc.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Colonial2018

"Revived from last July, this offer (a tie-in to the American Independence Day holiday) once again presents the Third Edition of the supernatural flintlock-horror tabletop roleplaying game Colonial Gothic from Rogue Games. Uncover the secret history of America's 18th-Century frontier, where monsters stalk the woods and ghosts haunt every sleepy hollow. This bargain-priced offer presents almost the entire Colonial Gothic gaming line, including several newly added recent titles -- everything you need for a complete campaign of magic and mayhem in the shadows of early America. (And previous purchasers get the newly added books automatically on their Wizard's Cabinet download page.)

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to the charity selected by Rogue Games owner Richard Iorio II, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. "Over the weekend of June 12-14, 2015, I lost three friends in succession to suicide," Richard writes. "The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention helps you understand why this event happened and, more important, they offer comfort. They cannot take away the pain, but they can help you deal with it." Richard wrote about the AFSP on the Beyond the Bundle blog: "The Colonial Gothic Bundle and the ASFP".

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$124. Customers who pay just US$7.95 get all seven titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $47) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete Colonial Gothic Third Edition rulebook; three essential supplements (Gamemaster, Adventure, and The Player Companion); the adventures The Landlord's Daughter and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; and the 174-page Beginnings adventure that kicks off the Flames of Freedom campaign about the American Revolution.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $17.76 to start (hah!), also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with eleven more titles worth an additional $82:

• New in this revival! Colonial Gothic Atlas (retail $10): A comprehensive 290-page guide to the Thirteen Colonies, the Province of Maine, New France, the Caribbean Islands, and East and West Florida. (And if you purchased this offer last July, you get the Atlas automatically on your Wizard's Cabinet download page.)
• New! Journey to Norumbega (retail $8): A Lovecraftian mega-adventure set in the pre-colonial New World well before the American Revolution. (Another automatic addition to the Cabinets of earlier customers.)
• New! Heart in a Jar: Exclusive to this revival and not available anywhere else ever, this new adventure sets the heroes to uncover the dark mystery of the ramshackle Palmer Mansion in Philadelphia.
• Five sourcebooks and setting guides: The Grimoire (retail $6), Bestiary (retail $7), The Templars (retail $5), Settings (retail $8), and The French & Indian War (retail $8).
• Lovecraft (retail $7): Bring the Cthulhu Mythos onto the American frontier.
• New! Colonial Gothic Gamemaster Screen (retail $10): Useful reference charts.
• The Defeated Dead (retail $8): A ghost story of vengeful soldiers at the site of the US Army's greatest defeat.

Again referring back to the previous offer, I said "This isn't one I feel particularly attracted to, but it looks like you get a lot of stuff for your money including an entire revolutionary war campaign and lots of monsters. I think it's reasonable value, and it's supporting a worthwhile cause, but as usual your mileage may vary." This time you're getting even more stuff, so I think that still stands.

I think that the problem here for me is that it's drawing on some very USA-specific tropes that don't have the same resonance for players outside the USA. Repeatedly offering it around Independence Day highlights this even more - it's just not a big deal to me, if I was still working it wouldn't even be a holiday. This is one where a big part of your varying mileage will depend on your country, origin, patriotism, etc., and for fairly obvious reasons I'm really not the target audience.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2127643.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

 The washing machine appears to be working correctly now - the third engineer did the repair without needing the parts that the second engineer had got wrong, but it isn't flooding the kitchen now so i'm not complaining. That can wait for the customer satisfaction survey...

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2127570.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Pretty sure this means that Last Dangerous Visions is cancelled...

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/28/17515214/harlan-ellison-science-fiction-star-trek-author-obituary

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2127169.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Pointed out to me by vicarage  - there will be a parade and 100-aircraft flypast over London for the 100th anniversary of the RAF on July 10th

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/06/27/details-released-for-rafs-100th-birthday-flypast-over-central-london/

I will have to find a good vantage point for this - I didn't see as much as I would have liked for the Queen's birthday earlier this month, too many tall trees near my house now, though I did get this:


Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2126890.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Mutants and Masterminds is a comparative latecomer to the world of superhero gaming, and is based on the Open Game License system, most often seen in fantasy RPGs etc. The system is not completely compatible with other Open Game License games, characters tend to be a lot more powerful than those in other systems. Unusually for these bundles, the basic game system is not part of the package, what you're being offered is what's generally known as "splatbooks"; collections of characters, settings, and extra rules.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SuperPowered

"These are third-party supplements from Misfit Studios, Rogue Genius Games, and Vigilance Press for the 2011 Third Edition of Mutants & Masterminds, The World's Greatest Superhero RPG from Green Ronin Publishing. Published under Green Ronin's "Super-Powered by M&M" open licensing program, these supplements expand the rules and present hundreds of new heroes, villains, and creatures for any superheroic M&M campaign.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$116.50. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $56.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Better Mousetrap 3E (Misfit Studios, retail price $20): Steve Trustrum's massive 292-page rules expansion with everything from headquarters construction to security systems to Hot Pursuit.


• Rogues, Rivals, & Renegades Collection Two (Vigilance Press, retail $25): Three dozen solo characters, creatures, and organizations built to fill every story function.


• Devilish Duos: Strange Attractors (retail $3) and Due Vigilance: SixGun (retail $8.50): Two Vigilance supplements about superheroic romance and paramilitary action, not necessarily together.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $22.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with three more titles worth an additional $60:

• Super Powered Legends Sourcebook (Rogue Genius, retail $20): Making its public debut in this offer after a successful October 2017 Kickstarter, this giant sourcebook presents an entire universe of 180 iconic characters who work as heroes or villains.


• Super Powered Bestiary (Rogue Genius, retail $20): This ingenious supplement repurposes the d20 System's fantasy monsters as super-adversaries with complete M&M 3E stats.


• Metahuman Martial Arts 3E (Misfit Studios, retail $20): A staggeringly comprehensive 365-page expansion and sourcebook that describes 160+ fighting styles and shows how to build your own.

I think that the value of this offer largely depends on your commitment to the system - if you don't already own the game there probably isn't much point. If you do it obviously depends on how much you already own. In my case I won't be pursuing it - while I do own the game in dead tree format I also own GURPS Supers and Champions and a lot of support material for them which covers much the same ground, and rarely play superhero systems anyway.

I think I'll have to stay neutral on this one - it looks like you get a lot for your money, whether it's actually useful needs to be determined by someone who actually runs the game, and that isn't me.

 The 3rd service engineer visit is now scheduled for the 29th, e.g. 21 days since it went wrong and 18 since I called it in. REALLY not impressed.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2126753.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

A different service engineer came today with the parts. The wrong parts. They're going to schedule another appointment next week...

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2126459.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This is a system I don't know at all - Eclipse Phase, "the Posthuman Studios RPG of transhumanist conspiracy and horror". There are two offers, one a repeat of one made several years ago, the other all new:

Eclipse Phase Essential Bundle

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2018Eclipse

"Eclipse Phase is hard to pin down with traditional labels. Is it science fiction? Yes, but it's also horror, conspiracy, and post-apocalypse. You can upload your mind into new bodies or even a robotic shell, so "human" is a slippery term. Are you fighting for good? So you hope. Several terms definitely apply: rich -- detailed -- amazing. When Posthuman Studios published the First Edition of Eclipse Phase in 2010, it won three ENnie Awards, including Product of the Year (Silver). In April 2017 Posthuman's successful Eclipse Phase Second Edition Kickstarter raised US$187K. This offer, resleeved (revived) from June 2014, presents the First Edition rulebook and important early supplements; if you're new to Eclipse Phase, start here. Then explore the all-new companion offer, Eclipse Phase +2, with many recent supplements that extend your campaign to the stars.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to the charity selected by Posthuman Studios for these two Eclipse Phase offers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$90. Customers who pay just US$9.95 get all four titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $40) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Eclipse Phase (retail price $20): Join Firewall and defend Transhumanity from biowar plagues, self-replicating nanoswarms, rogue AIs, and other extinction-level threats. Learn how to sleeve new bodies, hack your mind, live in space, keep two (or more) egos alive at once, and more.
• NPC File Volume 1: Prime (retail $5): Over 30 original characters with descriptions and full stats, ready for any campaign.
• Sunward: The Inner System (retail $15): The inner worlds of the Solar System, from the Solarians who dive into the Sun's corona to an upswelling of Barsoomian patriotism on Mars. Includes new morphs, gear, and sample characters.
• Eclipse Phase: All Sample Characters 1E (free): As a convenience to our customers, we include this gorgeous collection of 60 characters from the 1E core rulebook, Sunward, Transhuman, and Firewall.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $19.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $50:

• Transhuman (retail $15): This essential player's guide includes a lifepath generator, expanded rules for infomorphs and flexbots, and over 30 new morphs ready to be sleeved.
• Panopticon (retail $15): How to live in a "transparent" society; the inner workings of space habitats and how to hack them; and new gear, rules, and morphs for uplifted characters.
• Glory (retail $5): Newly added in this revival, Glory is a starter scenario that sends the characters in pursuit of a missing Firewall proxy to the outer reaches of the Solar System. (If you bought this offer in either of its its two previous runs, you get Glory automatically on your Wizard's Cabinet download page.)
• Continuity (retail $5): A one-shot scenario or a campaign kickoff. You awaken in a new morph with two weeks of your life missing, and limited time to deal with a looming threat.
• The Devotees (retail $5): Pit your Firewall team against Nine Lives, the most ruthless syndicate of soul thieves in the system.
• Eclipse Phase Gamemaster's Screen (retail $5): Useful reference charts. (This screen is new in this revival. As with Glory, previous purchasers get the screen automatically.)

---

Eclipse Phase Bundle +2

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/EclipsePhase2

"This is an all-new companion to the revived June 2014 Eclipse Phase Essentials, which presents the core rulebook and important early supplements. (If you're new to Eclipse Phase, start there first.) Several of the titles in this new companion offer were funded by Posthuman's successful April 2013 Transhuman Player's Guide Kickstarter campaign.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format), and each music track as an .MP3 audio file. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these files have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders and music players.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$100. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all five titles in this offer's Sunward Collection (retail value $45) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the 202-page Firewall conspiracy supplement (retail price $15), the Morph Recognition Guide (retail $15), and three sourcebooks of the Inner System: The Stars Our Destination, Zone Stalkers, and Million Year Echo (retail $5 apiece).

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $19.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Rimward Collection with five more titles worth an additional $55:

• Rimward (retail $15): The outer reaches of the inhabited Solar System, from the Jovian Republic and Titanian Commonwealth to the Kuiper Belt and the Autonomist Alliance.
• Gatecrashing (retail $15): The five mysterious Pandora Gates and the factions that control them.
• Argonauts (retail $5): Transhumanity's foremost scientific organization.
• Ego Hunter (retail $10): A convention scenario where all the player characters are forks of the same person, working together to track down their original (alpha) self.
• Infinite & Indivisible (retail $10): Composer Scott Fox's 11-track .MP3 soundtrack of ambient music to enhance your sessions of Eclipse Phase or any SFRPG.

---

I'll be honest - these look like good deals, they're just not where I want to be right now with role playing. As usual with these bundles you get a shedload of stuff for your money, and they do look like pretty good deals. I'll probably download a couple of the supplements because they address areas that interest me - most notably Panopticon - but I'm not going to try to get my head around another new (to me) RPG at this stage in my increasing decrepitude. But I think I can recommend them, subject of course to all the usual YMMV disclaimers.
Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2126274.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

 My washing machine started leaking on the 8th and I booked a service engineer on the 11th, who turned up today.

Needless to say the machine has not been fixed - the problem is apparently something in the detergent compartment at the top, and it's not a part they routinely carry since the machine is fairly old. So I now have to wait for them to get the part, contact me and arrange another visit, and hope that that fixes it.

Since it's not that long that I had a problem that dragged on for more than a month I am not feeling very happy about this, but we'll see what happens.
Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2125993.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

The second bundle offer this week is one that interests me a lot; Delta Green, originally a modern-day Call of Cthulhu intelligence/conspiracy setting, now a stand-alone game, that has been very influential and is even mentioned in the Laundry novels.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/DeltaGreen2

"This new offer presents Arc Dream Publishing's RPG of modern-day Cthulhu Mythos conspiracy-horror, Delta Green. Humanity's fate was sealed aeons ago. The stars align, and alien entities seek to reclaim what once was theirs. But behind the scenes, some among us are fighting back. Unlike the antiquarian researchers in many traditional Mythos games, agents of the US government conspiracy known as Delta Green confront mind-shattering weirdness with modern technology as well as ancient spells. Perpetually at risk of both insanity and treason, DG operatives face not only hostile aliens, but subversive elements within their own ranks.

In both its original version as a Call of Cthulhu campaign setting (previously presented in this site's March 2014 Delta Green Bundle) and in this new standalone incarnation funded in a smash September 2015 Kickstarter campaign, DG's compelling mix of conspiracies, UFOs, intelligence tactics, and Lovecraftian terror has brought it unsurpassed praise. This all-new collection has the Delta Green Agent's Handbook and Handler's Guide rulebooks, plus many operations (scenarios) and fiction.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Human Rights Watch.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$105. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all three titles in our Agent Collection (retail value $40), including the Agent's Handbook (plus the Need to Know quickstart rules and other play aids) and two Delta Green fiction collections: Tales from Failed Anatomies by DG co-creator Dennis Detwiller (funded partly through his Patreon campaign) and the anthology Extraordinary Renditions, with stories by Kenneth Hite, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, all the original DG creators, and many more.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $24.95 to start, also get our entire Handler Collection with four more titles worth an additional $65, including the DG Handler's Guide rulebook and Handler's Screen reference charts, the new six-scenario collection A Night at the Opera, and the ready-to-play introductory scenario Kali Ghati.


For some reason I never got into Delta Green when it was a Call of Cthulhu setting, possibly because I was already writing my own games when it first appeared, and because I was more than a little "monstered out" in the nineties, but I'm now interested in seeing what it's like, and how the intelligence emphasis differs from the original game. I'm also wondering how it will compare to the Laundry RPG, which has a more British focus. It looks like you get a lot for your money, and given it's a very well-received game I think I can recommend it. But as usual I have to stress that I don't pay for this, if you do your mileage may vary.
 

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2125777.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

I took a video camera out for some tests yesterday, it's not bad if unfortunately rather low resolution, but since my bridge camera actually has better video performance I'll be selling it on.

But I was delighted to see that the cormorant I've previously seen on the canal in Regent's Park is back again, or one very like it, so here are my pictures for the day.

Still pictures (VERY low res) are on line here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/albums/72157670087247008
Some very short videos, on line here:
https://vimeo.com/275067610 - Swans
https://vimeo.com/275067441 - Ducks
https://vimeo.com/275067518 - More ducks
https://vimeo.com/275067393 - Cormorant

Apologies in advance for my lack of skill as a videographer.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2125336.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This is another bundle of material for the popular Apocalypse Engine RPG system, which has become a stalwart of indie game designers:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/ApocEngine3

"This is the Bundle site's third collection of RPGs Powered by the Apocalypse -- that is, based on Vincent Baker's landmark RPG Apocalypse World. In the nine months since the last Apocalypse offer, many new PbtA games have debuted. This new +3 collection presents a wide sampling, including Monsterhearts 2, Bedlam Hall, and many titles from Magpie Games. These wide-ranging games let you pick a playbook, try your Moves, roll 2D6, and play to find out what happens.

This Apocalypse Engine collection complements the Dungeon World Bundle +3 offer, which launched the week before and runs in parallel with this one. Dungeon World is the bestselling fantasy RPG Powered by the Apocalypse.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$100. Customers who pay just US$7.95 get all five titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $41) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Bluebeard's Bride (retail price $14): The dark fairy tale inspired Whitney "Strix" Beltrán's adults-only investigatory RPG of feminine horror in the vein of Crimson Peak, American Horror Story, and The Company of Wolves.
• Urban Shadows (retail $12): Vampires, wizards, and their hunters vie for political control of a modern-day city. [Previously presented in our November 2015 Indie Cornucopia +3.]
• Three of Magpie's "ashcan editions" (full-length previews, retail $5 each): The Ward (TV medical drama), Pasión de las Pasiones (Latino soap opera), and Velvet Glove (1970s girl gangs).

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $17.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $59:

• Bluebeard's Bride: Book of Rooms (retail $14) and Urban Shadows: Dark Streets (retail $10): Two new expansions for the games in the Starter Collection.
• Monsterhearts 2 (retail $10): Avery Alder's updated take on teenage monsters with messy lives.
• Bedlam Hall (retail $10): Monkeyfun Studios' depressing RPG about terrible people in cutthroat service to a demented family in a foreboding mansion.
• Undying (retail $15): Vampires as apex predators, scheming across vast timespans to control a rich world of sex, violence, and horror. [Previously in our October 2016 Bundle of Nerves +4.]

There don't seem to be any surprise extras to be added later this time.

 

Apocalypse Engine resources

• Apocalypse World for Beginners (Apocalypse-World.com)
• Powered by the Apocalypse
• "Explain (sell?) Apocalypse World ruleset to me" (RPG.net forum)
• How to introduce newbies to PbtA games (Google+ discussion)
• Apocalypse World Roll20 Game Master Series (36-part YouTube series of actual-play videos)
• Big List of Apocalypse World Hacks (massive Google Docs spreadsheet)

This is a system that seems to spawn a lot of very weird game settings; some of the latest tranche look like a lot of fun, and it's comparatively cheap in this bundle. I'm recommending it with the usual proviso - I don't have to pay for this stuff if I want to download it, if you do your mileage may vary.

Apologies, I should have posted this yesterday but saved it instead, prices may now be higher than shown. Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2125228.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

It's fifteen years since Firefly - natural someone's made a commemorative video:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/273367734

and I've posted about parakeets and squirrels as invasive species a couple of times - would you believe invasive hippos?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27905743


Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2124829.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Dungeon World is an attempt to bring new life to the old dungeon-bashing style of RPG by using a better and more customizable rules set:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/DungeonWorld3

"This is the Bundle site's third collection featuring the Apocalypse Engine RPG Dungeon World from Sage Kobold Productions. Transplanting Vincent Baker's Apocalypse World to fantasy, Dungeon World brings indie ideas to traditional dungeon crawls. Because it's published under a Creative Commons license, many designers have helped make Dungeon World one of today's best-supported indie RPGs. This new collection presents lots of supplements and settings.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$106. We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.

Like our two previous DW Bundles, this +3 offer's Starter Collection (retail value $39) includes the core Dungeon World rulebook. Customers who pay just US$5.95 get the rulebook plus all these new supplements and adventures as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Great Monsters of Crime (Red Box Vancouver): Johnstone Metzger (The Nightmares Underneath, Adventures on Dungeon Planet) presents felonious creatures inhabiting a literal criminal underground.
• 20 Dungeon Starters (Lampblack & Brimstone): Kick off your campaign with no preparation in 20 different ways.
• The Perilous Wilds (Lampblack): We presented this landmark DW environment supplement in our January 2016 Dungeon World Bundle +2. We bring it back to support the many new Perilous Wilds expansions in this offer's Bonus Collection -- see below!
• Grim Hunt (Porcupine Publishing): Pursue an elven spy through a port city full of intrigue and betrayals.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $16.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with ten more titles worth an additional $76:

• Three more Red Box Vancouver monster manuals: Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn, A Market in the Woods, and The End of Known Space.
• Five Lampblack & Brimstone excursions in the Perilous Wilds line: Perilous Deeps, A Book of Beasts, Mad Vandel's Map Pack, Freebooters on the Frontier, and A Folio of Followers.
• The Boughs (Sandy Pug Games): A campaign setting of the civilizations inside colossal trees in an infinite forest. Includes the Ranger of the Vast playbook.

There are no surprise extras this time.

I'm ambivalent on this one - dungeon crawls aren't a style of adventure I tend to play, and I doubt a new rules system would do anything to change that. But you do get a lot for your money, and it ought to be useful as a source of ideas, so I think I can recommend it, if only for the silly monster on the cover of The Perilous Wilds. As usual I have to stress that I'd get this stuff free if I wanted it, which may affect my perception, if you have to pay your opinions may differ

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2124571.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Two offers for the RPG gumshoe, one a repeat and the other all new:

Bundle of Gumshoe

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2018GUMSHOE

"This Bundle of GUMSHOE, revived from September 2013 (and previously revived in April 2015), is one of two simultaneous offers featuring the GUMSHOE System of mystery and investigative roleplaying designed by Robin D. Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. This revival once again presents four major GUMSHOE games: Night's Black Agents, Ashen Stars, Mutant City Blues, and the new Second Edition of Fear Itself. The all-new companion offer, the GUMSHOE Bundle +2, has scenarios and supplements for all these games, plus installments of the monthly Ken Writes About Stuff series by Kenneth Hite.

Other tabletop RPGs can make it hard for characters to uncover the clues to a mystery. In a typical RPG, one bad roll and poof, the entire investigation goes off track. Not so in the GUMSHOE System. The plot will move forward. Your players will find the clues and, if they're clever, solve the mystery. Play a scenario of detection and investigation in a GUMSHOE game, and you'll never go back.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase of these two GUMSHOE offers (after gateway fees) goes to the charity chosen by Pelgrane Press, Womankind Worldwide.

The total retail value of this revival is US$144.50. Customers who pay just US$13.95 get all seven titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $62) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Ashen Stars (retail price $25): Contractors on the lawless fringe of inhabited space, solving crimes and imposing justice job-by-job.
• Mutant City Blues (retail $21): Police in the Heightened Crimes Investigative Unit protect a city filled with super-powered felons.
• Ken Writes About Stuff installments 1-4 (retail $12): Four forays by Kenneth Hite into the Cthulhu Mythos, GUMSHOE, and whatever took his fancy that month.
• See Page XX - The First 24 Columns (retail $4): A wide-ranging selection of columns by Robin D. Laws from the Pelgrane Press site.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $28.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $79.50:

• Night's Black Agents (retail $25): Ken Hite's vampiric-spy-thriller RPG of bloodsucking Bourne Identity-style espionage.
• The Zalozhniy Quartet (retail $16): Four tense and horrific scenarios by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan for Night's Black Agents.
• Fear Itself Second Edition (retail $15): The 2016 Second Edition of the RPG of personal horror by Robin D. Laws about ordinary people confronting the Outer Dark, an unearthly realm of alien menace and madness. (If you bought this Bundle of GUMSHOE during its two previous runs, which included the First Edition of Fear Itself, you get the new 2E version automatically on your Wizard's Cabinet download page.)
• Dead Rock Seven (retail $15): Gareth's ENnie-nominated Ashen Stars scenario collection, presenting problems as diverse as murders on an old asteroid mine, missing executives on a pleasure planet, and threats to the security of an interstellar cooking contest.
• Hard Helix (retail $8.50): Four Mutant City Blues scenarios by Robin D. Laws with new challenges for your Heightened Crimes squad.

---

GUMSHOE Bundle +2

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Gumshoe2

"This all-new GUMSHOE Bundle +2 is one of two simultaneous offers featuring the GUMSHOE System of mystery and investigative roleplaying designed by Robin D. Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. This is a companion to the revived September 2013 Bundle of GUMSHOE now in progress. That collection has rulebooks and major supplements; this +2 companion has supplements and adventures for all the games in the first offer.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase of these two GUMSHOE offers (after gateway fees) goes to the charity chosen by Pelgrane Press, Womankind Worldwide.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$101. Customers who pay just US$9.95 get all eight titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $38.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• For Ashen Stars: The Justice Trade and Xeno-Archaeology!
• For Mutant City Blues: Mutant City Spies
• For Night's Black Agents, two Looking Glass city guides: Hong Kong and Mumbai
• And we have three GUMSHOE historical supplements from star designer Kenneth Hite: MAJESTIC Overwatch and Galileo Uplift (both for the Moon Dust Men 1950s UFO setting) and The School of Night (Elizabethan England)

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $21.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with eight more titles worth an additional $62.50:

• For Night's Black Agents: the Double Tap rules expansion and the adventure The Dubai Reckoning
• For Ashen Stars: the Accretion Disk expansion book
• For Mutant City Blues: Brief Cases, three short adventures by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
• And four "GUMSHOE Zooms" by Kenneth Hite with new magical systems: Alchemy, Goëtia, and both installments of Voodoo.

There aren't any surprise extras in either offer this time around.

I'm a bit ambivalent about this one - I've never really taken to the system, and I've found the core premise reasonably easy to adapt to other games. On the other hand, there are some fun settings, it's a well-designed and popular system, and you're getting a reasonable amount for your money, so I think I can recommend both bundles - but get the first one before even thinking about the second. As usual I have to point out that I don't pay for this stuff if I want it, which may skew my recommendation. Your mileage, as they say (who actually says this? Advertisers?) may vary.


Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2124463.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

 Since I'm EU based I need to post a GDPR statement for my web site etc:

I think this sums things up pretty well.
Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2124137.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

A blast from the past for Brits of a certain age. Pointed out by sbisson on Livejournal. Jerry Cornelius is back in The Further Adventures of Jerry Cornelius. On line, seven stories by various authors including Michael Moorcock. Appears to be free, and there is no way to contact the site except via Facebook or Twitter so I have no way to ask them if there's any way to support the site.

http://www.faojc.com/#

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This is an SF RPG I don't know at all:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Mindjammer

"This choice new collection features Sarah Newton's transhuman SFRPG Mindjammer from Mindjammer Press, co-published by Modiphius Entertainment. In the New Commonality of Humankind -- a hyperadvanced far future of realistic aliens, lost colony worlds, and the vast Mindscape shared consciousness -- Mindjammer lets you play hardened mercs, cunning corpocrats, culture agents and memetic engineers, aliens and para-human hominids, scouts and socialites, uplifted animals, androids, and even sentient starships. The Second Age of Space is the stage for transcendent cutting-edge space opera in the tradition of Iain M. Banks, Alistair Reynolds, Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod, and Vernor Vinge.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to the charity chosen by Chris Birch of Modiphius Entertainment and Sarah Newton of Mindjammer Press, Vision Rescue. "Modiphius and Mindjammer Press have chosen to support Vision Rescue," they say. "Our goal is to raise US$20,000 for a Vision Rescue Bus, one of the projects the charity uses to help combat child slavery in India."

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$101. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete 500-page Mindjammer corebook (retail price $27), the adventure The City People (retail $12), the stunning Enhanced Commonality Space Schematic poster map (retail $7), and Sarah Newton's Mindjammer - The Novel (retail $4), which we originally presented in the very first Bundle of Holding offer in the ancient past of February 2013.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $22.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with four more supplements and adventures worth an additional $51: three regional/cultural sourcebooks -- Core Worlds (retail $14), The Far Havens (retail $11), and Children of Orion - The Venu Soucebook (retail $14) -- along with the complete campaign adventure Hearts and Minds (retail $12).

There don't appear to be any surprise extras this time around.


This seems to be a competently-designed system using the well-regarded FATE games engine, and is trying to do something a little different than the usual evil space empire/daring space pirate/space mercenary sort of SFRPG. It's also very pretty, with a lot of illustrations which seem to be reasonably well balanced in the gender of adventurers, if not their races, and you do seem to get a complete system (including things like spaceship design which are often sold as separate books) in the corebook. I'm not sure I'll be playing it, but it certainly looks interesting, and I think it's probably worth buying if you want a system of this type, especially if you're already familiar with the FATE game mechanics. But as usual I have to point out that I don't pay for this stuff if I want it - if you do your mileage may vary.
 

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2123646.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This is I think the first of these offers to focus on software - it's Campaign Cartographer, a well-regarded Windows suite for mapping pretty much anything you might need in an RPG. Apologies for the crappy formatting - the web page for this one is a horrible mish-mash of fonts etc., and I lack the patience to sort it out.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Cartographer

"Mappers! For the first time anywhere, ProFantasy Software brings you a bargain-priced bundle featuring Campaign Cartographer 3+, the tabletop roleplaying hobby's flagship mapping program, for Microsoft Windows. Authors, game designers, and thousands of gamers have beautifully mapped the worlds of their imagination with Campaign Cartographer. Now, for an unbeatable price, this Campaign CartographerBundle brings you digital downloads of the latest and best version, Campaign Cartographer 3+, along with its Dungeon Designer 3 plug-in, the Tome of Ultimate Mapping tutorial guide, and over a dozen Style Packs, symbol sets, and map collections.

ProFantasy's Core Collection includes the latest Windows version of Campaign Cartographer 3+ (retail price $40) plus the Tome of Ultimate Mapping (retail $20), a 710-page tutorial guide with more than 150MB of support files like example maps, symbol catalogs, tutorial files, and templates. You get both of these, a combined US$65 retail value, for just $29.95 -- an unprecedented 54% discount.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $65.26, you'll level up and also get serial numbers redeemable for ProFantasy's Bonus Collection with no less than fourteen more products worth an additional $136: the fabulous Dungeon Designer 3 plug-in (retail $40) for CC3+ and more than a dozen Style Packs, tool sets, and map collections originally released as part of ProFantasy's Cartographer's Annual series. The entire offer has a total retail value of $201, one of the richest in Bundle history.

Each purchase also includes a discount code, good through May 31, for 10% off the price of any purchase at the ProFantasy webstore

CC3+, along with the rest of these programs, runs on any Windows PC with Windows XP or better, and requires 2GB of disk space. Ten percent of your payment (after payment gateway fees) will be donated to this offer's designated charity, Water.org.

I'm a bit ambivalent about this one - it isn't something I want to use, but it's the cheapest I've ever seen it. If you make your own maps and building plans it may be a worthwhile investment, though there's a steep learning curve. If you use a Mac or Linux box there are obvious issues, though not insurmountable. As usual a lot depends on what you already own and what you actually want to do.

I think this ends up as a definite maybe. Or not, as you prefer.


Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2123338.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Mentioned by sbisson on Livejournal - A Kickstarter for a Noggin the Nog board game was launched on Sunday, with a goal of £10,000 funding. It reached its goals in two hours, and is now over £20,000.

It looks like it'll be a fun game:

https://t.co/ltcXVErKhG Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2123085.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.