Arcana Rising is now in print! (Plus, Neuro City!)

With our Kickstarter backers already finding books in their mailboxes, that means its time to greenlight Arcana Rising's release in print for the public!

You can now purchase Arcana Rising as a paperback from DriveThruRPG, and if you've already purchased it in PDF, take a gander at your email inboxes and spam folders for a message from me and DTRPG for a special thank you surprise.

Welcome to Neuro City, our cyberpunk fantasy mini-supplement, is also now available in PDF as well, so be sure to take a gander at that too!

Thanks for all your support, folks, you've helped make Arcana Rising a surprise hit at a time when Maru and myself really needed it. BWP fans rock!

Arcana Rising is now available in PDF!

As of today, Arcana Rising is now available in PDF! At long last, BWP's old-school take on the urban fantasy genre is now available in digital form.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/121426/Arcana-Rising?src=social_media_link

Print copies will be along soon, once the Kickstarter backers start getting theirs, but don't let that stop you from checking out the PDF. I'll be sending out discount links to anyone who bought the PDF once the paperback edition is live, so you can still get both for the same low price!

My name is John Berry, and I have a negativity problem.

I read a really great article last night. The Onion, as part of an ongoing series on shows that lasted 100 episodes, did a profile on Homestar Runner. I loved the SBemails from the get go, and fell in love with Strongbad like everyone else did on the Internet in the early '00s, but something that caught my eye especially was this quote:

'But Homestar Runner ended up feeling very like the purest possible expression of one corner of the Internet, the one that wanted to just like stuff, instead of always feeling at a remove from it. It codified the pureness of being a little kid and falling in love with your first TV show or movie or book...'

This is exactly the same sentiment that I had in mind when I started BWP. The thought process that ran through my head when I was designing the logo, when I was writing Hulks and Horrors, and when I decided that naturally the first sourcebook for my new urban fantasy game should go back to the world of cyberpunk, one of my first loves in RPGs.

But the article ultimately comes to a conclusion I can't quite agree with, deciding that the show doesn't feel as refreshing today in 2013 as it did in those days. But the thing is, that feeling that I quoted, I think it's even more relevant right now that it ever has been: the importance of actually just enjoying things, instead of confronting everything with cynicism and criticism.

Over the last year, a lot has happened in my life. I left school. I had to move back in with family. I funded a book. I wrote that book, and I'm in the process of editing it. I emigrated to Finland. I married a Finnish woman who I love dearly. It's been a lot of change, and because of that change and the stress of all that work and the culture shock, I've spent a lot of time online because it has always been kind of a fall-back for me and it provided something like a consistent virtual home when everything else in my life has been so changeable.

But I've been getting restless with it. Frustrated. Angry. Even afraid. Most of all, though, I've just been more and more tired of it. The internet has always been a place where the disaffected vent their frustrations, but in recent times it seems like it has grown worse by orders of magnitude. As if the entire web has lost the ability to communicate in anything but a relentless torrent of hostility, cynicism, and negativity. The rough-and-tumble fun of internet discussion has given way to one battleground after another, its warriors entrenched in this or that camp and seeing anyone outside of it as nothing less than the enemy, and no battle tactic is unacceptable in assuring that enemy's utter destruction.

But here's the thing: the warzone starts with those who fight in it. And I am by no means an innocent party to that. While I've increasingly been quite publicly vocal about the ugliest side of these never-ending battles, I've had my own part to play in others. We make the environment around us in our own image, by how we choose to act and the face we project to the world, and mine has long been just as negative in many cases as those I have grown so weary of.

My name is John Berry, and I have a negativity problem.

It's time I fixed that.

Last year, Monte Cook made a pledge. For the entire month of August he vowed to abandon the negativity, to post only positive contributions to the online world. It worked out pretty well for him. I seriously considered joining him, especially after Numenera became such a flashpoint as he fell under the crosshairs of another warrior camp. For some reason, I didn't.

Today, I honestly can't say I know why. I mean really, what have I to lose? Why cling to the very same negativity I see as so destructive? It does me no favors. It does my mood no favors. It adds pointless stress. It certainly doesn't help creativity in the slightest.

One of the things I was trying to do when I started BWP and when I made H&H was to stop just bitching about stuff not being the fun I wanted, and make my own fun. Well, the internet is the same way: if it isn't fun anymore, it's time to look at what I'm doing and make it fun again. To ditch the negativity and the snark, and focus on the fun. These are games aren't they? I should have fun talking about them, right? And besides which, what kind of face am I putting on BWP when my public persona is still one of such an asshole? I want to be welcoming to potential new players, not drive them away.

So consider this my pledge: I'm done. I'm done being negative, I'm done taking sides, I'm done drawing battle-lines, I'm done flinging snark. For the rest of this year, I will be taking the same pledge Monte did: no more negativity online. And likely, beyond.

I don't expect this to be easy. In fact, I expect it to be pretty fucking hard. I've lived and breathed cynicism for a lot of years now. But you miss other things, being that guy. You miss joy, you miss excitement, you miss that very feeling that Homestar Runner captures, and that I try to capture with my own games, because you can't put yourself in that head-space when most of your daily life is reading and doling out more negativity and snark.

It's time to get back to making the stuff I want to see and talking about how awesome it is, and do my little part in creating a better atmosphere for those games to be received in.

Arcana Rising Status Update

Hey folks, long time no see!

I've been silent on the official blog for a while, because I'd been quite furiously hacking away at my keyboard, but the result of this prolonged silence is that the first draft of Arcana Rising is now done, and has been delivered to playtesters and Kickstarter backers!

I'll be continuing to work on cleaning the whole thing up, and putting together layout and art over the coming weeks, and so I hope to have some more fun stuff to show you soon.

A sample Arcana Rising character.

As the character creation chapters for Arcana Rising are now complete, I have the wondrous pleasure of being able to make an actual character for the game. So, for the sake of offering a little sneak preview, here's a wizard I made for the game as a test of the system.

Jason Aldous

Wizard

STR 12
DEX 13 (+1 Ranged To-hit)
CON 7
INT 14
WIS 11 (+1 Will)
CHA 10

Melee To-hit: +0
Ranged To-hit: +1
Hit Dice: 1d6
Saving Throws: +1 WIS
Will: 4
Hit Points: 5
Massive Damage: 8
Armor Class: 9

Abilities: Wizardry, Spell Memorization, Wizard's Staff
Weapons: Short Blades, Blunt Weapons, Archaic Ranged, Handguns

Education Level: Basic
Day Job: Writer
Skills: Long Arms, Language +1, Arcana +1, Computer +1, Investigation +1, Streetwise +1, Xenotherology +1.
Demand: 16
Income: ₳75/month.

Equipment: Wizard's Staff (1d8, 2H, 2kg), Automatic w/laser sight (handgun, 1d8, 15 shots, +1 to hit, 1kg), Leather Duster (AC9, 3kg), compact car (₳32/month), electronic reader (spellbook, 1kg), cellular phone (1kg), pocket lighter, ₳17 pocket money.

Spells (M for memorized):
Cantrips: Alarm, Circle of Simple Summoning, Haywire, Light (M), Mage Hand (M), See Magic (M)
Level 1: Magic Missile (M, 1d6).

Companion: Twinkle-toes (soulbound planar spider)
HD2d8+2, HP11, TH+1, AC8, S10, I10, M12, 1d8+1 damage

Wrinkles: Abuse of Authority, Poverty, Arcane Dabbling

Pay What You Want for BWP Games!

As a special Midsummer bundle, both of BWP's games, Heaven's Shadow and Hulks and Horrors are available for a limited time as a pay what you want bundle on DriveThruRPG!

Take a look: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/115686/Bedroom-Wall-Two-Pack---Pay-What-You-Want

I'll be making this bundle available for a limited time through the month of June, so grab it now while you can!

Arcana Rising is funded!

As of this very evening, Arcana Rising is officially a thing. Which will exist. I am actually taking a break from writing the chapter on magic in order to write this little blog post announcing its future existence to the world.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to this project, and everyone else who at least helped get the word out on the thing, and look forward to seeing it completed and on the virtual shelves at DriveThruRPG!

Only three days remain on the Arcana Rising Kickstarter!

Time runs thin, and opportunities to get in on this now run thin as well! We've hit our first stretch goal but there's still time for more! Get your money in now while the going is good, and let's see if we can't push our way to that Central Valley setting and some more visual goodies for the interior!

[Expanding the Game #5] H&H: The Moderators

The galaxy is a big place. While not all of it is yet settled, even the settled space of the known sentient races is still vast, and while the subspace engine brings things far closer together than they might otherwise be, this distance still imposes some practicality issues on certain things, for instance, law enforcement.

The process of enforcing the law can become quite difficult when a criminal can simply flee to a sector light years away from where he committed his crimes, and the difficulty involved in capturing such a suspect and then managing to get them all the way back to the appropriate jurisdiction for trial and incarceration raises further issues of time, cost, and practicality. As a result, the enforcement of the law became more and more a matter of cost-benefit analysis rather than justice, and evading punishment was often as simple as just leaving the system, as limited budgets and manpower shortages made the tracking and capture of fugitives of limited priority for most planetary and solar level authorities. Thus, in order to address this shortage, and further discourage criminals from fleeing justice, the Moderators were formed.

Easy dungeon generation for Hulks and Horrors, courtesy of Wizardawn!

Hey folks! In order to speed up the dungeon prep process for my ongoing Hulks and Horrors play-by-post game over on theRPGsite, and thus leave more time for writing Arcana Rising, I've been toying with the tools over at Wizardawn, and I've managed to put together a handy alternate way to generate your dungeons for Hulks and Horrors via the web!

We start by generating a map for our dungeon, using the Sci-Fi Map tool. This tool can generate cool sci-fi maps in three styles, Buildings (great for individual buildings in colonies or urban environments, or even for well laid out underground environments), Spaceships (great for both ships and stations), and Exodus Spaceships, which are made to have a natural environment at the center (great for Ark Stations and Artificial Worlds). The maps are geomorphic, generated from 10 square by 10 square tiles with an additional 5 square wide border, and you can select the number of tiles used with the height and width control.

Most importantly, we want to make sure to check the box to Number Rooms, as we'll need those numbers later.  Click the big Create button, and in a new tab you'll get a fresh and gorgeous looking sci-fi dungeon map. Save that by whatever means you desire (the site has some notes on how best to do this), and make note of the largest numbered room, as we'll need this number for the next step.

Alternately, you can also use the Dungeon Map tool for generating underground locations (be sure to check Number Areas), or the Ruined City Maps tool for generating abandoned cities.

Now we can use the Random Area tool to generate room contents, using our custom data file for Hulks and Horrors. There are a number of handy controls on this page for setting percentage chances of different types of room contents and so forth, but we'll dial in one the important ones:

1. The number of Areas needs to equal the number of the highest room number on your previously generated map.
2. "Contents" are what H&H calls "Flavor" results, and will generate from the nifty little bits of flavor text from the H&H corebook.
3. Terrain options are in code, based on the categories from the corebook: UP=Urban/Pod, WI=Wilderness, SH=Ship/Station, UN=Underground.
4. "Main Encounters" is useful if you have a specific type of themed monster you want to appear frequently in your dungeon. You can copy and paste the appropriate line from the H&H data file or even write in your own.
5. Data is the most important box here! This is where we put the data file for Hulks and Horrors. Copy the entire text of the data file and paste it into the box on the Random Area tool.

Fine tune your encounter percentages (16% will give you about the same chance distribution as the corebook), click Create, and bam, now you have your numbered entries to match the areas in the map you generated previously! Note that unlike the system in H&H core, Wizardawn's tool can generate more than one kind of content within a single room, so you may also wish to factor this in when choosing your percentages.

Feel free to browse around the site, they have a number of tools designed for post-apocalyptic games and sci-fi games that are also of great use to Hulks and Horrors DMs.  Take a look!

[Expanding the Game #4] Pepper Pots

A requested companion to the Lords of Time. See if you can recognize who these are supposed to be.

Pepper Pot

Hit Dice: 6D12 (37)
To-Hit: +6
TAACO: 11
Armor Class: AC-2 (AC2 against energy weapons)
Initiative: 13
Save: 14
Attacks: Death Ray 1 Kill/3d12 (R), Face Grasp 2d12 (M)
# Appearing: 1d3
Behavior: Killer (+4)

Description:

The Pepper Pots' origin is shrouded in mystery and conflicting legend, but one thing that isn't is their sheer genocidal malevolence. The appearance of Pepper Pots is no mere monster hunt, but a planet-wide emergency. Their nearly indestructible armored shell, total lack of any emotion other than hatred and bloodlust, and the deadliness of their inbuilt weapons, makes even a single Pepper Pot a threat to entire military batallions. It is believed that the Pepper Pots may possess the capacity for time travel, and their appearance almost always seems to be followed by that of a Lord of Time, their sworn enemies and who some say have waged a war across all of time and space for a span immeasurable by that of non-temporal species.
Death Ray: The Pepper Pot's energy weapon is a lethal and powerful one, and deals 1 Kill of damage to living species, instantly killing any biological lifeform. A successful CON save will reduce this damage to 3d12, and non-biological entities such as robots or androids similarly take only 3d12.
Face Grasp: The Pepper Pot's manipulator arm can grasp the face of a victim, sealing around its face and suffocating it. On a successful grapple, the creature may automatically deal 2d12 damage to the victim per round.
Piperium Armor: The Pot's armor is virtually impenetrable by traditional physical weaponry. It possesses AC-2 against any non-energy based weaponry, attack, or damage source, and ignores the first 5 points of damage from any such assault.

[Expanding the Game #3] The Lords of Time

Inspired by a certain classic British sci-fi show currently back on the air, and to take a break from bashing my head against this puzzling day job system for Arcana Rising, I've knocked out a fun little treat for fans of the flying blue box and the odd man inside of it, for use in your Hulks and Horrors games.

The Lords of Time are a mysterious race of time travellers, who've popped up from time to time throughout galactic history, though very little is known of them. Travelling through time and space in their dimensionally transcendant TUDORs, and possessed of unique regenerative powers and a knack for the sciences, the Lords have a strange habit of popping up at key points all throughout history.

The rules are far too long, and for some reason refuse to properly format for, a blog post, so you may instead find them at Google Drive.

Arcana Rising Q&A Log

We had a live Q&A with Dan Davenport via IRC today, and it went swimmingly!  Take a look at the link below to get the full log. We talked about the back-story, the classes, the monsters, in-game morality, and more! Give it a read.

The Hardboiled GMshoe's Office: John Berry (Arcana Rising) Q&A Log

We've done it!

Take a look at this right here:


Yeah. That's a funded Kickstarter.

Arcana Rising has officially passed 100% funding. You can find more details about the next two stretch goals on the Kickstarter page's latest update. Up next at 150% is hiring Sam Drost back to work on layout for the game so I can focus on the game design.

In the meantime, I am working away today on the job system for AR, and hope to have the complete list statted up shortly.

Download BWP games FREE in PDF for a limited time!

As a special promotional offer, and to give our audience more idea what our games are all about here at BWP, special discount links have been added to the Kickstarter page for Arcana Rising, allowing people to download Hulks and Horrors and Heaven's Shadow in PDF for free!

Take a look today! Arcana Rising: An Urban Fantasy Roleplaying Game by Bedroom Wall Press — Kickstarter

Arcana Rising: An Urban Fantasy RPG, now on Kickstarter!

Ladies and gentlemen and other assorted creatures of myth and legend.

It is my esteemed pleasure to announce the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for my newest project!

Arcana Rising is an urban fantasy roleplaying game, that aims to merge the classic old school fantasy with the system of Hulks and Horrors, a modern day milieu, and a shade of folklore and mythology.

Powered by the H&H Engine, AR will provide 12 levels worth of urban fantasy old-school goodness, with twin-pistol wielding gunfighters battling back-to-back with spell-slinging wizards, a wealth of fantasy monsters, and a brand new skill and career system that hopes to add a new wrinkle to the H&H system and to the lives of our adventuring heroes.

You can back us on Kickstarter right this very minute, and the link bar above provides a mirror of the information therein. Development has already begun, but I need your help to make it a reality, so put in your pledges today!

[Expanding the Game] FTL #2: Shields

Energy shields provide an added layer of protection against enemy attacks, though their effectiveness varies depending on the nature of the incoming assault. The shields absorb most kinds of physical and energy damage so long as they do not fall below a certain velocity, and because they are an energy field, can self repair in combat, provided they have not been damaged.

Energy shields work as a pool of damage points against which certain kinds of weapon damage are automatically applied before resolving them against the armor and hull below. In addition, each level of shield has a regeneration rate, which is the number of damage points it gains back every round of combat so long as the system is still functioning properly and undamaged, and the engines are still providing power. If a shield is completely drained, however, it takes a round for the system to generate sufficient power to begin regenerating again.

When purchasing shields, handle them as an add-on system, requiring 40 tons of cargo space within the hull in order to install. The types and costs of the shield levels are as follows:

	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Damage Capacity	20	40	60	80
Regeneration Rate	5	10	15	20
Cost	50,000	75,000	100,000	150,000

In combat, shields react differently to each weapon type, as follows:

• Beam Weapons: Shields completely absorb the damage from a beam weapon, talking only half-damage from the beam, and allowing no damage through even if the beam does sufficient damage to drain the shield.
• Burst Weapons and Mass Drivers: These weapons strike the shield first, doing normal damage, and should the shield be drained by the attack, any remaining damage carries over to the hull and armor below as normal.
• Ion Weapons: These deal double damage against shields, and temporarily disable their recharge ability for 1d6 rounds.  
• Missiles: These relatively slow moving projectiles are unaffected by energy shields, and ignore them completely. 

When attacking a ship with shields, simply roll and resolve the attack as normal, but subtract any damage absorbed by the shield first.

Zoltan Shield

Zoltan have an additional type of shield they employ on their ships. Zoltan shields can be equipped in addition to regular shields, and provide an added layer of temporary protection against all forms of attack. Zoltan shields have a damage capacity of 100, but do not regenerate in combat, and will in fact only regenerate by capturing power from subspace, requiring an FTL jump in order to recharge. 

Zoltan shields soak all forms of damage, though they still take double damage from ion weapons. 

Adding a Zoltan shield to a ship requires an additional 20 tons of cargo space and costs 200,000 credits.

BWP is hiring! Plus, my next book!

Howdy Bedroom Wall fans!

It's been a while. Sorry about that.

One of the disadvantages of being a sole proprietor and creator is I have a limited amount of creative focus, and truth be told I've been floundering around for a bit since H&H, trying to find a new project while hopefully giving H&H the continued support via the blog that will keep it in the limelight. We've hit Copper status on DTRPG and to my mind that makes H&H a proper success, and I want it to keep going. Part of why I haven't already started putting together a new edition is I don't want to sabotage this one.  I think H&H is a complete and wonderful game in its own right.

But, I have a new project. For reals this time. And it's a doozy, I think, and has been consuming pretty much all of my writing time and head space, such that I really haven't had the room in there to continue things like the FTL series. It's called Arcana Rising, and I'll have some announcements and even a Kickstarter about it very soon. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one through because I've found with this project that balance between originality and classicism that I love so much as a designer, something I never quite seemed to get to with Hackerscape.

So, I have a proposition, and maybe it's a mad one, maybe not, I'll leave that up to the applicants.

I want to hire a blog writer for Bedroom Wall Press. Amount of contribution would be up to you, but I would want a bare minimum of 1 post a week of at least 600 words. Topics would be partly assigned, especially initially as the first order of business will be wrapping up the FTL blog series, but if you have other ideas of your own you want to pull off with BWP's games I'd be more than open to suggestions.

Compensation would come in the form of ad revenue share, to be negotiated based on the amount of contribution, and of course we'll want to work together on how best to add genuinely topical advertising to the blog, so we can move away from generic AdSense ASAP. If anyone knows of any RPG-related ad-sharing networks, please let me know.

I am sure that some people will be jumping to tell me how awful and unfair this is, and those people are welcome not to apply. I believe in compensating writers as fairly as I can, but BWP is a one-man operation at the moment and I don't have the resources to offer anything else but this.

Applicants should apply by emailing me directly at jsberry AT hulksandhorrors DOT com.  Tell me a little about yourself, your gaming tastes, your familiarity with BWP's games, especially Hulks and Horrors, and link some samples of stuff you think is in line with our currently released projects. If you've got a blog that updates regularly that is definitely a plus in your column. Familiarity with old-school FRP systems in particular is just about mandatory, at least some time spent with B/X or Labyrinth Lord and the like.

In the meantime, I'll be continuing work on Arcana Rising and try my best to squeeze out an update or two for H&H when I can, and I hope you'll bear with me!

[Expanding the Game] FTL #1: Characters

FTL: Faster than Light is a space exploration and combat game of the roguelike persuasion for PCs by Subset Games. It is a personal favorite of mine; I was actually a beta level backer during their Kickstarter, and it was the first KS I ever contributed to.

FTL puts players in control of a lone vessel, fleeing the oncoming rebel fleet as it makes haste to prepare itself for a coming battle and notify its superiors of the impending threat. It also happens to make a riproaring concept for a Hulks and Horrors game.

And so, in the first of a new blog series at BWP, I'll be presenting a series of posts detailing some house rules for running FTL on the tabletop. Each week I'll release a new chunk covering the salient details needed to modify H&H to fit FTL, and thus also in the process provide new systems and add-ons that you can even use in your regular H&H games. Once the series is completed, the posts will be compiled into a PDF and posted in the Downloads section. We'll begin with some important character rules.

Hulks and Horrors finally back in print!

At long last, and with some help from +Scott Holden who graciously got my shipping upgraded, I have received the latest proof for Hulks and Horrors, and it is once again back in print!

As recompense to those who were unable to buy it during the launch sale, everyone who downloaded or purchased the PDF and has their DTRPG account set to receive discount emails has been sent a discount link to pick up the print version at the original launch sale price.

For those who haven't grabbed it yet, now is the time to do so, the discount link will expire on the 31st, so check your emails!

I've also updated the PDF version to fix the D10/D20 confusion in the system generation. System coordinates are meant to be rolled on a d10, not a d20. There were plans to boost the numbers to d20 in development, but the 20x20 grid would be too cramped in the 6x9 page format, and somehow the text never got properly reverted. My sincere apologies on the error, and on the fact that I didn't catch it in time for this latest revised print version. It is hoped, however, that this is the only such errata remaining.

By request: Sample sector map.

Ask, and ye shall recieve.

A commenter on the Hulks and Horrors page asked if I might share a sample result of the sector map generation in action. The process can seem a little opaque on first glance, so it may be helpful for some folks to see what a finished result looks like. The following link is a PDF scanned from one of my own sectors, Korathraz. One of the first sectors charted by the Hovering Squid, Korathraz is notable more for historical value than its actual claim value as you can see by its VR, but perhaps there are still great riches to be found there all the same.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3hWDeEiNI5abXJnTnE0V29fSlU/edit?usp=sharing

My apologies for the low quality, the scanner I have access to had extremely limited control over the quality of the results, as well as for my handwriting, which makes doctors' look legible.  But it should be enough to give you an idea how it works and what sort of results it aims to produce.

H&H is free for one more day only!

A friendly reminder, if you haven't nabbed Hulks and Horrors yet for free, best get to it! The PDF will return to its regular price tomorrow evening.

Print proofs are on their way and I hope to have H&H back for sale in print as soon as possible. In the meantime, I hope those who missed the sale will still check out the PDF when it returns to its customary price tomorrow evening.

I've also decided to present the FTL rules as a blog series, so coming soon I'm going to start hopefully daily blogs each covering a tidbit of how to run Subset's excellent FTL universe with Hulks and Horrors.

I also hope to have a bigger announcement for Hackerscape very soon, so stay tuned!

Alternate Concepts: the Vigilante.

Greetings BWP fans!

Some quick updates first, then I'll get to something fun, I promise. The fixed printing of H&H has been received by the printers, and proof copies are on the way to me shortly to make sure everything went fine. There was a bit of a hangup with the shipping (my fault, never do business at 8'o'clock in the morning on 5 hours' sleep), so it sadly may be a couple of weeks yet before I can once again approve Hulks and Horrors for sale in print, unless I can get the shipping upgraded. The good news is that because of this unfortunate delay, as a gesture of thanks and apology for the inconvenience, everyone who downloaded Hulks and Horrors during the sale period and is signed up to receive special discounts from DTRPG will receive a coupon to give you one more chance to pick it up at the introductory price for a limited time.

You can also see above that BWP finally has a proper logo of it's own! It's a simple design, aiming to evoke classic computer and sports car badges. Let us know what you think!

On to the fun stuff: Alternate Concepts. Tonight I was playing a bit of Batman and Tropico, and between my love of the Bat and the Vigilante character in Tropico 4, it put me in mind to make a little demonstration of the flexibility of the H&H rules system. Sure, H&H is a great SF dungeon crawler, but it's also an old school style game with a very simple class system, simple enough that expanding the rules to cover wildly different concepts should be easier than it sounds. I've been puttering away at a cyberpunk game powered by it for my next commercial release, but tonight I wanted to take a step way out of concept and see about a pulp-style Vigilante class, as well as demonstrate how one might introduce a touch of customization to a class.  Take a look after the jump and tell me how I did.

Hulks and Horrors temporarily unavailable in print.

Hulks and Horrors will temporarily be unavailable in print format, as the files are updated to match the current PDF version fixes, such as the switch to TAAC0.

I apologize for the inconvenience, and hope you will bear with me until the book is again available.

In the meantime, the PDF version remains up for free download, so I encourage anyone who has yet to take a gander to give it a download.

In Memory: Douglas Adams

Today is the 12th anniversary of the passing of a legend.

Douglas Noel Adams, author and creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, passed on this day in 2001 at the far too early age of 49.

Mr. Adams' work was a profound influence on me. The BBC television version of the Guide remains seared into my brain, a perennial favorite I still bring out from time to time, and his writing in the Hitchhiker's books, as well as Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, is some of the best words ever put to paper.

The Guide was a humongous influence all throughout Hulks and Horrors, from the Scavenger's Guide, to prose callouts to famous lines, to the very style of the writing in the game and especially in the bizarre and imaginative nature of Ancient technology. I daresay that without Adams' influence on my work, H&H would not scarcely be the same, if it existed at all.  Moreso than any other author, Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series defines my image of what great sci-fi fiction can be when it focuses on imagination and the human element instead of being lost in silly details.

So thank you, Mr. Adams. Hulks and Horrors owes you a great debt, where ever you are.

We're #1! (And #4!)

One day.

One day Hulks and Horrors has been on the market, and already, you folks have spoken loud and clear that this is a thing you want to see, and as a result, Hulks and Horrors is now the #1 hottest Sci-Fi product on DriveThruRPG, and the #4 hottest older edition product, beaten only by Keep on the fricking Borderlands and the original Basic/Expert sets themselves! 

I am overwhelmed by the result. Just utterly stunned. And also, I'll admit, suddenly a little nervous because suddenly my little game has gotten on the radar in a big way.

As such, a few revisions are in order. It's been pointed out to me that I neglected to include a reference to the SRD in the OGL notice in the back, and this was not entirely intentional, and will be corrected shortly. And despite really wanting to keep it, I think it will be advisable as well to switch to the alternate term I devise for THAC0 as well. I think the usage is defensible (acronyms aren't copyrightable as I understand it), but I also think the sudden attention means I don't feel like waiting for a C&D from Wizards and having to actually fight it.

Fortunately, I came prepared for this eventuality, and thus I introduce TAAC0! No longer just a delicious south-of-the-border lunch option, TAAC0 stands for "To Attack Armor Class 0," and will be the new term going forward. It also has the advantage of removing any ambiguity or confusion when converting from older editions.  I'll be uploading a version of the file with this change and the license correction in the next day or so, which means all you folks who've bought print copies now have a "rare misprint edition!" Perhaps some day you can sell it on eBay for maybe 2, 3 bucks more than you paid for it!

Also, I've gotten some feedback regarding the Daredevil ability for Pilots. There seems to be some confusion as to how it works, and its intended usage. The Daredevil rule as written is intended to be used for non-combat situations (and is indicated as such), and so the "take lowest" rule works fine here. It was intended more for stuff like "flying through box canyons" or "threading the needle through an asteroid hole", than use in actual ship-to-ship combat. However, for those who want Pilots to have a little more punch in the ship combat department vs. their NPC enemies, you may want to consider allowing it in combat, and for this you may want to revise the rule to simply "take either", to reduce the risk that a successful roll might beat the stat, but not the opposing roll and thus still fail.  I'll be including this variant rule in the upcoming free FTL supplement.

Hulks and Horrors is now available!

Greetings space fans!

It is with great joy that I am pleased to announce that Hulks and Horrors: Basic Black Edition is now on sale at DriveThruRPG! The PDF is available free for the first week, and the print copy is available for an introductory sale price of just $10. I want as many people as possible to get their hands on this game, and tell their friends all about it. Let's make this the old-school release of the season!

With the release of Hulks and Horrors, this also brings to a close the free sale on Heaven's Shadow. Thanks to you downloaders though, Heaven's Shadow is now #4 in the D6 category on DriveThruRPG! Thanks for the boost folks. Everyone who downloaded or previously purchased Heaven's Shadow (and signed up to allow email from DTRPG) will shortly be receiving a special "loyalty coupon" in thanks for this accomplishment, giving you 20% off a print copy of Heaven's Shadow, so for those who've been enjoying it, now might be a good time to grab yourself a permanent print copy!

I've also got some exciting news in terms of new content coming for both of BWP's games. I've been speaking with Justin Ma of Subset Games, and I've gotten permission to post for free some rules for the FTL game universe in Hulks and Horrors! I've also just finished off a certain "whalepunk" video game about the masked assassin of Dunwall, and am planning to release some quick and dirty notes for it, as well as another famous series about hooded assassins, using the Heaven's Shadow system, albeit with some of the distinguishing marks filed off for safety.

And finally, some of you may've noticed a new link up at the top for a third Bedroom Wall Press title. I'm not ready to talk much about it just yet, but take a quick peek anyway. Keep watching our blog for more news in the future!

Heaven's Shadow FREE for a limited time only!

To celebrate the impending release of Hulks and Horrors, I am for a limited time dropping the PDF/EPUB version of Heaven's Shadow to exactly zero!  That's right, from now until H&H goes on sale, the digital version of Heaven's Shadow will be completely free.

Head on over to DrivethruRPG and give it a go! Be sure to leave a review!

Hulks and Horrors is off to the presses!

It is my privilege to announce that Hulks and Horrors Basic Black Edition has been sent to press, and barring any unexpected issues, will be ready for release very soon, likely in no more than a couple of weeks. My apologies that I can't provide any more concrete release.

At release, the PDF will be Free, so everyone can get a gander on it, and the print version will be at a special introductory price of $10.

I hope you will check it out as soon as it's released, and in the meantime, you can take a peek at the Basic Black cover below.

Hulks and Horrors: Basic Black Edition cover

Hulks and Horrors interview on #rpgnet

Hello everyone!

Progress continues on Hulks and Horrors. I've had a slight set back as I had to switch software in order to get a more consistent layout, but the book is now complete and my next task will be the design of record sheets for characters, sectors, and systems.  After that, a cover design.

I can also confirm a title: the Basic Black Edition. This name evokes one of my other favorite old-school games as well as the size and unadorned nature of this first release.  Hopefully it will be followed by further expansion in times to come, but right now I felt it important to assemble and get it into players' hands the best way that I can: giving it away.

Also, I've just today completed an open interview on the #rpgnet IRC channel conducted by the inestimable Dan Davenport. I lay out the familiar details, discuss some of the feel and inspiration for the work, my attitude towards house ruling and how I've designed H&H to support it, and I even did a little on the fly demonstration of the results of the random system and civilization naming system. Take a look.

Release day approaches soon, and I look forward to it being in player hands!

Hulks and Horrors now complete!

It is once again my pleasure to announce that I have actually finished something! This evening I have finished writing the DM advice chapter of Hulks and Horrors, as well as the layout. I want to give it a full read through again for editing purposes and clarity, but it is otherwise complete and ready to see print in its present form.

This brings me further to the release plans. My potential publisher has informed me that he will not be able to consider H&H for production until next year at the earliest. I have decided instead to continue on with Hulks and Horrors as a Bedroom Wall Press label project to join Heaven's Shadow.

Because I have a non-existent budget for this release, this will come in the form of an art-less version of the core book as presently written, in both PDF and print-on-demand. Because of the low-budget nature of the release and because I want to get it into player's hands for feedback, the PDF of this release will be free of charge for the first month, and the print version will be a mere $10. This will go up some time within the next few days, as soon as I have a cover and inside cover design I like.

Stay tuned to this space, and I'll have further announcements as soon as the game is available!

Heaven's Shadow now in print!

It is my pleasure to announce that Heaven's Shadow is now available in print.  I received my proof copy and was most satisfied with the results, and approved it for sale right away.

You can find it at DriveThruRPG.

Heaven's Shadow Digital Release!

It is my great pleasure to announce that the digital edition of Heaven's Shadow has been approved and released via DriveThruRPG.

You may find it posted here, should you wish to send the link on to your friends and comrades: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/110331/Heaven%27s-Shadow?manufacturers_id=4617

Those who pre-ordered via Google Wallet on the website will shortly be receiving a link to the Google Drive share via email, as well as complimentary copies from DriveThruRPG.  From this point forward DTRPG will be the exclusive distribution and sale point for Heaven's Shadow, in order to simplify things on my end.

Thank you for your support, and I hope you all enjoy the game!

Hulks and Horrors back in production.

Since some folks have been asking around the interwebs about it, I thought I'd do a post highlighting the news about Hulks and Horrors.

For those unfamiliar, Hulks and Horrors was my previous IndieGoGo project, a gonzo sci-fi old school RPG inspired by a certain very famous RPG.  The premise aims to do what I've always said someone should've done years ago: dump the elves and wizards and lairs of evil overlords, and give me squid aliens and laser pistols and abandoned precursor space stations.

The project brought on board my friend Sam Drost for the layout design, as well as Tim Sievert and Evan Palmer who contributed some fantastic art for the project and were meant to make very much more.

Unfortunately, the IGG campaign failed to fund, but I did get an offer from a publisher of note in the OSR community which I quite gleefully accepted.  His schedule was full for the year so I was forced to put the project on the back burner while I worked out something new I could work on in the short term, which turned into Heaven's Shadow.

The good news though, is that now that Heaven's Shadow is submitted and on the way to the virtual presses, I am once again freed up to begin work again on Hulks and Horrors.  I've been spending the last couple days cleaning up my files and converting them to the far superior Word 2013 format, and I'm negotiating some changes and expansions to the rules with my prospective publisher (all good, I swear, he just wants more stuff!) Once we've hashed things out I'm hoping to get Tim and Evan back on board for art as well, provided they have room in their schedules.

I don't have any dates to offer yet, but rest assured, work is in progress, and I'm looking forward to finally seeing it come to fruition!

Heaven's Shadow proof complete.

As of this evening, editing and layout for Heaven's Shadow is complete.  I have but to assemble some higher res files from my assets for the cover, and it will be ready for release. I've sent the final proof off to the play-test group for a final chance for feedback, after which it will at last go live.

Now that the game is ready to go out the door, I've begun recovering and converting my files for Hulks and Horrors, which I will be expanding and revising over the coming months in accordance with some requests made by the publisher.

Talvenacht and PbP with the Author!

Hallo again everyone!

In a burst of inspiration last night while brainstorming for a PbP session, I added a new Agency to the game: Talvenacht, a Finnish-German group inspired by the figure of Deitrich Bonhoeffer.

I'm recruiting for a PbP game now, the thread for which you can find on theRPGsite.

Don't forget also about our GM Program! Join today and give it a go.

Announcing the BWP GM Program

Hello again everyone!

I've had a good long think about expanding the pool of playtesters for Heaven's Shadow, and with that in mind I'd like to announce the Official BWP GM Program.

I've been looking for ways to encourage people to run BWP games, and I've decided that the best way to do so is free and/or cheap stuff.  Everyone likes free and cheap stuff, and I don't mind giving it to people as long as they encourage other people to buy stuff from me.

By emailing the GM Program, you can sign up to receive access to the playtest drafts of BWP games.  Then, once you've got them, you run them for your group, and provide me with some kind of "proof" you've done so, such as a link to a chat log, play-by-post thread, G+/Facebook conversation, Youtube video, or other such verifiable evidence you've run a game, and just as importantly actual play feedback regarding the rules of the game.

Once you've done that, you'll get a free PDF copy of that game upon release, and a discount on the print edition.

So email today, and get in on the action with the Heaven's Shadow playtest!

Heaven's Shadow chapter preview

Hello again!

My apologies on the quietude as we come into the new year, some unfortunate circumstances kept me away from the computer.

I am nonetheless back at work editing Heaven's Shadow, and in accordance, I bring offerings of preview material in the form of the recently completed Introduction chapter.

You can check it out on our download page, or find it here.