I love this kind of email:
You purchased Arkham Detective Tales from Pelgrane Press Ltd. The original version included more typos than we were happy with, and did not include an adventure set in Arkham.
There is an updated version available with a new adventure, The King’s Men, available for free download from your order page.
Simon Rogers
Pelgrane Press Ltd
It’s stuff like this that makes PDFs the wave of the future, at least for companies that have such great follow-up service.
Our summer holidays are rapidly approaching and that means a few weeks of sun, sand, and…books. I usually get through a bunch of books during my summer holiday time, including several RPGs. Here’s what is going with me this year:
Fiasco – This is a Cohen Brothers inspired ”capers gone awry” story game which I picked up in soft cover when it came out but haven’t had a chance to read yet. It looks awesome.
I’m also taking along a few books to read as well. These include:
The Keeper’s Resource Book & Screen is an accessory for Pelgrane Press‘s The Trail of Cthulhu RPG game. The book is written by Simon Carryer. The book plus screen retails for around $22. For people interested primarily in the resource book, a PDF-only version is also available for around $9.
Here’s how Pelgrane Press describes it:
It’s easy to get clues with GUMSHOE, but don’t make it too easy!
A coffee-proof screen shields mysteries best unseen by prying eyes. On the Keeper side are essential ToC tables to lessen wear on your prized copy of ToC.
Included is chunky resource book for use in play – it includes clues, equipment, background info and special benefits on abilities and occupations, as well a 50 NPCs ranging from suave cultists to talkative telephone operators.
The screen is a decent, 3-fold, glossy one with an nice ToC graphic on one side (the players’ side naturally) and virtually every chart or bit of information you might need to run a ToC on the inside. This includes summaries of how Tests work. As such, the screen does indeed live up to Pelgrane’s claims of “lessening wear on your copy of ToC” – the screen eliminates almost any need to reference the books, at least for the charts or rules. As such, I find the screen pretty indispensable since it’s really handy.
I have only two minor quibbles about the screen:
The Keeper’s Resource Book is probably the more useful and interesting item in the package – It’s a 68-page saddle-stapled book filled with useful information. What kind of info you ask? To start with it breaks down nearly all of the Investigative and many of the General Abilities, one by one, and provides detailed information about that ability, how it can be used in the game’s default 1930′s setting, types of equipment that can be used with the ability, and examples of benefits it can provide in the course of an investigation. I found this section super useful because it gave me a lot more ideas on how I could put the investigative abilities to use in constructing a scenario – some of the suggestions are detailed enough to provide entire story hooks. This section of the book more than justifies the expense of the pdf alone.
The second section of the book breaks down the various occupations available in a similar way to the Abilities section, providing details about some of the special techniques or talents available to each profession. Some of these are pretty interesting too – for example, one technique outlined under the Alienist profession is the Lobotomy. Ouch.
The book’s final major ..read more
Continue reading about Review: Trail of Cthulhu – Keeper’s Resource Book & Screen »
Over the last year Pelgrane Press has been cranking out some really cool looking supplements and adventures for Ken Hite’s Trail of Cthulhu game. Although I have yet to find the time to play ToC, I’m a big fan of the GUMSHOE system and all this stuff really has me itching to gather up a group to play some Cthulhu this fall.
I’ve been looking at Mutant City Blues. I’m very fond of the Gumshoe line of game, but recently I find myself questioning the big idea behind them. As Robin D. Laws sees it investigative games (such as Call of Cthulhu and Nemesis) become derailed when players fail skill rolls and their characters fail to spot vital clues. His resolution to this issue is simple – assume the investigators are competent enough to find the clues and give any character who has even the lowest level in the applicable investigative skill the clue. Then to allow higher ranks in the skill to provide additional flavour text or provide the clue in a less ambiguous format. This in theory shifts the emphasis from finding clues to the interpretation of clues. My concern is that by removing the investigative roll the game is removing some of the suspense from the game.
Continue reading about Gumshoe – Investigative Skill Rolls »
I just got back from a week’s ski holiday in the Altgaü region along the Germany/Austria border, and like always we spend the days skiing and the night’s reading. This year I took along a bunch of RPG books that have been on my “must read” list and managed to get through all of them. While there will be much more in depth reviews coming in the next couple months, here’s a snapshot of what I read:
Continue reading about Getting caught up on my RPG reading »
I picked up Trail of Cthulhu by Ken Hite on pre-order this spring but just only recently actually picked up the book during my visit to the USA. I’ve gotten through the first couple chapters and so far I really like what I’ve read: They’ve done a great job of adapting the GUMSHOE system to the Cthulhu genre. The artwork is also great: I’m not sure what some of the reviews I’ve read were talking about… Hopefully I’ll manage to finish up reading it this week so I can play!
