Category: GURPS

Discussion of the GURPS RPG system

Commissioned Art from Citadel at Nordvorn. Hire these guys.

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Hey, while I’m finishing up the relationship map and the index (I took care of the monsters last night), let me distract you with some art and artists, in alphabetical order. I also use stock art by Dean Spencer, and his Patreon portfolio (and DriveThruRPG work) are a great aid to any RPG publisher.

Thomas Denmark

Thomas and I actually have a longer association than I thought, though this the first time he’s accepted an art commission from me. He and David Pulver featured a short grappling system for OSR games (that would eventually become Dungeon Grappling for That Other Game) in Thomas’ Guardians Superhero RPG. Turns out we both share a love for Viking/Norse lore and culture.

https://www.thomasdenmark.com/portfolio-samples

Ben Jan

Ben specializes in landscapes and environments, and does a spiffy job with both. He was lightning fast on the commission work.

https://www.artstation.com/winterkeep

Ksenia Kozhevnikova

Ksenia has a wide repertoire of styles to choose from, and I loved the sensibilities she brought to the work.

http://kseniakoz.com/portfolio/illustration-portfolio/

Juan Ochoa

Juan and I have been working together since my first Kickstarter, Dungeon Grappling. In fact, we worked together before any kickstarters were launched, as I commissioned him to do pre-visualization on Dragon Heresy. He’s done two different covers for me, plus some neat other work.

http://www.juanochoa.co/

Glynn Seal

Known best for his Midderlands OSR setting and that he won a Gold Medal ENnie for Cartography last year, I’ve used him for both of my Dungeon Fantasy RPG projects for cartography. I love the style and detail he puts in to the maps.

https://monkeyblooddesign.co.uk/cartography/

Ricardo Troula

Rick did the cover work for Citadel, so you’ve been seeing his stuff from the get-go. But he’s also got some great work inside the book as well, such as this more pastoral scene.

http://ricktroula.com/

Kriz Villacis

Finally, Kriz – another who’s been working with me since the beginning.

https://www.artstation.com/krizevil

Initial Distribution of PDFs on Nordvorn is Complete

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PDF Distribution

Anyway . . . all PDFs that were part of this Kickstarter have been sent out. In four cases, these are the “final” files: Fantastic Dungeon Grappling, Dragon Heresy, Lost Hall of Tyr (2nd Edition), and Dungeon Grappling.

In two cases, Hall of Judgment and of course The Citadel at Nordvorn, I’m taking errata and comments until Apr 29 or so, when I send the final files in to the printer.

The Backerkit and pre-order phase of the project will be open until I send the order to the printer next week. After that, the PDF sales (and print-book pre-orders) will migrate to my website. Once both print and PDF products have been sent out, a quantity of all the books will be sent to Warehouse 23 and listed there, plus PDF sales. Of course it’s best for me if you buy them directly from my website . . . but as Guy Fleegman once said, “I’m just jazzed to be on the show, man!”

Say Things Please?

I’ve gotten a few nice comments as part of proofreading, for which feedback I thank you. That being said . . . if you have a review, initial impressions, or comments about the book, telling me is great. Telling Facebook, SJG Forums, RPG.net, Reddit, Twitter, theRPGPub, etc what you think is even better. If you feel strongly, you can always include a link to the hosted pre-order page:

https://the-citadel-at-norvorn.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

The author saying “buy my stuff, it’s fun!” is all well and good. If I didn’t think it, I shouldn’t write it. But the backers saying “was worth it,” or even better “I’m going to run this/I ran this and it was fun!” is even better.

No Rest for the Weary

If you’ve seen the Gaming Ballistic publishing schedule for 2019, you’ll know I’ve got a lot going on:

The next on the docket is “TFT Group 1.” That will be four adventures for SJGames’ The Fantasy Trip.

I’m pleased to say that I took a break from Nordvorn to do a draft layout of one of the four adventures – I’ve got them all in hand already – and I’m pleased with how it breaks down. The complete adventure text, with reflow, comes in at about 11 pages or so, with some room for art. The remaining five pages are going to be tokens and maps, more art, and of course a title page and table of contents.

I like doing a bit of layout first. It’s somewhat silly, but it’s far easier for me to see things, edit things, and get a good drink of a draft if it’s on paper. Also: I need to do it eventually, and being able to directly import a file into something that looks good makes for a better Kickstarter presentation.

And while “April 19” has but a week left in it, the first two weeks in May is very possible for a crowdfunding launch. In fact, May 8 through June 2 looks like good dates for the campaign.

I’ve played a bit of The Fantasy Trip at FNORDCon and GameHole Con, and it’s a great little tactical combat game, and in the “old-school” fashion, is easily expanded into a “roll and shout” RPG with In the Labyrinth. 

The adventures being funded are not (yet) Nordlond adventures. I don’t have an issue with doing some! And I may well throw down a few Viking-esque adventures later (I’ve got an idea there, in fact, that would be a great short scenario).

Realistically, that puts crowdfunding completion and backerkit surveys finished in the first week in July, with The Dragons of Rosgarth launching in July, and Forest’s End in September/October. So there should be  three completely new books for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG, plus Fantastic Dungeon Grappling and Hall of Judgment (2nd Edition) in 2019 for the Powered by GURPS crowd.

We’ll finish up the year with yet another project for The Fantasy Trip, and the authors are hard at work there as well.

Final Touches

Even so . . . I’ve still got a week to go on Nordvorn, and I assure you I will not be idle. The proofing and commentary has already proven valuable and continues to be more so, and those edits will be reflected in the released draft. A reminder on what you can help me with:

  • Spelling, typos, and errors in layout/formatting. Y’all are rocking this already.
  • Mistakes in monster stats. Gotten a few of these, and they’re vital.
  • Glossary Entries. “How do you pronounce this?” and “Oh, more Nordlond phrases” are both good reasons to stick an entry in the glossary. I’ve gotten one or two of these, but suggestions are welcome.
  • Index and cross-reference suggestions. Some of these are obvious: “see [Section Topic here]” will always get a link. Some are NOT so obvious. With PDFs, you can always just do “Find X,” but you can’t do that in print, and that’s where a good index comes into play.

And that’s that!

Thursday is GURPSDay! Mar 28 to Apr 19, 2019

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As always, Thursday is GURPSDay! But I missed a day, so here you go. Today marks a slightly new phase in how GURPSDay is presented, to make sure every post gets caught. I’ll be going back THREE weeks each report, rather than one. So posts will get some repeat views and if you miss one script pull, you’ll get two more chances.

In big news for Gaming Ballistic, we’re entering the fulfillment phase of several projects. I can happily report that the international copies of Lost Hall of Tyr (2nd Edition) have finally arrived at the fulfillment center, after many trials and tribulations with the printer. Citadel at Nordvorn goes into PDF delivery mode over the next few days as well, with Fantastic Dungeon Grappling going out today, and Hall of Judgment (2nd Edition) following shortly thereafter. Pretty much all the “already done” PDFs should be headed out to backers by the end of the weekend . . . and I’m doing my level best to have a readable, as complete as possible PDF of Nordvorn Monday or Tuesday.

GURPSDay is starting its sixth – GURPSDay started in February 2013,  a year after I started Gaming Ballistic. Things have slowed down a bit, and I’ll be considering how to revitalize this weekly activity. I’d like to see an average of 100 posts here per week – one per blog, ish – so we’ll see what we can do to get creative juiced flowing.

If you just started a GURPS blog – and I know that some of you have – email me and get on the list! With the advent of the Dungeon Fantasy RPG, Powered by GURPS, there’s even more reason to write.

How? Two action items: post more, recruit more. It’s really that simple. More posters is more posts, and more interest in GURPS.

Below you can find the blog activity for the last week. There’s a whole lotta awesome GURPS going on. Read all the posts.

Not every blog posts about GURPS every week, but some are ridiculously prolific! The list is randomized, so different bloggers will be highlighted at the top of the post each week.

As always, if you’re interested in having your blog consolidated here, navigate over to The Instructions Page and drop me a line. Take special note of the RSS Settings Fix if you’re on WordPress.
Continue reading “Thursday is GURPSDay! Mar 28 to Apr 19, 2019” →

Citadel at Nordvorn: Fulfillment Begins today!

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The process to finish up Citadel at Nordvorn enters the fulfillment phase today! While the main document isn’t yet ready, PDFs of Fantastic Dungeon Grappling and Hall of Judgment will be finalized, updated, and distributed in PDF form over the weekend. Read on for details!

And if you missed the campaign, it’s definitely not too late! Pre-orders are being taken on Backerkit right now, and will continue to be taken there until the print order is submitted the first week in May!

Check out the update history on Kickstarter, or see any other Nordvorn info here on Gaming Ballistic!

Locking Orders

So, today is the day! I have locked everyone’s responses who have actually responded. That leaves 29 surveys incomplete, and (most importantly) 11 people who have physical product but have not completed the survey, and updated an address.

I can’t send you your physical goods without a shipping address!

Charging Cards

Most – in fact, all but 10 – of the successfully-locked orders have also had your cards charged. That’s 566 people . . . woot! If you’re one of the 10, you’ll get an email from Backerkit to look into it.

First Distribution: Fantastic Dungeon Grappling!

I’m still working on Norðvorn . . . but anyone who ordered Fantastic Dungeon Grappling will be seeing a note from me later today with the PDF in their email box.

I will then try and quickly clean up Hall of Judgment, and get that ready to print. Again, that’ll be in the next day or two.

So that begins the fulfillment phase. When all the initial PDFs are out, I’ll take corrections and errata for a week or so, get the finalization, and then print! I’ll also be getting the bookmarks ready. Those are a separate print job, but not to worry.

The good news is I got my UK VAT number, which means I can now import and distribute things for International folks per my original plan. That was a wrinkle, but one that’s been smoothed. It impacted my prior Lost Hall of Tyr (2nd Edition) final phase more than y’all. But those books ship – after many trials and tribulations – this coming Tuesday!

I will be moving to finalize an order with my printer ASAP, and get things moving. It takes two weeks to order the paper . . . and I’m using the same paper throughout. That means the paper should be in hand May 6, so if I can get final files to them May 3, that satisfies the “no hiccups, no delays” staging. I will be attempting to get finals to them a few days earlier, but that’s where we stand.

Session Report – Nordvorn at FNORDCon (Carl Patten)

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Intro: May the FNORD Be With Us

Over Apr 6-7, I went down to FNORDCon, Steve Jackson Games’ first gaming convention that they planned and ran themselves. Originally, there wasn’t going to be any GURPS/DFRPG content at all – maybe not even any roleplaying – but I and one of my authors, also a MiB, volunteered to fix that right up. He was going to run two sessions of his upcoming The Dragons of Rosgarth, while I’d do one session each of Hall of Judgment and one of the almost-ready Citadel at Nordvorn.

Both sessions of mine were really, really full. I have a bit of a policy that if you come to one of my games, you play in one of my games. Especially with so few opportunities for RPGing while there. So both games had 12-13 folks in them.

I’ll be reaching out to my other players tonight, and we’ll see if anyone else has thoughts.

If you like what you read below . . . preorders for Citadel at Nordvorn are open!

Session Report by Carl Patten

My background going in: Backed Dungeon Fantasy Monsters II and backed the Citadel of Nordvorn based on recommendation from there. I am very familiar, if rusty, with GURPS, and own Dungeon Fantasy but hadn’t played it in a group yet. My wife has played several D&D campaigns but has only played GURPS once.

First of all, congratulations on running a session with 12 people that actually got stuff done! It’s really easy to get bogged down in details in DF and GURPS, and my wife appreciated the “GURPS super light” approach you took. You also were able to consistently answer our basic rule questions off the top of your head, which kept the pacing fast. Similarly, starting with “you’re all together on a boat, which is being attacked by another boat” successfully got us into the action right away without needing to reach a consensus first. The discussion afterward about what to do with our brand-new boat was hilarious!

Next, the setting rocked! We were the two Minnesotan expats in the room, and even though we may not have actually encountered the Minnesota/Iron Range references during this session, knowing they were in there got us pumped! The time you spent storytelling, describing the setting and why people acted as they did, was just as entertaining as the time we spent as characters in-game. This also paid off in the story hooks; hearing the story of the lady whose father shamed her suitor in public legitimately pissed us off! I’m going to have to run this setting just to find out what the hell is happening there!

We very much enjoyed the pre-made characters, my wife the “mace to the face” cat folk and me the halfling scout. I was worried that as two odd-ball characters we might miss out on some of the Norseness, but no, we were fully included! The descriptions and design notes were fun to read and helped us both jump into these characters immediately.

Minor character highlight was the great big lady wrestler who showed off what the Fantastic Dungeon Grappling can do. Sold me on checking it out, that’s for sure.

The Warding Temple quest to defend the village against 12 hobbs and 3 trolls was a mixed success. It succeeded in reuniting the party after we went a few different ways in Nordvorn, and ending on a big fight was a satisfying wrap-up so I’m glad we went there, but I got confused on where our party started in relation to the fey (ironic since I was the scout!), and that made it tough to sort out what to do other than just “shoot” or “run up and hit/bodyslam them”. Maybe a simple “who’s charging in and who’s staying back” table on the giant notepad would have helped? Fortunately the spellcaster next to me concussed the snot out of half the bad guys (and a few of us too) which helped us win the fight and end on time.

One last highlight: we arrived at the dock of Nordvorn with that brand new ship and the official asked us where we got it. We were standing around hum-hawing because, although per custom we’d claimed it fair and square, we weren’t sure exactly how to explain it. Suddenly you as our NPC boat captain whom we’d saved jumped in with “LET ME TELL YOU THE STORY!” It was an awesome moment of GMing and got us through that awkward pause while making us feel like righteous Norse heroes.

In conclusion, this was a tremendously exciting setting and session. Thanks for running it!

Thursday is GURPSDay! Apr 5 to Apr 11, 2019

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As always, Thursday is GURPSDay! I’ve got a tonne of stuff going on for me. Citadel just hit page count and fixed a ton of formatting stuff. Art is coming in. And we’re over 90% on backerkit. And in much less than a month, I’ll be getting ready for a new project for The Fantasy Trip. But for now . . . time to celebrate this week in GURPS.

GURPSDay is starting its sixth – GURPSDay started in February 2013,  a year after I started Gaming Ballistic. Things have slowed down a bit, and I’ll be considering how to revitalize this weekly activity. I’d like to see an average of 100 posts here per week – one per blog, ish – so we’ll see what we can do to get creative juiced flowing.

If you just started a GURPS blog – and I know that some of you have – email me and get on the list! With the advent of the Dungeon Fantasy RPG, Powered by GURPS, there’s even more reason to write.

How? Two action items: post more, recruit more. It’s really that simple. More posters is more posts, and more interest in GURPS.

Below you can find the blog activity for the last week. There’s a whole lotta awesome GURPS going on. Read all the posts.

Not every blog posts about GURPS every week, but some are ridiculously prolific! The list is randomized, so different bloggers will be highlighted at the top of the post each week.

As always, if you’re interested in having your blog consolidated here, navigate over to The Instructions Page and drop me a line. Take special note of the RSS Settings Fix if you’re on WordPress.
Continue reading “Thursday is GURPSDay! Apr 5 to Apr 11, 2019” →

Gaming Ballistic is off to FNORDCon!

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I’m headed out to FNORDCon today, back Sunday night. So I’ll be a bit thin on the ground here . . . but if you’re there, well, if there’s Dungeon Fantasy to be played, you’ll be playing it with either me or Kyle Norton. And two of those games are playtest sessions for the Dragons of Rosgarth . . . the next Norðlond adventure!

We hope to see you there!

DUNGEON FANTASY

We’re excited to have Douglas Cole and Kyle Norton from Gaming Ballistic to run Dungeon Fantasy scenarios all weekend! Here’s a short description of the scenarios being run:

Hall of Judgment: Journey from the Norðlond town of Isfjall to the ruins of Logiheimli, seeking the location of the lost Hall of Judgment. Battle undead, speak with lost heroes, and if you’re lucky, find the Hall itself. Available in limited quantities at the show! (Douglas, 10 a.m. Sat.)

Citadel at Nordvorn: The dwarf-wrought Citadel at Nordvorn anchors Audreyn’s Wall against threats from the faerie-plagued Hunted Lands, as well as the Dragon grounds. For centuries it has stood firm against external threats . . . but it currently faces disaster from within. Can the PCs unravel the mysteries brewing at Nordvorn? (Douglas, 10 a.m. Sun.)

The Dragons of Rosgarth: A new dragon has taken up residence in the Ruins of Rosgarth and gathered an army around him.  The army must be dispersed before they attack Nordlond! The game begins following a stealthy journey to within sight of the dragon’s fortress at the Ruins. What happens after that is up to you. Seize the opportunity to play The Dragons of Rosgarth *before* it’s even released! (Kyle, 3 p.m. Sat. and 2 p.m. Sun.)

Thursday is GURPSDay! March 15 to April 4, 2019

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Since the last GURPSDay (sorry I missed one), the Citadel at Nordvorn and DFM2/Boxed Set reprint both ended the primary campaign phase. Both funded solidly: DMF2 at just shy of $55K ($40K goal), while Nordvorn came in at $26K ($13K goal). Both funded and passed at least one stretch goal, and Citadel will be delivered as a sewn, lay-flat binding with 128 pages.

 

A printing decision has been made, art is coming in, and the book is heading towards finalization. I turned in a finished PDF file to SJG to print Fantastic Dungeon Grappling to be inserted into the new reprint of the Boxed Set. So things are moving. In fact, The Citadel at Norðvorn is now accepting pre-orders via Backerkit. (In fact, things are going very well over there.) This should happen for the DFM2 campaign soon as well.

 

Back to GURPSDay

Just to cover the back-story, this GURPSDay goes from mid-March to the present.

GURPSDay is starting its sixth – GURPSDay started in February 2013,  a year after I started Gaming Ballistic. Things have slowed down a bit, and I’ll be considering how to revitalize this weekly activity. I’d like to see an average of 100 posts here per week – one per blog, ish – so we’ll see what we can do to get creative juiced flowing.

If you just started a GURPS blog – and I know that some of you have – email me and get on the list! With the advent of the Dungeon Fantasy RPG, Powered by GURPS, there’s even more reason to write.

How? Two action items: post more, recruit more. It’s really that simple. More posters is more posts, and more interest in GURPS.

Below you can find the blog activity for the last week. There’s a whole lotta awesome GURPS going on. Read all the posts.

Not every blog posts about GURPS every week, but some are ridiculously prolific! The list is randomized, so different bloggers will be highlighted at the top of the post each week.

As always, if you’re interested in having your blog consolidated here, navigate over to The Instructions Page and drop me a line. Take special note of the RSS Settings Fix if you’re on WordPress.
Continue reading “Thursday is GURPSDay! March 15 to April 4, 2019” →

The Citadel at Norðvorn: Pre-orders are open on Backerkit!

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The Citadel at Norðvorn completed a very successful Kickstarter campaign. It busted through several stretch goals including an increase to 128 pages and an offset, sewn-binding, lay-flat printing (that’s going to be so sweet, I’ll admit).

Now, it’s time for the final phase of the effort: pre-orders and shipping.

Now on Backerkit: The Citadel at Norðvorn

Check out the Kickstarter page for information on the book, previews of the art, progress updates, and the sweet add-ons and extra material available, including the 8-page Fantastic Dungeon Grappling.

Then follow the pre-order link and jump in!

Citadel campaign over. OK, what’s next?

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OK. Slept a bit. Not a lot. Spent most of the night having vivid nightmares about shipping. What’s that about?

So, we’re done, we not just funded, but we busted a bunch of stretch goals! Including offset print!

What the @#!!#@ is Offset Print?

The short version is this:

Here’s a link to a chat about the differences between digital and offset printing.

The real kicker – up until I found a printer that would do it just recently, after the Kickstarter launched – is that the choices were “sewn binding, but offset print” or “digital press, but glued-only.”

The print quality for digital printing isn’t quite as good (mostly in color saturation and fidelity) to offset, which is why it’s better.

And digital printing is (roughly) 1/3 the setup cost of offset, but 4x (!!) the per-copy cost. So for very short runs, digital wins. For runs usually in 1,000 copies or more, offset wins on both cost and quality. For the quote I just received, if I need to order 386 copies or more, it’s best to go offset.

I need to order a minimum of 405 books . . . and Backerkit isn’t over . . . so that all works out nicely.

The Quest for Shipping

There’s no question: it’s a pain. It’ll take me a few days to lock down the answer, too, because of course the  books have to be printed first, then shipped from there to . . . somewhere. My strategy for trying to keep shipping costs down is evolving, but the offset print run promise means I must print one run, ideally overseas, so I can minimize international shipping. US-based offset, sewn printing just isn’t cost competitive (but it surely is time-competitive . . . there’s no better way to get 1,000 books from the US to the US in a 4-week deadline than some of the local printers here. These guys can be fast, and of course ground shipping inside the USA is a matter of days, not weeks or months like ocean freight).

What’s Next?

First thing: I need to finish the book. I made nice progress last night on finishing the Supporting Cast chapter, which is a list of NPC types that one will expect to encounter, plus a list of folks that were killed in the course of some of the background plot workings. Why focus so much time on a bunch of dead folks? Because they had friends and loved ones who are grieving, and need to blame somebody. That’s a powerful motivation, and animates a lot of activity.

This still needs a lot of editing, but you can see what you’re going to see.

After this, I’ve got a few pages of rules – mostly on social situations, which are deliberately given short shrift in the box set in favor of killing folks and taking their stuff – to write, and then whatever page count I have from where I am to 128 pages will be filled with critters. I’ve got placeholders so far, and I know I need to put in a bunch of dragonkin. Then we’ll see!

Editing is catching up with writing very quickly, and Emily will soon find herself waiting for my latest chapter. That’s not ideal, because I prefer to be ahead of that, but it’s not bad, either, because it means that once I do hand over Supporting Cast, the monster chapter, and the additional rules text that I can simply start inserting her edited text into the book. Thus far, her edits have not caused any major problems with reflow – that’s a hazard of layout before editing is complete, but I’d rather iterate.

Once all that is done, I go through and make the Table of Contents and the Index . . . and now that the KS is complete, I can compile the backer list for the “thanks!” page.

Art, Art, Baby

So that’s all words. What about the pictures?

I’m happy to report that the sketches continue to roll in. I’ve added new members to my art team, and I’ll be touting their qualities in future updates. What I can say is that the work I’ve seen so far validates my trust in these folks. Each artist brings their own talents, and what I’m finding is that all of them are able to take my art direction and approach it in ways that vastly improve the composition of each image. They’re really bringing Norðvorn and surrounds to life. What impresses me the most is how much they have done their homework. Getting “authentic Viking” right can be hard due to the amount of Hollywood-ized depictions out there, but one of my artists included a sword in her image that is a classic late-period Peterson Type X.

That’s pretty cool.