Thursday, March 21, 2013

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.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

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.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

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!

Friday, March 15, 2013

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.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

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.

Monday, March 11, 2013

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.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

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!