H&H and AR back in print!

 Happy to report that I've received the proofs for AR and H&H and have approved them for sale.

Due to an internal printing issue, Heaven's Shadow will remain out-of-print until it can be resolved.

You can find them from the link in the sidebar.

Presenting the Urban Fantasy Bundle!

Starting today, you can now purchase all of Bedroom Wall Press' urban fantasy themed offerings for one low price of just $24.99, thanks to the Urban Fantasy Bundle.

That means Arcana Rising, Welcome to Neuro City, and the acclaimed Heaven's Shadow, all for nearly 30% off the regular cover price!

And like our Bedroom Wall Two-Pack special, this one's for keeps, just one more affordable way to get some of the best that BWP has to offer, as we continue to seek to get our games in as many hands as possible.

Check out the page on DrivethruRPG today!

The Assassin: A new class for Arcana Rising

Assassins are those who resort to the bloodiest means to protect humanity from the unholy and the despotic. Masters of the kill, they apply their instruments to cut out any who would threaten the freedom and survival of mankind.

Assassins follow the traditions of the Lepides, an ancient order that served the Alliance during the war against the Atlanteans. Even as Atlantis fell, the Lepides swore to continue their work, passing down the skills of their order to successive generations carefully chosen. The Lepides conspire to assure that mankind can forever live free of the tyranny of the unholy and those who would use magic to control human destiny as Atlantis once did. Over the years the order's descendants have scattered and even been lost, but the ways of the blade survive and a new generation has quickly armed themselves to face the threat of magic's return to the world.

Assassins train extensively to improve their agility, perception, and combat skill to almost preternatural levels. Some say that only those who still contain a trace of the mystical bloodline of the original Lepides can truly master the techniques, and it does at times seem as if those whose destiny lies in the ways of the assassin learn as if their very instincts were already tuned to them.

High STR is a must for an assassin, as is a decent DEX score, and their WIS tends to be high as well, owing to their unique perceptive abilities.

	Melee To-Hit	Ranged To-Hit	Hit Dice	Saving Throws	Assassinate
1	+1	+0	1d8	+1 DEX	+1d6
2	+2	+1	2d8
3	+3	+1	3d8	+1 WIS	+2d6
4	+4	+2	4d8
5	+5	+2	5d8
6	+6	+3	6d8	+2 DEX	+3d6
7	+6	+3	6d8+2
8	+7	+4	6d8+4
9	+7	+4	6d8+6	+2 WIS	+4d6
10	+8	+5	6d8+8
11	+8	+5	6d8+10
12	+9	+6	6d8+12	+3 DEX	+5d6

Stat Requirement: STR 7+

Weapons: Short Blades, Long Blades, Archaic Ranged, Handguns, Long Arms

Armor: Light

Special Abilities

Freedom of Movement: The assassin is a master climber and acrobat, able to move freely across the rooftops of an urban environment as easily as running along a paved track. Assassins may forgo stat checks to climb buildings and other vertical surfaces, provided sufficient handholds, as well as to leap distances of no greater than 5 meters. Their skill even applies to safe falling: an assassin can survive a leap of up to 25m provided there is sufficient cushion to break their fall, such as water or even piles of leaves or hay.

Heightened Senses: Assassins hone their senses, the better to avoid enemies and pick their targets out in a crowd. They gain a +1 to WIS for the purpose of surprise checks and perception checks, and can mentally track enemies within 50m even if they break line-of-sight.

Assassination: The assassin is an expert killer, and given the element of surprise knows exactly where to strike with a blade to best insure an immediate death for their target. So long as the assassin remains unobserved until the moment they strike, they deal extra damage according to the table above. Regardless of damage dealt, the target must make a massive damage save against the attack. Should the assassin be observed with apparent hostile intent (ie. appear armed), the assassination attempt cannot succeed. It is for this reason that the assassins wear the secret blade (see below).

Twin-Blade Technique: Should the strike go ill, or the assassin be forced to defend themselves against those who protect their target, the assassin must be able to hold their own against multiple targets. An assassin wielding a melee weapon in each hand takes no penalty for attacking once with each weapon, and when attempting an assassination can apply the damage from both secret blades (if wearing two).

The Secret Blade

A unique weapon of the Lepides passed down for centuries, the secret blade is a spring-loaded blade concealed almost invisibly within a bracer worn about the wrist. This allows the assassin to appear visibly unarmed, the better to approach their target without suspicion before thrusting the blade home. The weapon does 1d6 damage, costs 100 Astra, and takes a day to construct. Two secret blades may be worn, one on either wrist, and when attempting to assassinate a target, both can be used at once.

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!

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

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!

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.

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!

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.