Zane

This is why I don't have any of them in my collection. I had the opportunity to buy most of them in the late 80's and early 90's. In looking at them I wasn't sure what on earth they were, or why I'd want them. I've often regretted not purchasing them, and I'm still not sure what they are!

Not only do they need to get settings and adventures out there, it also needs to be actual printed works, and not Monographs. How many potential customers will only buy the material in the shops (or Amazon) vs. how many will go to the trouble of dealing with the publisher? Before anyone answers that last bit, kindly remember that for the most part, we are not the customers that Chaosium needs. How many of us are gamers that have been at it since the early 80's? (quite a few I think) How many of us are existing customers? (basically everyone I assume) How many of us are quite comfortable rolling their own settings and adventures? (again quite a few I think, which doesn't seem to be the norm) Chaosium needs new blood, new customers, these people will want settings books, and adventures, but if you force them to jump through hoops to get the additional materials, they'll go elsewhere. This isn't to say that we're worthless to Chaosium, as we're not. We are the people that will get the initial word out (I'm guessing a lot of us have already been doing this). We are the ones that will work to get new blood interested. And last but not least, a lot of us can, and probably will buy any new books that are even remotely interesting to us (some will buy any new books). Zane

I've always felt it stacks up something like this... Gorilla's are stronger, but less intelligent, and very militaristic Orangutans and Chimps about the same on Strength Orangutans have wisdom, while Chimps are more clever. I'm not sure which would rated higher for Intelligence. Probably should admit it's been years since I've seen any of the movies, and even longer for the TV show, books, and comics. Zane

Sorry to hear you're still waiting. I think yours shipped at the same time as mine on the 28th. Do you have any experience with how long it takes from something to Chaosium to get to you? I was really hopeful for Monday as I know packages can make it from them to me that fast, but at least it showed up today. Hopefully your copy shows up tomorrow, or at least sometime this week. Zane

Well, I couldn't take it, I came home early. So here are my initial reactions from spending some time thumbing through the book. The very first reaction upon seeing it sitting in front of my keyboard, was WOW, that's a big book. If it is printed on heavier paper (and I really hope it will be), it's going to be seriously thick. They almost need to consider breaking it into a couple volumes. Second impression, that weapons table for modern day guns needs work. I'll have to see about taking the table from CoC and adding the additional characteristics. My players aren't going to be happy with descriptions such as "Pistol, Medium". At the same time the Sci-Fi portions of the weapons tables are better than I'd hoped for. That does help balance things out. Fate Points... I can't remember, was this in the Play Test? I'm not sure what I think of this addition, but I think I like this. I also like that this is designed to be tweaked and have the parameters for their use set by the GM. Artwork. Please tell me that higher resolution copies of the artwork will be used in the final release. Way to many of the pictures have the exact same caption, I hope this is something else that will be fixed. The index looks pretty good, and I liked the optional rules checklist. BTW, it wasn't in as bad of shape as my wife made it sound. It is definitely in better shape than the copy of DG: Eyes Only that I purchased from that publisher. Now to find time to spend more time reading through this! I want to read through the powers & magic, as well as combat.

My wife just called me at work, my copy has finally arrived, and I had her open and check it. Here are the details concerning it. 1. My order was put in two hours after they set out the email letting people know about it. 2. It shipped on December 28th 3. It is #71 4. It is apparently damaged, I'm not clear as to how badly damaged it is, but sounds like one corner is pretty dinged up. I must confess I'm not happy about how this was mishandled. They promised it would ship by end of day on the 17th, and I'm pretty sure I should have had a much lower number. On the other hand I can't wait to get home, and will probably see about cutting out of here early today! Zane

Welcome to the forum here. Several of us ordered on the first day and have yet to get our books, I know mine finally said it shipped on the 28th. It took some effort to get a reply out of Chaosium, and shortly after I got one, my book status changed to shipped, as did several other peoples. I'm really interested to see just when my copy did ship. Keep in mind these were shipped over the Holiday's, and that mail service isn't the best this time of year. As for how it shipped, good question, I'm curious about that one myself. I assume it was going USPS Media Mail. To say I've passed the point of being impatient for the book to show up would be an understatement. I really wanted to get the book in time to read it over the Holiday's. Zane

Saw everything when it came out, and have the comics somewhere, but quite honestly have no desire to revisit that show. For that type of a setting I much preferred the "War of the Worlds" TV show, still the method in which the aliens showed up in V was great... Maybe this could be done right. As I think I mentioned in another thread, I'm a huge fan of the original Buck Rogers comic strip. I'd prefer something based on those and TSR's later High Adventure Cliffhangers Buck Rogers Adventure Game (which were based on the two original Pulp stories).

There is also the Original Novel (plus Movie novels), TV show, and comic books (both from the 70's and 90's). As I recall the TV show had a fair amount of pre-collapse tech that could be scavenged (I haven't seen it in over 20 years, keep meaning to get the DVD set). Of all of these, the 3rd movie, and the 2001 remake were the worst. Logan's Run could be another interesting classic to do as a BRP game. I've never seen the TV version, but have seen the movie, and read the trilogy *years* ago. Zane

My list goes something like this... 1. Pulp Setting(s), right now I'm working on a 1930's Pulp Secret Agent sub-genre. Additionally I've a 1930's Pulp Sci-Fi pilot setting or two bouncing around in my head for years, though it has yet to solidify into anything. 2. Space Opera, I'd be interested in seeing something that is new and original, but most likely will eventually just roll my own. 3. The Morrow Project, once I have the book in my hot little hands, one thing I want to figure out is how much effort it would take to update and run The Morrow Project using BRP. Likely go with something other than all out Nuclear War as the reason for the collapse. 4. Doctor Who, a year or so ago I posted some initial ideas on this to Yog-Sothoth.com, basically add a couple skills from the FASA version and you are ready to wing it. Adding specific creatures from the Doctor Who universe will take more effort. 5. Take Sandy Peterson's EPT for Runequest conversion and make any changes needed for it to work well with the new book. (Jorune is cool, but kind of feels like a diluted EPT set right after the Time of Darkness) 6. Tom Swift Jr. or something close 7. Something along the lines of d20 Modern's "Urban Arcana". Actually I'd love to see an entire series of BRP books along the lines of the d20 Modern books. I'm guessing most people didn't like them, but I like how they're more "building blocks" for different genre, rather than a full fledged setting. Though I think Urban Arcana is supposed to be a full fledged setting. 8. Cyberpunk 9. Traveller 10. Andromeda 11. Stargate - This setting just SCREAMS perfect for running a RPG in. I don't know of any existing Sci-Fi series that is better suited. Realistically I'm far more interested in "building block" books, especially ones that let me mix and match genre's, than I am in "World Books". I like to do my own settings and adventures rather than running someone else's material. Granted as can be seen from the above list there are existing settings that I am interested in.

It would be interesting to see them take the route some companies selling Vinyl LP's have started going. Some companies include a code to download the MP3's, and in a couple cases recently I've seen them include the CD with the LP. For those not into such things, Vinyl sales are actually on the rise, while CD sales are plummeting. I have seen one RPG publisher include codes in their books that allow people to access additional online content. The problem I see with PDF copies is that they make piracy easier.

This is for both those of us that haven't gotten the book yet, and those lucky ******* that have. Okay, I'm curious, what is the first thing you're going to check out once you get the book (or did check out). For me it's the Weapons tables, probably followed quickly by the rest of the equipment. I've been dying for months to see the Min DEX/STR requirements for for various guns, as this is something I really want to add to my CoC campaign. Our groups "Gun Fondler" just happens to be quite puny compared to the two women in the group. I've a feeling that at least my wife's character can handle guns he can't. Zane

Something tells me it's a good thing I pointed out in my email that there were a bunch of people waiting on their books to ship. I get the feeling that in the rush to get everything out, they forgot about a stack or two of packages. I suspect that when we finally get our books, we'll find they shipped today. Does anyone know how well USPS mail moves between post offices on a weekend? I'm curious as I have some hope of my book showing up on Monday. I'm taking the day off, and something tells me I'll be bouncing off the walls until the mail shows up. Then I'll either be ecstatic, or really down. Worst case, I suspect I'll see my copy by next Wednesday. Zane

Interesting... I just got an email announcing my order has shipped. Hopefully I'll see it either Monday or Wednesday. Just checked the website it says the same thing. Zane

I contacted Chaosium again this morning (it had been a week and a half since my last inquiry), and this time I received a reply. This makes it sounds like the "Pending Shipping" orders that many of us have, are in fact on their way. Though I'd like to know how on earth even the USPS manages to take over 2 weeks to move a book one state, still it is the Holiday Season. It will be interesting to see the Post Mark on the package when it finally shows up (I know it wasn't in todays mail) and learn when it was actually shipped. Of course according to the website, my order is still "Pending Shipping". Zane

Not really, as that was why they had offered the free shipping a couple weeks ago. My copy has now been "Pending Shipping" for two weeks now, as have several other peoples copies. Additionally a week and a half ago I sent a query asking if there was a problem with my order, and I've heard nothing. They finally have WOC#5 in stock, however, at this point I'm not inclined to order anything from them. Personally I'm rather irritated that they're doing another "Free Shipping" promotion when they've yet to ship all of the existing items from the last one! Zane

I ordered on the 12th, less than 2 hours after they announced it. Mine is still "Pending Shipping". I placed an order on the 7th (which I received less than a week later), so I know for a fact there are less than 88 orders in front of me. They stated that this would be shipped by end of day on the 17th, as it hasn't, AND they've failed to respond to the I sent on the 19th I'm more than a little ticked off! I understand that this is the Holiday Season, however, they've failed to meet expectations that they set. I checked my mail today, I had a package to pick up, and as we aren't expecting anything other than this book, I was suddenly hopeful. It was a Digi-key catalog. I'm just a few hundred miles up the coast from them, it should only take 3-4 days at most once they ship the book. I had expected to be able to spend Christmas and New Years weekends reading the book. As it stands, I doubt those of us that are waiting for it to ship will see it until sometime after the 7th of January. I wouldn't be surprised if we have to wait a full month from ordering to receiving the book.

Argh!!!! Out of curiosity, had you even received notification of it shipping? Is there any chance that the rest of our books have shipped and the notification is what's taking so long? By my calculations I should have been receiving my copy today, yet as far as I know it hasn't shipped.

You do not even want to know how many games fall into this category, with me having in some cases all of the books for the game. Lets just say they would easily fill a couple bookcases if not for the fact they're mostly boxed up and in storage. Oh, and with that list of games you list as having played you're dating yourself! Some of those I haven't seen in years (OK, I confess most I own).

Oh, yes! I've only read a little of the material, but it seems like a most interesting setting. I currently GM "Call of Cthulhu". In the past I've either played or GM'd: Red Box D&D Doctor Who Champions AD&D 1st Ed. Star Wars Traveller Shadowrun D20 D&D 3.5 Of those I played "Champions" and "AD&D 1st Ed." the most. Still the current CoC campaign I'm running has lasted longer, and potentially for more sessions that both of those combined. Of the settings I've played in the past, I'd be interested in running either Traveller or Doctor Who using BRP. Miniature Games: Warhammer 40k Epic 40k/Space Marine Man O'War With two of those Miniature games, it probably shouldn't be a surprise that I'm interested in the new WH40k RPG that will be coming out in 2008. Zane

As I've stated I could wing this easily, so this is why I'd buy such a book. Maps would be a real selling point for me. Zane

I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned "The Good, the Bad, and the Utterly Insane" from "Worlds of Cthulhu" #2. Of course I myself forgot about it till after my last post. It offers professions and weapons, which I still say are the main thing you need for a Wild West BRP game.

The thought that comes to mind is, except for a weapons table and possibly some sample professions what is really needed? Are you talking about doing it up as a book, or what? For my view of such things it probably doesn't help that I could do a good job of winging it without any books other than the rules. Alternative Western settings can also be interesting. I own the Player and GM books for Deadlands, have always been interested in the setting, but never tried running it. I was also a fan of Brisco County Jr. for about the first half of the season it was on (I was out to sea for the 2nd half). I'm old enough that I was born at the end of America's Western craze, and have always been a huge fan of Westerns. It's probably my favorite genre after Sci-Fi. Anyway, I think a Western setting would be playable. If one was published, I'd most likely buy it. I definitely think it would be an interesting setting, however, how hard would it be for those of us that would be interested in GMing it to find players interested in playing in such a game. Zane

That's good news for me as I'll most likely be shooting for the early 30's in the Campaign I'd use this for!

You can count me in for a copy as well, it looks like it would mesh well with some things I want to do.