The Venomous Pao

The Tribesman profession lists the Hide skill twice - once as a specifically defined skill and once in the "pick two" list. The Melee Weapons skill lists "Club" as a specialization, explaining that maces are covered, but the Melee Weapons table lists maces with the "Mace" skill. It's decipherable, but slightly confusing. Where appropriate on the weapons tables +db or +1/2db are listed. That's cool, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere near the tables that explains just what db is. I felt like an idiot when I figured it out, but I was annoyed when looking for it. It seemed to me that some sort of superscript (numbers, asterisks & daggers, whatever) that pointed to footnotes for the tables might provide the same info with slightly less "chart junk." In a perfect world, the thing to do would be only to mark weapons that don't add the db (on the melee table, anyway) since those are the exception rather than the rule. Step Six (which I adore) is listed in the numbered walkthrough (obviously) but is omitted from the more detailed look at each part of character creation. It seemed like they might be worthy of at least a passing mention there as well. Then again, I can understand not "wasting" the space on repeat info. So this is just a thought. On the ordered character sheet walkthrough, Step Five (Derived Characteristics) - the second item gives a formula but doesn't tell you what Derived Characteristic the formula is for. It's HP, but that took a little work to figure out. Oh, and man did I love this thing, with its call-outs from the character sheet. Best thing I've seen for character creation in a long, long time. That's all I've got just yet. On the whole the book is excellent. Cheers to all involved.

Every word of what you say is true. And that's why I won't be buying directly from them anymore. But as I said, I'll still buy BRP stuff, since I want to support the line. I could get all righteous fury here and go on a rant about how customer service should be the most important thing to anyone, blah blah blah, but it wouldn't do any good for anyone. So I won't bother. I'l just stick with my plan and appreciate the fact that I have the book in advance, even if it's not as in advance as I'd wanted (and, for the record, been promised). They certainly didn't have to do the advance reader copies, so I'm grateful for its existence. I do hope they're not losing money on the deal. I'd love to think that they used a POD service like lulu are are only ordering them as they need them. In fact, that could well be (part of) the root of the delays. Perhaps they only ordered the first 30 or 50 or so and got more orders than they'd expected, leaving the overflow still needing to be printed. In any case, I'm sad for them if it does turn out to be a losing deal. The only bone of contention I have with your post, Lord Twig, is the assertion that I/we are somehow not "real" customers to them. If that's the case, then Chaosium shouldn't have set themselves up to sell directly to the public. If I can give you money in exchange for goods or services, that pretty well makes me a customer. In my eyes, anyway. But I digress. And get perilously close to that rant I said I wouldn't go on. So I'll stop there and say "Hey, the book looks great. I can't wait to see the final copy!"

My ten year old and seven year old are still nothing but trouble. Then again, they're parrots, not kids.

So... what did I do first? I poked around in the Settings section for a few minutes. Then I looked over general and combat rules, struggling (because my brain is tired) to find the disarm rules. They weren't listed in the index, so I panicked. I later discovered that they were "hiding" in the spot rules section - and they're under Spot Rules in the index, too. Silly me I started trying to make a character - my hillman barbarian - but the lack of a printable character sheet disturbed me more than I like to admit. And then the parrots decided to go squawky and my concentration was broken. Still, I'm liking what I'm seeing here. I'll see if I can't get back to Kinan The Unconquered sometime soon. And who knows, maybe someone will have posted a nice character sheet by then. Heck, it might even be me.

Now *that* would've been a tragedy worthy of laughter. Weeping laughter, of course. But laughter all the same. Rockin'. I'll keep my eyes peeled. It's a short hop to the Lair for me under most circumstances. Plus, I'll take any excuse to go next door and pick up some Ito En teas from Asahi.

Thanks, Jason. I know you weren't involved in the shipping at all, but I appreciate the kind thoughts. I think I would've fainted if I'd actually gotten to hold the mythical #1 Thanks, too, for the heads up on Owlcon. It's pretty unlikely that I'll go, but your presence makes it more tempting. I'll let you know if I give in and plan on going. Viva BRP!

At last, 22 days after ordering the damned thing (so 17 days after we were told it would ship) I have received my copy. It's #75, and came through with no damage. It was shipped on 12/28 like the rest of the ones that "fell through the cracks" seem to have. I haven't had a chance to look at it more than that, having had to return to work. I'll give it a good going-over this weekend, though. As an aside, there was nothing in the way of a note of apology or explanation in the package. And while I don't feel like I'm owed the world or anything, a simple sticky note that said "Hey, we're really sorry about this shipping late" would have done wonders for my mood. Instead, there's just silence. This, coupled with never actually getting a response to my email to Chaosium inquiring about the status of my order pretty much guarantees that I'll never order direct from them again. I'll support the system and I'll buy from local game stores (or possibly established, reliable online stores). But direct ordering is very, very unlikely. Cheers to you lucky folk who got your book within a reasonable time frame and might have had the joy of enjoying it before Christmas and/or New Years. I don't get that. So I hate you all with a burning passion >:-> No, not really

Thanks for the sympathy, amigo. Mine shipped on the 28th, too. But I have no experience with shipping times from the Chaosium folks. Orders from other places tend to get here pretty quickly, so I, too, had held out hope for Monday but realistically had presumed today. So I suppose ultra-realistically we're looking at tomorrow. If it's not here then I'll start getting really edgy since that's pushing into way too long just to get to Austin. Still, chin up. If I can get the danged thing in my hands I might even be able to get a quick game in this weekend. Fingers crossed (again).

Sigh. I'm glad you folks are getting yours but mine *still* hasn't made it to Austin. I'd like to think it'll arrive tomorrow, but I also liked to think it would arrive Monday or today. Gah! Well, you magnificent bastards enjoy yours and I'll just go drink/cry myself to sleep

Many thanks for mentioning the rest of us, Zane. And yes, I too suspect they shipped today. I don't actually have any data, but it seems like Monday is a good bet. Outside of the absolute thick of holiday madness I'm normally quite impressed with the ol' USPS these days. Fingers crossed for both of us!

Skills and character creation, baby. I gots to make me some characters to get the feel for what's possible in the system. Actually, I might hit the section on settings/genres first to see what yumminess is there. But then, then I make characters! Starting with a savage hillman barbarian and heading on through the archetypes until I get to psionic space pirate lady. Or something.

And, per the automated email, mine has shipped as well. Hooray for the little things in life

I just got an email (the automated, no details kind) to inform me that my copy has, at last, shipped. So I probably won't get to play with it while I'm off of work (unless it makes it here on Monday). But I do know that I haven't been entirely forsaken

Oh man. I always knew those vikings were sneaky. Thanks, PK!

Still no change on the website, and still no email update. I've sent a nice (honestly, it was really very polite) note to the Chaosium folks. We'll see what happens. My life doesn't depend on this, of course. But I would sure love to have the book in my hands. Someone give me something neat to think over or something to distract me. What professions are listed in the book? Or, maybe a quick description of the coolest spell? Help a waitin' brother out?

I'm in the same boat. I placed my order within an hour or so of when they made the book available and my order is still listed as pending shipping as well. This makes me sad. Very, very sad