RosenMcStern

ROFL! Schools should have classes for "listen to your own recoreded voice and do not be ashamed of it!":p

Actually, Pete, did you notice how much clearer your voice sounded if compared to the previous speaker? Who happened to be a man from that obscure company named ...... uh-oh, did I say previous speaker? There was nothing like a previous speaker. At least not when I just promised to publish another supplement for That Other D100 Game

The extra materials will be available today. Soon we will also provide a bookmarked PDF, re-downloadable for free by customers who purchased the electronic format of the game, so go to the electronic shop from which you purchased and check the "I want to be informed of new versions of this product" box.

In the meanwhile, the unlucky people who were not at Tentacles can hear some more info from Pete Nash's voice at RPG Countdown

But YourGamesNOW gives us more money, so we can live with an inferior ranking

And don't worry about the ranking. The hits you see on DriveThru are mostly D&D players who got pissed off of not finding WotC stuff there and decided to have a try at "this other system".

Hmmmm, the bookmarks could be a good idea. I forgot they could be added after Dario had finished the post-processing. I'll see if I can add them later this week, before too many people download the non-bookmarked version. The e-shops allow redownloading, but the file is rather big.

In fact, the maps are as accurate as they can be. I have lived in the Eternal City for a long time and the only places I recognize in them is the Circus Maximus and the roads. Almost all surviving monuments in Rome are from the Imperial Age.

Despite the top ten placement on DriveThru we have yet to reach our break even mark... and after two years of research I put into writing it, it'd be nice if I could earn at least enough to celebrate with a round of drinks.

Easy, Pete. Break even was reached exactly while you were writing the message. Not sure how many people you want to cover with that round of drinks, but you will surely get some money from the book this month. And Chaosium is getting some bucks, too. :cool:

Nevertheless, if someone took the time to write that review we would be very grateful.

We will put a downloadable, full-color version of all maps on the Alephtar Games site as soon as Dario has assembled it. The few lucky fellows who preordered got a printed color map as bonus.

Me of course. Who is the animaniac on this forum?

Okay, one should not indulge in such a shameless self celebration, but I think most fellow members of this forum will enjoy the news.

Rome is in the top ten best selling products on DriveThruRPG! We are #9, we were #8 yesterday and I hope we will stay there for long. Thank you, WotC, for deserting the PDF market and leaving us room for growth and success! BRP is finally back in the top list of RPGs, where everyone can see it in the place it deserves. :thumb:

If someone wondered what I actually meant when I mentioned "third party support" as the key factor for BRP success some months ago, well, this is what I meant! I am particularly proud that it was Alephtar Games that provided the support that Pete Nash's fantastic book needed to see the light of the day :cool:

You may also want to visit the Alephtar Games web site to see a picture of Charlie smiling while looking at a big pile of copies of Rome, and Pete illustrating the book to an adoring (literally) audience at Tentacles.

Rome ended up with Alephtar as I understand it because Chaosium couldn't make the numbers work.

Not exactly the numbers. We managed to get it out for the Tentacles event. Our concern was that Chaosium wouldn't have been able to do it that fast. Rome is selling well enough to justify a real print run, but unfortunately we do not have the ability to stock books now.

BTW, has anyone noticed that Firebird started with classic print runs for Mythic Russia and then went lulu for the Birchbark Chronicles? What really pisses me off is that I cannot offer discounts on lulu. Not even a dumb coupon.

And, as Rome's "in my hand" price of £34 vs. say £22 for Malleus Monstrorum§ demonstrates, to maintain something like comparable margins on a PoD book vs. normal print, the price to the end consumer has to be much higher, which reduces unit sales and thus makes recouping those costs (and an adequate profit to sustain the business going forward) harder, and more variable. What works for one company (e.g. Alephtar) may well NOT work for another (e.g. Chaosium).

Nick, you are perferctly right about the different business models. But I did what I could to keep prices under 30 EUR. The smart people who preordered got their copy for 29 EUR all-inclusive, so with a price comparable to Malleus. The Chaos Society has copies, so it is possible they can offer discounts or free postage for massive orders. Unfortunately there were many who did not believe we would actually deliver the book, or that it would end up looking like crap, which was not the case. Bottom line: preorder next time and save big!

If I could ever fall in love with an abstract conceptualization - it'd be this topic. This news comes as one of the most beautiful things I could have hoped to hear. I eagerly await this gem!

But uh, I don't suppose there are any plans to dip into Gunbuster while your at it?

You will be able to easily make up the details for other Mecha series yourself. I intend to concentrate on series that I know personally, and could have a widespread audience. Putting in Gunbuster or Patlabor could be interesting but I cannot do everything.

Oh, and of course contributions are welcome. I have already adopted atgxtg's revised SIZ table, if anyone has good ideas submit them and we will include them in the supplement.

Okay, we did it. Rome is available to fans, and it was a success. There are no words to express how good a job the team did. Those of you who own a copy of the book can understand why I am saying so

Now it is the time to go for new targets. We have a couple more fantasy books due out this year, one is Stupor Mundi 2 (The Baltic Crusades) and the other is possibly a Rome campaign, if Pete has enough motivation for it (start lobbying him, folks!)

Time for new targets now. Our all-new book, expected for next year, will be "BRP Mecha". I ran a playtest at Tentacles and it was satisfactory. Now it is the time to announce it officially, so that our Site Admin can add it to the "Future Releases" list.

The book will be a compendium of all the rules needed to play a Mecha campaign that fits the Anime genre. For copyright reasons, it will not include any stats for "official" mechas, but I plan to include rules that encompass at least the following well-known Anime universes: Code Geass, Macross/Robotech, Universal Century/Gundam, and the Go Nagai mechas for which i have already provided some stats here. Players will be able to make up their own versions of the "official" mechas, with all the weapons and gadgets seen in the TV series.

Given the amount of small, game-oriented models that Bandai Entertainment produces for each of these series, this could easily become the best supported Roleplaying game ever! :cool:

See you on Mecha Channel!

“Double-0 Gundam, Setsuna F.Seiei, HASHIN!!!!!”

Maybe like Alephtar do it - presumably that way does make money?

It does. But only because we have very few expenses. I have run a company with several employees, and I can assure you that it is not easy. You simply cannot compare an indie publisher with a small but established company like Chaosium.

What about a discount for the pdf for those who bought the physical copy?

I have no means to know who bought a physical copy, whereas I know who bought a PDF.

Hmmm, while we are at it, we actually have some copies of Stupor Mundi we did not sell at Tentacles. This allows us to do the "Discount for who bought the PDF" trick.

For a limited time, we will provide a printed copy of Stupor Mundi at a discount to anyone who already purchased a PDF. Price is 15 EUR in the EU (and Norway, to keep our admin happy) and 16 EUR outside the EU, including postage.

To order write to info@alephtargames.com and specify your address and your DriveThru customer ID, or the email you use one YourGamesNow if you purchased through YGN. We will send you instructions for the payment.

I find myself hoping those products won't go to Chaosium, but to RosenMcstern's Alephtar Games instead and hopefully Lulu - just like Rome...

The end of the world is not near... it is tomorrow :shocked:

You meant "Those FLGS that are still in business", didn't you?

This is the typical market situation that requires a so-called "change in business model".

Thank you Rust, most German roleplayers have some CoC experience and they will appreciate the book.

The PDF version is online now at Arima or YourgamesNow. It is also on DriveThru and RpgNow! of course but we recommend the two sites listed, they are more friendly to us poor indie publishers.

Just to make it clear, the "acclaimed" Rome will also be available from Chaosium tomorrow or so. I am the one who oversees the delivery and I expect the FedEx man to be at their door this afternoon or so. Dustin and Charlie already have the PDF, too. Lulu is a Good Thing for us small publishers but an established publisher with in-house stocking capabilities should not go that way. I wish we at Alephtar Games were able to skip the lulu thing, but unfortunately we are not (yet).

I can perfectly understand why Chaosium does not wish to publish physical books before they know whether there is a market for them. Some of our upcoming BRP products will be PDF only, at least at the beginning, because of the higher risk connected to physical publishing.

The point now is that customers do not want to pay twice because they are supporters. Understandable. One possible solution could be that of deducting a fraction of the price of the PDF from the price of the book, if the book is later purchased. But this is Chaosium's choice, exactly as whether to buy the PDF or not is the customer's choice only. Alephtar Games would certainly do such a thing if we had the opportunity, but unfortunately we only sell physical books through lulu, which does not allow discount coupons, so it is not a viable option for us at present.

Thank you for your patience, dear fans. The lucky fellows at Tentacles, including our Forum Admin, already have their copies, but now you can order yours, too! BRP Rome is now available at the Alephtar Games Lulu.com StoreFront.

US Customers are strongly recommended to wait a couple more days and order directly from Chaosium. The Chaosium batch of books is already printed and currently travelling through the States, so it should be in California within thursday Jun 3.

EU customers can also order from the Chaos Society.

The PDF version is online now at Arima or YourgamesNow. It is also on DriveThru and RpgNow! of course but we recommend the two sites listed.

I also wish take advantage of the announcemente to thank again Fabian and all the Tentacles crew for twelve years of enjoyment. I am specially proud that the debut of Rome has been among the events of this closing edition!

I have rewritten the mecha stats for next Sunday's game and they were not disrupted by your modifications. I think they are an improvement over the standard table.

I thought this thread was started to clarify the points about the Opposed Roll mechanics in BRP as written, not to allow someone to issue another complaint against the combat resolution mechanism.

Anyway, it should be noted that it is possible to play BRP without using opposed rolls. Pre-Pendragon BRP games had no opposed rolls and they worked.

Frogspawner, just one question: why on earth should it be easier to dodge Swift Sam the fast-stabbing halfling (avg. damage 4-5) rather than Clumsy Bo the Slow-bashing Great Troll (avg. damage 15-16)?

My current group is always debating about how to best simulate h-t-h combat and we have a gap in the current campaign where we could fill a couple of off-topic sessions. Count me in.

Your contribution is priceless, atgxtg. If you do not mind, I will also put the revised table in our upcoming Mecha supplement

3) I asked Jason, and he said to assume the English measurements are correct.

Well, point 3) was enough to persuade me

I will be eternally grateful to you for this, atgxtg. I will be running a mecha game at Tentacles, and the SIZ values in the mecha range are really important for that kind of game. I'll have to rewrite all the stats, but it is worth doing it.