Alephtar Games plans for 2012

[Baron]

Count my vote in with Luddite -- I mean, Seneschal! I love the physical products, and have spent too much reacquiring favorites. I find electronic format books difficult to work with, and much prefer paper. And I'm not a fan of printed PDFs either. OTOH, I'll take what I can get, when it comes to good material!

And I love your point about how paper games have survived the years, where electronic games are lost. I was able to get a few old games running on Vista, but not without a great deal of frustration. And not without having given up on 95% of the games that I couldn't get to run. Not looking forward to struggling with the next computer, either!

[Baron]

Kairos, you made a FG rules set for Fergo's Middle Earth supplement? I think you just forced my hand! Where could I find that work, on the FG site?

I admit I was concerned about how BRP would translate to FG. But if you can turn on/off various components, then that may just work for me...

Thanks!

[seneschal]

My comments, by the way, were not intended as a slap at Alephtar Games. I hope the company grows, prospers, and continues to put out fine products and win awards for doing so. It's just that a book in the hand is worth fourteen on my portable USB drive. Which ones do I actually get to learn and play? Heh, you guessed it. Unless the rules are as brief and simple as Risus or Mini Six, I find it impossible to digest the material.

[Agentorange]

Seneschal and I both belong to the luddite movement I'll probably buy the Zone if it's PDF, but I'd definately buy it if it's a print version.

Incidentally Rosen, I'm curious, what BRP products are actually available in Italian ? Anything we don't have in English ? I seem to recall you mentioning a BRP ancient Egypt supplement some time back ( unless I imagined the whole thing )

[rust]

Call me a Luddite, but nothing beats a physical product in one's hands. ...

Since the rather unpleasant experience of a computer crash combined with a

corrupted backup disc, which sent about 4 GB of games material into the data

nirvana, I have also become a luddite.

[RosenMcStern]

BRP Egypt is only available in Italian. There were also a BRP West and BRP Dinos, but you can find better alternatives nowadays. There is also The Wheel of Fate for RQ2.

[Mankcam]

Almost all you see on that list will be playtested online - as you can guess from the plethora of Fantasy Grounds titles - so you will have plenty of opportunities to see how it plays, even before it hits the shelves. In your case, however, this could require waking up rather early in the morning, as we live in rather different timezones

Pity about my real life commitments such as work, wife, kids, etc otherwise I think I would get engaged in this, I've always wanted to be a play tester. It will certainly be a great experience for anyone who can be involved in play testing, and if I was logging in from Europe or the UK then I'ld be keeping an eye out for when you run it.

I have only recently come across Fantasy Grounds, and my initial reaction was 'why?'. But upon reflection I can see it being a useful application as mature gamer troupes always fall apart due to people moving away, so I can certainly see the benefits of using Fantasy Grounds. It's a good sign that BRP and CoC are supported, and hopefully LEGEND and RQ6 will be as well one day. My own troupe is more likely just to keep playing MMOs online however, due to the visuals and immediate gratification, but real RPGs are much more worthwhile, so I may be using an application like Fantasy Grounds myself one day.

I like much of what Alephetar has produced so far, and I like the idea that BRP is supported by a non-Chaosium company, to fill in many of the areas that Chaosium haven't been able to do. Steppes Nomads would actually be a great addition to the BRP Fantasy Earth line that Alephetar has published, but BRP Sci-Fi will be an interesting genre to pursue. The post-apocalypse setting of The Zone could be interesting, and a Mecha setting will be high on my wishlist this year, just to see how it comes off in BRP. My opinion is that BRP probably can do any genre, although various setting rules need to be in play for certain flavours. Mecha could be done as a hard gritty sci-fi, or it could be a pulp action anime, so this title will have alot in store for us I reckon.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Mankcam

[Mankcam]

BRP Egypt is only available in Italian

This certainly needs to be addressed for an english version

[Kairos]

Since the rather unpleasant experience of a computer crash combined with a

corrupted backup disc, which sent about 4 GB of games material into the data

nirvana, I have also become a luddite.

Yeah, compulsive multiple backups are key. A tablet helps for reading--once I got a gtablet, and kids started taking up more living space, digital books look more and more attractive. But I often buy PDFs of hardcopy books I already own for portability and searchability.

As for your loss, you could still download copies from the reputable digital vendor from whom you undoubtedly bought all those PDFs.

[rust]

As for your loss, you could still download copies from the reputable digital vendor from whom you undoubtedly bought all those PDFs.

That company does no longer exist.

[Agentorange]

This certainly needs to be addressed for an english version

BRP ancient Egypt ? I'd buy it without any hesitation

[Thalaba]

February 2012 – Kidnapping in al-Halisa, ported to BRP, in PDF and for Fantasy Grounds

June 2012 – The Zone, a post-apoc style setting and adventure for BRP, in PDF and for Fantasy Grounds

Can you expand on these two, please? The former sounds like an adventure - what kind of setting/theme? As for the zone, 'post-apoc' is very vague since it seems now to indicated everything from 'the day after' to the far future gamma world like stuff, and even fantasy worlds and zombie games are now considered post apoc. Since we have Rubble and Ruin for near future, Chronicles of the Future Earth for far future, and Ashes to Ashes for fantasy, where does The Zone fit in?

Lastly, I'm one of those tired of medieval settings, but only of the Western European variety. A book on the nomads of the steppes is something I would definitely get in print format.

[wbcreighton]

Good day all,

June 2012 – The Zone, a post-apoc style setting and adventure for BRP, in PDF and for Fantasy Grounds

Christmas 2012 – BRP Mecha, in print, PDF and for Fantasy Grounds. At last.

Having invested in Fantasy Grounds ( hmm has it been 2 years now ? ) and now game almost exclusively with it, I'm pleased to see a publisher committing to it in a big way. I especially like the sounds of The Zone. BRP Mecha sounds good too. With more settings and support, hopefully the number of BRP players will increase and give the community critical mass the way that the Dnd 4th, Dnd 3.5 and PF communities have with FG.

Although I was lured into FG by a GM who ran the BRP scenario In Search of the Troll Slayer using his Ultimate license of FG ( meaning I didn't have to pay anything to try out the software), the GM then corralled us into playing Savage Worlds ( his favourite system). When he had to stop GMing after a year of biweekly sessions, I decided to start a FG game using Pathfinder. The main reasons for choosing PF were my extensive collection of PF pdfs, and the likelihood of finding players who would fit into a restrictive gaming schedule. The more players in the community the greater the chance of finding them.

The ease with which pdfs can be converted into FG adventure modules is amazing. The PF support for FG has gotten exponentially better due to the newest version of FG and the number of players in the community. If you are providing FG pre-made modules, it will be that much easier.

Obviously you have done your research otherwise you wouldn't be making these business decisions. So the number of FG sales will hopefully support your business plan. My only concern is with the actual BRP FG ruleset itself. If you have any influence with Smiteworks or the FG developer community at large, please for the future of BRP on FG find someone to work on the BRP ruleset or support it in any way possible. Only with active support and development can the community grow. There are a number of the older published FG rulesets ( BRP not included ), that are absolutely languishing because there isn't anyone to keep the code up to date.

I really think FG is a solid flexible product and the investment I have made in it has been paid back with around 60 rpg sessions in the last 2 years. Considering that I had experienced approximately zero sessions in the previous 20 years has made it worth it. The cost of the program depending on whether you GM or play is roughly the cost of 1 rpg book.

I would look forward to the possibility of playtesting stuff, and get to the goal of BRP/RQ gaming in the future. Well done Paolo !

Edited January 1, 2012 by wbcreighton
corrected pub title

[RosenMcStern]

BRP ancient Egypt ? I'd buy it without any hesitation

We may try and persuade Andrea (Angiolino, not smiorgan) to update and translate the book.

Can you expand on these two, please? The former sounds like an adventure - what kind of setting/theme? As for the zone, 'post-apoc' is very vague since it seems now to indicated everything from 'the day after' to the far future gamma world like stuff, and even fantasy worlds and zombie games are now considered post apoc. Since we have Rubble and Ruin for near future, Chronicles of the Future Earth for far future, and Ashes to Ashes for fantasy, where does The Zone fit in?

Kidnapping is the core adventure of Stupor Mundi. It is a sandbox dungeon, just taking place above ground.

I cannot say much about the Zone. I have ran it once and it was fun, but it has a very high "spoiler factor". Think of something in the style of "Stalker", but what you get from it is not exactly what you expect. You can also use it as a good scenario source for the Laundry, I think: it is just the kind of adventure Laundry agents would find themselves in.

The ease with which pdfs can be converted into FG adventure modules is amazing.

Oh yes. And with rules-heavy systems like PF, having a machine do all the calculations is rather helpful.

My only concern is with the actual BRP FG ruleset itself. If you have any influence with Smiteworks or the FG developer community at large, please for the future of BRP on FG find someone to work on the BRP ruleset or support it in any way possible. Only with active support and development can the community grow. There are a number of the older published FG rulesets ( BRP not included ), that are absolutely languishing because there isn't anyone to keep the code up to date.

Call of Cthulhu is one of them, as it does not have the latest fancy features that the D&D and SW rulesets now have. But it is not languishing at all.

One of the problems could be the fact that the person who does the ruleset on behalf of the publisher is not really involved with the publisher. Stuart Woodard (Foen here), who did the ruleset, is an extremely active member of the community, but he is no Chaosium employee or collaborator. At the moment, in order to improve the ruleset, Chaosium must either hire Stuart again, or hope that someone volunteers. And volunteers seldom meet deadlines (well, even non-volunteers sometimes miss them). Assuming Charlie wishes to invest in FG now, it would probably be a CoC investment, as that ruleset needs maintenance more than BRP.

This problem should not exist with Alephtar, as I am doing the coding myself, so the products we release will be kept as up-to-date as possible. I hope I can involve some of my friends who do development for Android and iOs, too. But this is not a must.

I would look forward to the possibility of playtesting stuff, and get to the goal of BRP/RQ gaming in the future.

I will launch some playtesting in a matter of weeks, maybe days. Well, let us say weeks because I myself must playtest Harreksaga this week

[Zit]

BRP Egypt is only available in Italian. There were also a BRP West and BRP Dinos, but you can find better alternatives nowadays. There is also The Wheel of Fate for RQ2.

There are certainly much more amateurs settings in different languages which could be used as sourcebooks or for inspiration (my unperfect ancient Mesopotamia setting in French for example -I'll put some downloadable stuff in english in a short future).

Just an idea: there was a very good arabian setting published in French in the 80's (Légendes des 1001 Nuits), from the game Légendes (looks like déjà vu ...). Could be translated and adapted to the BRP (or to Legend, we could even keep the tittle!). The only problem is the copyright, but the company still exists (Jeux descartes). This would make a link between chinese, european and steppes settings -not to speak about the crusades. Only Byzance will be missing. Alternate earth will be quite complete for middle ages.

[RosenMcStern]

Just an idea: there was a very good arabian setting published in French in the 80's (Légendes des 1001 Nuits), from the game Légendes (looks like déjà vu ...). Could be translated and adapted to the BRP (or to Legend, we could even keep the tittle!). The only problem is the copyright, but the company still exists (Jeux descartes). This would make a link between chinese, european and steppes settings -not to speak about the crusades. Only Byzance will be missing. Alternate earth will be quite complete for middle ages.

I think Merrie England tells a lot about medieval Arabs. And FYI, Byzanthium is in the making for RuneQuest, so I see no great gain in making one for BRP. The same for Mythic Greece.

[smiorgan]

Then you should cross that border in late March and take your children to the "Play" game fair in Modena. I will be there with a lot of nice BRP and non-BRP stuff, and run several playtests (possibily including mecha games), and the annual gathering of the Gundam Italian Club will be held in the same building. So they might appreciate it.

Cool! I'm tempted. I'v spoken about that with a friend today. I've to check the dates but I might be really coming to say 'hallo' in Modena in March. With a friend and my older boy.

Thanks for the answers.

[Kairos]

Kairos, you made a FG rules set for Fergo's Middle Earth supplement? I think you just forced my hand! Where could I find that work, on the FG site?

I made a module for it, but only those bits we used. I think I have all the magic chapter done up, but the others are incomplete. I can send you what I've got.

I admit I was concerned about how BRP would translate to FG. But if you can turn on/off various components, then that may just work for me...

I was pretty dazzled by Foen's work on this ruleset. Modification is done in a single script, and it's well-documented. Very much worth the price.

[Baron]

I made a module for it, but only those bits we used. I think I have all the magic chapter done up, but the others are incomplete. I can send you what I've got.

I was pretty dazzled by Foen's work on this ruleset. Modification is done in a single script, and it's well-documented. Very much worth the price.

Thanks, I would appreciate what you've done. Maybe it will be enough. I confess that I'm not really any good at manipulating software, so I'll probably be stuck with your changes. Hope the BRP ruleset is within my skillrange. I downloaded FG the other night (free version) and fiddled, but it's not coming easy. Hoping to get to try a game as a player, so I can get some guidance. Then I hope I'll have a better chance of gauging how likely it is that I could use it to run a game of my own. Hopefully, with all the FG-suitable material being put out by Alephtar and etc, I can figure it all out! I've got gaming buddies scattered all over the place...