1PMZH MPU t Volume #4

Issue #13
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FTC Will Not Fine Bloggers

Momentary panic over Federal Trade Commission Guidelines
turns out to be over nothing
The official statement of lawyers of the US Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) is that the regulatory body will
not take legal action against bloggers who do not disclose
their relationship with companies who supply them with
reviewable product samples. This follows an intense period
of speculation on the Internet, in which many bloggers and
forum users expressed concerns over free speech and other
issues.
In a downloadable video, FTC lawyer Mary Engle stated
that the FTC has no intention to take legal action against
bloggers.
The FTC issued a press release on October 5, stating that
a new set of guidelines have been published for endorsements
and celebrity testimonials. In a nutshell, the very extensive
document stipulated that it is the FTC’s opinion that reviews
on blog are akin to advertisements and that advertisers –
not bloggers – should be subject to similar guidelines. Said
guidelines are to be formalized into policy on December 1,
2009. A story by Associated Press business reporters, which
was repeated in many news outlets online, interpreted this
as a need for mandatory disclosure of the sources of review
copies by bloggers. This story quoted the FTC’s fines for
violating specific portions of TItle 15 USC, related to unfair
competition, as being as high as $11,000 (when in actual fact,
the fine is $15,000). As is frequently the case online, this story
was passed around, quoted extensively, and generally caused
a lot of discussion, much of which was unfounded.
The US Federal Trade Commission is a very large
consumer watchdog regulatory body that is perhaps most
famous for antitrust actions and other actions that regulate
unfair competition. It does not have the power to make laws,
only to initiate court actions as mandated under the FTC
Act, which is part of Title 15 USC (a statute that is broad
enough to include patent and trademark legislation, which
are regulated by another office). This is similar to how the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) enforces the law and
investigates crimes, but does not create law.
By the same token, the published guidelines for
endorsements express official policy intentions of the FTC
but have no legal force in and of themselves.
— The Observer
“The Observer” is a byline used by staff and freelance contributors to Polyglot when writing original works on matters of interest to the
newsletter’s readership. They do not necessarily represent the official policies or opinions of Polymancer Studios, Inc, its officers, or employees.

FTC Will Not Fine Bloggers_ ____________________________ 1
Disney To Acquire Marvel Entertainment_ __________________ 2
NECA Acquires WizKids Assets from Topps_________________ 2
New Date for GAMA Trade Show 2010_____________________ 3
Terror Network Available for Pre-Order ____________________ 3
Avalanche Press: News From the Front_____________________ 4
You are Invited to the Toy Soldier Family Fun Day on Nov 1st_____ 5
Superior POD Game Master Screens_______________________ 5
Call for GMs for the November 14th Game-a-thon______________ 6
NEW 1/144 STOCK____________________________________ 6
Avalanche Press: News From the Front_____________________ 7
Strange World Storytelling Game Renamed to “The Unexplained"_8
Copplestone Castings Amazon Store_______________________ 8
Newest Staff Reviews from oneBookshelf.com_ ______________ 9
Announcing the Role Play Media Network__________________17
Hârn News: New Harn Releases: Castle of Rethem____________17
Expozine 2009 — Montreal’s eighth annual small press fair!_____ 18
Tips from About.com_________________________________ 19
Dark Sword Miniatures — New Greens Posted______________ 20
Printing and Design Tips Brought to you by PIE______________21
Notes From Looney Labs — October 2009_ ________________ 22
UDE Announces Raid Deck Configuration for WoW® TCG _ ___ 23
Gen Con Sponsors GamesU 2009________________________ 24
Newest Staff Reviews from DriveThruComics.com___________ 25
Game-a-thon: Saturday, November 14, 2009_________________ 27
New TALES FROM THE CRYPT Graphic Novel Presents Parodies
“Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” and “DieLite”________________ 28
News from Spectra___________________________________ 29
News from ForgeWorld_ ______________________________ 33
ICE News__________________________________________ 35
Star Fleet Alert: Just so you know________________________ 36
Avalanche Press: News From the Front____________________ 37
Star Fleet Alert: What is going on…_______________________ 38
Arcana Launches Comics & Pop Culture Magazine___________ 39
More news from Avalanche Press_ _______________________ 40
November Special Offer_ ______________________________ 41
Important Information About Necronomicon 2010!___________ 41
News from Bards & Sages______________________________ 42
Signs & Portents 74 – Free Download_ ____________________ 43
Pulp Figures Latest Release:_ ___________________________ 44
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly November News_ _____________ 45
Traveller Character Record Pack – Out Now!________________ 47
Rogue Games announces PDF Guarantee Program__________ 47
Upper Deck hosts WoW TCG and Minis Champs Nov. 14 – 15_ __ 48
PEZ Sues Herobuilders.com____________________________ 49
Warzone Tribes of Earth mercs cheap to hire one week only._ ___ 49
New Releases from IXO Models_________________________ 50
Steam – Locomotive Set_ _______________________________51
Hex Games Releases Laser Ponies _ _______________________51
Mongoose releases Strontium Dog RPG___________________ 52
Crafty Games Licensing: We're Expanding the Family! ________ 52
RPGBOMB announces Systemless Adventures______________ 53
Tabletop Adventures Into the Future: Derelict Starships_ ______ 53
Foxbat for President __________________________________ 54
Latest Miniatures from Star Fleet Games___________________ 54
TGC announces I’m not Alone_ _________________________ 55
New book on casual games: A Casual Revolution____________ 56
Tech News from ZDNet_ ______________________________ 57
News from GameIndustry.com__________________________ 58
DFC Intelligence Forecasts that Apple Will Help Drive Mobile Game
Market Sales to $11.7 Billion by 2014_______________________ 59
XFire Launches first social-shopping game store_ ____________ 60
TGC brings Darkest of Days to Europe_ ___________________ 61
Magic: The Gathering on XBLA expands to PC, PS3__________ 62
Strategic Command Global Conflict – new features (and screens)_ 63
News from Reflexive Arcade____________________________ 64
Legal notice regarding the content of Polyglot™_ ____________ 65

A free publication by Polymancer® Studios, Inc..

20 Weredale Park, Westmount QC, H3Z 1Y6 CANADA
(514) 667-1585 (Canada) • Skype: Polymancer • Twitter: Polymancer
polyglot@polymancerstudios.com, www.polymancer.com

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Disney To Acquire Marvel Entertainment
Acquisition highlights Disney’s strategic focus on quality branded content,
technological innovation and international expansion to build long-term
shareholder value
Burbank, CA and New York, NY—Building on its strategy
of delivering quality branded content to people around the
world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has agreed to
acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) in a stock
and cash transaction, the companies recently announced.
Under the terms of the agreement and based on
the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel
shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash
plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share
they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be
adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney
stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading
value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger
consideration.
Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday,
August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or
approximately $4 billion.
“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and
world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-
Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with
NECA Acquires WizKids Assets from Topps
The National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc.
(NECA) has purchased the majority of the assets of WizKids,
Inc. from The Topps Company, Inc., including the award-
winning Clix family of games, which includes HeroClix,
ActionClix, HorrorClix and SportsClix. NECA
will also acquire the WizKids brand, the
Pocketmodel Game family of games, including
the Pirates of the Crimson Coast, Pirates of
the Spanish Main and Pirates of the Cursed
Seas games, and the Mage Knight line of games.
The assets of WizKids that were purchased by NECA
have been transferred to a wholly owned NECA subsidiary
operating out of its offices in Hillside, New Jersey, which will
operate under the WizKids name.
Clix pioneered the collectible miniature category and
HeroClix has been the leading collectible game in the comic
genre since its 2002 debut, due to its innovative game platform
and deep collection of characters from the respective worlds
of Marvel and DC Comics. NECA will continue the successful
HeroClix product lines from powerhouse brands DC Comics
and Marvel.
The Pocketmodel Game family of games includes the
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Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment
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properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value
of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,”
said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The
Walt Disney Company. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done
an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created
significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great
assets to Disney."
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel
including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will
oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney’s
global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s
properties.
The Boards of Directors of Disney and Marvel have each
approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under
the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and other
regulations.
The acquisition has recently been challenged by
shareholders in a lawsuit, alleging that Marvel shares were
undervalued in the deal.
Pirates of the Cursed Seas PocketModel Trading Card Game,
which is the latest in the successful line of Pirates card games
that has run since selling out its first run in 2004.
“WizKids has created the best games within the
collectible miniature and constructible genres
and NECA is proud to help continue this great
legacy,” said Joel Weinshanker, President and
CEO of NECA. “The HeroClix engine is the
envy of the industry and many companies
have attempted to emulate it without success. We’re thrilled
to deliver HeroClix to the gamers.”
NECA has hired Lax Chandra, who ran the WizKids
subsidiary for The Topps Company, to be the President of
NECA’s newly formed subsidiary, which will operate under
the WizKids name. Former WizKids employees Chas Delong,
Wade Sugiyama and Mike Elliott have also been brought on
to help with the transition.
In the coming days and weeks, the new WizKids company
will make further announcements about upcoming release
plans.
For further information and updates, visit www.
necaonline.com.
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New Date for GAMA Trade Show 2010
SAVE THE DATE! retail stores and companies
through December to
The GAMA Trade increase visibility on the
Show (GTS) has moved programs, seminars and
dates! Mark your calendar opportunities that we
for March 22-26th, 2010 at provide at GTS. We want
Bally’s Las Vegas. We have to make sure that every
worked closely with Bally’s t retail store in America
to not only move the date knows about the dynamic
off of the Holiday weekend, and helpful programs our
but also to ensure that association runs for GAMA
Bally’s will extend to our members at the annual
membership any room rate association trade show.
deals that the casino is Remember the trade
offering. show is YOUR event. Our goal is to ensure we do our part to
make GTS 2010 a success. Help us make GTS the best it can
NEW MEMBERS AT GTS! be by making sure we get your retailer lists and also by telling
us what you want to see at the upcoming show.
In anticipation of GTS 2010, GAMA began calling We want to thank those members that have already sent
individual retail store owners Friday the 25th to tell them in their retailer lists to the GAMA office. We are anticipating
about the show! contacting many stores this year so please send your lists to
Staff and volunteers will continue to call individual programs@gama.org if you haven’t already.

Terror Network Available for

Pre-Order
Bedrock Games presents, Terror Network: A counter
terrorism RPG. Pre-order your copy today: http://
bedrockgames.net/menu.html
TERROR NETWORK The battle begins… From the
mountains of Afghanistan to the streets of Boston, fight on
the front lines against Terrorist Networks like Al-Qaeda.
You and your fellow agents are the nation’s unsung heroes
in the War on Terror. With 42 skills and a gritty, high body
count system, Terror Network is sure to get your adrenaline
pumping. It supports investigation-based campaigns, combat-
based campaigns, and a combination of both.

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Avalanche Press: News From the Front
Avalanche Press Web Site Secured

If you visited the site over the past day or so, you may have found a completely different site when you expected ours. We
apologize for this inconvenience and want to assure you that our site has since been secured and is safe to shop.

German Hordes

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Two sheets of counters, originally issued with the long-forgotten first edition of our Panzer Grenadier: Eastern Front, with
330 German infantry, tank and artillery pieces. $12.99

Waltzing Matilda

Waltzing Matilda is our newest Print and Play supplement for

the Panzer Grenadier line: 330 pieces and 12 scenarios introduce the
Australian Militia and the Australian 1st Armoured Division. New pieces
include Japanese cavalry, Type 3 tanks, Shinhoto Chi-Ha tanks, Ho-Ni
tank destroyers, and aircraft, Australian light horse, AC tanks, CTLS light
tanks and aircraft, and a whole lot more for both sides. Fight the invasion
of Australia for just $12.99, and best of all, it’s available right now – no
pre-orders, no waiting.

New Content: The U.S. Flying Deck Cruiser

Randy “Ship Guy” York makes his Daily Content debut with the tale
of the U.S. Navy’s flight deck cruiser. She’s a ship that might have had a
significant impact in our Strike South game, but fell victim to the Great
Depression instead.

Prince of Prussia

David Hughes is back with a look at Prince Friedrich Karl, commander of the Prussian First Army in the 1866 Austro-
Prussian War.

Franz Josef’s Machine Guns

David Hughes highlights one of the key pieces found in Infantry Attacks: Fall of Empires, the Austro-Hungarian machine
gun platoons and their unique Schwarzlose weapons.

Visit us soon at www.avalanchepress.com.

Avalanche Press makes historical boardgames that every player can enjoy. Please visit our online store or call our
customer service line: (800) 564-9008 or 1-205-957-0017.

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You are Invited to the Toy Soldier Family Fun Day on Nov 1st
Prince August Toy Solder Factory, Kilnamartyra,
Macroom, Co. Cork, Ireland is running a Family Fun Day on
Sunday November 1st from 12 to 5pm. Fun for all the family!!

FREE Workshops all Day

http://www.toysoldierfactory.ie/
•  Cast and Paint your own figure Workshops. t
•  Art and Craft. i.e. Christmas cards, Book Marks, Fridge Magnet
Workshops.
•  Latest interactive activity “Casting in Water” Workshops.
Guarantee your place by Advance booking by telephone:
026 40344

(Monday to Friday 9a.m. to 5p.m)

Release the Artistic person in you!
•  Official revealing of our new Hand Painted wall mural.
•  Special guests are Roman and WW2 Soldier re-enactors.
•  Tea, Coffee and Home Baking will be available on the day.

Raffle and Spot Prizes:

All in aid of Children’s First Children’s Hospice LauraLynn

House
A great Family Fun Day Assured!!

Hope to see you then,

Michael O'Brien, webmaster.

Prince August Toy Factory, Kilnamartyra, Macroom,
Co. Cork.
T: +353 26 40222 / F: +353 26 40004 Margaret Edman.
‘Prince August’ is a registered trade name of An Grupa Edman Teo (The Edman Group Ltd).
Registered in Dublin #269484. Directors Lars Edman (swedish), Reg. Office: 1 Kilnamartyra, Macroom.

Superior POD Game Master Screens

Do you have an RPG and would like to offer your •  4 Panel
customers GM Screens? Superior POD can now assist you.
We are now offering GM Screens with no set up fees, no 1-9 Screens $14.99 ea.
minimums and at very affordable pricing: 10-24 Screens $3.44 ea.
25-49 Screens $3.27 ea.
Game Master Screens Specs and Pricing 50-74 Screens $3.10 ea.
75-99 Screens $2.92 ea.
•  11” x 34” Full Color Game Master Screens
100+ Screens $2.75 ea.
•  14pt C2S Laminated full color, full bleed (4/4)
•  4 Panel
Please note that Superior POD now has new contact
Game Master Screens Specs and Pricing phone numbers to serve you better. Now you can contact
Superior POD Toll Free at (888)369-1307 or at our new
•  11” x 34” Full Color Game Master Screens local number (607)240-5231 or thru our web site — www.
•  14pt C2S Laminated full color, full bleed (4/4) superiorpod.com.

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Call for GMs for the November 14th Game-a-thon
We're still recovering from Council of Five Nations (full After Action Report coming soon), but we haven’t forgotten that
the November Game-a-thon is just around the corner (Saturday, November 14th).
We are looking for people to GM. We would also like to know what games would entice you to attend.
We already have the following commitments:

•  Monster Bash playtest v2 (Fun

Horror Minis, suitable for kids)
•  Board Games: Acquire, Detroit- t
Cleveland Grand Prix, Rail Baron,
Dominion
•  Battleground: Fantasy Warfare

You can sign up to run a game

using this form:
http://www.swa-gaming.org/
gameathoneventregistration
Or, you can request a game to be run here:
http://www.swa-gaming.org/gameathonsuggestion
Please sign up by October 28th or earlier. That way we can get the word out in plenty of time for the Thon.
Thank you for your interest and support. We hope to see you at our future events.

NEW 1/144 STOCK

Just had a few more of the pre-painted 1/144 scale models imported from Japan:
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/range.php?range=JPN

F-TOYS STAR WARS

A few of all the models, though this time I’ve bundled the very popular AT-AT with the neat little Snowspeeders.

EARLY JETS

A few more of each – with a couple of the rare models (including a very nice He162A/V1 combo) – including the popular
Mig 15 and Glosteor Meteors. Typically we got more of the not-so-popular Me262’s – now priced
at only £7 each.

WINGS OF THE LUFTWAFFE

We still have a few of these neat little models from Takara (mostly Me 109’s and Fw 190’s) –
and a few TA154’s
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/images/takaraluftwaffe8.jpg

B-17F MEMPHIS BELLE

By chance I ended up with a complete box of 8 1/144 scale Cafe Reo B-17f’s with the markings of the famous Memphis
Belle. Before I make them available online I thought I would give you a chance to reserve them first. If you would like one just
email me at enquiries@copplestonecastings.co.uk – first come first serve. They will cost £14.50 each (plus £2 p&p).
In Japan all these types are sold in blind boxes so you don’t know what you are getting – and as some items are rare they
are collectable (if that’s your thing). To spare you the uncertainty we’ve opened the boxes to identify them.

Mark Copplestone

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Avalanche Press: News From the Front
Anywhere on Earth – Shipping’s the Same

As dollars get cheaper, so do our games for all our friends outside the United States. That’s true for everything Made in
the USA – but what about those horrible shipping rates? There go all your savings, pocketed by the postal service!
Not at Avalanche Press. New York or New Zealand, Atlanta or Albania – no matter where you live, the shipping price is
the same. You read that right. The same. Less than $10 for most of our games, and much less per game if you buy several at
once.
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Second World War at Sea: Spice Islands

A legacy of the Dutch Golden Age, the

Netherlands East Indies held some of the world’s
largest and highest-quality oil reserves in 1941. The
Dutch Navy defended these colonies with a tiny
squadron of cruisers and destroyers, far less than
the military wished to deploy. Spice Islands is a new
Second World War at Sea supplement looking at the
fleet the Royal Netherlands Navy hoped to place in
its most valuable overseas possession and how it
might have resisted Japanese aggression in 1942. It’s
10 scenarios of alternate history and a full sheet of
new playing pieces, all together in .pdf form for just
$12.99. Yes, you read that price right, so order now.

New Content

Waltzing Matilda: the Australians

Panzer Grenadier: Waltzing Matilda adds the Australian
Militia, her three armored divisions and the Light Horse to the
world’s broadest-reaching wargame series. The designer takes a
look at the new Australian pieces included.

Be a Digger!
Panzer Grenadier: Kokoda Trail includes a campaign for
our popular Campaigns and Commanders Panzer Grenadier
role-playing system. We have a FREE download of pieces you
can customize to trace your leader character’s rise through the
ranks. Use them with Kokoda Trail OR the brand-new Waltzing
Matilda!

Visit us soon at www.avalanchepress.com.

Avalanche Press makes historical boardgames that every player
can enjoy. Please visit our online store or call our customer service
line: (800) 564-9008 or 1-205-957-0017.

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The Strange World Storytelling Game Renamed to “The
Unexplained"
Londonderry, NH — The name of the Strange World Storytelling Game has just changed. From this
point on, the game is called “The Unexplained."
This change was brought on by a recent trademark conflict. Although the name on the cover of
the book has changed, the game on the inside has not. No other changes were made to deal with this
issue.
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In The Unexplained, you're a paranormal investigator. You have a day job, like everyone else, but
at night you investigate the mysteries of our world and try to gather proof of the paranormal. You use
every means at your disposal to prove, beyond doubt, that the paranormal is real. Using both
science and metaphysics as tools, you are part of an elite team that is dedicated to solving these
mysteries. You are a member of the Foundation for Paranormal Investigation.
The Unexplained is a non-fiction horror storytelling game that presents the paranormal
in a real light, treating it exactly the way real paranormal investigators do. Packed with fully
researched non-fiction information on different aspects of the paranormal, this book also appeals
to anyone who wants an introduction to paranormal investigation.
“I'm excited about the product’s name change,” says Bradford Younie, president of Carnivore
Games. “Strange World was a great name, but I think The Unexplained is more descriptive and
puts the right image in peoples minds about what the game is truly about."
The Unexplained is still scheduled to release in December.
Visit http://www.carnivoregames.com for more information about The Unexplained and
other great Carnivore Games products.

Copplestone Castings Amazon Store

I’ve just set up an Amazon store that I hope you’ll find interesting and
useful. It lists my personal choices of books and DVD’s from the huge
range available from Amazon.co.uk and associated stores.
You can get to it by clicking on the button at the top right of
all my pages and once you are there you’ll find a link back to the
main Copplestone Castings site:
www.copplestonecastings.co.uk
I’ve started with books or movies that
inspired my ranges – particularly the Back of
Beyond. Though BoB seems to be an obscure
subject there’s been an explosion of reprints and
new books in the last few years – some of which
you might not have come across. Mostly I’ve stuck
to reasonably-priced items, though you’ll also see
Jamie Bisher’s ‘White Terror’ – a very expensive, but very detailed and readable military history of the RCW in Siberia from
the revolution to the very last White resistance.
If you buy anything it will be from Amazon, not from me, though I’ll get a small commission on each sale. US customers
can probably buy the same items from Amazon.com.

Mark Copplestone

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Newest Staff Reviews from oneBookshelf.com
Wilderlands: Faiths of the City This product begins with an overview of religious faith in the City State of the
State: Forn Sidthr Invincible Overlord. It’s quite diverse, with over 300 religions to choose from, whether
by Adventure Games Publishing you prefer one of the 50 most popular which have followings of 600,000 or more, or
http://www.rpgnow.com/ prefer a small cult with a handful of worshippers. As many faiths are pantheistic, the
majority of citizens venerate several gods, even if they have a favorite one.
product_info.php?products_
id=58897&it=1&SRC=polyglot t
Worshippers of any given faith can be classed at one of five levels of devotion, which
Price: $3.00 determines what access they have to the benefits of their belief. Irregular worshippers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Megan just pop in occasionally and will probably not even be recognized as devotees when they
Robertson) die, while others who attend more frequently or even become fanatical lay ‘initiates’
may even gain access to low-level spells as well as expect to have their soul judged by
the tenets of the faith in question upon their demise. And then there are the priests, the
‘professional’ devotees who are normally of the cleric or druid classes with all the concomitant benefits and abilities.
These general points out of the way, the work turns to a detailed description of one religion: Forn Sidthr, also known as
the Old Custom. Over 60% of City residents pay at least some respects to this faith… even the Overlord himself has been
seen at services! It’s a pantheistic faith, venerating the Aesir (Odin, Frigga, Thor and the like), with most devotees worshipping
Odin and whichever minor deity of the pantheon suits their tastes, circumstances and gender. Most followers are of good
alignment, while priests are required to follow the alignment of their chosen patron deity.
Reading on, we learn of the clerical hierarchy, religious texts and
the way in which worship is conducted. There are daily prayers, with a
weekly Thing and four Great Things per year as more important festivals;
as well as the normal rituals most faiths have to mark birth, coming of
age, marriage ('handfasting') and funerals. Most seem to involve a lot of
eating and drinking. The tenets of the faith are discussed in considerable
detail, and apparently the most fanatical tend to dislike both technology
and arcane magic. There is sufficient material here to enable anyone who
studies it to role-play even a devout follower of this faith convincingly.
The next section goes into considerable detail of the afterlife for
an Old Custom devotee. While the details of the faith for the living are
presented in much more detail than is common for the average game,
this section is a novel take, enabling the game to continue after death
as the devotee is judged according to both his life and the manner of
his death… so don’t rip up that character sheet immediately upon your
character’s demise. There’s a big list of sins and virtues which are used
to decide the soul’s fate – and virtuous ones are welcomed into Valhalla
to feast, being so gratified by this that they can even resist resurrection
spells should someone care to attempt to bring them back!
Overall, this work gives exceptional detail of one faith, sufficient to
make it an integral part of your game. The whole judgement of the soul
section provides for a grand finale to any character’s life (provided you
have kept track of his virtues and sins while alive). Death may still sting,
but at least you can work out where you are going!!!

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Gift There’s an old saying that you only have one chance to make a first impression.
by Dementia Five Publishing House While it sounds trite, it lays out a much more fundamental principle: that looks are
http://www.rpgnow.com/ important. While the substance of a thing – its modularity, usefulness, and originality
product_info.php?products_ – are important, these qualities all suffer if the presentation is poor, as they become
id=65085&it=1&SRC=polyglot hard to read, hard to reference, and otherwise hard to make use of. It’s a pity when
Price: $3.49 this happens to a good supplement, as it did with The Gift, a Pathfinder adventure/
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane sourcebook from Dementia Five Publishing.
O'Connor) It starts with the technical presentation. The PDF that I looked at had no bookmarks,
which is something I think all but the briefest of PDFs should have. There was also no
t
printer-friendly version, again something I think should be included just as a courtesy
for people who care to print their materials. Having said that, the art here is not to be underestimated, with a liberal mix of
full color and black and white pieces, along with a number of maps of various locations (the majority being full color maps
located at the end of the book). The maps, particularly, are a nice extra as they can just be printed off for each location.
The Gift is the first of a three-part adventure series that serves as an introduction to Kaidan, a new setting with a gothic-
Japanese feel for the Pathfinder RPG. However, to call it an adventure is somewhat of a misnomer, as the adventure part of the
book takes up less than half of it. Rather, because this is meant to serve as an introduction to a new setting with new rules,
The Gift spends the bulk of its pages on giving an overview of Kaidan and how things work there, both for players and the
GM. This creates a somewhat awkward scenario where there fundamentals of the setting are explained with some details, but
not enough to feel truly comfortable with them.
For example, The Gift outlines, both in the introduction and the appendix, that the planes of existence operate differently
in Kaidan. Instead of being metaphysical dimensions, different levels of existence are assigned to different social castes – a
court samurai is a much higher form of existence than that of a fisherman, for example. When you die, you are reincarnated
into an adult body depending on your karma, and that’s
your new existence; more than just role-playing inspiration,
however, certain castes are tied with certain classes – so
if you want to multiclass, you’re essentially re-awakening
skills from a previous life.
The above sounds incredibly evocative, and indeed it
is. However, because this serves only as an overview to
the forthcoming Kaidan sourcebook, that’s about as deep
as the coverage goes. We’re not told precisely how the
multiclassing system works, karma is given only a quick
and dirty mechanic for how it affects your reincarnation,
there’s only a brief listing of what classes fall into what
castes (and many of those are Kaidan classes, presumably
from the Kaidan sourcebook, rather than the existing ones
from the Pathfinder rulebook). And of course, all of this
comes at the expense of adventuring material – there are
two more adventures to go, but playing through them
before you have all the rules for the setting seems like a
burden; this would likely have worked better if it was just
one adventure.
In regards to the adventure itself, it does try to minimize
the aforementioned handicap by starting players out as
gaijin (foreigners) using the existing Pathfinder classes. In
the adventure, your characters are hired swords serving as
guards for a merchant delivering a mysterious (and never
defined) gift to a local lord in Kaidan. You arrive at the
seaport set aside for foreigners, and must obtain the proper
permits to travel abroad before delivering the gift (actually
delivering it all the way there is beyond the scope of the
adventure). By itself, the adventure isn’t that bad, and
actually does its best to introduce the players and their

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characters to Kaidan through in-game situations, such as the reclusive priest who explains about the wheel of reincarnation
in Kaidan, or how the PCs stay at a haunted in that shows how the undead in Kaidan (for the most part) need to have their
particular curse lifted in order to be permanently laid to rest.
After the adventure are a series of appendices. These retread some of the material from the introduction about the nature
of Kaidan’s cosmology and reincarnation, but with a bit more depth. There’s also section on how all undead in Kaidan are
unique beings, with a table of particular powers and weaknesses they have, along with a few example undead, and some
other Kaidan-specific monsters. The book has a very brief section on pronunciation and the nature of Kaidan’s native religion,
before ending with a series of printable maps.
By itself, The Gift is pretty good, despite having to be both an adventure and an introductory sourcebook at the same
t
time. However, it’s the style of presentation that truly kills things here. It isn’t just spelling and grammar errors (though those
are present here), but rather stylistic and layout choices; things like having magic items be emboldened rather than italicized,
odd contractions for things (such as a feat listed as “Imp Initiative”), monsters whose stats are not only not compliant with
the Pathfinder rules (XP values being out of whack, CMB and CMD missing altogether, etc.) but also have stat blocks that are
laid out rather poorly, instead of in a manner consistent with how they’re laid out in the Pathfinder rules, new weapons and
armor that lack listings for their type (that is, it doesn’t say if they’re simple, martial, or exotic – or one or two-handed – for
the weapons; light, medium, or heavy for the armor), etc.
The Gift ultimately wants to act as a holistic introduction to Kaidan, having unfamiliar foreign PCs act as proxies by which
its new rules can be introduced to the players; it’s an ambitious balancing act, and at times seems to overreach, but ultimately
manages to accomplish its goal… or it would, were it not so plagued by its lackluster presentation. Instead, it deviates quite
a bit from the stylistic norms of its parent RPG, and in doing so makes it difficult to digest when reading, especially on top
of missing and incorrect mechanics and spelling and grammar errors. The Gift isn’t bad, but no gift is impressive when it’s
wrapped poorly, as this one is.

0one’s Black & White: Bandits’ In customary style, 0one Games present a fine bandit’s lair complete with details
Trail of how the bandits live, conduct their banditry and defend their home. Whether your
by 0one Games characters wish to attack the bandits, trade with them or even enlist in the band, these
http://www.rpgnow.com/ maps and notes should prove invaluable when they decide to call round.
product_info.php?products_ There is a Referee’s Map showing the entire layout and 25 tile-sized portions of it
id=60470&it=1&SRC=polyglot for you to lay in front of your players, as battle maps for miniature use or just to show
Price: $1.99 them what their characters can see. The usual customization is possible – choice of a
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Megan square or a hex grid (or none at all),
Robertson) presence or absence of furniture and
doors, and the like – and from the
Referee’s Map you can choose which
tile you want to print if you do not want them all at once, or want to change
the customization between different areas.
There’s a page of short room descriptions which give a good overview
– although the English sounds like it was run through an online translator
– of what is going on in each location, and in the bandit gang as a whole.
Naturally, if this doesn’t suit your needs,
you can substitute your own story and
descriptions. You will need to create suitable
statistics for the whole gang, and you may
wish to add to the half-dozen or so named
personalities, or amend them to fit into any
ongoing storyline or to suit your own ideas.
As a focus for a short adventure, or a
chance encounter, or even as something that
might feature quite large in your campaign,
this is a neat and well-laid-out lair to raid
(or even inhabit once the bandits have been
evicted if the characters so choose).

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Arthur Lives! I'm in favor of reviewers mentioning their prejudices up front, so I will do so now:
by Vigilance Press I really don’t give a damn about King Arthur. I just don’t. I barely liked the Disney
http://www.rpgnow.com/ Sword in the Stone. “Wake me when there’s some girls, guns, cars jumping off things and
product_info.php?products_ explosions,” is what I said to the award-winning RPG Pendragon. Well, my alarm clock
id=63893&it=1&SRC=polyglot just went off with the release of Arthur Lives!
Price: $7.95 The game is True20, and requires the main True20 book. It is compatible with the
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Jason Adept and Warrior’s Handbooks as well, and probably with most of your favorite True20
Corley) stuff. I was at a bit of a disadvantage without the True20 Companion, but in practice this
lack didn’t matter much. Systemwise, True20 is adhered to quite closely, which is a good
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thing as it is one of the best open systems on the market.
In Arthur Lives!, the characters are reincarnations of the figures of Arthurian myth in the modern day. As such, they begin
to remember abilities and skills from their previous incarnation(s?) and thus the levelling-up system of True20 gains a new
dramatic focus – you're not just building on your in-game experiences, but revealing parts of who your character used to be.
Your character is in part defined not just by their capabilities, but by their relationship to their capabilities. If you're a staid
middle manager, for example, and you suddenly remember and absorb your past as a seductive and sensual half-nymph,
that’s going to change not just numbers on your character sheet, but also how your character thinks about themselves and is
motivated. This is one of the most innovative approaches to the level system of d20 variants that I've seen in any game.
The first chapter is on creating characters. This is the meat of the Arthur Lives! system. In addition to making your typical
True20 character, you select your character’s incarnation, and when they become aware of it, they gain benefits including
bonus feats that push them along the path of knowledge and capabilities that their previous life had. A reincarnation of
Merlin or Nineve will gain magical feats and abilities, for example.
I really can’t emphasize enough the flexibility of this section. For example, questions regarding the sex of characters
are addressed more thoroughly than in almost any other adventure RPG that I know of. A female character could be a
reincarnation of a male Arthurian figure, or perhaps freed from the strictures of the day, a capable female reincarnation might
able to upend the myth and take it in a whole new direction. Or, the game could adhere more closely to myth and try to
emphasize the legendary relationships as closely as possible. The very fact that this is addressed, and encouraged for players
to think about when designing the character elevates this above so many other mythical and historical games. There just is
something different between a modern woman and a woman in Arthurian myth, both have something to bring to the table
and you've got to make a decision about the nature of your character and what you want to do with it.
The next few sections details some new, Arthur-style feats and magic,
with an interesting new system for awakening people’s memories, and using
remembrances of the past to set up advantages in current situations. A section
called “echoes” describes the “reincarnation” of mystical and magical artifacts
from the era into the modern day.
One last thing that makes this product sing – it is a labor of love. I
didn’t even really need the Afterword to tell me that the author is extremely
knowledgeable and passionate about Arthurian myth. Remember, I came into
the product not really giving a damn about it. All the enthusiasm I have for
this game came from the verve and energy he put into the whole product. It
has an excellent style that will draw you in even if, like me, you are a bit of an
outsider to the whole thing. The impact of this can’t be overestimated.
If I had to pick out some things to be improved, here’s what I'd be looking
for: a pronunciation guide (Malahaut? Lamorak? Morgause? Is Balin BAY-
linn or Bal-linn or Bahl-linn or wut?), the incarnation list should be in the
bookmarks (I should be able to click on ‘Arthur’ and be taken straight to
Arthur’s writeup), and there should be more “famous” Arthurian incarnations
(Morgan Le Fay, Modred?) But these are nitpicks.
The purchase includes a printer-friendly and a screen-friendly version,
although they are not that different, the screen-friendly version has some
color illustrations, but otherwise they're more or less the same.
Arthur Lives! is one of the best True20 games on the market. Arthur fans
will want it, obviously, but even if the Arthurian mythos sorta bores you? As
one of those people, I'm saying: you want it too.

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Night Horrors: Wicked Dead Role-playing has been raiding historical mythology for as long as it’s been around;
by White Wolf the Monster Manual cheerfully grabs monsters from dozens of different mythologies
http://www.rpgnow.com/ and slaps them into a single setting. You want German and Egyptian mythologies in
product_info.php?products_ the same dungeon, throw in some kobolds on the top level and a sphinx on the sixth.
id=64512&it=1&SRC=polyglot Wicked Dead does the same thing, and that’s kind of the tragedy. Allow me to explain.
Price: $23.09 If you look at the various iterations of Vampire, they essentially synthesize about
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Darren four hundred years worth of vampire mythology into something that allows you to
MacLennan) simulate dozens of different kinds of vampires into a single whole. Instead of having
a unique kind of vampire whose entire schtick is turning into a wolf, you have the
t
Animalism discipline, and you can turn it into a Bloodline if you make it particularly
specialized. That way, you don’t have dozens of different kinds of vampires who share disparate origins and powers.
Wicked Dead kind of turns back the clock on this particular innovation. I believe that it’s meant to act as much as an
antagonist guide for Hunter: The Vigil and/or standard World of Darkness play, but it simply replicates the abilities of various
vampires from around the world without doing much with them. Instead of having a Bloodline inspired by the penaggallan
myths of Malaysia, we have the stats for an actual penaggallan; instead of a bloodline inspired by Asian hopping vampires,
we've got stats for actual hopping vampires.
I have to say it: I think that White Wolf gets away from its fundamental strengths when it starts trying to do monsters
from other cultures. It’s done a splendid job of assimilating a whole bunch of vampire myths from the Western tradition into
something that works as a whole, but we're familiar with those creatures – vampires, werewolves, the Frankenstein monsters,
fairies and wizards – pretty much from birth. We know exactly who they are and what they mean, so when White Wolf
does something odd with them – turning werewolves into spirit cops, or ecological defenders – we're able to appreciate the
synthesis. But when you import a foreign vampire into a culture that doesn’t have any record of them, they just look silly to
us. (Kindred of the East attempted to create the same sort of synthesis, but that’s an essay for another day.)
Consider the aswang. It’s a Filipino vampire who’s a normal person by day, and then some kind of weird monster by night.
Some of them are kind of scary, but have goofy names, like the Tik-Tik; normal human by day, enormous bat-bird predator by
night that sucks blood and whose wings make a tik-tik noise when it flaps, or the halimaw, a vampire that can shift into the
form of the last person it killed. The sigbin, by contrast, shifts into a creature like a hornless goat whose ears are long enough
to be able to be clapped, like hands; and the clapping lulls its victims into a stupor, so that the sigbin can feed.
I'm sure that the sigbin is creepy in its original context. If you're Filipino, then I'm sure that the sigbin fits into a particular
story and is appropriately creepy within that context – a man who can crawl on walls like a bat is comic in broad daylight,
terrifying if he’s Count Dracula and skittering down a wall towards you
at midnight. A man-swallowing whale kinda makes sense in the Bible, or
Pinocchio, but doesn’t make so much sense when it’s lurking in the back
alley behind the bar wearing a cape and dark sunglasses. But it’s hard to find
the sigbin scary, and I imagine that anybody whose character is paralyzed by
the clapping of a monster’s ears is going to be in giggling fits for a long time.
(In fact, Sylvania did a hilarious commercial – in Thailand – that shows
off various kinds of Thai ghosts and how they look in broad daylight,
culminating with the revelation that they're a lot scarier with the lights
off. But most of them look goofy to a Western audience because we're not
familiar with their cultural backgrounding. I would link to it, but links to
YouTube tend to have mayfly life-spans. Make sure you see the long version,
which mentions the banana ghost.)
And the other thing is that the halimaw’s central schtick, being able to
turn into its victims, could easily be replicated by an Obfuscate devotion.
Their thunder has already been stolen by the inclusive nature of vampiric
discipliness, so that a lot of vampires with a single schtick, like turning into
mist, or blending into shadow, can be replicated without having to be that
exact kind of vampire. I suppose that you could use them as a switchup in a
Hunter campaign, but the introduction of unusual vampires just for the sake
of having some novel is usually a sign that the campaign is going stale.
Also – and I realize that this makes me the world’s first vampire racist
– as I'm reading about these Filipino vampires, my first thought is that

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they should go back home to the Philippines and let American vampires drink from regular Americans. Non-blood-drinking
Filipinos, we need all we can get, but Filipino vampires, one is too many.
The Baykosh is another example of a transplant from a foreign culture – well, a variety of Native American cultures – that
doesn’t quite make it. It’s an undead ghost that tracks down the survivors of battles and kills them with their own weapons;
it’s not subtle, the book going so far as to describe it as “the supernatural equivalent of a sledgehammer.” It’s got Essence 10,
rolls nine dice in most of its Numina – it’s hardly unkillable, but I'm not sure where the need for an undead Terminator that
tries to kill you with your own weapons – but only if you've been in battle – comes from. If you did, it would be fairly simple
to build one with whatever rules you happen to be using, instead of using The Ghost What Shoots You With Your Own Gun
For A Stupid Reason.
t
I guess if you're looking for stats for ghuls – not ghouls, ghuls – hopping vampires, penaggallan and points related, you're
going to be in hog heaven. Maybe if you're looking to do some sort of Kolchak The Night Stalker / X-Files thing, this'll be of
use to you, but the X-Files is stone dead, culturally speaking, and – well, insofar as I can tell, Kolchak: The Night Stalker is a
major influence on the new World of Darkness, which is fun for me, because when it was on TV, I was a sperm. I have a rant
stored up for that whole emphasis, but that’s for later.
Anyway, if you're looking for classic odd vampires to throw at your players, you've got them – presuming that your
players don’t go do a minimal amount of research and come up with the exact weakness of the vampire that you're throwing
at them. ("Penaggallan? Oh, throw some broken glass on the windowsill, it'll get caught, we throw it out with the trash in
the morning. We have more trouble with the mice. Those little bastards are canny.") I think that it would have worked much
better if White Wolf had decided to flesh these vampires out – describe the context in which they appear, update some of
their abilities and central themes so that they're more in line with regular Kindred – rather than just portraying them as
straightforwardly as they do.
There are nonstandard vampires that I was really impressed with. It gets brilliant with the formosae, who are vampires
who feed on – well, if they were just vampires who fed on fat, I could make the obvious joke and note that a single gaming
convention would provide feeding material for years. Instead, we get a cunning commentary on exactly that kind of body
hatred/self-loathing; the formosae don’t eat fat, they eat self-loathing. You get prettier and prettier as you die, while the
formosae get fatter and fatter – but they can use their own childer to keep them thin, creating a sort of undead pyramid
scheme, where you exploit other people’s self-hatred to enrich yourself. (Especially cutting is that the formosae get extra Vitae
if their vessels have a mental illness – they're literally feeding on your instability.) It weakens itself by picking off low-hanging
fruit, invoking pro-anorexia web sites, but really, there’s no need to do that given America’s complicated relationship with
self-image and obesity. I could say more, but really, you're better off reading it for yourself; you could run an entire campaign
around these things, each adventure touching on some commentary about the relationship between the body and the mind.
I also like the body-hopping Bhuta, and the Cihuateteo are pretty evocative (except for their habit of using brooms for ritual
magic, which will probably come off as silly), but they don’t quite live up to their billing. I really like the Mnenmovores; besides
having a decent short story attached to their profile – with a kiler last line – they have some really neat abilities based around
memory, which they eat in place of Vitae. If it can stay out of sight long enough, you have to fight just to remember that you
saw it.
Let take a moment for a parenthetical aside. I've noticed a consistent trend for White Wolf authors to take stuff from
various News of the Weird sites and recontextualize them for the World of Darkness. For instance, a fungus that covered
approximately three states became the Tzimisce Antediluvan in Vampire: The Masquerade. The drawback of this is twofold:
In an era where information sprints like the wind, as opposed to appearing only on In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy, it’s
entirely probably that people have already seen the thing that you're referring to – in which case you're going to have to
really put on the dog in order to make it work. The other problem is that what initially looks also spooky as shit often turns
out to be something entirely mundane, which invalidates any supernatural framework you might have built up around it. For
instance, the Montauk Monster almost got its own game line, complete with a backstory involving the lost Virginia colony of
Roanoke and the ceaseless struggle to keep the moon from crashing into the Earth until naturalists pointed out that it was
just a dead raccoon missing its fur and a part of its upper jaw, at which point White Wolf vowed to write an even angrier rant
about scientists for the back of the next edition of Exalted.
(Cracked has an excellent article about debunked monsters on its website; poke about.)
That being said, you've probably already seen the parasite that nips out the tongue of a particular kind of fish and
replaces it, literally becoming the tongue. Wicked Dead has something that does the same thing to humans, but it actually
does a pretty good job of creating something that feels very much like a new World of Darkness version of The Fly – you feel
better and better while the parasite takes you over, and then you're watching your own body hunt and kill people while you're
locked into your own skull. There’s some advice given about the idea of a one-shot campaign where you play the victim of

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one of these parasites, but they make far better – and really creepy – antagonists. We even get the comments for a YouTube
video featuring somebody showing off the parasite poking out of somebody’s mouth. I will say two things: First, you never
read the comments on a YouTube video, because to do so is to come into contact with a stupidity so huge that it will suck
your IQ right out through your mouth. The other is that I'm not entirely sure I like the whole “let’s imitate an Internet trope”
thing for books; when Hunter: The Reckoning did it with its Hunter-themed message board, I found myself mentally rolling
my eyes at yet another group of people who needed moderation. ("Drinker34, you are not a blood-drinking monster. Knock it
off. Cupcake001, you are a blood-drinking monster, but personal attacks aren’t allowed; take a week off. Violin01, stop being a
dick.") I spend enough time on the Internet as it is; I don’t want it chasing me around in my books.
Other nonstandard vampires, I'm not so sure about. The Ragged Men are an interesting idea; they're a form of insect that
t
basically uses Kindred bodies for reproduction, eventually hitting their apex as a humanoid maggot-thing, hungry for any
kind of blood they can get. They're meant, insofar as I can tell, to take the form of sexually transmitted disease for vampires,
because only vampires who feed in unsanitary or dirty conditions pick up the disease, and vampires who get the disease are
said to feel shame, fear and guilt – becoming social pariahs – for having the disease, which makes its transmission easier. As
a metaphor for an after-school special about gonorrhea, it’s not bad, but when it comes to vampires, fear and guilt should be
caused by stuff that you did – hence the Humanity mechanic – not because you have something wrong with you and you
haven’t yet found the kindly guidance counsellor who gives you a pamphlet that explains the new changes that your body is
going through.
The book’s latter half covers some familiar ground, both from the old World of Darkness and the new. The Draugr –
known as wights in Vampire: The Masquerade – are vampires whose humanity has finally hit zero, rendering them entirely
in the thrall of their Beast. White Wolf takes a slightly different tack than before, though; they're still much more animal than
man, but we get a choice as to how they behave after they've bottomed out their humanity. Mindless predators are pretty
much that, but they base their behavior on a former vice; a draugr whose central vice was greed keeps everything that it
can lay it hands on – the bodies of its victims, their clothes, kill trophies from the corpses, all stacked in its lair. The careful
predator variant of the draugr is like a serial killer amongst Kindred; it looks like a low-humanity vampire, but there’s nothing
left of a mind, just a ceaseless hunting instinct with a couple of remembered social niceties covering the ragged spots where
the human being used to be.
I found it to be a very evocative idea; I don’t know if I quite agree with the idea of limiting it to just the seven deadly sins,
but it wouldn’t be that difficult to come up with different themes for draugr. (I also like the book’s note that regular vampires
enjoy killing lust-driven draugr – who tends to be rapists as well as murderers – because “(v)ampires don’t get to be righteous
often.")
Also – and I'm not entirely familiar with the play styles of Masquerade versus Requiem – but I was under the impression
that Masquerade vampires could slip into zero Humanity simply because they didn’t try enough to stay human; thus why the
Sabbat offered the Path system instead of hovering permanently at one or two Humanity. It’s pointed out in Wicked Dead,
however, that the draugr in Requiem have to consciously choose to do stuff much worse than serial murder in order to become
draugr; they don’t drift into damnation, they have to actively choose it. I think that in a perverse way, it actually lessens some
of the horror of the draugr. Rather than acting as the cautionary Gollum to the PC’s Frodo, the draugr are more along the lines
of Saruman, somebody who was actively working for the devil rather than somebody who drifted into it. I'm not sure that I
entirely like that change, but it’s a purely personal feeling, rather than a criticism.
One of the things that Vampire has always been missing is the swarm vampire – mindless, predatory pack-undead
vampires who used to be human but are now essentially fast zombies with fangs. In keeping with its trend of giving GMs as
much flexibility as they can to simulate what they want, the book offers Larvae, which are essentially what’s described above.
I'm delighted that I can now replicate the thrill of the only good scene in John Carpenter’s Vampires without having to declare
that the lesser vampires are low-humanity Sabbat shovelheads, or something. (Or you can take a page from Matt Wagner’s
Grendel, and have a single Larvae start an embracing frenzy in a fancy Las Vegas hotel/casino.) They even have a specialized
fighting style designed to mimic the dogpile-and-tear attacks of movie zombies.
I have to say that I my love of the Larvae is disproportionate with my ability to explain exactly why. Part of is that the
World of Darkness has been missing low vampires for a long time. Another is that I've seen them crop up in pop culture over
and over again, and they make for excellent antagonists; they don’t just charge, they creep around, make sudden blitzkrieg
attacks and fade away. They're perfect for Hunter: The Vigil campaigns because they allow the hunters to kill a vampire
without having to worry about its ability to communicate its distress to fellow vampires, or to wield the power and influence
that can really fuck hunters up – plus, you can start hunters against the Larvae, then have them move up to their boss.
Speaking of which, that’s another thing that I like. Both regular Kindred and the draugr can wield influence over a Larvae
pack, so it’s easy for that zero-Humanity vampire to whomp himself up some cheap help to aid him in his fight against

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the coterie sent to bring him down, or for the Prince of the city to create a hunting pack of feral vampires as cheap muscle.
(Vampires have to know how to Embrace somebody as a Larvae, so it’s not possible for just any vampire to whomp up six
or seven feral vampires the day after they get embraced.) I also like the plot implications of the fact that Larvae can be re-
embraced under certain conditons – you could get a lot of mileage from trying to bring a Larvae back to a sentient state. (A
family member? An important ex-ghoul?)
One problem that I had is one of the sample Larvae characters is somebody who was a Larvae, but who recovered from
it with the aid of a mysterious vampire who left shortly thereafter. The problem is one that’s bothered me throughout the
new World of Darkness – we're given some vague clues about a massive conspiracy that involves, apparently, wanting to wipe
out every vampire in the world, and it having something to do with the . But that’s not a useful story seed; it’s the basis for a
t
campaign, and one that needs a lot more fleshing out before it can be used. It’s possible that I'm just not the target audience
for this kind of thing, but I really dislike how hints have replaced what used to be solid information.
The Strix – the banes of the vampires of ancient Rome – make a reappearance, which is useful – they seem to be
intimately tied to the origin of the Beast in the vampire, as well as having something to do with the birth of the Ventrue as
a clan. (I believe that the new Ventrue clanbook goes into more detail on this.) Unlike before, when they were dedicated to
persecuting and destroying the Julii clan, the body-possessing Strix are present in the physical world without any particular
purpose except to experience the joys of having flesh – particularly undead flesh, which offers sensations that simple humans
can’t. They're sort of like the Z'bri, minus the fleshcrafting. They make really decent antagonists; you can kick the crap out of
the body that they've possessed, but they just come back unless you find some way to rid yourself of them permanently, and
they're canny enough to avoid a direct physical confrontation. The book has nemeses as one of their nicknames, and – yeah.
They're exactly that. They're the perfect vampiric antagonist, using the weaknesses of a vampire against them without feeling
like they're overpowered.
We've seen dampyr before in the World of Darkness – as children of the Kindred of the East – but they're much different
here; in fact, there’s some amusing comedy in the opening fiction about how dampyrs relate to vampires. (Upon feeding on
one, a vampire remarks that it’s like “a golden unicorn fucked my skull and ejaculated rainbows into my brain.” Somebody’s
been watching Sealab…) In fact, I have to wonder if they're a subtle parody of the Twilight series – there’s even a scene where
a vampire gets glitter on him. Or consider the description of how they're made:
“Well, son, when a mommy and a daddy who are deeply in love decide they want a little baby, mommy murders a
homeless man and drinks up all his yummy blood until her belly is big and full of it, and then daddy lays on top of her, and
puts his wing-wang in her hoo-haa and moves up and down, and then his seed and her egg meet, and mommy uses some of
the blood to make the little baby growing in her big and healthy, but because she’s eating for two now, mommy gets very very
hungry, and has to murder lots and lots of homeless men so in nine months a perfect little bouncing baby is born, with daddy’s
nose, and mommy’s sickening occult affliction."
Essentially, dampyr are irresistible ot vampires – but as soon as the vampires take a drink, they pick up the dampyr’s
supernatural curse, and suffer as a result. For instance, when a Daeva feeds from a Daeva-spawned vampire, they wind up
obsessed with the dampyr until they lose all will to live and eventually consider suicide. (It’s kind of a parody of Edward’s
crush on Bella, about which I have taken pains to learn as little as humanly possible, and yet still know far too much.) Gangrel
become social and lose their Beast, Mekhet become obsessed with the smallest detail of the dampyr’s blood, and Nosferatu
eventually wind up wanting to flaunt their hideousness to everybody around them, becoming walking Masquerade violations.
(There’s a highly amusing picture of a Nosferatu walking around a nightclub while everybody around him recoils in horror.)
They make great antagonists, thanks to the story arc built into a vampire’s obssession with them; as player characters…
possibly. As every vampire’s obsession with a dampyr follows the same arc, the GM’s going to have to work to make sure that
the players have something other to do than endure the attentions of a lovesick vampire.
Is it a worthwhile buy? For the Larvae, for the Strix, for the draugr, for some of the odder vampires – yes, I would say so.
It’s not a perfect product, but it makes up for a weak beginning with an astonishingly strong finish.
— Darren MacLennan

16
1 P M Z H M P U
Announcing the Role Play Media Network
One thing I keep hearing bloggers, podcasters, and other
roleplaying content creators say is that they enjoy the sense
of community they've found working and exchanging ideas
with other content creators. To that end, I've created a social
network for roleplaying media providers and their audiences.
It doues matter if you create content for roleplaying games or
about them. It doesn’t matter if you're a fan, a professional,
or somewhere in between. Bloggers, podcasters, vidcasters,
writers, artists and, really, everyone else are welcome.
There are blogs, forums, and groups, ways to stream your
Hârn News: New Harn Releases:
Castle of Rethem (each sold separately)
Shostim Castle Hyen Keep
Ithiko Castle Tormau Castle
17
audio or video, and so much more. It’s highly customizable
to your needs, a great place to interact with other content
providers, a place to plug your stuff, plan crossover events,
discover new blogs, podcasts, and creative people. And it’s
free. Always free. No dues, no membership fees.
Join RolePlayMedia.net
Berin Kinsman t
Director, Role Play Media Network*
Prior Harn releases
Order of Mamaka, Master of Steel
The Order of Mamaka, Master of Steel, is the most
politically powerful clerical order in the Hârnic church of
Agrik. The Order reveres weaponcrafting and alchemy…
Click to read more.
Warriors of Mameka
The Warriors of Mameka are a wealthy and disciplined
fighting order in the church of Agrik. From their base at
Bedenes Keep in the Kingdom of Rethem, the Warriors plunder
the riches of the Peran wilderness… Click to read more.
Tawedog
The “Old Ones of the Forest” are one of the most elusive
and mysterious of the sentient species of the Misty Isle of
Hârn. They once ranged throughout…Click to read more.
Peran (wilderness region)
Peran is an extensive wilderness in northwestern Hârn.
Primeval forests cloak this land of mysteries so densely that
the ill-prepared may be… Click to read more.
Tribes of the Kubora
The Kubora are the tribal people who inhabit the Peran
wilderness of northwestern Hârn. This article adds to the
Kubora article in HarnMaster Barbarians with details about
the fractured tribal nation and its varied people. Click to read
more.
Afarezir Islands (wilderness region)
The Afarezir Islands are desolate, windswept, rainy
islands off the northwest coast of Hârn. The rocky shores of
the wide eastern bays of these rugged islands are… Click to
read more.
1 P M Z H M P U
Expozine 2009 — Montreal’s eighth annual small press,
comic and zine fair!
Expozine — Montreal’s annual small press, comic and
zine fair, will take place on Saturday, November 14 and
Sunday, November 15, 2009, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 5035
St-Dominique (Église Saint-Enfant Jésus, between St-Joseph
and Laurier, near Laurier Métro). Free admission.
This incredible event brings together nearly 300 creators t
of all kinds of printed matter – from books to zines to poster
art and comics – in both English and French. Expozine has
become one of North America’s largest small press fairs,
attracting thousands of visitors as well as exhibitors from
across Canada, the U.S. and Europe
This year for the first time there will also be a program
of discussions and readings running throughout the event, as
well as an opening party on Friday, November 13 (details to
be announced). Not to be missed!
To reserve a table at Expozine, fill out the registration
form at www.expozine.ca before November 2, 2009, or mail
the printed form to Arcmtl, box 1232, Place d’Armes, Montreal
Que. H2Y 3K2.
We’re also looking for sponsors!!! For information on
becoming a sponsor, contact us by email at expozine@
archivemontreal.org.
www.expozine.ca
Expozine is made possible Address
through5035
the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil
Rue St-Dominique
des Arts de Montréal. Montreal, QC
Canada

18
1 P M Z H M P U
Tips from About.com
Desktop Publishing
Microsoft Publisher 2010
The new Office 2010 is coming in the Spring but beta/
preview versions have been floating around for a few months.
A lot of the new bells and whistles center around Word, Excel,
and PowerPoint. But good old Publisher gets polished up as
well.
Yet some of the cool features of Word don’t make the
cut with Publisher. Why not? Find out what’s new, what’s
improved, and what’s the same in this preview of Publisher
2010.
Perplexing PrintMaster Puzzler
Names can be deceiving. The new PrintMaster may have
the same name as the old one, but that’s where the similarities
end for some longtime PM users. However, it may not matter
to those totally new to the PrintMaster program. Do you use
PrintMaster 2.0?
Viewing Adobe Design Achievement Award Winners 2009
I don’t want to take anything away from the winners –
some impressive work – but it would sure help if whoever
at Adobe designed the winners list didn’t make me have to
jump through hoops (or strain my brain) just to check out
the talent. Is it just me or is that animated presentation less
than intuitive? And if it is just me, let me know about it in
the comments. I’ve been called worse things than clueless…
read more
Business
Effective Small Business Credit Card Management
With the growing popularity of small business credit cards
and ever changing interest rates, now is the time to learn the
6 steps to effective small business credit card management
Manage the Risk of Business Card Fraud
The explosion in credit card fraud is costing businesses
more than consumers. Reason being is consumers enjoy
plenty of built-in protections and legal remedies against of
credit card fraud. Charges made on stolen credit cards held by
individuals are routinely dismissed by credit card companies
and consumer credit accounts can be shut down within
minutes of a card holder having discovered a lost or stolen
card. Unfortunately, someone has to pay – and in this case,
it’s the merchants. Learn how to reduce your risk.
19
3 Steps to Successful Data Backup
Data protection is crucial for protecting your business’s
continuity. If your only data backup is on a computer, and
the hard disk fails or is damaged by a power surge, your
business data is gone. And having paper copies of business
data isn’t adequate data protection; what if your business
premises burn to the ground or experience severe flooding?
t
Once again the data you need to carry on your business could
be irretrievably lost. For adequate data protection, you need
to establish a data backup system that follows these three
steps…
Backing up Your Business Computer Records
This advice is from Kathy Hendershot-Hurd, owner
of VirtualImpax, a web development and web marketing
company. Here is what Kathy has to say about backing up
your files:
Information Explosion Fuels Data Storage
One of the biggest outputs of the Internet age is millions
of people and companies have become content producers.
Data production continues to grow, making storage and
management of information big business. Big business to
corporate giants like IBM or Hewlett-Packard, but also for
small entrepreneurial companies such as IPR International
with their DataGuardian service.
Web Design
Is Your Hosting Provider Green?
I have looked at a lot of hosting provider’s Web sites, and
they all say the same thing. So when I came upon the Green
Geeks hosting site, I was surprised. They offer similar hosting
plans to other providers, but they do one thing differently
– they are green. In fact, they claim they are “300% green
hosting.” This intrigued me so much, that I asked for an
interview with their CEO, Trey Gardner to find out more.
16 New Web Host Reviews
Choosing a hosting provider doesn’t need to be difficult.
You can check out the reviews done by other About.com
readers to get more information and make a more informed
choice. I also have written hosting profiles for those companies
that have received multiple reviews.
1 P M Z H M P U
Dark Sword Miniatures — New Greens Posted
Hope you have all been having a
nice fall season. Halloween is 6 days
away and is always a favorite time of
year for me personally. This year with
snow on the ground in MN for around
1 week in early October really threw a
monkey wrench into fall here. But the
snow has since melted and I hope things
hang in there so everyone can have a
nice time out and about on Halloween
night.
To show Dark Sword’s admiration
of this great holiday, we have sculpted
up a 2009 Halloween Tribute piece. Jeff
Grace did the honors. It is a fun witch
summoning either a Dark Sword or a
little imp (the choice if yours). She has
a little Black Cat assistant as well.
We have also posted up new green
pictures of a Male Fighter with Bastard
Sword for our Visions in Fantasy Line
and a Female Anti-Paladin in full
clothes armor.
So be sure to swing on by the site and
check out the new greens.
Also – we are now stocking the amazing
(and I do mean amazing) Hot Lead 3 DVD
Set Tutorial from Mr. Laszlo Jakusovszky. He
has been painting miniatures since the early
1980’s and is a huge fan of classic Partha and
Grenadier just like me. His work is amazing
and his DVD is a must own product for any
painter remotely serious about their hobby.
As you all know, I have been a HUGE
fan of any sort of painting tutorial sites or
instruction I can get my hands on. And then
over the past year or so, a couple different
DVD painting tutorials came out and I was
over the moon. This comprehensive 3 DVD set
from Laszlo has over 8 hours of instructional
video on it. It is the most complete DVD I
have come across to date and has been in my
personal collection since last Gen Con Indy.
I have been referring people over to the Hot
Lead site and it dawned on me that I should
start stocking items like this for people that
want to save money on shipping so they can
order something like this up with their Dark
Sword order and get it all in one shot.
Next week I will be posting up two new
character greens for the GRRM Masterworks
20
line from Mr. Tom Meier. He has another
3 character greens in process as well
(George and I just looked over the faces
together at ValleyCon in Fargo, ND last
weekend on my iPhone actually).
I want to give a tip of the cap
to the great folks in attendance at
t ValleyCon in ND this past weekend.
The Brotherhood without Banners were
there and the drinks/good conversation
flowed into the wee hours of the
morning both nights in their Westeros
Party Suite along pool side. It was the
first time George and I ever met face to
face and we had some great talks about
the line and where things will be going
in 2010. Mounted miniatures and more
diorama type pieces are all on tap folks.
So get ready for us to expand out a tad
once we get some more character pieces
under our belts.
Onto other fun stuff, I have the Gen
Con CD now so I will be have to get up
off my rear and get Gen Con and DragonCon
pics posted up on the Dark Sword site in the
weeks ahead. I will maybe throw in some
ReaperCon 2009 and Valleycon 2009 pics as
well. Lots of pics folks…
More painted pics to come in the weeks
ahead. Lots of stuff pouring in from all over
the world I need to get posted up. I am also
in the process of getting things lined up for
a complete Dark Sword site overhaul. So
stay tuned on that front. It is a good month
or two out, but a stronger Dark Sword site
experience is in the works folks.
Make it a great week everyone.
Regards,
Jim
www.DarkSwordMiniatures.com
1 P M Z H M P U
Printing and Design Tips Brought to you by the Printing
Industry Exchange
BLANKET-TO-BLANKET PRESS
In most cases, the printer feeds paper into one end of an
offset press and collects sheets at the other end of the press.
At this point, these sheets have usually been printed on only
one side. The printer then sets these sheets aside to dry. Once
they are dry, he can turn the stack of sheets over and then
feed them back into the press one by one to print the other
side. This is called “backing up” the sheet.
Not every press prints only one side at a time, though.
Presses that print both sides of a press sheet at the same time
are referred to as “perfecting presses.”
A “blanket-to-blanket press” is a kind of perfecting press.
It is set up so one blanket prints one side of the sheet while
the other, corresponding blanket prints the other side of the
sheet. Moreover, as this happens, each blanket acts as an
impression cylinder for the other blanket. That is, the upper
unit—above the press sheet—includes ink and water rollers,
as well as a plate cylinder that deposits ink on the blanket
cylinder immediately below (yet still above the paper). This
blanket presses down against the sheet and deposits ink.
Pressing upwards against the press sheet with equal force
from below is the other blanket cylinder. Below this blanket
is the plate cylinder (as well as the corresponding ink and
water rollers) responsible for inking the bottom of the press
sheet. Ink laid down on the lower plate prints on the blanket
above, and then offsets to the paper above that.
If this is confusing, picture an antique washing machine
with drying rollers. You feed the wet piece of clothing between
the rollers and then crank it through. The two rollers on the
antique washing machine correspond to the blanket cylinders.
Then picture two plate cylinders (one above the top washing-
machine roller and one below the bottom washing-machine
roller). With these extras, you now have four rollers: two for
plates and two for blankets. And the press sheet gets pulled
between the sets of rollers—just like a wet piece of clothing
gets pulled through the wringer.
Why should you care about this complex roller scheme?
Because it saves money and time. If your printer has a blanket-
to-blanket press, or any other kind of perfecting press, he can
print both sides of the sheet at once and therefore significantly
shorten the time needed for printing.
KISS-CUT
Leave it to the printing industry to come up with colorful
jargon.
Kiss-cutting refers to a specific type of die-cut labels. Let’s
say you are producing a sheet of rectangular self-adhesive
21
Steven Waxman is a printing consultant. He teaches corporations how to save money buying printing, brokers printing services, and teaches prepress techniques. Steven has been in the printing industry for thirty-three
labels that will be hand-peeled off a backing sheet of glossy
paper. To make the process easier, you want to have the die-
cutting press cut through the label paper (so you’ll be able to
easily remove it from the backing sheet). However, you don’t
want the die-cutting blades to chop all the way through the
t
backing sheet. If done correctly, this makes peeling off the
labels much easier. This process of die-cutting just through
the label paper but not through the backing sheet is called
“kiss-cutting.”
BUTT-CUT LABELS
While we’re discussing labels, here’s a closely related
term. On a roll of “butt-cut” labels (laid out on the roll of
backing paper with one label above another like a ladder of
rectangles), the bottom of one label touches the top of the
next label on the roll. With no gap between the labels, there is
no wasted space (which would add up to a savings on a large
roll of labels). Usually, these labels also extend to the edge
of the backing sheet (the left and right sides). That is, there’s
no margin on any of the four sides of the labels. A benefit
of regular die-cut labels (with space between the labels) is
that the corners of the labels can be rounded. On butt-cut
labels, the corners are square, and the labels are therefore a
years working as a writer, editor, print buyer, photographer, graphic designer, art director, and production manager.
bit harder to peel off.
HEAD, FOOT, AND FACE OF A SHEET
A press sheet is cut and bound into a book as a single
leaf (front and back of a page). Whether the book is saddle-
stitched, perfect-bound, or case-bound, there are a number
of printers’ terms to help you identify the various parts of the
page.
The part of the sheet you grasp when you turn a page—
the vertical, outside margin—is called the “face” of the sheet.
The top horizontal part of the page is called the “head,” and
the bottom horizontal side is called the “foot.” The fourth
side of the page is the “bind edge,” which is attached to the
spine of a perfect-bound book (or the stitches of a saddle-
stitched book).
You may find it useful to know these terms. If you are
producing a magazine (a magazine is a book), and you want
to bind in a reply card, your printer will ask whether the
card should “float” (be attached somewhere in the middle
of the open page spread) or whether it should “jog” to the
head or the foot. Once you know that “jog” means that the
bind-in card will be “aligned” with the head or foot, your
knowledge of the anatomy of the page will be most useful in
communicating your decision.
1 P M Z H M P U
Notes From Looney Labs — October 2009
Due to a fatal printing error, Chrononauts and The Gore
Years expansion pack releases will be delayed until December
4, 2009. Our printer is sorry for the delay and they are working
hard to make sure you get your games as soon as possible.
If you pre-ordered Chrononauts and/or The Gore Years
from your Friendly Local Game Store, please let them know
you still want your copy when the game comes out. For those
of you who pre-ordered Chrononauts and/or The Gore Years
from Looney Labs directly, you should already have received
email from us explaining your options. Please get back to us
if you have not heard from us. We will
resume taking pre-orders again on
November 18. We apologize for the
inconvenience.
Gearing up for the Holiday Gift!
We are busy gearing up to send
our loyal fans the annual Looney Labs
Holiday Gift. If you have moved in
the past year, please take a moment
to update your Looney Labs account
with your new address. Login here if
you already have an account and/or
if you are creating an account with us
for the first time. If you had an account
but have never logged in since our new
webstore went live in Oct 2008, please
see these instructions – if you end up
making a duplicate account, drop us an
email and we can merge your accounts.
Previous Holiday Gifts
Looney Labs launches a new imprint – Fully
Baked Ideas!
Just as Disney launched Touchstone Pictures in 1984
as a way to release movies featuring “more mature themes
than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures
banner,” Fully Baked Ideas will allow us to publish games
appropriate for adults but not well suited to inclusion in
the regular Looney Labs catalog. This imprint was created
22
to make sure children are not accidentally exposed to adult
themes on our family games web site.
Fully Baked Ideas will be releasing its first game in
November, and has already leaked news of the follow-up
game releasing in 2010. If you are over the age of 18, and want
t
to find out about these games, please sign up for our new
Fully Baked Ideas email list here.
Ask Andy
Q: Why did you start Fully Baked Ideas?
Andy’s answer: “Although most of
our games are great for people of all
ages, there are a few things we like to
publish that are intended for adults
only. One is a special version of Fluxx
we did a few years ago but have since
been leaving out of print, and another
is on a popular topic which people
have frequently suggested we turn
into a version of Fluxx. Obviously,
there’s a lot of money to be made by
publishing these specialty editions,
and with the economy what it’s been
lately, we've been motivated to figure
out the best way to tap into the adult
games market.
So, we started Fully Baked Ideas
as a way to release games featuring
more mature themes than those that
are released under the Looney Labs
banner. This new imprint will allow
us to publish games appropriate for
Spencer’s but not well suited to inclusion
in the regular Looney Labs catalog.
If you are over 18, please visit the Fully-
Baked-Ideas.com web site, to find out more about this new
company’s plans and products."
Thanks for Playing Looney Labs Games!
1 P M Z H M P U
Upper Deck Announces New Raid Deck Configuration for its
World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game
Naxxramas Treasure Pack now available as a stand-alone product!
Carlsbad, CA — The Upper Deck Company is pleased to announce that its
mid-December release of Naxxramas, its fifth Raid Deck in the World of Warcraft™
Trading Card Game, will include for the first time ever a Raid Deck Treasure Pack
as a stand-alone product! t
“The new Treasure Pack SKU was created as a direct result of customer
feedback,” explained Dan Bojanowski, Upper Deck’s World of Warcraft TCG Sr.
brand manager. “In addition to the standard Treasure Pack content like exclusive
foil cards that customers have come to expect from previous Raid Decks, this new
offering also contains alternate art heroes featuring heroes from the Drums of War
block in Naxxramas-themed gear and settings.”
Here’s the 411 on the upcoming Naxxramas Raid Deck release:

Naxxramas Raid Deck – Dec. 15

The warriors of the frozen wastes await you, enter if you dare. Naxxramas™
Raid Deck is the fifth Raid Deck in the World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game.
Players build their raiding parties using cards from the World of Warcraft TCG card pool.
Find more Treasure Pack cards than ever before and an improved chance to get uniquely
coded rare Loot™ cards for your World of Warcraft online character!
SRP: $29.99 per deck

Naxxramas Treasure Pack – Dec. 15

For the first time ever players can now purchase a Raid Deck Treasure Pack
as a stand-alone product! Releasing the same time as the Naxxramas Raid Deck,
each Naxxramas Treasure Pack contains 15 random foil cards out of the complete
30-card set, as well as an alternate art hero card. Each Treasure Pack also has a
chance of containing a random Loot™ card from Fields of Honor, including the
coveted “El Pollo Grande” rooster mount!
SRP: $9.99 per pack

Stay connected for additional World of Warcraft™ Trading Card Game updates
at www.WoWtcg.com

About Upper Deck

Upper Deck is the leading sports and entertainment trading card and collectibles company. For more information on
Upper Deck and its products please visit www.upperdeck.com.

23
1 P M Z H M P U
Gen Con Sponsors GamesU 2009
LAS VEGAS — Neoncon, a regional, multi- and distributors, Neoncon has steadily grown
genre gaming convention, is proud to announce with each year of operation. With the 2009
Gen Con LLC as the exclusive sponsor of GamesU show, Neoncon introduces GamesU, the
2009, the Social Games Unconference. Video Social Games Unconference; itself a most
game professionals have the Game Developer’s tangible expression of Neoncon’s mission. For
Conference (GDC) and GamesU serves the more information visit the web site at www.
same purpose, but for the community of neoncon.com.
traditional, tabletop/social game developers t
and publishers. Already generating buzz About Gen Con
across the industry, GamesU has all the
earmarks of a “must attend” event for both Gen Con, LLC produces the largest
established and aspiring game designers. Gen consumer hobby, fantasy, sci-fi and adventure
Con’s support of the GamesU launch is tremendous validation game convention in North America. Its operations include
of the vision held for the event, now and in the future. Gen Con Indy and licensees for European and Asia Pacific
Taking a page from BarCamp, WordCamp and other more Gen Con shows. It was acquired in 2002 by former CEO and
tech-oriented unconferences, GamesU creates a community- founder of Wizards of the Coast Peter Adkison, who owns
driven and ground-up learning environment where game the company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Gen
designers come together, share ideas and learn from one Con is a consumer and trade experience dedicated to gaming
another. culture and community. For more information visit the web
“Gen Con is excited to partner with Neoncon to launch site at www.gencon.com.
GamesU,” said Scott Elliott, senior director of sales for Gen
Con LLC. “The experts assembled for this inaugural event
represent decades of publishing experience coupled with the
cutting edge of face-to-face gaming. Grassroots, fun, smart
and social games – these are the hallmarks of a Gen Con
experience, which is why we are on board."
Taking place in Las Vegas from November 5-8, Erik Mona
of Paizo will present the Keynote Address at this inaugural
GamesU. Among others, Mona is joined by a notable group
of presenting game designers, which includes Randall Bills
(Catalyst Game Labs), Marcelo Figueroa (Greater Games
Industry Catalog), Joshua J. Frost (Paizo), Matthew Grau
(Wildfire), Jess Hartley (White Wolf), Ed Healy (MoonStew), For Neoncon/GamesU
Boyan Radakovich (Shifting Skies), Stan! (Super Genius Doug Daulton,
Games) and John Wick (Wicked Dead). Topics include game 702-767-8025
design, pitching to the pros, career development, effective use doug.daulton@neoncon.com
of the Internet and online social networks and much more.
For Gen Con
About Neoncon/GamesU Stacia Kirby,
206-363-1492
In 2007, a small, local RPGA-centric event was relaunched stacia@speakeasy.net
as Neoncon, a regional, multi-
genre gaming convention. From its CONTACT US
inception, Neoncon primary mission
has been “to elevate the discussion Via Email
of tabletop gaming” and help bring it Voicemail/Fax: 888.522.6705
out of the pop-culture “basement”
in which too often lingers in the Snail Mail:
broader public mind. Supported 8414 W. Farm Road
by local monthly game days and Suite 180-580
growing number of key publishers Las Vegas, NV 89131

24
1 P M Z H M P U
Newest Staff Reviews from DriveThruComics.com
Tales of the Seven Dogs Society Three stories. One Seven Dogs Society…
by Abstract Nova Entertainment or is it? Imaginations have run riot, taking the
http://comics.drivethrustuff.com/ Society as described in the Aletheia rulebook
product_info.php?products_ and putting flesh on the bones. Ideas that you
id=61394&it=1&SRC=polyglot may wish to be inspired by in writing your
Price: $3.95 adventures, or perhaps something to pass
around to serve as an introduction to the
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Megan
Robertson) people you want to play in your game. t
First is Matt McElroy’s headlong tale
‘Time to Burn.’ Told in the first person, from
the viewpoint of a Society member who is a former private investigator with an
interesting ability, the story centres around an enquiry into what might be a spate of
spontaneous human combustion in Wisconsin. Good hints on how an investigation
into such matters might proceed, perhaps a little thin on what is actually going on
but an exciting ending which also reveals something of the PI’s special talent.
Next is ‘Lifting the Gingham Veil’ by Jim Johnson, which opens as a new member
of the Society visits their base in Alaska for the first time. The action soon hots
up, in a tale loosely based around investigation of a UFO sighting but really more
concerned with the Society members getting to know each other and their abilities.
Again, good ideas for your own adventures, including what is intended as a recurring
and mysterious adversary. The one confusing point is that while the Society has
reformed several times, both this group and the one in the previous story is the third
iteration! If both tales are to become part of YOUR Society, you might want to make a few changes.
The final tale is ‘Twin Designs’ by Monica Valentinelli. Somewhat more mystical in nature, it presents yet another version
of the third incarnation of the Seven Dogs Society, focussing on young twin men, whose troubled lives seem intertwined with
Things That Are Meant to Be… again interesting concepts that you may wish to take as inspiration.
Overall, an intriguing set of stories that may serve to contribute, enlighten or confuse your understanding of the Seven
Dogs Society and the underlying mysteries around which the game of Aletheia is set.

Awakening #1 What Nick Taplanski and Alex Eckman-Lawn

by Archaia Studio Press have created with “Awakening” is a unique take on
http://comics.drivethrustuff.com/ the zombie genre that has a distinct noir flavor. The
product_info.php?products_ story is set in the small town of Park Falls, and follows
id=54735&it=1&SRC=polyglot former detective Derrick Peters. As the first issue opens,
Price: $0.99 Peters is doing some private investigation work for a
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Brian woman whose husband has gone missing. The details
LeTendre) of the man’s disappearance are not adding up, and
From www.secretidentitypodcast.com Peters eventually sees similarities between his case
and some other disappearances that have occurred
recently. A shady pharmaceutical company, corpses
with bite marks on them, and shadowy government intervention all point to something
much more sinister than just some random disappearances.
Taplanski opens this series with a well-paced first issue that sets the table nicely for
the rest of the story. In addition to the main mystery of what’s happening to people in
town, each of the core characters has unanswered questions of their own, like why Peters
is no longer on the force, or just what made the ‘town crazy’ lose it in the first place. Alex
Eckman-Lawn’s artwork is dark and surreal, and it reminded me of some of Ashley Wood’s
work, particularly the stuff he did on the “Metal Gear Solid” books. His style fits the story well.
Issue #1 of “Awakening” does an excellent job of sucking you in and raising a lot of questions about what’s to come in the
rest of the series. Whether you’re a horror fan or you just love a good mystery, there’s a lot to sink your teeth into with this
one.

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Bone Chiller (Trade Paperback) Robert Heske’s “Bone Chiller” is a
by Heske Horror collection of 10 modern tales of horror that
http://comics.drivethrustuff.com/ offers a little something for everyone. Heske
product_info.php?products_ wrote all ten of the short stories himself,
id=60441&it=1&SRC=polyglot and teamed up with a variety of artists on
Price: $2.99 the collection.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Brian The first story is entitled “Her First Day
LeTendre) Alone,” and it takes a frightening look into
post-partum depression. The mother in the
From www.secretidentitypodcast.com
t
story descends into madness as she thinks
about her child having to leave her and go
to daycare. Things get pretty ugly from there, and the fact that extreme incidents
have occurred in the real world around post-partum depression add another level
of creepy to this tale. Monty Borror does a nice job on the art chores, particularly
in the haunted look that he creates for the mother, which gets worse and worse
as the story wears on.
The rest of the collection features shorter stories, and my two favorites of
the bunch are “False Pretenses” and “Dead Dog.” “False Pretenses” features a
cautionary tale about internet dating with a twist. “Dead Dog” is the story of a
burgeoning serial killer with a god complex that gets him into trouble. Both of
the stories are illustrated by a guy named “Zue,” and his stuff jumps of the page.
His style is gorgeous and he does a great job with facial expressions and giving
characters emotion. I will definitely be looking for more stuff from him.
As a horror fan, I enjoyed all of the stories in Heske’s collection, and fans of “Creepy” or “Tales from the Crypt” should
find a lot to like here as well.

Ftl #1 Ian Sharman and Orang Utan comics

by Orang Utan Comics have put together a rock solid anthology
http://comics.drivethrustuff.com/ of sci-fi, fantasy and horror stories with
product_info.php?products_ “FTL” #1. “Faster Than Light” serves up
id=63645&it=1&SRC=polyglot five unique stories of different sizes that
Price: $0.99 are all satisfying and give the book a
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Brian consistent feel of quality throughout.
LeTendre) Scapegoat by Dwight Macpherson
From www.secretidentitypodcast.com with pencils by Riccardo Latina is one
of the longer stories in the book, and it
presents a bleak look at the future after
war breaks out between mankind and robots. A human soldier that tries to
bring an end to the war only validates the reasons for the robot uprising in
the first place. “Prey” by Trey Wickwire and John Cboins is a bite-size tale
that examines the role of predator and prey. With “The Long Forgotten,” Ian
Sharman and Izzy Davis offer up an interesting take on both the beginning and
end of life on earth. Cherie Donovan and Melissa Hudson’s “Obsession” tells
the story of a vampire that gives a young woman the gift of revenge after taking
her life. Finally, Peter Rogers and Nuno Nobre’s “Bloodstain” follows one of the
original vampires of the world who’s tired and ready to accept his fate…until
he finds out what that fate actually is.
It’s nice to see an anthology book that doesn’t get stuck on one particular
genre. I enjoyed the diversity of stories in “FTL,” and since the book hits to all
fields, there should be at least one story in issue #1 that resonates with people.
My personal favorites in this issue were “The Long Forgotten” and “Obsession,”
but there were no throw-away stories in the bunch. “FTL” #1 is a book I have no trouble recommending to fans of all different
genres.

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Fantasy Women Clipart Volume 1 The ‘trade dress’ of this product leads
by Art Fantasies you to expect something that’s virtually
http://comics.drivethrustuff.com/ soft porn, and if you do happen to like the
product_info.php?products_ scantily-attired female form you will not be
id=58816&it=1&SRC=polyglot disappointed… but there is plenty here for
Price: $1.95 those who appreciate tasteful artwork on a
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Megan fantasy theme as well.
Robertson) What you get is a Zip-file of 11 TIF
images, all full colour and big enough to
fill my admittedly large screen! The artist t
admits to using mainly computer graphics in the creation of the images, and at
times they seem a little wooden in pose and maybe in need of a few more iterations
of the rendering cycle to improve texture, but on the whole they are pretty good-
looking (in more than one sense of the word).
The image ‘Dancing girl and garden gate’ shows a well-proportioned young
lady nicely-attired in a ballgown or flowing ballet dress – you could show her to
your grandma without raising any eyebrows – with both her pose and the swirl
of her gown giving a good impression of movement. Not very ‘fantasy’ but a nice
image. The ‘Beauty and Beast-Zombie’ on the other hand is – at least as far as
Beauty is concerned – a classic swimwear pin-up, although the zombie is rather
well-done. Another nice one is the ‘Wiccan and pumpkin patch’ – complete with a well-rendered Siamese cat, pumpkins and
some autumnal leaves, she has a flowing black lace gown and a fine witch’s hat… and could be displayed at your Hallow'een
party whatever the age of the guests. Despite the cat, though, her hair is not very well done, a shame as the rest of the image
in both rendering and composition, is excellent.
My favorites, though, are the ‘Princess’ – a dusky beauty in a white gown with some rather implausibly large apples and a
beautiful backdrop of a stone arch over which some kind of flowering vine has grown and what is probably the best technically,
the ’slave Girl and Sundial.’ Now she admittedly is not wearing much – I hope she’s a slave somewhere with a warm climate!
– but she’s well-posed and the composition of the background of the sundial and a couple of pots is excellent.
If you like quality fantasy art and are not put off by the odd ‘calendar’ pose, this collection is worth a look.

Game-a-thon: Saturday, November 14, 2009

Another very successful Council of Five Nations is behind us, which means we've got 11 monthly Game-a-thons coming
up. Our next one is coming on Saturday, November 14th. Here’s the schedule of events.

Morning Session ( 11am – 4pm )

•  House Rules Minis – “Monster Bash Two” (John Rigley)
•  Wings of War – Swirling Death – WWI Dogfighting (Chris Tosh)
•  Acquire / Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix – Racing for Wealth and Checkered Flags (John Fitzpatrick)
•  Vinci – Small World Original (Paul McCarthy)
•  Traders of Genoa – Bartering and Negotiations (Daryl Kimmel)

Evening Session ( 5pm – 10pm+ )

•  Ad Astra – Space Colonization (Rob Rodger)
•  Age of Renaissance – Avalon Hill Classic (Nick Klercker)
•  Rail Baron / Dominion – Combo Platter (John Fitzpatrick)
•  E.T.I.: Estimated Time to Invasion – Aliens Invade Earth! (Eric Rocque)

For more information, including full event descriptions, click here for the November Game-a-thon page.
Several event descriptions have links to BoardGameGeek. Check them out for game reviews, pictures, rules and player
aids.

We hope to see you there.

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New TALES FROM THE CRYPT Graphic Novel Presents
Parodies “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” and “DieLite”
Advance buzz makes it hit BN.com kids’ best-seller list one month ahead of publication!
Sick of dopey diaries from countless whiny wimps or never-ending sappy vampire romances? Well, so is The Crypt-
Keeper, and in the all-new TALES FROM THE CRYPT Graphic Novel from Papercutz he retaliates with “Diary of a Stinky
Dead Kid” and “DieLite,” two painfully funny parodies of these putrid pop-culture trends.
t
“Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” features the hand-drawn and scrawled diary of a recently deceased suburban boy named
Glugg (or at least we think that’s his name – zombies aren’t all that easy to understand). Glugg’s post-life experiences include
discovering who actually killed him, and who brought him back from the dead. Diary entries deal with such mundane matters
as how to get your best friend to help you reattach your arm:

“Once I promised not to eat his brain… he ran all over the house, got needle and thread, crazy glue and duct tape, and tried to stick it back on.”
As well as more esoteric musings:
“So here I am stuck in the cemetery just because the neighbors complained about the ’strange’ smell. I tried showering, but pieces of me kept coming
off.”

He also gets into a wicked game of Guitar Demon, but that’s literally another story that fortunately is also included in
TALES FROM THE CRYPT Graphic Novel #8. Both stories are by writer Stefan Petrucha and artist Rick Parker.
In “DieLite” Lou Anne Lugosi becomes the unwelcoming object of Dedward Collins’s affections. While Dedward may
think he’s all that, Lou Anne doesn’t think so. She’s suddenly stalked by the pretty-boy vamp at home and at school and can’t
get rid of him until she resorts to drastic measures and is able to Twilight Zone him out for good.:

“…despite her initial hesitancy she now recognizes the deep longing in her heart that only a living corpse can fill! She wants to meet me in a deserted
church in a garlic field! How sweet! And she gave me a bottle of sun tan lotion! How thoughtful!”

Written by Stefan Petrucha, Maia Kinney-Petrucha and painted by Miran Kim.

Also included in this monster mash-up is “Carrier” a different type of werewolf story by writer John L. Lansdale and
artists James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT #8 “Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid” from publisher Papercutz continues to offer up scare-fare
suitable to readers 10 and up, in the tradition of the original EC Comics horror comicbook that combines thrills, chills, and
satire in all-new, full-color, 96-page volumes available in both paperback ($7.95, ISBN 978-1-59707-163-5) and hardcover ($12.95,
ISBN 978-1-59707-164-2) editions. Publication: 11/10/09.

For more information contact Michael Petranek at 212 643 5407, petranek@papercutz.com.

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News from Spectra
"Would you know genre if it bit you in the…?"

Oh, that sticky topic that we call genre. What a bad rap it gets! For the longest time, those of us who work (and those of
you who read) “genre” novels were usually looked down upon. As if we were some sort of sub-species of literates.
Not that it wouldn’t be cool to be a separate species—I call dibs on half-spider, half-sad clown (the scariest things I can
think of).
But, seriously, we do tend to get a little grief. “Nerd.” “Geek.” It’s hard not to catch the derision, sometimes. Granted,
t
most of us have embraced these terms as badges of honor, but it’s taken quite a few years (decades?) for us to see our beloved
science fiction and fantasy getting the respect we know it deserves.
And yet, even as we've made these strides, some internal strife has arisen in the last few years, namely: urban fantasy
versus paranormal romance. Even among those who don’t necessarily know the difference, there are often clear lines drawn
between “acceptable” and “unacceptable."
We're tearing this family apart!
I got into this on Twitter a month ago, and this was what we came up with.
Basically, the fact is that too often we get caught up in labels, and forget that a good book is a good book, regardless.
Obviously, not everyone is going to like everything, but pigeon-holing yourself into saying you only like urban fantasy or only
like paranormal romance is a good way to miss out on some great books.
For example, Frostbitten, by Kelley Armstrong, is the tenth novel in the Otherworld series, starring two of her fans’
favorite characters: Elena and Clay. Now, before I sat down to read these books, my first reaction was: there’s absolutely no
way I'm reading these books! I mean, I'm a guy.
You know what, guys? Kelley’s an awesome story-teller and a great writer. Her books have great pace, the action and
thrills are all in place, and I really like her take on werewolves: people change into actual wolves, and not anthropomorphic
wolf-beasts. It’s refreshing, because she writes “wolf"—much like David Eddings did in The Belgariad series.
Sure, the books do examine relationships, but so do all good novels, no? But the key relationship goes beyond just Elena
and Clay: it’s about the Pack.
I would almost certainly classify this more as urban fantasy than paranormal romance.
But then there’s the novel that came out before Frostbitten, Living With the Dead, which I'm leaning more towards calling
paranormal romance.
And you know what? I think that’s a good book, too. Because, to me, genre isn’t really that important.
Want the best case-in-point? Check out the blurbs for S.A. Swann’s Wolfbreed:

•  “S.A. Swann has written a spellbinding fantasy of the Teutonic Knights and the great Northern Crusade, set in a little-known period
of history amidst the gloomy forests of Prussia and Lithuania. Vivid and visceral, dark and delicious, this one kept me turning pages
from start to finish.”
—George R.R. Martin, New York Times bestselling author of A Feast for Crows
•  “A mesmerizing story that entertained me thoroughly and moved me deeply. Wolfbreed is an exciting, non-stop action adventure
involving the supernatural. More than that, though, it demonstrates how the human spirit, even when in a not-entirely-human
body, can be transformed and redeemed by the power of love. I adored this book.”
—Mary Balogh, New York Times bestselling author of First Comes Love
•  “Lilly lives in a world so strange that even werewolves have to fight for survival, and I found myself rooting for her from the very start.
Before long, I was falling for her, too! Wolfbreed is a thrilling yet deeply moving, journey that I never wanted to end.”
—Robert Masello, author of Blood and Ice

If you can think of a book where three more disparate authors all loved it, then I’d say buy that book, too. But the fact
that it appeals to Martin (fantasy), Balogh (romance/women’s fiction), and Masello (thriller) is amazing to me.
Especially as Wolfbreed doesn’t really fit in any of those genres. It defies genre.
Set in 13th Century Prussia, it is, on the one hand, a historical fantasy, exploring a period and territory not often explored:
the Northern Crusades against the pagans of Eastern Europe. There’s some intense fighting, political machinations, and
religious fanaticism and superstition.
It is also a werewolf novel, and one that has a decidedly dark nature to it. The way Swann utilizes his werewolves—having
the Church exploit the werewolves’ nature into being weapons that subjugate, terrorize, and kill “heretical” peasants—makes

29
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me want to call it urban fantasy.
But even that isn’t fair, because it’s also the story of the growing love between Lilly and Uldolf—a love that is both pure
on the surface, and yet tainted as their relationship develops. Is it paranormal romance, though? Probably not.
Or definitely so.
The thing is, again, that it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you enjoy the story, connect with the characters, and
have an enjoyable reading experience. I’m pretty sure, no matter which way you think your tastes lean, you’re going to enjoy
Armstrong and Swann.
I’m not just the president of this opinion—I’m also a client.

Happy reading, t
David Pomerico
Editorial Assistant and Pulse of Spectra
Learn more about Wolfbreed here.

FEATURED AUTHORS — WOLFBREED — S.A. Swann

You can (and, really, you should) read Wolfbreed now, but here’s a little taste of the world Swann has created: an exclusive
excerpt from the follow-up to Wolfbreed, Wolf’s Cross (which comes out Summer 2010). Set years later, in medieval Poland,
Wolf’s Cross depicts what would happen if you didn’t realize
you were wolfbreed—and what choices you would have to
make when you did find out.

Enjoy!

Wolf’s Cross
S.A. Swann
Interlude : Anno Domini 1333
Her name was Lucina, and she didn’t remember who had named
her. She lived in the deepest woods east of Gród Narew, and was
mostly ignorant of the humans dwelling there. The people who
lived on the fringes of these woods? Especially those whose families
had spent generations in its shadow? Knew of her and her kind.
Lucina’s ancestors had haunted their tales ever since the land had
become Christian.
However, it had been a long time since Lucina had family. And a
long time since her kind occupied these woods in any numbers. She
was alone, and the old folks’ tales of about wolves clothed in human
skin had become less urgent, less of a deterrent for hungry men who
needed to hunt for their family’s survival.
Lucina would watch these men as they made their weak attempts
to capture game. Sometimes she would watch with the eyes of a
wolf, sometimes with the eyes of a raven-haired maiden. She would
watch them come into her wood and, more often than not, return
empty-handed.
Read the rest of the story here

More Praise for WOLFBREED:

“Religion and political intrigue turn an adolescent
werewolf into a killing machine in this compelling novel of
13th-century Northern Europe… Lilly’s struggle to reconcile
her split personalities—cold assassin and lonely girl—
becomes a quest for redemption and love as she endures

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rape, amnesia and the knowledge of her own terrible actions in the church’s service. Swann turns opposing viewpoints into
sympathetic perspectives, clearly painting the complex political and religious dynamics of the time.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Swann’s exquisite werewolf historical brings the era vividly to life as the perfect setting for his conflicted, multidimensional
characters. This may be the werewolf book of the year, for, filled with action, romance, gore, and political intrigue, it’s a fresh,
page-turning take on werewolf tropes that is not to be missed.”

—Booklist t
“’Wolfbreed’ is definitely up there for my ’surprise find of the year’. If you’re after an engrossing slice of historical fantasy,
or if you just like werewolves, then I don’t think you’ll go wrong with this one”

—Graeme’s Fantasy Review

FEATURED TITLES — FROSTBITTEN — Kelley Armstrong

In the wilds of Alaska, life is dangerous enough. But

when Elena Michaels flies into Anchorage in search of a rogue
werewolf, she couldn’t have expected to find herself in the
middle of a territorial battle, not only between her pack and
another, but between a third, mysterious beast that doesn’t
seem to discriminate—or play by the rules. Luckily, Elena isn’t
one to back down from a fight, and having Clayton Danvers
at your side—a werewolf with a dark, violent past—can’t
hurt either. For the first time since Bitten, Elena is the star of
an Otherworld novel, and, by the way she kicks butt, it’s no
wonder she’s a fan-favorite. Armstrong delivers, and this is a
hardcover that you going to want for your shelf—until you go
back and read it again!
Don’t believe me?
“There is so much action packed between the covers of
this book that you can hardly catch your breath before they
are off and running again. I can say with much certainty that
this book will be sitting on my shelf for years to come, and I am
looking forward to many more books from Ms. Armstrong.”

—Coffee Time Romance

“Armstrong writes page-turning prose, none more

throbbingly than when the werewolves enjoy romping, kinky
sex. Armstrong’s earlier books have been best-sellers; expect
high demand for this weird and endearing tale.”

—Booklist

“Armstrong writes inventive and wonderful stories which

are difficult to put down and harder to forget. I thoroughly
enjoy reading anything from Ms. Armstrong and this book
was no exception. The book was fast paced with just enough
mystery and mayhem to tweak the senses.”

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—Night Owl Romance

Learn more about Frostbitten and read an excerpt here.

BITTER ANGELS — C.L. Anderson

Truly flying in the face of the genre discussion from above, here we have a little science
fiction to keep you going. Set far in the future, humans have spread across the galaxy,
maintaining contact—and peace—through the work of the Guardians: men and women
t
from Earth who keep tabs on the far-flung planets and colonies in order ensure there are no
more devastating wars. Terese Drajeske used to be one of them, and was happy with that
condition being in the past-tense. Unfortunately, her mentor is killed, drawing her out of
retirement and deep into the intrigues and machinations of the Erasmus system, a colony
that wouldn’t even be on Earth’s radar if the Guardians weren’t so sure that the murder
is a way to keep hidden preparations for war. With enough twists and turns to keep you
guessing until the end, Bitter Angels is the exciting debut for Anderson, and a proud addition
to our list, in mass market paperback, here at Spectra.
Don’t believe me?
“Bitter Angels surpasses ‘interesting’ and achieves ‘powerful.’”

—Linnea Sinclair, author of Hope’s Folly

“Bitter Angels is a great edge-of-the-seat interstellar intrigue and a riveting space

opera—espionage hybrid with a shattering denouement. This one was tough to put down.”

—David J. Williams, author of The Burning Skies

Learn more about Bitter Angels here, and read an excerpt here

LIVING WITH THE DEAD — Kelley Armstrong

When Robyn Peltier—a very human PR rep—is framed for murder, the two people
most determined to clear her name are half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams, and
necromancer homicide detective John Findlay. But you know the saying—When you hold
hands with a demon, you’re going to get burned. At least, that should be a saying. Because
suddenly Robyn finds herself in the heart of a world she never even know existed—and
which she was safer knowing nothing about. Sexy, fun, and dark, Living With the Dead
is the ninth book in the series—and the second featuring the exotic Hope—and like
all of Kelley’s books, you can jump in at any point and find yourself immersed in the
Otherworld. Now that it’s in mass market paperback, it’s as good a time as any, no?
Don’t believe me?
“As Armstrong readers have come to expect, this book is balanced between likable
characters and the creepy evil that they fight, all wrapped together with nonstop, edge-
of-your-seat action.”

—Library Journal

“Rarely is the ninth book in a series as fresh and entertaining as the first, but this
Women of the Otherworld volume defies the odds.”

—Booklist

Learn more about Living With the Dead and read an excerpt here

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News from ForgeWorld
Hi There,

Some important news about Christmas shipping for you this time, as well as the release of two more exciting models
first shown at Games Day UK, the Plague Hulk of Nurgle and the Blood Slaughter with Impaler. Also, don’t forget to have a
look at the updated Events pages on our web site, for pictures of what has been a great events season, and look out for more
newsletters soon.

Thanks t
Alan Bligh

Christmas Order Dates

The following dates are the last days by which we need to receive your order in time to deliver it to you before
Christmas.
Destination Standard Delivery UPS Express
UK 15 December*
th
20th December
Europe 9th December 20th December
The Rest of the World 10th November 15th December
BFPO/APO 10th November Not Available

Some large or particularly popular items may still be limited by availability, so if in doubt always contact our customer
services team for more information. You can contact by phone on 0115 916 8177 or by email
at forgeworld@games-workshop.co.uk.
Owing to potential Royal Mail Industrial action, standard delivery orders sent within the
UK may be completed using a courier service at no extra cost to ensure delivery in time.
New Daemon Engines Available
First previewed at Games Day UK, we have our Plague Hulk of Nurgle and Blood Slaughterer
of Khorne with Impaler now available to pre-order for release the week commencing the
2nd of the November.

The Plague Hulk of Nurgle

Designed by Sean Green and Phil Stutcinskas, this huge, nightmarish

fusion of a bloated daemon of Nurgle and Chaos Defiler drips with rot
and corrosion, and is a hugely detailed model as you can see Here. The
Plague Hulk is a deadly and characterful addition to any Chaos army
devoted to the Plague God, hard to destroy and brutal in combat.
The Plague Hulk of Nurgle is a hybrid kit using resin components and
elements from the plastic Chaos Defiler kit and sold as a complete model.
Finalised rules will be available in our forthcoming book, Imperial
Armour Apocalypse II.

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1 P M Z H M P U
Blood Slaughterer of Khorne with Impaler

A frenzied, daemon-possessed killing machine against which few enemies can

stand in close combat, the Blood Slaughterer with Impaler is able to drag
its victims within reach of its slashing claws. This model is a variant of our
previously released Blood Slaughterer of Khorne, featuring a fantastically
detailed and savage looking barbed harpoon launcher arm and a new
head which you can see Here. This model which has been designed
by Phil Stutcinskas and Simon Egan is a full resin model.
Rules for the Blood Slaughterer can be found in Imperial t
Armour Volume Seven and in the forthcoming Imperial Armour
Apocalypse II.

Events News

Forge World will also be attending the IPMS Scale Modelworld

show on the 7th and 8th of November at the International Centre
in Telford. We will however only be carrying a limited range of our
stock at this show. If there is something you are specifically after, the best
thing to do is place a reservation order with us to pick up and pay for at the show, if y o u
wish to do so, your reservation must reach us by the 2nd of November. You can do this by giving our sales and customer
services team a ring on 0115 916 8177 or by sending us an email with your name and order details to fwreservations@games-
workshop.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Forge World Catalogue 2009

The new Forge World 2009 catalogue is now available and contains all of our recent releases.
If you would like a free copy of the catalogue, which we will send out at no cost to anywhere in the
world, you can either send an email with your full name and address details to forgeworldcatreq@
games-workshop.co.uk or give us a ring on: 0115 916 8177 and we will take your address details
and get you one sent out as soon as we can. You can also download our latest catalogue update
sheet Here.

Forge World
Games Workshop Ltd
Willow Road, Lenton
Nottingham, NG7 2WS
Registered in England & Wales Company Registration Number 01467092
Phone: 0115 916 8177
Fax: 0115 916 8044
Web site: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/
Copyright © Games Workshop Limited 2000-2009. All Rights Reserved. Games Workshop, the Games Workshop logo, the Forge World, Warhammer and the Warhammer 40,000 device are either ®, TM and/
or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2009, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. All Rights Reserved.

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ICE News
Express Additions #14

Welcome to the 14th issue of Express Additions!

In this issue, we are presenting an alternative to the armor rules and combat tables found in
Rolemaster Express (RMX).
We start off with set of armor rules that are relatively small and flexible. We follow this up with
new, alternative versions of the combat tables from RMX.
t
Also include the condensed critical tables from RMX, although a few more critical tables have
been added to the mix to make things even more interesting. And finally, we include a few extra
tables, just to round things out.

Dungeon of Terror #8: Scrags’ Caverns

Welcome to the Dungeon of Terror, the largest dungeon ever tiled! This dungeon
contains 164 rooms, 8 different zones (each one featured in a single product) and it’s
broken in 225 customizable tiles. You can play Dungeon of Terror as a whole dungeon
or extract your favorite sub-dungeon (or even a single room or encounter area) to suit
your campaign. If you’re bold, you can lay down a massive 120x150 inches dungeon to
play the most extended miniature-scaled dungeon crawl of the history!
This is Dungeon of Terror #8: Scrags’ Caverns! This product details the southeastern
area of the Dungeon of Terror, including a clandestine brewery and a subterranean
lake. It contains a Referee Map and 20 customizable tiles.
In each B&W product you’ll find:

•  A Referee map detailing a fantasy location

•  The whole location broken in US Letter sheets in miniature scale (each sheet contains a
8x10 inches tile)
•  A short description of each area of the location with suggested plots

Hunters’ Lodge

Deep in the woods rises the Hunters’ Lodge, a place where the hunters
and rangers meet and share facilities and information.
The Hunters’ Lodge was built upon the ashes of an ancient orc outpost,
after a fierce battle which involved a group of determined rangers and
hunters led by a man named Garmas Woodstone. The outpost was totally
destroyed during the battle thus Garmas decided to build a new structure
helping the forces of good to maintain peace in the surrounding wood.
Time passed and the Hunters’ Lodge became a reference point for all
the travelers and rangers of the woods. Garmas added facilities to his home
such as a smith laboratory, a bowyer workroom, a tanning room and a
trapmaker laboratory.
The Hunters’ Lodge can be easily placed in your campaign world and
can provide to the adventurers a good place to rest, share information and
have some adventures.

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1 P M Z H M P U
STAR FLEET ALERT
28 OCTOBER 2009
JUST SO YOU KNOW
OUT WITH THE OLD; IN WITH THE NEWt
Starline 2400 Federation Fleet Box #2, Stock #0201, has sold out and will not return.
Federation Commander Squadron Box #91, Stock #4391, contains better copies of the same ships,
and will remain a part of the product line for the foreseeable future.

☞ OLD

NEW☞
FOR THOSE WHO WANT THE STORY BEHIND THIS: When we started ADB, Inc., in 1999, we bought
the existing inventory of plastic ships from Lou Zocchi, most of which were in “glow” green and blue
plastic, but some were in white. We used these to create and sell Federation Box #2. That inventory
has now been exhausted. We were fortunate to convince Lou Zocchi to do a new production run earlier
this year, and we have that run (in white plastic) in our warehouse. We are using those ships for
Squadron Box #91. Because this new production cost us more than the leftover inventory which Lou
Zocchi originally sold us, Squadron Box #91 retails for a little more than Federation Box #2. If you still
have Federation Box #2, don’t worry, it will sell out quickly due to the lower price point.

SQUADRON BOX #91 was released WHOLESALERS

last June and is in stores. Please adjust your inventory records.

GAMERS RETAILERS
Order Squadron Box #91 from your store. Order from your wholesaler as needed.

CONTACT
Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. PO Box 8759, Amarillo TX 79114 PH: (806)-351-1950
To order products, contact Sales@StarFleetGames.com
To receive these Alerts, contact Marketing@StarFleetGames.com
See our updated website: www.StarFleetGames.com

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1 P M Z H M P U
Avalanche Press: News From the Front
Quick Deadline! GOLD CLUB price: $36

It’s the first – and if we have our way, the last – time we've
offered our recent boxed games at special prices. Until noon
Central Daylight Time on Friday, Oct. 30, get these special
prices on some of our hottest titles. Gold Club discounts, Buy
Two, Get a Third Free, and One World Shipping all apply.
That’s right, order from Mississippi or Mozambique and pay
the same shipping rate!
Panzer Grenadier: Cassino ‘44
Regular price: $99.99
SPECIAL price: $70
GOLD CLUB price: $63
Spare Parts
You've asked for it, and now you have it: a way to buy
extra pieces for some of our most popular games. If you don’t
see something on here you'd like, let us know!
t
Woods and Hills
Five Panzer Grenadier maps from our Battle of the Bulge
and Airborne games, all for just $24.99.
German Hordes
Two copies of the German counter sheet from the long-
gone first edition of Panzer Grenadier: Eastern Front. 330
pieces expand your fun for $12.99.

Guadalcanal counters
The game is temporarily out of print, but the counters are
still needed for supplements such as Kokoda Trail, Alaska’s
War and Waltzing Matilda. There are 330 U.S. Marine and
Japanese pieces in two sheets.

Steppe and Sky

Sixteen Panzer Grenadier maps: numbers 1-8 and 14-21
all in a bundle.

New Content

Panzer Grenadier: Elsenborn Ridge

Regular price: $39.99 Waltzing Matilda: Developer’s Commentary
SPECIAL price: $30 Developer Doug McNair has a look at the dozen scenarios
GOLD CLUB price: $27 included in our newest Panzer Grenadier downloadable
supplement, Waltzing Matilda.

Swamps and Open Ground

We have a FREE download of Swamp and Clear markers
for your Panzer Grenadier games.

West Wall: Developer’s Commentary

Mike Perryman continues his saga of the American
invasion of Germany in Panzer Grenadier: West Wall, a
scenario supplement with 10 new battles. Developer Doug
McNair talks about how these scenarios came to be.
Visit us soon at www.avalanchepress.com.

Avalanche Press makes historical boardgames that every

player can enjoy. Please visit our online store or call our
Second World War at Sea: Arctic Convoy customer service line: (800) 564-9008 or 1-205-957-0017.
Regular price: $59.99
SPECIAL price: $40

37
1 P M Z H M P U
STAR FLEET ALERT
29 OCTOBER 2009
WHAT IS GOING ON...
SORRY IF WE CONFUSED YOU t
Federation Commander Hydran Attack, Stock #4107, was released last week. It was noted in the
press release that this product contained 1-inch and half-inch playing pieces for Booster Packs #91,
#92, #93, #94, and #95. This confused some of you, well, probably all of you. Here is what is going on.

Hydran Attack, like all “modules” for the Federation Commander game system, is associated with
three Booster Packs, those being #25, #26, and #27. Hydran Attack includes the counters for those
boosters, and those boosters include extra ships for (and bonus ships that work with) Hydran Attack.

However, Hydran Attack also includes counters (and a few rules) for five otherwise unrelated boosters,
including Booster Pack #91 (which was released last summer) and Booster Packs #92-#95 which will
be released next spring. Those five boosters (like Booster Pack Zero which was released years ago)
are not associated with any “module” but are just extra ships for the game. Players wanted the ships, but
also wanted counters for them, and it was impractical to put eight counters into a Booster Pack along
with the eight ship cards, so we simply put the counters into Hydran Attack so that players could more
easily get them. This will improve the sales potential for both Hydran Attack and the five boosters.

Booster Pack #91, Stock #4291, Retail $9.95 includes eight “original Franz Joseph” ships.

Booster Pack #92, Stock #4292, Retail $9.95 will include eight drone ships and escorts.

Booster Pack #93, Stock #4293, Retail $9.95 will include eight war cruiser leaders.

Booster Pack #94, Stock #4294, Retail $9.95 will include eight light tactical transports.

Booster Pack #95, Stock #4295, Retail $9.95 will include six tugs and two transports.

Booster Pack #91 was released last WHOLESALERS

July and is in stores. Prepare for new sales next spring.

GAMERS RETAILERS
Wait for major new fun next spring. Start taking pre-orders from customers.

CONTACT
Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. PO Box 8759, Amarillo TX 79114 PH: (806)-351-1950
To order products, contact Sales@StarFleetGames.com
To receive these Alerts, contact Marketing@StarFleetGames.com
See our updated website: www.StarFleetGames.com

38
1 P M Z H M P U
Arcana Launches Comics & Pop Culture Magazine
VANCOUVER — Arcana Studios, an award winning comic book publisher and transmedia producer, is proud to announce
the launch of Arcana Magazine. Debuting on January 27th 2010, and solicited in the current November Previews (Diamond
Code: NOV09 0599) is the new quarterly magazine simply entitled Arcana, the re-designed print version of the on-line comics
based magazine Extra Sequential.
Extra Sequential was the brainchild of Kris Bather and Dave Lapsley
in Perth, Western Austrailia – two men who were looking for creative
opportunities outside of their day jobs at a large architectural design firm.
From January to June of this year 3 issues of Extra Sequential were published, t
containing interviews with an array of creative professionals, such as Joe
Jusko, Zeb Wells, Tom DeFalco, and Brian Cronin. Topics covered included
Street Fighter, Flash Gordon, the new Hulk and so much more, with an eye
on both mainstream and rising indie stars.
After reaching over 16,000 subscribers on Scribd.com and becoming a
Featured Magazine on Issuu.com, Extra Sequential was picked up by Arcana
Comics for the transition to print, with Bather and Lapsley continuing their
unique comics focus in the new print format.
Bather is the former Comics Department Head of now defunct web
site Infuze and current contributor to popular web site Broken Frontier.
Lapsley is new to the world of comics but brings a keen sense of design and shares Bather’s desire to let the world know how
cool comics truly are.
“The thing that has always seemed odd to me is that comics continually reveal diverse art from some of the world’s
greatest artists, but few people outside of the local comic book shop will ever know that,” says Bather. “Sure, a multitude of
people are more familiar with Spider-Man and Batman thanks to Hollywood, but that seems to rarely translate to an increase
in regular readership of comics. We hope Arcana can be somewhat of a bridge for those readers as well as show something
new to longtime lovers of sequential art."
Inspired more by the surf and skate magazines than the usual pop culture assortment on the shelves, Arcana aims to let
the art speak for itself while also making sure every page is an artistic display. With bold layouts incorporating unique design
and photography Arcana aims to be more than a throwaway item, but an attractive glimpse into the cutting edge of comic
books and the people behind them.
Bather states, “We chose the landscape format straight out of the gate because we want people to know that we're
different upon first glance. We realise it’s perhaps a risky choice, but that’s exactly what comics are too. We want to conjure
curiosity in comics newbies, but there’s enough content in Arcana for the veteran reader too."
The first issue of Arcana features interviews with Star Wars: Invasion writer Tom Taylor, artist Josh Medors, Singaporean
writer Edmund Shern, Surrogates creator Robert Venditti, and ground breaking artist David Mack. Also included are previews
from upcoming comics and features such as a look back at The Death of Superman event, a talk with pro cyclist/comics fan
Dave Zabriskie, a brief chat with the legendary Marv Wolfman, and an article on the current love affair between musicians
and comics, including an interview with Coheed & Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez. There’s also a look at just how to market
comics today, a breakdown of popular comic book terms and more.
Arcana #1, a 96 page full color magazine goes on sale January 27th, 2010.

About Arcana Studios:

Arcana Comics has published over 150 original comics and books and is a division of Arcana, an award winning transmedia
company founded by CEO Sean O'Reilly. Arcana establishes new brands and intellectual properties with engaging storytelling
and compelling visuals through comic books, graphic novels, animation, short-form live-action, video games, toys and now,
feature length films. Arcana has created original brands they control such as The Clockwork Girl and Kade, and have further
developed existing brands for Disney, Sony, Capcom, HBO and more. In addition, several of Arcana’ s other properties are in
development or pre-production such as GEARHEAD with Valhalla Motion Pictures and a mixed martial arts movie through
Grindstone Entertainment.
For interview requests about Arcana Magazine, please e-mail Kris Bather at kris@arcanaquarterly.com
www.arcanaquarterly.com

39
1 P M Z H M P U
More news from Avalanche Press
Ship for FREE!

Free shipping on our books was so popular, we've

extended it to all our printed supplements, too! Until next
week, there’s FREE shipping on all of our supplements in
stock. And that applies ANYWHERE in the world, from
Martinique to Magadan. Buy Two, Get a Third Free and Gold
Club discounts apply. Free shipping applies to: t
•  Great War at Sea: Airships
•  Great War at Sea: South China Sea
•  Panzer Grenadier: Iron Curtain
•  Panzer Grenadier: Blue Division
•  Panzer Grenadier: Red Warriors
•  Panzer Grenadier: North Wind
•  Panzer Grenadier: Alaska’s War
•  Panzer Grenadier: March on Leningrad
•  Panzer Grenadier: Siege of Leningrad
•  Panzer Grenadier: North of Elsenborn
•  Panzer Grenadier: Romanian Soil
•  Panzer Grenadier: Army Group South Ukraine
•  Panzer Grenadier: Panzer Lion
•  Panzer Grenadier: Aachen 1944
•  Panzer Grenadier: Roer River Battles
•  Panzer Grenadier: West Wall Nagasaki: The Aftermath
•  Panzer Grenadier: Siegfried Line Dave Lippman resumes his tale of the forgotten bomb of
•  Second World War at Sea: Strait of Magellan Nagasaki. Don’t miss it – this might be the best single piece
•  Campaigns & Commanders: The King’s Officers of writing on our web site.
•  Campaigns & Commanders: War in the East
•  Great War at Sea: Dreadnoughts Waltzing Japanese
•  Great War at Sea: Great White Fleet The designer looks at the Japanese pieces of our newest
•  Great War at Sea: Sea of Troubles supplement for the Panzer Grenadier series, Waltzing Matilda,
•  Great War at Sea: Zeppelins because we know it’s all about the toys!
•  Panzer Grenadier: Arctic Front Deluxe Edition
•  Panzer Grenadier: First Axis Visit us soon at www.avalanchepress.com.
•  Panzer Grenadier: Front Russo
•  Panzer Grenadier: Jungle Fighting Avalanche Press makes historical boardgames that every
•  Panzer Grenadier: Kokoda Trail player can enjoy. Please visit our online store or call our
•  Panzer Grenadier: Secret Weapons customer service line: (800) 564-9008 or 1-205-957-0017.
•  Panzer Grenadier: Sinister Forces
•  Panzer Grenadier: White Eagles
•  Second World War at Sea: East of Suez
•  Third Reich Players’ Guide
•  Third Reich: Rumors of War

New Content

Spicy Toys!
The designer/artiste concludes his look at the toys
contained within Second World War at Sea: Spice Islands.

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1 P M Z H M P U
November Special Offer
Our new special offer is a Bandit Warlord army:
I've made this up to represent the kind of army a Chinese Warlord could raise quickly by adding entire bandit gangs
(which could be thousands strong in this period) to his peasant recruits.

http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/offer.php

For £80 you’ll get:

t
•  2 x BU30 Chinese Bandits
•  1 x BU2 Chinese Infantry in Fur Caps
•  1 x BU7 Chinese Infantry
•  1 x BU45 Mtd. Chinese Bandits 1
•  1 x BU46 Mtd. Chinese Bandits 2
•  1 x BC3 Chinese Officers
•  1 x BC7 Chinese Machine-Gun
•  1 x BC14 Chinese Executioners
•  1 x BC23 Chinese Buglers and Standard-Bearers

plus 1 Mtd Officer and 2 bandit leaders (picked randomly).

Normal price £101.12. Offer ends 30th November.

For more information about this and other aspects of the Back of Beyond have a look at my Amazon book selection:
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/copplecastin-21

Mark Copplestone

Important Information About Necronomicon 2010!

Okay, as most of you know there were some “issues” at the convention this year with vandalism. But to reassure everyone,
at this point in time Necronomicon is NOT cancelled. BUT, and this is a big BUT, we need to raise money to pay for the con.
So if any of y'all know of companies that like to sponsor charitable organizations, let us know (email deb@stonehill.org with
the name). Also we're open to any fund raising suggestions (things other than “car wash” lol). In order to continue doing the
con we have to come up with the funds. Between the people who damage the hotel and the fact that Tampa people can’t
seem to drive across the bridge to St. Pete for a con we just aren’t making the money we need to cover our charity and the
convention costs.
One suggestion was some “Necro Gaming” events between now and October. We might try having one in July on the
Saturday of VidCon. This would NOT be ConGames, but would be a Necro event, just one day. What I need is to hear from
our game masters and our gamers as to who would be interested in coming. It would probably be something like a flat rate of
$10 for the day to game. But without GMs and mostly without players, we can’t do it. The idea would be to help raise money
to make sure that Necro can continue.
It was also suggested to try and do other gaming days if we can find venues to hold it (where we don’t spend all the profits
paying for the space). So your input is invaluable to us.

Let us know what you can do to help “save” Necronomicon!

Dean & Heather Dryer

Gaming Directors

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News from Bards & Sages
Winners of the First B&S Quarterly Story
Bards and Sages Publishing announces the winners of its
first Bards &Sages Quarterly Reader’s Choice Story Awards.
This award highlights the best of each issue, and honors the
writers that helped make the Quarterly’s first year in print
successful. The selected stories truly demonstrate the amazing
variety of tales found in the journal each issue.
•  January 2009 issue
•  Witch Kindling, by Rebecca Nazar
•  April 2009 issue
•  Fresh Produce, Aaron Polson
•  July 2009 issue
•  Space Sucks, Krista Ball
•  October 2009 issue
•  Lord Braugh’s Dessert, John Jasper Owens
•  Author of the Year: Eugie Foster
Thanks to all of our wonderful readers that took the time
to vote for our first Story Awards.
Now on Smashwords!
Bards and Sages Publishing fiction titles can now be
found on Smashwords! In our quest to offer readers as
many electronic options as possible, we have begun to port
our fiction offerings to Smashwords.com for distribution.
Smashwords allows us to distribute our titles in a variety of
new formats, including epub, Sony Reader, and Palm doc.
This arraignment will also allow us to make our fiction
offerings available for the new Barnes and Noble Nook
E-reader. Stay tuned!
Intern Wanted
Bards and Sages Publishing is looking for one to two
virtual interns interested in learning more about the publishing
industry. Interns should be able to dedicate four to six hours
a week to various projects and research assignments. Term is
for a minimum of three months. Projects will be designed to
help interns develop a firm understanding of the publishing
process, from critiquing story submissions to proofreading
and editing to marketing and distribution.
The best candidates will possess strong communication
skills and have a sincere desire to learn the business. Because
we handle both fiction and rpg products, an understanding of
roleplaying games, particularly the 3.5/OGL system and our
Karma System is a plus, but not required.
Duties will include:
•  Conducting interviews with authors
•  Identifying potential market opportunities
42
•  Reader outreach on social networking sites
•  Retailer Outreach to bookstores and libraries
•  Proofreading of galley proofs
•  Virtual roundtable discussions of submissions for the journal
•  Writing and distributing press releases
All assignments will be documented and supervised by
t
staff. Upon conclusion of the internship, intern will receive a
Certificate of Completion as well as a letter of recommendation
for their files. Intern will receive electronic copies of all projects
worked on for their portfolios.
This is an ideal opportunity for a student looking to
expand his or her resume with practical, real world experience,
as well as those looking to re-enter the workforce who need
to brush up on their professional skills.
Interested parties should contact Julie Dawson at
jdawson@bardsandsages.com. Note that a Confidentiality
Agreement will be required.
Coming Up in Gaming
Adventure Havens: Guilds
The next installment of the Adventure Havens series for
the d20/OGL system will be released in November. We're
finishing up the final editing now and hope to have it ready
by mid-month. All those crafts and professions available to
players… but where do they actually learn their crafts? This
product provides twelve ready-to-use Guild Houses with
NPCs, story seeds, new rules for craft and profession skills,
and creating masterpiece items.
Karma
Back in Black: In Development. Aliens? There’s no such
thing as aliens. At least, that is what the nice man in the
black suit said. Back in Black takes the alien/UFO lore and
conspiracy theories and provides storytellers and players with
a unique view of the men and women involved in keeping
the truth out of the hands of just about everyone. Secret
organizations, alien races, cool new agent equipment. Watch
for it in December!
1 P M Z H M P U
Signs & Portents 74 – Free Download
The latest issue of Signs & Portents is now ready for you to download, absolutely free. You can grab a copy at;

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=13

In this month’s issue

Signs & Portents t

A number of upcoming releases are
sneakily unveiled. . .

Games Fest & Halloween at Mongoose Hall

Our on the spot reporter Katrina brings
you news of the latest gaming events.

Spycraft
Unleash your inner criminal mastermind.

Earthdawn
Buried Truths, a complete adventure!

Traveller
Two patrons, ready to be slotted into your
campaign.

Victory at Sea
Featuring the biggest ship we have EVER
put in this game!

Traveller
A Heavy Systems Defence Boat, dedicated
to keeping your shipping lanes clear of piracy
and those pesky Vargr!

Lone Wolf
The village of Eshnar uncovered. . .

Conan
Cimmerian Moons, a complete adventure
for your favorite barbarians.

Traveller/Babylon 5
The end is hoving into view for the massive Legacy of War epic.

Matthew Sprange

Mongoose Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)1793 434488 Fax:+44 (0)1793 497999 Mob: +44 (0)7891 624298
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com

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Pulp Figures Latest Release:
•  PHP-17 Count Casamir’s Trans-Siberian Renegades

•  PSS-6 Captains Courageous

•  PSS-5 Merchant Seamen with Rifles

Please drop in for a look!

Bob

Bob Murch,
www.pulpfigures.com

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Librairie Drawn & Quarterly November News
All take place at the Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore
211 Bernard West, Montreal, QC. 514-279-2224.
For more store news, visit our regularly-updated blog!
http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/211bernard/

D+Q 20th Anniversary Celebration Continues with Seth at the D+Q

bookstore!
t
After making headlines across the country, Palookaville cartoonist
and New Yorker illustrator Seth makes his first-ever appearance at our
bookstore, helping the company celebrate its yearlong 20th anniversary,
and in to discuss his latest projects George Sprott and The Collected
Doug Wright. Seth be presenting his ever popular and entertaining slide
show for the last time, signing book and taking questions. Seth will not
be on the road for a long, long time, so do not miss this appearance! His
slide show is spectacular!

Palimpsest Magazine launches inaugural issue – Thursday November

12, 7pm

Palimpsest Magazine is launching its inaugural issue at Librarie

Drawn & Quarterly!
Come visit and peruse the interactive displays featuring examples of
this issue’s audio, print and video material. Drinking and ogling, cultural
capital, team building, socializing and the consumption of baked goods
are all on the agenda, and in no particular order.
Palimpsest Magazine is an anthology of multiples (print, audio, textile,
video, etc). All handmade works are editioned, comprising an exclusive
total of 50 issues. 01, our inaugural issue, was curated by Danielle St-
Amour and Tess Edmonson, and features fine art works by Chris Foster,
Matt King, Peter Thompson, Aisling Macken and Stacey Ho, writing by
Neil Holyoak and Tess Edmonson, video works by Willie Brisco, Tobias
Rochman, Brendan Reed, Christopher Mills and Kevin Hainey, and a
mixtape-cassette curated by Shub Roy of Grand Trine/Pink Noise, and
Mark Fragua of Wax Attic/Ultrathin.
Palimpsest is the lovechild of an over-ambitious group of artists, writers
and musicians, is based in Montreal, and is published independently. For
more information, or to view their current catalog, visit them online at
http://palimpsest.ca

The Best Canadian Essays 2009 Book Launch – Thursday, November 19,
7pm

Tightrope Books, the publishers of The Best Canadian Poetry series

are proud to announce the beginning of a promising new Best Of series of
literary essays. Carefully selected by editors Carmine Starnino and Alex
Boyd, The Best Canadian Essays showcases fourteen exceptional essays
published in Canadian magazines in 2008.
These fourteen distinctive voices unite to represent the diversity and
breadth of Canadian nonfiction writing today: Denis Seguin describes his
experience as the father of a child with Asperger’s; Anita Lahey introduces

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1 P M Z H M P U
the new face of porn; Jessa Gamble patiently searches for a
glimpse of the elusive muskox; and Kris Demeanor opines
on the exigencies of choosing music as a profession. By turns
witty and profound, these essays help shape the contemporary
Canadian cultural consciousness. The Best Canadian Essays
is as necessary as it is lucid, and can be regarded as a welcome
and overdue companion to the long running American series,
The Best American Essays.

Launch for Marc Bell’s Hot Potatoe and Amy Lockhart’s

Dirty Dishes! Friday November 29th, 7pm

Drawn & Quarterly is launching two incredible titles on

one night!
Marc Bell’s Hot Potatoe seamlessly combines decade-
plus long comics activities with a lifelong devotion to, as Bell
calls it, “Fine Ahtwerks.” Part art monograph, part comics
collection, Hot Potatoe is filled with mixed media cardboard
constructions, watercoloured drawings, altered found texts
and Bell’s most intense, dizzying comics from the contemporary avant-garde comics anthologies Kramers Ergot and The
Ganzfeld.
Bell’s works have their roots in draftsmanship, typography and old-fashioned gags, but morph into assemblages that
connect his images into real space. His comics are funny, seat-of-the pants narratives that give the characters an inner-life.
Represented by the Adam Baumgold Gallery in Manhattan, Bell is one of the leading lights in the new emphasis on
drawing in the art world. He comes on like a stepchild of R. Crumb, Ray Johnson and Basquiat, armed with a dashing and
looping rapidograph. He is an internationally renowned artist who has been greatly influential to a new generation of artists
working in a similar vein. Originally from London, ON, Marc Bell currently lives in Montreal.
Dirty Dishes is feminist art from the trailer park. This petit livre is a first class ticket into the creepy cute and totally
absurd world of StrawBaby, and the mind of its creator Amy Lockhart. It chronicles the various facets of her process/thinking
from her paintings and drawings to cardboard sculpture of objects from her everyday life. Also included are stills from her
animations and photos of costumes used in her videos.
Amy works in a variety of mediums, including animation, film and video making, acrylic painting, drawing, costume
making, comics and small press books and combines the various mediums as much as possible and let them feed into each
other and out of each other. She is an animator by trade, and recently was a visiting educator at the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago.
© 2009 Drawn and Quarterly

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Traveller Character Record Pack – Out Now!
This week sees the release of the Traveller Character
Pack, a most complete folio for just about every detail of your
Traveller character. We have been using them in our office
campaigns for a while now, and they are very useful!
Everything you ever wanted to know about your character
can be found in the Traveller Character Record Pack. From t
your character’s career history, to a detailed summary of all
the allies and enemies he has collected over the years, you
will never be caught by surprise by a new turn of events! The
Traveller Character Record Pack also features pages dedicated
to equipment and other possessions, ship maintenance,
trading, encounters, and much, much more!
We are adding additional free downloadable sheets to
update the pack for Traveller related games – the Judge Dredd
update is already up, and Strontium Dog will be following
very soon.

For more information, visit;

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1739

Matthew Sprange

Mongoose Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)1793 434488 Fax:+44 (0)1793 497999
Mob: +44 (0)7891 624298
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com

Rogue Games announces the

Rogue Games PDF Guarantee Program
(Chicago & Toronto) — Rogue Games announces the
Rogue Games PDF Guarantee Program!
For the past few months, Rogue Games has been
contacting retail game stores, and signing them up to a new
program. The program? The Rogue Games PDF Guarantee
Program.
This program makes it easy for retail customers to enjoy
the same bundling options with local game stores, that they
enjoy with online vendors such as Indie Press Revolution.
Simply put, you buy one of Rogue Games’ games at a member
store, and you will get your free PDF copy of your purchase
emailed to you. Stores who are taking part have access to the
same bundling options as online stores have. Now, no matter
if your buy our games online, or at a participating store, you
get the free PDF copy of the game as well. To see if your local
game store is part of the program, visit the Retailer Locator
page (www.rogue-games.net/retailer-locator/) for more
details.
If you own a game store, signing up for the program is
quick and easy. All you need to do is drop us a line (www.
rogue-games.net). Rogue Games is 100% committed to this
program, and we are working actively to sign up as many
stores as we can.
­— Richard Iorio II President/Main Rogue
Rogue Games Games so good they sneak up on
you.™
www.rogue-games.net

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Upper Deck Prepares to Host WOW TCG and Miniatures
Realm Championships Nov. 14 – 15
More than $500,000 in prizes will be awarded to top players across 21
Realms worldwide!
Carlsbad, CA (Nov. 4, 2009) — The Upper Deck Company is proud to announce
that its 2009 Season 4 World of Warcraft® Realm Championships will be t
taking place this month at a Realm near you. On November 14 – 15, World
of Warcraft® Trading Card Game players from around the globe will gather
at one of 21 different Realms to compete for fame and prizes totaling more
than $24,000 per venue.
Parts of North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceana have been divided
and transformed into the realms of Azeroth, the world within Warcraft. TCG
players from across each locale have battled in Realm Qualifiers throughout the
season, earning points toward their slot at the upcoming Realm Championships
and vying for the Realm Conqueror title. Those who reached 10 points for the season qualified for the Season 4 Championships,
where Upper Deck will be giving away more than $8,000 in prizes per realm! Notable cities that will be hosting competitions
include San Diego, Philadelphia, Helsinki, Manchester (England), Singapore and Melbourne.
Each venue’s champion will walk away with a $2,500 travel voucher, four exclusive Vol’jin Extended Art promo cards, a
Spectral Tiger Loot card and an impressive World of Warcraft trophy! This is in addition to the wildly popular class deck boxes
and commemorative Realm Championship pins going out to the Top 32 players. Runners-up at each of the venues can win
Playstation 3s, various iPods, and other great prizes! This is your chance to take home the coveted Spectral Tiger Loot card,
which can be cashed in for the ghostly MMO mount.
The World of Warcraft® Miniatures Realm Championship will run simultaneously with the TCG Championship, with the
Realm Champion winning a one-of-a-kind “First Shot” mini! These “First Shots” are the first production minis to be printed
in the world, and each Realm Champion will win this unique prize. They will also win a $2,500 travel voucher, Spectral Tiger
Loot card and stunning trophy. Runners-up can earn loot cards, the Death Watcher promo figure and commemorative Realm
Championship pins.
The World of Warcraft® TCG Realm Championships is an invitation-only tournament for those players who qualified
during Season 4 through Realm Qualifiers in their Realm.
“The Realm Championships represent months of hard work by our tournament players. They spend their weekends
competing in Realm Qualifiers in attempts to accumulate enough points to qualify for this event,” said Mike Girard, Organized
Play Programs Manager at Upper Deck. “The winner gets the prestigious Realm Champion title and can then compete in
tournaments across the world as we pick up the tab on their next big trip.”
If you weren’t able to earn enough Realm Points or didn’t get a chance to attend a Realm Qualifier, have no fear—the
Realm Open is your chance to take home electronics and an El Pollo Grande Loot card, which gives an online character the
Magic Rooster mount. Each Realm Championship weekend will also hold a Realm Open that is open to any player not already
qualified for the main event. The best part is you can leave your Constructed deck at home. This will be your last chance to play
the Limited format with packs from Drums of War, Blood of Gladiators and Fields of Honor. The best part is that these packs
are provided for you on site! The Realm Open winner will win an El Pollo Grande Loot card, iPod Touch, four Anduin Wrynn
Extended Art promo cards and free entry to any Realm Qualifier in Season 5! Don’t stay home while your qualified friends
travel to the Realm Championship weekend—go with them and take home valuable electronic prizes and Loot cards!
Be the envy of all of your MMO friends and compete to take home a Spectral Tiger or El Pollo Grande Loot card. For more
information on these events and prizes, please visit Upper Deck’s Organized Play page at http://entertainment.upperdeck.
com/wow/en/OP/default.aspx.

About Upper Deck

Upper Deck is the leading sports and entertainment trading card and collectibles company. For more information on
Upper Deck and its products, please visit www.UpperDeck.com.

48
1 P M Z H M P U
PEZ Sues Herobuilders.com
Herobuilders.com the world is now clear create and distribute
famous Action Figure Company that their own line Candy Dispenser. The
makes Custom Action Figures that Scheduled Launch is set for the 1st
look you and the original maker of half of 2010. Emil Vicale also stated
Political Action Figures gets sued by that “like every thing Herobuilders
PEZ for trademark infringement. has done it the past our dispenser
Herobuilders started making will be bigger better and more
custom PEZ dispensers that looks t importantly will have real candy
like people who wanted to be with bold flavors. Herobuilders will
memorialized on Pez dispenser, make a product that is obviously
similar to our Custom Action in tune with what people want to
Figures. Pez used the suit to get purchase in this century.”
Herobuilders from re-manufacture Buy a Custom Action Figure
their product. Emil Vicale said ” The suit ended up absolutely that looks, talks and dresses just like you
no where and the suit was settled out of court."
Emil Vicale the owner of Herobuilders also stated “that http://www.herobuilders.com
the suit seemed childlike at best and not worthy of such a
seemingly prestigious and seemingly successful company as Customer Service Department
PEZ." A Division of Vicale
HeroBuilders and PEZ reached an agreement and Corporation
Herobuilders has agreed not to make re-manufacture Custom Tel: 203-888-0147
Pez dispensers. With this agreement in place Herobuilders

Warzone Tribes of Earth mercenaries cheap to hire for one

week only.
All major If you want to
Warzone factions, further add some
with the exception punch to your army
of the Brotherhood then you might like
and Dark Legion like the new additions
to have some Tribe that were added
Mercenaries to be today. 11 more units
a shield for their own troops. Hordes of cheap, inexpensive added to 4 factions. These include Nepharites for the Dark
warriors armed with an array of odd or out of date weapons Legion, Sacred Warriors for the Brotherhood, HMG Chasseur
are traded between the tribes on Earth and the greedy for Cybertronic and Big Bob Watts for Capitol. These will
corporations for supplies. Now don’t be fooled by their strengthen your ranks in every way.
weapons, these are hard war veterans, filled with courage Remember these are very limited in stock so don’t leave
and very skilled at killing, as they survived on Earth, now it too long to add them to your army.
a wasteland, where life is a daily struggle against everyone Enjoy wargaming this winter,
else.
So if you enjoy mixing it up with another corporation, Michael O'Brien,
why not add a bit of extra flavour to your army and add a
regiment of Tribe warriors to your unit roster. Prince August Toy Factory, Kilnamartyra, Macroom,
These are now 30 percent cheaper to buy for one week Co. Cork.
(ends 13th) so don’t miss out. T: +353 26 40222 / F: +353 26 40004
‘Prince August’ is a registered trade name of An Grupa Edman Teo (The Edman Group Ltd).
Registered in Dublin #269484. Directors Lars Edman (swedish),Margaret Edman.
http://www.warzone-chronopia.com/
Reg. Office: 1 Kilnamartyra, Macroom.

49
1 P M Z H M P U
New Releases from IXO Models

50
1 P M Z H M P U
Steam – Locomotive Set
This fine supplemental product provides players the
option of replacing their wooden marker disks with wooden
train engines the appropriate color and a purple turn marker
pawn. All packaged in a fine translucent plastic storage box
with a snap closure.
Steam™ Locomotive Set contains:

•  144 wooden train tokens (6 colors for 6 players) t

•  1 pawn (in a color different from the player colors
•  1 plastic storage container

MFG45512 Steam – Locomotive $25.00

Set
Ages 12+
For 2-6 Players as an
accessory
Playing Time n/a
UPC 0-29877-45512-6-02500
ISBN 1-56905-230-1
Case Pack 6
Designer: n/a
Art: John Austin
Made in Germany
Dimensions 1.625 x 8 x 5.25
Copyright C 2009 by Mayfair Games, Inc. Game by Martin Wallace. “Steam” and the “Real Steam
Brand” mark are trademark properties of Mayfair Games, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bob Carty
VP Sales and Marketing
Mayfair Games, Inc.
(813) 707-6659v
(813) 707-8791f
bobcarty@mayfairgames.com

Hex Games Releases Laser Ponies

Laser Ponies, the newest PDF from Hex Games, is now available
for download at Drivethrurpg, Paizo, RPGnow, YourGamesNow,
and the Hex Games web site. The game takes place on the faraway
magical world of Panagonia in the heart of Glitter Valley, home of
the Laser Ponies. As the name suggests, the Laser Ponies are magical
ponies who can shoot lasers out of their eyes. When necessary, they
use these lasers to fight the monstrous minions of the evil Chasm
Queen.
According to author Leighton Connor, “Laser Ponies is
intended as the ultimate 80’s Saturday morning cartoon for girls,
one unhindered by watchdog groups or cheap animation. The
Laser Ponies romp, frolic, and play. And when they need to defend
themselves, they can shoot lasers out of their eyes. These lasers can
destroy rocks, and they can also kill monsters. Every Laser Ponies
game session should feature humor, magic, character interaction,
and thrilling laser-blasting action."
Laser Ponies is for girls and boys alike, and is the first all-ages
role-playing game from Hex Games. It uses the QAGS system,
but you do not have to own the QAGS rulebook—the QAGS Qik
Start rules, which tell you everything you need to know to play the
game, are included in the back of the book. Also included are rules
for Pony Power, 40 story ideas, sample characters, illustrations by
up-and-coming young artist Katie Staffiera, and a character sheet
featuring a pony that you can color and decorate to match your
character.
Laser Ponies is a 24 page PDF with a retail price of $1.99.

51
1 P M Z H M P U
Mongoose releases Strontium Dog RPG
This week sees the release of the all new Strontium Dog
RPG, a bolt-on setting featuring mutant bounty hunters for
Traveller! You can find more information and a preview at;

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1724
t
Earth, the late 22nd century. Following the atomic war
of 2150, Britain has been devastated by nuclear holocaust.
The survivors rebuilt their lives, but many were warped by
the mutating effects of Strontium 90 fallout. Unable to live
or work amongst the ‘norms', mutants were forced to grow
up in ghettos and take the only job open to them – bounty
hunting. These Search/Destroy Agents hunt the criminals
too dangerous for the Galactic Crime Commission. One such
Strontium Dog is Johnny Alpha, whose eyes emit piercing
Alpha rays and enable him to see through solid objects – and
into men’s minds.
Using the Traveller core rules, Strontium Dog allows
players to take the part of mutant bounty hunters, combing
the galaxy for their prey – dead or alive!

Matthew Sprange

Mongoose Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)1793 434488 Fax:+44 (0)1793 497999
Mob: +44 (0)7891 624298
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com

Crafty Games Licensing: We're Expanding the Family!

Crafty Games has released its new Powered by Fantasy Craft and Powered by Spycraft
licenses! Both are completely free of charge and extremely low-hassle: simply apply by game
line and once you're approved you're free to create and release products in that line without
further oversight.
Several amazing publishers have already signed up, including 93 Games Studio,
Battlefield Press Inc., Fat Dragon Games, Heroic Journey Publishing, Natural Twenty Games,
Reality Blurs, Ravensworth Press, Revenant Games, and Vigilance Press.
Interested in making your own Powered by Fantasy Craft or Powered by Spycraft
products? Drop by our licensing headquarters for details!

52
1 P M Z H M P U
Tabletop Adventures announces
Into the Future: Derelict Starships
Derelict Starships coverIn the vastness of space, the ship’s intrepid
crew discovers a starship, floating wounded in the void. The boarding
party opens the hatch in anticipation: what is down the corridor?
Tabletop Adventures provides scores of descriptions of the sights and t
dangers of a derelict starship, stat-free and suitable for use with nearly
any futuristic game, regardless of system. Whether a ship is damaged,
abandoned, or filled with the victims of a space-borne plague, these
pieces will help bring the dead ship to life.
This is a “Bits” book, with our usual 100 short descriptions that can
fit in anywhere. You could also choose among dozens of special locations
within the ship: hatches and corridors, life pods and crew quarters,
hydroponics, medical bay, cargo hold, weapons turret and more. Excellent
original art by Jeff Uryasz depicts several scenes that can help you set the
mood for your game.
Bring even more realism to your vision of the future with “Skeletons
in Space.” This article reveals what happens to a dead body in a vacuum,
and it’s not pretty!
Into the Future: Derelict Starships has all the details needed to
make your futuristic adventures just that – adventurous. To make your
life easier, a thorough index allows you to quickly find a description to
fit a particular need.
Augment your imagination with Into the Future: Derelict Starships
from Tabletop Adventures. Buy it Today, Play it Tonight!

RPGBOMB announces Systemless Adventures

RPGBOMB is proud to announce our first product line: Systemless
Adventures. Our genre based Systemless
Adventures come standard with a Gold Account
Membership. There is no additional cost beyond
the Gold Membership fee. On average a new
Systemless Adventure will be released each
month.
For years, GMs have adapted adventures across systems for play in their own games.
Now there is a product line developed for just this purpose. If you’re looking for good
content, good ideas, or the foundation for an exciting campaign, RPGBOMB Systemless
Adventures are for you.
These adventures are designed to be played in one evening; however, they are easily adaptable to multiple nights of
play. Systemless Adventures include story, plot, expected flow of events, NPCs, motivations, backgrounds, and more while
remaining pluggable with any gaming system. Character level is not a factor with Systemless Adventures. Simply use your
favorite system and adapt the adventure to your PC’s current level.
Systemless Adventures require some work on the part of the GM. The amount of work required will differ with each GM
and system. Some GM will find it easy to wing an adventure with a rules light system while more crunchy systems will require
more time but the outcome is worth the work.

53
1 P M Z H M P U
Foxbat for President
Foxbat, the loony Champions villain, is running for president in a new superheroic
adventure from BlackWyrm Games.
Foxbat has hit the campaign trail, and his premptive memoir “Foxbat for President” has
hit the bookstores. At 100 pages of Foxbatty goodness, the book contains characters, maps,
plot seeds, twists and turns, stomach turns, and situations that are bizarrely dangerous and
dangerously bizarre. t
The Mighty Foxbat is a loony supervillain, who never really hurts anyone in his strange
plans. Now, he’s gotten enough signatures to allow him to run for the highest office in the
land, still in his mask. While honored, the opportunity comes as a surprise to him. But then,
who’s really behind it, and why?
This is a Champions adventure for 4 to 8 players at 350 to 450 points. It requires the
HERO System 5th Edition rulebook, as well as Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks, and DEMON:
Servants of Darkness.
The printed book retails for $19.95, and the PDF retails for $9.95, available from
BlackWyrm Games at www.blackwyrm.com.

Latest Miniatures from Star Fleet Games

Federation Commander Hydran Attack, Stock #4107, Retail price $29.95. This is the next product in the Federation
Commander series, with 16 new ship cards and six new scenarios. This product also includes die-cut counters for Booster
Packs #91 through #95.
Federation Commander Booster Packs #25, #26, and #27. Stock #4225, #4226, and #4227, respectively. Retail $9.95 each.
Each pack has six extra cards for Hydran Attack PLUS two entirely new cards not in any other package. Covers are at right.
Klingons PD20M, Stock #8723, Retail price $24.95, 144 pages. This is a new edition of our previous d20 book, remastered for
the d20 Modern rules. Our new line editor has made dramatic improvements over the original d20 book.

•  Shuttlecraft, Starline 2400, Stock #0061, pack of 12, $17.95

•  Federation F-18 Fighters, Starline 2400, Stock #0062, pack of 12, $17.95
•  Klingon Z-Y Fighters, Starline 2400, Stock #0063, pack of 12, $17.95
•  Romulan Gladiator Fighters, Starline 2400, Stock #0064, pack of 12, $17.95
•  Kzinti Tactical Advanced Fighters, Starline 2400, Stock #0065, pack of 12, $17.95
•  Tholian Spider Fighters, Starline 2400, Stock #0067, pack of 12, $17.95
•  Hydran Stinger-2 Fighters, Starline 2400, Stock #0069, pack of 12, $17.95
•  Art for all of these products is available on request.

Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. PO Box 8759, Amarillo TX 79114 PH: (806)-351-1950
To order products, contact Sales@StarFleetGames.com
See our updated web site: www.StarFleetGames.com

54
 TGC announces I’m not Alone
Berlin-based publisher brings to market I’m not Alone, a dark survival
horror action adventure for PC.
Berlin — With their brand new survival horror action adventure I’m not
Alone, TGC – The Games Company guarantee to send cold shivers down the
spines of players all around the world. The gloomy genre highlight, developed
by the Italian studio Pix Rev, impresses with innovative gameplay elements,
locations full of atmosphere and perfectly staged shock moments. TGC releases
I’m not Alone for PC worldwide in the first quarter of 2010.
In the role of a bold exorcist the player travels to the Austrian mountains
to free an old mansion house from the grips of a supernatural power. On
location he has to face sheer horror. Disfigured demons have risen from the
underworld and spread fear and terror. Now it is the task of the player to
put an end to the sinister occurrences. His special skills as a psychic medium
enable him to change between reality and demon world in order to take up
the challenge and fight the creatures of hell. With a quick trigger finger and a
sharp mind the player explores the eerie mansion and reveals a dreadful secret…
“I am very glad that we have been able to secure the worldwide marketing rights for I’m not Alone and expand our
portfolio with a high-quality action adventure for the first time”, comments Christian Sauerteig, director marketing & sales at
TGC. “With I’m not Alone we would like to offer a tense horror experience in one of the world’s most popular genres.“

Benjamin Bezold
Senior PR Manager
tel.: +49 30 526853 202
fax: +49 30 526853 004
cel +49 170 2191223
Benjamin.Bezold@the -
games-company.com

TGC – The Games Company

Worldwide GmbH
Ehrenbergstraße 19
10245 Berlin
Germany
http://www.the -games-
company.com/
CEO/Geschäftsführer:

Carsten Strehse, Markus Malti

Commercial register of the local court /
Registergericht:
Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB
100943 B
VAT identification number / Ust-Id.Nr.:
DE 247061546

55
 New book on casual games: A Casual Revolution
I am writing to let you know that my new book, A Casual Revolution: Reinventing
Video Games and Their Players has just been published by MIT Press.
A Casual Revolution is my take on what is happening with video games right
now:

•  Why is the Nintendo Wii more successful than the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3?
•  Why is the audience for video games expanding?
•  Who plays Bejeweled, and why?
•  What is a casual player? What is casual game design?
•  Are casual games a return to the arcade game, or are they something new?
•  How did Solitaire become one of the most popular video games?
•  What is the secret behind the success of Guitar Hero and Rock Band?
•  Why is Parcheesi/Ludo a social game? Why is Animal Crossing?
•  Does the rise of casual games mean the downfall of hardcore games?
•  …and more.

A Casual Revolution is a 256-page book about what is important: The joy of the
casual video games that we play during a work break, on phones, with the family, or
with friends at a late-night party.
The book includes 100 illustrations as well as interviews with game players and
developers.
Get A Casual Revolution from your neighborhood bookstore or from your favorite online retailer.
The book’s companion web site is: http://www.jesperjuul.net/casualrevolution/
The official MIT Press page: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11844

Thanks to everybody who made this book possible!

Jesper Juul
http://www.jesperjuul.net
New York University Game Center
http://gamecenter.nyu.edu

56
 Tech News from ZDNet
Attackers could steal crypto keys from mobile devices
Security researchers have discovered a way to steal
cryptographic keys that are used to encrypt communications
and authenticate users on mobile devices.
READ FULL STORY
Net Neutrality: Why the Internet will never be free. For
anything. So get used to it
Call it Net Neutrality if you want, but it doesn’t exist, nor
is it required when you already have antitrust, regulatory and
other local and state, and international law in place.
READ FULL STORY

The healthiest foods to eat are also the most dangerous

How much safer should food get? The answer is perfectly

safe. But how much effort should government expend to
guarantee it, as opposed to the market or the plaintiff’s bar?
READ FULL STORY
•  With government incentives, solar power gets cheaper, more
popular
•  Plagiarism detection tools plentiful and free
•  How open source will transform the coming decade
•  Space missions to Mars have 52.4% failure rate overall
•  Web site shares best practices for smarter cities and
communities

Are the iPhone and social networks making the classic Web
and intranet obsolete?
NASA prepares Ares I-X rocket launch; key to human
spaceflight There’s been an
important and relatively
SmartPlanet: For the first time in 25 years, a new vehicle sudden change taking
has left NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space place over the last couple
Center, and its payload ? the Arex I-X rocket ? promises to of years in the way that
return humans to space. we interact with the Web:
READ FULL STORY mobile phones.
READ FULL STORY
Windows 7: An impressive upgrade •  Cloud computing and
the return of the platform
Windows 7 is officially available to the public, after nearly wars
a year of testing. Today I look at Microsoft’s new operating •  Running your SOA like a
system and answer the big question: Who should upgrade? Web startup
READ FULL STORY •  Twenty-two power laws of the emerging social economy
•  Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: My 7 favorite Windows 7 features •  Community management: The ‘essential’ capability of
•  Microsoft and PC makers introduce Win7 offers for successful Enterprise 2.0 efforts
consumers
•  Mary-Jo Foley: Was Windows 7 totally your idea?
•  Windows 7 in the real world with real PCs
•  All Windows 7 stories on ZDNet

57
 News from GameIndustry.com
Reviews

Cursed Mountain
Although a bit off in the attempt, Cursed Mountain tries to take
the kiddie image of the Wii and replace it with an adult-themed
survival horror game. And it would have worked too, if it weren’t for
you meddling kids. Wait, no. It would have worked if the developers
put more emphasis on plot and not constant ghost fighting.
http://www.gameindustry.com/review/item.asp?id=1129

Memento Mori
Memento Mori isn’t a bad game, but won’t challenge even the
most elementary adventure gamers either. If you can pick up an item
or two, you can solve this mystery. Puzzles range from charging your
cell phone (very difficult) to choosing between two dialog choices. At
least it looks, and sounds, good.
http://www.gameindustry.com/review/item.asp?id=1128

Updated Tools Spice Up New GhostBusters Game

When it comes to chasing down vapors, slimers, and poltergeists, stuttering gameplay is not an option. Yet it happened in
the creation of Ghostbusters: the Video Game in a scene that is foundational to the story: the Library. At issue: how do you
continuously render 200,000 books and simultaneously render the humans and ghosts who are interacting in the rooms? This
scene stymied the game’s performance. But thanks to fine-tuning for multi-core, the use of Intel(R) GPA, and extensive testing
for bottlenecks, Terminal Reality and Intel engineers solved the problem. Read how. [3 MB PDF]
http://www.intelsoftwaregraphics.com/?lid=G65xmWsbwrk=&siteid=9rZMp1YP6X8=

Podcasts: Innovate Or Die

The GiN Gang looks at some major innovations found in recent games, and laments the fact that, sadly, most new titles
are just more of the same. But innovation doesn’t always equal commercial success, so we understand. At least games like
Batman: Arkham Asylum are pulling their weight.
http://www.gameindustry.com/podcast/item.asp?id=36

GiN Hardcore: Ready To Rock?

A former Jack Black hater, Todd actually finds that he’s hilarious in Brutal Legend. The game is great to play, even though
the shock of an actually funny Jack Black is hard to get over. But we guess if the game can make Todd like Black, then its doing
something right.
http://www.gameindustry.com/editorial/item.asp?id=443

Stock Market: Zzz…

Oh sure, the GiNdex lost ground this week. But three points? It hardly seems worth the effort. Can we gain those three
points back next week? Edge of your seat excitement from the GiNdex!
http://www.gameindustry.com/gindex/default.asp
Copyright Game Industry News 2009. Game Industry News and GIN, plus the entire contents of this newsletter are copyright Noble Order Press Enterprises. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced
without express written permission from the publisher, Nate Wooley. publisher@gameindustry.com www.gameindustry.com

58
 DFC Intelligence Forecasts that Apple Will Help Drive
Mobile Game Market Sales to $11.7 Billion by 2014
According to a series of new reports from DFC Intelligence the worldwide market for portable and mobile games is
expected to grow to $11.7 billion by 2014. The primary driver of this growth is expected to be the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch
systems. By 2014, sales for games on the iPhone/iPod Touch are expected to account for about 24% of total portable game
software sales.
“The dedicated
portable game systems
from companies like
Nintendo and Sony are
still expected to lead the
market, but it appears
growth for these devices
has peaked.The platforms
from Apple are expected
to be responsible for the
bulk of market growth over the next few years,” says DFC analyst David Cole.
DFC also released some results from a study on the mobile game habits of over 8,000 game players in North America and
Europe. 54% of respondents in North America and 69% of respondents in Europe had played a game on their mobile phone in
the past year. Furthermore, 45% of respondents in North America and 36% in Europe had paid to purchase an application for
their mobile phone. Among respondents, the App Store was already the most popular service for making purchases. Across
both North America and Europe about 15% of respondents already owned an iPhone or iPod Touch, compared with 29% that
owned a Nintendo DS.
The entry of Apple into the mobile entertainment space is so important that DFC Intelligence partnered with leading
iPhone application provider Oceanhouse Media (developers of over 60 iPhone apps) to prepare a detailed report on the
market. According to Greg Uhler, Oceanhouse Media Development Director, ” with the iPhone and iPod Touch, Apple has
finally delivered mobile developers a platform with an attractive business model and a rapidly growing installed base of
active consumers.” Of course, the iPhone is about more than just games. “Games are expected to account for only about
23% of application sales on the iPhone,” says Michel Kripalani, President of Oceanhouse Media. “There are many fantastic
opportunities for non-game related content on both the iPhone and iPod Touch. These devices, when combined with Apple’s
business model, are a much needed revolution for the mobile market.”
The new series of reports include The Market for iPhone and iPod Games and Applications, The Market for Portable
Video Games and Gamers and the Usage of Mobile Phones. These reports are available individually or as part of one of DFC
Intelligence’s ongoing research services. DFC Intelligence is a market research firm focused on video games, PC games, online
games and interactive entertainment. For a sample of the monthly DFC Dossier report, or an overview of DFC research,
contact Ozzie Monge at omonge@dfcint.com.

New DFC Report: Usage of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5
A new report from DFC Intelligence shows that there is strong overlap between users of music games. To learn more
how the usage of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 show strong loyalty to the music game genre, please go to
http://www.dfcint.com/wp/?p=265

About Oceanhouse Media: common purpose to educate, uplift, enlighten and heal the planet through technology.

Oceanhouse Media, Inc. is an iPhone / iPod Touch app development company that Ozzie Monge
was founded in early 2009 by Michel Kripalani, former CEO of Presto Studios and
Director of Business Development at Autodesk. The team is comprised of developers omonge@dfcint.com
with decades of experience, primarily from the video game business, that now share a www.dfcint.com

59
 XFIRE LAUNCHES FIRST SOCIAL-SHOPPING GAME STORE
Xfire brings unique online shopping experience to its 14.5M users
MENLO PARK, CA — Xfire, the leading online gamer
community with 14.5M users, today announced the launch of
the Xfire Game Store – the first social-shopping game store.
Social interactions on the Xfire network serve not only to
empower gamers to discover, share, and play games but also
to influence them to buy games their friends play.
For the first time, gamers will discover and purchase
games based on various forms of social interactions with their
friends on the Xfire site, such as:
•  Reading in the Activity Report about new games their friends
have recently purchased and are playing for the first time,
•  Visiting Xfire Communities and Forums to see who among
their peers have purchased and played new games,
•  Watching Live Video Broadcasts of gameplay by friends,
gamer celebrities and game developers, and
•  Viewing gamer profiles, including game hours and purchases,
on the Xfire application and web site.
Initially, the Xfire Game Store will launch with several
social shopping features and additional ones will be rolled out
over time. Today marks the launch of four stores in the United
States, UK, Germany and the greater European Union.
“The launch of the Xfire Game Store will expand Xfire’s
revenue beyond advertising to e-commerce,” said Chris Kirmse,
General Manager. “Leveraging our large, fast-growing, loyal,
and engaged community of 14.5M users mainly from North
America and Europe, we believe that Xfire can become one
of the leading destinations for digital distribution of games.
We believe that our social architecture will provide unique
sales and marketing opportunities for publishers resulting in
increased sales.”
“This is a great opportunity to put our titles in front of
large and loyal PC gamers. We're thrilled to distribute our
games through the Xfire Game Store. Digital distribution
contributes a significant portion of our revenue and I’m
excited to see Xfire entering into this growing market” says
Christian Svensson, VP, Strategic Planning and Business
Development at Capcom. “Given the Xfire user demographic
in North America and Europe, we believe that our titles will
have a great appeal to their users”.
Kirmse added: “A recent survey indicated that 75% of
Xfire users have purchased digital content. Subsequently, we
believe our users will feel inclined to purchase games from
the same destination where they socialize and play their
favorite games”.
“The digital distribution market for games is expected to
60
triple over the next five years reaching nearly $9 billion by
2014. Xfire’s users play all types of PC games from hardcore
games to casual games, MMO and F2P games. It makes sense
for Xfire to leverage their large PC game user base by entering
into the digital distribution market segment. I anticipate that
many users will naturally purchase games while using Xfire’s
platform as part of their gaming experience” says David Cole,
Industry analyst and Principal at DFC Intelligence.
About Xfire
Xfire, Inc. is one of the fastest growing online gaming platforms
and communities in the world, helping gamers easily connect, chat,
and play with their friends online. Xfire is a free service that allows
gamers to communicate through IM and voice chat, capture video
and screenshots, broadcast live video, surf the web while gaming
and track their gaming statistics. With 14.5 million members in
over 100 countries, Xfire is an international community connecting
gamers across the globe. Xfire is a wholly owned subsidiary of MTV
Networks and is based in Menlo Park, CA.
About Capcom
Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and
distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs,
handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has
created hundreds of games, including best-selling franchises Resident
Evil®, Street Fighter®, Mega Man® and Devil May Cry®. Capcom
maintains operations in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Tokyo and Hong
Kong, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More
information about Capcom can be found on the company web site,
www.capcom.com.
About DFC Intelligence
DFC Intelligence is a strategic market research and consulting
firm focused on interactive entertainment and the emerging video
game, online game, interactive entertainment and portable game
markets. Since 1995 DFC has published in-depth strategic market
reports and subscription-based research services. DFC research is
used by over 300 leading companies in over 30 countries worldwide.
Contact:
Matthew B. Gilman
Xfire Inc.
650-853-8800x122
mgilman@xfire.com
 TGC brings Darkest of Days to Europe
Berlin-based publisher acquires Europe-wide marketing rights for the unique
PC time travel shooter Darkest of Days.
Berlin — What would have happened if futuristic weapons had got into Germany’s hands during the Second World
War? Would it have changed history if General Custer had survived the battle at Little Bighorn? And what would have been
if Pompeii had not been destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24th August in the year 79? TGC – The Games
Company invites European PC gamers to join them on a unique journey through time. In the first person shooter Darkest of
Days you take on the part of a time cop and hunt down ruthless time travelers who apparently want to manipulate history.
Now it is the task of the player to end the chaos and restore order. TGC will soon announce the exact release date for Darkest
of Days.
The cinematic and technically brilliant
game Darkest of Days is being realized by
the US studio 8monkey Labs. With the newly
developed Marmorset Engine and GPU-
accelerated PhysX effects hundreds of units can
be smoothly displayed in large outdoor areas.
The result: never before have mass battles
of such an epic scale been staged in an first
person shooter. For technophiliacs Darkest of
Days also provides a PhysX benchmark.
During the extensive campaign the player
travels through five epochs in history – from
Roman times to the Second World War.
Aspiring historians experience epic battles
of the American Civil War and fight in the
muddy trenches of the First World War. The
framework of history can be defended either
with realistically recreated weapons from the
respective eras or with the ballistic achievements of the future. However, the player has to be careful: One wrong step can
change the future and cause great harm to history.
“I am glad that we will be able to provide Europe with Darkest of Days, an outstanding title as far as contents and
technology are concerned,” comments Christian Sauerteig, Director Marketing & Sales, TGC. “This is the first time that an first
person shooter covers all the most important eras of human history and visualizes them in incredibly detailed and brilliant
graphics.”

Benjamin Bezold
Senior PR Manager
tel.: +49 30 526853 202
fax: +49 30 526853 004
cel +49 170 2191223
Benjamin.Bezold@the-games-company.com

TGC – The Games Company Worldwide GmbH

Ehrenbergstraße 19
10245 Berlin
Germany
http://www.the-games-company.com/

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 Magic: The Gathering on XBLA expands to PC, PS3
Wizards of the Coast is announcing more details about
the PC and PS3 versions of Duels of the Planeswalkers
as well as future expansions for the Xbox LIVE
Arcade title. Please let me know if you have
any questions.
With more than 250,000 copies
sold, Magic: The Gathering –
Duels of the Planeswalkers
continues to be one of the
most downloaded games on
Xbox LIVE Arcade. Now on
the heels of the recently released
first expansion, Wizards of the
Coast is ready to answer the question:
What’s next?
In 2010, Wizards of the Coast will release
two brand new expansions for the current XBLA
title and Duels of the Planeswalkers will launch for
the PC and PlayStation®3 gaming platforms. Here
are some more details about the 2010 Duels of the
Planeswalkers product lineup.

More Magic: The Gathering on Xbox LIVE Arcade

Spring and summer 2010 – The Duels of the Planeswalkers expansions for XBLA will begin arriving in the first of the year
and follow with a release in the summer. Similar to the first expansion, the two releases will feature new cards, Planeswalkers,
puzzles and surprises to keep players challenged throughout the year.

Expand your Duels to the PC

Summer 2010 – The PC version offers gamers the same style of gameplay as the XBLA title but with an extra bonus.

Discover Duels of the Planeswalkers on the PlayStation 3

Fall 2010 – Magic: The Gathering fans worldwide can experience Duels of the Planeswalkers on the PlayStation 3.* The
title will feature similar content and gameplay as the Xbox LIVE Arcade version.
*The PlayStation 3 version will be available in Japanese in 2011

Regards,

Tera
Tera Randall
Porter Novelli for Wizards of the Coast
Office: 206.770.7084
Cell: 425.652.1599

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 Strategic Command Global Conflict –
new features (and screens)
As development on the upcoming Global Conflict game in the Strategic Command series progresses, new exciting features
are being added and refined. Interesting for new and old players alike, below is a list of some of them, complete together with
a set of 6 new screenshots. Click on the “Read more…” link below for details.

•  Added an ’s’ hotkey to show you the current and expected supply
on the map, i.e. if hypothetically venturing forward and into enemy
held territory.
•  Added a Partisan hotkey ‘P’ to show you parts of the map that will
potentially have partisan activity

•  Added a right click ’sleep’ option to have units skipped in the ‘Next’
unit key sequence as well as from flashing on the larger War Maps.
•  Strategic Bombers can now raid convoy lanes provided there is
a cooperating weather conditions and that there are no enemy
fighters protecting the reachable convoy areas.
•  Amphibious Transports can now attack land units simulating
fighting on the beaches prior to landing. Amphibious Transport
attack values can also be increased via the Amphibious Warfare technology
•  Updated combat to include an awareness of relative unit upgrades resulting in less bloody combat between similarly upgraded
opponents. For example, two Level-2 Tanks attacking each other will incur damages similar to two Level-0 Tanks.
•  Convoy routes are now shown with directional arrows so players can better understand the relationship between source and
delivery countries.
•  Expanded the Reports dialog to include several new subdialogs and graphs including a ‘Detailed’ unit losses report page as well as
MPP, Convoy, Raider and Strategic Bombing graphs.
•  Convoys – Shows a graph of the total convoy income coming in for a country as well as all the convoy losses
•  Raiders – Shows all the surface fleet losses as well as sub losses that a country has accumulated each turn on any enemy convoy
lanes. This should be a good indicator for a country like Germany to see if their battles against convoys have been worth the effort
as they cross reference with the effect of their raiding in the Convoy chart.
•  Strategic Bombing – Shows the losses incurred from strategic bombing, including future MPP collection losses due to lowered
resource strength values, by an enemy action as well as the associated enemy bomber losses. For example, the Allies can use this
information to determine if their Strategic Bombing campaign is worth the effort by looking at the German Strategic Bombing
chart showing all the resource losses that Germany has suffered as well as the enemy bomber losses, i.e. those of the Allies, in
attempting to inflict those resource losses.
•  MPPs – Charts the accumulated MPPs from each turn as well as the MPPs spent on new unit purchases and MPPs lost from unit
damage and destruction. Totals are also shown at the bottom of all graphs.

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 News from Reflexive Arcade

Campfire Legends: The Hookman

On a night as black as ink, Christine’s plans for a romantic getaway go

horribly awry. It starts in a ransacked mountain cabin, and ends in a place
far, far worse than she can possibly imagine. Walk in Christine’s footsteps
and experience the fright of this fateful night before your very eyes! Only
with nerves of steel and a clear mind can you find life-saving objects and
solve challenging puzzles. Can you escape The Hookman and make it out
alive?

Ghost Town Mysteries – Bodie

Don’t stay past dark in the Ghost Town of Bodie. Tourists have reported
seeing the ghost of Evelyn Byers, a little girl who was killed by a pick axe
over a hundred years ago. The tombstones of the twelve witnesses are
missing and something is definitely up. Pick up the investigation and solve
this hundred year old mystery once and for all. Over 30 locations and 13
haunted houses… and oh! Did we mention the ghosts?

Fishdom: Spooky Splash

Build up your spooky Fishdom! Create the eerie atmosphere of an

underwater haunted house with witches, vampires and ghosts in your
aquarium. Have fun taking care of quirky tropical fishies and adding boo-
tiful accessories to the virtual aquarium of your dreams! Win trophies as
you polish your aquarium design skills in this brilliant match-3 sequel! Get
splashed with Fishdom fun!

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