Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Skirmisher Discounts ‘Experts’ 96%!

As part of its 10th anniversary celebration, Skirmisher Publishing has discounted PDF downloads of its popular title Experts v.3.5 by a full 96% RPGNow and on DriveThruRPG, from $12.99 to just 50 cents! This is a revised and expanded version of the company’s very first book, Experts, which it released in early 2002.

“One of the things that made this book notable was that Gary Gygax wrote the foreword to it,” said Skirmisher publisher Michael Varhola. “He could tell that we had drawn heavily on his work from Dungeons & Dragons when developing Experts and very generously agreed to be a part of it. He set the kind of example we have tried to follow since then, and offering one of our best titles at this price is a way for us to give back to the gaming community.”

Experts v.3.5 takes the concept of the Expert non-player-character class briefly described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and gives it unprecedented depth and playability. This 176-page book includes:

* More than 30 fully detailed Expert types, including the Alchemist, Blacksmith, Courtesan, Merchant, Miner, Navigator, Physician, Sage, Sailor, and Weaponmaker.

* The Guild Master, Militia Leader, and Spellcrafter prestige classes, the latter of which can allow Experts, Specialists, and other characters to gain specialized magical abilities that they can use to enhance their mundane abilities.

* The Specialist, a new basic character class that players can use to create versatile "adventuring Experts" of any sort.

* More than 100 new skills, including dozens of new Crafts and Professions and detailed rules for creation of everything from weapons and armor to buildings and ships.

* The concept of Convergence Tasks, activities that can be accomplished as the result of having ranks in two or more skills (e.g., use of Craft (Blacksmithing) and Profession (Mining) to perform Smelting). These can allow characters to perform relatively specialized functions but does not inundate the game with obscure, rarely-used skills.

* A section of 20 new Feats.

* 22 new magic items.

* More than two dozen ready-to-use NPC Experts that can be used as-is or easily modified to suit any campaign or adventure.

* Flavor text from a number of literary sources that can help stimulate interest in the various sorts of Experts presented in this book, suggest how they might be used, or show them in a different light than usual.

And now you can get all this for just 50 cents! This special sale will not last long, so go ahead and pick up your copy now.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

USMSC at MegaCon 2012


We had a blast at MegaCon this year with Mindgame Productions and the United States Marine Space Corps in Orlando, FL. Some of my favorite moments, captured here:
Mac briefing a group of players before they go into the simulation. 
USMSC group photo

NPCs

It's THAT guy

A team prepares to enter the simulation
MindGame Productions is the longest running airsoft-events company on the east coast. Established in early 2005, MGP is based in Florida with team members spread through Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas. Company events have been focused in Florida, but MGP has also run events in Ohio, Indiana and is always looking for opportunities to develop new events in the south-east.

The USMSC is an organization for fans of the military sci-fi genre. Whether you're a fan of military sci-fi authors, or you love films or tv shows such as Aliens, Starship Troopers, Stargate-1, BSG and others... all are welcome in the USMSC. Our organization celebrates the comraderie, drama, epic struggle and the horror of the military experience as realized in everything sci-fi.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Skirmisher Releases ‘Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #3: High-Tech Weapons’

Skirmisher Publishing LLC is proud to announce the release of Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #3: High-Tech Weapons! It is written by Derek Holland and Chris Van Deelen, authors of multiple multiple Mutant Future supplements, and is available through online venues that include DriveThruRPG.

Like magical weapons in fantasy games, high-technology firearms are treasures that adventurers seek out with great eagerness in the post-apocalyptic world. No matter how cool a weapon is, however, players will always be looking for something better to use against the many hazards that populate the science fantasy post-apocalyptic wastes, and this third issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands is devoted to new toys that Game Masters can use to reward — or punish — their players. Several of the new weapons presented in this issue have the option of different types of ammunition, adding even more variety to a game.

This publication is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and role-playing games in general and to fans of Goblinoid Games’ Mutant Future RPG in particular. The rules contained herein are compatible with it and any others that use the “Basic” system introduced in the most popular role-playing games of the early 1970s and are easily adaptable to many other games (especially successor systems, to include those covered by the Open Game License).

Our goal is to release a new thematic issue of this publication just about every week and to have it contain a variety of useful and earnest information that will inspire Game Masters and players alike and provide them with things that they can immediately plug into their games. We very much hope you will find this and subsequent issues of the Wisdom from the Wastelands to be useful and enjoyable!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Skirmisher Releases ‘Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #2: Monsters That Improve with Age’

Skirmisher Publishing LLC is proud to announce the release of Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #2: Monsters That Improve with Age! It is written by Derek Holland and Chris Van Deelen, authors of multiple multiple Mutant Future supplements, and is available through online venues that include DriveThruRPG.

Like a fine wine, some monsters improve with age, and it is to them that this second thematic issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands is devoted. An age chart can be a wonderful tool for Game Masters who want to scale monster encounters so that they are commensurate with the powers and artifacts possessed by the player characters. A chart of this sort is made up of three columns, one each for the age of a creature, its hit dice, and notes. Notes include damage, mutations, drawbacks, and anything else that affects the creature in or out of combat.

This publication is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and role-playing games in general and to fans of Goblinoid Games’ Mutant Future RPG in particular. The rules contained herein are compatible with it and any others that use the “Basic” system introduced in the most popular role-playing games of the early 1970s and are easily adaptable to many other games (especially successor systems, to include those covered by the Open Game License).

Our goal is to release a new thematic issue of this publication just about every week and to have it contain a variety of useful and earnest information that will inspire Game Masters and players alike and provide them with things that they can immediately plug into their games. We very much hope you will find this and subsequent issues of the Wisdom from the Wastelands to be useful and enjoyable!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Skirmisher Releases ‘Wisdom from the Wastelands’

Skirmisher Publishing LLC is proud to announce the release of Wisdom from the Wastelands, a publication dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas for modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and role-playing games in general and Goblinoid Games’ Mutant Future RPG in particular (5 pages, $0.99). The rules it contains are compatible with this game and with any others that use the “Basic” system introduced in the most popular role-playing games of the early 1970s and are easily adaptable to many other games, especially those covered by the Open Game License. It is written by Derek Holland and Chris Van Deelen, authors of multiple Mutant Future supplements, and is available through online venues that include DriveThruRPG.

One of the most entertaining aspects of a post-apocalyptic RPG is the many sorts of artifacts. Mutant Future and other popular post-apocalyptic role-playing game rules have decent rules for figuring out and repairing artifacts. The first issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands covers several new rules related to this, from optional bonuses on figuring out artifacts, to manuals and toolkits. There are also rules that cover saving throws for artifacts and how much damage they can sustain before being damaged or destroyed.

Our goal is to release a new thematic issue of this publication nearly every week and to have it contain a variety of useful and earnest information that will inspire Game Masters and players alike and provide them with things that they can immediately plug into their games. We very much hope you will find this and subsequent issues of the Wisdom from the Wastelands to be useful and enjoyable!