RPG Now Releases of Interest: Week of Jan 17, 2011

I go to RPGnow every so often to torture myself with RPG systems and settings that I'll never get to play.

HARP SF looks interesting. Aside from the attention-grabbing cover, HARP has been of interest to me as a possible alternative to the Fading Suns system or to the native Rolemaster system of Shadow World. With the addition of Science Fiction rules, it may indeed be my go-to system of choice for Fading Suns (or some other Science Fantasy setting should the system for Fading Suns 3rd Edition pique my interest).

A bit of the marketing copy has me worried though:

This first volume of HARP SF includes:

· Character creation rules for human and alien characters

· 11 professions
· 6 alien species
· 9 cultures

I'm a bit worried that perhaps the rules are too tied to the setting, but I suppose we'll find out soon enough. If the quality of the layout is anything like the Shadow World Player's Guide, this may be a strong seller for HARP fanatics and curious SF gamers alike.

Kobold Quarterly Magazine #16 is also out, with the launch of the Midgard setting that Open Design has been working on for a while. I've been thinking of becoming a patron for a while now, just to get some insight into the game design world. I'm thinking of picking up this issue as well -- because I just don't have enough settings that I'll never get to play in. Midgard looks like a worthy addition to the list.

The rest of the magazine may not be that useful for me however, as I'm not an adherent to the 4th Edition D&D rules, nor am I a Pathfinder user. And even if it is relatively easy to convert Pathfinder stuff into Castles and Crusades rules, I think that I've got TONS of 3rd Edition, B/X, BECMI, AD&D, AD&D 2nd Edition source material already in my collection -- and that's not counting all the tons of stuff already available from the OSR movement too. Guess I'm just not the target market for this magazine. Not yet anyway.

In other magazines, Signs and Portents #88 is available for free, as usual. I'm probably going to download this for the following items:

• more coverage on the new Noble Armada rules (using the A Call To Arms engine that used to be for the B5 ship miniatures);
• the excerpt on the new Cathay book for Earthdawn;
• the Paranoia adventure;
• the Lone Wolf adventure; and
• the preview of the new Runequest setting.

And I guess that's it from this corner of cyberspace, anchored in the Pearl of the Orient (the Philippines, or so our national anthem says).

Are there any news items of note from you neck of the woods? Leave a comment below and let me know about it.