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.

Goodbye, ICE; Hello New ICE!

Snagged this news announcement over RPG.net:

Aurigas Aldebaron LLC, owner of Iron Crown Enterprises and all its intellectual property, announces the appointment of Guild Companion Publications Limited, based in the United Kingdom, as the licensee for our High Action Role Playing (“HARP”), Rolemaster and Spacemaster game systems, which is in addition to the recently awarded license they hold for HARP Science Fiction system and the long-running Shadow World setting. 

Aurigas Aldebaron LLC is instituting its vision of “next generation game company management” by reducing the number of vertical layers in the industry which stand between game creators and the fans that play such games. It is seeking game developers to utilise its additional properties including Cyberspace and the pirates-based game Run out the Guns!, and possibly the Silent Death game system Combat Express license. Its new strategy also includes more involvement from a community support and marketing perspective, and it expects to have some more involvement with its properties than it has had in its past. To support these efforts, Aurigas Aldebaron LLC has recruited third parties and volunteers to manage its licensee properties, relationships, website, forums and marketing efforts.

About Aurigas Aldebaron LLC: In December of 2001, Iron Crown Enterprises (“ICE”) and all its intellectual property was purchased by Aurigas Aldebaron LLC, a Virginia-based company backed by several wealthy individuals. Aurigas immediately replaced the former ICE management with part of the management team from ICE which formed itself into a separate company to manage ICE under license. Aurigas Aldebaron LLC will continue to act in a capacity of an intellectual property owner licensing its properties to qualified game creators and developers. It will continue to seek properties to acquire and additional game creators and developers to work with. For more information, please visit www.ironcrown.com.

About Guild Companion Publications Limited: Guild Companion Publications Limited is the commercial arm of the Guild Companion magazine (www.guildcompanion.com). Previously it published Rolemaster, HARP and Spacemaster products under license from Mjolnir LLC, and already holds a direct license from Aurigas Aldebaron LLC to publish HARP SF and Shadow World products, and its Director (Nicholas HM Caldwell) is the author of Rolemaster’s Mentalism Companion and Construct Companion, HARP’s College of Magics, and of the upcoming HARP SF and HARP SF Xtreme products. The new license arrangement with Aurigas Aldebaron LLC provides GCP Ltd a complete offering in fantasy and science-fiction gaming. GCP Ltd’s commercial products are available exclusively via the OneBookShelf network of ecommerce outlets (see http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=461).

Guild Companion Publications Limited is a private limited company registered in England and Wales under No 7094505. Registered office: 77 Speedwell Close, Cambridge, CB1 9YS.

So, while there's a loss of the current holder of ICE intellectual properties, apparently a new group will be taking over the reins. And I've grabbed some stuff from Guild Companion for HARP (primarily to look at the system) and HARN (to look at the setting), so I'm hopeful.

My big interests here are more HARP and HARN and Shadow World, as I'm not a big fan of Rolemaster.