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Dispatches:
News from Atlas Games
Special Ops Quarterly Drawing
Atlas Games is pleased to announce that Matt Ryan of Ithaca, NY is the winner of this quarter's Special Ops prize drawing. Matt will get to choose a prize from among the rare and and one-of-a-kind Atlas Games items reserved for the Special Ops drawing.
Special Ops is Atlas Games' corps of loyal fans who organize and run demos and tournaments at retail stores and conventions across the country and around the world. At the end of each quarter, Special Ops demo team members who have run a game in the last three months are entered into a prize drawing for special Atlas items. The next drawing will be March 31st, and will feature a choice of prizes such as press sheets and original art from our popular Ars Magica, Feng Shui, Penumbra D20, Over the Edge, and Unknown Armies RPGs, and from card game favorites like Dungeoneer, Lunch Money, and Once Upon a Time.
Atlas is also happy to announce that the following Special Ops members have gone up in rank this quarter:
Matt Muth (Companion, 100 HP)
Todd Furler (Companion, 100 HP)
Matt Ryan (Companion, 100 HP)
Bill Korsak (Companion, 100 HP)
Congratulations to all of you, and keep up the great work!
Also, we'd like to welcome the following new recruits:
Chad Bowser
Timothy McDowell
Davis Adrian
Neil O'Rourke
Thanks for being a part of Special Ops!
If you're interested in joining Atlas Games' Special Ops demo team, just fill out and send in the application form at www.atlas-games.com/specialops .
To request a demo at your convention or retail store, send in the demo request form located at www.atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/SOdemorequestform.rtf .
Michelle Nephew
Special Ops Coordinator
Atlas Games
Anyone? Anyone?
So, I think I've got most of the big bugs out of the website now. I'd appreciate comments form anyone who's found a problem, but remember that none of the product pages (names like AG0000.php) are converted yet, so don't worry about them. Please post your note as a comment to this blog entry by hitting the "comments" link below, then scrolling to the bottom of the next page and hitting "post a comment". Thanks for your help!
I'm Working on It
I know the site is not working properly. I'm working on fixing it now. It might be working by the end of the day. Maybe not. Be patient!
Milestone
A purchase order I received by e-mail this morning put us over the top: Our gross sales this year have now beaten the year 2000, even though we still don't yet have
Gloom. This is a great accomplishment for us, because 2000 was the best year for Atlas sales since the CCG boom and the big sales of
On the Edge in 1994-1995. While 2000 was a generally good year, enjoying a general surge in roleplaying sales with the renaissance led by D&D 3rd Edition, our numbers were obviously boosted by being at the front of the line for the d20/OGL phenomenon, with
Three Days to Kill and the beginnings of the
Penumbra line. This year our strong performance was driven by a more diverse product line than ever: supplementary products for our perennial bestsellers (
Sticks & Stones and
Beer Money for
Lunch Money;
Dark Tales and
Create-Your-Own Storytelling Cards for
Once Upon A Time), the growing line of
Dungeoneer games, new stand-alone card games like
Cthulhu 500 (and we're still hoping for
Gloom before year-end), and of course the rebirth of
Ars Magica in its Fifth Edition.
It's not quite time for the year-end retrospectives, but since we just passed this marker I figured I'd make a note of it. I'd especially like to express my gratitude to the folks who slaved away here in the Atlas offices this year -- Scott Reeves, Will Hindmarch, and Michelle Nephew -- and to Jerry Corrick, who takes care of so many essential but not-very-fun things like taxes and insurance. Without their hard work the success of this year would not have been possible.
Grand Unveiling
DA-da-da-DAAAAAA ...
I'm anticipating that tomorrow morning will be the unveiling of the NEW Atlas Games website. After several weeks of grueling coding work on the part of myself and webgoddess Wendy Wyman (you may know her from her web work on www.dorktower.com), it's finally ready to go up. The new site will feature much more intuitive navigation, a stylish new look, and all those updates you've all been asking for.
One note, though ... since we have several hundred "product pages" (those with a name like AG0000.html), I've decided to mount the main site pages now and leave converting the bulk of the product pages until later. So, it's no use telling me that they're not converted yet, because I know they're not converted yet. ;)
Please give me until Thursday morning to work out all the kinks. After that, comments about broken links and things not working can be left as comments on our blog. Thanks!
Death of a Mailing List
Michelle just sent around a note to the "Atl@s Updates" mailing list, announcing that we're closing it down. For some years it was a mailing list that you could sign up for here on the web site. In theory, it was going to be a somewhat irregular e-mail update with information of things going on at Atlas Games, such as new releases and the like. In reality, even when we had more staff, it wound up being used very rarely. I think there are a bunch of reasons, but they boil down to the making of a newsletter always slipping to the bottom of the to-do list, behind things like making games and shipping them to customers.
Meanwhile, the use of Blogger has recently transformed the front page of our website. It used to be that content here had pass through whoever was webmeister, and that person had to redesign the front page in order to feature anything new. Now Michelle, I, or even
Ars Magica Line Developer David Chart -- who lives in Japan currently -- can post a new message to this page from any internet-connected computer in the world, whenever we have some tidbit to share. Moreover, the XML/syndication aspect of this page allows readers to subscribe to the blog, using something like
FeedReader -- or, heck, you could even channel it to your personal web page, just like news headlines. And this format supports reader comments, as an added bonus.
We think that the new website set-up is better than the old "Atl@s Updates" was in theory, and way better than it worked out to be in practice. We hope you agree.
The Ars Magica Price Change
I recently sent out a note to distributors on this topic, but looking over the recent entries I don't think I posted here.
We've announced that on January 1st, Ars Magica 5th Edition's suggested retail price will be $35. We will be honoring orders at the special introductory price of $25 up through 5 PM Central Time on December 31st here at the Atlas offices. I haven't yet coordinated with Warehouse 23 to work out how they will implement the price change, but it should be very similar (i.e., if you place the order on Dec. 31st you get the low price, even if it doesn't ship until the first business day in January).
Some distributors and retailers who bought their stock at the introductory price may continue to sell it at that price, so you can keep your eyes open for the bargain. However, the way to be sure that you don't miss out on the big savings is to take a moment to visit your local game store and pick up a copy today -- and if they're sold out temporarily, make sure they are ordering a copy for you without delay.
The Latest Gloomy Word
The latest word: The
Homeland Security inspection is complete, so
Gloom is one step closer to actually being in our warehouse. When it will actually be in our warehouse, who can be sure? but I'm hoping it will be relatively early next week. Who knows? We may even have it into a handful of stores before Christmas.
New on RPGNow
This weekend I distilled PDFs of two more older books of ours, and they are now available on RPGNow.
The first is
Over the Edge 2nd Edition, by Jonathan Tweet with Robin D. Laws. Needless to say, Jonathan and Robin have both gone on to do quite a lot more since they collaborated on Over the Edge more than a decade ago, but I think this remains one of the seminal works of "rules-lite" roleplaying. We recently sold out of the printed game, and I do hope to bring it back into print sometime in 2005...but PDF allows us to keep it available for sale in the meantime.
Second is
The Mythic Seas, an Ars Magica sourcebook. This title is very nearly out of print...as I type this, there remain just five copies of the book in our warehouse. We do not plan to reprint the book, but once again PDF allows us to make it available to those who crave its contents nonetheless.
Gloom is SOOOO Good ...
... that it doesn't even need to be in stores to win awards!
Ogrecave.com just announced their list of "Twelve Games at the End of the Bed: 12 Games for $20," intended to be a "list of gift ideas that might just keep the gamer in the family happy this holiday season." In the twelve, Atlas placed TWO (count 'em, TWO!) games ...
Gloom and
Cthulhu500. They also say very nice things about them, which you can read at
http://www.ogrecave.com/features/12xmas_2004_1.shtml . Happy Holidays!
Web Site Wonders
I've got all kinds of new goodies for you this week ...
First off, I've put up the Ars Magica 5th Edition color map of Mythic Europe as a PDF. You can find it linked from www.atlas-games.com/arm5/index.html
Also, I've posted the full Gloom rules as a PDF at www.atlas-games.com/gloom/index.html
And you'll notice the product images for Glimpse of the Abyss and Guardians of the Forests: The Rhine Tribunal at left.
Enjoy!
Homeland Security
Well, the gentleman at the shipping company informs me that the ocean container holding
Gloom is being held for inspections by Homeland Security (this is even before it gets to clear customs). He declines to give anything definite for how long it will take them to complete their inspections, but suggests that 1-3 weeks is typical.
Argh.
Gloom Update - Bad News, Good News
The tortured saga of
Gloom continues. Apparently it didn't get loaded on the
Indamex Mumbai after all, but rather a later ship, with a later arrival date. That's the bad news. The good news is that I got a fax this morning that indicated that the games did at last arrive in New York. Or perhaps they did within the past couple of days. This international shipping documentation is a muddle to me. Anyhow, I'm sending faxes and making phone calls and trying to nail down the story and figure out when exactly the games will be on my loading dock. It does seem very likely that we'll be shipping orders this week, at long last.
Whither the Poster Map?
When we announced 5th Edition, we also announced that we were going to be promoting it with a poster map/flyer. The idea was that it would be a full-color version of the Mythic Europe map in Ars Magica 5th Edition on the inside of the flyer, and information about the Ars product line on the outside. (If you've seen our last two board/card game flyers -- one had the Lunch Money "Fight Like a Little Girl" poster in the middle, the other had the Sticks & Stones poster, you'll know what I mean.)
But here we are, Ars Magica is out, and some folks have been wondering where's the map? The answer, unfortunately, is that it didn't get done. Between working our tails off to get 5th Edition itself to press on time so that the book would be out in November, and then losing our employees, we just didn't get it done in advance.
Now the flyer is laid out...but our feeling at this point is that the best thing to do with it is to make it available in March, at the annual GAMA Trade Show. That will be a better opportunity to get it into the hands of stores and make the most of it for marketing purposes. While pushing the flyer into a store owner's hands, we can sell them on the idea of stocking 5th Edition and its supplements. Plus we'll be able to revise the flyer with the most up-to-date information about the line before we do send it to press.
As with the board/card game flyers, we'll be printing a lot of them -- we send these flyers out to conventions, stores, distributors, we pack them inside the boxed games that we assemble just-in-time in the office (such as Cults Across America), etc. Anyone will be welcome to send us a self-addressed, stamped envelope, too, if they want to be sure and get a copy.
ArM Line Editor Email
It has been pointed out to me that the contact page currently has an out-of-date email address for me. We'll get that updated as soon as we can. In the meantime, my current email address for anything to do with the line is:
arsmagica@davidchart.com
Ars Magica 5 Playtesters
Despite my best efforts, the playtester credits in ArM5 are not quite right.
First, Sean Winslow, Angus MacDonald, Stephanie Sours, and Kevin Sours also participated in the first round of playtesting.
Second, the last playtester listed should be 'Fr. Tom Dowd'. I have no idea where his surname went.
My apologies to them, and my thanks once again to all the playtesters for their sterling contribution to the new edition.
New Ars Magica 5 Mailing List
I've set up a mailing list aimed at people new to Ars Magica Fifth Edition. The existing mailing list can get a bit, how shall I put this,
involved at times, and some of the debates are continuations of arguments that started before you were born. Some of the debates started in the thirteenth century.
The new list is supposed to be more accessible to new players, in that people posting to it won't assume knowledge of history, either of the game or of the real middle ages. Of course, there's nothing wrong with signing up to the BerkList as well; I certainly intend to stay on it.
To subscribe to the new list, click on the title of this article and follow the instructions.
Ars Magica 5th Ed - #1
Ars Magica 5th Edition dominates its category for November sales at Warehouse 23, and
Calebais: The Broken Covenant grabs the #2 spot. The sales we've been seeing through W23 have been unprecedented, much to our delight, and we've also been pleased with the strong reorders we've been getting from distributors all over the world.
If you haven't already bought your copy of the new edition...you now have 30 days left to take advantage of the low introductory price of $25. Don't miss out!
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