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Dispatches:
News from Atlas Games
Ars Magica & Cthulhu500 Win Origins Awards
Atlas Games is pleased to be the recipient of this year's Origins Awards for two of our games!
Ars Magica 5th Edition -- designed by
David Chart,
Jonathan Tweet, and Mark Rein•Hagen, with graphic design by
J. Scott Reeves -- won Best Role-Playing Game for 2004. In Ars Magica ("The Art of Magic"), players take the roles of wizards who are as powerful as those we know from legend and literature; in the land of Mythic Europe, those legends are real. The rules encourage players to develop their characters over long periods of time, and make the covenant -- the home base of the characters -- central to the stories. Troupe-style roleplaying allows players to take on the roles of multiple characters, so that the players have equal access to power even though the characters do not. This new edition is rewritten to improve the rules for existing players, and to be more attractive and accessible to new audiences. It features all-new graphic design, two-color interior printing, and a hardcover binding. Retailers can request full-color Ars Magica 5th Edition brochures, with a poster map of Mythic Europe inside, for their stores by contacting info@atlas-games.com
Cthulhu 500 -- designed by
Jeff Tidball and illustrated by
J. Scott Reeves -- won Best Traditional Card Game or Expansion for 2004. The Cthulhu 500 card game puts you in the driver's seat for a frenzied race that mixes the madness of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and the insanity of motor sports. Rev up your Satanic Pushcart's Engine Of The Damned, mount your Radials From Beyond Space And Time, and take a Dreamlands Shortcut to win the race for The Sponsor That Must Not Be Named. The driver in the lead when the Checkered Flag card is drawn celebrates victory by devouring his opponents! Retailers can request full-color Atlas Games Card Games brochures for their stores by contacting info@atlas-games.com
Congratulations to all the people who made this possible!
Bunnies ... they're so cute, no?
So, why aren't John and I in Columbus for Origins? Here's one reason ...
Our exciting project of the week is that we've volunteered to provide homes for four foster rabbits temporarily. Last week approximately 70 rabbits kept by a "hoarder" in the Twin Cities were confiscated, after having endured some horrendous living conditions. That's where the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society -- a non-profit rabbit rescue organziation -- stepped in, taking as many as they could find space for. Read all about it at
mn.companionrabbit.orgJohn and I are founding members of the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society -- John's actually on it's board of directors, and I used to produce its newsletter -- so we felt that we had to help however we could. Rescued animals often have health problems, so they're quarantined from our own two rabbits. One of them is a sweet
boy dwarf Netherland who we haven't named yet, and the other three are girl Jersey Woolies -- really long-haired, small rabbits. Because of serious fur matting, two of them have had most of their fur shaved. Let me tell you, little looks as absurd as a shaved long-haired rabbit. Check out the picture of one we've named
Pooka. Despite the hardships she's gone through, she's been enjoying her veggies, which she probably hasn't had in a LONG time. She has really beautiful, bright blue eyes. The goofiest is
Scylla (aka "Silly" -- her bonded partner is Charybdis, of course), who lookes like a shockingly underdressed Albert Einstein, with a skinny little shaved body and an incredible mane of fur all around her head and face, gray and white in color. They'll be ready to adopt in a few weeks after they've recovered from their spay surgeries and their fur has grown out a bit.
The dwarf is ready to be adopted immediately (after a little bit of medical care) -- he's outgoing, loves to be petted, and returns affection by licking your hand, which is very rare in rabbits. The other three are a lot more nervous around people, but part of our job in fostering will be to help them get comfortable with humans, so they'll fit in well with their new homes.
If you'd like to help the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society by volunteering your time or making a donation, or if you're interested in adopting a rabbit and live in the Twin Cities area, now's the time to contact MCRS! They can be reached at MNHouseRabbit@aol.com or 651-768-9755, or by mail to: MCRS, PO Box 390691, Edina, MN 55439. As soon as the rabbits MCRS took in are ready for adoption, you'll be able to find their pictures and biographies at
www.petfinder.org
Special Ops Quarterly Drawing Winner Announced
Atlas Games is pleased to announce that Neil O'Rourke of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada is the winner of this quarter's Special Ops prize drawing. Neil 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 September 30th, and will feature a choice of prizes such as press sheets and original art from our popular Ars Magica, Feng Shui, Penumbra D20, 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:
Kevin Powe (Avatar, 200 HP)
Timothy McDowell (Companion, 100 HP)
Joseph Sweeney (Companion, 100 HP)
Tim Mullins Blaine, Jr. (Grog, 50 HP)
Congratulations to all of you, and keep up the great work!
Also, we'd like to welcome the following new recruits:
Alexandre Caron
Dyler Dion
Jason Freston
Palika Goldstein
Fabio Rojas
Bob Wagner
Daniele Corrado
Pawel Matysiak
Chris Nord
Andy Reimer
Silvio Scocco
Glenn Seiler
Matthew Constantine
Scott Suehle
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
Lunch Money is Educational?
Once Upon a Time and Lunch Money were both mentioned in the most recent edition of Games Quarterly magazine ... a special edition on educators and games! Okay, so Lunch Money wasn't really cited as "educational" per se. Actually, it was listed in "Mike's Top 10 Least Geeky Games" column. ;)
Dungeoneer in Polish!
It's my pleasure to announce that we have finalized an agreement with Polish game publisher
Galakta for them to translate and publish
Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord, as well as other
Dungeoneer games in the future.
Gloom & Lunch Money Tournaments for DexCon 8
This word just in from Double Exposure, the people who run DexCon 8 and the upcoming Gloom and Lunch Money National Championship Circuit:
The DEXCON 8 schedule has now been posted, and can be found at
www.dexposure.com/d8sched.html. The Atlas Games tournaments that we are running are:
Gloom B326, B427, B529, B596, B659, B774
Lunch Money B391, B532, B688, B790
New on RPGNow: Love & War
This weekend's new RPGNow download is
Love & War, the third and final entry in the "Campaign Styles" series within our Penumbra line of d20 System supplements. In this book David Chart explores the role of knighthood in roleplaying. It is also available in print as a hardcover, so be sure to look for it at your local game store!
Atlas Marketing Madness
Worried you haven't found that special promo with the cut-out card? Itching to ooh and aah over our latest glorious full-page ad? Here's a wrap-up of our marketing efforts for this year's releases so far ...
- New Northern Crown brochures, Ars Magica 5th Edition brochures, and Atlas Card Games brochures, each with a full-color poster inside! Retailers, see what they look like on our retailer page and contact info@atlas-games.com to ask us to send you copies for your store!
- Preview of Gloom in Undefeated in the summer of 2004
- Overview of Gloom in ACD's newsletter in October 2004
- Gloom full-page color ad in Dragon in October 2004
- An article on Once Upon a Time in Games Quarterly in the fall of 2004 by Matt Forbeck.
- Article on Gloom with an exclusive cut-out promo card in October 2004's Game Trade Magazine
- Ars Magica 5th Edition full-page color ad in Dragon in December 2004
- Overview of Ars Magica 5th Edition in the ACD newsletter in December 2004
- Gloom appeared on the cover of ConTemporal earlier this year.
- A review of Gloom in Scrye in April 2005
- A review of Ars Magica 5th Edition appeared in Scrye in May 2005(?)
- An article on Northern Crown with exclusive new material will appear in Game Trade Magazine in July 2005
- An article on Gloom: Unhappy Homes with exclusive cut-out promo card will appear in Game Trade Mazazine in August 2005 (GenCon edition).
- Northern Crown will get a mention in the First Watch section of Dragon Magazine in September 2005.
- Gloom t-shirts are now available through Offworld Designs; see www.offworlddesigns.com
- Gloom now has a National Championship circuit through Double Exposure; see www.dexposure.com
Also look for our reglar listings of products in Games Quarterly, Game Trade Magazine, and Game Buyer!
New on RPGNow: Crime & Punishment
The title pretty much says it all...
Splintered Peace on RPGNow
David Chart's saga of a city in crisis,
Splintered Peace, is now our latest digitized d20 product available on RPGNow. You can also buy the print version from the usual sources.
New on RPGNow: Backdrops
This morning brings another Penumbra title to the download menu on RPGNow:
Backdrops, the collection of maps and associated handy crunchy bits.
This title is still in print, so you are also encouraged to ask for it at
your local game shop, or pick up a printed copy from
Warehouse 23!.
New on RPGNow: En Route 3
Today's new offering on RPGNow is
En Route III: The Road Less Traveled, the third installment in the popular
En Route series of
Penumbra encounter collections. You can also get
En Route (the original) and
En Route II: By Land or By Sea as PDFs from RPGNow.
En Route III is still available in print as well -- just ask for it from your local game store, or stop by
Warehouse 23!
The Mysteries and Let's Kill
Despite the lack of cover art, The Mysteries (Revised) and Let's Kill are now officially announced releases, as you may have noticed from the links at left.
The Mysteries is the revised version of the popular sourcebook on mystery cults, now updated for
Ars Magica 5th Edition.
Let's Kill is a bloody little card game in which you play a psychotic killer determined to kill as many people as possible in the most bizzare ways you can think of, using everything from sporks to weed whackers to industrial paper shredders, while gaining as much media coverage as you can.
Both are expected to be available in October.
Over the Edge 2nd Edition Reprint
Earlier this week we announced to distributors that we have planned the reprinting of
Over the Edge 2nd Edition, the now-classic roleplaying game of surreal danger on the bizarre Mediterranean island of Al Amarja, designed by Jonathan Tweet with Robin D. Laws. There will be only minor cosmetic changes (such as switching to an EAN barcode on the back cover), plus a price change (it was $25, a price that dates back to 1997; it now will be $29.95).
If you can't wait to get it in print, it's
available right now as a pay-download from RPGNow.
Northern Crown at Press!
In September 2002 I received a submission from Doug Anderson for a d20 campaign setting in a fantasy New World. Last night I sent the files to the printer for
Northern Crown: New World Adventures and
Northern Crown: Gazetteer. When the books ship to stores in August, it will have been almost exacly three years since that first letter from Doug ... it's been a LOT of work (thanks for your patience, Doug!) but I think the finished product is every bit as good as
Nyambe: African Adventures, which I've long considered to be our best d20 offering. And I think it will appeal to a much larger cross-section of gamers. Now I just have to wait, like everybody else!
New on RPGNow: Unhallowed Halls
Our latest addition to the selection of digital products on RPGNow is
Unhallowed Halls, an adventure of mystery and terror set in a fantasy university setting, designed for characters of 6th to 8th level. This book is still available in the print edition,
from Warehouse 23 or your favorite
local game retailer.
New on RPGNow: Dynasties & Demagogues
On RPGNow this morning, you can now download
Dynasties & Demagogues, Chris Aylott's definitive manual for political d20 campaigns. This is one of the all-time most popular and praised sourcebooks in the Penumbra line. The book is still in print, too; if you prefer the sturdy hardcover, just ask for it at your
local game store, or drop by our mail order partners at
Warehouse 23.
New on RPGNow: Sacred Ground II
More modular goodness is available on RPGNow for download this weekend:
Sacred Ground II. Like the original volume of
Sacred Ground (also available for
download), it's a collection of holy/unholy sites, fleshed out with maps, NPCs, and story ideas, ready to be dropped into any d20 System fantasy campaign.
Our d20 Bestsellers
I've been doing some analysis of sales trends this week, and along the way came up with this list: our best selling d20 products over the past twelve months, solely on the basis of reorders. In other words, of all our d20 titles, these are the ones that keep getting bought most. If you're a d20 player, I hope you'll stop by your local game store to check them out, if you haven't already!
10.
The Ascension of the Magdalene7 (tie).
Backdrops7 (tie).
Seven Cities7 (tie).
The Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary6.
Love & War5.
Nyambe: African Adventures4.
The Black Monks of Glastonbury3.
Crime & Punishment2.
Dynasties & Demagogues1.
The Dork20 Deck
Sale Price: Seven Strongholds for $5 on W23
For a limited time, we are offering the sourcebook
Seven Strongholds by Robin D. Laws for only $5 through
Warehouse23. This Penumbra sourcebook for the d20 System gives you seven unique fortresses, designed to drop into your fantasy game world on the fly. This special sale price is good only through the end of June, so don't delay -- order your copy today!
New on RPGNow: Sacred Ground
The latest Penumbra digital book is now available on RPGNow: Sacred Ground, a collection of holy sites designed for easy insertion into any d20 System campaign. Each is loaded with locations, maps, NPCs, and assorted new goodies.
Monstery Goodness
A few months ago, we resurrected and posted the
Monster Factory article that appeared in
Gaming Frontiers in 2002, which includes most of the monsters that didn't make it into the
Nyambe: African Adventures campaign book. Now we're offering even more monstery goodness with the
Monster Factory Extras download, which gives the specifics on the last four Nyamban monsters not included in the book: the zebra, sirenian, giant catfish, and hyena. Remember that Nyambe is the African analogue for our upcoming
Northern Crown campaign setting, so these critters can be put to use right away in August when
New World Adventures and the
Gazetteer debut!
Also, I just put up an
updated distributor list that includes our new Malaysian distributor, Imagine, and added the website of our Portuguese translator,
Jambô to the
Product Info page.
Lean & Hungry - the latest on RPGNow
Another Penumbra title is now available for download from RPGNow:
Lean & Hungry, a Japanese-flavored fantasy adventure by Chad Brouillard.
This title is still in print, so don't forget that you can ask for it from your favorite game store or order it from
Warehouse 23.
New on RPGNow: En Route II
The latest pay-download PDF offering from Atlas Games is now available on
RPGNow --
En Route II: By Land or By Sea.
This PDF represents a change of strategy for us. In the past we've only been making out-of-print books available as downloads. However, in the d20 space we're finding that we need to do more to make the products available to consumers. The reality is that a lot of stores are pretty reluctant to restock older d20 titles, not surprisingly. We're hoping that offering our in-print Penumbra titles as PDFs will expose these books to more d20 fans, and ultimately lead to more sales in print as well as online. (If you're interested in a printed copy of this book, you should be able to request it through your friendly local game store, or buy a copy from our online sales partners,
Warehouse 23.)
Atlas Games Licenses Northern Crown Support to Adamant Entertainment
Atlas Games is pleased to announce that negotiations have been finalized for a licensing agreement with
Adamant Entertainment. Adamant has secured the right to publish adventures and supplements for the
Northern Crown campaign setting in both PDF and Print-On-Demand formats.
Northern Crown is a d20 System® campaign world set in North America's legendary past, in an age of frontier adventure, political intrigue, and supernatural horror. Inspired by history and infused with myth, it is a place where heroes fight for freedom, chart and vast wilderness, and battle unknown evils.
Atlas will release the
Northern Crown: New World Adventures and
Northern Crown: Gazetteer campaign books simultaneously this August. Adamant Entertainment will have a free PDF adventure ready for the release, and will be regularly releasing PDF and Print-On-Demand adventures and supplements, with
Northern Crown's author/illustrator, Doug Anderson, acting as Line Developer, in the following months.
More Northern Crown Previews!
I just finished up the layout on the
Northern Crown: Gazetteer, which will be released with
Northern Crown: New World Adventures in August. To celebrate, I've put up the five area maps from the Gazetteer on the
Northern Crown campaign page ... in full color! Enjoy. :)
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