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Dispatches:
News from Atlas Games
Atlas Out of Office
John and I will be leaving today to travel to Japan for David Chart's wedding. We'll be back in the office on Friday, October 6th, but we probably won't be able to really address any concerns until the following Monday at the earliest, what with the jet lag and all. Thanks for understanding.
A Report from the Fleet
We received a dispatch via Carrier Seagull from the Pirate Scourge of the Southern Seas, aka Mark Amoroso of the
Blackthorn Game Center in Dickson, Tennessee. The intrepid Admiral Amoroso reports on the pirate wars that broke out in local waters over the weekend:
I ran games and demos for Po8 this past Saturday. The response for the game was impressive. Most people were like "Wow, that's a game? I thought they were just cool looking coins". I had ordered some more sets for the store this past week and sold four of them on Saturday . . .
I played in eight consecutive games. Each game was a three player game. Let me tell you, Po8 is awesomely cool! Once you start to grasp strategies, and you recognize the coin faces and their abilities, the game just suddenly comes together. It becomes a fast paced game (since you don't have to refer to the rule sheet as much) and it just all-out rocks!
Have pirates been raiding in your neck of the woods? Sail on over to the
Atlas Games Forums and tell us about it!
Ars Magica and Spammers Downloads
I just posted two new unified indexes for
Ars Magica 5th Edition: The
Shape and Material Bonuses index by Bonus, and the
Shape and Material Bonuses index by Shape/Material. These indexes cover all Arms Magica 5th Edition products through The Infernal, and are provided courtsy of Erik Tyrell.
Also new is the
Spammers rules translated into Spanish. Our thanks to Rodolfo Schmauk O. for providing this download.
Ars Magica Open Call
We are having an Open Call for Ars Magica freelancers. Anyone who is interested may submit material for consideration; this is a way for us to discover new talent, and for you to get your foot in the door of the roleplaying business. Download the
Ars Magica Open Call instructions to learn more. It is very important to follow the instructions. Don't let our first impression of you be of someone who cannot read carefully.
Authors we discovered in our last two Open Calls are now writing most of the books for the line, and we hope that we will discover similarly talented individuals this time.
Good luck!
Gloomy December
December will be a very
Gloomy month, and we're not just talking about seasonal affective disorder! We have found a promising new supplier here in the US to print
Gloom and its expansions for us, and we are planning to have reprints of the
core Gloom card game and the
Unhappy Homes expansion deck, plus the brand new
Unwelcome Guests expansion, all shipping to distributors in December.
Our new supplier is going to cost more than the original printer in India, but based on transparent card games they've printed in the past we expect much higher production quality and consistent quality control. Unfortunately, we need to increase the price on the base game to $24.95 to offset part of the increased manufacturing cost (and we'll still be taking a big hit to our margins). I think the extra cost will be worthwhile in terms of customer satisfaction.
For the 55-card expansions, I expect we can keep the same $12.95 MSRP that
Unhappy Homes had when we released it a year ago. (This may be subject to change, based on the final pricing we get from our new printer. I didn't want to delay announcing the new expansion any longer, however, now that we know its delivery time won't involve ocean freight.)
Later today I will send around to our distributors a full product announcement for
Unwelcome Guests (and soon we'll have it up on the blog here). In the meantime, here are the vital stats for all three
Gloom SKUs that will be available in December:
Gloom - The Game of Inauspicious Incidents and Grave Consequences
110 poker-sized transparent plastic cards plus rules sheet in a tuckbox
Stock No. AG1250, ISBN 1-58978-068-X, MSRP $24.95
Gloom: Unhappy Homes
55 poker-sized transparent plastic cards in a tuckbox
Stock No. AG1252, ISBN 1-58978-081-7, MSRP $12.95
Gloom: Unwelcome Guests
55 poker-sized transparent plastic cards in a tuckbox
Stock No. AG1253, ISBN 1-58978-093-0, MSRP $12.95
Talk of Piracy
Y'arr and avast! We'd be shirkin' our duties if'n we failed to alert ye that
International Talk Like a Pirate Day and
Pieces of Eight be much a'like sea and salt, like cannons and balls, like parrots and peg-legs... they be great tastes what taste great together!
Captain Jeff humbly suggests — nay, he
orders, ye scurvy bilge rats! — that instead of just talkin' the talk on this most piratical of holidays, ye plays the game, and smartly!
Pieces of Eight FAQ
Questions about Pieces of Eight? Check out the new
Pieces of Eight FAQ!
Ancient Magic Cover
I've just uploaded the cover for the upcoming
Ancient Magic supplement for Ars Magica 5th Edition. Ancient Magic describes nine forms of ancient magic, and rules for integrating their secrets into Hermetic theory. It's scheduled for release in January.
City & Guild Cover
We've just put up the cover for the upcoming
City and Guild supplement for Ars Magica 5th Edition, which provides background on the facts of life in the towns of medieval Europe, and rules for craftsmen and traders. Enjoy!
Various Updates
Lunch Money Sells Out (Again)Yet another printing of
Lunch Money is now history. The reprint has already been ordered; delivery is expected in early November. This is a straight reprint -- no changes. Lots of our distributors recently stocked up on the game, upon hearing that we were running low, so your favorite game store probably still has it in stock (and if not, their distributor probably does) -- if you're a consumer, this out-of-stock period is probably not even going to be noticeable. But if you need a copy for a specific date/purpose (like a birthday present), I wouldn't put off buying it.
Ars Magica Reprints in OctoberBased on several factors (the success of the
True Lineages reprint, the short time in which
Mystery Cults sold out, the generally good sales of the whole 5th Edition line, and the fact that the printing cost looks affordable), we've decided to arrange a modest reprinting of two out of print
Ars Magica 5th Edition supplements:
Guardians of the Forests and the ENnie Award-nominated
Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults. These reprints will be available in October. (Specifically, our printer has advised me that October 17th is the expected delivery date.)
Guardians of the Forests
144 pages, hardcover
Stock No. AG0276, ISBN 1-58978-072-8, MSRP $29.95
Reprint Ships to Distributors in October 2006
Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults
144 pages, hardcover
Stock No. AG0281, ISBN 1-58978-086-8, MSRP $29.95
Reprint Ships to Distributors in October 2006
In case you are wondering -- no, these are not print-on-demand; we are doing a regular print run on web/offset presses, just like the first printings of these books. These are reprints, not revisions (stock number, price, ISBNs remain the same), so people who already own the books won't want to buy them again; however, we believe there is unsatisfied demand for these books among the game's fans which these reprintings will meet.
City & Guild Slipping to NovemberJury duty recently pulled Jeff Tidball away from his layout work on
City & Guild. Unfortunately, we don't think it's possible for this book to be out on time in October; we're expecting November delivery instead, and hoping that the above-mentioned reprints will hold the
Ars Magica fans at bay in the meantime.
New Spanish Grand Tribunal and updated Product Price list
Our thanks to Rodolfo Schmauk Ortúzar, for translating the
Grand Tribunal Rules into Spanish, which is now available on the
Grand Tribunal product page.
Additionally, the new
Product Price list has been updated in the
Retailer Support area.
Weep in PDF
Weep, the huge collection of
Unknown Armies scenarios, is now available as a
pay-download PDF from RPGNow.
Seismic Review
Tom Vasel just put up a new review of
Seismic at boardgamegeek.com. Tom comments that "Seismic is not "Carcassonne with earthquakes", although that descriptor will give you a feel for what the game entails. It's a good light game and allows players to control a spaghetti-like network of roads. The earthquakes themselves add a level of tension to the game, as players worry that they'll hit their roads; and the game is usually fairly competitive down to the end. A nice design by Mr. Alspach!"
Read the entire review now!
New Addition to the Schedule
Ancient MagicA Player's Sourcebook for Ars Magica 5th Edition
by Erik Dahl, Timothy Ferguson, Jeff Kyer, Richard Love, John Post, Paul Tevis and Alexander WhiteLegends tell of the mighty wizards of the past, sorcerers with powers that dwarf those of the magi of the Order of Hermes. Hyperboreans whose spells lasted a generation, necromancers of Canaan who could summon any of the dead, rune magic that brushed aside Magic Resistance like cobwebs; all these stories circulate in the Covenants of the Order. Other forms of magic are so ancient that even the legends have become rare. The Seekers are those magi of the Order who search for these secrets, aiming for the glory of being the one to bring the power to modern magi.
This book contains descriptions of nine forms of ancient magic, and rules for integrating their secrets into Hermetic theory. From the frozen north to the westernmost edge of the world, from humankind's earliest homes to grand temples of the classical world, the quest can lead your characters anywhere in Mythic Europe, and even beyond. How far will they go for knowledge?
Description: 144 pages, hardcover
Stock Number: AG0284
ISBN: 1-58978-094-9
Suggested Retail Price: $29.95
Shipping to Distributors in January 2007
Dungeoneer Media Attention
A review of
Dungeoneer recently appeared in the Parkersburg News/Sentinel. Michael Erb says, "Dungeoneer is a lot of fun, but probably appeals more to the experienced gamer than a casual one. That doesn’t mean you should pass it up, though. The dungeon building process, dark artwork and sometimes subtle and quirky humor hidden in the cards can make for a very enjoyable game, regardless of how familiar you are with roleplaying or similar games. In fact, Dungeoneer can provide a nice, roleplaying-lite introduction to roleplaying games."
Read the entire review now!
Pieces of Eight Banner Ad
I've just posted a banner ad for our newest game
Pieces of Eight. Look for it in September at RPG.net and BoardGameGeek.com, or download it for your own web site!
Dark Tales in Spanish
Check out the
Dark Tales card list now in Spanish from the
Dark Tales product page, thanks to Rodolfo Schmaukl Ortúzar.
Updates from the Warehouse
Boy, it's been busy.
Pieces of Eight has shipped successfully, and now I'm trying to catch up on a whole lot of things -- like several weeks of unanswered e-mails. (Apologies if you've been waiting for a reply, but I hope I'll get back to you soon.)
I just sent around an update to distributors, which included a few points of information that others may care about:
Gloom Sold Out: The last of our supply of
Gloom (AG1250) shipped with the new releases of
Pieces of Eight. We are considering a couple of possible new suppliers for the game, either in the USA or in Europe. We don't yet know when we'll be able to have the game back in stock, but when we do we will also have a new expansion set, entitled
Unwelcome Guests (AG1253), and we may also have a reprint of the first expansion,
Unhappy Homes (AG1252).
Lunch Money Running Low: Our supply of
Lunch Money (AG1100) is probably enough to last about a month to six weeks at the normal rate of sales. We have ordered a reprint for delivery in November. Thus, there may be a short out of stock period before the reprint arrives, but we should have an ample supply in time for the Christmas season. For consumers, you probably won't notice the out-of-stock period, since many stores and distributors will still have the game on their shelves during the window between when we sell out and when our reprint arrives.
Weep Now Out of Print: The
Unknown Armies adventure collection
Weep (AG6006, ISBN 1-58978-000-0) has sold out and is now out of print. We do not plan to reprint this book. It is not yet available as a PDF, but making it so is on my "to-do" list.
For the moment, my to-do list is topped by taking care of some customer service issues and unanswered e-mails (thanks for your patience if you're one of the folks waiting), and then getting a weekend...this is my twelfth consecutive day in the office (though I was happily able to get half the day off yesterday), and I'm really looking forward to getting out of here for a break!
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