Monday, September 21, 2009

The Outland System Fantasy Role Playing Game is in the works!


While the name of the game hasn’t been released yet pending website domain purchasing, with a choice yet to be made between six closely related but different titles, we have commenced part time and highly enjoyable work on the fantasy RPG. This upcoming game will use the same game mechanic as used in The Mutant Epoch, with several additional character traits to reflect a fantasy world where magic, luck, and the Gods are all very real factors in daily life. The Outland System Fantasy RPG had a former life as a home brew for many years just like the Mutant Epoch did; however, the play test version that we are currently using is greatly expanded and incorporates many of the game innovations learned in the creation of TME as well as trends in the RPG industry.
Because we have been so hard at work on The Mutant Epoch and have still so much to do on it, and still have no firm release date, we don’t even want to hazard a guess as to when the fantasy game will hit the stores. We have been debating whether or not to release the fantasy game Hub Rules as a sort of supplement to TME, like our time travel and dimensional portals book, or Prehistoric World supplements, also in the writing stages. I personally think the reception of the Mutant Epoch will determine the scope of the FRPG line, and to divide the focus would not help Outland Arts until well after TME has been on the market and built a solid base of players who have expressed interest in changing genres but keeping with the Outland System game mechanic.

There are a ton of articles circulating around the internet about Fantasy RPG Heartbreakers. Check out this great and frightening essay: More Fantasy Heartbreakers by Ron Edwards .

Competing with Dungeons & Dragons TM and the OGL seems illogical from a strictly business point of view… however, as a gamer, one who loves the pace, simplicity and myriad of options available in the Outland System… I simply prefer our in-house rules, especially with the additional fantasy and spiritual traits found in the fantasy game, the two settings we are working on, and the unique look at fantasy monsters and magic found in the as yet unnamed Outland Arts fantasy RPG. I suppose it goes without saying that if we found what we were craving in d20 or OSRIC or other FRPG systems, we’d publish under one of those mechanics. We simply feel that The Outland System is the best tabletop gaming mechanic available for the sort of role playing games we enjoy.

As soon as we have a few of our FRPG test play characters ready, we will post PDFs of the character sheets here or on the outlandarts.com site to give you a sneak peek.

Best regards,
Will
Creator

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Village of Walsave:: 1st rank adventure written and in playtest

The Village of Walsave, a 1st rank adventure for 6-10 player characters of The Mutant Epoch tabletop role playing game, is written and in the edit and illustration phase as of mid August 2009. This is our last for-purchase manuscript destined for the initial release in 2010. The adventure was initially to be part of a series of 50 page multi-path adventures, but even in its MS Word version it now stands at 80 pages, which will convert up to about a hundred pages when art, tables, graphic elements, appendices, maps, floor plans and other gaming goodness is inserted.

Play testing of the adventure will commence in the next two weeks and we look forward to reporting the outcome without spoiling the adventure for those of you who will be playing it down the road.

We will post sketches, finished art and maps for this project here and on the main TME site as they become available.

Have a great day

Will

Creator