Pelgrane in the Time of Corona

It’s been a long two months, and we hope that you’re staying safe and well, and adapting to life in self-isolation. We’ve been very fortunate in that both our UK and US warehouses are able to work while remaining compliant with the regulations of the UK & Nevada state authorities’ health recommendations. All US & Canadian orders are shipping as usual; our UK shipper has some postcode- and country-level restrictions due to a lack of international freight options – you can read more about these exceptions here.

What seems now like couple of years ago, when it became clear that we had to retreat to the safety of our respective nests to weather this storm, we asked you what sort of resources, articles, and products you were interested in. Here’s a run-down of the most common responses we got, and what we’ve been up to on that front.

Video

Many of you expressed disappointment about missing out on conventions – specifically, watching panels and seminars, as well as hanging out with other Pelgranistas. We’ve ramped up the video offerings on our YouTube channel, and we’re releasing new videos a couple of times a week. There’s a list of our new videos in this article.

And if you want to stay connected with what we’re doing outside of YouTube, find Pelgrane Press on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and now Discord.

More Virtual Tabletop assets/advice and tips for playing online

Most of our team has made the switch to gaming online now, and Robin and Wade have both pulled together tips and advice on how you can make the transition to virtual play smoothly.

Production Apprentice Noah Lloyd has been hard at work building new character sheets and expanding the range of adventures available on a variety of VTTs such as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds and Astral – read more about what’s on offer in his article below.

• 9 Tips for Remote Tabletop RPG Play – Robin D. Laws switched his home game to a remote one; here’s what he’s learned.
• Try the Black Book – Steven Hammond is extending free trials of the GUMSHOE character generator during the lockdown.
• 13th Sage: Roll20 Tips for 13th Age GMs – Wade Rockett gets Roll20 advice from 13th Age Roll20 master Aaron Roudabush.
• Pelgrane Press is Virtual – Noah Lloyd is working on our VTT products, and has advice on running games on Discord, Slack and Zoom.
• Refresh Your Health Pools With This Weird Piece of Plastic Junk – Robin D. Laws breaks character to talk about fitness in a time of pandemic.
• GUMSHOE Community program expansion – We’ve added Ashen Stars, Esoterrorists, Fear Itself and TimeWatch adventures, characters and settings to the GUMSHOE Community program.

Support for retailers

We believe that Friendly Local Game Stores are the lifeblood of our hobby, and we know that they’re being hard hit by widespread closures at the moment. We’ve implemented a number of ways to support them:

• Give your FLGS 20% of the sale amount of any print products you bought in the Pelgrane webstore in April or May, which your FLGS currently stocks. Email your Pelgrane webstore order number, and your FLGS’s store name and address, to support@pelgranepress.com and we’ll send them 20% of your order total at the end of May.
• All our pre-orders are available through the Bits and Mortar program, so your FLGS can offer any of our pre-orders along with the PDF.
• While distributors are closed, game stores can order stock direct from us by emailing us at support@pelgranepress.com.
• We’re delaying the retail releases of Mutant City Blues 2nd Edition, Book of the Underworld, and Swords of the Serpentine until stores have safely reopened.

More One-2-One resources

• We’re working with a number of authors on new, self-contained PDF-only GUMSHOE One-2-One protagonist characters, settings, and adventures. We’ll be releasing these as they become ready over the coming year.
• We’ve also made both Cthulhu Confidential and Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops, as well as the adventures for both, available at a bargain price at the Bundle of Holding until May 18th.

Advice and tips on roleplaying with children

This is Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s specialist subject, as he’s been running games for his two boys (now aged seven) for the last couple of years.

• Gaming for Kids – Some hints and tips on how to make roleplaying games more enjoyable for the smallies
• GUMSHOE Kids playtesting – Provisionally titled “GUMSHOE Kids”, Gareth’s also been working on an adaptation of GUMSHOE for younger players ages 7-12. We’re looking for playtesters for this until the end of May.

Other customer offers, events and discounts

• During 2020, we’ll release the PDF versions of all new products as soon as we have the final PDF (so The Yellow King RPG PDFs, Mutant City Blues 2nd Edition PDF, and Book of the Underworld PDFs are all available now in our webstore and shortly on DriveThruRPG).
• We’re offering a PDF upgrade option during 2020 – if you buy any PDF from the Pelgrane webstore in 2020, you’ll get a voucher for the total amount of the PDF off the print version. We’ll send these vouchers out periodically through the year, or you can contact us at support@pelgranepress.com to get one.
• Some of you have mentioned that you’ll miss our special convention 4 for 3 offer, so that will be a standing offer on our webstore until September 1st, 2020. If you buy any four items – print or PDF – you get the cheapest one for free with the voucher code COVID20@4FOR3.
• Want to grab the PDF of any of our Free RPG Day adventures? You can pick them up for a Pay What You Want charitable donation.
• Another reminder that our existing One-2-One settings and adventures available for a bargain price at the Bundle of Holding until May 18th.
• Pick up a Night’s Black Agents or The Yellow King RPG mask in our Threadless store, and get free shipping with the code FREESHIP520ebd78d 
• The Origins Game Fair has moved their physical convention to October 7th-11th, and will be hosting a virtual convention on its original dates, June 19th – 21st. We’ll be supporting this virtual convention with as many seminars and games as we can get volunteers to help us with, so watch this space!