View From the Pelgrane’s Nest – August 2020

Current News: The Dying Earth RPG in the Bundle of Holding

I sometimes joke that it should be actually be called The Un-Dying Earth RPG, because it’s still going strong since it became the game that spawned not just our company, but also, our company name.

The celebrated fantasy novels by Jack Vance on which this game is based—The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel’s Saga, and Rhialto the Marvellous—portray the exploits of characters ranging from vat-grown beauties to wandering scoundrels to vainglorious magicians, who eat, drink, gamble, explore, and cheat their way through what is widely presumed to be the final era of history.

Vance writes for intelligent readers. His fiction displays consummate style, wit, imagination, and an unmatched ability to conjure vivid, exotic, yet convincing societies, where a flashing sword is less important than nimble wits, persuasive words, and a fine sense of fashion. A Vance character seldom resorts to violence, preferring cunning or persuasion—or, in the Dying Earth stories, the occasional magic spell.

The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game captures the badinage of the books with the tagline, a line of dialogue that you are rewarded for delivering during play, with more advancement points being awarded depending on the appropriateness of the line to the situation – and, of course, the more entertaining your use of the line.

So if persiflage is your meat and drink, take thyself to the Bundle of Holding, where until two days’ hence, the Compleat Dying Earth collection is available to all wise enough to recognise a singular bargain when they see one.

Recent News: Gen Con Online

Although cancelled in its physical format, the best four days in gaming went ahead virtually as Gen Con Online. We attended a number of e-conventions as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through 2020, but this was by far the most ambitious in scope and numbers. We upped our game to match, with Noah spearheading a range of Pelgrane panels on our new Twitch channel. We’ll be uploading and releasing all of these to our YouTube channel over the coming days, so be sure to subscribe and smash that Like button to stay up to date.

And we’re excited to have won the Gold ENnie for Best RPG Related Product, for Dean Englehardt & Robin Laws’ stunning city guide to 1895 Paris, Absinthe in Carcosa for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, there’s a preview of it here (and another one for the YKRPG here). Thanks to everyone who voted for us, and our warmest congratulations to all the other winners!

It wasn’t the same as being together in real life, but it’s always great to hang out and talk about our games and what we’re up to, so thanks to everyone who stopped by one of our panels, and as always, we couldn’t do what we do at any Gen Con – IRL or VR – without our wonderful GMs. A massive shout-out to them all, as they braved scant info and a whole new level of player wrangling to run a host of Pelgrane RPGs at Gen Con Online, introducing a new audience both to Pelgrane games and to our Discord server, where we’ve been welcoming new players and GMs to the Pelgrane community.

New to pre-order: Elven Towers

During a long-ago war between the elves and the dwarves, the Elf Queen drew forth and bound the wild magic of the elves and fey in a single location in the Queen’s Wood, so she could draw on it more easily. When its original guardian became corrupted, the Elf Queen resealed the location with three keys, one for each of the three elven peoples. The keys to unlocking the Elf Queen’s power are hidden in three magical towers, and the elves themselves cannot pierce their defenses.

Available now to pre-order, Elven Towers is a champion tier 13th Age adventure for 3 to 6 adventurers by Cal Moore (High Magic & Low Cunning, The Crown Commands, Fire and Faith). It includes plotlines and options for adventures throughout the Queen’s Wood, with multiple elven-themed encounters you can use in any campaign.

Work in progress update: Even Death Can Die

Christian is back at work on this, and is finishing off the art and layout now. He’s a draft final PDF ready for review, and we’re hoping to get the final Even Death Can Die PDF to pre-orderers in the next See Page XX.

Work in progress update: Book of the Underworld

The print pre-orders of the Book of the Underworld have now been shipped, and should be arriving with pre-orderers shortly if they aren’t there already! Friendly local game stores can expect to get this in September.

Books you may’ve heard rumours of during Gen Con update:

Untitled Lunar Society Project

Phil Masters, who we worked with previously on the Dying Earth RPG, joined us on the Swords, Spies & Shoggoths panel at Gen Con to announce that he’s working on a Georgian-era setting book for Trail of Cthulhu based on the historical Lunar Society, a learned society in the British midlands. He’s now submitted the manuscript, which is in copyediting. We’ve commissioned Sarah Saltiel (Black Star Magic, The Doors to Heaven) to work on a parallel setting based on the Blue Stockings Society, a literary discussion group roughly contemporaneous to the Lunar Society. Both will be combined in the final book.

Untitled GUMSHOE One-2-One Fantasy book

Gareth is very close to finishing the writing on this. He’s just finished the last of three adventures, so next week he’ll be writing cards and filling in gaps. We’re hoping to have this available for playtesting in the next edition of See Page XX.

Untitled adaptation of GUMSHOE for younger players

We’ve got a load of really insightful feedback on this from the recent playtests (as well as comments on Discord), so once Gareth’s finished with GUMSHOE One-2-One Fantasy, he’ll start to edit GUMSHOE Kids.