April 1, 2018: Announcing Hall of Judgment for Dungeon Fantasy RPG!

[ArchonShiva]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

(Yes, I know that's for the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line, but that's the one that is being sustained.)

Wait, what? Did I miss an announcement? As far as I can tell, non-print DFRPG is alive and well, and currently seems to be the primary line, as evidenced by Five Easy Pieces in the latest Pyramid being written for DFRPG and giving conversion notes for DF (unless you want to be a bard, in which case, we’ll, let’s not get into that).

At any rate, basic wilderness rules within an adventure are likely to be both simpler and less complete than DF16, much like Technical Grappling already exists but doesn’t invalidate Dungeon Grappling Quick-Start rules.

Maybe they’re testing the waters, too. See how people react so they can say either “Yeah, that was an April’s Fool all along” or “Yay, let’s release it!” The August release date makes this a possibility, whereas most recent PDF GURPS supplements, I think, have been announced and released basically simultaneously.

[mehrkat]

Well played SJGames. If it's an April fool's day joke it's got everyone wondering and crying that it might not be real. If it's real it's got everyone talking.

By the way please be real.

[mehrkat]

By the way Doug's in on it I got an email from Gaming Ballistic.

[ColBosch]

DF16 is for GURPS 4e. Dungeon Fantasy, as has been stated numerous times, is based on GURPS, but is not the same game. Nobody ever ruled out continuing support for Dungeon Fantasy.

If this is an April Fool's announcement, it would be more ridiculous. SJ Games certainly knows humor, and nothing in this is funny. It's just a teaser for what looks like a solid adventure/rules expansion for DFRPG.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

I'm sure this is at least in part an April Fools' Day joke—why advertise wilderness rules when there's already DF16? (Yes, I know that's for the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line, but that's the one that is being sustained.) However, the idea of a stripped-down Technical Grappling supplement for Dungeon Fantasy doesn't strike me at all as ridiculous, and quite possibly one of the items Kromm has been reviewing.

And Kromm released a Wrestler template for DF in Pyramid.
I tend to agree its not funny enough to be April Fools joke. Or the joke went over my head.
If its real (And Tuhans Bey made some good arguments) I'm buying it.

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by Tom H.

Was a special license arrangement needed between Steve Jackson Games and Doug Cole's Gaming Ballistics?

As a matter of good business practice, we do not discuss the specifics of licensing arrangements. (To be clear, I don't know whether there is one in this case or not; it's outside my wheelhouse.) We've known and worked with Douglas for years; I'm quite sure that if a license was needed, the negotiation was relatively painless.

Originally Posted by Bruno

They announced GURPS 4e on April 1st. Just sayn.

Originally Posted by sjard

But as I recall, they announced it as a clicky base minis game.

As the author of that particular jape, I'm pleased to have it remembered. (Here's a link to the Illuminator if you want to go read it.)

What I particularly enjoyed about it was that GURPS 4e development was well underway by this point, and so much of what was "said" by the principals in the first three paragraphs was accurate, if not word-for-word quotes. Also, and I don't think I've revealed this publicly before, I may have neglected to warn them before I queued that late in the evening on March 31, and there may have been a couple of anxious moments for Sean and David when they thought I had jumped the gun on a long-planned announcement. That was cruel of me, and I apologize.

(We had one VERY annoyed fan who emailed Steve directly without realizing the date of the posting -- apparently, he had invested a LOT of money in six-sided dice -- and then he got even more annoyed when Steve pointed out that it was a joke. I hope he's gotten over it in the succeeding 15 years. Hoo, boy, that WAS 15 years ago, wasn't it?)

The next year, after we had announced GURPS 4e for real, we decided to post an April 1 Illuminator that was a real product announcement. We didn't expect that we would be the fools . . . (That said, we haven't given up on it yet!)

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

I was going to say that I could do with such news more often. Then I noticed the date...

Please let this be real!

I'm pretty sure this will be a real thing. It's backed by resources that seem real enough.

That said, it's possible that April 1 was chosen as an announcement date to sort of gauge support and reaction with a fallback to squirm out of some commitments if the response was tepid.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Tom H.

That said, it's possible that April 1 was chosen as an announcement date to sort of gauge support and reaction with a fallback to squirm out of some commitments if the response was tepid.

That seems utterly implausible to me. SJ Games has for years avoided "vaporware" announcements to the best of their ability. That's kinda accusing them of deliberate deception in their product announcements, which is unfair to a company which has historically been remarkably open about their processes and problems.

[Blind Mapmaker]

Glad to see, it's a real thing. It was just the date in the title of the thread and the mock-up Dungeon Fantasy written over the original cover that set my joke sensors off.

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Things missing for this to be an SJG April’s Fools joke:
1. A print version

It is possible for this to be in print.

I give my standard disclaimer of knowing no details on the project..

If its a Kickstarter or requires a minimum preorder count then yes it is possible that this would have a print run.

Otherwise it can just come out as a PDF with PoD.

Other interesting things would be including cardboard standees and maps. But I think those might be significantly larger commitments in the $$$ dept.