Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

"a bad cat bite" ??

Wait, you're not one of those 1d4 HP D&D wizards, are you? If so, stay away from cats!

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

What did you do to the kitty?

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

I admit I may be out of date on this. But I know several years ago, they generally wouldn't test for rabies (except in the dead animal that bit). They'd simply treat for it. Once symptoms showed up....

Just in the last month, I talked with someone who lost someone else due to them getting rabies from a cat bite.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Byzantium! (I couldn't help myself.)

I'll look forward to these. Reading the Hot Spots is never wasted time.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

If I turn into a cat at the next full moon, you can rest assured that I'll write about my experience!

The cat in question is a well-cared-for inner-city pet who comes from his back yard to ours, not a feral who plays with raccoons and skunks. He has his shots. Cat-to-human rabies is <0.1 cases/year here due to mandatory pet vaccination; so, they don't ever test at ordinary clinics. You'd have to have known cases in a specific area first, and then you'd be sent to a special clinic.

But in general, it was taken care of. I got a tetanus shot, which left me with a stiff arm on the other side from the bite. I also got ultra-strong, broad-spectrum antibiotics, which caused fun side effects: GI upset, itching, irritability, restlessness, sleeplessness, and more.

Norwegian forest cat, in this case. See the photo.

I think it cost me 1 HP for real (he bit me right to the bone) and the infection cost me 1-2 HP afterward, yet I'm still here.

Nothing. He visits from next door all the time. I was in my kitchen, right next to the door, and he came in to rub all over my calves and purr. When I scritched him on the head, which he likes, he bit me . . . I think he was having a bad day.

It probably happens in some places, especially rural places, but it's such a rare thing here that treating for it prophylactically would be a case of the cure being worse than the disease. The overwhelming risk is of tetanus.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

OK, it would be hard to be angry with that cat.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

My goodness, what a handsome creature. Somehow when I look at him I imagine a hybridization of cat and owl.

A while back, when a couple of mice got into our apartment, our property manager gave us sticky traps for them, which are supposedly more humane (having used them, I don't think that's true at all!). C picked up the first one to see what had happened with it, and the mouse bit her. But the hospital emergency room declined rabies prophylaxis, saying it was never an issue with mice. I'm glad to say they turned out to be right!

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Yeah, that is one gorgeous kitty.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

He is not my cat, so he just spends all his time with me and in my apartment. But he isn't a bad cat. He was just having a bad evening.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

What a pretty cat. My wife was bitten by one of our cats. He had gotten one of his paws trapped in our TV stand. He was afraid and bit her hand to the bone. I was able to get him released but the damage was done. She ended up in the hospital for four days from the infection from that cat bite. Cat bites can be nasty if deep enough. Both my wife and the cat are fine.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Good to know!

I have a high resistance to infection due to my injury-heavy, dirt-eating youth, but this one nearly got me. The antibiotics were NOT fun.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Ooh, you're right, he's a great model for a gryphlet (barn owl/house cat gryphon.)

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Are we likely to get a GURPS PDF release schedule for 2024, as we did for 2023, or was that a one-time experiment?

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

We have approved schedules for the rest of 2024 and all of 2025, but I cannot share them until I receive explicit permission. I'll see what The Powers That Be have to say . . .

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Does this mean you won't be accepting any proposals for anything to come out before 2026?

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

I was not harmed by the fire next door, nor did I become a were-cat on the Hunter's Moon.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

That is correct. Anything proposed now would be on the 2026 schedule at earliest. We've filled 2024 to capacity and look to have enough for 2025 as well.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Any guesses who the "well-known author of crunch" could be? I think my money's on David Pulver... unless PK is making a return to GURPS.

(Both might be wishful thinking though.)

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

These days I hear that line and I think of David Pulver or Christopher Rice.
I doubt we see PK again, but would be nice. CR just had an adventure pop out so seems unlikely.
Phil Masters tends to be less number heavy but might also qualify as "Crunch"

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Yeah, Christopher and Phil would've been among my next guesses.

A surprise new David Pulver item would be really cool though.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Yeah, wonder what it could be? I am thinking GURPS Spaceships entry maybe?

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Would I be exaggerating if I said there's a lot going on in GURPS right now? I think not.

As for the "crunch" discussion, I think there just might be a clue in the latest GURPS thread entry.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Yeah, I noticed that, sounds like David (hooray!), unless there are two such works in progress.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Hooray for another Dungeon Fantasy title on the horizon!

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

I'm curious to see what David's new book will be about, but I don't think we'll get an answer for at least another few months.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

An "easy" project would be a compilation and expansion of the armor-design rules from his series of three Pyramid articles. That would be both crunchy and widely useful/accessible.

Or, more speculatively, perhaps it's the gun-design rules that once formed part of the Vehicles project. I think GURPS Arsenal was once mooted as a title?

Even more vaguely, it could always be another Spaceships title, though I can't really imagine which design space remains to be explored in that subline.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

I believe at one point there was discussion of a book called Sentient Spacecraft or somesuch. Which could provide a hook for something that is to Robots what Spaceships is to Vehicles.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW. This one is later than usual simply because I had a bad cold all week and had to catch up.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

A new Dungeon Fantasy Monsters?

So, we've had a generic group, a slimy set, a magical menagerie, a den of dragons, and a jumble of demons.

So what's next?

Undead? Weird Things from Beyond? Fey?

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Looks like a lot is happening!

I'm sorry you had a terrible cold, but am glad you're back.

But don't blame me for the cold--that was from Ada, not Alden!

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

I'm hoping for Elder Things. It feels like a natural next step after Demons.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

I feel like Elder Things would be too similar to Demons. Heck, their chaotic and unpredictable nature would respond really well to another random-table approach, as was used for Demons. Of course, random tables are really popular these days, so I'm sure it would sell well.

We know Kromm is partial to the topic, so I'm hoping for Undead. Everything from necromantically animated hands (also suitable as 62-point familiars!) to assorted pyramid/barrow attendants to gruesome mass-grave conglomerations to BBEG liches. Obviously you'd update some material from the 3rd-edition Undead title and offer plentiful cross-marketing call-outs to Zombies and Template Toolkit 4: Spirits.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

No guesses here as to what category will be next... other than to bet that it won't be Mundane (too broad).

And categories like Plant and Spirit get some treatment in other books, so those are lower on my guess list.

Well, I'll welcome anything. Maybe Constructs and Divine Servitors in particular – not that they're notably exciting to me, but they're maybe prime candidates for more fleshing-out.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

So much guessing! I will say that Monsters 6 is not about a monster class.

My reason for doing that for demons was, frankly, that demons lend themselves all too well to randomness. A wise man named Eddie once said, "Chinese have a lot of Hells." Something similar holds for demons: If you want a demon of rattlesnake venom in the desert, you'll be waiting a long time for it to show up in a bestiary, so why not roll your own?

Almost all of the other monster classes work better as specific examples: Animals actually exist, shouldn't be random, and would fill dozens of 21-pagers – and hybrids would come after all that, so don't wait for it. Constructs ought to be, er, engineered to the encounter. Divine servitors (already in Allies) and Elder Things generally need to serve a purpose somewhat narrower than that of demons . . . but on the other hand, if you want a random one, you could just roll it up as a demon and change the label, so I'd prefer not to offer those so soon after demons. Elementals are cool but there's already a good system for them in Summoners. Mundane is stupidly broad, essentially a catchall, and never going to happen. Slimes have already happened.

Less negatively, I agree that plants and undead might be cool, but I can promise you that it isn't either of those this time around. Maybe someday . . . I can also promise you that it isn't a random menagerie, like Monsters 1.

Leaving a final clue, this theme is not a class like that of Monsters 2 or 5 (slimes and demons), nor is it as narrow as that of 4 (dragons). It comes closest to that of 3: Monsters linked by an idea. This time, though, the idea isn't linked to the monsters' origins (like myth or magic), but more to their dramatic role and another thing I cannot mention without giving up the guessing game.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Made me think of Monsters Inc. :-)

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 6: Big Bad Evil Guys?

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Heh, yeah, I was going to say either "bosses" or, on the other end of the spectrum, "minions".

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

You know, I would honestly like to see divine servitors and/or elementals get revisited at some point, because Allies and Summoners feel... it's a little hard to describe, but I want to say "poorly integrated" into the rest of the DF line. Like, the rules for divine servitors in Allies can technically be used to build demons by applying the Unholy lens, but the result will bear little resemblance to the demons in other sources, meanwhile elementals in Summoners are all built atop the templates from Magic, which have some odd features that AFAICT result from Magic 4e wanting to cram every elemental into a 40-point budget, and more generally from Magic 4e trying to covert a huge amount of material from 3e all at once resulting in a product where the details are often not super well thought-out. These and other factors, I think, result in a bunch of critters that feel somewhat out-of-place in the broader Dungeon Fantasy line.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Happy slightly belated Thanksgiving to my U.S. friends!

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

Happy really belated Thanksgiving to those in Germany, Canada, Liberia, and, slightly belated, in Norfolk Island and Brazil!

As for GURPS, I look forward to seeing what happens!

Re: So, how great is Kromm anyway?
 

New entry posted in the GURPS thread of my DW.