The NewGameMaster hits the streets!

[NeverCool]

The deed is done...

NewGameMaster Issue 1 should, if all went well, be available to you all right now!

(waiting for hysterical buyer's rush to subside)

The 116 pages of pure roleplaying Goodness this time includes such varied things as:

Enchanter Spirits: Letting you put insanely powerful and completely twisted magical weapons into your fantasy campaign without unbalancing it; their powers only trigger when they find one of their own to fight!

Right Hands of Evil: Henchmen! Why do they serve Bad Guys, what must they endure, why do their masters keep them handy (especially the unruly Rogues!), and what can they do to YOUR adventures!

Transforming Robots: Robots turning into cars, jets, orbital cannons and pocket computers. For TAYDS.

Factories: How do these big and menacing places fit into adventures? Can you smash, slice, barbeque or just plain scare the wits out of your PCs and players with them? Of course you can!

Bastard Beasties: When demons are too much trouble, and nature has no good monstrosity to offer your villainous plot, splice the two options and get your own half-demonic breed of nasties. Or you could breed, hunt, study or track them to their masters...

The Dragon Slappers: What do ancient orders, mystic tomes and big wooden paddles have in common? Easy: They are all you need for lunatics to go into dragin lairs and slap dragons silly to prove how tough they are!



NewGameMaster is written for use with any roleplaying games; examples are given for TAYDS, but everything is either generic inspiration or easily converted (the Transforming Robots article is the only one that offers a bit of challenge). Due to the incident with the invalid GURPS license, I will not be supporting GURPS directly, but the two systems are very alike in their foundations, and GURPS fans will not have much trouble putting all these Goodies to entertaining use!

The next issue of NGM will be a Halloween special... Article titles are in the Next Issue page, if you have the nerves to peek.... O`w´O


EDIT: The proof for the print version just arrived, and it looks sweet! They use better paper now (thin, light, nice feel) and text is more crisp. Since the proof has been accepted, the price-cut on the digital is now ending, and digital copies now cost $5 (leaving a few cents worth of room for currency translation). Print is $12.50. Enjoy!

[NeverCool]

Phew, so much more my sales pitch!

But seriously folks, NewGameMaster is cool (I am sooo objective), and the product of serious labor. I hope it will be a hit, so I can serve your needs for 100+ pages of Goodies every month for years to come.

This thread is for people to react to the first issue, with comments and suggestions and praise, praise, praise (hey, it's my baby, I need to feel the love!). Okay, if you say at least one nice thing, you have a carte blanche for shooting me down with critique..... grumble.... :-P

If you have any suggestions for future articles, let me know, too! Article summaries are lined up until half into issue 5, but after that, the road is still open. And if you give me something juicy, it gets bumped up an issue or two ;-)


On another note, I will also start doing single articles in the 10+ page range for sale at the site. They will be digital only, at around $0.075 per page. They are meant to be compiled later, when enough articles on a theme are available for a special issue available in both PDF and print. One is Reich-X, which will become a full TAYDS setting, with individual topics being treated one by one and made available for your pleasure. Other works in progress include Pyromancy (lots of FIRE magic!), advanced enchantment and artificing, post-apocalypse stuff, insane tech, and much more...



EDIT: I copied this from my earlier announcement thead:

Credentials
I never wrote for any of the big companies. I am not famous or anything like it. I just write, and people like what I write. So rather than try to make my person look like something I am not, I'll let you browse an assortment of my available writings:

Dating Disaster: How long after The End is your post-holocaust campaign set, and what does that mean for your PCs?
Getting in Shape: Advanced shapeshifting magic (for TAYDS, but GURPS conversion included).
Godtown: An unusual fantasy setting, in which mages are hunted by worse mages and elves scheme behind mighty walls. Introduction chapter.
Reich-X: A truly dark and twisted Reich parallel, where Hitler won with UFOs, vampires, magic and other tabloid madness!
The Munchkin Cures?: More ways to tackle your persistent Munchkin players.
Space Pirates!: The title says it all! Arrr!
Future Eco-terror: The story of the professionally trained and equipped militant Gaian Guard, the last defenders of the Brazilian rainforest!
The Nexus Invasion: A bizarre cross-world setting on an Earth torn apart by rampant spirits and survivors reaching their spirit defenders through a web of artificial worlds.
TAYDS: The storefront for my own 272-page RPG book on experiementing with roleplaying, complete with rules system. Preview available.
And there is more, but I feel most of my work needs a good polish before being presented, and much of it lacks some parts (like Fantasy locations, for example).

[Pomphis]

I am interested, but: yet another registration ? Yet another password ? How about putting it on e23 ? Or amazon ?

[PK]

Originally Posted by Pomphis

I am interested, but: yet another registration ? Yet another password ? How about putting it on e23 ? Or amazon ?

Lulu is a vanity press. Anyone who wants to upload a PDF for sale can do so, and Lulu manages it (taking a cut in the process.) Both e23 and Amazon are for established publishers -- they don't let just anyone who creates a PDF sell their stuff. Of the two, it's possible that e23 might decide to take NeverCool on if they think his stuff is professional enough to sell on the site, but that involves percentages and contracts, where a place like Lulu just takes a quick upload and checking the "I Agree" box.

In other words, your complaint is sort of like being annoyed that a local yard sale doesn't take credit cards. :)

[NeverCool]

As the good reverend said, it's on Lulu because that allows actual publishing. I have tried establishing contact with e23, but just a simple question takes weeks or months for an answer, and there is a far too low limit on the amount of stuff they can take in. If a magazine like NewGameMaster is to be published, it is impossible to do through e23. Amazon is another matter, and I am actually looking at the details of doing that. If there is a good reaction to the first few issues, I will make the necessary investments to also publish via Amazon.

That said, P. Kitty is also right that it seems to be a very minor thing swaying your decision. Registration is easy and uncommitting, and you can always get a free extra copy of the digital version if your file gets lost (trust me, that is a blessing!). And unlike the yardsale, I do take credit cards :)

EDIT: Uhm... I just checked out the process again. There is no actual 'registration' required as far as I can see. You choose a password and give them a billing address if you purchased anything. You might call that 'registration', but it's not a very demanding one in my book ...

[Kyle Aaron]

You should start selling it on rpgnow.com, or yourgamesnow.com, in pdf. My previous experience with lulu is 6-8 weeks delivery Down Under, I think they send the copies on turtles.

[NeverCool]

Originally Posted by Jim Bob

You should start selling it on rpgnow.com, or yourgamesnow.com, in pdf.

I am already working on getting the RPGnow/DriveThroughRPG (they merged) account up and running. I never heard of YourGamesNow, but I'll be taking a look!

My previous experience with lulu is 6-8 weeks delivery Down Under, I think they send the copies on turtles.

Well... not the digital one I hope :-)
EDIT: The proof copy took less than 2 weeks to reach Denmark!

Lulu is slow to Asia and Australia, I know that. Scandinavia tends to be less than 2 weeks. I have no idea about the rest of the world (I hear Canada is oddly variable), but I bet the US gets it even quicker...

[TheDS]

Congratulations!