Web Site Update

[Valamir]

Just completed another update to the site.  Added a bunch of Add-ons from Alan's recent thread.  Also put up a new essay about keeping the story focused using Traits and Facts featuring the ideas of Tony Irwin.

[Valamir]

Another update is up.  A new actual play story from a recent game I played with Seth "yes I'll have something on Alyria ready for GenCon" Ben-Ezra and his wife.

Also, believe it or not, a new entry for the long drawn out art contest which is pretty cool.

[Valamir]

John Harper submitted an image for our ongoing art contest.  Its the first entry to make use of photography so be sure to come check it out.

Universalis Web Page

[Valamir]

I'm pleased to announce that Universalis is now available for purchase through RPGMall in addition to direct from Ramshead.  Wholesale discounts are available for retailers interested in carrying the title.  Contact Valamir@aol.com for more information.

In addition there is a downloadable PDF flier now available.
I've been asked for this by fans looking to run demos at local cons, and its now available.  Also suitable for retail display.

I'm very pleased to announce that Adams & Co. a chain of bookstores in Durban, South Africa is the first retailer to carry Universalis.

And last but certainly not least, Pasi Backman has submitted a very slick entry into our Universe Alice art contest.

I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think.

[Tony Irwin]

I'm pleased to announce that Universalis is now available for purchase through RPGMall in addition to direct from Ramshead. Wholesale discounts are available for retailers interested in carrying the title. Contact Valamir@aol.com for more information.

I'm very pleased to announce that Adams & Co. a chain of bookstores in Durban, South Africa is the first retailer to carry Universalis.

Congratulations! That's wonderful news - I hope the current run sells out even more quickly than the first.

Do you have any news about the "Robots and Rapiers" game you mentioned in the Ramshead contact email? I know you listed Origins 03 as a key date but, living in the UK, I don't know when that is.

Oh, and all the art entries are shockingly good

[Valamir]

Congratulations! That's wonderful news - I hope the current run sells out even more quickly than the first.

Unlikely since we're already past the 4 month mark of the first run ;-)

But I do appreciate the sentiment, and actually its well on its way to breaking even which is pretty good for a small press book offered primarily direct.

Oh, and all the art entries are shockingly good

They are, and I'm really getting a kick out of the different interpretations...all playing on the girl and a universe theme but in very different ways.  The image used in the latest one is actually a roman statue taken by the artists girlfriend on vacation.  Pretty clever.

We need 4 more entries, however, before the terms of the contest are fulfilled, so break out the crayons and construction paper kiddies and get crackin' :-)

[Do you have any news about the "Robots and Rapiers" game you mentioned in the Ramshead contact email? I know you listed Origins 03 as a key date but, living in the UK, I don't know when that is.[/quote]

Progress on Robots & Rapiers proceeds, thanks for remembering.  I took the last couple weeks off after having finally hammered out the core resolution mechanic because the other core to the game (the path of the robot towards becoming sentient) was niether elegant nor effective.  Yesterday, I actually sat down and began writing again with the new idea that brewed up over the hiatus.

A few people have been subjected to an alpha version of the rules already (Mike H. being one) and I'm hoping within the next couple of weeks to have a version finished (with actual functional character creation rules and a scenario which the first effort lacked) in the next couple of weeks.

Origins is at the end of June, so no way I'm actually making that, but it is within the realm of possibility that I'll have a demo version available for GenCon at the end of July.

When I get things together I plan on putting it up on a seperate page at the website and solicit some play testers to put it through its paces, so if you're interested at all in that, stay tuned.

[Valamir]

Now available for download is a pdf of the complete Chapter One of Universalis.

This is the Basic Concepts chapter where the premise of the game is introduced.  It also features layout and artwork.

If you've been on the fence about purchasing the game, take a look at Chapter One and see if that helps with your decision.


In other news, Universalis has made the "Hot Sellers" list on RPGMall for the month of June.  Thanks to all those who've purchased the game either direct from Ramshead or through RPGMall.

Universalis will have presence at Origins in the RPGMall booth.

I'll be at the Con this weekend, though not specifically at the booth.  I hope to see some of you there.

[kwill]

re: Adams & Co

wow, a Mention and everything!

unfortunately our shipment got put on a boat instead of a plane so it's taking a while, but if it comes in time I may be able to take Uni to South Africa's big con, Icon

I'll have more to say when I finish writing up my Harry Potter report (held a demo game at the launch) and hopefully even more after attending the con and generating some pre-orders

[Buddha Nature]

Hey there, just wondering what happened to the website...  I can ping actionroll, but not universalis...  Did you forget to pay the bill?

-Shane

[Valamir]

Well, it was supposed to be back up by yesterday.  Apparently some websqatters nailed actionroll over the weekend.  Nathan's service says they should be able to get it straightened out (fingers crossed).  

I'm hoping its back by the time GenCon is over.  I'll keep everyone posted.

[Mike Holmes]

Back up and running!

Mike

[Valamir]

Thanks Mike.

Look for a big update with some new gimmicks and new play examples, including a couple of very cool new GenCon demos.

Mike, any possibility of you working up that Victorian Superheroes play you John Wick and Tom Denmark played...?

[Valamir]

Ramshead returns from a triumphant GenCon and makes the "hot sellers" list at RPGMall for July after hitting #3 in June.  To celebrate we have a bushel of new stuff for your reading pleasure.

6, yes count them 6 new actual play examples including:

"Hobbits are for Eating" a demo with John Wick, who shared his thoughts on Universalis in his Live Journal,  and

"The Great GenCon Plot" a demo actually set at GenCon where evil industry masterminds plot to take over the world

and, 3 actual play submissions from players of the game.


We also offer 4 new rules gimmicks and variants submitted by Xiombarg (Kirt Dankmyer).

[Mike Holmes]

Mike, any possibility of you working up that Victorian Superheroes play you John Wick and Tom Denmark played...?

I have a better idea than a play report. Actually, what I'm going to do here is to demonstrate a principle of Universalis, and simultaneously finally post about the original Victorian Superheroes a year ago (a duty about which I have been remiss).


When playing the demo at GenCon, we started out with tenets that included Fantasy, Superheroes, and Victorian. As soon as it got to that point, I realized that it already had some serious similarities to a game played at the previous GenCon with Jason Blair. So I thought I'd try a little experiment. I'd try to run the two games together to see just how much such a thing could be done. After all, if the starting principles were the same, shouldn't we get a similar game? Already the astute reader may sense the conclusion of the experiment coming...

To make this year's game like the last, I bid big on the opening scene (actually not too big, but against uncertain demoers, you can always win the bid with about a five Coin bid), and opened with the platform at Victoria Station with moody fog all about. I then introduced a man in a black top hat. So far, having control, the game was exactly the same as the game from the previous year.

Until I made the first action of the man taking his top hat off. My intention would have been, like in Jason's game, to have it glow, and have magical abilities. Instead, John immediately interrupted (like I said, Samurai), and narrated to a point where we quickly had a complication with a kid stealing his cane. This resulted in the Man in Black using his top hat as a throwing device (I was reminded of Odd Job from Goldfinger), to retrieve his cane.

Essentially from this point on, the games were so different as to make it impossible to confuse the two. In Jason's game, it turned out that the MIB was Jack the Ripper, and that he was a member of a secret cabal of superheroes. In that game, things quickly moved to another scene in which the principles confronted each other and a messy ritual that occurred during a fight led to an apocalyptic chasm opening over London.

In this year's game, all sorts of other supers arrived on the platform and it was determined that there was a bomb on the train. I gave up any semblance of trying to railroad it back to the other game at that point and created a villain to try and thwart their attempts to stop the bomb. It was, in a way, very four-color in that the heroes were composed of their super-abilities - the only difference being their colorful Victorian garb. Which made for very interesting visuals. In the end, the bomb in a suitcase was sent flying high where it burst harmlessly (well, almost, except for my narration of some "fallout").

Jason's game seemed to have a very "movie-like" feel to me, dark and gritty, yet surreal, much like what I expect the League of Ordinary Gentlemen will be like when I see it. OTOH, the recet game reminded me of the comic (which I have seen). I kept seeing it as panels in my mind. In just one short session of play two different groups took the same basic ideas, and went off in very, very different directions.

Universalis has an way of coming back to cliché tropes and ideas. As per Paul's subtitle for the game ": make a story tonight from the spare homogeneity you have on hand". I refer to the "of course" phenomenon - that being, in every game, somebody makes something up, and somebody says, "Ah, of course!". But, the thing of it is, that it doesn't matter how cliché the elements used are. That "spare homogeneity" is always extensive enough that I've yet to see two Universalis games that weren't any more similar than matching Tenets. So, yes, you'll see lot's of zombies, westerns, Mars, superheroes etc, etc. But in the end it doesn't matter, really. Because the combinations that occur are so infinitely variable in their production that, in fact, each game tends to be very unique from the others played.

At least that's been my experience. And these two GenCon games prove it to me. Even trying to push two games together intentionally, the interactions of the players makes it so that the stories produced are unique.

Now, some of you may be saying, "Well, duh, Mike." But it's been a little bit of a worry for me for some time. And I'm pleased to say that my misgivings are pointless. I stand reaffirmed in my belief that the system is a most productive little engine.

Mike

[Valamir]

heh, as I was posting the made up on the spot "Victorian Supers" title on the web page last night I noticed the old never posted "Avatars of London" game from last year and had vague recollections of it sounding kind of similiar.  

I hope this means I'll soon be getting a write up of both games...

Interestingly your experiment gels closely with Kirt's recent Add-on idea (also posted last night) about alternate realities.