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RPG Industry News
These stories have been rounded up from all over the internet but many of them come from GamingReport which, as a partner site, remains GameWyrd’s number one choice for industry news. Direct quotes from GamingReport appear in blue text.
Dragon Fist RPG rescued from Wizards
[2002-11-04]
SEATTLE, WA: Green Ronin Publishing today announced that it has signed a purchase agreement with Wizards of the Coast for the Dragon Fist RPG. Chris Pramas, Green Ronin’s founder and President, designed Dragon Fist when he worked at Wizards of the Coast. Although only released electronically, the game was nominated for an Origins Award in 2000. A new edition of Dragon Fist is scheduled for Summer 2003.
"I’ve been waiting a long time for Dragon Fist to see print," said Chris Pramas, "and I’d like to thank Anthony Valterra of Wizards of the Coast for making it possible."
Dragon Fist is the fantasy game of martial arts action. Inspired by classic Hong Kong wuxia and martial arts films like Come Drink With Me, One Armed Swordsman, Bride With White Hair, and A Chinese Ghost Story, as well as Chinese mythology and folklore, Dragon Fist propels players into the land of Tianguo, where they face the corrupt emperor and his nefarious eunuch sorcerers.
"A huge number of people downloaded Dragon Fist on release and that was before Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon showed America how rich the wuxia tradition is," added Pramas.
Like all Green Ronin releases since the groundbreaking Death in Freeport, Dragon Fist will take advantage of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Game License.
This report appears in full at Gaming Report.
WarMech - Armageddon 2089
This is a brand new spin on the Mecha genre, set on an Earth of the near
future. The technology is based and expanded upon today's military
technology, with gigantic humanoid fighting machines dominating
battlefields. WarMech's central conflict is a World War with a difference -
the main antagonists are the European Federation and the USA, with the rest
of the world either taking sides or desperately trying to remain neutral.
'Star Wars' satellites rule the skies, shooting down long-range missiles
while a desperate sea and air battle rages across the Atlantic. . .
Somewhere near you, a small enemy Mech squad just walked out of the ocean
from a vast submersible transport. Operating behind enemy lines, using
guerrilla warfare tactics but state-of-the-art fighting machines, the Mech
squads are both sides' main method of bringing Armageddon to their enemy's
home countries. An isolationist and paranoid USA wars against a greedy and
authoritarian Europe, meaning there are no good guys here - just ordinary
(and extraordinary) people struggling to survive in a world gone mad. This
is Total War. This is WarMech.
The WarMech - Armageddon 2089 roleplaying game will be available in March
2003 and, like other Mongoose Publishing games, will be heavily supported
with sourcebooks and adventures.
Right, that is the official part out of the way! If you have read this far,
you may have a few questions about this all new game. . .
What sort of support are you planning for WarMech - Armageddon 2089?
If you are familiar with our Judge Dredd and Slaine roleplaying games, you
will know how serious we are about supporting them, and no fan of WarMech
will have to wait long for new material after the release of the main
rulebook. Inevitably a game of this nature is going to feature many Mech
designs, and so we will release the Mech Arms and Armour Catalogue
simultaneously with the main rulebook. New equipment and technology are
always good to grant further options when designing Mechs, though we are
keen to avoid the 'technology escalation' problems some of our favourite
games in the past have had, where each new supplement makes all the old
designs obsolete! We have a couple of campaigns in mind, one for a European
Federation Mech squad and the other for US Mech Officers, but both campaigns
will offer the option of adaptation for a Mech squad on either side. We also
plan to offer several sourcebooks expanding the non-Mech aspects of the
game - giving you more options for your infantry or tank battalion campaign,
for example.
In addition, we are also preparing a range of novels to support WarMech,
currently being written by a few authors one or two of you may well
recognise. . .
Why is the game set on Earth? What, no drop-ships, no travelling to new
planets to blow them up?
Two of the things we established early on were that we wanted a near-future
setting to take advantage of gamers' knowledge of modern day politics, but
we also wished the technology to be as plausible as possible. We figured you
would be willing to suspend your disbelief about the technology behind the
Mechs themselves, since gigantic humanoid fighting machines are inherently a
lot cooler than mere tanks, but for the rest of it we wanted reasonably
accurate technology.
What is all this about realistic technology?
This is as close as we can get to a 'hard' science fiction setting while
still including Mechs. We have done extensive research into current and
near-future military weaponry and related technologies so as to keep things
as plausible as possible, but always with an eye toward keeping the game
playable and, most importantly, fun. For example, it turns out that one of
the features of particle accelerators is that, used in atmosphere, their
energy tends to disperse in a very short distance and in a highly
devastating manner. So in WarMech, particle accelerators are not long-range
precision killers - they are a lot more like a highly radioactive and
explosive shotgun! Tokamak fusion plants power many Mechs, but breech the
magnetic shell of the power plant and you are in trouble - just hope your
pilot was in the Mech's head rather than the torso. You might just have
chance to eject before your once-proud Mech turns into a molten puddle. . .
What will the rulebook be like?
256 pages in length, hardcover, and full colour throughout. We have some
very talented CGI artists working on the most incredible Mech designs you
have seen this side of your imagination, plus detailed rules for Mechs, Mech
design, artillery, electronic warfare, unmanned drones, rockets, railguns
and much more. Every option imaginable for Mechs has been crammed into this
rulebook. For the rest, well, you will just have to wait for the previews,
coming soon. . .
Do we have to play Mech pilots?
Not at all. While the five Mech Officer character classes are great for most
campaigns, if the setting really appeals to you but prefer things up-close
and personal, you could try an infantry campaign - though in a world where
200 ton Mechs armed with electrothermal cannon and kinetic energy missiles
are not uncommon, life as a grunt is tougher than ever! Alternatively you
could play a tank crew, the less glamorous distant cousins of the elite Mech
pilots, trapped behind enemy lines and running out of fuel! Or an ordinary
citizen, drawn into conflict or intrigue more or less against your will,
desperately fighting for survival in the tough world of 2089. . .
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