Despite fighting illness and the tasks of the holidays, Gold Rush Games has plans moving forward on multiple products. The d20 city sourcebook, The Village of Briarton, is on schedule for a February release. Written by Patrick Sweeney (Terra Primate, Monster Island) and Christina Stiles, the book promises many numbers: 48 (villagers), 11 (places of business), 6 (new spells), 2 (deities), 2 (domains), 1 (new monster). A new historical RPG, based in the time of America’s war for independence, is also in the works at GRG. Called Patriots, no specific completion date is estimated yet, though it looks to be following in the footsteps of Sengoku.
Then there’s this tidbit about GRG’s upcoming War of the Worlds Sourcebook:
We are still finalizing things with Pendragon Pictures concerning our licensing the use of the production art from their upcoming War of the Worlds movie.
[…] I’ve sent the desired art list to Mr. Hines at Pendragon Pictures. Once things are finalized and the art comes in we’re going to insert it into the layout and rush this puppy to the printer!
There’s a new War of the Worlds movie in the works? What the…? Where was I when that announcement came along? And will they promise to keep John Travolta out of it?
Why in the name of all that is holy would professional writers dare to pollute the d20 market with another small town sourcebook? I mean is it just me or don’t they realize that they have an insane amount of competition already out there? Practically every adventure takes place in a fairly well detailed small town. The action’s gotta be in the city man, in the city!
Stranger things have happened in a small town… especially when there are limited resources you would normally take for granted in the city.
Joe, for all that is holy…shut your pompus mouth. If you are such a d20 expert, write and publish something and let everyone else tear it to shit for their own fun and amusement.
Wow. People get excited when comments are made eh?
How about…
With all of the town based material out there, I believe that the market is ready for more city based supplements?
Does that strike you better?
Ah well, can’t please all the people all the time.
Hey, Joe. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about our upcoming book, The Village of Briarton.
I think that it is a really terrific product and there is little, if anything, else like it on the market.
If I thought it wasn’t worth publishing, I certainly wouldn’t publish it. I really like The Village of Briarton and I think you’ll agree. I hope you will review it when it is released. I would love to see what you think of it.
Mark Arsenault
President, GRG
I’ll agree that many a published adventure has the obligatory village **but** most of these villages are of static NPCs who “just sit there” waiting for the PCs to show up.
A well-designed village should stand up to the NPC Essentials test: The NPCs should be living, breathing characters, who have their own lives. I actually would like to review Briarton (; and hope it **is** better than the run-of-the-mill village.
Wouldn’t mind seeing a city rivalling Kairn, but I can still wait.
Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^
OgreCave reviewer
I have nothing against villages. I love Carse and Tulan, old school modules. Who could ever forget the Hommlet from ToEE? I just worry that there are so many villages and so many modules take place in these areas, that perhaps something like Bluffside or Freeport, both cities which have received wide acclaim, would be more suited to the current d20 market.
Another aspect I worry about is the fact that this seems geared towards new players. Perhaps the time for a product like this might’ve been over a year ago when d20 was still kind of fresh, but most are well into their 2nd or even 3rd year of playing.
Quality is quality and I’ll look over the book when it comes out. I just worry that perhaps it’s time isn’t optimal.
For example, will this have a metod of starting a full fledged campaign ala Orcfest? Will it have vivid NPC’s ala Essential NPCs? Lots of competition for a product of this type.
Joe writes: Another aspect I worry about is the fact that this seems geared towards new players. Perhaps the time for a product like this might’ve been over a year ago when d20 was still kind of fresh, but most are well into their 2nd or even 3rd year of playing.
Currently reading the VoB for the OgreCave review. Good stuff. The Interaction Seeds add sub-plots that make the NPCs more than the bland “So what do you want to buy” merchant found in computer games. (I suggest a “Seed a Week” freebie for the website!) While modules sometimes have villages, many GMs don’t want modules. But villages are much more difficult to write (and perhaps less fun) than dungeon crawls and epic adventures. Sure, VoB is a “niche” product. But what non-core d20 book isn’t? VoB contains everything a GM would need to start a campaign, but not so much that it overwhelms it.