Hurricane Sandy Relief Bundle now available on DriveThruRPG

Melior Via is participating in the Charity Bundle assembled by Roleplayers Chronicle to provide a donation to the American Red Cross, earmarked for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. The Charity Bundle is now available on DriveThruRPG for a donation of $20. Many publishers have contributed products, and this bundle is now valued at more than $200. Our contribution is the Hope Preparatory School Freshman Handbook for ICONS.

All proceeds from this charity bundle go towards the American Red Cross and the relief efforts for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. None of the contributors towards the bundle receive any compensation for their products.

Direct Link: The Charity Bundle

This bundle will be available for 10 days starting November 1, 2012 and ending November 10, 2012.

Halloween Sale

Halloween is coming quickly. If anyone is looking for an appropriately themed scenario, we've launched a brief sale on DriveThruRPG. Our Halloween Ball adventure is currently priced at $3.99 (regularly $4.99). The adventure takes place during the days leading up to the big party, as the PCs must confront some of the mischief that goes hand in hand with the event.

For those looking for a 1-shot night, that haven't tried out the Hope Prep setting, we've also put together a bundle that includes the Freshman Handbook, Halloween Ball, and Freshman Character Pack. That (along with the core rules for the system) should be everything needed for a quick holiday adventure at HPS.

Both sales are available for both game systems. Here are the relevant links:

ICONS Halloween Ball
M&M3 Halloween Ball

ICONS Halloween Bundle
M&M3 Halloween Bundle

ICONS Artists now available

We've just released the Hope Preparatory School Artists character pack for ICONS from Ad Infinitum Adventures. The core content is the same as the M&M3 version which we released a few weeks ago, but the characters are slightly changed so that they better reflect this game system.

Just like the previous release, the The HPS Artists Character Pack includes six fully statted members of the Artist clique for the Hope Preparatory School setting. The pack includes two Sophomores, two Juniors, and two Seniors.

Direct Link

The next adventure -- Field Trip -- is just waiting for one last piece of artwork, so that we can get it out the door and up for sale.

M&M3 Artists Pack Available

This week, we managed to squeeze out another small release for the M&M version of the Hope Preparatory School Setting. This is the Artists Character Pack, now available from DriveThruRPG for $2.99. It features the artwork of Dan Houser.

Members of the Artists Clique aren't necessarily focused on becoming traditional crime fighting vigilantes. Instead, these metahumans often want to do more with their abilities. Some, believe they may be able to serve humanity as scientists, politicians, or philosophers. Others pursue dreams of a career as a professional athlete or a performer.

The character pack includes two Sophomores (PL8), two Juniors (PL9), and two Seniors (PL10), each from that clique. All are fully statted for use as PCs or NPCs in a M&M3 campaign. In adventures run at HPS, they might serve as friends or foils. In a more traditional setting, the characters could easily be friends, supporters, or even interns.

The ICONS version of the character pack is next up in the queue, and shouldn't be too far off.

Space Combat Battlemap

I was recently working on painting some starfighter miniatures for a quick combat game, and started getting a few things together prior to play. I found the old rules, the ship status sheets, and entirely too many unpainted minis. What I didn't find was a nice looking map. (Mine were just plain black with white hexes, and after too many years folded up in a closet, the crease lines weren't doing them any favors.)

So, I looked into buying a nice felt map that was big enough to cover my table, and discovered that they were, well, kind of expensive. Kind of prohibitively expensive for my purposes.

That led to me poking around the web for a cheaper solution. I found something that would work well enough for the short term, but I wanted something better. So, I decided to go ahead and spend the time to design my own map. The Universal Space Combat Battlemap was the result. I designed the PDF so that it could be printed with 1-inch hexes, 1.5-inch hexes, or 2-inch squares. For games that don't use a grid, it can also be printed blank. I grabbed a nice looking picture of the Tarantula Nebula, and used that as a background.

Yes, it takes 42 pages to print it. There's a fair bit of a cutting and glue-sticking involved in the procedure. But, in the end, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Here's a quick look-see at how the pages fit together.

DriveThru Charity Bundle

We're participating in the current charity bundle on DrivethruRPG.com. All proceeds go to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and I can't think of a more worthy cause. The package includes well over $100.00 worth of gaming PDFs including the Hope Prep Freshman Handbook for M&M3e. LINK TO PACKAGE.

Interviewed for BAMF

The latest BAMF Podcast features several writers discussing their work for the ICONS system. Low and behold, the crew at BAMF were kind enough to invite John Dunn along for the discussion.

BAMF ICONS Love Fest.

It was a fun chat, and I hope folks find it both entertaining and informative.