It's that time of year

I just finished walking the dog and noticed the death march of students and parents heading to the back to school open house down the street from me. As I saw the assemblage of pre-teens with the expression of utter horror on my face, I immediately began to wonder just how a Hope Preparatory School student might feel about it. Which made me think that more people should wonder that same question.

So, let's have a Back to School! sale. All Hope Preparatory School products are now 10% off, through the end of August 2013.

Melior Via at DriveThruRPG!

OK, so perhaps I exaggerated

It seems that I may have previously jumped to some unreasonable conclusions.

Melior Via has just released Field Trip, the third adventure in the Freshman Story Arc for Hope Preparatory School. The ICONS version is currently available, it may be a bit before I have time to complete the version for M&M3. Here's a direct link to the product purchase site:

HPS #3 - Field Trip

Thanks for your ongoing support.

In other matters, the Accursed RPG blog continues with its pace of roughly 3 updates a week. As of this posting, it's up to 27 posts. More and more setting information is releasing on a steady basis. If Dark fantasy and heroic monsters sounds interesting to you, please take a look.

A whole bunch of updatery stuff

I've got to cover a whole bunch of different things to give updates to things that are in progress.

First off, this week is the Christmas in July Sale at DriveThruRPG. Melior Via is enthusiastically participating in it, and all of our products are 25% off as part of the sale. If you've been thinking about looking into our products, this is a great time to jump in whole hog. If you're looking for other gaming material, there's a stunning array of deeply discounted products included in this one.

Fabled Environments is currently wrapping up a Kickstarter for a High School Floorplan. I think this is a fantastic idea and a great resource for anyone interested in gaming at a High School. In an effort to encourage folks to help them reach stretch goals, Melior Via has decided to offer a throw in. We'll be giving a free copy of the HPS Freshman Handbook eBook to anyone who pledges at the $40 level or higher.

Finally, Accursed is continuing to make solid progress with our regular blog updates. If you're interested in a Savage Worlds setting where your the monsters are the heroes, please take a look. We love getting feedback.

Announcing Accursed

Things have been far too quiet about here for some time. During this time, we've had a few inquiries about Hope Prep, and other matters.

So, here's my chance to come clean. The simple fact of the matter is that I've been pretty swamped wit ha variety of projects. Most of these involve freelance work for other publishers. These continue to be updated in the "About Us" tab, as I am permitted to discuss them.

One project, however, is going to be insuring some blog posts and directly involves Melior Via.

Last fall, Ross Watson approached me with ideas about a new game setting. I really dug the ideas, and we started doing some early development. Ross also brought Jason Marker into the discussion. The three of us have been collaborating on developing Accursed into a full game ever since. This is a dark fantasy setting, which we're currently developing for Savage Worlds. It hasn't been a primary focus for me, but it has been a steady and ongoing concern. For more information, please give the blog a look, we'd love any feedback.

Accursed WILL be a physical product. Melior Via WILL be publishing this in the fall of 2013. www.accursedrpg.com is going to be a regularly updated blog where Ross, Jason, and I (John) will be regularly posting information about the game's setting.

This raises questions about the status of Hope Prep. We have a number of different things at various stages of production for Hope Prep, but I simply have not had the available time to focus on them. To date, the commercial success of the line has been inadequate to cover the time and effort invested in it. As much as I love the line, I cannot commit a significant amount of my time to work on it, when other project work is available. Additional products will be released for the line, but products that are more commercially viable are a higher priority. Consequently, I cannot commit to a release schedule at this time.

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.