As a fun followup to the prior post: Sandra and I had a blast tonight as guests
of the roller derby, who traded us access to the VIP door in exchange for
vectors rendered. Music, noise, skates, violence, quite a lot of good-natured
laughter and smack-talk, and of course Cumberland Fontworks type slathered all
over the programs and whatnot. So there's a lovely moral of some kind somewhere
in all of this. Unfortunately for me, it probably includes some kind of
admonishment for not getting a Free Font of the Month on the website yet for
May.

But now I at least have a fontmaking quest ... to make more fonts that are
useful for rollergirls, so we can keep attending the matches next season :)



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

It's not every day I have an excuse for a subject line like that. Of all the
recent unlicensed commercial uses of Cumberland fonts (the Twix commercials,
S.O.S. etc) some of my favorites have been from right here in Austin, and
recently they've done something unprecedented (at least to my knowledge).
They've jacked TWO Cumberland fonts at once:

http://www.txrd.com/images/May_7_COLOR_WEB.jpg

Their current ads use both Dirty Headline and Ten Ton Ballyhoo, and it's cool to
see the alternates set of TTB in actual use. Very very cool (although a little
sad, since I'm a fan of the _other_ rollergirls here in Austin, and they jack
_other_ people's fonts) :(

Remember: Font-spotters get freebies! Cumberland fonts are everywhere nowadays
and I can't spot them all ... especially local-use stuff that isn't here in
central Texas. If you spot someone making groovy use of a Cumberland font, be
the first to let me know and I'll shower you with thanks and downloads and maybe
other odd items I have laying around the house :)

Hope this finds you all well. Busy here, but that's a good thing!



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

I've got two games I'm running today ... one a Risus/Uresia session and the
other an unspecified game, possibly one about armed automobiles.

Anyway, at the place we're gaming at today, the table space is limited to a
narrow coffee table, so I wanted to design an arena (for the latter game) that
would fit and still provide us with some variety in play. As long as I was
throwing said arena together, I figured I'd post it to the Files section to
share:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/CGnD/files/Assorted%20Oddities/

I'll be posting some more oddball stuff soon ... I've been filling up the Files
sections of many of the other lists, but I've let the main one go uncluttered,
so shame on me :)

Hope this finds everyone well! Best -



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

This is a boring post. Feel free to skim or skip, but I have to ask
(cross-posted to three mailing lists, which makes it extra tedious, I know) :(

Those of you who order from Lulu ... Please drop me an email when the
process is done and tell me how it went. I'm collecting as many reports as
I can because I'm assembling a web-page about it, a kind of consumer's
guide to getting the most from what is, I've found, a very excellent
service overall. I've got my EC softcover and hardcover right here and
they're just adorably cool :) I really like the cream stock, too; very easy
on the eyes. Of course, a Wooky in a bikini top enhances that.

So far, the only "troubles" I've had with Lulu haven't been with Lulu at
all but with the Post Office. The cheapest form of shipping seems fraught
with odd delays and perils ... I had my proof copy of Fief sit in Denver
for 9 days, and in one case a copy of Risus Companion was lost for several
weeks to parts unknown. When that happened, Lulu stepped in and sent me a
replacement by Priority. So they seem very cool all around, but I want to
gather general experiences, info on the gap between ordering and printing,
printing and shipping, and so on, in order to help future customers get
their best from it.



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

In light of the recent EC release, the price of the Cumberland Games
Complete Library CD has finally tipped over the next five-dollar price
bracket, and is now exactly $100 (plus S&H). (The price, if you're curious,
is based on the square root of the total value, so it'll double in price
when it contains 4 times as much stuff, etc). I've updated the page
accordingly:

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/cgnd-cd.htm

Of course, if you're on this list you're probably already well-fixed for
Cumberland stuff. But of possible interest to the casual browser is this
new page, providing a file-by-file list of the CD's contents. It's
exhausting just scrolling past all the stuff in the freebie archive!

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/cgnd-cd-contents.htm

I generated this list with the very handy "Sitemap Creator" freeware app by
Konrad Papala.

Hope this finds everyone well!



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

UNDERTAKE "ENCOUNTER CRITICAL!"

In the spring of 2004, S. John Ross (Risus, Pokéthulhu, Uresia, et al)
released "Encounter Critical" - a new free RPG - onto the Web. A retro
garage-job throwback to the smallest-press RPGs of the late 1970s,
Encounter Critical was released without any indication that S. John
designed it himself ... and for nearly two years, it slipped quietly into
place as a genuine gaming-history footnote.

Today, the warm wriggly bag turns out to have contained a cat all along,
and Encounter Critical has come home to Cumberland Games & Diversions,
where "gaming from another past" will continue into a more definite future.
The game - still and forever free - is now available in a slightly spiffier
new file that gives credit where it's due, including the revelation of Cody
Reichenau and Dave Insel as the master illustrators behind much of EC's ...
let's say "remarkable" ... artwork. New support freebies available for
download include the long-lost character sheet that would have appeared in
Encounter Critical Gazette #4, and the loose Armor Table insert missing
from the previous PDF. For those in the mood for more, there's new
Encounter Critical swag available at Lulu and CafePress.

Come visit, snag some free stuff, and undertake Encounter Critical: where
your Evolved Hobling-Frankenstein Doxy Pioneer can use her Unusual Sexual
Gifts, detachable limbs, evil birthmark companion and brand-new Damnation
Van to brave a world where the Ape Sultan's sorcerers fill pits with a
substance such as crocodiles. Better still: true scientific realism on
every page!

ALSO NEW FROM CUMBERLAND: One of Cumberland's best-selling PDF titles, Lisa
Steele's "Fief," is now available in softcover print-on-demand form from Lulu!

Related Links:

Cumberland Games Homepage http://www.cumberlandgames.com
Encounter Critical Homepage http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/encounter-critical.htm
Cumberland Lulu Stuff http://www.lulu.com/cumberland
S. John Ross mini-bio http://www.io.com/~sjohn/bio.htm

Due to a recent customer request, I've done another rescaled version of the
Points in Space 1: Starport Location maps. These are gridless versions
(suitable for transparent grid-overlay) scaled to what in miniatures terms
would be a smidgen below 23mm -- the "1 inch = 2 meters" scale used by
WotC's Star Wars RPG. For whatever reason, SWd20 has its own special scale
different from the regular d20 scale ... My theory: the SW grid was
designed around the Tatooine womp rat.

The upshot of all of this is: If you're a registered Points1 user and a
SWd20 gamer and you'd like a copy of these maps as a freebie, drop me a
line before Monday afternoon (I'll be taking the file back down off the
server, then) and I'll hook you up. :)



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

I've done some minor code-spiffery and documentation updates to SPARKS
Sunburned & Rusty, bringing it from Version 1.0 to Version 1.1 -- I did so
in response to a Macintosh customer, which means it was shady
under-the-table tech support of the sort I don't officially engage in but
officially take a stab at whenever I can :)

If you're an SBR customer, you're entitled to a free upgrade just for
asking. If you do so, please specify the name & email address you ordered
SBR with, since that's how I'll find you in the Customer Database. If you
have any other information (date of the order, etc) that'll help fill in
the gaps.

If you've had no troubles with SBR as it is, this upgrade won't be of any
use to you. It includes no changes to the content of the font, only the
coding (with appropriate changes to the documentation title). I also
removed the ancient TXT file heralding the arrival of Standard 3 scaling, a
term I had literally forgotten until tonight! Yoiks.

Hope this finds you all having a holly jolly season with lots of gaming
thrown in. We're doing Gamma World 4th lately as a between-campaign lark
... And what a hoot! I'm playing a double-brained psychic duck with healing
ass wax. I just love saying that and do so at every opportunity, despite
several desperate requests from the other players that I stop. :)



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

In response to several recent requests* and thanks to my positive
experiences on the "Beyond the Storm" project, I've started poking a toe
into the warm waters over at Lulu. Those of you on the Risus mailing list
already know about this stuff, but for the rest:

http://www.lulu.com/cumberland

I got my Risus Excessively Deluxe in the mail today and it's all kinds of
spiffy. Nice binding, sharp printing and good gloss on the cover, etc. On
the other hand, nothing says "unwritten sign of the apocalypse" like a
200-page Risus softcover, so there's that.

*100% of which were from Uresia fans rather than Risus enthusiasts ... But,
all in good time ...

Hope this finds everyone enjoying the holiday season now that it's arrived,
and getting in some good gaming as well! We're doing a micro-campaign of
Gamma World right now (TSR's 4th Edition), and I'm playing a double-brained
duck with healing ass wax. Gotta love that. Unless you're injured, in which
case: ew.




|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

A long-time ally and supporter of Cumberland Games is striding into the
electronic arena! I'll just pass along the press release; it sums it up :)
Give him a visit and tell him S. John sent ya!

******************* Schweighofer Establishes Griffon Publishing Studio

Adventure gaming industry veteran Peter Schweighofer has established
Griffon Publishing Studio (www.destinyrealms.com/griffon/) to bring his
ideas to gamers in PDF format.

His flagship concept, available free at the Studio website, is the Any-
System Key (www.destinyrealms.com/griffon/NESys.html), a means of
describing character skills and task difficulties in terms that easily
translate into nearly any game system. These terms do not link to any one
game engine, but serve as general guidelines to give readers an overall
sense of how they fit within their own game’s stat and difficulty scale.
Any-System Key publications provide settings, characters, adventures, and
other source material gamers can easily adapt to your favorite roleplaying
game. Visitors to the Griffon Publishing Studio website can download The
Village War, a free PDF adventure that demonstrates how the Any-System Key
works.

Schweighofer is currently working on a large Any-System Key sourcebook
called Pulp Egypt: Adventures Along the Nile and Beyond, 1933-1939.
Tentative release date is set for the first half of 2006. Keep checking the
Griffon Publishing Studio website for details about the content and page
count. Schweighofer has several other campaign and setting supplements
under development.

Schweighofer is a longtime professional in the adventure gaming hobby who
has worked in various aspects of the publishing industry. He has written,
designed, or contributed to more than 75 roleplaying game products since
entering the industry in 1993. Throughout his career he has played an
important role in the editorial aspect of game design in substantively
editing, copy editing, proofreading, and critiquing the overall quality and
scope of products. He worked for many years on West End Game’s Star Wars
roleplaying game, establishing the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal and
authoring sourcebooks like Platt’s Starport Guide, Platt’s Smuggler’s
Guide, and the Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook. He also contributed to
numerous issues of the Star Wars Adventure Journal and Topps Star Wars
Galaxy Magazine, the DarkStryder campaign, Instant Adventures, and the Star
Wars Roleplaying Game, Revised & Expanded. In the past he’s freelanced for
companies like Wizards of the Coast, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Fantasy
Flight Games, and Decipher. He’s contributed to several books for West End
Games’ new D6 System game line, including D6 Space: Ships and D6 Space:
Aliens. His favorite products include the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Sourcebook (West End Games) and Weird War II: Afrika Korpse (Pinnacle
Entertainment Group).

Schweighofer lives in Brandy Station, Virginia, with his wife Lynanne and
two cats, Wolfgang and Peggy Lee.



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

Finally got that puppy up :) I'm pretty pleased with it; let me know if you
are, too. http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/freefont.htm

Also, while I have your attention, please download the free sample version
of Beyond the Storm http://www.lulu.com/content/168212

... and see if it strikes your fancy. It is (to quote myself from the Blue
Room) a Hurricane Katrina relief project I played a part in. The book
weaves through and around the edges of a number of New Orleans-inspired
themes … There's voodoo and swamps and food and jazz and all the things you
might expect, in a number of forms you might not. There's funny stuff and
reflective stuff; stuff by veterans and stuff by newcomers; science-fiction
stuff and fantasy stuff. There are essays and poetry and stories; there's a
Shadowrun adventure; there's some new Champions/Mutants & Masterminds
material (from Scott Bennie, no less), and even a some short-subject RPGs
(including one about food-service by Mischa Krilov, an indie designer
displaced from New Orleans and relocated here to Austin, where I've
introduced him to some of the best enchiladas this end of town). One of the
book's standout features is certainly the Shambling Tour of New Orleans by
Vicky Picker, serving up the Big Easy from the zombie perspective (read it
with the Kingston Trio version of "Zombie Jamboree" playing in the background).

My own contribution is a fragment of heaven's grave in
adventure/setting/something-or-other form called Spider Meat. It's about a
roguish Stew God's romance, and the High Dreamer's secrets, and a swamp
witch and gumbo and gators and dancing and shouting and the kind of secrets
that lie in a place called the "Black Bayou," at the southernmost edge of
the civilized world. It's game-writing with its hair down, so I'm pretty
pleased with it; grab it and GM it for some friends. I was tempted, for a
fleeting moment, to write a historical piece about Huey Long for Fly From
Evil, but considering that FFE still doesn't have a release date, I figured
that'd qualify as an evil tease well worth flying from. Still … one of
these days, I do need to write about Huey Long ...



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

The current Blue Room update is _mostly_ a current Cumberland Games update :)

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/blueroom.htm

With apologies in advance for the "new" Free Font of the Month ...



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

I've updated and expanded the policies page:

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/policy.htm

Yeah, not the most exciting announcement, but I figured it's best to let
folks know :) Hope this finds you all well.



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

I've posted the June font, a new hand-doodled Roman that should mix well
with the others in the group (particularly Apple Butter and Phaeton John).

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/freefont.htm

Hope this finds everyone doing well and gaming often! I finally get to try
out the new remake of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay this weekend; looking
forward to that ...



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

For obvious reasons, I take an interest in the state of PDF reader
software, though not necessarily as _much_ interest as I wish I had time for.

I went ahead and download Adobe Reader 7, and in many ways I'm impressed
with it ... it's a vast improvement over the lumbering behemoth that was
Reader 6; they seem to have gone out of their way to address regular
complaints about loading-speed, in particular. I'm not too fond of any
software that sticks little executables in my startup routine, though, so I
disabled the "turbo load" thingy ... and it still loads respectably fast.
The rendering and smoothing of different kinds of images (both vector and
raster, including the funky layered-raster method I developed to keep
Caravel both (A) relatively small and yet (B) packed with 600dpi
cartography) is excellent. So, a tentative thumbs-up for Adobe Reader 7.
I'm concerned, though, that Adobe worked some black-magic hoodoo to achieve
the sparkle, since it chokes a bit on some other documents, including,
sadly, page 2 of the Uresia Navigation Maps. On my desktop system, which is
pretty spiff and current, that page is visibly slow in Reader 7, and on my
laptop, which is elderly and wheezing, the program all but locks up the
machine. Seems a lot of fuss over a bunch of hexes -- hexes that don't at
all confuse Reader 4, for example (still my favorite version of the Adobe
program overall, and of course still fully supported in all Cumberland titles).

I've also been test-driving the Foxit PDF Reader:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Foxit is one of several freeware alternative readers floating around there
... and, true to its claims, it's free and it's fast (and compare the
download size to Reader 7, which isn't any faster or any freer). Foxit has
already become my standard preferred reader on that elderly laptop: it's
very friendly to system resources. It is _very_ light on features, which is
a good thing 95% of the time. The only feature it lacks that I sorely miss
is some equivalent of the "magnifying glass" zoom method where I can draw a
box around the part of a page I want to zoom specifically to. By not having
it I instantly become aware of how habitually I used it. Also, it's
incapable of dealing with some kinds of multiple-PDF-document linkage (like
the Activision Infocom PDF docco uses), but that's a very minor oversight
that most people will probably never notice.

So, overall my pick for Very Best Reader still goes to good old Adobe
Acrobat Reader version 4.x, despite the lack of things like vector
smoothing (didn't show up 'til version 5, but I don't screen-read anyway so
I don't much care how the vectors look on-screen as long as they print
nicely), with Foxit coming in a very close 2nd place (it'll vault into the
winner's circle as soon as I get my magnifying-glass zoom) and Adobe Reader
7 impressing me much more than 5 and 6 managed to.

Let me know your experiences, if you've got a mind to share 'em ... Both
with Cumberland PDFs (so I can work on improving them) and with PDFs in
general. In particular, I'm interested in hearing glowy-happy-tales of
other good third-party programs like Foxit ... What programs do the job
right for you?



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

Hi, everyone!

I'm just getting over this season's second bout of nasty crud (eek), and by
way of returning to life here's an extended executive summary on just about
everything going on at Cumberland Games. Read this and you'll see why I
feel less like a one-man band, nowadays, than a one-man orchestra with
bonus gospel choir ...

After more than two and a half years of weekly campaigning, my Fly From
Evil campaign has concluded  (though we may well pick up a "sequel"
campaign someday; we can't let those characters just ride off into the
sunset ... or should I say into the Rising Sun). What this means for Fly
  From Evil is that all local playtest necessary for the (final?) blindtest
round is complete, so it's just down, now, to me assembling the resource
package in enough of a shape to send out.

Points in Space 2 is the next CG&D commercial release, following long,
unavoidable, and often amusing delays. No regrets, though; time has served
the book well and it'll be crackerjack. I've also hammered the lead choice
for the "backup game," Don't F*ck With an Earthman, into a shape where I'm
finally satisfied that it's more than ready for prime-time (and by prime
time I mean the final, whole-title blindtest round, which I expect to be a
cakewalk compared to prior rounds).

Lisa Steele's excellent Medieval France will be the All-Systems release
after that; I'm currently shoulder-deep in manuscript preparation
(hand-massaging the ancient WordPerfect 1.0 source files to iron out
formatting quirks, which is doubly interesting when using the extended
French character set!) and map construction. Medieval France is roughly
four times the size of Fief, and explores France as a game setting in
unprecedented detail (unprecedented apart from the long OOP White Rose
editions, of course)!

This year's Uresia: Grave of Heaven release will be Elegy in Ice, an
exploration of specific events and locations in frosty, deathly land of
Yem. It lays out the evidence and lore surrounding a (quietly) celebrated
heist of a famous work of art by an unlikely and decidedly unstable band of
cohorts, and may be used either as an adventure module of sorts, or as a
resource guide to the locations visited by the complex caper-gone-wrong.

Cumberland has also provided some original Uresia material (a piece on the
Siege of Coatestown, as seen from an unusual perspective, and no I don't
mean the dragons') along with the obligatory groovy map, to Battlefield
Press for their Tsunami-Relief title, Gamers for Hope. It's due out Any Day
Now, and also includes stuff from other RPG dudes such as Robin Laws, John
Kovalic, and Steve Kenson.

This year's Risus: The Anything RPG release will be another mind-bendingly
odd campaign adventure in the spirit of last year's A Kringle in Time.
Kringle shocked me by actually getting reviewed a couple of times ...
Cumberland titles are seldom reviewed (I don't provide review copies) and I
never know what will inspire folks to comment and what won't. Apparently,
tossing Jesus overboard to distract a missile draws comment. This year's
adventure is a lot less spiritual in nature though in many ways no less
iconoclastic; it's a space-opera manically blending farce and savage satire
into something inexplicably warm and cuddly. Plus it has a random mutation
table. Those of you familiar with my first ever published book, Weirder
Tales: A Space Opera for Avalon Hill, will find it hauntingly, or even very
specifically, familiar, since it is in fact a new, Risus-ized edition of
that work, which I've purchased in order to mangle, update, and write a new
bunch of stuff for.

My "stealth project" which I've mentioned on and off for a long time now is
my Russian FRPG, with the working title of Troubled Times. Set in a
fairy-tale/horror/adventure version of 15th century Muscovy, this is a
fantasy and satire and (more importantly) a really fun combat and magic
system launched at high speed to wrap around the light pole of history. If
you've always yearned to play a dancing bear, a rebel pagan minstrel, a
sincerely Christian mosquito obsessed with the cause of the heretics, the
child of a Leshii or just a grouchy corpse with some clever combat moves,
then you're very odd, but also, in this case, finally in luck. This is
based in large part on the Troubled Times manuscript I wrote, a few years
back, for Ed Simbalist (who will be sharing the copyright on the new game),
but it's been rebuilt from stove to bathhouse to take broader advantage of
the game systems I've devised for it. I call it a stealth project because
it's almost finished. Yes, this says unfortunate things about the
discipline of my work habits. I'm bad. Spank me.

2005 marks the fifth anniversary of the Pokéthulhu Adventure Game, and by
god I'll think of something to do for it if I have time. If I don't have
time, I'll think of something cute to say, instead.

HexPaper 3.0 will be out this year sometime, with some new glyphs added. As
before, this will be a free upgrade to those already registered for Version
1.x or 2.x  ... also likely is a new version of Flagstones with some
wood-floor glyphs added.

In non-Cumberland news, you can catch me peeking into books from both
Guardians of Order and Hero Games this year. No, I haven't returned to
freelancing (Cumberland is home!), but I've done some special-favor
chapter-work for folks I admire.

There are others, too (there are always others, are there not?) but that's
more than enough for right now. Best wishes to everyone!


|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

Here's a direct file-link provided by the man himself:

http://greywolf.critter.net/fonts/GWTI01TT.zip

It's groovy. Lots of bits of nice fantasy items that you can use in any
number of creative ways.



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

I just rediscovered this site; I'd lost the link ages ago and suddenly
needed it again for a friend.

http://www.korthalsaltes.com/index_hoofd.html

If your idea of groovy game-building involves very funky dice indeed,
you'll find lots of fuel there (including PDF versions), along with all the
standards.

The "truncated dodecahedron" looks like it would roll well. A very nice
alternate to the basic dodecahedron d12. Maybe I'll use some next time I
run Pokéthulhu :)




|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

The new Risus release, "A Kringle in Time" is now available. Whatta monsta!

Because YOU demanded it! An epic, holiday-themed comedy module!

No, not you-you. That guy over there ... He had sort of a ... WELL THERE
WAS A GUY, I SWEAR!

But it's really awesome ;)

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/kringle.htm

Note that the addition of A Kringle in Time to the CG&D library was
_almost_ enough to bump the price of the full CD up, but didn't quite push
it over. That means the Complete CD Library is now better than half-off,
since the total price of the contents is now $204-ish. Groovy.

I've got this square-root formula thingy I use. I'm rambling 'cause I'm
tired. Happy Holidays!

The formal press release follows; it just mirrors the adcopy as per usual:

===========================================================

  From the lights of New York City to the dark woods of old Wales ...

  From the catacombs beneath Jerusalem to the gingerbread cottages of the
North Pole...

A light shines in a manger. Another glows from a reindeer's nose. Another
moves in the shadows, a spectre of the dead.

A darkness falls over Christmas.

An unforgettably naughty comedy.

A satisfying, meaty, god-damn-that-was-good epic campaign adventure.

... That's a breeze to prep for?

Yes, Virginia, there is...

A KRINGLE IN TIME

A Risus: The Anything RPG Campaign Module

In the pages of A Kringle in Time, you'll find equal portions of mad GMing
confidence and what-the-f*ck surprises (for yourself and for your players),
from the admittedly wicked and possibly warped mind of S. John Ross. It's
available today; learn more at http://www.cumberlandgames.com

Those of you who've been following Cumberland Games from the beginning (and
I mean the very beginning, a couple of years before I even called it
"Cumberland Games") will remember that in 1998, I mentioned in a Pyramid
chat that I intended to do put some PDFs up for sale (inspired by Eric
Hotz' publication of "Red Stag Inn"), and that in particular I intended to
publish a Christmas-themed Risus campaign adventure.

Well, as per my usual, I never actually announced a release date for that,
so now I can proudly announce that I'll be releasing it right on time, this
year, and that it's ... it's something. :)



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

The death of my computer last week delayed the Free Font of the Month a few
days, but it's up now - and there's even a teensy little trivia contest
attached to it (see the webpage).

Almost no work was lost in the computer death (I'm very careful about
constant backups), and the only work _time_ I lost was the time I had to
spend shopping for a new computer we could afford and then getting it up
and running and laden with the usual software.

My scanner was another casualty of the Computer Bellyflop of Doom, but
fortunately you can get a decent scanner nowadays without cracking the
piggybank too much, so I've got another one shipping ... this won't delay
any releases, although it's awfully frustrating sitting here drawing maps
and stick-figures for the new winter Risus release and not being able to
scan 'em in and clean 'em up yet :)

It _has_ delayed my progress on the production side of Medieval France, but
I've had enough work with Points2 and the Risus thing to keep me plenty
busy, so overall it's been mostly a wash.

So, what I guess I'm saying is, the Free Font is up! Hope this finds you
all well.



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

Okay, maybe I should take that back, thinking back over the "hey, look, I
figured out a new way to put crosshatching on a blank dungeon map" freebie.
But I mean well, folks.

This one's a contender, though. BUT ... it may be an eye-opener for some.
Inspired by some recent discussions of, and thoughts on, copy density in
RPGs, I present the Copy Density Demo File. It's at the very bottom of the
freebie page:

<http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/downloads.htm>http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/downloa\
ds.htm


If nothing else, you can get a chuckle, perhaps, over my choice of text
used in the demonstration ...

And in case you're curious about the exact numbers, I think my own
fluffiest layout is for Pokethulhu 3rd (which has just over 500 wpp) and my
densest is probably the Big List of RPG Plots, which has 820 or so. I
usually work somewhere in the 500-700 range, doing it as tight as I can
manage it while still shooting for legibility on inexpensive inkjet
printers (like mine) ;)



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

> Quite some rime ago you posted a preview of Points in Space 2, which
> looked quite good. Where is that at now?

It's nearly finished. It's been nearly finished for awhile now; I'm
juggling too much stuff! Bad S. John. No donut.

I still have pretty high hopes for it being a 2004 release, though I
still prefer not to announce release dates until I have a title in
final blindtest and layout. I have one other title that I'm putting
into a new playtest round in the next couple of days, and after
that's in circulation my next "closer" is Points2. I won't be doing
any page-layout on Medieval France, for example, until Points2 is out
the door (although I've been doing some preliminary work on the
MedFrance cartography, because I'm an incurable map whore ... this is
how my schedule tends to bleed all over itself).

One of the things that has been delaying Points2 is the playtest
rounds (five drafts so far) on the mini-game in the back. I may end
up surgically removing that part of it and tabling it as a later
project. It's a sparky little mini-wargame that works on any of the
deckplans, and so far the wargame-oriented playtesters have grooved
on it while the non-wargame-oriented playtesters have been flummoxed
and confused by it. So I think it may be time to kick it out of
Points2 and into a standalone status where it won't bother anyone
that isn't in a being-flummoxed mood :)

> On an aside, if you would like someone to do D20 stats for the PS2
> vessels, I could be persuaded. And I work cheap. :)

The All-Systems Library titles are unencumbered by stat-blocks. They
don't even have Risus stats in them (although I keep meaning to post
some as a separate freebie download) ...

Quite some rime ago you posted a preview of Points in Space 2, which
looked quite good. Where is that at now? With D20 Future being out, it
seems that PS@ would do well.

Onan aside, if you would like someone to do D20 stats for the PS2
vessels, I could be persuaded. And I work cheap. :)

Colin
2320AD writer

Sorry for the delay in getting the Free Font of the Month posted, but now
it's up.

Appropriately for a "late" font, it's called Regal Demise ;)




|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

What the heck :)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5917756711

Somewhere out there, there's a REALLY serious Nosferatu fan that wants
this. Now if only I knew how to find such a fan ...



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

While at Border's Books & Music the other day, I flipped through Vampire:
The Requiem and was amused to notice that the "nosferatu" vampires now have
a Cumberland font (Arvigo) as their logotype of choice. I have it on good
word from White Wolf that it'll appear regularly in the Vampire line from
here on in, as well (whenever the Nosferatu are hanging around).

I think the original Arvigo - a pale, subterranean crime lord with a
disgfigured face and a missing nose - is smiling someplace. Which is good,
because my players always HATED it when Arvigo smiled ...

I think this is the third time an RPG publisher has used a Cumberland font
(that I know of) ... I think I should put up a "font spotters" page on the
fontworks at some point, offer a free Cumberland title to any font-spotter
who is the first to tell me of a commercial use of a Cumberland font I
wasn't aware of. Okay, it's officially an offer ... the page will follow soon.

Maybe, while I'm at it, I'll eBay off the original sketches for the Arvigo
font :) "The ideal birthday gift for your favorite Nosferatu fan who also
happens to enjoy amateur typography!" Hrmm. I've auctioned sillier things ...





|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/caravel.htm
http://www.hyperbooks.com/

For those of you waiting to order via HyperBooks, Terry now has CARAVEL.
Thanks for your patience!

Best -



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/caravel.htm

Cumberland's newest release, and just about the coziest little thing I've
done in years :)

It's of interest primarily to Uresia fans, though I imagine any fantasy GM
with a style similar to mine (favoring an uneven blend of humor, humanity,
history and horror) might find it useful as a springboard for adventures
and whatnot. Plus: purty maps.



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn

The two biggest bits of Cumberland news right now are:

URESIA: CARAVEL will be the newest and GROOVIEST CG&D release! It's a
statless (All-System) supplement to either Uresia: The Grave of Heaven or
Uresia d20 (both from Guardians of Order). If you have no idea what the
heck Uresia is to begin with, visit my Uresia homepage, Blue Lamp Road!
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/uresia.htm ... There's a little link there, on the
left-hand side, to the Caravel placeholder page. Boaty fun. RELEASE DATE:
June 8th.

MEDIEVAL FRANCE is officially in the early stages of production. Those of
you who enjoyed FIEF will get a tremendous charge from MedFrance, which is
Lisa Steele's largest and most ambitious work. It's around 4x the size of
Fief, and entirely focused on describing France in the Middle Ages in
detail, complete with a very healthy satchel-full of maps. Like Fief, this
is a new Cumberland edition of a lost micropress classic, with new layout,
index, and cartography by Yours Truly.

Other projects continue to nudge along at whatever pace they choose to. It
is my sincere hope that Points in Space 2 will be the next PDF release
following Caravel, since its grooviness must not remain contained, but I
have no release date for it yet.

Conventioneers! Visit me at A-Kon, where I'll be a guest this weekend:
http://www.a-kon.com/ I'll be running games, chatting about stuff, speaking
on several panels, and doing that Con Thang as I tend to. Bring dice and a
pencil :)



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn