Polgarus Games News, June 2007

Polgarus Games News, June 2007

Volume 1, Number 02
June 23, 2007

Hello and welcome to the latest newsletter from Polgarus Games. I apologize for the huge delay (4 months!) between this newsletter and the last. While I would love to say that I’ve had my head down creating loads of new products that are now ready for release, alas the silence has been due to “real life”. Which has impacted also seriously on what I had hoped to release these last few months.

But things seem to have settled down now, and I’m hopeful that the next month will everything get back on track! Fingers crossed

And now, on with the rest of the newsletter.

Jason Anderson
http://www.polgarusgames.com

Contents…

1. New Releases
2. Upcoming Releases
3. GMing Tips – Stay Enthused and Excited
4. Discount Coupon
5. Useful Links

1. New Releases

The only new release since the last newsletter is a compilation product that collects the first five Space Opera Support products together.

With the original name of “Space Opera Support Compilation #1″, this collection has the following supplements in it:

* Space Opera Passenger Generator
* 15 Space Opera Passengers
* Mysterious Passenger
* 15 Starport Encounters
* 15 Startown Hazards

You can find Space Opera Support Compilation #1 at Your Games Now, and our online store.

Note: Until July 2, Space Opera Support Compilation #1 is a further 25% off it’s normal price (which is already a 25% saving on the normal price of the supplements – so in effect you’re buying them for half price!)

2. Upcoming Releases

As I mentioned above, work on new products has been stalled over the last few months. So Polgarus Games still has three products in the pipeline – all in our Space Opera Support line.

Coming up next is “15 Space Aliens”, a collection of various sentient aliens for characters to meet and interact with. Each of the aliens included in the book has information on their society, a description, a picture so you can easily see how what they look like, and several suggested adventure hooks.

“Planet Hexos” describes a planet designed to be dropped into most settings. It’s a planet where tensions are running high between the mining corporations controlling the bulk of the planet, many of the workers who provide the workforce for the corporations, and the independent citizens on the planets. This supplement will give a brief history of the planet, information on the cities and starports on the planet, details on important NPCs, adventure hooks, etc.

“Roanoke Colony” is our first adventure, and deals with the unexpected disappearance of every single person on a remote colony. How and why did they disappear? Is there more to the colony than meets the eyes? Roanoke Colony will be written for EABA, although it should be possible to convert it to other systems without too much trouble. We may look into releasing a d20 version after the EABA version is released, but that is up in the air at the moment.

There are a couple more products that may make their way onto the drawing board in the upcoming months, but at the moment they’re still too nebulous to talk about

3. GMing Tips – Stay Enthused and Excited

This months tip is one that’s so obvious, I could have kicked myself when I finally realized it!

When running a game, you need to do your best to remain enthused and excited in what you are doing. Why? Because your enjoyment and enthusiasm will be infectious with your players, and they will be more likely to feel enthused and excited about the game too.

(I told you it was obvious )

This point was driven home to me a few years ago with a session I was running. It was a slow session – the session hadn’t been as interesting as I thought it was going to be, and everything was dragging. It felt like an effort to do anything. Then one of the players said something along the lines of “you know the session is boring when the GM is stacking dice.”

Yep – I had become so disinterested in the game that I was just staring at my dice and making stacks with them, then knocking them over! Why should the players have been interested in the game when it was obvious that I wasn’t?

Needless to say that was the kick in the backside I needed to get the session moving again.

These days, even if I’m worried about how a session is going to go or feeling tired and not really wanting to play, I try to be enthused and excited when the game starts. And more often than not the players respond, which makes me genuinely enthused and excited!

Give it a go.

4. Discount Coupon

This month’s coupon is for 15 Starport Encounters. This supplement has fifteen different encounters PCs could find themselves involved with when they next visit a starport. Each encounter has 3 suggested explanations (giving 45 different scenarios in all), and several complications are suggested for each encounter to make the PCs lives even more “interesting”.

This coupon allows you to save 75c on the purchase price. The coupon code is “gunmetal” (no quotes).

This coupon is valid until the end of July (since this newsletter is so late) at both Your Games Now, and at our online store.

To use this coupons, just enter it on the order confirmation screen in the provided box. The same coupon code works on both sites.

5. Useful Links

These are links to various roleplay sites that we’ve found useful in our own games. If you have any sites you wish to suggest, please feel free to send them in!

Newspaper Clipping Generator
For games set in more modern times, this handy little site allows you to generate newspaper clippings that you can print out and hand out to your players and props. Handy!

Aging Paper
If you have a paper handout for your players that you want to give an aged look to (for an old letter, diary, etc), this web page has several different methods you can use to give the paper the look you are after.

Town Generator
If you need to quickly create a medieval or fantasy town complete with shop names, major NPCs, etc, this page can help. In seconds you will have all the information you need to bring the town to life for your players.

That’s it – you’ve reached the end. There’s no more to see!

Publisher:
Polgarus Games
PO Box 812
Sandy Bay, TAS 7006
AUSTRALIA