The d20 version of Bloodlines and our other Pinebox titles are going away forever.

I guess I should mention that today is officially the last day to pick up a lot of 12 to Midnight’s titles. After today, all Pinebox titles for the d20 System (with the exception of Modern Dispatch) will be retired for good. They’ve been for sale at 50% off all month, but tomorrow they’re going away for good.

We’re also selling our military horror titles at 50% off, and the Savaged editions of those titles will be going away for good. We plan on finding homes for the d20 System editions of those titles, but until the contracts are finalized they will be unavailable.

All our fantasy titles are at 50% off. Like the titles above, we plan on finding new homes for them but for at least the short term they won’t be available for sale. When the come back, we’ll have no control over what they’re priced. So now is a great time to stock up on the titles you’ve been missing.

Why are we doing all this? There’s a post over at 12 to Midnight, but the short answer is that Pinebox is becoming an official Pinnacle setting and we’re focusing on our core aptitude.

Oh yeah. Full disclosure: while it’s not a 12 to Midnight product, I did help out with layout.

This sneak peek is only 32 pages, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the book as a whole. It covers all of chapter one, much of the character creation chapter, character sheets, a new mechanic for creating inventions, and a pair of adventures you can play. We’re calling this a “beta” because we’re seeking your input on the rules, so please head on over to the 12 to Midnight website and download it.

A friend just sent me a link to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Eduction, titled Monsters and the Moral Imagination. For me, the money-quote follows.

In a significant sense, monsters are a part of our attempt to envision the good life or at least the secure life. Our ethical convictions do not spring fully grown from our heads but must be developed in the context of real and imagined challenges. In order to discover our values, we have to face trials and tribulation, and monsters help us imaginatively rehearse. Imagining how we will face an unstoppable, powerful, and inhuman threat is an illuminating exercise in hypothetical reasoning and hypothetical feeling.

This gets to the heart of not only horror, but the fun in roleplaying games as well. From the outside, there’s a vague notion that RPGs are for loners to play elves and dwarfs in their parent’s basement. In reality, it’s a highly social activity that posits a series of challenges and allows players to collectively overcome them (or not). Unlike traditional board games, the players usually don’t compete against one another, but cooperate against an external threat. RPGs come in all styles and flavors, but horror RPGs have a special place in my heart. The Chronicle article “gets it”. Enjoying horror isn’t about reveling in the macabre, it’s about imagining external adversity* and then overcoming it– all from the safety of one’s dining room table.

*As opposed to sitting around pretending to overcome internal adversity, like breast cancer. That’s just morbid.

You can read more about the sale on Flames Rising, or you can start buying from DriveThruHorror.com, Midnight Cellar (the official 12 to Midnight store), or RPGNow.

While we’re at it, under the category of Best Adventure, White Wolf’s The Rose-Bride’s Plight was written by Jess Hartley. Jess, as you know, contributed the ghost story Stigmatized Property to our Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas. I’m sure she’d appreciate it if you’d show her some love, too!

If you’re not sure about the other categories, or if you’re just curious, Matt McElroy at Flames Rising has posted his favorites for this year.

I have to say, this has been a pretty big change for me. I’ve been a PC gamer for the last decade and a half, ever since the introduction of Wolfenstein 3D. So far I’ve bought a handful of used games, which can be had for $10-$15 at pawn shops, game stores, etc. For the curious, I have Call of Duty 2 and 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, F.E.A.R, and a couple games for Tadpole 1—namely Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones.

As someone coming from the mouse-and-keyboard PC gaming world, my first impression of the XBox is that there are too many damn buttons! For an “old” guy like me, keeping track of all those buttons and their functions is simply brain-bending. I bought this thing to relax and disengage my brain, so why am I having to work at remembering what the 10 buttons and 3 hats all do. Don’t even get me started one the various combo moves. Hit X X Y for this move, indeed.

The experience made me realize that over the last decade I’ve definitely settled into one kind of game, which is the first person shooter. Marvel Ultimate Alliance, despite including my fav Captain America, doesn’t seem to be my kind of game. Alliance feels like an exercise in button-mashing with not a lot of skill involved. So far, at least, I just haven’t gotten much enjoyment out of that. I’ve actually gotten more fun out of Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones. Although those two are equally guilty of the combo-move overload, the perspective isn’t quite as annoying.

F.E.A.R is supposed to be some sort of supernatural FPS, and you know I’m all about the supernatural. But so far, I’ve merely found it hard to the point of frustrating. Granted, part of that due to my learning curve on the controller. FEAR was the first game I tried, and I haven’t been able to master it all that well, yet. I was also caught off guard by the swearing. WTF? I mean, what the heck? I mean, I’m an adult and I certainly do my share of swearing. It usually doesn’t bother me in movies or books, but it adds absolutely nothing to my game play experience. It just feels like vulgarity for vulgarity’s sake. Yeah, I guess I am getting old. At any rate, I haven’t seen anything in FEAR all that compelling.

In fact, every game I play, and FEAR in particular, is automatically compared to Half-Life 2, which is still the gold standard in games as far as I’m concerned. I’ll admit that it’s a high bar. So far the closest I’ve found is Call of Duty 2. This WWII first-person-shooter brings me back to comfortable territory. It’s a FPS driven more-or-less by a narrative. I only have to learn one function per button—no XBY-trigger combos. I’ve already gotten the hang of switching weapons, and I’ve only accidentally thrown a smoke grenade instead of a frag once. (It’s a lesson you remember.) Maybe as I become more comfortable with the controller, I’ll also be more comfortable with branching out into other styles of games. For now though, I think I’ll stick with Call of Duty.

I know it sounds crazy, but in the week I’ve had the console I’ve definitely relaxed more in the evenings. I’ve given myself permission to step away from my 12 to Midnight duties and enjoy life a bit more. If that means attaching a sticky-grenade to a German Panzer, then so be it. As long as it doesn’t turn into Duke Nuke’em Disease, it’s all good.

Image of a 'manhack' robot from the game Half-Life 2.

In this case though, Skynet isn’t the only thing that comes to mind. When I watched the above movie with the sound turned off, my brain supplied the distinctive buzzing noise of “manhacks” from Half-Life 2. For the uninitiated, manhacks are flying Skilsaws that travel in swarms.

I, for one, welcome our new flying robotic circular saw overlords.

via Jawbone.

It all started more than a week ago, when I boarded a plane for Kansas City. I did a little photoblogging from my Facebook account, just because the iPhone app makes it so easy. The weather was about 20 degrees colder, but it never really stopped us. It was probably the classiest conferences I’ve attended in my career. The company holding the conference really treated us well.

That being said, the highlight was getting to visit Vicki and Mark of Tabletop Adventures, who drove three hours just to see little ole’ me. Not only was it flattering, but also a great night visiting with fellow publishers. One of the downsides of being a PDF publisher in the heart of Texas is that 12 to Midnight is far removed from most other game publishers. Monday night was a rare treat.

In a bit of gaming tourism, they even took me to a well-stocked game store on the outskirts of Kansas City. I hadn’t really planned on buying anything, but the store was too well stocked for me to walk away empty handed. I had a very hard time deciding between Slipstream or Trail of Cthulhu. In the end I went with Slipstream, just to have another Savage Worlds plot point book on hand as a reference for ETU. I don’t regret the purchase, but I regret not being able to afford both!

The rest of the evening was spent over a leisurely dinner swapping stories, brainstorming, and talking about the future. Vicki and Mark, thanks again for a great evening! If you ever make it down to Texas, definitely let me know.

Slipstream proved to be good reading material for the plane right back home, and at around 5:30 on Wednesday I was greeted at the airport by Mrs. Flametoad and the tadpoles. Wednesday night was my one night at home before the next big adventure… coming in part 2 tomorrow.

*Apologies to my fellow Lake Woebegon fans. I couldn’t resist.