Creatures of Distant Worlds Going Well

Today I opened up the Krakodaran after having shelved it for a few days since my last round of edits. I read it over and was quite pleased. Its been uploaded to DriveThruRPG. Necro-Soldiers remains in its 2nd round of edits. I worked a little on the rough draft of Ice Goliaths this morning. And spiders has another round or two of edits to go. All in all, the series is going rather well.

I’m narrowing down my selections for the subscribers preview. The problem is is that I actually have to decide which ideas to do and which I should hold on to for a later point intime. My plan is to hold off on products that are exclusively Sector Nothart at the moment and focus on general setting products. I’ll keep detailing the setting like I am with Creatures, but I’m not going to be working on the setting in the near future.

That does however allow me to focus on a wider range of products, products that commonly fit into any given Referee’s homebrew setting or other settings at large. I’m also looking to release products for Traveller that Traveller has never seen before, but still makes complete sense to be there.

Kresdekka I now in Signs and Portents 68

Late last year I wrote a series of Planets for Traveller and submitted them off to Mongoose Publishing for publication. Today, another saw the light of published. Kresdekka I is a prison planet where the hardest of the hard to go to be removed from society. Inside you’ll find 3 patrons, a player handout, and enough plot hooks to keep your players in lock down wanting to find out what comes next.

Download the free magazine Signs and Portents 68 today.

Necro-Soldier Inspiration

You know the best thing about writing zombies, you have to watch all your favorite zombie movies “to get inspiration.” On my way home from work later today, I’m stopping at the video store to get Resident Evil, Armies of Darkness and Shawn of the Dead. After that, I have to play some Halo. Its a rough life, let me tell you.

The whole Creatures of Distant Worlds series suffers, in my opinion, from a lack of ranged attacks. Sure the Krakodaran has its shout and others have a nice way of getting to the players without being noticed, but most of the twenty-five to fifty monsters in a potential monster compendium use their natural claws or bites or similar. Necro-Soldiers offer a unique solution to that. They’re human bodies controlled by a computer; why can’t they use a gun? Why can’t they operate man-portable artillery? or Tanks? or Space Ships? Mull that last thought for a moment the next time the flood is repairing the Master Chief’s ship right before he blows it up. Ask yourself, how would your favorite SF setting would be different if zombies could fly X-Wings or a Klingon Bird of Prey.

Necro-Soldiers is part of the Creatures of Distant Worlds Subscription.

Creatures of Distant Worlds: Sand Cobras and Subscription

Jon Brazer Enterprises is pleased to announce two new products. The first is the Sand Cobra:

On distant worlds in the deepest regions of space, unknown creatures await unwitting explorers. Close to home, devious politicians and gangsters lure native wild life to carry out their dirty work while maintaining denyability. On a frontier outpost, primitive life forms walk the uninhabited regions hoping claim the civilized place as their new home. Be prepared no matter where your players go. Be ready with the Creatures of Distant Worlds.

Sand Cobras borrow through deserts and beaches. Their venom slows the mind and their strength pulls those they grab under the sand to their doom. Stand up to the challenge and save the day, or fail to defend yourself and become this creature’s next meal.

Download this free product now at DriveThruRPG.com

The next is the Creatures of Distant Worlds Subscription:

The Creatures of Distant Worlds Subscription bring you a new creature every two weeks. Within each issue is an exciting and dangerous creature to surprise your players. With details like their physical description, combat tactics, habitat and stats for several variations, each unique creature provides a new challenge for different worlds. Additionally, plot hooks describe how the creature fits into Sector Nothart, an upcoming setting from Jon Brazer Enterprises and can easily fit into your home campaign.

This subscription bring you:

Issue 1 – Krakodarans (giant sea creatures with a terrible shout)
Issue 2 – Necro-Soldiers (computer-controlled corpse troops)
Issue 3 – Ice Goliaths (primitive hunters, attacking from above)
Issue 4 – Psiscorpions (semi-sentient creatures drawing their psionic powers from their prey), and
Issue 5 – Spiders (eight legged creatures subduing their prey with their deadly venom)

Don’t miss a single issue by signing up now at DriveThruRPG.com. Get yours today.

Creatures of Distant Worlds: Coming Soon

Jon Brazer Enterprises is happy to announce Creatures of Distant Worlds, a line of creatures that characters discover and encounter during their space travels with stats for the Traveller system.  Each in this series of PDF products detail a single creature with artwork, a physical description, details on how it fights, the environment where it lives, and stats ready for immediate use in your game.  Additionally, every release in the series contains a paragraph about our forthcoming setting and how that creature interacts within the setting.  New creatures arrive every other week.

Creatures of Distant Worlds will be available both individually or as a subscription.  Individually downloaded creatures will be available for US$2.00.  Our subscription of 5 creatures can be purchased for US$8.50, that ‘s less then $1.75 per creature. 

Jon Brazer Enterprises – Bringing the Future to You

“Traveller” and the Traveller logo are Trademarks owned by Far Future Enterprises, Inc. and are used with permission.  The Traveller Main Rulebook is available from Mongoose Publishing.

Announcing the Character Datafile for Traveller

Jon Brazer Enterprises is pleased to announce the Character Datafile for the Traveller Role Playing Game. This 16 page character folio takes you light years beyond the ordinary one page character sheet and keeps you one jump ahead of the common player.

Inside this premium campaign character folio you will discover:

  • Tools to capture your character’s unique personality, look, and stats;
  • Expanded pages for skills and equipment as well as credit/debt tallies;
  • Special sections for psionics, ship operations and mass combat;
  • Space to record your character’s careers, exploits, and personal bests;
  • Multiple sheets for the planets you visited and local subsector charts; and
  • Helpful frequently referenced tables throughout!

Your big damn heroic character is worth the very best in Traveller player aids. Get it now at the Jon Brazer Enterprises Online Store!  Check out the free Preview!

Jon Brazer Enterprises – Bringing the Future to You.

“Traveller” and the Traveller logo are Trademarks owned by Far Future Enterprises, Inc. and are used with permission. The Traveller Main Rulebook is available from Mongoose Publishing.

PhilCon “Why Horror is Not Dead”

D.E. Christman, Jennifer Williams, Dina Leacock, Sara M. Harvey

Is Horror a Genre unto itself?
Horror is a genre, but it has changed.  Now we have Dark Romance and others. King is shelved under regular ficiton.
If its a dark subject it tends to get tagged under horror.
Genre is very subjective, but ten you have genre bending that make it even more difficult.  Best a publisher can do is to label stuff for what the audiance will pick.
In the 90’s, Horror wasn’t dead, it was called different names.
Movies has a constant appitite for horor.  Subject matter changes (Aliens vs Twilight vs Sliver).
Horror also does better when things are bad economically rather then when thing are good.

Does Horror make children bad/desensatize kids?
No.  Parents need to be parents and TV is not a substitute for parenting, but people are by nature morbidly curious.  Grim’s Tales was horrorific and its been around for a long time.

What are the essential elements of Horror?
A Building Sense of Dread, Terror, Being Afraid for the Character (watching a car accident happen), Feeling Helpless (Watcher in the Woods)

All the classic monsters are making a comeback:
vampires, werewolves, mummies, zombies, etc.  They’re just not showing up in horror movies. 
Even the killer tomato is making a comeback. *rolls eyes*