We're Having a Sale!

We at Dog Soul have just added a new member to our home staff. We are proud to introduce Kai Sean Balsam!



While it may be some time before he starts pulling his own weight around the office, we celebrate his arrival with a sale! Almost all Dog Soul products will be on sale at 50% off the regular price until the end of January, 2008.

Thanks for your past, present, and future patronage.
May all of your criticals be confirmed.

Bards and Sages 5th Annual Writing Competition

Publisher Bards and Sages is having their 5th Annual Writing Competition - this year to benefit the Children's Literacy Initiative.

Dog Soul is proud to be one of the sponsors for the contest. We're donating a total of $75 in digital products to be given away just for entering! All entrants in the writing contest will be automatically entered in one of three drawings to win $25 in digital products from Dog Soul. Drawing dates are: April 30th, August 30th, and October 31st. One random winner will be selected from all entries received before the drawing date.

For details on how to enter:

Bards and Sages 5th Annual Writing Competition

Other sponsors include Creative Mountain Games and Ikthalion Press.

The 4 Point System/Sean (2)

Concepts

All RPG game systems can be broken down into a handful of core mechanical concepts that must be addressed no matter the genre or style. These are character creation, conflict resolution, character advancement, equipment, and foes. Most everything else (monsters, magic, psychic powers, giant robots, and deities) is simply window dressing; decorations to fill in culture and technology issues that are usually left out of the core concepts.

The other universal systems attempt to use these same core concepts from genre to genre while simultaneously trying to use the window dressing to cover up the cracks that each transition creates. We decided to follow a different tack.

Often what designers use as window dressing in these other systems is actually an integral part of the setting. It is something that cannot be left out of the core mechanics until the setting is put together; it’s something that should be a part of the core mechanics from the very beginning. To accomplish this, we have not pushed for a universality of mechanics across genres; instead we have moved towards a universality of concept.

By way of explanation, let’s use, for example, the idea of character creation. No matter the system, no matter the genre, in a role-playing game there exists some means of quantifying the basic nature of the characters, some way of letting the player know how smart, or fast, or strong his character is in comparison to the other characters and foes he will be facing. In the 4-Point System these are expressed as the character’s Solar and Lunar Traits.

The 4 Point System/Sean

The Reason Why

The 4-Point System was created because Deb and I thought that there needed to be an alternative to the short list of near-universal RPG systems. The list of these is short, and it includes WoTC’s d20 system, GURPS, and the Palladium system as used by (who else) Palladium books.

The extant systems are all fairly robust, in that they can each be used to port character’s between settings and each requires a minimum of basic rulebooks for the actual mechanics of the game system. The problem that we saw is that while they are jacks-of-all-trades, each system is best suited for a particular genre…well, except for GURPS. I’ve been a gamer for more than a quarter-century now, and I have honestly met a literal handful of people who have actually had their characters moved from one genre or setting to another that used the same system. The kind of forced portability that these older systems used was not the key.

And this universality and portability is forced and often incomplete. Characters with powers, abilities and equipment suitable for one genre would be out of balance when compared to those in another. The result has often been the use of add-on rules, little fixes, or modifications to the imported character to bring things back into a semblance of balance.

GURPS comes closest to a true universal system, since the powers and abilities for each setting or genre are designed to stack up equally against other such powers across the entire GURPS universe. The Palladium system (the most famous setting of which is the Rifts Megaverse) doesn’t even bother with any kind of balancing act between characters, classes, or races. In fact, the owner of the company actually prides himself on this fact. WoTC’s attempt to port their d20 engine into other genres with their Modern line of books is also incomplete; the basic systems are there, but the entire character creation, class, and advancement system had to be radically altered to suit a more modern world.

There had to be another way.

Designer's Thoughts/Deb

I’ve had this concept bouncing around my head for more than three years. It was supposed to be a screenplay, or a novel or something. Then I was out walking one night (something I love to do; helps to hone my ideas) and I started thinking about my oldest son’s father, Luis, who passed away when I was three months’ pregnant with our child. I think about Luis pretty often. Not so much with grief anymore – I mean, the sadness is there fairly regularly, but so is the humor of him, the wit, the memories of his smile. Every once in a while he pops into my head and whispers a little something in my ear, and I can feel his beaming presence when our son Jack is doing or saying something particularly awesome.

So I’m thinking about Betmal (before it was even named such) and Luis whispers, “Nah, that’d make a great game.”

It was a forehead-slapping moment. Nevermind the last time I’d indulged in any rpg’s was back in jr. high, when I was 15 years old and a friend of mine was running D&D from the Old Red Box.

* * *

Years passed; I found work as an rpg writer (best way for an unpublished fantasy author to find gratification, folks!), then started my own little company with my fiancé, a gaming veteran of 20+ years, Sean. We’ve had some gems, piled our plates very high, and we’re still mucking through a few too many projects – but you can’t stop the ideas once they start coming. They’re relentless.

Betmal never stopped whispering in my ear – now not just Luis’ voice, but so many others. I could see the myriad landscapes, hear the strangeness of the effigiatic wind, feel the false sun on my face and watch the moons rise over the spires of cities both familiar and foreign. I needed to clear room on my desk for this place. Not because I’m obsessed with death, or with God, or with Luis, even – but I feel these diaphanous chains linking me to a place that must be just as full of life as Earth is, and I want to explore it.

I want to game in Betmal.

Every game I’ve ever wanted to play has lured me in because of its story. Of course, cool tricks, gadgets and toys don’t hurt either. I want to be an illustrati when I play Betmal – to engage in combat where I can be a swarm of bees one second, then a bolt of lightning, then a rabid dog, then a bear, then a flying sword, then a dragon. Cinematic one-upmanship…what a way to fight! Just as long as you decide who the winner is before the hungry klifoth show up to suck the oomph out of your shell… (the chaperones of the afterlife, maybe?)

Then again, being an anchorite would be badass. “Nice stone wall. Don’t quite believe it, though.” (I walk through it.)

Or a grigori. Or a sekretu. They’re all calling to me.

Working on The Gate of Trishula was both fulfilling and hunger-inducing. We finally got to put down the foundation, build the walls, raise the roof on this game, but there is so much more to explore. I hope people tell us what they think about Betmal, without hesitation, with passion and interest and inquisitiveness. It’s such a beautiful idea and I want to make it the best that it can be.

The First Release for Betmal, Game of Souls

Betmal – the afterlife, the most sought-after and feared place known to those on Earth. The way to get there is easier than you think…all you have to do is die.

Betmal, Game of Souls is the game of the afterlife. It is a place where the souls of those who live life in The Game return once their turn is done. It is also the place where those same souls live between sessions in The Game. It is a world of potential and will, a place where anything and everything is possible if one has the time and the willpower to see it through to completion.

The Gate of Trishula introduces the new 4-Point System method of gaming in a comprehensive primer that covers combat, effigia, an explanation of a starting character and rules for healing.

In addition, the first four major castes are introduced:

• The Azazim, the warrior-soul who uses the power of his own will to subdue his enemies.

• The Anchorite, the hermit who through meditation and self-reflection builds the strongest armor of all – his own disbelief in others’ power.

• The Effigiati, the architect of all of Betmal’s dreams and nightmares.

• The Sekretu, the manipulator of sensation, the snake-charmer of emotion and longing.

The Gate of Trishula places four starting pre-generated characters into the following scenario:

The Shon gypsies of Sahana Karana have held their vast territory for ages. Now the Despicio have come and taken half of the land for themselves, including the Gate of Trishula, a returning-place for souls coming home from the Game. It was difficult enough to watch so many comrades get taken by the Despicio and enslaved by them, but now one of their closest friends has been captured, and put to work in the nearby clockwork city, Zeitheim. If the characters don’t retrieve Aaron soon enough he may be reduced to raw quintessence in one of the horrible ergastulums.

The full bookmarked 162-page pdf includes a text-only rules primer, character sheets, full-color maps, plain hex grid for printing and an excerpt from the fictional piece, Blur of Shadows.

Available on yourgamesnow.com, rpgnow.com, and drivethrurpg.com!