Maybe it's too early to ask this as I don't even have a copy of Survirors yet but I wonder which kind of supplement could follow next. Are there any plans or even details?
In every case you should keep on working on Desolation. It's already a great game for now but to hold up the long-time motivation any more books are the best way.
So what may we expect in the future? Will there be a supplement for playing in the Before? Will there be some official adventures? I'm curious about anything.

We hope to release some official adventures this year. We're still in the planning stage beyond that -- but we've discussed a supplement for the Before, a city guide to Ascondea, a GM screen, or expanding to other lands (south of the Saikin Wastes, north of the Oruskan Wilderness, or other continents).

Thanks for the information. Everything sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to the adventures.

A Gazeteer of the Before would be excellent! A travel guide like the old Realms supplement!

I've a hankering to run a scenario that jumps back and forth in time - or runs in both the Before and the After at the same time. Players in the Before group would have some effect on the After group, maybe leaving messages for their future selves. Perhaps have the After group as an expedition to find out what happened to the Before group. A gazeteer would help with that no end.

A GM's screen would be very cool - how about one of those lenticular (I think that's right) images that changes depending on your angle of view. Before and After? That could be phenomenally expensive but it would be very, very neat.

Other continents! If I could make a bid for an Arabian Nights themed area? Not to influence at all but Al Qadim was one of my favorite AD&D settings. Caliphate Nights just doesn't work for me.

I'm drifting. Later!

If this is the right place to offer this, I'd like to suggest that the GM screen be designed with the "pages" in landscape format, rather than portrait.

I've had the fortune of acquiring the French HEX GM screen and it's laid out that way. I like the fact that you can look over it easier, yet still have the information visible for your use.

Just sayin'...

I agree on that, Nestor. The D&D 4th edition GM screen also has a lesser hight and I liked the format very much - in contrast to the new rule system.
A bigger GM screen makes it harder for the GM to speak to the players in a comfortable way and atmosphere.

The old White Wolf game Wraith had a player's screen that (IIRC) was about 1/3 letter tall. I do not recall why they thought it was necessary for players to have a screen.

3 x landscape pages would be my preference as well. Not that I don't like my Hex screen (but I am rather interested in picking up the French screen now. Anyone have any ideas where I might do that from the UK?

Well, I got mine as a prize, so I'm not sure I can help you there.

I would think you'd have a better chance to snag one, being that you're generally closer to the source.

Check the HEX boards for the thread talking about the French distribution. It hopefully mentions the company responsible. From there, I'd guess an Internet search for contact info would get you somewhere...

Found a French gaming site that's selling Hex. Now just have to persuade them that I can register and purchase. Mind you, British Pound => Euro isn't exactly great at the moment. 22 Euros (cost of the screen) is over £20! Might wait for exchange rates to balance out a bit or for the UK to join the Euro. It's almost inevitable that we will one of these days.

I agree on the landscape orientation for the GM screen...

Now, let's take a step into the hypothetical.

Assuming we had 4 panels - what you you think should be on them?

I was thinking:

1 - Magic info
2 - combat info
3 - equipment & weapons
4 - skills/rules
5 - setting info - list of nations, races, etc...

I would want to stay away from character generation stuff, as I think the gm screen is a tool for the GM to use during the game.

Also... it seems that it is not enough to have a GM screen, but it must also have new content... what would be cool that hasn't been done before?

Well, top priority would be the things that are looked for the most: combat maneuvers and states of health; essentially, the first two items on your list (assuming by "magic info", you mean the rules for determining the effect and Difficulty of spells and the restrictions of each tradition).

After that, any special rules for task resolution (e.g., synergy, teamwork, chance dice, style point use) are a must. I can understand why some people would like an equipment list on the screen, but I tend to find it not as useful; I usually copy on the character's sheet the stats for any weapon or equipment that he has.

Setting info would be helpful, although I'm at a loss to think what exactly to include and how to format it. That one would require some more brainstorming on my part...



Agreed.



First thing that comes to mind is, of course, an adventure. Another thing would be a set of quick start rules, as we were discussing in another thread.

Hope that helps.

Maybe some short stats of common NPC types (farmer, militia, bandit,... something like that) would also be useful on the screen, especially for GMs who are new to the game system.

I'd see the sample NPCs as something to include in the content, as opposed to the screen, but, yes, that sort of thing does help when the GM needs to come up with a character when the PCs decide to start up a conversation (or confrontation) with that farmer standing in the corner of the tavern.

Don't have my copy in front of me right now, but I vaguely recall that Survivors has some sample write-ups for use. I'll check tonight when I get home from work.

Hm...sounds like another reason to finally buy Survivors.

Hullo, Jamie,



I have to say that I would love to see a supplement on the Before, as this would encourage players and GMs to potentially run campaigns in that earlier time period. One of the things I'd love to do is run a scenario where events are going on in the Before and the After. Players would play characters in the two times, where the events of the After are shaped by the player characters in the Before period. Nightmarish to run, but I've done that with a couple of other game systems, so...

The city guide to Ascondea appeals to me quite a bit, as there is so much potential in such a book for campaigns that use cities in the After as a base of operations. Heck, even the idea of the players coming upon a city in the After that they had never heard of would work well. If each city had some details on the Before and the After of said city, the product would be worth its weight in gold!

You know how I feel about the GM Screen already, so I'll just say... Yes, please.

A book expanding a bit on other lands would be nice, but I think that until there's enough material on the Ascondean region, that book should wait a bit.

Just my $0.02.