SEVEN VOYAGES OF ZYLARTHEN Booklets Are Available For $5.95!

[oakesspalding]

(A shameless plug, cross posted from G+ and Save Versus All Wands)

No, it's not a price cut per se. The truth is that Lulu changed printers midstream. Essentially, the quality of saddle stitch got worse (much worse) but the quality of perfect bound got better, at least for this style of book. However, the cost of perfect bound has for some reason always been quite a bit less than saddle stitch. So switching to perfect bound is now a no-brainer. The good news is that the new booklets will be good quality but significantly less expensive. You'll now be able to purchase all four booklets (with shipping) and use them for the rest of your life for less than the cost of taking a date to one movie!

Though Zylarthen differs in a few obvious ways from its inspirational parent, We at Campion & Clitherow believe it is by far the most aesthetically accurate contemporary take on the 1974 "three little brown books" (accurate to a fault, some might say). Therefore, it's only fitting that the Zylarthen books are now almost the same price as the 1974 booklets. (Full disclosure, there are now four books instead of three. On the other hand, each current book has more pages on average than the originals. We actually wanted to set the price at a straight $5.00 but Lulu would't allow us to go that low for three of them.)

From the pure point of view of economics, this makes the price of the set comparable to the one-volume editions of our, so to speak, competitors (all of which we have great respect for), and so we therefore hope the physical copies will reach more enthusiasts. We like the aesthetic of individual booklets and feel that it is fundamental to what we were trying to do. I doubt we will ever offer the game in another form.

We are thankful to the many old schoolers that have so far downloaded the game, and are especially grateful to those that purchased the original saddle stitched booklets. (You now have "collectors editions" that will probably-unfortunately-never be duplicated, unless or until we can hook up with an amenable local printer.)

Zylarthen is ideally meant to stand on it own as a rules system and game resource. A twenty-page Player Reference Sheets pamphlet is about to be published, summarizing some of the most important rules and charts in the four booklets, as well as a sample Character Record sheet. In the works is a supplementary volume of monsters-written in Zylarthen's "stripped down" style-as well as More Things in Heaven and Earth, a pseudo-Elizabethan take on the mechanic.

Happy dungeoneering! Guard the innocent! Avenge the wronged! May you find heaps of gold at the end of your path, or at the least a memorable and heroic demise! But above all, God grant that you find wonder everywhere!

Enjoy!

[kesher]

Dood--link!

And I'll second this being a great game, and a no-brainer at that price.

[jdjarvis]

It is a good spin on the classic and is tempting me for the rules for my next campaign.

[oakesspalding]

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.

I've revised the encumbrance rules somewhat. You can link to my blog or directly download the "pamphlet" here. These changes will be incorporated in ZYLARTHEN going forward (unless of course they stir up outrage, contempt, venom or the like).

The main changes and points are:

1. Reducing the permitted number of units carried from 40 to 25. This makes things more “symmetrical” in that each encumbrance step is now 5 (as opposed to 5, 5, 10, 10 and 10.)

2. The attack/defense penalties on Super-Heavy encumbrance (Base Move: 3) have been eliminated. Thus the maximum encumbrance that one can have without suffering a penalty on combat is really only being reduced by 5 (from 30 to 25). In addition, there is an option to carry up to 10 more units without being able to attack or defend (perhaps holding a sack over one’s shoulder with both hands).

3. The intention behind changing the shape of the encumbrance steps was NOT to further limit what people can “really” carry. Rather, in part the assumption is that each encumbrance unit now represents on average a bit more weight. Many items still have an encumbrance of 1, and thus the result will be to make them slightly “heavier”. However, some of the already heavy items have in turn had their encumbrance units reduced. “Big” weapons generally had their encumbrance reduced from 5 to 3 or from 4 to 2. This also applies to the shield. It follows that there are now only 3 weapon encumbrance categories instead of 4, thus making things a bit simpler. In addition, the encumbrance of Plate Armor goes from 10 to 8, Mail from 8 to 6 and that annoyingly heavy sledge hammer from 6 to 3, among other things. Groups of items “adding up” to 1 encumbrance unit now generally contain more items (and thus their prices have been modified in a few cases). It should be noted that the only item that gains encumbrance on the new list is the crossbow.

4. Rules limiting the number of “big” items or weapons one may carry have been changed in conformity with the new assignments. I think the results are a bit simpler, clearer and more intuitive. These rules now only apply to weapons, not to the more general category of items. You can now carry 12 shovels if you d**n well want.

5. Partly in line with the above changes, but also for other reasons, I have revised the rules for Food and Water requirements in the wilderness.

6. Each set of text will include a reference as to what it “replaces.” Honestly, I put a great deal of thought into the original scheme and so I think it’s pretty good. (I wouldn’t have published ZYLARTHEN otherwise.) It’s just that I think this “alternate” scheme is a bit better.

[stevemitchell]

Are these changes incorporated in the new four-booklet set, or are they changes to same? Just wanted to check; I have the four-booklet package coming from Lulu.

[oakesspalding]

If you bought the recently launched $5.95 booklets, which I assume you did, then the answer is yes. I hope that's okay. There's one small fiddly change that you may or may not have, depending on when you bought them-I changed a "unit" of rations from 3 days to 1 week-but that's it. Barring someone pointing out some hitherto unnoticed super typo, the text is set in 1st edition stone.

I'm about to release a "Player Reference Sheets" pamphlet in the style of the original wood-box "Reference Sheets", which will contain important tables and rules from all four volumes plus a few new things such as an assortment of ready-made equipment inventories for starting characters. It will also present the price and encumbrance lists again. But your copy should be consistent with that except for the rations.

I hope no one is annoyed by the change. I thought about holding back until I did a "2nd edition", but decided it was better to just do it. Those that purchased or downloaded the game prior to May 25th can use either version, and as stated, the end results-what you can get away with carrying and how fast you'll move-are pretty much the same under both regimes. And of course I have a feeling that there are some Zylarthen fans who are skeptical of the whole encumbrance issue in general and would rather just hand-waive it.

[stevemitchell]

Thanks; I ordered my set from Lulu a couple of days after you started this thread. Just wanted to check.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

For that price, I HAVE to check this out!

[Deleted]

You have to love the name!

[oakesspalding]

I've moved ZYLARTHEN stuff to a more generic titled thread on the general board below or here. I hope that's okay.