Introducing Titanic Scale
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 10:34:04 PM

Hello Evil Backers,

As we're actively building out mechanics for Pacific Rim and Kong: Skull Island, we had to introduce new rules that govern giant monsters and mechs. Enter Titanic Scale, a new mechanic that allows these massive creatures to have their own set of playable rules:

Titanic Scale

Jaegers and Kaiju tower over the world around them, standing as tall as skyscrapers. They exist on a scale well beyond the normal size categories, and normal hand-held weapons have almost no chance of harming them. Monsters and machines of this size are called Titanic Scale and use the following altered mechanics. Otherwise, though, they work just like any other combatants.

Titanic Damage and Penetration

Titanic combatants deal and take damage on a scale well beyond normal weapons. Damage dealt by titanic scale combatants is called Titanic Damage and is multiplied by 100 when dealt to a normal scale combatant or object. Similarly, normal scale damage dealt to a titanic scale combatant is divided by 100, rounded down.

Titan scale uses the same AR and PV scale, but in comparison, titanic scale values are equivalent to normal scale +5.  So Armor Value 1 at the titan scale is equal to Armor Value 6 on the normal scale. And Penetration Value 6 on normal scale is Penetration Value 1 on Titanic Scale. This means that most of the time, titan scale attacks always penetrate normal scale armor and normal weapons never penetrate titanic scale armor, but there could be exceptions for very powerful normal scale arms and armor with values greater than 5.

Titanic Conditions

Generally speaking, conditions inflicted by normal-scale combatants don’t affect anything at Titanic Scale. For instance, a regular net cannot restrain a kaiju or a jaeger, nor can a molotov cocktail set one on fire. At the GM’s discretion, some abilities or equipment may still function, but by and large, even very skilled people can’t affect enemies that are titanic scale.

Conditions inflicted by titanic scale combatants on normal scale ones generally work as normal, though at the GM’s discretion they may have other effects. For instance, a kaiju that spits restraining glue at a hero on foot might simply restrain them, but the impact could also cause damage, and the massive amount of glue could become suffocating.

Core Rulebook Version 1.1 is Live

Last week we sent out an update to the core rulebook. Please check your inbox for the update email from DriveThru RPG. We want to thank all of you who submitted over 400 bug bash entries. We will be issuing store credit as soon as our new e-commerce site is live. 

Editable Character Sheet and GM Screen Tables

Backers have been asking for these items. We are in the process of putting these up on DriveThru for free.  They should be up within the next week.

E-Commerce Site Launching Soon

On December 13th, we will be launching our new e-commerce site allowing customers to purchase the digital version of the core rulebook, preorder future products, and buy other cool stuff including this cool shirt.

We want to hear from you

Are we doing a good job? We want to hear from you. Let us know how you feel about the CRB, are we communicating too much or too little about our game process? Post a comment and let us know what's on your mind!

Big Updates for the month of November
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 10:01:23 PM

Hello Evil Backers,

We have a big update for you this week. Lots of accomplishments that we're eager to share with you. 

At the Printer

We're happy to report that our first wave of products is with our printer in China.  This includes:

• Standard Edition Core Rulebook
• Special Edition Core Rulebook
• The Crow Cinematic Adventure
• Escape From New York Cinematic Adventure
• GM Screen
• Custom Dice & Bag
• Rambo Mini
• The Crow Mini
• The Brawler Mini
• 1st Day Backer Pin
• 1st Day Backer Stickers

This means that we're ahead of schedule and could be putting these products into your hot little hands even sooner than promised.

What's Next?

Now that those products are in production, we are setting our sights on the next phase of work. See below:

The Core Rulebook

We're currently working on the next revision of our Core Rulebook PDF. So far you've logged almost 246 responses and we're slowly sifting through them. You've also made some great requests, including:

• Making a printer-friendly option
• Unlocking the PDF so you can make bookmarks
• Making the PDF more friendly to "Read Aloud" programs
• Compressing images to make the PDF faster on tablets

We promise to take all of these requests into account when we publish v1.1. Our goal is to get this out sometime before the end of the year.

Cinematic Adventures

Even though The Crow and Escape From New York are finished, we won't be sending the PDFs until January 2023. You'll just have to wait a few months longer.  Now we're setting our sights on Kaiju.

•  Kong: Skull Island: The rules are now complete. Expect some teasers coming up in the next few weeks. I'm excited to show you the Monster Hunter and Field Scientist classes. 
•  Pacific Rim: The rules and adventure are now complete.  With this adventure, we will be introducing 6 new jaegers and 6 new kaiju. Get ready to meet Tentacle Maw, Crusherbone, Urchin, Grimdark, Sliju, and the massive Stonefish.

Here is an early look at one of the new playable Jaegers - Hyperion Comet:

Foundry & Roll20

We're about to begin doing the conversions with our VTT partners. They now have the design files in hand and should be starting the process soon. Expect these in April as promised.

Live Q&A Recording

We had an amazing Q&A with the original designers of d20 Modern. You all asked some amazing questions about the original game that inspired ours.  You also asked a lot of questions about Everyday Heroes too! So please find both sessions on this YouTube recording.  Oh and we apologize that the first few minutes of the recording have been cut off. It happens :shrug:

Writer Q&A: Loved "Welcome To The Jungle" in the Quickstart Guides, then you're going to Love Tom Pugh
about 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 10, 2022 at 07:35:05 AM

Hello Evil Backers,

When we were just a little "businessling," Tom Pugh believed in our Evil Plan. We gave him a shot with our "Welcome to The Jungle" mini-adventure that we published in the QuickStart Guide. He then stepped in to flesh out portions of our "Escape From New York" Cinematic Adventure. And we were pleased. Pleased enough to give him the prologue projects for Escape From New York and Rambo. Here is more about Tom.

1. Let’s start simple, who are you? How did you get into gaming as a hobby, and as a profession?

Hi! I’m Tom, and I hail from the rural backwater of Shropshire, England. I first got into gaming in my teens when I found a copy of Dungeoneer! The Advanced Fighting Fantasy book, in WHSmith’s. I was fascinated by the idea of tabletop roleplaying: it fed straight into my love of storytelling and fantasy worlds full of knights, dragons, and trolls. Unfortunately, all my friends looked at the book and said ‘nah, looks a bit geeky.’

Fast forward a few years and I found some less cool friends. I got into wargaming via them and then eventually back to roleplay games. Our gaming group tried out many different sets of rules but eventually found Fifth Edition suited our style best.

I have only recently started writing RPG content professionally. I am part of a team converting a series of well-known fantasy books to 5E rules (I don’t think I am allowed to say what setting yet), have written a Warlock Lair adventure for Kobold Press, and have put some of my own stuff out.

2. What drew you to Evil Genius Games, what about Everyday Heroes appeals to you, and your writing style?

When I saw the announcement for Everyday Heroes I was unreasonably excited. A conversion for modern settings to the fast-paced, streamlined 5E rules fits my interests to a T and wasn’t really something covered by anything else existing. The over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek, all-guns-blazing nature of the system suits the kind of games I like to play. On the off chance, I dropped an email to the guys at Evil Genius. I think the style of my writing clicked with the kind of thing they wanted to do. Before I knew it, I was writing the Quick Start adventure Welcome to the Jungle.

3. What do you think of the concept of Cinematic Adventures, why did you want to write for one?

I love it! There is something to be said for crafting your own gaming world from the bottom up. But crikey does it take some time? Ask someone if they want to play a Highlander adventure. Or Rambo. Or Universal Soldier. They know precisely what kind of game you are talking about. These are films we all grew up with. We know the tone, we know the setting, we know the characters. The films that have been selected for the Cinematic Adventures are so well-loved, that it’s as if we are stepping into a campaign we have already been playing for years.

4. Tell us about your thoughts on the properties you’re working on? When did you first encounter the property and what was your initial reaction to it?

I am in the enviable position of working on three different properties. Escape from New York is a classic, John Carpenter at his best. It is dark, grotesque, and engrossing.

Rambo is also excellent, but quite a different kettle of fish. For me, as a Brit, one of the attractions of this franchise is the pure unabashed Americanism of it. First Blood, especially, touches on the nature of war, the contrast between patriotism and being let down by the authorities with a surprisingly deft touch. Plus it has massive explosions.

Universal Soldier has Jean-Claude Van Damme vs Dolph Lundgren, as unkillable super soldiers brought back from the dead, what’s not to love there?

All three (plus many of the others chosen as Cinematic Adventures) are the kind of film that stays with you, they have become part of the vocabulary for my generation. They’ve influenced all kinds of media since, including many RPG adventures.

5.  What are you excited about bringing to the lore of the properties you are working on?

All three films are ideal for exploring through tabletop RPGs. As I said before, they have already influenced all kinds of games, directly and indirectly, and this is a chance to go back to the source material.

Escape from New York has a massively detailed setting that goes well beyond the plot of the original film. It is full of intriguing characters and locations, many of them only touched on in the film and ripe for exploring further.

Rambo is iconic. Any player is going to love running around with a sweatband and a ruddy big gun, I can’t wait to dream up encounters that will give them something to blow up.

Universal Soldier is the balls-to-the-wall action that Everyday Heroes was made to run. Plus it has a setting that just asking to be delved into: reanimating and genetically augmenting soldiers to do the government’s dirty work has a lot of potential.

6. What would you tell fans of the property to ensure that it’s in good hands?

I think one of my strengths as a writer, which should serve me well on these projects, is attention to detail. I’ve been reviewing all the source material, both the original films and the media that have already been spun off from them: it’s a hard job but somebodies got to do it!

I’m not trying to reinvent anything here, I’m trying to get to the nub of what makes each of these properties great. All of them contain elements, be they locations, characters, or just themes and ideas, which can be expanded whilst still staying true to the original.

If you have a fraction of the fun playing these adventures as I am having writing them, you won’t be disappointed.

PDF Distribution Q&A
about 2 years ago – Sun, Nov 06, 2022 at 05:45:15 PM

Hello Evil Backers,

Hope you're having a relaxing Saturday reading the core rulebook. So far, we've appreciated all of the positive feedback from backers. That makes our hearts sing. So without further ado, I wanted to address any open questions that have been sent our way:

Why I didn't get the email inviting me to download the PDF?

The most common reason is that you didn't complete your backer survey. If you believe you completed everything satisfactorily, I recommend you email us at [email protected]. 

Why couldn't I download my PDF?

The short answer is you overwhelmed the system at Drivethru. But here is the official response from them:

"I've talked to our technical team and this is a temporary problem caused by three issues colliding:

• The larger number of people trying to download Everyday Heroes.
• The large file size of the PDF (~180MB).
• Watermarking is turned on for this PDF.

Our download servers automatically scale, so once the site detected downloads failing, it spun up additional servers to handle the load. Your backers should be able to download the book now: I was able to successfully download the PDF in the same way a customer would, but it would surely be smoother/faster if we turned watermarking off for this book."

What will you do to prevent this from happening in the future?

• We will be looking for ways to reduce the file size so long as it doesn't hurt the quality of the product. 
• We won't send out the mass notice until the invites have been sent. It turns out that DriveThru meters their email invites to avoid issues such as these. 

Will you be making an editable Character Sheet?

Yes. This was a good suggestion. We're working on it and will make it available when we're done. The first priority however is to make sure we hit our print goals for these books.

When will Roll20 version be coming out?

The roll20 and Foundry versions will be coming out in April 2023 when the book hits the sales stands.

How is the bug bash coming along?

So far, there have been 60 bugs recorded. Only 60 bugs found out of a 200,000-word manuscript seems like a win. But keep submitting them. It's our goal to smash these bugs and provide an updated release of the book soon.  We will keep updating the book until it's perfect.

My questions aren't being addressed. Why not?

It's probably because you're not emailing your questions to [email protected]. Please don't ask questions in these comments, on Facebook, via Kickstarter email, via Facebook messenger, or via our website contact form. This is the worst way to expect a speedy response. I don't know how many times I've typed the customer service email addressing these updates, but I apologize if I'm sounding like a broken record. 

The Digital Core Rulebook Has Been Released!
about 2 years ago – Sun, Nov 06, 2022 at 06:10:20 AM

Congratulations, Evil Backers,

By now you should have an email in your inbox inviting you to down the digital version of the Everyday Heroes Core Rulebook! Woot! We at Evil Genius Games are incredibly excited to hear your thoughts about the book. It's been our passion project for over a year so it's exciting to share our precious baby with the world. 

Get your copy on Drivethru RPG

Once you receive your email (at the email address associated with our Backerkit records), click through to DriveThru RPG to receive your copy.  Your account must be in good standing to receive this product. If you didn't receive an email, then we have had an issue with your payment.  If you have any issues with your download, please contact us at [email protected].

NOTE: This is PDF optimized for Adobe Acrobat.

The Bug Bash starts today

Once you receive your product, you will be welcome to submit bugs. Bugs are received based on the timestamp. You'll have until Friday, November 11th at 5 pm PDT to submit your bugs.  Those amazing people who submit bugs will receive one dollar of store credit per acknowledged bug. Here is the link to the form where you can register your bug. 

Prologue Release Correction

I'm sorry but we made a mistake with the timing of the prologues. Here is the corrected release schedule for backers.

• To Dethrone A Dictator - Christmas Eve (December 24th, 2023)
• Escape From New York Prologue - Valentine's Day (February 14th, 2023)
• Rambo Prologue - Memorial Day (May 29th, 2023)

More about the Special Anniversary Edition cover

We've had a lot of people who love the new artwork and some who hate the new artwork. So I thought I'd provide more perspective. The special edition cover was meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the d20 Modern system. As you know, our game was inspired by d20 Modern and is the main reason why we made this property.  If we were just meaning to create a limited edition cover, we'd throw some foil on it and call it a day. But we wanted to do more here. So honoring the game with a 20-year throwback cover is EXACTLY what we wanted to achieve. It made me smile when many people said that they can't wait to put this new book on their shelf next to their original d20 Modern book. I understand that not everyone who backed the game has the same nostalgia around d20 Modern as the rest of us. So for that reason, we're happy to get you whichever book cover you are happiest with. Just email us at [email protected].

Please register for the Q&A

Please register for your intimate Q&A with the original designers of d20 Modern. This Q&A will take place on Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 at 5:30 PDT.  We will record for future viewing in order to romantic preserve relationships. 

To prep for this Q&A, make sure you check out our docuseries on the making of d20 Modern. You can find it on our Youtube Channel.