Well, obviously I don't need to mention Neuroglyph and his review of Amethyst. Part 1 is up now; part 2 should be up by the time most people read this. It is, however, not the only review of Amethyst which has hit the net. Matt Staggs over at Realms of Fantasy (yes, THE Realms of Fantasy) has reviewed Amethyst for their May/June issue, but you can read it now here.

Watch out for extensive coverage with Gnome's Stew this month as well.

In other news, our swag package for pre-orders is getting larger. Now, for those not noticing, all our press releases (as well as our flyer) advertise over 100+ megs of files in our DLC package for those that pre-order Amethyst through your FLGS or through Goodman's site, but Goodman's main page accidentally indicated it was 300+ megs. Well thankfully, that typo became reality. Because we are switching to a private downloading site, we are able to make this DLC package larger, close to if not exceeding the 300+ meg promise thrown down by Goodman's page. I will offer up more detail as I nail down the specifics. So...more free stuff. That's good, right?

We always brag about what's in Amethyst (classes, races, etc), but what's NOT in Amethyst?

Well from a setting perspective, and if we are talking strictly canon, no outside civilized races other than ones we endorse. So no elves or dwarves other than our elves and dwarves. No eladrin or tieflings. No gods, period, which leads into the reason why we don't have paladins or clerics in this setting. Divinity is still a matter of faith without proof. When someone asks if a party is unbalanced without such heavy healers, I look to my current Amethyst group. They seem to do just fine without them (we have some lifepaths which should help for those really desperate for some healing feeling). Of course, this has not stopped playtesters from ignoring these guidelines, which is fine. I know one guy running an Amethyst game with a tiefling in the party.

What else? Since we messed around with wizards, all other spellcasters are out. That's pretty much it for PHB. As for monsters, if they are based on mythology, they are in Amethyst as long as we HAVEN'T replaced them already. So there are no goblins, bugbears, or orcs, because we have boggs, skeggs, and pagus. No kobolds...puggs. We have our own dragons as well. However, we didn't replace trolls or gargoyles. The idea being that if the monster is in anyway social (they form communities, regardless of their stability), they won't be seen here unless we create them.

But the real meat of the post is what the actual book lacks. We keep our monsters around Heroic tier so you will find few to none in paragon and epic. Although we have full classes (1-30) and we have paragon paths, we do not have epic destinies. These were all written but eventually removed because of space concerns (I could remove artwork or story fluff...but I really didn't want to do that). Certain races not often seen in Canam have also been omitted. We mention the tenenbri a lot in the game but don't offer them as a race option. The same goes for pagus or half-pagus races--listed as monsters but not as an available race.

Another interesting omission is evil. Yes, we took out evil. Originally, we had numerous lifepaths, races, and paragon paths for those wishing to take the dark path of Ixindar. These were also omitted but not on any ethical reason. It was logical to remove them all as they could still find themselves bundled together with an expansion supplement later.

One strange side effect of these deleted items is that they are propping up in other places. Issue 3 of Level Up Magazine features the tenenbri race, along with unique lifepaths, paragon paths, and a monster based off their lineage. If memory recalls, issue 4 will also feature content for Amethyst not available in the Foundations core book.

So you can expect to still see these concepts and rules eventually. Once again, it's all hinging on the success of the first book.

The first chapter of Amethyst is now available from Goodman Games. A somewhat annoying grammar mistake slapping me in the face on the first page has been fixed in the final print. You can read on the basic setting and the concepts presented.

Couple interesting tidbits this week.

Lots of good responses from the offer of DLC for those who pre-order. As result, I have expanded the DLC from 120 megs to 150 megs. There is now more artwork and a file containing original fiction set in the Amethyst setting.

I made a few final minor tweaks to the combat engine based on some more additional Biohazard feedback. The book is set and is heading to printers.

Based on that thought, Amethyst is now open for reviews. Anyone wanting to get on the list, should contact me, along with the blog, site, or publication you represent.

Gamers that pre-order Amethyst either through Goodman Games or your friendly local game store will now receive exclusive downloadable content (DLC, commonly seen with modern computer games). The DLC package is over 100 MB and includes these awesome bonuses:

--Two adventures including the Hearts of Chaos 2009 FreeRPGDay module
--A user-editable Amethyst character sheet
--Six high-res images suitable for poster printing
--A massive two-page full-color world map
--And last but certainly not least, the entire original 3.5 Edition of the Amethyst RPG which was released in 2008 to glowing reviews

Place your pre-order with your local retailer today!
Offer expires May 1, 2010.