Part 3 is now up here

Part 2 of our Amethyst Retrospective is now online. Once again, its Nick and I.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk9eV-cXizw

It's been a month and we're finally back. I didn't want to post useless drivel during the shopping season and have something worthwhile when the time was right. For one, stage 2 of NeuroSpasta playtesting just began. This involves not only all the updated rules from the past five months of testing but now all the setting detail as well.

On the Amethyst front, the Biohazard module I had once promised for November is finally finished. Copies have been mailed out to several websites and expect it available both here and at Goodman Games relatively soon. As promised, this module is free and showcases the new modern combat rules being utilized in both Amethyst and NeuroSpasta. Gamers are encouraged to post their feedback on our forums to make the final product of Amethyst the best it can be.

Additionally, starting this week, DEM will be starting a series of video commentaries dealing with the development of its artwork. Both myself and Nick Greenwood contributed to the video. No, you won't be seeing us. Instead, you will see some of Amethyst's best artwork from early sketches to their final forms. There are dozens of pieces never before seen.

The first part is available here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6uVFKYgNuY

Check the front page for the first piece of official Neurospasta internal artwork, one of our favorite robots.

Additionally, we have created a whole slew of universal opponents which can be modified with one of several templates to adept them for any purpose. You can have terrorists, special forces, civilian mobs, or even robots. After a dozen or so pages of opponents, our names for these got a little strange...

Ill-Equipped Combatant
Man with Pipe Wrench
Phallic Compensator
Bell-Tower Bastard
Ammo Waster
Machine Gun Menace
Flesh Fortress
Pyrophiliac

Yes, I could have called him a Pyromaniac but...hmm...it's been done. So here is how it works. We have eight templates you can apply to our seventeen non-unique troops. Here is an example:

Regimented
Regimented units work as a team and must deploy in numbers in an encounter to be effective. On their own, they are useless. Unlike a mob however, these forces have undergone training to work together, and as such are not known for acts of stupidity like breaking from a line.
The adversary gains a +2 enhancement bonus to AC while adjacent to another adversary. In addition, the adversary gains the immediate reaction power Combat Drill.
Combat Drill (immediate reaction; when an ally shifts into or out of an adjacent square)
The adversary may shift one square.

And then you can apply it to any of these universal opponents like this...

Ammo Waster (Ranged) Level 5 Minion
Medium Natural Humanoid XP 50
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +3
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion
AC 21; Fortitude 14, Reflex 15, Will 14, Firewall 19
Hardness 1
Speed 6
RBA SMG (standard; at will) * Weapon
Ranged 10/20 +9; vs. AC; 5 damage; AP 1
Wild Spray (move action; at will)
The adversary must hit with its ranged basic attack. Immediately after resolving damage it may make one SMG attack against an enemy adjacent to the target.
Alignment Any Languages Any
Skills Intimidate +7, Stealth +9
Str 13 (+3) Dex 14 (+4) Wis 12 (+3)
Con 12 (+3) Int 12 (+3) Cha 11 (+2)
Equipment SMG

Just came back from 2012 and saw the latest trailer for Avatar. I had seen it online weeks ago, of course, but it reminded me of a featurette I had seen hours earlier on the official movie page, which talked about the technology used by mankind in the film. I have been an apologist for the film as most of my friends have discounted Avatar was a tired retread of a plot seen a dozen times prior, from Pocahontas and The Last Samurai, to Lawrence of Arabia and the recent animated Battle for Terra. I have some faith that it will rise above its cliché and be entertaining. I am bringing this up because of this featurette. Now Avatar does pit the high technology of man against the primitive ways of the alien Navi. Mankind flaunts fanjet attack vehicles and powered armor. On the surface, there is an element of Amethyst to all of it. Of course, we pit technology against magic, a far more even conflict. Specifically, this featurette refers to a concept often ignored in these films. Carl Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke said it best (and no, this was not dealt with the featurette, only suggested) that an race capable of interstellar travel arriving at a new world incapable of interstellar travel would appear so technologically advanced that not only would they appear as gods, but the level of technology would be so vast superior that a conflict would be hopeless for the lesser advanced species. If you can travel faster than light, then no race of bows and beasts can measure up, no matter what regional advantage they may boast. Avatar apparently acknowledges this point and tries to propose that the world of Pandora as one with magnetic fields so strong that it not only allows the suspension of massive rocks disobeying gravity, but it...ahem...disrupts the high technology mankind used to traverse the vastness of space to arrive here. As a result, instead of plasma weapons and gravity tanks, there are fanjets and chemical propelled projectiles. So...as technology increases, the greater the chance it won't function. This includes a scene of the pilot of a fanjet complaining about the lack of proper radar. Annoyed? Not particularly. Beyond the fact that I hope this will finally dismiss the accusations comparing Amethyst to Shadowrun, Avatar doesn't deal with the philosophical points proposed by Amethyst...that and the entire "magic is cool" idea. This is not to say that I don't think Avatar and Amethyst share several points. I think visually Avatar could very well share moments where it blurs the line with Amethyst.

Biohazard is finishing layout and several websites will be receiving previews of this adventure this week, before it gets posted. Meanwhile, NeuroSpasta continues its drive for detail. I just made South Africa fall to a Military Junta and the land from the Congo to Rwanda just got turned into a no-man's land called Hetgwauge, the African myth of Hell. Oh, and I wiped out The Netherlands...sorry guys. That's what you get for being below the water line.