I know it’s not cool to say so but I rather enjoyed MIKA’s debut album, especially the single Grace Kelly. To my untrained hears he did manage to remind me of Freddie Mercury.

I can only imagine this video is part of MIKA’s push into the lucrative US music market.

Since it’s launch GUMSHOE has picked up other big names; including Kenneth Hite who produced a new version of Call of Cthulhu called Trail of Cthulhu with it.

This week GUMSHOE’s keepers, Pelgrane Press, have been running a %15 discount sale on the system.

(At the time of posting you’ve got 52 hours of the sale left)

I took the chance to reach out to Simon J Rogers – the co-owner and MD of Pelgrane Press as well as ProFantasy Software – and fellow Brit. He suggested I fire over some questions. So here goes!

Q: Can you give us the elevator pitch for GUMSHOE? In a world filled with RPG systems; why try another?

The GUMSHOE rules system has revolutionized investigative scenarios by ensuring that players are never deprived of the crucial clues they need to move the story forward. Randomness is fun when you are fighting a shoggoth, but not when trying to find a book in a library. Investigative games are about what you do with clues, not whether you find them, and GUMSHOE makes sure all the players get a chance to shine.

Q: Is this a game system that keeps things abstract and quick or does it dive down into the gritty and realistic?

It varies between incarnations, but it’s more a simulation of stories in every media, than of the real world. In the real world in some settings, your character might be randomly picked off by a sniper. We have a word for those people – NPCs. So, for example, while there are crunchy combat options in the Esoterror Factbook, these reflect the common tropes of combat teams you see in the media, and not the nitty-gritty of burst patterns. Mutant City Blues is far more CSI than the difficult grey world of real forensics.

However, I’d say that “gritty” is a different thing – and Esoterrorists in particular is gritty, for example Stability measures you mental health, and this gets chipped away by some seriously unpleasant events and creatures of Unremitting Horror.

Q: Which GUMSHOE games would you recommend for beginners, experienced and cynical gamers? (I maintain that’s the career path most gamers take)

The rules are straightforward, but no iteration is specifically designed for those new to roleplaying to run, though they wouldn’t have much problem playing them. We’ve considered a Sherlock Holmes game for this purpose. My favourite to run is Mutant City Blues, and it would be easier to play, too, because everyone knows how police procedurals work, and the superpowers are more Heroes than DC. Esoterrorists, combined with the Esoterror FactBook would suit the more cynical minded gamer, and Trail is for those who love period horror. Fear Itself is a game of personal horror and has a smaller market, as not all roleplayers like to play normal people faced with horrors which can destroy them.

Q: Are there any online resources for GUMSHOE? Sites, forums, blogs, etc, you recommend people check out?

The Yog-Sothoth forum is where we talk about Trail, and the Pelgrane Press forum covers everything else – although I will answer Trail questions there, too. Our website has just been revamped, and has frequent updates, and I read the comments there, and there’s my livejournal too. The Pelgrane site has a lot of resources, including Call of Cthulhu adventures adapted for use with Trail, reviews, and of course Page XX, the
Pelgrane webzine.

Q: What’s the future for the GUMSHOE system?

We’ve got the as-yet-untitled GUMSHOE Space – think Firefly meets Star Trek by way of the frontier; Razed, a post-apocalyptic game by Will Hindmarch, new Trail supplements such as Cthulhu Apocalypse and few others new GUMSHOE games not yet announced.

As you’d expect of a vampire – Vampirella is quite old. The comic first appeared in 1969 with a black and white cover by Frank Frazetta.

A string of famous writers have wielded their pen on Vampirella projects, including; Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Grant Morrision, James Robinson, Jeph Loeb and Warren Ellis.

So, why did Dynamite invest in the sexy vampire? Here’s what Nick Barrucci, President of Dynamite Entertainment said in a press release;

“Vampirella is one of the most well known and longest running comic characters in the history of the business. Outside of Marvel and DC characters, very few comics characters that debuted in the 60’s still resonate with fans today. Our acquisition of this iconic brand is another step in Dynamite’s exciting growth and builds on the ongoing success of our line.”

What do you think? Do Dynamite smell a possible movie – we’ve had a rush of superheroes movies? Twilight and True Blood are certainly keeping vampires popular – why not combine the two?

Or do you think this was about the timing? Given the challenges publishers are facing perhaps Dynamite made an offer that Harris couldn’t say no too.

Remember when people poked fun at series 1 of Heroes? People with un-super powers? Well. That’s Three Inches. The pilot focuses on Walter, a daydreamer who gets hit by lightening and then develops the power to move things.

Walter may be able to move objects with the power of his mind but he can only move them three inches – hence the show’s name.

He’s quickly recruited into a secret band of similarly powered “not-quite-super” heroes.

SyFy have Harley Peyton as the pilot’s writer. Peyton was the producer and/or the writer for more than 20 episodes of Twin Peaks and is currently engaged in writing a sequel to the film The Thomas Crown Affair.

Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Development at SyFy told press;

“Three Inches is a fun, smart, off-beat spin on the superhero genre. It introduces a new group of crime fighters who possess some imaginative—if not all that super—powers.”

“We look forward to working with Harley, Bob, and Fox Television Studios on this project.”

Yes, Fox are involved, – they’re producing it. David Madden, executive vice president at Fox Television Studios, said;

“We felt there was something special and particularly twisted about this script, both in tone and in its sense of imagination. We could not be more thrilled to be working on it with Syfy.”

The former Head of Video from Adconion’s Australian operations Matthew Hunt has been promoted to Managing Director. He’ll replace Mike James who left last year.

The video connection is strong here. Adconion bought Joost because of its potential power as video platform. Hunt is their ex-Head of Video.

I was on Joost to watch anime videos. I can’t do that any more. The last of their Toei tiles will vanish on March 25.

Here’s the list:

• Air Master
• Pretty Cure
• Digimon Adventure
• Galaxy Express 999
• First of the North Star
• Slam Dunk
• Captain Harlock

However, if you’re in the US then you can pick these up via Hulu. Funimation and Crunchyroll also run these.

It turns out that we’re not dine with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies yet, though. There’s a prequel that’s due out March 23.

The trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls looks pretty cool too. It’s easy to forget this is a book trailer rather than film trailer.

Before the vid, though, let’s check in with the blurb from the book:

“Readers will witness the birth of a heroine in Dawn of the Dreadfuls–a thrilling prequel set four years before the horrific events of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. As our story opens, the Bennet sisters are enjoying a peaceful life in the English country side. They idle away the days reading, gardening, and daydreaming about future husbands–until a funeral at the local parish goes strangely and horribly awry.”

The last releases for Spycraft 2.0 will come throughout the summer and wil include the last of the Saturday Morning Spycraft PDF series and the adventure fiction series set in the World on Fire. The last Spycraft 2.0 product will be the Word on Fire: Born of Ashes guidebook.

Patrick Kapera, Crafty Games partner, said;

“We’ve been considering the merits of a new edition for some time and with the incredible success of Fantasy Craft and the Mastercraft system the pieces just came together,”

“Updating Spycraft gives us the chance not only to synchronize rules across all our core games but also lets us bring the focus of the Spycraft brand back to espionage. We can still stretch the genre with dedicated supplements and — with products like Ten Thousand Bullets — other compatible Mastercraft core books, and this really frees us up to dig into the Great Game in ways that we’ve never done before. This time around you can expect a lot more tradecraft and as much real world intelligence detail as we can manage (without getting our offices raided, of course).”

Alex Flagg, also a Crafty Games partner, commented in their press release;

“Third Edition will be all about customization,”

“You’ll be able to build your own home office and your GM will be able to create criminal masterminds, henchmen, and minions of all stripes, and place them at the head of any type of organization he can imagine. Super-science will be adjustable as well, letting you run a game with everything from completely realistic gear to over-the-top gadgets bordering on magic. And of course the Mastercraft system lets you tweak the rules to support any flavor of play you want as well, though we’ll be expanding the rules for the heightened lethality so popular in recent spy thrillers.”

That’s right. It’s time again to catch up with some of the most geek praise worthy amigurumi. Recommend any other amigurumi masterpieces? Leave a comment.

Oh sure; it won’t be dull for the bride and groom. It’ll be their big day. But what about everyone else?

Fortunately there is a solution. There’s the wedding cake. There’s Star Wars. The two can go together in so many interesting ways!

(via, the always fantastic, Nerd Salad)

Announced at this year’s GDC is the two-player, third person, RPG called Hunted: The Demon’s Forge.

The game lets players control one of two heroes; E’lara (who specialises in ranged weapons) and Caddoc (who specialises in melee). The multiplayer option is online only as the game refuses to go split-screen.

We already know a little about the game. We know, for example, that you can see your actual number of remaining health potions hanging from your belt and that you can toss those potions from character to character. We know that if you’re playing in a friends game you can either assume control of their computer controlled NPC or import your own version of the character. Levelling up works by collecting crystals – which you can keep if you go to play a friends game.

The game is being developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC. It’s being developed by inXile Entertainment. InXile is Brian Fargo’s company. Fargo’s been involved with games like The Bard’s Tale, Baldur’s Gate and Fallout.

Here’s his press release quote on the deal;

“We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda Softworks on this upcoming release that takes us back to our roots,”

“Bethesda’s track record speaks for itself and the game we are developing for them is no exception.”