Pantheon Press Blog

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rob Trimarco
Pantheon Press LLC
Phone: (800) 522-6695
E-mail: [email protected]

New York City, New York (July 16, 2010) – Pantheon Press LLC is proud to announce both the release of its hotly anticipated new role-playing game Fortune’s Fool and the nomination of Nobis: The City-States for Best Supplement in the 2010 ENnie Awards.

Fortune’s Fool is an innovative RPG that uses Tarot cards instead of dice. Set in a fantastic version of Renaissance Europe, the game allows you to play men, elves, dwarves, goblins, and more as they adventure from the courts of Paris to the canals of Venice. Fortune's Fool lets you create unique characters through an intuitive step-by-step process. Your character will be rich and detailed, and you will have your own unique luck structure. Using the new Fate Twist system, you can directly alter the course of battles, social interactions, and magic spells by manipulating the Tarot deck itself.

Fortune’s Fool is available for purchase at the Pantheon Press Marketplace as a PDF or one of two hardcopy editions: black & white and full color. Both feature the same stunning full-color cover illustrated by Christopher Kimball, but the interior art in the limited deluxe edition also comes in color. A free copy of the PDF also comes with the full-color edition.

“The announcement of Nobis: The City-States garnering a nomination for Best Supplement in the 2010 Ennie Awards alongside products from Hero Games and Wizards of the Coast makes us enormously proud,” said Rob Trimarco, President of Pantheon Press LLC. The Nobis: The City-States is a campaign setting for D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder that combines the best elements of immersive role-playing, high fantasy, and sophisticated political intrigue into one unified system.

To celebrate the nomination, Pantheon Press is selling many of the Nobis PDFs at a reduced price. Visit the Pantheon Press Marketplace for this special offer. Don’t forget to vote for Nobis: The City-States to win the ENnie for Best Supplement.

To hear their thoughts about the creation of these two games, listen to the interviews with the members of Pantheon Press on the Atomic Array podcast.

Pantheon Press LLC offers some of the most innovative gaming design in the role-playing industry today. Read more about Pantheon Press at www.pantheonpress.com.

GenCon event registration went live Sunday at noon. I'm fairly certain the site crashed immediately after. I didn't see, as I was preparing to run the next session of our Fortune's Fool playtest (protip: don't get trampled by a speeding four-horse carriage). But when the game was over, I checked to see if anyone had signing up for our events.

And boy howdy, did they! Our Friday evening game sold out pretty quickly. Over the past two days, a couple of the others have also sold out. I guess it doesn't hurt to have your game promoted as "GenCon found this event interesting," eh? According to the site as of today, there are only 2 tickets left for the Friday afternoon game.

Maybe this is a glitch in the system, with people only wanting to buy a single ticket, but getting charged for several. Or, as I like to hope, Fortune's Fool is about to bust wide open!

If you didn't get a ticket, don't despair. It's been my experience that people buy tickets for conflicting issues and then decide what they want to do on the day. Stop on by the game anyway, there may be a slot open! Or perhaps we can schedule you for a demonstration of the game that's "off the books."

Ok, that sounded creepy. Sorry.

The details: Fortune's Fool "When You Wish Upon a Sword"
RPG1010499 through RPG1010502
Friday 8/6 1:00 & 7:00 PM
Saturday 8/7 1:00 & 7:00 PM

In order to properly celebrate the holidays this year we are having a 15% off sale of all items in the Pantheon Press marketplace when you enter in the discount code: HEARTHHEART

Get to the store ASAP! https://www.pantheonpress.com/marketplace

This code will be in effect for December 2009 and January 2010 so get your orders in!

Happy Holidays from Pantheon Press!

The Adversaries Almanac is now available for purchase! Ripe with 18 full-color entries, it'll provide you with a bad guy for just about every campaign level. Sexy assassin? Check. Fallen paladin? Check. Crazy tattooed dwarf? Check!

Check out the Pantheon Press marketplace to buy yours today.

And remember, the discount code GNOLLOWEEN is still good for the rest of this week!

Tyr "Tearbringer" Mal'dorr
There is but one rule in the goblinoid clans that populate the lands northeast of Emberstone—strength equals power. Until recently, this was exemplified best in the Mal’dorr (Goblin for ‘hidden knife’) clan, which was led by the hulking bugbear Molok. As strong as a minotaur with a command style to match, his clan survived, but never flourished. They barely fought back assaults from other goblinoid clans, and attacks on the nearby human settlements were almost always failures. On one such raid, a young hobgoblin named Tyr lost his eye. He also lost any respect he had for Molok.

Tyr believed that cleverness could be another form of strength, and therefore another form of power. Why announce your offense with a screaming charge when you could slip behind enemy lines under the cover of night and slit their throats while they slept. Both tactics had the same result, but the latter left you with far more of your own forces still alive. As he continued to watch Molok stumble blindly into battle, Tyr saw opportunities abound. A contingent of archers in the trees could take out the enemy before they were seen. A force hidden in a nearby cave could emerge after the battle was already joined to catch the
enemy from behind, and they would be crushed like an eyeball in a raven’s beak. Tyr’s mind was naturally suited for tactical combat.

Tyr knew that he couldn’t take Molok in hand-to-hand combat, so he devised a plan to wrest control of the clan from the bugbear. He had heard rumors of a poison dusk lizardfolk hermit living near the edge of Emberstone. On the pretense of scouting a strike against the Groo’bin clan, he sought out the lizardfolk. After several weeks of hard travel, he found the hermit and paid her a handsome sum to brew up a powerful toxin called “sapper.” The poison, which Tyr sprinkled into Molok’s food when he returned, was a subtle one. The next time Molok’s adrenaline flowed, he would be rendered as weak as a baby kobold.

After a few days of poisoning Molok to make sure it would take effect, Tyr called the bugbear out to the fire pit of their camp. Tyr challenged Molok’s authority, saying that he was no longer fit to lead the clan. Then, Molok punched Tyr right in the face, as he did to all would-be usurpers. Tyr knew this was coming, and though his jaw was broken, he managed to stay on his feet. He continued to taunt Molok, taking blow after blow, until each hit felt no stronger than a mother’s touch. That’s when Tyr drew a short blade and stabbed Molok right in the chest. He was nearly beaten to death, but he won leadership of the clan.

Tyr’s first campaign as chief of the Mal’dorr was against the human lumber camp of Oakstone. While his clan triumphed, killing all the humans, it was not without losses. Tyr lost three of his fiercest warriors and one of his fingers. He learned not to underestimate his enemies, even if they are just woodsmen with simple axes. Tyr made sure that one human escaped, and then set a trap for any retaliating forces amongst the deadly water-powered lumber saws. He and his clan lay in wait for over a week, despite many of the smaller goblins’ insisting on burning the entire camp to the ground. His patience paid off when a well-outfitted battalion entered the camp and set off the trap, leaving them wounded enough for the goblins to finish them off. The Mal’dorr ended that day with more spoils than they had seen in a generation.

Tyr repeated this stratagem at two other settlements, earning him the nickname "Tearbringer” among the humans, but while his goblins were quite happy with their growing hoard, Tyr felt like he was merely picking at scraps. He knew there was greater plunder to be had closer to the human’s City-States Region where trade prospered. One night, he gave his clan a choice. They could leave all the treasure they accumulated behind and join him in his travels, or remain and forfeit the greater glory of future conquests. The Mal’dorr split in half that evening, but Tyr felt no ill will to those he left behind; the goblin mind doesn’t accept change quickly.

Tyr and his remaining clan moved northwest, sneaking their way past Bergen and into the hills flanking the Bergen Pass. When they were almost run down by a speeding carriage moving along the trade routes there, the Tearbringer feared he had gotten himself in over his head. In an attempt to even the odds, Tyr and his goblins began a search for their own mounts. They were naturally drawn to the large wolf-like worgs that populated the hills. Smarter than the average predator, Tyr knew they could not simply be captured and trained.

He found a smaller pack and approached them diplomatically, with offerings of raw deer meat. To his surprise, the oldest worg spoke Goblin, and the two found that they were of the same mind. They quickly entered into an arrangement beneficial to both sides: Tyr’s goblins would ride the worgs, while the worgs would get a steady supply of food from successful raids.

The hobgoblin and his new clan then launched a campaign of terror, striking against the caravans of goods and money within the Bergen Pass. Tyr soon became known as the bandit king of the hills, and his reputation as the Tearbringer spread. They usually hit the wagons carrying gold toward the mining settlement of Gunpowder, with the worg riders blocking the route while Tyr and his second-in-command, a bugbear barbarian named Dox, closed in from behind. Seeing the fearsome goblinoids, most simply surrendered their cargo, and the few that have survived a fight with Tyr’s clan tell stories that help to fuel that fear. While they usually use traditional weapons, Tyr’s clan is close to mastering the use of firearms. If they do so, they might be unstoppable.

Tyr is a particularly cunning hobgoblin. He is tall, but not gaunt, and agile, but not slight. Tyr’s body is a network of scars that cover burnt orange skin. His long hair is almost black with tinges of red, and he usually keeps it in a ponytail. He wears an eye patch over his missing left eye, and the rest of his clothing is functional warrior’s garb. He wields a notched scimitar in close combat, commanding his minions into flanking positions to gain advantage. His typical raiding party consists of six goblins riding worgs, Dox, and himself.