Skortched Urf’ Studios has released two more Dept. 7 Advanced Class Updates this week. Along with the other big changes hapening in the PDF publishing ring, we decided to switch things up a bit and offer two classes for the D20 Modern Arcana Line. Avaliable now from all the usual places place.

Up first we have the Soul Collector.

Death comes to all creatures, either as a terror or as a quiet final mercy. Soul Collectors are death’s emissaries and ambassadors, creatures that can walk between the worlds of the living and the dead at will. Soul Collectors are empowered by death, and are able to absorb the souls of the dying into their own bodies. Soul Collectors run the gamut from cruel necromantic serial murderers, who torture their victims to death and than enslave their spirits to kind hearted exorcists who lay unquiet spirits to rest. Others act as mediums, helping the dead sever their ties to the living world, or as ‘forensic necromancers’ who use their supernatural gifts to avenge the dead.

Soul Collectors tend to be lonely souls, with more friends in the realms beyond than among the living. Soul Collectors make no distinction between the living and the dead, and are as apt to laugh at a joke told them by the soul of a child who died of the Black Plague in 1223 as they are a living friend’s comment, and are as likely to take the advice of a merchant who perished in the French Revolution as they are to listen to their living mentor. Some see them as morbid and fatalistic, and many (even mages and other heroes who are used to the supernatural) find the Soul Collector subtly terrifying. After all, the Soul Collector is a constant reminder of the mortality all humans share.

And right behind that we have a new breed of mage; The Digital Sorcorer.

The Digital Sorcerer is a new breed of mage, a modern evolutionary reaction to the return of the supernatural. The Digital Sorcerer approaches magic from a new perspective, blending ancient arcane techniques with modern communications, culture and technology. Digital Sorcerers draw power from the collective unconcisous, wisdom from the emerging AI-biosphere, and potency from fragments of long forgotten scanned into the Internet and shared on P2P sites.

Digital Sorcerers are more open with their discoveries than the cloistered mages of old, having established a loose MySpace fraternity that trades discoveries, shares experiments and pushes the boundries of magic ever forward. Digital Sorcerers do not just cast traditional spells- those limited incantations are a relic of an older time. Instead, they practice a unique, freewheeling style of spellcasting that incorporates elements as diverse as ancient Goetic techniques, Voodoun rituals and hacking techniques familiar to any identity thief.

This new Advanced Class features a host of new abilities; from the USB Whichmark to FlashMemory SpellBooks plus seventeen new spells!

Both Written by Chris A. Field.
Artwork by Anthony Cournoyer.

From the ENWorld front page:

“You may have heard rumours of some major impending changes in the PDF Retail market.

EN World GameStore is closing, effective immediately. In its place will be an affiliate store owned an operated by RPGNow and DTRPG under their new merged company, OneBookShelf.”

I received an email from the new company just prior to this, but didn’t want to say anything before it became “officially” public…and since ENWorld is announcing it then I am sure the three people who check this site (Hi Mom &Dad!) will not be privy to info they shouldn’t.

After reading the email, my initial impression of the merger is good for the industry and good for Skortched Urf‘ Studios. We have been striving to move from the EDGE site for small/new publishers on to the main RPGNow site, since that is where the majority of the PDF market shops. As a result of this merger the EDGE site will go away and we will now be swimming with the big boys! (That could be good or bad obviously, but we’re optimists so we think its a good thing.) More details to be released in the next few days, with the RPGNow and DriveThruRPG rolling out some of the changes as early as tomorrow (10/27/2006).

In the end we are still focused on producing quality products gamers will enjoy using in the games they already love, so we will let the market forces shift and correct as the whole industry matures while we keep producing new products.

While RPGNow, ENWorld and DriveThruRPG are the “Big Three” for PDF publishers in the RPG arena, there are other outlets where we feel our products can gain some more exposure. One of those outlets is LuLu.com. Not only do they offer PDF downloads, they are also a Print On Demand (POD) publisher as well. (So look for print versions of some skortched Urf’ Studios products and bundles of short PDF’s in the future.)

Skortched Urf’ Studios has also taken a cue from Louis Porter Jr. Designs and signed with Fantasy-Download.eu to offer our products to the EU market. Our products should show up in their store-front some time today.

So now you have two more places to find our products!

*UPDATE*

Some BIG NEWS coming shortly relating to where our products will be offered.  Stay tuned!!

Skortched Urf’ Studios prides itself on using high-quality illustrations in our products. We think good art-work can really enhance a product, and we have hired some of the best artists working in the industry. Now you can have access to the artwork produced by these great artists for a fraction of what we paid them! With our “Skortched Urf’ Studios Sketchbook Page” line of art you can pick just the illustration that suits your project, or purchase a bundle of similer illustrations for even more value!

Our first offerings include some of the illustrations done for our Advanced Class Update line. I also “re-packaged” our Airship stock art to integrate it into the line.

This week Skortched Urf’ Studios has released a new Department 7 Advanced Class Update to all the usual places.

“Hey, you just spilled my #$%@* DRINK!”

In ancient times the Vikings called upon the aid of the most fearless of warriors, clans of savage berserks. The Northern peoples were not the only ones to carry this madness in their blood and berserkers have appeared in other cultures as well. The passage of time has caused these bloodlines to mix with others, thinning the berserker’s inherent fury. In places like the United States, it can happen that two lines carrying the genes of ancient berserker clans will cross, laying the foundation for the birth of a modern Berserker.

The modern Berserker learns to harness the dark fury inside him. He embraces the violent emotions that over take him whenever trouble starts. The berserker uses the maelstrom of adrenaline unleashed by this state to push his body to incredible heights.

More than anything, the modern berserker needs an outlet for his fury. Often times, this leads to some very interesting career choices; from law enforcement to professional wrestling. Those with the rage flowing strong in their veins take to underground cage fighting or similar contests. But the most common place to find someone looking for an excuse to fight…is a bar.

So not only am I posting the trailer for Halo Wars, but I am also using this opportunity to assess the viability of adding video to my site should I want to in the future. Can’t wait for this game to come out!

 Halo Wars Trailer: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Skortched Urf’ Studios has released the second product in the Department 7 Technology Update line:

Dept. 7 Technology Update: Synthetic Lycanthropy

In 1932, at the direction of Adolph Hitler, Reiner Oswald began research on Project Tier Innen. Oswald, a member of the Thule society and on the payroll of the Nazi party, was a brilliant scientist with a profound knowledge of folklore and the occult. He delved into the myths and stories regarding shape-shifting and lycanthropy, determined to find the kernel of truth hiding within the legend, and to exploit it. By 1936, he had found what he had been looking for: a living specimen that he could study. For six years, Oswald studied his specimen, extracted serums, performed tests, and made notes. By 1942, he was ready to put his theories into practice.

The goal of Project Tier Innen (literally, Project Inner Beast) had been to find a way to unleash the destructive potential of the human body, creating a powerful new kind of soldier that would ensure Hitler’s victory. Hitler had left the details up to Oswald, and Oswald had taken the project title literally, deciding that he would unlock the beast within every human being, creating a predictable, scientific formula that would induce an effect similar to the lycanthropy of myth and legend. Above all, though, these man-beasts would have to be controllable, and able to follow orders and execute complex missions. In short, he had to create the body of a beast with the mind of a man. In this, he succeeded only partially.

Several of Oswald’s test subjects did, in fact, change form. Some became actual animals, while others became grotesque amalgams of human and animal form. None of them, however, survived. Undeterred, Oswald continued his work until 1952, years after the Nazi party had been defeated. In truth, he came very close to success; his final experiment resulted in a hybridized wolf-man, with a powerful and deadly body and the mind of a human. This human mind, however, was the creature’s downfall. This may, perhaps, have been because Oswald had been using convicted criminals as his test subjects because they had been easy for him to obtain. It may also have been because of the intensely painful process of transformation. In the end though, regardless of the cause, his final test subject was considered a failure; the creature had become irrevocably insane, and was terminated.

In the winter of 1953, Reiner Oswald disappeared and was never heard from again. Of his work, no trace was found until 1998, when a man named Charles Wagner discovered Oswald’s long-abandoned laboratory.

Learn what happened after the re-discovery of Dr. Oswald’s lab, and how you can include Synthetic Lycanthropy in your D20 Modern game with six Were-animal Templates, Transformation Classes for PC versions of each, as well adventure hooks and rules for Catalyst 13.

14 Page PDF. Written by Brian Engard and Mark Cathro.
Artwork by Jeremy Hida, Color by VShane.

We just released the first product in the Department 7 Technology Update line.

Dept. 7 Technology Update: AAP/CPR Med Kit

The Automated Aid Package (AAP) and the Casualty Preservation and Recovery Kit (CPR Kit) are two pieces of advanced, life saving medical technology. AAP’s are for treating wounded and dying characters, while CPR Kits (sometimes referred to as a “Zombie Kit”) are for those unfortunate or unlucky characters who have died in the service of Department 7.

Included in this PDF are rules for using these devices in various D20 Modern games including near-future, Sci-fi, modern-day and Apocalypse settings. Also included are adventure hooks utilizing this advanced and cutting edge technology, as well as variant progress level AAP/CPR Kits. Buy this PDF; it just might save your (characters) life!

Written by Mark Cathro and Brian Engard, Artwork by Anthony Cournoyer.

Some upcoming product artwork by Anthony Cournoyer.