Fred Hicks

 

The latest episode of the podcast I do with Chris Hanrahan, That’s How We Roll, is up:

http://thatshowweroll.libsyn.com/webpage/that-s-how-we-roll-season-03-episode-04-evil-hat-level-s-up

I’m pointing you at it here because it’s very specifically Evil Hat stuff in this one — Chris and I spend an hour talking about Evil Hat, focusing on how its brand is maturing over time and digging into what the takeaways are from all that. For folks who are specifically fans of the company I’m running, it’s a great look under the hood. Check it out!

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So, Race to Adventure is coming along nicely. We’ve got all the art in, and the tile designs are nearing their final iteration.

I thought it might be a good time to show you some of that sweet art from Christian N. St. Pierre, in case you missed it on my twitter feed yesterday.

First up: The Krill approaches sunken Atlantis.

Second, we flip to the shadow side – as Rocket Red raids the skies over Geneva!

Don’t forget to race back to home base, Centurion! The Race to Adventure ends at the Empire State Building, in shadow.

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So my friend Tracy admitted over on twitter that he wasn’t sure what a playtest is supposed to do other than answer the question “is this horribly broken?”

I shot him a couple quick tweets in response of other questions that I think a playtest process should try to answer. I’m not going to embellish them (much) here, but I thought the list might be useful to some folks.

  • Is the game producing the effects and story trends you want to see in play?
  • What excites folks about the game?
  • What bores (or frustrates) them?
  • What’s extraneous?
  • Does the game work like it should when I am not in the room? (If it doesn’t, what am I doing when I am in the room that I need to put in the text?)
  • What assumptions about play am I making that aren’t in the text?

So, what’s on your playtest list?

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2011 ended not so much with a bang as a whimper. Every single title experienced fall-offs, some of them a bit drastic (but explicable — Do’s coming off its release spike, and Dresden the prior quarter surged due to a release of a new novel) — every title except Spirit of the Season, of course, which experienced its small annual spike in response to the holidays, and Penny, which saw a teensy bump thanks to more retail sales through IPR than expected.

It’s easy to look at these numbers and respond with alarm, but remember that a) the 4th quarter of the year is typically pretty crappy, and b) Evil Hat’s catalog is aging without a lot of new-product blood, something which we should be remedying over the next two years.

Distribution continues to bring in a large portion of our long tail (seen after the cut).

Title Sales Last Q Sales This Q LQ vs TQ Prior Lifetime New Lifetime
Penny 49 53 +8% 1114 1167
Diaspora 180 161 -11% 1125 1286
Do 497 93 -81% 1128 1221
Do:BoL 51 32 -37% 51 83
DLYM 91 52 -43% 1670 1722
DRYH 196 147 -25% 4145 4292
DFRPG:OW 1013 434 -57% 10916 11350
DFRPG:YS 1427 648 -55% 13113 13761
Wizard Dice 26 0 OOP 2102 2102
HBR 79 39 -51% 593 632
SOTC 345 228 -34% 7293 7521
SOTS 11 31 +182% 729 760
S7S 47 38 -19% 1718 1756

Continue reading »

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Evil Hat Productions Announces ‘Atomic Robo’ RPG License

Double 2011 Origins Award Winner Licenses Eisner-Nominated Comic Book

SILVER SPRING, Maryland— January 10, 2012 — Evil Hat Productions, LLC, today announced an agreement to produce, publish, and distribute a role-playing game based on the Eisner-nominated Atomic Robo comic book. The Atomic Robo RPG will be co-written by Atomic Robo scribe Brian Clevinger and Kerberos Club: Fate Edition author Mike Olson, creator of the Strange Fate version of the Fate engine.

“I’m such a big fan of the world Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener create in every page of Atomic Robo,” said Fred Hicks of Evil Hat. “When I found out they were fans of role-playing games—including Evil Hat’s own Spirit of the Century—it was clear we had a giant-sized opportunity that had to be pursued.”

With The Atomic Robo RPG, Evil Hat will build on the legacy of Fate games like Spirit of the Century and The Dresden Files RPG—together with the ideas of Evil Hat’s upcoming Fate Core project and Mike Olson’s Strange Fate work. The stand-alone game will deliver a fast-paced and fast-to-play role-playing experience focused on the themes of Atomic Robo—action-science, robots, angry talking dinosaurs, high weirdness, and more.

“Brian and I are lifelong RPG nerds, I mean enthusiasts, and we could not be more excited to partner with Evil Hat and Mike Olson to bring readers even closer to the world of Atomic Robo,” said Scott Wegener. “There’s over a century of adventure in our comic book, but we can only show you guys slices of the whole picture. This game opens up so many opportunities to play with that world, its history, the weird unexplored corners, and the might-have-beens,” added Brian Clevinger.

The Atomic Robo RPG  begins development in late February of 2012. “We’d love to get The Atomic Robo RPG out in 2012, and if everything comes together fast and smooth we might just manage that,” said Hicks. “But as with all licensed projects at Evil Hat, we want to take our time to make sure we serve the license and the fans well. Thankfully, Brian and Scott have the same opinion, here. The Atomic Robo RPG that we release will be the best one we can possibly make, period—and that may take us into 2013.”

For more information about Evil Hat Productions, the Fate system, Spirit of the Century, and the Dresden Files RPG, visit www.evilhat.com. For more information about Atomic Robo, visit www.atomic-robo.com. Atomic Robo is published by Red 5 Comics, available at www.red5comics.com and in comic stores everywhere. Kerberos Club: Fate Edition is published by Arc Dream Publishing, www.arcdream.com.

About Evil Hat Productions

Evil Hat Productions believes that passion makes the best games. It is this passion for gaming that raised Evil Hat to its acclaimed position in the RPG community. Our games can be used to build the best kinds of role-playing experiences—full of laughter, storytelling, and memorable moments. Today we don’t just run games, we don’t just make them, we work with you to make your play the best it can be—the kind that upholds and gives birth to passions of your own. That’s the Evil Hat mission, and we’re happy to have you along on it.

Since its inception, Evil Hat has won accolades ranging from the Indie RPG Awards, the Golden Geeks, the ENnies, and the Origins Awards, most recently claiming the Origins Awards for both Best Roleplaying Game (The Dresden Files RPG: Your Story) and Best Roleplaying Game Supplement (The Dresden Files: Our World).

About Atomic Robo

Brian Clevinger is a ten year veteran of online and independent comics. You can laugh at and sometimes with his early work at nuklearpower.com. Follow him on Twitter at bclevinger.

Scott Wegener used to fly planes until he found out it was nothing like High Road to China. Now he draws comic books as a form of very slow starvation. Follow him on Twitter at Scott_Wegna

Press contact

Fred Hicks
Email: feedback [AT] evilhat.com
Website: http://www.evilhat.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fredhicks

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© 2011 Deadly Fredly Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha