What you do: Design a Fully playable Role Playing Game based around the concept of “Human Augmentation” This can be through any means you feel would make a great setting. You may use any OGL system currently available or create your own system. If you choose to use d20 as your system we ask you be creative as to make the system stand out by creating variations to the system.
What we will do: There are 2 rounds to this contest. The first round will be open to all participants and will last approximately 2 months. After the deadline we will take several weeks to review the submissions and announce the 3 finalists. The Finalists will then have an additional month to fine tune their entry based on comments and critiques by the Heroic Journey Publishing Staff.
Disclaimer: The writer will own all IP information but HJP will be in legal control of all entrants from the time of submission to the announcement of a winner. All non winning Designs Intellectual Property will then transfer back to the original owners once the contest is over. The winning Design Intellectual Property will remain under the control of HJP based upon the contract signed by the winner. The terms of the contract will become the terms between the winner and HJP with HJP controlling the Intellectual property with the designer owning it. The terms of the contract will include compensation for the Owner during the length of the contract with HJP based on a revenue sharing plan. The Winner will also be allowed to develop the line further with HJP for the term of the contract. Current HJP Employees and Contract holders are ineligible to enter.
I am so very excited that Bounty head Bebop was nominated for a Indie RPG Award. There is a ton of awesomness to be found in each other nomination so I am sure it will be a difficult and close victory for whoever wins.
Check out the list here Indie RPG Awards
There has been a lot going on which has kept me from updating. I have been working on much in the wayof business and it has required a step back so the Company can take huge leaps forward.
First Heroic Journey Publishing has Become Heroic Journey Publishing Inc. this took up most of April and May to do all the while I was continuing to promote BHB. This also means I have a new business partner who has come aboard to help me in producing more in house games and product lines.
First let me introduce Chris Perrin as part owner and my business partner. He brings a ton of creativity and a strong work ethic. He has the ability and quality to help HJP grow beyond a simple print house and into a solid gaming company which is still devoted to helping unpublished game developers and authors get published.
Next I can say we are currently working on 4 new product lines some of which will be released this year. We will have official PR on those projects as they get done but they are big projects and they take up a lot of my time coordinating their work. This is what I can say. One product line will be OGL/Pathfinder and one will be a Fate Based Cthulhu inspired game which I have started a development blog over at www.cthulhu-calls.com . The other two I can not say anything about do to some agreements I still need to finalize.
Speaking of those agreements I have been working very hard to come to a few partnerships with a couple other companies which will be a very good thing for Heroic Journey Publishing. One of them we are about to release the info on but we have to wait another week or so before we can. I really want to tell you becasue it is very cool.
That is it for now. Looking back over the last 3 or so months it excites me to see what the future holds. We had a solid Origins showing as limited as it was, but we should be more of a presence at Gen Con with IPR having our book, Bounty Head Bebop. Sales have been strong so far and we are hoping that we can sell out at Gen Con. There are 6 events being ran at Gen Con and I plan on having a HJP rep wandering the halls with some free swag (a quick adventure perhaps) to give out.
I will have more later I promise
Bounty Head Bebop PDF will be going on Sale Starting Tuesday 1/13 and be available for $10 for a short time. Run over to RPGNow and pick up a copy. Also remember you can order it in Print.
OK this is the unofficial official announcement of BHB in Print. We still have one small revision on the cover which is being worked on and should be finished by Monday. Which means I am going to start taking orders on this Now. If you click on the HJP Print Catalog page you can purchase BHB using Pay Pal or click BHB Print Edition. We will have a more formal Press RElease probably next week… But Feel free to start buying…
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Faster than a bounty fleeing Pluto, Heroic Journey Publishing is proud to release Bounty Head Bebop: Jacked Up! the first supplement for Bounty Head Bebop The Role Playing Game. Bounty Head Bebop: Jacked Up! lets the good guys be better and the bad guys even more crooked with new rules for cybernetics and cyber implants.
Players and game masters alike will have lots of new edges and flaws when building their characters and NPCs and lots of new powers to make catching bounties easier.
Speaking through his new cyber-loudspeaker, Heroic Journey founder Mark Reed expressed his excitement over Bounty Head Bebop: Jacked Up! “Jacked UP is our first supplement to Bounty Head Bebop and I am happy to see this continuation of the series, plus it adds really cool cybernetic rock n’roll to an already jam session of greatness.”
Also, part of Heroic Journey Publishing’s weapon of choice when it comes to games has been putting together attractively laid out books with brilliant artwork. Though only a 9-page PDF, Bounty Head Bebop: Jacked Up! continues this trend with a stunning cover and good art throughout.
Find out more about Heroic Journey Publishing at http://www.heroic-journey.net/ and more about Bounty Head Bebop at http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/
ABOUT MARK REED
Reed is a professional layout and design artist and a long-time player of role playing games. He has done layout on several of Atlas Games’ Northern Crown D20 product line and has done playtesting for them as well. Reed has been a podcaster since 2006 and is now a member of Kore New Media.
ABOUT HEROIC JOURNEY PUBLISHING
Bounty Head Bebop is the first game to be published by Heroic Journey Publishing to help game designers. They offer a full suite of editing, graphics, illustration, and layout services to any game creator who needs help and advice publishing their game. Read more about the company at http://www.heroic-journey.net.
Buy Jacked Up at RPGNow
Good day all. I hope you had a great Turkey day and are gearin up for the rest of the Holiday season. As for us here at Heroic Journey Publishing things are looking better then we can have hoped.
Bounty Head Bebop is selling well. We are waiting on the reviews to start being posted but we are encouraged by some of the early initial responses to the book. I am also excited by some of the people who will be reviewing the book. I will let you guys know when they start dropping.
BHB: Cybernetics. This PDF product will be available soon I am just waiting on art to finish the product. This pdf will be around 10 pages and will add special optional rules to allow cybernetics into Bounty Head Bebop. I am excited by the initial art as well.
BHB Hexslingers: This is a upcoming larger RUle book filled with optional rules to add Magic to your Setting if you want. This is going to be out early next year, as is BHB:Starships a collection of cool unique ships, plus rules to create your own.
We have several full adventures planned for the upcoming year 4-6 in all. Look for them to be released throughout the first half of next year. Also with BHB look on our Website for adventure seeds to start appearing soon. Plus starting soon will be your favorite Bonnie & Clyde Show giving you a list of the universes scum on some of your favorite podcasts.
On the Not Bounty Head Bebop front, we are working on a second line of RPGs with a very talented writer. Things are still under wraps a bit but I have a feeling this will be a great new game coming out in the first quarter of next year.
Thats about it for now. Thank you to all of you who have bought Bounty Head Bebop already and a Big thank you to all the fans who have given us a chance. Please go check out our forums for all sorts of free goodies and a chance to share your adventures across the universe.
At this point, the group has been chasing after Genny Putkof, a thief of milk purification products. No one knows where she is, but they know her brother is a Redjack, a member of a street gang in the city-state of Little Jersey on Mars.
After interrogating a goon and leaving him in a bad situation, the gang goes to the Interstellar House of Pancakes in Redjack territory. Here the bounty hunter draws bad attention to himself by wearing rival gang colors while the kid makes friends by giving out gift cards. This leads to the group splitting again. The kid and the bounty hunter follow the Redjacks so they can find their hideout’s location.
After they discover the location of the hideout, the group is attacked by another gang called the Steel Rats. However, the gangers quickly realize they have more to gain from being allies with the player characters than enemies, especially because the Redjacks are looking to put a beat down on the Steel Rats.
Also, to continue the theme of characters and their side businesses, the gun smuggler realizes he can make a lot of money by enlisting the gangers to sell for him. Capitalism at its finest.
The Steel Rats and the player characters go to the appointed place to fight with the Redjacks. However, almost instantly, the psychic and the bounty hunter locate Wingman, Genny’s brother. Using a little Luck, the kid maces and captures Wingman and the group escapes the combat right as the Steel Rats use grenades to make the streets run red with Redjack blood.
After a brief persuasion with fists, Wingman is convinced he needs to give up the location of his sister, which turns out to be a local strip club. Despite the sizeable bounty placed on her head, she decides not to run and goes with the group, who are now far, far, far richer than when they started.
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One of the interesting things about the session is that later, one of the players described the Bounty Head Bebop system as “Its not rules light per se, more like Rules Quick” which publisher Mark Reed felt described the system perfectly.
Another Quote came after the game… “As a point of gaming: I am traditionally known for hating to roll up new characters…. Last night in fairly short time I was able to gen a character that was both useful and fun. To me, and my style of playing, that says a lot” - From one of the Players
The social worker seems nice enough, but he is not being as forthcoming as the group would like, so they try a little intimidation on the poor guy. Apparently, all he needs is a little heat, because the next thing the group knows, he is spilling everything he can think of about Genny and her brother’s involvement in a gang of thugs called the Redjacks on Mars. While the social worker is singing everything he knows, the kid quietly walks around his office, filling her backpack with expensive baubles.
Also, during this time, the bounty of Genny mysteriously goes from 450,000 writ to 5,000,000!
Next, the group travels to Little Jersey, where they split up. The private investigator travels alone through Redjack territory, hoping he can find Genny. Meanwhile, the merc, in a utility vehicle, and the bounty hunter on a motor bike realize they are being followed. They give each other the signal and start a brief, deadly car chase which ends with the merc and the gun smuggler blowing their purser’s car out of existence. This, however, has the unfortunate side effect of slamming flaming wreckage into the bounty hunter’s motorbike, who is none the worse for wear.
There was a second goon involved in the car chase, and unluckily for him, he survived. This led to a quick conversation about how the goon was expendable and that it was in his best interest to talk. Quickly enough, the goon told the group where to find the Redjacks and how to meet with them. For his troubles, he was kicked in the family jewels, maced, stripped to his underwear, and was giving a sandwich board saying that he hated gangs… in the middle of gang territory.
This leads to a meeting with the Redjacks and an alliance with the Steel Rats, but that is a story for tomorrow.
As a roleplaying game, it is important to know what type of adventures you can have playing Bounty Head Bebop. The following posts are the result of an actual session played with a single GM and five players. Before getting into the action, let’s meet the five characters around which the action revolved.
The bounty hunting team consisted of a bounty hunter, a private investigator, a mercenary, a psychic child, and a gun smuggler whose interest in the group was primarily financial. They were a bit of a motley crew, none of whom seemed to be particularly interested in due process or following the law. No, this group was more about getting in, getting the job done, and getting out alive to collect the bounty.
Perhaps the most interesting character of the game was the psychic kid because her back story was the most unique of the group. She was a former bounty that the group had tracked down. However, instead of turning her in, they decided that her ability to read minds was worth far more than the bounty they would collect. So they made her one of them.
However, her shot at staying out of the penal colony on Pluto, or worse, did nothing to reform her. Instead, she used the somewhat legitimate profession of bounty hunting to give her opportunities for less legitimate activities, usually theft.
These are the types of characters and stories that will come out of a game of Bounty Head Bebop. There are the characters you would expect (the bounty hunter and the private investigator, for example), but there are also the characters that can only happen in this world: the gun smuggler who sets up contracts for the group and a mischievous brat who can literally blow you away with her mind.
Next, we’ll look at what went on at the table.