In addition to being on sale for just $.99 for the next day, I've updated the download bundle of Perils of the Sunken City with new updated color and mobile versions!
All existing customers should be able to download the latest files from their RPGNow accounts.
Through sheer laziness, I forgot to sign up for the GM Day sale at RPGNow.
Seeing all my DCC publishing chums taking part filled me with shame, so I just marked everything down 30%. And since March 9 is my birthday, I've also marked down Perils of the Sunken City to 99 cents!
All sorts of great stuff on sale from Goodman Games, Purple Duck, Thick Skulls and more. And don't forget the amazing variety of zines. I have pretty much all of the them and they're packed with useful material.
The sale ends March 9.
(And of course, all the prices have also been reduced in the Purple Sorcerer Store.)
Apple has made changes of late that require apps published to the app store to support 64 bit magical whimsy. Apps that are currently in the store (like the Crawler) have a small window where non 64-bit updates will be accepted, but that will be closing soon.
Unfortunately, when I update the Crawler with a new SDK to support 64 bits, all versions from that point on will no longer support iPad 1's. Version 1.4 will be published in the coming weeks using an older SDK, and will likely be the last version of the Crawler to support iPad 1's: future versions will be incompatible and invisible to iPad 1's when you visit the app store.
You should still be able to install and run version 1.4 'forever' on your iPad 1 by accessing your 'Purchased' tab in the App Store. (If I understand the madness of Apple correctly.) So if you haven't purchased the free app yet on your iPad 1, do so quickly, as I believe it will (maybe, perhaps, who knows?) be invisible to you once we go 64 bit.
Version 1.4 runs fine on an iPad 1, and represents the cleanest, most feature rich build so far, so at least we'll be sailing away on a high point. Regardless of my explanation, my daughter, who uses the iPad 1, is displeased she won't see future updates. Conversely, she was also unaware that the Crawler was in the app store and used by thousands of folks outside the family, which scored me some cool-Daddy points. :)
If you have an iPad 2 or later, or a supported Android device, you will not be effected, and future 64 bit versions of the Crawler should appear and work as usual. (Already tested on our creakiest test device: the original Droid phone.)
Argh! The utilities I create always seem to require much more time fixing all the fiddly bits than in implement the major functionality in the first place. But I'm happy to announce that the Sorcerer's Grimoire is available for testing!
During last year's pledge drive to help support the free Purple Sorcerer Tools, folks voted on which tools they'd like to see me work on in the coming year, and the Sorcerer's Grimoire was the clear favorite. The Grimoire creates dynamic DCCRPG spellbook PDF's for you to print out, adjusting text size and spacing on the fly so that every spell fits on a single page. You can choose the spells yourself, or have the tool randomly select spells based on your caster's level and appropriate stat. You can do the same with Mercurial Magic, or have the script ignore MM altogether
Many design decisions have been made to conserve space since the number one goal of the project was to keep each individual spell on a single page. I played with lots of fancy layouts, but eventually ended up with a simple look to obey this prime directive. Physics dictates that really wordy spells require pretty small fonts, but hopefully folks will still find them readable. :)
If you notice any strangeness let me know: particularly spell results that run on past the available space.
As many of you know, I've struggled with health issues of late, but my trusty iPad allowed me to keep working during the worst stretches. (This is the first project I've completed from beginning to end using my tablet and beloved bluetooth keyboard.)
I am a bit beat pushing this out the door, so I might be a while before I update things, but Patrons are on the way, including patron-specific Invoke Patron results and spells.
As always, thanks to the amazing folks at Goodman Games who support community tools like the Grimoire.
Take care everyone. I hope you find the Sorcerer's Grimoire useful!
Happily I've made major progress on the new PDF spellbook creation utility. I've continued to refine my iPad workspace (which is easier on me physically) to the point that I've done all the Grimoire programming on it. I'm most pleased. :)
The individual spell page creation code is complete: involving lots of fiddling to dynamically adjust text sizes/spacing to allow each spell to be printed on a single sheet. I've also completed the Mercurial Magic code so that you can have it rolled automatically for each spell.
I'm now building the forms so you can choose whether to create a random spell book based on level, or select individual spells/mercurial magic for an existing caster. After that I'll just need to complete the random generation code, and we'll be good to go! If I can continue the pace I'm on, we'll hopefully be up and running in a week or two.
