A Ghost Story for Christmas Sale

Happy Christmas from Gethsemane Games,

There is an old tradition at this time of year that we here at Gethsemane Games like to keep, perhaps above any other. Often attributed to Mr Charles Dickens, the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas is far older than that and pre-dates both his storey 'A Christmas Carol' and the reign of Queen Victoria. Nor is it even a uniquely British tradition, although we tend to carry it on even today and the BBC proudly keep the tradition going by broadcasting a range of adaptations of the stories of M R James, Dickens and a host of other writers. In America the magnificent Washington Irving is said to have been quite the enthusiast for the tradition as evidenced by his storey 'Old Christmas' which can be found in “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent” first published in 1819”.

With that in mind, we would like to celebrate the practice of telling ghost stories at Christmas with a little tradition of our own, our 'Ghost Storey at Christmas' sale. From now until January 6th our Haunts and Horrors line and a selection of our GMs maps which seem particularly pertinent to creating haunting scenarios of Gothic horror will be available for only $1 each!

That includes the Haunts and Horrors RPG rules, the scenario's 'Blood Money', 'The Curse of Amun Menetnashte', 'The Ahriman Tablets' and the acclaimed 'Suffer Little Children' as well as a selection of mansions, haunted houses, stately homes and other suitable places for your tales of terror taken from our GM's maps range.

From Gethsemane Games, have a very happy, Christmas!

Visit the H+H range Here and take advantage of the 'Ghost Storey for Christmas' Sale

http://www.rpgnow.com/…/Geths…/subcategory/5782_27281/Horror

Ooops! Product Line Name Change

Last week I announced the launch of our new range of system neutral village and town resources.  Since then I've discovered that there is another small company who already use 'Dragon Drop' for a range of their own 5e adventure modules.  In order to avoid confusion, I have changed the name of our lien to Graban Drop instead of Dragon Drop. 


Its a shame, because I really liked the name and the other company didn't ask us to change it but I felt it was the right thing to do, hence I made the decision to change it.

STOP right there, Dragon DROP villages have just landed, ROLL on over to http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?discount=9b3355be72 To get the first one for just $1, but hurry!  the offer only lasts until December the 15th. 

Have you ever been halfway through a campaign and had to take an enforced break as your players decided to take a detour into a village that's just a name on a map in your adventure?

Or do you need a village as a base for your adventuring party, or just as a backdrop for them to visit?

Well, no more trying to think up and map an entire village – we have designed Dragon Drop Villages with exactly this situation in mind!

Simply take one of our range of villages, drag it over, and drop it in to your campaign notes! A ready-made village, with buildings, NPCs and even scenario ideas, all ready to be used. Just bolt on your gaming system, stat anyone you think might need it, and you're ready to go.

The village is described in detail, with each building on the beautiful full-colour map given its own entry.  Who lives there, what they do, their personality and how they related to the other villagers.  Not Only that but the economy, rumours and lie in the village are all explained and we include a section of adventure ideas as well.

Our first village is a small but important one, with a population of approximately 20 families, a tavern, smith, and a pawn shop which is ideal for adventurers looking to sell the strange items they have accumulated. All mapped out with full GM notes, the Farmer's Market Town is surrounded by crofts and farms and provides a regular market for the farmers to sell their produce, craftspeople and the forces of law and order in the shape of the Burgomaster, Sheriff and Bailiff.

Use THIS LINK  before December 15th to get Dragon Drop Village #1: Farmer's Market Town for just $1 

The Dragon Drop Villages range is system neutral, designed to be used with whatever rules system you use.

Missed the $1 sale?  Don't worry, you can still buy Farmer's Market Town for just $2 for another week before it goe's up to its full price.  Just use THIS LINK to go directly to the products page on RPG.Now

End of the Year - End of the World PDF Sale!

It's the end of the year as we know it and I feel fine!
And so should fans of the Post-Apocalyptic genre because Gethsemane Games is offering a 50% reduction on our 'Pandora's Wake' RPG and 'Pandora's Fury!' Tabletop miniatures battle lines at RPGNow and DrivethruRPGas well as a range of maps that we have specially selected for GMs of Post-Apocalyptic games, compatible with any system!

Pandora's Wake and Pandoras Fury! are mutually compatible, letting you convert your character from the RPG to the miniatures wargame and back again.  What is more, we are also offering the first novel in the Pandora's Wake: The Nomad Chronicles at the same 50% discount in both epuband PDF formats.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/151816/Pandoras-Wake

The Pandora Event ripped holes in the very fabric of our reality. Holes that let The Other-Verse in, a nightmarish world beyond our own, filled with deadly flora and fauna.

Deadly bacteria and viruses that we had no defence against brought human civilization to its knees. As plagues swept away two-thirds of the human race, the alien life-forms of the Other-Verse began to emerge through the cracks in the walls of our reality, ever expanding, out competing native, terrestrial life, hunting Earth's own biosphere to the brink of extinction. Turning our world into a hellish copy of the Other-Verse itself. Such is the world into which your characters will step, to struggle for survival against carnivorous plant life and predatory alien creatures as well as desperate gangs of raiders and bandits, competing for the scarce resources that have been left behind in... Pandora's Wake.

A Post Apocalyptic RPG from Gethsemane Game

Now just £3 until the end of the sale!

 http://www.rpgnow.com/product/189657/Pandoras-Fury

Pandora's fury is a tabletop miniatures game designed to let you play out skirmishes and battles in a Post Apocalyptic landscape. 

Set in the same world as our RPG "Pandora's Wake" the game lets you fight skirmishes and battles with any miniatures and in any scale.

After the 'Pandora Event,' an alien world known to us as 'The Other-Verse' has ripped holes in the skin of our reality, holes through which deadly diseases, carnivorous plants and killer monsters have swept across Earth and destroyed mankind's civilisations.

In 'Pandora's Fury' you can play gangs of survivors battling for resources or simply fighting to survive or you can play swarms of creatures from 'The Other Verse' as they sweep across the landscape, destroying all they encounter.

Includes rules to convert your 'Pandora's Wake' RPG characters to the Pandora's Fury miniatures rules.

The world is ending.

Not in a single, catastrophic moment, but slowly and painfully, screaming out its dying agonies in prolonged death-throes that may last a generation. It is dying,  murdered by another world, a malevolent world, a world that devours all it touches and makes it like itself, a world the survivors of our world have dubbed “The OtherVerse”.

In Pandora's Fury! the players will create groups of survivors who are struggling to stay alive in a post-apocalyptic world that is being overrun by the incursion of the Other-Verse and its hostile flora and fauna, which are slowly and inexorably turning our world into a copy of their own.  Survivors must battle these hostile elements of an alien world, gather supplies and deal with other bands of survivors, some hostile, and some not, to try and survive in a world gone mad.

Just £2.50 in the Sale, that's 50% off!

 http://www.rpgnow.com/product/193652/Pandoras-Wake-Nomad-Chronicles-1?cPath=5782_26237

In the not too distant future, the Pandora Event ripped a hole in the walls of our universe. The nightmare that it revealed, we call 'The Other-Verse'. A parallel dimension of carnivorous plants, vicious monsters and deadly diseases.

Central Europe is in Chaos, with millions dead and the UN forces in disarray, struggling to hold back the hellish creatures of the Other-Verse.

In Switzerland, a small band of survivors run for their lives, but when they become infected with alien fungal spores, they are left only one choice. To survive they must reach the closest hospital in Bex and convince the survivors there to use their precious medical supplies to save strangers.

What they find when they reach the hospital is worse than they ever imagined.

Pandora's Wake: The Nomad Chronicles is a Post Apocalyptic tale of struggle and survival. A blend of action, survival horror and the courage of the human spirit laced with a dry gallows humour.

A sample from Ch: 4

“It's getting closer!” Mathias cursed as the forest echoed with the roars of the creatures, “We aren't going to make it!”
“Damn you, don't leave me!” Magda screamed. Fear gripped the injured civil engineer. Whatever was out there was close now, and she knew it would be on them in a matter of minutes.
“We won't!” Mathias insisted although he was ashamed to admit that it had crossed his mind. Only for a second, but it had, and he hated himself for it. He had visions of having to explain what had happened to the others, to Knut and to his namesake, Father Mathias. In the next instant, he made a promise to himself. He would die here with Magda if he had to, but he wouldn’t leave her behind. Even if she hated him, he couldn't let her be taken by whatever horror of the Other-Verse thundered through the wooded slopes towards them."

Now only £1.25 in the 'End of the Year = End of the World Sale'.

Also in the sale are several of our GM's maps products which I have selected as particularly useful to GM's planning a Post-Apocalyptic game!  Pop over to our GM's maps range and have a look!

http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/3429/Gethsemane-Games/subcategory/5782_27272/GMs-Maps

All the best for the End of the World!

New Release GM's Map 34 'Victorian Members Club'

 An exciting new release in our GM's Maps range, 'Traditional Members Club'.  Popularised in the Victorian period the first clubs actually appeared in London in the Georgian period and many still exist today.  

The first Gentlemen's clubs were established in the upmarket west end of London. These clubs were open only to the aristocracy and the Landed gentry. With names like 'Whites' and 'Boodles' they took on some of the roles of coffee houses.

 As the 19thcentury progressed there was something of an explosion in the number of traditional members clubs. 

 Clubs like 'The Reform Club' (Membership of which was restricted to those who pledged to support the 1832 reform act and thus included both peers of the realm and gentlemen of middle-class status) and the purely fictional Diogenes club of which the equally fictitious Sherlock Holmes was a member sprang up all over. By the 1880s London alone had over 400 such members clubs catering only to men and only to those of the middle and upper classes. By now clubs were appearing all over the world form the USA to India.

With the expansion of the numbers of clubs came an expansion in their services as well. These 'Reform clubs' offered middle-class men all the comforts of an aristocratic home. Gambling and coffee were still offered as was an extensive staff employed by the club for the comfort of the members, but many of these new clubs also offered accommodation for members who wished to stay the night (or several nights). At this time some of the older clubs also began to offer overnight accommodation, although this was by no means adopted by all of the original clubs.

By the 21st century, several of the remaining clubs had lifted the embargo on Women joining and so opened up to a wider range of members.

From Sherlock Holmes to Phileas Fogg and Hercule Poirot some of the greatest fictional characters have been members of such clubs, and now your PCs or their Antagonists can too!

Find this product Here

There are a wide number of ways to use the Traditional Gentlemen's Club in your RPG campaigns and we encourage you to let your own imagination run wild. We do have a few suggestions for you but don't feel these are the only possibilities. A usual we would love to hear from anyone who has a unique or unusual idea for how to use the map in their scenarios.

The club may provide a home base for the PCs. The club can be used in much the same way as the stereotypical 'Meet at the Inn' introduction often used in fantasy scenarios, where the PCs are all members of the club and it is this membership that draws them together to begin their joint adventure or investigation. Perhaps a fellow member is in trouble and the PCs represent other members who 'Refuse to let a chap down, especially when he is a member of our club, by George!'.
Perhaps the club itself wants to find some valuable treasure or solve some mystery and the party are members who have stepped up tot he challenge. Members of the club may be patrons or sponsors of the party and may set them a task which leads to their adventures. Of course, some of the clubs resources, such as the library may well be placed at the parties disposal.

A late night discussion in the par may fire the imagination of party members who determine to undertake some great tasks, such as circumnavigating the globe, or perhaps other members lay a wager that the party are not able to complete some challenge or other.

The club may also be the sight of a haunting or the scene of some mystery (a murder or theft, perhaps) that the party determine (or are retained) to investigate.

Alternatively, of course, it may be the PCs antagonists who are members of the club. Perhaps the party are inspired to steal something from the clubs vault or some work of art upon the walls of the drawing room or standing in the coffee room.

They may be planning to confront some arch nemesis who rarely leaves the confines of his club, or they may need to read some rare tome that the club has in its library but will not let them see. Perhaps the rumours of occult rituals or disturbing activities in the club are not just gossip and it is up to the party to put a stop to it.

30% off Gethsemane Games Printed Products from Lulu

Lulu are having a 30% off sale on all printed products, including Gethsemane Games books and games. Just enter the code
LULU30
At check out to save 30%
This code is only valid until midnight tonight, so act fast!
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/dj_ghostuk

GM's Map 32 'Cathedral' Launched

The latest addition to our 'GM's Map' range is now on sale on RPGNow.

The Cathedral, a stone edifice of incredible beauty and design, the pinnacle of the stone mason's art and centre of a diocese.  In historical games, the Cathedral may be the sight of some mystery that the PCs are determined to solve, the murder of a bishop or member of the congregation, perhaps?  Or is some clue to an ancient riddle or blasphemous secret hidden in its architecture, vaults or statuary?

A perfect venue for both Gothic and Eldritch horror.  Perhaps the Cathedral is haunted by some ghost or entity that is growing increasingly malevolent or which knows some secret the PCs must convince it to reveal to them. Eldritch horrors may lurk within the vaulted halls or be trapped beneath the consecrated floors, scheming to escape and wreak their vengeance on humanity.

Used in a fantasy setting the Cathedral is a great place for friend and foe alike.  Perhaps the PCs need to seek out one of the clerics in the cathedral to recruit them to their party or ask them for help or perhaps the cathedral is the home of some malevolent sect that the party are sworn to bring down.  A necromancer may have already seized control of the building, or be trying to do so, in order to summon back the dead interred in the crypts beneath to add to a growing army of the dead.

Even in a post-apocalyptic world, the cathedral may still stand, a rallying point for desperate survivors or the home of a nefarious apocalypse cult that seeks to enslave those who dwell nearby or spread its message in a new post-apocalyptic crusade.

In this product, you will find floor plans of the cathedral itself, its towers and lofts and the crypts beneath for you to work into your games however you see fit.

Comming soon to the range: 'Medieval Manor House'

GM's Map #31: Secret Underground Laboratory Out Now!

Available from RPGNow

What sinister experiments are taking place in the secret laboratories deep beneath the ground?

What secrets lurk there that could save or damn mankind?

This map pack details a 4-storey secret laboratory complex with security, accommodation and several labs in which various nefarious experiments can take place.

Or perhaps the laboratories are humanities last best hope to stave off global disaster?

Whatever is going on down there, one thing is for certain, someone else wants to know about it.

Since the enlightenment humanity has had a love hate relationship with science. It has driven our culture and our development, expanded our knowledge, extended our lie expectancy, eradicated certain diseases, improved our ability to fight other diseases. It has given us modes of transport and communication that have effectively shrunk our world. The knowledge we have gained has revolutionized every aspect of our lives. Yet, from the early days many have also viewed it with suspicion. From those who saw it as a challenge to religion or a blasphemy against god to the Luddites who saw the rise of industrialization as a threat to their livelihood. Much of our science fiction, even from the early days of the genre, has warned of the dangers of meddling in things we do not entirely understand or which may be dangerous and mysterious. Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' (which itself is in part inspired by a far older story, as evidenced by its subtitle 'A modern Prometheus') is a famous example but our literature is littered with examples. The American sci-fi of he 50s cautioned us against robotics and atomic physics (just listen to old episodes of classic radio drama such as X Minus one or Dimension X for examples).

Our horror and post-apocalyptic literature are also littered with examples of the science run amok theme.

It isn't all negative, of course, in superhero literature scientists are often the villains but are also often the heroes or the cause of how a hero comes to be. In many SF or disaster tales, it is a band of plucky scientists working around the clock in a secret laboratory that are often depicted as humanities only hope of survival.

With these things in mind, the potential for a secret laboratory complex in RPGs is staggering.

The PCs may represent the secessionist, trying desperately to hold back some global disaster or simply trying to escape the facility as some menacing alien dimension rips its way into our world it the theoretical physics laboratory (one for the 'Pandora's Wake' players among you, perhaps?).

They may be a band of covert operations specialists tasked with raiding the laboratory and learning its secrets for a rival government or corporation.

Perhaps they are escapees who had been held here, destined for a ghastly fate as experimental subjects?

Let your imagination run riot.

If you come up with a particularly interesting idea for how to use this map, we would love to hear about it! You can email us at gethsemanegames@gmail.com and let us know. If you give us permission, we might even publish the idea on our blog 'Whispers from the Other-Verse', giving you the credit of course.

Entropy Effect Postponed till 2018

It is with a little disappointment that I have to announce I have had no choice but to postpone the release of our forthcoming contemporary Sci-fi/Horror/warped reality RPG 'The Entropy Effect' until 2018.

As many of you may know I had planned to release the game for Haloween this year but that was not to be due entirely to circumstances beyond my control.

This has been quite a difficult year for me on a personal level, marred with a series of bereavements.  I tried to maintain my planned work schedule as best I could despite this but by the middle of the year my Grandfather, with whom I was very close, fell terminally ill and I chose to spend as much of the time he had left as I could with him.  By the middle of summer, his health had taken a particularly sharp downturn and he was admitted to hospital.  My family and I spent a significant portion of each day by his bedside and work was placed very much on the back burner. Since his passing, I have returned to work but by then the project was too far behind for me to complete it on time without the quality suffering significantly.

I have put years of my life into Entropy Effect and I want it to be the best I can make it, so I decided to postpone it until next year rather than rush it.

I am truly sorry for the inconvenience, I know many of you were looking forward to it, but rest assured the project is still in the works and will be launched as soon as I feel it is ready.


Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding.

GM's Map Halloween Special Launched

Map making can be time-consuming and sometimes frustrating for GMs, especially GMs with limited time to begin with. In our new 'GM's Maps' range, we will be providing a range of pre-made maps for you to use in your games.

Mist swirls about the skeletal trees as the two figures creep towards the darkened house on midnight lane. The cold seeps into their bones as each one goads the other on,
“You scared bro?”
“Me? N... no, it's just a house. They are only stories, what's to be afraid of?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Just stories,”
From the attic window, a pale face watched the two students approach. Long dead eyes glared at the two young men.
“Oh yes!” it hissed, “Just stories. The truth is much worse!”

Our Halloween special is an American Colonial style house ripe for the haunting by whatever ghosts, ghouls or ghastly creatures you care to summon up.

Publisher's Licence

Publishers wishing to use this map in their own products may do so subject to the following restrictions;

You may use the map in your own adventures or supplements provided you add your own content.

This map may not be resold as part of a product that is intended primarily as a map or collection of maps.

If you use this map please credit the author B F Irving and Gethsemane Games and include the line “Map created with Campaign Cartographer 3 by Profantasy Software”

Modular Lunar/Planetary Station

As humanity reaches for the stars colonies begin to spring up on moons, planets and other bodies wherever our ships can reach. From research stations to small colonies.
Don't be left behind in the new space-race! At MLPS we have the answer to all your exoplanetary station needs with the Modular Lunar/Planetary Station!

MLPS, the drive behind space exploration.

The Modular Space Station is the latest in our GM's maps range. with 12 modules in the pack and a sample layout for a small station using the modules.

http://www.rpgnow.com/…/2…/GMs-Maps-29-Modular-Lunar-Station

A sample module from the pack:

Hallowe'en Sale!

Hallowe'en Sale

Its that time of the year when everyone's thoughts turn to those things which go bump in the night!

In order to help you make this Halloween extra spooky, Gethsemane Games has placed all of our 'Haunts and Horrors' Gothic horror line PDF products on sale for just £1, that's One British Pound (actually, make that ninety-nine pence, we really love Hallowe'en!).

Happy Hauntings!

http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/3429/Gethsemane-Games

Haunts And Horrors 2nd ed.

There are many dark and desolate places in the world. Places where the Haunts and the Horrors lurk, waiting to prey upon the unwary. Where practitioners of magic indulge in their dark arts, for good or for ill.

Step from the present into the gas-lit world of the 19th century, or investigate the paranormal mysteries of today Face the supernatural horrors from the folklore of many diverse cultures, and struggle against creatures beyond common philosophies, the haunts and horrors that plague ' nightmares.

Haunts and Horrors is a flexible horror RPG intended to let GMs set their games in any period of history they choose, from the Georgian period to the modern day.

Suffer Little Children

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/134145/Suffer-Little-Children?cPath=5782_27281

What dreadful curse haunts the dreams of the children of Enfield such that they fear the embrace of sleep?

What foul thing moves them to terror?

Unable to find any physical cause the town doctor turns to the alienists at the Sanatorium for help, yet even they are baffled by the strange malady that sweeps through the town bringing night terrors and fearful dreams to the young.

In north-west England during the reign of Her Royal Highness

Queen Victoria, something terrible troubles a sleepy village.

A strange white figure is seen in the night.

What terrible secret of the town's past is behind the mystery?

Or is the new waterworks to blame, as so many claim?

And what role does the crumbling folly in the grounds of the high house have to play in all of this? Built from stones so ancient they have seen the dawn of man, inscribed with ancient symbols of a lost culture.

Could that hold the key?

In “Suffer Little Children” the players must unlock these secrets and defeat a foul enemy with the aid of unlikely allies and beset with terrible dreams and visions of their own.

The Curse of Amun Menetnashte

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/205657/The-Curse-of-Amun-Menetnashte?cPath=5782_27281

For over two thousand years a forgotten Egyptian Sorcerer has lain at rest within his tomb, lost beneath the sands of Egypt. Until now.

Unwittingly the Percival-Papadokis expedition have awoken the Sorcerer from his slumber and his restless Ba and Ka, aspects of his spirit self, seek restitution for an ancient wrong.

Drawn into the events that result from the awakening of the once forgotten Amun Menetnashte the player characters find themselves enmeshed in a struggle against ghostly apparitions, an undead mummy and ghouls. Worse yet, they must satisfy the conditions of a powerful magical spell or die, becoming the latest victims of...

...The Curse of Amun Menetnashte.

Blood Money

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/112090/Blood-Money?cPath=5782_27281

“Blood Money”, an adventure set in England during the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. The old coaching inn “The little drummer boy” has seen better days, the advent of the railways has hit the inn's custom, but perhaps not so much as the tales of a strange phantom horseman that plagues the highways around the inn.

Who, or what is the dark form that haunts the roads and moors around the old coaching inn "The Little Drummer Boy" and what is the cause of its hatred for the Johnstons?

The Ahriman Tablets

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/215460/The-Ahriman-Tablets?cPath=5782_27281

Set in Egypt in the 1870's 'The Ahriman Tablets' can be either a stand-alone adventure or an interesting follow up to 'The Curse of Amun Menetnashte'.

A curious find among the trade goods of the Bazaar sets the party on an arduous journey into the Kharga Oasis region of Egypt in search of a long lost temple. Thought to be a Zoroastrian fire temple dating back to the Persian occupation of Egypt, the temple hides a dark and sinister secret.

To reach their goal the party must face the hazards of the desert, both real and preternatural as a malevolent force seeks to deter them from uncovering the ancient hidden truths locked within the sand-choked ruins. Pitted against the creatures of desert folklore, the harsh conditions of the Kharga Oasis and their own self-doubt the expedition's tribulations have only just begun for once they find the ancient site their excavations are troubled by yet more mysterious occurrences. The dark spirits that have lain forgotten beneath the desert sands have awoken and regarded the expedition with malevolence as they seek to keep the interlopers from learning the truth of this place.