Category Archives: News

I’ve been talking about it for a while now. The updated Player’s Handbook is now available for download and as a print book. I was waiting for a test print to come back and it checks out. Zamzar seems to have worked well with the PDF creation process so two thumbs up!

Here’s the description on the back of the book.

This is the second edition of the bigger and better Player’s Handbook, an indispensable guide to The Artifact. Twenty eight pages brings the people and world of The Artifact to life with detailed descriptions from an ASO Field Scientist’s perspective. Native technologies are explained, allowing players to know what they’re touching and using. Twenty more pages detail the job of a Communications Officer and give stats and rules for hacking into computers and vehicles, including implanting viruses. The remaining fifty pages are a toy box for the players, packed tightly full of equipment and vehicles.

Here are some more pictures of the interior. Quality is standard Lulu fare which tends to be good. In the early days I had some bindings fall apart but haven’t had a problem with any of my newer books.

Editing is now finished and I’ve ordered a test book. Lulu has dropped the use of PostScript files and that’s what I’ve been using to publish the books. I’m annoyed at that but they suggested a website called Zamzar that can handle converting pages files to PDF. I don’t know if Zamzar fully embeds fonts or if the file will be entirely kosher with Lulu so I’ll just have to wait and see how the book turns out. If all is well, I’ll publish the updated handbook.

The site is being updated with a new look, it’s been a good five years since I’ve done anything with the site itself and it was well past due. I’m still working out some of the bugs so sound off in the comments if you find something that’s broken or have something that you’d like to see.

If you’re looking for the old forum (That would be mainly you Tarnoc and Sai) it’s still up and running here It’s not going anywhere but we’ll be using it mainly for our own private sandbox to play in.

I’m working on an update to the Player’s Handbook, the rules in it are according to the first edition of The Artifact RPG and don’t include things like Barrier Points in the Comm Officer’s Guide section. There are also some formatting issues that need to be fixed.

The Comm Officer’s Guide is going to get the most attention. A lot of the ideas for the CO I am told were far too technical. There are also some new technologies that will be discussed in it. I’m trying to make it’s format more along the lines of the Engineer’s Sourcebook where each task is explained and what skills are needed to perform them.

I ordered a test book, there are a few adjustments that need to be made before I publish it.

An example of a Titan

We are working on a sourcebook with a production name of Tortuga to give civilian and corporate characters more options. It will include what was originally going to be the Titans source book along with a lot more treasure hunting ideas. The goal here is to flesh out some ideas that are in the game book and things that are slated for future sourcebooks with more of a backstory that can be explored by the Scimrahn Civilian, Colonists or Corporate characters before the meta story is completed.

Other ideas are to include more high tech equipment from Earth that advanced characters will be looking for. Tortuga has been rolling along slowly but already the ideas that are going into it are changing our games.

We weren’t sure for a while if the title “Tortuga” was going to stick as the finished title of the book. The sourcebook is going to include a setting for Corporate characters to operate out of with a code name of Tortuga. There are a few other minor settings that I’ve already written, and those will stay, but the focus is going to be this main base of operation.

Other than this main setting, I need to work on more equipment and pictures. I’m also looking at some new core rules because some of the native tech in this book is a flavor of where the rest of the game is going.