Effective immediately, Catalyst Game Labs is lowering the prices for its core rulebook PDFs for all game lines. This includes:

SHADOWRUN

Shadowrun 20^th Anniversary Edition: $15
Runner’s Companion: $12
Arsenal: $12
Augmentation: $12
Unwired: $12
Street Magic: $12

BATTLETECH

Total Warfare: $15
TechManual: $15
Tactical Operation: $15
Strategic Operations: $15

CTHULHUTECH

CthulhuTech Core Rulebook: $15

Catalyst Game Labs has embraced electronic publishing as a vital medium for expanding a community’s enjoyment of a game line. This is readily apparent with the launch of Eclipse Phase under the Creative Commons license and at a $15 price point, simultaneously with the release of the print rulebook into standard distribution. Catalyst Game Labs continues to follow this pattern with the recent publication of Leviathans’ Lieutenant’s Manual, the first major miniatures game release also utilizing the Creative Commons license, embracing the open-minded nature of the electronic medium.

At the same time Catalyst Game Labs is dedicated to supporting brick-and-mortar hobby stores, still the life’s blood of our hobby and the greatest avenue for new players to be exposed to new games. The Catalyst RED (Retailer Electronic Distribution) combines Catalyst embracing of electronic distribution and retailer support into a single system that allows retailers to sell our PDFs directly to customers.

The release of both Eclipse Phase Core Rulebook and Leviathans’ Lieutenant’s Manual PDFs at a reduced price showcased the willingness of gamers to “check out a new game” if the price is reasonable; especially combined with the willingness of a publisher to stand by the quality and strength of their game line. With two of the most icon universes in our industry (and a fabulous up-and-coming game line) Catalyst Game Labs is standing by the strength and quality of its game lines, lowering the price of its introductory products for the entire gaming community.

If you’ve always wanted to check out Shadowrun or BattleTech (or would like to return after a long hiatus), there’s never been a better chance to grab a PDF and see what the excitement is all about! Our PDFs are available from our own BattleShop or DriveThruRPG.

Catalyst Game Labs is pleased to announce its currently projected first quarter 2010 releases for all its game lines.

Casual Games

High School Drama [Social Climbing. Scandal. School Rivalry]

Paparazzi! [The Game of Trash Celebrity Culture]

Merchants [The Lords Of The Seas]

Henchman [The Game Of Surviving Evil Masterminds]

Balance of Power [The Game Of Strategy, Influence And Elegant Warfare]

Eclipse Phase

Gamemaster Pack [Deluxe 4-panel GM Screen and full-color adventure]

Sunward: The Inner System [Core Setting]

CthulhuTech

Ancient Enemies [Setting Sourcebook]

Storyguide Reference Screen [Game Tool]

Shadowrun

Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Limited Edition [Exclusive Core Rulebook]

Runner’s Toolkit [Boxed Accessory]

Vice [Setting]

Dusk: Dawn of the Artifacts 1 [Adventure]

Midnight: Dawn of the Artifacts 2 [Adventure]

Darkest Hour: Dawn of the Artifacts 3 [Adventure]

BattleTech

BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set

A Time of War: The BattleTech RPG [Hardcover, full-color, roleplaying game]

Technical Readout: 3060 [Catalyst-branded reprint]

HexPack: Lakes and Rivers [A Terrain Expansion]

Record Sheets: 3060

Record Sheets: 3075

Historicals: Operation Klondike

Novels

Spells & Chrome: A Shadowrun Anthology [Shadowrun]

First Strike: BattleCorps Anthology Vol 2 [BattleTech: A selection of the best fiction from BattleCorps.com]

Warrior Trilogy [BattleTech: Anniversary Omnibus, Author's Definitive Edition]

A Bonfire of Worlds [BattleTech: A Dark Age Era Novel]

Retailers (and fans looking for additional information) can find sell sheets for all these books and games on the retailer information section of catalystgamelabs.com.

For those celebrating, have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Leviathans is a steampunk game that simulates combat between warships that have taken to the air in an alternate history 1910. The king leviathans, battleships, are the largest vessels. Maneuvering in support are light cruisers, destroyers and other vessels. Will you captain your fleet for king and country, expanding your nation’s power and becoming legend? Or will you fall from the sky, forgotten?

You determine the outcome!

Spring 2010 will see the publication of this much anticipated box set game. The Leviathans Core Box Set will include the following:

• 3 rulebooks to ease players from the quick-start rules all the way to enhanced play for endless fun.
• 8 high-quality plastic miniatures representing ships from the British and French fleets.
• 12 Ship Cards that expand a player’s fleet, including a battleship, two light cruisers and three destroyers.
• 12 full-color Recognition Cards that correspond to each Ship Card, including the ship’s service history on the back.
• Leviathans Primer that details the alternate history of Leviathans, the technology behind the great ships, the eight major air powers of 1910, along with minor powers, and the growing hot spots of conflict around the world.
• 2 novellas throwing you directly into the action of the universe.
• Templates to aide game play.
• 2 18″ x 22″ board-game quality maps, printed on both sides.
• 12 dice

Until then, however, the Lieutenant’s Manual is now available!

The Leviathans’ Lieutenant’s Manual is a 32-page PDF offering a complete introduction to the new, innovative Leviathans’ game system, including playing maps, ready-to-cut-out-and-use Ship Cards and counters. All a player needs to bring to the table are a few sets of polyhedral gaming dice (D4, D6, D8, D10 and D12s) and in minutes they’ll be scouring the skies at the helm of several thousand tons of war-forged metal looking for the tail-tale sign of enemy smoke on the horizon.

Lieutenant’s Manual: Quick-Start Rules PDF on Catalyst

Lieutenant’s Manual: Quick-Start Rules PDF on DriveThruRPG

In August 2009 Catalyst Game Labs pushed the boundaries of publishing as the first to simultaneously release a major role-playing game publication—Eclipse Phase—under Creative Commons and through the traditional distributions network.

Catalyst continues to push the boundaries of publishing as the first major publisher to release a miniatures game under Creative Commons with the first roll out of Leviathans’ books in the Lieutenant’s Manual. Additional PDF releases will occur in the coming weeks and months leading up the release of the box set game next spring.

While Leviathan’s is steampunk in flavor, no single definition covers the genre anymore; instead, it is a collage of concepts and ideas, even if the core remains the same. This type of “mix it and make it yours” mentality fits flawlessly with Creative Commons, allowing anyone that loves steampunk to take Leviathans and make it theirs in what ever way they desire.

If you receive this PDF from a friend who shared it in accordance with the Creative Commons license, and you like it, please support the cause by buying the PDF. This is still an experiment and we hope to make it work. If it does, the success of Leviathans—along with the growing success of Eclipse Phase—may very well affect the way all game companies go about publishing games in the future. So if you like this direction, we need your support!