The following books have a street date of October 13, 2009:
CAT21000 Eclipse Phase (Core Rulebook) ($49.99)
CAT23002 CthuhluTech: Mortal Remains ($39.99)
CAT35240 BattleTech: Masters & Minions ($44.99)
CAT25700 BattleTech: 25 Years of Art & Fiction ($64.99)
Remember to support your local game store!
This summer Catalyst Game Labs embraces hard science fiction in an RPG setting with the much anticipated release of Eclipse Phase. Designed by the core people involved with the best-selling, award-winning Shadowrun Fourth Edition, Eclipse Phase embraces the concepts of hypertechnology and a coming singularity when technology will begin to advance in quantum leaps. This type of setting has been expertly crafted by such authors as Ken Macleod, Richard Morgan, Alistair Reynolds and Charles Stross, and Catalyst Game Labs embraces the challenge.
We humans have a special way of pulling ourselves up and kicking ourselves down at the same time. We’d achieved more progress than ever before, at the cost of wrecking our planet and destabilizing our own governments. But things were starting to look up.
With exponentially accelerating technologies, we reached out into the solar system, terraforming worlds and seeding new life. We re-forged our bodies and minds, casting off sickness and death. We achieved immortality through the digitization of our minds, re-sleeving from one biological or synthetic body to the next at will. We uplifted animals and AIs to be our equals. We acquired the means to build anything we desired from the molecular level up, so that no one need want again.
Yet our race toward extinction was not slowed, and in fact received a machine-assist over the precipice. Billions died as our technologies rapidly bloomed into something beyond control … further transforming humanity into something else, scattering us throughout the solar system, and reigniting vicious conflicts. Nuclear strikes, biowarfare plagues, nanoswarms, mass uploads … a thousand horrors nearly wiped humanity from existence.
We still survive … divided into a patchwork of restrictive inner system hypercorp-backed oligarchies and libertarian outer system collectivist habitats, tribal networks, and new experimental societal models. We have spread to the outer reaches of the solar system and even gained footholds in the galaxy beyond. But we are no longer solely “human” … we have evolved into something simultaneously more and different—something transhuman.
The core Eclipse Phase rulebook is a hard cover, full-color, lavishly illustrated tome that provides everything a GM and players need to dive into this exciting, hypertechnology universe. A setting where digitization of consciousness allows for a form of immortality as you switch flesh ad synth bodies at will, but the horrors of an alien and un-caring universe might drive you insane long before the last of your forked selves are hunted down.
See EclipsePhase.com for more information.
Catalyst Game Labs had a great 2009 GTS experience and the Catalyst booth was constantly busy both days. Most importantly, however, is that all of the retailers stopping at the booth asked pertinent, intelligent questions and were expressing interest not only in the staples of BattleTech and Shadowrun but showed interest for everything that Catalyst Game Labs has to offer in the coming year.
Undoubtedly it was the coming release of Catalyst Game Labs’ casual game line (comprised of board and card games) that was the star of the show. Three card games—Paparazzi, High School Drama and Merchants (a Reiner Knizia game)—will be part of that launch, each with a fun, quick play style. The unique packaging for all three designs garnered a host of attention.
At the end of the day, however, Balance of Power, Catalyst Game Labs’ first casual board game, walked away with the most buzz. Set in the Napoleonic era, it has easy to learn rules. As several self-proclaimed “board game snobs” attending stated, “the depth of play for Balance of Power is subtle but huge, with a lot of strategy and great re-playability”. And if that weren’t enough, the map is an eye-catching, beautiful piece of graphic design; perfect for snagging new players’ attention at a table.
The digital proofs of the anniversary edition of Shadowrun Fourth Edition caught a lot of attention, as did the nearly three foot panoramic illustration of Seattle for the new Shadowrun Gamemaster screen found in the Runner’s Toolkit. The coming of a new series of linked adventures, and a deluxe full-color Seattle 2072 hardcover book also generated a lot of eager comments.
The massive stack of digital proofs that was Strategic Operations elicited a lot of retailer questions, mainly from their customers: where’s the book?! Strategic Operations—along with all of Catalyst operations—ran afoul of the closing of WizKids and ended up stuck for several months. It’s been completely unstuck and the printer is hard at work on getting this one out. Talk of the 25 Years of Art & Fiction deluxe coffee table book, along with a 25th anniversary Introduction Box Set with new cover art and high quality board-game style playing maps in place of the current paper sheets also had retailers excited.
With two supporting products out for the CthulhuTech RPG (Vade Mecum and Dark Passions) and digital proofs of Damnation View—the third release beyond the core rulebook—for retailers to flip through, the game line is continuing to pick up speed and a lot of interest.
Catalyst Game Labs was also excited to talk about our new immersive universe and all-new roleplaying game, Eclipse Phase. This transhuman conspiracy and horror setting spiked a lot of interest, especially in the more unusual roleplaying aspects that bring a unique flavor to this hard science fiction RPG.
Leviathans—an alternate history miniatures game of air fleet battles set in 1910—also had a lot of retailers excited. While there were no game mechanics to show off, a folder with a dozen concept illustrations and a box cover illustration from Doug Chaffee got high marks across the board.
Catalyst would like to extend a giant round of thanks to all those retailers that swung by the booth and kept us so busy with your interest and superb questions. We hope to see you next year (as well as any that weren’t able to make it to our booth this year)!
In the coming days Catalyst Game Labs will release more in-depth reviews and information focused on various aspects of our game lines described in short above.
