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.

FASA Corporation launched what would become one of the best selling RPGs of all time in 1989. While building off of the blocks laid by the emerging dystopian future-cyperpunk genre, Shadowrun took a very different route by slamming that concept head-on into traditional fantasy elements of dragons, magic and fairy folk.

Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Anniversary Core Rulebook

To celebrate 20 years of this seminal RPG, Catalyst Game Labs is pleased to announce the Shadowrun, Fourth Edition 20th Anniversary Core Rulebook, which includes a host of upgrades for any Shadowrun player.

• A cover-to-cover full-color treatment allows for a stunning presentation of all the visuals Shadowrun has to offer.
• While fully compatible with all Fourth Edition-published books, much of the information has been re-presented for better usability.
• To make this the ultimate core rulebook resource for the entire Shadowrun game line, a 22 page Master Index has been generated and included, covering the 20th Anniversary Edition, as well as the following core rules expansions: Arsenal, Augmentation, Runner’s Companion, Street Magic, and Unwired.

Never has a core rulebook been so fully meshed with its full line of expansion rulebooks; check out the PDF previews of all this great book has to offer!

Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Anniversary Core Rulebook Previews

• Skills Chapter Preview
• Master Index Preview

Runner’s Toolkit

To continue the Shadowrun celebration, several anniversary projects are in the works. The next is the Runner’s Toolkit, a box set of tools that any runner or GM will find useful for any type of game play. The Toolkit contains the following:

• A deluxe, 4-panel hard-cardboard GM screen featuring a stunning full-panoramic illustration of Seattle.
• A 32-page booklet of additional sample contacts and adventure seeds.
• On The Run, a 56-page “first run”.
• Anatomy of a Shadowrun, a fictional account of a shadowrun, annotated with how game rules apply to the fictional run; a perfect “first-time-player” companion.
• Big Book of Tables, a 64-page booklet drawn from Shadowrun Fourth Edition as well as all five core rules expansions for an easy-to-use guide when trying to equip your characters with the latest and greatest during character creation.
• The Pre-generated Auxiliary Character and Kit System (PACKS) allows players and gamemaster’s alike to quickly assemble player and non-player characters using plug-and-play character profiles and equipment kits.
• 6 heavy cardstock, double-sided reference sheets provide quick and easy reference for a variety of tasks, from how to resolve combat, to hacking, to summoning and more.

And that’s just the beginning. Other 20th Anniversary projects, along with a full line of supporting Shadowrun books, will release throughout the year. Look here for more announcements in the future!

LAKE STEVENS, Wash., December 15 – Catalyst Game Labs, LLC, and Pinata Games have announced that they will form a strategic alliance contingent on the Catalyst group’s purchase of the currently dormant WizKids properties.

“By combining our efforts, we can deliver high-quality products that will satisfy retailers, fans and licensors alike,” said Loren Coleman, majority Catalyst owner. “As successful licensors of Shadowrun and BattleTech, [Catalyst] understands the essence of those brands and will continue to produce high-quality products for them.”

“The Pinata team brings a different, unique skill set to the table, having worked extensively on all of WizKids’ brands over the last two years. With our efforts combined, we have a wide range of hobby business expertise that covers the gamut of licensed-and-non-licensed properties across a wide spectrum of formats- RPGs, TCGs, CMGs, and more.”

Should Catalyst purchase WizKids’ properties from The Topps Company, Pinata will begin as operator for the HeroClix brand immediately.

“After a few short conversations with Catalyst, it was apparent that a strategic alliance would benefit all parties involved,” said Jake Theis, Pinata Games’ CSO. “We believe that this relationship will allow us to restart the HeroClix business quickly. I saw that HeroClix returned to the top of the ICV2 Hobby Fall CMG sales list, and I know that with the economy in its current state, retailers don’t want any delays getting the business back up and running.”

The proposed alliance between the two companies would allow for Pinata and Catalyst to release new games both together and independently.