Glimpse of the Abyss

This website says "Coming soon..." and gives a release date of June '07.
It seems it isn't available yet. anyone have any news? :confused:

[color=darkblue]Dude, you saw the announcement. You only get a glimpse.

That was your glimpse.

:stuck_out_tongue:

[size=75] He he![/size]

I seem to recall reading a while back in a post, I think it was by Mr. Tidball, that said September. Of course then again, here we are in September and I haven't heard anything since.

Dan

I just asked this same question last week.

The final touches are being applied and then it's off to the printers. Giving time for it to be shipped and received should put it 6-8 weeks away from a release.

Heh. Harsh!

Huzzah! Finally! Thanks for asking about this.

This is great news, even if it's for the end of the line (sniffle).

New poster, here. Thanks to Wendy (the Forum Guru at Atlas, apparently) for helping me get in here past the spam filter.

Glimpse of the Abyss and The Lion & the Lily: The Normandy Tribunal are both packed up and in the mailbox ready for pickup tomorrow. We should get them back in about 6 to 8 weeks. Thanks for your patience!

Hurrah! Thanks, Michelle!

Any news?

Glimpse of the Abyss is at our warehouse, and looks great! Lion & the Lily isn't here yet. The two will be shipping out together, after we finish taking all of John's City Council signs down in Maplewood, which is Job 1 right now. :wink:

Support Feng Shui! From what I have been hearing around the block is that if this book doesn't sell well, more Feng Shui in the future will be doubtful!

[color=darkblue]From what I've heard, more Feng Shui is already doubtful. Although its fans (us, namely) are loyal, it's not one of Atlas' current best sellers. Possibly not well-selling enough to make it profitable at this point. At least that's what John Nephew has indicated in other discussions.

While I mourn the fading of any rpg that I enjoy, I have a hard time imagining what further books I would want to see from this line. I'm really jazzed about Glimpse, but that's really the only product I've been waiting for a few years. If the line is going to stop, I'd like to end it on a high note. :slight_smile:

I believe the Feng Shui product line will be going into some sort of semi-permanent hiatus after Glympse of the Abyss is out. It's a bit more than just slow sales... there is no line developer (Will Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball are no longer with Atlas Games), and as far as I know, there aren't any other Feng Shui products in the pipeline.

Although if it's any consolation, I have thought about pitching a 2nd edition to Robin/Atlas and seeing if I could write it myself.

Just thought that I would come out of lurk mode and let people here know that - much to my surprise - I have Glimpse of the Abyss in my hands. I wasn't expecting it for another few weeks at best, but there it was sitting on my FLGS shelf last Saturday.

Really weird timing as I'm literally returning to FS for the first time in 8-9 years, and - boom - there's a new book in my hands. I've only skimmed it at the moment; some stuff looks really cool, but I have to admit to being disappointed that each creature didn't get some artwork.

If anyone has questions, I'd be happy to give a shot at answering them.

Bruce

You mentioned you were disappointed that there wasn't individual art-work for each monster. Could you tell me if there is a film reference for where to find the monsters that were not pictured?

There are a few movie references scattered in the book, but not many and nothing consistent.

Each monster does start with a Description that does a nice job. Personally, though, I like to be able to show the PC's a picture so that everyone has a consistent picture in their brain. I love a "monster manual" like Privateer's Monsternomicons or the Old World Bestiary from Green Ronin. GoA is definitely different from those.

What art there is in the book I mostly like - especially from Kelley Hensing.

Bruce

I've been spreading the words about Feng Shui on (the largest) swedish roleplaying forum and got a few buyers. :slight_smile: I'm also demonstrating Feng Shui whenever I can on roleplaying conventions. Had a couple of people asking me for it, through the roleplaying forum. Ok, this has been going on for years, but I really hope that people discover the good parts in the design philosophy.

There's so many roleplaying games today that still are designed like a game from the 80's, both swedish and english games, even though people are (here in Sweden) getting inspiration from the independent market.

How's that? I mean, it's quicker to give three or four "strong" words so the players imagination is filling out the rest. I've been experimenting with just describing monster with "a large creature that consists of metal, claws and fangs" or "a streamlined sad critter with leathered skin and small wings". It doesn't have to make sense, the human brain automatically tries to fit things together. Douglas Adams uses this, for example "It floats in the air like a brick stone wouldn't have".

I think showing pictures (I did that back when I played Deadlands) destroys a little of the moment. You're taking a pause in the description to show something - it's like drawing a map, you will focus more on the map then on the description. I guess that's one of the reasons why Feng Shui tells you to not draw a map in a battle.

If you want to keep a consisten image, then name the creatures. I mean, if I say "metal monster" och "that sad thing", what are the first things that comes into mind? Establish thing with names is a pretty common thing to do in fantasy... or what do you say about "elf", "dwarf" and all those races? :slight_smile:

I hear what you're saying. Tolkien uses that same "less is more" technique.

I'd submit as a simple rebuttal that every group is different. I've always enjoyed when our primary GM uses artwork (some original, some "canned"). Going even beyond that, we have one player who strongly prefers minis and maps; that allows him to concentrate on the tactical side of things. If I described something to him as ""a streamlined sad critter with leathered skin and small wings", I'm sure he'd say "fine, but what does it look like?"... :slight_smile:

Well, I wouldn't say Tolkien; the guy who describes every leaf on a tree. :slight_smile: It's more like David Eddings. He can with a few words describe a whole landscape.