Squawk Hex Mat and Tokens

Here's a new hex mat and tokens for playing Squawk with the Grid rules. The 8.5" by 11" hex mat is divided into 1" wide hexes. You may need a few pages this size for big battles. Click on the image to download both the hex mat and the tokens as a single PDF.

Indexed & back in stock

The Squawk RPG book was "out of stock" on Amazon for a little while because we were polishing the book with an index, some slight cover changes, and many grammar corrections.  Amazon says it is now "in stock" again.

Props for Scratch Grid Squawk

We decided not to focus on using the Scratch RPS's Grid rules in the book; we included the grid rules for those who would want them, but the book isn't focused on supporting those rules. Here are some props for a Skand, Titan, and Lyndwrym:

(These were in turn made from 3D models in Blender before this book project started, models for a Squawk RPG computer game we worked on some years ago.)  And if you don't have any hex paper, we made some of that as well:

Buy the Squawk RPG Book

You can now order the Squawk Role-Playing Game book at Amazon.com. ($19.95 USD and eligible for free shipping if you buy it with another book that costs at least $5.05.) The factory proof looks great. The 5.5" x 8.5" trade paperback format is bigger than I had imagined, feeling more like manga than a paperback novel.

We included a map of the Abaddon system on the back cover, so you won't get lost.

I let BFG include any of my sketches he wanted - including some that are not my favorites. As a result most pages of the book have artwork that helps you visualize the inhabitants and locations of Squawk's unusual science fiction setting.

I wish we had this book the last time I played Squawk!

Finished Editing Squawk RPG Book

I am the new spokesmodel for D&D Starter

We finished the final editing on the Squawk RPG book this weekend and I still had time to endure two long, grueling days of pure geek pleasure at PAX.

Public Squawk RPG Beta Concluded

Many thanks to all of you who participated in the Squawk Role-Playing Game book beta testing. If you have any feedback that you have not yet sent us, please send it to squawk@gameartsguild.com

We are well into our final editing process. For example, all of the planned changes to the Scratch Role-Playing System from beta feedback have already been made: http://knol.google.com/k/scratch-rps

defense changes

There have been 3 new changes to the Scratch RPS (and thus also the Squawk RPG,) related to defense:

• First and most importantly, the core rolling mechanism is that instead of trying to roll over a difficulty level to succeed, we now have a roll (plus ability bonus) instead equal to a difficulty in order to succeed. This means that defense is now what your attack roll + ability bonus has to be in order to successfully attack that target (equal to or greater than the target's defense.)
  
• Second, we are now again listing character's defense explicitly (after tgh/2.)
  
• Third, all healing rolls now have a difficulty level of 10 (they used to vary more than this.)
  

Use Scratch-Knol for testing

We have rewritten the combat examples in the Scratch RPS so that they better explain some of the more complicated things that can happen in basic Squawk RPG confrontations. From now on Beta Testers should reference the Scratch RPS knol for the rules instead of the Scratch RPS rules in the Squawk RPG Beta PDF.

Balancing Begins

There are two changes we have made as result of beta testing feedback, which beta testers should now start using until further notice:

1. When searching for a specific encounter, if the party rolls the same encounter twice, they automatically find the encounter they are looking for rather than repeat the random encounter.
   
2. The damage levels have changed for shooting and knock-out abilites (these details can be seen at the Scratch RPS Knol.) In a nutshell, shooting only damages 2 hit points unless the attack rolls a 20 when it then instead damages 5. Knock Out now damages 5 instead of 6, but still damages 7 if a 20 is rolled. (In combat between vehicles, rolling a 20 no longer damages any extra hit points.)
   

Help testing? squawk@gameartsguild.com

We have had some helpful editorial feedback from the RPG.net forums. We have rethought some of the book structure as a result, and so far we are:

• dividing the book into two sections, one for players and one for GMs,
  
• massively reworking the introduction to explain the book better,
  
• giving a very brief genesis story for Abaddon, (something we have never done before,)
  
• clarifying that you really must read most of the appendix and intelligent species sections before trying to generate a character (least bit actually play,)
  
• creating a more robust table of contents, and
  
• moving the intelligent species section back to before the characters section.
  

Editorial opinions are appreciated, and that forum is a great place to put that kind of feedback. However, what we need more is a few groups of players & GMs to try to play through the book, and let us know what parts of the book are too difficult or too easy. We realize that the Squawk RPG beta PDF we put out is not as clear on how to play this game as we had assumed. If you want help understanding the Squawk RPG beta PDF so that you can help us with testing, e-mail squawk@gameartsguild.com and we will answer your questions as quickly as possible.

Squawk RPG beta is now

From now until the end of July 2010 we are inviting the general public to test the Squawk Role-Playing Game. Download the beta version of the Squawk RPG book. We are looking for feedback from players and game masters, especially about which parts of the game are too easy or too difficult. Please e-mail feedback to: squawk@gameartsguild.com

The size of the book is 177 pages, with a page size of 5.5 x 8.5 inches. Most of the book is one massive adventure or "campaign". We will use feedback from this beta testing to perfect the final version of the book, which we hope to release before the end of August.

Pre-Beta editing complete

We finished the pre-beta editing for the Squawk Role-Playing Game earlier today. Now we are putting a beta PDF together for testing purposes. Once the PDF is ready, we'll officially announce that beta testing is open to the public. That announcement will be on this site, and a similar invitation will be on the RPG.net forums.