Shipping info

Updated November 7, 1999

	TimeLords Time Capsules 1 Time Capsules 2 Supertanker		CORPS Dreamtime VDS (Vehicle Design System) Apocalypse Down in Flames		3G3 (Guns! Guns! Guns!) More Guns!
	Macho Women with Guns More Excuses to Kill Things		Slag! (Tactical space combat)		Black Death (Plague board game)
	Epiphany		Hollyworld		Reviews, rants and raves

Adventure into forever...

Ever feel like popping out to see what's going on in the future? Or how about double checking your history Prof? TimeLords lets you frolic the time lines.

Of course, it's not all fun and games. The enigmatic Matrix that was foisted upon you did not come with an instruction manual, and it will take you years to figure out how to properly use it. In the meantime, you have a device which will theoretically let you live forever, and take you anywhere, anyplace, anytime or any alternate universe. A lot of people would like to take it off your hands, stranding you forever in some forsaken corner of the timestream.

Your job? Stay one Jump ahead of the competition, figure out where you are and why the Matrix sent you there, and discover the joys and perils of being a TimeLord.

What you get
TimeLords is a ten attribute, 1d20-based system for any sort of campaign based on human norms or alternate worlds. It's just right for any sort of gritty or realistic game world, and doesn't have to be played as a time travel game.

Anyway, TimeLords will work for science fiction, modern thrillers, horror, and fantasy equally well. The system is more detailed and realistic than CORPS, and does an excellent job of making three-dimensional characters who have the limits and frailties of "real people". This is good, because one of the other attractions of TimeLords is that you can generate characters based on yourself. Yes, you can be the person catapulted into the timestreams! Adds a new dimension to any roleplaying session to have such a personal interest in the fate of your character...

Mechanics
Characters in TimeLords is a 1d20 system. Skills are based on a fraction of a governing attribute, and increased from there. Skill modifiers apply as a percentage of skill, not a fixed quantity. For instance, a modifier of -50% would drop of skill of 20 to 10, but would only drop a skill of 10 to 5. Combat and weapon damage is similar. Characters do not have hit points which are lost due to damage, but instead take damage as a fraction of their total, which affects the parts of the body hit rather than some uniform penalty to act. Skills, attributes and damage can be handled very quickly, or with increasing levels of detail, right down to location-specific damage effects.

Combat is fast and deadly to the unprepared. Characters act in order of physical or mental speed in each one-second turn, with better characters getting more penalty-free actions. Damage from weapons directly affects the part of the body hit, with location-specific effects like stuns, knockouts, blood loss and broken bones possible. Armor protects you from lethal damage, but you can still take non-lethal hits through blunt trauma and other effects.

Supplements
The supplements for TimeLords include Time Capsules 1 & 2, which are sets of short adventures, outlined with plot, major characters and maps, for those times when a random time hop is needed, and you just didn't plan an adventure for when the characters finally touch down. Supertanker of Death is a multiple part adventure set in an alternate near-future. Despite the cheesy title, it's pretty cool, and has challenges for both starting and experienced adventures.

TimeLords is showing its age as a game system, so no new supplements based on these rules are planned. However, we are furiously working on converting the whole mess over to CORPS, our house system, and hope that a 120 page dedicated time travel supplement will be available early in the year 2000. Stay tuned for more details.

TimeLords stock #0001, suggested retail US$14.95
Time Capsules stock #0002, suggested retail US$6.95
Supertanker stock #0003, suggested retail US$6.95
Time Capsules 2 stock #0004, suggested retail US$8.95

The only thing it can't supply is what you have to bring to the game...imagination!!!!

Anyway, CORPS will work for science fiction, modern thrillers, horror, and fantasy equally well. The character generation system gives the players a lot of flexibility to make interesting characters, and it gives the GM important tools to shape the way the characters and the game world interact, through things like cultural norms, skill limits, legal systems and region-specific technology.

Mechanics
CORPS is a semi-diceless system. Tasks are rated by Difficulty, and your appropriate skill or attribute is compared to the Difficulty. If your adjusted skill is equal or higher, you succeed. That's all there is to it. If your skill is lower than the Difficulty, you roll 1d10, and the success chance is a function of the difference. High skills allow you to complete tasks in less time, or absorb modifiers for more difficult tasks, like called shots, or working in adverse conditions.

Combat is fast and deadly to the unprepared. Characters act in order of skill level each turn, with more skilled characters getting more actions. Damage from weapons directly affects the part of the body hit, with location-specific effects like knockouts, blood loss and broken bones. Armor protects you from lethal damage, but you can still take non-lethal hits through blunt trauma and other effects.

Supplements
Just so you know, all CORPS roleplaying supplements require the CORPS basic rules for character generation, combat and so forth. CORPS VDS is designed for use with CORPS, but is not required to use it or to transplant your vehicles to other game systems.

CORPS Vehicle Design System (or VDS) is available in .pdf format (Acrobat 3.0). Check out the  Hyperbooks Online Bookstore  for more information on that edition. The print version (US$20.00) is now available.

CORPS VDS is a generic vehicle design tool for CORPS and other realistically grounded rpg's. This doesn't prevent VDS from having rules for magical power plants for science fiction topics, just that VDS treats everything in a logical, consistent fashion. For those of you familiar with our 3G³ product, it is about as complex (160 pages), with chapters for each type of vehicle subsection (power plant, power train, structure, etc.). We think it is the best and most concise vehicle design system out there, but since there are only a handful that we're aware of (GURPS Vehicles, Fire Fusion and Steel 2, Central Supply Catalog and CORPS VDS), and we're biased to boot, take a look and make your own decision.

Also available is CORPS is Dreamtime, a game universe set in a mythical past, when the People were a new thing upon the face of the Earth Mother, and the world still seethes with the forces of Creation. If you can't carry it, you don't own it, and everything you do own is made of wood, leather, stone or bone. But you are rich in magic, and know the secret ways of the shakt, whom you can call to do your bidding, help that is necessary when things come out from the Bad Places to threaten the People and sometimes the Earth Mother herself. It's odd, it's obscure and it's not for everyone. But we like it.

Next up is Apocalypse, a game universe set in an alternate present. The short form of the background is “Nazi elves come back from whatever dimension they've been hiding in and enslave humanity”. The long version is quite a bit more detailed and internally consistent, but no less depressing. Get a free sample from our downloads page. It's rife with possibilities for adventure. Apocalypse is a 128 page book, most of which is background detail.

Last is Down in Flames, a baker's dozen of world-wrecking scenarios for CORPS or any other role-playing game. It's 12 bucks and 72 pages. You can download the first chapter from the downloads page.

CORPS stock #7101, suggested retail US$19.95
CORPS Dreamtime stock #7102, suggested retail US$9.95
CORPS VDS stock #7103, suggested retail US$20.00
CORPS Apocalypse stock #7104, suggested retail US$17.00
CORPS Down in Flames stock #7105, suggested retail US$12.00

You can buy the second edition and discover CORPS firsthand, or you can get it free!!! Just download the Nutshell edition from here! Once you've seen what we can do in four pages, maybe you'll be interested in the other 140!!

Macho Women with Guns is the cult classic, politically incorrect rpg that no gamer should be without. It may not make rabid fundamentalists foam at the mouth as much as if they found a blood-stained altar in your game room, but it's a lot more legal, and not nearly as messy.

Macho Women with Guns is reverse-sexist and blatantly chauvanist role-playing taken to its obvious limit. Everyone has to be busty babes with guns, and the major role-playing goal is to find creative new ways to blow up the established order of things.

Where else are you going to find skills like "Run in high heels", "Hit things with other things" and the ever-popular "Do technical stuff"?

What you get
A book of rules and a short adventure, with your choice of four cover illustrations. You have to supply three six-sided dice. What more do you want?

Mechanics
Not that they really matter, but characters are built on points around five attributes, special abilities and skills, which use a 3d6 system for resolution. Departure from the rules for humorous effect is strongly encouraged.

Macho Women with Guns stock #3005, suggested retail US$9.95
More Excuses to Kill Things stock #3006, suggested retail US$9.95

Look for the official Macho Woman miniatures from Simtac. If you can't find them at your local store, ask for them!

3G³ is technically sophisticated weapon design supplement for virtually any role-playing game. You can design weapons of any type at any Tech Level where they are possible (not just historically available), and then convert that design to the role-playing game you prefer most. 3G³ lets you design conventional firearms, lasers, particle beams, railguns or gauss weapons, melee weapons and the next printing will include more detail on archaic weapons like bows, crossbows and siege engines. The new edition is now available and has detailed conversion information for TimeLords^TM, CORPS^TM, GURPS^R, Hero System^R, Cyberpunk 2020^R, Heavy Gear^TM, Battlelords of the 23rd Century^TM, Nexus^TM, Feng Shui^TM, Traveller New Era^R, Heavy Gear^TM and Traveller 4th edition^R. How's that for value for your gaming dollar!

Limited edition hardback! - There is a limited run of hardback copies of 3G³. These run $21, and are only available by direct order or at conventions. As with other BTRC products, shipping in the US is free. Shipping for the hardback is $4 to Canada, $8 to England and Europe and $10 to the Pacific.

Software and Hypertext edition - Hyperbooks Online Bookstore will be carrying the .pdf version of 3G³ and spreadsheets in a number of popular formats to automate your weapon design and conversion. They can also take credit card orders for the hardback or any other BTRC product for the convenience of our overseas customers.

What you get
3G³ includes a 136 page rulebook with charts, tables and conversion notes for nearly a dozen popular role-playing systems.

3G³ Stock #4001, suggested retail price US$15.95
More Guns! Stock #4002, suggested retail price US$19.95

What you get
Black Death includes a 4 page rulebook, four-color map, and a bunch of die cut counters. It requires two six-sided dice, and a slightly twisted sense of humor, which you have to procure on your own.

Black Death Stock #6001, suggested retail price US$9.95

Forget the catalog listing and go to the Epiphany archive!

Epiphany is (we think) a radically different role-playing game for a radically changing world. Diceless, numberless, but still complex and realistic enough for tactical as well as dramatic purposes. Epiphany is set in the ancient mythical lands known to the Greeks as Hyperborea, the land north of the north wind. There you find the lost worlds of Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu, surrounding the now-frozen entrance to the Hollow Earth. Basking in the light and heat from the Inner Sun, they engage in exploration, politics and intrigue, surrounded by the icy wastes of the arctic. Thousands of years of conflict have left the land pocked with ruins and poor in resources, but science and the magic of the metaplanes combine to keep them powerful, and a strict social order allows them to keep true revolution and change at bay. Epiphany is meant to be a global shared game world. When you buy Epiphany, you get our permission to publish to the Internet anything you want for the system, so long as you follow certain guidelines, like getting a copy to us for the on-line archive. Everyone who has ever wanted to publish ideas for their game can do so within the Epiphany background, and anyone else can download that support material for free! Buy the game, get your support material for no charge. Publish your material worldwide, and massage your ego at the same time. Every campaign will be unique, and each group of players can write their own history of the ultimately doomed lands that now lie frozen where no one has ever thought to look...

What you get
A book of rules and two short adventures.

Mechanics
Characters are rated in their Physical, Mental and Spiritual categories, with each one having four attributes that are rated not by their amount, but by their presence or absence. Attributes, Abilities, equipment and player description combine to give a character Advantages, which can be chosen to selectively counter those of an opponent, or you can use the optional dice rules to do the same. Where possible, everything in Epiphany has been abstracted, right down to the way money is handled.

Sadly, this game didn't catch on and there are only a handful of submissions for it. We think it is a great system for any sort of live-action roleplay, and we'll be happy to help adapt it to your needs if you want to use it in any sort of LARP event.

Epiphany stock #9001, suggested retail US$9.95