Original Press Release!

[Mindi]

ForeSight, The Forward Looking RPG!
Shrapnel Games To Publish New Pen and Paper RPG!

Cary, NC, 28 March, 2005

Many, many years ago a couple of guys got together and thought that it would be really cool to add stories to their wargaming. Fantasy stories to be precise. And so like any good gamer of the time they ripped off Tolkien (at the time it was almost expected; if you liked fantasy mirror Tolkien's books, if you were into sci-fi steal from Star Trek) and added a bunch of funky dice into the mix, creating a game that allowed math nerds and science majors around the world a chance to feel like the hero for a change. And with that role-playing games were born, and it was good.

Yet decades later people are still playing essentially the same game. 1975 and 2005 have a lot in common. The books may look better now, but deep down most RPGs are still combat systems, often slow moving with too much emphasis on exploiting rule loopholes, with rudimentary skill systems grafted on. For games based on imagination the various rulesets available rely heavily on mundane chart look-ups and lots and lots of dice rolling, often creating arbitrary results. In a world dominated by a handful of systems why can't there be a game to challenge what has become an almost painful step- by-step process of play?

Enter ForeSight.

ForeSight, designed and developed by Tonio Loewald, is a new pen and paper RPG to be published by Shrapnel Games later this year that is poised to remind role-players that a RPG should be more than a bunch of tables. A RPG is about character, about story, and most importantly about bringing the world of your imagination to your kitchen table.

ForeSight is not another d20 OGL system. It is an innovative system that allows gamers to focus on the game itself, and not worry about digging through their backpack of books or searching their laptop full of pirated PDFs to decide what dice they need to roll to do whatever they want to do. And how is this accomplished?

With ForeSight the players really need to understand one concept, resolution. The resolution rule handles everything from sneaking past a sentry to hacking a computer system to laying down the smack with a shotgun. This is handled with an easy to remember formula. First, the gamemaster decides what character ability would be applicable to the situation, then he decides what modifiers there would be, and finally how difficult the task would be. A success chance is then derived from that computation, percentile dice are rolled, and voila! Resolution is reached.

ForeSight's resolution rule is the heart of the system. A simple, elegant solution to determining just how well people in a make-believe world can really do things, ForeSight's system creates a fast playing game that yields a realistic range of possibilities, no matter what the situation may be, and with ForeSight the situations can vary from fighting fire-breathing dragons to anti-matter powered titanium starships.

ForeSight is not shoehorned into a standard setting. Instead the basic book provides players with all the mechanics needed to play in whatever setting they choose. Because of the streamlined nature of the system gamers will be able to easily adapt it to the genre they like, and guess what? It'll actually feel like it fits, unlike some generic systems that often feel like you're trying to plug a round hole with a square peg in most genres.

Shrapnel Games is extremely excited to give role-players an alternative to the same ol' fare that is found on the today's gameshop's shelves. ForeSight's creator is also excited.

"Shrapnel games has a reputation for being one of the few remaining truly innovative games companies, so I'm delighted that Shrapnel will be publishing ForeSight," Tonio Loewald said. "Over the years, a small but fanatical group of us (mostly in Australia and New Zealand) have found ForeSight to be the simplest, cleanest, and most expressive system for role-playing in a diverse range of settings, and I hope to see these rules reach a wider audience."

Stay tuned for more information on this exciting new pen and paper RPG at www.shrapnelgames.com as it gets closer to publication!

Based in Lompoc, California, Tonio Loewald has been tinkering with games for over thirty years. ForeSight was originally conceived as a streamlined system for handling tournament games, where time is at a premium and having to learn a new game system is a hassle. Running the early ForeSight tourneys showed Tonio that people hungered for other game systems besides the 900 pound gorilla originally from Lake Geneva. Receiving tremendous praise for the system, Tonio continued to refine it, with the current edition having over fifteen years of playtesting under its hood. Besides ForeSight (which was originally published in Australia many years ago) Tonio also designed and co- developed the shareware CRPG, "Prince of Destruction".

Shrapnel Games is located in picturesque Cary, North Carolina. Founded by Tim Brooks in 1999 as a way to keep computer wargaming alive, even as the mainstream publishers tried to eliminate the genre totally, the company has since branched into strategy and conflict simulation titles of all sorts. Not content to simply bring gamers a number of award-winning computer games Shrapnel has expanded to the world of boardgaming (with much success) and now with ForeSight, is about to plunge into the world of pen and paper RPGs. Look for Shrapnel Games to continue to bring gamers the best independent games possible in 2005 and beyond.

For press related information please contact Scott R. Krol at: skrol@shrapnelgames.com

To visit our company blog go to www.shrapnelcommunity.com/blog/ .