Glad to hear it! I just heard about eclipse phase and I am generally intrigued, but I was worried when I saw the announcement of the release date slipping. But anyways since this is a few days latter, any word on a release date?

It will be going through standard game distribution channels, primarily via Alliance. It will also be available via http://battlecorps.com/catalog/ -- the online store for Catalyst Game Labs. The PDF will be available for sale soon after the book goes to print.

I get the feeling you're pretty new to rpgs, Thampsan, in which case, welcome to the hobby. :) Catalyst publish the excellent Shadowrun rpg, among other lines with a very lengthy and established history in the rpg and tabletop field, such as Battletech. As with most such rpgs, they are distributed in appropriate hobby stores around the world, as well as sold via Amazon and Battlecorp (though it's always a gamble as to how long it takes Amazon to get some rpg items out there). Alliance is a distributor; that means they distribute the books to the stores, etc. Battlecorp.com is the online store of Catalyst, where you can direct order their titles, but like I said, their titles also tend to be readily available in many hobby stores, via Amazon, or (again like many, many other rpg titles) can even be ordered via your local bookstore most of the time. Nearly every online rpg storefront, whether Battlecorp.com or otherwise, will ship internationally, but you have to be aware that shipping to Oz is likely going to cost you more. It's always worth checking around for the rates on the sites beforehand. My advice is to look for Australian hobby stores selling rpgs online first when the book is released, as that could possibly save you some money and time in shipping. The other option, of course, is to purchase the pdfs when they become available from stores such as Drivethrurpg.com and RPGNow.com; electronic versions (and many companies do electronic versions these days) are typically discounted, and obviously reach you as swiftly as your internet connection permits. Of course, the downside is that unless you print them out, you don't have a hardcopy. Hope this all helps. cheers! Colin

Apart from the Eclipse Phase core rules, when will the quickstart be ready? Before the core rules, I hope. Sorry to nag.

Man, do you guys know how to make someone feel old... Now where's my zimmerframe and spare teeth, dagnabbit?!

Sorry about that. :) I played my first RPG on the Nintendo (Dragon Warrior 3), which started my love for the genre. I played PC RPG's for a long time, but didn't find a pen&paper group to play with until after college. So that is why I didn't get started until D&D 3ed. From Thampsan, I'm not sure what CoC is.

Heh. I used to play RPGs on PC before I got into pen and paper (the first being Thunderscape) but Nethack and the Balders Gate series as well. I also played the Shadowrun game on the SNES back in the day. I highly recommend the Night's Dawn series, I just finished reading it and while I found the plot took a bit to swallow, I loved the metaphysic of universe. Thanks for the tips on online gaming stores.

Now that the 20th anniversary edition of SR4 is out of the way, Adam Jury (he's our layout guy) will be making the EP core book his priority. The last bit of art should be showing up next week. If all goes according to plan, we will have it to print by the end of the month. After that, he'll wrap up the QSR, probably in April. So, to clarify, The core book PDF will probably be released first, then the QSR will be released shortly after as a free PDF download, and a couple of months after that we'll have the print version (full color, hardcover) in stores. All of this is subject to change, of course. :)

I believe Rob Boyle said the PDF will be available shortly after the HC is ready. EP HC is listed with a caution notice which means it could be a week or two later than expected -- so the late March, early April date is still spot on. C.

The last of the art and the corrections are in. Still waiting on a couple of logos. Adam's on a short vacation, but when he gets back on Monday he'll be working to get the book's layout wrapped up. Soon, my friends, soon!

Yes.

Thanks! Yeah, have to say, WotC's policy is mystifying. Especially as most of the hard evidence these days indicates that piracy actually _helps_ publishers (and at worst has a very negligible effect on sales, and even then only to the most popular artists/titles), serving as a sort of grassroots marketing and exposing books/games to new people. This is one of the many reasons we're doing EP under a Creative Commons license.

Sorry, we don't give out release dates until we have them nailed down for certain.

Well, unfortunately, I'm going to have to eat those words about the PDF, as Adam got sidetracked by another project for awhile. The good news, however, is that the first batch of final proof PDFs is in my hands and the rest are due this week. We'll be scouring those for any last changes, and then it's off to print. So we are close, my friends, very close.

Not a so much a complaint, but a query... why is it that something you really want to get is always delayed? For example, the new Star Trek film was originally scheduled for release back in Nov 08. It was pushed back 6 months to May 09, God knows why! Not complaining. I'm just sayin'.

Agreed... but as i said before i'm not complaining about the delay. I was just commenting that it seems you must always wait longer for things you really want... thats all.

Final stretch? So a few weeks then? A month? Regardless it is fantastic to hear the product is so close to release. As an aside, the cover art for Sunward looks amazing. Do you have a pricing estimate, for either the pdfs or the books? And as another poster mentioned, will there be bundle deals?

Well, I don't want to say anything with finality, but we're looking at getting it to the printer in about 2 weeks here, and the PDF should be available right after that.

I don't think we've finalized the PDF pricing yet. The core EP book will be $49.99 (400 pp., full color, HC), and follow-up sourcebooks will I assume be $24.99.

I'm fairly certain we'll be doing PDF-book combo deals through battlecorps.com, yes.

Are we close to print yet, or the possibility of pre-orders?

I think they'll release it at Gencon or shortly after, imo.

Yayyy! And WOW! Final page count was 400!?! To quote the great and mighty Den "umm... BIG!"

Saw it in the Upcoming Books section. The number changed to 400 shortly after I saw the "it's off to the printers" in the EP Twitter section, ergo (sorry if I misread though) it seemed that was the final page count.