Press Release!
Evil Hat Productions Brings The World of Harry Dresden To Life With The Dresden Files Role Playing Game
Silver Spring, Maryland (January 26, 2010) - After 4 years in the making, Evil Hat Productions is not only pleased but proud to officially announce The Dresden Files Role Playing Game (RPG) will release at the Origins Game Fair, June 23, 2010. Fred Hicks, one of the founding partners of Evil Hat, said, “Stars and stones! This project has been a labor of love for a great many people for a few years now. The thought of sharing these books with people, getting them in their hands, and having people role playing in the Dresden-verse is making me all misty.”
The Dresden Files RPG is based upon the wildly popular series of books by New York Times best selling author Jim Butcher. With eleven books published in the series, and Changes, the 12th book set to release on April 6, 2010, the Evil Hat crew had a wealth of characters and plot to draw from. “When Jim came to us a few years back, and asked us if we wanted to work on a role playing game based on his books, it took us about a millisecond to say ‘yes!’ He has been one of our biggest supporters on the project, and is just wonderful to work with” said Hicks.
Hicks went on to say, “We based The Dresden Files RPG on the ’Fate’ game system we used on the award-winning Spirit of the Century. We took everything we learned from Spirit, and then updated, revised, play-tested, and fine-tuned it to produce an experience that closely matches the novels themselves. That experience is also defined by the wealth of background we were able to add to the game from Jim’s amazing stories, including a comprehensive look at all the characters and creatures from the first ten books. We are sure that along with being a phenomenal game, it will also be a fantastic resource for fans of the books.”
“Originally, we were planning to do this game in a single volume. As time went on and word count grew…so did the amount of flat-out awesome we knew we had on our hands. And so our game grew out of the confines of one book, into two gorgeous volumes,” Hicks added.
The Dresden Files RPG: Volume 1 – Your Story and The Dresden Files RPG: Volume 2 – Our World will make their first appearance at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio June 23, 2010.
“We wanted to release these books in a bit more of an intimate setting, so we chose to make our big ‘coming out’ at Origins. It’s a small enough show that we feel like we will be able to spend more time with the fans, and thank the community that has been so supportive as we have been working on this. All plans point to physical copies of the books being available for the release event. But if Fate (ahem) intervenes and they do not arrive for the show floor, we will offer an ‘instant content pre-order.’ This will allow folks to walk away with full PDFs of the books right there, and have the books shipped directly to them,” Hicks said.
Preorders may begin prior to Origins, depending on how the production timeline works out. Shortly after Origins, The Dresden Files RPG Volumes 1 & 2 will then go on sale both to Retailers and Consumers through the Evil Hat online store, as well as through Indie Press Revolution.
- The Dresden Files RPG: Volume 1 – Your Story ISBN 978-0-9771534-7-3. Price UPDATED (2/26) – $49.99. 400 pages, full color interior, hardcover.
- The Dresden Files RPG: Volume 2 – Our World ISBN 978-0-9771534-8-0. Price UPDATED (2/26) – $39.99, 270 pages, full color interior, hardcover.
- Retailers, for more information on how to order Evil Hat’s full line-up of titles, please visit http://www.evilhat.com/home/retailer-information/
- For more information on Evil Hat Productions, visit: http://www.evilhat.com
- For More information on The Dresden Files and Jim Butcher, visit: http://www.jim-butcher.com
- Follow The Dresden Files RPG on Twitter @Dresdenfiles
- Press contacts, please email feedback@evilhat.com
@fred Got it. I knew the publishing and book store side was complicated. But not that difficult. I will see if the FLGS a couple of towns over will preorder. If not, it will be time to send the CC into the interweb. Actually, I want to support locals as much as possible.
When will pre-ordering start? I need this game asap!! =)
@HANZO, no earlier than April, I suspect, and no later than late June.
Hi, Im excited for this release both as an rpg enthusiast and dresden fan. Can you tell us when pre-ordering will start? Will this be handling through this website, Evit Hat or Amazon? Anxiously awaiting,
J
@Jo, read my reply to @HANZO immediately above your own.
We’ll be running a preorder, when we do, through the Evil Hat Webstore at http://www.evilhat.com/store and likely through IPR as well.
Will we be getting an epub version for use on Nook and Kindle?
@Karpomatic, unlikely; RPG texts — especially ours in this case — need more control over formatting and text presentation than the ePub format allows currently.
@fred
Well, even if we got a PDF version with no artwork or at least no page border art. I’m trying to go all digital with my gaming materials and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
@Karpomatic, it’s not as simple as “just produce something without art”. There are some design decisions with the text that are constructed very specifically for a page presentation — they simply would not translate clearly or understandably into ePub.
A quick question regarding the Origins premiere. My BF and I would LOVE to be able to attend, but the logistics of taking time off work, planning for the hotel, etc. are difficult for us. Can you confirm which DAY at Origins your event will be held? Your press release says the 23rd, but I didn’t know if that was a firm date specifically for the Dresden RPG event, or just an indication that the event will be held “at Origins, which starts on June 23rd.” I hope that made sense, and you understand my question?
Thanks in advance, can’t wait for this game!!! 
@Cheryl, the convention itself is the event. There’s not a single within-the-convention event planned here: we’re planning to have copies in our booth in the Dealer’s Hall during the convention, until the supplies we bring sell out. That said, while Origins starts on the 23rd, I am not sure that the dealer’s hall is open until the 24th.
Not sure if this has been asked before, but what are the PDF’s going to cost? As much as I’m looking forward to the game, I don’t see me being able to drop the $70 (?) required for the physical copies.
Exciting times, exciting times indeed. My normal GM and i have been keeping an eye on dfrpg for a while now, and now we have the prices to go with the release date, it was only after i read it that i saw the page count – damn your team has been working ur a$$es off. You can bet we’ll be telling anyone we see that games the good news – hopefulyl that’ll help the aussie sales go up a bit
PS wit hregards to the pdf delivery from the purchases, I hope you are embedding something into them so you know if one ends up ‘public’ you know who’s, I’m guilty of dling game books as pdf when i own em, but some are not inclined to seperate with the money if the free option exists. Still a fantastic idea to have it instantly there, just hope you guys are being safe..
@Noah, we haven’t determined a price for the PDFs yet, but I will observe that Evil Hat has rarely priced any e-version of a product higher than half of its cover price.
That is a huge relief! I thought I’d have to get the “Armless and Legless” aspect just to get the books!
Hi! Is it true that both books are going to be sold together for the first months? I’m asking this because where I live the dollar currency is not very favorable for importing stuff, so I might find myself in the sad sad situation of buying the books one at a time.
I’m really hoping to play this!
Regards,
ZOOROOS
@Zooroos, I feel like I’ve seen this question somewhere else before & answered it. Hmm. Weird.
We haven’t settled on our preorder plan. What you’ve heard is just speculation right now. Might be true, might not, but you should know that international shipping rates on two separate 5-pound packages are likely to add up to much more than a single shipping rate on a 9-10 pound package.
Oooh. My birthday is June 23. Perhaps I can go to Origins to celebrate!
Got my pre-order draft PDF. Most awesome!
Impatiently waiting for dead tree copies so I can take notes.
Question: Did Jim have a hand in the dialog lodged in the margins?
@ludomastro, nope, that’s the entire dev team doing our best Jim impression.
@fred
Then my hat is off to you all. Well done indeed!