One of Skirmisher Publishing LLC’s most innovative new publications is USSMC FM 7-22: Space Boarding Operations, which it released at the Origins game convention, held July 5-8 in Columbus, Ohio. This military-style field manual is designed to read like an actual U.S. Space Marine Corps field manual devoted to boarding hostile spacecraft in 2089. Its author, Lt. Col. Oliver Cass, is an active-dutyU.S. Army officer experienced in both real-world operations and manual writing.

USSMC FM 7-22: Space Boarding Operations is currently available through eBay and will soon also be available through Amazon.com. A PDF-format version of USSMC FM 7-22 is or will soon be available through a number of online sales venues, including DriveThruRpg.com and RPGNow.com; Italian site Arima.it; the European fantasy-download.com; Paizo.com; and publishing cooperative YourGamesNow.com.

USSMC FM 7-22 is also the official publication of TerrorWerks, a heartpounding live-action roleplaying experience that debuted at Origins, where it was an overwhelming success. It was organized by the venerable PST Productions — one of the longest-operating and most successful Cthulhu Live live-action role-playing production groups — and MindGame Productions, a live-action gaming company that runs the largest Airsoft events on the East Coast. TerrorWerks players assumed the roles of U.S. Space Marines, civilian engineers, and MineraTek executives thrust into the heart of an orbiting refinery being ravaged by an unknown alien
horror. Using their wits, skills, and an arsenal of fully-automatic Airsoft weapons, the Marines will battle their way through the station, racing against the clock to save themselves and any survivors. Along the way, the players will search for clues to the identity and origins of the horrors that strike out of the darkness.

For more information about USSMC FM 7-22: Space Boarding Operations, contact Skirmisher at webmaster@skirmisher.com.

Skirmisher Publishing LLC has just launched an electronic publishing venture to produce games, supplements, and other materials in PDF format that will greatly expand the number of titles the company has available. This venture will also make many of its titles available much sooner than they otherwise would be and will make them easier and cheaper for some customers to obtain.

Skirmisher’s electronic-format publications are or will soon be available through a number of reputable online sales venues that many readers may already be familiar with. These include DriveThruRpg.com and RPGNow.com; Italian site Arima.it; the European fantasy-download.com; Paizo.com; and publishing cooperative YourGamesNow.com. Many of the electronic publications will also be available directly from Skirmisher on CD-ROM.

“One of our main motivations for this venture was to make some of our products available sooner for the people who play our games,” says Skirmisher publisher Michael J. Varhola. “Especially for our Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition horror live-action roleplaying game. Many of these products will eventually also be available in print. It is much faster and economical for us to publish them in PDF format first, however, and many will thus be available electronically months sooner and for about half of what they will cost in print.”

Skirmisher will also be making some of the most popular items from its backlist available in PDF, especially its line of d20 and OGL books intended for use with games that use the same rules system as popular Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.

“Many people just prefer to purchase their gaming products in PDF format, or to see if they like them before paying full price for print versions, and we wanted to be responsive to that,” Varhola says. “It is also very expensive to send print versions of books to some places in the world, especially to English-speaking countries like Australia and New Zealand. Fans in those countries have been requesting this move from us for some time and we are pleased that we can finally accommodate them.”

Skirmisher’s new electronic publishing venture is run by Darrell Hardy, a veteran of the game industry who has worked for several years with Fantasy Flight Games. He is also editor of Skirmisher’s electronic line of products for Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition and will be authoring several of them.

For more information about Skirmisher’s exciting new electronic publishing venture, contact the company at pdfs@skirmisher.com.