In August 2019, on short notice but in a good cause, we resurrected the July 2017 Catalyst Bundle, featuring the famous Catalyst line of generic fantasy supplements from Flying Buffalo. Rick Loomis, founder of Flying Buffalo, publisher of Tunnels & Trolls, and designer of the first-ever solitaire adventure (Buffalo Castle), was facing overwhelming medical bills from his treatment for lymphatic cancer; Rick died shortly after this offer launched, a day short of his 73rd birthday. Rick’s family started a GoFundMe campaign, and we also helped with this great collection of Buffalo’s Catalyst supplements that work with any fantasy RPG.
This revived collection gathered all seven CityBooks — the much-praised anthologies of dozens of individual shops, establishments, and characters you can add to any urban fantasy adventure — plus four Grimtooth’s Traps collections of devious dungeon obstacles, and the RPG Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes. For this resurrection we added a recent Catalyst title, the City of the Gods Map Pack, and an MSPE solitaire adventure by Dave Arneson, Mugshots No. 1 – The Case of the Pacific Clipper. (And if you bought this offer during its original July 2017 run, you got City of the Gods and Pacific Clipper too!)
There were six titles in this revived offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $30) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the first three CityBooks (I: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, II: Port o’ Call, and III: Deadly Nightside), plus the first two Grimtooth’s Traps collections (Traps One and Traps Too [sic]) and Treasure Vault.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got this revival’s entire Bonus Collection with ten more titles worth an additional $49:
- CityBooks IV-VII: Four more sets of people and places you can easily drop into any city adventure — IV: On the Road, V: Sideshow, VI: Up Town, and VII: King’s River Bridge.
- Grimtooth’s Traps 3-4: Titled Fore and Ate (don’t ask us why), these two books give you hundreds more traps to waylay dungeon delvers.
- NEW IN THIS REVIVAL! City of the Gods Map Pack: The wondrous place built by all the pantheons of Earth after they left this world behind.
- Mercenaries Spies & Private Eyes: Michael Stackpole‘s classic action/espionage RPG inspired by Tunnels & Trolls. Includes the Adventure of the Jade Jaguar solo adventure. (Both were also part of our September 2018 Tunnels & Trolls Bundle.)
- NEW! Mugshots No. 1 – The Case of the Pacific Clipper: A high-flying pulp-era solo adventure for MSPE written by Dungeons & Dragons co-designer Dave Arneson.
Ordinarily ten percent of the revenue from a Bundle of Holding offer is donated to a charity. For this Catalyst Bundle revival we added the charity portion to the publisher share, to help Rick Loomis’s family and Flying Buffalo in this tough time.
