"Why I love Pulp era gaming" - summed up in one picture

Star Frontiers - Revisited

I know I mentioned this several weeks ago, but it really begs repeating, Bill Logan is doing a bang-up job of resurrecting the Star Frontiers game.
The game is the same one “Old timers” like me remember, but the layout and text have been given such a nice facelift that the whole thing looks brand new. And this guy has been kicking ass and taking names as far as getting content out on the net.
Right now at his site he has:
• The Alpha Dawn rulebook
• The Knight Hawks Ship combat book
• The Zebulon’s guide to the frontier supplement
• The Gamma Dawn supplement
• Four complete modules
• Three issues of a webzine called the Starfrontiersman
• Several different character sheets and Star maps

All of this material is complete, downloadable, and 100% free. In my opinion it’s one of the best gaming bargains out on the net.

Heropress

Tim, one of my Internet buddies has a nice Blog going on called Heropress. It’s a great daily collection of posts on movies, books, comics, gaming etc. Tim calls the U.K. home, so he covers some stuff that you may not find yet in the US (such as a review of Dog Soldiers). Give Heropress a look.

Motivational Monday

Thanks to RPGNet

Just like the Hulk...

Hey guys,
about a year ago I went in for an MRI for an unrelated ear problem. the doctors discovered a tumor in my brain near my pituitary, sitting right above my optical nerve. It was a dicey place to go into with a knife so they started me on a medication to slow the growth of the tumor. the treatment worked well enough to actually make it possible for them to perform a Gamma Knife procedure. the concentrated Gamma rays sterilize the tumor keeping it from re growing and eventually it dies and no more tumor. That's what we are shooting for.

to do this they drill four screws into your skull and attach your head to a frame, so that you don't move around as the machine shoots the Gamma rays (moving around too much while being bombarded with radiation is a bad thing). the screws are the worst part of the procedure, it hurts like all fuck, even with the anesthetic. when they drive the screws into your skull it's a wicked kind of pain, very Hannibal Lecter. I'm told the procedure went of like a charm (though they always say that right?). I was sent home with "The Mother of all headaches" and a swollen head. that was on Thursday, Friday was a long headachey blur, and today my forehead and eyes are swollen, I look like i just got my ass kicked, but according to the release notes that's all normal.

As you can probably understand the anxiety over this and the discomfort after it has kept me off the net for the last few days.

Thanks to all you guys who sent in Emails of support and prayers, Scarlette and I really appreciate it. I didn't try to hide the news of the tumor, but I didn't want to announce it either. I figured if I didn't make it a big deal, it wouldn't be.

What does The Evil DM want for his birthday?

I'm not too sure when this is coming out. but I guarantee you I'll be the first on my block with it!

This also looks great! Amazon has it for pre order for under $12.00

Motivational monday

Thanks to rpgnet

Broadsword update

I'm taking a very brief hiatus from my work on Legends of Steel. I just got news the other day from Deep7 games that "Broadsword" my Sword & Sorcery supplement for their 1PG system is finally in the last stages of formatting. I was asked to contribute a few short scenarios for the project, so with the help of Doc Rotwang’s tried and true Adventure Funnel system, I’m working up a couple mini adventures.

Another reading from the book of the universally clueless

A follow-up to my Bob Seger moment.

I'm sitting here working on a file for someone named Schultz. and of course my mind starts to wander to Sgt. Schultz of Hogans Heroes fame. I start thinking about the other main German character Colonel Klink. then it hits me: Klink. Klink is slang for jail. Colonel Klink is the Commander of a Prison camp (do you see where I'm going here...) Klink / jail.
I'm gonna be 43 next month and I've watched Hogan's Heroes all my life, and I just got the joke today...

Motivational Monday

Thanks to RPGnet.

I finally found a Pulp supplement I can do without.

New Horizons is a new supplement for Spirit of the Century. Each chapter addresses a marginalized group from the pulps, kept outside by their sex, their race, their lifestyle, or their beliefs. In New Horizons you’ll find information about real-life heroic individuals and teams, the challenges they face and some of the solutions they find to the problems of dealing with 1920s society. You’ll also find heroes and villains ready for use, plot hooks, and ties to the mysteries around the Century Club. The life of heroes outside the mainstream may seem as strange as the secret language of Atlantis, but can be as exciting and powerful in play as a zeppelin armada.

Bleh.
I simply don't see the need for it. There comes a point when these things stop being games and become...something else. This may be an ideal example.

When you agree to play an RPG you are suspending reality. RPG's are a dressed up version of "let's pretend". Why would you even want to go where this is going? How is this fun?

I've ran quite a few Pulp games and my players and npc's have run the gamut from Filipino boxers, Australian P.I.'s, Mexican Priests, and an Oxford educated Punjabi physician (who happened to be a were tiger). Never did racism or bigotry show up in the game. It didn't need to. My players and I are all too aware of the historical racism of the period and the ethnocentrism inherent in the pulps, but we chose to ignore it to have fun playing the game. Remember fun?

It's almost condescending in the way Black history month is. here Black people you can have this month, Mexican's you get Cinco de Mayo (whatever that is), Italians you used to get Columbus day but the Native Americans got mad so were gonna have to find you something else...

By creating a supplement of this nature, it seems that the publishers are saying:
Attention ladies and people of color. you now have your own supplement. so if your character is a Wong or a Gomez please convert your PC to comply with this new "special" supplement we have made for all of you.

The publishers may think they are doing something neat or noble but all they are doing is making race an issue where it never was. Justice Inc. Mercenaries, spies and private eyes, GURPS Cliffhangers, Top secret: Agent 13, none of them went to this extreme in making race an issue.

Visit the various Pulp boards. we all know that racism and bigotry is a fact in the pulps. It's discussed and grudgingly accepted as a reflection of the times. We are well aware of it's existance, you dont have to shove it in our face during a game.

"Old Skool" Revival

In the last few weeks there have been a couple of outstanding efforts by the gaming community brought to a boil over at RPGNet.



FASERIP
Phil Reed a well known industry name has proposed an Open license version of the FASERIP system. He offered his services in developing such a system and was funded by the gaming community in less than a week. Phil has quite an impressive gaming resume so color me confident. The project is a go and may see completion of the first draft come April. I was happy to see how many people jumped at the chance to pitch in with real cash to get this project started. I did a FASERIP pulp game a few months ago, now I have new incentive to dust it off and finish tweaking it.




Star Frontiers (digitally re-mastered)
Bill Logan has taken the venerable Star Frontiers game and revamped it, giving it a whole new look and feel. Once again a thread at RPGNet has spawned a movement that has snowballed into all the SF rules being given a shiny new look as well as some of the modules. Bill has even started a fanzine with new SF equipment, optional rules, adventures, etc. Check it out here. And by all means contact him with your ideas and article proposals.

Legends of Steel update

The responses from the Legend of Steel review team are in, discussions have been held and the re-writing of some portions and "beefing up" of others has begun. Spell casting PC's will remain a part of the core rules (It was a 50/50 split on that one. Some feeling it wasn't' true to the genre of S&S, others citing characters such as The Grey Mouser, Kane and Elric as magic wielding S&S characters), the skills system has been revamped, the experience point system has been tweaked. The most requested thing is the easiest to fix but the most time consuming- giving examples. The guys on the team want more examples of character creation- by the numbers, so to speak. Also expanded examples on combat and task resolution. Several fully fleshed characters were also called for.

Motivational Monday

Thanks to RPGNET

Team Players

I found this online the other day, what great Saturday matinee memories(Jim Kelly was all about cool). I’ve always been a fan of the team concept. Individual heroes with exceptional abilities getting together to kick some bad guy ass- The Magnificent Seven movies, DC comic’s “The Losers”, the IMF from the Mission Impossible TV series, and so on. Maybe that’s why gaming has such an appeal to me. The Paladin, the Thief, the Mage, the Priest. Different powers, different backgrounds, common cause. Adventure!