Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Hero Lab for Pathfinder – Two thumbs up!

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I’ve been a fan  of character generator programs since I booted up my first PC. I love the crispness of a nicely formatted character sheet with all the nerdy goodies like a Character portrait, a character journal, a full inventory of equipment- all that stuff.


My absolute favorite was the AD&D 2nd Edition Core rules set. Core rules was wonderful. It was an editable character generator, A map maker, and had all the core books for AD&D available for instant access. It wasn't perfect but it was as near to perfect as one could find (and I still haven't found it equal).


But Hero lab comes close.


Hero lab was my Christmas present to myself this year.  I’m soon going to be playing in a Pathfinder campaign, and to be honest with you, I really hate number crunching. I love the fleshing out and development of a character, but I hate the math. So I invested $29.99 and picked up Hero lab for Pathfinder. And I can report that I’m very satisfied.  I have been playing around with it the last few days and I absolutely love it.


Not only is it a breeze to get up and running, but it guides you through character generation so smoothly you're done in no time at all. And it is customizable to official Pathfinder adventure books. This software has features I haven't even begun to crack yet, I’m just having a great time making characters. 


You know Legends of Steel for ZeFRS is coming out soon- this would be a really nice tool for that one day. 


As soon as I can budget it in I’ll be getting the add-on for Mutants and Masterminds and Savage Worlds!

In the meantime I did up a pair of my Legends of Steel characters as a quick example. here is Anteus the gladiator and his girlfriend Risa  the archer, done for Pathfinder.









So the bottom Line- Hero Lab for Pathfinder gets Two Thumbs Up from the Evil DM. If you pick up a copy, tell them I sent you.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Manly Monday- The Rat Patrol -Brought to you by Camel Cigarettes.




Rat Patrol. I used to live for re-runs of this show. It ran right after "The FBI (a Quinn-Martin production)."





I loved that cool theme and the jeeps jumping over the dunes. 
Once again, a six-year old Evil DM could be found on the living room floor strewn with Aifix soldiers- re-creating battles that never were. 









The Rat Patrol wasn't real. But these guys were-   





Is that a shot of a group of Badass Nazi Killers or what?

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Liking Perry Rhodan. Thinking Star Frontiers


I'm really enjoying The Perry Rhodan series. The biggest hurdle is the sometimes dry translation but the stories are a pulp aficionado's dream. I would love to see a line like Paizos Planet Stories revive this series. For those of you into Science Fiction pulp gaming this is really a great series with lots of ideas for games and campaigns. 





I'm flipping through my copy of Star Frontiers: Digitally Remastered right now. I dont really think it would be too much of a leap. By the way have you guys been keeping up with Star Frontiersman?  He's up to issue 13 as of today (more reading for me to catch up on). What a great job!

Friday, December 25, 2009

It was a Merry day!



It was a wonderfully peaceful Christmas. 
The Minions all received Nintendo DS Lites and a bag O' games to share. So once they were firmly in the grip of the tiny vidscreens, "She who must be obeyed" and I went off to see "Sherlock Holmes."  The movie was long, but enjoyable. I will be buying the DVD though since I'm sure I missed much of the dialogue, "The King's English" is a difficult language to follow.



My gaming coup of the day was a copy of the Pathfinder Core book. 
My eldest Minion and my wife braved the odoriferous challenges of the local game store's clientèle, true love wins again! 


Thursday, December 24, 2009

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Willie K - Oh Holy Night.

I'm not too much for Christmas songs, especially here at the Lair where "She who must be obeyed" starts piping them in on December 1st.
There is however one exception, and that is Willie K's rendition of "Oh holy night".
This is the most beautiful and powerful rendition of this song I have ever heard. It reminds me of my years in Hawaii.  It's true what they say about living in Hawaii-it stays with you forever.
I posted this last year but I hope some of you newer readers will give this a listen. Anyway, listen to "Uncle Willie" belt this out and be prepared to be moved.
Aloha Bruddahs and Merry Kalikimaka.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Manly Monday - The Magnificent Seven



I distinctly remember playing this movie out on the living room carpet of my grandparents house.
Plastic toy cowboys, plastic horses and wagons, and a village made out of empty Kleenex boxes.

I saw the original Japanese version years later. But it will never, ever have the same magic for me that "The Magnificent Seven" has.


Sunday, December 20, 2009

Friday, December 18, 2009

Just checking to see if this Amazon link thing is working. But while youre here why not pick up a copy of....


Thursday, December 17, 2009

Perry Rhodan-Who knew??

Perry Rhodan.
I found volumes 1-22 at Goodwill the other day at $1.00 a piece.
I'll be honest, I always passed these by while hunting around the Sci-Fi section during my used book hunts. But for some reason these sung out to me to be rescued.
These particular books I found are in wonderful condition-they've been lovingly cared for, up until the moment someone tossed them in donation bin at Goodwill.
But fear not- they have found a home.
I suppose all these years I must have just been ignorant, because as I sit here and look at these wonderfully evocative Space pulp covers, I think- "Why the hell hasn't anyone done a pulp style RPG treatment of these books?"
Or have they? If so please enlighten me.

they just about scream Star Frontiers campaign! I mean just look at some of these...






I'm reading through the first one right now. I'll be honest, it's a bit stilted in parts. But I'm attributing that to the translation from German to English. They are in no way bad though, especially since I'm reading them with my "Pulp Gamer" glasses on.
In any event I've committed myself to reading at least the first four or five, and then we'll see what happens. Don't be surprised if some of these Perry Rhodan creatures and aliens make thier way into Hador in some fashion or other.

****Edit***
Hey I just found a German site that offers a free PDF of their Perry Rhodan RPG. I think it's a rules lite PDF, and its all in German. But its still cool to look at.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

It's called Aurora


The world is called Aurora.
It is an alternate Earth during a period akin to our own mid 1800's.
Magic works but is not a common occurrence.
Aurora is a world in transition as new technologies begin to slowly replace the “old ways” of magic and the supernatural.

The main tags for this setting would be:
Heroic Adventure and Romance, Sabers and Pistols, The Flashman Chronicles, Cannons and Hussar, Gypsies and Witches, Tai-Pan, The Brothers Grimm, Prisoner of Zenda, The Mad King, Stardust, El Borak, Jim Grimm, Kipling, The Black coat, Jack of all Trades.

Sunday, December 13, 2009