ComicCon 2011

Fanboys seem to have better hygiene than Gamergeeks.

Maybe it was the plethora of babes that showed up. Or maybe it was because we were in San Diego-which has some ass kicking nightlife during ComicCon. But the funk –o-meter kept hovering in the Tolerable to Low Zone. 

I think that because ComicCon has morphed into so much more than just comics, you now find tons of gals at this venue. The fact that the Gas lamp district across the street had a “Spring break vibe” going on didn’t hurt either.

So there weren’t just the beautiful but unattainable booth babes and professional models in attendance, but also a nice cross section of the female sex in general. This may have something to do with the boys making use of the dial soap and old spice solid.

San Diego is a great place to go for a convention.

These folks have the con-thing down to a science. Plenty of security, lots of friendly staff, frequent trolleys to ferry con-goers to and from all corners of the city. A fantastic night-life. And a population that doesn’t just tolerates the hordes of geeks that converge into their hometown, but they appreciate the attention and $$ we bring to the city- They were friendly from Macys to McDonalds.

I will never pay retail for a trade paperback again!

Just about every comic booth had trades at 40-60% off. And the deals were even better on the last day.

That’s all for now. There is much more but I’m tired.

Bottom line: for a Fanboy, Gamergeek, or anyone into Pop culture, ComicCon is a must.

How soon we forget

The latest nerd drama to hit the internets is all about the Dwarves from the new Hobbit movie.  I'm staying out of most of it and will reserve my judgement until my Minions and I are watching it opening night. Our hands full of popcorn tubs, Nathans hotdogs and large Pepsi's (or Cokes).

I will not bitch and grumble. I remember oh too well the days when the very thought of movies about the books and characters I loved drew nothing but laughter from all the Hollywood studios.

Bring it on Pete Jackson, I forgive you for "The Lovely Bones".

Coming soon...

Nerdgasm Alert! John Carter!

An ounce of preparation...

Thanks to Netflix I spent the other day watching a Jericho marathon. Now I'm not an alarmist or anything  but would it be so bad to stock up on a few more cans of soup and powerbars in the pantry and maybe buy a couple of extra boxes of shells for the Remington?


Well those are thoughts for another day. I'm off to start this book I just ran across...

Google+

If any of you guys need an invite to Google+ drop us a line with your email addy and we'll hook you up. It's the Google Facebook clone and looks promising.


But so did Google Wave...

The great storage room clearance!

Comic Con won't be cheap.  So I figured waht better time to get rid of all the extras and doubles and Goodwill finds that have been stacking around here in the house. so check my stuff  HERE on Ebay. I'll be posting more and different stuff in the coming weeks, like this....

A Saturday and a Sock Girl

A Dicey Time Online

We took Dicey Tales through its pace as an online game using Skype and a web-based dice roller.  The result was a very fun and satisfying session. We didn't need to use a mapping program, thanks to the abstract sort of way that combat works in BoL. I was very satisfied that the non-combat rules held up well and it only strengthened my belief that Contacts is one of the wisest Boon choices in the game.  The adventure ended on a cliffhanger note and we plan to continue once we can coordinate our schedules.

Great Pulp game find!

I took a quick trip to the comic shop today. no real reason just burning some time. I picked up a couple of titles and lo and behold I found a game. Now my comic store is usually strictly comics, but every once in a while they pick up a few RPGs in a large comic buy. In this case it was an old classic from yesteryear. Justice Inc.

That was a cool find in itself. But as every true Pulp Gamer knows: when you find a Justice Inc. box you have to look inside for one of the "Holy Grail's" of Gaming -"Lands of Mystery".

Now, "Lands of Mystery" was a supplement for running a "Lost World" pulp setting. It was written by Champions Guru Aaron Allston, and is considered one of the best gaming supplements ever written.

Dare I hope?

Would it be there?

Yer damn skippy it would!

There it was, in all its glory and in pristine condition too!

And all for $7.99

It was a good day.

I WILL be going to Comic-Con 2011!!!

My wife and I just got our tickets!
It will be our first time there. This year I'll be going as an atendee, next year I might just have a table!

Woo Hoo!!

A Dicey Tales adventure anyone?

My buddy Conan and I are gonna play a little BoL Pulp using the rules from Dicey Tales tomorrow. We'll be using Skype. we have room for about three others.

We are going to start at about 1:PM PST.
You need a copy of BoL and Dicey Tales #1

The game should last about 4 hours. If anyone else out there is up for a quick pickup game let me know!

Is that a "redband" trailer in your pants? Or are you just glad to see me?

Here comes Drogo!

Err..uhh,,I mean CONAN!

More Conan the Barbarian in 3D Videos

The Black Death

I ran across this gem the other day on Netflix.  It had all the necessary ingredients to pique my curiosity- swords, soldiers, sorcery, and Sean Bean.  Much like "Season of the Witch" which I wrote about in January, Black Death takes place in the dark ages and involves hunting for witches in one of the darkest periods in human history. Unlike Season of the Witch, Black Death is more of a historical thriller than an out and out horror movie. There are few CGI effects, But it turns out that we don't need leaping flames and crawling demons to experience horror.

The actions of the characters in Black Death are pretty graphic and horrific without needing a green screen.  That said, the movie makes several intelligent statements about religion and morality.
Of note to gamer's- there are well choreographed skirkishes and nice depictions of weapons, armor, torture devices, and tips on playing a witch-hunter without all of the stylized anime inspired posing and coolness normally attributed to these very brutish men.

The Evil DM gives Black Death two thumbs up (now put away the thumbscrews).

Just little bit more pimping on my Blog and then we'll get back to Wednesday girls.

For a limited time I put Legends of Steel -Barbarians of Lemuria Edition and Legends of Steel - Savage Worlds Edition, on sale for 30% off at Lulu. 

LoS /BoL is a hardback and LoS / SW is a softback.

This is for a limited time only (the next few days anyway).  

I happen to be in a good mood (see Dicey Tales).

It's up for sale!

Check it out HERE

DIcey Tales #1

The first issue of Dicey Tales will be coming out this weekend. It will be released as an $8.00  PDF download over at RPGNow. 

Dicey Tales is a periodical that features articles supporting the Barbarians of Lemuria (BoL) roleplaying game. Our goal is to expand the reach of BoL beyond Sword & Sorcery into the full realm of the pulps. Every issue features official expansions of the BoL rules allowing the system to encompass all of the various genres of pulp adventure- Two-fisted adventure, Western, Outer Space, Lost World, and many more.

Issue #1 of Dicey Tales launches our two-part foray into the classic adventure pulps. With this issue of Dicey Tales the world of daredevils, soldiers of fortune, occult investigators and cloaked crime-fighters will now be fully incorporated into the BoL system.

New “Adventure Pulp” Character generation rules

New Careers

New Boons

New Flaws

New rules for Magic, Psychic Powers, Super Science Gadgets, firearms and vehicles

Two complete adventures

All officially approved for use with the Barbarians of Lemuria: Legendary Edition rules.

I've decided not to send out "Review Copies" this time around.  I've tried it before with my various versions of LoS and never really  received much feedback.  A few good folks turned in reviews, but compared to the number of free copies I gave out, the response was just too small. That's not to say no one will be getting a free copy- all the folks who helped out with DT are on the list as well as a few "Friends of the Lair". 

Pelinore

Greyhawk, Toril, Ravenloft, Krynn, and the rest, you thought you knew them all eh?   But how many of you have heard of Pelinore?  Chances are unless you’re either from the U.K. or a die-hard TSR fan you may not have heard of this tiny campaign world that appeared back in the 20^th century circa 1984.  It made its first appearance in a TSR U.K. magazine named Imagine, so I figure that makes it an official AD&D world (in my book anyway).  Luckily,a PDF recently made its way into my hands that collects a little over a years’ worth of articles on Pelinore, and now I make it available to you, using that most wonderful of services:  Dropbox.

The articles are as follows

July 84- a new world

August 84 – The city league

September 84-The Wynd

October 84 – Law and Order / North Docklands

November 84 – The city League/ Pablo Fanquays Fair

December 84 – The city league / The Arena

January 85 – The city league/ Gibbet street/ Guilds

February 85 – the big wide world

March 85 – The city league / the old bastion

April 85 – The cornucopia

May 85 – the Gods of Pelinore

June 85 – The county of Cerwyn: Burghalter

July 85 – the gods of the domains

August 85 – The city league/ monument square

September 85 – The city league / the Asylum

Watch Game of Thrones online

If you don't have HBO check it out here before they take it down.

There are a few annoying ads to deal with at first, but thats to be expected.

I thought I found a "lost" Holloway print

This is actually from "Friend of the Lair" Jason Chalker's collection. But the style is definitely reminiscent of Jim Holloway.
I love it! I want more.

This and more from Jason Chalker can be found here.

Virtual Gaming using corkboard

I’ve been part of a Monday night Barbarians of Lemuria game set in Hyboria. We play online using Skype and Open RPG.

I’ve been having a great time with it and have really started to look forwards to Monday nights as my “game night”. It’s not in person, but we still manage to have some good laughs and manly banter.

The open RPG is pretty crappy though. I’m finding more and more that I don’t really need to see little tokens on a board to have fun with all of this, Especially with the Barbarians of Lemuria system. I think we use open rpg mostly for the dice roller but that’s not even worth it in my opinion as the dice program seems to run in strings of either high or low rolls.

I’m thinking a using a virtual whiteboard might just be better. You lose the pog idea but that’s not really all that much.

In fact someone (I'm not sure whether it was Stargazer or Greywulf) turned me on to Corkboard.me

I whipped toghether a virtual table top for a Dicey tales game. See here.

Corkboard has a chat function. I'm going to email the creator and suggest a dice rolling function to be added to the chat, Who knows, maybe he's a gamer huh?

A review of The Desert of Souls

The Desert of Souls

(Full disclosure- Howard is one of my many Online friends and as such I was sent a hardback copy from the publisher, but I enjoyed the story so much that I purchased my own Kindle Edition to have with me on hand)

Howard Andrew Jones, best known for his editorial work at Blackgate Magazine and the Harold Lamb collection from Bison Books has released his first novel featuring the adventuring duo Dabir and Asim, it is titled, The Desert of Souls.


The Desert of Souls gives us the origin of the partnership of these two characters, and lays the foundation for their long and adventure filled career. Dabir and Asim have adventured through a series of short stories written by Jones over several years now. Their adventures have graced the pages of historical fiction and sword & sorcery collections as well as those of Blackgate magazine. Dabir is a Scholar and Asim a swordsman and officer. The pair resides in the middle east of legend where they are often called upon, by their Caliph and others, to investigate mysterious happenings and solve the impossible.

At first glance it would be easy to pin the label of “Holmes and Watson meet the Arabian Nights” upon them, but that would be a gross injustice to the richness of the characters and the level of craftsmanship Jones has given these stories.

The Desert of Souls tells of a mission to solve a riddle and then to save an empire. Throughout the tale the duo faces wizards, assassins, necromancers, and demons amongst their many foes.
Despite these numerous foes, I never felt that Jones went too far in the use of the fantastic. He never loses the sword & Sorcery feel, where magic is rare and inherently a tool that corrupts.

I enjoyed Asim’s first person account of the story. There were several places where his characterization is so deep that I felt I was reading an actual recollection. Jones cites Robert E. Howard as one of his influences, Howard is famous for bringing his readers so deep into the story that we forget the characters, much less the setting, was a figment of his imagination. Jones it seems has learned these lessons well, as I found myself more and more invested in the character of Captain Asim.

While Desert of Souls is a full-fledged adventure story with plenty of action, swordfights, and nefarious sorcery, it is also the tale of two friends. The chemistry between the duo is readily apparent and the dialogue truly enjoyable. I was especially pleased at the wit and humor of their conversations, something lost in this genre since the early stories of Leiber’s Fafhrd and Grey Mouser.

The Villains and supporting characters are also well thought out, each with virtues, vices and depth lacking in many other tales found in this genre.

It’s apparent that Jones loves not only the genre but the rich setting of the Orient as well. The tale is well researched and presents an enchanting glimpse into lands that are rarely visited by other writers of Sword & Sorcery fiction.

Messrs. Howard and Lamb would be proud of their student.

Musical Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump

GEEK ALERT! Behind the Scenes on the set of "The Hobbit"

A million thanks to "Friend of the Lair" Jason Chalker for the heads up on this.

Nerdgasm time.

ZeFRS fans raise $210.00 for disaster relief efforts in Japan

 

We are proud to announce that through the sales of Legends of Steel : ZeFRS Edition, Evil DM Productions was able to raise $210.00 for the Earthquake and Tsunami relief efforts through the Save the Children Foundation.

Thank you to all who donated.

Please Help!

Today is the last day of our Fundraiser for Earthquake and Tsunami relief efforts in Japan. I just wanted to appeal to you all one last time to consider purchasing a copy of Legends of Steel: ZeFRS edition. 100% of our profit will go to the Save the Children’s special disaster relief fund for Japan.
Thanks.

A couple of REAL men for “Manly Monday”

A Gurkha soldier, who fought 40 train robbers, to be felicitated in the Republic Day of India

 

Bishnu Shrestha, a brave Gurkha soldier in Indian Army, defeated 40 train robbers while returning home after a voluntary retirement.  The Indian army, is going to awarded Bishnu with Sourya Chakra, Bravery Award and Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha medals during the Indian Republic Day celebration on January 26.

While in the train, Maurya Express from Ranchi to Gorakhpur, on September 2, 2010, 35 year-old Bishnu saved a girl about to be raped by the train robbers in front of her helpless parents. After looting the train, when the robbers started to strip a 18 year old girl in front of him, he couldn’t contain his calmness. He took out his khukari and took on the a group of 40 robbers, alone. In the fight, he killed three of the dacoits and injured eight others. The remaining dacoits fled the scene to save their lives.

The police arrested the eight injured dacoits and recovered Rs. 400,000 in cash, 40 gold necklaces, 200 cell phones, 40 laptops and other items left by the robbers while fleeing the train.

In recognition to his bravery, his regiment has given Bishnu a cash reward of Rs. 50,000 and it has also terminated his voluntary retirement, so that he could get a customary promotion after he receives the medals. In addition to that, he will also receive a cash rewards from the government, special discounts in international air tickets, and discounts in Indian railways train tickets.

 

Gurkha solider gets Britain’s second highest medal for bravery

Gurkha soldiers are known for fighting single-handedly against a number of enemies. Last time, it was Indian Army Gurkha who fought more than 40 train robbers, in India to save a girl from being raped.

Now, a British Army Gurkha soldier was honored by Britain’s second highest medal for bravery for fighting off at least a dozen Taliban insurgents.

Acting Sergeant Dip Prasad Pun was stationed in a checkpoint near Babaji, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. On September 17, 2010 militants opened fire from all direction.

Alone on the roof, Pun fought  rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s. He fired a more than 400 rounds of bullets, detonated a mine, and launched 17 grenades in about fifteen minutes of intense fight. He even used the machine gun tripod to knock down an insurgent, trying to climb up to his position.

In a BBC news article, Pun says, "I think I am a very lucky guy, a survivor. Now I am getting this award, it is very great and I am very happy."

The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross medal is only one level below the Victoria Cross, the highest medal a British Army personnel can get. The 31 year old Acting Sergeant Dipprasad Pun’s father and grandfather both had been Gurkha in British Army. (Photo credits – BBC)

Lazy Sunday Photo dump

I like the shot of the kid crossing the raging river using dental floss.

Very Cool.

Dicey Tales #1 Status Report

The content portion of Dicey Tales #1 is done. Unfortunately, we hit a snag with several pieces of art. Luckily, DT cover artist Jason Chalker has stepped up to fill-in and will be working on the needed pieces in between his duties laying the issue out.  The issue will be released as a PDF and we will be looking at a possible release later as a digest sized paperback. 

I just ran across my old TSR Conan character

I loved playing Khoraj. Nothing flashy about him, just a cool head and a steady arm in a fight.  I always thought of him as being a friend to Conan during his days as a Turanian officer. 

The fun I had playing him was what propelled me to help set up the LoS: ZeFRS Edition.

The theme grew on me. Now I love it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When this last season began I thought the new opening theme was interesting but that was about it.  Then as we got into this final season, I realized the genius of it all. 

The song “Home” is a few years old and is by a British group  The Engineers.

ZeFRS for Japan Tsunami Relief

 

For the month of March 100% of all profits earned from the sale of Legends of Steel ZeFRS Edition will be donated to the Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund, Sponsored by the Save The Children Foundation.

Please help by purchasing a copy at
RPGNow

Please pass the word!