No time to play

The move is still kicking my butt. I threw my back out yesterday by twisting when I should have been turning. The cable guy was a no-show on Sunday prompting me to fire Comcast and go with Surewest (at least they have Boomerang), but now I have to wait until Oct 4th to get cable and Internet at home UGH. I'm behind in posts for both the Conan game and the Basher game. I'm starting to get my “Joe area” at the house sorted through. I picked up some great stuff at the last show but no time to play with them. More later…back to work.

We is back! sorta...

Okay, first things first. It’s Wednesday so…




Now, about me… My move is about 90% done. No major injuries except for my pride, a year of sedentary office work has really taken a toll on the old Evil DM. My muscles feel like rubber, my calves and thighs ache so much I'm walking like Gabby Hayes. I can’t believe we packed away so much stuff in a two-bedroom apartment. The new house has tons of space (I even have a cool little work place for my action figure kit bashing). The only other thing I did besides the move this weekend was a ten-minute excursion to the Joe show here in Sac. I only stayed long enough to settle a couple of accounts, but I still managed to snag three Cy Girls and a couple of odds and ends. I came back to the office today to find a small mountain of paper work and a dozen phone calls to return, plus I found I have a test Friday night and a paper due on Saturday, AND we still have to move some more stuff out of the old place and clean it up.
Spock…Help me…Spock!

FYI

GOOD NEWS! we are getting out of our two bedroom apartment and into a real house this weekend. I'm taking monday and tuesday off to finish the move. Now, because of the move we wont have any cable at the house till sunday 25th so I'll have to post from work. So posting here at the Lair will be spotty at best for the next week or so.

2E Gamer in a 3E world

The Dragon and Dungeon magazines have been a staple with me for as long as I’ve been gaming. I’ve been with them through three editions of the game and a couple dozen editors. One thing I find amusing is how folks state that because the magazine doesn’t support their pet version of the game (i.e. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd edition) they no longer find it relevant to them. I'm a die-hard 2nd edition player and I find useful content in just about every issue. Yeah, maybe the mechanics need a bit of tweaking to conform to your mode of play, but to me the importance is in the article itself, the topic, not the statistics. An article on running a Pirate campaign is just as useful to me whether its written for the Eberron setting in 3rd edition or the Spelljammer setting in 2nd edition. I think people who make the argument that the magazine is useless to them because their edition is no longer represented are just lazy. This whole game is based upon imagination and I find it funny that many of its players cant get past the mechanics of a system and see the usefulness of the articles as a whole.

Iron Gauntlets

About a year ago I was at RPGnow and purchased a PDF Roleplaying game called Iron Gauntlets from Politically Incorrect games. It was a solid Fantasy based system at a great price. On Friday I received an email from RPGnow informing me that a new updated version of the game was available.
Now I absolutely hate when I buy something like a DVD for instance only to be told several months down the line that a brand new “special edition” with 7 hours of never –before-seen footage is now available, so seeing the email I immediately became irritated. Here was another game company releasing a page or two of errata and trumpeting it out like it was a whole new edition just to get a few more bucks out of me. Well imagine my surprise when I found that the email contained a FREE copy of the updated version. Cool.
Not only did the email bring me back to the Politically Incorrect games website, but it also left me with a positive feeling about the company, its products, and the way they do business. Iron gauntlets is a fun game (you can find a review of the game here) and worth a second look. So stop by the PIG website and have a look around. There is a lot to see and it’s all priced very reasonably.

A public service announcement

Hey guys,
my name is Amber, I'm a cheerleader at USC I also work part time at Hooters. My roommates- Leah, Kascha, Honey, and Monique, and I love to spend cold rainy nights playing AD&D in our lingerie. Since we love AD&D so much we only date gamer guys who play second edition AD&D (no 3E for us). Sometimes when we're bored we get drunk on wine coolers and roll up characters all night long using our Core Rules software program, other times we just have pillow fights and practice making out with each other. If any of you guys are in the L.A. area and are looking for a game of AD&D send me an email and I'll give you directions to our apartment. Unfortunately, we only have one super king size bed so if it gets late and you stay over I hope you don’t mind sharing...

Amber

Lesson to be learned

I turned on my computer today and went to my yahoo account. I typed in the log in and password-INVALID. Hmmm…I retyped it a bit slower this time-INVALID. I tried again, slowly and with care- INVALID. I make my way to the help section and try again. I'm informed that my account has been deactivated. Huh? Deactivated? I never requested that my account be deactivated. Ok, now I need to talk to somebody.
I call customer support and speak with Melanie, who in a quite pleasant and professional manner informs me that my account has been closed due to a violation of the terms of the agreement in regards to Yahoogroups (Yahoogroups is a forum type service where folks join to discuss anything from quilts to Politics in China. I belong to several groups that discuss Action figures, role-playing games, comic books etc.). Well, I inform her that whatever the violation was it was purely unintentional and if they could just reinstate my account I’ll see to it, I have after all, a premium account which I pay for. Her reply was a pleasant but firm: No.
It seems that Yahoo’s policy is that once a violation occurs on ANY Yahoo service then the ENTIRE account is wiped out. There is no warning or recourse, all of this, she related to me, is clearly stated in the terms of service that you sign at the very inception of the account. Suddenly the realization of what she was saying hit me. Not only did I lose access to the groups I belong to, but my email addresses as well, and all the saved emails that I had filed away in my email folders, and more importantly all of the folders and addresses that my wife had stored there too (to lose my stuff because I was careless is a hit I’ll take, but to lose hers as well is damned embarrassing).
Well I was able to recover about 90% of the groups I was in or had run. But I still seem to have lost all the emails I saved on yahoo. Still working on recovery efforts but it will be awhile before its all back to normal. The coming weeks will probably show the extent of what I’ve lost information-wise. Oh joy.

1,000 hits

Wow, over the weekend the Bllog reached 1,000 posts. I suppose thats probably not all that much in the Blogosphere but I think it's pretty cool. My ego has been appeased for the day. Thanks to all for stopping by, and a special thanks to the four of you who actually visit on a regular basis!

The Dragonslayers

Last night Anthony, Fred, and Brianna earned that most coveted of D&D titles- Dragonslayer! Through a combination of planning, strategy, teamwork, and inventive use of resources- Akira the Mage (Anthony), Katar the desert Ranger (Fred), the warrior Amrios (Brianna) and Brother Stern of St. Cuthbert (NPC)- slew an Undead adult green Dragon. It was a solid win, I pulled no punches and didn’t fudge a single roll. They positioned themselves well, stuck to the plan, and came through. I’ve been playing this game for almost 30 years and I have yet to successfully take on a dragon. Way to go team!

The Hero of Canton

About a year ago I bashed a figure for a now defunct Star Frontiers PBEM. I was just looking at a picture and it struck me as familiar...but I couldn't nail it. then all of a sudden an epiphany!
It's Jayne! kind of...I'm gonna work on it though.

Risa "work in progress"

We had a saying in my old D&D group: “once you paint them they die”. It never failed, every time we had a character in a game, once we found a Miniature figure for it and had the figure painted, the character would get it self killed. Well, I don’t paint miniature figures anymore, I graduated to kit bashing. This is a WIP (work in progress) of Risa. Risa is a character in the “Basher” PBEM game that I play in. She is a Psionicist, but makes her day to day living as a hunter and mercenary archer. It’s the first time I’ve played a Psionicist in many years. Risa has yet to shine in the group, so far her main accomplishment has been to accidentally shoot our cleric in the back during a fumbled roll in combat, but I have high hopes for her.


The figure is a GI Jane army nurse body (not as voluptuous as a PB figures from BBI but I wanted her more athletic) I used on of the “Girl force heads cause the likeness to the picture I'm using for her was spot on.


My wife did the outfit; the cape, bow, quiver and hunting knife came from Ed Cassar.

Here’s a little Bio on her:

Risa (Psychokinetic/Telepath)
Human Female, 23 years old, fair complexion, brown hair, Hazel eyes, 5'9",110 lbs
Aragossean/Abbashan mix. She speaks with a working class Aragossean accent.



st 10 can carry up to 40 LBS. can press 115 LBS. can force doors on a 1-6 (D20)
dx 17 +2 to surprise and missile attacks -3 to AC
co 16 +2 hit points per level
in 14 4 bonus Non weapon proficiencies
wi 15 +1 save VS. mind affecting spells
ch 15 +3 reaction bonus
HP 24
LVL 3
A/C 7
PSP 41

Proficiencies:
Literacy (1)15
Gaming (1) 15
Harnessing subconscious (2)14
Hunting (2)14
Juggling (2)16


Combat Proficiencies:
Short bow
Boxing

Psionic Powers
Contact:15
Control Flames:14
Inertial Barrier:13
Levitation:12
Life Detection:12
Mindlink:11
Molecular Agitation:15
Molecular Manipulation:11
Telekinesis:12

Risa of course does not go around announcing herself as a “3rd level Psionicist”. She does her best to keep her abilities hidden. In character, only she knows the true extent of her abilities. While not rude, she doesn’t initiate conversation in new surroundings, preferring to listen and study the situation rather than rush in. as a hunter she has learned the value of patience and can wait until a situation presents itself to her advantage. Following is a list of some of the things a companion might start to piece together about her. some could be observed, some rumor and some she may reveal in conversation.

· No man touches her without her leave.
· Her brother is the famed Aragossean boxing champion Bardan.
· She is an extremely lucky gambler.
· She enjoys archery as a form of meditation.
· She has been to Abbashan, Broaq-Nohar, Prince Samuel’s isle, Ravvikka, and Port Karn.
· She has been in several mercenary Archer units.
· It’s rumored that she once escaped from a mountain prison in Broaq-Nohar
· She is a skilled hunter
· She seems to keep to herself but knows an odd mixture people, from young rogues to aged noblemen. From hermits living in mountain caves to whores Plying their trade in the “Night Market” of Port Karn.

Work in Progress update

Added a leather breastplate and a Torc...He's coming along. more later.

Pedro gets an upgrade.

Pedro the Rogue is one of my permanent figure/characters. I picked up a matching smallsword and poinard, as well as a brace of throwing daggers, He was overdue for an upgrade.

G.I. Spy

I picked up a copy of Boom! Studios newest comic book G.I. Spy and I enjoyed it immensely. G.I. Spy is set in the late 1930’s and follows the adventures of US Army Intelligence agent Jack Shepherd, who travels the world on behalf of the US government to battle threats to national security. In the opening issue he is in the Belgian Congo where he and a British agent named Kaitlin Hunter uncover a secret Uranium mining operation being run by the Nazi’s. So there you have it, secret agents, hidden bases, and Nazis. Throw in some killer robots, high tech gadgets and Albert Einstein and you have the makings for a good old-fashioned “two-fisted” pulp adventure. What’s not to love? There are a few little nits; the biggest one is that the hero uses the word “cool”. I can forgive a lot, especially when reading a comic book, but c’mon lets try to stay in character, I'm sure with a little more thought the writer could have come up with something a little more in line with the dialogue of the era than “cool”. But all in all that’s my only nit to pick in an otherwise entertaining read. The website is slick and promises some great villains and more gadgets. G.I. Spy comes in on the high –end price wise at $3.99 an issue but you’re supporting a small publisher and there were no ads on every other page to interrupt the story, so for me it was money well spent. I heard some buzz from Comicon that the publishers were shopping the title to some studios for consideration; this would make a great Popcorn movie. I'm gonna start on a Jack Shepard action figure kit-bash this weekend, I'm thinking of using a Max Steele or one of the Lanard head sculpts, and go from there. The idea behind G.I. Spy isn’t too distant from my own vision of a Post WWII Adventure Team. As to gaming, the world of G.I. Spy would make a great campaign no matter what the system.

If you can't find a copy of G.I. Spy at your local comic dealer, you can find it online at Silver Bullet Comics.

ROAR Marathon

Roar was a short lived series on FOX (aren't they all). It was part Braveheart and part Hercules/Xena. I enjoyed it. well until the inevitable DVD of the series is released you can geek out on Thursday the 25th to an all day Roar marathon on the Sci Fi channel. check your local listings.

Work in Progress

I had a good deal of Kitbashing time this weekend. I worked on about four figures. All are in various stages of completion the closest is this one. I love the Roadblock headsculpt and when I picked up this sledge hammer from Ed Cassar at the Joe meeting last weekend I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Please excuse the picture, I took it with my camera phone, the shirt is actually more brownish than the orange that appears in the pic. Like the title says "Work in progress" if anyone out there has any suggestions please post em!

Swords of Erisa

Y’know back in the old days before Blogs were invented many of us Geeks had actual websites. For instance I have a website called “Swords of Erisa”. The name is from my Homebrew campaign world of Erisa. I started creating the world back in the 80’s but it existed mostly in binders and scraps of paper. Then on 2000 I was persuaded to use it as the campaign world for a series of Play by email games (believe it or not, two of those games are still running). Erisa is a mid level magic-world more in line with Greyhawk than with The Forgotten Realms. The main issue that separates Erisa from other fantasy D&D Campaign worlds is the fact that elves do not exist on Erisa. Between keeping this blog going, running my Conan game, playing in the Bashers game, working on “Legends of Steel” and writing articles for KODT, I really haven’t shown my website a lot of attention. Maybe now that I put it in front of my face I’ll work on it a bit.

Why the Blog? or "Pink in Pepsi commercial"

There are a lot of things I want this weblog to be. I want it to be informative, fun, relevant in it's own little niche, and a place that people want to come back to. Make no mistake, Blogs are in most cases a form of electronic vanity, a way for the average Joe and Jane to say "Hey! Listen to me". "Hear what I'm thinking". "Look at what I'm doing". The Lair of the Evil DM is no different. My hobbies are a very important part of my life, coming second only to my family. My hobbies more than anything else describe who I am. And at times I want to share my enthusiasms with other like minded people.
So this Blog has become somewhat important to me. It's a way for me to express my self in regards to the things I find interesting. A way to show off the small accomplishments I render. When I kitbash a cool looking figure, when I sell an article to a magazine, when I have something on my mind that the regular people in my life could care less about, this is where I go to express myself. In Hawaii I had a room all to myself, it was filled with games, toys, mementos, pictures, all stuff that I collected over the years and enjoyed. Unfortunately at the present time I don't have a room to myself and much of what was in that room is locked away in storage. So in many ways this Blog has become my den or "Lair" so to speak. So if you find yourself here after Googling "Mego" or "Pink Pepsi commercial" then stick around and have a look. If your a gamer or kitbasher, maybe something I'm working on will give you a nugget of inspiration. And if your part of the "Wednesday only" gang that's cool too, that's what the gals are there for. But in any event, don't be shy, drop off a comment and massage my ego.

Infinite patience

I was at the mall the other day and there was a craft show going on. amongst the exibitors was this 81 year old guy who makes these scale models from scratch! he does old west buildings and rail works mostly, but he also had these models of Fort Ross and Fort Sutter. each piece done individually including the roofs which are shingled a piece at a time. Incredible.

What a weekend

It’s nice when things run smoothly. For me, this weekend went down as smooth as Tennessee sipping whisky. I spent Saturday morning house hunting with my wife and found a few nice prospects. In the evening Fred and his daughter came over and I ran a fun session of D&D for them and my son Anthony. Later in the evening after they left I was checking my email and found a letter from Knights of the Dinner Table magazine informing me that they had accepted an article I submitted. On Sunday, Anthony and I went to the monthly meeting of the Nor-Cal GI Joe club. I took a couple of figures for “show and tell” and had an up-close look at Fred’s Bouncer entry for the Fantasynet contest, as well as Ed’s “Mini me” blacksmith. Ed brought me some goodies that I had ordered (Throwing knives with bandoleer, and a custom Blackfoot Indian warrior). He brought his boxes of goodies and I picked up some leather armor, a pair of daggers, a maul, Mage bag, and some other miscellaneous equipment that will find their way onto my figures. I also scored three Cy Girls (a Cutie Honey and a pair of Aska’s). All of that trading and buying was followed by a lunch of burgers and dogs hot off the grill.
After that it was home and a relaxing evening with the family watching movies. All in all nothing stupendous, but still it’s nice to have everything fall smoothly into place from time to time.

The perils of First level

Fred and his daughter came over tonight and I ran a D&D game for them and my son Anthony. They are all 1st level characters and are tackling a nest of vicious little Goblins. When you’ve played as long as I have, you can get kind of jaded about adventuring. When you’ve killed giants and Dragons, saved kingdoms and challenged the God’s themselves, what more worlds are there to conquer? But at 1st level even the difference between choosing “Color spray” or a “Sleep” spell, can spell victory or ruin for the party. Our brave heroes were tested to their limits, but thanks to the assistance of a very capable NPC Warrior/Priest, they came out alive. They even managed to secure a little treasure for their trouble. So now the goblin nest is clear and the countryside is safe once again. And in clearing out the goblin den, the group managed to unearth a subterranean passageway of worked stone that leads down into the darkness…more adventures to follow.

WHAT THE...!

In my surfing I ran across a nude cartoon of Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin. following the link I found a whole subworld dedicated to cartoon porn. Disney porn, Hanna Barbera, superhero. I knew about the Anime stuff but not this. what a trip and more than a bit disturbing....Sorry friends no link, you do your own research, but it's out there.

Storm's tavern contest

Over on fantasynet they have another contest in the works. the challenge is to create a patron of Storm's tavern (the virtual pub on the message board) Here is my entry: Bakash

Some say he is an exiled prince from the Southern Kingdoms. Others say he is an ex-slave who won his freedom in the arena. One thing everyone agrees on is that if there is something you need or a problem you want taken care of, Bakash is the man to see. To the “Quality “of the city he is a merchant –prince who skirts the edge of propriety just enough to be rakish and fashionable. To the Street folk and those who make their way on the dodgy path, he is a man not to be trifled with, a slaver, an assassin, nothing happens in the maze without Bakash knowing about it. He has investments throughout the city. Gambling houses, Brothels, opium dens, he has slave ships and caravans. What he doesn’t have is Storm’s tavern. No one knows why a man of his power and standing is interested in a nondescript tavern for soldiers of fortune and other rogues. It doesn’t matter why. The point is he wants it, and eventually Bakash always gets what he wants.

The road from Hanumar

Spent most of my free time this morning working on a map for my Conan game.
the players are heading out to the Border kingdoms to "reaquire" some misplaced property for a mysterious patron. this is a chot of them heading out of town on a road that cuts through an apple orchard.

The Legends of Knights

It looks like Biglots is stocking up early for Christmas. In addition to a ton of Powerteam stuff they have these cool 1/18 scale figures. It's a line of Knights, castles, dragons, wizards and siege equipment. Various pieces and prices from $5.99 to $15.99. I picked up the gatehouse attack set for my son Joshua today, The catapult works great and the details on the equipment is nice. The figures are lacking in articulation but the quality of the accessories make up for it.

Happy Birthday Boojie!

My Josh is 6 years old today. Happy birthday Boojie-boy! I love you -Daddy

Conan from Mongoose

The other day I received a couple of supplements for the Conan role-playing game from Mongoose games “The Free Companies” and “Across Thunder River”. I’ve been reading through them and I am really impressed at the quality of the work. I wish these had come out during my glory days of gaming, when I used to game all night long every weekend. Alas, now I'm relegated to a few stolen hours every few weeks, but I digress.
When the Conan stuff from Mongoose first came out I couldn’t believe the price, there was no way in Hell I was gonna spend almost $50.00 for a game! I figured I’d survived this long without it; I would just go on surviving. Adding fuel to my indignation was the fact that when it came out it was full of typos and other editing problems (now, I am in no way a master of grammar, but if you want me to fork out fifty bucks for a product then that product should be professionally edited).
It seems that Mongoose has corrected the editing problems with the second printing, so I finally broke down and bought “the Atlantean” version of the rules
(FYI: remember, if the copy you see on EBay for $6.00 doesn’t say “Atlantean edition” then someone is trying to sell you a first printing lemon that they got stuck with). The book blew me away, first of all it’s beautiful and secondly it’s packed with tons of information on running a game in the Hyborian age of Conan. Even if you don’t use the D20 rules (I use the old TSR Conan rules set) the book, and the supplements that followed it are worth the price. I would even suggest the books to folks who don’t game just for the supplemental information alone, its fun reading and much better than many of the pastiche efforts that TOR books was putting out.
At the moment I am running a Conan game on Yahoogroups, and though it’s just starting out, I'm having a good time working on the adventure and reading the supplements for flavor and inspiration.

HULK SMASH PUNY BLOG!!

Come take out your frustrations with Marvel's big green behemoth. HULK SMASH!

Pulp era action figures

I found some photos of one of my favorite figures- the "John Eagle" figure from Lanard's Ultracorps line. The figures never took off like they should have, maybe too much competition in the market at the time but I always liked them. So here's John made up as pulp action hero. This last one was a bash I made using an old Big Jim "torpedofist" figure. With the eye patch and the facial scarring he makes a cool villain.

Nick is five today!

Happy Birthday “Lody-Dody”! Daddy loves ya!

Sunday Gifs

I enjoy a good animated gif every once in awhile. here are some cool ones I've found.

Wow, Summer is hot!

I can't wait for Serenity to hit the theaters. I love the series, the DVD set is excellent. if you missed the Firefly the series when it was on FOX you can now catch all 15 episodes on the Sci Fi channel.

The Russian Empire - in color

A few years ago I ran across this website. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was the official photographer to Czar Nicholas. He was given permission to travel the Russian empire and photograph people, places and things. What makes this collection so special was that he used a photographic technique that creates color pictures. Color pictures of people back in the 1900’s. there are some stunning photographs here. The gaming applications for these photographs are readily apparent.