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.

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!

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". 

Dicey Tales status report

I’m currently at work on the last part of the manuscript a South Seas adventure titled “The Perils of Bonaga Bay”, after that it’s off to layout.

The first issue will include the basic guidelines to create a pulp era character using the Barbarians of Lemuria rules. It will also contain two adventures.

“The Horror in Jade”, written by Pat Dixon, is a supernatural adventure tale that takes place in San Francisco.

“The Perils of Bonaga Bay” is a straight forward adventure tale that takes place in the South Pacific.

I currently plan to have DT#1 ready for purchase at RPGNow by the end of February. 

I need a WordPress site built!

I'll be launching Dicey Tales soon and I've decided to give it a dedicated site. I have the domain and the WordPress account. What I dont have is the time or skill to build a real snazzy site. So i figure I'll have one built professionally. 


If anyone knows of a web designer skilled in WordPress I would appreciate a heads up. As you can imagine there are a great deal of designers out there online all promising to be skilled and professional. I need both. I need the skills to help me achieve what I want with WP and the professionalism to stick to deadlines and render a finished product without excuses. 


As all the folks dealing with Evil DM Productions can attest - I pay on time, so I expect the work to be what I want and on time. I'm not really such a hard ass I just want to be clear. 


If you think you have the chops to take on the job drop me a email with your phone number (Email has its uses, but if I cant meet face to face I need to speak to the person I'm hiring).
the email address is Boojiesdad@gmaildotcom.

Lair Update

I figured we are about due for an update from the Lair…

Both Barbarians of Lemuria ZeFRS edition and BASH Ultimate edition are out of my hands and with the layout folk.   Chris at Basic Action Games will be handling the release of the BASH Ultimate edition and I’ll be handling ZeFRS. Both are in the home stretch folks…

I’m going to try something different with Dicey Tales. I’ll be releasing it as a periodical.  The first issue will deal with the first part of a pulp era expansion for Barbarians of Lemuria. The second issue will include the raining parts of the pulp expansion. The third issue will revisit Erisa with new material for Legends of Steel.

After that, I will probably try to keep the content pulp-centric –and my definition of pulp is as wide as the genre, so there will be opportunities for material for everything from Sword & Sorcery, Sword & planet, and westerns, to the supernatural and 60’s techno-adventures.

Here is a sample of some more art appearing I Dicey Tales.  The character art is from Chris Schieffer, the firearms are by Chris Harper.

As a side note, Chris Harper soon plans to release a set of pulp era firearm stock art.  If anyone has a suggestion for a particular weapon please let him know in the comments section.

The Sentinels - Mission briefing collage

Dicey Tales will feature character write ups of a pulp era team of adventurers known as The Sentinels.

I started taking some pictures for my artists to get feel for the look I wanted for them and before you know it the “kit bashing” bug bit me. And I decided to slap something together. So here they are preparing for a mission.

By the way, our heroes are the “West Coast” branch of the Sentinels Organization.  They are headquartered at the Brookehelm Estate in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco.

The San Francisco team consists of:

Captain Ron Rogers

Legal Name: Ronald Dearborn Rogers

Apparent Age: 36

Alias: Captain Rogers

Specialization: Leadership, Sailing, Salvaging, and Smuggling

Occupation: Ship Captain

Languages: English (native), Cantonese, Tagalog

Nationality: American
Place of Birth: New York, New York

Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: San Francisco, California 
Current/Past Affiliations: United States Navy

Captain Rogers started life as a young tough on the streets of New York. After his third arrest the juvenile judge gave Rogers a choice, the Navy or "The Big House".

Young Seaman Rogers soon found himself on a gunboat in the Yangtze River. Ron was a natural sailor but the Navy wasn't his cup a tea. After his enlistment he and a couple of buddies started a small Import/Export business out of Shanghai and soon Rogers was the master of his own 75' foot ketch “The Sea Maiden”. He currently resides on his vessel in the San Francisco pier.

Catherine Ramirez

Legal Name: Catharina Amparo Carrillo Ramirez

Apparent age: 23

Alias: None

Specialization: Pilot, Socialite

Occupation: Socialite

Languages: Spanish (native), English, French, Italian, and German

Nationality: Mexican
Place of Birth: Orizaba, Veracruz

Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: San Francisco, California 
Current/Past Affiliations: None

Catherine was born in Mexico to one of the country’s wealthiest families. Her Psychic abilities began to manifest at a young age. Catherine’s nanny, a local Mestiza healing woman recognized the power in the child early on, and helped Catherine keep her abilities in check.  Fearful that their daughter’s abilities would be mistaken for witchcraft, her parents sent Catherine to Europe to finish her schooling.  In Paris, Catherine took her first flight when she was 14 and fell in love with flying. By age 17 she was a fully certified pilot. By 19 she owned her first plane. Catherine is active in the European spiritualist community and has used her Psychic talents to aid individuals and several European police agencies. She currently resides at a townhouse in San Francisco’s Nob Hill district.

Dr. Daniel Henderson

Legal Name: Daniel Jerome Henderson

Apparent age: 35

Alias: “Doc”, “DJ”

Specialization: Surgery, Internal medicine, Pathology

Occupation: Medical Doctor

Languages: English (native), Latin, French

Nationality: American
Place of Birth: Harlem, New York

Marital Status: Widowed
Base of Operations: San Francisco, California 
Current/Past Affiliations: U.S. Army, Howard University (Fellow), St. James Hospital (Resident)

Dr. Henderson grew up in New York City. His first job was as a butcher’s assistant. During WWI at the age of 17 Henderson was an infantryman in the 369th infantry regiment, the "Harlem Hellfighters". For his actions during the second battle of the Marne, He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Sadly, his young bride Barbara succumbed to the Spanish flu while he was serving overseas. Following the war, Henderson attended Howard University and earned a degree in Internal Medicine. He is currently on staff at St. James hospital in Oakland California and lives at the Brookhelm estate in San Francisco.

Professor Myung Cho PhD.

Legal Name: Myung Jae Cho

Apparent Age: 60

Alias: None

Specialization: Electronics, Chemistry

Occupation: Chemistry Professor

Languages: Korean (native), English, Japanese, German, Mandarin, Italian

Nationality: Korean
Place of Birth: Pusan, Korea

Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: San Francisco, California
Current/Past Affiliations: None

Professor Cho spent his childhood in Pusan Korea, assisting his father on his fishing boat. Realizing his child’s brilliance, the senior Cho raised funds to send Myung to live with an uncle in America. Myung was accepted to the San Francisco Institute of Technology at age 16 and graduated with honors.  He then attended the Illustrious Istituto de Cavallero in Florence Italy. He followed this with research work in Germany and England. Professor Cho was responsible for over 200 patents in chemistry and electrical engineering. Unfortunately, as his success grew, so did the outlandishness of his theories. Several high profile setbacks and a stint in a Spanish jail for assault ruined a rather promising career. He lives in San Francisco at the Brookhelm estate, supported by royalties from his patents and continues to conduct research independently.

Paul Hawker

Legal Name: Paul Jamison Hawker

Apparent Age: 46

Alias: Major Hawker

Specialization: demolitions, modern weapons, small unit tactics

Occupation: Soldier of Fortune

Languages: English (native), Persian, Spanish, French

Nationality: English
Place of Birth: Sussex, England

Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: San Francisco, California 
Current/Past Affiliations: Royal Engineers, British Army

After graduating with an engineering degree from Cheltenham College, Hawker served with the 15th Field Company, Corps of Royal Engineers. Hawker has since fought in conflicts from the fields of France and the mountain passes of Afghanistan, to the jungles of Paraguay.  Hawker has done a bit of prospecting in between conflicts (diamonds in Africa, silver in Mexico, etc.). He is an expert marksman, driver, speaks several languages and has a talent with explosives. He currently has a bungalow at the Brookhelm estate in San Francisco.

Margaret Tier

Legal Name: Retta Tuglas

Apparent Age: 33

Alias: MI6 Codename: Dove

Specialization: Magic, Singing, Espionage

Occupation: Professional Singer (Retired)

Languages: Estonian (native), Romany, English, German,  

Nationality: Estonian
Place of Birth: Laiuse, Estonia

Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: San Francisco, California Current/Past Affiliations: MI6 

Retta is an Estonian born Gypsy. Traditionally, women of her family are able to use magic. Usually, the effects are minor (making smoke dance to a tune and such). In Retta’s case however, her power was much stronger. Retta kept her abilities well hidden from all but her immediate family. She eventually attended university to study music and soon became involved in nationalist student groups where she was an outspoken anti-communist. During a holiday in London she won a singing competition which propelled her to stardom. She adopted the stage name “Margaret Tier” and soon began touring Europe. At some point she was contacted by British Intelligence and recruited as an agent where her celebrity status (and subtle use of magic) gave her access to people and places with which to complete her missions for MI6. She has recently retired from both the espionage trade and show business, and currently resides at the Brookhelm estate in San Francisco, California.

Jack Branco

Legal Name: Jonathan Branco

Apparent Age: 45

Alias: none

Specialization: Investigation, Boxing

Occupation: Private Detective

Languages: English (native), Portuguese, Spanish

Nationality: American

Place of Birth: San Francisco, California

Marital Status: Single

Base of Operations: San Francisco, California

Current/Past Affiliations: San Francisco Police Department

Jack was born in San Francisco and, with the exception of a couple of years in the Army, has lived in “The City” all his life. He was an average student but very athletic. Jack spent his summers working as a longshoreman and his free time at the boxing gym. His hard worked earned him a spot as an alternate on the U.S. Olympic boxing team. He served in the army as a Military Policeman stationed in Hawaii. After his military service Jack joined the San Francisco Police Department, went to night school and earned his detective shield in three years. Two years later he turned in his badge and resigned from the force for personal reasons. He has since opened a Private Detective agency specializing in insurance fraud.

Hard Boiled Adventure tiles

I ran across these pulp styled adventure tiles the other day at RPGNOW. 
They are a great resource for any Pulp game. Of course they could be easily used for just about any modern/supers/horror setting as well but they're gonna be used for Pulp (specifically Dicey Tales) here at the Lair!
I bought Craven Manor and The Docks set. The dock set printed up beautifully. they look like they come straight out of an old Robert Mitchum movie like Macau. 

The PDF's are layered for complete customization. they also include a nice set of crates and cars and furnishings. Both of these tile sets are packed with value and as your going through them your mind will just start coming up with adventures to use them with on the spot. Did I mention that the manor set has a hidden laboratory and cells for prisoners? well it does!
 I have plans for both of these set and for the Rumored "Airfield" set that is supposed to see release soon- till then check out what this line has to offer. 
Two thumbs up from The Evil DM!

It's Pulptastic here at the Lair lately

We have been in full on Pulp mode here at the Lair. I've been working on Dicey Tales, and  reading A. Merritt's  Seven Footprints to Satan. 

The Minions have been watching the Tailspin DVD collection (Costco has it for $8.99) , and we are all awaiting our Amazon order of the Tales of the Gold Monkey DVD set.  


I also ordered a cool looking book called The Rook.  It isn't The Rook from the old Warren magazines, but it looks interesting just the same. 
Ron Fortier recommended it, so thats good enough for me.

Dicey Tales Update - with new finished art!

The work on Dicey Tales is going great. I've gotten some very useful feedback from my group of "Peer Editors". They have taken me to task on a number of things and hopefully helped me dodge some bullets when this is released.  Below are a pair of final illustrations from Chris for the interior of the book.

Dicey Tales - A Pulp Era Supplement for BoL

Well this is the project that has been filling the time I've saved by not posting as much here and on the forums. It's called Dicey Tales- It's a Pulp expansion for the Barbarians of Lemuria Rules Engine by Simon at Beyond Belief Games. This spectacular cover was done by Jason Chalker from The Manly Art Blog (go there, it's cool). I cant think of another pulp gaming cover more reminiscent of the pulps save for the venerable Justice Inc. cover from Hero Games.
The majority of the interior art will be done by another "friend of the Lair" Chris Schieffer.  Here are a couple of proposed sketches he's working on.

Hador is still being finished up and will most likely be released as an adventure setting for Dicey Tales and then for Savage Worlds.  


I'm currently working on the Game Masters section. The Players section of Dicey Tales is being looked over by a crack team of Pulp aficionados and BoL veterans. They have already begun to help me plug holes, remove inconsistencies and correct my grammar.
As with all my projects, you can calender it for a "soon" release date, but I am getting the art together so that means it wont be too far off.