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. 

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.

The Russians are coming (well actually, they left already).

The whole Russian spy thing got me thinking.
So here is my rough pitch-ripped from the headlines:


There is this typical american family. husband, wife and daughter. The Daughter is 19 and  is named Ann, though her family calls her Anna.


One day a man arrives. his name is Nick and he's an old friend of Ann's father from college. 


Nick is charming and handsome. Ann's father is nervous. Ann's mother appears very happy.


eventually Ann observes her mother and nick talking, they think they are alone and suddenly her mother and nick kiss.


At dinner Ann sneaks into the guest room and quickly go through nicks suitcase where she finds a hidden compartment with a gun, passport and a whole wad of cash.


not sure what to do she turns to her grandparent and tells them what happened. the grandparents become concerned.  but tell her to forget about it and let them talk to their daughter.


the next day Ann returns from class early and finds hears her grandfather arguing with Nick in the cellar . they begin to yell and her grandfather says something to nick in a foreign language. Nick snaps out his hand and stabs the grandfather in the throat. Ann screams. she runs upstairs just as her parents and grandmother arrive.
chased by nick Ann runs into her fathers arms, all is chaos everyone is yelling. and suddenly Nick strikes Ann and knocks her out.


when she comes to she is in her bed  her grandmother is in the room with her and she can hear everyone talking downstairs in a foreign language.


The adults are all Russian spies. The Grandparents are from the old Soviet era, placed during the height of the Cold War and the parents placed in the U.S. in the 90's.  They had all but thought they were deactivated. Especially the grandparents. Nicholas is a current Russian agent sent on an assassination mission in the U.S.
the family is supposed to serve him as a "Safe House".


The Mother still considers herself an active agent, and in fact was a lover of the assassin many years ago.
The father and grandfather have basically tried to put the whole spy thing behind them.
The Grandmother is an old school communist and still serves.


So. Will Anna escape? and if she does who will she tell? Who will believe her?
Everything she knew about her family was a intricately crafted lie. 


So there's my pitch. If any of you Hollywood types are interested, drop me a line.

Got Pulp?

If any of you are interested in having a Pulp RPG adventure appear in print drop me a line. I'm wrapping up BoL Pulp and I could use a few more short adventures. I cant pay anything of course but you will get credit and a free hard-copy of the book.  If you are interested drop me a private message at the Evil DM Productions Forum and we will discuss it further. Thanks guys.

BoL/Pulp

Simon at BBG has the first draft of what I hope will be a set of rules to expand BoL into the realm of Pulp. I felt that by releasing The Lost World of Hador without a definitive set of BoL pulp rules would be like putting the cart before the horse. Once I get the rules into a shape thats ready for release I'll move to the next step which will be writing a few adventures and other setting flavored material (like finding a snappier title than BoL/Pulp).

Inspiration for the world of Erisa

The other day on the Evil DM message board someone asked about the influences that went into creating the campaign world of Erisa. I thought that others might want to know as well so here is an expanded version of that post.


Akkar-I wanted a religious Mecca, so why not model it after…Mecca (with a bit of Singapore and the Vatican thrown in). In a world of chaos and anarchy Akkar remains inviolate. A place no one would mess with, because if they did not only would the gods come down on them but so would a bazillion true believers. And with all this peace and security comes order, regimen, and very conservative behaviors.

Al- Khalid- a Byzantium type of city-state. Al-Khalid is a huge rich city, yet just one step away from disaster. I made sure that the resources while exotic and valuable were few. I also wanted a “Barbarians at the gates” type of mentality.

Aragos- Medieval Spain is the obvious influence for Aragos. A personal pet peeve with me is the lack of Spanish cultural influences in fantasy literature. The English just about own modern fantasy literature and the Greeks Egyptians have the market cornered on the ancient stuff. But Spain had knights as well; they also had Barbarians just as tough and bloody as the highlander Picts and the Norsemen.

Belsa- Colonial Boston is the real world template for Belsa. Belsa is a prosperous province more than able to sustain itself yet it sends most of its exports to a greedy and decadent throne that gives little in return. The boys in Belsa are starting to have it up to here with the demands from Tyros for more and more grain. The people are asking, “What has the Emperor done for us lately, besides raise our taxes and tariffs?” Sound familiar?

Boskar- was inspired by Gold rush era San Francisco and the HBO Series Deadwood. Boskar is a wide open city where the law of the sword is the only law around. Deadwood was in Indian country, just like Boskar is the difference is that the Sikkar are way more threatening than the Lakota were. Boskar is basically on its own. There isn’t a nation nearby with sufficient forces to intimidate the Sikkar and protect Boskar.

Broaq Nohar- I took elements of fascist Italy and Spain.

Crascia- The Italian renaissance states. Particularly, Florence under the Medici’s. I see a powerful mercantile city that could just as well be on its own. Tyros will have none of that of course so they keep a garrison nearby and the guildsmen of the city arguing amongst themselves- very Machiavellian in tone. The REH story “Rogues in the House” and the Republic of Darokin in the TSR world of Mystara were a big influence in developing Crascia.

Emesa- One of my favorite novels is “King David’s Spaceship” by Jerry Pournelle. In the story there is a large university that has an autonomous status on a warring world. I liked that idea- despite the rest of the world going to hell; there is one place where everyone can go to learn at the feet of sages and scientists. If you were to visit Emesa you would be in San Francisco.

Hogar- In my mind I had the Swiss Cantons of the middle ages, Perrenland from The World of Greyhawk, and (believe it or not) Lake Tahoe. To give them something special I gave them the secret to making the best refined metals in the world.

Jandahar- This place is just sad. It may have once been wondrous and beautiful, but forces within and without have just torn it apart. It’s sad to say but, modern day Lebanon and just about all of Afghanistan’s history has shaped my perception of what Jandahar is.

Kobar- is Iskandar from "The man who would be King". Just watch the movie. And you will see what I see when I think of Kobar. Also, the Arabian Knights cartoon-“Rosan-Kobar!”

Kumar- Libya under Col. Qadaffi

Padjistan - Basra as depicted in the 1940 film "The Thief of Bagdad". I just loved how the Sultan of Basra could care less about his country and his people, as long as he could collect and play with his wonderful toys.

Pyrani-New York, as seen in “Gangs of New York”

Radu- Isengard.

Taurus- The Aquilonian frontier in the Conan stories / the American colonial frontier

Teve- The island of Rhodes when it was controlled by the Knights of St. John and resisting the Sultan of Egypt.

Tyros - the late Roman Empire –five minutes before the fall.

Umbria- Umbria is basically an amalgam of the kingdom of Ethiopia when it was invaded by Fascist Italy and Kuwait after being invaded by Iraq.

Yar - Stygia from the Conan stories, Nazi Germany.

Zandara- Port Kar from the Gor series.

The Sikkar are inspired by the Horseclans novels of Robert Adams and the Wagon Peoples from Nomads of Gor.

Take five minutes out of your day and read a cool story

Over at Beat to a pulp you will find a great short tale featuring Horror icon Bela Lugosi and Western Star Buck Jones, set in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Its by James Reasoner and its called "One night near Hangtown".

And after that, join "Friend of the Lair" and Author Charles Gramlich on Moon Base Freedom for a tale called "Hunter's Moon".

1946

I've been working quite a bit lately with Simon of Beyond Belief games as we get Legends of Steel-BoL edition ready for release and he started talking to me about "Guns of Laredo" this is a Western RPG he's been working on using the BoL rules. Guns of Laredo (GoL) will be set in a fictional west more akin to the spaghetti westerns of the 60's and 7

0's than to the usual "John Ford western" or even the historical west. Simon's approach appealed to me as i have always been a fan of the adult western series paperbacks that flooded bookstores in the 80's ( Edge, Ruff Justice, Adam Steele, Lonestar, the Gunsmith, the Renegade,etc.).

I then started talking to Simon about my ideas for a pulp rpg set in the post war era rather than the typical pre-war 1930's.

As the discussion evolved it became more and more apparent that the early post WWII years would be an awesome time to run a pulp game in. In fact

many of the same tropes you find in your standard 1930's pulp era still apply, with the added bonuses of the dawn of the atomic age and a whole rewrite of the world map taking place.

The world at that particular time was a great big jumble of chaos, and a group of "Adventurers" with a set of balls could set themselves up for life by running guns, smuggling refugees, hunting Nazis, thwarting Commies and maybe even uncovering the seeds of a possible alien invasion.

And so was born my next foray into the BoL system which I am naming 1946.

I figure between Louis L'Amour adventure stories, the Republic serials, and all the Manly men mags of the period I'll have plenty of fodder for thought.

TGTT says LoSSW is "AWESOME"!

Today LoS was reviewed by Ron and Veronica Blessing, the hosts of the RPG Podcast "The Games The Thing". 

LoS was given the "Awesome" rating. For those of you not in the know The Games The Thing is to Savage Worlds as what Entertainment Tonight is to Hollywood. So for a neophyte RPG publisher like me it's a pretty big deal.

Unfortunately it wasn't all Teddy bears and roses. They had a few concerns over some of the Edges I wrote and also with the layout. But I'm taking it in a positive light, as things to improve on in future endeavors. 

The bottom line though is that after reading LoS it made them want to play in a Sword & Sorcery game, and as a writer, that was the best endorsement I could ask for. 

Please stop by and give the review a listen.

Evil DM Productions Update

I received a draft copy of the LoSSW PDF with pictures included. I sent off some notes for revisions and corrections. This should be the final go around. I spoke with James at Heyoka tonight and he feels we should be able to wrap this all up by Sunday. Upon delivery of the final manuscript I'll be sending it to Lulu and see what a "Hardcopy" of LoS looks like. If I like what I see then I'll probably look into offering it there for hard copy purchases. If not it'll just be released as a PDF. Close on the heels of that release, LoS-Broadsword edition and LoS-ZeFRS edition will follow.

Work on Hador is going great. Joffery is doing some interior art, Ryan is working on the map and Chris has sent me some great art as well. I hope my content does their efforts justice.

24 years later - Part III

Continued from Part II

(The Free City of Greyhawk)

 

The cheers and applause were deafening, the Grand Theater shuddered with the reverberations.

“Thank you! Goodnight!” Diana exclaimed to the packed -Standing room only-crowd.

Waving to the crowd and bowing one last time to the orchestra. She quickly made her way offstage.

 

“Three curtain calls! Three curtain calls! Can you believe it? And they’re still clapping!” her manager Jose’ exclaimed.

“You were golden baby, GOLDEN!”  He sputtered as he ran to keep up with Diana’s long strides.

Diana looked back at Jose’ and smiled. “Yeah we rocked it huh?”

The stout Dwarf stopped in his tracks “Rocked it??  Hey I like that. “Diana Rocks!” Did you just come up with that?”

Diana and José walk into her dressing room. Jose’ starts shooing well wishers and costume people out. As the last person leaves, he locks the door and turns to see Diana taking off her wig and shaking her hair loose.

“No, It’s just an old saying from where I come from.” She said.

Slipping out of her dress and standing before him, her tight nude body glistening in the lamplight she asks “Did you make the arrangements?”

“I did” he said nonchalantly staring at her dark golden skin. “You know kid, I wish you wouldn’t just get naked like that, I may be 120 years old but I still get urges y’know?”

“Sorry Jose’” Diana responded “I’m just in a hurry.”

“Yeah, I noticed.  But why?” he asked “You’re not leaving till the morning.”

“I have to meet some people tonight.” She said

“Some people?”

“Yes, some people.”

“Business people?” He asked.

“Yes, but not “our business” sort of business people.”  She leaned over and kissed the Dwarf on the forehead. “Don’t worry Jose’, you aren’t being replaced.”

“Who said anything about being worried” Jose’ exclaimed. “I’m just, concerned is all. This is a tough town babygirl.”

“And I can take care of myself. You of all people should know that.” Diana responded.

Diana dressed quickly, dark non-descript trousers and blouse.  Jose’ took note as she tucked a sheath holding a long sturdy stiletto into one of her boots.

“You want I should get a couple of the boys to go with you.” He said as he watched her buckle a leather waist belt that held the tubular scabbard for her “staff”.

“I told you already, I’ll be fine.” Clasping a charcoal grey cloak about her. “Now go out there and make up some excuse for me, so I can get out of here. I’m late already.”

Jose walked to the door. “Fine , fine. The carriage will be in front of your place one hour after dawn.” Jose took one last look at Diana, the face and body of a nineteen year old, but the will and determination of a woman twice her age.  “Be careful babygirl.”

“I’m the soul of caution.” She responded with a smile.

 

Twenty minutes later, several levels below the rainy streets of the Free City,  Diana was in a sparse, windowless room, standing in front of a large mahogany desk. Across from her sat a short balding man.  

“Two months leave. Hmm…You realize this is very short notice. We have several operations that this will no doubt disrupt.”

“I understand sir. But he was a very dear friend” Diana said.

“I was under the impression that he was just a low level informant from your time in Hardby.” The man said quizzically as he looked at her.

Diana knew that the man across from her had a complete file on Bobby, just as he had on everyone the agency had contact with.  He knew full well how close Bobby and the others had been to Diana.

“Sir” Diana said, as she tried her best to not come off as tense “I’m sure that you knew about the contents of the letter I received before I did. The agency owns half the courier services in the city and has agents placed in the rest.”

His silence confirmed Dianna’s statement. 

 “I honestly don’t see the problem. I’ve more than earned the time off.” She continued.

“The problem Major, is that you are a very valuable asset. And while Nyrond is our ally, having you there without adequate back up is a concern.” The man stated.

“I can take care of myself, sir.” Diana said.

“I know that, still, the agency has invested quite a bit in your training and your cover. Those potions that keep you so young don’t come cheaply.”

“I understand that sir.” Diana said.

He stared at Diana for several seconds before finally breaking the silence. “You have one month Major. At your first opportunity you will check in at our house in Nyrond.” The man lifted a quill pen and began writing.

“You’re dismissed Major.” He said without looking up.

To be continued...

24 Years Later -Part II

Continued from Part I

(The Duchy of Urnst)

“Will you be needing your dining clothes for court sir?” The Valet asked.
“No, Thank you Justin. I don’t think I’ll need them for this trip.” Eric said.
Michelle adjusted her dolls skirt and looked up at her father “Why do you have to go Daddy?”
“Because an old friend needs me.” Eric replied.
“Can I come with you? I can help.”
Eric knelt before his daughter “I’m sure you can help sweetheart, but Daddy has to ride fast. And besides, I need you here to take care of Mommy.”
“But Jeremy and David will be here, they can take care of mommy.” The child said pleadingly.
“That’s enough of that young lady.” Came a voice from the doorway.
Eric turned to see his wife enter the room.
She regarded the valet with a smile. “Justin would you be so kind to take Michelle and have her wash for dinner?”
“Right away Milady. This way please miss.” The valet indicated as he headed to the door.
Kissing his daughters cheek, Eric then rose and embraced his wife.
As the door closed behind them she looked at him with her brilliant blue eyes. “You’re going then?”
With a sigh Eric released her “Constance we’ve already been through all of this.” He sat on the bed. “I’ve sent notice to the Duke, The boys are home, and Devin will act in my stead He’ll take care of anything official while I’m away. I’ll be back in a few weeks.”
“I know” she said quietly. “It’s just that…”
“It’s just that it’s Sheila.” He finished for her.
She looked away.
“Honey, I love you.” Eric said. “What happened with me and Sheila happened many years ago, before I ever met you. That is all in the past.”
Touching her face gently he turned her towards him. “Bobby has been killed. Murdered. He was my friend and I’m honor bound to lay him to rest and help as I can.”
Constance nodded. “I don’t want you going alone.”
“I won’t be alone” Eric said as he hugged his wife tightly “Cannon and Fodder will be going with me.” He winced slightly.
She bristled “Oh Eric, not those two. They’re overgrown children!”
“Who happened to have saved my life twice in the Shield Lands.” He responded firmly.
“I suppose” she said with a hint of resignation and then continued. “You are an honorable man, Sir Eric Pontifax I suppose that’s part of why I married you.”
“We should be getting downstairs for dinner” he said as he kissed her neck.
“Dinner will wait.” She responded.

To be continued…

OneNote

Not much to write about today. But one thing that I did want to mention is that I’m always on the lookout for software doodads and doohickeys  to make my life easier and more organized. I know I’m slow on the curve here but I recently encountered Microsoft's OneNote. It’s been sitting in my HD on my office 2007 package.  This thing is wonderful. Its helps organize and store all the snippets I run across on the net and just everyday stuff from addresses and directions to phone numbers. any way it’s great and probably has a tone of uses and applications I haven't even thought of yet. If any of you out there use OneNote drop me a line and clue me into any of the different ways you use this to use.

24 years later-part I

(Nyrond) 

Sheila looked at the cold corpse of her brother.

How Bob had ever found her she would never know. The years had been rough on them all but poor Bobby seemed to have taken it the hardest. It was over twenty years since she'd seen him last, since they all parted ways. She'd heard rumor that Bobby and Uni had been captured by Goblins in the Pomarj. Bobby escaped. Uni didn’t. Ever since then Bob had been on the skids, drinking heavily and on the lotus. Sheila had run into Di a few years ago at a tavern in Furyondy. Diana had said Bob was working as an enforcer for some Low life Half-Orc pimp in Hardby. That was the last Sheila had heard of him. Until last night. He showed up at her apartment. Strung out and babbling. She almost didn’t recognize him. And he couldn’t have shown up at a worse time. She had finally found a buyer for the jewels from the Skelos job. Some fool of a merchant from Greyhawk with more money than sense was meeting her that very night. So she sat Bobby down gave him some food and a bottle and told him to sit tight, she'd be back before dawn. He actually wanted to come along as if he could be of any help, same old Bobby.

When she got back to her place in the morning she found the door ajar. With dagger in hand she pushed the door with her soft boot and entered. Nothing appeared out of place, except for Bobby, lying on her blood-soaked bed with his throat slit from ear to ear.

To be Continued.

The forum is working out nice

It was with some trepidation that I started a forum page on the Evil DM Production Website.  I say trepidation because at the moment I don't have a whole helluva lot to post about since I really don’t have any product to sell yet.

But I figured that EDMP needed a place of its own to discuss all things related to LoS, Hador and our other projects.  I have tried real hard to keep the “pimping” of LoS to a bare minimum on most boards. Now with my own forums I have a place to post and pimp away!

One especially cool thing that has arisen from all of this is a sub forum on the site that deals with adventure fiction in all its varied forms.  A few months ago I was talking with Howard Jones of Blackgate Magazine and we were discussing the need for a forum dedicated to not only Sword & Sorcery but also to the whole genre of heroic fiction in general. The two-fisted pulps of Louis L’Amour, the Historical epics of Harold Lamb, TV Shows like Time Tunnel and Rat patrol and so on.  I added such a place on to the EDMP Forums. It’s called Worlds of Adventure. It’s showing promise and I hope more people find their way to it. Even if you have no interest in gaming or Evil DM Productions, stop by and take a look you might find a discussion that interests you. A special thanks to loyal reader and “Friend of the Lair”  Dale A.  who helped me with all the technical stuff in setting it up. Dale has earned some free products and a bunch of swag from EDMP once I have some swag to pass out.

Evil DM Productions has a forum

I just wanted to send a quick not out to let you all know that I have opened a forums section on the Evil DM Productions website. The Forum actually consists of two parts. First is a section dealing exclusively with Evil DM Productions – Information on releases as well as forums for each product line. The second section is an open forum geared to discussions on Heroic Fiction in all its various mediums and genres, such as the various branches of Pulp, Men's Adventure, and Historical Adventure - Everything from Conan to The Executioner.

I know it's "Another forum" and if you're like me you probably belong to three too many as it is. Never the less, I want to extend the invitation to all of you. Whether you interest lies in gaming or the any other area of Heroic Adventure in the media, I invite you join this new group and help me grow it into a interesting place to discuss our shared enjoyment of action and adventure.

Thanks,

Jeff M.

You can find the forum at the Evil DM Production website under "Forums"

http://evildmproductions.net/default.aspx

Or you can go directly to it at:

http://evildmproductions.prophpbb.com/index.php

Evil DM update

Just to let you all know that I have been hard at work on not only the ZeFRS version of Legends of Steel but also on Lost World of Hador. This explains my lack of posting and presence on some of the message boards I usually frequent. I can easily blow half a day just reading blogs and looking at funny pictures.

So if the posting is sparse, it’s because I’m actually trying to be productive.

Legends of Steel is at layout. I heard from James via email this weekend and we went over a couple of design things. It is being worked on and will come out as soon as It possibly can.

Lulu is starting to look like a viable option for those who want a printed copy in their hands (I know I want one at least). So I’m tackling that.

Hador is coming along nicely, Ryan is making good progress on the map, Joffrey is coloring the cover art, and I’m getting all my thoughts onto paper.

Evil DM Productions update

Legends of Steel is at Heyoka studios. Its queued up for layout and will be ready for release in a few weeks at most. I’m really excited about this. I started this journey back in 2005 and I'm finally getting to the end. This hobby is full of dreams and imagination, lots of people with cool ideas and concepts. Unfortunately few are ever seen all the way through, I’m kind of proud that I was able to see this through. The plan is to release Legends of Steel –Savage worlds as a PDF.

First off, I’m going to send a few review copies out to a few key people who post on message boards, blogs and podcasts and then I’ll make it available at my website. Later, I’ll pass it over to Heyoka so they can host it at RPGNow and Drive through RPG.

At the moment the price is going to come in around $12.00, I really gave this a lot of thought. I’ve always been a firm believer in not paying more than $15.00 for any PDF products and so I’m sticking to that same conviction when it comes to my own stuff. But I do need to make sure that I at least recoup my investment. The cover art and the full color map are great, but they’re great because I had talented professionals create them, and talented professionals don’t come cheap (and rightly so).

I figure to sell directly initially and try to avoid the RPGNow commission bite. I have a PayPal account in place and I’ll monitor it closely. I may not be able to provide the instant downloading that RPGNow can, but I’ll make sure that orders are processed within a couple of hours at the most.

The second release in the Legends of Steel line will be the “Broadsword Edition” which will be geared to the Broadsword 1PG system RPG by Deep7. LoS-Broadsword will be released directly through Heyoka Studios, as they hold the license from Deep7 for all new 1PG products.

And third in line will be Legends of Steel the “ZeFRS Edition”. This edition will be a collaboration between myself and Mark Krawec, with all proceeds going to purchase new art and fund content for further ZeFRS Projects.

As for now, I hope to follow-up with The Lost World of Hador within a few months of the Legends of Steel release. I received a preliminary sketch of the cover art back from Joffrey Suarez and I’m really pleased with what he’s come up with.

Here’s is a sneak peek at the concept sketch for the Lost World of Hador cover…

The end is near.

Legends of Steel- Savage Worlds Edition is going through a second round of editing. This should be the last hoop. The cover and interior art are all ready. Following this last bit of editing it's off to Heyoka to be scheduled for Layout.


I've found a cover artist for Lost World of Hador. We are currently tweaking the sketches. Ryan is working on the map and the manuscript is coming along nicely. Hador should follow right on the heels of Legends of Steel by a month or two, and then it's time for serious work on Mission: Adventure!

pulp story outline with a twist

We all know about Indiana Jones and his globetrotting adventures battling Nazis and “rescuing” artifacts.
But I was just thinking about a twist to the pulp adventurer plot.

Hitler supposedly sent teams of agents throughout the world to collect artifacts and conduct occult research. I was thinking about a German adventurer, an officer/scientist who serves his country in this respect. To make the character more sympathetic we can use the “I’m a German officer, not a Nazi” trope. Suppose he is sent for some powerful artifact, but during the adventure he has a crisis of conscience and decides to destroy the artifact rather than let it fall in the hands of Hitler and his cronies? He’s not a traitor so giving the artifact to the allies is not an option. He would have many of the same antagonists that Dr. Jones would have including the allies. Possibly an Indiana Jones style adversary with whom he tangles with from time to time. Our hero is in fact a hero, he just works for some nasty hombres. This might make a nice short story or a limited run comic.