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.

Getting the word out on ZeFRS

So ZeFRS is out. It’s currently in the top ten Hottest sellers at RPGNow. I sent out a bunch of free copies to “Friends of the Lair” I’m hoping they will give it a read, and eventually posts something on their blog or favorite message board. Word of mouth my friend, that’s what, spells success in our medium. So if you’re in any way interested in Swords & Sorcery gaming please give it a look.

In other Legends of Steel news, I heard from Chris Rutkowsky the other day. He ran a BASH Fantasy: Legends of Steel game at Dundracon last weekend. He said it was a great success and the players at his table really liked the game. I’m waiting for a few more pieces of art and then layout of LoS for BASH should be out later this year.

Finally...ZeFRS is out!

After months of writing and years in production, the PDF for the Legends of Steel: ZeFRS Edition has finally been released. It's been a long haul, and to be honest, until I reread the PDF the other day I had forgotten how cool a system ZeFRS is.

Zeb's Fantasy Roleplaying System or ZeFRS is a reimagining of the original Conan© Role-Playing game written for TSR® by legendary game designer Dave "Zeb" Cook over a quarter of a century ago. Mark Krawec, with the permission of the original author, has brought this classic game back to life. And now, Evil DM Productions brings together ZeFRS and the latest edition of its critically acclaimed Legends of Steel campaign world to let you trample the kingdoms of Erisa beneath your sandaled feet!

Legends of Steel: ZeFRS Edition contains the complete Legends of Steel Campaign world and an LoS-adapted version of the ZeFRS rules engine.

Get $3.00 off Through Monday!

Use coupon code: 

Erisa in Black and White

In anticipation of the Legends of Steel ZeFRS Edition I thought I would share with you the the new map for the interior of the book. The map is actually the same but instead of just doing it in grey-scale Jason Chalker did a complete re-rendering of it in Black and White. The result as you can see is very sharp and crisp.  This will be the map in the center spread pages of LoS ZeFRS. which should be out by late January or early February.

Legends of Steel for ZeFRS is out of layout

I just received the manuscript the other day. I'll be looking it over AFTER the holidays. Then it will be released.


One special thing about this edition of Legends of Steel is that, other than operating expenses, all of the proceeds will be used to fund future ZeFRS projects. So rather than clip art we plan to have original art to make it look the best we can. Other possibilities are Character generators or a dedicated website. We'll see-but the best news is that this edition is that much closer to release.

The hangover (Sword & Sorcery style)

Carousing results table for Legends of Steel (revised)

01 Shanghaied! Your character awakens from his latest revel on a ship that has already set sail.

02 -03 Your character parties with a VIP, a dissolute noble, up and coming merchant, or an entertainer of repute.

04-06 Your character gets married while drunk. His spouse is very attractive.

07-09 Your character now owns a blade of exquisite quality and workmanship.

10-13 Your character gets married while drunk his spouse is not the slightest bit attractive.

14-16 Your character awakens with the poxed whore he was warned about last night.

17-18 Your character overhears whispering thieves and gains a lead on a vast sum of wealth.

19-20 Your character wins a ship or deed. The ships crew hasn’t been paid in weeks. The land title is to a large, rundown, possibly haunted, estate.

21-22 Your character pledges his service and eternal friendship to a total stranger.

23 Recruited! Your character gas joined the army.

24-40 Your character has spent half of his earnings on wenches, wine, narcotics, etc.

41-43 Your character has spent all of his earnings on wenches, wine, narcotics, etc.

44-56 Robbed while drunk - lose all your characters treasure and equipment.

57-60 Robbed and beaten while drunken, as above but your character wakes up with a wound.

61-63 Your character now owns a slave or the contract to an indentured servant.

64 Your character wakes up holding a basket. The basket has a baby and a note “Her name is Emily. Be kind to her.”

65-66 Your character drank some bad date wine, and is incapacitated for a week.

67 Your character wakes up to find he is wanted for murder (He’s completely innocent but that’s not the point).

68-69 Your character now owns an exotic mount (camel, elephant, ostrich, llama).

70-72 Your character defeated the town bully, ruffian or #1 bad guy. Everyone in town loves him, except the kin of the man he defeated.

73-74 Your character wakes up in a luxury suite with a beautiful courtesan and twice the money he had last night.

75-76 Your character awakens clutching a note in his hand. The note has a desperate message written on it.

77-79 Your character wakes up in a nobleman’s guestroom and is mistaken for a legendary hero.

80-85 Your character now owns the tavern, wine shop, or brothel he woke up in.

86-96 Your character is incarcerated for drunken hooliganism.

97-99 Your character wakes up with the “mother of all hangovers” but no other ill effects.

100  Last night she was the sexiest wench in the tavern. Your character now wakes to find “she” is really a “he.”

Help us fix our boring character sheet

As many of you know we are working on a Legends of Steel edition for the ZeFRS RPG system. 

One thing we are lacking is a snazzy LoS/ZeFRS character sheet (the key word here being “snazzy”).We have a bare-bones version that needs a bit of dressing up. What we are looking for is someone who could give our character sheet a make-over. So we decided to have a contest and see if there are any character sheet DaVinci’s out there.

So taking the elements of the character sheet presented, come up with your best rendering of a Legends of Steel flavored character sheet for the ZeFRS game. You can redesign to your hearts content, as long as the elements below are all there. 

We will choose one winner based on presentation and functionality.

The winner will have their sheet included in the LoS-ZeFRS campaign book with appropriate citation and also receive a copy of both the PDF and print versions of LoS-ZeFRS.

The contest ends on June 20th 2009 at 11:59 PM (Pacific Time).

Entries should be sent to:

EvilDMProductions@live.com

Attention: LoS-ZeFRS contest

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

Children of the Lion

  Written by a variety of authors under the pseudonym Peter Danielson, This historical fiction series begins with Abraham’s journey to the land of Canaan to claim it for his people in the name of God.  This is a sweeping epic that stretches nineteen volumes. I’m not sure that I'll read all of them but I found seven volumes at a thrift store, so we’ll see what happens. I’m currently reading the first and enjoying it. the cover art on these remind me of the Kent family chronicles written by John Jakes. The Children of the Lion series was published in the 80’s during a period where stories of this size were very popular.   I could see this as a setting for ZeFRS.  I checked to see if Green Ronin’s D20 game Testament had anything referencing this, but it didn't.  It would be easy to dismiss this as a romance novel when glancing at it on a bookstore shelf, but from what I’ve read so far its a nicely detailed work of historical fiction. It appears decently researched and offers an interesting day to day view of characters and peoples that most of us only know through history books, Cecil B. Demille epics, or from reading the old testament.

I'd call it: ZeFRS-1,000BC

All the work on LoS doesnt leave me much time for other projects, but here's one I wouldnt mind tackling at the first opportunity:

I ran across this piece on a blog called Overlapping Magisteria

a world of pre-monotheism in Israel and the interlinks between the various cultures of the time. 1000 BCE was an interesting time in the world - the great empires who had dominated trade a few centuries before had mostly fallen with only Egypt continuing in any real way. Egypt had become isolationist again and no longer held the Levantine coast. The Hittite Empire had fallen completely to be replaced by several Neo-Hittite regimes, each small and localized, although occasionally growing large enough to threaten their neighbors.

Troy had fallen to the Greeks, and the Palace civilizations of Mycanae and Knossos were long gone. The Bronze age was ending and the Iron age was beginning. Indeed it was perhaps the collapse of the trade system and the scarcity of copper that led to iron being used more and the techniques refined to produce steel. The Sea Peoples had invaded in the 1200’s BCE and for many years it was thought that they caused the collapse of the major empires. This view is now disputed but a large migration of people may indeed have tipped the balance against the ruling powers. The ruins of Hattusa for instance (the capital of the Hittite Empire) showed destruction of the Palace and Temple, but little change to the common folks houses. Was revolution a factor in the collapse of trade?

Biblical tradition places King David around this time as well. However archeology reveals a very different Israel from the one depicted in the Bible. Rather than a large well established Kingdom (like it would become centuries later when the Bible was written down), Judah in particular was made up of small villages and wandering nomads. Jerusalem was hardly more than a village. The Philistines had moved in (perhaps they were part of the Sea People migration?) and controlled five cities at the south of Canaan - they were the bulwark against the Egyptians who must have longed to control the Lebanon coast to the north again. The Cedars of Lebanon were famous and Egypt always needed wood.

All in all it’s a fascinating time, and it’s before monotheistic Judaism, before Buddha, before the Greek Philosophers - a wonderful place for some swords and some sorcery.

This would be an outstanding premise for a campaign using the ZeFRS rules.