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.

Sword & Sorcery

A few months ago I heard about a sword and sorcery character named Imaro created by Charles Saunders. Since then I had been looking everywhere for the book, I found it on EBay of course but never for less than fifteen bucks. Cheap bastard that I am I blanche when I have to pay eight dollars for a paperback. I finally found it online at a decent price. I'm about halfway through and it’s a good read. It’s definitely a different approach to the traditional S&S hero. I also found a very well done website called Heroes of Dark Fantasy. There is a great deal of information on not only Imaro but also Karl Wagner’s “Kane” and David Gemmel’s “Druss”.

The gaming is good

Over at the Basher’s game, Fred has taken the reins and is moving the game at a nice clip. Folks are posting and everyone seems to be falling into character quite nicely. I'm playing a Psionicist for the first time in ages. On paper she’s kind of weak offensively but that was the plan. I want to see what I can do with a thinking character, rather than a combat machine. Since it’s a brand new character for me I've been trying to find a hook for her, I found one yesterday. Still working on the details, more to come.

The Conan game has started. We have seven players; all but two are new to me. It seems like a pretty good group so far. All the guys are at my age range and have similar gaming experience or thereabouts.

The Hell you say?

some of these places are great inspirational fodder for a good horror game. Could one of these actually be an entrance to Hell?

Heromachine

It's been a while since I last plugged Heromachine. It's one of the most entertaining programs out here on the net. and the 2.0 version allows you to create not only humans but Skeletons, fantasy races, and superheroes of all types. If you cant draw and you want a picture of your favorite character, this is the program for you. And here's a link for a free online copy!

GI Joe and D&D (hey, it's all Hasbro)

A couple of months ago Dragon magazine came out with a cover that had a character that could only be described as the complete dungeon delver. It gave me the inspiration to come up with my own. Now this is still a work in progress so I’m still tweaking it. But here he is, so far…

Geek Goddesses, I wonder if they print their character sheets on scented paper?

I always see these gals at conventions but never in a real honest to God game store...why is that?

Pulp Megos versus the "Iron Assasins"

I ran across these Medablok robots over at Kaybee toys in the bargain bin. not bad for $5.00. they are a little too short to use with the 12" inch guys but they make a pretty formidable team of "Iron Assasins" for my pulp era team of Megos to go up against.

Hyborean Adventures

I'm starting up a Play by email (PBEM) game set in Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian era. Despite all the great support Mongoose games is giving their Conan D20 system, I decided to give the old Conan Role-playing game rules from TSR a try. I'm thinking the stripped down mechanics of the TSR system will translate well to the PBEM style of gaming, which relies a great deal more on flavor than mechanics. But as I said earlier, Mongoose is putting out some Top shelf support for their Conan game so I'm sure I’ll be mining those supplements for ideas as well. we should be into the adventure by Monday. if anyone is interested in having a look, feel free to Stop by.

What the???

The other day on one of the many game/action figure boards I haunt someone brought up the subject of gaming in a “lost world” setting. I immediately informed the person of one of my favorite gaming supplements of that or any other adventure genre. “Lands of Mystery” by Aaron Allston. As I was writing about it I realized that it was published in 1985, 20 FRICKEN YEARS AGO! Where the hell did the time go? I cant believe I have character sheets older than most interns at medical school…

The wheels are in motion

The other night, as part of my secret plan to turn my wife into a proper Nerd spouse, I introduced her and my oldest son Anthony to that staple of gamer geek goodness “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” I sat there and watched as my family took it all in –the cocoanuts, the French taunting, the dead collector, the witch trial, the Killer rabbit, the bridge keeper. There are few things as satisfying as introducing newbie’s to a time honored tradition, and few traditions in geekdom are as sacred as the first viewing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s been a week now and I still hear my wife and son exchanging lines from the movie “What is yourrr name, what is your quest?” “I feel happy!” “one, two, five!” It does this old gamer’s heart good to see the family bonding this way, just one more cobblestone on the path to true family geekdom!

One game at a time

I have found out a few things about my style of pbem play. I'm better at one-shot games than I am at campaigns. And, I can only manage one game at a time.

My first effort on the old Action Heroes group was "Destiny of kings" and it went great. Then I tried a long game "Swords of Erisa" and it started out good but ended up dying towards the end.

My second effort "Mal's folly" was pretty good. Then I tried to follow up with a larger adventure dealing with an extra planar invasion of Erisa, and it tanked.

Then came my latest group of players “the Bashers”. "Valley of the Earth mother" was fun. It had it's moments, it was also slow going in some places, but overall I had a good time. When it wrapped up I was ready for a break, but somehow against my better judgment I decided to go on. And it didn’t last, which is where Dono stepped in.

There were other reasons why some of the games died. In Swords of Erisa one of my players had a virtual meltdown and kind of put me in a “funk” about playing in general.

In the “Invasion of Erisa” I was trying to get used to 3rd edition D&D and like it ( I didn’t). And I was soo going through the motions about it, it was like dating someone purely for the sex, and knowing once someone better comes along you are gonna dump them in a heartbeat.

With the basher game I was just too extended, work and life in general were coming at me full bore. I should have stopped when I was ahead instead of running the risk of looking more like a flake.

One of my favorite genres is the Pulp era. On two separate occasions I tried to run a pulp style game. The characters were interesting and the players were enthused, but I was running an Erisa D&D game at the same time and playing in a couple of others. So a really fun game crashed (twice) cause I was unable to handle running more than one game at a time.

I think my answer for this is to one only one game at a time and then for only for a short adventure (which in PBEM terms STILL can last 6 months).

Run one game.
Play one game.
Switch genres after each.

Oy Vey!

I Know..i'm waaay overdue in posting here. but I'm reaching the end of my undergraduate experience with just 5 credits to go and at the moment i'm on an accelerated class scheddule which means that i'm fitting two 16 week classes into 8 weeks. UGH.

every now and again i see a pic on the net that makes me go "wow." this aint a Hot babe blog, but every once in a while...

Happy birthday to me

Well happy birthday to me and all that. 41 years old and still playing D&D, reading comic books and buying GI Joes.
I so refuse to grow up.
Yesterday I did a little showing off regarding my winning entry in the kit bash section of the Annual fantasy net challenge. I also mentioned that I submitted another figure, this one being my version of the comic book favorite Grimjack. Alas, my efforts failed to place amongst the final winners, but I'm happy with the result nonetheless.

We have a winner!

Well it looks like the Evil DM actually placed in the world famous Fantasynet figure contest I submitted two figures, one in the kit bash category and the other in the star frontiers (Sci-Fi) category. My Grimjack figure didn’t place among all the stiff competition.
However, in the Kit bash category I took home 1st place! My entry was a traveling merchant and his burro. The figure was a first generation SOTW head on a third generation SOTW body. The robe was from a star wars figure and the armor and cloak were custom pieces from Ed Cassar. The burro was from a power team set and the equipment was a hodge-podge of stuff from my parts bin.

Fantasy net

Fantasy net is a message board for action figure collectors who enjoy creating figures within the genres of fantasy fiction, myth and legend. Ogres, Elves, Sorcerers, Warriors, Amazons and Demons can all be found there.
The first annual Fantasy net figure contest is in full swing. This is an opportunity for the members of the group to show off their kit-bashing and customizing skills in several genre specific categories: Good characters, Evil characters, “Star Frontiers” (Sci-Fi), and Kit-bashing. The members of the message board do the peer judging, but visitors are most welcome to visit and have a look at the jaw dropping creations of our talented artisans. To have a look go to:

http://p087.ezboard.com/ffantasynetfrm67

Note: the Evil DM submitted entries in the Star Frontiers and Kit-bash categories. Can you guess which entries are mine??

Pete the Barbarian

Mc Farlane came out with a conan figure a few months ago. I waited to get one and now I'm glad I did they are now on clearance at Kay-bee toys for $5.00 I just can't get over the resemblance. Surly stoic Barbarian or Surly ex-ball player?

Nor-Cal show

I had a great time at this years Northern Cal. GI Joe show. The show had plenty of tables, plenty of deals and some really great custom work. Rather than show you a bunch of pictures of middle aged guys dickering over dolls, I thought I would highlight the featured Diorama. The featured theme this year was Fantasy! Fred Jeska one of the shows organizers created a huge 15' long dungeon corridor complete with cavern dressings and monsters (A Necromancer, animated skeletons, a goblin war-band, and a monstrous Troll) . The rest of the Norcal group provided the requisite heroes. Rex and Ed brought Dwarven warriors, Pete brought a Human warrior and a Mage, Fred brought a Halfling ranger, and Human warrior (I think Filch was there as well, but he was either hiding in shadows or looting bodies, cause I never saw him during the fighting). I brought in A female Sorceress and Thaco the Ogre.

Blechh

Well the "cold from hell" continues to linger on (almost a month now). Part of the problem is that some of the medication I'm on for another condition prevents me from taking cold medicine- so I just got to tough it out. Making me tired, and irritable. I've missed a ton of work, my online game is on the road to ruin, my blog has remained frozen in January, a new group I launched is floundering, my tabletop game hasn't met in weeks, and I got into a flame war with a putz on an action figure board. I seriously need to get a grip. I got an action figure show coming up this weekend. I'm going to help a buddy (Ed) tend his booth. And believe it or not Legends of Steel is still going strong. In fact, I have re-examined my objective so to speak and am in the process of moving more in a true Sword & Sorcery direction and away from the "D&D clone" I feel it was becoming.