Lazy Sunday Photodump

A couple of nice finds out on the net

Diversions of the Groovy Kind is a fun comic blog specializing in 70's era comics (my own personal "Golden age" of Comics).

Caine is cool baby!

Legends of Steel - BoL Edition is out!

The Legends of Steel -Barbarians of Lemuria edition is available at The Evil DM Productions Website. PDF Download for only $15.00

Buy Legends of Steel Barbarians of Lemuria so I can buy this!

Check out Mikes review of this oh so cool figure!

Manly Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump

Barbarians of the Aftermath – An overview

I haven’t had the opportunity to play the game but here are my observations after a thorough read through-

Right off the top I’ll admit that the Post –Apocalyptic genre isn’t one of my favorites to play in. I do however enjoy the fiction of the genre. Lucifer’s Hammer is one of my all time favorite books that I re-read every few years and I used to gobble up books from the Horseclans series just as fast as Robert Adams wrote them. So I am a fan of the genre. And now with the release of Barbarians of the Aftermath, I can honestly say that playing a survivor coming out of a bunker with a sawed off shotgun in one hand and a Geiger counter in the other, finally has appeal.

With Barbarians of the Aftermath (BotA), Nathaniel Torson has successfully taken the core rules from Simon Washbourne’s Barbarians of Lemuria (BoL) Role playing game and turned them upside down taking us from the Sword & Sorcery genre to The Post Apocalyptic.

Weighing in at 172 pages, BotA has added a lot of fluff and crunch to the sleek and simple BoL engine. But Torson has managed to do so in a modular style that is very friendly to GM’s and players who like to get under the hood of a game and make it their own. He starts off with a confidence inspiring treatment of the genre and the possible futures that destroyed the game worlds. Torson shows a solid knowledge and enjoyment of the genre. BotA doesn’t just give you one reason for the fall, it goes over several and allows you to pick and choose, and the options are all laid out there for you to pick your particular poison.

One thing I noticed is, if you are the type of gamer who loves charts and randomization, then you will have a nerdgasm reading these rules. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just that there is so much information to be covered, so many options that charts just have to be the way to go. And that’s not to say that there are pages and pages of bare dry charts- not so at all. These rules grab you and reel you in. they are well written and presented in a very attractive layout. No space is wasted but none of the book looks overcrowded.

The next chapter covered the basics of character creation, this was a quick read for me since Post Apocalyptic-is all about the world rather than the characters. In Fantasy gaming the heroes attack the world, in BotA the world attacks the players. But still I dusted off all my favorite Post Apocalyptic archetypes to see if BotA could handle them –

Genetically created creatures from World enough, and time?
Check.

Jon Shannow “The Jerusalem man”?
Check.

Horseclansmen and the Cat clans from the Horseclans series?
Check.

Juggers from Blood of heroes ?
Check.

Princess Ariel from Thundarr the Barbarian? (This one would be a deal breaker)…
Check.

Well alright then. Let’s move on.
The next section states Tools not Rules. I like it already. We go into mutations, psi abilities, firearms rules, radiation, vehicles (with a special section on “downgrading vehicles and equipment-nice) , and more. Here is where we start to see that we have left the “quick, slick and elegant” which is the hallmark of the original BoL system. But it feels right. In order to embrace this whole new genre we need to crunch it up a bit. Just a bit though. It has to be that way if you want to introduce Psi abilities, Hovertanks, and Killbots. But here again is where Torson saves himself and us- he keeps the “modular feel” going all the way through. Personally I could care less for mutations- I really won’t be using them. If you ever play in The Evil DM’s BotA game at a Con, you will never encounter an 8’ green celery stalk with furry rabbit ears carrying an M16 – it just ain’t gonna happen. And so I have no problem completely ignoring that section.

Torson wraps things up with a section on the flora, fauna, aliens and other nastiness out there to do your character death. And a 15 page Gamemasters kit that gathers all the pertinent charts in one place.

As far as the editing or grammar issues- If there were any I didn’t see them. But if so, far be it from me to point them out.

There was one piece of art that I thought inappropriate, but I learned that it will be addressed in future release. Mistakes happen and kudos to Torson for addressing it quickly.

Bottom line:
Is it still BoL? Kind of, but more and I say that in a good way.

Does it make me want to play in a genre I previously never cared for? Yes. Yes it does.

Is it worth the price? Every penny.

You can pick up Barbarians of the Aftermath at RPGNow.

Evil DM Productions Message Boards

Did you know that we have a Message board?
Not many people do it seems.
Hell, I even forget sometimes.

Message boards are easy to start, but a helluva lot of work to keep going. And I must admit I haven't been as attentive to it as I should have.

The Evil DM Productions Forum is a good idea because not only do I have a section dedicated to all the gaming stuff I'm creating but I also have a large portion of it dedicated to genre topics that I enjoy.
Pulp fiction and gaming
Historical Fiction
Men's adventure fiction

I'll be posting more there and try to create some discussion. I'm also hoping that the upcoming release of the Legends of Steel-Barbarians of Lemuria Edition will invigorate the boards with more posts. I really think that the forums could be successful and entertaining, so I'm asking you guys here to stop by and have a look around. And of course any suggestions would be appreciated.

The improbable adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Rob Rogers - a "Friend of the Lair" and the Author of "Devil's Cape" Has been included in an anthology of Sherlock Holmes tales. I'll be picking it up this week.
You should too. Get more information from the man himself at his Blog.

LoS/BoL edition out 09/21/2009

Legends of Steel-Barbarians of Lemuria edition is coming out Sept 21st. It's a big boy too coming in at over 130 pages. I decided to not send out review copies this time around because (with only a few exceptions) people take the book but never deliver the review. It may be my own fault, I never asked for a review by date. if there is a next time maybe i'll add a "Please review by ----" Anyway, I'm sure people have good reasons and I don't want to feel like I'm nagging. So this time around I'm going to skip the review copy phase. I figure enough people know about both Legends of Steel and Barbarians of Lemuria separately that I can let word of mouth spread the news.

Manly Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump

 

 

 

 

Africa guitar solo

This is one of my favorite songs from High School. This guy does an amazing job covering it.

Let's get caught up!

Thanks to all you guys who sent well wishes and support.

I took a ton of novels, gamebooks, movies and my netbook to the hospital because I figured I'd have some downtime as I recovered. I had no idea that the entire time in the hospital I was either going to be in tremendous pain or zonked off my ass. I didn't read a single book or watch a single movie.

The last couple of weeks have been a downright nightmare. One strong piece of advice - Morphine may dull the pain, but that bitch is evil and you would be well advised to avoid her claws as soon as possible. They gave me morphine for pain in the hospital, but as soon as could, I got off of it, and it still took several days of ugly fevered dreams to leave my system completely.

time off

Hey folks,
I just wanted to let everyone know that my presence on the net here may be curtailed for a while.
AS some of you know I was the victim in a very serious auto accident in October of 2007. Since then I have tried a variety of conservative treatments; Physical Therapy, Aqua therapy, Epidural injections and lots of scans and x-rays. None of these treatments has relieved the pain for more than a few days and since October of 2007 the pain has been constant.
This has all culminated in my physicians recommending two surgical procedures. First, an Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion L5-S1 followed by a Posterior fusion of L5-S1. I went in on Wednesday and had both procedures on the same day. I’ve been in the hospital until Saturday. I’m recovering at home now but needless to say the pain is downright hell. I’ll try and pop in from time to time but I need to concentrate on getting better.
Take care,
Jeff

Grognard Challenge

 

Every gamer has certain illustrations that bring back great gaming memories.  Here is one of mine. His name is Thaagwa Ulmus. For some serious Grognard Cred, tell me where your adventurers would  encounter him?

Bonus points for a complete citing.

Manly Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eddie Izzard - Death by tray!

Ok let's end the work week on a funny note.

Pay attention on the road (graphic video)

Two years ago was in a serious car accident. Two weeks ago I was involved in another accident. In both instances I was at a stop sign and struck by a moving vehicle.
Now I'm getting jokes like "you must be like an idiot magnet" or "Wow man, you should stay off the road". Well my answer to that is BULLSHIT-people need to pay attention on the road. I just thank God that in both cases I was alone in the car. People need to take driving seriously, stop drinking and driving, stop texting and driving. And stay off the fucking phone while you are driving!

Labyrinth Lord

Labyrinth Lord is the new favorite in the Lair (at least amongst the minions). I can really get behind it as it's all about Basic D&D cleaned up and totally free. I bought the Minions copies of the basic D&D books of my youth which I found on EBay. I then sat back in shock as they proceeded to trash them in the same way 10 year olds all over the world trash their books. No disrespect intended on their part.

Hell, they love playing D&D, but they are just hard on books. This is where Labyrinth Lords comes in- everything you love about Basic D&D but free and downloadable-over and over. Labyrinth Lords is available at Goblinoid Games. They also have a lively forum. Give it a look.

Manly Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump