Mini Six

I just downloaded Mini Six. I like what they've done with it. I understand the rise and fall of WEG is quite a story. You'll have to look it up somewhere else though.  All I'm gonna say is that this volume looks nicely put together and the price is right. I'll have a more in depth look later once I wrap up some of my Dicey Tales commitments.

But by all means head on over to AntiPaladin Games, download Mini Six and show your support. 

Great job of helping to keep a much loved system alive. Thank you AntiPaladin.

The Evil DM salutes you! 

I vaguely remember "The Secret Empire"

I want it now.

I went to order this on RPGNow and got to the paypal part when suddenly my comp went wonky on me. It took the money but didn't give me the link. 

I know it will all get straightened out, but I want this now!  ARRGGHH!!

Anyway, this is from the guys who do Colonial Gothic, so I'm very interested to see what they have done with the Sword & Sorcery genre.  This has received quite a few positives from all the usual suspects in the know, and is fast on its way to "Indy Darling" status. 

I see James Maliszewski named as one of the writers, so I'm very interested to read it. James has a great gaming blog called Grognardia that I follow and heartily recommend. He's also another Old school gamer from 1979, so his "Gamer Cred" is solid in my book.

Once I get my PDF copy of Shadow, Sword & Spell  I'll post more. 

But dont wait for me- Order it now!

I'm looking to trade for the Grand Duchy of Karameikos

I want to graduate my minions into AD&D. The campaign I want to do it with is the "Known World" or "Mystara" campaign.

I have several of the Gazetteer but I want to start with the first one, GAZ 1 "The Grand Duchy of Karameikos". The problem is I dont want to pay $35+ for a copy on Ebay. I know they have a boxed set but  I'd rather have this one.


If anyone has a copy gathering dust and they would be willing to trade- I have a whole lot of gaming stuff that I would trade for it. 
Anyone interested in making a trade drop me a line at
Boojiesdad@gmail.com


If I cant find this one I might just start them out with Spelljammer, I've been thinking alot about that campaign anyway.


Thanks guys.

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.

Lazy Sunday PhotoDump

Saturday morning in the 70's

Every Saturday I woke up to these lovely ladies.

And of course...

One of my guilty pleasures in Gaming - Spelljammer

I have to admit it I have always loved Spelljammer.  My Sweet Lord, D&D in space- how can you not love that?  Yes it had some real boner ideas. But the rest is just so cool. When my campaign world of Erisa was created it was a house rule that no Elves would be allowed. 


I used Spelljammer's Elven Imperial Fleet in the opening game of my campaign. A spelljamming Elven Fleet survey ship found the planet Erisa and sent a landing party down to investigate it. The party was almost entirely Elven, except for one Human. within hours the elves of the away team were dead from some unknown virus. The virus infected the survey ship and all Elven personnel perished.  In the end Erisa was classified by the Elven Fleet command as a hazardous planet and a cordon of fleet ships manned by non Elven personnel were stationed in the system on picket duty to make sure no one lands on Erisa or leaves it.


A later campaign involved the Scro and Neogi finding out about the virus on Erisa and trying to run the blockade and let the virus loose on the rest of the universe!


Fun times.

A Conan for the new Millennium - What do you guys think?

What kind of conditioner do you think Conan uses? His hair doesn't seem to have a lot of "bounce".

 This is some really bad "green screen" work

 Not too bad here but his sword looks like he just took it out of the package. And he needs many more scars.

 Okay, this one is a bit more "Conanish"

More choices less choosing

     I've been so busy with Dicey Tales and life in general that I haven't had much time to keep up with whats going on in the gaming industry. Funny thing the "industry" used to be a bunch of companies like TSR, GDW, I.C.E, WOTC, White Wolf and Steve Jackson games. I always imagined these to be regular businesses with an office, a staff, and all the traditional trappings of a small to medium sized business (cubicles, copy machines, water coolers, cure receptionists, etc.). But now it seems that the traditional company is less and less a presence. Oh there are still the Big boys like WOTC and Steve Jackson, but since the creation of PDF software  and the "open license", the playing field has really opened up, and in some ways, been weakened. 

     I was at a store called Gamescape in San Francisco this weekend. Gamescape has been a Mecca for bay area gamers for more than 30 years. It's still every bit a wonderland that it has always been for me, but i couldn't seem to part with any of my money to buy a hardcopy of a game. they were just too damn expensive. and the reason they were so expensive is the same reason textbooks are so expensive- the print runs are so small that the cost of printing them is driven up. I saw the new supers game Icons there. the price tag was like 30 dollars. I winced, and set it back on the shelf. Back in the day I would have picked it up in a heartbeat, but these days I start thinking about all the other choices I have, the more affordable choices I have, and all the other supers games I have sitting at home on my hard drive. 


     All those thoughts gave me the freedom to say no. but it also helped contribute to the problem in the first place. 


No sale = a smaller print run next time = a higher price per copy. 


None of that had anything to do with the Icons game itself (although my experience with products from Adamant have been hit and miss), but the fact that Icons was an unknown entity to me helped make my decision to not buy it, a lot easier.  

I did pick up a copy of Thrilling Hero Adventures that I found in the bargain bin for $5.00
Thrilling Hero Adventures is a collection of Pulp adventures that were all previously released as PDF downloads, which are all sitting on my hard drive- go figure.

Ouch.

Lazy Sunday PhotoDump

Tales of the Gold Monkey DVD set- FINALLY!!

After many years of waiting, the DVD gods have finally released Tales of the Gold Monkey on DVD here in the US!

I can finally retire my old home made pirated DVD copies I got off of Napster years ago.  

They served me well but the DVD set is a thousand times better.  

Although, all is not Champagne and Starlets with this DVD set. There are no Subtitles or  a Closed Caption option.  I don't really NEED them, but they are nice to have,  especially when you're trying to watch the show with a house full of screaming Minions running around. 

My other minor gripe is that the sound quality is not the finest. I guess I shouldn't complain too much seeing as I've spent the last two decades waiting for this to come out.

All in all I'm a happy Geek. Now if we could just get Thundarr the Barbarian and The High Chaparral on DVD I'd truly be at peace.  

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!

Sonic Legends a great mood setter for Gaming...or Blogging

Many years ago, when I had a lot more free time, I used to love using props in my games. I used to look for the old Halloween sound effect recordings to use in my games. 

A few times I even recorded audio clips of movie battles to add flavor to a game. needless to say doing it right was labor intensive as I spent hours in front of the TV /VCR with my cassette player trying to get just the right sound bite (this is obviously when I was a lonely single geek).  Now that I'm a busy married geek I have absolutely no time at all to even consider such foolishness. But thanks to the internet and Sonic Legends I dont have to. 

Sonic Legends is a company I ran across on RPGNow that makes these wonderful recordings of background music for use in your games. The recordings run the gamut of just about all of the RPG genres, fantasy, western, pulp, horror,sci-fi,etc. Some  of them (such as the Arabian Bazaar) overlap and can be used in more than one genre. The quality of the recordings is excellent and contain little bits of background flavor noise- like the jingling of coin or a far off police siren, all seamlessly woven into the track. you could actually take different tracks and loop them together as to play softly in the back ground or you can cue them up to add an extra touch to an encounter or narrative. 

At just $2.99 a download they are affordable and addictive.  The Evil DM gives Sonic Legends- Two Hearty Thumbs-Up!

Manly Monday

Lazy Sunday PhotoDump

Spamalot!

We saw Spamalot Last night. It was a regional production, so no Tim Curry or David Hyde Pierce, but it was a great show none the less.  Gary Beach was King Arthur, and he did an excellent job.

If you ever get a chance to see a professional theater company perform Spamalot, do it. 

I promise you wont regret it. Not only will the wife get a night out, watching Spamalot gives you a +3 to your Geek Cred.

Pretty funny for a taco commercial

They drive to their missions in an El Camino. Too cool.