How much would you pay for John Carter and Tars Tarkas action figures?

 

If you can swing $299.99 for an action figure then you must be rich or single. Actually these guys would look very awesomely cool in your bachelor pad (or your parents basement).  The rest of us poor married Schmucks will just have to come over and drool over your Barsoomian awesomeness.

Tars here comes in at $299.00

My main gripe is that his hands have no articulation. for 300 bucks they could at least give me hands that open and close.

Coming in at a paltry $109.99 is John Carter (I love the fact that they have to get that “extra” .99cents).

  I can’t wait for the Dejah Thoris figure.

Pirates of Darkwater and Thundarr The Barbarian on DVD

According to the WB shop, the Darkwater set is out now and Thundarr should be out by 09/28/2010.

The thing is they appear to be mail order and “made to order” videos. What that means is that these are not digitally re-mastered copies and there are no special features, like Behind the scenes mini movies or any actor commentaries- none of the bells and whistles every geek loves to see. 

But at least they are out and probably in way better shape than the pirated copies we can find on You Tube or Pirate Bay.  

Legends of Steel – BASH Edition –Talon Ironhawk

Flashback-1/2/2007- Just Chill

The other day I posted an article of mine from a past issue of Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine revisiting the Conan game by TSR. Today I have another article from a past issue (#118) revisiting The horror RPG Chill from Pacesetter games.


Chill-Adventures into the unknown
Jeff Mejia

In 1984 a small company called Pacesetter games released “Chill”, a Role Playing Game set in the genre of classic horror. All the guys in my gaming group back then grew up on a regular diet of Saturday night “Creature feature” shows on TV. We loved the old black & white Universal monster movies featuring Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, etc. as well as the Hammer horror films with Christopher Lee and lots of busty vampire chicks.

Up until Chill the only horror game around was Call of Cthulhu, and while there is no denying that Call of Cthulhu is a classic, my group never really cared for it, mainly because no matter how well you played your character, He/She would eventually go insane, in fact everybody’s character eventually goes insane in Call of Cthulhu. My group was made up of mostly “meat and potato” gamers- we liked to hunt down the bad guy, hack him into tiny pieces, and then loot his lair for +2 swords. The idea of our characters eventually going nuts never held much appeal.

Chill didn’t have that aura of hopelessness that Call of Cthulhu had, and none of the pretentious angst that “Vampire: the Masquerade” would later have. And though I was familiar with Lovecraft’s works most of the guys in my group weren’t, so it was hard for them to visualize why they should be running from a “Slithering Miyagi” or an oozing puddle of space pudding with a hundred eyes. It just wasn’t working for them. With Chill, if I told them they were being attacked by a pack of hatchet wielding zombies led by a Voodoo priestess, they had a frame of reference.

The Chill game comes boxed. Back in the day, most Role-playing games came packaged in a box. And believe it or not, many a games complexity and dollar value was judged by the weight of the box. Chill came in at a healthy weight, better than “Cyborg Commandos” but way less than “Bushido”. The game consisted of two rulebooks, a world map, introductory adventure, three 10-sided dice, a set of cardboard counters and what in today’s terms would be called a set of “fast play” rules.

In Chill, the player characters are all part of a secret organization called S.A.V.E (Societas Albae Viae Eternitata, the Eternal Society of the White Way).
S.A.V.E. Operatives fight a never-ending war against the supernatural forces of evil. In the world of Chill, Vampires are real, Were-creatures are real, and Malign spirits are real. The forces of evil exist and the agents of S.A.V.E. seek them out and destroy them. The setting for the game can be in any period from the mid 1800’ to present day, and globe spanning adventures are not only possible but encouraged. The setting has a classic horror movie feel to it thanks to the great artwork of Jim Holloway throughout the rulebooks.

The campaign book covers character creation based on eight abilities generated by random dice rolls and a system formula. Along with the regular Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Stamina, and Personality, they offered some additional “genre” specific abilities such as Willpower (used when making the obligatory “fear check”), Perception (which aids in noticing specific clues or unusual details), and Luck (which aids in character survival by allowing “Luck checks” to avoid immediate death).

All of these abilities are used when deciding the success of a characters action, this is known as making an ability check. There are two types of ability checks the first is known as the standard check, and is used when rather straightforward actions are resolved the second is known as a specific ability check this type of check uses a unique chart system known as the “Chill action table” to gauge the degree of success. The better the roll, the higher the degree of success, for instance, if your character is trying to jump out of a window to escape from a foe, the referee may want you to roll an ability check based on agility. If you succeed the referee will compare your roll to the success chart. A limited success may indicate you jumped out of the window but may have injured yourself on the fall. A medium success could indicate you landed hard but are uninjured, a high success may mean that you landed on your feet and can move normally next round.

Characters advance and gain experience in Chill by participating in adventures and defeating evil creatures and their minions. “Insight Points” are awarded for success and these points can be later used to improve current abilities and skills or to purchase new skills for future use.

Chill offers a wide variety of combat and non-combat skills to choose from when creating a character. All skills have corresponding success scores that are based on one or more abilities and ranked as student, teacher, or master. Each rank adds a percentage point bonus to the skill, which insures a player at master rank, is effectively a leader in that field. Players start the game with student ranks and use “insight points” to increase their rankings in various chosen skills.

As with the ability checks, Chill has two types of skill checks. The basics skill check which is a straight success/failure roll and a specific skill check which utilizes the “Chill action table” to determine the degree of success. There are a fairly adequate number of skills supplied for the game, and by following the general formula it’s not at all difficult to add new skills to the list as needed. It’s worth noting as well that Chill spends a good amount of time explaining the use of professional and research skills. In Chill your characters ability to read a map, use a library, and speak Latin will be as valuable as what caliber of pistol he carries or what level of mastery he has in Judo.

Character actions are covered in the next section. The mechanics of campaign play are introduced in this section. Game time, travel times, fear checks, movement, damage and healing, and combat are all examined. An area, which was revisited quite often in our campaign, were the rules on lighting and visibility. Quite a few of our combats took place on fog-shrouded streets and in dark cemeteries.

The various types of Non-player characters are covered in part five of the rules. The reactions of Animals, persons and creatures are covered here along with societies reactions in general. The hardest part about interacting with NPC’s in Chill is trying to convince them that your character isn’t a loon, this is where having an organization such as S.A.V.E around is invaluable. Not only are there people who will actually believe your story about the secret cabal of demon worshippers at Fairfax manor, they may even be able to help you do something about them.

Which leads us to part six of the rulebook. Characters in Chill may face vampires, mad scientists and evil witches, but they don’t do so without powers of their own. This section of the rules outlines the use of The Art. The Art is basically a collection of disciplines used to combat the minions of evil. The Art is a combination of Psionic abilities and arcane protections that enable the agents of S.A.V.E a fighting chance when confronting the disciples of the evil way. The chapter ends with a brief history of S.A.V.E, it’s rules and tenets. The final section gives some brief advice for the “Chillmaster” (CM) on running a successful horror campaign.

The second book in the boxed set is titled Horrors from the unknown. This volume is essentially a combination spell book and monster guide. The first part describes the various spells and magical effects that the creature’s posses and use to combat the heroes of S.A.V.E. the second half of the book details creatures both common and supernatural that are used in the Chill game, unfortunately they only list around eighteen creatures total.
Chill received a decent amount of support for its run. There were nine published modules ranging from encounters with Dracula and the Mummy to exploring haunted amusement parks and touring with a rock band.

There were also several sourcebooks, which added to the Chill line:
• A “Chillmasters” screen with the obligatory mini-adventure.
• Vampires-a sourcebook giving detailed descriptions of several vampires from different parts of the world.
• Creature Feature- a Chill game variant that lets the players assume the role of the monsters. The book also offers more rules for combat, new skills and an additional discipline of the Art.
• Things- basically an expanded (over fifty) listing of creatures and new evil way disciplines.
• Evenings of terror with Elvira- a set of nine linked scenarios hosted by the mistress of the dark herself.

It’s worth noting as well, that in the 1990’s Mayfair games purchased the rights to Chill and gave it a new look and a new audience for a brief time.
By today’s standards, when held up against somber fare like the World of Darkness and Kult, Pacesetters Chill might seem a little light and old fashioned. But for the folks who like their horror a little less Anne Rice and a little more Boris Karloff, Chill is just the ticket.

Flashback from 06/2/2006 - Kingdom of Heaven revisited yet again...

Back in April I posted that Kingdom of Heaven will be re-released as an expanded directors cut with tons of additional footage. I saw it the other day, and believe me it’s like watching a whole other movie. So much was explained and made clear, there were whole story arcs that were abandoned by the studio that Ridley Scott felt were necessary to the story (and they were) the story is richer for all the added material. Just to give you a glimpse: I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that this village blacksmith could arrive in Jerusalem and suddenly know how to build trebuchets and fight off a siege. Well in the extended version we find out that Balian the blacksmith is not only an accomplished smith but also a veteran soldier who served as an engineer and sapper. That little nugget of info took like 5 seconds to convey but was left out of the theatrical version- talk about missing important plot points! If you are a fan of epic motion pictures you really owe it to yourself to see the extended cut of this movie. It’s a definite must have!

Blast from the past- a post August 17 2007

Setting the record straight on Skype

A while back I posted a rant about Skype. It turns out the problem was 99% my fault. However, at the time they really had no customer service methods in place to point out that the error was on my side, so much of my frustration stemmed from the fact that their service had no one for me to talk to. I’m not sure if that has been addressed since I haven't had a need to complain about anything since.
Overall, these last couple of years Skype has proven itself invaluable to me as a means of affordable business and personal communication.  I use Skype just about everyday and have contacted people as far away as Britain and Australia. The conversations still come with a bit of a delay but for $12.00 a month unlimited access to  either computers or regular phones world-wide,  it’s not a bad deal at all.

Here is another sample from the upcoming Legends of Steel –BASH Edition. De Silva

This is why you always look in the children’s book section at Goodwill

One thing that kind of sucks about looking for books at Goodwill is the fact that you have to look through EVERYTHING!  Most of the staff that work in the book department have minimal training in keeping things organized, so you find cookbooks next to Prima strategy guides and the works of Shakespeare mixed in among the Mack Bolan paperbacks.  But you have to take the time to look lest you miss a gem like this:

 

  

$2.49

SCORE!!

Atlas comics may be coming back from the dead.

Back in the 70’s for a few brief months, DC and Marvel had a new challenger to contend with It was called Atlas Comics.  As a young comic geek at the time this was something totally new. The only thing competing with the two giants were Charlton (blah) and a shit load of weird ass underground comix about smoking weed and having sex in the back of a Chevy van.

  So to walk into my old comics store and see a whole slew of characters blew me away. unfortunately Atlas only lasted for a few months and finally dried up. But it was a fun ride, and the memories are still with me.

Now according this article from CBR. there is real talk of the Atlas properties seeing print again.  now if we can just get them to get the Amalgam characters into monthly books.

It makes you want to dance...

Make Major Maddox your first stop every Monday and Thursday!

Friend of the Lair -Jason Chalker (who is also the artist of the incredibly cool “Dicey Tales” cover) has a new web comic underway, featuring the thrilling adventures of Major Maddox! It has a great retro Space-Pulp feel. I’ve been reading it and I cant help but think that if Steve McQueen had ever made a science fiction film, this would be the one.

Go check it out.

Legends of Steel -BASH Edition. Profile:Risa of the Goban, mercenary archer

Well, the surgery was a success and I'm back at home recuperating thanks to both of you for sending well wishes my way before the surgery. 

Here is the next in a series of Legends of Steel Characters converted to the new BASH Edition. From what I understand its all about editing and layout at this point!

DC Adventures - Have I finally found a DC Heroes RPG I understand?

This Thursday I have back surgery scheduled, so what better time to elicit a bit of sympathy from “She who must be obeyed”?  I convinced her that I NEED something to read at the hospital during my overnight stay, and that none of the 350,000 unread books in my personal library would do. So we went to my Friendly Neighborhood Game Store and picked up the brand spankin’ new DC Adventures Hero’s Handbook. 
Huzzah!
Truth be told this isn't the first try at a DC flavored RPG. Back in the late 20th century a company called Mayfair games came out with one. It looked real nice too. I bought it as the manager in the store was unpacking them. I opened it up in the car. I read through it on the way home. I tried to create a character at the dinner table. My buddy and I tried to run the character through a scenario. Later that night I put the game in my closet and never spoke of it again. 
I don't know whether it was the game or me. I never asked, I was too ashamed. I think it had something to do with algebra, I’m not sure. Math was never my strong suit.
I’ve played Mutants & Masterminds before and enjoyed it a lot, so I think I’ll be able to wrap my head around it this time.
Wish me luck.

Manly Monday at the Movies -The Outpost on DVD

I picked this up over at Biglots for $3.00 a few months ago because it had Ray Stevenson (Pullo from the HBO series Rome) in it. It had sat on my shelves since then without a glance. I popped it open today to watch just because I noticed it was still in the wrapper.  Boy am I glad I did. The Outpost was one of the best popcorn munching good times I’ve had in a while. Bad ass mercenaries, hidden bunkers, Nazis, Zombies, and the only chick in the movie was a stripper in the bar at the start of the movie. This was a total testosterone charged, shoot em up military/horror fest.  Pick it up, gather some of the guys, pop open a few cold ones and let the gore-fest begin.  Great Fun!

Lazy Sunday Photo Dump

 

 

 

A new tradition is born

We spent the greater part of the day here at the Lair enjoying a marathon geekfest of the Lord of the Rings.  We had some serious “family time” as everyone sat around the living room and revisited Middle Earth amongst  popcorn, soda, and corndogs.
I love these movies. I love that my Minions love these movies.
I think I’m gonna make this a yearly thing.  Can you imagine all of us watching The Lord of The Rings and (by that time I hope) The Hobbit, with our Grandkids?
Yup. New tradition at the Lair-
Lord of The Rings Marathon every year!

So let it be written, so let it be done!

Not too bad. I wish I'd thought of it.

Legends of Steel-BASH Fantasy Edition. Spotlight-Talena

Some of you may remember a few months back I mentioned that Basic Action Games and Evil DM Productions would be teaming up to release a BASH version of Legends of Steel. Well, we are just about ready to unleash it on the gaming world. Until then we figured we would tease you with a few characters from the book. This week we have  our nimble rogue-Talena!

Fun fact: did you know Talena was once a Wednesday girl?
It’s true.

From 05/15/2008 -GI Joe & OD&D

I’m noticing a trend lately that I find interesting not for its own sake but for the larger picture it paints of age, nostalgia and trying to recapture youth- The movement to get back to an “old school” style of gaming.
What I find amusing is that I’ve been on this ride before with my buddies who collect action figures. A few years back there was a huge resurgence in nostalgia amongst us guys who played with GI Joes back in the late 60’s through the mid 70’s. The net filled up with message boards and websites where middle aged men would wax nostalgic about their GI Joe collections and their most recent attempts to reacquire the lost treasures of their youth. The boards would buzz with opinion and debate over which Joes were better, whose collections were the most authentic, which companies were re-releasing which figures to cash in on the nostalgia craze and how every effort to do so sucked.
We would bitch and whine about how kids these days wouldn’t know a fun toy if it bit them in the ass. We complained about the little GI Joes, the “Real American Hero” GI Joes from the late 80’s (which of course would offend the “young pup” collectors who grew up in the 80’s watching GI Joe and He Man), We would complain about the high prices and low quality of the new stuff coming out and how it would never compare to what we had “back in the day.”

Back in the day…
That’s the key isn’t it?
A few years ago the GI Joe guys started hitting middle age. Suddenly there was a rush to get back to simpler times, where backyard adventures filled our summer days. Nothing now would ever, could ever, bring those days of bottle rockets and dirt clod fights back.
So we did the next best thing. We went on EBay and paid outrageous prices for moth eaten tokens of our youth and cleaned them, patched them up and put them on display. Eventually, the craze wore down. The casual collector picked up a $9.00 anniversary Land Adventurer at Wal Mart and moved on. The rest of us die hard’s still haunt the boards and still wait for the re release of the Mobile Command Center, much like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

So now, a few years later a new group of guys are reaching their 40’s. These guys didn’t have much to do with Kung Fu grips or Big Jim’s P.A.C.K. They were too busy trying not to get killed in the Tomb of Horrors or have all their levels drained by a Succubus. These are the guys waking up and finding a new version of D&D coming very soon. And there are many who say it looks nothing like the D&D we played as we listened to “Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, or The Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is some new fangled D&D. Hence, the movement to recapture simpler times. To get back to late night sessions at mom’s dinner table. Nights filled with character sheets, funny dice, graph paper, clunky lead miniatures and of course Taco Bell wrappers. Can we get back to “old school?” I really don’t know. It didn’t work for the GI Joe guys. But if there’s a chance of recapturing a sliver of that excitement the first time you went up a level, then I’d say it’s worth a shot.

from 11/04/2005 -The Endless night

"The endless night"
Suitable for use with Traveller, Star Frontiers, Alternity, Etc.

This was inspired by the movie “Outland” starring Sean Connery.

The players are sent to an asteroid mining operation to investigate the murder of a VIP’s son. The son and his father had a falling out and no one in the colony knew who that his father was this famous person. The death was ruled accidental but of course that is not good enough for the father.

That’s where the group comes in. the father hires a team of private investigators to go there undercover and conduct a private investigation. The team finds out this is just one of many deaths in this mining colony, it appears that literally hundreds of convicts, indentured laborers, homeless and other people “who nobody will miss” have disappeared through the years here. The players discover that the killer is the head honcho of the mining operation, pretty straightforward stuff. Until, we add the twist that the head honcho is a Vampire. Actual-sleeps in a coffin-strength of ten men-turns into a mist- undead vampire.

Now the players who are prepared for a conventional fight have got to suspend their 25th century mentality and fight a creature of legend. For some added spice, add a “sin town” with strip clubs, casinos, and brothels etc. where the laborers go to blow off steam- this is where his minions hang out- kind of like the “Titty-Twister” in “From Dusk till Dawn”. Oh, and have the vampires “Renfield” guy be the chief of security for the mining company.

From 11/13/2006 - I garrote the Medusa-episode #1 "on the Road"

from 08/04/2006 -Lone Wolf

Today I decided to take a walk during lunch and check out the local used bookstore. I saw a couple of the Lone Wolf game books in the bargain bin so I picked them up. I have a quasi-collection of these and the Endless Quest books from TSR. I collect them for my sons-can’t start the indoctrination soon enough eh?
Anyway, I did a little surfing back at work and came across a website that has a few of the earlier books on PDF. More importantly they have a PDF of the Magnamund Companion, A gazetteer of the world of Lone Wolf. This is one tough book to find ( I found a copy at a game store years ago and have since had several offers of up to $50.00 to part with it). One of the neat features in the book is a section with some ship construction guidelines,using paper, balsa wood and some household items, the results are impressive. I might take a crack at it one of these days.

Lazy Sunday Photodump