Up in the sky!

It’s time for the annual parade of fan boy superhero costumes. While I applaud the effort most of them fall short, there are exceptions, this is one of them.

"Old School" Gaming

For those of you wishing to relive a bit of your good old gaming days, Paizo publishing (The folks who now do Dragon magazine) have begun releasing a bunch of old TSR titles as PDF’s. They have over 800 products from AD&D, Classic D&D, Gangbusters, Alternity, Chainmail, Gamma World, etc. and from what I can tell each product is only $4.00 each. Personally I like REAL books-but these PDF’s do have their uses. They are portable and you can print up relevant sections for the players and they are way cheaper than going the EBay route (heck, for $4.00 you can download a boxed set to see if you like it before spending $60.00 for the real thing on EBay).

Google me Baby!

Ever since my Yahoogroups debacle I have tried to distance myself from Yahoo as much as possible. Unfortunately I am rather active in several Yahoogroups so I still use that forum quite often. One area that I was able to change was my homepage. I really liked my Yahoo homepage I got it set up just the way I wanted it with news, movie times, email-inbox, weather etc. But since I was no longer using their email service I decided to move on. I tried MSN but I just couldn’t get used to it.
The other day I gave Google a try, I checked their homepage out about a year ago and I cant say I was very impressed it. It was too plain, not fun and jazzy like Yahoo’s. But Google has been making major upgrades to their services on all fronts, and the new Google home page really looks ten times better than it ever had. Lots more choices for content: news, Google search, business, tech etc. movie times, g-mail inbox, weather, bookmarks, and a real cool RSS feed feature that allows me to put a lot of the news sites that I as a gamer geek-boy check everyday (sci-fi news, comic book news, gaming report) and most importantly my own web log, all on one page updated daily! Now don’t start emailing me about how evil or lousy Google is. There will always be bashers that don’t like Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Yahoo, and that’s your prerogative. It works for me and that’s all I need.

THONGOR!

In researching for my S&S role playing game Legends of Steel, I thought I had run across just about all the S&S comics that there were. Imagine my surprise when I came across a Marvel title that I had never heard of called “Creatures on the loose”. My local shop was having a 50%off sale and I was looking to fill a couple of holes in my collection, when lo and behold I run across a comic written about an old Lin Carter character “Thongor of Lemuria” (Don’t you just love the names they come up with for these guys?). Any way the issues I found were about a buck apiece, which beats the hell out of the $2.99+ I’m used to paying. So all in all it was a good find. The “Creatures on the Loose” title also offers a run of Man-Wolf stories and a John Carter of Mars clone called Gulliver Jones. It looks like I have a new line to collect. The hunt goes on!

Jeff knows football

So my wife and I are out this morning doing our weekly run for supplies at Target/ Wal-Mart. Around noon we decide to stop by Burger King and bring the boys some burgers home for lunch.
The manager takes our order and after a moment he looks at me and loudly says “So whaddaya think, did Notre Dame get totally robbed yesterday or what!?” Now I aint much of a football fan, I know most of the NFL teams by their names and I played flag football in high school during P.E. but the game never had that much appeal for me. However, I have been blessed with my fair share of testosterone, so there was no way in hell I was gonna look like some effeminate Nancy-boy in front of my wife, this schlep and the truck driver in line behind us.
Obviously there was a college game of some importance that every self respecting American male should know about and one that Notre dame fans should be pissed about.
As I stood there with a dumb smile on my face thinking of what to say the Burger guy says “I couldn’t believe some of those calls’ they just weren’t right.”
So shooting blindly into the air I respond “Well you know Notre Dame is an old school, and there are a lot of powerful men behind these games, men with a lot of money.”
All of a sudden truck driver Earl behind me in line weighs in-“That’s just what I was telling my brother last night- them officials were paid off!”
I nodded sagely to Mr. Burger, collected my 99 cent cheeseburgers and joined my wife at the soda machines, my manhood preserved. Burger –boy and Earl were still talking about the game and my theory when my wife and I left. When we got outside my wife looked at me and smiled. “You didn’t know a damn thing about what they were talking about, did you?
“Hell no.” I replied. “But I’m a gamer, and that was just role-playing.”

Where is my box of Star Frontiers Minifigs??

I was surfing last night and I ran across this group set up for fans of the old TSR game company. TSR was the original company that published the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) games. They were bought out by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of the HASBRO Toy Company (Home of GI Joe). TSR released many great games besides D&D. TSR released science fiction games like Gamma World and Star Frontiers, military and espionage games like Dawn Patrol and Top Secret, They also created several licensed games such as The Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying game, The Buck Rogers game, and the Rocky and Bullwinkle game. Many of these games are considered classics in the industry and were created by folks who are regarded as the experts in the RPG field. Looking over the posts there is potential for a very active forum. If you’re a gamer over 30, chances are you cut your role-playing teeth on one of TSR’s games in either high school, college or the military, so come over to the list and re-live some memories, who knows you might just get the urge to dust off the old Boot Hill game in the garage and resurrect that “Silverado” campaign.

With Great Power

Continuing the thread from yesterday I found a copy of an article written for the Polyhedron Magazine in which Dale Donovan creates a point based character generation system for the Marvel Superheroes role-playing game. I hope this will spark renewed interest in this long forgotten classic. Enjoy.



With Great Power
Campaign Construction, Part 1: Origin
By Dale A. Donovan

Since I began writing this column in issue 163, I've discussed new directions for your MARVEL SUPER HEROES campaigns. Now it's time to address building a super hero campaign from scratch. Starting with this column, I'll cover the elements needed for a successful campaign.

The most important aspect of any role playing campaign is the player character. In the MARVEL SUPER HEROES game, you can play either pregenerated Marvel Heroes or you can create your own using the character generation systems in the rules. Detailed below is a "purchasing" system inspired by the other two major super hero role-playing games on the market, DC Heroes by Mayfair Games and Champions by Hero Games. Using my system, the Character Point (CP) System, players can built their ideal heroes within limits set by the Game Master. This system is flexible, so GMs should be wary of canny players who seek to take advantage of that flexibility.

Character Point System
The MARVEL SUPER HEROES Advanced Set Players' Book, page 5, details the steps players should follow to create their own heroes. It is reproduced with minor modifications below:
* Create an origin
* Determine primary abilities (FASERIP)
* Determine secondary abilities (Health, Karma, etc.)
* Ascertain special abilities (powers, talents, and contacts)
* Fill in the blanks (hero and character names, background, etc.)
The Players' Book suggests you start with an origin for your hero. However, I recommend you decide which type of hero your PC will be (altered human, mutant, etc.), then create the origin. Be sure to note all the special aspects of each type of character except which column of the "Generating Primary Abilities" table the hero's abilities will be rolled on. You will not be using dice to determine your hero's abilities. Do not feel compelled to fully detail your hero at this point. Save that for the "Fill in the Blanks" stage.

Determine primary abilities
Each player will now be given a number of Character Points (CPs). This number is determined by the Game Master and can range from 200 to 600 CPs or more. Let's say your GM gives you 300 CPs to build your hero. You would now "buy" your primary abilities (FASERIP) by spending CPs. Purchase primary ability scores on a point-for-point basis. So if you want your character to possess Amazing (50) Strength, subtract 50 CPs from your point total. Do this for all seven primary abilities. You can purchase ability scores other than the normal rank number in each rank (For example, you could buy Amazing (46) Strength instead of Amazing (50) and save four CPs to use later.) Just remember any skimping like this will be reflected in your final Health and Karma scores. Don't be too extravagant with your spending here, as your CPs will also be used to purchase your Resources level, powers, talents, and contacts. I don't recommend spending more than about half of your CPs at this stage.

Determine secondary abilities
Total up your Health and Karma points. Add those two figures together and they should equal the number of CPs you've spent so far. This is a good way to check your math. Now buy your hero's Resources rank by spending two CPs for every point of Resources (If you want Excellent (20) Resources, it would cost you 40 CPs.). A player does not buy and cannot modify his hero's Popularity score, as it is a function of the hero's origin and the public's perception of the hero.

Determine special abilities
Since each special ability (powers, talents, and contacts) is purchased slightly differently, each is discussed separately.
Powers: Each hero now buys powers and their ranks. All powers, except those with stars, cost 10 CPs each, and starred powers cost 20 CPs. Purchasing powers gives the hero the ability to buy ranks in those powers. Ranks for powers without stars are purchased on a point-for-point basis, as with the primary abilities. (If you wanted to buy the Flight power, it would cost 10 CPs. You can now buy a power rank for that power. Let's say you wanted to fly at Excellent (20) speed, it would cost you 20 more CPs. So buying the Flight power and an Excellent (20) rank cost you a total of 30 CPs.). Starred powers, because they are more powerful or more rare, each cost 20 CPs, as noted above, and their ranks are bought at a rate of two CPs for each rank number. You purchase both powers and ranks so that five powers, each at Good (10) ranks will be more expensive than one power at Amazing (50) rank. The hero with five powers is much more versatile, and he should pay for that.
Limitations: Page 9 of the Players' Book gives a list of possible limitations for powers. Players can buy one limitation per hero to gain more CPs. Use the maximums listed at the top of each list of limitations on page 9. This determines the number of CPs gained from taking a limitation. For example, taking the limitation "Power can only be used three times/day" from the list "Maximum of Excellent" for your Flight power would gain you an additional 20 CPs, as it is an Excellent rank limitation. Points gained through limitations are the normal rank numbers for that rank only. All normal rules regarding limitations apply. Subtract all CPs spent on powers and ranks, and add any CPs from limitations to figure your hero's new point total.

Talents: All skills listed under the Weapon, Fighting, and Mystical or Mental Skills tables, and all starred talents cost 10 CPs each. All other skills cost 5 CPs each (buying Chemist costs 5 CPs, while the Medicine or the Guns skill would cost 10 CPs each). Subtract all CPs spent here to get your hero's new CP total.
Contacts: Unless the GM specifies otherwise, each contact costs 5 CPs. Don't detail each contact now, as contacts often work best when chosen during an adventure with the GM's O.K.

Fill in the blanks: There, you're done. If you have any CPs left over, it's up to the GM what you can do with them. I suggest simply adding them to your hero's Karma points. Beginning heroes often don't have much Karma to spend on their first adventures. Don't forget to modify your hero as per the origin you picked for him earlier, and round out your hero with his heroic and character names, background, job, costume, how he gained his powers, why he risks his life as a hero, etc.

Character advancement
All normal game rules on character advancement apply. Character Points are used only during a hero's creation and do not apply to the character's future advancement. For example, you cannot pay 10 CPs for a power and not buy a rank for it during the hero's creation.

GM-imposed Limits
Test this system by creating several characters. You'll realize then, if you haven't already, that the system is flexible and can be abused unless the GM lays down some guidelines. The GM could impose spending limits on primary abilities (no FASERIP scores above Amazing (50), for example), powers (such as no more than four total), power ranks (no power ranks above Incredible (45)), power limitations (one limitation only, no limitation ranks above Incredible), and even the number of talents and contacts.

Breaking down Marvel characters by using this system can give GMs a good idea on what limits to place on character generation for their campaigns. Using the characters listed in the Advanced Set Judge's Book, for example, Invisible Woman, Marvel Girl, and Wasp each add up to about 300 CPs. Spider-Man, Thing, and Vindicator (Heather Hudson) each add up to between 450 and 500 CPs. Magneto adds up to almost 700 CPs. Discuss with your players the kind of campaign you want to have and then experiment with different point totals before deciding how many CPs to give your players. For Avengers style campaigns, I'd suggest 300-350 CPs per hero. For low-powered, gritty, "realistic," or pulp campaigns, I'd give out about 200 CPs. If you want to play a high-powered or cosmic campaign, I recommend handing out at least 500 CPs.

This system also allows GMs to built customized villains. By tailoring the number of CPs each villain is built with, a GM can gain a good handle on how well the villain should perform against the heroes. (For example, three 500-CP miscreants, 1500 CPs total, should do pretty well against five 300 CP heroes, despite being outnumbered.)

Next time, I'll continue to discuss PC heroes, including examples of building heroes with this system. Try this system, then write me and give me your impressions.


Normal Human Hero Generation
Punisher, Shang-Chi, Silver Sable, and the original Union Jack are all examples of normal-human heroes.

-Normal humans add one rank to any three primary abilities (or three ranks to any one, or two ranks to one and one rank to another ability), provided their abilities do not exceed maximum human limits.

-Normal humans automatically gain three additional talents (these do not count toward the maximum rolled on the Secondary Abilities table below).

-Normal humans gain one additional contact. Again, this does not count against the number of initial contacts rolled on Secondary Abilities table.

-Normal humans have no innate powers; any powers rolled must be incorporated into their equipment and have a maximum rank of Incredible for whatever power effect they have.

Abilities
As we've altered the Origins, we also have to adjust the numbers for the Generating Primary Abilities table on page 6 and the Generating Secondary Abilities table on page 7 of the Player's Book to allow for the greater levels of ability that compensate for the lack of powers. Remember to roll for powers (equipment), talents, and contacts separately on the Secondary Abilities table. The Secondary Abilities table below is for Normal-human heroes only.

Power Generation
The number before the slash is the number of powers the hero currently possesses, and the number after the slash is the maximum number possible for the hero. Remember most vigilante heroes are nonpowered personally, and hence, all power slots represent specialized equipment. Just about any power in the MARVEL UNIVERSE has been artificially duplicated by some scientist or other. Even the rare mental powers have been recently created by Spider-Man (Emotion-control gun used against carnage and crew) and the Black Knight (psi-screen armor that protects vs. mental and psionic attacks). Determine powers as you normally would in your campaign. Power ranks are rolled on the Random Ranks table above.

Talent Generation
The character's number of initial talents are rolled on the new Secondary Abilities table. The number before the slash is the initial number the hero possesses, while the second number is the maximum potential number of talents; this maximum can be exceeded only by bonus talents from the character's Origin. Determine talents as vou would normally. Talent ranks are rolled on Column 1 of the Generating Primary Abilities table in the Player's Book. If the player rolls less than the corresponding Primary ability, the hero gains the talent with the ability's standard rank number i.e., Good (10), not Good (8).

Contact Generation
Each hero gets a number of initial contacts as rolled on the new Secondary Abilities table. Normal-human heroes get an additional contact due to their origin.
A hero does not have to establish all his contacts at the start of the campaign-the others can appear as need be or as the result of role-playing. For each established contact, the hero must provide a name. Characters with secret IDs can assign contacts to his heroic ID, his secret ID, or both. The secret ID has less risk to the hero, because if your contacts don't know you are a superhero, you cannot be called upon by them to perform heroic acts.

Example character
Now that we've got the mechanics in place, let's try them out and create a new heroine for the MARVEL UNIVERSE.
Origin & Abilities
I've already determined that the character's origin is a Normal-human hero. Therefore, using the new table, I generate the following ability scores:

Roll Ability Initial Rank & Number
97 Fighting Incredible (36)
22 Agility Typical (5)/Excellent (16)
64 Strength Good (8)
53 Endurance Good (8)/Excellent (16)
76 Reason Excellent (16)
88 Intuition Remarkable (26)
32 Psyche Typical (6)

Our new character's Health is 76 (total of Fighting, Agility, Strength, and Endurance), and her Karma is 48 (total of Reason, Intuition, and Psyche).

Normal-human ranks table (Column 6)
Rank Initial Rank Normal Human Human Max. (If result exceeds max., reroll.)
Feeble 1 01-05 -
Poor 3 06-15 -
Typical 5 16-50 -
Good 8 51-75 -
Excellent 16 76-85 Max. human Strengtb
Remarkable 26 86-95 Max. Endurance
Incredible 36 96-00 Max. Agility
Amazing 46 - Max. Fighting, Reason,Intuition
Monstrous 63 - -

Normal-human Secondary abilities table
D1OO Powers Talents Contacts
01-10 0,1 3/6 2/4
11-35 0/2 4/6 2/5
36-65 1/2 3/5 3/4
66-85 1/3 4/5 3/5
86-95 2/3 2/4 4/4
96-00 3/3 3/8 4/5

Powers, Talents, & Contacts
I roll three times on the Secondary Abilities table. A 30 for powers grants her no powers, but leaves the potential for two (of technological origin) later. A 38 for her talents gives her three talents as well as the three from her Origin for a total of six. She has two more talents pending, to be gained through game play Finally, a 59 on the contacts column allows her three contacts in addition to the one from her Origin gives her four contacts right now.

She has no powers now, so I don't need to worry about them yet.
Before choosing her talents, I need to think about her background. I think I'll give this heroine an espionage background, so I'll give her the following talents: Detective/ Espionage, Law enforcement, Martial arts A and C, Guns, and First aid.
In keeping with her background, three of her contacts will be with the FBI, her college criminology professor, and SHIELD. This leaves one contact left to be determined through role-playing.

Background
I've decided this is a female hero with no secret identity. Given the good physical and mental abilities, the character's a fighter and a scholar-I choose to make her a young college graduate and neophyte SHIELD agent.

The rest of her origin, including her motivation and codename, are up to each Judge and whatever she wishes to do with the character. We've quickly generated a character on par the Black Widow.

Marvel pulp

I was looking for unrelated item over the weekend when I ran across an "old friend" in the back of a closet: my box of Marvel Superheroes Role-playing Game stuff. Not the SAGA system one, but the original game by TSR from back in the 80's. My friends and I loved that game! It was very basic and free flowing. Many of my more "Refined" gamer friends scoffed at the game as amateurish and simplistic, to them Champions was the only true superhero RPG. Now I enjoyed champions as well, but I remember it taking FOREVER to get through a combat between 5-hero pc's and a group of bad guys and their leader.

Well anyway, many aficionados of Pulp genre gaming state that a pulp game should be quick in resolution and give the DM lots of latitude in order to make the play over the top and heroic. That got me to thinking as I scanned through my well-worn rulebook; I wonder if anyone has tried to apply MSHRPG to a Pulp setting? I took some of my favorite Pulp Player characters from other systems and applied them. With a little tweaking they made the transition just fine. I'm thinking a low powered supers campaign set in an alternate earth 1930's. By low powered I’m talking characters like the Spider, the Green Hornet, Union Jack, The Rocketeer, and maybe a Mandrake the Magician-style spell caster (That way I can use the nifty "Realms of Magic" supplement).

The Pigeon Lord

I think one of my funniest gaming experiences involved an old roommate of mine named Dave. Dave loved Psionicists. One day Dave and his fellow adventurers were trying to instill confidence in some local farmers they had been hired to help out (can you say Magnificent Seven?).

Well Dave the Psionicist decides to impress the yokels by demonstrating his Psionic powers of mind domination. I tell him that it might not be a good idea to mind control any of the farmers so he should try it on an animal or something. He asked me if there were any birds flying around. I said sure there is a pigeon on the roof of a nearby hut. He then proceeded to attempt to mind control the pigeon.

He failed his roll three times in a row. We were all laughing our Asses off. Dave got mad and said one more time and if he failed he would mind blast the pigeon.

Dave rolled one last attempt and got a critical failure. Everyone just about died laughing. I ruled that the pigeon now controlled Dave. So there was the groups Psionicist pecking at the ground and cooing. A few moments later the bandits attacked the village and throughout the battle all Dave could do was flap his arms and run around cooing.

He never lived that down.

Serenity

The worst part of the whole “move thing” that has consumed my life for the last few weeks was that I missed the opening of the Firefly movie: Serenity. I have faithfully followed “Firefly” since it’s plagued run on FOX and have been plugging it to everyone who would listen to me ever since. On Sunday I finally saw it. I laughed, I cheered, I even got misty-eyed. What can I say about it that the critics haven’t? It was a great movie, a fantastic wrap-up for the “little show that could”. Life isn’t fair, and some things just boggle the imagination, an intelligent, witty, character driven show like “Firefly” is canceled in its first season and yet inane shows like “Yes Dear” are still killing brain cells in primetime.

Marvel Magic?

I never played Magic: the Gathering card game, but If they actually came out with these cards I could easily see myself going down that self destructive road real quick. Marvel Magic?? I don't know too much about it, but it sure looks cool.

Legends of Steel

Legends of Steel is moving along. I found that I need to clarify the mechanics and give more examples of how they are used. I usually feel that the rules are clear and need no further explanation. But what I have been trying to do is bring myself back to the perspective of someone unfamiliar with the rules or even with role-playing. When I first envisioned LoS it was a game for folks who already had a grasp of role-playing and it’s various concepts. But as I review the game I realize that I need to explain things in layman’s terms so that everyone at the game is clear on what the rules are and why, So most of the work on the game in the last couple of weeks has been in adding clarifications and examples of concepts like skill resolution, combat and other areas. It’s also becoming more apparent to me that LoS has the potential to be a multi genre system. With a bit of tweaking the game could lend itself to any “cinematic” type of play from Pulp to Space opera. More on that later…

Dr. Mindbender & Joe Karma

“Joe Karma” is what you do to help a fellow GI Joe collector who is in need of a certain item or hard to find figure. It works just like regular Karma only in that the good things that come back to you are Joe-collector related. As many of you Know Hasbro has suspended the 1/6th scale line of GI Joe figures. Two of the last remaining figures of that line to be issued are “Dr. Mindbender” and “Sgt. Bazooka”. These figures have been released but alas in only certain areas of the US. Meaning those collectors outside of those areas have to either pay out the nose on EBay for them or rely on the good graces of fellow collectors who live in the areas where the figures are available. Like many others I went on the various collectors boards and sent out my distress signal. Luckily for me a buddy on one of those lists answered the call. Not only did MG send me both the figures in a matter of days, when I asked him for a total so that I could compensate him for the cost of the figures and postage, he told me not to worry about it, or to send him something in trade if I was so inclined. That’s Joe Karma, and it works. I’ve passed a bit of it on from time to time and here I am a recipient of it in kind. Needless to say my buddy MG will be getting a package in the mail soon from me. Joe karma is a concept I learned while collecting Joe’s, I'm sure other hobbies have similar traditions. If yours doesn’t, try to start it. It’s a good feeling.

No time to play

The move is still kicking my butt. I threw my back out yesterday by twisting when I should have been turning. The cable guy was a no-show on Sunday prompting me to fire Comcast and go with Surewest (at least they have Boomerang), but now I have to wait until Oct 4th to get cable and Internet at home UGH. I'm behind in posts for both the Conan game and the Basher game. I'm starting to get my “Joe area” at the house sorted through. I picked up some great stuff at the last show but no time to play with them. More later…back to work.

We is back! sorta...

Okay, first things first. It’s Wednesday so…




Now, about me… My move is about 90% done. No major injuries except for my pride, a year of sedentary office work has really taken a toll on the old Evil DM. My muscles feel like rubber, my calves and thighs ache so much I'm walking like Gabby Hayes. I can’t believe we packed away so much stuff in a two-bedroom apartment. The new house has tons of space (I even have a cool little work place for my action figure kit bashing). The only other thing I did besides the move this weekend was a ten-minute excursion to the Joe show here in Sac. I only stayed long enough to settle a couple of accounts, but I still managed to snag three Cy Girls and a couple of odds and ends. I came back to the office today to find a small mountain of paper work and a dozen phone calls to return, plus I found I have a test Friday night and a paper due on Saturday, AND we still have to move some more stuff out of the old place and clean it up.
Spock…Help me…Spock!

FYI

GOOD NEWS! we are getting out of our two bedroom apartment and into a real house this weekend. I'm taking monday and tuesday off to finish the move. Now, because of the move we wont have any cable at the house till sunday 25th so I'll have to post from work. So posting here at the Lair will be spotty at best for the next week or so.

2E Gamer in a 3E world

The Dragon and Dungeon magazines have been a staple with me for as long as I’ve been gaming. I’ve been with them through three editions of the game and a couple dozen editors. One thing I find amusing is how folks state that because the magazine doesn’t support their pet version of the game (i.e. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd edition) they no longer find it relevant to them. I'm a die-hard 2nd edition player and I find useful content in just about every issue. Yeah, maybe the mechanics need a bit of tweaking to conform to your mode of play, but to me the importance is in the article itself, the topic, not the statistics. An article on running a Pirate campaign is just as useful to me whether its written for the Eberron setting in 3rd edition or the Spelljammer setting in 2nd edition. I think people who make the argument that the magazine is useless to them because their edition is no longer represented are just lazy. This whole game is based upon imagination and I find it funny that many of its players cant get past the mechanics of a system and see the usefulness of the articles as a whole.

Iron Gauntlets

About a year ago I was at RPGnow and purchased a PDF Roleplaying game called Iron Gauntlets from Politically Incorrect games. It was a solid Fantasy based system at a great price. On Friday I received an email from RPGnow informing me that a new updated version of the game was available.
Now I absolutely hate when I buy something like a DVD for instance only to be told several months down the line that a brand new “special edition” with 7 hours of never –before-seen footage is now available, so seeing the email I immediately became irritated. Here was another game company releasing a page or two of errata and trumpeting it out like it was a whole new edition just to get a few more bucks out of me. Well imagine my surprise when I found that the email contained a FREE copy of the updated version. Cool.
Not only did the email bring me back to the Politically Incorrect games website, but it also left me with a positive feeling about the company, its products, and the way they do business. Iron gauntlets is a fun game (you can find a review of the game here) and worth a second look. So stop by the PIG website and have a look around. There is a lot to see and it’s all priced very reasonably.

A public service announcement

Hey guys,
my name is Amber, I'm a cheerleader at USC I also work part time at Hooters. My roommates- Leah, Kascha, Honey, and Monique, and I love to spend cold rainy nights playing AD&D in our lingerie. Since we love AD&D so much we only date gamer guys who play second edition AD&D (no 3E for us). Sometimes when we're bored we get drunk on wine coolers and roll up characters all night long using our Core Rules software program, other times we just have pillow fights and practice making out with each other. If any of you guys are in the L.A. area and are looking for a game of AD&D send me an email and I'll give you directions to our apartment. Unfortunately, we only have one super king size bed so if it gets late and you stay over I hope you don’t mind sharing...

Amber

Lesson to be learned

I turned on my computer today and went to my yahoo account. I typed in the log in and password-INVALID. Hmmm…I retyped it a bit slower this time-INVALID. I tried again, slowly and with care- INVALID. I make my way to the help section and try again. I'm informed that my account has been deactivated. Huh? Deactivated? I never requested that my account be deactivated. Ok, now I need to talk to somebody.
I call customer support and speak with Melanie, who in a quite pleasant and professional manner informs me that my account has been closed due to a violation of the terms of the agreement in regards to Yahoogroups (Yahoogroups is a forum type service where folks join to discuss anything from quilts to Politics in China. I belong to several groups that discuss Action figures, role-playing games, comic books etc.). Well, I inform her that whatever the violation was it was purely unintentional and if they could just reinstate my account I’ll see to it, I have after all, a premium account which I pay for. Her reply was a pleasant but firm: No.
It seems that Yahoo’s policy is that once a violation occurs on ANY Yahoo service then the ENTIRE account is wiped out. There is no warning or recourse, all of this, she related to me, is clearly stated in the terms of service that you sign at the very inception of the account. Suddenly the realization of what she was saying hit me. Not only did I lose access to the groups I belong to, but my email addresses as well, and all the saved emails that I had filed away in my email folders, and more importantly all of the folders and addresses that my wife had stored there too (to lose my stuff because I was careless is a hit I’ll take, but to lose hers as well is damned embarrassing).
Well I was able to recover about 90% of the groups I was in or had run. But I still seem to have lost all the emails I saved on yahoo. Still working on recovery efforts but it will be awhile before its all back to normal. The coming weeks will probably show the extent of what I’ve lost information-wise. Oh joy.

1,000 hits

Wow, over the weekend the Bllog reached 1,000 posts. I suppose thats probably not all that much in the Blogosphere but I think it's pretty cool. My ego has been appeased for the day. Thanks to all for stopping by, and a special thanks to the four of you who actually visit on a regular basis!

The Dragonslayers

Last night Anthony, Fred, and Brianna earned that most coveted of D&D titles- Dragonslayer! Through a combination of planning, strategy, teamwork, and inventive use of resources- Akira the Mage (Anthony), Katar the desert Ranger (Fred), the warrior Amrios (Brianna) and Brother Stern of St. Cuthbert (NPC)- slew an Undead adult green Dragon. It was a solid win, I pulled no punches and didn’t fudge a single roll. They positioned themselves well, stuck to the plan, and came through. I’ve been playing this game for almost 30 years and I have yet to successfully take on a dragon. Way to go team!

The Hero of Canton

About a year ago I bashed a figure for a now defunct Star Frontiers PBEM. I was just looking at a picture and it struck me as familiar...but I couldn't nail it. then all of a sudden an epiphany!
It's Jayne! kind of...I'm gonna work on it though.

Risa "work in progress"

We had a saying in my old D&D group: “once you paint them they die”. It never failed, every time we had a character in a game, once we found a Miniature figure for it and had the figure painted, the character would get it self killed. Well, I don’t paint miniature figures anymore, I graduated to kit bashing. This is a WIP (work in progress) of Risa. Risa is a character in the “Basher” PBEM game that I play in. She is a Psionicist, but makes her day to day living as a hunter and mercenary archer. It’s the first time I’ve played a Psionicist in many years. Risa has yet to shine in the group, so far her main accomplishment has been to accidentally shoot our cleric in the back during a fumbled roll in combat, but I have high hopes for her.


The figure is a GI Jane army nurse body (not as voluptuous as a PB figures from BBI but I wanted her more athletic) I used on of the “Girl force heads cause the likeness to the picture I'm using for her was spot on.


My wife did the outfit; the cape, bow, quiver and hunting knife came from Ed Cassar.

Here’s a little Bio on her:

Risa (Psychokinetic/Telepath)
Human Female, 23 years old, fair complexion, brown hair, Hazel eyes, 5'9",110 lbs
Aragossean/Abbashan mix. She speaks with a working class Aragossean accent.



st 10 can carry up to 40 LBS. can press 115 LBS. can force doors on a 1-6 (D20)
dx 17 +2 to surprise and missile attacks -3 to AC
co 16 +2 hit points per level
in 14 4 bonus Non weapon proficiencies
wi 15 +1 save VS. mind affecting spells
ch 15 +3 reaction bonus
HP 24
LVL 3
A/C 7
PSP 41

Proficiencies:
Literacy (1)15
Gaming (1) 15
Harnessing subconscious (2)14
Hunting (2)14
Juggling (2)16


Combat Proficiencies:
Short bow
Boxing

Psionic Powers
Contact:15
Control Flames:14
Inertial Barrier:13
Levitation:12
Life Detection:12
Mindlink:11
Molecular Agitation:15
Molecular Manipulation:11
Telekinesis:12

Risa of course does not go around announcing herself as a “3rd level Psionicist”. She does her best to keep her abilities hidden. In character, only she knows the true extent of her abilities. While not rude, she doesn’t initiate conversation in new surroundings, preferring to listen and study the situation rather than rush in. as a hunter she has learned the value of patience and can wait until a situation presents itself to her advantage. Following is a list of some of the things a companion might start to piece together about her. some could be observed, some rumor and some she may reveal in conversation.

· No man touches her without her leave.
· Her brother is the famed Aragossean boxing champion Bardan.
· She is an extremely lucky gambler.
· She enjoys archery as a form of meditation.
· She has been to Abbashan, Broaq-Nohar, Prince Samuel’s isle, Ravvikka, and Port Karn.
· She has been in several mercenary Archer units.
· It’s rumored that she once escaped from a mountain prison in Broaq-Nohar
· She is a skilled hunter
· She seems to keep to herself but knows an odd mixture people, from young rogues to aged noblemen. From hermits living in mountain caves to whores Plying their trade in the “Night Market” of Port Karn.

Work in Progress update

Added a leather breastplate and a Torc...He's coming along. more later.

Pedro gets an upgrade.

Pedro the Rogue is one of my permanent figure/characters. I picked up a matching smallsword and poinard, as well as a brace of throwing daggers, He was overdue for an upgrade.

G.I. Spy

I picked up a copy of Boom! Studios newest comic book G.I. Spy and I enjoyed it immensely. G.I. Spy is set in the late 1930’s and follows the adventures of US Army Intelligence agent Jack Shepherd, who travels the world on behalf of the US government to battle threats to national security. In the opening issue he is in the Belgian Congo where he and a British agent named Kaitlin Hunter uncover a secret Uranium mining operation being run by the Nazi’s. So there you have it, secret agents, hidden bases, and Nazis. Throw in some killer robots, high tech gadgets and Albert Einstein and you have the makings for a good old-fashioned “two-fisted” pulp adventure. What’s not to love? There are a few little nits; the biggest one is that the hero uses the word “cool”. I can forgive a lot, especially when reading a comic book, but c’mon lets try to stay in character, I'm sure with a little more thought the writer could have come up with something a little more in line with the dialogue of the era than “cool”. But all in all that’s my only nit to pick in an otherwise entertaining read. The website is slick and promises some great villains and more gadgets. G.I. Spy comes in on the high –end price wise at $3.99 an issue but you’re supporting a small publisher and there were no ads on every other page to interrupt the story, so for me it was money well spent. I heard some buzz from Comicon that the publishers were shopping the title to some studios for consideration; this would make a great Popcorn movie. I'm gonna start on a Jack Shepard action figure kit-bash this weekend, I'm thinking of using a Max Steele or one of the Lanard head sculpts, and go from there. The idea behind G.I. Spy isn’t too distant from my own vision of a Post WWII Adventure Team. As to gaming, the world of G.I. Spy would make a great campaign no matter what the system.

If you can't find a copy of G.I. Spy at your local comic dealer, you can find it online at Silver Bullet Comics.

ROAR Marathon

Roar was a short lived series on FOX (aren't they all). It was part Braveheart and part Hercules/Xena. I enjoyed it. well until the inevitable DVD of the series is released you can geek out on Thursday the 25th to an all day Roar marathon on the Sci Fi channel. check your local listings.

Work in Progress

I had a good deal of Kitbashing time this weekend. I worked on about four figures. All are in various stages of completion the closest is this one. I love the Roadblock headsculpt and when I picked up this sledge hammer from Ed Cassar at the Joe meeting last weekend I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Please excuse the picture, I took it with my camera phone, the shirt is actually more brownish than the orange that appears in the pic. Like the title says "Work in progress" if anyone out there has any suggestions please post em!

Swords of Erisa

Y’know back in the old days before Blogs were invented many of us Geeks had actual websites. For instance I have a website called “Swords of Erisa”. The name is from my Homebrew campaign world of Erisa. I started creating the world back in the 80’s but it existed mostly in binders and scraps of paper. Then on 2000 I was persuaded to use it as the campaign world for a series of Play by email games (believe it or not, two of those games are still running). Erisa is a mid level magic-world more in line with Greyhawk than with The Forgotten Realms. The main issue that separates Erisa from other fantasy D&D Campaign worlds is the fact that elves do not exist on Erisa. Between keeping this blog going, running my Conan game, playing in the Bashers game, working on “Legends of Steel” and writing articles for KODT, I really haven’t shown my website a lot of attention. Maybe now that I put it in front of my face I’ll work on it a bit.

Why the Blog? or "Pink in Pepsi commercial"

There are a lot of things I want this weblog to be. I want it to be informative, fun, relevant in it's own little niche, and a place that people want to come back to. Make no mistake, Blogs are in most cases a form of electronic vanity, a way for the average Joe and Jane to say "Hey! Listen to me". "Hear what I'm thinking". "Look at what I'm doing". The Lair of the Evil DM is no different. My hobbies are a very important part of my life, coming second only to my family. My hobbies more than anything else describe who I am. And at times I want to share my enthusiasms with other like minded people.
So this Blog has become somewhat important to me. It's a way for me to express my self in regards to the things I find interesting. A way to show off the small accomplishments I render. When I kitbash a cool looking figure, when I sell an article to a magazine, when I have something on my mind that the regular people in my life could care less about, this is where I go to express myself. In Hawaii I had a room all to myself, it was filled with games, toys, mementos, pictures, all stuff that I collected over the years and enjoyed. Unfortunately at the present time I don't have a room to myself and much of what was in that room is locked away in storage. So in many ways this Blog has become my den or "Lair" so to speak. So if you find yourself here after Googling "Mego" or "Pink Pepsi commercial" then stick around and have a look. If your a gamer or kitbasher, maybe something I'm working on will give you a nugget of inspiration. And if your part of the "Wednesday only" gang that's cool too, that's what the gals are there for. But in any event, don't be shy, drop off a comment and massage my ego.

Infinite patience

I was at the mall the other day and there was a craft show going on. amongst the exibitors was this 81 year old guy who makes these scale models from scratch! he does old west buildings and rail works mostly, but he also had these models of Fort Ross and Fort Sutter. each piece done individually including the roofs which are shingled a piece at a time. Incredible.

What a weekend

It’s nice when things run smoothly. For me, this weekend went down as smooth as Tennessee sipping whisky. I spent Saturday morning house hunting with my wife and found a few nice prospects. In the evening Fred and his daughter came over and I ran a fun session of D&D for them and my son Anthony. Later in the evening after they left I was checking my email and found a letter from Knights of the Dinner Table magazine informing me that they had accepted an article I submitted. On Sunday, Anthony and I went to the monthly meeting of the Nor-Cal GI Joe club. I took a couple of figures for “show and tell” and had an up-close look at Fred’s Bouncer entry for the Fantasynet contest, as well as Ed’s “Mini me” blacksmith. Ed brought me some goodies that I had ordered (Throwing knives with bandoleer, and a custom Blackfoot Indian warrior). He brought his boxes of goodies and I picked up some leather armor, a pair of daggers, a maul, Mage bag, and some other miscellaneous equipment that will find their way onto my figures. I also scored three Cy Girls (a Cutie Honey and a pair of Aska’s). All of that trading and buying was followed by a lunch of burgers and dogs hot off the grill.
After that it was home and a relaxing evening with the family watching movies. All in all nothing stupendous, but still it’s nice to have everything fall smoothly into place from time to time.

The perils of First level

Fred and his daughter came over tonight and I ran a D&D game for them and my son Anthony. They are all 1st level characters and are tackling a nest of vicious little Goblins. When you’ve played as long as I have, you can get kind of jaded about adventuring. When you’ve killed giants and Dragons, saved kingdoms and challenged the God’s themselves, what more worlds are there to conquer? But at 1st level even the difference between choosing “Color spray” or a “Sleep” spell, can spell victory or ruin for the party. Our brave heroes were tested to their limits, but thanks to the assistance of a very capable NPC Warrior/Priest, they came out alive. They even managed to secure a little treasure for their trouble. So now the goblin nest is clear and the countryside is safe once again. And in clearing out the goblin den, the group managed to unearth a subterranean passageway of worked stone that leads down into the darkness…more adventures to follow.

WHAT THE...!

In my surfing I ran across a nude cartoon of Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin. following the link I found a whole subworld dedicated to cartoon porn. Disney porn, Hanna Barbera, superhero. I knew about the Anime stuff but not this. what a trip and more than a bit disturbing....Sorry friends no link, you do your own research, but it's out there.

Storm's tavern contest

Over on fantasynet they have another contest in the works. the challenge is to create a patron of Storm's tavern (the virtual pub on the message board) Here is my entry: Bakash

Some say he is an exiled prince from the Southern Kingdoms. Others say he is an ex-slave who won his freedom in the arena. One thing everyone agrees on is that if there is something you need or a problem you want taken care of, Bakash is the man to see. To the “Quality “of the city he is a merchant –prince who skirts the edge of propriety just enough to be rakish and fashionable. To the Street folk and those who make their way on the dodgy path, he is a man not to be trifled with, a slaver, an assassin, nothing happens in the maze without Bakash knowing about it. He has investments throughout the city. Gambling houses, Brothels, opium dens, he has slave ships and caravans. What he doesn’t have is Storm’s tavern. No one knows why a man of his power and standing is interested in a nondescript tavern for soldiers of fortune and other rogues. It doesn’t matter why. The point is he wants it, and eventually Bakash always gets what he wants.

The road from Hanumar

Spent most of my free time this morning working on a map for my Conan game.
the players are heading out to the Border kingdoms to "reaquire" some misplaced property for a mysterious patron. this is a chot of them heading out of town on a road that cuts through an apple orchard.

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.