Evil DM Auction - Gamma World Boxed set with two modules

Okay folks, the first auction went so well we will try another one with a few tweaks.

Up today we have another Goodwill find. A 1981 copy of Gammaworld. Personally I never got into Gammaworld but I know it's near and dear to many a old gamer. In any event I have a rescue policy for any RPG I run across at thrift stores.

The box is in okay shape, a couple of punctures on the cover and the corners are worn.
The rule book looks good and the map is clear.

the two modules are GW1 Legion of Gold and GW6 Alpha factor. both modules are in really nice condition.

****BIG DAMN DISCLAIMER****
I am not a professional grader of RPG's. These are games I rescued from Goodwill folks, I hope to sell them to a Gammaworld fan. Not to some speculator who is gonna turn around and try to make a profit on Ebay. If that was the case I'd do it myself. So consider these games "playable copies" not "collectible" ones. If you want to complete your private Gammaworld collection proceed, if you want to turn a buck and intend to bitch about every bend and crease on the cover, then move on.

Bidding is now over. The winning bid was $33.00

Paypal only (no cash, checks, or electrum pieces)

U.S. bidders only (seriously guys, U.S. Bidders only)

Winner agrees to pay $11.00 for USPS flat-rate Priority mail.

Auction ends at 12:00pm PST on Tuesday October 13th 2009.

Bid in comments section or at Boojiesdad at gmail.com

Good luck Gammaboys.

I love me some Santana. Great music to detail your car or bike by.

Swords of Erisa – Help us brainstorm!

With the release of Legends of Steel –Barbarians of Lemuria Edition and the popularity of the Legends of Steel – Savage Worlds edition, Evil DM Productions has decided to follow-up on these successes by moving  forward with the Swords of Erisa product.

Swords of Erisa will address a need that is brought to our attention with almost every email regarding Legends of Steel and the world of Erisa- Adventures.

Whether they play Savage Worlds, Broadsword, or Barbarians of Lemuria, Everyone wants adventures set in Erisa for their Legend of Steel game.  To answer that demand we are currently working on a half dozen adventures covering different areas of Erisa.

We are also brainstorming on other helpful goodies we can add to Swords of Erisa, so far we have-

A rogues gallery of personalities: friends, foes, contacts

A number of detailed places of interest (wineshops, Brothels, Caravansaries)

several locales- border fort, village, ruined keep

some “one-shot” encounters – just like the old “Sidetreks” from Dungeon magazine.

We are looking for things that will fit the genre as a whole, not just one system.  We don’t want to do a whole bunch of new Edges, Advantages, Classes, etc.

We want this to be more of a resource for GM’s. to help them pull something together in a small amount of time.

If any of you have any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas you would like to throw our way please do so!

Legends of Steel – it’s not Conan, but it ain’t so bad

The various editions of Legends of Steel have seen a spike in sales recently. It has come as nice surprise. The best reason I can figure for the spike is the recent news about Mongoose games and Conan Properties not being able to come to an agreement in regards to releasing a Runequest or Savage worlds version of their Conan game.

It seems that on a couple of boards talk of a Savage Worlds Conan Edition morphs into a Sword & Sorcery for Savage Worlds discussion, with someone eventually bringing up Legends of Steel.

I make no claim of Legends of Steel being anywhere near the league of massive efforts like Mongoose's Conan line, but it’s nice to be mentioned as at least being a viable alternative for folks who want some Sword & Sorcery flavor in their Savage Worlds gaming.

And by the way, after several weeks on Amazon, Legends of Steel Savage Worlds Edition finally has a review- and it’s a good one too!

check it out!

Manly Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump

Funny stuff from the Golden Age of Cinema

A Blast from Gaming's past- Knights and Magick – Heritage games

Do you guys remember this boxed set?

I remember the teen-aged me thinking his was just the coolest cover.  The grumpy old me still kinda likes it.  For some reason I never picked it up.  Probably because it was a miniatures game.  I never had much skill at painting miniatures, so my gaming was strictly RPG with (shudder) unpainted miniatures.

Tunnels and Trolls solitaire modules up for sale

Hey folks, by order of “She who must be obeyed” I’m cleaning out some of my excess here in the Lair.

I picked up these old school Tunnels and Trolls solo modules at goodwill a few months ago. they are all used of course and they have seen some play and shelf wear but they are complete.

I have

#1 Buffalo Castle

#2 deathtrap equalizer dungeon

#4 Naked Doom

#5 Dargons Dungeon

#7 Overkill

#8 Beyond the silvered pane

#11 sword for hire

#!2 Arena of Khazan

#13 sewers of Oblivion

#14 Sea of Mystery

#15 Blue frog tavern

#16 Misty wood

The whole lot goes to the highest bidder. Bidding ends tomorrow October 2nd at 5:00 am PST.

the bidding is now at $10.00 for the whole lot.

Buyer pays shipping $5.00 media mail or $10.00 for priority.

Shipping to U.S. only

Pay via paypal by this Saturday October 3rd

You can bid in the comments section

Hopefully this will go off without any hassles, if so, I have more stuff around here I need to move on.

Bidding is over. Items were sold. Thanks guys!

The Age of Epics Campaign- Part I Brainstorming and Kit-bashing

Today I participated in a discussion on RPGNet regarding the Prince Valiant Story telling game from Chaosium. We all agreed that the system is a wonderful mix of a rules light / setting rich RPG that was really way ahead of its time.

It got me thinking of a "back burner project" I've had for quite some time. I've been toying with a Medieval Age setting for awhile where I could mix Western European tales such as those of Camelot, and Eastern tales of the Orient such as those found in the Arabian Nights.

Now that we’ve released the BoL Edition of Legends of Steel it seems like a great time to work on this a bit more.

I want it heroic in tone and light in magic and I want it set in mythical/quasi Historical Earth.

For my resources I've decided to go with the LoS/BoL rules set. As source book material I'm using:

• The Prince Valiant Story telling game – Chaosium
• Charlemagne's Paladins – TSR
• GURPS Arabian Nights - Steve Jackson Games
• The Adventures of Sindbad - HEX Games

I know there are many more source books and systems I could use but I want to get started on this rather than spend time fumbling around gathering stuff. I also want to stress a heroic upbeat tone rather than a dark and brooding one. And these were the best choices for that which were at hand.

From the material I gathered I want to kit-bash a world in the same vein as the Prince Valiant comics. I also want it to expand and share it's universe with other legendary heroes near or about that period.

On my "Age of Epics" Earth Prince Valiant, Morgan Le Fay, and King Arthur will share the world with Sindbad, Ali Baba, Maugris, and Roland.

The main rules tweak I will have is that the use of magic is entirely the realm of the GM. There will be no magic using player characters. That isn't to say that players cannot play Priests or Mages, they can- it's just that they wont be allowed access to spells. The Mages will be more like Alchemists and Sages with a bit of sleight of hand thrown in.

Holy men, be they Mullahs, Monks, or Priest of Odin, will rely on their faith rather than their deity handing out "Cure light wound" spells every day.

There will still be magic wielding adversaries, Magical creatures, enchanted items, and more.

More to come…

Manly Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump

An overview of QAGS (finally)

Quite a few weeks ago I purchased QAGS 2nd edition from RPGNow. I had started to give it an overview on twitter but then I had a couple of surgeries on my back and the whole project sort of lagged. My apologies to the folks at HEX games for my flakiness but I really have been working at about 30% since the operations.
But enough of my pathetic whining- on to QAGS!

The 2nd edition of the Quick Ass Gaming System (QAGS) by Hex Games is available at RPGNow. It’s a rules light beginner friendly system that weighs in at 98 pages and will cost you $7.99 for the PDF download.

First off, a word of warning – QAGS pulls no punches and handles some material in a very Adult manner. The rules read at PG-13. Although the system is an ideal one for children, I highly suggest that the rules information be disseminated by a responsible adult. We are not talking porn here folks but there are a few off color remarks and enough adult language that parents should be advised.

Okay, enough of that.

Right off the top, QAGS takes the unusual step of really preparing potential players by going over the fundamentals of roleplaying and the importance of character concept and archetypes before even touching the mechanics of character creation (kudos!).

I just wish they organized their presentation better. They have so much to say and all of it is good- it’s just that they present it in such an annoying way. You try to read the main text, and suddenly there is a big ass box text on the next page talking about something totally different.

It’s like all the folks at Hex games are surrounding you as you read it saying “Oo, Oo, look at this, look at this.” “No, no look at this, at this.” “Hey, hey over here, over here, look at this!”- Frankly, it was damned annoying. The good thing is that what they had to say was interesting, otherwise I would have closed the PDF right there (and don’t even get me started on the three column text).

I’m not sure if chapter 2 was any better or I just learned how to mind shield myself from the sidebars that aren’t sidebars. But it seemed to go much smoother for me. Basically it’s all about task resolution. It’s a rather nifty system with degrees of success worked in.

The Damage system in chapter 3 is very cool. It’s quick and easy to grasp and I would think makes combat in QAGS move at a very brisk pace. The mechanics are very basic and friendly. An additional touch that helps is that each chapter has a little example of play tacked on at the end.

Chapter 4 is where they explain their systems use of Hero points, Bennies, Action points etc. In QAGS they are called Yum-Yum’s and are basically pieces of candy- M&M’s, Reese’s Pieces, raisins-whatever you want. I’ll give the folks at Hex points for originality. They definitely know their audience.

Chapter 5 goes into the fine art of roleplaying. Something that all of us experienced hands SHOULD know by now. But it never hurts to be reminded. As in the chapters before there is plenty of good advice dispensed here and worth reading, even for RPG veterans.

Chapter 6-8 turn the tables to help the GM with the thankless job of running the game. One of the many wonderful quotes I took away was:

“The first thing to realize when preparing a con game is that there’s a good chance you’re not going to know most of the players. More importantly, at least 25% of con-goers are card-carrying, USDA-approved morons.
Understand going in that the odds of you having a good time are not good.”

Tell it like it is brothers!

Chapters 6-8 are fluff, but they are important and entertaining fluff. Here again stuff that most of the experienced hands should know but at times forget (campaigns, plots, themes, mood, tone, PC Death, difficult players). QAGS takes the time to go over much of it and do so in an entertaining manner.

Appendices follow with a plethora (yes, I know what a plethora is) of charts, tables, setting overviews, character write ups, equipment lists, and even an outline of Joseph Campbell’s Heroes Journey. This is a ton of stuff, most of it useful, all of it amusing.

At the end I have to say it was a fun read. It could have gone smoother at the beginning. But by the time I was done I was eager to play. I’m going to try it out on my minions (heavily edited for content of course).

Good read?
Yes.

Easy read?
No.

Good system?
Yes.

Good value?
Yes.

Would you play it?
Yes.

As an overview, on a scale of 1-10 the Evil DM gives it an 8.

Go buy it!

I knew Montreal was cold, but I never knew it was so cool!

I got this from Forces of Geek. He's right,It just makes you feel good. And i heard they did this in one take!

Oh, to be young and goofy. As opposed to just being old and goofy.

Ruins of Hyboria- a great reference work with a lousy cover.

Like many of you, I’m one of those who actually read The Lord of the Rings decades before the movie came out. I would get the books out every couple of years and reread them as I did so I would wonder what this locale would look like or how to stat out that character. When Lord of the Rings came out I was an instant fan, sure they left out a couple of favorite characters and missed a few beats here and there, but for all of that I finally got a glimpse of Middle Earth beyond the Brothers Hildebrandt calendars. For me LoTR was a feast for the eyes. And such is the case with Ruins of Hyboria.

From Conan to Thundarr, Ruins are a staple of Sword and Sorcery fiction. In Ruins of Hyboria we are not only provided with a system to help create and flesh out ruins of our own creation. But we are also treated to full descriptions of some of the more famous ruins in the Conan saga.

Ruins of Hyboria starts with a unique system for generating ruins, I say unique because in goes much further than just laying out the size, location and denizens of the ruins. The generator takes into account many of the social aspects of the ruin back when it was a new and vibrant location. What was the nature of the ruin, who were the builders, how did it meet its fate and so on. If one wants they can get as detailed as what types of clothing and musical instruments would be found in the ruins treasure chambers. The particulars are up to the GM, but just the fact that such questions are presented for consideration is appealing.

The next section gives an overview of various Hyborian nations and the different types of ruins most likely found within those nations. The book links the ruins not only with the current population (legends and rumors about the ruins) but also with the motivations of the builders of the ruins. Each description is just two or three paragraphs in length but it conveys enough information for the GM to choose and begin fleshing out a ruin for his own use. Personally I would have liked to have seen this section expanded. Most of the ruins are of cities, I would have liked to have seen more temples, border forts, villas, and villages. One such locale was the Castle of Count Valbroso, who met his end in the Conan story The Hour of the Dragon; I thought its addition was a nice touch.

Ruins of Hyboria then goes into detailed descriptions of ruins from some of the most popular Conan stories such as Queen of the Black coast, Red Nails, The Devil in Iron, and many more. Histories, legends, layouts, maps, and denizens of these ruins are provided. I really enjoyed reading these interpretations of locales from some of my favorite stories.

The final section is a sort of GM’s toolkit of advice and tips for running an adventure in a ruin setting. From cave-ins to spiked man traps, there are more hazards than just the ravening packs of ghouls to contend with. A bestiary of creatures, a handful of new Feats round out this section and bring the book to a close.

As with almost all the books in the Conan Line from Mongoose, Ruins of Hyboria is an excellent sourcebook even if you don’t use the D20 rules engine. The only fault I can find in this book is my own dislike of the cover art. The picture on the cover looks like Conan is In the middle of a jailbreak, rather than entering a ruined temple. I know, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” But I do all the time, I’m just glad I was able to get past the cover of Ruins of Hyboria and into the treasure trove of gaming goodness inside.

Legends of Steel Play by Post Game

Over at the Evil DM Productions Forum I opened a section for a Play by Post game I'll be running soon called the Jackal's Lair.

I have four openings if anyone is interested (Simon's spot is reserved should he wish to play).

I've done this sort of thing before (though it's been a while) with varying degrees of success. the best recipe so far is:

Small number of mature players.
Egos checked at the door.
Make sure that the GM and players can commit a reasonable amount of time to the game (at least 2 posts a week).
A quick and easy system.
A short adventure.

So if any of you are interested please stop by at the Legends of Steel Barbarians of Lemuria section of the Forums.
Jeff

Manly Monday

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