Space City Con - Houston August 10 – 12

Space City Con is an all-ages festival of comics, sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, literature, and art, in the spirit of Houston, Texas! Envisioned as a "geek festival with free parking," SCC is conveniently located at the Westin Galleria convention center & hotel, August 10 – 12, 2012. Their goal is to put on the best convention possible for current generations of fans, and instill a love of , comics, Sci-fi and fantasy in the next generation.

Space City Con is the Gulf Coast’s newest fan culture convention, offering a robust mix of authors, artists, sci-fi, fantasy, comics, gaming, fan group networking, literature, writing workshops and more, in a venue meant to be more approachable to families and children. It was founded in 2012, and will be held at the Westin Galleria convention center & hotel, August 10 – 12, 2012. Conceived as a “Geek Festival with free parking”, the event is attached to the 4th largest mall in America, in the 4th largest city in America—Houston, Texas. The grand Galleria Mall boasts 375 stores, a large food court, ice rink, various restaurants with a taste of Texas.

For the inaugural year, Space City Con embraces the Kids Need to Read foundation, since their founders consider these elements as fuel for creative thinking, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and most of all, expanding the boundaries of what is known, into dreams and a yearning for what is unknown, what is unseen . . . but can be painted by the incredible human mind and spirit. Space City Con wishes to pass on the torch from one generation to the next, echoing the cry for “Inspiring Imagination!”

You can follow Space City Con on Twitter or Facebook.

The Savage Troll will be there! Will you?

eReader vs. Tablet for RPG pdfs

(see end of article for an update)

I'm tired of lugging around RPG books. I have a bookshelf full with many resting unused for years. Some were never used. I just don't see the point.

Now that I play Savage Worlds my need for new books is even smaller. Since I design most of my own settings, I usually use the supplements as source material without actually using most of the game itself. I therefor starting buying my games as PDFs to save space. The side effect was to make for a rapidly searchable text when looking for rules during my online games.

So it seemed reasonable that one of the eBook readers like a Kindle or a Nook would fill my need nicely. I posted the question to a few online forums asking for advice. I was surprised by the response.

2010 ENnie Winners

2010 Winners and Nominations

Bone Tooth Pick: How To Be A Great GM

For insecure GMs everywhere, Avalon Games produced a new supplement telling you how to be the bestest GM ever. The work is 15 or so pages long and includes such topics as Getting Organized and Knowing Your Players.

My first reaction to this supplement was to snort in derision but my view has softened a bit. Maybe its for people that really want to game and think the only way they'll be able to play is if they pick up the GM mantel. For those folks I recommend visiting some of sites that help match players to games like RPG Game Find or other similar sites.

If you really do want to improve your GM skills, I highly recommend reading the GM section in the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition. The SWEX GM's section is as long as this entire supplement, comes with all the Savage Worlds rules, and only cost $10.

Still, if you enjoy Oprah this might be the self-help book for you. For only $4.99 you can learn all (and I mean ALL) the secrets of good GMing. As an alternative I recommend asking your players how to improve the game and making sure everyone has a lot of fun.

Review: The Kerberos Club - Savage Supers in the Victorian Age

Product: The Kerberos Club - Savage Worlds Edition
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
People: Benjamin Baugh, Todd Shearer
Price: $23.99

Since I normally develop my own settings, few products give me a desire to drop my current game in favor of something new. Space 1889 is a perfect example of such a game. The concept of colonial, Victorian England in space and Liftwood ships over Mars was too juicy to pass over. Another was Solomon Kane dealing with horror in the 1600s. I forced these games upon my players for the shear joy of Game Mastering the setting. I have a new entry in that small list. A super hero game placed in 19^th century London: The Kerberos Club from Arc Dream Publishing.

The reason: the Victorian Era is as rich in history and change as it is in literature and invention. The War of 1812, The American Civil War, and the Crimean War changed forever the way nation fought nation while inventions like the railroad, telegraph, photography, gas light, cars and even aircraft changed the very fabric of society. Science grew into the discipline we know today with Universities and companies devoting ever increasing resources to new discoveries. Occultism and Secret Societies became popular as it seemed there was no limit to what man could understand and do and no mystery too deep to uncover.

But inventions and advancements weren't the time period's only gifts. The Victorian Era gave birth to the literary works forming the foundation for almost all modern the RPGs, Fantasy, and Science Fiction we enjoy today. Works like:

• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
• Bram Stoker's Dracula
• H. G. Well's The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes, and The First Men in the Moon.
• Jules Vern's A Journey to the Centre of the Earth , From the Earth to the Moon , Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, and The Mysterious Island.
• George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin
• Andrew Lang's 12 "Coloured" Fairy Books

The 1800s saw the rise in power of the USA along with its breaking, remaking, and expansion from coast to coast. It was the era of the cowboy, the end of slavery, and the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

In England, it was a century of overall peace and prosperity often referred to as Pax Britannia with England being the dominant sea power of the day. In fine Savage Setting tradition, The Kerberos Club takes this history and twists it by introducing The Strangeness as an unseen force that warps and changes those it touches.

Torstan's Maps

Jonathan Roberts is a map maker who, through pure altruism, improved the quality of my fantasy maps greatly. He's also a cartographer for Kobold Quarterly, Sunken Empires, and Adventures in the Hyborian Age. 


Under the name of Torstan, he contributed tile sets and maps to Maptool which either ship with the product or can be downloaded into it. His work greatly speeds the development of new fantasy scenarios through the use of drag and drop map making. I created the Ogre Bandit Lair adventure with his tiles.


Jonathan released the latest map set in a series titled Low River Map Pack. The set contains battle mat pdfs for printing and jpeg files to import into your favorite Virtual Table Top. It also contains a Maptool campaign file with the maps preloaded. You can find the entire bundle of Fantastic Maps on DriveThruRPG.

Sample Map from the Low River Collection

Savage Space: 1889 Coming Soon

Space: 1889 and its companion Sky Galleons of Mars comprise one of the most memorable settings I've ever played. The character combat system wasn't great but the ship-to-ship rules were awesome. The book gave you atlases of Mars, Venus, the Moon, and Mercury along with the indigenous races for each planet. I fought the cursed Belgians from one end of Mars to the other and knew victory captaining the Screw Galley Texan's Pride. Now THAT was a setting!

This work, more than any other, inspired my pulp SciFi solar system for Space Nazis. Chadwick's vision of a hot and steamy Venus, a Mars in decline, and the world river of Mercury were all amazing. I admit I still love the setting after all these years.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group will release its own version of Space: 1889 at Gen Con this year melding my favorite setting with my favorite game system. If you're interested in learning more, you can download the free Introduction to Space: 1889 to tide you over until Pinnacle releases Red Sands to the rest of us who weren't able to attend Gen Con. (honest, I'm not grumbling.... much)

Game Glimpse: Shambles a.k.a. My LIfe as a Teenage Zombie

Ever want to explore life as a zombie? Then Shambles is the game for you.

You may think playing a slowly decaying corpse has limited RPG appeal but think of the fun of sharing your new undeadness with all your friends? Sure you have to dodge self-appointed, chainsaw-wielding zombie killers, government agents, and scientists seeking a cure but that's just part of the fun.

Shambles uses a lightweight RPG system you can play funny, grim, or gory depending on your mood and appetite for brains.

Matt's Maps

Matt Jackson (another project ADD sufferer) is putting his half finished works up on his blog . .lapsus calumni. .  Recently he posted a science fiction map that should suit your sci fi gaming needs. Drop by and check it out.

Miskatonic University

I'm a big fan of the Cthulhu mythos. Bits and pieces of it eventually make their way into almost any campaign I run. While I haven't played any form of Call of C'thulhu since its first release I do warp its creatures into my many creations. My Space Nazis campaign is a fine example of this.

I have a special fondness for Miskatonic University, home of the fighting Encephalopods.  True they've never won a pennant, bowl game, or even made it to conference finals but what can you do when half the team is down a few sanity points? 

I actually hold a degree from Miskatonic U (Go 'Pods!) in Medieval Metaphysics. True, it was through their online program but I'm told it holds the same weight as a normal degree from Mis U. Chaosium recently release the Miskatonic University Campus Guide if your interested in learning more.

2010 ENnie Nominees

The ENnie nominations are in. Voting begins this Friday (7/16). Drop by their web site to see a full list of nominees.

Sadly, only the Hellfrost Bestiary made it from the Savage Worlds game system. Its a scandal, a scandal I tell you. Good Luck to Wiggy and the other Triple Acers. Wiggy produces incredibly rich content and I highly recommend the entire Hellfrost series.

Congrats also to Hero Games for multiple nominations in the Best Interior Art, Best Game, and Best Rules category for Hero System 6th Edition and a nomination for Best Supplement titled Lucha Libre Hero, the game of heroic, horror fighting, masked, Mexican wrestlers.  Jack Black would be proud.

Space Nazis Z-Space Beastiary - Allies of Galaxia

Once the characters transit to Z-Space they'll be caught in a three-sided war between the Dark Ones, The Alliance, and Queen Galaxia's forces. This article details some of the thrall races and personalities under Galaxia's command.

Holy Hot Chainsaw Wielding Nazi Ninja Babes, Batman!

This popped up as a new product on DriveThruRPG. I pass it along with no comment other than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been one-upped in the genre goulash department.

Check out The Chainsaw Ninjas of the SS! It's only a dollar but you need HOT CHICKS: The Roleplaying Game if, for some strange reason, you actually feel the need to play.

Sweet Spots for the Time-Crunched Gamer: Weeknights, Nine To Midnight

So you've tried all the automation tips and game systems we've discussed and still can't get your group together to game. What's an RPG enthusiast to do? You're now battling the toughest constraint of all, which is time itself.

Sweet Spots for the Time-Crunched Gamer: MapTool

If you're reading this blog your probably a person with a family and career who has difficulty finding time and opportunity to game. For me, gaming is less about rules and more about the magic that happens when a group of three or more highly creative gamers share a few hours of imaginative fun. I run demo games for complete strangers, and from that sample, I can tell you I'm not alone.

From my introductory post, you know I've gamed for a long time with the same group. As distance or other chronological pressures prevented face-to-face gaming, I found other avenues to pursue my most favored hobby. In this article I'm going to discuss my current primary gaming tool, MapTool.

Sweet Spots for the Time-Crunched Gamer: Savage Worlds

In this week's Sweet Spot's article, we take a look at Savage Worlds and how this "Fast, Furious, and Fun!" game system can be a Sweet Spot for the Time-Crunched Gamer.

This article originally appeared in The Dice of Life

Life as a Middle-Aged Gamer (with Kids)

When I read my first D&D book 30 years ago, I never imagined that first fantasy game would be a lifelong hobby. At 15, your long term outlook is pretty limited. I was an avid fantasy and science fiction fan and D&D gave me a way to create my own characters that shaped their own story. After the first game, I was hooked.