Happy Dance - I'm Gaming Again

It's been a long drought for me since my last game, as far back as October of 2019. Back then, my long-time gaming friends from high school got together at a small Comic Expo near our hometown. We call our rare get-togethers Hawacon. So this would be Hawacon 2019.

I expected to run a Savage Worlds Bureau 13 - Stalking the Night Fantastic game. The beloved 80s RPG was due for a Kickstarter to be fulfilled as a SWADE Setting by game time. Sadly, that fell apart so I created my own game setting utilizing Bureau 13 as inspiration. 

The Comic Expo was within Brigandry Games, an ex-Walmart turned Friendly Local Game Store.  The convention space was large and we were the only tabletop gamers present. The game became yet another con destination as attendees strolled by and watched for a while. It was a little odd and a lot loud but we had a great game. 

We planned to get together again a few months later to finish the scenario but then Covid hit - and kept hitting. So we gave up. I would have switched to an online-only game but we have several Luddites who refuse to join a remote game and a few others that don't have the network bandwidth. There are 12 of us so just scheduling a Hawacon is like wrestling squid.

Once the vaccines rolled out we decided it would be safe to try again but there were a number of us who were still uncomfortable with a face-to-face meeting. MapTool and Google Meet came to our rescue. Hawacon 2021 was on!

Our venue was the Texan Theater, which is an upscale venue in our hometown. It has wifi, big-screen TVs, and catered meals. Overall the best con experience of our gaming careers. Our host is a long-time friend to many of our group and we're very lucky they let us use such a nice place.

We picked up after a year and a half like we'd never stopped gaming in the first place. Three of our members could be present so we cranked up MapTool for visuals and used Google Meet for video conferencing. There were a few technical glitches but overall the system worked. 

For the next game, we'll improve the camera system. Last time we depended on a laptop and a cell phone. We'll use a webcam suspended over the table with a mic so the remote folks can hear and a cell phone mounted behind the GM in addition to the original laptop so remote players can see the in-person group from both ends of the table.   

Virtual Table Top Interview - Savage Worlds Crept In

Gaming Ballistic interviewed R. K. Athey (aka The Savage Troll) concerning Virtual Tabletops and MapTool.  It was a wide-ranging discussion about communities, products, and Chaos Lord Zack.

Mobile Google Docs for Play-By-Post

I posted in a previous article how to use Google Docs (Drive) for a play by post game. For some reason, I expected people to post at their desktop. I was wrong. Almost everyone used a mobile device of some sort.

I'm organizing the game by Acts which contain Scenes which contain Rounds. I do one Drive document per Scene with the Rounds as Headings so I can generate a table of contents for easy navigation on a mobile device. Images use a sub-heading so they show up in the ToC as well. The players 'follow link' to any particular section.

First thing I had to figure out was how to take a screen shot. Don't laugh. I've never had to do this before. On my Note 2, I went to Settings->My Device->Motion and checked 'Palm Swipe to Capture'. To take a screen shot you act like you're going to karate chop your phone on one edge of the screen then swipe the edge of your hand from left to right or right to left. It takes some practice.

I then edit the photo in my favorite image editor, Sketch. It allows me to easily draw arrows and annotate. I can't say enough good things about that simple but powerful tool.

So, first thing I asked them to do is make sure they have Drive, Google+, and GMail.

I had previously shared the Drive document but it wasn't all that obvious to new users how to find that. 

The next problem was adding comments. Again, not that obvious to new users of the Drive Mobile App.

The results of this is a Savage Worlds game using MapTool. The maps are small on the screen but Drive allows a pinch motion on the image to expand for exploration.

I'm pleased with the results of using Drive on a mobile device. My only complaint so far is that when pinching the image above you often enter edit mode which covers some screen real estate with the touch keyboard.

New Free Novella - World of Grey

Writing is a passion I discovered later in life. To pursue it, I had mountains to climb. I grew up in East Texas where proper spelling and grammar are considered uppity. Gaming was another. This may seem odd but the built-in need to create was mostly satisfied by regular gaming sessions. I didn't 'need' to write.

That changed as my gaming time faded. I needed to create something, anything, that people could enjoy. I've always considered myself a good storyteller. Why wouldn't that work for writing?

Well, there's a world of difference between expressing something orally where your companions and die rolls help shape the story and sitting down to create something new. The problem isn't turning an amusing phrase or developing interesting characters. The problem is in holding the reader's attention for a novel-length production.

So what started as a hobby with some short stories and essays has turned into a time-consuming hobby as I study storycraft in hopes of attracting a reader base. I have another blog devoted to the subject over at rkathey.com and I've release two novellas - The New Moon Murders and World of Grey.

My stories are still very Gamey, meaning you can usually pick the Savage Worlds edges and hindrances within each character. But I think the stories are fun and members of my gaming groups seem to enjoy them. I would ask that you give them a try.

Until December 1st, readers of this blog can download World of Grey from Smashwords.com by navigating to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/372128 and entering the following coupon code at checkout: RS28M

If you enjoy the novella, please take the time to go to Smashwords, Goodreads, Amazon, or other review sites and share you thoughts. Breaking in as an indie author is difficult. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
R K Athey aka The Savage Troll

The Future of Storytelling Free Online Course

This came across the social streams the other day. It's an online course on the future of storytelling. I've decided to enroll to improve my RPG scenarios and writing.

Together with a whole network of media researchers, creators and students we will:
- learn storytelling basics such as antagonist/protagonist relationships, narrative/narrated time, ...
- have a look at exciting current media projects
- analyze how they are designed and executed based on aforementioned basics
- and discuss how (and if) new online tools and formats change the way stories are told and perceived.

The 8-chapter course starts on October 25th, 2013 and ends on December 20th, 2013.

It will offer weekly video material, lessons, interviews and tasks on the following topics (not necessarily in this order):
- storytelling basics
- serial formats (on the TV, web and beyond)
- storytelling in role-playing games
- interactive storytelling in video games
- transmedia storytelling
- alternate-reality gaming
- augmented reality and location-based storytelling
- the role of tools, interfaces and information architectures in current storytelling.

For more information, check out the enrollment link.

I'll see you there.

Five Savage Worlds Titles for $5

DriveThruRPG.com announced a sale on five Savage Worlds titles for $5 in the Savage in September Sale. There's something here for everyone.

Weird Wars II

"In the horror of war, dark things rise, and World War II is history's greatest conflict. The Japanese stalk the jungles of Southeast Asia. Carriers battle in the South Pacific. Tanks trundle across North Africa. Planes duel over England. The Nazi blitzkrieg conquers most of Europe with a genocidal madman at the controls. Prepare to battle the evil of the Axis powers and the hideous things that rise in their wake. This isn't just war-this is Weird War!

Weird War II contains everything you need to run horrific World War II adventures with the Savage Worlds game system: new powers, Edges, Hindrances, weapons, vehicles for all the major powers, an Adventure Generator, dozens of Savage Tales, new monsters, and an operational-scale Plot Point Campaign that ties it all together."

Shaintar

"Sean Patrick Fannon’s vision of Epic High Fantasy comes to life for Savage Worlds in this all new iteration brought to you by Evil Beagle Games.

"The heart of any lasting and memorable roleplaying campaign is the setting. Is it vivid? Alluring? Full of mysteries, as well as straight-ahead challenges?

If the answer is “Yes” to all of these, you are in good hands.

SHAINTAR is deep in “good hands” territory.

Just paging through the Players Guide makes you want to play, and it’s genuinely hard to create a boring character using this book; everything works together to make your Hero interesting. And that’s even before you get to the four detailed Major Enemies lurking in Shaintar. Or the rules for alchemy, or the tantalizing glimpses we get of the Black Lantern and Grayson’s Grey Rangers . . .

A winner. Get this book." -- Ed Greenwood, creator of The Forgotten Realms®

Savage Worlds fans will find a lot to love about Shaintar: Legends Arise:

• Eleven distinctive Races with many specialized Racial Edges for each.

• Over 60 new Edges, including Professional, Combat, and Power Edges.

• Expanded options for magic, including Applications for Sorcery, Extended Casting, and more.

• New and expanded rules for Alchemists and Artificers, as well as personalized magic items.

• Setting rules like All Out Move, the Deep Magic, and Lead from the Front.

• Information about the many nations and factions that drive the stories of Shaintar.

• A complete Timeline featuring thousands of years of Shaintar's history.

• A Denizens section with many dozens of characters and monsters, as well as five new Monstrous Templatesand templates for changing almost any Denizen to any of the eleven Races.

• An expanded Weapons, Armor, and Gear list for epic fantasy gaming, as well as a Resource system to replace "counting coins" for wealth management.

• Extensive advice about Game Mastering an Epic High Fantasy setting.

• Three Legendary Tales, "Countering the Terror," "Red Store Rising," and "Return to Honor, Return to Glory."

Anyone seeking Epic High Fantasy adventure will enjoy this book, as will anyone wishing to add lots of great new material to their Savage games!

This book covers Novice through Veteran Rank gaming. The upcoming Shaintar: Legends Unleashed will cover Heroic and Legendary play."

Interface Zero

"Welcome to the Future!
Didja Bring Your Gun?

Are ya Wired?

Wanna crash a corp Domain?

Interface-Zero, is the first book in the Interface-Zero Cyberpunk Setting by Gun Metal games. IZ brings your Savage Worlds game up to speed with the dark, frenetic world of 2088.

Within the pages of Interface-Zero, you can match wits with ancient triad lodge masters, anarchist hackers and digitalized corporate moguls. Thwart the machinations of the New Chinese Mandarinate, or the Theocratic North American Coalition. Stare down the end of your gauss rifle at or match nano-woven steel with ganglanders, gene-spliced hybrids and borg shock troopers.

Life is fast in 2088. If ya wanna survive, you need to be faster. Don't worry Ami, we got ya covered. Fast Furious and Fun cybernetic rules enable you to create any type of cybernetic implant or bioware modification you can imagine!

Interface Zero hooks you up with everything you need to hack a computer network or derezz an enemy hacker in 2088. But watch out, omae; ghost into the wrong system and you'll get fried faster than your food vat can spit out NUTRIpaste!

Interface Zero is a game without barriers; a setting where you can be artificially intelligent robots, vat-grown simulacrum, transgenic hybrids or just plain old flesh and blood humans. You can jack into the world around you and program it to suit your needs. You can implant cyberware in your body, interface with machines, fly hover craft, golemmechs, jump bikes and even hover tanks and Low Altitude Vehicles complete with the latest weapons and cutting edge VTOL or anti-gravity propulsion systems.

You can assume the roles of shadow operatives who rage against the corporate machine, private detectives cut from a noir-inspired cloth, fearless, larger than life heroes piloting mecha in a futuristic, transhumanist Japan- even survivors gutting it out in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with mutant horrors or AI-spawned mechanical nightmares are viable concepts in Interface Zero. Interface Zero is more than just a game setting, it is a toolbox you can use, adding or dropping whichever elements you wish to create the sci-fi game world that you and your friends want to play in."

Suzerain

"Suzerain is an Origins Award Nominee from the Savage Mojo design house (who brought you Shaintar and Gamescapes, and are Origins Award winners for Deadlands Reloaded). This edition of Suzerain is written for the Savage Worlds rule system (SW:EX rulebook required), expanding the core rules in a number of key ways - a new approach to races is just the beginning.

Suzerain takes characters from one world to another or even to another time. History and fantasy, past present and future - they are all your playground now. Gaming groups just became...

...a pantheon in the making.

Inside the covers you'll find:

• All the universe background you'll need to run games in any time, any place.
• Over 50 new edges, hindrances and powers.
• Stats for over 100 new NPCs and monsters to use as allies and adversaries.
• A vastly expanded system for characters once they hit Heroic rank, with plenty of emphasis on the Legendary experience, and introducing a whole new rank - Demigod.
• 30 scenarios including a campaign spanning the three main eras of a character's development - Novice, Heroic and Demigod.

Where most Savage Worlds settings finish their campaigns, Suzerain is just getting started. With Suzerain a Novice character can expect to battle his way up to being a true Hero of the universe, to meet deities, and finally to become a god himself!

Product Contains: A 196 page full color, hi-resolution PDF. It is a large download file and art intensive. Also included for the same price is a print friendly version."

Thrilling Tales

(our review)

"Grab your fedora and your ivory-handled .45s and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime as Thrilling Tales unleashes the pulse-pounding excitement of the pulp magazines and cliffhanger serials of the 1930s and 40s into the Savage Worlds rules system!

This exhaustive guide to the genre features a timeline of the 1930s, information on pulp-era weapons & vehicles, a guide to pulp villains including Nazis, the Thugee and Perils of the Orient, a Random Adventure Generator, and a complete fifteen-chapter Plot Point serial campaign, The Crimson Emperor!

Be sure to also check out The Thrilling Tales Adventure Bundle -- six pulp adventures for Savage Worlds, at 50% OFF the regular price!"

Shane Lacy Hensley visits San Diego, shares stories, ideas, and drops some hints!

Shane Lacy Hensley, creator of Savage Worlds, visited one of San Diego's FLGS: Game Empire on Saturday, May 4th.

At first I tried to think of an event in San Diego that would merit such attention. Was it a Deadlands tournament at Game Empire? No, they had flyers sharing Shane's visit up for the past two weeks but no mention of anything other than the visit.

Was it the Gaslight Gathering, a Steampunk convention with a gaming room open all weekend? No.

So what was it?

Well, at 1pm I discovered Shane was just here to visit his old gaming buddy from College, Richard Speakman. Luckily for us, Richard asked if Shane wanted to visit his favorite gaming store and Shane said yes bringing free Deadlands Comics for Free Comic Book day to boot.  He also wanted to sit and visit with the local Savage Worlds Fans. 

Once we all had our game books signed, Shane sat at the big middle gaming table and answered  questions, listened to our ideas, and shared stories. Before we get to some of the new fast, furious, and fun stuff Shane shared, I had to ask Richard if he had any stories from the old days. 

He offered "How about the first Deadlands session?"

"Excellent", I said. "Tell me!"

Here's the recap:   Back in 1990-91, Shane, Richard, and several others were rpg gamers and college students at Virginia Tech. They liked Westerns but there weren't other wild west games other than Boot Hill . So Shane created his own western adventure for his group but it wasn't like Boot Hill.

The adventure was tough by anyone's standards. One by one each of the characters died. The game ended after the last character took a dirt nap. Shane told them "Don't tear up your characters. Bring them back with you next time."

"It was then we discovered 'the Prospector' and what it means to be Harrowed," Richard explained. And thus began one of the most successful independent gaming lines of our time and the motivator for Shane to create Pinnacle Inc in 1994.

Q&A (a very abbreviated assortment as I could remember)

Question: Are there any types of games you think Savage Worlds doesn't really fit?
Answer: Not really. If you wanted to play a game like GURPS, where there's a rule for everything then SW probably isn't the game for you. Settings give you the freedom to customize so its as flexible as you want.

Question: How do you handle puzzles within a game without bringing the game to a halt when a player just doesn't get it?
Answer: That's not a rules issue but a GM fiat. You'll have to judge how it moves the game along. If it stops it, maybe just a simple roll to see if he figures it out, then move on.

Question: What was going thru a Kickstarter like and would you do it again?

Answer: It was great and unlike many others, we made money on it.  We're looking to do another at the end of the year (see below).

Question: What are some upcoming projects now you're full time again at Pinnacle:

Answer (in no particular order):

• Weird War: Rome
• Weird War I
• Sci-fi Companion
• A NEW Savage Worlds Sci-fi Setting coming to Kickstarter at the end of the year. If you liked Star Frontiers, you'll love this. ( I cannot wait for this. Our old gang loved Star Frontiers)
• A Solo Savage Worlds adventure
• And so much more in Deadlands!

Then Shane asked us questions:

Question: Do you guys like big books or smaller ones?
Answer(s): Me: I like the big books as I like to read thru the wealth of stories. Others(the majority): Prefer smaller books as they're easier to carry around. Simple rules sets allow us to create our own extended parts of the settings.

Question: Do you all want more rules about using downtime to add to character back-stories?
Answer(s): Various yesses and comments on the positives of interludes. More is better.
Shane follow up: Well, good. Because we've got some of that coming.

[My apologies for all the great ideas and conversation I didn't capture. Anyone else that was there, please share!]

Some fun Trivia
I couldn't end without sharing a personal bit of trivia I discovered: Did I mention Shane speaks Russian?  Part of his Master's in Special Operations included Russian. After discovering his MA in Special OPs, I mentioned my degree was a BA in Russian and my grand dreams of working in the State Department. He quickly asked "Vwi govarete pa-rusky?" "Da, plo-ha, govaru pa-rusky!" I responded*. The guy is just plain cool.  [* You speak Russian? Yes, badly I speak Russian!]

Last Thoughts

"What's This?!!? - Our own homebrew setting of course!

Shane shared that the friendships in gaming are what it's all about. Richard and his old gang at Virginia Tech created great memories and were a large part of his future career. One of those friendships was why he made time to come out and visit.

I shared how our old gaming gang began in the late 1970's and we have kept in touch ever since. Although I left gaming in 1989, the friendships endured over time and distance.

In 2007 we discovered Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition and Maptool, We've been gaming ever since. Most of the old gang meets virtually with some new blood added as well.

Our new group has members from New Jersey, 3 parts of Texas, me in So. California, and our GM in Washington State with heavy Canadian overtones, eh.  It was fun to show Shane our home-brew campaign that is now 227 pages of blood, sweat, and tears by our GM, John Riggs. We've had a blast saving the world and kicking Nazi butt.

I can see why so many folks who meet Shane comment on what a great, down to earth guy he is. I can't say enough good things about him. Who takes a couple of hours of personal vacation time to visit the local gamers and just sit and visit? 

Thanks Shane! You rock.

Review Airship

Product: Fantasy Maps - Airship
Publisher: D20 Cartographer
People: Joshua Bennett
Price: $2.99

Yet another map from D20 Cartographer that is absolutely beautiful. The map comes in five sections including the main deck, lower decks, and two rooms in the stern representing the captain's quarters and an officer's area.

The write-ups for the maps were nice as well. Too often map packs contain only maps. D20 Cartographer does an excellent job of providing some written flare to guide that GM in the direction of adventure.

For VTT users, the package comes with 48 jpgs representing the decks and various items found on the ship, from ballistas to the captain's bed. The reusable objects can stay in your graphics library for future use on other maps. The artwork is fantastic but D20 Cartographer added a little something extra for MapTool, a campaign file complete with teleport pads which take you from deck to deck.

Note that although this is a fantasy map, it would make a great Martian Sky Galleon for Space 1889, either the classic version or the Savage Worlds version, Red Sands.

Overall a superlative effort and well worth the price of $2.99.

Related Links
D20 Cartographer Reviews
D20 Cartographer on DriveThru
Space 1889: Red Sands

Free RPG Art from Devin Night

Our friend Devin Night recently posted that he's had a busy month. The great thing about Devin being busy is that he shares the spoils of his creativity with samples of his artwork. We encourage you to visit February Work on his blog. It comes with 18 illustrations and 16 new tokens for personal use in your favorite Virtual Table Top (VTT) or other online game.

Also note that Devin will do custom tokens for hire. We've used him several times for our online Savage Worlds games and story illustrations. He's quick, professional, and understands the needs of VTTs and authors. Devin also provides free artwork to open source products like MapTool giving those projects a much needed boost.

So drop by, snag some stuff, and support Devin in his endeavors. He's one of the good guys.

Related Links for Devin Night:
Devin Night Interview
Products on DriveThruRPG
Immortal Nights - Site containing token store, professional illustrations, illustration school, and more.

Pimping Savage Worlds

This month's RPG Blog Carnival theme is 'Pimp a Game' and there seems little doubt as to the subject of our entry. Savage Worlds remains our go-to system of choice for its flexibility and playability across every genre we've tried. Its combination of fast combat resolution, flexible powers system, and easy character management make it perfect for the time-crunched gamer.

When I was young and single I had time to dive into endless tomes and supplements finding that just right combination of abilities and skills for my character concept. Too often, however, I was playing someone else's character concept that I had to shoe-horn an idea into. Still, that was fine. I had time and friends.

Savage Worlds Deluxe Scores a Gold ENnie

I have great news. Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition just won a Gold ENnie at Gen Con 2012. The 160 page core rule book to Savage Worlds offers a generic role playing system suitable for almost any genre you care to name. Congratulations to Shane Hensley, Clint Black, Joel Kinstle, and the rest of the Savages at Pinnacle for a job well done.

Here are the rest of the winners.

DriveThru Christmas in July.

Click on Image for Savings!

DriveThruRPG is having their annual Christmas in July sale. Click on the image above to save 25% on a huge selection of products. HO HO HO! It's off to gaming we go.

Some of our favorite titles on sale include:

50 Fathoms - Review
Deadlands Reloaded: Marshals Handbook - Review
Deadlands Reloaded: Players Guide - Review
Deadlands Reloaded: The Flood - Review
Deadlands Reloaded: The Last Sons - Review
Hell on Earth Reloaded Player's Guide - Review
Savage Worlds Deluxe - Review
Savage Worlds Horror Companion - Review
Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion
Slipstream
Solomon Kane: The Savage World of Solomon Kane
Space 1889: Red Sands - Review

Dreamers

I call this photo 'A Salute to Dreamers.' One can imagine a mouse looking up to see the fluffy whiteness of dandelion and wondering if it was the stuff of clouds. The dream leads to action which lead to success as the mouse touched the sky.

Some days I wonder why I do all this. By 'this' I mean writing. It takes up a great deal of time and there is no real compensation other than the act of creation itself. Often times I feel as though I'm grasping at clouds.

I've wanted to be a writer most of my adult life but a childhood spent in rural Texas, where proper grammar and spelling are considered uppity made that dream difficult. Still, I had stories to tell. Gaming gave me an outlet and I exploited it to my great joy. To this day some of my best stories have been co-authored by my fellow RPGers.  But still that wasn't enough. I wrote short stories and even novels that I shared with friends. They commented how much they enjoyed them so I wrote more. Eventually I hit upon one that many said should be published and so I did. It was much more difficult than I imagined and I feel very much like a mouse on a dandelion; both scared and in awe of what will happen next.


Thanks to all of you for joining me on this journey. Thank you for supporting this blog and purchasing my book. It's been a wonderful climb.

So here's to the dreamers. God bless us one and all.

In other news: a link for those who like going into diabetic shock. The 50 Cutest Things That Ever Happened.

ENnie Awards Voting

You can now drop by and cast your ballot in the ENnies. Please remember our friend, Jonathan Roberts. His work's been nominated in the category of Best Cartography for The Shadowlands Conversion Guide. Other votes we encourage is for the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition from Pinnacle Entertainment Group for Best Game and Agents of Oblivion by Reality Blurs for Best Supplement. Of course we also encourage voting for Pinnacle, Triple Ace Games, GRAmel, Reality Blurs, and Arc Dream Publishing in the Fan's Favorite Publisher category.

A word about voting: you're able to vote for first, second, third, etc. Don't vote for a product if you don't like or know it. No vote is better than a low vote, if you catch my meaning. Remember, vote early and vote often. Well, strike the last one but do encourage your friends to vote.


Regarding the vote in November, consider this write-in candidate

Ace of Aces Kickstarter

I loved Ace of Aces when I was a kid. It was a great picture game of WWI biplane action and has been out of print for over twenty years. Please consider supporting the kickstarter to have it reprinted. It's a great game to play with your kids in the car or on an airplane.

From the Kickstarter

32 years ago, a phenomenon hit the adventure game convention circuit. Alfred Leonardi had invented a game about World War I planes dogfighting, a subject that should have had limited appeal. But it used a unique (and patented) system - each player had a book of pictures of his plane and his opponent, in various combat positions, and the game was played by calling out numbers representing various air combat moves. It was like a two-player computer game, without a computer. It became hugely popular and spawned several follow-up games using other aircraft. In 1993 it was added to the Origins Awards Hall of Fame. www.gama.org You can play this game anywhere with just the two books - no dice (or batteries) required. But eventually the novelty wore off, the publishing company closed up shop, and Alfred retired from the game business.

But now Flying Buffalo games has gotten permission to do a reprint. At the time of this posting they only have $250 more to go before they fund. Please help us kick this thing over the edge!

Review: Last Sons - Deadlands Plot Point Campaign

Product: Last Sons - Deadlands Reloaded Plot Point Campaign
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
People: Shane Lacey Hensley, Matthew Cutter
Price: $34.99

Pinnacle continues their release of Deadlands’ plot point campaigns with Last Sons, adventures in War’s domain. The story picks up with The Flood left off taking your posse into the Disputed Territories of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and the Sioux Nation.


For those those of you not up to speed on the Deadlands setting, below is a little alternate history.

Mono: Prospero Rising. The 1939 hero lives again with new art by Gary Gianni. And more Cthulhu!

Mono, the gentlemanly ape-man, spy and adventurer, first appeared in his own self-titled pulpagazine between Jan 1939 and Mar 1941, published by Struth and Shaw Pub. NY. Originally written by the elusive and enigmatic Englishman, Anthony Brock, with later novellas from 1968 to 1974.  Mono was created to cash in on the success of Doc Savage, The Shadow, and The Avenger but he never achieved the same popularity despite the superior prose and enigmatic protagonist. [ Adapted from the Introduction by Liam Sharp  ]

The Troll and I really like pulp adventures. We've been playing a Savage Worlds Pulp adventure for years and its always fun to discover a new (to me) pulp property.  I was stunned to discover that this isn't a new but actually quite a vintage find.

At the Spotlight on Gary Gianni panel in room 4 on Saturday at noon, Gary shared his new projects. His recent departure from the Prince Valiant strip freed him to explore new projects. His discovery of MadeFire and their partnership brought us Mono, Prospero Rising. The original words by Anthony Brock have been published with new Gianni art, previewed here below. Of note, MadeFire is working on a web comic app for iPhone / iPad that really expands upon the capabilities of comics on these devices. Some motion is involved in the demo we saw but its more like the iPhone or iPad screens were windows that you can move around in and see more for an immersive feel.

Gianni's remarkable pen and ink's have a classic look and feel that first drew me to his work on Solomon Kane. If you haven't seen his Solomon Kane work, take a moment as it inspired my Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane adventure one sheet I wrote. ( I'll link it up soon!)

In the past year he illustrated a short story by Ray Bradbury called the Nefertiti-Tut Express that is also visually stunning. I won't give the story away but maybe you shouldn't use old mummies for burning in your steam locomotive.






The panel also shared Gianni's next project: The Illustrated Call of Cthulhu. Here are some sketches in progress:

Until next time!

World creation panel by Maxwell Alexander Drake - 10 Thinking points

The Savage Duck continues his trek at Comic Con 2012. In this mini-blog he fills us in on World Building with advice srom Maxwell Alexander Drake.

A packed room listened intently as Drake worked thru his 10 "thinking points" of World Creation. You can find his writing guide online along with the forms he uses. Drake made clear that almost nothing will be directly used for your novel but it will give you all you need to make your world real. "Remember,"  he said, "you aren't creating an RPG adventure." 

"Well," I thought, "what if I am?This is an excellent exercise for world building for an RPG setting."

You can find his site at http://www.maxwellalexanderdrake.com/. His guides are located at  http://www.maxwellalexanderdrake.com/pages/MADWriting.html


Look for his 10 Thinking Points and Building characters.


His advise is excellent if you just ignore the  obvious novel specific info and stick to the world and character building advice.  He does several panels here for fantasy writing.

Enjoy!
The Savage Duck

Savage Duck at San Diego Comic Con finally meets Cheyenne Wright!

Savage Duck at San Diego Comic Con  finally meets Cheyenne Wright!

Thursday late: I finally got back to my excellent room at the Sheraton Marina with a beautiful skyline view of the home of Comic Con!

This is my postcard to you. The 5 to 7 right most buildings are the hotels clustered around the Convention Center.

Hotels become huge posters for upcoming computer games, movies, and TV series.The Marriott just to the right of the convention here is home to Anime and many sessions of DnD and Pathfinder as well as others. But no Savage Worlds!  I have to work on that.

The Hard Rock Cafe and Hotel was covered with Total Recall!

Once inside, the madness begins.

The Trolls from the upcoming Hobbit loomed large over the crowd.  I wish pictures of the Hobbit posters at the pavilion they built could convey the awesome 3Dness.

 I found such imagination inspiring things. Weta had Greg Broadmore's excellent Victorian Ray-gun wielding Lord Cockswain zapping Moonmen and Venusians

That's Lord Cockswain on the right again taking target practice.

Now this I'd love to have as a poster!

Lastly and most importantly, I caught Cheyenne Wright at the Girl Genius booth with an excellent limited edition print from Pinnacles upcoming Deadlands Noir. Naturally I picked it up.

He also had a sketch book with drawings of badge and robots from Machination: A Game of Evil Genius that I supported on Kickstarter. Nice!

Several of his badges were for sale. I'll stop back by tomorrow and pick some up!

Until Then!


Goodnight!

The Lost Podcast

The Savage Duck and I produced a post cast a few years back. We never published it but thought we should share it here for those interested in how we began using Savage Worlds and MapTool. Forgive the initial roughness. The middle part is actually pretty good. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.

The Podcast!