Daring Tales of the Sprawl is OUT!

Triple Ace Games has added the cyberpunk genre to the Daring Tales series of adventures called Daring Tales of the Sprawl. You can download the main setting rules for free here and purchase the first pair of adventures, Family Affair and Extraction 101, from DriveThruRPG, and Triple Ace's online store.

Daring Visions Blog is online…

Daring Entertainment, publishers of the G.E.T. Into Action and Dawn of Legends Savage Settings have launched, Daring Visions, their own company blog. Stop on by and see what Daring dares to do in the near future.

Delays, Delays! Nothing but delays!

It's getting to be about the mid-point of my semester here at prestigious Waukesha County Technical College. There are portfolio's to write, patch cables to crimp, programs to write, exams to study for, and final projects to start. In other words, I have a whole bunch of rather important stuff to do that get's in the way of this blogging silliness.

I hope to get the following reviews out of the way as soon as my schedule allows:

• Realms Of Cthulhu by Reality Blurs
• Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion by Pinnacle.
• Weird War II by Pinnacle.
• Disposable Heroes paper miniatures from Precis Intermedia.

In the meantime, enjoy the following insulting gamer humor:

Smiling Jack’s Bar & Grill on the Air… I mean, Web!

Ron and Veronica Blessing, of The Games The Thing fame, have created a new spin-off podcast for Savage Worlds fans like you and me: Smiling Jack's Bar & Grill! In their first episode, Ron and Veronica talk to Savage Worlds brand manager Clint Black, Reality Blurs president Sean Preston, Shaintar: Immortal Legends creator Sean Patrick Fannon, and fellow Savage blogger Norm Hensley about the design philosophy of Savage worlds and why it appeal to gamers. Norm also reviews Reality Blurs' RunePunk setting and Pinnacle's long-awaited Weird War II.

I particularly enjoyed listening to the discussion portion of the podcast. They discussed how the unique nature of Savage Worlds demands a very different approach to game design. I'll take this conversation to heart as I work on my Tékumel Conversion. An excellent start for what hopes to be a fantastic podcast series as well as a resource for all Savages.

Been busy lately…

My life has been a little complex lately. I've gone back to school to learn the mystical and esoteric art of computer programming. On top of that, work has been rather hectic as every contractor and homeowner in the state of Wisconsin is calling in to get their last minute locate requests in before winter sets in. As a result of the combination of classwork and actual work, I'm dragging my rear-end home each night wanting nothing more than to rest in arms of Orpheus... NO, NOT LAURENCE FISHBURNE! Therefore, blogging has been a bit slow lately. A few Savage Worlds issues of note:

• I think I've got a pretty good handle of how to handle my Tékumel magic system. I had a chance to peruse the Fantasy Companion and they used Hellfrost's settings magical system that parses out Powers depending on their particular faith. I'd like to pick up the FC, but money has been really tight the last month. Then I just need to time to write it up.
  
• I've finally had a chance to run The Day After Ragnarok for my gaming group. I confess I wasn't very good at dreaming up a appropriate scenario. I had my PC's wandering the wilds of post-Serpentfall Wisconsin, fighting former German POW pirates lead by a serpent-worshiping SS mage. Then I had them railroaded to Milwaukee playing troubleshooter to the local dictator. Normally, I'm not really big on pre-published adventures, but it would have been nice DAR had a few so I wouldn't burn myself out trying to come up with material. I put the game on indefinite hold while my friend runs Dark Heresy. I think I prefer playing games rather than running them.
  
• I WANT REAMS OF CTHULHU! GIVE ME REALMS OF CTHULHU!

Character: Sgt. Benjamin Washington

The Ideology of Madness has an interview with "The Day After Ragnarok" creator Ken Hite and is holding a contest. Post a DAR character by June 20 when Ken will pick his favorite. The winner will win a .PDF and a print copy of DAR! I decided to enter my own character that I've posted below, complete with stats:


Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Throwing d6, Shooting d10+1, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Guts d6, Stealth d8, Notice d6
Charisma ‑2, Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 6, CV 82
Hindrances: Outsider (Charisma: ‑2 among all but own people), Wanted (By the New Konfederacy), Vengeful.
Edges: Trademark Weapon: M1903 Springfield "Harriet" (Fighting or Shooting: +1 when using specific weapon, Shooting: +1), Nerves of Steel (Ignore 1 point of wound penalties), Soldier: NCO.
Gear: M1903, Colt 1911, Ammo Mk67 Pineapple Grenade (×3), Knife, Pot Helm, fatigues, backpack, bedroll, field kit.

Benjamin “Ben” Washington was always good with a rifle. Living as a impoverished “negro” living in rural West Virginia his shooting prowess was sometimes the only thing keeping his family from starvation. Benjamin was 17 when the Serpentfall occurred and while he survived by virtue of living in the Appalachians, it wasn’t long until he was picked up by Klan slavers. Ben spent eight months being relentlessly worked to death in a Mississippi labor camp, until being liberated by the Free Colored Army.

After recovering from his ordeal, Ben joined the FCA to help free other blacks from racist oppression. His superiors were quickly impressed with his marksmanship, and soon he made an NCO in the Army’s grown sniper corps. By 1948, Sergeant Washington collected 113 bloodstained Klan hoods, including those belonging to three Grand Wizards.

The Klan is currently offering a $1000 dollar bounty to the man who brings Washington in dead or alive… preferably dead. Meanwhile, he has achieved Robin-Hood-like status among Southern blacks who hopes he and his M1903 Springfield rifle, “Harriet” (after Harriet Tubman), will help end the Klan’s tyranny once and for all.

Review: The Day After Ragnarok

Kenneth Hite a Chicago-based, Origins Award-winning author, co-author, and game designer, has a rare talent. He has the ability to take fragments of obscure factoids, mythology, urban legend, pseudoscience and pseudohistory, and other esoteric sources and piece them together into fabulous role-playing game settings. For years, I've poured over his Suppressed Transmission column in Steve Jackson Games' online 'zine Pyramid for campaign ideas: Aliens crashing at Roswell, New Mexico... in 1849. Superheroes in the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. Mongolian Goblins, Saracen Snakemen, and Viking werewolves invading Europe in the Revelations-fueled year 1000 CE. Alternative histories built on the Tunguska event occurring a few hours sooner when the asteroid or comet could have struck Moscow rather than the Siberian wilderness. Let's not forget his illuminations on the much-overlooked dark side of fairy lore and the machinations of the Antarctic Space Nazis.

After writing material for such systems as GURPS, Deadlands, Delta Green, Trail Of Cthulhu, and other games, Atomic Overmind Press publishes Hite's first offering for Savage Worlds: The Day After Ragnarok, a "Submachine Guns and Sorcery" setting that blends myth, post-apocalyptic horror, and 1940s pulp adventure into one of the most imaginative role-playing settings I've ever read.

The setting's premise: In 1945, the desperate Germans turn to their SS occultists to turn the tide of war to their favor by starting the end of the world! They magically summon Jörmungandr, the world-spanning Midgard Serpent of the Norse sagas, to attack the shocked Allies. In response, Truman sends a lone atom-bomb-armed B-29 on a suicide mission against the titanic, 300 mile wide, snake. The blast kills the creature, but its immense carcass falls across Europe and Africa crushing millions and sending a mega-tsunami to drown the Eastern United States while the Serpent's poisonous (and now radioactive) venom enters the environment, creating all manner of bizarre and malevolent life.

Now it's 1948 and the human race is trying to put back the pieces and face the realities of the world after the Serpentfall. The Narts, the legendary giants of Osseian folklore, awaken and serve Comrade Stalin as he expands the Soviet Union into what's left of Europe and the Middle East. The British Empire, who has relocated the throne to sunny Australia, has been exploring and experimenting with the remains of the Serpent, creating everything from super-fuels to organic pressure suits. The Western United States tries to hold itself together while the Eastern half of North America is broken into numerous city-states that war with each other and the supernatural horrors that surround them. The remnants of Nazi Germany plot and scheme in South America (yes, Antartica too) and strange cults worship the dead Serpent, preforming obscene rites in hopes of reviving it.

Players have the opportunity to play many different roles in this wild setting: Conan-esque barbarians who wander the Poisands Lands armed with a sword in one hand and a Colt 1911 in the other. British "Speleo-Herpetologists" who explore the vast interior of Jörmungandr's body to find new and terrifying discoveries. Psychics, faith healers, magicians, and weird scientists who use strange new powers to help or hinder humanity. Monster hunters fighting giant gila monsters, electrical worms, and were-serpents. Pirates plundering the coastal towns of the China Sea or Lake Michigan.

Like most Savage Settings books, The Day After Ragnarok is divided into a Players' and GM's Section. Along with a brief introduction of the world, the Players' section features new Edges and Hindrances, as well as gear and weapons appropriate to the 1940s. There is also a description of "Ophi-Tech" devices, a version of the Weird Science Arcane Background that uses devices derived from the tissues or the Serpent itself! Be careful using them, the consequences could be dire!

The GM section contains a country-by-country gazetteer of the post-Serpentfall world including information on some of the settings major NPCs; some fictional, others historical (e.g. Aviation industrialist Howard Hughes and SS Commando Otto Skorzeny). While the book doesn't include a Plot Point campaign--indeed, the world seems too big for just one. However, it does include a detailed scenario generator and descriptions of several campaigns styles to inspire ambitious GMs. Also included is a bestiary containing examples of many of the most common thugs and monsters the PCs will have to face as they fight to survive in this broken word.

Weighing in a a 128 pages with a excellent quality layout and good artwork, The Day After Ragnarok is being offered as a PDF with a print version available in July. The PDF, available from Atomic Overmind Press and Drivethru RPG sells for $12.95 The perfect bound print version will retail for $19.95.