e23 News Archive: November 2008

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November 30, 2008: Wherever You Go, There You Went

Space. Final frontier, perhaps, but that needn't mean you wander around aimlessly. Maybe you're trying to get somewhere specific with this little jaunt through The Black. Perhaps you have a destination, if you will.

We have destinations, too. Or, rather, Destinations. System-free, setting-free, and fat-free, these PDFs work well either as springboards to an adventure or stopgaps when your plot is blown off course by a player anomaly. What sort of destinations?

Well, let's see. We've got a repair station. We've a couple of spaceports. (You can never have too many of those.) Oh, and everyone's favorite place to get smashed (both literally and figuratively), a cantina!

-- Fox Barrett

November 29, 2008: With Such A Cool Name, Why Accessorize?

We recently got a new book bearing the title Paths to Prestige: Fell Knight. It's a neat book, but when I was looking at it, it wasn't the content that really caught my attention. It was the by-line on the cover.

This book was written by someone named Aeryn Rudel. That is such a cool name. It's more like something that belongs in the book than on the cover. Someone named Aeryn Rudel could very well be a Fell Knight. It seems excessive to stick "Blackdirge" between such a perfect combination of syllables. It's like, "Whoa, you're already Pretty Cool, let's not go overboard!" You risk people thinking you're greedy, trying to hoard all the cool names for yourself.

Man. What a great name for a fantasy character. I'm using that one next time I need a hard-living, two-fisted, paladin monster-hunter.

-- Fox Barrett

November 28, 2008: It's Black Friday!

So I'm writing news about Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 10 - Traps and Treasures! . . . Not, that . . . um, there is really any plausible correlation between the two, but . . . Um . . .

Please spend money here?

-- Fox Barrett

November 27, 2008: A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed

But a friend who's a gorilla is better.

So we've got this book, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 5: Allies, and I'm thinking you folks might be interested. Why? The aforementioned gorilla. Sure, it's dramatic to have guys around you that say things like "And my axe," but just how reliable are they in a fight? As reliable as a gorilla? In fact, does the gorilla even need to participate in the fight? I guarantee you that any goblins that have been screaming down the hallway at you will stop dead in their tracks once they gaze upon the terrible visage of a gorilla. Some will beg, some will offer gifts, most will wet themselves, but none will trouble you further.

This may raise one obvious question, of course. "What share of the loot does the gorilla get?" The answer, my friends, is simple. "Whatever the heck it wants."

-- Fox Barrett

November 26, 2008: Ooo, Washington Irving

Hey, check us out! We've got a story written by Washington Irving on the site. Specifically, what we've got is Colonial Gothic: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a book containing not only the famous story but also some really neat related information for Colonial Gothic. But you realize what this means, don't you?

We've got class now! And, no, I'm not talking about daily attack powers or armor proficiencies. I mean things like dignity and respect. Because Washington Irving is really famous, really old, and really dead, you see. That's how it works.

In fact, I think I'll need to get a top hat, now.

-- Fox Barrett

November 25, 2008: The Great Flat Hope

0one's Blueprints: The Great City, Hope Park is more than just a mouthful to say. It's one of many (many, many . . .) Great City products from 0one. It's also a featured location from The Skullcrackers. But above all this, and most importantly of all, it is . . .

The PDF I'd really like you to buy today. Really. Please. I'll beg if you want me to beg. Pleeeease! Please buy it! I have a wife and kids and a dog and an elderly mother who's sick with Old Mom Disease or something and I really need the money and pleeaaaase!

There. If that doesn't get me a sale, well, at least I can always get a refund on this copy of How To Sell Absolutely Anything By Denying Yourself Dignity.

-- Fox Barrett

November 24, 2008: Two-Fer!

It's Dungeon Crawl Classics: The Golden Auroch!

It's Dungeon Crawl Classics: Tower of the Black Pearl!

It's . . . it's both! It's Dungeon Crawl Classics: The Golden Auroch / Tower of the Black Pearl! And it's got me using exclamation points! I can't stop! Help! Seriously! Send a copy editor!

-- Fox Barrett

November 23, 2008: Saw-Pike Thingie

Richard Deckard. Iria. Boba Fett. Bounty hunters are cool. (With the possible exception of that last one. I don't care what anyone says, the dude was knocked into a sarlacc by a blind and fumbling Han Solo.) They're what happens when you moosh a cop into a mercenary. Cops? Cool. Mercenaries? Definitely cool. So a bounty hunter, the peanut-butter-and-chocolate combination of these two, registers well into the gigafonzie range on the Coolometer.

By extension, does that make GURPS Traveller Classic: Heroes 1 - Bounty Hunters the coolest Traveller book? Hmmmm. Well,  if the cover is any indication, being a bounty hunter in Traveller means you get some sort of weird saw-pike thingie. How many other books do you know of that give you a cool saw-pike thingie?

-- Fox Barrett

November 22, 2008: Dungeon Dangers Delight Diabolical DMs

Alliteration always attracts apropos prose.

Well, not really, but I like doing it. A lot. Too much, in fact. Or that's what the courts said, anyway. But that shouldn't stop you from purchasing Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 9 - Dungeon Danger! Nosireebob! You want it, you go right on ahead and buy it. My mental illness shouldn't affect your purchase in the slightest.

Practical PDF purchases prevent painful player petulance, after all.

-- Fox Barrett

November 21, 2008: More Like "Phoenix Magazine," Am I Right?

If Pyramid does nothing else, it goes under a massive transformation every few years. Heck, it is itself a reborn version of two older publications! So, to continue this proud tradition of rising from the ashes, we present unto you the latest fiery bird. Or fiery polyhedron. Whatever. Anyway.

Pyramid #3/1: Tools of the Trade - Wizards is the premier issue of the decidedly PDF-y incarnation of Pyramid. My source on the street tells me that it's all about wizards. That link will take you straight to the solo PDF, but if you're interested in getting these things on a regular basis, you'll want to check out the subscriptions we're offering. They come in three-, six-, and twelve-month flavors. Picking up one of those will deliver the files straight into your file list without any action on your part.

And if you don't like this format, stick around. Pyramid is about as stagnant as a bullet-train and unchanging as a ball of clay. (But, thankfully, as interesting as a peephole into Dr. Kromm's brain!)

-- Fox Barrett

November 20, 2008: Born To Ramble

I was looking at Advanced Adventures #7: The Sarcophagus Legion and it got me thinking. "Saving the sultan's wife from unimaginable peril." Okay, so that's what adventurers do when they're on the job. But what about the off-season? What do they do during the off-season?

Everything has an off-season. If nothing else, there are always lulls in any activity. So between kidnapped queens and ancient evils slithering through gates once sealed, what do adventurers do with their time? Read? Build model ships? Play roleplaying games?

We may never know. The only way to know is for someone to write material covering such a happening, and if they did, it would be a canned adventure. And then it wouldn't be "downtime" anymore, it'd be an adventure. And great, now I've given myself a headache from the paradox.

-- Fox Barrett

November 19, 2008: Bug Stomping

Did you know that before computers were invented, a "bug" was a small creature that crawled around on your stuff and generally perturbed an otherwise pleasant environment? It's true! I know, I couldn't believe it either. Weird the way words work, huh?

In honor of this archaic use of the term, Goodman has brought us Critter Cache: Big Bugs. Some, like the giant wasp, scare the ever-loving fnord out of me. The giant slug, however, just has me wondering how much salt our party's mules can carry. Still, there's quite a nice selection of murderous, mis-proportioned insects for you to rip apart in this lovely tome.

Oh, it also has giant enemy crabs, and the opportunity to hit them for massive damage is just too good to pass up.

-- Fox Barrett

November 18, 2008: It Has Legends! It Has Quests!

It's Legend Quest, the greatest fantasy roleplaying game of all time! Or, at least, the greatest fantasy roleplaying game I'm writing about at this moment in time! But let's not split hairs, okay? Legend Quest is here, and it's neat, so you should buy it.

Specifically, what you should be buying is Legend Quest - Gold Edition. Partly because, well, that's what we have, but mostly because it's the best version of the game yet. It's got all the stuff from the first edition, all the stuff from the second, and some extra stuff on top of that to boot!

Not enough? We've got a little something extra, too. Legend Quest - Optional Weaponry adds optional weaponry to your Legend Quest games. But it's totally optional, of course.

-- Fox Barrett

November 17, 2008: That Baby's One Baaaad -

Wow, am I really pulling out Shaft for a really weak joke? Must be off my game today.

Hey, speaking of games, we've got a couple from Bad Baby. First up? Net Warrior, Set 3, Mini-Game #75. I believe that collection of words and numbers roughly translates into "very awesome." You'll want to go to the page and double-check for yourself, of course. And the other game? Warriors of the Four Circles, Set 1, Mini-Game #76. I think that one is "pretty awesome."

-- Fox Barrett

November 16, 2008: Your License To Mythbehave

(With apologies to the late, great Robert Asprin.)

Don't have a game master? Don't have a game group? Fret not! For you see, there exists a game more flexible than a very flexible person, and it is called Mythic Role Playing. Certainly, it is designed to be run with one person in charge and several other people shouting about how they're stabbing the kobold. It is not one to be pigeonholed, however. Mythic works just as well if they're only shouting at one another. Or if one person is shouting at himself. Not that we recommend that last one, unless you enjoy collecting stares from passers-by.

Roguish little maverick that it is, Mythic needn't even be played. You can also use it as a supplement to other roleplaying games! The only thing these books don't do is buy themselves. But hey, it had to leave you something to do, right?

-- Fox Barrett

November 15, 2008: They Might Be . . .

Giants, that is. I don't know, though. The guys in Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 8 - Giants sure look tiny. Oh sure, they're bigger than other Cardboard Heroes, but is that really saying much? My cat looms above them all like a colossus. Hmmm. A campaign idea, that.

I shall leave the quandary of the stature of these paper people for you to ponder. I depart now to find ways of tormenting my players.

With my cat.

-- Fox Barrett

November 14, 2008: This Is e23, Calling Anyone . . .

Traveller. You may have heard of it. Around here, at the SJ Games Subterrainian Info SuperBubble Control Bunker, we're big fans. You might say that we "liked it so much we bought the company."

Bought a license, anyway. Which is the next best thing, because it lets us publish stuff like GURPS Classic: Traveller. Now that the book has been lovingly converted to PDF format, you can enjoy your trips to Brubek's without being weighed down by something as mundane as paper. In fact, going digital with the world's premiere science fiction setting for roleplaying games seems decidedly appropriate.

So buy it today and enjoy some symmetry in your life.

-- Fox Barrett

November 13, 2008: Classic: Now With Added Classicness

The Dungeon Crawl Classics line doesn't simply celebrate the orc genocides of yesteryear. It revels. It plays to every trope, pulls out every bit of fan service, and rolls on like a juggernaut made of fun. And dead orcs.

But it's possible that's not enough for some. If you're going to "kick it old school," as I am told They say, why not kick as hard as you can? Saga of the Rat King isn't just an old-style adventure, it's written for first edition. Yup. Wizards are magic users, dwarfs are a class, and you are so going to die over and over again.

They say you can't go back. Maybe. But since when have we gamers let something as flimsy as reality get in our way?

-- Fox Barrett

November 12, 2008: Short On Pulp Villains?

It's cool. Precis Intermedia has got you covered. They've got a book, you see. And it is going to solve all your problems.

Provided that all your problems center around not having enough pulp villains. They do, right? Good. Two-Fisted Tales Revised: More Pulp Villains is your two-dollar-and-ninety-five-cent ticket to salvation. Or, at least, a more villainous world.

-- Fox Barrett

November 11, 2008: Yuck

Time for a little honesty. I don't know what Lands of Darkness #2: Cesspools of Arnacis is about, but I do know this: I'm not going anywhere near any cesspools. No thanks. It's hard enough to get in a shower in a medieval (though, admittedly, magical) society. They don't have Ye Olde Plumbinge. They only barely have Ye Olde Soape. I see no reason to exacerbate the problem with Ye Olde Bodye Funke pandemic by voluntarily stepping into a vat of . . . unpleasant fluids.

And no, I don't care about the XP. Or the glory. Or the neccessity to fight back against the ratling hoard that doesn't seem to mind the smell. Or, believe it or not, the treasure. Blasphemy, perhaps, but I want no part of any treasure that is in, or even on the other side of, any large body of water that's 97% poo-based.

. . . Unless it's a +2 Body Sponge of Disenfecting. Then . . . maybe we'll talk.

-- Fox Barrett

November 10, 2008: Get Crackin'

Adventure! Excitement! People getting punched in the face!

All this and more is yours if you're willing to part with some money and bandwidth to acquire a copy of The Road to Revolution: The Skullcrackers. It's the first in a series of adventures (hence the "road to" bit), so you could think of this as getting on the ground floor. Of what, exactly, I'm not sure. But I bet it involves monsters, treasures, and people with very large boots who enjoy practicing "Extreme Door Opening."

Y'know, all the good things in life.

-- Fox Barrett

November 9, 2008: Trappings

Nothing takes a smug adventurer down a peg or two better than an electrical floor and a suit of plate mail. And, since the only kind of adventurers they seem to make are smug ones, there's a lot of pegs out there full of potential downward motion.

To that end, we've got for you a book bearing the title Traps for Eldritch Role Playing. Those five words make it fairly apparent what this one's about, but it doesn't drive home the point that you really need to own it. Why do you need to own it?

Because nothing takes a smug adventurer down a peg or two better than an electrical floor and a suit of plate mail.

-- Fox Barrett

November 8, 2008: Brevity

Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 7 - Monsters II. The seventh Cardboard Heroes set. The second one to feature monsters. The only thing I'll be talking about today in the news.

It's neat. I request you purchase it.

That's pretty much it. What more do you want? The thing is only a 3-page PDF, and one of those pages is an advertisement. Either you want these dudes or you don't, and no amount of strong-arming will get you to buy them if you don't want them. Unless we dispatch some nice men to come over to your house and actually strong-arm you. Which, y'know . . . isn't impossible.

-- Fox Barrett

November 7, 2008: An Overlooked Flaw

I don't get it. "Two-fisted?" How do pulp heroes get anything done if they constantly have both of their hands balled? I guess it helps with punching, but what if you want to make a sandwich? Or shoot a gun? What if you have to pee?

I guess that's where magic comes in. GURPS Thaumatology: Age of Gold is pulpy, but in a magical sort of way. Alchemists and masked avengers do battle in super-science laboratories against megalomaniacal maniacs. Good, clean fun to be had, provided you can make it through the day without unclenching your fist.

Come to think of it, maybe they're not heroes. Maybe they just have a medical condition. It's good to see that they've turned their handicap into something productive, but we really should be trying to help these people. Chip in for some helper monkeys or something.

-- Fox Barrett

November 6, 2008: This Is A Very Nice Game (And I Don't Want To Get Arrested)

I'd make some jokes about Kids, Castles and Caves, but . . . some territory is best left unexplored on a public website, that's part of my job, that hundreds of people visit every day.

Kids? Caves? Nope. There's a minefield there. So I'll just stick to the factual. This is both a set of a cardboard minis and a whole darn RPG. But it's not some simulationist heaven or some beer-and-pretzels celebration of fart jokes. It's a trimmed down RPG-lite designed to be played with your kids. With a minimum of stats and rules, and classes kids identify with (like "Knight" or "Fairy"), KC&C is a neat way of including your kids in mankind's greatest pastime without having to explain what "save vs. transmogrification" means.

Plus, it includes the rust monster. Great way to teach 'em good and early that life, frankly, just isn't fair.

-- Fox Barrett

November 5, 2008: Punjar!

I love the punjar! I pull things from it all the time! Like if I'm keeping an orc horde at bay with my trusty +2 Orc Slay'ya, I'll say "It looks like you've had a nasty axe-ident." Or when my rogue shoots down a guard as he's fleeing the scene of a crime, I'll drop "Don't cross me and my bow." Or, with my fighter, sometimes I'll say ". . . I'm gonna . . . stab you with my . . . sword."

They're . . . they're not all very good.

Now, I will admit, I haven't cracked open Dungeon Crawl Classics: Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel just yet, but I'm sure it's exactly what I'm expecting.

-- Fox Barrett

November 4, 2008: We're Not Done Appending "Of Mars" To Things Just Yet!

But this is the last time. I promise.

Okay, so if you haven't bought a Space: 1889 book yet, well . . . I'm very disappointed in you. Does our relationship mean so little? I've given everything I have to this, brought all my heart and soul to the table. All I ask is you stay, and listen, and love . . . and buy some dang PDFs. PDFs like what? PDFs like Caravans of Mars, or maybe Steppelords of Mars, or even Cloud Captains of Mars. I'm not picky. Heck, you needn't be either! Buy all three and we both win!

. . . Not going for the hard sell, huh? That's okay. I can adapt. See here? I've got a book with the word "Conklin" in it. It's Conklin's Atlas of the Worlds. How can you not love that? How can you not buy that? Consider: aside from that one time I sent us all careening off a cliff in a bus, when have I ever steered you wrong?

-- Fox Barrett

November 3, 2008: From The Ether Of Mars!

What have we got? We've got Tales from the Ether! Not enough? That's okay. We've got More Tales from the Ether. Still not enough? Um . . . that's a problem. I've run out of joke, you see. Sorry. But! If you're wondering just what the heck those are, then wonder no longer. For your answer lines only one period away. They're adventures for Space: 1889.

Much like Beastmen of Mars. It, too, exhibits adventure-like qualities when abutted to Space: 1889. Much in the same way Canal Priests of Mars does, come to think of it.

Four books, so that means four adventures? Nay, good sirs and sir . . . sirettes? Siresses? Siratrices? Whatever. You, the male and female population of the internet. You are being addressed in a polite manner. And I am saying that there are four books, yes, but more than a mere four adventures. Partake, enjoy, and tune in tomorrow while I make an idiot of myself in an attempt to bring your attention to this game which I, frankly, am unworthy to even speak of.

-- Fox Barrett

November 2, 2008: So Anyway, Back To Space: 1889

Remember how I mentioned the . . . just . . . massive block of Space: 1889 stuff we got in? I'm not done talkin' 'bout that just yet, my good and dear friends. But how to break down this torrent of gaming goodness into manageable (or "bite-sized," if you will) chunks? How? Hooooow? Ah! I shall break the remaining books down into three groups. What shall they be? Stay tuned to find out!

Today is, I think, as good a day as any to talk about the more general rulebooks. I already mentioned the core book, of course. We've also got the Soldier's Companion. I'd say it's a space-bound soldier's best friend, but you'd hit me with sticks and tell me to find better material. So I shan't. I will say that it is a pretty definitive A-to-Z to the armies of Space: 1889.

And the other book I want to mention? That'd be Sky Galleons of Mars/Cloudships & Gunboats. Which . . . is two books, but I'm sure you won't hold that against me. Its schtick (schticks?) is (are?) playing out the inevitable air battles you'll be having over Mars. What, you were expecting the locals to greet you with a dance contest? It's Mars! That means Marsy things, like war and . . . more war! So zip your zep over there and start kickin' some butt, Victorian-style.

-- Fox Barrett

November 1, 2008: Without A Doubt, The Sixth Set Ever!

Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 6 - Monsters !

. . . It has monsters!

. . . That's it!

-- Fox Barrett

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