e23 News Archive: May 2009

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May 31, 2009: Like, Cool, Man.

Critter Cache: Daemons is cool. How cool?

So cool.

Seriously. Go buy it. So. Cool!

May 30, 2009: Adding Color

Cyan. Magenta. Yellow. Black. By fusing those four colors, one gets superheros. (Well, and pretty much the entire print industry, but hush, let's focus on what I'm trying to sell here.) Normally, this would be referring to the CMYK color model. But today I've got another thing in mind.

The Four Color Deck has arrived to give a little random nudge to your M&M Superlink games. It's a deck of cards in four colors for your four-color games. How clever! Some play with the game mechanices, some introduce new story elements. Some explode when you charge them with kinetic energy and throw them at your enemies.

(That last one is probably a lie. (Unless you're a dirty mutie.))

May 29, 2009: Go With The Flo'

Italy! Home of the pizza, funny-looking helmets, and a little something we like to call the Renaissance. This influential era of history would go on to have a profound effect on the world, giving us such wonders as names for our ninja turtles and Danny DeVito films.

Such an era shouldn't go unrepresented in the gaming arena, and so we offer GURPS Hot Spots: Renaissance Florence. It's a little guide we threw together to walk you through the heart of that cultural revolution. Like most of our historicals, it's a great way for the unfailiar to enfamiliarify themselves with the period, but it's written with the gamer in mind. What cool stuff can you do here?

As it turns out, there's more to Florence than just Artist (Painting) . . .

May 28, 2009: Yup, You've Got Orcs.

That stench, these dead elves, and all that screaming? That's orcs, alright. Full-blown infestation. Probably got yourself a nest.

Now, getting them exterminated will cost ya, but you have to consider the long term damage orcs can do. They'll completely screw up your foundation. They can get into the plumbing, the electrical, the air conditioning. And, of course, that's to say nothing of the fact that they'll, y'know . . . kill ya and take your stuff.

You'll need to get yourself some adventurers and you'll need to send them to the root of the problem. More than likley, your infestation is centered around this Dungeon of Terror #1: Orcs' Nest area. See how it says "Orcs' Nest?" That's how you can tell where the nest is.

May 27, 2009: Thorough

Here in Texas we have something called "Hill Country." It's not really a country, nor is populated only by hills. Rather, it's a region in central Texas that's kinda hilly. Got a bunch of caves and aquifers, too.

We don't have too many monsters, though. Some bats, sure. Wild cats. I think there's some bears. But no orcs, kobolds, or half-orc kobolds. Really, the most exciting thing that's likely to happen to you is you'll see lots and lots of trees. What all that means is that it comes from from personal knowledge when I say that Lands of Darkness #6: The Wild Hills in no way represents reality. I've seen hills. Hills are not like this.

You probably knew that already, though. Still, never hurts to be thorough.

-- Fox Barrett

May 26, 2009: Best Kind Of Axes, Battle Axes

Yessir, no axe can compare. Hand axe? Nope. Fire axe? Cool name, but no. You just can't best the battle axe. Good for choppin' orcs, choppin' kobolds, choppin' hirelings who step out of line. You just won't find a better axe.

So it is with Battle Axe. Sure, you can't use the game to cut someone in half, but you can use the game (and its two army sets: Elven War Host and Goblin War Host) to have a pretty good time with them.  Which is basically the same thing, right?

Wait, I may be confused . . .

May 25, 2009: Pirates Welcome!

We here at e23 don't discriminate against pirates. Not really sure why you would, honestly. Some people in the business speak very disparaging of pirates. They're all like "man, those pirates are totally lame." But then we say "but they have parrots!" And then they say "dude, I'm talking about these torrents." And we're like "yeah, they're really good sailors!"

Weird. Well, anyway, since we're such big fans of pirates, we're happy to present some printable pirate minis for your games of roleplaying! The most recent offering from Arion Games is Paper Miniatures: Pirate Set III, a collection of buccaneers and swashbucklers. But if that one set isn't enough (and honestly, is it ever?), Arion Games has also collected their seaborne offerings into a coalition of awesomeness called Paper Miniatures: Pirate Bundle.

Yo-ho, yo.

-- Fox Barrett

May 24, 2009: Thanks, American Heritage Dictionary!

Star. A self-luminous celestial body consisting of a mass of gas held together by its own gravity in which the energy generated by nuclear reactions in the interior is balanced by the outflow of energy to the surface, and the inward-directed gravitational forces are balanced by the outward-directed gas and radiation pressures.

Fury. Violent anger; rage.

Star Fury. A game from Bad Baby Productions that features little of the above, but does offer up a heaping helping of fun.

May 23, 2009: Hey, Those Guys Are Jerks, Too! Get 'em!

South punches North. North kicks South in the shins. South and North descend upon one another in a cartoon-like frenzy of dust-cloud obscured violence. It's not pretty, but at least its straightforward. Then, of course, Earth had to come along and screw everything up by dropping an anvil on both sides.

Guess nobody ever told Earth that the Terra Novans don't take kindly to that sort of thing.

So, one elite fighting force with a cool name later, the Novans are taking the fight back to the nasty-bad Earthers. If you'd like to see just how they're doing that (and who wouldn't!), there's a book called Heavy Gear Blitz! Black Talon – Return to Cat’s Eye all about how cool the Black Talons are. And since you're only as cool as the guys you beat up, it also goes into what makes the Colonial Expeditionary Force so awesome. And there's a bunch of other stuff, sure, but I'll leave some surprises for the other side of that "Add to Cart" button.

May 22, 2009: It's Maaaagic!

It's Pyramid time again! This month we've got Pyramid #3/7: Urban Fantasy, a look at the somewhat less fanciful side of fantasy.

That reminds me of the time I meet a mage on the street, once. He showed me a magical cup that could make balls disappear when I gave him money!

. . . I miss my money.

-- Fox Barrett

May 21, 2009: Now I Know My ABCs!

Next time won't you - oh god, it's a worg, run!

Cooper, that mighty compendineer, has finished his catalog of things that go bump on your head. Cooper’s Compendium of Corrected Creatures: OGL Monster Stats T – Z finishes out the set, with its titans and vampires and . . . yrthaks? What the heck is a yrthak? And is that even the correct way to pluralize it? I gotta play more fantasy games, you guys have the weirdest stuff.

So now that we have the whole set, why not buy the whole set? If you haven't got a certain range of letters you're particularly fond of and want the whole shebang, I recommend the Cooper's Compendium of Corrected Creatures Bundle. It'll save you a few bucks over buying them individually.

May 20, 2009: Boat, Now With Added Slow!

It's a boat! It's slow! It's . . . 30-Ton Slow Boat!

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Not sure what else to write. Um. It's for Traveller!

What can I say? It's nine pages about a boat. (Well, a spaceshipy thing, but whatever, it's called a boat.) It's, ah, pretty straightforward on this one, folks.

May 19, 2009: And It's Educational To Boot!

So Mohammad died. You're down a prophet, sure, but you're up a religion! Net gain, right? Well, sorta. See, someone is still needed to guide all these people of the faith. That's where you come in.

You and a handful of friends. Or, perhaps I should make that "friends." See, the little quotes indicate that these people aren't really your friends. They're also trying to claim the position of Khalifa, and they're probably going to be pretty ruthless about it. Well, you'll just have to be ruthlesser! The people are depending on it! Or your ego is, at any rate.

And that's more or less the idea behind Footsteps of the Prophet. It's the card game of ancient Islamic intrigue! (Bonus! Just one more greenback gets you the expansion.)

May 18, 2009: A Few Goodman

Good. Man. Mush them together, you get Goodman. This is a prime name to stick on the front of a company. Goodman Games. You look at that and you don't wonder "will this product not be high-quality?" If they were called Shifty-Eyed Thieves Who Engage In Underhanded Business Practices, you'd question it. But not here. These are games made by a good . . . man. You can stride into their latest offerings with confidence, secure in the knowledge that you've made a wise purchasing decision.

Okay, sure, there's probably more than one man involved. In fact, there are probably several men. Might even be some women (which are the female version of men). But that doesn't negate the good that is already present. Perhaps it could have been Goodmen Games, or Goodpeople Games, and been more accurate. But lets not quibble over semantics. Let us just appreciate them labeling their games in a manner that makes us comfortable parting with our cash.

Oh dear, I've reached the third paragraph and not even told you what Goodman product I want you to buy! It's Level Up, their new magazine for all things D&D 4th Edition. There. Now you know what the book is. Now all that's left is for me to tell you "it's good." It's good . . . man.

May 17, 2009: Tiny Men In Space

As you might have gathered from some of our more recent GURPS releases, we're big fans of space. But you can't just have spaceships populate your star-faring game. Space ships need space people. Otherwise, they'd just float around until they fell into a star or something. Which, while I suppose it would be avant garde, would not make for a very fun game.

So, where find you some people what to put in that spacey ship o' yers? Right here: Paper Miniatures: Hard SciFi Set I: Salvage Crew. You could probably adapt them to whatever you need, but know first that this set specializes in intergalactic trashmen. Intrepid entrepreneurs of the void who look for the abandoned and the adrift, climb aboard, and take it home.

Because nothing bad has ever come of that, right?

May 16, 2009: So, Is That A Metaphor?

If it's adventure you seek, Road to Revolution: Puncture the Blackened Vein is a . . . wait, I want to back up a second.

Puncture the Blackened Vein. Let me crack this one open and take a look at just what we're getting ourselves into, here. Hmmm . . . mm-hmm . . . Okay, I see. There's a coal mine, and it's important to the adventure.

Sure, maybe not the name I would have picked, but I guarantee you this. It's one that'll stick in your head. And if that ain't good advertising, I don't know what is.

May 15, 2009: Greetings, Starfighter!

I'll admit, while I find GURPS an impressive system, I'm not much of a gear head. I just want to know how fast I can go and how much I can blow up. Also, when I think of spaceships, I think of people in ships shaped like letters of the alphabet firing ingeniously color-coded energy bolts at one another while they zip through asteroid fields. Taken at face-value, GURPS can be a little clunky for this sort of simulation.

Or it was, anyway, before Pulver pulled the latest Spaceships release from his skull. GURPS Spaceships 4: Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha is all about the kind of fighters I like best: starfighters. This book is your one-stop-shop for blowing up big things tiny ships. Be it Colonel Blair launching off the deck of the Tiger's Claw to smoke some Kilrathi, or Amuro Rei departing White Base to fend off the Zeon menace, or whoever the heck is inside the Vic Viper shooting those . . . weird . . . Moai head thingies, this book has you covered.

Not that you can't use them with the tactical hex-based stuff from Spaceships 3, of course. It's just that now you've got rules for either style of gaming. GURPS Spaceships: uniting us all, one $8 PDF at a time.

-- Fox Barrett

May 14, 2009: A One-Dollar Town

If you're looking for a creepy town to drop into a game about America in the 1700's, Colonial Gothic: Elizabethtown is perfect. Why is it perfect? Is it the contents, the composition, the concept? Nope. It's the cash.

The book is a buck. Just one dollar separates you from 46 pages of creepy good times. Even if you don't play Colonial Gothic, this is one of those "too good to pass up" deals. You could probably adapt all the cool stuff found within to your game de jour.

In fact, if I spend much more writing about it, we might never recoup the loss! So give in, already. Impulse shopping is a time-honored tradition set down by the Founding Fathers. (And I can totally prove that. Somehow.)

-- Fox Barrett

May 13, 2009: Leeeeeet's Get Ready To Immolaaaaaate!

When your game is called Eldritch Ass Kicking, it can't not be awesome. You've essentially carved on The Rock of All Things "this game rules." Bearded dudes with big hats, warping the natural laws of the cosmos at whim, unleashing untold devastation upon one another? Dude, sign me up.

All you have to bring is the ten dollar sign-up fee, two ten-siders, and all those delightfully homicidal thoughts you've got bouncing around your inside your brain meats. Rather than casting Bolthor's Unpleasant Wave Of Bodily Harm, you develop your spells on the fly. Your misanthropic foes have a penchant for hurling fire at your decidedly flammable body? Raise a wall of water! Opponent turned his body to metal? Call down the lightning! It's all about quick thinking and fast acting.

And really, really, really big explosions.

-- Fox Barrett

May 12, 2009: Okay, No Rick James Jokes

I guess I could make a Freakazoid joke? Or maybe a Freak Like Me joke. Or Freaks and Geeks. Really, I suppose there's any number of things either about freaks or with the word "freak" in the name that I could reference here. I shouldn't always lean on Rick James' hit single from 1981.  Nope. Not this time. Not gonna happen. No, sir.

I know, I'll just focus on the product at hand. It's a pair of books for the Freakshow line. One is called Auditor of Order, and is about this kind of entity you probably don't want to introduce to your mother. The other book is called Avenging Angels. Them? They'll never let your spirits down.

. . . oh, bother. I need some new material . . .

May 11, 2009: The Fun Is In The Discovery

Demon Wars Set 3, Mini-Game #85 is a game about demons and the wars they have. War of the Psychic Gods, Set 3, Mini-Game #86 is a game about psychic gods and the wars they have. So what do these two games have in common?

Besides a release date, a publisher, a designer, an artist, the Mini-Games line, a general sense of "that's neat"-ness?

Well, I guess you'll just have to buy both to find out.

May 10, 2009: The Little People

A superhero is only as impressive as the normal people you surround that hero with. If Joey Fantstico can lift a truck over his head, it's not as cool if Jane Amazo, Bobby Stupendus, and Harlod Awesomian can do it too. Nope, you need The Contrast to provide The Cool.

Which is where Citizens of Bedlam comes in. It's a book of Regular Joes and Janes to who can look up in the sky and debate the apparent physical nature of flying objects. They're there to get stuck under cars, clamor for a superhero registration act, or just give your SuperMobile a parking ticket because it doesn't matter if there is a bad guy in there, this is still a fire lane and you can't park here.

They're primarily tuned to be used with Bedlam City, but we're certain you folks are smart enough to twist them to your own devious purposes.

May 9, 2009: Robots Make Everything Better

They really do. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Okay, yeah, I'll grant that Sarah Conner had a pretty lousy time of it because of all the robots, but . . . c'mon, that's a freak occurrence! Robots are always our friends! Okay, yeah, there was also the Cylons, but besides that - What? The Matrix? Well yeah, okay, but - yes, and there's also the Borg.

Look. Um. Shaddap! Robots are cool and stuff, so anything with robots and stuff instantly becomes more cooler and stuffer. To that end, Living Constructs adds robo-type-people to your D&D 4th game. Maybe not necessarily advanced robotics in the "look, sir, droids" sense, but man-made men just the same. And if there's anything fantasy could use (in my decidedly unabashed opinion) it is more robots.

After all, in a world where disembodied eyes regularly field entire armies, what's the worst that could possibly happen with the occasional sentient constructed being?

-- Fox Barrett

May 8, 2009: Boy, It Really Did "Drag On." Hah Hah... Hah?

GURPS Dragons has long been absent from e23. There were many reasons for this. Technical difficulties. Misalignment of the stars. The unexpected resurrection of our arch-nemesis, Dr. Vile von Badguy. The first robot war. Project Humperdink. File corruption resulting from that AI who awoke on our e-mail server. The second robot war. The worldwide (wo)manhunt for Carmen Sandiego after she stole our archives. A brief zombie apocalypse. The third robot war.

It . . . it's been a busy couple years.

But now we're all good, the file is ready for purchase, and you can finally complete your digital collection of GURPS Fourth Edition books! No more clunky bookshelves for GURPS. Just sweet, sweet, digital gaming goodness. Enjoy!

-- Fox Barrett

May 7, 2009: Insight

Dungeon Crawl Classics #61: Citadel of the Corruptor discusses and explores the light/dark, good/evil, naughty/nice dichotomy of fantasy fiction. It examines the common themes of heroism and sacrifice. There are thoughts on the violent nature of the genre, and ponderings about the nature of the random elements involved. It, truly, delves into the murky depths of this style of fiction and pulls forth an insightful nugget of wisdom about the human condition.

No it doesn't.

It's a dungeon crawl! Go kill some stuff, already!

-- Fox Barrett

May 6, 2009: Advertising Thoughts

I've been wondering just what you would put in the travel brochure for a place like Hell Gate Keep.

"Not much," is what I came up with.

Then again, I suppose just telling a group of adventurers that you dropped your keys in there would be enough to get them to charge head-first into whatever horrible peril awaits. So it probably doesn't matter what the brochure says, truth be told.

-- Fox Barrett

May 5, 2009: Tiny Explosions

Though no-so-much a funtastic time for those participating in it, World War 2 has long been featured on wargamers tables. It gives those of us not involved a chance to explore this truly epic conflict. "What if this? Could they have that?" Far removed from these battles, we can try to get a sense of just what was going on in all that chaos. It's a chance to connect to both triumph and tragedy in the greatest human drama the world has yet known.

Plus, from the safety of our tables, it's a lot of fun to make explosion noises. Boosh! Shprah! Bocchhrrr!

Pinnacle, being hip to this knowledge of our long-held love of history and explosions, publishes Fields of Honor: WWII. Now you too can experience history the way everyone should: with little explosion noises.

May 4, 2009: Ah, Back To Basics

If you were here yesterday, you probably saw my somewhat dour note about a rather excellent little foray into the Terrifying Unknown. Neat, but not exactly the typical sword and sorcery stomp. So if a tale about having your brains turned into tapioca isn't your speed, Goodman Games has got your back.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #60: Thrones of Punjar is about . . . ah, to be honest, who cares? It's about 50 pages long, and is wall to wall monter slayin'. Everything else is details; mere opportunities for the characters to say something besides their battlecries.

And on that note: "stab 'em in the head, ruaaaaaaagh!!"

-- Fox Barrett

May 3, 2009: So This Is It. We're Going To Die.

Yeah, basically.

Trail of Cthulhu: The Dying of St Margaret's isn't exactly a happy adventure. In fact, in a decidedly Lovecraftian fashion, it's rather an unhappy one. One might even say "abysmal" or "hopeless" or "well, gee, that was fun guys, I'm gonna go home now and stare into the bottomless abyss of the human soul." Stalwart barbarians and cocky mecha pilots need not apply.

On the other hand, if you're down for a quiet descent into madness . . . ho-ho, brother, are you ever in the right place.

May 2, 2009: Savage Worlds Worlds

You've got the Savage Worlds rules. Great! So . . . now what?

Now  you go out there and find a bad guy to pummel, a hostage to rescue from certain doom, an evil plan to thwart, a pit of fire to swing over, a damaged plane to crash land, a ghost pirate to elude, a . . . well, it kind of goes on like that for a while. There's a lot of possibilities here, most of them in the "high-flying adventure" category. Still, it's understandable if you can't find a miscreant with whom to engage in fisticuffs. We all get writer's block sometime. Thankfully, even that needn't stall your adventures!

The Savage Tales line is a series of varied adventures for use with Savage Worlds. From sellswords to "science!", you're bound to find something in there to inspire your savage urges.

-- Fox Barrett

May 1, 2009: Und'da Da Sea

Water, water, everywhere . . . so keep the pressure door closed, will ya?

Transhuman Space Classic: Under Pressure takes Pulver's preeminent sci-fi setting from that inky black outer space to the inky black inner space. Explore the vast, hostile, and mysterious environment our sushi live in. It needn't even be Earth's big goldfish bowl, either. I've been told there's a couple other planets out there with water in them. Which means, really, that you'll be exploring space and the oceans at the same time.

And what sane person could you pass up a two-fer like that? None, says I! So come buy our neat book.

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