The Other Side blog

Friday, July 12, 2013

ShadowRun and the Deep Web / Undernet

I was talking to my wife last night about ShadowRun in hopes I would have a review ready for you all today.

That didn't happen.

Instead she distracted me with something she had found out about the Deep Web.

I still want to get a ShadowRun 5 review up soon. It is pretty cool.

Darwin's Guidebook of creatures, Mythical and Mundane for the Gaslight RPG

So I have been quietly working on this:

Art by Nolan Segrest

Darwin's Guidebook of creatures, Mythical and Mundane for the Gaslight RPG.

It is the first Victorian age monster book I have ever done.

The Gaslight RPG is a late Victorian Age Setting for d20 and Savage Worlds from Battlefield Press.
The Second Edition game will be out soon. along with another book I co-wrote, Dr. Challenger's Guide to the Unknown. I did a whole bit on the Hollow Earth which was wicked fun.

Darwin's Guide was fun, but a lot harder than expected.
The design goal was easy enough. Write a monster book with some common monsters, do it for the Victorian age, but write it in the style of Charles Darwin.

Since I am a fan of Darwin I went back to his most popular works, "The Voyage of the Beagle", "On the Origins of Species" and "The Descent of Man". I also read his autobiography and a couple biographies.
Darwin was an interesting man and soon it became obvious there is no way he would have accepted a world that had magic in it. He was too rational, too ordered.
Soooo I had to cheat. A lot.

In the end I hope the book is pleasing for Game Masters and players. I hope that through this book you pick up one of his books.

Not sure when this will hit the shelves. The publisher is in control of it now.
But expect a lot more from me on it when it comes up.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

White Dwarf Wednesday #71

White Dwarf 71 takes us to November of 1985. The cover art is another one by Alan Craddock. I would say it is a cavalier and a barbarian in honor of the newly released Unearthed Arcana, but I have nothing to back that up.
Ian Livingstone is still at the helm here talking about Game Day and looking forward to more success with Judge Dredd.

Of the bat we go into Open box with two books from the Way of the Tiger. These books seem something in between an RPG and a choose your own adventure sort of book. Chris Elliott gives it 8/10 but I can't exactly figure out way in reading his article. He says it is fun, but something like AD&D with Ninjas and Kung-fu. We get a new Paranoia book, Vapors Don't Shoot Back (7/10), a review of the almost legendary Masks of Nyarlathotep (9/10) and Thrilling Locations for the James Bond game (9/10). Interestingly enough this is the first Open box in a long while that does not have any D&D related material.

The Face of Chaos is another look at alignment in AD&D. Frankly even then I was tired of alignment discussions. Still am.

RuneRites gives us a couple of water-based creatures; the Frostgrim and Neried.

Cults of the dark Gods is the start of what promises to be a new feature on a "translation of ancient texts" for Call of Cthulhu. This one deals with the original order of assassins and the Knights Templar. I have often said you can't have a proper conspiracy theory unless it somehow involves the Knights Templar.

An ad for the D&D Masters game.

A Box of Old Bones is an AD&D/Dragon Warriors adventure for starting characters. Five pages with map, it looks like it could be a good starter adventure or better yet a good starter adventure for someone familiar with one of the games and learning the other.

Starbase covers Avionics failures. Honestly I thought something like this was already in rules. Of course the biggest issue is not that, but the assumption that you could have complete failure like this with out backup systems. Plus today we would call these Sensors and not Avionics (which are in aircraft).

Two pages of Letters this issue. I think this was around the same time Dragon had less letters.

Tower Trouble is an adventure for 3-6 Traveller characters. It is also quite long at 6 pages.

Monsters Have Feelings Too, Two is a follow up to the article in WD38 about playing monsters as intelligent opponents and not as walking collections of XP.

Fiend Factory is back, but it only has one D&D monster, a Psychic Vampire, and a weak one at that.

Treasure chest has treasure this time, with two magic items for divination and prophesy. A card and "tellstones". Interesting ideas that I don't think work as well on the game table as they do on paper.

Gobildegook is still a full page. The newsboard/rumor page talks about an update finally to T1.

We end with ads including full page, full color ads for Unearthed Arcana, Marvel Super Heroes and Talisman.

This issue feels bigger than the last one, though I am not sure and don't want to grab #70 to find out. It feels larger and that is what matters when buying it at the store. Speaking of which I am pretty sure that this was the time that all my local, and not so local, book stores stopped carrying White Dwarf. It would not be till I got to college in 87 before I would find back issues of WD on the shelves next to back issues of Heavy Metal.

A solid issue with a lot of material, just nothing that jumped out at me. Of course my apathy was also pretty high at this time and I was strictly AD&D and nothing else from late 85 to 87. The great thing is that this is really my first time going through these issues in depth since I got them, so really everything is new to me.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Pacific Rim True20

Ok I am totally getting geeked out over Pacific Rim. I have loved giant monster movies since I was a little kid. And unlike some movies, the more I hear about this one the more excited I am to see it. So are my kids. Let's be honest that scene in the trailer where the Jaeger beats the Kaiju over the head with a boat? Damn.

This got me thinking about the True20 campaign setting Mecha vs. Kaiju.

It's pretty much Pacific Rim, only done 5 years ago (5 years? holy crap).

Giant mechs aka Jaegers and the pilots vs. Kaiju in True20s simple system.
Anyone that has been a longtime reader here knows of my love of True20. I would love to see True20 make a comeback, but I am not holding my breath on that one.

On the other hand there is nothing in MvK that could not be adapted for Mutants & Masterminds easily.

I might have to give it a go after this weekend.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Gygax Magazine?

Gygaz Magazine was released to much pomp and circumstance this past winter. The idea was to capture the feeling and joy of the Dragon magazines of old and it did this. For one issue.

I was/am a yearly subscriber but yet I have no idea really when Issue #2 will arrive. This is despite the communications on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

The main trouble here is trying to release a new print magazine in this day and age. Most print magazines are failing and some, like Newsweek and Dragon, have gone over to all digital format.

Gamers can be be obstinate to the point of pig-headedness (and old school gamers even more so) when it comes to print, but sometimes economic reality is, well, reality.

It's not as if the content of the magazine doesn't have value, sales of the print and pdf versions can attest to that. Is the value worth more than the cost to print, sell and ship. One issue I have heard coming up is the rise of shipping costs which I am sure is the killer for most magazines.

I hope things get worked out for Gygax. I'd like to see it succeed.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Deviant Art: Raven

Been a busy weekend this weekend. The neighbor's apple tree fell in our yard so I have been out with the chainsaw and cleaning up wood. So here are some pictures of Raven, my other favorite DC magic girl.

Raven from Titans by ~MLauNeim on deviantART

Raven by ~KidNotorious on deviantART

Raven by ~CeruleanRaven on deviantART

Raven Inks by *Jon-Moss on deviantART

Raven Rising by =JamieFayX on deviantART

Not creepy, just different. by *oO-Fotisha-Oo on deviantART

Have a great Sunday!