My Castles & Crusades Castle Keeper Guide came in the mail yesterday.
With lots of swag that I don't remember being offered. The dice box is nice and it has C&C dice in it.
Love the "Epic Level Play" book too. Some good ideas I might port over to D&D5.
I just have so much cool stuff for this game. It is a shame I don't get to play it more than I do.
We were at the Field Museum of Natural History this weekend. One of my favorite museums in the world. I love the dinosaur exhibit. Got to see Sue and Lucy, two of my favorite girls in anthropology. I also got to see the creature I loved as a kid. The Dimetrodon. Often confused as a dinosaur these creatures are much, much older. The also do not appear in the Ubiquity books that I have seen.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Urban Horror edition.
D&D is metal. But the gritty Urban Horror I enjoy is Rap with Metal. Two great tastes that go great together.
Make sense to me really. I was getting into more urban horror in the 90s when rap and hip hop were huge and nu Metal was on the rise.
Personally I believe that Metal and Rap/Hip-Hop have far more in common than they differ.
So how about we start where it started. More or less.
Anthrax and Public Enemy are as about as different as you can imagine. That is till you dig beneath the surface and realize they are saying the same things to their audiences. Public Enemy is more politically charged than Anthrax is.
Judgement Night. Not just a sub-par Emilio Estevez film, it is also a great urban battle song. Personally I always felt this was a better soundtrack for an apocalyptic battle scene between humans and demons.
Ozzy + Trick Daddy. Ok, Ozzy is only sampled in this. But this was one of the songs I had on repeat when working on the Ghosts of Albion game. My understanding is that Ozzy rather liked this.
I won't lie. I listened to Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" on pretty much repeat all throughout my time working the Buffy game. When I began work on Ghosts of Albion I switched over to "Meteora".
Linkin Park is pretty much the archetypical Nu-Metal band. An alchemy of rock, rap with bits of punk and grunge. Absolutely part of my soundtrack of the Apocalypse.
For shear oddness you can't beat the Gorillaz. One part Blur, one part LSD trip and a bunch of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. This doesn't really fit in the "hard rock" mode, but the trippy video is pure "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" crossed over with "Terra Primate".
It takes a bit of Star Trek lore, the war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation and talks about the pivotal battle that won the war. The Battle of Axanar and the Captain of that battle, Garth of Izar, were detailed in the Original Series episode "Whom the Gods Destroy".
This though is several orders of magnitude beyond what the Original Series could do in effects and a better story than we have seen in the theatres in a long time.
Here is the first part, done as documentary.
The full movie plans to be even better.
Here is a teaser trailer for the movie with a bit more background on what is going on.
Frankly this looks so good and "feels" like Star Trek.
Plus Tony Todd shouting "I DO NOT FEAR THE KLINGON EMPIRE!"... I mean come on.
That has got to be worth some of your dollars.
All month I have been talking about Ubiquity and all week about the ether space of Space: 1889. But while I am off in a world of fantasy the real world of science and space has done some really great stuff. Below are some artist renditions of the recent New Horizons photos of Pluto.
Then combine that with this video that appeared on my feed today showing the Magnus Effect.
Which lead me to read about the Rotor Ship. All of this has combined to produce something new(ish) in my mind.
1901: An Edwardian Æther Space Odyssey
January 1901. Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, Jedak-Regent of Parhoon, Mars has died. Her son Albert Edward, now Edward VII, has picked up production of the empire's fleet. He has decreed the 20th century to be the new dawn of the "Space Age".
Aiding this is a new invention by Nikola Tesla, the Tesla-Magnus Rotor. This new form of ether space propulsion threatens to make the Edison engines obsolete. They offer better maneuverability in close quarters to smaller celestial objects and now thanks to super conducting magnets found in the asteroid belt they can be pushed to speeds of up to 4.5 mm/d!
The first of five new ships, The HMS Victoria, has been equipped with this new drive and it will begin the race to the outer planets. Now the fabled diamond mines of Jupiter and the cloud cities of Saturn are within reach. Even the mysterious planets of Uranus and Neptune are now within a two year journey. Who knows what lies beyond? A ninth or even tenth planet!
The Victoria is a long range ship with a crew of 50 and supplies for 2 years. The ship features 12 Tesla-Magnus rotors. Two each on the fore (bow), aft (stern), dorsal, ventral, starboard, and port sides to affect three dimensions of movement. It is also equipped with a main sail and two secondary sails for normal ether flight.
I never claimed to be an artist.
Now if Tesla can only figure out how to make the radio work at the same time the engines are going.
What is "Space 1901"?
Well there are some very, very obvious things going here.
First off it is a nod to the classic Arthur C. Clarke book 2001: A Space Odyssey. Like that book, this will deal with mankind's first attempt to reach Jupiter. Though this time with a background of Imperial Colonialism.
Also as much as I enjoy the Victorian setting of Leagues of Adventure and Space: 1889, I wanted to move out of the Victorian setting. I also was not overly wedded to the Pulp action of Hollow Earth.
The Edwardian period of 1901-1910 seemed like an untouched area in gaming.
And of course Tesla. How could I not do something with Tesla?
There would be a bit of "Star Trek" to this (strange new worlds) and "Space: 1999" (cut off from Earth).
I am sure I will have more ideas when I am done reading Revelations of Mars.
Looks like that is up from $9.95 when it was originally released. Damn inflation!
The Monster Manual was the first RPG I ever read. The one that started this whole crazy business for me. I judge every RPG I pick up against how the Monster Manual made me feel. Does it ignite that fire of excitement and creativity? Will I spend hours and hours reading the pages?
This is the Savage Worlds update to the classic Space 1899. Like it's fore-bearer this is a game where brave men and women from Earth brave the Ether to travel to a dying Mars or a Venus covered in lush jungles and dinosaurs. Loosely based on the works of Burroughs and Verne this is a space travel game with a twist. There is plenty of room for adventure and the opportunity to plant the flag of the British Empire on a new world or even find adventure of your own.
It is the Savage World rules and you need the core rules to play this. It is great fun and it is to date the best reason given to me to play Savage Worlds.
The only downside to this is that there is no conversion notes from the old Space 1899 to the new system. But that is minor compared to all the material you get here.
The book itself is 193 full color pages.
The "value add" for this book is that it focuses completely on the Space: 1889 universe. The character creation rules, combat and the rest are all in the main Savage Worlds book.
This leaves room for the "Savage Tales" chapter which is full of adventure hook, ideas and mini-scenarios. Note: There is nothing stopping you from using these with any other edition of Space: 1889 you might own.
This is also a time to address the Pachycephalosaurus in the room. Why choose Ubiquity over Savage Worlds?
Ubiquity vs. Savage Worlds
Both systems are designed to "generic" systems. I also associate both system with Pulp-era action. In fact I might have even said here at some point in the past that Savage Worlds was my "go to" system for Pulp Era Action, but I think I have to give that nod to Ubiquity now.
Though both seem, on paper anyway, of handling the the type of adventure found in Space: 1889. The Space: 1889 - The Strange Land adventure even comes in both flavors, Ubiquity and Savage Worlds.
I suppose then it is a matter of taste. Savage Worlds gives you access to things like Rippers and Gaslight. But Ubiquity gives you access to things like Hollow Earth Expedition.
