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| For the schizophrenic in all of us |


Met up last night at the Baranof in Greenwood to try out his new rules-light fantasy/cyberpunk game (mysterious codename "CDF").
Playing a game session at the Baranof was crazy enough. It's a glorious dive that positively oozes history. All you have to do is mentally replace the flat screen tv with an ancient b&w model and it's uncanny how easily you can picture Charles Bukowski perched on the barstool at the end.
The game itself was a blast. My elf sorcerer fireballed six goblins and a rental car. Four were incinerated instantly. Thankfully, the car was among the survivors, otherwise I don't know how we would have made it back in one piece from Goblintown (aka 2050's version of Renton). I didn't get as much chance to get play done as I would have likes, due to character creation, setup, etc, but that's pretty much a given at a …

This is a long chat to chew. I may have to break this into two separate parts. Lets see how much actual meat there is as I chew the fat ;)
I gave it a good try but I have to admit that the more I ran with the A to Z project, the more I realized that I was never going to find something for every letter. I am sure that if I dug down deep I could, but at that point the project begins to feel like work and I really don't want to labor through the posts.
As much as I love the maps in Rogue Trader, they reveal too much about the Koronus Expanse for starting characters. So I've made up this map to show the general known regions of the Expanse, and the Warp Routes the characters have access to; as they discover/pay through the nose for/stumble across/steal new routes and planets I'll add them in.
I'm now working my through the monster chapter doing a first pass on editing before it goes to Tanner for a more thorough look, and I decided "Why not preview a few monsters on the blog". (i.e. I needed a quick and easy post for the day because I'm busy as spit).Kelshandan
Location Name: Devil's Cove, or Isle of Games
Ambiance: The slave trade thrives on this Kelshani island. The extreme social distinctions between the masters and their slaves divides the residents and flavors almost all social interactions. The Demon Court, an arena where warrior-slaves fight for their masters and for treasure, is the most recognizable feature of the island, and easily distinguishes this port from others at a distance. Other vices, particularly those of a hedonistic nature, thrive in Devil's Cove.
History: Around seven human generations ago, the Kelshani emerged from their underground empire and began to establish a presence on the surface of the World Within. About two human generations ago, the Kelshani established their autonomy from …

As always, the latest largest-scale versions of the maps are available off to the right in the "Free Resources" section.
We open the 80s with White Dwarf #16 for Dec 1979/Jan 1980.

"If threatened, surprised, or charged, they will stampede in a …
There is only one viable settlement within the entire Griffsilv Crater Region and that is Dimsheen, a tumble-down series of scored, pitted and constantly malfunctioning domes squatting on the very lip of the crater-rim at the South-most point. The dust smelters and alloy-works are the only industry in Dimsheen, not counting the usual service-sector professions that always spring up to cater to and prey upon lonely populations of isolated workers. Conditions within Dimsheen are grim, demanding and dangerous. There are constant fatalities out on the dust, and everything is patched together and recycled or jury-rigged to get by on a budget dictated by absentee overlords of commerce who only ever read the production reports.![]() |
| Hulk roll low percentage! Hulk mad! |
You know you're talking about an obscure roleplaying game when it's nigh impossible to find a stock image of its cover. Mind you, until very recently I wasn't 100% certain Mach: The First Colony had ever been published. I remember seeing advertisements for it in many issues of Dragon back in the early '80s and I thought it looked intriguing, but I never saw it on the shelves of any game store I visited. The artwork of the advertisement, coupled with the tagline "A role playing game of soldiers of fortune in a New World," made it seem right up my alley. I've long thought that a RPG taking inspiration from the European exploration and conquest of the western hemisphere had potential. Strangely, comparatively few games have ever done this, so perhaps I'm alone in thinking this way.
Once a day (or hex, whatever works best for your scale) the treacherous mountain terrain will consume a random piece of equipment. Ropes and spikes used to cross ravines will need be left behind. Poles will be lost into deep drifts. grapnels irretrievably wedged …
Are you feeling a little dark? Gothic? Do the shadows creep long throughout the realm of your world?

The recent Avengers film has put superhero gaming into my mind, at least as idle consideration. The new Journey into Mystery collections and the classic Avengers: Kree-Skrull War, got me to thinking about campaigns in superhero games. Previously, I've done more "done in one" sort of games--though I have done a Secret Wars riff in the past. I think that you could pull off a comic book "epic," though. Not one of the currently decompressed storylines with a lot of talking heads, but one of the more episodic, action-based stories of the Bronze Age and early Modern period. Something that would provide the room for the player's to make fairly divergent choices than the heroes did on the comics page.

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| This is as close to it as I'm able to get, and only because she had to leave the house … |







I'm simply amazed that The Abandoned Mine is the 19th release in the Toys For the Sandbox release. There's a few reasons for that amazement. Let me count the ways:
Kyle recently picked up a HQ Character, a Chaos Lord, and Caleb got a Trukk for his Orks. Caleb's Orks have red skin, some mutation I would assume, and yes we use Testor paint, I full of Hersey.
Kyle has worked a little harder on his "Golden Chaos" we went with yellow instead of Gold paint 'cause it "pops" better. Kyle wants a Bike squad next.
My "Bad Company" boys are hardly play legal I would guess but I don't play with guys that are all WYSIWYG. This is the start of my …
Loviatar's 9th issue does!
Controlling a large portion of modern day Spain and Portugal, the Caliphate of Cordoba is an Islamic state in the midst of the mostly-Christian West. The capital city of Cordoba is the largest in Europe, boasting over a hundred thousand inhabitants, seven hundred mosques, seventy libraries and the only University in Europe. The streets are paved and lit at night, a novelty in the western world at this time.