Thursday, April 30, 2009

TGTT says LoSSW is "AWESOME"!



Today LoS was reviewed by Ron and Veronica Blessing, the hosts of the RPG Podcast "The Games The Thing"
LoS was given the "Awesome" rating. For those of you not in the know The Games The Thing is to Savage Worlds as what Entertainment Tonight is to Hollywood. So for a neophyte RPG publisher like me it's a pretty big deal.

Unfortunately it wasn't all Teddy bears and roses. They had a few concerns over some of the Edges I wrote and also with the layout. But I'm taking it in a positive light, as things to improve on in future endeavors. 

The bottom line though is that after reading LoS it made them want to play in a Sword & Sorcery game, and as a writer, that was the best endorsement I could ask for. 

Please stop by and give the review a listen.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Words of wisdom

Truer words were never written...

From COED Magazine

The top 10 things from your 20's you'll regret in you're 40's

Don’t get me wrong - being young and having fun is as important as anything in life. But assuming you live past the age of 28, there are a few things that you just can’t get away with, without reaping some serious consequences. Here are  the top 10 things you do when you’re young that, when looking back, make you wonder how you could have been such a complete and total dumbass.  

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10. Body Piercing Plugs

Believe me, I’ve been there. The piercing you either got at the mall or did in your friend Tim’s basement with a safety pin just wasn’t cool enough, so you switched to 16-gauge hoops, then to 14, and before you knew it, you’ve shoved the biggest g*ddamn thing that doesn’t look like it will give you herpes through your ear lobe like you’re from f**king Ethiopia. But beware: once you’ve finally decided to take out the massive disks in your ears, your lobes will be so stretched, you’ll have to have them sew-up to keep from looking like you have a shriveled butt hole on each ear.

(Image used courtesy of Stephen)

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9. Risque Internet Pics

For some reason, people these days just can’t help posting pictures of themselves and their friends doing stupid, drunken, naked things online. But despite the fact that everybody’s doing it, don’t be fooled: Sometime, sooner or later, those pictures are going to come back to haunt you. And when they do, it will start a sh!tstorm you can’t even imagine. And pretty soon that trip to Vegas when you were 23 will turn into the reason you are fired from your job, divorced from your wife and/or estranged from your children. Seriously.

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8. Tattoos

These days, having a tattoo is practically like having a belly button - everybody’s got one. The only difference is, having a belly button isn’t going to make you want to punch yourself in the face for stupidity as soon as you’re out of your “Jack Daniels phase.” Of course plenty of tattoos won’t be constantly regrettable reminders that you were once a retard. That is, unless you got any on your face, neck, fingers or any other place where your boss is then forced to know how much you used to like naked Star Wars characters. Oh and ladies, just so you know, one day that lower back tattoo you all seem to have is going to be known as the “old lady tattoo.” Not so sexy, is it?

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7. Choosing Your Best Friend’s Girlfriend Over Your Best Friend

She was hot. She was so smokingly hot, your F’ing crotch could’ve spontaneously combusted at any moment. And the fact that she was untouchable, lest you ruin the entire friendship you and your best buddy had built up since you were six, made her all the more desirable. But one day, they broke up. And all of a sudden, you were spending your days holding hands and helping her pick out duvet covers. You and “that asshole” Mr. Ex stopped talking. Time goes by. Then some afternoon you come home to find her blowing a guy from the laundromat. And the sad thing is, in the end, youare the douchebag, and that’s all there is to it.

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6. Getting Married Too Young

This rotten son-of-a-bitch trap can swallow even the most farsighted individuals. And I get it: You meet the woman of your dreams. You spend all your time with her; she gets all your jokes. And pretty soon, she’s on the pill and you’re living under the same roof, picking out paint for the dining room, secretly wondering what the hell happened to your manhood. Before you know it, you’re d*ck deep in webcam girl bills and pleated khakis. Next up, divorce, which charmingly includes going into debt to pay for the lawyers. But the sick twist is, she never wanted any of that bullsh!t either.

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5. Not Traveling (Enough)

It’s hard to realize when you’re 21, but the time for whisking off to foreign lands with nothing to worry about besides which awesome thing to see next quickly evaporates. (Just ask any older person, they’ll tell you all about it.) Before you know it, you’re still in the same place you were seven years before, but with too many responsibilities to get away with jetting off to India for six months, just for the hell of it. So the best bet is to get as much traveling in while you’re single, childless and can still afford to not be working on building up your 401K (as if those mattered much these days, anyway).  So what are you waiting for?

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4. Not Finishing School

One thing you quickly learn in college is that not having any money to spend sucks a hot cup of assholes. By your junior year, all you want to do is sit still for two f**king seconds and relax, instead of zipping around like a PCP addict. So you drop out, get an OK job, do OK stuff and have OK things. Cool, right? Maybe. But if you want to really do something interesting with your life, you’re going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that.

Not only should you finish school, but you should become passionate about something, study abroad and then go to grad school. Become an expert. You know, or you could knock up some chick, get a predatory loan and hope to God you never get fired for the rest of your life.

(NOTE: I know, this is not always the case. Some of the most successful people in the world dropped out of school. Fine - whenever you want to go invent something that changes the world, be my guest.)

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3. Smoking

If you didn’t know smoking kills you by now, then you probably deserve whatever fate becomes you. Whatever. The thing the never-smokers don’t understand is, smoking is good for the soul, damnit! (Unfortunately, you only think that because you’re addicted to nicotine.) But unless you’re some type of endlessly-going genetic anomaly, THIS SH!T WILL KILL YOU. Seriously, so unless you want your kids to think you’re a total asswipe, quit right now. If you don’t want to have kids, fine. But that’s not going to make the chemo any less sucky, that’s all I’m sayin’…

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2. Bad Credit

This one applies to everyone, since we Americans all seem to be addicted to f**king ourselves over in the long-run by getting greedy and buying a bunch of stupid crap every 10 seconds when we can’t afford it. Yep, I’ve been there, too. And for now, while your biggest commitment in life is playingLeft4Dead, it might seem OK. But when you have a family to support and sending your kids to college is suddenly slopped on your plate, you’re going to be eating a giant sh!t sandwich. That is, unless you call saving for the future and holding-off on that new 50-inch plasma  something other than a sh!t sandwich. Not that I have to tell you that anymore, since you don’t have a job. Hmmmm, I wonder how that happened…

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1. Not Spending More Time With Your Parents

Mom and Dad might not be hip to your world or your life or even the Internet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t the two most important people you have. And believe it or not, they can be gone before you know it. (Other times they stick around so long, you could kill them yourself, but that’s another article.)

So whether you live miles away or blocks, make sure to spend time with them whenever you can. Call them, send them a card, do anything that lets them know that you’re not a complete f**k-up. They will thank you for it, whether you know so now or not. It’s not to say that, if you are still living on your parent’s couch, you’re going to be the most satisfied person on the planet. But if you only see the folks once a year, you’re going to have some therapy bills to pay for once they pass, guaranteed.

Honorable Mentions: not banging a MILF, heavy drug use, not learning a foreign language, beastiality

Monday, April 27, 2009

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Saturday, April 25, 2009

WARP 11 News

You guys may remember my longtime friend Karl from the post I did a while back featuring his Band Warp11. Here's the link to the post with their video "She make it so". Well Warp 11 has a new CD coming out and I wanted to give you all a heads up. While our paths have diverged (He leads the premier Star Trek band in the world, and I am an internationally recognized RPG publisher)we still take the time to keep in touch and updated on our respective careers (that and I still owe him $40.00). So here is some info on Warp 11's CD release party.

*Begin Transmission*

Wow. With the new Star Trek movie and our new CD coming out next month we are busier than a naked Mr. Spock in my bathtub. I know you crewmen are busy too, so I'm going to keep this one short but meaty -- like Brian’s genitalia.

First things first…

WARP 11 CD RELEASE SHOW
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The Blue Lamp - 1400 Alhambra Blvd.
Sacramento, California
Ages 21+
Show starts at 9:30pm
Warp 11 releases their long awaited 5th CD, "I Don't Want to Go to Heaven as Long as They Have Vulcans in Hell"
Joining us are very special guests, Skeleton Voodoo Monkey. Why are they very special, you ask? Do you remember our old drummer, Chief Medical Officer Jeff Hewitt? Well this is his new band! He is the lead singer and guitarist. Trust me, you don't want to miss it!

And if you want to be one of the first on your starbase to own the new album, you can pre-order it at Amazon (at a discounted price!) here:

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Want-Heaven-Long-Vulcans/dp/B0026KZAJS

Second things second…

Promo Video
If you haven't watched our promo video yet you are missing some prime grade-A eroticism. We're trying to get it out there as much as possible to raise awareness of the band so please send the link to your friends or post it on any blog sites you frequent. Oh and if anyone has J.J. Abrams' e-mail….

Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Y2P-JkSWw

Third things third…

Captain Karl is a Twit.
Yeah, being the trend setter I am I opened what’s called a “Twitter" account to let people know what it is like to live the high profile life of a Star Trek rock star. You probably haven't heard of Twitter, but if you manage to figure it out just search for Warp 11 and you can follow the blow-by-blow action as I do things like make my army of Star Trek figures molest and degrade Princess Leia. Like I said before, you don't want to miss it!

Finally, like I said at the beginning of this e-mail, we're going to be very busy the next couple of months. We are doing a nationwide morning radio blitz, appearing on several television shows and a couple of print and web magazines, and playing multiple shows including the Concert in the Park in Sacramento. To find out when and where just check out our website here

http://www.warp11.com/news.htm

and here

http://www.warp11.com/tour.htm

Sorry, this e-mail actually turned out kinda long -- like my genitalia.

OK, the water's getting cold. I gotta go.

Karl V. Miller
Captain
Warp 11

*End Transmission*


Monday, April 20, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Europe is a land of culture and taste




Believe it or not a large percentage of the sales for Legends of Steel are coming from Europe. And most of those from Germany. I need to get my passport updated. I could be the Hasselhoff of Gaming!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Warriors & Warlocks



I picked up a PDF Copy of Green Ronin's Warriors & Warlocks- the Sword & Sorcery expansion for the Mutants & Masterminds RPG.

I was really happy to find many of the same concepts and tropes that I explored in Legends of Steel are echoed in this expansion as well.
The way I look at it Green Ronin is a top flight outfit and Mutants & Masterminds is a great game, so if we both have much of the same ideas about whats important in a Sword & Sorcery game then I'm in good company.

In fact I think Erisa (The campaign world offered in Legends of Steel) would work wonderfully as a campaign world for a Warriors and Warlock game.

Of course There is no way in the Nine Hells that I can compete with Green Ronin's production values (their art budget is something I could only dream of). Warriors & Warlocks has some sweet art!

Still, I had a couple of head shaking moments, like where they give racial templates for Dwarves, Halflings, and Elfs! I have no idea why they did that, but its definitely one area where our S&S philosophies don't quite meet eye to eye.

But overall I really enjoyed it and heartily recommend it (after you buy a copy of Legends of Steel, of course).

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

1Page system and support


If you’ve been around here for a while you know that I’m not a big fan of Yahoo (why?  Click here).

But there are several Yahoogroups that I belong to that I really don’t want to give up.  One of which is the 1PG group.  The 1PG group is a fan site that discusses and shares information in support of the 1PG game line from Deep7 Games.  In the world of fast-play “Indie” games the 1PG system is often overshadowed by other systems such a Microlite D20 or Risus,  but 1PG still has their core audience of adoring fans that not only keep the games alive by supporting the line but also by creating their own fan based materials.  If you join the 1PG group and head over to the files section you will find a very impressive number of fan made 1PG games .  Here are just a few-

MAD DOGS & ENGLISHMEN: Roleplaying in the British Empire

Lost Tales: High Fantasy

Semper Seven: A special missions force versus a ruthless terrorist organization.

Sherwood: The First and ONLY Robin Hood 1PG

BABEWATCH: Sun, Sand, Sea & Sex Roleplaying

The 1page fansite is a great place to get a hold of a lot of support material on a great game system.  1Page is just so damn user friendly it's hard not to like it.

 Stop on by Deep7 games and have a look at what they have to offer. They  have great games, covering just about every RPG Genre.  The prices are certainly easy on the wallet, and they have a  small but very dedicated fan-base. 

Oh and don’t forget Heyoka Studios – they are an exclusive producer of commercial 1PG games and supplements.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Saturday, April 04, 2009

My "First time."

This was my first exposure to Sword & Sorcery back in 1973 I was a wee lad perusing my grandfathers collection of war and horror comics when I ran across this cover. Game over baby, I was hooked.



If you dont mind a virtual copy, head over to Dave's site and download some good times.