What to Play!! part 2

  Tonight’s first game is the amazing deadlands, set out west in a United States where the Civil war is “on pause” so to speak. It is 1879 and it seems the dead just won’t lay easily, the Civil War that has been going on for the past twenty years has ground to a halt, and a new mineral called ghost rock is every scientists dream. Throw in giant worms in the desert and it would resemble a western crossed with a zombie movie and Tremors. Basically, there is something big and bad trying to keep the world in chaos, and they are doing a fine job of it. An awesome setting with plenty of support, I am always impressed when I see it being run by the demo team (Evil Mike and Chaos Steve) or the big bug himself, Matt Cutter.

     Next up is weird war II. Remember me saying in the previous paragraph about that big bad force keeping everything in chaos? Well this is the same thing, only set during World War II. The darkness is everywhere and must be fought; you can fight it in the Pacific, Europe, North Africa, or Russia. You can play different nationalities of soldiers; there is naval and aerial combat, as well as tanks and just plain old shooting at each other.

     Last for now are pirates of the Spanish Main, based off the Wizkids property of the same name. Set during the age of piracy you get to play any number of characters from pirates and privateers to missionaries and nobles. While not historically accurate, it fleshes out life at sea enough for role playing, and if you have any ships from the Wizkids games, they can be used here as well. Unfortunately Pinnacle had to discontinue the line when Wizkids went under. Personally I would like to run a fantasy game stealing from this book for swashbuckling fun as the bestiary is predominantly real world stuff with ghosts and a couple other undead thrown in.

     Thanks for checking this out, remember you can check out info on all of these games at the savage worlds site peginc.com  so until next time, take care!

What to Play! part 1

   Hey there folks, just wanted to go over what savage worlds stuff I have available to run for my group. Going trough my collection and getting excited about running these settings, I figured I would share the love, hehe. These may be new to you or it will be a trip down memory lane, either way I hope you enjoy it. Ps. these descriptions are just my quick impressions, I figured it was better than copying the back of the book to you.

     We begin with 50 fathoms, evernight, and rippers both are due to be updated soon. 50 fathoms is about a fantasy world cursed by a witch to drown, and it is outstanding. The races are distinctive, with a crab race, and humanoid walrus men and squid folk. Evernight is also a fantasy setting where a race of spider creatures has invaded and have caused the skies to darken. It uses typical player races but the story behind the invaders is fascinating. Finally we have rippers, which is set during the Victorian era where monsters are real and it is up to an elite group, called rippers, to protect humanity. The title comes from the technology they use to “rip” bits from the monsters they defeat and graft them onto themselves. Say you want some badass claws and you have just defeated a werewolf, there you go. The only thing stopping me from running one of these right now is the fact that they will be updating these soon, starting with 50 fathoms.

     This last one for today is tour of darkness, set in Vietnam during the conflicts between the French and the Vietnamese, and later the US. Something dark lurks in the jungle, more dangerous than the locals. As far as I know this is not due for reprint, and I doubt it will be picked, though it is very interesting as part of the whole weird war line that savage worlds has going.

     That is all for now, I will be back later with some more for your perusal. Take care everyone!

Last 4E game for awhile

     Tonight was the last game before my hiatus, in two weeks my group and I will determine what savage worlds game we will play. First I would like to tell you how I wrapped up tonight's D&D game. Last time we played, the group had recovered a lost tiefling artifact and they were now heading back to the surface with it. Thornfel and Praxana were nowhere to be seen, as well as their friend Venomia. A carriage took them from the edge of the Starfel to a fancy building where they could rest, as they were expected to attend a party later that evening.

     Upon their arrival they began to mingle with the crowd, Quarion received a warning from a representative from the scarlet spire (wizard's college, kinda) and Jinx's cousin warned her that her family knows that she is here. After a bit Thornfel and Praxana appeared atop a platform positioned along the wall on one side of the room, asking for Jinx to come up. Thornfel, alongside Jinx with Praxana standing at the back of the platform, announced that tonight signaled a new age for tieflings. The group started to feel uneasy when Thornfel used the word "conquerors" somewhere in his little speech which ended with him asking Jinx to hand over the artifact. That is when she bull rushed him off the stage, and all hell broke loose. From a curtained area at the back of the stage, Jinx's sister Astrid burst forth, commanding her minion in the audience to attack. Reminder for everyone, Astrid is a vampire, and so are her minions.

     After a fierce battle, the dwarf Praxana was left to face the ire of a group of betrayed pc's, so she quickly surrendered. The bodies of Venomia and the ruling council were found behind the curtain along with an inactive gate to Hell. The players notice a note on Venomia's person instructing them on how to use the artifact to help the tiefling people. Following the instructions, the pc's used the artifact to create a city floating above the Starfel, formed from the ruins and debris from it.

     That seemed like a pretty good place to stop, there are still some plot threads dangling in the wind, but they now have a new base from which to operate. Hope everyone out there is doing alright, take care.

Is Low Life the new Gamma World?

     Since the fourth edition version of gamma world came out a year ago, I have been tempted to pick up a copy. The wild characters you can create held a twisted appeal to me but something stopped me from following through with an actual purchase. I already own a copy, it is called low life, and you can really come up with some crazy characters with it. It takes place on a Earth that has suffered many calamities, a post, post, post apocalyptic world you might say. There are no humans, but croaches, werms and sentient snack cakes roam the land. Compared to gamma world's random character generation I feel low life is close, players are able to come up with some wild creations if they put their minds to it. Here is the synopsis from the low life site:     Sword & Sorcery Adventure in a shattered world inhabited by the descendants of cockroaches, worms, snack cakes, and stranded aliens. Discover the arcane secrets of hocus pokery, dementalism, smellcasting, and holy rolling. Battle hideous beasts, risen from the rubble of ancient civilizations. Enjoy a light lunch at the Primordial Soup Kitchen. Mutha Oith is a world of grand adventure and deadly peril; a world of conflict and danger. It is a land of epic heroism and great evil, a realm of horror and violence, a bold land where even the lowliest cockroach can become a king by his own sword and the most wretched gob of filth can become a gawd.
     Are you werm enough to follow your destiny? Do you have the nuggets to take your rightful place among Oith's most valiant heroes? If so, strap on your esophagator hide shield, pick up your poo flinger and your big ass cleaver, mount your pygmy slog, whisper a prayer to Jelvis, kiss your larvae goodbye, and open the goosin' book. The muck-riddled road to epic adventure stands before you... 

     How does that sound? In addition to playing any of the several wild races (bodul, creamfillian, croach, horc, smelf, oofo, pile, and tiznt) you can customize your weapon. I saw someone playing a creamfillian (sentient snack cakes that hate the ancient human race for imprisoning their ancestors in little plastic bags and devouring them) who was wielding a rubber chicken with nails in it! As long as gamers have a little imagination, stuff like this is possible. How about a tiznt, which is a mix of different animals picked by the player, riding a green caterpillar toy from when I was a kid.

     That is another thing, artifacts of the "hooman" race can still exist, just like in gamma world, so you can have a werm living in a potato chip can that is now tall enough to be a house. Really, gamma world sounds fun but since I already own a product that can do practically the same thing, I think I will just stay with low life.

     Any questions please leave in the comments section below, and if you are curious, here is a link to the low life site http://www.muthaoithcreations.com/lowlife.html and a link to my first post which where I spoke of running a low life demo game http://randomencountersohio.blogspot.com/2010/05/first-blog-ran-low-life-rpg.html Take care guys!!

Con on the Cob 2011!!

     So, another Con on the Cob has come and gone, leaving me wondering what will next year be like. Sometimes I get this bit of emptiness inside of me after a con and I think I have it figured out. I feel satisfaction after a con where I have been able to participate, where I have invested my time into something besides scoping the dealer's room. Unfortunately I had a family member become ill mid con, going from "man this cough is annoying." to "Holy macaroni, I gotta see a doctor." now I am not complaining since it helped me glean a bit of wisdom from it.

     I was there from Saturday morning until the Corny Awards at the end of the con. I got to talk to all kinds of folks ranging from friends and gamers to artists and game designers, but I was always too late to play in any of the games  I wanted to get in on. I did not get the bunch of pictures I was hoping to get nor any amazing stories for you folks, just some advice. Sign up. Whatever convention you are going to try to volunteer or help out in some way, even if it is just spreading the word. Run a game or something just interact with the experience more than just wandering through it.

     So, my goal is to keep anyone interested up to date and to sign up to run a game at the show. I am hoping to have more interviews, like the one with Heather Krieter. Also, I am putting my 4E D&D game on hold so that after this weekend I will start running something with savage worlds. I just need to get with my group to see what they would be interested in playing. Of course I have several settings with which to run, plus it will get me used to running savage worlds and that is what I plan on running next year.

     So I apologize for any rambling, and hope you have gotten something out of this. Take care folks!!

Bleargh!! I'm Sick!

     Umm, with a cold is what I mean. Unfortunately that meant I had to cancel my regular game since I did not want to infect regular group with this. So I am going to ramble a bit here. Hopefully I will be able to shake this in time for next weekend's Con on the Cob. I have not missed one yet and I am looking forward to seeing all my out of town/state friends whom I only see at conventions. One person in particular is Michael Varhola, founder of Skirmisher Games LLC, which publishes D-Infinity magazine. I find role-playing magazines very interesting, and the couple issues I have seen of D-Infinity have left me very interested. I am also a firm fan of Kobold Quarterly. I may even suggest that Andy look into kidnap, I mean inviting Wolfgang Baur for next year's Con on the Cob.

     Yes, that means next weekend is Con on the Cob and everyone should be ecstatic about it. Not only because of the games, music, and the art, also the parties that happen Saturday night. Where else can you hang out with Larry Elmore, Sean Patrick Fannon, or any number of folks. It is just going to be awesome and I do not want anyone sobbing when I get back and tell you all about it. By the way, I will try to get pictures.

     So just a reminder, I have fixed it so anyone can leave comments now, without feedback I can only guess what you folks may find appealing so please let me and my fellow bloggers know. Thank you, and good night!

Con on the Cob’s Heather Kreiter!!

Heather is the art show director for Con on the Cob, as well as a fabulous artist. In addition to freelancing for various game companies like White Wolf and AEG, she has her own line of evil ponies. Despite her busy schedule she took a moment to answer a few questions.

So much of your work is in ccg's and rpg's, do you play any of the games you create art for?
- Unfortunately no, I just don't have the time. However, I used to play Vampire: the Eternal Struggle back in the day when it used to be called Jyhad

What first triggered your love of the fantastic (ie. vampires, faeries, demonic ponies, etc.)?
- Probably when I was 11, when I developed a huge love for Unicorns. This lead to my love of My Little Ponies and thus many decades later, the development of the Demon Ponies. The rest of my interest in the fantastic developed after I read a book called the Sleeping Dragon, by Joel Rosenberg.

Artists do not exist in vacuums (they would explode), which artist do you admire, and why?
- Wow, I don't know that I can pick just one, so I guess I'll have to say Steve Argyle. As someone who works exclusively in traditional mediums I'm always impressed by work that is done in a medium that I don't work in. Steve's computer work and attention to detail is just mind blowing. I could spend hours looking at his work. He's also a hysterically funny and down to earth guy, which just makes him that much more endearing.

You also do a bit of taxidermy, as well as projects outside of the game industry. Which project have you found to be the most rewarding?
- Despite the fact that almost all of my artwork is 2D, I get a great satisfaction after I've created something three dimensional, like my Gryphons. There's just something about creating something and being able to physically hold it and look at it. On the other hand when I finish a painting that I've truly enjoyed working on and it comes out even better than I had anticipated, that's really rewarding as well.

In creating your My Little Demons, what inspires you to add to your line up?
- Honestly, just about anything! For example, Pokey Poof and the future line of Creeper Demons (based on Creepy Crawly things) were inspired by a little run in I had with an underground Yellow Jacket's nest.

Also, what made you look at a pony and think "That would be so much better with fangs."
- That more emerged from the fact that I'm actually a My Little Pony collector, and obviously, I'm a little weird. I basically just took my love of the macabre and blended it with my love of ponies!

How did you get tangled up in this Con on the Cob thing?                
- Andy has been a friend of mine since my early convention days. I'm always happy to be included in any endeavors that Andy comes up with! Plus, how can you not want to be involved with something that has a name like "Con on the Cob"??!!

I recently saw a picture of you spanking a teddy bear, did it really deserve it? I believe there are laws against abusing toys.
- Actually, that was a monkey, and he clearly deserved the spanking that he got...

Finally, are there any upcoming projects that we can look forward to?
- Absolutely! I have two new paintings coming out in the Blood Country Expansion of Nightfall as well as work in the next 3 expansions of L5R. I'll also be releasing a new My Little Demon    coloring book, hopefully before the holidays featuring many new Demons that have yet to be released.                                              

Any final comments?
- Feel free to keep up to date with any of my endeavors on either the Heather Kreiter Art or My Little Demon Facebook pages or my website, shamansoulstudios.com!

Thank you Heather, I hope that monkey doesn’t need therapy now. That is all for now, hopefully there will be more Con on the Cob goodness to come!

Photo by Paige Barbis