Doomlands And Wasteland:1989 -- Gonzo Post-apoc Inspiration

Not only do I enjoy gaming in the post-apocalyptic vein, I enjoy similar entertainment. However, many post-apocalyptic movies and books are very, very dark and depressing. Give me a fun apocalypse! One that's unabashedly gonzo with mutants and fast cars and radioactive fallout and random mayhem and just a soupcon of humor! Presented here are two recent offerings of the gonzo post-apocalyptic genre I think may inspire you at the gaming table:

The Roku streaming device has their own channel, and they've recently been offering original programming. One of their new shows is "Doomlands", an animated show that can be best described as "Cheers in the Wastelands." Danny Doom and his crew drive their mobile bar "The Oasis" across a post-apocalyptic landscape trying to make a living while fighting off raiders, marauders, and mutants. You can watch it either on The Roku Channel on your streaming device or free in your web browser.

As we move from cartoons to comic books, I present to you "Wasteland:1989", one of my new favorites from the folks at Eibon Press. Eibon's usual offerings are gore-splattered comics based on cult horror and sci-fi films. One of their original titles from their "VHS Comics" line is Wasteland:1989", a tribute to the post-nuke wasteland movies of the 1980s. In the nightmare ruins of a future America, Janet of the Apocalypse is out there fighting for survival against the worst the radioactive world has to offer. But is it a dream...or is it real? There have been three nitro-fueled, blood-drenched issues thus far, and I HIGHLY recommend each one of them!

In Memory Of Fantasy Artist Ken Kelly

Iconic fantasy artist Ken Kelly passed away yesterday. You may not recognize his name offhand, but you are definitely familiar with his work, as he's illustrated magazine covers for Creepy, Eerie, Heavy Metal, since the 1970s, as well as album covers for heavy metal bands such as Kiss and Manowar. Ken also provided the cover artwork for several Goodman Games DCC and MCC adventures. Thanks for bringing these other worlds to life, Ken.

A Note To Players: The GM Doesn't Need Your "Help"

Hey gang,

Today’s blog post is a bit of a rant session, so if you would rather read a game review or get a new monster for your RPG, this isn’t the post for you. If, however, you’d like to read the tirade of a frustrated GM, feel free to read on.

(One note: I’m paraphrasing and writing in generalities so that I don’t specifically ID or call out anyone. I may have been pissed when I wrote this, but I’m not 100% a dick.)

I had prepped a couple of online games for one of the conventions that was shifting to a virtual presence this year. I made contact with all players, sent out character sheets, and games were scheduled to begin later in the week. A few days later, one of the players contacted me as follows:

“Hi there. I finally got a chance to look over the character you sent me, and I must say, I’m underwhelmed. Do you run a particularly hardcore game with high stakes? If not, he’s not likely to survive. Looking at his hit points, he only has 6. Per the rulebook [snipped math calculations -TS] means this is the absolute minimum he can have. Also, he only has two mutations (one of them Infrasight, which is pretty useless) and, again, according to the rules [more snippage -TS] is the average number of mutations he could have. If you’re trying to have a fun con game, I find it odd you’d provide me with a character who is weak in every possible way. However, I can make it work, but just wanted to point this out to you.”

Huh. OK, so I wrote back and explained that the character was a straight random generation with no GM finagling. I also explained that the character in question had been played in three other games without fatality. In fact, the PC’s other mutation had been instrumental in those games. But if the player wanted another character, I’d send them one.

They wrote back:

“Thanks for the reply. I would suggest in the future that the characters you provide be more substantial for your players so they have more options to work with at the table. For example, when I run a game, I make sure to [snipped suggestions on how to “improve” PCs -TS]. However, I can make this character work, and it will probably be fun to play someone with these many detriments!”

Realizing they were not gonna let this go, I rolled up a new character that had more hit points, better ability scores, and four or five mutations. I sent it to the player as a replacement.

They wrote back:

“Hey, I said I was happy to play the character you sent me. If you’re being passive-aggressive about this, I don’t appreciate it. If you have something to say, just say it. Don’t beat around the bush.”

I snapped, and sent the following reply:

“I was willing to give you a new character because you’ve written to me twice now just to complain about what a crappy character you got. But if you want plain speak, here it is: I found your first email both insulting and condescending. The only passive-aggressiveness is coming from your direction. ‘My character sucks, but I’ll begrudgingly play it if I have to.’ Would you have launched into this diatribe if we had initially met at the table at a convention? Probably not. Your next email was telling me how I could do things better, as if I needed advice on how to improve the adventure I’ve written and run several times before. But the phrase that was over the line was, ‘If you’re trying to have a fun con game…’. I’m not ‘trying’ to have a fun game. I *do* have one. After 35 years of GMing at conventions, I think I have a pretty good notion on how to do it. And I’m stressed out enough trying to juggle 11 other players remotely without unsolicited advice on how I can ‘improve’ things.”

I wrapped up by saying all they needed to do was point out the PC seemed weak and if they could play something else or up the hit points a bit. Not a problem; I would’ve been happy to swap them out. But I didn’t need or want their unsolicited criticism.

The player must’ve been chastised or just didn’t see how they were coming across as they did send an apology as well as an offer to drop out of the game. It became a moot point as I needed to cancel my events due to a personal issue that surfaced.

Now that I have that off my chest, let me remind everyone that – even though we’ve moved to the slightly less personal “online world” – we still need to treat folks the way we’d treat them in person across the game table. GMs, your players have sought you out for the sole reason of having a good time. Treat them with respect because they’ve put their trust in you. Players, your GM has created a world for you to explore. Treat them with respect because they’ve put their trust in you.

Online Gaming Back in 1983? Yup, Welcome To "CB D&D"

It's fairly plain to see that the world of gaming is going to be online for the foreseeable future. Sure, I miss going to conventions and face-to-face table gaming. And I've heard more than one person lament that they refuse to try remote game sessions as "it's not the same." But to those folks, I gotta tell you you're really missing out as remote gaming has been around since gaming started. (In fact, I found an interesting article that suggests chess was played remotely via correspondence as far back as the 9th century!) In fact, yours truly is an old hand at remote gaming...

I recall playing by mail back in the 1980s, where I gave several of the games run by Flying Buffalo a try (still going strong today!), and I even played Silverdawn over the course of a summer back then. But my favorite session of playing remotely was the time I played D&D over my CB radio.

My first car was a 1972 Ford Pinto handed down to me from my mom. No AC, black plastic interior, AM radio (that didn't work), but it had a CB radio that still worked left over from the 1970's CB radio craze. I used it to listen to truckers gabbing as they passed by my house on the interstate about 1/4 mile away.

Anyway, during our weekly D&D game, my cleric (Brother Jarrod) got separated from the rest of the party deep in a long-forgotten crypt. My DM, Roger, decided he would run the two groups separately until they met up again. Due to circumstances, he and I were unable to get together that week. And my parents made it clear that tying up the phone line playing D&D ws out of the question. Roger, who lived about 5 miles from me, remembered that I had a CB radio in my car.

"Hey, I think I have a CB base unit down in the basement," he said. "How about we do this over the CB?" I thought it was a great idea, so around 7 pm on a Tuesday night (school was out for the summer), I got in my car, laid my character sheet and dice on the passenger seat, fired up the CB, and Roger and I played a one-on-one game over the airwaves. My handle was "Brother Jarrod", and he was "The Overlord", as I recall. We followed CB protocol as best as we could, finding an open channel (so we wouldn't tie up "real" communications), and ending each statement with "over."

"I listen at the door. Do I hear anything? Over."

"Nope, it sounds empty. Over."

"OK, I swing open the door and charge in! Over."

We got through a few rooms, and I managed to not die in combat as a lone 3rd level cleric lost in a tomb. Roger said, off in the distance, I saw a glimmer of torchlight - likely the rest of the party. (Over.) So I ran to meet back up with them (Over.), thus ending the session. The CB game probably lasted about 2 hours and was tons of fun. And, of course, just as we were wrapping up and signing off, an amused laughing voice broke in...

"What the hell are you two kids doing on this channel? Playing some kinda game?"

Yup, it was "some kinda game", all right! Over.

"OSR Guide For The Perplexed" Questionnaire: My Thoughts...

So Zak S. posed some very interesting questions in his "OSR Guide For The Perplexed Questionnaire" which has become a bit of a round-robin in the OSR blogging circles. What is the OSR? What does it mean to you? Is it important? What's the best parts of it?

Always willing to become One More Lemming with these things, I thought I'd jump in and give my thoughts on these queries...

1. One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:

When I first started poking around in this musty corner of the role-playing universe, I stumbled across Jeff's Gameblog and the long-since-defunct blog Grognardia. I can't really put my finger on one specific article that exemplifies the OSR, but these two encompass the spirit of the OSR best, so I'll go with that as my answer.

2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark:

The classic: "Rulings, not rules" maxim. And something my DM said back in the 80s after I argued about what I felt was an unfair PC death: "Of course it's unfair! It's D&D!"

3. Best OSR module/supplement:

I love, love, love Vornheim. I've never before seen an RPG supplement just CRAMMED with useful stuff. Every chart, every table, inside and out (including the dust jacket, for god's sake) is chock-full of useful in-game stuff. Blew my mind when I first got my hands on it.

4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):


The d30 Substitution Rule that sprang from The Order of the d30 G+ group. Once per session, any player can use a d30 rather than whatever dice the roll calls for. So that 1d4 dagger damage could instead cause 25 points of damage (severing a major artery for insta-kill) or that To Hit roll now has 10 chances to roll ABOVE a nat 20 to hit. (I usually give out uber-bonuses when someone rolls a nat 30.) This simple rule gives the PCs a chance to perform some legendary feats and/or epic failures.

5. How I found out about the OSR:

Used to be seriously into role-playing back in the 80s during the hey-day. Wandered away during the college days, though I still puttered around with shared-universe writing, a local LARP group, etc. Online about 10-11 years ago, and wondered if gaming was still a thing. Found Goblinoid Games by chance, bought Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future, jumped into the OSR movement, and haven't looked back.

6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:

The online tools created by Purple Sorcerer Games for DCC RPG and MCC RPG is nothing short of amazing. PC generators, grimoires, charts, tables, etc. all at the click of a button. But their Crawler's Companion is a work of art. If you play DCC RPG, this handy app is all you need at the table. When I play DCC at conventions, everyone has this app running on their phones. And the fact it's free? Amazing.

7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:

The current online resource for talking about OSR-related things is G+. For some reason, the OSR gaming fans and subgroups glommed onto this social network rather than Facebook and the like. However, for face-to-face interaction, you have to attend one of the OSR-centric conventions, such as Gary Con, North Texas RPG Con, and many, many smaller and well-attended game conventions.

8. Other places I might be found hanging out talking games:

Typically one of the local-ish game stores. The Soldiery, The Guardtower, and Ravenstone down in Columbus are good hangouts, as well as Weird Realms up north in Cleveland.

9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:

Whether you defeat the dragon, rescue the princess, thwart the evil wizard, etc. it doesn't matter. All the stuff leading up to those climatic game-ending events, that's the fun stuff.

10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:

I consider it OSR as it's been around since the 80s, but other may not. I'm a huge fan of the Pacesetter line. The original games Timemaster, Star Ace, Chill are fantastic. Even though I wasn't playing for 20 years, I still held on to my well-played, well-loved Pacesetter games. The fact that Goblinoid Games now owns the trademark and - gasp - I've written stuff for the lines has been an amazing bit of karma for me.

11. Why I like OSR stuff:

If I'm being honest, what brought me back in was the nostalgia. OSR games were the games I played in the 80s. 3d6 in order. 18(00) STR. The DM's word was law. All of these trappings were familiar and comfortable, so I was able to pick right back up after a lengthy absence without missing a beat. However, I also see we have the ability to mix and match the best parts of various systems without a lot of conversion. The OSR has exploded from "yet another fantasy heartbreaker" to various genres and settings, various derivative rules, various creative folks putting their spin on the classics and releasing it into the wild for all to enjoy -- and all of it is both familiar and brand new. Exciting stuff always happening in the OSR!

12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet:

1. Contrary to outsider opinion, there is no "wrong way" to play. I've not yet run into anyone with a "badwrongfun" attitude. For example: after one game I ran at Gary Con, one of the players came to me and said, "I didn't want to say anything, but you were throwing your saving throws backwards the entire game." When I asked why he didn't mention that during the game, he shrugged, smiled, and said, "It's your game. I figured you were running it the way you wanted."
2. The folks in the OSR are the friendly I've met in 35+ years of gaming. For a group commonly considered grognards with an "old school" outlook, these folks are open to new ideas and welcoming to new members.

13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:

Jeff's Gameblog. Lotsa good stuff there.

14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:

For purchase: One Year in the Savage AfterWorld -- a book of 52 mini-adventures for Mutant Future. Also, Burial Plots -- a book of 5 adventures for Cryptworld.
For freebies: The Apocalyptic Stormfront Mega-Table -- a table of 50 weird, wild weather patterns for gonzo post-apocalyptic RPGs. Had a lot of fun making this and have heard a lot of folks are still using it in their games.

15. I'm currently running/playing:

Always playing Timemaster, Cryptworld, and Mutant Future. Have taken a recent shine to Mutant Crawl Classics and am noodling around with the system and creating material for it.

16. I don't care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:

Either is fine by me. I don't care if your AC goes up, down, or sideways. Roll the damn dice, and let the DM figure it out.

17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:

Stared at this classic DM Screen image during my many games in high school. It's burned into my consciousness as "This Is Gaming":

So Where Have I Been? And Where Are We Going?

(WARNING: This "return post" is incredibly self-indulgent. If you want to skip over a bit of navel-gazing, just come back for my next post that will have, you know, CONTENT.)


Hiya everybody! It's been...well...

(checks calendar)

...a pretty long time, actually. I'll bet most of you thought this corner of the gaming blog-o-sphere was long-ago dead-and-buried. You have every right to think that seeing as I went from close to two to three posts a week to as few as one a month last year. So what happened to The Savage AfterWorld?

The last couple of years have been busy for Your Friendly Neighborhood Sniderman. My wife and I moved, got a new house, took on extra work to pay for it all and just got busy with Real Life Stuff. Seems like every spare moment was focused on either making money or spending money I didn't have. Aside from that, my gaming interests shifted around a bit. Got serious involved in  board gaming, so role-playing took a backseat. Most of my online activity shifted away from Blogger and toward G+ and Facebook, where I'm fairly active on both sites. So you've probably been seeing my presence on the Interwebs, just not...here.

And, creativity-wise, I dipped into a bad case of the lulls. I've noodled around with some long-stagnant projects, but I haven't really felt a need or drive to get any of these out of my brain and into your hands. Those times I did drag out my notes, maps, and rulebooks to work on something, I stared at the screen, thought about what I wanted to do,....then went to YouTube and watched cat videos or something. Just a crushing bout of "Analysis Paralysis" -- knew what I wanted to accomplish, but didn't know how or where to start. So I just didn't.

Fast-forward a year...

All that changed recently. Why? Because tomorrow is the first day of October. My favorite season -- autumn -- is here. It's the time of Halloween and horror. Full moons and falling leaves. It's when I'm overflowing with horrific scenarios and gaming ideas. I've been rereading Cryptworld and delving into Eldritch Tales. I've got Arkham Horror: LCG on my table now, and Tiny Epic Zombies waiting in the wings for a go. In about a month, I'll be attending Gamehole Con for the first time (and it's the first gaming con I've been to in almost year). I've got gaming on my mind and on my table and on my nightstand. I'm so filled with creativity and nervous energy I'm gonna burst.

And I'm planning on channeling that energy into The Savage AfterWorld.

At one time, this blog-o-mine was a warehouse of every gaming idea that passed through my consciousness (and my subconsciousness as well). Scenarios, NPCs, supplements, adventures, creatures, and monsters sprung forth for a myriad of game systems, and all found their way to these blog pages. And I miss bringing them to you. So today The Savage AfterWorld begins anew. What will you see here? Well, I'm not certain quite yet as TSAW was always written in a "stream-of-consciousness"-type process.My goal is to get back to posting at minimum once a week in the coming year.

So stop by and join me, won't you?

Untold: Adventures Await -- The Rory's Story Cube Adventure Game Now Kickstarting!

Hey gang, long time no see!

I've mentioned my love of Rory's Story Cubes in a previous blog post. These nifty little iconic dice are a fantastic imagination jogger, giving you a million ideas and inspirations all from a toss of these picturesque cubes. I've often thought that these would make a great basis for a simple RPG-like game system. Well, the folks at The Creativity Hub have been working on such a project for a while now and Untold: Adventures Await is the result. The game is now Kickstarting, in fact.

The customizable storytelling game is structured into "acts" or "scenes", with each act revealing more of the story as the game progresses. Each tale starts with a Danger that is established (the reason your character is involved in the story), followed by Intrigue (the plot twist), Confrontation (the PC swing into action), Revelation (the true motivations of the NPCs come to light), and Showdown (the final epic ending). The system may seem a bit structured, but that's to emulate the same structures found in television episodes and/or radio plays. Although the players get to choose the genre or "type" of story they wish to participate in, the adventure grows organically through the random tossing of the story cubes as well as the flowchart-like story board of Untold as the game is played.

I'm being a bit vague as to how the game works as I don't want to give away all of the secrets in this blog post. (Plus I have another story cube-related post coming after this one!) The Kickstarter page has a How To Play video posted that shows you how the game works, and a live playthrough was just held this evening. (A video should be posted in the next day or so.) Still not sure? How about if you download Untold's Print and Play set and give it a try? (Story Cubes not included so you gotta use your own.)

You can use any set of nine Story Cubes you want, and you can even mix them up from various sets to create even more variations of tales. I plan to use the Fright Set along with the Clues Set to play some investigative horror games later! It's just a shame that there isn't a set of Lovecraft/Cthulhu Story Cubes!

(Or is there? Stay tuned for my follow-up blog post!)

Non-Gaming Things That Remind You Of Gaming

Earlier today, I was at the local grocery store picking up a few necessities. As I walked through the laundry detergent aisle, I saw something that reminded me very strongly of my first roadtrip to Gen Con. What was that item that has such a strong connection to a gaming memory? This bottle right here...

I'll explain in a moment, but it's funny how memory works. A piece of music, a specific smell, anything can trigger a memory, even if that trigger is only loosely connected to the event. For example, I think most of us recognize this:

But how many of you are wondering, "What the hell is that bottle of booze doing in that dice bag?" That's what we're discussing today: non-gaming items that, to you, are absolutely connected to your world of gaming experiences. Here are mine:

1. A disc-firing plastic gun

When I first began playing D&D with my friends, we often played in Roger's basement rec room. There were always toys, games, gadgets, and gizmos scattered about as Rog was a bit of a collector. During one game, he had one of these guns on the table, playfully firing it here and there. I picked up one of the discs and began chewing on it absent-mindedly as I considered an action -- kinda the way you might gnaw on a toothpick. Anyway, I picked up that as a habit and, during future D&D games, I had a handful of those stupid discs nearby whenever I considered any character action.

2. Toto's "Africa"

One of my favorite D&D books is the Fiend Folio. I absolutely love that monster book, as it's filled with the most gonzo and bizarre fantasy creatures I had encountered in my early gaming history. I bought my copy at Waldenbooks (remember them?) and raced home to pour through it. As I plunked down in my bedroom to read my new treasure, I turned on the stereo. This song was just starting as I began to read. During the 4-minute runtime of this song, I flipped through the book, looking at the pictures and glancing at the names of the monsters: The Bonesnapper, The Sons of Kyuss, The Crypt Thing, The FLAILSNAIL. Ever since that day, this song reminds me of Githyanki and Xvarts.

3. The smell of Gain laundry detergent

Told you we'd get back to this. In 2011, I went to my first Gen Con. It had been a dream 20+ years in the making to get there, so I was super-pumped as I packed my stuff and prepped my car for the roadtrip. One of my little travelling quirks is that I have to scrub my car inside and out before any long trips. I dunno -- a clean car runs better, feels more "comfortable", and just makes the trip a bit better. Early that morning, as I climbed behind the wheel for the trip, I placed one last item in place -- a car air freshener I had picked up. I thought I had grabbed a pine-tree scented freshener as it was green. Wrong, I had picked up an air freshener that was scented with -- you guessed it -- Gain laundry detergent. I didn't even know Gain was an official "scent"! So, for 4+ hours as I drove to Indiana, my car and my sinuses were filled with the smell of Gain. My clothes smelled like Gain. The gaming materials in my car smelled like Gain. When I got to Gen Con, I forgot about the smell of Gain...until it was time to come home. My car still reeked of Gain so, for another 4 hours, all I smelled was Gain. That was 5 years ago. And, since then, the smell of Gain is absolutely connected to one of my favorite con experiences.

So let's hear from you. What non-gaming thing is forever connected to gaming in your expereinces?

TOON Dullards & Dragons Now Available For Download!

As this post goes live, I just finished running a group of players through a new adventure for the TOON RPG by Steve Jackson Games -- "Dullards & Dragons"! If you'd like to run it for your own home group, here it is available for download. (I even included 6 pre-gens for your use!) Enjoy, and let me know if your players were able to stop the scourge of Count Strahd Von Strahdovich (thunderclap) from the Realm of Pidgeonloft!

Click here for the Game Script!

Click here for the Pre-gens!

200 Word RPG Challenge Now Underway!

Admit it -- you have a great idea for an RPG, but you don't have the time or drive to hammer out thousands upon thousands of words to see it reach fruition. Well, if you have time to type up 200 words -- less than one page of text -- you have time to put together your fantasy heartbreaker and enter the 200 Word RPG Challenge.

I love RPG design contests, as it really brings out the creativity in our corner of the OSRiverse. I also love minimization -- trying to do as much as you can with as little as you're given. Put these two concepts together, and you have The 200 Word RPG Challenge -- a contest that dares you to flesh out a full RPG game system or supplement in just 200 words. Spearheaded by game designer David Schirduan, the challenge began last year with a simple writing prompt:

"Design a Tabletop RPG, Setting, Hack, Expansion, or whatever in 200 words or less."

There were more than 150 submissions in last year's contest covering every genre imaginable with systems both complex and spartan. (Click here and take a look at last years' entries and winners!) After the contest ends and prizes are awarded, all entries will be compiled into a PWYW book with proceeds going to charity. (All entries are submitted under the CC-BY 4.0 license.)

The contest runs through April 16, so you don't have much time to get your entry in. (But it's only 200 words, so it's not like you NEED a lot of time!) So, what can YOU do with 200 words?

Happy Birthday Gary

Chuck a 20-sider in honor of Gary Gygax today.

"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."

—Gary Gygax

Stamped Adventures: My Play-By-Mail Retrospective

Back in the B.C. Era (before computers), I gamed with a local group and we had a lot of fun doing it. We tried an assortment of games, so there was always a bit of variety in my role-playing youth. But it wasn't enough. I wanted to game 24/7. During those times when my group wasn't playing (due to sleep or school or work or other lame excuses), I'd spend my downtime trying to find other ways to scratch that gaming itch. I'd create NPCs, design modules, and thumb through my well-worn issues of Dragon Magazine. That's when I saw the ad for Silverdawn.

Silverdawn was advertised as a play-by-mail game (PBM) where you could game through the postal service. It was slow, it was costly (to a 14-year-old), and it was perfect. Upon reflection, Silverdawn was unique at the time since there was a physical moderator typing up and mailing you your moves. You would replay with -- in essence -- a letter describing what you wanted to do in the fantasy world, and the moderator would read it and reply with what happens in a similar letter. (It was played very much like contemporary play-by-post games on RPG forums.) Over the years, I've kinda forgotten some of the details of the game. I recall I played a wandering bard with a silver flute who was captured and falsely imprisoned by a corrupt baron. During a jail escape is when I bailed on the game as writing up two pages of text (by hand!) to cover every possible outcome, then waiting for a month for a reply was a bit tiring. So I moved onto another game.

The next PBM I tried was It's a Crime, and it quickly became a favorite. It was more of a strategy management game where you were a crimeboss running a gang of ne'er-do-wells, trying to grab as much control over the city as you could without crossing the cops or -- worse -- rival gangs run by other players. My gang, "The Skull Stompers," was able to carve out a sizable chunk of the city before I ran afoul of a rival gang, "The Ed Grimley Clones." The Clones and I waged jolly territorial war for months, as city blocks traded hands for a while. Then, when we had sapped each other's resources, ANOTHER gang swooped in a decimated both of us. We even teamed up to try and drive them off (players were encouraged to communicate by mail outside of the game to make such arrangements), but it was too late and I was wiped out. I loved it. From the same company, I also tried Monster Island, a similar game of shipwrecked castaways trying to carve out an existence on a remote island but I really didn't get into it very much and bailed after a while. Anyway, that was back in the mid-80s and both It's A Crime and Monster Island are STILL GOING ON (though they're both now run by KJC Games, a U.K. company).

In college years later, I had that same itch to game via mail. (Electronic gaming was still in its infancy as email wasn't a "thing" yet as it was all local BBS bulletin board services at the time). I was already familiar with Flying Buffalo due to Tunnels and Trolls and such, and I recall getting a flyer for their play-by-mail games when I stopped by their booth at Origins (held in Columbus where I was attending OSU). I immediately signed up for Heroic Fantasy to wet my whistle again. This game was played as a dungeon-esque crawl, where you controlled a fantasy party exploring the dungeon's depths. I (stupidly) split up the party to cover more ground and quickly lost them to much powerful creatures. (Never split the party!) My next try was Illuminati based on the crazy-fun card game of conspiracy by Steve Jackson Games. Although I am a fan of the game (and no slouch at it either), I was horribly outclassed by the other players who quickly infiltrated by power structure and whittled me to pieces. (Although I've always wanted to give it a go again...perhaps soon.)

I've run and played in a few games via electronic play-by-post over the years, but there's just something about getting that envelope in the mail. By the time you've filled out you move and mailed it in, you've kind of forgotten about it until the reply comes a few weeks later. Then -- BOOM -- you're sucked right back into that world as you process what's happened and try to come up with a plan to overcome the newest gaming challenge. It's like waiting for the next installment of your favorite show. Sure, you can binge-watch, but I prefer the slow burn -- the build-up to the next installment, building up anticipation to see what happens next. And that's why, although somewhat archaic in today's instant message society, PBM will always be a bit more special to me.

"Ragnarok-A-Bye Baby" For Ghostbusters Now Available For Download

As this post goes live, I'm running a group of players through a new adventure for the original Ghostbusters RPG by West End Games. If you'd like to run it for your own home group, here it is available for download. (I even included 8 pre-gens for your use!) Enjoy, and let me know if your players were able to stop The End of the World!

Hope You Enjoyed Gary Gygax Day

I was on the road traveling until I walked in the door a few seconds ago, so I didn't get to chuck any dice in Gary's memory today. Hope everyone else ran a game or rolled up a character or just toss back a drink in Gary's honor today.

I love this tribute. Thanks Gary.

Both A Success And A Failure On Free RPG Day

Well Free RPG Day was both a success and a bit of a bust for me today. The "success" was the event itself, and the "bust" was an unfortunate bit of illness that hit me.

I made the trip down to Ravenstone Games in Columbus, Ohio, both to mark Free RPG Day and to also check out the store as it was one I've been meaning to visit for some time. I got there at 10:30 a.m. when the store first opened, as I know that the Free Swag is in short supply and, having never visited the store before, I wanted to get something before everything was snapped up by the regulars. When I got there, I saw a few folks milling about, so I toured the store. Liked what I saw. Clean, well organized, interesting selection of popular and obscure games. (Store needs to be restocked soon as I saw many game supplements for sale, but none of the core games those supplements...supplement.)

I grabbed this year's DCC RPG offering, leaving the rest of the materials for others to come later. I watched a few folks pick up some swag, then leave without purchasing anything. C'mon folks! Don't be "That Guy." Support the damn store for participating by dropping some coin in his coffers! To make up for what I saw (and because I had my eye on it anyway), I spent a bit more than I had planned by grabbing a copy of Munchkin Deluxe, a Monty Python Fluxx support pack, and a new set of percentiles for future Pacesetter games. (I wished I had picked up the "Welcome to Mortistown, USA" I saw, as it was a licensed Rotworld supplement!)

I chatted with the store's owner for a bit, then headed out to check out my old stomping grounds (went to OSU). My plan was to kill a few hours then return for Jim Yoder's DCC RPG game at 2 p.m. Sadly, around noon, some bug or virus or bodily malfunction kicked in and it became important for me to get home if you get my drift, and I think you do. So I was unable to stick around and play anything. (And a last minute Cryptworld game I tried to assemble that morning didn't materialize either.

VERDICT: I like Ravenstone quite a bit. It's on the north side of the city, so it's very easy for me to get to. Plus, it's located very near to some old haunts of mine (used to work at the old defunct Northland Mall in college) so I'm familiar with the area. I like the store itself, small but with plenty of room, if that makes sense. I totally would like to begin setting up and running games there in the future. And considering I have a FLGS within walking distance of my own house an hour north, that's saying something. So I hope everyone else had a good Free RPG Day. I got some swag, found a new store I like, and have decided to make it my gaming playtest location for adventures and games currently in the works. Thanks Ravenstone! Now that I know where you are and what you're like, I'll be stopping by again more often.

Tag And Bag Your Cryptworld PCs With These Character Toe Tags

Here's a little project I spent some time cobbling together today. A PC's horrific death at the "hands" of some monstrous thing lurks around every corner in a game of Cryptworld. So I thought "Why not save your players some time and prep them for the morgue during character generation?" Presenting the Cryptworld Character Sheet Toe Tag:

I had to get creative to get as much info on a 3 x 5.5 inch card as I could. You'll need to use the back of it for equipment and any other info you'd like. (Or just use a separate sheet of paper.) I plan to print these on cardstock and add a loop of string to the hole for use at my next convention game. Six of them fit on an 8.5 x 11 sheet. Here's a link of a full sheet of them for use in your own horror-fueled Cryptworld games! Enjoy!

Marking Our Fifth Anniversary

The Savage AfterWorld went online on June 17, 2009. Here's a link to that first post.

Sharing My "Gaming Con Passport"

North Texas RPG Con is less than a week away, and I'm putting the finishing touches on my games. Chronoscooters are warmed up, members of ISCX are on alert, and a certain toon barbarian and his friends are on their horses and heading south. All that's left is the packin'.

I think most folks who attend gaming conventions like to pick up some souvenir to show that they've been there, done that. Like most, I have a pretty wide selection of con t-shirts, but I'm not too keen on packing them and wearing them at other conventions. For some reason, wearing a Gencon shirt at Origins just feels "off" to me. I also have several caps with convention logos on them I've picked up. (I may pack one to wear, but that's just my penchant for caps.)

But I'd like to share my favorite "gaming con passport" that I have with me at every convention I attend. I have a "neck wallet" that I use to hold my convention ID. (I'm sure many of you have something similar.) I got my first one at Gencon years ago, but this is the one I currently use. I recently had a custom lanyard made using the dungeon map cloth I designed. Well, tucked inside the wallet is my collection of con badges from all other conventions I've attended. The day I get home from a gaming con, the newest "been there, done that" ticket gets tucked in amongst the others. It's become a snapshot of sojourns I've taken. So, do you have a way to mark each con you've been to?

[Cryptworld] The Secret Of Transpacific Flight 810

Enough time has passed since Cryptworld's release that I'm ready to share an "easter egg" I tucked into "Red Eye," the introductory adventure found in the rulebook. To keep from spoiling anything for players who have not yet taken a ride on Transpacific Flight 810, I'll play it cagey by presenting the hidden in-joke by way of a puzzle to solve. Here you go:

The first and last name of the THING lurking in "Red Eye" can be rearranged into a three-word phrase.

_ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Originally, this was going to figure into the plot of the adventure. But I eventually scrapped that idea, although I retained the name of the THING for my own amusement.

[Rotworld/AFMBE] "Pro Wrestlers Vs. Zombies" Official Movie Trailer

Rowdy Roddy Piper, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Kurt Angle, and other WWF/WWE Superstars fight off the undead in this film "classic." Gory, over-the-top action that doesn't take itself seriously, this is freaking INSPIRATIONAL. I've sometimes thought that a game of All Flesh Must Be Eaten: Zombie Smackdown would be a hilarious one-shot. Or perhaps a game of Rotworld, only the PCs are masked, high-flying luchadores trying to save their town from being overrun. Heck, this movie would be great viewing before taking a tour through Planet Motherf**ker!