And Another Kickstarter

Just when you thought your wallet  was safe there is another "must join" kickstarter, and this one has some serious Old-School roots.

Jeff Dee is recreating all his old art from the old B/X Basic and Expert sets.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-artwork-from-original-dungeons-and

Here is one of my faves.

And of course he did the immortal Morgan Ironwolf.

So check it out and you too can get some cool art from and old-school master.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-artwork-from-original-dungeons-and

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Band of Zombies Kickstarter

The newest Kickstarter is now up for Eden Studios' "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" Zombie RPG.

Band of Zombies is coming for your WWII Zombie fun!

I was a playtester for this one and I can tell you it was a lot of fun.  But what makes this one cool are all the add-ons, stretch goals and things you can get for being a backer.

Eden has a history of high quality products and this book looks like it will live up to that.

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OSR Monster project

Re-blogging this from Rended Press.
http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/2012/07/status-update-osr-ogl-blogosphere.html

As of today, the OSR OGL BLOGOSPHERE MONSTERS PROJECT has 26 entries.

I'll close the file sometime during the afternoon of August 1.

Remember: This is open to any creature you've posted on your blog at any point in 2012!

So come on, people. Do the cut & paste!

Note: Please only share material that you feel comfortable appearing in a half-assed, crazy, DIY fan compilation.

I have sent a couple of monsters in.   It would be nice to see some more!

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Edits

Eldritch Witchery and The Witch are both back from the editors.

Which means that I am working on edits and in some cases rewrites.  Nothing major, but if I want to do it correctly it will cut into my blogging.

So please don't mind the silence here this week.

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Zatannurday: Zatanna and Raven

My love for Zatanna is well known and highly documented, but she is not the only magic-using character in the DC Universe.
There is another character that honestly I like just as much, but never really focused on around here and that is Raven.

Since we are getting a new, renewed, Teen Titans on TV ("Teen Titans Go!") I thought I'd talk a little abotu Raven.

Raven is the daughter of Trigon the Terrible, one of the most powerful demons in the DC universe.
In fact when we are first introduced to Raven in "The New Teen Titans" she goes to the Justice League first. Where she meets Zatanna.  Zee tells the league not to trust her because she can sense Trigon's evil in her.

Raven has had some ups and downs. She went evil, tried to kill her teammates, she died, came back as a teen again, been a target for sacrifice and/or marriage by a cult.  Daddy issues are the least of her issues.

Outside of some special editions though Raven and Zatanna have never really worked together.  There was speculation that she might be in Justice League Dark (she would fit) but I guess she is now back with the Titans.

Anyway here some pairings of the two, official, other worlds and cosplay.

Of course who could forget this one.  Sort of a prelude to JLD.

Some Deviant Art pieces.

zatanna and raven colored by ~gianmac on deviantART

Justice League of... yeah, just Justice League by ~luanklebers on deviantART

My 52: Sentinels of Magic by ~EddieD0129 on deviantART

Ok, so Zee is known for pulling rabbits out of her hat. Sort of a gimmick, but yeah. Well on the Teen Titan's Raven was turned into a rabbit in the episode called, odly enough, "Bunny Raven".

Zatanna and Bunny Raven by ~red-wolf7 on deviantART

Nuth'n Up My Sleeve by *LEXLOTHOR on deviantART

Here are some cool Cosplay.

Looks like I'll have to create an adventure that includes both Zee and Raven for DC Adventures/Mutants and Masterminds 3.

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Banners on the Cheap

So you might recall the map I had made from Banners/Signs on the Cheap.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-new-map.html

Well I was not the only one who had one made.

Here are some others, check out their map/banners too.

Greyhawk Grognard has a cool hex map, http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2012/07/banners-on-cheap.html
RPG Blog has a HUGE dungeon, http://www.rpg-blog.com/2012/07/my-rpg-map-banner.html
and Blond Nerd has a cool map as well, http://www.blondenerd.com/gaming/banners-on-the-cheap-review

All pretty good reviews and nice looking maps.

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SMASH! Sydney Manga and Anime Show 2012 (Stalker Video)

As you already know from my previous blog entry, I attended SMASH! held in Sydney a couple of weeks back. Here is a stalker compilation video I took at the event!

I hope the video gives you guys a small glimpse of how the event was like. My many apologies for my extreme shaky hands and lousy camera work. I think for my next event compliation video, I'm going to put a sign on top of my camera that says “THIS IS A VIDEO. SMILE :)”. LOL

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Art Sale!

So I am taking advantage of the DriveThruRPG Christmas in July sale and buying up a bunch of art for all my upcoming projects.

I figured you all might like to see some of them.  This is not everything mind you, nor will everything listed here get used.  But I thought it might be fun to share.

If you want to see what they look like and what I said, just click the link.  I liked most of these.  Or rather I reviewed the ones I liked the most and listed them all here.    I just hope I make enough on my books to pay for my shopping spree! ;)

Enjoy!

Clipart Critters 220 - Live, Dead, Girls
Cerberus Stock Art - The Next Decade of Fantasy: Volume 1
Horror figures and clipart 2
Fantasy Clip Inks:: Spot Art set 1
Fantasy Clip Inks:: Spot Art set 2
Fantasy Clip Inks:: Spot Art set 3
Clipart Critters 210 - Studying Wizard
AoV: Fantasy Art (Reflections of Voldaria)
StockArt Covers: Leather Bound Book IX
Stock Art: Sketches #1
Standard Stock Art: Issue 6 - Vile Beasts
Barbarian Princess Art Pack
Clipart Critters 197 - Demonic Pact
Call of the Moon Half-Elven Art Pack
Stock Art: Dragons
Standard Stock Art: 9 Fantasy Portraits
Fae Folk Stock Art Pack
Dawnbreaker Stock Art Pack
Clipart Critters 148 - Squid Face
Stone Lizard - Stock art
TobyArt 1: War Priests
Clipart Critters 163 - Dragon Woman
Nathan Winburn Illustration: Dark Fantasy Vol. One Stock Art
Clipart Critters 150 - Elven Harem Girl
Inkwell Stock Art: Skeletal Dragon
Stock Art: Forlarren Sorceress
XXX vampires stock pack
Stock Art: Magical Cat
Stock Art: Evil Tree
Inkwell Stock Art: Dragon, Blue
Inkwell Stock Art: Female Vampire

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Dragged back into Wikipedia

Well I got dragged back into a Wikipedia sourcing issue.

I am looking for 3rd party sources for the following monsters:

Algoid
Al-mi'raj (Dungeons & Dragons)
Ascomoid
Atomie (Dungeons & Dragons)
Aurumvorax
Axe beak
Basidirond
Blindheim (Dungeons & Dragons)
Bonesnapper
Buckawn
Bunyip (Dungeons & Dragons)
Caterwaul (Dungeons & Dragons)
Cave cricket (Dungeons & Dragons)
Cave fisher
Coffer corpse
Cooshee
Crabman
Crypt thing
Death Watch Beetle
Slicer beetle

If you have any old books or magazines NOT published by TSR/WotC or were in White Dwarf, let me know here.  Thanks!

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White Dwarf Wednesday #25

White Dwarf #25 puts White Dwarf into it's 5th year of publication.  It is the summer of 1981 (June/July) and let's get into it.

Again, another really cool cover.  Maybe artistically not as good as last issue, but I have always liked this one.
Ian Livingstone celebrates WD fifth year with an editorial of basically saying we are going to keep doing the stuff you like and stop with the stuff you don't.  he mentions another survey on page 27.

Again in "Must Read Again" articles we have Lew Pulsipher's Part III of an Introduction to Dungeons and Dragons.  This time it is on the magic using classes.  Frankly

I'd love it if these were sent off to the D&D Next team as critical essays on what the game was.

Page 10 is a fun little item.
Called the Creature Quiz, it is a quiz on various elements of "S/F and Fantasy Gaming".
An aside: Was it purely a British thing to call this S/F & F games rather than RPGs?  Anyway the quiz is fun. Answers are not given but you need to send your completed quiz to WD no later than July 1, 1981.

Probably good I missed the date, I am sure I did poorly on this one.

Click to see bigger version

After that we are back in Traveller land with Optional Skill Acquisition. 


Open Box only has three reviews for us.  For Traveller we have "Double Adventure 2: Across the Bright Face/Mission on Mithiril"  It gets are (although less so these days) 10/10 from Trevor Graver.  He liked Across the Bright Face a little more of the two but thought both were great.  "Plunder" and "Runemaster" both from Chaosium are play aids for RuneQuest. Oliver Macdonald gives Runemaster 9/10 saying it contains a lot of useful material and is well worth the cost.  Plunder though only gets a 5/10 stating it's limited usability and redundancy. Finally we get the classic "Space Opera" from Fantasy Games Unlimited reviewed by Andy Slack.  This is the first real competition we see for Traveler and it is Science Fantasy (more or less) and not Science Fiction.  It gets an 8/10, partially for it's complications and a long time to properly set up, but otherwise a fantastic game. 


We get a new series called The Dungeon Architect.  Part 1 is about designing an interesting dungeon.  To begin with we start out with the typical "lather, rinse repeat" style dungeon.  The one where you open door 1, kill monster A, open door 2, kill monster B.  And so on.  The author deconstructs the entire dungeon raiding experience into why and how and for what reason.  Very interesting take on it really.  While we in 2012 have had this discussion before in 1981 it is an interesting new point of view and the start of the growth of D&D in the minds of gamers as something more than just killing monsters underground.  Looking forward to the next two parts.


The Letters page covers various AD&D rule questions.


The Lower Canon Court is an AD&D "Skirmish for a large number of players."  The idea here is a cleric was found guilty in a court and wants revenge.  The characters are all members of the court when the pandemonium breaks loose.  There are a lot of NPCs and a map of the court room.  It's different idea and I like the attempt but I can also see it only appealing to a small crowd of gamers.


Treasure Chest has some new magic items like the Bowl of Everlasting Porridge and Bell of Watchfulness.  Some are still a little silly, but all can be played straight.  


Andy Slack has Traveller rules on Vacc Suits. 


Fiend Factory continues its run of themed monsters.  This time a mini-scenario (more of a plot really) called the Black Manse.  We get Dream Demons, the Incubus, Brain Suckers and a Guardian.  The monsters all designed to challenge a party of levels 5-6.

Starbase is back and celebrating their first year with some suggestions for reading.  Interesting really.

In Character Conjuring Lew Pulsipher talks about what makes a good AD&D character class.  He makes the case that classes should be internally balanced. That is weaknesses to set off strengths.  A wizard can't use armor or swords for example. He is also talkas about between class balance and that not all characters of say 3rd level should be the same power.  Another issue he brings up are the serious use of joke classes (like the Jester and Idiot from Dragon a few years back, but oddly not any of the WD joke classes are mentioned).

The new questionnaire follows on the other half of the page. Results are promised in a future issue.
Again, get yours in by July 1st, 1981.

This is followed by the Classifieds/Small ads, and a few more pages of ads.
In the end we get an ad for the AD&D lead figure line.  Back when they were lead and you had to pain them yourself.  I loved those as a kid.  AND I might add I just acquired a bunch of these in fantastic shape.  Pictures soon.

WD ended up being 4 pages less this time around.  Not really sure why.
After a period of growth WD seems to be content to keep on with what works, though the gaming world is now showing unprecedented growth. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.

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SMASH! (Sydney Manga and Anime Show) 2012

It's one week too late but, I went to the SMASH! Sydney Manga and Anime Show 2012 at Austalia last last week!

I was granted media pass to attend the event and the experience was amazing ! Not only did I managed to interview all the 3 guests, I also had a blast at the event! Thank you to everyone of you who posed for my camera and said hi!

This is the schedule of the event, and as you can see, it's choked full of things to do! It's so full it's even kinda sad because you know you can't be everywhere.  But better more than less right ?

* More photos under the cut*

 

The free Gundam building workshop

The Maid Cafe which I didn't enter …

One of the rooms screening Anime. I think there were at least 2 rooms screening different titles concurrently.

The queue for a fan sign with the 3 Japanese guests! Okay, it’s not really the queue but the signage xD

I’m in love with how SMASH! caters to so many different types of event attendees, something our local events needs to buck up on.

Unfortunately, I only managed to catch Shinichirou Miki's Panel and missed Sakura Tange and YukoMiyamura's but it was so much fun and love! Getting to see him voice the hugely popular characters he did live was amazing! Even though I'm not exactly a fan of his (didn't quite follow the series he voiced). It was still an unbelievable dream to be able to hear a japanese seiyuu do a live dub ! Almost felt like I was in Japan!

A separate blog entry of my interview session with Shinichirou Miki will come after I get them approved Wish me luck!

I also went to check out the Vender's hall and boy is it huge! I think I didn’t even managed to finish walking through it! It occupied an entire Hall level by itself! 

A whooping total of 75 stalls!

There was so much buzz and buying ! Was an awesome feeling to just stroll around and people look. An event video will come soon ^^

Unfortunately, I missed the Cosplay Chess but I did camp at the Main Stage for the entire Madman Cosplay Competition. Below are some shots of the Competition participants!

		SMASH! 2012 Madman Cosplay Competition VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I was too busy shooting cosplayers outside and missed the Award Ceremony entirely.

But according to various sources, Team Sexy Beast who were cosplaying Yukimura & Masamune from Sengoku BASARA! won the “Best Team” award.

The cosplayer who did Fujimoto from Ponyo won the best skit. The skit was so funny! The cosplayer danced to Sebastian (The Little Mermaid) ‘s song while a motor operated shark balloon floated around in the air xD

The shark even lost control and floated into the audience area, causing quite a stir xD Anyway, Congratulations to all the winners for outshining the other contestants!

Like most of the shops in Australia, SMASH! officially ends at 5pm and everyone was shooed out of the Vendor’s Hall xD.

Overally, I really love how organised the entire event was and as a foreign Media representatives, I could feel and see the clear professionalism in each organising member. I am especially impressed because I understand SMASH! is a non-profit fan based event and everyone working for it is doing it out of love for Anime and Manga. There’s just something so endearing about a group of dedicated people coming together to bring fun and anticipation to a huge group of people they don’t know, for nothing except passion.

P/s: If I got any names wrong, please comment and let me know =)

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