Over at Mad Brew Labs, they're hosting one of those merry, mad RPG Carnival thingies. This month's spotlight is on Steampunk and Klokwerks.

Now, I've wanted to participate in past carnivals alongside so many of my online friends, but I've just not had the inspiration or the time.

This month, however, I've had an inspiration, and wanted to get it out to the universe at large while I still had the time (after all, the month is fast slipping away). My inspiration is for a character, one who is not all that he seems. Allow me to introduce

Jasper Wickham Oswald

An extremely nearsighted inventor who is highly self-conscious and mousey. He has created a set of goggles that feature custom-ground opticals that correct his vision to 20/20 and better! While wearing the goggles, he undergoes something of a transformation. No longer the self-conscious wallflower, Jasper becomes supremely confident, even heroic.

1) Jasper Oswald = Doc Zephyr

In this scenario, Jasper is one of the members of the team of adventurers led by the mysterious and dashing Doc Zephyr. Jasper is the geeky, extremely nearsighted gadgeteer/tinkerer who develops all of the gadgets for the team, including the teams signature airship, the Zephyr. He is never seen with Doc, and most assume that he prefers the 'security' of his lab/workshop. The other team members believe that Jasper's 'pot' is definitely 'cracked.' The secret is that Doc Zeppelin is, in reality Jasper Oswald He navigates the airship by means of hidden passageways and ladders so that the team never suspects that Jasper is the good Doc himself.

2) Jasper Wickham Oswald: the 'Aerial Torpedo, Righter of Wrongs.' Jasper has invented, along with his special goggles, an 'aerial backpack' which is capable of propelling him through the air.

These are two slightly different directions for a character that I would love to play sometime. I've never played in a steampunk setting, and I realize that my characterizations of Jasper lean a little towards the pulpy direction, but I do hope that these sketches may inspire someone else's games and that fun will ensue.

I just finished the initial draft Yesterday. Waiting for comment from selected reviewers.

Sadly, James Whitmore, who acted in one of the films (Them!) that inspired some of the pseudo-history or Ranger Co. X, died today.

And finally, from the Cartographer's Guild forum is a post about Mexican War maps that definitely have their uses in the Ranger Co. X setting.

Berin "Uncle Bear" Kinsman, proprietor of the Dire Cafe and King of the Dire Paladins, suggested I take a look at an article in Mental Floss on how several Confederate veterans of the Civil War had fled to South America, even setting up colonies there to plan a glorious return when the South would rise again. He thought it would make cool fodder for my notes on Ranger Company X. I read and wholeheartedly agreed. I thought it fit beautifully with two other separate incidents I had in my notes, and the Mental Floss article actually provided a bridge.

While this is not totally finished or polished, below is a timeline of events that will definitely be included in the final product:

1865 - April 9 - Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Va.
- April 12 - Formal surrender of the Confederate Army; End of the Civil War
- April 14 - Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (died April 15); attempted assassinations of Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson (and possibly Gen. Grant?)
- April 16 - Vice President Andrew Johnson takes Presidential Oath of Office, a succession not spelled out in Constitution but pushed through by Secretary of War Stanton, who initially took control of the government immediately after the attacks.
- April 26 - Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth is thought killed after a 12-day manhunt.
- July 7 - Lincoln assassination co-conspirators David Herold, Lewis Powell (attacked Secretary Seward), George Atzerodt (assigned to kill Vice President Johnson, failed to go through with the plan), and Mary Surrat (owner of boarding house where Powell was arrested) are tried and executed together

1870’s – A man going by the name of John St. Helen, believing himself to be on his deathbed in Granbury, Texas, confessed to be John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. He recovered and disappeared.

1906 – A man using the name of David George died in Enid, Oklahoma. George confessed on his deathbed to being John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. His body was also identified by a friend, lawyer Finis L. Bates, as being that of a man named John St. Helen of Granbury, Texas. The body was mummified by Bates in the hopes the Federal Government would be interested in the case. But officials showed no interest. The corpse remained with Bates until the 1920’s where it disappeared. X-rays revealed injuries consistent with Booth’s.*

1932 -- Miriam "Ma" Ferguson is elected governor of Texas for the second time. To protest corruption and the perceived selling of offices, 40 Rangers quit the force and the rest are fired. Political appointees replace them.

Company X goes underground. The effort is so successful that Governor Ferguson believes it had been disbanded. In reality, Company X embarks on an expedition to South America to track down the descendants of Confederates who escaped after the War Between the States and established a government-in-exile in Brazil, carving out an area they named ‘New Fredonia.’ Company X had received information that the mummified corpse of John Wilkes Booth had been brought there at with the hope of reviving him to lead the New Confederacy.

*Did John Wilkes Booth Live In Texas?

I have decided that 'Apache' written by Jerry Lordan will be the theme for Rager Company X.

The only question is, which version? I'm personally leaning toward the version by the Incredible Bongo Band.

Here's a playlist. Let me know what you think.

One of my favorite words is ‘synchronicity.’ Loosely defined, it is when disparate threads come together to form something tangible.

( Read more... )

While walking my dog earlier this week, I had this epiphany (of course, it could just be the antihistamines talking...). As always, feedback is encouraged and deeply appreciated...

We Are An American Band
Or,
Hey, Hey, We're the [fill in the blank]

A Role-Playing Campaign for Risus: The Anything RPG

Genre: 1960's-70's Pop-Psychedelic Music Movies and Television
Tone: Silly

In 1965, the television producer Screen Gems developed a TV series inspired by the Beatles' films A Hard Day's Night and Help! featuring the antics of an American pop rock band. Several aspiring musicians and actors auditioned for the roles, and eventually Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Davy Jones were catapulted to fame as The Monkees.

However, this is not their story. This story is about four young men who didn't make the cut. Instead, they decide to form their own band.

Clichés:
Aspiring Musician
Barely-Talented Musician
The Quiet One
The Goofy One
The Chick Magnet
The Funny One

Advanced Options:
Hooks and Tales
Pumping
Double Pumping
Lucky Shots
Eye of the Tiger

I picked this Lin Carter paperback up in a thrift store marked twenty-five cents. I thought it might make for some brain candy reading, as the cover promised a 'sword and sorcery' style adventure.

I noticed that it was labeled as 'the fifth book in the Gondwayne Cycle,' so I was already at a disadvantage in not knowing anything about the characters. I was also disappointed that there was no frontispiece map, as I had come to expect from other Lin Carter books (mostly the Thongor the Barbarian of Lemuria stories).

After the first several pages, I developed a growing unease that this might be the first Lin Carter book I wouldn't enjoy. It was a way-post-apocalyptic tale, where the world is a very different place, and where technology had all but disappeared, and combat was reduced to swords and the like again.

As I read more, though, I found that it was a 'wahoo'-style post-apoc adventure, where the heroes are over-the-top, and the situations are placed there for fun more than for literary consistency.

In the tale, the hero, Ganelon Silvermane, a genetic construct who was awakened early with no memory of his purpose, travels the length and breadth of the supercontinent Gondwayne in the Epoch of the Falling Moon adventuring and bringing order to a largely orderless world. He battles a cult devoted to a group of sentient talking heads and engages a pirate kingdom in the service of an exiled nobleman-turned-pirate.

There were some nice touches, like the organization of the pirate kingdom and the symbiotic relationship between the pirates and their so-called victims, as well as a robot decked out in pirate attire (complete with gold hoop earrings).

It reminded me of the rpg Gamma World, itself set in a somewhat-'wahoo' post-apoc world, and I took away some ideas for a campaign set in such a world as The Pirates at World's End describes.

I know I have posted two reviews of completed books so far. I will at some time update my completed reading list to reflect my latest conquests.

Some time ago, I posted an initial review of Moon Over Africa, a 1930's-era adventure radio show that I acquired via the Internet Archive. It was written by famed adventure writer Talbot Mundy, and apparently ran for three years, although I am only in possession of twenty-six episodes. But what pulpy fun are contained in those twenty-six twenty-minute episodes! They feature the adventures of Professor Anton Edwards, a Great War veteran, who is portrayed as being in his early 60's, yet still possesses remarkable physical strength and an amazing marksmanship with a rifle. He is accompanied by his daughter Lorna and Jack, Lorna's beau and Professor Edwards' assistant. Rounding out the team is Nguru, a Masai prince who 'has been with' Professor Edwards for many years.

At the beginning of the first episodes in the collection, the party is in search of a lost colony of Atlantis, directed by a severed and preserved human head, which cackles insanely and 'speaks' to the group in a language the professor is convinced is Atlantean. They encounter a city of lost medieval crusaders, a prehistoric land inside the crater of a long-dormant volcano, a village of cannibals, another village of ape-like men, yet another village of apparent were-leopards, and a lost Roman treasure hoard. There are approximately three story arcs within the twenty-six episodes, and at least seven separate adventures, with each adventure lasting no more than three or four episodes apiece. The pacing is fast, yet not so much so that you cannot keep up. At the beginning of each episode there is a helpful summary of what has transpired before to get new listeners 'up to speed.' Music is minimal. In fact, the only music I recall hearing was in the last episode, and it was used in such a way as to indicate the passage of time. Other than that, the only music present is the beating drums of the intro, which sonorously proclaim "African drums are talking..."

Each intro is unique, and serves to set the mood for the piece, describing Africa as a land of beauty and mystery and adventure. The intros are exceptionally well-written.

Due to a query posted by doc_mystery after my initial review, I paid a little more attention to the audio quality. From what my inexpert ears could determine, sound quality was fine (considering the 70-years-plus age of the programs), except for about three of the episodes, where the volume dropped out considerably. However, it was not too objectionable, and I could still make out what each character was saying (please also remember that I was listening to these shows with the audio being pumped directly into my ears via ear-buds).

On the negative side, Moon Over Africa suffers from many of the politically-incorrect foibles of its time. Lorna is prone to being attracted to gold and gems (especially diamonds), being unnerved by an apparent supernatural encounter, even fainting dead away from fear, and being the object of a primitive man's desire. Professor Edwards and Jack are portrayed as noble, knowledgeable, virile, and moral white men. Nguru is portrayed as a pidgin-English-speaking brute with a heart of gold, who is frequently given to rescuing 'Missy,' that is Lorna. Professor Edwards often uses racist comments to address Nguru, such as 'black sinner,' or he comes across as very patronizing to the Masai culture, as any good white European/American would.

Aside from these, I really enjoyed this series. It has quickly vaulted to top of the list of my favorites. I wish I had the rest of the episodes.

As I listened, I was struck with the thought that with very little alteration, Moon Over Africa could be easily adapted to a pulp rpg campaign. In fact, it already is a campaign. It possesses story arcs and adventures within those arcs. There are fairly well-defined characters, and the villains have a definite goal in mind for their villainy, and the adventure is rip-roaring, over-the-top. While I haven't forgotten (or finished yet) Gonne Island, I think my next attempt will be Moon Over Africa.

It is well worth the listen.

Which would normally be 1002, but in this case it refers to 1001 Nights & 1 Night, a rpg fanzine dedicated to rpg design. By that I mean the publisher enjoys taking concepts from genres and settings and putting them into a blender and seeing what comes out.

What I like about 1001 Nights & 1 Night is that it is short. The whole 'zine is a two page pdf, which can be printed on a single sheet of paper front-to-back. This reduces the number of pages, and forces the writer to get to the point. It helps to have short articlettes like "What I'm Reading," and "Quote of the Month." All of these feed the great ideas like resurrecting the "Red Dawn" scenario (i.e., the plot from the 1980's movie "Red Dawn" where the US is invaded by the Soviet Union with support from Cuba, and a band of high school students turn partisan fighters). He also had a really cool post-apocalyptic scenario idea where the military-style enforcers of a local magelord have appropriated a stash of Stormtrooper costumes from a Lucasfilm props storage facility.

Due to its easy-to-read-and-digest brevity and its cool ideas, 1001 Nights & 1 Night will be a looked-for favorite each month.

1001 Nights & 1 Night can be downloaded (the current month AND all ten-plus back issues) here. Enjoy!

Someone has actually figured out who the oldest continuously-played D&D character is: Kirin Blade, played by Tom Darcy. You can read about him HERE.

I'm not sure if I buy this one or not....