Another Piece of Art for Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery

 This is the draft of the latest pic for the book. Epic Werks Studio produced this gem. Dor Stryker in all her savage glory!

It gets inked tomorrow! It will end up in the setting book I reckon.

Book One USR Sword & Sorcery Deluxe is done!

 After much agonizing over format for the publication I have decided to go with a throwback, retro look in honor of the LBB's of original Dungeons & Dragons and Classic Traveller. Three books total. Here is an image of the cover for Book 1.

Blood red, of course, there will be Book One Characters, Combat, and Carousing; Book 2 Magic & Mass Combat; and Book 3 Worlds of Adventure. The third book should be the largest in page count because it will include a bestiary, notable NPCs, original adventures as well as a World of Xoth setting guide. 

The original art I commissioned is all black and white line drawings because this is what I dig, and all interior pages (so far) are black and white with a mix of one and two column text blocks with formatted tables where needed. 

For the first three who request it I am offering an advanced PDF copy for your perusal. Email me directly at jay@vanishingtowerpress.com. While not a complete game in itself, you can run your own Sword & Sorcery adventures with just Book 1. You would just have to be someone who is comfortable with a minimalist rule set.

Fuck, I am soo close to bringing this bitch home, Blood and Souls, Blood and Souls!

FGU's Space Opera, Lower Frontier Session #03

Our small group rolled out our third session of Space Opera this afternoon. We had sound issues which gobbled up the first half hour of game time and therefore I did not manage to get the session on tape. But strange things went down and I need to capture them while they are still fresh in my mind.

Domino (Xara, a clone) had touched the box which was heating up and making her palms itch. This happened less than two minutes before the orbital launch they boarded rendezvoused with a Kordarian research vessel. Whatever was in the box packed much energy in a small space and it exploded. "Something" downloaded into her mind, while at the same time the ship and Emma Jones the Space Marine were separated into atomic particles racing across the universe and then collapsing back into solid form, in an instant. Jones wouldn't have believed what she saw except the fact she felt her being spread across the universe and reforming again. A most unpleasant feeling. 

 

The duo now found themselves in the vehicle bay of the Kordarian ship, Bear Killer. The orbital's hatch slid back revealing a group of forbidding Kordarians. General Rath and his Science Director Kibosh Hiltbane were surprised to find these "unauthorized personnel" in the orbital. General Rath was flanked by two security guards while Director Hiltbane was accompanied by 4 lab assistants. Kordarians are on average 6'5" to 7' tall and really strong. General Rath demanded to know who the PCs were and if they did anything to the artifact which accompanied them. Domino was still coursing with tremendous energy. The fusion of the alien energy with her cloned consciousness had dumped an incomprehensible amount of information into her mind. She also became aware of her life span. See, clones have a built in life span dependent on the task they are being used for. And Domino was a "Red" clone. A clone with a thirty day life span. Testing her new-found powers she poured forth a hot wind which blew Rath across the floor. The General ordered his men to seize the two interlopers, and the Director shouted for them to be taken alive. 

"We do not know if either of them have tampered with the artifact!" he reasoned. General Rath told his guards to use their stun rods on the PCs. Domino grabbed the arm of the first Kordarian security guard coming at her while Jones rushed the other. Domino's touch sucked the life out of the tall guard and he toppled over, dead and withered. Jones got the other guard in a choke hold, but the guard was able to keep his feet by wedging his stun rod against Jones' forearm, preventing Jones from strangling him into unconsciousness. Domino told the two Kordarian leaders there was no need to fight. She would let Director Hiltbane examine her. 

"You will do as you are told," barked General Rath. "Your companion will be ejected into space otherwise." 

"To hell with that, no one is ejecting me into space." Jomes replied. 

"You will release my guard or I will kill you where you stand!" the general growled. 

"Give it your best shot!" and Emma released the guard, fists up, stance tensed for combat. This seemed to make the General's day. Kordarians are a violent race and never ones to turn down an opportunity to demonstrate their martial prowess.

"This should be fun." He grinned and rushed the human space marine. The general ducked Jones first jab and answered with a devastating punch to Emma's face. Not only did the blow make her see stars, the Kordarian was cheating as well. His glove was wired with paralyzing stun energy. Face bloodied, Emma dropped to the deck unconscious. Domino was unmoved by the whole scene. As a clone, her empathy score is really low. She normally doesn't worry about anyone but herself. The Director and lab tenders took her to the lab while the remaining security guard threw Jones into the brig, on the General's orders.

"Get it out of her, Director. The power of the artifact, it is mine! I demand results. 

"It is wise of you to comply." Hiltbane said as he strapped Domino to a medical chair in the Kordarian's lab. "There is an alien power which inhabited the artifact, and now it inhabits you. It is foolish of you to think you can survive this bonding. You have know idea what you have done. But do not worry, I am sure I can free from the danger you have put yourself in. Now to draw some blood."

Domino observed this all impassively. Her emotional range was small, probably due to all the times she has been sheathed and re-sheathed for each contract her employers used her for. She was sure the Director would not be able to unbind what she was joined with. She was content to wait.

Suddenly the klaxons rang and emergency lights flashed. General Rath came over the ship's intercoms, "Director Hiltbane, secure the prisoner. We must make a quick run up to Hyperspeed. The Cardinal has found us."

"But how can that be General? No one knows we are in Golgotha system? 

"Have you searched the thieving human?" Without answering, Director Hiltbane searched through Domino's belongings. He pulled out the cell phone she had recovered during the Panumanic riots. 

"I'm afraid General she has a government communicator on her. The Cardinal's ship Sanctified would have no trouble tracking it." 

"Aargh!" Rath raged over the mic and abruptly hung up.

 

All through the ship could be felt the rising power of the TISA drives as the Bear Killer made to escape. Unfortunately the Sanctified was three times the size of the Kordarian ship, and heavily armed. 

Jones, stuck in the brig, recognized the impact of Startorps as the Bear Killer was struck. 260* caliber she figured. A massive explosion made the whole ship shudder. The TISA drive whined and shut down.

Hiltbane knew what this meant as much as every other Kordarian onboard knew. Their ship was dead in the water. The Cardinal's marines would soon be aboard to reclaim what Rath had stolen. 

"The Cardinal cannot let it be known he attacked a Kordarian vessel. He will leave none of us alive. We go now, back to the vehicle bay. We will escape in the orbital which brought you here," insisted the Kordarian medical director. 

Domino did not need further encouragement. The two of them ran into Emma Jones outside the vehicle bay. The damage had shorted out the magnetic locks to her cell, and she was heading to the vehicle bay with the same idea. None of them were orbital pilots, but Domino knew enough about computers to fire up an ignition sequence. The orbital spat out of the Bear Killer's hull and plunged back down to the surface of Dismas. 

They landed far from Dismas City, out in the steppe land where only the giant Giga-Farms were found. The grassy plains being devoured and terraformed by gigantic, unmanned combines. Five of these behemoths could be seen approaching some 60 meters away. Jones and Domino's vision was drawn to activity visible on the remote farming machines. 

"Strange, there are Leo Tybins crawling all over them." Jones said. Being a native of Dismas, he knew of the indigenous humanoids which lived out in the wastelands. Leo Tybins are meter-and-a-half tall intelligent mammals. Very tribal, they resent the intrusion of the UCC's terraforming and farming vehicles gobbling up their land. But what could they do? They were few and only had the technology of the hunter-gatherer. Spears and bows and faith in their animist spirits were all they could muster. This Emma was relating to Domino and the Kordarian when a combine exploded in blue and yellow. Flames enveloped the machine and each of the combines remaining, in turn, blossomed in Nova bursts. 

"Well, somehow those primitives learned how to set and trigger Nova Detonators." said Domino. "And I also think they have found us." The tall grass waved and rustled as some 15-20 Leo Tybins revealed themselves. Gibbering and hooting they threatened with their spears. Hiltbane, the Kordarian, took this moment to jump back into the orbital and seal the door shut. Emma and Domino shrugged their shoulders, raised their hands, and allowed the intelligent animals lead them away.

After an hour or so of marching they came to the Leo Tybins camp hidden among broken hills skirting a rugged range of mountains. There they were greeted by a human provocateur living among the Leo Tybin. He had some contrived "universal" translator and spoke rapidly with the native scouts. 

"Hello", he said warmly, "I am Roman Pirch. What brings the likes of you out here in the wastelands?" Domino told their tale and asked Roman the same thing in return. 

"I'm radicalizing these furry little rascals. They detest the UCC just as much as the Panumanic League. I believe there are thousands, maybe millions of Leo Tybin on Dismas. Living in burrows and underground labyrinths their true numbers are not known by human settlers or Kordarians which rule over us."

He spoke once again to the Leo Tybins through his translator and he invited Emma and Domino to sit round the camp fire and sip bark tea. 

"They really like to blow things up. In another month I think I will have squads of them trained up to make raids on the cities infrastructure. I get enough of them excited about the prospects and I think I can turn them into a formidable army to even make the Kordarians think this planet isn't worth the trouble. Now, why don't you two convince me you are not UCC agents and I won't let my friends here cook you up for dinner?"

(to be continued...)

Even Heroes Bleed Issue 35 part one

 DC Heroes game (using The Blood of Heroes retro-clone), I finally got back on track with the "main" storyline today. The Olympian couldn't make it, but Mettle and Mr. Zozo were more than enough to plunge into the mysteries surrounding the unknown woman they saved from the Black Enchantress.

Even Heroes Bleed Issue 35 part 1

Fantasy Adventure Journal Actual Photos

 Copies landed on my doorstep today! Here are photos of the actual product, cover, interior pages, etc.

Fantasy Adventure Journal Red Now Available

 Besides now having the correct cover illustration, the Fantasy Adventure Journal is now available in two sizes; original 115 pages and now the new jumbo 206 journal. I found the 115 page journal is ideal for players, but as a Crypt Keeper I find I want more pages for additional story threads and plots which are sure to develop during any one of my games. At 206 pages I've got room to add session prep to the journal. I used my green-covered copy, the original proof copy, as my sole play aid

during the last session of my supers campaign and it worked as well as I hoped. I'm going to want to jam all my session prep from any one of my games into these nifty adventure journals so additional pages is a requirement to achieve this. 

The journals are hardcover, of course, with Drivethru's "best" paper option selected, and a custom cover illustration completes the deal. 206 pages does come at a cost. Believe it or not, my profit on the larger size is less than that of the 115 page book. Still, my take is minimal, so the price tag on these books reflects production and shipping costs. Like 93% of the price, actually. But, once again, the service I get from Drivethru makes it the only realistic option to self-publish game products. Any money I make on the sale of these journals will be used to buy more for myself. After all, I am the intended audience :)

Space Opera Session Report Audio

 I've edited the audio recording of the first session of Space Opera 2760 - Lower Frontier Tales and have experimented with a "sprinkling" of sound effects and background music here and there. The goal is to retain the verbal "entirety" of a live game session while enhancing listener pleasure with traditional audio entertainment.

So if you like to examine actual play sessions this game of Space Opera is a rare thing to witness.