And now...The Bamfsies!

I was recently recruited by Mike Lafferty of Fainting Goat Games and the Bamf! Podcast to join the governing body of The Bamfsies, alongside Cam Banks, Chris Helton and Dan Davenport.

What are the Bamfsies? They are a fairly light hearted award series for Superhero Gaming, which all of the above, plus myself, have a love for. We already have the Hall of Fame up, and voting is ongoing right now for your picks for the Gamer's Choice award. We're going to attempt to coordinate a podcast for the awards next month, so you should get your vote in for your favorites NOW.

Gold star if you can guess my Hall of Fame selection without looking.

D&D: Hoard of the Dragon Queen Episode 3 Actual Play

And so the adventure continues...

Character Creation
Episode 1
Episode 2

Tommy's Take on Era: The Consortium

Running a bit late on this one...Era: The Consortium is a new sci-fi RPG that is in its final week on Kickstarter right now.

D&D: Hoard of the Dragon Queen Episode 2 Actual Play

We had to take a month off for various reasons, but we did pick Hoard of the Dragon Queen back up a few weeks ago...I've just not gotten around to doing a write-up.

This is that write-up.

100 Days of Halloween Tabletop Horror Recommendations

Hey guys, for those that don't follow me on social media (or who have long since tuned me out), I was guest blogging on The Monster Guys blog, posting 10 games I think you should consider this Halloween.

Two swell dudes.

Without further ado:

Tabletop Horror 1: Zombies!
Tabletop Horror 2: Fantastic Horror
Tabletop Horror 3: Camp & Circumstance
Tabletop Horror 4: Fresh Meat!
Tabletop Horror 5: The Call of Evil
Tabletop Horror: Honorable Mentions (Michael's, not mine)

Enjoy!

Tommy's Take on The Last Parsec: Eris Beta-V

Hi guys, remember me?

I'm not dead, just started a new job, and that plus illness plus baby have pretty well sidelined me recently.

I recently got a chance to take a look at one of the books in the Kickstarter for The Last Parsec (now in its final day), and I thought I would give you a brief overview.

It's only a brief overview for one huge reason, which is that it's a Plot Point Campaign, and I try not to spoil TOO much in my reviews.

D&D: Hoard of the Dragon Queen Episode 1 Actual Play

Click on for the actual play of the first episode of D&D: Hoard of the Dragon Queen...but be warned that there ARE spoilers inside.

D&D: Hoard of the Dragon Queen Character Creation

I'm...really blogging about my next campaign, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It's been about a decade since I ran D&D in any incarnation, and longer since I've done it with any enthusiasm...but I am genuinely looking forward to Saturday and giving this a go.

Warning...some spoilers below.

#RPGaDay Day 31: Favorite RPG of All Time

There's a reason my blog tends to be called a "Savage Worlds blog". I created a Savage Worlds Facebook group. I have worked for multiple Savage Worlds licensees (Daring Entertainment, Savage Mojo, Gun Metal Games and Third Eye Games). I have ran Necessary Evil, two Deadlands Reloaded campaigns, horror one shots, a fantasy homebrew one shot, a Savage Midnight conversion and Solomon Kane, and all in the last five years or so.

Savage Worlds has flipped the way I look at RPGs, making it harder for me to enjoy games I once thought were great. 

It, in my play experience, is fast, furious and fun...and while I will run other games (preparing a D&D 5th edition game now), if it ever comes down to an either/or, it will always be Savage Worlds.

#RPGaDay Day 30: Rarest RPG I Own

I'm going with Marvel SAGA, in part because I own the entire line, including the four promo cards.

The only thing that would compete, as far as I'm aware, is the complete Star Wars Saga Edition set, including Starships of the Galaxy and the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide.

#RPGaDay Day 29: Most Memorable Encounter

So it was Marvel SAGA, right? The Sideliners had made their way to Castle Doom to confront Stryfe, who had deposed Doom and imprisoned him in Limbo, where he was battling waves of demons sent by Sym and N'astirh. Stryfe deployed his new henchmen, the Mojoverse Death Sponsors (Cancellator, Deadair, Sweepzweak, Timeslot and Lead-In), who were soundly thrashing the Sideliners.

As the team got beaten down, one of the PCs (an angel, Sophitia, who had been infected with a technorganic virus) was mystically contacted by Doom, who had been imprisoned in Limbo via the Space Gem, which Stryfe was using in the catacombs of Doom's castle. The angel used her infection to send a tendril under the castle to meddle with the Space Gem fueled portal holding Doom. Meanwhile, the physically weakest member of the team, Mindstorm, was the only one left standing against the Death Sponsors and he pushed, blowing out his Electrical Control powers, trumping repeatedly until he hit an insane action score that LEVELED Doom's castle and wiped out the Death Sponsors.

As he slumped to the ground, the rubble of the castle parted and Stryfe emerged...suddenly, the robotic BOTS recovered and charged Stryfe while flying, knocking him backwards...and into the waiting sword of the now-freed Doom.

And no, I was not on drugs when I put all those villains together, it was all part of a huge, multivillain conspiracy involving Mojo, Stryfe, The Hellfire Club, Sym and N'astirh.

#RPGaDay Day 28: Scariest RPG I've Ever Played

Not from Deadlands, but you get the point.

Going off of player comments, I will have to go with Deadlands, specifically the one time I used an animated hand, which totally creeped one of my longtime players out. He had dealt with all kinds of crap over the years, but this severed hand running around and attacking him just give him the willies.

Tommy's Take on Hoard of the Dragon Queen

So almost immediately after getting the D&D Fifth Edition Player's Handbook, I zipped back to my FLGS and picked up Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the first part of the first 5th edition campaign, Tyranny of Dragons.

#RPGaDay Day 27: Game I'd Like To See A New/Improved Edition Of...

Me and one of my buddies even have a draft we've been working on, on and off, and I have loose commitments from artist friends that make this financially doable for me...I even had a name for it, once, but I found out there was another RPG by that name....but I have just launched my own creative imprint (Empyreal Creative), through which I have a series of comics lined up that I could release alongside this...so never say never...

#RPGaDay Day 26: Coolest Character Sheet

The Deadlands character journal (Twisted Tales) is the only character journal that I remember actually spending real money on...that's how much I loved Deadlands. It was worth dropping $5 or whatever for a book that could not only hold your character sheet, but your backstory, powers and so on, at least for a game as cool as Deadlands.

A Reloaded update of this, even in PDF form, would be very welcome.

#RPGaDay Day 25: Favorite RPG That No One Else Will Play

Allegedly, nothing. My current group says "If you run it, we will play"...so I'm currently holding them to that. Nothing - presumably - is off limits.

Tommy's Take on D&D Player's Handbook 5th Edition

First off, apologies for all the reviews I'm behind on. I did, however, cave and pick up the D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook, and given my vocal anti-D&D stance, I've actually been asked by a few people to do a review, so here goes:

#RPGaDay Day 24: Most Complicated RPG I Own

This is going to seem strange to some folks, so allow me to explain: I have never successfully completed character creation with Mutants & Masterminds. I have rolled up D&D3.5 characters and even ran the game for a short while, but I have about half a dozen half finished M&M characters around here. Why? I usually lose track of points by the end. If I can't get through character creation in a game I (once) really wanted to play, that kinda speaks volumes to me. And yeah, I know, there are spreadsheets and character creation programs out there, but I have another rule: If I have to use a character creator to make characters for a game, then it's just not worth it for me.

I own a slew of Mutants & Masterminds books, I'll just never use them as intended.

#RPGaDay Day 23: Coolest Looking RPG Product/Book

I am again going with the books in The Dresden Files RPG due to their depiction as an unfinished manuscript being worked on by Billy, with editing notes from Harry and Bob. Evil Hat did a fantastic job of capturing the voices of the characters, and I may have read this book more completely than I have any other due to the hilarious back and forth between Harry, Billy and Bob.

Well done, Evil Hat. I just hope Accelerated Edition and The Paranet Papers are as entertaining to read.

#RPGaDay Day 22: Best Second Hand Purchase

I picked up the two Dresden Files books and four sets of Fudge dice on eBay last year, as I was working through the Dresden Files books. This is the game that made Fate really "click" for me, as I finally had a context for all the Fate concepts that were eluding me. Unfortunately, I still haven't had a chance to PLAY it, though I've read the books repeatedly...and this purchase ultimately led to me supporting the Fate Core and Tianxia Kickstarters, and preordering Atomic Robo. Can't wait for the Paranet Papers to be released, now!

#RPGaDay Day 21: Favorite Licensed RPG

My favorite licensed RPG and the greatest superhero RPG I have ever seen, read or played. I wish to heck this game was still in circulation today, but I own the full line, as well as a lot of fan material. I have never seen an RPG capture the four colored feel on the same level as Marvel SAGA, whose mechanics sing in spite of some troubling writing and editing flaws.

If the last couple of years of Savage Worlds hadn't been so awesome, this would have also been my #1 favorite RPG...and even then, choosing from this or Savage Worlds would be difficult in a pinch (but I'm sure that I would ultimately go Savage).

Just an under appreciated, and awesome, RPG.

#RPGaDay Day 20: Will Still Play In 20 Year's Time...

Safe bet?

In some incarnation or another.

#RPGaDay Day 19: Favorite Published Adventure

The second module for Marvel SAGA, and only slightly edging out the Fantastic Four module, Masters of Evil is something that I would love to replicate someday for an RPG (BASH, ICONS, Savage Worlds...something).

This little booklet is a series of adventures that can be ran completely standalone, or they can be linked together in a mini-campaign. If you link them together, there are little bits that tie into the final adventure. If you don't, then you just play the adventures you wanna play. This was released during the height of the Thunderbolts' original run and opens with a nice adaptation of Thunderbolts #12, with the option of playing through the adventures as The Thunderbolts. Worked just fine for me, running it for our PC team, though. But yeah, an interconnected module series like this is on my "Things To Do Someday" list, because of how awesome and well-done this was.

(The Fantastic Four book was done in a similar manner and put together excellently as well, complete with a surprisingly fun side-trek in which the PCs play Skrulls relaying a story in flashback, I just preferred this one to that one a bit. The X-Men book was just a mishmash of adventures and nowhere near on the level of the other two).

#RPGaDay Day 18: Favorite Game System

If you couldn't guess this, then you haven't paid attention to much I have ever written. Since I picked up Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition and dug into it, I have never looked back. I now have shelves full of Savage Worlds materials, I have computer folders full of Savage Worlds materials, I have worked for four Savage Worlds licensees and I have run multiple campaigns of various genres with Savage Worlds. It is, without a debt, the best roleplaying purchase I have ever made. For me and my group, it has continually lived up to the mantra of "Fast! Furious! Fun!". I love the core mechanics and I love the various permutations (Deadlands Reloaded, the supers rules, Suzerain, Streets of Bedlam and its Archetypes, etc.)

Make mine Savage, definitely.

#RPGaDay Day 17: Funniest Game You've Played

Intentionally?

We had a blast with Fiasco. I got to ham it up, no one really knew which way the story was going to turn, and it was all horribly inappropriate in a wonderful way. My wife even got involved (she thought the game sounded really fun). We're all fairly convinced it's kind of a perfect game to play with non-gamers (my wife's pretty well a non-gamer and an introvert to boot). The Fiasco Companion even has tips on dulling the edges a bit, if you need something with a little less sex, drugs and violence.

Take a read at our actual play if you wanna know how our (hopefully first) session went.

#RPGaDay Day 16: RPG I Wish I Owned

I am not a huge Trekkie, but I do like Star Trek - especially Next Generation - and while I got to play a short session of this with an inexperienced GM, I would love to have a crack at the book myself, maybe even running a game. Being a licensed game in the age before digital rights means it's generally difficult to get one's hands on a legal copy, but I would probably snap one up if I ran across a used copy in a store somewhere, just to read it myself, if nothing else.

#RPGaDay Day 15: Favorite Convention Game

I have never gamed at a convention.

#RPGaDay Day 14: Best Convention Purchase

I actually don't buy a lot of RPGs or RPG related materials at conventions. These, I got at a convention.

I know, boring story.

#RPGaDay Day 13: Most Memorable Character Death

Not Marshal Kidd

United States Marshal (and Blessed) "Ugly" Joe Kidd (I swear, I somehow did not know about the Clint Eastwood movie at the time) was one of my few forays into being a full on player (Deadlands Classic), and one of my favorites. His death was actually pretty ambiguous, as he was attempting to stop a Ravenite from opening up a scary portal leading to The Hunting Grounds and unleashing scary, scary stuff. He tackled the Ravenite through the portal and found the talisman keeping the portal open. He made a snap decision to destroy the talisman and prevent something huge and scary from getting through, but not before having a manly, yet touching, "goodbye" moment with his deputy on the other side, a Cherokee tracker and Shaman named Tontchay.

Such was Kidd's death that when the GM moved away and we opted to resume the game with the Savage Worlds rules and me in the GM chair, Tontchay was dead set on finding Marshal Kidd, convinced that Kidd had to still be alive.

#RPGaDay Day 12: Old RPG You Still Play/Read

I could have said Marvel SAGA, but really, it kinda sits since my main player moved away...Deadlands Classic no longer gets PLAYED around here, but I have the entire classic run and I mine it *constantly* for material, adventures and so forth. I have gradually added mechanical bits from Classic to fill in gaps from Reloaded, and the sheer volume of setting material is invaluable.

While I never plan on reverting back to Classic, as long as I run Deadlands, I will always have at least one of the orange books at my table with me.

#RPGaDay Day 11: Weirdest RPG I Own

There are a few obvious choices I could have gone with, like Over the Edge, Unknown Armies or (the game I about posted) Low Life...but Tools of Ignorance has to take the cake. Why? For starters, a lot of people don't even know what the reference is. And two: It's a roleplaying game about a baseball team. Yeah, Low Life lets you play as humanoid cockroaches and sentient cupcakes, but how many RPGs are built to let you relive your own "Major League"?

And don't get me wrong...I hate baseball and I would still gladly play this game for the sheer novelty. I kinda wish a basketball version existed.

#RPGaDay Day 10: Favorite Tie-in Novel/Game Fiction

I'll avoid the "cheap" answers like citing Marvel Comics or The Dresden Files, which were adapted to RPGs after the fact, and pick this one: I love Ravenloft and Soth was one of my favorite Dark Lords. Heck, most of the Ravenloft novels were great to me. I could easily have said "I, Strahd", "Vampire of the Mists" or even "Mordenheim", but I'll give this the nod.

There's other stuff I liked more, mind you: The Drizzt novels spring to mind...but they only served to show me how limited Dungeons and Dragons was, and how badly it failed at the product TSR was trying to sell at the time.

You know what? The Ravenloft game stuff didn't mesh with the system very well, either. I'm changing my vote back to my original one:

The Buried Tales anthology made me long to play in Pinebox, TX, and I'll finally get to do that with East Texas University. Buried Tales it is.

#RPGaDay Day 9: My Favorite Dice

Not my oldest dice by any stretch, but I have become very fond of these Deadlands Dice I bought last fall. I make it a point to use them exclusively when GMing Deadlands Reloaded.

#RPGaDay Day 8: Favorite Character(s)

I could name a few of these, and they are all actually NPCs (given how little I actually play).

Tanjlock Sarlon is a Wood Elf Fighter from AD&D 2nd Edition who ultimately came to be known as much for his mental instability and his "road to Hell being paved with good intentions" as anything else. The art above is from my friend and partner in crime, Johnnie Johnson, for what is intended to be an illustrated novella series featuring Tanjlock.

Bully, The Bull That Walks Like A Man was an NPC in my Necessary Evil game and the first NPC that, when I killed him off, nearly set off a riot at the table. My players were FURIOUS. When he showed up later as a Super Drone, they were furious a second time, but one of the PCs managed to wrench him from his brain washing and bring him back to their side. He will be migrating to comic book form in my upcoming PALADIN: AGENT OF KRYPTIC comic.

Lastly would be Former US Marshal Ezekiah Joseph Kidd, my first Deadlands character. He began as an ugly, self righteous US Marshal who ultimately became Blessed and gave his life in pursuit of stopping Ravenites from doing bad, bad things. After I took over as GM of the game, his deputy (one of the remaining PCs) made it his life's mission to find Kidd. When he discovered Kidd was actually dead, he invoked the blackest of magic to return Kidd to life against his wishes.

Kidd is not presently slated to appear in any fiction.

#RPGaDay Day 7: Most Intellectual RPG I Own

It features Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Thomas Edison and the legacy of Nikola Tesla. It even has specific subsystems for scientific brainstorming in game!

Pretty sure it HAD to be this or Low Life.

#RPGaDay Day 6: Favorite RPG I Never Get To Play

I'm taking "play" to mean "GM", as I rarely play and I'm okay with that...and, again, I'm giving two answers instead of one, but there's a good reason for that.



Like the TV shows, the RPGs can be taken separately or complimentary with each other (in fact, my actual favorite combo is Angel combined with The Magic Box supplement for Buffy). These RPGs hold a very special place in my heart, in part because I love the shows to death, and in part because the larger Buffyverse line holds my first RPG writing credits (including a Buffyverse related article for Eden Studios Presents vol. 2 and an additional writing credit on Angel). Three times I have attempted campaigns (one a Buffy playtest campaign, one an IRC based online game and one an Angel game), and each time they just never "clicked", even though I was super enthused and everyone said they were having a great time. I even prepared a fourth campaign, which could be best described as The Dead Zone meets Friday the 13th The Series meets Beauty & The Beast, but we never even made it to our first session. I had grown quite adept at getting the Cinematic Unisystem to do the things I wanted it to do.

I still have all the Buffy books, all the Angel playtest files, and occasionally poke around them and get ideas, but I know better than to go down that trail again *sigh*.

Actually, The Angel RPG led directly to my Savage Worlds obsession, in a funny story. I caught wind that the Angel GM screen was on clearance at a game shop and when I went in to pick it up, I saw Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition. I had traded away my original Savage Worlds rulebook (I just HATED it. The rules were bad, the characters were all the same and there was NO flavor. Yeah, I was every guy I've argued with since), but I had seen all this buzz on the internet about the Savage Worlds settings and I figured $20 for the screen I wanted (but would never use) plus the Savage Worlds rules seemed like a good enough deal...and grew hooked on Savage Worlds.

Probably one of the reasons I can't get a Buffy/Angel game going *now*.                                                                    

#RPGaDay Day 5: Most Old School RPG You Own

I reckon that Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition by Palladium is the most Old School RPG I own, with the weird subsystems and random charts.

It was sent to me as a review copy, but I actually struggled that hard to find anything good to say about the book. In a nutshell, I don't like the Palladium system and I think this is a horrible supers game. The sensibilities and aesthetics feel a tad more "old school" to me (whatever that means) than FASERIP does, so it gets the unfortunate nod.

#RPGaDay Day 4: Most Recent RPG Purchase

So this is one of those questions that could be answered a couple of ways, so I'll answer it a couple of ways.

I backed the Wield Kickstarter by John Wick and had the PDF on my computer, but at Glitchcon this weekend, I ran into Mr. Wick and opted to go ahead and purchase the physical copy...so, technically, it would be Wield by John Wick. (For those not familiar with Wield, you play a magic item with plots and schemes who controls its wielders - played by other players - who also have their own plots and schemes). That said, merely picking up a physical copy of a book I already own digitally may not "count", so I'll also answer with:

My other most recent purchase - and the one that was not just a physical copy of a product I already owned - which has not shipped yet (to my knowledge) is Dragon Age Set 3 by Green Ronin Publishing, and the boxed set that will complete the initial Dragon Age run (before Ultimate Edition's release, anyway).

See? Told you I've moved on from D&D (but not necessarily fantasy).

#RPGaDay Day 3: First RPG I Bought

No, AD&D2e was not the first RPG I ever bought. Though I did wind up with an extensive collection of AD&D2e books for a while, I used my friend Jeremiah's corebooks for a spell before I bought my own. Actually, the first RPG-related purchase I made was not, in fact, an RPG...but a supplement? Why? Because I was in the 7th grade and ordering out of a catalog in a comic book and didn't know the difference. What did I purchase?

What can I say? I was a huge X-Men fan and had no idea, from the catalog, that this was not a standalone game. I started piecing it together once I got into RPGs (I'm sure one of the books in this boxed set says something to that effect, but I confess that I did not read every word, in part due to disappointment once I realized there were no rules for actually playing inside, though I did devour all of the obscure character bios).

Shortly after I discovered my first full-fledged comic and game shop (the now-closed Fantastic's in Tahlequah, OK), I made my second RPG purchase:

Fantasy is nice...superheroes have always been my first love...and, as I have proven on multiple occasions in my supers games (like many others before and after me have), the genre is tailor-made for you to dive right in with all your favorite horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and whatever tropes.

This version of Marvel is no longer my preferred method of supers roleplaying but, unlike AD&D2e, I still own (pretty much) all of my Marvel stuff (some of the cutouts got lost after the boxes basically disintegrated on me).

The games I actually ran with this system were, again, largely horrible...focusing more on who I had fold-up figures of than anything coherent, but I did once develop a sprawling campaign with multiple mini-campaigns that focused on different areas of the Marvel Universe (like Unity X, the young mutant group in Oklahoma mentored by The Beast and The Sideliners, a team of C-List heroes who had ties to the X-Men, The Avengers, The Fantastic Four and SHIELD, and routinely became embroiled in cosmic conflicts way above their pay grade).

Even when I moved on to Marvel SAGA, most of the non-Marvel characters in those games (PC and NPC alike) were originally created in this system and converted. Ask around the gaming community and it's hard to miss the impact this game had on a TON of people.

Make mine Marvel!

#RPGaDay Day 2: First RPG I GMed

I alluded to this in yesterday's post. It didn't take long for me to read the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monstrous Compendium, and soon I was scrawling together a world to put my friends through.

Being a fan of Greek myth, a medusa emerged as an early adversary, and I loved beholders far too much to not wheel one of those out early. Looking back, I was a pretty horrible DM, but I think I definitely improved over time, but I suppose my players would be better suited to answer that than I would.

I had too many "frustrated novelist" moments as a teenage DM, but those are pretty well under control now (what with actually working as an amateur writer). That said, I did learn early on that I vastly prefer the GM side of the table, and function almost exclusively in that role these days, just like I did back then, when I didn't even own these books...and AD&D2e was NOT the first RPG I bought...

#RPGaDay Day 1: First RPG I Played

Around 20 years ago, or so, I got into RPGs when I started high school and found people with actual common interests and not just me pretending to care what other people liked so I could fit in. My friends Jeremiah and Steve had both played versions of Dungeons & Dragons in the past, but everyone was a lapsed gamer now, but I was so intrigued that I bugged Jeremiah into letting me borrow his AD&D2e books and dove right in, eagerly devouring everything. Soon we had a revolving group with multiple GMs and characters switching in and out like crazy...but my first actual RPG experience with something resembling coherent rules was a one on one game DMed for me, before I took over the reigns as DM and scarcely ever relinquished them.

AD&D2e still holds a special place in my heart. I loved the support material (still own select chunks of it), and it is still my favorite version of D&D...I just no longer have a passion for Dungeons & Dragons.

Still, this blog probably would not be here, right now, without that book posted up there.

A Little Behind

I know, I was doing so well, too.

I'm running behind on blog stuff, because of stuff with my newborn, and crazy work-related junk.

I even had a review calendar set up and everything. I'm going to try to beef up my schedule until I get caught up, just bear with me, please.

Up next are:
Sertorius by Bedrock Games
Sovereign Stone by Timeout Diversions
Cold Steel Wardens by Blackfall Press
Rapture by Storyweaver
Lowell Was Right! by Flying Mice
Spooks! by Nightingale Publishing

Hope you're still reading and as eager for these reviews as I am!

T.

ICONS Character Roster

Some of you may have noticed over the weekend that I added a new page to the blog: My ICONS character roster. This is because ICONS character creation is fun, and I recently picked up ICONS Assembled Edition, and have started making characters using it and Great Power.

All heroes are created using the optional rules for Determination based off of power level, and all villains are created starting with the Villain Role chart (originally from Villainomicon, now in Assembled Edition). Images (so far) are all created with Hero Machine.

For those of you that follow my comic book work, some of these folks may well wind up appearing in a comic book someday, who knows?

Anyway, enjoy!

Tommy's Take on 13th Age

So, I've been reading 13th Age a lot lately, and have even signed up for the Organized Play program, so I decided to go ahead and take the time to review it...because why not?

Tommy's Take on Camp Myth

Just in time for summer vacation...Camp Myth, an RPG about young mythic creatures at camp! It's also the second RPG based off of the Pip system that powers Mermaid Adventures.

These guys  would eat Jason Vorhees' lunch.

Tommy's Take on Karthador

Ya'll know Reality Blurs, right? They've had products named to my Top Six in the past, specifically Realms of Cthulhu and tremulus, and have been around the Savage Worlds community for quite a while...now, they are launching a new setting, sci-fi/swashbuckling setting called Karthador, available for preorder now!

Tommy's Take on Fighting Fire: Ernie Gygax Benefit Adventure

Gamers can be an infuriating group of people. Go to the message board of any major RPG and chances are good that you will see someone overreacting, freaking out and generally losing their crap because a game company killed their dog and maybe tinkered with their favorite part of an RPG. On the other hand, I am constantly amazed at the generosity the larger gaming community shows when folks need help, be it during an international crisis...or when the son of the most influential individual in gaming loses his home in a fire.