Finding time to be creative

Ben Gerber wrote a great article at Troll in the Corner about how to stay creative and focused while still dealing with life's challenges. His suggestions are all good points for GMs, game designers, and freelancers in general to keep in mind. I'm going to try and put some of these into practice. Real Life concerns and responsibilites have been draining my creative spark for quite a while now, as evidenced by my posting history here in the past few months. As we start bringing 2013 to a close, I want to get into a new routine that allows me to do everything that I need to do, while also having energy left for fun hobby projects.

What do you do to maintain your own level of creative output?

Resources for Night's Black Agents - links

A listing of web resources for Night's Black Agents, Ken Hite's RPG of burned spies versus the vampire conspiracy. I'll add more links as I find them.

• Pre-generated characters by Kevin Kulp
• Modified character sheet for paranormal spies by Chris Huth
• List of resources at Pelgrane Press 
• Updated standard character sheet by Chris Huth
• Demo game example (play-by-post)
• (more to follow as I sort through my list)

Clark Ashton Smith -- Penguin Classics edition

One often-discussed mystery of early Dungeons & Dragons is the lack of works by Clark Ashton Smith in Appendix N, the listing of fiction titles that Gary Gygax found inspirational for his own campaigns and spelled out in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. Gary had said that he hadn't read Smith until after D&D was released, which seems strange as much of the feel of those early games closely resembles imagery found in Smith's prose.

It's a shame, then, about the lack of Smith's work in print. The Night Shade collections of his fantasy stories are going out-of-print, leaving only a mass-market paperback collection of stories as the most widely available text.

That will change March 25th, when a new collection of Smith's prose and poetry is published as part of the prestigious Penguin Classics series, edited and with an introduction and notes by S.T. Joshi.

My knowledge of Smith's writing is deficient, as I've only read a handful of stories. This new collection is terrific not only for me to read more of his work but as an acknowledgement of Smith's talent and place among the great world writers.

The final table of contents was posted to the message board at the Smith scholarship site The Eldritch Dark.

Campaign ideas and gamer ADD

I'm not really set to start up a new face-to-face in-person RPG campaign any time soon, as much as I might like to (I do want to start up a short G+ Hangouts game). In spite of that, like any GM I am always thinking about "that next game", finding inspiration in multiple sources, and having dozens of campaign ideas swirling around in my head, some more nebulous than others.

Here's an attempt at putting these in a list and out of my brain:

• converting 40K/Dark Heresy/Deathwatch and/or Shadowrun to Fate Accelerated
• Night's Black Agents -- Jason Bourne vs. the vampire conspiracy
• Hyborian Age of Conan
• 1920s/30s Call of Cthulhu in "pulp action" mode
• Solomon Kane-style globetrotting horror-fantasy in the 1590s/1600s
• Montgolfier Brothers -- light-hearted picaresque adventures by balloon before the French Revolution
• Hammer Horror/Ravenloft/Warhammer horror-fantasy mash-up in a cinematic alt-Europe
• X-COM/STALKER -- War against the alien invaders and the search for littered alien technology
• Some sort of near-future transhuman sci-fi game set in our Solar System (riffing on Jovian Chronicles, Eclipse Phase, CthulhuTech, with doses of Firefly and Heavy Metal)
• It might be fun to run a Western campaign...
• The Day After Ragnarok -- Post-apocalyptic 1948 after the Midgard Serpent is killed with the Trinity Device.

That should be all for the moment, until the next cool thing I see.

Brief Gen Con Report

Now that I'm between semesters I can turn some attention back to games. It's been some time since Gen Con, so rather than going over the show in detail, I'll cut to the bullet points.

The photo above is all of the loot I picked up at the con -- 13th Age, Arkham Detective Tales, The Armitage Files, and Owl Hoot Trail (from the Pelgrane Press 4-for-3 sale), one of the Creature Card Decks from Inkwell Ideas, Gygax Magazine #2 from the OSR Productions booth, Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography from McFarland Publishing, and the Hellfrost Player's Guide from Triple Ace Games and Studio 2 Publishing.

I participated in the 2013 GM's Jam panel on Saturday morning with Zachary Houghton from RPG Blog II, Phil Vecchione from Gnome Stew, and Chris Sniezak from the Misdirected Mark podcast. Chris recorded the panel for the podcast. We had a great time talking with the audience about ways to improve campaigns, and I only lost my train of thought once. My friend Derek was in attendance and picked up the slack for me by telling a story about our Freeport campaign. I was honored to be a part of this event, and the panelists intend to do it again next year.

My friend Lowell was one of 16 finalists for the Tabletop Deathmatch boardgame design competition sponsored by Cards Against Humanity. He was in interviews, meetings and judging panels all weekend. All of this was filmed for a upcoming web video series -- I'll post a link when it begins.

I got a chance to play Night's Black Agents on Saturday afternoon, in a session with D. A good GM and a good group of players made this a fun session.

Mrs. Kaiju and I saw J., a friend and Indy local, for about 15 minutes on Friday, and played Zombicide and AD&D with the usual crew of  D., R. and J. It was fun to see them all.

We didn't arrive in town until Friday afternoon, and then didn't get to the con itself until around 4pm. We barely saw any of the Exhibit Hall until Saturday. By the time I made it to the Pelgrane booth, copies of Double Tap were sold out. This expansion for Night's Black Agents was at the top of my list to buy this year.

I didn't get to the Studio 2 booth until Sunday so I didn't know about their incredible Solomon Kane deal: all the print books for the line (including the rulebook) for $50. By Sunday I had used up most of my gaming loot funds.

Another disappointment: no booths for Media Blasters or Discotek Media, so no obscure kung-fu or monster movie DVDs this time.

We were on the move all weekend and still missed out on seeing people and events. Next year, I think we will look at arriving on Thursday to give us more time to see everything we want to see.

500th post!

Gen Con report delayed

I had hoped to post my Gen Con wrap-up today, but some of the photos are blurry. I will try to work some magic on them over the long weekend and post it next week.

Paramount DVDs from the Warner Archive

As part of Tuesday's wave of new DVD releases from Warner Archive, two out-of-print titles return to availability. One of Boris Karloff's last films (and director Peter Bogdanovich's first), Targets, and the last Hammer Frankenstein film, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, were previously available on DVD from Paramount. Rights for these and other movies licensed to Paramount have transfered over to Warner Brothers, and the first batch became available this week.

Although no new remastering was done on these transfers, the good news is that the original extra features from the Paramount DVDs are on these new Warner MOD discs. I missed both the first time around, so I'm very glad to see these films available again.

Tomorrow: my Gen Con 2013 report

8th Blogiversary

This past weekend marked the eighth anniversary of this blog. It doesn't seem like so long, yet at the same time, it feels like a worn, comfortable old reading chair that has always been around.

I would like to thank everyone who takes time out of their schedule to read my crude scribblings here and post comments. Feedback is always welcome. With luck, I'm hoping to break out of the creative slump I'm in at the moment and post more original content soon. Two RPG-related reviews are still in the works, and reports from Gen Con will be on the way. I would also like to bring back the Cult Classic of the Week movie reviews.

Kaijuville started as a place to post just for myself and my local gaming groups, and I'm thrilled to have had readers from all over the world -- not counting the spambots. Regarding the statistics, I've had just over 40,700 page views since Blogger started keeping track internally, and closing in on 500 posts. I look forward to many, many more. Thank you!

"Keep watching the skies!"

Gen Con 2013 Preview, part 2

Continuing from part 1, very brief notes of new (and new-to-me) games on my list and making their debut at Gen Con 2013.

Pelgrane Press might get the majority of my cash this year. I mentioned 13th Age previously. Owl Hoot Trail is Kevin Kulp and Clinton R. Nixon's fantasy spaghetti western RPG using a simple d20+stat+skill system. I knew that Double Tap, the expansion book for Night's Black Agents, was in development, but being on the Gen Con release list came as a surprise. It's now my #1 must-have purchase of the show.

Catalyst Game Labs recently released the PDF of Shadowrun 5th Edition, and I hope to flip through the book at their booth. The Spell Card and Gear Card decks could be pretty neat as well. Despite owning several Cyberpunk 2020 and CyberSpace supplements, I don't have the rulebooks, and I've never played in a cyberpunk game. SR 5e has me interested again.

Catalyst is also showing off Alpha Strike, a fast-play tactical miniatures game set in the Battletech universe. I'm always curious about more minis games.

One of Chronicle City's new products is The Demolished Ones, which seems like a bizarre steampunk/horror/noir mystery RPG/setting combo. It has all the elements to be really interesting.

I'm hoping to pick up a copy of Monstrosities from Frog God Games. It has been available for a while and from everything I've read, it might be the best of the OSR monster books. At some point either at Gen Con or through my FLGS, I'd like to get a copy of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG as well. I keep hearing enough praise for the game, and it could be fun to try out with our group.

With such a short list, I'm sure to have missed out on something. Take a look at the list of must-see booths and events at RPG Blog II.

If you see me at the convention, please say hello!

Gen Con 2013 Preview, part 1

Gen Con officially opens one week from today, and I am putting together some notes on my top priorities to see and do, products to look over and investigate, and must-have products to buy.

Renaissance Deluxe is a d100/BRP ruleset for historical or fantasy gaming in the black powder era and has received great reviews. I have skimmed the free SRD, but I find that to really learn a system it helps me to have it in print so I can flip from page to page. This is a book I will be looking at closely -- d100, the historical era -- all in my wheelhouse. It's based on OpenQuest, and the second edition of that book will be arriving around September.

13th Age seems to be a hybrid of d20/D&D 4e with less emphasis on the tactical grid and some indie/story-game elements added. It has been very popular in the online gaming community since the pre-order period and the physical books are now making their way to general public release. Some others in our local gaming group are curious about it as well, so I need to check it out.

2013 GM's Jam at Gen Con

16 days to Gen Con! I'm honored to be on the panel for the 2013 GM's Jam, hosted by Zachary Houghton of RPG Blog 2. This free event takes place on Saturday, August 17th from 11am to 12:30pm, in ICC 242. It's a fun opportunity for game masters of any system to talk shop -- discuss problems that happen in games, get advice on planning, and trade your best tips and tricks. I hope to see you there.

Obligatory Pacific Rim review

Perhaps not so much a review as a recommendation:

If you enjoy

a) giant monsters,
b) giant robots, and/or
c) military sci-fi,

then you need to go see this movie, especially on the big screen.

I particularly liked the opening exposition, and the scenes leading up to the title. The first kaiju attack on the Golden Gate Bridge was a favorite and very well done, having the heft and "reality" of suitmation effects.

This gives me great hope for next year's Godzilla, also produced by Legendary Pictures. Now could someone greenlight del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness already?

Upcoming DVD/Blu-ray releases

Several long-awaited disc releases are near, and may be of interest to readers of this blog -- gamers, classic horror fans, and pulp fiction aficionados.

Next week sees the release of the next in Synapse Films' Hammer series, Hands of the Ripper. Restored for HD and presented uncut, the DVD/Blu-ray combo includes a featurette about the film, two "motion still galleries", the US television cut introduction, and an isolated music & sound effects track.

One week later, July 16th, finds two noteworthy discs, Black Sabbath and Solomon Kane. Kino brings us Mario Bava's original anthology of three horror tales -- one of which stars Boris Karloff -- on Blu-ray for the first time in the US. I'm a bit disappointed that the US release of the film isn't included.





The other important disc that week, Solomon Kane, is finally appearing on DVD and Blu-ray in the US after seeing discs and a theatrical release in Europe, although it has been on streaming services here. I've heard mixed reactions to this film. I know that I shouldn't expect Howard's version of Kane, so I am just expecting a good period adventure film.

On September 3rd, we find the US version of Dracula, Prince of Darkness. After an initial test of the Region 1 waters, Millennium Films and Hammer start to bring us US versions of restoration project discs already being released in the UK. This looks like a direct port of the Region B disc, and more information including extras and the final cover art may be found in the recent press release. I think the UK cover art is much better. The other important bit, buried in the middle of the press release, is "Millennium is also planning to release several other Hammer Films on Blu-ray later this year including Quartermass and the Pit, The Plague of the Zombies, and The Devil Rides Out."

Finally, a bit further out on October 21st, is The Vincent Price Collection on Blu-ray from Shout Factory. Titles include The Fall of House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Haunted Palace, The Masque of the Red Death, Witchfinder General, and The Abominable Dr. Phibes. All of these titles have been released previously by MGM on DVD under the Midnite Movies banner, and it is unclear right now what sort of remastering and clean-up the titles have been given in HD for Blu-ray. Presumably we will see more details as the date draws near. Despite owning the Midnite Movies releases of each film, I'm bound to pick this up because... it's Vincent Price. On Blu-ray. I'm glad to support the project if we get high quality transfers.

Still here

Between the end of one semester, the beginning of another and a vacation in-between (and overlapping), some time has gone by since my last post. I should get back to a more regular schedule soon.

Tomorrow, a look at some important upcoming DVD/Blu-ray releases, and I hope to have two RPG product reviews next week.

Some Notes for a Hammer Horror/Ravenloft/WFRP RPG campaign mashup

I had intended for this post to be part of the May RPG Blog Carnival, "Campaigns I'd Like to Run", but I did not get it wrapped up by the end of the month.

Transylvania, land of dark forests, dread mountains and black, unfathomed lakes, still the home of magic and devilry... Count Dracula, monarch of all vampires, is dead, but his disciples live on, to spread the cult and corrupt the world.

This campaign setting is a fantastic alternate-history horror mashup of the world as presented in Hammer Horror movies, Ravenloft, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The European landscape of this world has some of the fantastic elements found in alt-European settings such as Castle Falkenstein and Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death. Additional inspiration can be found in the Solomon Kane stories of Robert E. Howard, the Ravenloft art of Stephen Fabian, Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night, and GURPS Creatures of the Night.

What is the campaign about?

It is not heresy, and I will not recant!

The world is more that what it appears to be on the surface. Despite the perception that scientific study is bringing forward progress, folk legends and superstitions of the occult are true and very real. Werewolves roam the dark primeval forests, witches brew potions and place hexes on the unwary, ghosts roam the halls of power, sorcerers attempt to summon and bind demons, and vampires prey on the living. When confronted with this evidence, men and women of every station across Europe and around the world meet the challenge of holding back the forces of darkness in a secret war of wills and knowledge.

How does the game do this?

In much the same fashion as Call of Cthulhu, the player characters are ordinary people who find themselves investigating the malevolent machinations of vampire families, gorgons, witch cults, and other fantastic foes. Ingolstadt and Carlsbrück are likely central locations for the PCs to operate from.

I expect that most of what I would lift from the Ravenloft material would be locations and floor plans, general adventure seeds, inspiration for NPCs, and of course the art.

Most of my ideas for setting the tone of the campaign have been in deciding how to plan out the system and house rules.

* Lamentations of the Flame Princess for the base rules system (B/X D&D with some variations, and it already assumes an early modern historical setting).
* Careers from Small but Vicious Dog (B/X version of WFRP).
* Magic would be available as low-level cantrips and at higher levels, rituals. Some magic effects would be available through alchemical potions and devices for mad scientists.
* Either Jim's Death, Dismemberment and Dangerous Damage table or Kirin's Death and Dismemberment Table.
* Jack's Dark Secrets table from the first TotGaD compendium (for character backgrounds and future plot hooks).
* Aspects from FATE - These could be combined with the Dark Secrets to further add a cinematic quality to the characters. Also, more ways to complicate their lives.
* Firearms are tricky. I could cobble together something based on Renaissance d100, or use Dak's firearms rules. The updated printing of LotFP includes firearms rules, although I have not checked it.

Film Inspirations:

Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter
Brides of Dracula
Revenge of Frankenstein
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
The Plague of the Zombies
The Vampire Lovers
The Curse of the Werewolf
The Devil Rides Out
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Frankenstein Created Woman
Witchfinder General
Blood on Satan's Claw
Horror Express

100 years of Peter Cushing

Today was the 100th anniversary of Peter Cushing's birthday. The video below is a clip that was added to the end of part 2 of Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror when it aired on BBC1.

Campaigns I'd Like to Run: X-COM/STALKER: Fight the Future

Like many GMs I often have more ideas for RPG campaigns than time to run them all. It's part of the fun to build on a creative spark and plan out the "what if" possibilities for new campaigns, even if it's unlikely to hit the table.

This month's RPG Blog Carnival -- hosted by Age of Ravens -- is based on this theme, "Campaigns I'd Like to Run." The Carnival is a great opportunity to work out some of these partially-formed campaign ideas.

X-COM/STALKER: Fight the Future

Yeah, we got the package, Colonel. No we didn't open it.

North of town? No, there's nobody there, no survivors. You see how many of us made it back?

It's perpetual night in there. Like walking though a curtain. Right inside the edge of Zone Mike Three. Gordon lost it right then. Didn't you know that?

The designator signal held out, it's the only way we could have found the package again. We secured it and fell back to the DZ. That's when they hit us. They knew we were there.

This campaign idea is for a near-future sci-fi/horror mashup that combines elements from two complimentary settings, the video game X-COM: Enemy Unknown, and the STALKER tabletop RPG, based on the novel Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky Brothers. Additional inspiration can be found in The X-Files, Delta Green, GURPS Atomic Horror, and GURPS Warehouse 23.

What is the campaign about?

Ever-increasingly desperate battles against an alien threat to humanity. Worldwide, there are gains and losses by both sides. Some areas previously controlled by the aliens have been mysteriously abandoned and are designated Zones. Some of the natural laws of physics no longer apply in the Zones. Despite the danger to body and mind, priceless alien artifacts of every description litter the Zones. It's only a matter of time before we learn how to use what they left behind to finally destroy the aliens. Conspiracy and fear reign: What do the aliens want? Which humans are collaborating with them?

How does the game do this?

The tone and the style of the campaign would depend on the interest of the players. I see two ways to go with the source material, and a sliding continuum between the extremes.

1) Investigation, Research and Building: The player characters are involved with the investigation of alien artifacts, and may be out in the field collecting data and material. This would certainly include forays into Zones of previous alien activity. They could also be involved with the development and management of team and agency resources, from the unit level expanding to the worldwide XCOM organization.

2) Tactical combat: The player characters are assigned to the combat field teams that face the alien threat. This would encompass actual combat roles (ranged, hand-to-hand, sniper) and support roles (medic, engineer, field tech).

As far as which rules system to use, again this would depend on the intended style of the game. For a more investigative game, and a focus on building resources, perhaps GUMSHOE, FATE Core, or Action Cards. For a game focused on combat with the aliens and other field operations, a system with more specific combat options, skills, and weapons might be more appropriate, such as Cyberpunk, Shadowrun or even nWoD. Somewhere in the middle, perhaps True20, Savage Worlds, or Chaosium BRP.

Ray Harryhausen was a Magician (including random tables)

(Part of the Ray Harryhausen Blogfest)

Ray Harryhausen was a magician. He took foam rubber and fur wrapped around a wire armature and made it come to life in dozens of feature films and short subjects.

Harryhausen's contributions to visual and photographic effects cannot be overestimated. His pioneering work in refining the art of stop-motion animation over the course of 50 years gave us defining moments in the history of science-fiction and fantasy films. His technical wizardry and attention to detail mark the work of a true professional of the craft. Several generations of film fans, filmmakers, and gamers have been inspired by his creations.

This should have been a story in honor of Ray Harryhausen's 93rd birthday in June. Instead, it is in memoriam for the filmmaker, artist and writer who passed away on Tuesday.

I don't remember the exact first Harryhausen movie that I saw. Many of my early memories of movies as a kid are mixed together. My best guess is that it was 20 Million Miles to Earth, about an alien creature loose in Rome; a late-night showing (9pm?) that my parents let me stay up to watch. I soon began to recognize his work in other movies over many more late nights and Saturday afternoons. They were known as "Harryhausen movies", as his special effects overshadowed the names of producers, directors, and often the actors. I wrote about one particular film, The First Men in the Moon, in this review.

To me, the battle with the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts represents the pinnacle of Harryhausen's talent, even if he would go on to create more intricate models and complicated effects in later films. He spent four months animating the skeleton models, and the amount of synchronization required to match up models to the live actors is still astounding.



Although we can create all manner of wondrous effects, creatures, and whole worlds through the use of computer animation, I feel that sometimes we lose a connection to the real objects, like stop-motion models and the physical sets they inhabit. Their lack of slick perfection make them less polished and more uneven, but more immediate and ultimately, real.



Bonus: Two d12 tables for random Harryhausen monsters in the fantasy role-playing game of your choice.

Small Creatures

1 -A Roc hatchling

2 - Skeletons

3 - Pterodactyl

4 - Giant bee

5 - Harpies

6 - Selenites

7 - A homunculus

8 - Animated ship's figurehead

9 - Centaur

10 - A chess-playing baboon

11 - A mechanical owl

12 - Medusa

Large Creatures

1 - Giant ape

2 - Rhedosaur

3 - Giant octopus

4 - Triceratops

5 - Cyclops

6 - Giant crab

7 - Talos

8 - Hydra

9 - The Avatar of Kali

10 - Griffin

11 - Troglodyte

12 - The Kraken

Free Renaissance D100 one-shot adventure

Monday saw the release of a free one-shot adventure for the Renaissance D100 rules. From the announcement email:

You may have thought that the Renaissance Deluxe D100 rules were only useful for black powder games, but Adrian Jones shows their flexibility with a FREE one-shot adventure and resource pack which pits Celtic Adventurers against Viking raiders in an 11th century adventure in the spirit of Robert E. Howard...

Download it now! http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/113819/The-Wolves-of-the-Coast

I have been interested in the Renaissance rules, although I've not yet dug into them very deeply. This adventure might be a good catalyst to do so. The SRD is also free, being the core of the Clockwork & Chivalry RPG and based on OpenQuest.

Roger Ebert, RIP

I was very saddened to read the news yesterday afternoon that film critic (and so much more) Roger Ebert passed away at the age of 70. Only two days ago he posted about his webpage getting revamped and taking off some time for "reviewing only the movies I want to review," for reasons of declining health.

Mr. Ebert was my favorite film critic. Although I didn't always agree with his opinions -- particularly on some genre films -- our tastes matched up more often than not. I have very fond memories of watching "Sneak Previews" on PBS, then later "At the Movies" and "Siskel & Ebert". In the opening credits, a poster for Godzilla 1985 was clearly visible behind his desk as he typed.

Beyond his work as a critic, what I liked most about him was that he obviously loved movies. He was passionate about them, and made you want to share his enthusiasm. He was a scholar of film history, working to preserve Hollywood's history and point out the shoulders of the giants on which today's films stand. His commentaries on Citizen Kane and Dark City are legendary.

Save us the aisle seats behind you and Gene, Roger. We'll see you at the movies.

This last clip is NSFW (language):