More Fuzion: Martial Arts Powers

Since I was going through my archives, I found some more of my fun, old Fuzion materials. Here are some Martial Arts powers that I created using the power creation rules from the Champions New Millennium version of the Fuzion rules. Thankfully they put a PDF version up on the internet a long time ago that has never died. If you're look for a good, fairly simple and easy to use set of rules for any sort of powered role-playing, it's hard to go wrong with that version of the Fuzion rules.

Reposted, as originally present in 1997 or 1998 are my Fuzion Martial Arts Powers:

Martial Arts Powers

The GM, if these are used, may want to make guidelines for what Martial Art is allowed what Power. This list can also be used to supplement the Martial Arts Powers in the Signposts document.

The Arts of Invisibility
Pi Mi Hsing Tung (The Art of Stealth): This is the Martial Art equivalent of the Skill Stealth. The character, using this Power, can move silently and out of sight of observers. Pi Mi Hsing Tung: Invibility to Sight and Hearing, No Fringe Effect, Requires Stealth Roll, No END Cost. Cost: 9 PP. END Cost: 0.


Inpo (The Art of Hiding): Training in the Art of hiding involves the study of the essential characteristics of all kinds of objects, so that the character can become "One" with an object and hide in such a way that he becomes the object that he is hiding with, or behind. Inpo: Invisibility to Sight, Character Must remain Motionless, Cannot Hide While Being Watched. Cost: 6 PP. END Cost: 2/phase.


Hsing Tsia (The Art of Evasion): This is where the character follows a person, moving when they move and turning when they turn, to constantly stay out of that person's view. Hsing Tsia: Invisibility to Sight and Hearing, No Fringe Effect, Requires A Stealth Roll. Cost: 5 PP. END Cost: 2/phase.


Sun Shih K'an Chien Chih (The Art of Vanishing): The character, by using some form of distraction, is able to vanish from sight. Sun Shih K'an Chien Chih: Teleportation (10 meters), No Non-Combat multiples, Can Only teleport to someplace where the character could normally go, Requires a Slieght of Hand Roll. Cost: 1 PP, END Cost: 2 END.


Hensho Jutso (The Art of Disguise): The character can alter the way that he walks, stance and posture in order to disguise himself. Hensho Jutso: Shape Shift, Can Shift into Limited Group of Related Shapes (People of Same Gender and Race), Requires Disguise Roll. Cost: 2 PP. END Cost: 2 END.


Chi Zoshiki (The Art of Mystic Invisiblity): The character can focus his wil on one person and cause that person to believe that he has disappeared. Chi Zoshiki has no effect on multiple persons at one time. Chi Zoshiki: Invisibilty to Sight, No Fringe Effect, Requires Slight of Hand Roll, Only Works on One person at a Time. Cost: 2 PP. END Cost: 3 END.


Atemi Abilities
Duatsu (Healing Atemi): By a thorough study of the human body, and such techniques as accupunture and accupressure, the character can heal someone of any knock-out, stun or paralysis damage. Duatsu: 5d6 Aid to STUN, Touch Only, Requires Accupressure Roll. Cost: 8 PP. END Cost: 5 END.


Kyosho (Neural Atemi): By a thorough study of the human body, and such techniques as accupunture and accupressure, the character can touch and paralyze parts of a person's body. Kyoshu: (6d6 SDP, +16 SD, +9 KD) Entangle, Only Works on One LImb at A Time, Requires Accupressure Roll, Requires Touch. Cost: 13 PP. END Cost: 6 END


Chirigi (Blood Flow Atemi): By a thorough study of the human body, and such techniques as accupunture and accupressure, the character can cause damage to a person that bypasses normal defenses and goes straight to the character's HITS. Chirigi: 1d6 EB (Defined as Hand Strike), Killing Damage, Requires a Touch, NND (Protected by Power Defense). Cost: 5 PP. END Cost: 1 END.


Kanestsu Waza (Grasping Hand Atemi): The character can, at will, dislocte the joints of any opponent. These are damaging bone-locking techniques that have been outlawed by most martial arts. The victim takes no damage on the first attack of the hold, but the rest of that Round, and subsquent Round, this hold does inflict damage. Kanestsu Waza: 5d6 SDP Entangle, Requires Touch, Requires Accupressure Roll, 2d6 EB (Linked, Continuing -- Does Not Take Effect Until Round after Entangle is made). Cost: 6 PP. Cost: 3 END.

Open Hand Atemi: This is an attack made strictly by sound, the sound made by the single clap of the character's hands. Open Hand Atemi: 4 phases of Flash vs Hearing (Defined as Sonic Attack). Cost: 6 PP. END Cost: 3 END.


Iken Hisatsu (Withering Flesh Atemi): This attack targets a person's KD, making him more vulnerable to attacks against his HITS. Iken Hisatsu: 1d6 Drain to KD (Touch Only), Requires Accupressure Roll. Cost: 1 PP. END Cost: 1 END.


Dim Mak: This is one of the most dangerous Martial Arts powers available in the world. GMs are reccomended to seriously limit the availablity of this power in their campaign. A Dim Mak attack slowly kills the character, withering them away slowly from within. The GM can rule that a Dim Mak attack can only be cured by a Chi master with an AID Power defined to only affect Dim Mak damages. Dim Mak: 1d6 Drain to HITS (Touch Only), Requires Accupressure Roll, Returns Per Year instead of Round. Cost: 12 PP. END Cost: 6 END.


Body Hardening Exercises
Stone Ox: With this body hardening exercise, the character practices taking damage by sitting under waterfalls, taking punches and kicks from fellow students and chopping outrageous amounts of wood. Stone Ox: +5 SD, +5 HITS, +5 STUN. Cost: 15 PP. END Cost: 0 END.


Kangeiko: This is winter training in martial arts, taking ice-cold showers under freezing waterfalls, in order to build the character's resistance to cold. Kangeiko: Safe Environment (Intense Cold Only). Cost: 1 PP. END Cost: 0 END.


Shochu Geiko: This is hot summer training, working out unprotected under a blistering tropical sun, in order to build a resistance to heat. Shochu Geiko: Safe Environment(Intense Heat Only). Cost: 1 PP. END Cost: 0 END.


Kanshu (Iron Hand): This is the development of the penetrating hand, a toughened hand that will not take damage from from hitting hard objects. The hands are plunged into barrels of rice, then sand, then pebbles. Kanshu: +5 to STR, Strikes Only. Cost: 3 PP. END Cost: 0 END.


Chi Gung: Part Chi, part physical training, and part mysticism, Chi Gung results in a toughening of the skin so that blades can not cut it and arrows can not pierce it. Chi Gung: +10 KD & +10 EKD, Costs END. Cost: 3 PP. END Cost: 1 END.


Dam Sum Sing: A combination strength and endurance building exercise, the practioners of which repeatedly strike each other with full power blows to build strength and resistance. Dam Sum Sing: +5 STR, +10 SD. Cost: 15 PP. END Cost: 0 END.


Martial Arts Techniques
Tamashiwara (The Art of Breaking): Characters practice breaking wood, bricks, ice and eventually glass, and they use their fists, feet, elbows, knees and even foreheads. This technique can only be used on one attack per Round, however. Tamashiwara: Hand to hand Attack are now Armor Piercing. Cost: 3 PP. END Cost: 0 END.


Zanshin: In Japanese, this is often called Tsuki No Kokoro, which means "mind like the Moon." The character with this is able to sense the approach of those people with intent for harm. Zanshin: Danger Sense (Roll of 15), Works Out of Combat, Works in Immediate Area. Cost: 9 PP. END Cost: 0 END.

Speed Racer Netbook For Fuzion

I've been thinking about the Fuzion system again recently, so I started nosing around some of my old files for the game. Back in the 90s, one of the first websites that I built (using library computers for decent internet access when I had a dial-up at home) was a Fuzion fan page called Uncle Vurt's Fuzion Homepage. Unfortunately that site is long gone (as is Geocities) but some of the material still lives on. It was cool that I got to host the beta/playtest files for Sengoku and Shaintar (back in it's Fuzion days), and I had a lot of fun with that site and being part of the early Fuzion fan community.

I can't believe I thought that was an attractive site.

Back then, one of the most popular files on my site was the Speed Racer netbook that I put together. It was even linked to from the old Speed Racer fan site. That got a lot of hits for my site and helped put it on the map. Every now and then, when someone discovers that I was Uncle Vurt back then, I get requests for the netbook. I don't know why I've never republished it here on my blog before, but now seems as good of a time as any. For me, Speed Racer is one of those dream RPG jobs. I would love to be able to work on an official adaptation of the material into game form. Some of the campaign frame material was adapted from an old Gateways magazine article on Speed Racer.

This netbook took into account information from the original anime series, as well as the comic published by NOW Comics back in the 80s and 90s. If you're a Speed Racer fan, you really should track down copies of some of the back issues (find NOW's Green Hornet comics too, while you're at it) because they did a really good job of updating and adding a bit of maturity to the characters and concepts. I particularly liked their Racer X stuff (although it was nowhere near as great as the Racer X comics that Wildstorm put out a while ago).

This is the original and unedited Speed Racer netbook, as of the last revision of it that I did back in 1997. I hope you enjoy. Comments are appreciated.

Go, Speed Racer, Go!
version 0.2

    Welcome to the world of Speed Racer, probably the Anime that started
all of us fans of the form on this hobby. This document converts Speed Racer
and clan into the Fuzion System. Fuzion is copyright 1999 by the Fuzion
Group. Speed Racer and all related characters are copyright 1999 by Tatsunoko
Productions. Additional information is adapted from the Now Comics run of
Speed Racer. This document is not intended for commercial release and is not
intended to challenge any of the above copyrights.

Go Mach 5 Go, go, go!
The white body of the Mach 5 zipping around a hairpin curve
Nothing can stop him, nothing can scare him
Go, go, gooooo!
With unyielding spirit, Goh Mifune drives the Mach 5
Once he starts driving, he is like a demon
He sees nothing other than the track
He give everything to win

Go Mach 5, go
Go Mach 5, go
Go Mach 5, go, go!

The sharp-looking mach 5, Goh Mifune
Step on the gas.  Get more spee
Go Mach 5, speed until the end of the earth
Young life flames in his heart
Go, go, goooo!
Watch his fearless spirit race
Speed up, speed up Mach 5 until the final victory

Go Mach 5, go
Go Mach 5, go
Go Mach 5, go, go!

    Lyrics to the Japanese Go Mach Go Go
    Lyrics by Tatsuo Yoshida and Akira Ito
    composed by Nobuyoshi Koshide
    vocals by Vocal Shop

       This document is copyright 1999 by Christopher Helton

Document History
Version 0.1 [August 17, 1997 This is primarily characters for right now. The
vehicles are still not 100% and though I would rather keep them on the
drawing board until they are in better shape, I have put them here anyway.
If anyone has a better idea, let me know]

Version 0.2  [December 20, 1997  People have actually been clamoring for an
update to the Speed Racer document.  This is it.  Added Japanese theme song
to intro.  In this version, I will be integrating some new information from
Speed Racer:  The Official 30th Anniversary Guide through the document. 
Also new to this document is stats for the incredible Mach 5, and information
about Speed Racer 1998, a new version of Speed Racer from the original
Japanese studio that is supposed to hit America in 1998.  Updating some
character write-ups.]

Contents
1.0 The Characters
2.0 The Cars
3.0 Role-Playing In The World of Speed Racer
4.0 The Japanese "version" of Speed Racer
5.0 Speed Racer 1998
6.0 Errata, Notes and Contributions to the Document

1.0 The Characters

[This section is the meat of the document, the characters of the Speed Racer
anime. All of the characters are drawn, of course, from the Speed Racer
program, and are modified with additional information from the defunct comic
book series published in the 80s by Now Comics. If there is something that
does not sound familiar, it might be from the comic series, use what you want
and ignore what you don't.  Please note:  Point totals are not given for any
of the Speed Racer characters, because I feel that it is just not nessecary. 
You should know if Speed and his clan are too tough, nor not powerful enough
for your campaign, just change them.]

Speed Racer
Real Name: Greg Racer (according to Now Comics); Goh Mifune (original Anime)
Age: 18         Occupation: Race Car Driver

Characteristics
INT     6               Luck    13              Resistance      21
WILL    7               Punch   5d6             Kick            6d6
PRE     6               END     50              REC             10
TECH    6               STUN    20              STUN Left
REF     7               SD      10              SD Left
DEX     5               HITS    20              HITS Left
CON     5               Run     15m             Leap 5m Swim    5m
STR     5               SPD     3
BODY    4
MOVE    5

Skills                                  Perks/Talents
Hand to Hand            +5              Handsome        +1
H2H: Evade              +4              Intuition      
Athletics               +3              Renown          +5
Perception              +3              Knack(Driving)  +3
Driving                 +5              Wealth          +1
Mechanics               +2              Judo            12
Education               +4              Complications
Concentration           +2              Sense of Duty: Friends & Family
Persuasion              +3              Stubborn: Risk Bodily Harm
Pilot (Boats)           +3              Honesty : Risk Embarrassment
Pilot (Prop Planes)     +3              Code of Honor: No Killing
Driving (Motorcycles)   +3              Impulsiveness: Risk Bodily harm

Role-Playing Speed Racer: Speed is considered by many to be the greatest race
car driver in the world, despite his still young age. Speed has a tendency to
find trouble, and to get into bizarre challenges and races. having the
characters meet Speed should be easy, just have them be drawn to the strange
race that he may be taking part in, or have them go to actually see the
famous Speed Racer, and then draw them into whatever danger occurs around
Speed.
    Speed is impulsive and heroic, which means that he has the tendency
to jump to the aid of pretty girls (even though he has a girl friend already)
and do stupid things for them (like racing down an active volcano). Any of
the characters who are gamblers may have an easy time getting Speed to do
things. Just remember to play Speed as a nice guy (a nice guy who finishes
first), who is smart, funny and a small bit bashful.
    Early in his career, Speed had to sneak around his father in order to
race, but he now has his father's full blessing and has made quiet a career
for himself as a racer.  Now, Speed has been "crowned" the World's Champion
Driver.

Racer X (Masked Racer in Japan)
Real Name: Rex Racer
Age: 30         Occupation: Secret Agent/Race Car Driver

Characteristics
INT     7               Luck    14              Resistance      24
WILL    8               Punch   5d6             Kick            6d6
PRE     6               END     50              REC             10
TECH    7               STUN    25              STUN Left
REF     7               SD      10              SD Left
DEX     6               HITS    25              HITS Left
CON     5               Run     15m             Leap 5m Swim    5m
STR     5               SPD     3
BODY    5
MOVE    5

Skills                                  Perks/Talents
Hand to Hand            +7              Handsome                +2
H2H: Evade              +5              Intuition      
Athletics               +5              Renown(as Racer X)      +5
Perception              +4              Knack(Driving)          +2
Driving                 +6              Membership (I.S.P.)     +5
Mechanics               +4              Common Sense
Education               +6              Combat Sense            +2
Concentration           +4              Kung Fu         16
Persuasion              +3              Complications
Firearms                +4              Dependents: Racer Family
Criminology             +3              Stubborn: Risk Bodily Harm
Deduction               +4              Obsessed: Protect Family
Paramedic               +3              Secret Identity
Lockpicking             +3              Duty: To I.S.P.
Security Systems        +4              Vow: Protect Family (Risk Bodily Harm)
Shadowing               +4
Surveillance            +4
Tactics                 +3

Role-Playing Racer X: Racer X has a long and interesting history. He is
secretly the older brother, Rex, of Speed racer, who is believed to be dead
by the Racer family. rex and “Pops” co-designed a lot of the elements of the
Mach-5 together. Rex wanted to be a racer, like Speed, but when he had an
terrible accident during his first race, "Pops" forbid Rex from ever racing
again. Rex ran away, and started his new identity as Racer X, becoming a
world class race car driver. Eventually, Rex was drafted into the
International Secret Police (I.S.P.), an organization of spies that use race
car driving as a cover.
    Racer X is very serious about his duties, and about protecting his
family, to the extent of actually knocking Speed unconscious once when he
came too close to discovering Racer X's true identity as his brother. While
being a Secret Agent/Race Car Driver seems silly, stranger things have
happened in Anime before.
    When using Racer X in a campaign, he could be the saving grace to
rescue characters, or perhaps the characters could be trying to
investigate/unmask Racer X to determine if he truly is responsible for the
many accidents which happen in the races in which he participates. In an
espionage-type campaign, the characters could be teaming up with Racer X, be
a member of I.S.P., or even assisting him in keeping his true identity a
secret from his family.

The Rest of the Speed Racer Clan (and Related Characters)

Trixie
Real Name: Trixie
Age: 19         Occupation: Girlfriend/Idle Rich

Characteristics
INT     6               Luck    11              Resistance      24
WILL    8               Punch   4d6             Kick            5d6
PRE     6               END     40              REC             8
TECH    5               STUN    20              STUN Left
REF     5               SD      8               SD Left
DEX     5               HITS    20              HITS Left
CON     4               Run     15m             Leap 5m Swim    5m
STR     4               SPD     2
BODY    4
MOVE    5
       
Skills                          Perks/Talents
Hand to Hand            +4      Beautiful               +3
H2H: Evade              +4      Intuition      
Athletics               +2      Common Sense
Perception              +4      Wealth                  +4
Driving                 +3      Karate                  12
Piloting                +4             
Education               +7             
Concentration           +4      Complications
Persuasion              +4      Curious (Risk Bodily Harm)
Deduction               +2             
Paramedic               +2             
Lockpicking             +2     
High Society            +4
Conversation            +2     
Wardrobe & Style        +3

Role-Playing Trixie: Trixie is attractive, bright and rich. She could be a
good link to the characters and the Speed Racer clan. As a rich person, she
has to have a life outside of Speed and his racing. Perhaps she is friends
with the characters in some form, or they have met socially. It could be a
good way to start a love triangle between one of the characters, Trixie and
Speed.
    Trixie's curiosity tends to get the best of her, and get her into
trouble. A good adventure hook could be to have the characters attempt to
rescue her from something she got herself into and use that to introduce them
to the Racer clan. Maybe she would even be appreciative to someone who is a
bit slower than Speed would be.
    Or, perhaps something has happened to Speed (or someone in the
family) and Trixie has used her money to hire the characters to investigate.
The possibilities are nearly endless.

Sparky
Real Name: Sparky
Age: 21         Occupation: Mechanic
Characteristics
INT     7               Luck    11              Resistance      24
WILL    5               Punch   5d6             Kick            6d6
PRE     5               END     50              REC             10
TECH    9               STUN    25              STUN Left
REF     5               SD      10              SD Left
DEX     5               HITS    25              HITS Left
CON     5               Run     8m              Leap 4m Swim    4m
STR     5               SPD     2
BODY    5
MOVE    4
       
Skills                                  Perks/Talents
Mechanics               +6              Knack (Mechanics)       +3
Electronics             +5              Intuition      
Athletics               +2             
Perception              +3             
Driving                 +3             
Education               +5             
Concentration           +3             
Inventor                +2              Complications
Perception              +2              Curious (Risk Bodily Harm)
Deduction               +2             
Paramedic               +2             
Lockpicking             +2     
Science (Engineering)   +3
Systems Operation       +2     

Role-Playing Sparky: Other than his great ability with cars and mechanical
things, little is known of Sparky. When the rest of the Racer clan is out
adventuring, he tends to be left in the garage or at home. He is smart
though, and could be brought into a campaign to attempt to fix something
belonging to the characters, and use that as a springboard into the rest of
the Racer clan, perhaps by getting complimentary tickets to a race that Speed
is running in, a race to be fraught with disaster.

"Pops" Racer
Real Name: "Pops" Racer; Daisaiku Mifune (orginal Anime)
Age: 47         Occupation: Automobile Designer

Characteristics
INT     7               Luck    11              Resistance      24
WILL    8               Punch   4d6             Kick            5d6
PRE     5               END     40              REC             8
TECH    10              STUN    20              STUN Left
REF     4               SD      8               SD Left
DEX     5               HITS    20              HITS Left
CON     6               Run     15m             Leap 5m Swim    5m
STR     6               SPD 2
BODY    6
MOVE    5
       
Skills                          Perks/Talents
Hand to Hand            +4      Knack (Mechanics)       +4
H2H: Evade              +4      Intuition      
Athletics               +3      Wealth                  +2
Perception              +4      Wrestling               12
Driving                 +4             
Mechanics               +8      Complications
Education               +7      Bad Temper (Risk Bodily Harm)
Concentration           +4      Dependents: Racer Family (Risk Bodily Harm)
Persuasion              +2      Vow: Protect Family (Risk Bodily Harm)
Inventor                +5             
Paramedic               +2             
Science (Engineering)   +5             

Role-Playing "Pops" Racer: "Pops" is hot-headed, irritable, and has a quick
temper. he is also a brilliant car designer, and he genuinely loves his
family and would risk his own life to protect any of them.
    Originally, "Pops" didn't want Speed to race, but eventually gave in
and started allowing him to race. "Pops" used to be the head designer for
Genelite Motors, but he quit when they would not give the go ahead to build
the Mach 5 off of his designs, saying they would not work. "Pops" then built
the Mach 5 with the help of Speed and Sparky and the rest is now racing
history.
    The best way to introduce "Pops" into a campaign would be to have
the characters approach him to either design or repair a vehicle, appealing
to his vanity would be the best way to get him to work for the characters.
Just throwing money at "Pops" never works because he is a very honorable and
has a great deal of integrity. If the characters manage to get onto "Pops"
good side (and he does have one) then they might be introduce to the rest
of the Racer clan in that manner, perhaps by being invited over for dinner).
    Don't forget that Pops is the head of his own company, Pops Racer
Motors and is the manufacturer of the Mach 5 and its engine.  He must
manufacture other types of vehicles as well, and is probably in great demand
as a designer (or is often the object of industrial espionage attempts).

Spridell and Chim-Chim
Real Name: Spridell Racer and Chim-Chim
Age: 10         Occupation: Kid Brother/Annoyance
Characteristics
INT     3               Luck    7               Resistance      24
WILL    4               Punch   3d6             Kick            4d6
PRE     4               END     30              REC            
TECH    3               STUN    15              STUN Left
REF     4               SD      6               SD Left
DEX     4               HITS    15              HITS Left
CON     3               Run     12m             Leap 4m Swim    4m
STR     3               SPD     2
BODY    3
MOVE    4
       
Skills                          Complications
Lockpicking     +2              Curiosity (Risk Serious Bodily Harm)
                Gullible

Role-Playing Spridell and Chim-Chim: The only reason for Spridell (and
Chim-Chim) is to get into trouble and to get under foot. They are only around
to annoy and to irritate.
    Spridell can be best used to draw the rest of the characters into the
action, most usually by being captured after breaking into some place where
he shouldn't have been in the first place. Spridell will make an excellent
hostage for villains.

Inspector Detector
Real Name: Inspector Detector
Age: 20         Occupation: Police Inspector

Characteristics
INT     7               Luck    12              Resistance      24
WILL    7               Punch   4d6             Kick            5d6
PRE     6               END     40              REC             8
TECH    5               STUN    20              STUN Left
REF     5               SD      8               SD Left
DEX     5               HITS    20              HITS Left
CON     4               Run     15m             Leap 5m Swim    5m
STR     4               SPD 2
BODY    4
MOVE    5
       
Skills                          Perks/Talents
Hand to Hand    +5              Authority               +6
H2H: Evade      +4              Intuition      
Athletics       +2              Common Sense
Perception      +5             
Driving         +3             
Firearms        +4             
Education       +7             
Concentration   +4              Complications
Persuasion      +4              Vow: Uphold The Law (Risk Serious
Deduction       +6                   Bodily Harm)
Paramedic       +2             
Lockpicking     +2             

Role-Playing Inspector Detector: Inspector Detector is a police Inspector who often gets involved when Speed gets caught up in something where laws are being broken.
    He can be used in campaigns independently of the Racer clan as a friendly police officer.

2.0 The Cars

3.0 Role-Playing In The World of Speed Racer

The Speed Racer Ground Rules Sheet

Campaign Uses Hit Locations Chart: Yes
Campaign Uses Damage Mods from Hit Loc. Chart: No
Knockback Rules Used: Yes
Critical Hits Rules Used: No
Campaign Morality: 1
(1) Good vs. Bad is black & white;
(2) Good vs. Bad is mostly clear-cut;
(3) Some cross-over between Good vs. Bad;
(4) There is little distinction between good and bad;
(5) Morality is always in shades of gray

Realism: 3 (Switches back and forth easily)
(1) Very Romantic;
(2) Romantic;
(3) Neutral;
(4) Realistic;
(5) Extremely Realistic

Dials and Switches
Dials:
Characteristic Points: 50
Option Points: 40
Campaign Style (Perk Multiplier): Moderate Impact x2
Power Points: 0
Rule of X: 24
Campaign Style (Modify current STR by): +0
Campaign Style (Autofire Rates): 4
Campaign Style (Knockback Units): 4 yds
Switches:
Complications: On
Option Points Can Be Spent on Characteristics: On
Power Points Can Be Spent On Characteristics: Off
Wealth: On
Who Goes First?
Switch 1: Off
Switch 2: On
Speed: On
Impairing Wounds: Off
Special Armor Rules for Mecha: Off

Plug-Ins Available:
Martial Arts Plug-In
Mecha Plug-In (for designing Vehicles only)


Role-Playing in the world of Speed Racer can be many things, according to the campaign and the genre of the campaign setting. Playing it straight from the world of the American cartoons can mean swinging from drama to comedy to action to adventure. However, with a little bit of work, Speed Racer and the Racer clan can be used in a variety of campaigns and genres.

Last of the Red-Hot Racers. Like the world of Mad Max, a now old Speed Racer travels over the blasted remains of the world of the future as a lone wolf fighting gangs and helping strangers with the jury-rigged Mach 5. This is not the impulsive, naive Speed of old, but a world-weary and battle hardened survivor who knows that the battle goes to the one with the most firepower. Perhaps the story behind the campaign could be the story of the redemption of Speed Racer, causing him to turn from the path that he has gotten on, and onto a more heroic, and less bitter one.

The Mach 5 Heirloom. Set in the distant future, the children and grandchildren, of Speed and Trixie have passed down the incredible Mach 5 from generation to generation. Perhaps it is not as innovative or cutting-edge as it once was, some important event has called for the return of the Mach 5 (perhaps refitted with new technologies) to help the world. This could be anything from an alien invasion to a race to protect the Earth. In this idea, the Mach 5 could now be an advanced (and even transforming) Mecha.

The Mock Mach 5. Someone who looks like Speed Racer is committing crimes using an incredible replica of the incredible Mach 5. Can the characters clear Speed’s good name before its too late. In a world where Speed Racer does not exist except as a television show, there is someone roaring through the late night streets of the city trying to replicate the “adventures” of Speed Racer and his friends.

The Mach 5-O (O for Offense). Speed and “Pops” have decided that the world has gotten a little too dangerous and have fitted the Mach 5 with offensive weaponry. This would be a good example to a campaign idea for a “cyberpunk”-type world, where the world is tough and everyone has to get tougher to match it. This could also be used in an espionage campaign, where everything is more gritty and the Mach 5 has moved to match it.

Mecha Mach 5. In a science fiction world, for some reason or another, the Mach 5 can be refitted as an offensive Mecha and used as part of an Earth Defense Force, like in a Robotech-type of campaign setting. Speed and Racer X could go from world-class race car drivers to defenders of the Earth against alien invasions (like Battle of the Planets or Voltron: Defender of the Universe).

4.0 The Japanese “version” of Speed Racer

The original Japanese version of Speed Racer was called Mach Go Go Go (Go being the Japanese word for five). Mach Go Go Go ran in Japan in the early 1960s.

The main character of Mach Go Go Go (other than the incredible Mach 5), was a young race car drive named Goh Mifune. Goh Mifune competed in worldwide racing events on behalf of his father Daisuke’s Mifune Motors.

Working with Goh in these races was his mother Aya, Goh’s kid brother/mascot Kuo, the mechanic Sabu, Go’s girlfriend Michi Shimua and a comic relief monkey named Senpei. The “original” version of Inspector Detector was Rokugo Keibu.

Also working beside Go at times, when things got particularly ominous was the mysterious Masked Racer, who was in reality Go’s older brother Kenichi.

5.0 Speed Racer 1998

An all new Mach Go

6.0 Errata, Notes and Contributions to the Document

[Sources] These are the sources that have been used to compile this document:

Speed Racer. The actual Anime, the American version, from the Cartoon Network.
Gateways magazine. Issue 9, June 1988. “Speed Racer: Then, NOW, and Beyond” by Jape Trostle
Gateways magazine. Issue 9, June 1988. “Role-playing Speed racer and the Fabulous mach 5” by Jape Trostle
The Complete Anime Guide, 2nd Edition. by Trish Ledoux & Doug Ranney.
Speed Racer: The Official 30th Anniversary Guide. by Elizabeth Moran.

Contributors:
Special thanks on this document goes out to Aaron Revennaugh who proofread and suggested changes, as well as providing the Anime books which helped provide background information, particularly the Japanese “version” of Speed Racer.  Also thanks to Aaron for giving me the 30th Anniversary book as a Yule gift.

[Notes]
1.0 Everyman Skills. Personally, I think that the Everyman Skills package for playing in the Speed Racer universe should be different than that of a normal Champions: The New Millennium or Bubblegum Crisis campaign. Remember that Everyman Skills are at a level of +2.These are my suggestions:

Everyman Skills
Driving
Athletics
Conversation
Education
Mechanics
Local Knowledge
Hand to Hand
Hand to Hand: Evade

2.0 [Speed Racer Websites]  In this section, I will point out Speed Racer resources out on the great and wonderful World Wide Web.  If any readers of this document have any suggestions for sites not listed send me e-mail.

The Official Speed Racer Web Site
    www.speedracer.com


End of Version 0.2 of Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Two Non-Gaming Books Great For Gaming: Modern Primitives and Industrial Culture Handbook

After talking about Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission books with Tyler from Held Action over at Twitter, one of the things that we both mentioned liking about the book versions were the incredible bibliographies in them. We also both said that non-gaming books that inspire gaming would be a good topic for blogging. Rather than create one gigantic wall of text, I thought it would be better to periodically blog about a couple of books that I have liked, that I have used for gaming purposes (typically in generating background material for games: npcs, locations, story ideas, and etc.). Hopefully, other bloggers will talk about this too and share some of the interesting books that have inspired them. Keep in mind these aren't reviews and as both of these books are over twenty years old the statute of limitations on spoilers has expired.

Please note that you will find Amazon links with Associate IDs in them. I hope you'll support this blog if you decide to click through and purchase. If not, that's cool too. I just like to forewarn about associate links.

Today, I am going to talk about two books from a favorite independent/small press publishing house of mine: Re/Search Publications. From the Wikipedia page (which is close enough to fact for blogging):

RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy (1977–1979), and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. RE/Search itself began as a tabloid-sized magazine.

The first issue had photographs by Ruby Ray and articles on Factrix, The Slits, conspiracies (written by Jay Kinney), Young Marble Giants, Boyd Rice's Non, Cabaret Voltaire, Sun Ra, flashcards, Japan, J. G. Ballard, Julio Cortazar, rhythm & noise, Soldier of Fortune Magazine, Throbbing Gristle, nuclear disaster, Situationism, Octavio Paz, and punk prostitutes. It was distributed by Rough Trade. Following the third issue, issues 4 and 5 were collected as a single volume, a "special book issue". Subsequent issues all retained the book format.
RE/Search has published books on various underground topics. Titles include Pranks, Incredibly Strange Films, and Modern Primitives, and the subject matter includes profiles of William S. Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, and others.

Started with a loan from Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti? How's that for underground cred. Seriously, though, if there are any terms, people or musical groups mention in the above, I whole heartedly suggest checking them out. Gamers, and in particular gamers who like a little strangeness in their games, might be interested in Situationalism. The one book I have on Situationalism in my library was actually edited and compiled by a member of the musical group The KLF. Also, Re/Search has put out what I consider to be the definitive edition of J.G. Ballard's Atrocity Exhibition, and I cannot recommend it enough to people. If you're a fan of cyberpunk or the Band Joy Division, you need to have a copy of this book. Any copy will do.

So, my two book for this post: Re/Search #6/7 the Industrial Culture Handbook and Re/Search #12 Modern Primitives. There is some stuff in these books that some people might find a little squicky, so be forewarned. Modern Primitives is considered to be one of the impetuses behind the explosion of body modification culture over the last twenty plus years. You have been warned!

You Know About The Suppressed Transmission, Of Course?

It all started with a bit of dialog from the criminally underappreciated movie Slacker by indie film auteur Richard Linklater

“You know about the suppressed transmission, of course? No? Oh, well,” a manic beatnik (Jerry Delony) raves to a student he’s buttonholed on the sidewalk. He careens through a unified field theory of paranoia that links government cover-ups of extraterrestrial contact, the space hoax (“Antigravity technology. We stole it from the Nazis after the end of World War II. It’s perfectly obvious.”), the greenhouse effect, CIA intervention in everything, the Medellín drug cartel, and missing children. Things are speeding up here at the end! (via the Criterian Collection website)

What that quote created was a body of essays from game designer Ken Hite about a variety of topics from Horror to alternate history to H.P. Lovecraft to super-heroes to werewolves to vampires to conspiracy theory to Emperor Norton to...well, I think you get it.

The Suppressed Transmission was an ongoing column/essays written by Hite and published in the online version of SJ Games' Pyramid magazine (now reborn again as a PDF magazine) on a semi-regular basis. These essays were jam packed with so many ideas that SJ Games published two volumes collecting some of these columns: The First Broadcast and The Second Broadcast. I proudly own both of these books because they have more ideas per square inch for GMs of horror, modern, conspiracy, alt.history or pretty much any RPG campaign. I even have The First Broadcast autographed by Hite. (Little bit of a geek squee there!)

You'll notice this really isn't a review. The reason that I'm mentioning The Suppressed Transmission to my readers is because Phil Reed at SJ Games has expressed an interest in a larger collected edition of The Suppressed Transmission essays (mostly for selfish reasons of having one for himself), but the only way this is going to happen is if the sales of the book show enough interest. Unfortunately, those sales have never been all that great, probably for a number of reasons. So, the point of this post is to nudge you in the general direction of the two Suppressed Transmission links above and encourage you to buy one or both of the PDFs. This way, if enough people see about them and buy copies we can get a big fancy collected edition (that I also want purely for selfish reasons as well).

So, if you have some discretionary gaming money to spend and are looking for something that'll give you a lot of bang for your gaming buck, check out the Suppressed Transmission collections about. Now you know about the Suppressed Transmission.

What are others saying about The Suppressed Transmission?

• Held Action: "I drew on Suppressed Transmission for my Mage: The Ascension going so far as to name the game after it."   

If you like this post, check out my post on non-gaming books that can inspire your gaming as well.

For Your Consideration: Simple Skills Option for Castles & Crusades

The rules in this post are cribbed from StarSIEGE, and as such are not considered Open Content. I'm sure Troll Lord Games would probably prefer I not do this, and if they would rather I will take this post down.

For me, a major flaw with Castles & Crusades is the lack of a skill system. Ironically, this wasn't an issue for me with D&D or AD&D back in the day, at least until I got the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia and they included Weapon Proficiencies and skills. I don't know if I necessarily want that level of detail, but I know I want more than just the SIEGE Engine to handle skills. The abstraction is a bit too much for what I'm looking for currently. Yes, I've been told by fans that it is bad of me to want this, after mentioning it at places like RPGnet. I rarely let something being bad for me stop me.

Let's Talk About The Black Seal #3

Back when I was studying Journalism in high school and college I did a lot of what was called Opinion writing, and of that writing much of it was taken up with writing reviews. While I still have no shortage of opinions, I don't do much reviewing anymore.

Well, that's something I want to change.

In the spirit of disclosure, I received my copy of the PDF of Black Seal #3 as a complimentary PDF from the publisher. You can get your own copy of the PDF from RPGNow.com here (yes, I have an affiliate code on that so I'll make something if you buy it with my code. It keeps me in games).

Let's start with the easy stuff. In this 100 page PDF you get about 98~ pages of Call of Chthulhu support material. The art and graphics are ok, about what you would expect from RPG publishing  of this level, and the layout is clean if a little cramped.

There is a good deal of British-centric material in this issue (which makes sense since the publishers are British) and I think it would be of good use to someone using Cubicle 7's Laundry RPG. Obviously the tone of this material is more serious than the base tone of the Laundry RPG, but since both use the underlying Call of Cthulhu mechanics, fitting one into the other wouldn't take a lot of effort on the part of a Keeper/Game Master.

Random Musings on Cyberpunk 2020 #2: A Little Traveling Music...

Ok, so this is going to be a little bit of "filler" almost. I'm going to share some more contemporary music that sets a tone (for me) for Cyberpunk gaming. I'm going to try to keep away from the expected. These are all songs and artists that come from my personal music collection. Are they "cyberpunk" enough? Do I care?

 

 

Why am I going through music, you might ask? Well, I'm looking at how to rework the Rocker Role from Cyberpunk 2020 to give it a more contemporary fit. I don't think the term "Rocker" fits for what I think the Role should be, as it wouldn't give justice to any of the above artists (except for Florence, maybe) and it isn't encompassing enough to cover someone like, for example, Brad Pitt, an actor who uses his fame to get things done (like his housing work in Post-Katrina New Orleans) that others wouldn't end up with the same impact. And what about DJs/Producers like Diplo who end up being a technology icon through their direct interaction with fans through Twitter?

Hell, how would Twitter work in a Cyberpunk world? As you can see, I'm asking a lot of questions.

In case you came to this post directly, here a link to Random Musings on Cyberpunk 2020 #1 for you.

Random Musing on Cyberpunk 2020 #1: The Celebrity

As I warned on Twitter, I'm going to be going through my Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook and posting some of my musing about it here. With any luck there will be a reason for all of this, if not at least people will have some cool stuff for their future games.

A few ground rules to this, however. I'm going to be talking about the rules as written and published. If something that I go over was addressed in some online fan supplement somewhere, there is probably a good chance that I saw it already...but fan work isn't what I am talking about in these posts (except obviously my own), so if it isn't in an official rulebook it doesn't count for the purposes of these posts. At first I will be confining myself to the core Cyberpunk 2020 rules, but as time passes (and if there's ongoing interest in these posts) I will include more of the supplements into my musings.

Paris Hilton

Many of these musings will be about how the real world has passed that of the Cyberpunk game and the Night City setting, and how we can remedy that in our games.

For this first musing, an idea came to me last night: The Celebrity. One thing that has become much more prevalent in this day and age are those who are famous mostly for being pretty, already famous, rich or some combination of them. Whether it is someone who got their fame for appearing on "reality TV" (something else needed to be addressed in these musings), or just by being the offspring of the rich and already famous, these glittering kids prance and dance about the clubs and TV screens of the world. Sadly, the old Eurosource and Eurosource Plus supplements would have been a perfect place to explore this the first time but outside of some talk of Goldenkids, there's not much practical for use in play. Interestingly, Call of Cthulhu's Dilettante occupation does a better job of covering this niche than Cyberpunk 2020 has.

Corporates are almost there, but they are still beholden to their bosses and employers. You could do a "Corporate Celebrity" off of the Corporate role, someone who is a celebrity spokesperson/model or reality star, and their Resources Special Ability would be useful for getting things the celebrity needs. You could also loosely model the rich family as the corporation for this sort of character (and Paris Hilton, above, could fit into this sort of Role).

Right now I am going to propose this new Role:

Celebrity
In the world of the future, there are still those who are famous for being famous -- whether that fame came from luck, being in the right place at the right time (and being televised while there), being rich, or inheriting the fame of your family doesn't matter. What matters is that you continue to be in the right places to be seen, and that you look fabulous at the same time.

The Special Ability of the Celebrity is Access. Doors open for you that are closed for others because you can bring exposure and popularity. Add the rank of your Access to Persuade & Fast Talk or Seduction rolls when trying to get people to help you or let you into some place you probably shouldn't be. This shouldn't get you into places that require a security clearance, but you never can tell.

Celebrity
Access
Personal Grooming
Wardrobe & Style
Seduction
Social
Perform
Persuasion & Fast Talk
Human Perception
Streetwise
Dance

Up next time will be reworking of one of the existing Roles, either Rocker or Media. Both still have places in Cyberpunk 2020 but their "roles" have changed a bit in this post-Cyberpunk world. Medias need to a little less Edison Carter and a little more Spider Jerusalem meets blogging. Rocker, mostly, needs a name change to cover a variety of differing performers from white hot club DJs to evangelizing actors with a cause. Whichever I get to next will be the one that gets talked about first.

Is A Borders Near You Closing? [Updated]

Update: Borders has opened a website that's a clearing house for information on the bankruptcy and reorganization. You can find it here, at the Borders Group, Inc. website. Among the points they make on that site are:

• Borders stores are open for business. We will continue to provide our customers with a vast assortment of books in a warm and relaxing environment - and we intend to build on this. Our stores will continue to be places where families can gather to enjoy enriching events including author readings and signings, book clubs as well as kids storytime and parties.
• Borders.com is operating as usual. We are fulfilling online orders as customers choose from among more than two million books, music, movies as well as other entertainment items.
• Our Borders Rewards programs, including Borders Rewards Plus, remain in effect. Customers can continue to earn and redeem their Rewards in stores and on Borders.com and they'll also continue receiving coupons. As always, we are honoring gift cards, which can be redeemed in stores and online at Borders.com.
• Borders will continue to maintain its strong national presence. Our nationwide network of stores is a key foundation of the Borders brand. Borders, however, will be closing underperforming stores within our network over the next several weeks. Should your local store be affected, please visit Borders.com to find another Borders store near you, or to purchase our vast selection of books and other merchandise on-line.

I know that Borders has to make the claims that business will be going on as usual, but I find it hard to believe that, for example, author signings will progress when Borders isn't getting new books and is having difficulty with paying publishers. I guess we'll see. Locally for me, the few remaining independent booksellers have more book signings than the local Borders anyway.

A pdf is from the Borders bankruptcy filing lists all of the locations that will be closing. While many Florida locations will be closing, strangely it looks like the closest to me (St. Petersburg, FL) is not on the closing list.Click here for a copy of the list of store closings that I uploaded to Google Docs.

Update: A second (and cleaner) list organized by state is here (from the reorganization site above). I will upload a copy to Google Docs or some other external site, in case the Borders site takes down their copies.

Music Mix Challenge: 80 in 90

I like music. I like finding new music. It's always interesting to hear what others are listening to, even if I don't like it. When I was a kid, I loved making mixtapes for people. So, let's make a little bit of a challenge, shall we?

I want everyone within the sound of my virtual voice to put together a virtual CD of some of their favorite tunes right now. The stuff that is burning up in your iPods and MP3 players and computers and you want to share with other people. It can be the brand new latest hot track, or it can be something older that you still can't stop listening to. Regardless of age, it has to be music you love...not the stuff that blogs and magazine and critics are talking about. And it has to be something you want to share, regardless of how goofy it might sound. Musical genre or style doesn't matter for this, just that you love the music.

Now, here's the challenge part: You have 90 minutes to put together 80 minutes worth of music. It doesn't matter when you start doing the assembly of track, you just can only take 90 minutes to do it once you start assembling. Once you have that, put it into a format you can share with the world. It can be the tracks you've picked in a .zip file and shared on Mediafire (send me a message if you would like the tracks hosted for you instead), or it can be a continuous mix put up on a site like Soundcloud. Just make it so that it can fit onto a CD, and that it's in a format that's burnable. I'd prefer people stick to an MP3 format obviously, but if you want to do it in some other format just make sure that it can be easily read and burned by most home computers.

Tweet and Facebook about this, share with your friends online and off. Let's get a crapload of music together so that people can be introduced (or reintroduced) to some new stuff. If you tweet about this please use the #80in90 hashtag so that we can find each other and share the wealth. If you have questions, hit me up on Twitter or in the comments on this post.

Let's share some music.

Serpent King Games is new home for the Dragon Warriors RPG

Press Release

Serpent King Games is new home for the Dragon Warriors RPG

1st February 2011, United Kingdom

Dragon Warriors, the classic 1980s dark-fantasy RPG recently re-released by Magnum Opus Press, is moving to new British publishing company Serpent King Games.

From 1st April the game will no longer be available from Magnum Opus, which had published Dragon Warriors through Mongoose Publishing’s Flaming Cobra imprint.

Serpent King Games will keep the existing Dragon Warriors books available, and will publish new supplements for the game. The first new release will be the Dragon Warriors Players Book, in July 2011, with another two releases planned for the first year.

Serpent King Games is industry veterans Gareth Hanrahan (former Mongoose Publishing writer and lead designer on the new edition of Traveller and the Laundry RPG), Jon Hodgson (art director at Cubicle 7 and cover artist for Dragon Warriors), and Ian Sturrock (ex-Mongoose writer responsible for the Conan and Slaine RPGs, but who also worked on most of the recent Dragon Warriors books).

"I’ve worked with everybody at Serpent King over the last ten years, and they are fiercely talented," said James Wallis, director of Magnum Opus Press. "Dragon Warriors and the Lands of Legend are in the hands of amazing people who are going to take it in some very exciting
directions."

Dragon Warriors is SKG's first project, but more great games are in the works. Check out www.serpentking.com for regular updates.

All rights in Dragon Warriors are the property of Fabled Lands LLP, and are used with permission by Serpent King Games Ltd.

For more information, contact info@serpentking.com

Internet Piracy Boosts Anime Sales, Study Concludes

I'm sure someone will look at the source of this link and discount it automatically, but I think that would be a mistake.

A prestigious economics think-tank of the Japanese Government has published a study which concludes that online piracy of anime shows actually increases sales of DVDs. The conclusion stands in sharp contrast with the entertainment industry’s claims that ‘illicit’ downloading is leading to billions of dollars in losses worldwide. It also puts the increased anti-piracy efforts of the anime industry in doubt.

One interesting point made:

One point of critique based on the main conclusions of the study, is that the observed relation only appears to be correlational. This may mean that the results could in part be influenced by significant third variables such as promotion and overall popularity. Since the report is only available in Japanese we were unable to confirm whether this was taken into account.

Obviously, any sort of study like this has to be taken with with a grain of salt. We don't know the hows and whys of the study, so there could be any number of factors that throw out the results. It is interesting that more and more place are coming out with data to suggest that the correlation between piracy and lost sales isn't as strong as anti-piracy advocates would like to present.

Foundsound Orchestra: 52 Weeks Project

Happy New Year!

Ok, my challenge for 2011 is to make a new Found Sound Orchestra track every week and post it here. No doubt quality control will take a hit at various times during the 12 months but hopefully by the end of the year those that have stuck with it will have enough decent songs to make a nice 10 or 12 track album. Please feel free to download, play and delete to your hearts content.

So, here we go – the first track is ‘Thankyou 3 times’. Spot the samples…….

Mister X: The Little Comic That Could

I was rummaging through my trade paperback shelves the other day and came across my copy of the first volume of iBooks Mister X trade. Shamefully, this well-designed and thought out book has never found a large enough of an audience (despite the book being optioned for film back in the 80s with Patrick Stewart rumored to play the lead at the time). Besides this trade I have a couple of Vortex issues that I came across at the time, and a couple of issues of the attempted Caliber relaunch in the 90s (Caliber does still, to this day stand as one of my favorite small press comic publishers of that decade).

Part of the problem, I think, is just the hit or miss distribution of small press comics back then. Back in the 80s, and through part of the 90s, distribution for most media (comics and music chief among them) were still fairly regional to the point of what may have been popular in one part of the country never got seen in others.

What was Mister X you might ask? The very short Wikipedia article can be found here. Dean Motter, the creator of Mister X has a bit more information about him:

In the late 1970s, Dean Motter edited and art directed Andromeda, a Canadian comic book series which adapted the works of major science–fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and A.E. van Vogt. During that time Motter and collaborator Ken Steacy created The Sacred & The Profane (Star Reach), which Archie Goodwin referred to as "the first true graphic novel" in the contemporary comics medium.

Motter achieved recognition for his album cover design during his tenure as art director for CBS Records Canada, and later with his own studio, Modern Imageworks. His record jackets and promotional graphics (for acts such as The Nylons, Triumph, Loverboy, The Diodes, Liona Boyd and Jane Siberry) have won several awards. Motter has been nominated for a Juno Award six times, and won twice. He won a Juno Award in 1983 for "Best Album Graphics" for his work on the Anvil album Metal on Metal. The following year, he again won the "Best Album Graphics" award for his work on the Seamless album by The Nylons, along with Jeff Jackson and Deborah Samuel.

In 1988, he co-wrote and illustrated Shattered Visage for DC Comics based on Patrick McGoohan's 1960s British television series The Prisoner. The following year he created the logo and basic cover design for DC's Piranha Press imprint.

Mister X, at best, was a mystery. Who was Mister X? What was he doing? How did he find all those tunnels? For some, this strength was a great weakness. Many of the stories only had vague resolutions, as the enigma of the main character was central to the theme of the book and the stories.

The question remains: Why should we care? Well, I think the important reason why we should care about Mister X/Dean Motter is that he was a trailblazer. Books like Mister X, while obscure then and now, are important for the fact that they prepare audiences for what comes later, like the works of groundbreaking creators like Grant Morrison. Thematically I know that I can see similarities between the works of Motter and Morrison, even though I doubt that they were intentional. Both of these creators made books that were "essays" on their internal landscapes, using comic books as a media for bringing out these musing, and while Motter never did super-hero books, his Mister X or his Prisoner comics presage much that later comic creators would do, and at the same time he showed that the linear narrative of the comic book could be successfully usurped by the more non-traditional narrative styles of speculative fiction. For helping bring these sorts of depths of storytelling to comics alone, Motter is an important figure.

I suggest checking out the first trade of Mister X, if only for the incredible work of Los Bros Hernadez on the art of the first four issues. They really set the tone for the issues to follow. Amazon has some used copies listed here.

History of the Mash-Up: International Bastard Pop Weekender 3

Back when mashups were only being made in the UK and called Bootlegs, a lovely chap by the name of Deep Disco Force (Nick) organised a series of gigs/weekenders/piss-ups in his home town of Trier, Germany and invited GYBOers to go along and do their thing at his International Bastard Pop Weekenders.

I went to number 3 in March 2004 and took a video camera. I made a film about it. Well, that was SEVEN. YEARS. AGO!!!

I thought the time was right to put it on Youtube for all y'all to see. So, here it is: the trailer, main movie (in two parts due to YT's 15min rule), plus some DVD extras too. Not in HD cuz there was no such thing back then, of course in those days, I used to wear an onion on my belt - it was the fashion at the time... Dribble, bleurgh, etc.

Huge, huge thanks to all the lovely guys I met who've become firm friends and who so generously gave their time to talk to me on-camera whilst everyone else was getting drunk and having fun.

 

 

 

This post is via ThriftshopXL on the GYBO boards from this thread. These videos have some great stuff to see.

Former WotC Employee Charged

Not sure how I missed this one:

A former Wizards of the Coast employee has been charged with felony theft for allegedly stealing $45,000 worth of Magic: The Gathering promotional cards, according to SeattlePI. The theft came to light when large numbers of promo cards were spotted being offered by a Burien, Washington retailer at a Portland convention. The retailer ended up turning over 1700 cards worth nearly $45,000 at market prices to WotC.

The cards were allegedly stolen from a Wizards of the Coast storage locker to which former employee Donald Henry had access. Henry has been charged but not jailed in the case.

I guess I was a bit boggled by the fact that Magic cards could be worth $45k, and here I gave a box of them away when I quit playing. Anyone out there know what position this Donald Henry had with Wizards? (via ICV2)