Captain America Dies on the Page

Well, since Bucky isn't dead any longer I don't think that Cap should really have all that much to worry about. If you ask me, it is just a gimmick to sell books. I wonder if "Reign of the Captain Americas" is going to follow and a "World Without Captain America."

Captain America Dies on the Page:

Captain America has undertaken his last mission at least for now.

The venerable superhero is killed in the issue of his namesake comic that hit stands Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported. On the new edition's pages, a sniper shoots down the shield-wielding hero as he leaves a courthouse.

It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941. Over the years, some 210 million copies of Captain America comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have been sold in 75 countries.

Stephen Colbert weighs in on the topic:

Internet Hammer Enterprise - Review: True20 Companion

Here's a review of the upcoming book in Green Ronin's True20 line, the True20 Companion. This toolkit will help GMs be able to fine tune their True20 games.

Internet
Hammer Enterprise - Review: True20 Companion

Green Ronin’s True20 Companion, the toolkit of a book for Narrators, has finally been released in PDF form, and enterprising Narrators with desire to tinker will find plenty of goodies in the 128-page sourcebook. The five-chapter book begins with a chapter on role creation, allowing for expansion of the three heroic roles in True20 Adventure Roleplaying. Following that, the remaining four chapters address custom rules, additional material, and other extras for the “major” roleplaying genres: fantasy, space, horror, and modern adventures.

Pretty Hate Campaign

Ok, I admit it...I am probably falling for the viral marketing around Year Zero, the new release from Nine Inch Nails that is supposed to be coming out in April. The leaked MP3s that I've heard have sounded pretty good to me, and the weird websites and strange marketing is tickling my weirdness bone.

I want to come up with a game around these concepts, this is obviously a "for fun" type of thing. That plays off of some of the ideas. Check out the link, even if it is to the MTV.com website, because it is an interesting story.

Pretty Hate Campaign

A dystopian civilization in the throes of extinction. A government poisoning its own citizens through the drinking water. Military police raiding private residences. The end of civil liberties. The creation of a Church-State. Mind control.

The contents of some conspiracy theorist's personal manifesto? The plot of a rote first-person shooter? The results of a quick jaunt through Snopes.com? Actually, it's all part of the elaborate (and somewhat terrifying) concept behind Nine Inch Nails' upcoming Year Zero album (due April 17), details of which are currently being disseminated through a series of increasingly spooky — and downright odd — Web sites.

I really think that an alternate reality game model, married with a very light ruleset would let this sort of game really rock. Particularly if you could work people from other parts of the country (or even the world) into things, so that you could more fully flesh out the world and play than you can in an ordinary RPG.

This is just something that I am thinking of right now. Maybe something will come of it, maybe not.

Mexican Town Hosts Annual Congress of Witches

An interesting report from NPR.

Mexican Town Hosts Annual Congress of Witches

The Mexican town of Catemaco is hosting an unusual event this Friday: the annual International Congress of Witches. Politicians and businessmen come for power spells, and the lovelorn come for spells to entice a mate.

Requires audio software.

Philip Reed to do FASERIP, a project to create an open source/free RPG compatible with the old game

I think that this is a great idea, and would love to see a favorite system of mine no longer languish as being out of print and without support. Phil has, to me, a proven track record and I think that he will put together a great game.

Philip Reed to do FASERIP, a project to create an open source/free RPG compatible with the old game

For $1,000 in donations Philip Reed will take two weeks to create a game titled 'FASERIP.' This will be a new, free, professionally-produced game that is opened so that other publishers may create supplements compatible with it.

FASERIP will be compatible with the old Basic and Advanced games that inspired it; the game's sole purpose is as an open source document for publishers. Players can use the game to play, but they'll gain little new value from the free product planned. It is the new supplements that can be created that will be of true value to everyday players.

FASERIP, if funded, will be created and released as a free PDF. After 30 days all feedback will be considered and the file updated at which point it will also be made available in print at cost.

NOTE: No work has been started. FASERIP will not be created until after it is funded.

If you have any questions about FASERIP please contact roninartspresident@yahoo.com.

Fantasy Doesn't Always Mean Escape

From time to time, I use this blog as a sounding board for things that I am designing. I find that it can help to get my ideas out there and into some sort of tangible form to help me figure out what I want to do with a particular idea that I may have.

An idea that has been rolling around in my brain for a while now, something that I have talked about to gaming friends and mentioned on places like RPGnet has been a game setting that I have called Gutterpunk.

There has been a bit of resistance in the minds of some "typical" gamers when I talk about Gutterpunk because it doesn't have any of the standard trappings that you would find in an RPG. The characters are very normal people. There are no "kewl powerz" of any sort, no magic or anything. The game is about people who manage to find themselves in fairly crappy situations and have to deal with these situations as best as they can. The resolutions to their situations aren't always all that good either. Like I said, not your standard RPG fare, but it was something that I went into realizing that whis wasn't going to be the next D&D. I know that this game will have a fairly limited appeal, but I don't want to let that stop me from doing it.

Mind you, this isn't some "art for art's sake" game either. I can't stand when people do that with any sort of endeavor that they undertake.

The characters in Gutterpunk are, as I said above, normal. They are squatters, dropouts, homeless people, and the working poor who are just trying to get by in their lives and keep things from falling apart. It is a game about people outside of the normal social structures of American society, whether by choice or circumstance, who just want to live their lives as best as they can. I'm sure that this sounds pretty boring, huh?

But I think that I have finally found a system that would support what I want to do with Gutterpunk. That would be Chad Underkoffler's Prose Descriptive (PDQ) System. Follow that link to Chad's company site (Atomic Sock Monkey Press) for more information about the system. You can even find a free stripped down version of the game in the Freebies section.

What I like about Chad's system is that it can allow you to make normal people who can do something without having to have a lot of special powers in order to be unique and to be able to accomplish something. Yes, it does at time perhaps flirt with those "narrative" labels that I really don't like but for a game like Gutterpunk I think that it would be a good system choice. Yet again, it gives a way for "normal" characters to be able to stand out and do something without having to have a laundry list of powers, spells or special abilities.

I want to be able to tell other types of stories with the players during a game session, and play other types of games. "Escape" isn't something that is only one option which is fulfilled the exact same way for everyone at the gaming table (or in the gaming hobby). So, if I want a game to fill that On The Road meets Fight Club niche that I am looking for from time to time, Gutterpunk will be able to do that for me. That's why I called this post Fantasy Doesn't Always Mean Escape, because there can be more to an RPG than just pure escapism, just like there can be for any other form of entertainment. I'm pretty sure that there are a few people out there who have some similar ideas to mine on this topic.

Part of the reason why I posted these very early "design notes" here instead of someplace like RPGnet is because I wanted to pull some of the concepts that have been swirling around in my subconscious without the typical responses of "That doesn't sound like fun" or "That isn't escape." Who knows, I might cross-post this elsewhere but for now I want to see what, if anything, comes up from the people who read this blog (regularly or irregularly).

Post a comment and let me know what you think. Let me know what you would do with a game like this.

A Princeton Lab on ESP Plans to Close Its Doors - New York Times

The end of a strange era at Princeton:

Over almost three decades, a small laboratory at Princeton University managed to embarrass university administrators, outrage Nobel laureates, entice the support of philanthropists and make headlines around the world with its efforts to prove that thoughts can alter the course of events.

But at the end of the month, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory, or PEAR, will close, not because of controversy but because, its founder says, it is time.

The laboratory has conducted studies on extrasensory perception and telekinesis from its cramped quarters in the basement of the university’s engineering building since 1979. Its equipment is aging, its finances dwindling.

“For 28 years, we’ve done what we wanted to do, and there’s no reason to stay and generate more of the same data,” said the laboratory’s founder, Robert G. Jahn, 76, former dean of Princeton’s engineering school and an emeritus professor. “If people don’t believe us after all the results we’ve produced, then they never will.”

Princeton made no official comment.

The gaming potential alone for this occurrence is pretty phenomenal. Where do all of these researchers and the accumulated knowledge go to? I am sure that there are corporations and shadowy organizations and individuals who would want to get a hold of the knowledge and researchers.

Obviously this information, like any other, can be used for either good or ill.

The Flying Lizards - Money

A musical interlude.

Doctor Who and the French Dalek

Imagine a mash-up of Doctor Who and Monty Python. Of course, if you click on this link you don't need to imagine it.

The Grand Gaming Library

This are photos of my gaming collection, posted here and to Flickr. Every now and then you have to take stock of your habits.