Halloween Haunt Megamix

HALLOWEEN HAUNT MEGAMIX by cheekyboy

And if you want to download it yourself, click here.

Spirit of the Four Colors

For a little experiment I'm going to start hacking the Spirit  of the Century rules into something suitable for big screen, four color, super-heroic games. I'm looking probably hacking in the power skills from Legends of Angelerre along with some material from Icons and Eddy Webb's Marvelous Super-Heroes Fudge hack.

Watch this space for more.

Edit: I forgot to mention throwing Phil Reed's 4C rules into that blender too. :)

Edit 2:

Legion of Super-Heroes: Election

By the order of the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES CONSTITUTION, a Legion leader will be chosen in a manner determined by its membership. Please review the following list of active members for the Legionnaire that you feel embodies the traits and skills of a strong leader. Remember Legion Constitutional Amendment to Section 8.0: Anyone attempting to use their superpowers to influence the election may be exiled to Shanghalla and their votes discarded!

Computo will tally the votes between the polling period of OCTOBER 20 and NOVEMBER 10.

Coroner rules that Harvey Pekar's death due to 'natural causes'

American Splendor comic writer and Cleveland native Harvey Pekar died July 12th of an accidental overdose of two anti-depressant medicines, according to the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office.

The 70-year-old Cleveland Heights resident was found dead by his wife, Joyce Brabner, in their home. His death was not a suicide, said coroner spokesman Powell Caesar, and Coroner Frank Miller ruled his death by natural causes on Pekar's death certificate Sept. 27th.

'He did not take his own life,' Caesar said. 'His death came as a result of accidental ingestion of fluoxetine and bupropion.'

It’s Official: Q3 Comic Sales Sucked

Now that the third quarter of 2010 is over, it’s clear that the negative trends that comic stores have been bucking for the last two years have finally taken their toll: sales of comics and graphic novels were down a combined 12% for the quarter. Comic sales were down 14% and graphic novel sales down 6%. This is the largest year over year quarterly decline we’ve seen since we started tracking these numbers in 2004.

September sales were a continuation of negative trends for the quarter, with a 12% decline in comic sales and a 2% decline in graphic novel sales.

DriveThruRPG Launches Charity Bundle for Pakistan Flood Relief

October 19th, 2010

DriveThruRPG Launches Charity Bundle for Pakistan Flood Relief

(Atlanta, GA) – DriveThruRPG, an Internet-based business that specializes in the marketing and distribution of RPGs and roleplaying accessories for traditional dice-and-paper gaming, has posted a bundle of products provided by participating publishers for the purpose of generating charity revenue for the relief of Pakastan's flood victims.

As was done earlier this year for the people of Haiti, DriveThruRPG is calling upon the gaming community to once again make donations towards a fund that will ultimately be wired to Doctors Without Borders. The bundle is priced at $25.00 and contains dozens of donated products valued at over $700.00. The entire amount received from those making donations will go to Pakistan relief.

“Though it has long since moved out of the primary news cycle, the plight of the Pakistani people remains a terrible story,” said Sean Patrick Fannon, Marketing and Communications Manager for DriveThruRPG. “Millions remain homeless, and many thousands of lives are at risk due to injuries, illness, and starvation. We proved once before that we can provide some help to those in need, and we are determined to do so again.”

DriveThruRPG remains committed to its relationship with Doctors Without Borders; thanks to their non-partisan, non-philosophical agenda and their dedication to provide medical assistance and aid all over the world, they remain the perfect choice to channel help where it is needed.

“Discovering the power to make a difference, as we did with our Haiti efforts, was inspirational,” said Steve Wieck, Co-owner of DriveThruRPG. “Once again we are driven to leverage our tools and our marketplace to reach out to those who suffer, and we are grateful that we have the ability to do so.”

The Pakistan Flood Relief RPG Bundle, provided at a donation price of $25, will remain available until Monday, October 25th, at www.drivethrurpg.com. As well, DriveThruComics (www.drivethrucomics.com) has a similar bundle for $10, containing over $100 in comics titles.

DriveThruRPG.com is the world's largest source of RPG products available for download, as well as a burgeoning source of digital content for gamers. It is an industry leader in modern business and technology developments for the tabletop gaming fan. For more information, contact Sean Patrick Fannon (
sean@onebookshelf.com, 614-946-9371).

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization working in nearly 70 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. For more information, contact Emily Linendoll, Press Officer (emily.linendoll@newyork.msf.org, 212-763-5764).

Grant Morrison Discusses 'Batman Inc,' Lord Death Man, and the Alan Moore Interview

It's been a big year for Grant Morrison. Between starring in a My Chemical Romance music video, contributing to the documentary 'Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods,' scripting the Vertigo series 'Joe the Barbarian,' working on a psychedelic indie film called 'Sinatoro,' and continuing his Batman mega-arc through 'Batman and Robin,' and 'Return of Bruce Wayne,' the superstar Scottish writer has kept up a frenetic pace with a host of projects as omnivorous and ambitious as his comic books.

Necronomicon 2010 Schedule

This will be my panel schedule for Necronomicon 2010 (I know the ePublishing panel for 2pm is on there twice editing is not my friend, it seems):

FRI	3:00 PM	St. Pete 3	Game Mastering 101: Get tips from industry pros on how to make your game the best it can be.
SAT	2:00 PM	HTC 3	E-Pub, POD, & Small Press Publishing: Traditional publishing is faltering and it may not be the right place to seek a venue for your work. Check out these alternatives.
SAT	2:00 PM	HTC 3	E-Pub, POD, & Small Press Publishing: Traditional publishing is faltering and it may not be the right place to seek a venue for your work. Check out these alternatives.
SAT	4:00 PM	HTC 3	Horror in Gaming : A discussion on how to create the right air in your games to invoke fear and terror!
SAT	6:00 PM	HTC 3	Is Self Publishing Right for You?: Learn from those who've made self pub work for themselves.
SUN	1:00 PM	HTC 3	Making the Most of Your Gaming Character

Be sure to use your #Necro2010 hashtag, and if you want to reach me while at the con, try via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dorkland or my contact info (if you're lucky enough to have it). I'll be actively using Twitter and FB from my phone and laptop after hours. Be sure to stop in and say hi. The con is October 22-24, 2010.

"Thought Experiments"

Like many Asimov’s readers, my diet of literature consists of a great number of science fiction novels, short story anthologies, and magazines. It is not the only artistic pursuit I’m interested in, but it’s accurate to say that reading science fiction has had a profound influence on my own day-to-day life, my intellectual development as an adult, and the formation of my attitudes about our contemporary American culture and its place in the present and future world. The other great artistic love of my life is electronic music, a sonic genre as diverse, innovative, and without boundary as that of the best written science fiction. Though it may seem an oblique comparison, the wildly diverse sub-genres of electronic music have influenced and informed my intellectual development in as profound a manner as the classics of science fiction.

I don't know that I agree with a lot of this author's suppositions about music. It seems to me, despite his saying otherwise, to be more than a bit stuck in a moment. I think that saying that musical styles couldn't have resurgences in future eras, or that icons can't have a certain memetic power to them is a bit hidebound, particular with his leanings towards electronic music (which I do love myself). I just think that becoming hidebound musically, or letting personal preferences overcome other considerations of appropriateness, isn't helpful musically, or from a genre perspective.

Of course I say this as I listen to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, Volume II because of this. Although, I think that the dissonance of the music might fit better with some of Ballard's works, or some of the 50s-60s output of Ray Bradbury than Moorcock's Cure For Cancer. These works are a bit too calm for Jerry Cornelius.

The TARDIS crash lands in America for series six of Doctor Who

The BBC announced today that series six of Doctor Who will open with a spectacular two-parter set in the US and penned by 'Who supremo' Steven Moffat.

In the special two-parter co-produced with BBC America, key scenes will be filmed in Utah for a story set in the late Sixties in which the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves on a secret summons that takes them on an adventure from the desert in Utah right to the Oval Office itself.

Production on episodes one and two of the new series starts in Cardiff this month and Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will then travel to America in mid-November to shoot pivotal scenes. They will also be joined by Alex Kingston who reprises her role as River Song.

Showrunner and lead writer, Steven Moffat, said: 'The Doctor has visited every weird and wonderful planet you can imagine, so he was bound get round to America eventually! And of course every Doctor Who fan will be jumping up and down and saying he's been in America before. But not for real, not on location – and not with a story like this one! Oh, you wait!'

Piers Wenger, Head of Drama BBC Wales and Executive Producer, added: 'Steven's scripts generally inspire us to go that extra mile – this time we're going that extra four thousand. Thanks to our friends at BBC America and to the continuing ambition of our lead writer and production team, the first two episodes of Matt Smith's second series as the Doctor are going global and look set to become Doctor Who's most action-packed and ambitious season opener yet.'