Dorkland Interview With British Comics Force Pat Mills

Pat Mills is a force in British comics, and one who may not be as recognized as a name in the States despite the fact that he created or co-created such important and seminal characters as Judge Dredd, Nemesis The Warlock, Slaine and Marshall Law. He is also responsible for starting the British comic magazine 2000AD, which is still publishing today. I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Mills because of the upcoming reissue of his Accident Man comics from Titan Comics. Here is how it went...

Dorkland: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. Before we get to talking about the reprint of your Accident Man comics, can we set a little of your biography for those who may not know about it? You started out developing magazines and comics for D.C. Thomson and IPC, but for many one of your greatest, and lasting, creations was the 2000AD magazine. How did this come about, and what made you want to create a predominantly science-fiction magazine?

Pat Mills: I'd successfully produced Battle and Action so now IPC wanted another comic for the boys market. Science fiction was about to go big with Star Wars so an SF comic was the logical choice. 2000AD  was very successful when it came out. The film Star Wars followed a few months later and - surprisingly - our sales went down a little. Possibly because some readers went over to Marvel's version of the film.  For me, personally, I could probably adapt to a Western, Crime, or Horror comic. Basic drama and storytelling remains fundamentally the same.

DL: While with 2000AD you’ve created what are probably some of the most enduring characters of modern British comics in Judge Dredd, Nemesis The Warlock, The ABC Warriors and Slaine. Which of these characters are still your favorite, and what makes them still of interest to you as a writer?

PM: That's tough.  Probably Slaine because I'm in the throes of a new Slaine saga with Simon Davis which I'm really enjoying.  It's called A Simple Killing and is set in Britain and is part of a new story arc The Brutania Chronicles.  It holds my interest because there are still things i want to say about Slaine. The relationship with his father, for example, which was never explored in earlier stories. I also enjoy the sense of a character having real longevity and making the later stories every bit as strong as the early ones.

DL: You have created two of my favorite comic characters in Nemesis the Warlock and Marshall Law. Like most of your characters, neither of them are stereotypical comic characters. What qualities does a “Pat Mills” protagonist have to have, and what drives you to create these sorts of characters?

PM: Nemesis was the product of artist Kevin O'Neill and my Catholic  backgrounds. There's so much inspiration there. Torquemada is the embodiment of every racist and religious fanatic I've ever met or heard about.  Marshal Law originated because I have a huge admiration for genuine heroes who are usually ignored in fiction. I have little respect for super heroes who - in mainstream at least - are rarely heroes in the true meaning of the word. Usually they're pillars of the establishment armed with the magical equivalent of America's high tech weaponry which it uses to subdue the Third World. They ain't heroes. So Marshal Law's views and my own are rather close.  Thus  my heroes have to reflect my own experiences or views;  invariably they're under-dogs, often working class. It may be a catharsis for me to write them, but I think I also have a muse who drives me.   Who she/he/it is unknown but it's a powerful motivation and when I write traditional stories they invariably fail because my muse doesn't like them or motivate me.

DL: While Judge Dredd or Marshall Law are characters defined almost by moral absolutes, characters like Mike Fallon in Accident Man or Nemesis or Slaine are much more morally ambiguous. What is it that appeals to you, as a writer, about characters like that?

PM: They're all reflecting  truth. Accident Man kills people and makes it look like accidents. When you look at events over the last twenty years or more it's clear he's out there and kept busy. There was a time when heroes had to be moral in comics, but we've finally caught up with the rest of the media and have ambiguous characters, which reflect moral dilemmas in our own lives. That can be very absorbing to write and read. We need the comic equivalents of Breaking Bad.

DL: Humor is often a part of your stories, from biting satire to broader farces. How important of a tool is humor to you, as a writer?

PM: It's essential in comics. if it's all "straight",  it's probably a little tedious or worthy and readers will turn off. Even in Breaking Bad there's dark humour and so we need the same in comics. Satire tends to be my speciality. I think because the world is not the way it's presented to us and satire is a way of showing this. I grew up on humorous novels and satire - reading everything I could find that was satirical and that's doubtless reflected in my work. Books like Erewhon, Animal Farm, Gulliver's Travels and writers like Stephen Leacock spring to mind.

DL: One of my readers sent this question to me, to ask you: “With Judge Dredd having been made into a movie (twice!) are there any other of your characters that you would like to see adapted to movies or television?”

PM: Slaine, ABC Warriors and Accident Man would seem to be the most likely bets.  And we're looking at optioning Accident Man just now. So if we can wade through the small print in the contract we've been sent, that could happen. It also has the huge advantage of being low budget! It's been optioned before and I'm actually surprised it's never happened.

Charley's War: there is a lot of media interest  at this time because of the Great War anniversary. Hope I can say something more about that very soon.

Marshal Law we made it up to the Warner Brothers boardroom - just a few weeks before Watchmen came out. So that didn't fly - for reasons of timing and possibly the director and screenwriter assigned to the project. It's hard to gauge for certain. But we hope he's due another round.

American Reaper was commissioned by a film company and is a particularly cinematic story But often that's not enough.

Currently, my money is on Accident Man making it into the screen.

DL: If you could go back and give advice to the Pat Mills of the 70s or the 80s, what would that be?

I don't think I would do anything that different because of the pressures at the time.  But I wish I'd developed Misty - rather than just coming up with the concept - because I firmly believe there would be a strong  girls comic and adult female comic market now as a result. Stronger - or rather more popular culture - than it is now.

That's a big regret. But producing three comics was hard work and I really couldn't face another at the time.

DL: Let’s talk about Accident Man. Titan Comics is reprinting these stories in a large collected edition, and the preview of it that I have seen looks great. I was actually lucky enough to have seen some of this story in its original incarnation in your magazine Toxic! A friend brought a near complete run of the magazine back from a trip to the UK. What inspired the creation of this character?

PM: My writing partner Tony Skinner told me these guys really existed and elaborated enough to wet my appetite. Not only that, he had the technical knowledge to figure out how these "accidents" would be committed.  Rather like the way Agatha Christie weaved a whodunnit, Tony loved dreaming up ingenious accidents. We had so much fun writing him.  I wanted someone who was a reflection of the vapid, consumerist times we lived in and continue to live in.   A champion for capitalism, a shallow but very likeable guy.  And a piss-take, of course.

DL: Re-reading the preview of the collected edition, I was struck by just how timeless these stories are. What about Accident Man would appeal to the comic reader of today?

PM: Very little has changed. So we're hoping to put an Accident Man 2014 story on line soon. His hair is shaven now and he's ditched the Armani suits, but otherwise it's business as usual.  At the time we wrote him, I called him GQ Man and i was looking through GQ the other day, at the hairdressers, and the magazine hasn't changed. So Mike Fallon is still GQ Man!

DL: What is next for Pat Mills?

PM: I'm working on a Charley's War style series - Brothers in Arms - with artist David Hitchcock. Because there are so many aspects of World War One that haven't been explored in drama. For instance, government issue of cocaine tablets, a love of ragtime - early jazz - the rock and roll of its day, and widespread trading with the enemy.

DL: Thank you very much, for taking the time to do this interview. As a long time fan, it has been an honor to get the chance to talk with you.

PM: Cheers. Great talking with you, too.  Excellent questions.

Have a look at a preview of the re-issue of Mill's Accident Man comic, coming soon from Titan Comics.

 

Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition Kickstarter

Dark. That might be the best word to describe Mutant Chronicles. Modiphius Entertainment's Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition Kickstarter, however, is looking quite bright as it has long since obliterated its initial funding goal and has torn through several stretch goals already.

So, what is Mutant Chronicles? Well, here's an image that I think will help:

Apart from being some beautiful cover art, it shows off some elements that seem to be pretty key to the setting -- the man in the suit and sunglasses is very corporate, there are military forces (with spikes and skulls -- a must), and some alien-looking backdrops. Looking over the setting material briefly, the world feels like Shadowrun meets Warhammer 40k and that is something I find very attractive.

Modiphius is bringing in more than just pretty cover art, though, as they are using this Kickstarter to also re-design the rules and re-write the setting guides (along with adding new content).  So, what will it cost you to get in on all this dark-goodness?

First up is the Player's Guide PDF which you can get for £10. The Core Book PDF is £20. A printed copy of the Core Book is £40 (shipping is extra), or, for the same price, all PDFs that are unlocked during the Kickstarter, or the Core Book PDF and miniature sets (and shipping is extra). Quite a few options at the £40 level. (There are approximate conversion to USD on the Kickstarter page!)

For more information on Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition make sure to check out Modiphius Entertainment's website or the Kickstarter page.

Bulletproof Blues Second Edition Kickstarter

If there's one thing I truly love about doing Kickstarter articles for Dorkland it's the moments when I look over a Kickstarter and think, "Ooh, that's a good idea!" Well, the Bulletproof Blues Second Edition Kickstarter gave me one of those moments. Which I'll touch on at the end of this article (if you are thinking about creating a Kickstarter in the future, you might want to check that out).

First up, as usual, is a brief overview of the product -- Bulletproof Blues, a supers RPG by Brandon Blackmoor. There are a few things to know: the game is 'rules light', it takes place in the Kalos Universe (of Kalos Comics), and the first edition rules are free under the creative commons. So, any questions you might have rules-wise or setting-wise should be found within the game's actual rules. At least the first edition version of them. This Kickstarter, however, is for the second edition which is looking to expand upon the rules and create an even better book -- while still offering the rules up for creative commons. So your support would not only net you a copy of the rules (with any improvements made via the Kickstarter) but should also get more material out into the wilds -- for all to enjoy (or remove some excuses your players might have for not getting a copy of the rules, either/or).

That (somehow) leads us to: what can you get for your money?

For $5 you can get a copy of the first edition PDF (with some additional goodies). To get the second edition PDF will cost your $10 ($25 to also get the extra material PDFs unlocked in the Kickstarter). And a print edition will cost $45 (plus all the previous goodies). So, if you are fine with PDFs you can get in on this one at a reasonable price-point.

Finally, the bit mentioned in the opening paragraph -- that "Ooh" moment I had when first checking out this Kickstarter.

If you look at the funding point you'll see that it is fairly low -- just $1,500. Certainly, this isn't the biggest, most expensive RPG product around, but it is still doing something that I feel is very smart -- improving itself bit-by-bit instead of trying to fund everything at once. The base goal is to improve the art of the sample characters in the book. The next goal after that is for new cover art and so on. Using these smaller goals will allow them to fund (and as of this writing it's very close) almost assuredly -- meaning even if they don't garner many stretch goals, the book can still be improved to some degree. For smaller RPG developers I think that it is very important to get every bit of funding you can muster to create the best possible product. I am fairly certain I have seen this method used before, but still, it's something to seriously consider if you are looking to launch a Kickstarter.

Like always, if you want more information on Bulletproof Blues Second Edition, check out its Kickstarter page or Kalos Comics' website. 

The Old Order Changeth!!

For some comic geeks, the phrase that I used for the title of this post may seem familiar. It used to be used in The Avengers comics to signal that a change was coming to the team, that new members would be joining or other familiar favorites would be leaving. The source is from one of Tennyson's poems about Arthur, The Passing of Arthur (if you haven't read it, you really should):

And slowly answer’d Arthur from the barge: "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me? I have liv’d my life, and that which I have done May He within himself make pure! but thou, If thou shouldst never see my face again, Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend? For so the whole round earth is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. But now farewell. I am going a long way With these thou seëst—if indeed I go
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)— To the island-valley of Avilion; Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea, Where I will heal me of my grievous wound."

For us, here at the Dorkland! blog and related endeavors like the Geeky Voices Carry video blog/podcst, change is a good thing. Fresh blood brings fresh perspectives and diversity, and as we well know diversity is something that the geeky ways of life can't get enough of. And, yes, I just made you read a poem in order to get to the news portion of this post.

If you're familiar with our Geeky Voice Carry podcast, you'll know that every two weeks we record a new episode. We being myself, +Stacy Dellorfano, +David Rollins and +Josh Thompson. We each have strong, and particular viewpoints, and we aren't afraid to disagree with each other either. Geeky Voices Carry grew out of off the air discussions that we would have before our weekly Hangout on the Air game. Stacy one day suggested "We should do a podcast around our talks. It would be fun." That makes all of this her fault, in a good way.

I'm +Christopher Helton, the founder, lead blogger and editor of the Dorkland! blog and host of the Geeky Voices Carry video blog/podcast. That is my look of disdain for a lot of things on the internet (plus I just don't like getting my picture taken).

Honestly, when I started the blog back in 2003 and never thought that I would have a team of people as part of this blog or be doing a podcast. Heck, back then we didn't even have podcasts.

I started gaming at the age of 11 in 1979, when my family moved to a small town outside of Muncie, Indiana. You can say that it changed my life. Now I am the co-publisher of Battlefield Press, Inc., which has published the ENnie Award winning game setting City of Clocks, as well as the Victorian-era game Gaslight (which I will apparently be converting to Fate at some point this year). I designed the Open Core System and co-designed the d20 game Pulp Fantasy. I also have a few projects that should be dropping this year, including my Demon Codex and Paranormal Friction games and a new edition of the HeartQuest role-playing game.

I am the GM of our weekly Hangout on the Air games, and I like it that way. Considering what gets said on a weekly basis in our games, if you're afraid to play broadcast games because of what you say...I fear for what people are doing in their games that is so embarrassing. I am proud to be a geek, and gamer and to be associated with all of the people who write for the blog are a part of Geeky Voices Carry. My gaming, and my life in general has been enriched by all of you.

+David Rollins is a long time gamer and geek from Canada, in addition to being a professional photographer in what he quaintly styles his "real life." He also owes me a review. David has been a solid foundation in our weekly game. He has played a tough as nails Cleric in our Swords & Wizardry game, and he helped to playtest my strange, funky Magic-User variant for my Demon Codex game. He is a great player to have in a game, and he is good at looking at games from different angles. This skill has come in very handy on a number of playtests that we have run as a group. His perspective and insight have been invaluable to the podcast.

He is also playing a Ley Line Walker in our new Rifts game, despite the fact the the default language in game is American.

If you get a chance to have David in your hangout group for a one shot, or a few sessions...you should jump at the opportunity to game with this guy. I'm glad that I've been able to do so.

+Stacy Dellorfano is another awesome gaming dynamo that I am glad that I have had the chance to meet and game with. Hopefully, this summer that will extend to finally getting to meet her in person at Gen Con. In addition to being a great addition to our gaming group, Stacy is responsible for the creation of two incredible things the +ConTessa online gaming convention and the Randomocity gaming zine. With both of these, Stacy brings diversity and unique perspectives to the greater gaming community.

Stacy has been a lot of fun to game with because she brings a no-nonsense "Can I Kill It Yet?" perspective to the group. Not that the players really need any encouragement on that part. She has also proven, as part of the Geeky Voices Carry crew that she has opinions and she isn't afraid to use them in public.

Also, keep any eye open for Stacy's first game as a designer, Precious Dark, which is a fresh and interesting look at post-apocalyptic gaming. I'm really looking forward to seeing this come to full fruition.

Stacy plays "Shootit," a Catseye Hatchling Dragon, in our Rifts game.

+Josh Thompson, when not doing traffic reports during the morning drive time on Classic Rock radio station somewhere in the American South, is our resident mix/maxer and character optimizer. I think, for the first time ever in over 30 years of gaming, that this skill has proven itself valuable to our gaming. It has certainly helped when we've played in Competitive Dungeon Crawls, and in making characters for our Rifts game.

In addition to being part of the Geeky Voices Carry team, he has become the unofficial official Kickstarter correspondent for the Dorkland! blog. His interviews with Kickstarter project managers and analysis of Kickstarter projects will continue with the new year. Hopefully, I can convince him to pick up his Analog Pixels column, where he talks about the intersection of computer games and tabletop RPGs, and how you can inform one with the other.

Josh plays an Invincible Guardsman in our Rifts game.

Now, for the newest member of the team, I would like to announce that +Helen Yanolatos will be writing for the Dorkland! blog. She will be our first ever "regional correspondent," writing about geeky goings on in her home of New York City, and eventually writing reviews of things for the blog.

Helen is an avid fan of Doctor Who, Star Trek and comics (among other things, as well). She has also created her first game design, a mini-setting for the Fate Accelerated rules called Luxuria that will appear in the second issue of Stacy's Randomocity. Having seen it, it was mind-blowing and I can't wait to see how it is received by others.

Helen also plays in the bi-weekly playtest group of my Fate Accelerated-powered game Paranormal Friction. She throws herself into her characters with a passion that I am sometimes envious of. For someone who has been involved in gaming for a short time, it certainly does not show in her play.

So, this is the Dorkland! blog/Geeky Voices Carry team. A motley band, to say the least, but it is a group of people that I am proud to write and broadcast alongside of. I honestly don't think that there are many teams as strong as this one. I may be biased in this, but I don't really care.

If you have anything that you would like to see talked about by any of the bloggers, or on our podcast, please contact me at christopher <dot> helton <at> gmail and we can talk about it. Whether we ultimately would play the games that you play, or take the approaches that you may take, we all still feel that diversity and more choices among gaming are better than the alternative. We have opinions here, and we are not afraid to use them. The key is, that well-informed opinions that are backed with facts and honesty are better than rants or "opinions" that are meant only to harm others.

The Gold Key Universe Returns With Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

THE GOLD KEY UNIVERSE BEGINS HERE! Classic Characters by some of Comics Hottest Creators! - Turok, Magnus, Dr. Spektor and Solar! Dynamite is proud to present an all-new, ongoing adventure series from superstar GREG PAK (Batman/Superman) and incredible artist MIRKO COLAK (Conan)! Shunned from his tribe, a young Native American named Turok fights to survive, making a lonely life for himself in the unforgiving forest. But his hard-won cunning and survival skills face the ultimate test when man-eating THUNDER LIZARDS attack his people! Why are dinosaurs here? How have they survived? And will Turok use his abilities to save a society that's taken everything away from him?

 

A Dorkland! Interview -- Fall of Man

The Fall of Man Kickstarter has just under two weeks left at the time of this post, and we here at Dorkland! got a chance to interview the team over at Samurai Sheepdog about the forthcoming post-apocalyptic RPG.

Dorkland: Fall of Man is being created not for just one system, but with at least four different system conversions. Why do it up front and not set them as stretch goals, as other Kickstarters have done?

Samurai Sheepdog: We like this game so much, we wanted it to be available to play by as wide a range of players as possible right from the start. We knew we initially wanted it for the Pathfinder system, but after some conversations, we decided to convert it to the other systems (13th Age, FATE, Castles & Crusades) to expand the potential audience.

DL: How does your post-apocalyptic fantasy setting differ from others that are out there? What about it will really grab potential players and hold their interest?

SS: Fall of Man is not elves, dwarves and trolls in suits convening on who is going to do some virtual cosplay tonight.  Fall of Man pulls in the world of Gothos.  A world LITERALLY made from and created by man’s dreams, fantasies and nightmares.

The goal of Fall of Man is a game world where the GM and players have the opportunity to adventure in a setting which is dark and full of all the horrors we can imagine. Searching to find that little bit of hope and faith (and perhaps a semi-automatic or a bloodripper sword) just to survive.

We have devised the world so you can go very adult if you want.  Explore what it means to have faith and how that works (even crunch wise!). Play with and tweak to find the perfect blend of technology and magic for yourself and your group.  Is this a real world?  Is it a representation of the afterlife?  Was the Maul the Rapture???  (Note we the game designers feel real world faiths should be treated with respect.  The story is presented so the GM can choose what the force behind the one God is.)

Of course if you just want a world of twisted magic and technology in a post –apocalyptic setting, the crunch is there to work that as well.

Blood Magic and Blight Magic fight and exist alongside the power of the one God (an abstract presentation of the Jewish/Christian/Islamic influences combined for simplicity) and technology. People’s nightmares and even their very thoughts can manifest physically. There is a class at higher levels that as they get closer to death, literally start to manifest horrors around them (let’s hope closer to their foes than their friends).

And then there are those who are wholly fantastical. The elves, gnomes, dwarves and other races have all suffered through the transition. The anger of losing their own home and of the new physical deterioration and mutations of their own bodies consumes many of these new Earth inhabitants and dealing with these harsh new realities influences and guides much of their thinking.

We wanted a world where as adult role-players you could experience something a bit harsher and new, mixed with our real world.  Earth.  But we also realize that most GM’s want to be able to pull in content to what they are already doing.  Thus the game is designed to be compatible with Pathfinder and other systems.  And have easy mechanisms to bring players in…and out of the world.  After all, are we sure it was only Gothos that helped caulk up the cracks in our world?  The crunch is also easy to overlay for existing characters, to minimize the transition.

This is a world full of dreamwalkers able to manifest and twist reality (at first only subtly). Of Asphalt Samurai whose code allows for a mix of magic and technology that keeps them alive. Of undead player races who are ACTUALLY undead, gripped with sorrow and pain and the knowledge of their death.  Sparkling vampires have no place here. This is a world where characters with faith in their one God might see a man save some of his friends by beating a million to one odds of escaping a building that was just ignited on fire by a ball of magic from a rival Arcanist. This is a world where bullets are treasure and a good meal worth its weight in gas.

DL: How unique are your classes? What differentiates them from the standard RPG classes?

SS: They are very different. You have, for example the One God based classes, who have mechanisms which represent subtle changes in the game.   Passive DR and multiple dice to accomplish a task.  Things which emulate faith having real game play effects. 

You have dreamwalkers who manifest their thoughts.  Not in a psionic mind control way though.  It is that their fears (and in many cases hopes) become reality.  It is as though the game is their dream and they are aware enough in the dream to manipulate it.

You have the Face class which tends to be intuitive; able to discern things about the past and present, even manipulating situations with that knowledge in a “crunch” way.   They are of course master barterers and their skill-set helps keep the logistics side of the game for the party in better shape than any other class.

The Mechanist is a master at fixing things, and even at times, mixing magic with technology to achieve the end result.  They can get a tank running, maximize ammo, increase the range of weapons, fix jammed items, and tinker with things to make them better.

The Asphalt Samurai mixes guns, swords, tech and magic and lives by a code of honor similar to the samurai of the past.  Their meditation grants them a sense of hyperawareness, allowing them to move supernaturally quick and focused. Because of this, they seem to end up in the right place at the right time or they are able to do more with each moment than maybe others could.

Fall of Man also has its own take on some of the more classic archetypes. 

The Arcanist, for example, is based on the classic wizard but whose magic comes from understanding the new state of the world, and the boundaries between reality and thoughts.  Thus as time goes on, the Arcanist can take over constructs and even other nightmare and dream manifestations, grant items sentience or otherwise magically enhance them, and even pierce the fabric of reality itself.  However, it still maintains its base in classical spell casting. 

The Gifted is similar to a sorcerer, but their magic is almost always warped.  Maybe it mutates their bodies or minds. Or drains life from them or their allies, and when they can, their enemies. Or emits radiation or toxins as they expel their arcanic energy.

The Clerics of Many Gods have the classical abilities of clerics in other games, but also use the favor system outlined in The Hunt: Rise of Evil / Pantheon and Pagan Faiths books.  This favor (which other classes can gain to a lesser extent) grants them singular special effects which go outside the realm of normal spells, but require time and energy to regain.

The Scavenger is similar to a rogue/thief, but with adaptions for the new world.  In addition to some of the classic high damage output abilities, the Scavenger is hard to kill, can “lick their wounds” to effectively ignore the negative effects of damage (for a while) and gain “crunch” based advantages through the use of the terrain around them.

The Soldier is a well-trained warrior who is adept at the fine art of modern combat, with its roots more in D20 Modern than anything in Pathfinder or any of the other game systems.   But something really exciting is their ability to specialize in different classical solider roles; scout, assault trooper, communications, medic, etc.  Heck your whole party could be soldiers and do just fine (We are sure some of the enemies you fight will be this way).  An example of a bit of out of the box thinking on this is a communications specialist granting the party additional time to solve a problem or an officer specialization granting a number of points to hand out to other character’s roles or even allow a player’s turn to be “replayed” to represent tactical thinking.

Even our barbarian, the Wasteland Barbarian is different than other settings as they often mutant and evolve, often overtime, but occasionally on the battlefield!  Did your arm just get slashed?  What the hell is coming out of the wound!!!!

So yes the classes are a bit warped, but are designed to bring something different, not just in their fluff, but in their crunch.

DL: The races in Fall of Man are a mix of RPG regulars and some new races. At least one of the regulars (the gnomes) seem to be different than usual – are any of the other regulars different? And if so, how and why?

SS: One of the things Fall of Man allows for is leveling in your race, effectively evolving you.  This allows for tremendous customization and grants each race a greater level of characterization.  You’re not just an elf with pointy ears and a long lifespan. You could evolve the ability to see fey lines, lay lines and other sources of magic or divining influence and gaining greater ability when around living non-sentient natural things (trees for example).

We wanted each race to stand out as different.  The gnomes are twisted with something called “the bent.” As they level they gain disadvantages, but no so much as to make them un-fun; it’s about adding flavor.  Gnomes also excel at mixing technology and magic.

Halflings are lucky and love stories.  They have been the least affected by the transition to Earth.  However, now at times their stories, much like the dreamwalkers, seem to actually influence reality, granting unseen but tangible bonuses to them and those around them.
   The Reborn/Risen are PC undead.  Most were once humans before the apocalypse, a bit alive again after it.   As they level in their race, they become more and more like classical undead.
   We’ll leave the others as surprises in the future, but as you can see, the goal is to give a new feel to each race to represent their transition to Earth.

DL: On the Kickstarter page you mention: “This setting is based on the Pathfinder system on steroids.” How so? What might Pathfinder players find that is different from what they are used to?

SS: That is a great question. To start off, we worked this game from the ground up to “feel” like an RPG with strong tactical elements to suit the conditions the players must face. I think at the pinnacle of it “being on steroids” is the revamped combat system. It is brutal but not so much that the players stop feeling like heroes.  We have a great injury system that takes away the abstract view of hit points. If you get shot in the hand, you are very likely to drop what you’re holding or if you are stabbed mortally through the head then the result is death.  However, since magic exists as well, you can avoid some of the worst consequences and it is better than what it would be if no magic existed at all. We do this while also keeping the dice rolling and heart of the mechanics the same.

But it is not just the combat that drives the “Pathfinder on steroids” commentary. Even the barter system, which I outline in a short video, has an elegance that makes trade and barter very detailed while keeping it simplistic from a mechanics point of view.

The races and classes are definitely on steroids too. Gnomes for instance, crossed over from the world of Gothos in a bad way, becoming subject to a terrible taint called “the bent”. This is presented in a way that can have devastating effects on the character but not in a way that will cripple the character and make them unplayable. They are often called the Twisted.

Even Humans are beefed up. They have the advantage of free will and can adapt to use both tech and magic. In the “primal balance” of forces that rage against each other (magic vs science, the one God vs many, faith vs reason) that have become tangibly impacted in the merger of the two worlds, humans get to choose.  I could go on and on! The Elves known as “The Blasted” crossed over finding themselves in a lake of toxic sludge, mingling with their natural magic to form a race of elves only a wasteland would have. The Reborn, people of Earth that died and mysteriously came back but in a state of Undeath, with gaps in their memory and no idea what returned their spirits to their wasting bodies.

I will stop there with one more thing (I could write a book about this segment). Gothos was the creation of human imagination, nightmares and dreams filtered into a state of reality through a powerful being. Now that happens on Earth too. There is a saying amongst the people of Fall of Man.

“Beware the sleeping child for in their dreams the stuff of legend and the darkest of nightmares are made manifest.”

DL: One of the aspects of Fall of Man that immediately drew me in was the artwork. How is the art being used in the book? Is it just in periodically for some color and flavor, or is it playing a bigger role?

SS: For me specifically (This is Doug Herring by the way), I am a very visual person. Art is critical to fuel the imagination of the GM and to give them the feel of the world the players live in. Art is part of the storytelling, which has equal if not more importance than rules and tactical combats. The story of Fall of Man, and its predecessor, Gothos (The Hunt: Rise of Evil), are rich storytelling worlds with deep histories and unique twists on old themes. We have yet to introduce a major element to Fall of Man which was the crux of the over-arching battle in The Hunt series; the factions of The Children of the Waking Dream and the Dark Walkers of Midnar. These cults lay hidden in Fall of Man and the ability to manipulate the stuff of dreams and nightmares has not yet come into its own in the time frame we have set for Fall of Man. It is this richness of the world, the characters, classes, and story which made The Hunt an award nominated setting and spawned many books. Art was the linchpin in the storytelling and this hold true in Fall of Man as well.

DL: Has the team min/max’d any PC’s yet and, if so, how about some tips for the future players?

SS: I will say yes, after a fashion. We have controlled min/maxing through things like the combat system and other rule sets (on-going injuries for instance). Even the most tested, maxed out character, can die from a head shot from a sniper rifle if they are not well prepared.

When I think of this and the gritty level of the world I liken a min/maxed character to Daryl on The Walking Dead. Clearly, he is a better tracker, better fighter, and (in a game term) higher level than most of the other characters yet, because of the gritty world and down and dirty fighting, he is still very vulnerable. He gets to have great heroic moments while at the same time we are afraid he might die.

This is the same in Fall of Man.  No matter the level, or how powerful a character, other players will cheer his heroics but the threat of death will always loom. With a “no hit point” system the character will always be challenged to stay alive and wits will always win out over min/maxing your character.

We here at Dorkland! would like to thank the team at Samurai Sheepdog for taking the time to answer our questions and wish them the best of luck with their Kickstarter! If you would like more information on Fall of Man or would like to support the Kickstarter be sure to check out the Kickstarter page and Samurai Sheepdog's website.

Jonathan Ross Wants Revenge

Griffin Franks was a joke in Hollywood. A washed up action-hero. Over the hill. Past it. A has-been. A barely-was. But now he IS The Revenger.

He’s a star. His movie’s a hit. His latest wife is hot. He finally has everything he wants. Just in time for someone to take it all away. Forever.

This special cover by Jonathan Ross of REVENGE #1 is only available through Forbidden Planet stores or online at Forbiddenplanet.com

Direct ordering link here: https://forbiddenplanet.com/115349-revenge-1-forbidden-planet-variant/

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas: Call of Cthulhu Style

Last week +Helen Yanolatos and I spent an almost week in Las Vegas, enjoying our birthdays (and her first time in the city). It was a fun time and the bar was set high when we started the week off with a game of Call of Cthulhu with some locals and others.

This was the view from our hotel, it turns out that, not to be outdone by London, Vegas is going to get a Ferris wheel...a party Ferris wheel. But you guys don't want to hear about that stuff, do you? No, you want to hear the gory details of our game of Call of Cthulhu! Let me preface this by saying that I spent the better part of a day in airports, in three different time zones around the country. I started in Tampa. Then I flew to Charlotte, North Carolina. Then I flew to Phoenix, Arizona. And then finally I ended up in Las Vegas. My day started at 5am EST and I arrived in Vegas at 3pm PST. That was a crazy day, and I topped it off with running a game of Call of Cthulhu.

But before gaming came dinner, and I had this:

That's a tiramisu milkshake, by the way.

Yes, now I'm just taunting you. If you like burgers, and find yourself in Vegas...be sure to check out Holsteins Shakes and Buns. You won't be disappointed. Helen recommended it, after her sister had been there on a previous trip. It was some great food. I've always found that Las Vegas is a really good place to find some really good food.

And then, of course, came gaming. This group slowly gathered at the hotel:

Pictured, from left to right: Larry Dixon, +Helen Yanolatos. +Trentin Bergeron and +Caroline Pierce. If it turns out that Larry's on the Plus, I'll be sure to tag him in this.

After snacking and character generation, we got down to the brass tacks of gaming. For a while now, Caroline and I have talked over Twitter about a game of Atomic Age Cthulhu. It almost happened when she was down in Tampa last fall for Fetish Con, but it fell apart a week or so before hand (totally my fault on that). But I swore that I would run a game, and when this trip with Helen came through...I put the plans into motion. Luckily I have a girlfriend who thinks that meeting strangers for a game of Call of Cthulhu makes an for an excellent vacation plan.

In case you're not familiar, Atomic Age Cthulhu is part supplement and part adventure collection, dealing with the 1950s. There is some good information on the decade, for those who might not know a lot about the time, and the adventures are top notch.

I should probably review it sometime, formally, but I will say that the adventures in the book are pretty good. I ran the scenario based in pre-Union Hawaii (which I have run partially before via G+ Hangout). It is a really solid scenario, and it is easy to hook characters into it. I let them make up their own characters, and gave them a pretty free range on what they could do. Larry played a Navy mechanic who was also a car buff, Caroline played a lounge singer hoping that the movie being filmed would let her break into the big time, Trent played a Navy Captain (his rank fluctuated a few times during play), and Helen played a travel writer. Rather than try to shoe-horn them into the scenario, since a couple of them had very loose reasons for getting involved in a Cthulhu investigation, I told them that they were all there at the hotel where the movie's star (Hoyt "The Hips" Oakes) was staying and then had a planned riot draw them into the story.

This is right after Trent's character was throat punched by a female cultist that he tried to ask questions.

This is Larry during the character creation part of the evening.

The characters survived the night, through the judicious application of Marines to the end of the adventure. Which demonstrates that sometimes it is best to let the guys with the big guns deal with irradiated Deep Ones. Everyone had a lot of fun, and it was a great way for Helen and I to start our (too short) time in the city.

This is my new Greyed Out dice bag, among the growing gaming debris.. It made it through TSA and airport travel like a Boss, plus everyone commented on how lovely it was, as well. And then after we finished at 3ish am....we collapsed for the night.

The Crushing Mediocrity of Mainstreaming Geek Media

If you are on Twitter, a fan of comics and you're not following the John Byrne Says Twitter account you should fix that. The owner of the account (not actually John Byrne) posts a combination of quotes pulled from a variety of sources and the occasional bit of explication into a fascinating insight into the mind of a sometimes controversial comics creator.

This series of tweets led me to making this post:

I have seen comics, an entertainment form once intended for the widest possible audiences, and an entertainment form to which...
— John Byrne Says... (@JohnByrneSays) January 27, 2014

...I have dedicated a most of my adult life, turned into a niche market exercise in mutual masturbation for aging fanboys and...
— John Byrne Says... (@JohnByrneSays) January 27, 2014

...ennui engorged bungee jumpers. I have seen characters I grew up loving and admiring, and even perhaps trying to emulate, turned into...
— John Byrne Says... (@JohnByrneSays) January 27, 2014

...bleak, empty, virtually pornographic caricatures of themselves. I have seen something which was once done...
— John Byrne Says... (@JohnByrneSays) January 27, 2014

...purely for the love of it turned into something that is all about money. And, ladies and gentlemen, I am PISSED.
— John Byrne Says... (@JohnByrneSays) January 27, 2014

 This is a sentiment that you've been seeing more and more lately, and not just from creators but from fans as well. Everyone wants their favorite forms of entertainment to become popular and "mainstream," they just aren't prepared for the repercussions that come with that popularity. It makes me glad that role-playing games declined in popularity from their heyday in the 90s. Yeah, I would love to see more people playing D&D or Vampire or Champions or whatever game makes them happy, but I am glad that we don't have to deal with the bone-crushing mediocrity that has invaded other forms of "geek" entertainment, like comics.

Just in case you don't know who John Byrne is, click here.

Nexus Game Fair Returns Summer Gaming Conventions to Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE, WI – After a 12 year hiatus, summer convention gaming returns to the city of Milwaukee with the inaugural show of Nexus Game Fair which is set for June 19-22, 2014. With hundreds of individual events planned, an extensive line-up of industry special guests and VIPs, Nexus Game Fair is ready for success.

“Gamers are interested in affordable, centrally located destinations,” says show founder Chris Hoffner, “and Milwaukee has both great history and nostalgia for game conventions, having hosted both the Gen Con and Origins Game Fairs.  Milwaukee is also a great travel destination, with an international airport, professional sports teams and internationally known breweries.”

Events Manager, Harold Johnson, is the former director of Gen Con who led that show to grow to over 20,000 attendees during the 1990s.  “We’re very excited about our inaugural year,” says Johnson, “and we’re confident in our ability to run a well organized, event focused show.  We’ve already committed to 3 years worth of show dates and look forward to extending our stay in Milwaukee indefinitely.”

Nexus Game Fair has already signed a number of industry special guests, including Jolly Blackburn (Knights of the Dinner Table), Mike Carr (Dawn Patrol), Chris Clark (Inner City Games Designs), Bob Coggins (Napoleon’s Battles), Dave “Zeb” Cook (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition), Jeff Easley (Staff Artist, TSR, Inc.), Todd Fisher (Revolution & Empire), Matt Forbeck (Deadlands), Ernie Gygax (Gygax Magazine), Tim Kask (Dragon Magazine), Dave Kenzer (Hackmaster), James Lowder (Author, Prince of Lies), Frank Mentzer (Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set), Merle Rasmussen (Top Secret), Jim Ward (Gamma World), Skip Williams (Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition) and more.

“We’re not just providing our attendees with the chance to personally meet these prestigious industry notables,” says Johnson, “but also to game with them.  Nexus Game Fair is committed to offering a variety of high quality events to our attendees.  We’ve partnered with demo and organized play teams from several industry leading companies, including Paizo’s Pathfinder Society and Catalyst Game Studios' Shadowrun Missions, in order to bring a phenomenal array of events to our show.”

For more information, please visit http://www.nexusgamefair.com

Like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nexusgamefair

Follow them on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nexusgamefair

Greyed Out Productions Dice Bags

Looking for some cool, handmade dicebags to move your dice from place to place? Look no further than +Michael Althauser and Greyed Out Productions. You can order through their Etsy store, or contact Michael for custom orders. Michael sent a couple of his bags to me to review, and I have to say that I am impressed.

First, some pictures of the bags...

The bags that I received were the Dungeon Map Bag and the Dwarven Anvil Mini Bag. Both bags are made of good quality fabric. The Dungeon Map Bag was lined with suede, while the Dwarven Anvil was lined with a linen material. I'm not sure if the camera on my cell phone does them justice because these are some really good dice bags. The stitching is strong, straight (a very important quality to stitching I am told), and the cords will definitely hold a bag full of dice.

Of course, the first thing that I did was fill them with dice, so we could get some dice porn...I mean see how they look. To help demonstrate the sizes of the bags, I put the same dice into both bags.

I was able to fit two full sets of dice, two sets of Fudge dice, and an assortment of percentile, d20s, odds and ends dice and my hit location die into both of the bags. I was also able to put my Fudge dice bag (with six sets of Fudge dice in it) on top of the Dungeon Map bag and even close the bag.

I really like these dice bags. The Dungeon Map bag will become my new dice bag of choice, and it is good for traveling. I then crammed the rest of my dice that weren't in the Dungeon Map bag into the Dwarven Anvil bag, and it took the durability test like a trouper. This bag is coming with me on my trip to Las Vegas next week, which will give me a great chance to check out its durability.

Now, the Dungeon Map Bag is $20 and the Dwarven Anvil mini bag is $13.99 (plus shipping). Would I pay for these dice bags? Hell yes. To be honest, I've used the same old dice bag that I got back in college in the 80s, and it has really seen better days. Every gamer needs dice bags, and these are stylish and very well made. Go to the link at the beginning of this post for the Etsy store, or contact Michael through G+ (I linked his Google+ profile at the beginning of the post as well). Order a bunch of bags and tell them that the Dorkland! blog sent you!

The Shepherd Interview with Nathan Sage

We recently sat down with Nathan Sage in the plush Dorkland offices to do an interview about his and Ron Joseph's new comic, The Shepherd, that is currently in its final week of Kickstarter.

Dorkland: How did you get started with comics?

Nathan Sage: Perhaps the moment comics pulled me in was this one rainy day I climbed up into the dusty attic and found a tattered box of my dad’s old Superman comics. From the 60s. A whole story arc of them. I remember reading right through to the last one and feeling crushed that it ended with a cliffhanger. CAN SUPERMAN SURVIVE THIS HORRENDOUS ORDEAL?!

But if Superman introduced me to the world of comics, Moebius was my teacher. In the late 70s he did this series of wordless short stories in Heavy Metal Magazine called “Arzach.” They were so cinematic, so beautiful, so simple in their delivery. And as a writer, that sense of visual revelation has been so vital to the way I see comics. I attempt to write comics stories wherein the writing serves to drive visual storytelling—where the reveals are made with pictures, not words. I mean, that’s why we all got into comics, isn’t it? Because of the pictures?

DL: Why use Kickstarter for this project?

NS: Kickstarter allows us to connect with a much larger audience than simply self-publishing would allow. Recently I was running my finger down that long list of people who’ve jumped onboard our project, and the disparity of where people lived was incredible. Australia, France, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain. This kind of reach would have been much more difficult without a platform like Kickstarter; with just a few clicks anyone from anywhere in the world can get, and have a part in, our comic.

DL: How has the Kickstarter experience been for you? Anything in particular that you have learned during this experience that might help other people considering Kickstarter?

NS: I had knots in my stomach for the week leading up to our launch. It was a constant struggle of “Is the project page clear? Will people get this? Am I out of my mind?” My greatest fear was that the Kickstarter would launch at midnight New Year’s Day and would be met with a collective yawn of nothingness. But we had done a few things right. We had announced the project and its Kickstarter to the world 2 weeks early (I’d do it even earlier next time), and then at ten days out we started a Ten Day Countdown, complete with graphics and little mini-stories and a teaser video, leading right up to the start of the campaign. And it paid off—the first day we hit 25% of our funding goal.

DL: What are some of the influences that went into creating The Shepherd or that helped with its conception?

NS: I think between Ron and I, each of us bring a long list of influences to bear on the comic, and looking at any one page of the comic you can start to see them. We both loved a lot of comics from the 1970s and 1980s; the Moebius comics in Heavy Metal really show through in my sensibilities in the storytelling and some of the design elements (I think you can really see it in Astrid’s gown and the maniac poachers’ armor). Ron has a special place in his heart for the comics John Byrne drew at Marvel in the 70s and 80s, and outside the comics world he draws endless influence from the creative genius of Jim Henson.

DL: It seems you all are using some of the old school non-digital methods for The Shepherd – what are some of the reasons for that? What might it mean for the readers?

NS: I’ve always loved the way traditional pencils and inks look; there’s a distinctness about it that feels very organic. You look at an inked line and it has a certain smoothness, a certain unpredictability to it that I love. If you could see Ron Joseph polish off pages of pencils and Jake Isenberg ink those pages with brushes dipped in India Ink, you would see two artists who are absolute experts in their craft—they come at the pages with such speed and detail that it’s almost impossible to imagine them doing things any other way.

DL: Astrid, the main character, seems like a fairly normal person – why have her as a main character? What qualities does she possess that makes her stand out as a heroine?

NS: It was important to me that Astrid seem ordinary. That she seem like the girl you know as your daughter, your neighbor, your sister. In early versions of the comic book cover we had her wielding weapons in a defensive stance, but that struck us as too war-like, and it made her feel too stereotypical as a comic book “badass” woman. No, we needed someone who could experience joy, curiosity, innocence; in short, we needed someone who could be underestimated. But what’s inside her is what counts, and for that you have to turn the page.

DL: From a glance, Rul, the poacher, seems straightforward. What sets him apart as an antagonist?

NS: Ron likes to talk about how everyone in the story is the opposite of how they appear. Astrid seems small, innocent, even weak. And Rul is built like a classic comic book hero. And perhaps, in some other story he might be that hero—but he’s one who’s lost his way. His obsession for finding this mythical beast, the Thanacht, has clouded his vision and stood his priorities on end. He is a hero lost in a delusion, filled with hate.

DL: What are some of the unique aspects of the setting used for The Shepherd?

NS: Ron and I wanted to create a world breathing with history and texture. I like to describe it as a distant planet much bigger than our own that’s just at the dawn of its age of discovery—you know, that moment in a planet’s existence when you could have two advanced civilizations across the world from each other, that each have no idea the other exists. We created creatures, from the tiny to the magnificently huge, tribal and urban cultures and their technologies, and even the ruins of previous worlds. And what you’ll see in the story is a clash between ways of life—Astrid’s simple, sometimes magical technology (or lack thereof), against the guns and steel of the unscrupulous poachers.

DL: What might draw people who are new to comics or only occasional readers to The Shepherd? What is there for the more avid readers?

NS: The Shepherd offers occasional readers and avid fans alike a different kind of leading character—a strong, young woman possessed of no special powers, just a heart and a sound mind like anybody else—who comes into extraordinary circumstances when a wounded monster thought extinct a thousand years ago stumbles across her path. Astrid is everything to this comic—she is its heart and soul, the human all of us would like to be in our most trying times—an ordinary hero.

DL: Lastly, what is your favorite part of The Shepherd and why?

NS: My favorite moments in this book are the moments Astrid surprises you. The sometimes quiet, sometimes explosive, violent moments when she reveals the stuff she has inside that you didn’t quite know was there. But then, those are my favorite moments in life too.


We here at Dorkland would like to thank Nathan for taking the time to do this interview with us. If you would like to know more about The Shepherd, or get your hands on a copy, be sure to check out its Kickstarter page.

Things About The Rifts RPG From Palladium Games

A photo of my Rifts: Ultimate Edition book.

You may not have noticed, but our weekly G+ Hangout group has been playing Palladium's Rifts RPG. We spent a couple of weeks working out characters and going over our ideas for setting, and then last week we had our first actual session of the campaign.

If it seems like I am making a lot of posts, I am going on a trip to Las Vegas next week (where there will be some gaming that I will be talking about once I get back), and I want to get a little ahead of things.

There seems to be two groups that have come out of the internet as we have been talking about our excitement over getting to play this game. The first group is made up of lapsed Rifts players/GMs, and those who have never played the game, who have taken our enthusiasm as an impetus to pick up the game for the first time, or to replace the books that they had gotten rid of previously. The other group were the people who wanted to complain about the game being "broken" or "outdated." We talked about some of this in the Rifts episode of our Geeky Voices Carry podcast (embedded below).

For some people, just the existence of Rifts, and the fact that we are excited about it, is enough to cause them to want to explain (at length) how we would be so much better off using the Rifts setting with another (modern) ruleset, most likely Savage Worlds. You would think that they would have figured that out by now.

Some of the things that have come out because of our prep and running of the Rifts game:

1. "Combat is difficult." Our group has spent most of our time with OSR stuff, primarily Swords & Wizardry, the OD&D retroclone, so we are used to a fast paced form of combat. We had a lot of problems with some of the other games that we have tried because none of them would be as past-paced as our Swords & Wizardry games. So far, the Rifts RPG has turned out to be the exception to this. Even when you incorporate normal armor, Mega Damage and Mega Damage armor the combat of the game is still pretty fast paced by our standards. We've found combat smooth and easy. Rolling a d20 (with an opposed defensive roll if you choose to make a defensive action) is simple.

2. "Character creation is complicated." This I will agree with. Compared with what we've played in the past, Rifts does take a while to make a character. Normally I'm not a big fan of the front-loaded character generation methods, I have to say that for us it is working out so far. It's nice because it gives the players an idea of the world that they are getting into, and it let's them get a handle on it before play starts. There is a lot to know/learn about the Rifts setting after so many supplements have been put out. Character creation really helps with it. So, yeah, character creation is complicated (more even than I would normally be interested in) but it helps the game.

3. "The system is bloated." This is code for "I don't like the mechanics but its subjective, so I'll phrase it in a way that I won't have to argue." Yes, Rifts uses a d20 roll for combat and saves, and a percentile system for skills. Let me let you in on a little secret: after years of Call of Cthulhu and Runequest I like percentile-based skill systems. They have a nice gradation to them, they're easy to maneuver in play and they are easy to explain to new people. I would go so far as to say that I think all of the games should use percentiles for their skill systems. I also like that all of the d20 rolls in Rifts are roll high. It is so much easier to remember than "this d20 roll is roll high...but this one is roll low..." Bleh. Actually, when I go back to work on my Demon Codex game eventually, I am going to give it a percentile-based skill system. I think it will smooth out some of my issues with how skills work currently.

Watch us play our first session of Rifts:

Basically, people should be gaming to have fun. If you aren't having fun, if you aren't enjoying what you are doing something is wrong. However, that doesn't mean that you get to harsh the buzz of those of us who are having fun. Go out and have some fun yourself. Our fun isn't lessening yours.