May the Fourth Be With You, Always!

Blu-ray details are out today (if you can stand the wait on the website). If not, Wired has some details on a few of the featurette disks. Supposedly 9 disks in all, including vintage documentaries. I'm looking forward to the one on Empire with the late, great Kershner.

Here's hoping for some bonus footage of the scene above. Waited long enough, dotcha think?


UPDATE: Full details now listed at Rebelscum.com

Quick Update on X-plorers and Other Projects

I figured it's been a while since I've given an update on X-plorers. The player's guide portion is finished and submitted to Brave Halfling. I'm nearly finished making the edits to the referee's section. I'd hoped to get it to him sooner, but life, my job, alien viruses, and what-have-you, etc. All I can say is that John Adams has the patience of a saint!

He's been posting art and updates over at BH, you really should check it out. Both he and fellow editor Bill DeFranza have put up with my constant delays, but there's a light finally at the end of the tunnel. I'll be posting more about X-plorers in the coming weeks.

On another note, last fall I went to go try out the new Gamma World D&D setting at my FLGS, Source Comics and Games. (Hold the groans!) Truth be told, I was in love. Yeah, the rules are on the crunchy side, but I fell hard for post-apocalyptic mayhem. Visions of broken moons over a ruined metropolis filled with mutants a la Thundarr danced in my head.

And then it hit me like a gamma ray blast! Blame it on watching too many documentaries on the History Channel....

"GAMMA WORLD"
+ 
WORLD WAR = 

Hey look, another idea for campaign/blog/project I barely have time for! Seriously though, I had no intentions of crowding the blogosphere with more "stuff". Blogging just happens to fit the way I think and sort out ideas. I can't help it. Maybe I need to join a support group.

Here's a quick thematic description, which I won't go into here. It's specific enough that I wouldn't want to weigh down Exonauts with all the posts (though there already is/will be some crossover mainly for archiving purposes). It also began to turn into a nice little repository of gamma resources. Anything/everything I could find that I thought might be useful, I dumped into it.

So it was gonna be my secret, unlisted blog that I only worked on when I had the time. At least, I thought it was off the grid until a sneaky one-eyed OSRian spotted and began following me. (Help!) And when James over at Grognardia declared May was for Gamma World, my resolve weakened, so now the felinoid is out of the bag.

Anyway, it's a fun little side project at the moment and the banner is terrible--but that's homemade for ya. If I win Powerball tomorrow I'm having custom art made. That's like 6th or 7th on the lottery-winning list after making my own Gamma World movie.

So there you go. It's just a little irradiated sandbox of my very own. Feel free to grab a rusty shovel and dig in!

Exonauts Hearts Multinauts!

I <3 them so very much right now. I know others have posted about it, but I've had the chance recently to go back and view it again and it's just pure creativity. It's science fiction. It's fantasy. It's a love letter to RPGs written on public access television stationary.

There's mutants. And 80s music.


THE MULTINAUTS - Episode Two "Mirrorman" from Multinauts on Vimeo.


It's like she has a kaleidoscope view strait into Jeff Rients brain.

/cries at the beauty of it all

I hope the show's creator Jennifer Juniper Stratford keeps on keepin' on, because I freakin' love that show. She's also one of the masterminds behind Dungeon Majesty, which is another amazing effort from her company Telefantasy Studios. She seems to have found the perfect vehicle for homebrew imagineering.

If there's anyone in OSR - Left Coast Division reading this, you need to make room for Multinauts at your gaming table. Seriously--this is a Gamma World dream in the making!


You can heart Multinauts too:

• Main website (Sparkly!)
• Webcomic (Not nearly enough issues, but a good start)
• Give them all your money! Get cool stuff (and more shows!) in return!

Job Opening: Astronauts Wanted for Virgin Galactic!

Did somebody say "Astros Try Outs"?

ATTENTION SPACE JOCKEYS: It's totally legit! Brazillionaire Sir Richard Branson wants individuals with the "right stuff" (I'm going to regret that aren't I?) to join his Virgin Galactic spacefleet. The silver-maned one is looking for three space pilots to become VG flight crew for future missions. Awesomely spacey job responsibilities include:

In addition to flight duties with the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, Pilot-Astronaut duties will also include flight planning activities, mission control co-ordination and ground-to-air support, record keeping and training obligations.

Flight planning activities will involve route planning and airspace coordination with personnel at Spaceport America, White Sands Missile Range, the local Federal Aviation Authority Air Traffic Control and Office of Commercial Space Transportation.

Other responsibilities include manning mission control when not aboard a launch craft, training new pilots, blasting dangerous space junk and wooing hot space groupies. (Okay, some of those are really just "perks".)

Now for the important stuff--job requirements:

• Must be a US citizen – compliant with ITAR (22 CFR §120.15)
• A current FAA commercial (or equivalent) pilot license and FAA medical (you will be required to produce evidence of both at interview)
• Degree level qualification in a relevant technical field
• Graduate of a recognized test pilot school, with at least 2 ½ years post-graduate flight test experience (you will be required to produce evidence at interview)
• A diverse flying background with a minimum of 3,000 hours flying to include considerable experience of: large multi-engine aircraft and high performance fast jet aircraft and low lift-to-drag ratio glide experience (e.g. simulated flameout landings) in complex aircraft
• Operational experience of an aerospace aviation project or business
• Excellent, current knowledge on a diverse range of aerospace matters
• Ability to communicate aviation knowledge and safety related information simply, succinctly and clearly
• Previous responsibility for authorizing and implementing policies and procedures to ensure a safe and efficient operation
• Be a proven team player

You gotta be a US citizen? I thought he was from the UK? I suppose the spaceport is in US. Whatever, that seems arbitrary, and more importantly it doesn't exclude me. Though, that, and being a "proven team player" are about the only criteria for which I'm personally 100% qualified. I'm certain I could pick up the rest within a few weeks of on-the-job training. I'm a fast learner.

For the rest of you, what are you waiting for? Apply now!! http://careers.virgin.com/search/1921/

P.S. Yes, it's been far too long between actual game and/or comics-related posts. I hope to remedy that over the next few weeks. :)

UPDATE: Here's a helpful flowchart that may help you determine whether you've got what it takes to be an Bransonaut.

Exonauts no more--now it's ENDOnauts!

I've grown weary of the outer-space genre. This blog will now focus inward--that is, on the microscopic and nano-metric.

Here's what's in mind:

Just try enlarging this minuscule image!

Check out the Corpus Science Museum in the Netherlands where you get to tour and learn about the human body as if you were a teeny, tiny visitor. Pretend you're an invading germ and scoping out your host's anatomy for a cushy place to crash! From Spot Cool Stuff's travel blog:

Your Fantastic Voyage through the museum starts with an escalator ride into an open sore on your giant victim’s leg and ends among the pulsing neurons in his brain. Between those two points, you will watch cheese being digested in the intestines and explore the ventricles of the heart. Your kids can bounce up and down on the rubber tongue (they’ll love the background burping noises) while you take in various scents wafting through the giant nose. Perhaps the most unusual display is the hologram of sperm fertilizing an egg, viewed via 3D glasses.

Sounds like the makings of a great game don't it? I can see the box set promo copy now:

Take a fantastic journey through a living labyrinth, kill cancer cells--and take their stuff!

I suppose spaceships are still okay, but they must be TINY. Watch out for Zoidbergs.

Get started with some Microsurgeon skill training for your PCs:



Mix in some source material to flesh out your MINI-campaign:

• Fantastic Voyage (book and film--FYI, they're making a new on for 2013)
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (film, TV show, Rick Moranis FTW!)
• Innerspace (film)
• Grays Anatomy (the reference, not the soap)
• The Atom (Comics; Ray Palmer fits the bill, Henry Pym and Janet van Dyne aren't quite small enough)
• Micronauts (comic book and toys)
• Osmosis Jones (buddy-cop, animated film starring a white blood cell and a Tylenol gel-cap!)
• Giant-sized microbes (plush germs!)

Let's kick off the new blog with a little theme music!




Archived April 1