Setting List: Influence/Details

An idea suddenly came to me this morning - a simplistic idea, easy to implement, and awesome in its usefulness (or so I believe).

Specifically, I was imagining my sleazy sci-fi RPG Alpha Blue and how it's a mash-up of so many TV shows and movies.  It can be difficult to keep a wide variety of influences in your head while running a game.  Eventually, it becomes just one more thing to juggle.  However, instead of trying to keep another ball in the air, why not write it down?

Here's what I came up with - list all the influential titles (books, movies, series, comics, music) you want to include in your campaign setting.  You could organize them by medium, chronology, most influential to least, etc.  Once you have all your categories, write down between one and three details for each influence you want to include in your campaign setting.

Coming up with a single detail for each influence should be a no-brainer.  Obviously, if your campaign is being influenced by... say, Ice Pirates, you can at least write down "hijacking starships hauling ice across the galaxy."  As your setting starts taking shape, incrementally add details as they come to you.

Now, you have a record of it.  Something you can look at while you're GMing.  You can also show this list to your players in order to give them a better idea about the setting (just remember to redact any secret information you don't want them to know about).

This influence/details list can be used over and over again, and slight alterations are a breeze.  Simply erase or cross out what you no longer want to use and if you want to make an addition, add it to the list.

Let's look at an example.  I'm going to list seven influences with at least one detail per influence.

Setting List

Star Trek: Photon torpedoes and starship on a diplomatic mission to discover new alien civilizations and negotiate peaceful co-habitation in the universe.

Blake's 7:  The Federation and Orac.

Star Wars:  Mos Eisley Cantina, the rebellion, and dark zedi (force users).

Dune:  The desert planet Arrakis, the spice melange, the Bene Gesserit (school of psi-witches), and Guild Navigators.

Total Recall:  Three-boobed hooker and domes shielding radiation on Mars colony.

Blade Runner:  Replicant who doesn't know she's a replicant and giant electronic billboards advertising coke, geisha women, and purple prizm.

Logan's Run:  Humans have to compete in "carousel" game when they turn 30, runners, and sandmen.
___

And then next week I could add... Space 1999:  the handheld weapon they use on that show.

With this visual reference at hand, I can quickly glance at it during sessions - see what setting notes I've already hit and others I missed.

Seeing everything laid out in front of me, my subconscious will hopefully make connections that my conscious mind fails to come up with (are there hookers with three boobs intentionally distracting runners or trying to aid them?  That's my kind of sanctuary!)

With a game like Alpha Blue, that relies on combining established sci-fi franchises because its own vague, nebulous setting is similarly cobbled together, this list is going to help immensely!

I'll include this information and a lot more in my upcoming Alpha Blue scenario, "High Stakes Q'uay-Q'uar" available via the Trinity of Awesome Returns Kickstarter happening right smegging now!

Thanks for reading, and if this idea helps you out, I'd love to hear about it.  So, stay in touch!

VS

FORCE DOCK - Alpha Blue actual play report

Another week, another Alpha Blue game on Roll20.

I both like and dislike (love and hate are too strong of words for the platform) Roll20.  It's easy, frustrating, counter-intuitive, and a lot of fun simultaneously.

Case in point: for some reason Roll20 decided to automatically write in big, bold letters, "2 Successes" when a player had rolled a 1 and 4.  That's never happened before, so perhaps one of us clicked a box or it's a new setting Roll20 is trying out.  Since it was dead wrong (1 on its own would be a crit fail and 4 is a partial success), I found it distracting.

Anyways, I'm here to report the action!

Two new players - Dave and Hawk.  Neither had played Alpha Blue before.

Dave wanted his character to be a spacer version of the Monster Magnet frontman, Dave Wyndorf.  He's an ice pirate and we never settled on a name (that I can see from the chat log), so I'll just call his character Space Lord.

Hawk wanted something weird (I usually have 2 players each time I run one of these and 50% of the party invariably wants to make an unusual character.  An alien is the weirdest, so we rolled some dice and came up with a human-sized being made of pure energy with pineapple texture on his head.  For his alienism quirks - he says random, personal things at inappropriate times and never lies or obscures the truth in order to protect himself.  For a career, he rolled pilot.  We ended up calling his character Piney.

That's as far as character creation went since we only had an hour to game.  Let's get to it...

VS:  You stole a fast starship form a crime lord you barely saw at last night's disco.  The ship came with a couple droids that are currently wandering around near the cockpit area.  The droids are the only thing of value on this ship.

Space Lord:  We need guns and mercs now.  My region of the galaxy is arid, and I have a more industrialized approach to piracy.  Are we on the station or in deep space?

VS:  You're flying through space, but you could turn around and head back for Alpha Blue.

Piney:  What do you think, Space Lord?  Should we try to pirate some ice or go back to the space station for supplies?

Space Lord:  Well, we did just steal this starship from the docks there, I presume.  I don't really remember the last couple days after I ate that Sarlacc nugget.  Probably should look at flipping this thing for a freighter... and find some lizard mercs.

Piney:  That sounds like a plan.  You know, my hemorrhoids are really bothering me today.

VS:  Your ship's scanners find a nearby planet that should provide what you're looking for.

Space Lord:  Any Federales or orbital defense picked up on our scanners?

VS:  No, this is a backwater planet.  The kind that Alpha Blue likes to hang around.

Space Lord:  Good deal.  Pineapple head, you're the pilot.  Take us down for a closer look.

Piney:  Roger dodger.

VS:  You land the ship in a clearing near a swamp.  Visuals indicate there are several reptilian humanoids standing around just outside.

Space Lord:  What kind of reptilian - feral or civilized (civilized being loosely applied).

VS:  They look like Silurians from Doctor Who.  So, apparently civilized... more or less.

Piney:  If these guys aren't here in peace, they're leaving in pieces.  Space Lord, this is your specialty.  Go talk to them.

Space Lord:  We observe for a few moments to see if they communicate.

VS:  You hear a few loud clangs.  One of the reptilians is knocking on the side of your ship.  "Hey, assholes!  What do you think you're doing parking here?  This is a no parking zone.  Can't your pilot read?"

Space Lord:  I open the hatch.  "Sorry there, my friend.  Are you with the planetary authorities?"

VS:  "No."

Piney:  Since I'm still sitting in the cockpit, I'm getting my blaster ready.

Space Lord:  "We're with an advanced survey crew from Galactic Redistribution, Inc.  We'd like to talk to someone about water samples."

VS:  "Ok, let me get S'ssszzslls," he says walking away, then turns his head, "Got any snacks?"

___________

The space adventurers find some snack food for the reptilians and two of the humanoid reptiles agree to join the crew in exchange for a couple hundred credits and a small share of any loot they find.  Turns out one of the reptilians is "good with a blaster" and the other is a pimp, naturally.

Space Lord and Piney discover that a Federation cruiser just took off with all the good water (now ice) and so the pirates attempt to intercept the Federation ship.

___________

VS:  You've located the them.

Space Lord:  How big is their ship?  Is it big enough for us to dock inside?

VS:  Alongside, yes.  The Federation cruiser is larger than yours, but not by that much.

Space Lord:  Hail them with a distress call, Piney.  Tell them our oxygenator is wack and we're all going to die unless they rescue us.  We need to dock if possible.

Piney:  Aye, we'll hail their ship.

VS:  "We don't talk to spacer scum.  Move along.  Hail the Federation!"

Space Lord:  Hmm... we could try to space jump it, that might leave their ship intact for us.  Of course, we could die horribly if we miss.  We need that ice!

Piney:  Can we force dock it?

VS:  You can try.  Roll 2d6 if you want to attempt it.

Piney:  [He rolls a 5 and 6 for a critical success!]

VS:  Ok, you successfully "force dock" your ship to theirs - which has never been done before in the history of space.

Piney:  Hail to the King, baby!  These lizards better be able to shoot straight.  Round up the droids.

Space Lord:  Can the droids hack the door or do we need to blast it?

VS:  All six of you are at the airlock as one of your droids inputs into the ship's computer.  Sparks fly and the Federation ship's door opens.

Space Lord:  If there are targets on the other side, we're ready.

VS:  You hear a few Federation troops running down the corridor towards you.

Space Lord:  No mercy!  Unless they surrender.

Piney:  Does this blaster have a disintegration option?

VS:  No, but you could always try turning it up to "11," but that might have serious consequences.

Piney:  Nah, we'll keep it at 9.5.

VS:  From what you know, Federation shock troops like these never surrender.

Space Lord:  That's how I rationalize their murder.  "Not too much damage to the inside of the ship, guys."  I hope I didn't forget my vibro-knife.

___________

A lot of laser fire is exchanged.  The PCs take down the Federation troops and make their way towards the bridge.  On their way, they see a lovely green-skinned female walking down a side corridor.  She reminded Piney of his ex-wife.

While the reptilian mercs "take care" of the female, the PCs charge on towards the bridge where they see two Federation officers pushing buttons.

Piney threatens one of them, but rolls a critical failure and is the least intimidating presence currently on the ship, giving one of the officers a chance to pull out his blaster and fire - a line of deadly red light narrowly misses his pineapple-ridged head.

Eventually, both officers are overcome and surrender to the PCs.

The reptilians lazily walk onto the bridge smoking cigarettes after its all over.  They obviously had sex with the green-skinned female.

Besides the ice, the PCs discover that the Federation ship is carrying something else of value - something called a gorlax.  Piney rolls and gets "mostly success," enough to know that a gorlax is some kind of giant, alien gorilla made of purple slime.

___________

That's all we had time for.  Both Dave and Hawk told me the session was awesome and gonzo, then they thanked me for GMing.

Both Space Lord and Piney reached 2nd level, where only their Health changes (going from 25 to 30).

I hope y'all enjoyed reading this Alpha Blue actual play report.  BTW, I recently created a new Kickstarter campaign to fund a trio of short PDF scenarios.  Only 3$!!!  Check it out.

VS

Should ENworld keep stroking itself?

The little picture at the top right was the icing on the cake... or perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back.

There's a small chance that Russ Morrissey was referring to +Kasimir Urbanski (RPGpundit) and this post.  However, it's far more likely that Russ Morrissey was talking about +Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern fame.  Last week, Tenkar posted this, this, and this.

If I'm right and Russ was referring to Erik as the "abusive personality" than things are even more dire than I feared.  Erik is a lot of things, but he is not abusive.  Oh, the thieves, scoundrels, malcontents, and idiots occasionally consider him abusive - that's because he pops the balloons of delusion those people cling to.

Here's what this is all about: ENworld posts a lot of RPG news on its front page, big splashy, colorful press releases - news and advertisements all rolled into one.  ENworld also has a few people on the payroll who either create or vet these puff pieces for gamers to look at and discuss in comments below.  They must not vet them very hard because I can't remember seeing any criticism or negative commentary anywhere on ENworld's front page.  Unless you count the user comments who are not being paid by RPG companies and/or ENworld.

I'm a little biased.  I'll admit that upfront.  +Sean Patrick Fannon had some shitty things to say about me and my sleazy space opera RPG Alpha Blue when it got temporarily removed from the virtual shelves of DriveThrRPG/RPGNow.  And I've exchanged words with Morrus on many occasions, and pretty much every time he's been either dismissive or condescending.

So, now that Russel Morrissey is expanding his RPG line with O.L.D., N.O.W., and the latest N.E.W. (Really?  And they sell even with those titles?), ENworld is suddenly inundated with in-depth analysis and several people chiming in about how awesome it is - including Russ Morrissey himself.

It's also been one of Sean's Picks of the Week.  Sean Patrick Fannon is a staff writer, reviewer, press release sifter for ENworld.  And even he admits that there's "...a fine, fuzzy line between news, promotion, and outright advertising."  Though, it looks like ENworld has crossed the line.

You might think that such false advertising (by that I mean - no disclaimer) has a negligible effect on sales; however, I just looked at DriveThruRPG and N.E.W. was uploaded on August 19th and is already a Best GOLD Seller.  Compare that to a fairly successful but small independent self-publisher like myself.  Alpha Blue was uploaded onto DriveThru on December 18th of 2015 and is currently sitting pretty (well, I think she's pretty) at Best ELECTRUM Seller.  For those of you who've never played AD&D, gold is better than electrum.

Basically, this blog post is boosting the signal for RPGpundit and Erik Tenkar, as well as, a chance to ask the gaming community some hard-hitting, philosophical questions.  Real big picture stuff.  Here goes nothing...

• Does this kind of thing (payola) bother you?
• How susceptible are you to hype, advertising, promotion, and the like?
• Do you prefer to only hear about games from big companies with lots of advertising dollars behind them? 
• Why are labels, brands, and officially authorized/licensed take-your-pick important to the average RPG consumer?
• Would you agree that creating a sense of immersion is a high priority in RPGs?
• Would you also agree that rules-light RPGs are more immersive because they present less obstacles, procedures, and time devoted to looking things up?
• Since crunchy and rules-heavy games are three times less likely to bring in new roleplaying blood than simple and rules-light games (yeah, I just made that statistic up - but it seems legit to me), why continue to support the former over the latter?
• Is authority more important or valuable than autonomy?  

Thanks for reading,

VS

Spacers with Candy

Earlier today was yet another session of Alpha Blue, probably the last one for awhile.  It was also crucially important because it gave me a chance to work through and playtest a lot of new ideas.  After all, Universal Exploits is just around the corner.

Four players, one was totally new to the game.  I think having fewer players (usually, I have anywhere from 7 to 11) made the adventure more cohesive and gave the player-characters more action.  So, it felt really good.  Here's a rundown of the PCs...

Captain Shumoxx Plibb (and Frank) - Human psychic and interior designer.  Last adventure, he acquired a cybernetic right hand named Frank who's a total badass and talks like Liam Neeson in the movie Taken.

Gebek - human gambler and assassin; there's a full-scale manhunt for him.  His outfit is a tan and sunburst orange type of space pajamas with bell bottoms, made out of satin.  He's dumb, but strong and sneaky.

Zhora - is the token alien.  Steve rolled on the first alien table and got "thought form."  To Steve's credit, he played the thought form idea to the hilt, suggesting weird stuff ("Is he a meme?") and going along with a lot of awesome and asinine suggestions made by myself and his fellow players ("Can't you just put it in your thought pockets?" and "How much money do you think you have?".

Zhora is not only female, but a lesbian; also a mercenary.  When images of her come to mind, she's wearing a skintight silver and sky-blue leather jumpsuit.

Azaxyr - human scientist and mutant with the following mutant powers: he smells like roses, can redirect pain to others, and has built up a mental fortress over the years.

There was so much going on in this session, that I can't relay all of it - even though I took notes.  But I can say that it was one of the best Alpha Blue games I've run.  It was so good, that if it were possible, I'd quit my job to run Alpha Blue full time throughout the world.  Maybe some day...

Plus, I got to use so many random tables.  Literally, every 5 - 10 minutes I was rolling on some wacky table or another... by choice.  Not every GM likes to be surprised constantly by what happens next in his game, but I do.

Anyways, I'm going to fire off a plethora of bullet points that will give you a sense of what transpired.

• The characters barely knew each other, but they were all at a party together on the brothel space station known as Alpha Blue.  Shumoxx was the only PC with a starship, so he was looking for a new crew.  Captain Shumoxx overheard a humanoid fungus talk about an upcoming job to several spacers who were all booked up with gigs of their own.  
• The PCs decided to join forces and become shipmates aboard Shumoxx's sunfish.  Before they could begin, the fungoid named Kaplan explained that everyone had to sign a contract, making them sub-contractors of a spacer-for-hire limited liability corporation known as Universal Exploits.
• Azaxyr wanted to try this alien's cigar.  (Un)fortunately for him, it was laced with lucky charms.  He was seeing colorful marshmallow shapes and searching for his own personal pot of gold for the rest of the evening.
  
• Gebek loves to gamble.  Sadly, he's terrible at it, and has to pay back his massive gambling debts through assassinations.  Rolling at a disadvantage, he got a 1d6 dice pool while sitting down at a smuggler's quarry game.  He rolled a "6", thought he had the equivalent of Ace-high when really he had a royal flush.  Gebek won 200 credits, quit the game to spend his winnings on a very special cocktail - a martian watermelon a la mode drowning in I can't believe it's not space tequila.
• Zhora found another thought form female who was watching a vid-screen of Buck Rogers.  Turns out, she was a prostitute.  Zhora negotiated half the 100 credit payment up-front and the rest after.  They had some form of thought-sex, she paid in full, reluctantly, and received 4 temporary Health points. 
• Everyone was eavesdropping on a member of the Mauve Council willing to pay 25,000 credits to impregnate this woman named Candy with triplets.  No one knew why, but several more watermelons full of space tequila were purchased and consumed by PCs and NPCs alike.  
• Candy agreed and everyone went back to the councilor's suite.  Candy got undressed, laid on the floor with her eyes closed and told the councilor to just get it over with so she could get her money.  She was going to spend it on butt implants.  The councilor was suffering from "watermelon dick" and couldn't perform.
  
• Gebek was going to get paid to assassinate the councilor, so he started firing and rolled three "1"s.  He ended up shooting Zhora while the councilor and his aid fled the scene.  Gebek went after the councilor and Shumoxx went after the aid.  Shumoxx rolled 2d6 on his attack and also got all "1"s.  His vortex equalizer hit Gebek instead.  After exchanging shots for a couple rounds, both councilor and aid were dead.
• Meanwhile, Zhora had lesbian sex (again) with Candy.  He acquired 4 more temporary Health.  Rolling on the d100 table for random women encountered, turns out Candy was eerily similar to Zhora.  Same taste in clothes, vid-screen shows, food for thought, etc.  And she was a pilot! 
• The next morning, Azaxyr, using his charm, stopped Federation security from engaging Gebek, which could have ended in several PC deaths.  
• The PCs read the mission briefing provided by their Universal Exploits sponsor.  They were to pick up a humanoid on some nearby desert planet and escort him to the space station Revan 111, where everyone has a past.
• Just as they spotted their eventual passenger, another starship was about to fire on him.  The PC's ship fired on the enemy starship first.  Yes!  This was ship-to-ship combat.  I'd only used that table in Girls Gone Rogue once before, so I was excited about trying it out a second time.  It was a terrific battle.  The enemy ship sustained damage, but mostly the opposing captain, who was getting oral sex during the engagement, kept getting his space penis chewed due to all the turbulence.  Eventually, his member was completely bitten off.  While the PC's ship sustained damage, the enemy ship was all but destroyed and the crew dead.  
• McSpanner was there to make repairs on the PC's ship while Shumoxx and company talked with their new and temporary companion.  His name was Gaius Bantha.  He dismissed conventional science for something called "laser science".  On a cocktail napkin, he worked out a design for something having to do with laser-sharks and a laser ball for space kittens.
• Meanwhile, Azaxyr retrieved a therapy-bot built from an old VCR and vintage porn VHS tapes. Fast Forward 5 joined the crew.
  
  
• Despite his ridiculous theories, the PCs escorted Gaius to Revan 111.  It wasn't until the PCs said goodbye to Gaius that they got a call from their Universal Exploits sponsor, Kaplan.  Apparently, the mission was supposed to be - don't allow Gaius Bantha to reach Revan.  The PCs negotiated a few more credits and geared up.  Gebek, fearing discovery (being a wanted man and all) wore an avocado-green and paisley headscarf.  Shumoxx donned his turtleneck chevron cheetah print heavy tactical armor.
• They deduced that Gaius had gone to the purple section devoted to weird science.  Standing in their way was a religious ceremony performed by 17 gelatinous blobs.  The PCs fought the laser investors (also fungoids and Kaplan's brother-in-law) Gaius had lined up.  
• It was a pitched battle within the space bar/cantina map designed by +MonkeyBlood Design.  Gaius started to run away but couldn't get far because Azaxyr used his redirect pain ability to transfer his discomfort at being blasted over and over again to Gaius.  It took several rounds, but the PCs were winning.  There were only a couple opponents left when I rolled 2d6 against Shumoxx Plib.  I rolled a "6" on the initial attack roll and so rolled 3d6 damage.  All "6"s!  So, I rolled the exploding damage again.  Two more "6"s!  After all the rolling had stopped, that laser blast had done about 42 points of damage.  Despite his armor, Shumoxx was toast.  He rolled 2d6 on his saving throw and came up with a "3" - one last heroic act before dying.  Shumoxx set his vortex equalizer to self-destruct.  It took the last two enemies out.
• Azaxyr scraped what was left of Shumoxx onto a glass slide for later cloning and removed Gaius' "laser brain" so he could place it in a roomba cleaning-bot.  The credits, minus Universal Exploits' 10% commission, were transferred into the PC's bank account.  

So, those were some of the highlights.  Although, as any gamer knows, you really have to be there to feel just how powerful a game is - the spectacle, the laughs, the emotion, the adrenaline, the boobs... only so much can be conveyed via blog post.

I hope that in the next week and a half, you'll help support the latest Alpha Blue sourcebook, Universal Exploits.  

VS

Universal Exploits

Ok, I've got some news.  For a select few, this may seem like a punch in the gut, for many a picnic lunch on a beautiful summer's day, but my guess is that most of you will probably go, "Meh."

When the book (being Kickstarted now) actually comes out, it's not going to be called Pussy Chasers: the Legend of Oral.  There are many reasons for this, such as pushing people away from it and Alpha Blue, as well as, making people think that the entire thing is either going to be pornographic or a riff on StarChaser: The Legend of Orin.  And to be perfectly honest, my wife wanted me to shut the whole thing down, and this name change is a compromise.

In actuality, the sleaze is probably only 20% - 30% of this RPG line.  It's just that most RPG books have less than 5%, so it makes Alpha Blue and company look disproportionately raunchy by comparison.  

I'll be parodying many, many sci-fi movies, tv shows, and so forth.  StarChaser is but one.  However, there will be a section/heading called "Pussy Chasers: the Legend of Oral" and it will deliver on what's already been mentioned in the Kickstarter.  Additionally, there will be other sections that will deal with various topics.  The space station brothel has already been done, so this new book will focus on other people, places, and things.  

For instance, today I'm writing "The Stars Are Dying" (cosmic horror) and "The Violet Jungle Moon of K'rymzonia Minor" (gonzo sword & planet pulp).  Both will have sleazy aspects, but neither will be as preoccupied with sex as the "Pussy Chasers" section.

With this new book, I will bring to life a campaign setting where life is hard and risking one's neck as a spacer is pretty much the only hope for escaping the indentured servitude of a dystopian future.  Writing about the pleasure seekers on a leisure station was a lot of fun, but it's time for something new.  

Keeping the old title would diminish everything else, making it fade into the background.  Kind of like if you knew you're 6th grade teacher had starred in an adult movie.  Now, that's the only thing that comes to mind when you're in math class.

So, what's the new title?  As of now, the working title is Universal Exploits.  Yeah, it's a bit generic, but there's a wink and a nudge nudge in there, as well.  At least we'll all remember the book's secret name when seeing it on DriveThruRPG.  ;)

Thanks,

VS

Fast Times at Alpha Blue

There was a time when sexuality and science fiction went hand in hand. A time when sci-fi masters like Robert A. Heinlein wrote about a future where nudity was in and chastity was out. Over the years, the genre has been neutered. Gone are the three-nippled alien hookers and in their place is a lot of techno-babble.  ~  
Giant Freakin Robot

Standing proudly with hands on hips, Shumachs Plib surveyed his new captain's chair upon his new starship while gazing upon the stars beyond, his validation boner displayed prominently...

Wait a minute, I skipped a whole bunch.  Let me back up several hundred parsecs.

I've lost count how many times I've run Alpha Blue.  Each one is not only a learning experience and a madcap free-for-all, it's also a testament to overcoming any sort of anxiety, guilt, shame, or embarrassment.  I'll admit, the first couple times I ran my 70's sci-fi porn RPG, I was a wee bit nervous.  Indeed, there was a modicum of insecurity mixed in with the excitement.  However, playing it proved those fears unfounded.  It was a glorious release.

But then, after the first few times I wondered if the game was doomed to reside amongst the one-shot novelty set.  Would anyone (including myself) want to play Alpha Blue more than once?  Twice?

Unless something came up, Nix has played in every single Alpha Blue game.  Steve nearly that.  This was Justin's second game and the first for Harold and Jeff.  I'd be lying if there weren't a couple people that flat-out told me Alpha Blue was not the game for them.  Hey, I don't blame them and appreciate their honesty.  But that's not a reason for the rest of us to stop.  After all, I have no interest in playing Pathfinder, though I don't care if others do.

Anyway, getting back to this session report... 5 players.

Zaparon, human psion who has his own ship, wears a silver uniform with blue trim, and is bi-sexual, into abs and butts.

Epson is a cerulean blue robot, he's friendly and a masochist into cheerleaders and hair.  He used to be a fax machine, but re-purposed to be a medic.  He still receives faxes on occasion, reading them and throwing them away (unless it's something important).

Ha'chth is an alien who looks nearly human except for his dark amethyst skin tone.  His uniform is tan suede and he's also a medic... and a zedi who plies The Way throughout the galaxy.  He also had a thing for cheerleaders.

Cassidy Vivrath'zha is half-human and half Lovecraftian monstrosity.  He's also both sexes.  His human parts are female (and freckled).  He owes a considerable amount of money to both a bounty hunter and a gangster.

Shumachs Plib is a human interior designer who left his colony because when everyone is starving, interior design isn't the first thing on people's minds.  Shu has latent psionic powers but pretends at being a fierce bounty hunter... with the emphasis on fierce.

There was no pilot in their crew, so they'd have to rely on autopilot exclusively.  I don't remember who, but someone asked if it was possible to have sex with the ship's autopilot program.  I answered yes, even though at the time I had absolutely no idea how that would work.

I won't go too deep into the scenario's heart, except to say that the spacers were hired by a man whose daughter, Vanessa, (in her early 20's) was taken from Alpha Blue.  To better connect, visualize, and identify with their mission, I provided a picture of Rose Byrne as a blonde cheerleader.  Yowza!

The scenario became an investigation.  Many leads were explored.  Eventually, it led the PCs to Club Wet Star where they squared off against a vicious space warlord named Faygos (combining Dragos from Jason of Star Command with the less-than-popular beverage brand Faygo).

Along the way, exotic cocktails were ordered, such as the exploding star lemon-lime space gin surprise.

The Tiny Dancer infiltrator starship cleverly avoided a ship-to-ship battle with the Sunfish thanks to Epson's mechanical interface.  Tiny Dancer docked while the Sunfish's computer dealt with Epson's virus distraction.

The PCs boarded and shot up nearly all the male crew.  The two females were unharmed.  The first was working out in the gym.  Ha'chth was immediately attracted to her and started working his extra-terrestrial mojo.  The juicy details: a year ago, she participated in a 500-humanoid gangbang, Ha'chth and her did it standing up, and his "O" face is best described as "hurts so good".  He got to add a d4 worth of temporary Health to his total.

The other female was an alien cat-girl.  Strangely, everyone left her alone and she retained her position as ship's weapons specialist.

They walked into Club Wet Star and immediately headed for the main stage where strippers were pole dancing.  It wasn't long before Shu sensed Vanessa's presence.  They made a B-line for the jacuzzi/bedroom area of the club and Ha'chth forced Wet Star's madame to show him where Vanessa was being kept.

The dark amethyst alien couldn't keep it in his pants and before rescuing her there was consensual anal sex.  More temporary Health!  How did Ha'chth get so much tail?  It's good to be a zedi.  ;)

Faygos' thugs attacked everyone who wasn't purple balls deep in Vanessa.  After a few scrapes, the PCs dispatched the thugs.  Ha'chth and his latest conquest joined the others and they all made for the door.  Unfortunately, Faygos was waiting for them!

The space warlord was accompanied by 4 more thugs.  This was a pitched battle.  Both sides took substantial hits.  At last, it was only the PCs vs. Faygos.  He brought out a strange device that lowered the gravity considerably - allowing me to use my sparkly blue and pink circle of slick.  Dice rolled off the circle frequently.  The robot rolled a critical failure - I think it was Jeff that suggested a fax came in just as Epson was firing - he did minor damage to one of his comrades.  Faygos did some serious damage, forcing one of the medics to stop attacking and heal while a couple of the PCs took random bodies as meat shields.

Faygos was eventually killed.  The crew flew both Tiny Dancer and Sunfish back to Alpha Blue, selling their original, smaller ship to pay off one of Cassidy's loans.  The rest of the money was spent on fitting a hot tub in the Sunfish and a huge celebratory blow-out.  It was quite the party.

There, ensconced in corinthian leather stood Shumachs Plib.  Once an interior designer and wannabe bounty hunter who didn't know exactly how to shoot his vortex equalizer... now, he was captain of an impressive military vessel - that had its own transparent aluminum hot tub.  Everyone could see his validation boner, but no one cared.  They had their own primitive urges to concern them.  And the most pressing of queries... is there such a thing as a mermaid cheerleader?

The above only touches on the many adventures and random tables coming soon in Girls Gone Rogue.

There's still a week left to back the Kickstarter.  The maps are FREE.  Anyone can use them for non-commercial uses.  Because I'm confident we'll reach the next stretch goal, I had Glynn Seal of +MonkeyBlood Design design the Chihuahua class starship, Tiny Dancer, for use in today's game.  That dropbox link will be released when the KS reaches $3,500.  So close!

Thanks for reading.  Please share this experiment in sci-fi and sleaze with others!

VS

Going Rogue

Well, I'm back from mandatory Disney vacation.

Even though I'm getting over a cold, things are good and I've got so much awesomeness planned for Girls Gone Rogue that it's insane!  My latest creation - a random table for coming up with "banter" on the fly.

While in Florida, I sent myself 2 or 3 texts a day.  Those text messages contained notes for random tables, scenario seeds, and all kinds of stuff.

Last year, I took my oldest daughter to see Captain EO, a short science-fantasy film starring Michael Jackson, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and executive produced by George Lucas.  I got to see it when it came out way back in 1986 and then again in early 2015.  From that list of names, one might think that this film could very well be the most impressive thing ever.  It's not.  Interesting, kind of cool, and nostalgia-inducing... but not really over-the-top epic.

We were all going to go again, but discovered that Captain EO was gone.  In its place was a Pixar short film "festival".  After some digging, I found out that Captain EO was removed from Disney World's Epcot theme park back in 1996, but was brought back for a limited engagement after Michael Jackson's death.

What's going to happen to Captain EO now?  I'm not sure, but one of the many Disney employees shepherding us to and fro tried to reassure me that, "It's on YouTube."

Long story short, I'm going to throw some Captain EO stuff into my latest kickstarter campaign: Girls Gone Rogue.

Since we've hit our first and second stretch goals, to the right is a teaser of the new starship Glynn of +MonkeyBlood Design is creating.

Recently, I read a blog post featuring quickdraw / gunfighting rules.  I liked the idea, but didn't care for the execution, personally... just a matter of aesthetics.  Being a fan of spaghetti westerns, I'll be including some of that.

Plus, there have been so many excellent suggestions made over at the Crimson Dragon Slayer & Alpha Blue g+ community (please join!).  I'm going to modify and include as much as I can.

I suppose that's it for now.  I'll be posting more stuff soon...

VS

Girls Gone Rogue kickstarter

I'm out there.  I can't be bargained with.  I can't be reasoned with.  I don't feel pity, remorse, or fear.  And I absolutely will not stop, ever, until I am dead.

Yep, I'm back at it again.  Here is my latest Kickstarter project Girls Gone Rogue.  It's a companion volume to Alpha Blue, filled with tables galore and fleshed-out adventures!

If you enjoy sex comedies and vintage sci-fi from the 60's, 70's, and 80's, this is your lucky day.

BTW, I'll be on my family vacation for a little over a week, starting tomorrow morning.  So, don't expect to hear much from me until Monday, February 8th.

Until then, please help me spread the love.  Tell your friends about Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue!

Thanks,

VS

Girls Gone Rogue playtest

Yesterday was the first playtest of a new Alpha Blue scenario I've been working on since the book's release - Girls Gone Rogue.

I had an idea to merge the plot from two of my favorite films, Escape from New York and Blade Runner.

There were 7 players and I had everyone make new characters, even though over half of them had made characters a month back when playtesting Alpha Blue.  A lot had changed and I wanted them (and the noobs) to get the full Alpha Blue experience.

This little d4 table for randomly determining a character's age and experience worked like a treat, adding even more background nuance.

I won't go into detail about the actual adventure because of spoilers; however, below will be a number of details, thoughts, and miscellaneous from the session...

It all began when a beautiful brunette woman in a translucent red dress walked into the club and ordered a drink.  Her name was Serene and she was looking to party.

Here's the quote of the day, "If the testicles have tentacles attached to them, even better."  That came from the mouth of +sean mcconkey.  He played one of the most interesting characters - an alien spider creature templar/priestess that could change size when he got excited and was really into golden showers!

Not sure why I didn't explicitly state it, but players can create robot characters, too.  Deciding to go robot would be the same as choosing to play an alien, mutant, or roll on the something special table.  There's even a random table in the character creation section for what machine you were before being converted into a functional machine with artificial intelligence, sensitivity, etc.

Also not explicitly stated, but seemed obvious to me and another player, one can choose to play a combination of alien and mutant, mutant and something special, alien and robot, etc. if they opt to forgo rolling twice on the career tables.  We had a couple characters go that route, including Joshua Cooper Darlington who played an alien mutant.  He was a rat-sized creature composed of fire that bought a meat-shell that he could operate and walk around in.  Kind of like the thing Krang used in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the 80's and 90's.  His bite was poisonous, too!

I had been working on the "shimmering circle" for an entire week before the game.  Layers of acrylic paint, glazing liquid, self leveling clear gel, sparkling latex wall paint I had left over from making my daughters' rooms extra girly, and gloss varnish.  It's not too big and very slick, so rolling on the surface is difficult.  Perfect for mirroring the difficulty of fighting in a zero gravity arena!  The guys had a lot of fun with that.  It led to a close-line decapitation with an arm - that's not something you see everyday!

+Jacob Nelson (who played a human digestive scientist... for some reason) laughed so hard and so many times during character creation and throughout the scenario, that I worried about him.  He noted quite a few of the references, such as the "Blue Steel" mutation from another favorite film of mine - Zoolander.

Almost everyone roleplayed their sexual fantasy and fetish throughout the game.  One might imagine that rolling for such a thing at character creation would lead to one of two possibilities, either that detail is relegated to the void, never surfacing during play, or that incorporating it into play would be a chore, feeling forced instead of natural.  Well, I'm pleased to report that PC proclivities were present without getting in the way of adventuring... in fact, the erotic aspects became enmeshed with it.

+Tim Virnig (who played Sliik Khok, a human technician assassin) improved on the name for a desert-world bar I came up with.  So, it looks like the Most Easy Cantina will be replaced with the Moist E-Z Cantina.  I'll probably include options for using both in the PDF.

Everyone survived and had a good time, so I went away satisfied.

VS

p.s.  I made a video about the shimmering circle over here.

Blue-Streaming the Sexy Space Action Live!

I want to thank Fantastic Dimensions for running a session of Alpha Blue and posting it to youtube.

Obviously, playing an RPG is preferable to watching other people play, but this video will give blue-curious gamers a better idea of what it's like to inhabit this starry, hooker-filled galaxy - from character creation to "dark and unexpected places"...

There's some great reviews up on the DTRPG page, so check those out if you're still on the fence.

If you didn't know or forgot, there are some awesome complimentary files:  maps and character sheets.

VS

p.s.  The softcover files have been accepted, approved, and the whole 9 yards.  Just waiting on my DTRPG contact to activate the print option (hopefully by tomorrow morning. However, CreateSpace (including a free PDF - just email me your receipt) and Amazon already have Alpha Blue softcovers available for purchase

Price Point Backlash: The Cost of Awesome

If it had just been one or two isolated incidents, I wouldn't have written this post - but there were a small handful of outspoken gamers who seemed to be offended by the initial $14 PDF for Alpha Blue.

The straw that broke this particular camel's back was a guy named Tom L. who gave the book a 2 star rating and a sentence fragment bitching about the expense.  Scroll down this page if you'd like to admire Tom's work.

That seems strange to me for a variety of reasons... and here they are:

Both The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence and How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss were roughly around the same page count and both of them started at a higher price than $14 for the PDF.

1.  As you can see by the visual aid in the top right corner of this post, I had lunch at Paisan's today.  With tip (cause I'm not that much of an asshole), I paid a little over $14 for a sandwich and mountain dew (I also paid a dollar for parking in the ramp).  That seems normal to me.  Sure, I could have lunched for less, but I like nice mid-range places that aren't too low or high.  Is a full-sized RPG book (even an electronic one) not worth the price for lunch?  Maybe it depends on where one lives...


2.  Most gamers actually prefer PDF.  The sales bare that out (or is that "bear"?).  I'm not sure if the vast majority of PDF customers are aware, but if the print version costs more than $5 than the PDF, that's the publisher (not the print-on-demand manufacturer/distributor) punishing those who want their product in print.  They simply want more money.  I usually price my softcovers at $4 more than the PDF and that's only to cover the extra printing costs of DriveThruRPG and Amazon.

But back to my original point, the PDFs are more popular.  So, why would anyone ask how I can charge so much for "only a PDF".  It's not like the Alpha Blue PDF is written on virtual toilet paper.  It's the electronic version.  That has real value and, in some cases, it's what customers would rather have.


3.  I put in a lot of effort for that $14 PDF.  I estimate about 4 months and 100 hours with the combined total of artist and layout hours coming in at about half that amount.  That doesn't necessarily mean Alpha Blue is any good, but my creative sweat should count for something.


4.  If I had priced the book at $12, would that have prevented the backlash?  I don't know, probably.  If I could go back in time and price it at that, I would.  But if I now reduced the price by $2 after less than a week of the PDF's release, would the original buyers be pissed?  I have no idea.  I might, if it were me.  I'd love some feedback on that front.  Typically, I slightly reduce the price of my books after they've been "on the shelf" for 2 or 3 months.


5.  Alpha Blue is an 8.5" x 11" book, rather than the typical 6" x 9".  I think that makes a bit of difference.  The PDF is bookmarked (a Kort'thalis Publishing first!), and there are awesome maps and character sheets that Glynn Seal of +MonkeyBlood Design created.  Without buying the game, you can download them for FREE!!!


Hopefully, this doesn't come off as an angry rant or screed.  I'm genuinely curious to know if I missed something, am out of touch with the times, or have a valid point.  Perhaps the economy is worse off than I thought?

In any case, I'm extremely grateful for the original backers of this Kickstarter project, those who've already paid good money to acquire the PDF at DriveThruRPG, the ones waiting for a print version, and everyone who has supported me over the years.  Thanks, y'all!

VS

p.s.  I threw a little Alpha Blue bonus content up on Draconic Magazine yesterday.  Enjoy!