VENGER CON III (the post-convention write-up, part 2)

 

Let's start at the end...

The last session of the con (that I participated in) was an investigative horror scenario that I wrote last October as a between Cha'alt campaigns break.  

This was my 3rd time running it.  Even though it was all typed up nice and neat, my organization strategy was abysmal.  I was flipping pages all over the place, and it was only about 7 pages long.

Nevertheless, I think it was successful.  More than any other type of scenario, investigative horror separates the active players from the passive players.  There isn't much call for GMs to ask quieter PCs, "So, what's your opinion of the new gods?" or "You see a sexy elf barmaid straining to pick up a heavy barrel of ale, what do you do?"

But now that I think about it, sure, I could have done more to rope the wallflowers (and I use that term affectionately... at certain times, I used to be more of a wallflower player) in.  But the post-lunch malaise was also a thing, and overall I think all the players managed to get their roleplaying beak wet.

I suppose it's because investigative horror is more goal-oriented?  Of course, that's the trouble (if you can call it that) with pretty much every convention game.  It's very rarely about meandering around, seeing what's happing, and occasionally getting into trouble.  And when it is, some players complain.  Haha, there's no winning.

Anyway, I like the scenario and finally remembered to break-out the sanity rules - 3rd time's the charm!  Nothing says you've entered a weird dimension of cosmic horror like magenta gloom, dark ambient (thanks, Lull) playing in the background, and the roll of sanity saving throws.

Roger's Sunday morning game was a lot of fun.  Judd and I played that, just the two of us.  It was like a buddy cop movie.  We were partners in crime, mercenaries under a fuchsia sky, just trying to make their way through Cha'alt.  The fact that Judd and I have gamed quite a bit with each other over the years (mostly in Cha'alt), and that we're both on the same page, RPG-wise, made it remarkably easy.

Also, getting to play in Cha'alt again was a lot of fun.  I was all juiced up from Judd's Alpha Blue session the night before, I guess, because once we got to that Chucky Cheese type restaurant, my character was hyper focused on getting a sexy waitress in the ball-pit!

As Roger correctly pointed out, and Judd confirmed, getting to play the game with the actual creator means that certain aspects and avenues of the game, which might be ignored under different circumstances, rise to the top.  

Having sex in the ball-pit (don't worry, I kept yelling for the kids to get the fuck outta here while doing it under the cover of colorful squishy balls) was Hetch's main concern, but getting that sweet, sweet +5 bonus to saves, skill-checks, and hit-points for the next 5 hours (that's why it's called Sleaze Factor-5) wasn't bad, either.  Hetch gave new meaning to the phrase "balls deep."

Torvak was Hetch's companion.  I was a blue velvet-elf sorcerer and Torvak a half-orc warrior.  Roger started us out at 3rd level with max HP (which is what I always do), and allowed us to choose a special ability from Cha'alt Ascended.  I forgot how awesome that is.  Sorry for lubricating my own tentacle, but I had forgotten over half of those 60+ options.  I kept running across feats that I would really like to have, both in a one-shot and campaign.  Will definitely utilize that PDF more going forward...

The three of us came up with some cool stuff in that adventure, some bits of lore that will probably carry over into CHA'ALT PRIME... whatever that is.  I'm thinking a kind of greater repository for Cha'alt related stuff that just becomes part of the overall eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse culture.  

Speaking of which, from now on - and this goes for everybody in the RPG hobby, industry, community, or whatever - when you narrate something that should have (or could have, let's not get presumptive) come earlier, don't call it a ret-con.  What we're doing is presenting a flashback or analepsis of what happened earlier.

Ret-con implies that we're stopping the narrative flow to go back and fix something that's broken in order for the rest of the story to continue unabated.  A flashback or analepsis is a non-chronological event that's necessary to the narrative.  

For me personally, the word "flashback" conjures something else to mind... either frequent LSD use or a momentary remembrance of an event that has already been experienced; roleplayed.  And no one knows what the fuck "analepsis" means, so what I would do is call it an out-of-sequence cut-scene, letting people know that what's happening now actually took place earlier (or later). 

Between singing and dancing lizard-bears, bantha jawbone weapons, klikna'ars as a unit of distance, ziggurat schemes, and words of wisdom like "They don't fuck you at the drive-thru," we had a great time.

Last but not least, let me tell you about Judd's Alpha Blue game Saturday night.  It both seemed completely off-the-cuff, spontaneously improvised and also like something he'd been diligently working on for weeks.  I didn't want to ask, as a magician should preserve his magic whenever possible.  

Not being super familiar with the system, he asked me to help everybody with character creation, which I did.  Probably the best way of doing it since I've done that dozens of times over the years and each time it gets a bit easier.  The only thing I wish I'd done differently is that I neglected to mention the advantages (other than starting life as a typewriter, of course) of being a droid.

However, before long we were off and running.  I think we had 6 players or so, and everyone was in the mood for humor, sleaze, and retro-futurism.  Basically, the entire adventure was one massive pun broken-up into 37 bite-sized pieces.  

I played Bashir, an alien (crystalline) pimp.  It wasn't until well after the session that I realized I never used the alienisms I rolled on the d100 table.  Next time I run it, I'm going to offer players a point of Divine Favor... Blue Favor(?) to those whose character actually roleplays the stuff they rolled at character creation.

BBQ is the universe's second oldest profession.  The Baron Hard's conys (that's colloquial slang for coney-dog - a chili-dog you'd find at Coney Island - in certain parts of the country) versus Duke Tradee's delicious BBQ.  The spices must flow as the entire galaxy holds its collective breath to see who will win the culinary guild's cookoff competition.  

We took our Federation ice-cream delivery shuttle to the planet Dude in search of Duke Tradee's son and side-piece.  Half the session I was laughing, the other half trying to piece together the mystery of who was trying to grease the wheels within wheels with delicious mesquite-flavored pork juice.  Oh, and my character had sex with a uniformed woman at the Alpha Blue food court.  Getting an in-game bonus was so far away from my mind, that I only now realized I could have rolled for extra hit-points.

I might not get to play in an RPG until next VENGER CON, so I take my pleasures where I can.  ;)

Here's some funny stuff heard around the table...

• "The Huffle Puff in him dies a little inside."
• "Put your penis in the box."
• "I should really create a random prophecy generator." 
• "I don't judge, I just hashtag."
• Many, many things having to do with the cult of Ron Jeremy.
• "The Potter boy?  That lightning-scarred trollop!"
• "Never trust a girl that went to a bene gesserit high school."

By the time 10pm rolled around, I was beat.  However, I stopped by the convention's main room to see what was shakin'.  All the games were over, and people were drinking beer, talking, and partying.  I drove 10 minutes home shortly after that.

For those who attended, here's the $437,000 question... did you experience PSYCHOCOSM?  In layman's terms, did you momentarily feel like you were really there, in that make-believe world?  Like you were someone else, that your character's actions were your own?  At the end of the day... or convention, in this case, immersion should be our primary concern. 

Really, the entire weekend was beyond fun... and can't wait to do it again next year!  Still waiting on confirmation of availability.  Stay tuned!

Thanks,

VS

p.s. If you still don't have your hardcover Cha'alt books, order now!!!

GaryCon 2024 Convention Report (part 2)

 

You may have read part 1, already.  But this is part 2 of my time at Gary Con XVI...

As mentioned, I ran 6 games... 3 of them were Cha'alt via Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer.  I decided to ask players a short survey of questions before running to find out their familiarity with me, the campaign setting, rule-set, weirdo game mechanics like Cha'alt X-Cards and Gilded Die of Satanis, along with their favorite movie.

I remember way back when... it might have been my first GameHole Con.  I went around the table, asking players the same thing, but might have narrowed it down to "genre movie."  During an "x" moment in the game that could have gone in virtually any direction, I incorporated a guy's pick of The Thing, especially since The Thing is one of my all-time favorite movies.

After the session, the player who had said The Thing complained because my including an aspect from the movie somehow ruined his immersion.  I suppose because he could no longer pretend that the game world and characters were "real" and independent of influence or inspiration from non-canon sources or something?

It took me a while to get over that because I assumed other players would feel the same, as if my player base was some monolithic aesthetic.  That's also when I was young(er), impressionable and believed that "gonzo stupid" wasn't as cool as serious, Tolkien by way of Gygax, "realism" that many nerds assert in order to fool themselves into thinking that one kind of fantasy and therefore elf-game is inherently superior to another.

But I've long since gone full-gonzo and stopped caring what people thought about my games, if they get too silly, are too off the wall, or people laugh too much instead of... I don't know, mentally masturbating about pretending they're Aragorn but toothless and dressed in rags exploring a dungeon so dry and boring that it must be real?

Anyway, I got a lot of movie suggestions (which, incidentally, helped when it came time to improvise something on the spot using the Cha'alt X-Cards and Gilded Die of Satanis).  Plus, chatting about movies helped everyone get to know each other a little bit and eased the tension of meeting for the first time, even though I had played with some players before, and many players knew each other.

One player let me know that he was in my Cha'alt game 2 years ago at GameHole.  And he must have brought his whole group because all 6 of those guys knew and gamed with each other.  A couple guys in the Alpha Blue game had played in my virtual Roll20 sessions, and grew to be supporters of my content and play-style.  Another session contained guys who saw my session in the game roster, thought it sounded cool, signed-up, and then started researching my stuff to get more familiar and they fell in love with the campaign setting and overall vibe.

As you may recall, most of my games were in good-sized rooms with lots of other games happening right next to me, making it difficult to sit back in your chair, make an off-hand comment, watch how PCs respond, and basically let the game come to you.  Although, that's exactly what I did for the Alpha Blue session on the last day.

But for all those other games, I sat up, leaned in, prepared what I was going to say with my notes, did my best to speak-up, say things clearly and distinctly, and focused my hearing so I wouldn't miss anything the players were saying as the game moved briskly along.  I felt like I was chasing after the game in several spots, if not those entire sessions.

Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I can only assume that many GMs run their sessions like that all the time.  However, my style is different.  As I said, I like the game to come to me.  That means I set things up as partial sandbox with PCs able to kind of do what they want, I'm able to interject improvised bits and pieces on a whim or at the drop of a hat, and turn up and down the heat as needed.

I won't say too much about the Cthulhu hack scenarios because those went well, aside from both scenarios drawing to a close in about half the time they should have.  So, that just leaves Alpha Blue, and the 3 Cha'alt scenarios that were actually 1... a trinity as it were.  It is the prophecy!

Based on my pre-gen sheet (actually, 9 pre-generated characters were divided between 3 sheets of paper) - I think I preferred last year's arrangement where all the possible PCs were on a single sheet of paper.  However, I was able to provide a little more background this time, which is just a trade-off, balancing act, I suppose.

One player took to the idea, based on my provided pre-gen notes, that Cha'alt culture was based on demon civilizations from thousands of years ago.  Because of this, he (and soon the group) decided to keep 3 vials of zoth for themselves, and deliver 1 to the blood-elf's brother, instead of the other way around.  

Every GM worth his salt likes it when PC actions directly correspond, one way or another, with the campaign setting.  When something affects something else, that's amore!  Lol, no.  It's an internal consistency that feels like reality... the building blocks of immersion.  

I believe it was also that player who really took the "tentacle fetish" note to heart.  At some point, based on everything that had transpired, we decided if there's a chance he's not at least a little bit aroused, the world will end.  I think that was in reference to a tentacle-fashioned apocalyptic magic item stolen from the palace vault... probably an adventure unto itself.

A couple of the scorpion-men PCs in different games befriended a little blue scorpion and used it as a familiar, which wasn't so much a part of my plan as something that unconsciously matched the pre-gens to the scenario and flowed like it was supposed to - guided by higher powers, with whom, as a lowly Game Master, I am barely worthy enough to comprehend.  Yes, the dice have their uses, but strokes of the GM's vibrational senses are how we navigate those PSYCHOCOSMIC waters.

Talking to a player who chose the tangerine-elf PC, I had an idea for a hybrid race between tangerine and blood-elf to make blood-orange.  No details on what that might look like, but the idea was intriguing and made me chuckle.  So, soon...

I already mentioned that the Cha'alt X-Cards were used to color / flavor randomly stolen magic items.  There was an A.I. banana... I tried to incorporate the banana motif as much as possible, without overdoing it. 

I liked that the PC(s) wished for a working starship that had the correct documentation papers, tiki bar, voice activated autopilot, was nearby, and a few other things, just in case that demon-genie was trying to screw them over, monkey-paw style.  Oh yeah, the key was a banana-shaped electronic fa'ab.

A couple guys asked, I think it was either after they had provided a movie to reference / parody, or when one of them stimulated a Cha'alt X-Card, if I could include a bologna sandwich somewhere in the session, as that was a running gag with their home group.  So, of course, I obliged.  A giant bologna sandwich scuttled sideways across the S'kbah desert until a sandworm jumped out of the sand and gobbled it up in one bite.

That's the kind of thing that might ruin a player's idea of immersion in another game, but in Cha'alt, that's just how we roll.  Reveling in that way of doing things has closed doors but opened windows to new ways of experiencing the game.

Oh, yeah.  I wanted to mention that it wasn't until about halfway through the first Cha'alt session that I realized why none of the sorcerers were casting spells or even considering that option.  I never provided a spell list or any spellcasting information at all.  So, I gave the sorcerers in that game a brief synopsis going forward, and physically wrote out all the possible spells on a blank sheet of paper for the following two sessions, which obviously helped enormously.

Two of the three ended sort of similar to each other, while the other went in a slightly different direction.  I don't know if one is the right choice over another, but I like the idea of multiple possible endings - above and beyond player agency and PC choices, of course.  Reminds me of the Clue movie from the 80s that had three different endings.  

Did I mention that I only bought one thing in the dealer's room?  The first time I went through, I browsed the aisles, looking at books, knick-knacks, "ultimate gaming tables," and dice - so many dice.  It's a tradition of mine to buy at least one set of dice at the cons I attend, but this time, as occasionally happens with me, I decided to break with tradition.  No dice to just buy dice.  If a set didn't really speak to me, I wouldn't bother.

My second time through the dealer's room, I noticed some kind of massive worm creature in a clear plastic container sans box.  I asked about it, and sure enough, it was half price in the "scratch and dent" section.  I was hoping the $68 price tag was the original price and I could get the thing (which turned out to be a space-worm for the Spelljammer set) for $34.  That would have been a steal!  Alas, $68 was the halved price.  So, I hemmed and hawed a bit, trying to decide if it was worth it to me to have my very own gigantic miniature sandworm.  

I haggled a bit, trying to negotiate a better deal (which is now illegal in the state of New York), and the shop owner was nice enough to roll me for it.  He beat me on a toss of two massive foam d20s.  I picked the hot-pink and he rolled the teal.  So, I paid the seemingly ridiculous price for a really big, painted, plastic miniature and brought it back to my hotel.

I'm tempted to make the Alpha Blue session its own blog post, but my wife is getting tired of me writing about the convention I just spent 3 1/2 days at.  So, let's do this here and now!

I had everyone make their own characters, which is my customary way of doing things with that RPG.  The characters should be unique and getting to the finish line provides at least half of the adventure or seeds thereof.

There was Daskanzia a mutant conman, Bashir, an alien mercenary who likes to get squishy and turn invisible, Jira, a female droid and former gumball machine (like Servo) who was also a pimptress, Arden, a human pirate and psion, and Gunstarra, an alien metallic humanoid who was dog-sized.

I had the idea on the way over to the main lodge that morning of starting with part 2 of a sleazy space opera movie, where the original had done pretty well at the box-office.  However, "The Sequel" got its budget slashed and all the movie stars portraying the main characters, like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Vince Vaughn, and Sophia Vergara were replaced with C-list actors (the PCs themselves) constantly referencing awesome things that happened in part 1 but made no sense to anyone (like all of us) who'd never seen the original movie.

The players thought that was a neat and/or funny idea, and I awarded points of divine favor whenever they made an out of context reference to the first movie that, obviously, none of us knew anything about in real life because I just made it up.  I think that went well.  Each player did that a couple times throughout the session to reinforce the "sequelness" of the adventure. We even used crappy on purpose sound effects with our mouth for various scifi-isms, noting that a grip or catering guy was probably making the sound just off camera.

At the end of the original movie, the principle characters were sentenced to 18 months on the penile planet Cygnus Beta where the PCs had been working at a monastery devoted to an old god whose name must never be uttered.  

Before long, whilst transporting toilet paper or TP (also known as treasure paper to the head abbot - from whose inner sanctum they stole a number of things, including a tall, ceremonial candle with a note that read "Do not light as this will resurrect a Great Old One"), Jira was impregnated by a penis-worm, but saved when another member of the crew threw out a "humper," distracting it.

There was a transport shuttle taking the PCs to Alpha Blue where some penis-headed aliens tried to get the Sleazoid Express hijacked.  "One-eyed Johnson got himself circumcised in the clone war."  The PCs thwarted that plan and took a lot of the unstolen cargo themselves.

On Alpha Blue, they located a worm wrangler and obstetrician shop, like those Taco Bell and Pizza Hut combo restaurants, and got the baby penis-worm gumball hybrid out of Jira.  The built-in petting zoo helps to domesticate penis-worms (for which there definitely is a market).

Then, they were wandering around the red hologram district and received a message from a 6-inch hologram of a dark zedi relating to a mysterious idol of an unnameable Great Old One sitting in an antique shop.  The PCs got it, and were about to leave when the dark zedi himself (3-feet tall in actual size) told them all that the run-time of the movie was almost up and this was their only chance for a laser battle.

So, we finished with a blaster shootout against the Knights in White Satin.  I tried out a sort of Blue Escalation for this combat.  Basically, on the first round, anyone who rolled a 6 on their dice pool scored a critical-hit and pretty much killed their opponent.  On round two, anyone who rolled a 5 or 6 scored a crit.  We never got to round three, as the survivors ran away.

That was all the time we had, and resurrecting the unnamed (although, I think I did accidentally say Yog-Soggoth towards the end - hey, this was supposed to be a really bad movie) would have to wait until part 3 because they didn't have anything left in the budget to create old god monster special FX.

Not sure where this fits in, but one of the nights I was in the hotel room, there was the Jack Palance Dracula movie on TV.  I watched a fair bit of it.  At one point, the vampire hunters found the sleeping brides of Dracula.  The audience heard what sounded like a stake being driven through a heart and then a close-up of her mouth filling with blood.  It was just for a second or two, really quick (which made me feel cheated), but at the time I remember thinking that's exploitation.  

Exploitation is the stuff we really want to see and hear, but the bastard censors won't let us because we're all just impressionable children in a nanny state.  In 2024, this is all just so ridiculous when The Bachelor puts a black bar over a woman's butt - who still has her swim bottoms on!!! - but if you try to hide blood and bones and body parts by cutting up the corpse and draining it down the pipes in the house you're squatting in, it's fine.  No bail.  Just come back to court in a couple months and we'll see if it's even a crime at that point.  We are truly living in clownworld!  

I have the vague memory of including a gut-munching cannibal scene (or maybe it was worms) with blood-splatter and the sound of hastily eaten, greasy fried chicken or something when the GRINDHOUSE EXPLOITATION Cha'alt X-Card was stimulated, but for the life of me, I can't remember what session that was in, or if it took place at all.  Maybe I fell asleep and dreamed it?

Regardless, I had a blast at the convention.  Really, all the sessions were amazing in their own way.  The only things I would have preferred is less noise and distraction in the first 5 sessions and a non-stinky room for the 6th.  Yeah, I'm definitely going to see what I can coordinate for next year because GaryCon is my favorite RPG convention... if you don't count VENGER CON (get your weekend badge now), of course.  

This July in Madison, WI is gonna be lit with the flammable zoth-based lube of a thousand tentacled whores.  Grab your badge today, hoss!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I know this is an info dump that's missing a lot of details and some context.

VS

p.s. Aside from VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR convention, now's the time to get your hardcover Cha'alt trilogy if you don't already own it.  

GaryCon 2024 Convention Report (part 1)

 

I got back yesterday afternoon from Gary Con.  Overall, it was a great time!

My notes and game prep stuff is in the car, and getting all that stuff would wake my sleeping wife who was good enough to hold the fort and watch the kids while I was away.  So, in the meantime, I'm just going to mention some takeaways in no particular order.

I ran 6 games and while that felt kind of overwhelming and "too much" at certain points, I'm glad I went for it and achieved that much gaming.  There's almost never a "perfect session," even in one's home game, but at a convention?  Forget about it!  However, I was extremely pleased with how the sessions turned out.  

I had between 4 and 6 players for every game, which I think is ideal.  BTW, part 2 of this post-GaryCon report is here.

I noticed that the only game where I took lots of notes was the last one, the Alpha Blue session.  There's only one common denominator there, and that's the peace and quiet of a private room without all the noisy distractions.  But why, oh why, did that room have to stink so bad?  As soon as I walked in, it was like someone had let out a wet cheese fart about an hour ago and that smell never fully left, even after we kept the door open for the first 30 minutes.

The silver lining (aside from the fact that we had the whole room to ourselves) was that one of the randomly rolled qualities of a PC was their disgusting smell, so I suppose... it added to the immersion, kind of?  But yeah, the room stunk and 4 hours of that was about as much as I could reasonably stand.

Other than that, the Alpha Blue session was fantastic and I got to play in-person with guys who were big fans of mine and really loved my stuff.  

In fact, one guy, David, who'd played in one of my Cha'alt games, too, said he wanted two autographs at Gary Con this year.  One from old-school D&D artist par excellence Erol Otus, and me.  So, that was a bit overwhelming and extremely flattering, making the whole trip worth it for me just for that.

But why would a higher level of background commotion keep me from taking notes?  I was thinking about that on the drive home, earlier this morning, and again right now.  Maybe a fear that if I wasn't focused on moving things along at a quick pace that the session would be swallowed by all the commotion around us?  Perhaps there was less inter-player chatter, banter, and casual one-liners (which I usually like to observe and write down) due to the need for everyone to speak-up clearly and intentionally in order to be heard?  Also, if I wanted to hear anybody, I had to watch their mouth (I estimate I had to ask folks to repeat themselves about 5 or 6 times per session) - which is another reason why wearing masks at a gaming con is just not ok.  

Anyway, these results mean that I don't have copious notes from the first 5 sessions, only the last.  However, I ran the same Cha'alt scenario (an original piece I wrote the week before the convention) 3 times, so the details of what happened, generally speaking, are firmly in my head... and I have my prepared game notes.

Apparently, when I'm running my rules-light d20 Lovecraftian investigative horror hack, I either need to pad-out the scenario to exceed 2 hours or simply schedule it for a 2-hour game.  Additionally, I should include stage directions in my GM notes that say HAVE THE PLAYERS ROLL FOR SANITY, YOU DUMBASS because I neglected to do that in both scenarios on Saturday!  That, and the shortness of those games irritated me since I always want to deliver (overdeliver, actually) on what's promised.  

With that night-time Cthulhu hack session, I should have morphed it into Cha'alt using something akin to that method between Cha'alt campaigns in our home game, but I didn't think of that until later.  We still hung-out and talked for about 30 minutes after, so wasn't the end of the world, but when it's listed as a 4-hour game, I feel like the shortest it should be is 3.

I can still remember my first (possibly second) ever Gary Con I attended.  My hotel room that I booked got bumped to a golf course villa or something a little bit off property, but a bus took me back and forth to the main hotel whenever I wanted.  That villa had its own well-appointed, private room with a big round table and plenty of comfortable chairs.  

I remember being fed-up with gaming in open areas alongside dozens or hundreds of people who weren't in my session but doing their own thing right next to me, and thought... why don't I just use that private space in my villa?  

That was the first time I ran The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  The book wasn't out yet, but the Kickstarter had ended, and I had maybe 40 pages of word document type stuff printed-out and spiral bound for ease of use.  T'was a fun session made all the more awesome because of the quiet, peaceful, and luxurious location (FYI, this is what gaming at VENGER CON is like).  

The two negative take-aways from that playtest con game were that wandering around, sandbox-style, wasn't what a few players had expected.  They preferred a more directed adventure with something specific to do.  The other was a player whose character got killed when an enemy critted him and I rolled a 12 on a d12 critical-hit table that I had included in the purple islands setting.  

It happened at the tail-end of the session, so he didn't miss out on anything, but when it was all over, I thanked the players and hoped they had fun.  The player whose PC died said something like, it was fun until my character died; or it would have been fun, except my character died.  In that moment, and still today, I'm glad he got killed.

Nevertheless, to this day, I'm sensitive about PC deaths and not providing some kind of overarching plot, story, or narrative to guide players in a general direction - without it turning into a railroad, of course.

Admittedly, there was a single point in the Cha'alt session where the PCs get rounded-up and imprisoned, but everything else was up in the air and could have gone a dozen different ways.  Being a con game, I think the vast majority in the hobby would let it slide.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll sign-up to attend and GM the crap out of Gary Con next year... but perhaps I can arrange something with the convention, like a private room where I'm staying, so I can run my games without taking up precious space at the actual hotel.  The private room experience really does bring out the best in gaming, and since GMing tremendous fucking sessions is one of the things God put me on this Earth to do, I want to do it to the best of my ability.

What else?  Got to playtest a psion class for Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer, which was fun (it's just based on the psionic rules, page 50 of the Cha'alt book), and a couple new races... an obsidian-man and tangerine-elf.  The obsidian-man, I now realize, needed more mechanical flavor to really come alive.  However, I'm quite pleased with how the tangerine-elf turned out, being able to make himself into orange juice in desperate situations + that race's high immunity.

Speaking of playtesting, I brought out the Cha'alt X-Cards for every session (except the Cthulhu hack ones) and the Gilded Die of Satanis for a few.  So, folks got to try it who'd never heard of anything like that before.  I think they found it somewhere on the spectrum between interesting and really cool.  

It was especially useful when we were flavoring random items quickly stolen from a treasure vault.  Since it was vast and full (imagine the cave of wonders in Aladdin), I let the players pick out what they found... with potential complications once they brought it out of the vault.

I remember the eyes of expectant players gazing into my GM soul, burning holes through my imagination as they patiently waited for me to improvise something awesome and contextually appropriate and badass... those eyes... the eyes!!!  Lol.  No, but seriously, there was some pressure to perform and not disappoint.  I think I did well under the circumstances.  The players occasionally helped with the creative lifting too, which is a feature of the design.

I remember thinking up a conch shell that when you held it up to your ear, you could hear the Great Old Ones devouring souls from beyond this universe.  So, like I said, the Cha'alt X-Cards came in handy and provided a lot of additional flavor to the session.

A player in a different Cha'alt session was spamming the cards at one point, trying to trick-out their stretched sand-speeder to include a pool, high-tech weaponry, hot chicks, extra tentacles, etc.  As I mentioned in the one video I made while at the convention, when a particular mechanic, system, or way of playing and interpreting the rules drifts organically into something the players can use to improve their overall experience, I try not to stop them but encourage how they've intuitively latched-on to it. 

Sometimes, the cards and gilded die were merely excuses to get the players conceptualizing a particular location, event, or NPC.  Occasionally, they were used as a "fail forward" device that had a built-in cost of either creative energy or shameful consequences for their PC.

After each session (again, not including the Cthulhu ones), there was a clear refrain... there's nothing quite like this.  It was completely different than any session they'd played at the con - or, in some cases, their entire lives.  They had assumptions and expectations, but this was just... weird... beyond weird.  There really is nothing comparable.  Cha'alt (using Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer and the way I run it) is a unique roleplaying game experience.  

That's what comes with focusing on a particular niche, adhering to your own aesthetics and sensibilities, and honing the vibe with an easy going and flexible manner until you get exactly the kind of game you're looking for... then, on top of that, never stop trying to improve.

GaryCon is a solid, well run convention.  It's sheer size puts it in a large gaming con category where you should know ahead of time if the crowds, noise, and expense are within your wheelhouse.  For example, Friday night, I opted for the prime rib buffet, which was good, but $50 + $3.50 for a Mountain Dew... before tip, obviously.  That's not in everyone's budget.

Of course, I'd be remiss for not mentioning my own old-school, OSR, and traditional RPG convention happening this July in Madison, WI... VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR.  Weekend badges still available - max attendance capped at 100, so don't delay!

Oh yeah, and I sold a ton of books... which was nice. If you want either the first, second, or the entire Cha'alt hardcover trilogy, here's the ordering info + price list.

Thanks to the con organizers and volunteers, thanks to all my players and those who wanted to get into one of my games but couldn't for one reason or another.  Part 2 of my GaryCon XVI convention report will either be tomorrow or the day after.  Thanks for reading, and I hope you're enjoying it so far!

VS

p.s.  [this space left intentionally awesome]

Calling All Gamers For VENGER CON III

 

It's that time, hoss.  

July, especially for those of us surrounded by ice and snow, seems like a long ways away... but really it's only 6 months from now.

I really want VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR to be even better than the first two conventions.  Knowing what you want to run and what you want to play will help enormously.  So, speak up and give me your proposed schedules, wish-lists, and tentative desires.

You can email me at: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

I'll be running a combination of Cha'alt, Alpha Blue, and whatever weird old-school, OSR, or traditional RPG attendees want me to run.  In fact, let me know what bizarre, odd-ball RPG one-shot you'd like me to run during VENGER CON III and y'all will eventually get a chance to vote for the top nominees.  Whatever you want (but if it's not rules-light, I'll probably hack it or handwave it)!

And if you haven't already, grab your weekend badge right over here.

Big spaces, limited attendance, laidback & easy going structure, new hotel, nice rooms, not having to shout to be heard or lose your voice talking over the noise, meet fellow gamers and actually get to know them over the weekend, hang-out and game with me (will start out at least one morning of the convention with an Ask-Me-Anything Q&A) and other awesome folks, along with this year's guest of honor Scott from the Diversity & Dragons YouTube channel.

Last but not least, VENGER CON's demon mascot Zeemoa'ar!  He'll be there at the convention as I open each day of awesomeness by sounding the gong.  The whole weekend will be unbelievably epic, and I can't wait to share those experiences with you guys this July (when Wisconsin gets warm again).

Thanks,

VS

Revenge of the OSR

 

Registration for VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR is officially open.  

This right here is the link!

It's going to be a wild, amazing, game-filled, glorious time for those able to attend this July convention on the east side of Madison Wisconsin (actually, right on the edge of Sun Prairie and Madison).

The last two VENGER CONs were fantastic, and this one is at an even nicer, newer hotel.  We're lucky to find an amazing venue at such a reasonable rate.  However, when I say reasonable... well, it's still a bit pricey.  Basically, my overhead just doubled.  Instead of needing 20 attendees to break-even, I'll need 40.

But I'm also confident that we'll sell-out at 100 (that's the maximum attendance).  Promotional marketing is key.  If you could throw some links around social media or to based and zoth-pilled gaming friends you know, that would be fantastic!  I can send you either the tall or wide banner for your blog, if you'd like to host it.  Just email me: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Meanwhile, I'll be sending around flyers locally in order to bring gamers in the tri-state area closer together, uniting around principles of awesomeness.

It seemed like half of all attendees are Game Masters, and expert-level at that, so there won't be any shortage of games.  I intend to run Cha'alt, Alpha Blue, and this Lovecraftian mystery RPG that I'll start working on in 2024.  Plus, I should have book 4 of the Cha'alt trilogy in-tentacle by VENGER CON III. 

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, let me know.

Until then, I'll be around - here on Venger's old-school gaming blog, Twitter [X], Facebook (as Darrick Dishaw), YouTube, and MeWe.

There's news in my non-gaming life, too.  My Father just passed away a couple days ago.  He was 87, and still fairly sharp of mind and in mostly decent health up until the end.  It's no exaggeration to say that I owe him everything.  Best Dad ever!  He was always extremely supportive of my book writing dreams, and loved having his signed hardcover Cha'alt books on the coffee table for everyone to see.  

Thanks for all the well-wishing and continued support from everyone around me, and our entire family.

Love you guys,

VS

p.s. I've been selling Cha'alt hardcovers like hotcakes recently.  That means the end is actually in sight, and it won't be long before they're gone (probably by VENGER CON IV: The Search For More Money, so don't freak out if you're currently struggling in these trying economic times). Ordering details here.

VENGER CON Aftermath (convention report, part 3)

 

Ok, here's part one, part two, and my latest video.  All in an effort to get you up to speed on VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo.  

Alrighty, the meat of this blog post will be my 2nd Cha'alt game and a little about the final session of VENGER CON... Alpha Blue.

We started with 4 players - Imur a droid warrior (an old assassination-droid with the serial numbers filed off), Gabriel a human cleric (and worshiper of the King in Yellow), Frank Beezlebub a demon sorcerer with made an ill-fated pact with a demon and was sentenced to Cha'alt as a punishment, the droid thief ST-K1 who goes by "The Saint" and keeps killing folks wielding scimitars without the proper license and registration... and halfway through, we picked-up a 5th player who played Black Destro, a human warrior.

This is the session that ventured deep down into Cremza'amirikza'am.  It's why I brought the magenta lamp - the lamp that never got used because I plum forgot about it!  Oh well, next year.  On the plus side, I did remember to bring my travel drum.  It was only for one encounter (could have used it more, I suppose), but it lent a certain amount of je ne sais quoi to the session.

I know I've said this elsewhere, but if I'm running a session primarily set in a certain location, I usually don't begin there.  I start the PCs in another place and let them arrive at the place they'll be exploring after 15% - 25% of mucking about in a tavern or wandering the desert or on a starship.  In this case, the PCs were locked behind laser bars on a starship headed for Cha'alt.  Cha'alt was listed as a Federation penal planet, and the PCs were prisoners.  In several hours, they'd be starting their new life on Cha'alt.

Of course, ST-K1 was familiar with the planet... as was an NPC I cooked up named Za'av - green skin, former gladiator with a badass weapon that would be too difficult to describe with mere words (it was named Ka'arl).

The PCs became acquainted (also an important step in my games), got to Cha'alt, but no one was around - all the crew had vanished.  They re-acquired their stuff, took as much info as they could from the ship's computer, and walked out into the desert.  Getting a bird's eye view, the demon sorcerer noticed a stone temple that had seen better days.  They walked to it.

Inside was a ball of yellow light that could speak directly into their minds, and a stone spiral stairway leading down to Cremza'amirikza'am.  In my best Thundarr villain voice, I instructed them that Iva'ak-Na'az, the great and powerful, wished them to travel down into the under-realm and bring back the Lokna'ar!

Gabriel believed this was a direct message from the King in Yellow and gladly obeyed.  The rest either felt like there was something to be gained, or that it was at least a starting point in their adventuring career.

I used the Vanessa and her banana-men servants as the opening - once they got past the black robed Kort'thalis worshipers flaying the back flesh from a humanoid corpse with none other than a crystal-rimmed jaccard - a thief's tool of inestimable value that was slumming it in the hands of depraved cultists.

From that moment on, ST-K1 used the crystal-rimmed jaccard as a "whip-missile" like from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the weapon employed by the blue guy.  Why the fuck not?

Wanting to help Vanessa and find the Lokna'ar, the PCs ventured forth, exploring the first level of Cremza'amirikza'am.  They encountered more cultists, androids, replicants, and a tentacled clown-worm before discovering a secret cave leading to a subway tunnel with active subway!  The PCs decided to get on board and see where it took them.  After climbing aboard, they realized it was a 2-day journey to someplace they didn't know.

After a random encounter of a unicorn murdering an NPC passenger, the subway car was attacked by a warlord wearing black serpentine armor and his minions.  They jumped on top of the subway car and laser-sworded a circle in the ceiling to jump down.  Several were shot with blasters and assorted weapons by the PCs before getting into melee range.  It was a good battle.

Hours later, the subway slowed down in front of The Black Pyramid of Cha'alt and the PCs decided that's where the mettle of real adventurers are probably tested, jumped out, and headed for their fate.

We had a lot of fun, and many jokes were made... my favorite memorable line was the following, "This timeline is from a damaged prophecy."

I did get a chance to use the moon dice, and realized that it didn't provide the punch that I wanted.  The way I approached the mechanics, it emphasized something slightly different than what I was after.  I was reminded that in game design, you should make your design fulfill a variety of purposes.  However, at the end of the day, decide which has the highest need and go about fulfilling that first and foremost.  

With the moon dice, I wanted it to serve many masters, but in the end, I mostly wanted a way for the PCs to attempt epic, legendary actions that would normally be out of their reach.

Since the convention, I redesigned the moon dice, mechanically speaking, in order to meet that highest design goal.  Thanks to my speedy layout guy, I already have an updated PDF for Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 Revised.

So, the last session was Alpha Blue.  As I stated in my latest (as of this writing) video, character creation just sort of fell into place.  I saw it from a different angle, and that objective perspective made it clear how to proceed.

Here's what I did... 

• Everyone roll either on the scoundrel or respectable career table (just one time per PC).
• Then choose if you want to be an alien, robot, mutant, or human (other)... which means rolling on the d4 table allowing you to have psionic powers, zedi abilities, etc.
• Finish all your rolling on the other tables as seems reasonable (outfit, gun, backstory, name, etc.)
• If you rolled on the respectable career table, your combat dice pool is a 2d6.  If you're a scoundrel, roll 3d6.

The PCs were Dreego the human medic (who owes a bounty hunter named Ma'altag - hey, I was still in a Cha'alt mood, and was toying with directing the PCs to that desert planet), Razwand a cyborg con-man, Azroy a human psionicist, Feyd Akhbar a human interior designer and rich nobleman, and Satara the Lovecraftian alien assassin who was more female than male.

The shared background of the penis-headed alien who groomed two of the PCs on the same ship made for a good starting place.

They were all aboard Feyd Akhbar's ship on their way to Alpha Blue when they came upon a seemingly dead vessel but still full of lifeforms.  Force-docking onto the S.S. Love Ship, they boarded it.  All the passengers were comfortably sleeping.  Azroy reached out in his mind to discover that most were having erotic dreams featuring a small green alien with a bulbous head.

The small green alien, eventually located in the cargo hold, was using his own psionic powers to control the sleepers' dreams and collect some blue juice filling a cannister sitting next to the alien.  

After finding out the details and realizing this was a potential gold mine with no one to stop them, they shot the alien, stole the blue juice (along with various valuables belonging to the passengers), and went back to their ship.  Now, they had something to sell on Alpha Blue.

After arrival, they went to a Mos Eisley cantina style bar where deals usually went down. There was some space hanky-panky in the champaign room to start things off.

It was then that I decided, as the GM (or Bold Dungeon Space Master) that I decided to fly too close to the sun.  There was a guy tailing the PCs and he had a boss.  The PCs found someone who had a boss that might want to buy the blue juice.  And there was the bounty hunter who wanted the money owed to him - plus interest.  And who knows, maybe another guy, as well?!?

I got lost in all the guys with bosses, deals being made, names, appointments, and just everything.  Luckily, the PCs had taken notes and got me sorted out.

There was some high-level grifting, wheeling and dealing, and a white-knuckle shoot-out back at the cantina.  The scenario only lasted about 3 hours, but it was the tail-end of the convention, and we came to a satisfying conclusion.  Time to pack it all up, say goodbyes, and drive home.

It was a great time, while still leaving room for improvement.  If you want to mark your calendars, the official dates agreed upon by my wife and several of the attendees I talked to over the weekend are Friday, July 19th - Sunday, July 21st.

Unfortunately, those dates don't work for the hotel (which is weird, because even during our convention the day-of there were room vacancies), so I'm going to shop around for another venue.  I'll keep you posted.

That's it!  Thanks for going on this journey with me, even if it's just reading the post-con report blog posts.  I appreciate your support.

VS

p.s. I did sell a number of books, including the magnificent and gorgeous Cha'alt hardcovers that are still on sale!  Ordering details here!

Cha'alt Game Jam in January

 

This announcement is in preparation for when the stars are right... January 1st.

I'm organizing one of those game jam things for Cha'alt. 

In case you don't know, Cha'alt is my very own eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic OSR campaign setting that frequently includes humor, grindhouse / exploitation sleaze, and pop-culture references.  It now encompasses three books with a fourth volume of the weird-ass trilogy hopefully coming in 2024.

Not using ichio; only DriveThruRPG and Big Geek Emporium to host releases.  

Between January 1st and February 14th (Valentine's Day), I'm creating a six-week open license window for gamers to create stuff and sell it using my Cha'alt intellectual property, and I'm extending that to include Crimson Dragon Slayer, Alpha Blue, and Encounter Critical (both the original and new edition that'll come out at the end of December).

Everything made within that window will be allowed without a separate license between the two parties, and may continue to be sold or distributed freely by the creator.  Anything made outside of that January 1st 2023 - February 14th 2023 timeframe will require a licensing agreement between the creator and myself.  

Post the following somewhere in the product, "Licensed with permission from Venger As'Nas Satanis, High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing and Archduke of the OSR, in the year of our Dark Lord 2023, whether you like it or not."

I look forward to seeing what you make of this golden opportunity, hoss.  Share this news, and let your creative juices flow!

If you have questions, or you'd like my advice, suggestions, or feedback on anything, just ask... Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Thanks,

VS

p.s. Here's an update blog post now that the Cha'alt Game Jam has officially started! 

Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows

 

This is it, my friends... book 3 of the Cha'alt trilogy.  

The PDF was just released today, like some slavering, incontinent demon determined to shit the bed of conformity, woke-ism, vanilla fantasy, and corporate D&D.

It's a whopping 360 motherfucking pages!  Now, before you get too excited, it contains some previously released material.  Namely, the Saving Cha'alt and Cha'alt After Dark material.  If you already own those, and also missed out on the Kickstarter a few months ago, just paypal me $10 and I'll send you the PDF so you're not paying for material you already own.

Just to warn you, Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows is sleazy and depraved in spots.  Imagine taking the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic campaign setting you already know and love, then pouring in some sweet, sweet Alpha Blue.  Yeah, it's going to blow your mind, hoss!

If you're wondering about the hardcovers, the digital files will be ready to go soon.  I should have the books in my slimy green tentacles this summer.

Oh yeah, if you find something that needs fixing, let me know ASAP!  I'm updating the PDF next week, and want all those little typos, layout glitches, errors, and whatever brought to my attention BEFORE sending the digital files to the printer.

Email me at: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

I'm still exhausted from my family vacation, so will end this blog post here.  Good night!

VS

p.s. Still 80-something tickets for VENGER CON... a small old-school, OSR, and traditional RPG convention in Madison, WI this July.

Cha'alt After Dark (part 2)

I'm running a 2nd playtest session for Cha'alt After Dark this Saturday night.

Should be just as awesome as the 1st session - read the play report.

Briefly, it's a mix of Alpha Blue sleazy aesthetics in the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse world of Cha'alt.  Should go together like chocolate and peanut butter.  I'll be crowd-funding the adventure starting on June 10th.

In the meantime, if you want to play with us on Roll20, come join us!  First come, first served.  90-minute session, text only, 18+ due to sexual content, mature themes, and graphic violence.

VS

p.s. If you're asking about the gorgeous Cha'alt and Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise hardcovers, I've still some left.  Ordering details here.

Getting Paid To Game

 

There are a few ways to make money playing RPGs...

• Become a GM for hire, getting paid to run games for folks.
• Create your own RPG content and find an audience for that.
• If you're big enough, you can make money with a YouTube channel, Ko-fi, Patreon, affiliate links, or be one of those bloggers / podcasters that has advertisers, sponsors, etc.  

Here, I'm going to suggest another way to turn gaming into cash - run specific games for publishers and share those experiences with the gaming world.  

There are tons of people playing D&D online.  Yeah, it's the most popular RPG, but it's also been done to death - and it doesn't help those independent content creators struggling to get noticed.

I'm probably not alone in desiring a group to run Kort'thalis Publishing products (specific products mentioned below) with regular play reports that include photos, maybe even an entire video stream?  Personally, I'd rather read about a game than watch 3-4 hour sessions, but to each his own.

I will put my money where my mouth is and offer $100 for every individual who runs a year-long game of 2+ sessions per month, documenting each session with a satisfying chronicle of their group's experiences.  It might work for a player, instead of only GMs, but that player would have to rely on a GM to run the games, and I know how fragile gaming groups can be - especially when you're not calling the shots.

Now, I realize that in the grand scheme of things, $100 isn't a HUGE amount of money.  But consider free RPG products and extra promotion for yourself when those RPG companies (such as Kort'thalis Publishing) promotes your content.  Plus, you could run multiple games for one or more companies.  Depending on the companies, maybe you could get paid twice for mixing products together... who wouldn't love to read about a Cha'alt and Carcosa, Barbarians of Lemuria, or World of the Last Sun campaign?

Consider all of this and let me know if you'd be interested in participating.  At the moment, I'm most interested in either the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic campaign setting of Cha'alt or my sleazy scifi RPG Alpha Blue.

Feel free to comment below with questions, comments, suggestions, or advice!

VS

p.s. If you want the gorgeous Cha'alt and Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise hardcovers, ordering details here.

Cha'alt After Dark

 

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm not sure if it had always been in the back of my mind or some gamer suggested it, but Cha'alt + Alpha Blue eventually needed to happen.  Last night was the first one-shot...

What's the difference?  Well, I started with Cha'alt and just included more scifi and sleaze.  That's pretty much it.

I ran the game on Roll20 with 9 players.  Since I run these virtual one-shot sessions so rarely, I didn't want to turn anyone away.  It was a little hard to keep track of everyone, but that didn't deter me from GMing like a fucking boss.

Some notable characters were... Vrek, a chaotic vore wizard, an elven cleric named Muldraen who was the party prude (until he wasn't anymore), not wanting to spend much time in the desert oasis sex club... but I'm getting ahead of myself.  Who else? Gabbak Notha the demon cleric, Hanz Frazen the swole & shirtless human wizard.  Tan'ndoor Starblade, a moon-elf thief, and several reptilian PCs.

One player in particular renamed his reptoid Whitesnake to honor the memory of Tawny Kitaen.

I simply focused on what was happening and how the adventurers responded, letting everything else fall into the background.  The PCs talked amongst themselves, and I had to ignore most of that to keep all my balls in the air.  

The session started in a normal non-sleazy way.  Mysterious humanoids pulling strings, making the adventurers dance.  It all started with a game. This magic ring thrown down a well, and the PCs had to go fetch it.

I was expecting more in-fighting, but that was my fault.  Next time I run it, I need to incentivize betrayal.  No one turned on each other, sadly.  However, there was a decent combat encounter to get the blood flowing (though, not everyone participated).  The rest of the party had already climbed out of the well.  They missed the fight, but found out what was going on via drones circling the air.  The gold they were expected to get for surviving was being held at the desert destination sex club - Pervert's Paradise.

The majority of the session took place in the club.  I had a random table for what they encountered upon entering, a random table for what happened to each of them while they were hanging out, and then a third for the inevitable bar fight.

It's important to let PCs off the leash when it comes to sandbox social interaction scenes.  I want them to roleplay, to gravitate towards whatever kind of play experience they're interested in.  That's an important part of Alpha Blue, and any RPG, in my opinion.

For example, one player started gambling away, using a friendly drunk elf as the "table stakes".  Another asked the bartender if he could make a pan-galactic gargleblaster.  As everyone knows, my games are very pop-culture friendly.

By the time the bar fight happened, we were close to the end of our 2-hour session.  I had a variety of plot hooks in my notes, but it was too late in the night to make good use of that.  So, we simply roleplayed the after-effects of the bar fight.

The Federation broke up the fight and sent everyone home. A couple PCs sauntered into the Federation starship that was parked just outside Pervert's Paradise.  They stole the ship and flew it to Alpha Blue.

The rest went to an afterparty thrown by one of the hot bimbos from the club (possibly the woman asking if anyone wanted to take a pussy shot).  At the very beginning of the scenario, it took them 2 hours to walk from A'agrybah to the well.  At the end, it took them about 15 minutes to get back to her apartment via shuttle.

I almost forgot... one of the PCs, Muldraen, stayed behind, sneaking into an upstairs bedroom with 3 elf maidens while the Federation troopers weren't looking.  BTW, that was the one and only skill-check of the night.  

After getting with the girls, he asked if any of them were holding.  One elf-girl presented a handful of glowing purple crystals they could smoke.  And smoke them they did.  What were the effects?  While I did have both Cha'alt and Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise (as well as the Saving Cha'alt PDF) sitting right next to me for reference, an idea sprang to mind... an out-of-body experience that makes you feel like you're Nicholas Cage for a few hours.  Yes, that's the dream!

And, of course, the best part was reading all the enthusiastically supportive comments post-game.  Thanks, guys.

All in all, a very satisfying one-shot.  Yes, there will be more!  ;)

VS

p.s. If you still want hardcovers of both Cha'alt and Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise, ordering details here.  Thank you for supporting independent RPG content creators like yours truly!

Larry Flynt: Space Hustler

 

It's obvious to me that without Larry Flynt, there might not be an Alpha Blue RPG.  And what a tragedy that would be for the universe!

I just found out that he died.  Champion of free speech and lover of all things sleazy... RIP, hoss.

From now until Monday, I'm bringing 3 Alpha Blue titles to the low, low price of $1.  

It all started with Alpha Blue.  That gets you in the mood while teaching you everything you need to play.

Girls Gone Rogue is the first Alpha Blue supplement.  More options, random tables, and scenarios.

An even bigger and nastier supplement is Universal Exploits. It's got everything! 

I tried to make everything as rules-light, gameable, humorous, sexy, and sci-fi as I could.  Anyway, enjoy.  Pour a Purple Prizm out for one of my heroes, Larry Flynt.  If you want to read about the man, this is as good a place as any.

VS

p.s. Yep, my Saving Cha'alt kickstarter is going for another couple weeks.  Back it now before you have to pay retail [shudders uncontrollably].