Battle Star Trilogy: Trek Wars

I've got a new Kickstarter.  Here's the link!

Basically, I'm trying to fund three Alpha Blue adventures.  Each will focus on a slightly different aspect of the game - sleaze, laser sword-wielding action/adventure, and deep space exploration.

To go along with these scenarios, +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal) and I are working on a galactic map full of territories/factions, planets, stars, and all kinds of craziness.  The map will correspond to a plethora of random tables revealing what's going on in each sector of the Ta'andor galaxy.

I'm excited about this project, and I hope you'll help make Battle Star Trilogy: Trek Wars a reality!  ;)

Thanks for climbing aboard,

VS

Alpha Blue Campaign Manager

Remember when I was talking about keeping track of all those scifi references?

This here is a sheet of incredibly fancy paper that you can print out and take notes on.

Collect data regarding your campaign's name, key locations, prominent NPCs, influences and details... all that fun stuff!

It's FREE, so go ahead and download it from DriveThruRPG / RPGNow.

The "Alpha Blue Campaign Manager" will also be included in the upcoming scenario High Stakes Q'uay Q'uar, but now's your chance to get it early.

Have a good week,

VS

Presidential Election

Remember Universal Exploits?  That was an Alpha Blue sourcebook and campaign guide I published a few months back. 

It's got a ton of random tables and ideas, giving your sci-fi or space opera RPG of choice more than a little edge.  But what's the significance with the upcoming election?

I wrote some satirical political stuff, mostly about Donald Trump and included it in UX because he was a big focus in the daily news cycles.  They were written before Trump was the official Republican nominee for President of the United States. 

Since we're so close to election day, I decided to have a 50% off sale on the Universal Exploits PDF (softcover books on DriveThru and Amazon / CreateSpace have also been discounted, just not as much).  The sale will run until the election is over and the result is finalized... which could be well into 2017 considering what we've seen so far!

Even if you're not interested in the "space Trump" humor, I hope the star pulp and vintage sleaze are enough to take your mind off things.  ;)

VS

p.s.  Even though the Amazon price has been changed, it will probably take several hours for the updated price to show.

Did I ever tell you my favorite color is blue?

[The ideas contained within this missive are NSFW]

That's a line by Sutter Cane from the movie In the Mouth of Madness.  But I think it's also appropriate for today's blog post, given that "blue" has another connotation [showing or mentioning sexual activity in a way that offends many people].  Wow, doesn't get any more fucking apt than that, does it?  Haha.

So, rather than focusing on horror, I'd like to say a few words on another subject that occasionally scares us: sex.

Just as in everyday life, there are certain taboos about sex in RPGs.  I can understand why.  It's generally considered a private thing.  People want it in varying degrees, in certain forms and expressions.  The majority of us keep it behind closed doors.  From the outside, it may look like a shameful secret.  But it's not, well, not for most of us.

Thinking about it now, I'm reminded of the 80's sci-fi film Alien Nation.  There's a drug talked about and it happens to drive the plot.  Pretty sure it's blue in color - not a lot of pictures available.  I had to look up its name (apparently, the internet isn't sure how it's spelled, as I found 3 different versions on 3 different websites): ss'jabroka.

However, I clearly remember that it was a narcotic, extremely pleasurable and addictive, it made the "newcomers" stronger and able to work harder so that the more they worked, the more they received.  They were essentially slaves to this drug.  I don't know about anyone else, but I see a parallel.  Yes, obviously, the street drugs we're all familiar with but, less obvious, sex!

Incidentally, I'm reading Chris Offutt's memoir about his dad - My Father, The Pornographer - before I dive into John Cleve's Spaceways series of sci-fi literary porn (written by Andrew J. Offutt under one of his many pseudonyms).  To many, the man who wrote 400+ books, most of them considered porn, was obsessed with sex.  He was.  And I must be, too, cause that seems natural to me.  That seems "normal".  Not the normal I see everyday out in the world, external; but the kind of normal that seems "right" or "logical" or "good" in my mind; internal.

Putting out stuff like Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue (11 days left for this Kickstarer campaign) seems right, logical, and good.  And I've received plenty of praise, which I'm flattered and grateful for.  It makes the criticism easier to take.  To be honest, it would feel weird if I wasn't taking flak from people.  Probably because I've always been a weirdo and outsider.  Getting negative feedback from a certain segment of the population is normal for me.  As are feelings of alienation - aha!  Alien Nation... alienation.  See what I did there?

This whole blog post is a bit stream-of-consciousness (my usual jam), so I'll keep on with it.  The other day I was thinking about my crazy decision to throw my/our RPG dirty laundry into the light of day, writing these books which some gamers probably regard as straight-up "porn".

A couple weeks back, I was in Disney World.  One particular night, I was in the hotel room, watching the kids and probably eating pizza, flipping through the TV channels until I landed on Back to the Future.  I hadn't seen that movie in over a decade.  So, I started watching.

Long story short, when Michael J. Fox is playing guitar for his parents' under-the-sea prom everything is going good.  Then he breaks into some rock and roll that's just different and wild enough to impress the audience.  Finally, he ends on a bizarre... solo or something weird that no one seems to understand and basically freaks everyone out.

I can relate to that.  This may be delusional, but I happen to think that injecting sex into RPGs (not that I'm the first person to think of or do such) is the future.  It's going to be part of mainstream geek culture going forward until, I hope, it merges with pop culture and we all start to see some serious movement on the tabletop RPG front.  Where, if you asked 10 random Americans in their 20's if they regularly played the kind of RPGs we're talking about, at least 3 or 4 would probably say, "Yes."

Sex might not be the reason for the future proliferation of RPGs in pop culture, but it won't hurt.  That deep, inner need (even if we're consciously rejecting it, shouting profanities at it, or just hoping particular urges stay locked in the closet) will find expression somehow.  Life, uh, finds a way - wow, I'm kind of overdoing it with the film quotes!

The vehicle could be anything.  Hopefully, I can continue to stand upon the shoulders of those Old Ones who came before and do my part.  A new age of roleplaying may be just around the corner.  Whatever I have to do to help usher it in, I'm going to do.  No matter how much I stick out because the world I've chosen to inhabit is blue... or full of tentacles and strippers.

Thanks for reading my sort of rant, sort of getting something off my chest.  I welcome discussion, if anyone wants to chat about it.

VS

p.s.  Yes, indeed!  Girls Gone Rogue.  Check out the video, stretch goals (Tiny Dancer coming soon), and reward tiers for backers.  Please share it on social media or wherever people are talking about RPGs!

p.p.s.  I'm totally borrowing ss'jabroka and putting it in GGR.

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.