Monday, March 21, 2016

Alpha Blue temporarily suspended


I won't go into a rant, lecture, or tirade on censorship, artistic freedom, etc.  Just wanted everyone to know that Alpha Blue got a temporary suspension from DriveThruRPG.

You can read the copy/pasted email below...


A customer has reported your title as potentially containing offensive content. We have had a quick look at the title and decided to temporarily suspend the title (i.e., turn it Private, not Public) on DriveThruRPG.com pending a thorough staff review of its content. We aim to review all titles within two business weeks.

Most titles we review are found not to contain offensive content and are reinstated for sale in short order. If that is the case here, the title will then be whitelisted so other customers can not report it again. For new release titles suspended during their initial release period, we will reset the title’s release on our marketplace so that it is once again treated as a new release.

If our review determines there is content in the product that we may not want for sale on DriveThruRPG.com, then we will be in touch with you again to discuss the matter in more detail.

We appreciate your patience while we conduct the review. Please do not turn the product back to Public until we’ve concluded our review. You will hear from us again as soon as our review is completed.

Regards,

DriveThruRPG.com 

________

FYI, softcover copies of Alpha Blue are available on Amazon.com and CreateSpace (where I get a slightly higher percentage of the profit).



Sunday, March 13, 2016

Girls Gone Rogue PDF


The PDF of Girls Gone Rogue is here.  It's 80 pages (I only promised about 50)!  A print-on-demand version is coming very soon.

Before furnishing the free maps created by Glynn Seal of +MonkeyBlood Design for Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue, I'd like to thank all the Kickstarter backers.  Thanks, guys!  Couldn't have done this without you.

One last thing... creating the (softcore) porn version of a 1970's style science-fiction RPG was kind of a risk.  I didn't know if anyone would "get it", like it, want to play it, or even purchase the damn thing.  It was a total gamble - but it paid off.  Alpha Blue has found an audience, despite a few vocal naysayers.

With Girls Gone Rogue, I doubled down.  Not just more of the same.  I tried to stretch myself, to boldly go in new and filthier directions.  Sure, the text is a bit more "blue" at times, but it's the artwork that takes the cake.  A few images go above and beyond risque.  Alpha Blue tested the waters... Girls Gone Rogue dives right in.  The water's fine.  Enjoy!

Ok, below are the Dropbox links...

Alpha Blue space station

Blue Flamingo

Sunfish starship

The Cantina

Memphis Beast

Tiny Dancer



Thursday, March 10, 2016

Post Gary Con Analysis (part 2 of 2)


Just as I was finished eating dinner (BTW, here's part 1), I got a g+ community group text hangout message thing - technology, not my bag, baby.  Someone asked, "What do you do when it's been a half-hour and the GM hasn't shown up?"

"Riot," I replied.  And then in a more serious tone, offered my services as Game Master for that table, not really knowing who was there, what they were playing, or any specifics at all.  All I knew was that I didn't have a game scheduled and GMing is what I was born to do.

The person texting gave me their table # so I could find them.  I paid the check and made my way there.  As it turns out, everyone except the guy texting and his wife had vacated the premises a couple minutes before my arrival.  I can't blame them for leaving.  They were probably frustrated and didn't want to roll the dice.  After all, no one knew who I was and I could have been awful.

So, I wandered around and used the google hangout machine to ask if anyone was interested in an unscheduled session of Alpha Blue.  One guy said yes.  His name was +Tim Loughrist.  He and I were hanging out at a free-for-all table between gaming rooms, waiting for the previous tenants to vacate.

Tim was asking me questions about Alpha Blue because he had heard some things about it.  As I was explaining, the dude who had just playtested his Model U.N. but with pirates game joined in the conversation.  I recognized him from Game Hole Con, but can't remember his name.  Somehow, another dude sat down and by some miracle we had a game!

The three players created characters.  All were scoundrels, one a mutant.  The random tables provided the rest.

There's something about the sci-fi genre.  Especially, action-pulp space opera sci-fi.  More than once, the very first encounter I rolled at the start of the game became the centerpiece (centerfold?) of the session.  Spacers just seem to know what to do, I guess.

Tim's character was in debt to a bounty hunter so that he could begin the game with his own ship.  I told him it looked like a cross between an X-Wing and the Millennium Falcon.  The reason being my car was parked about a mile away from the convention entrance.  And it was cold, windy, and snowing.  So, I didn't want to spend 15 minutes walking (again!) back to my car to get all my Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue maps.  Probably should have, but oh well.

Anyways, Tim drew his interpretation of that ship and named it the Iron Pigeon.  His interpretation was quite literal, which I thought was hilarious and took a picture of the thing.

After exchanging some of their credits for blue bucks and purchasing a trucker hat and some risque snow-globes, the action started.  A hologram appeared in their section of the space station.  Some diminutive alien threatened to blow Alpha Blue up unless a Blue Flamingo starship was delivered to him.  Behind him was a full-scale orgy.

So, the PCs grabbed their blasters and dove right in.  They landed their starship on a strange planet and infiltrated an enemy starship and nearby compound.  There was wheeling and dealing, negotiating a deal that played both sides against the other.  It reminded us of Clint Eastwood from The Man With No Name trilogy - aha, yes!  His name was +Clint Bohaty.  No clue who the third guy was, though.

A sexy, leather bodysuit-clad NPC tagged along.  Being the professional bounty hunger, mercenary, and assassin each of them was, they saved pleasure for the end, after their mission had been completed.  The mutant assassin had sex with a mature prostitute originally picked up by the merc, who also planted a thermal detonator inside of her, but I won't get too deep into that.  You just had to be there.

It was a good game and I thanked everyone for playing.  Unfortunately, GMs have to submit games far in advance of the actual conventions.  Planning 4 months ahead of time isn't my style.  I didn't know how Alpha Blue was going to go until after my games had been submitted, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to run my latest book.

No idea how, but I got lost from the Grand Geneva to my Comfort Suites hotel.  It was a straight shot and only a half-mile away, but somehow it eluded me and I was lost in a blizzard for about 40 terrifying minutes in an unknown town.  Thankfully, the woman behind the desk at Comfort Suites guided me in via phone.

Saturday mid-morning was my last session, The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  Two years ago I playtested Purple at Gary Con VI, so it was fun bringing The Purple back to Lake Geneva.

Just like Friday's Crimson Dragon Slayer game, I had 5 players.  A single guy played in both my scheduled games.  One woman this time.  She has the honor of being the only female I GMed that weekend.  Every time I said something, like "Yeah, you can start out with machine guns," she replied with "That's cool," or "So awesome," or something like that.  She wanted to play a minotaur cyborg.  "Sure," was my response and she was happy about that, as well.

I've run Purple about a dozen times and no session has been exactly like any other.  It's so sprawling and random that each game seems like a unique experience.  I'm running out of time, so I'll quickly mention the highlights...

  • Started as slaves.
  • Stumbled onto a security system.
  • Encountered a silly gnome driving a high-tech tank with laser canon.
  • Hid from The Thing That Rots From The Sky in a black pylon.
  • Wandered into a dimension that looked like an Erol Otus painting.
  • Helped a cult summon Yogsoggoth!
  • A few participated in an orgy with strange magenta-hued women.
  • Broke into an underground base.
  • Received a starship in exchange for not killing any more of Mannix's men.
  • Flew the ship to a shattered dome city that had seen better days.
  • Fought some Lovecraftian aberration and won.
  • Went to another galaxy or something.

All in a full day's work.

Everyone seemed pleased at the end.  I surprised myself with the Yogsoggoth encounter - it got even more indulgently weird, gross, and erotic than even I expected!

Not sure who the player to my immediate left was.  He was playing a snake-man wizard and kept improvising these cool spells involving his ancient reptilian ancestors and glands to the point where it was both awesome and ridiculous.  Anyway, I really enjoyed his roleplaying.  And he brought purple dice to the game!  Next time, maybe you can prevent those meteors from bringing down the Jurassic period.

So, that was it.  Hope you enjoyed reading my report on Gary Con VIII.  If you have any questions, please ask.  Thanks to the friends and family of Gary Gygax, as well as, all the great people I met during my all-too-brief stay.  

Unless a new baby is born just before or after Gary Con IX, I'll be there.

VS



Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Post Gary Con Analysis (part 1 of 2)


There are pros and cons to almost everything.

Rarely do we ever experience a cloud without some kind of silver lining (no matter how hidden, it's usually lurking somewhere) or a silver lining without a cloud - human nature being what it is, I think the vast majority of us would readily agree with that.

The good think about living so close to Lake Geneva, home of the Gary Con roleplaying game convention and birthplace of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons, is that I can drive there in about 90 minutes.  The bad thing is that it was easier for me to justify only going for a day and a half.  But then, it's better to go for a short time than none at all.

Likewise, attending by myself was also a mixed bag.  I was unattached, unencumbered as it were, able to do what I wanted, when I wanted... however, it would have been nice to share the experience with a friend or two (even my wife).  Though, I did get a chance to talk with a few gaming buddies and acquaintances throughout the convention.  But +Tim Virnig better come with me next year!

For some reason, and I'm not entirely sure why, I opted to only run games instead of signing up ahead of time to both run and play them.  Maybe I wanted to focus on Game Mastering for my limited stay.  Perhaps I was hoping to GM an unscheduled session or two.  Possibly I figured there would be several unscheduled games I could drop into without having to decide months in advance.  Whatever the reasoning behind it, my destiny was to orchestrate the chaos.

It took me a little while to get my bearings.  I had almost two hours before running my first game.  So, I wandered the dealer's room.  Oddly, nothing jumped out at me that I had to have.  Exchanged pleasantries with someone manning the Black Blade Publishing booth who was interested in selling my books at the next con (probably Game Hole Con).  Also stopped by and said hi to +Jeff Talanian who created Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

Just after locating the table where I'd be running both my scheduled games (Saturday's game was actually the table next to Friday's), I ran into +Jason Bossert and +Meredith Spearman.  They played in my Purple Islands game at last years's Game Hole Con.  Jason is too funny, and they're both really nice.

The first session I ran on Friday afternoon was "The Scarlet Sorcerer's Sanctuary," a one-page zine that I intended to flesh out into a full scenario months ago.  Well, Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue got in the way of that.  So, I had half an adventure and my other RPG books to help me improvise the rest.

I think it went well.  There wasn't as much Crimson Dragon Slayer type 80's references and humor because that wasn't written into the zine and that stuff is harder to improvise.  So, it seemed less like the Crimson Dragon Slayer I know and more like a fast and furious old school D&D game... which was fine.  Still, it's obvious that I should have prepped more.

I believe this is also where I unequivocally decided that no damage should be left behind!

Some of the things I write are open to interpretation.  Instead of being chock-full of description, advice, and things going on, occasionally there are tunnels or "passage ways" that allow (or force, depending on your view) the GM to come up with his own ideas, answers, explanations, etc. on the fly.  Well, I've never written anything with the number of passages contained in "The Scarlet Sorcerer's Sanctuary".  It was indeed a challenge.

The following is an anecdote from that session I relayed to +Julian Bernick over breakfast Saturday morning.  Thanks again, hoss!  I can't wait to game with you and everyone else at Game Hole Con this fall.

Anyways, there was this secret room containing three statues.  All three resembled elves turning into demons.  That was it.  In fact, I made up the elf/demon thing on the spot.  All the zine had was a secret room and three statues.

The players tried to interact with the statues by moving them and looking for secret compartments.  They didn't find any.  One player said aloud, "This is the most boring secret room we've ever found."  He said it in-character to another PC, but I still felt like the shittiest GM in the world at that moment.  Because he was right.  It seemed boring, stupid, and pointless.

My mind was spinning, trying to conjure a way to salvage that weak ass encounter and/or the remaining adventure.  Then another player had an idea.  You see, the room before the secret chamber contained a pool of blessed water.  "I'm going to carry some of the holy water in my helmet and pour it on one of the statues," he said.

"The statue begins to melt," I replied.  Soon enough, all three demonic statues were puddles, revealing spiral staircases down into the darkness.  I felt much better about it then and things continued.

The scenario ended with the scarlet sorcerer's treasure room.  For saving him, the scarlet-robed gnome granted the PCs two-thirds of his treasure.  He showed them his vault of goodies - three pedestals, each holding a large, fist-sized sphere, like a pearl.  One black, one white, and the last scarlet in hue.

As the PCs talked amongst themselves about which ones they should grab, I wrote-up a super quick d6 table to handle the outcome(s)...

What Happens When They Touch A Sphere?
  1. Death
  2. Return to the real world
  3. Summons a creature
  4. Thrown into a weird dimension
  5. Magic item (such as a ring of flying)
  6. 10,000 gold pieces

The beauty of coming up with a table is that it didn't matter which of the three spheres they touched.  If they took the black pearl, it would be just as random and fair as if they handled the other two.  

I actually don't remember how it all played out, except I know that a character played by +David Bresson touched one of the spheres (I think it was black) and rolled a "1".  That was the only character death of that game and my entire gaming weekend.  At least, it happened in the closing minutes of the session, so he didn't have to sit there and watch the rest of the party play without him or scramble to make a new character from scratch.

David Bresson was a good sport about it.  He approached me as I entered the Grand Geneva resort (which was very impressive, by the way).  David recognized me (having backed all my Kickstarter projects) and we talked for awhile about this and that.  I'm glad he had been there to welcome me.  BTW, I chatted with +Forrest Aguirre shortly after.

I'll conclude part 1 by saying that Friday night's dinner was unbelievably awesome.  The convention center contained three restaurants: a really fancy steak house, a fairly fancy buffet, and a super fancy pizza and pasta restaurant.  

I finally decided on the middle one because it seemed the most casual.  I lost count, but think I had four plates of prime rib, shrimp with cocktail sauce, garlic butter mashed potatoes, and chicken along with a mountain dew.  It was fantastic!  Felt a bit weird eating this big meal all alone, but it was nice to chill out and collect my thoughts, too.  See?  Pros and cons everywhere.

Part 2 is here.  Thanks for reading!

VS

p.s.  Gary Gygax shall be remembered as the co-creator of the first fantasy roleplaying game way back in 1974.  This was a great way to honor his memory!




Thursday, March 3, 2016

Gary Con and Beyond


Tomorrow morning, I'll be making my way to Lake Geneva for Gary Con.  Should get some great pictures and a few entertaining stories.  Looking forward to being there and running games!

Meanwhile, I created a new RPG Meetup for Sun Prairie.  Last Saturday was session two of a new once a month D&D 5th edition campaign.  I'm mixing Liberation of the Demon Slayer and The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence because my creative energy is exhausted from finishing up Girls Gone Rogue.  But now that that's 99% complete, I'll be able to put more of myself into adventure writing.

Before I go, just wanted to give a dice-praising shout-out to a translucent d20 that was in a set of polyhedrons left over from my Alpha Blue kickstarter.  It honest-to-Cthulhu scored no less than 9 critical hits in last week's game.  Yes, nine times!  The party's cleric died and a couple other PCs almost tasted the big purple tentacle in the sky.

All hail Akahl, ye make players think twice before engaging in combat.  Akahl!  Akahl!  Akahl!

VS


Saturday, February 27, 2016

Going, Going, Gone!


I'll blog about today's 5e game on Monday. Right now, I just want to mention Girls Gone Rogue one last time.

The Kickstarter has about 19 hours left to go, then it's over and in about 4 or 5 weeks, the PDF will be in your sweet, salacious hands.

Since Girls Gone Rogue is a supplement of the Alpha Blue RPG, I'd like to mention a few things...

An unboxing video...



Nemo's Lounge reviewed Alpha Blue here.

The Sorcerer's Skull reviewed it here.

But Girls Gone Rogue goes deeper.  It's got even more random tables, locations, NPCs, humor, sleaze, and adventuring possibilities... and the artwork is a bit filthier.  You're welcome.  Even if you prefer another sci-fi RPG, these books can give your campaign that edge, that... je ne sais quoi you've been looking for; taking it from PG to NC-17.

Check out the KS updates containing dropbox links to FREE (for personal, non-commercial use) maps.  You don't have to participate or back anything.  A cantina/bar/club and three starships are yours for the taking!  Glynn Seal of +MonkeyBlood Design did such an amazing job.

I was talking to a player in last week's Alpha Blue game and he was both impressed with the maps and the game, calling it a "breath of fresh air".  If you've been stuck in a fantasy rut (like many of us at one point or another), the space station brothel could be your home away from home.

If you know a gamer who might be interested in such things, tell them about the KS.  They can get both Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue for a good price.  Also, there are still two top-tier backer reward packages.  I received the t-shirts today and they look sexy and badass!

Thanks,

VS


Saturday, February 20, 2016

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




Wednesday, February 17, 2016

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.



Wednesday, February 10, 2016

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