In Thoth's Wake! - A Pulp Adventure for Fate Core!

Wow, it's been almost two years since I've posted something here and a lot has happened in that time!

I've been remiss in not touting a little project I've been working on for a while. Just over two years ago, my Chicago area gaming friends convinced me to use Kickstarter's Zine Quest to make it a reality. 

So, with their help, the help of 125 backers, and the support of friends and family, In Thoth's Wake! Zine QuestEdition! was brought from old Spirit of the Century campaign notes to a fully realized pulp adventure for Fate Core!

The Final Zine Quest Cover!

The Pitch

A mysterious woman’s dying words send your intrepid adventurers on the path to find the temple of the Egyptian God Thoth. Secrets to Thoth's genesis are hidden within. Could they lead the adventurers to an ancient lost Greek civilization?

In Thoth's Wake! is a scene-based pulp adventure written for use with the Fate Core roleplaying game system, but can be repurposed for the system of your choice. It's loosely set in the 1930s and assumes the players will be taking on the roles of a united group of adventurers. Playing through this adventure will take between two and four standard-length roleplaying sessions. It contains six possible major scenes and includes five different maps of exciting locations.

Fate Core was designed to be open world and non-linear, which seems counter to designing an “adventure module” such as this. However, I've noticed several Fate-specific discussion threads with players and game masters lamenting the lack of pre-generated adventures. Likewise, game masters new to the Fate Core system may be more comfortable with the familiar adventure module format. 

As a Fate game master, you can use this adventure in whole or in part. If you like the story but Fate isn’t your cup of tea, it should be fairly trivial to strip out those bits and drop in your preferred system-specific mechanics and characters. Perhaps you just like some of the scenes and would like to reskin them for your campaign. Or maybe you'll just enjoy the maps or Non-Player Characters.

It is currently available on DriveThruRPG. 

Initially, it was going to be a one-and-done thing. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, I made it available for pay-what-you-want for the first year of the pandemic and donated the proceeds to artists who lost income due to gaming conventions going virtual-only.

I hope to do the full color version some day...

Gen Con 2018 Recap

I apologize that this recap is late as well. At least it's before Gen Con 2019 and not as late as my Gen Con 2017 recap! As before, my memory ain't what it used to be, so I'll do my best.

Wednesday
This year I carpooled with Vic, one of the Chicago Area Game Writers Colloquium (CAGWIC) regulars. We had a lovely discussion of the gaming world we live in and life in general.

Once we settled in, I headed over to the Crown Plaza ("the Train Hotel") to attend Monte Cook Games GM Meet and Greet. They went over the general guidelines, answered any questions, and handed out some very nice GM materials (which I will recap below). Somebody also brought in some MCG-themed cupcakes! They were yummy! Monte Cook Games is a great company to run games for. If you get a chance, sign up to run for them, at Gen Con OR your Friendly Local Game Store!

Back at the hotel, the first game of Gen Con 2018 was Photosynthesis by Blue Orange Games. I've been wanting to play it for a while as it is always so pretty setup in the demo halls. Brad brought his copy and set it up for us. It's such a beautiful game with a strategy that changes every round. There was a race for the middle, but Brad pulled out the win with his own private grotto. Good game gents!

We finished out the first night with Hellapagos by GigamicWorld. It's what you would call a 'coopetitive' game. I think 10 of us were playing. We all start as shipwreck survivors on a remote island. There is just enough food and water to last us two days. Initially, we are trapping water, fishing for food, gathering wood, building a raft from said wood, or scavenging the wreckage for supplies. That didn't last long. I ended up drugging friends to steal their supplies and then claiming immunity when getting "voted off the island" (i.e. dying from lack of food or water). I made it to the final four. It looked like there was only enough supplies for two people to escape the island, so with the two bullets I scrounged, I shot DJ and Brendan. DJ deflected the bullet with a scrap of steel and then produced enough sandwiches to save more than four people. Shashank said I didn't have to brutally murder Brendan as he had a machine that converted food to water. Too little to late, my friend; bullets travel faster than food processors! So, DJ, Shashank, and I made it off the island and escaped the hurricane. In an ironic twist, that would be the last game I would "win" at Gen Con 2018.

Thursday
Adam, Tyler, and I decided to brave the rush and tackle the exhibit hall first. Brad asked us to hit up the Smirk & Dagger booth to pick up a copy of Tower of Madness for him.

Since I was close, I headed over to the R. Talsorian booth. A long line was forming. Apparently, the Witcher RPG has a big following! I waited in line so I could find out when to expect Cyberpunk Red (later 2019 - Jumpstart Kit at Gen Con 2019!) and snag some cool cyberpunk dice!

I then stopped by the Indie Press Revolution booth to pick up Scum and Villainy by Evil Hat Productions. Scum and Villainy uses the Blades in the Dark rules to play a spaceship crew trying to get by. I had seen a print proof at Origins Game Fair and had to get my hands on a copy!

At 1:00, Monte Cook Games held their Discover your Destiny seminar. The first half was discussing Numenera: Discovery and Destiny and what to expect from that new edition. Of course they talked about Invisible Sun. Then they announced the Kickstarter for Your Best Game Ever—a collection of essays to improve your role playing game experience.

After an early dinner of a Salmon BLT from High Velocity, I headed back to the convention hall to run the two Monte Cook Cypher System games I signed up for.

Salmon BLT with Asparagus! Yum!

First up was Cypher System - Assault on Singularity Base, a multi-table cooperative free-for-all set in your typical space opera. I ran green team, who had to assault the barracks and keep the waves of troopers from reaching the other parts of the base and keep the heat off the other teams. It was a suicide mission. I knew it was a suicide mission. I tried to convey that uphill battle to the players. By the time we took our halftime break, at least one player was frustrated with the apparently insurmountable odds. After the break, the tides turned! The other teams started sending reinforcements. May table jumped from six players to nine! With the extra bodies, they were able to lock down the barracks and escape before the base blew. Total blast Afterwards I got some really flattering feedback, that totally made up for the rough spot in the middle.

I didn't have much time to reset the table for Numenera - Forgetting Doomsday. The adventure is a tale of two war-torn villages who have to come together to save both from a mysterious mind-altering machine between them. The setup requires that players be split between the two tribes. After some initial and expected friction, they fully embraced working together in brilliant ways! Well played, folks!

Several of us finally got to play Brad's brand-spankin' new copy of Tower of Madness. It's a push-your-luck game where you are trying to investigate and "solve" locations with your dice rolls. In the middle of the table is the Tower of Madness, which is pierced with tentacle-handled skewers and topped with marbles, à la KerPlunk. If you fail to investigate properly, you have to pull a skewer. If a marble drops, depending on the color of the marble, you can gain victory points, lose sanity, or begin to summon Cthulhu! The first game didn't go so well, as we all died unceremoniously. The second game, a few of us were sprinting to go insane and try to summon the great Old One. Scott became a cultist first, but got consumed with the rest of us as Cthulhu awoke hungrily.

Friday
Due to a scheduling blunder on my part, I was late to my session of Apocalypse Road being run by the game's designer Brad Poikonen. It's a larger home-brew version of the board game Thunder Road. Even though I was late, Brad let me run the two "bad guy" tanker trucks! I didn't last long once the other players set their differences aside and ganged up on me...

Had a quick but tasty lunch with Scott and Kristen at Café Patachou.

Back in the exhibit hall, I hit up the Roll4Initiative booth. I've been meaning to show these guys some love at past Gen Cons, so I made sure to hit their booth this year! Their main product is their dice. They're larger than your "typical" polyhedral dice and have larger numbers making them easy on old gamer eyes! I picked up three of their basic opaque sets with a buy-two-get-one-free coupon. They also had a "toss a d20 win a prize" dice tower in their booth. I rolled an 18 and won another basic die set. I had been salivating over their Diffusion sets, so I snagged one of the blue sets as my prize. Thanks guys!

Brad brought his copy of Red7, so he, Jeremy, Tyler, and I settled in to play a couple of rounds. Red 7 is Uno on Steroids. Each color has a rule and the object is to get rid of all of your cards by playing the best card following the current rule, or change the rule to give yourself the lead. Brad trounced us both times.

Saturday
So my buddy Pete Petrusha, with the help of Kickstarter backers, published Dreamchaser, a rules-light story game where any adventure is possible. I've been trying to get in a session or two and was successful this year. At the table were two enthusiastic ladies, two young girls with their father as a guide, and myself. The first task was to create our shared dream. After a brief discussion led by the GM, we came up with: “Bring the faerie dragons back to the world of unicorn mermaids.” The characters we generated ended up being (if I remember correctly) a Pigpen-esque adventure guide with a pocketful of gummi bears, a veterinarian with severe anxiety, a beautiful and politically motivated unicorn mermaid, and my artistic Victorian little girl, modeled after Brian Froud's Lady Cottington (of Pressed Fairy Book fame). We uncovered and foiled a faery dragon smuggling ring in the underwater city of Mermaid Ocean. The adventure brought quite a few giggles and "awwws" to the table.
#MakeMermaidOceanGreatAgain

The big climax happened at Mer-Mart, so I sketched it!

This year, R. Talsorian has introduced Cyberpunk Chronicles, their living campaign. I got into a session titled, "Guns, Lots of Guns", in which we had to break into a high-security firearm and pawn shop and steal as many guns as we could carry. We had our stuff together and were able get in and get out with firearms with minimal complications.

I was left with a couple of hours to finish out my exhibit hall crawl and then met up with Brad, Scott, Kristen, and their friends for our yearly sushi dinner at Mikado. Bonus: Vic was in the area and was able to join us!

On our way back to the JW we stopped at a vacant table so Brad could introduce us to That's Not Lemonade. The first thing he pulls out of the box is a half dozen shot-glass-sized Solo cups. We were intrigued! Unfortunately, our interest quickly waned as we learned it was simply a poorly implemented push-your-luck game that didn’t even use the tiny cups.

Back at the JW, we played a couple of rounds of Codenames. I should be ashamed of myself as I had Brendan on my team and he was using all kinds of theatre references. Alas, with my brief set design dabbling, I only recognized one or two of his references...

The surprise hit for the evening was an EXIT The Game: The Abandoned Cabin. It's essentially an escape room in a box. To be honest, I forgot if we escaped or not, but we had a blast going through all the clues, scribbling on and tearing the provided materials (a pair of scissors would have been helpful), and searching every scrap for hints.

Sunday
The last day of Gen Con presented my least favorite game of the con. One of my roommates accidentally grabbed my convention badge as he was driving out of town.  Brad and I had to chase him down before one of his passengers had to catch a flight! Sleep deprivation followed by an adrenaline surge does not make a fun game.

The reason getting my badge back was so important was because I had a slot in “Mike Pondsmith Kills Everyone,” a Cyberpunk 2020 RPG one-shot run by the great Mike Pondsmith himself! True to its title, I did not survive the mission. Hell, I didn’t survive the AV crash landing! Fortunately, Mike let those of us who died early run some of the opposition. Definitely an experience. I’m so glad I was able to get a ticket to Mike’s table (and didn’t miss it due to the badge fiasco)! Thanks Mike!

And that’s Gen Con 2018!

Gen Con Haul

Clockwise from top left:

• Gen Con 2018 adventure booklet and XP deck I got for running Assault on Singularity Base (Cypher System) and Forgetting Doomsday (Numenera) for Monte Cook Games. I also got a limited edition unfinished Shin! (Not pictured: Cypher System playmat.)
• At top is the Operation Coldfront + Advance Pack Gen Con 2018/preorder exclusive by Corvus Belli.
• Next is some resin terrain I picked up at the Miniature Market booth.
• That's followed by some neat tokens from Dapper Devil LLC. I plan to use them for the Infinity RPG by Modiphius.
• Four sets of very nice dice from Roll4Initiative. Three sets of basic opaque dice and one set of Diffusion dice.
• Picked up that custom keychain for myself and a necklace that resembled a cartouche for my wife from Addy at Tangled Earth Art. She was hanging out with the folks from Bricks & Boards LLC. You can see her setup here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmJ34dcHHCj/ Thanks Addy! You're the best!
• That big honkin' twelve-sider is a hit location die from Q-workshop. I eventually went in and painted the actual hits in red to make them stand out more.
• Those goodies are sitting on top of a factory-second GM screen from Hammerdog Games - too good a deal to pass up!
• Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse! by Renegade Game Studio was released at Gen Con 2018. We've had fun playing Clank! In! Space! so I had to get the expansion PLUS PROMOS! (Which are tucked inside the box already...) Now to get more card sleeves...
• At Origins this year, I picked up Dusk City Outlaws by Scratchpad Publishing - a super cleverly designed RPG in a box. When I found out metal tokens were part of the Kickstarter, I had to get a set. Fortunately, Campaign Coins had me covered. So purdy!
• Tucked above the Campaign Coins, is a copy of The Apocalypse Road by Brad Poikonen. It’s a post-apocalyptic road-warrior miniature vehicle combat game based on the board game Thunder Road. 
• Finally, I stopped by the @IPRTweets booth to pick up a fresh and just-released copy of Scum and Villainy from Evil Hat.

Seeing as it has been taking me sooo long to post these, this may be my last Gen Con recap...

NULL - A Video Game Concept

Way back in 2012, I had this really involved dream about an orphan being groomed to be an operative in some alternate post-WWII England. It was vivid enough that I was able to write it down. From that, it looked like it could be a really interesting video game concept. Since it's been sitting in an email doing nothing since then, it's time to bring it to light.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liverpool_Blitz_D_5983.jpg [Public domain]

This the pretty much the game concept description I developed from the dream notes I took.

Name: Persevere (Potential?)
Code Name: NULL

Chapter 1 - Freedom Is Fabricated

The scene: Something like bombed out parts of England in World War II, but something suggests an alternate future.

The player is a young orphan in an orphanage in one of the few buildings still left standing.

There is a Marm that oversees the place. She is stern and matter-of-fact.

Through a series of playable cut-scenes, the player is harassed by the Marm and the other children (how?) to the point where escape seems the only option.

Just after lights out, the player discovers a slightly ajar access panel and can sneak out, into the nearby loading yard.

The player must then use stealth techniques to duck from shadow to shadow, eventually working his way up a ladder, and dropping though a garage skylight.... into the back of a box truck

Playable cut-scene in which the truck drives back to the orphanage and into the hands of the Marm.

Punishment ensues (what kind?).

Chapter 2 - Love Is False

The scene: Same orphanage, but under increased scrutiny.

The player is now a tweener.

Through a series of playable cut-scenes, the player gets involved with some minor brawls with other orphans. This is where melee attacks are learned.

The player also interacts with one of the female attending assistants. (How do we make the player care about her?)

In discussion with the assistant, the player learns of another possible escape vector, and she agrees to help with the condition that she gets to tag along.

The player makes it much farther through the remains of the suburb, picking up a club or crowbar in the process.

However, the Marm catches up with the two escapees and is now joined by armed guards.

The player has an opportunity to fight off the guards, but it should become apparent that their sheer number and size overwhelm the player, capturing and cuffing the two.

WIth a look of disappointment, the Marm says, "shoot her."

The guards fire and the girl goes down.

Chapter 3 - Life Is Fleeting

The scene: Same orphanage, different part of the complex (other side of the loading yard?).

The player is now a late teenager.

Through a series of playable cut-scenes, we realize the orphanage is actually training soldiers of some sort - the player has earned enough respect to actually be handling a basic firearm and has begun the first phases of training. (See La Femme Nikita)

Just as his security detail lets their guard down, the player escapes bolting through the city streets (buildings still damaged but cleaned up?).

A full-on manhunt begins.

Initially, any attempts on the player will be non-lethal takedowns - each of which the player subverts.

Eventually, the security team has to resort to lethal force.

The player is finally gunned down (by a minigun from a small hover-chopper thing?)

Chapter 4 - Death Is Forever

The scene changes: Interior of a vast (underground) complex. The decor is a cross between modern contemporary curved architecture and the linework of TRON.

Through a playable cut-scene, the player wakes up in a haze. He is on an operating table, machines are beeping slowly in the background (indicating it doesn't look good), and a medical team is standing over him.

"I'm sorry, sir. The orphanage called in a strike team. There's not much left of him. There's nothing we can do."

The player's screen makes one final glance to one of the nurses (or doctor?) and then fades to black.

[Insert cool transition sequence - pinholes of light; eye is the window to the soul; images of somebody else's life...]

The player's screen is now looking down on the remains of his former self. It's bad. The actual vantage point is from whichever nurse (or doctor) was looked at last.

The doctor asks for a final clamp to stop the blood from soaking the table any more. The player can look down at a tray of instruments and can pick any:
• If a clamp, the doctor clamps the patient, asks to do final cleanup and walks out. The player may pick up other instruments as needed.
• If a scalpel, the doctor questions the player's choice, which leads to an escalated fight. If any of the personnel escape, alarms will be sounded.
• If any other instrument, the doctor questions the player's choice, giving the option of rechoosing (until a break point? three tries?).

From this point forward, play proceeds through the meat of the game.

The twist is, whenever the player dies, he respawns in the body of the last NPC he saw (in the event that all previous NPCs have been killed, then the body of the PC's killer).

The player can choose to play it stealthy with whatever instrument the nurse picked up, or full-on guns blazing.

There is no weapon hoarding - if the player wants a particular weapon, the owner of the weapon has to be the last person he sees before dying (finger-print coded weapons?)

Some obstacles will require finding a way to die while watching somebody on the other side of the obstacle.

[What's the meat of the story? Is the player trying to find and kill the Marm?]


My dream notes suggested a scene toward the end of the story:

The player finds themselves in a predicament in which the only escape is a leap over a balcony to a 13 story drop. During the fall, they pass the window of a conference room with a meeting in progress and make eye contact with an attendee.

Per the rules of the game, the respawn from the sudden stop puts the player in the conference room. A little person is giving a presentation on the larger corporate plans. Interacting with or interrogating the speaker (and perhaps dealing with the attendees), the player can find out about what he knows and why the player is there. Pushing further, they can learn that he is a lower level manager. The real person in charge is the Marm!


There you have it! What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Gen Con 2017 Recap - Gen Con's 50th Anniversary!

Sooooooo..... this recap is WAY overdue. Over 14 MONTHS overdue. Better late than never, right? The drawback is that you tend to forget a lot of the details of an event over the course of 14 months. As such, dear reader, I apologize that you won't get the detail I usually provide.

---

Comparing Gen Con's 50th anniversary to the previous year, I'd have to say it was much better than Gen Con 2016. Even though it SOLD OUT for the first time in its history, somehow it didn't feel as crowded. I did some miniature painting, but no speed painting. And I felt like I got to spend more time with friends, old and new.

Wednesday
The first thing we did after dropping our gear off at the hotel was to hit the Will Call line to pick up our badges. Despite the convention selling out, the Will Call line moved amazingly quickly. We discovered the reason: if you don't have badges to sell, you convert those booths into Will Call! Boom!

A quick visit to Thai Paradise for dinner, then back to the hotel.

Once we got settled into our chosen conference room,  DJ Douglass presented me with a copy of Titansgrave! Apparently, I was the winner of the contest he was running on Twitter. Yay!

Then we got to playing some lightweight fun games. Specifically:

• Plague & Pestilence - an oldie but a goodie!
• Exploding Kittens
• Bears -vs- Babies
• Noisy Person Cards

Thursday

I decided to ride the wave into the exhibit hall as soon as it opened. First stop was the Indie Press Revolution booth to pick up the just released Fate Adversary Toolkit. While I was there, I was drawn to the Blades in the Dark Special Edition, so I snagged one while there were still copies on the shelf.

At 11:00, I attended the Monte Cook Games Seminar, at which they announced Numenera 2: Discovery & Destiny (Since over a year has passed, you can order it now!). The important thing to note is that it expands on the existing Numenera universe—it does not change the basic rules and is backwards compatible with the original Numenera.

Next up was Painting with Angel Giraldez: Nomads in Red, at noon. Red is a tricky color to highlight without it turning pinkish, so I thought I'd get some tips from Angel.

Angel's on left, mine on right

Next was a quick bite to eat from Edward's Drive-In Diner, where I picked up a tasty Fish Basket with Onion Rings.

Then, back to the exhibit hall, where I stumbled into Exploding Kittens' Vending Machine. Their setup is clever and hilarious! It's like a bizarre interactive puppet show. A customer places their order by punching in the big buttons on the front, the vendor crew communicates via signage, and payment and product is a exchanged through the slots.

I was able to meet up with Brad and we walked the hall together. Brad was a good sport, as, once we discovered the Weta booth, I spent a half hour chatting with Leri Greer on everything from movie props to living in New Zealand. Thanks, Leri! Totally cool of you to spend so much time chatting!

While I was at the Weta booth, I picked up the Ghost in the Shell and District 9 art books (Leri was also cool enough to sign them), and Neck Port Cyber Enhancement Tattoos!

At 5:00 I had a class on Blending & Glazing Basics for Miniatures & Models. I wish I could remember what I got out of it...

Then dinner with the gang at High Velocity at the JW, where I ordered the Salmon BLT—yummy!

At 8:00 PM, I attended the RPG session: C-Squad. It's Not Just a Job, It's a Death Sentence! Apparently, Cyberpunk 2020 is popular again, as not only was it full, but the GM kept adding folks who showed up to fill empty slots. I think we had eight or nine bodies around the table.

Friday
I started Friday at 10:00 AM with another Painting with Angel Giraldez class: Dog Warrior Skin. Angel showed us how to add texture by painting in the muscle strands across the warrior's chest. He made it look easy, but I need to seriously up my game in order to pull it off.

It was getting pretty crowded and I wanted to hit the exhibit hall again quickly, so, for lunch, I hit one of the convention center counters for pizza.

I made a beeline for the Corvus Belli/Warsenal booth so I could pick up the Limited Edition Gen Con bundle of Infinity miniatures as well as a Xǐguǎn Tower from Warsenal. 

At 1:00, I had a Technoir game where we played Mega-Tokyo book. I had fun, but the GM scheduled 5 hours, 'cuz he likes to take his time...

I then met up with Brad, Scott, Kristen, & Marty at Mikado for our obligatory annual sushi dinner. Again, those Seafood Puffs are amazing!

Back in the hotel conference rooms, we gathered at 10:00 to play Titansgrave with DJ. He ran a fun game and I'd like to see where the plot could have kept going.

Saturday
I was excited to try out some old school RPGs this year, so I signed up for the 10:00 AM session of Star Frontiers - The Return to Digsite Delta-3. If I remember correctly, I was a Dralasite demolitions expert and we ended up packing a mine cart full of explosives and shuttling it directly into the middle of the Sathar operations. Old school explosive damage is amazing!

Once out of Star Frontiers, I left the rest of the day open for a full "Hall Crawl", only stopping for lunch at Der Pretzel Wagon for the obligatory Greedo sandwich.

After the hall closed, I met up with Brad, Scott, and Scott's crew briefly before heading back to the room for a quick nap.

After a few winks, I met up with the gang in our regular conference room to get our last night gaming in. I started with a round of Kaiju Incorporated which I enjoyed, but the regular Magic and 7 Wonders players felt was too simple. That was followed by Mysterium, a fun cooperative murder mystery game. Surprisingly, we rounded the evening out with some late night chatting. It's something we don't do much of anymore (because schedules) and I'm glad we had the chance at Gen Con.

Sunday
Time to wind things down for this gathering of the geeks. After packing the car, I popped into the hall for some last minute shopping on the way to the stadium.

My ride was gracious enough to give me some time to check out the Gen Con 50 Museum, particularly since I had pushed it out of my mind until the last day.

The entrance to the 'museum' was a recreation of the entrance to Horticultural Hall which was Gen Con's home from 1968 to 1970. Once inside, the convention's history was laid out as a timeline across several posters along the periphery. Clustered within, were several cases full of artifacts, for example:

• A copy of Little Wars, by H. G. Wells
• Gary Gygax's copy of Chainmail
• The prototype Dungeon! board game
• The original painting for the cover of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide
• Jonathan Tweet's personal D&D binder from high school with his original sketches
• The draft of Merle Rasmussen's Top Secret RPG
• A giant troll statue!

I took a ton of photos and these are just a small sampling! Suffice it to say, I was glad I got some time to check out some of the history of gaming!

Sadly, it wasn't enough time to fully immerse myself in it, as my watch said it was time to go home.

Next time, Gen Con... Next time...

R.E.G. - Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator

Hey! Cool news! Glenn in the comments below asked if he could make a port of it over on Chartopia. I gave him the go-ahead and here's what he came up with! Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator on Chartopia

If you haven't noticed, Cyberpunk is cool again. With the buzz surrounding the Cyberpunk 2077 video game announcements (seriously, check these videos!), the 30th Anniversary of Cyberpunk 2020, and R. Talsorian's "Resurrection Tour" at Gen Con 2018, it's hard NOT to be excited about our favorite dystopic future genre.

Since that part of my brain is lit up, and in the same vein as the Random Loot Cards and New Tokyo Screamsheets pages I resurrected from a 2001 Cyberpunk Campaign, I give you...

R.E.G. - The Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator!

R.E.G. started as a set of random encounter tables I put together as part of an ever expanding document of house rules for that 2001 cyberpunk campaign.

You are welcome to download the "ascii" version and make it into your own dead tree version...

Eventually, four pages of lookup tables got to be excessive and the most cyberpunk thing to do was to make it into its own application.

Being a Mac user in 2001, my boss at the time suggested I use Hypercard to make it happen. For those unfamiliar with Hypercard, it's basically a "card" and "stack" based database with a graphical front end. To be honest, I forgot what version of Hypercard I used, but I did have to include a "plug-in" so it could handle COLORS!!!

Below is a breakdown of what the Hypercard stack looked like and how it operated.

When you opened the Hypercard stack, you were presented with this main screen:

Please note this was a one-off home-built app, not shared with anyone.

You selected your encounter based on where the player characters were located in the city and the approximate time. Clicking on the corresponding sector would move the targeting reticle to that spot. (Actually, all sectors had the same reticle—it just unhid the sector you selected and hid the others behind big black squares.)

Once you hit the ACQUIRE button, it randomly generated your encounters based on your time and location seed (Ha! The app was slow enough, that I included the green bar under the button to show where it was in the lookup cycle.), and switched to the following screen:

You would actually get three encounters—one in each black box—and it randomly selected an action number from a sub-table (see the PDF) for each encounter. The SET ACTION button allowed you to "reroll" the action values. The blue buttons scrolled through the entry so you could see the full action sub-table. The ENABLE buttons just indicated what your choice of the three was—selecting one ENABLE button would light up the other two DISABLE buttons. The REINITIALIZE button would bring you back to the main screen. I believe the tiny black square above the green and red triangle buttons showed you how many individuals were present in the encounter, and you could adjust that value with the buttons.


If somebody wants to go through the effort of making this into a modern mobile app of some sort, let me know and we'll discuss!

Making a Prop Han Solo's DL-44 Blaster from a Cheap Toy

If you've been following, you know my wife is with the Aurora 88s Roller Derby team. Her derby name is Hannah Solo, so for this year's photo shoot, we thought it would only make sense if she was holding Solo's DL-44 Heavy Plaster Pistol.

The Base Model

A quick search on Amazon showed us this beauty:

Photo from Amazon

At the time it cost me under $10 US plus shipping. Interestingly, if you check the comments, it looks like the only people who buy it are doing so to turn them into props!

Prep Work

The next step was to find a bunch of reference photos. Here's some of the ones that I found:

• https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2015/12/14/video-jerry-miculek-shoots-han-solos-dl-44-blaster/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6EQQnkUGIk
• https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/28ka6a/han_solos_dl44_heavy_blaster/
• https://imgur.com/r/gunporn/1jI7M6O
• http://www.armslist.com/posts/4223492/knoxville-tennessee-antiques-for-sale--dl-44-han-solo-blaster--7-63-x-25mm-
• https://io9.gizmodo.com/this-may-be-the-most-accurate-han-solo-blaster-replica-1794231172 Now that I'm trying to re-find these source images, this site has an amazing bunch of photos!

Also, I need to point out that this video by HappyTrooper was very helpful for some of the prep work and a couple of techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVkijEZ-EZI

Watching that video, I learned that the muzzle end cap could be removed. So I did that and then drilled out the vent holes, starting with a pin vise bit to center each hole and worked progressively upward to an 1/8" bit with an electric drill:

Since I didn't want to bore out or rebuild the scope, I measured each end and had a friend 3D print a couple of scope bezels:

The rear bezel is 30mm O.D., 26mm I.D., and 2.5mm thick. The front bezel is 23.3mm O.D., 20.3mm I.D., and 3mm thick. Since the scope is superimposed on the muzzle, I had to cut it to fit. I also cut a couple of slots in it to match the real scope used.

After gluing on the bezels, scraping off manufacturer marks, filling screw holes and part lines, I sanded everything flush as needed:

The next step was to hit it with a coat of black primer:

You can see I also started masking off the grip.

Weathering

Now to start weathering!

Since the original scope is made from brass—and if you've seen the new Solo movie, you can catch glimpses of gold—I decided to weather it with Privateer Press Formula P3 - Brass Balls:

Checking the reference photos, it appears the grip is made from a reddish wood. So I basecoated it in Reaper Master Series HD Paints - Sunburn Flesh (29821), painting in the direction of the "grain" and making sure a little bit of the black showed through. Then I painted on some additional grain lines with Reaper Master Series Paints - Mahogany Brown (09070):

It doesn't show it here, but now's the best time to describe it. I wanted to knock back those grain lines a bit and make the grip a bit redder, so I used the same Reaper Mahogany Brown and glazed it. Glazing is a fancy word for diluting the paint with water and brushing it on so it puts a transparent film over the other colors. In this case I diluted it 1:1 and did one pass. After that, I did a quick drybrush with a more yellowish brown, Reaper Master Series Paints - Harvest Brown (09200) to make it look a bit worn.

Next, I masked off everything but the muzzle. I wanted the muzzle to look like it had seen some heat and grime, so I used (and happened to have) three different metallic spray paints. First, I basecoated the muzzle in silver. While it was still damp, I then hit the rear parts with a warm bronze, then I touched up the fronts with some gunmetal. Lookin' sweet!:

My wife saw this step and said, "Neat! Carbon scoring!"

At this point, I sealed everything with Army Painter "Anti-Shine" Matte Varnish.

One of the things I caught in HappyTrooper's video was using graphite to give the prop a gunmetal look. I happened to have a jar of Secret Weapon Miniatures Metallic Iron pigment and gave that a try. On a whim, I put a nylon brush in my Dremel and gave it a gentle buffing. It turned out really great:

Unfortunately..... putting on a coat of Krylon satin enamel made the look disappear. Bummer.

Well, push forward on the weathering!

I am fortunate to still have a bottle of Citadel's old Mithril Silver and Chainmail acrylics. (If anybody has a good suggestion for replacing these in the future, hit the comments below!) Using these two, I carefully silvered the various edges, following the various reference photos.

At this point, I also dirtied up the grip and muzzle with some slightly thinned Reaper Master Series Paints - Pure Black (09037) acrylic, mashed it in to the nooks and crannies, and wiped much of it off with a paper towel:

One more coat of Krylon satin enamel and we're almost done.

Since I wanted the scope to look like glass, I stood the prop on end, poured a couple of drops of Vallejo Game Varnish - Gloss (72072), and let it sit overnight:

You may have noticed the crosshairs... Before I glued on the bezel, I scribed the crosshairs in with a dental pick. Before I glossed it over, I painted the lines in with Reaper Master Series Paints - Pure White (09030) acrylic, then followed that with a Delta Ceramcoat neon green.

Since I wanted to get the feel of different materials, I decided to use a couple of different finishes. First sprayed the muzzle matte again, adding a quick pass across the grips to flatten them down a bit too. I also sprayed the scope satin a second time to kick up the sheen. Then I touched up the rest with Vallejo clear varnishes—a less satiny body, the matte mounting bracket, etc.

The Finished Product!

That silver medallion took way to long to get the brushed steel look, and you can't even see it in this photo!

Hannah's pretty happy with the way it turned out!:

Photo by Cloud Photo

"I want a HORROR chainsaw!"

My wife is currently a member of the Aurora 88s Roller Derby team. Every year, they have a "FunD Skate" in which they do raffles, a silent auction, and other activities in order to generate some funds for the coming year. The silent auction is usually a series of themed gift baskets. This year the auction included a "Horror Basket". She hands me a plastic chainsaw Christmas ornament she picked up sometime during the holidays and says, "Could you paint this like a horror chainsaw?"

This is what she handed me:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/282731062165

As I'm writing this, you can still get them on eBay from this seller.

"Sure! I'll knock that out in no time."

I scraped off the silver glitter, masked it off leaving just the blade, hit it with a couple of passes of silver Krylon spray paint, and painted some blood effects on it with some red ink mixed with gloss medium. Done! Easy-peasy!

Done! Easy-peasy!

I hand it back to her, and she says, "That's nice... but I was hoping for more guts hanging off the blade and stuff. I want a horror chainsaw."

"Sure, I can use some glue to build it up some..."

"I know what you're capable of! I want a HORROR chainsaw!"

I don't watch a lot of horror flicks, so I'm missing something. "Um..."

"Like the chainsaw from 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'..."

Those were the magic words I needed to hear. A quick Google search produces THIS IMAGE.

Now I know what I'm aiming for!

I head back to my cave and get back to work:

• Scraped off the remaining glitter. (This should have been a clue...)
• Found an old can of gunmetal colored spray paint and painted the whole thing, wiping off some of the fresh paint to reveal the orange plastic below.
• Painted the handles with flat black enamel paint.
• Tore thin strips of duct tape and wrapped parts of the handles.
• Weathered the whole thing with diluted black enamel and acrylic paints.
• Made the gore texture with 5-minute epoxy, very thin strips of plastic bag from a dry cleaner (for translucent stringy stuff), and a tiny bit of Secret Weapon Rust Red pigment.

That got me to here:

A couple more rounds of "gore mix" and a couple of passes of the red ink and gloss medium, and voila!

This made her much happier!

And we'd like to think the winning bidder is happy with the result as well!