Abraxis: On Kindle

A few months back, I mentioned Abraxis: The Lost Continent, an evocative science fantasy by Dave Morris and Jamie Thompson with inspiring concept art by Russ Nicholson.

Art by Russ Nicholson

The lads at the Fabled Lands blog collected all that material (including a poem by Robert E. Howard) and put it together into a handy Kindle eBook. Until this Friday, you can download that book for free.

John Carter Trailer Part Duex: The Quickening

By now everyone knows that Disney has released the latest trailer for John Carter, their adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian tales. Let's watch, shall we?
Oh yes, so much better than the slower-moving trailer seen earlier this year. Still, a watchable trailer does not make good movie make; therefore, we shall continue to reserve final judgement until we've actually seen it.

Humanspace Fiction

The Drune over at Ix has graciously allowed me to post some Humanspace Empires-inspired fiction on his blog. My first submission can be found here.

Coming Soon: Humanspace Empires!

Proposed Cover Art

Of all the classic fantasy settings, Professor M.A.R. Barker's Tékumel stands out as my all time favorite. Its unique history, cultures, languages, religions, strange alien beasties, and other unique attributes makes Tékumel far more fascinating than the standard Tolkien-inspired backgrounds that most fantasy RPGs seem happy to regurgitate.

Now The Drune over at the Ix blog ("Many machines on Ix. New machines…") is working on Humanspace Empires, a fan-created game that develops a previously little-seen aspect of the Tékumel universe: its space opera prehistory!

For the uninitiated, Prof. Barker's universe takes place thousands of years in our future where the mighty Humanspace Alliance and their non-human allies controlled much of this portion of the galazy. One such world was Tékumel. After using their advanced technology to wrest it from the planet's native populations, the Ssú and the Hlüss, the Humanspace Alliance terraformed Tékumel into a resort world for the Alliance's rich and powerful. It was only after the "Time of Darkness" where Tékumel was mysteriously forced into a pocket universe and cut off from humanity does the setting move from science fiction to fantasy.

The Drune writes;

The rules system for HUMANSPACE EMPIRES will be very similar to that presented in Empire of the Petal Throne(1975); however, it will hew somewhat closer to the rules of the original fantasy RPG, than even EPT did.  As such, the mechanics of HUMANSPACE EMPIRES will be generally compatible with OE D & D, Swords and Wizardry andLabyrinth Lord.

The Drune states that Humanspace Empires will be feature three player classes : Warrior (obvious), Astronaut (ship's crew members and technicians who can also develop psionic abilities) and scientists. Besides humans, the appears to players can also play aliens or robots as well. Currently, no release date or information on price (if any) is available.

Stay tuned.

Coming Soon: Warriors of the Red Planet!

One of favorite fantasy subgenres is “Sword and Planet” which blends elements of science fiction and fantasy together into tales of swashbuckling heroes fighting with swords and ray guns to save a scantly-clad (if no entirely nude) damsel on some distant planet. The best example, of course, are Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series, where the titular American Civil War veteran is magically transported to the dying red planet—which the natives call “Barsoom”-- where he battles strange beings and savage empires to win the hand of the “incomparable” Martian princess, Dejah Thoris.
While there are a few fan created John Carter of Mars  conversions for OD&D on the net, I was considering trying my own had at coming up with a generic sword and planet supplement for either Labyrinth Lord or Swords & Wizardry. I intended it to be set in the far, far, future in the Jovian system on the” terraformed the Galilean where a once ultra-high tech civilization has been thrown into barbarism complete with swords, psychic powers, and half-forgotten technology… oh, and nublie, skyclad Jovian women.
However, it seems I may have to put that idea on hold, because Al over at the Beyond the Black Gate blog may have down all my work for me. He has been working on his sword and planet old-school game, Warriors of the Red Planet. By the look of the spectacular artwork by one Thomas Denmark, Al seems to be heavily influenced by Burroughs’ work complete with aerial battleships and mutli-armed alien brutes. Besides the artwork, Al’s new blog for his upcoming game gives a sneak peak on how PCs will look in WotRP.
As of this time we have no release date just yet, but WotRP has moved up into the top five of my “IT MUST BE MINE” list of future gaming purchases.