"That which is not dead..."

Happy Birthday Mr. Lovecraft.

Savage Worlds at RockCon

I"m going to be attending Rock-Con in Rockford, IL November 4th-6th and there are Savage things afoot. I'm going to be running a game of Space 1889: Red Sands Saturday morning in the 9 am to 1 pm slot. Pre-generated characters and miniatures (well, cardboard miniatures) will be provided. Other Savages are planning events of their own. 

Also, if you like classic RPGs and/or Tékumel, I'm also going to be running an introductory game of the original Empire of the Petal Throne, Friday night. My partner in all things OSR, Victor Raymond, is also promising to take daring gamers on a trip into the empire of Tsolyánu where adventure, wealth, and very available priestesses of Lady Dlamélish await!

More details as they come.

Nyára Vléshla

The all-powerful Victor Raymond is restarting his EPT Play-by-Post campaign on the ODD74 forums, and I'm resurrecting my Dlamélish-worshiping priestess from Tékumel's Southern Continent. Maybe's it's because I'm a sex-starved nerd, but I've got this "thing" for powerful females who worship hedonistic deities.

Nyára Vléshla
Age: 17
Sex: Female:

Sadly, HeroMachine 2.5 has Barbie-doll notions of human anatomy

Race: Human
Deity: Dlamélish
Profession: Priestess Level: 1
Expeience Points: 0
Hit Points: 4

Strength: 41 (Average)
Intelligence: 97 (Genius)
Constitution: 46 (Average)
Psychic Ability: 87 (Quite Psychic)
Dexterity: 45 (Average)
Comeliness: 84 (Beautiful)

Open Doors 60% Detect Traps 40% Spells: 50%

Saving Throws:
Poison: 13
Spells: 15
Paralysis/Hypnosis: 14
Eyes: 14

Original Skills (93):
Group 1:
Group 2: Swimmer-Diver
Group 3: Courtesan, Musician, Scholar (History)

Professional Skills (80):
Know Two Modern Languages (Tsolyáni, Livyáni)
Know Two Ancient Languages (Engsvanyáli, Bednálljan)
Can Produce Light
Cure Light Wounds

Gear (Starting Kaitars: 229K):
Mace 7K
Leather Armor 30K
Waterskin 1K
Backpack 5K
Charting Paper, Pens, Ink 3 K
Rations for Underworld 10K
Flint, steel, and tinder 1K
Lisútl root (of course she has some)

Current Kaitars: 162K

Once a pampered, noble-born priestess, Nyára was forced to escape to Tsolyánu after her Sourthern Continent homeland was sacked by the Hlüss. She hopes to rebuild her fortunes in Jákalla anyway she can.

Lálei? Is that you?

Hydra Miniatures is releasing a line of space amazons, the Valkeeri, for their Retro Rayguns line of pulp sci-fi figures.


She looks like a certain Imperial naval officer and Mentalik in the service of the Veritable Autocrator. She must be mine!

Monkeying around with the design.

I'm going to be adjusting the design of the site. Bear with me, please.

On "My" MARS...

One of my favorite Savage Settings is Adamant Entertainment's MARS. While it is not mean to be a translation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom tales (although you can find that setting Savaged here), Gareth's setting still has a enough sword and planet action to spark the imagination. Of course, like many gamer's I've decided to tweek it slightly to match my own vision of the Red Planet.

In my MARS, most of the Gareth's setting is still intact: Mars is still a world of deserts, jungles, and ruined cities. Red men still fight fight the green savages of the wates as well as war with the White Apes. The Gray Men still plot and scheme in their dark, dank chasms and the Synthe-Men still tend their ancient machines. Callor, Baltan, Lonaria and the rest are still major centers of action and intrigue.

One of the notable differences between the Gareth's Mars and my Mars is the climate. Rather than being a cold and dry world, I've cranked the thermostat up to max and have the Red Planet bathed in nearly constant heat from an unforgiving, swollen, red sun.

Yes, you read that correctly. A red sun. Rather than setting it in the 19th Century or early 20th century, my Mars exists millions of years in our future. By this time our sun is entering the Red Giant stage of its life cycle and slowly swelling, engulfing the worlds of the inner solar system as it expands. Mercury is no more and Venus will be next in a few millions years.  Earth is no longer habitable by anything we'd recognize as life, but the humans of the far future migrated to and terraformed Mars many eons earlier. For a time, Mars was a garden world and a haven for humanity until civilization fell into barbarism. Humanity's descendants, modified by the processes of natural selection and ancient genetic engineering, became the various intelligent races of Mars. (With the notable exception of the Grays, they aren't from around here.) If there are any "Earthmen" on Mars, they are part of the original Homo sapiens colonists who first came to Mars many millennia ago who have been somehow "preserved" (e.g. suspended animation tube), or they have been plucked from space and time by the Grays.

I'm also working on fleshing out the religions of Mars. Gareth made mention of one deity Faina the Provider, in the "Slavers of Mars" adventure. I plan on expanding the pantheon of deities a bit more, as well as work out the details of their particular rituals and practices.

Now that I've told you about my Mars, I want to hear about your Mars. Do you play the setting "straight up" or do you modify it like I did? If so how?