The D20 Purge

Most of us are book hoarders by nature. Gamers, that is. We never want to let a book go for fear of the knowledge being lost forever. Especially for us fans of the Dead Games Society, disposing of a any RPG game book or comic book, even one we have never played or would ever re-read, is hard.

But reality is reality, and limitations on physical space is an absolute truth.

This Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I could take it no longer. My rpg/comics book collection finally reached critical mass. The books were piled high in front of the bookcase. Things were crammed in willy-nilly. I had to do something. 

Going through ones book collection is exhausting, because every volume you pull out you want to stop and reminisce about. It took me three days to do anything but make piles of books in various categories. Pulp RPG, Cyberpunk RPG, Green Lantern graphic novels, Batman crossovers... The piles just got taller, and I was getting nowhere. I couldn't decide what to cleanse!

Found this between two books. Clearly the purge was decades overdue.

Then it came to me: The D20 Splats of the 2000's. I would cleanse my bookshelves of the D20 Splatfest that was 2000-2010, and see if that solved my problem.

It sure as hell did.

Now, I admit a lot of good writing occurred during the D20 onslaught of the early 'aughts, starting with 3e D&D and... well, never  quite ending... (looking at you, Pathfinder). But the D20 OGL rulesets were all basically the same, the rules are easily remembered, and the pdfs easily recoverable. So I purged them ALL (well, except Adventure D20 and Starship Troopers, they got a pass). And you know what, I ended up with bookcase room to spare!

Organized bookshelves. They are a thing of beauty. If you've got your own overflowing bookshelf and can't decide what to do then I have a suggestion... simply purge the D20. It's a critical HIT!

Delving through Undermountain on DGS #36!

Welcome one and all to the Yawning Portal! Grab your iron rations, silver mirrors, and tinderboxes because it’s time to descend into the dreaded Undermountain! 

We’re talking convention-gaming Undermountain, that is. On episode of the DGS Podcast I take the DGS mic on a solo adventure down into the cold dark to explore the depths to which one can go when creating conventions based around old-school Megadungeons. I interview Brando of the annual megadungeon-themed convention Brandonomicon, and we discuss hyper-deadly Undermountain, Ropers, Twitch-style technical setups for multi-room gaming, making mystic treasure props and cards for the players, side-betting on adventurer deaths, dungeon-themed geocaching, and for some reason, pizza roll eating contests! (Plus a special return edition of the Vorpal Chainsword Quizblast!)

Starship Troopers Miniatures Game and the Perils of Licensing

I have a confession to make: I love Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

Whether its the serious Starship Troopers novelization proselytizing about taking responsibility toward a functioning society, or the tongue-in-cheek mockery of a militaristic dystopian future, both takes on it are equally pleasing to me.

That's why back in the ancient times of the early 2000's I got heavily into the Starship Troopers miniatures game from Mongoose Publishing. It had everything, beautiful bug miniatures based on the cheeseball movie, fantastic rules written by the illustrious Andy Chambers of ex-Games Workshop fame (who's wargaming genius was not being recognized by GW during their foray into a 4th edition of Warhammer 40k), and Starship Troopers fluff written by Mongoose publishing, which is a gaming company that only employs writers who really love the shit out of the stuff they write about. Unfortunately Mongoose has a bit of a "holding onto the license" issue, which I'll get to...

Back to the Future RPG: OUTATIME!

Like Time Travel? Like Sci-Fi films from the 1980's? Like Time-Travel Sci-Fi films from the 1980's? Well then have I got the D&D adventure for you!

Back to the Future RPG: OUTATIME is a one-shot 5e D&D adventure that will be run at Gamehole Con 2015 on Friday, November 6th, 2015 from 10am-4pm (don't worry, its not really a solid 6 hour game. We'll take plenty of breaks for lunch and stuff). It features all our favorite Time-Travelers from the 1980's (and a few from the 1990's) banding together to save the time-stream from being destroyed for all eternity by the moronic Tannen family and their nefarious time-jumping allies.

Marty McFly will have to team up with the likes of Bill S. Preston (Esquire), a mysterious man known as "The Doctor," an overworked S-Mart Employee, and even a strange Robot from the Future in order to save Doc Brown and put things right that once went wrong! The game is rife with not only endless references to 1980's film and TV tropes, but is also D&D true-to-form with full-on tactical 5e D&D combat. The Terminator can't do it all himself, so Marty better stop cracking jokes and jump on that hoverboard to help out his new friends when the bullets start flying! 

Check out the 5e Player Character Sheets for OUTATIME

On the Vorpal Chainsword site proper are the playable characters for the game, statted out in all their 5th edition glory. "Is this everyone that will appear or be playable in the game?" (You ask?) Absolutely not! These are just the ones I'm willing to reveal stats of beforehand, so as not to give out too many spoilers. Check them out and see which character you want to play if you decide to take on this temporal challenge at Gamehole Con 2015! 

Party on, Dudes!

The Marmoreal Tomb Kickstarter is Here!

So maybe you're at GenCon right now, knee-deep in orcs, reaving your way through a bloody slaughter of Red Bull-fueled carnage and glory. Well, once the corpses stop twitching and you have an opportunity to recover your arrows, drink a healing potion, and take a short rest; I ask that you set your Battleaxe aside for a moment and consider the parchment fragment you found amongst the Chieftain's horde, and realize...

THE LOST DUNGEON OF GYGAX HAS BEEN FOUND!

Lost for decades, this temple complex of the Great Ones was relegated access only to the Wise Few. Those fortunate Masters of the Realm who personally knew Lord Ernie of the Genevans, the Elder Son of Gygax. But those secret treasures hidden deep within the famous Hobby Shop Dungeon can now be sought by brave adventurers of the Current Age. That's right! Today Ernie Gygax and Benoist Poire of GP ADVENTURES have revealed that the hidden location of the entrance to the lost Marmoreal Tomb of Garn Pat'uul (amongst other Wonders of Adventure!), is only a short distance away...



So I ask thee, Good and Noble Warriors of the Realm. Donate a bit of your hard-earned gold to this Kickstarter, and once again let the Songs of Glory ring throughout the land! I have personally interviewed Benoist about this project, and both spoken and gamed extensively in the upper levels with Ernie, and I can promise you from deep in my soul that these are Wizards of Truest Integrity and Grace. These Noble Maesters are dedicated wholly to bringing us forth to the Dungeons upon which our forefathers tread, and allowing Glory and Honor to once again be the hallmarks of Our Great Hobby! Your gold will be well spent, the Kickstarter Completed, and the Spoils from this Adventure will be Beyond Limit!

Game On and Kick Butt! Huzzah!

Kung Fury is out!

That's right! The short that consists of pure weaponized 80's awesomeness has finally been released! And you can watch it here in 100% HD VHS tape quality:

Its 30 minutes of in-your-face Kung Fu Cop action. So break out the Pop Rocks and Coke, because your brain is about to explode!

VCP: Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth!

NEW VORPAL CHAINSWORD PODCAST!

Ever wonder where the best prog rock music for movies and video games comes from? Well, I'm here to tell you, its from these guys! Vince himself already has a bit of a cult following among Transformers: The Movie enthusiasts, as he composed the fantastic soundtrack to that excellent film, and occasionally visits BotCon at the behest of fans. He also is responsible for the awesomeness of the Rocky IV soundtrack, including that purest paragon of perfect montage music, the Training Montage! 

 
Furthermore, these two guys crafted the music for a lesser-known karate fighting movie from 2004: Sci-Fighter, all released on Vince's Falling off a Clef album, and which I often use as epic background music for my own D&D games (and highly recommend)! Vince and Kenny have also been rocking some video game soundtracks lately, with their two most recent releases being the rockin' soundtracks for Saturday Morning RPG and Angry Birds:Transformers!

Prepare your ears to learn the secrets of the musical fight-masters! 

Check it all out on the Vorpal Chainsword Podcast!

Kung Fury music video!

Sometimes you really get burned on a Kickstarter. Either the video game never materializes beyond a garbage "Early Access" release and then the developer disappears, or the promised publishing of a new edition of an old-school RPG gets to be almost two years overdue from when it was promised (August 2013, if you're wondering). Those situations make one question the validity of supporting Kickstarters, and are a good lesson in taking a step back from a Kickstarter project before donating, and re-evaluating whether you really believe the people will do the things they promise they will do if they get the funding they ask for on Kickstarter.

But then there are times when you support a Kickstarter and the creators not only bring their best game, they blow it up and send it into the stratosphere! Such is the case with the Kung Fury Kickstarter (by Laser Unicorns). An upcoming indie film about a 1980's Renegade Cop (and Karate Master) who hacks his way through time in an effort to kill Hitler (available on Youtube May 28th!).

Today Kung Fury released a music video they made for the movie soundtrack (yes we even get a soundtrack, chock-full of 80's synth!). And they not only made a video, they got the one, the only, 80's legend David Hasselhoff to write a song for them! So without further ado, I present to you -

Kung Fury - True Survivor

David Hasselhoff

TableTopDay 2015 - Fireball Island!

So today (11Apr2015) is International TableTop Day! For this year's festivities, The good Dr. Mrs. Chainsword and I met some friends from the game group down at the Friendly Local Gaming Store, I'm Board! (of Madison, WI). And we brought along the epically Kinetic and nostalgia-inducing boardgame of fast 3-D action:

FIREBALL ISLAND

by Milton Bradley

Fireball Island

Normally I'd consider a blogpost about Xmas presents pretty pretentious and generally overdone. Might as well log onto Facebook if I want to see boring posts about what dumb stuff people got for Xmas. However in this case the Xmas present I received from the honorable Mrs. Chainsword is both within theme of this blog and pretty amazing.

She actually obtained for me a copy of the extremely rare Milton Bradley boardgame:

Fireball Island!

So why is this game so incredible and important? I'm glad you asked! A detailed analysis of the awesomeness of Fireball Island follows...