So, I’ve mentioned Rebecca Mayes here before. She writes songs about video games. They aren’t exactly reviews or critiques, more like songs inspired by them, though they often have critical parts to them. The music is often ethereal and evocative, and always beautiful. Below is her offering for Halo 2. Usually, she pens her own lyrics, but these are the words of Marianne Williamson, as used by Nelson Mandela for his inauguration speech. Beautiful words on their own, but Rebecca manages to make them even more special. Listen.
For my gaming friends: ever find yourself thinking that the rapier rules seem silly in D&D when stacked against a standard sword? You’re not alone. But consider the following video.
So, it would seem the rules for rapiers are not so bad. In fact, they may be underpowered.
Liz has been working hard on art for me between bouts of getting married, holding down a full-time job, moving and all that piddly stuff. So, I thought I’d share some of her initial sketches.
Trillids:
The Trillids are one of the most interesting of the galaxy’s species, being the only known intelligent species to have three sexes. In fact, all complex life on their home-world Shemarbruc is trisexual. All three sexes — alpha, beta, and gamma — are rather short, with hairless, slightly moist, smooth grey-green skin, reminiscent of frog skin…The most obvious deviance from the humanoid form is in the facial features, set on a slightly bulbous cranium. While the eyes are quite human, with surprisingly similar coloring of the irises, they are large and deep-set, beneath strong brow ridges on a steeply sloped forehead. The nose is broad, and flattened, with fine crenations around the perimeter of the nares, while the lower half of the face protrudes slightly forward in an almost canine fashion. Trillids also lack external ear structures, having only large tympanic membranes beside their eyes, also protected somewhat by bony annular protrusions connected to the brow ridge.
These are initial sketches, and the final people look a little bit different. You’ll have to wait for the book to see what I mean.
Loramyps:
The Loramyps are a semi-sessile, sapient plant species, resembling large, thick-boled bushes. Their roughly hemispherical canopies are thick with large, palmately compound purple-black leaves. The leaves are purple-black with a rough matte surface. In the spring they sport a multitude of huge creamy-white flowers resembling magnolia blossoms. They top out at around ten feet tall with ten foot diameter canopies and four foot diameter trunks. Their smooth, umber-colored trunks are bare up to about five feet from the ground where a sparse ring of flexible, whip-like, prehensile branches begins. These appendages, which can reach sometimes up to ten feet, are tipped with frilly yellow-green foliage, resembling down. When not in use, they are kept wrapped around the trunk.
We’re still dialoguing on these, but the Loramyp in the atrium is just about perfect, no?
Durgen:
The Durgens are a protean metal-based life form. They generally mass about 3.5 times an average male human, but being made of a denser material, they are smaller than humans. They average around 4’ 6’’ tall and weigh around 656 pounds. These beings generally take the form of whomever they are dealing with at the moment. If faced with a group of multiple species, they mimic the dominant one in the party…The Durgens have an unusual societal structure and might be better referred to as The Durgen, singular. They are a communal species, in the strictest sense of the word. Individual Durgens are but extensions of The Durgen, an enormous organism existing on their home-world, Hydoorgyr. From time to time, The Durgen buds off and sends its new Gemma out to accomplish some mission — help find food, rendezvous with visitors, explore new star systems, et cetera.
As always, Liz is a pleasure to work with. Y’all should definitely hire her to do something for you.
There’s a sale comin’ on! Friday the 23rd – Monday the 26th DriveThru will be having a 25% off sale, and Hudspeth Games’ products will be included. So, if you’ve been putting off buying some stuff, the time is coming this weekend!
…says Wil Wheaton about his design for a new T-shirt available through J!nx.com.
"Never forget your roots. In this modern era of Dwarven Forge terrain, full-color dungeon tiles, power cards and pre-painted minis, let’s remember where we started: sitting on the floor, surrounded by books and dice, building dungeons with nothing more than a pencil, some graph paper, and our imagination." -Wil
I’ve been working with artist Liz Radtke again on concepts for the Kalens of Star Lost. Can I just say that she so frickin rocks! Her first attempt (the golden retriever) was too dog-like and too butch. That stemmed from my inadequate description. The next iteration (the other four pix) was awesome. I don’t claim that she reached into my brain and pulled out the perfect image. I can’t because I didn’t have a fully formed image in mind, just pieces of what I knew should be there:
Kalens are a tall, svelte, furry species, most closely related to terrestrial marsupials. They are, however, asexual and androgynous…Their facial features offer an interesting mix of familiar terrestrial animals. Their ears are tall, pointy, and tufted, like a lynx‘s. Their eyes are large like those of a lemur. And their snouts are slightly extended, but short, like an affenpinscher‘s, with a wide mouth full of small, sharp front teeth, and a surfeit of wide molars in back…
From that, and a short critique on the first draft, she has managed to create a fully formed creature that looks like the best stuff you see in the special features menu of a scifi movie. Sweet!
Remember Caltrops, that first supplement from Hudspeth Games? Well, it just got its first review over at DriveThruRPG. Here’s what NB Neil had to say:
This is a great little supplement for GMs looking to add some flavor for characters, especially the betting kind. It’s a short read with two simple dice games that NPCs may be playing or more interestingly that your players can play to pass the time. Some of my players aren’t as into the roleplaying portions of the game and end up heading off to the local tavern for some gambling. Though I’m sure I could have come up with some games for them to play rather than a simple skill challenge, this supplement gives two good examples with the background that goblins often play these with marked caltrops. A little fluff and a little crunch. My kind of supplement. Break out the d4′s and ante up. Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!]
I likes me some Dragon Age. It’s a pretty cool game, with a detailed world, a decent story and fairly robust mechanics. While I haven’t gotten too far with it, since I don’t play it very often, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. So, I was delighted to stumble across a link to the first episode in a new machinima series based in the Dragon Age world and using the Dragon Age animation engine. It takes place after the ending of the game, with the Darkspawn threat routed (the main objective of the game) and fleeing back to whence they came.
This series follows the life of Grey Warden Kristoff after he helps end the Darkspawn blight. The Grey Wardens are the traditional line of defense against the Darkspawn when they inevitably rise in another blight. It’s a gripping and dramatic tale, and it really makes me want to get back into the game. Some new threat appears to be rising from the ashes of the recent war
My latest supplement, Playing the Market, has just gone live at DriveThruRPG, and before I could even post this, it has a five-star review (from featured reviewer Devon Kelly):
Playing the market is a handy little supplement. At 15 pages, it’s a breeze to read. The text is well written and easy to understand. At first, the mechanic to determine availability and price of items seems very simple and not very special. But once it begins to get into determining the scarcity of an item, that’s when it really shines! The system for Modern/Future is understandably more complex, but it also determines how much time will be needed to obtain an item. I downloaded both PDF versions that were available and was pleased to see that one is formatted to read on a computer screen and the other is formatted for printing. That’s a very nice plus. This is well worth the price and is a wonderful supplement for those gamers who want to add in a little more uncertainty to the in-game shopping experience! Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]
I’ve been searching around for the perfect font to do the cover of Star Lost.
Below is a slide show of a cover mock-up with 15 different fonts. These are the finalists from the wonderful fonts I’ve been able to find. But, it’s difficult to decide which font best embodies the feel of Star Lost I have in mind. I’d like your opinions, especially those who playtested it. Which of these fonts best matches your inner vision of the world we shared?
[4 of 5 Stars!]
My latest supplement, 
[5 of 5 Stars!]
DriveThruRPG
Hudspeth Games