Running Stormbringer at SoCal MiniCon IV (July 30-31).

UPDATE: My slot at the SoCal Minicon has been cancelled due to obligations that have come up since I first signed up for running this game. I'm sad that I won't be able to attend, but hopefully it will work out for me to go next year.

It's now official: I'm going to be running Stormbringer at the So-Cal MiniCon. I'm one of those gamers who doesn't go to cons very often, but I went to MiniCon last year and had a great time. I played in Tavis Allison's OD&D game where I played a Sleestack, and I played in Cyclopeatron's legendary Mutants of Metal session which you can read about HERE.

As if that wasn't cool enough, one of the designers of Stormbringer, Steve Perrin, is running a session of his homebrewed version of Runequest that afternoon!

My game is in the 7pm Saturday Evening slot on July 30. There are plenty of seats as of now--so sign up if you're up for some old school sword and sorcery goodness. Details and schedule can be found HERE.

Blood and souls for my Lord Arioch!

1980s Fantasy Art: Robert Gould's Moorcock Art

Here's a selection of images by Robert Gould who remains one of my favorite fantasy artists. Back in the 1980s his work graced the covers of most of Berkley's Moorcock novels. His Elric covers remain the definitive version of the character for me--although I also quite like Brunner, Whelan, and Cawthorn's Elric work as well.

The above picture here is my favorite Elric image ever. Its was used as the cover for my favorite book in the series: The Vanishing Tower (which was a re-title as it was originally called The Sleeping Sorceress).

Here's Gould's wonderful cover for Moorcock's City in the Autumn Stars--the sequel to The War Hound and the World's Pain.

The Return of SSSLASIFFON!!! (More Campaign Stuff from Thirteen Year Olds)

Here’s a listing of characters from a campaign I was running when I was thirteen. After a while all of our games started to bleed together so that by this point I was stealing from everything. There’s nods here to D&D, Gamma World, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World (with the Para-demons and such), Moorcock’s Eternal Champion stories, Traveller, and whatever comic books or TV shows I was watching at the time.

What I love about looking at this is that it’s totally a stew of all of those things, and by putting all this together it starts to have its own crazy vibe. Feel free to pilfer names or ideas from this list, but I make no apologies for any of the names as I was thirteen when I came up with this stuff. What would a campaign with these characters look like?

Asmos (Human Warrior, Technician)
Geendra (Human Scientist)
Aldrak Human Scientist)
Umok (Human Warrior, Twin of Vomok)
Vomok (Human Warrior, Twin of Umok)
Aleesha (Aerianian Queen)
Kumanseth (Para-demon, Commander)
Ajagramund (Para-demon, Commander)
Toosath Poitav (Para-demon, Commander)
Bashab Dall (Para-demon Monarch)
Sarash (Para-demon Monarch)
Oolg (Giant Para-demon)
NARTHOX (Dark Lord) (Yes, written in all caps so you know he’s badass)
Lord Toxic (Osab-Human Crossbreed, First Slitonitusikus)
Nitrav, the Enslaver (Master of Taurin 4 Prison Planet)
Tors (Centaurin King)
Hisha (Centaurin Queen)
Eleesha (Amazon)
Teena (Amazon)
Mygala (Amazon)
Henelim (Amazon Queen)
Ssslasiffon (Vapor God King) (The Vapors were sentient deities made of gaseous
Ammox (Vapor God King) materials as I recall)
Timso 99 (Head Borg)
Alamond 12 (Borg)
Prince Bellark (Son of Narthox)
Zoe Wiseguard (Sorceress) (PC)
Prince Jodane (Warrior of the Worlds)
Rendikose of Drexil (Warrior of the Worlds)
Enrom (Warrior of the Worlds)
Brath (Companion to Enrom)
Dimos Bloodsheddar (Warrior of Gehenna) (Para-demon hero)
Admiral Moorsh

Gamma World Drawn by Thirteen Year Olds.

Here are some old Gamma World related pictures drawn by my friends who played in a particularly long running campaign inspired by Dune and Robotech and Heavy Metal magazine and anything else we happened to be into at the time. These drawing would have been done (I'm guessing) in 1985 when we all around thirteen.

This last one was drawn by Yours Truly. I don't totally remember who the Gathian tribes were, but I do remember they has a cool looking city. I'm thinking they were some kind of cross between Logan's Run and the Robotech Masters.

Old School DMs: How Do You Prep For Running a Game?

The blog has been fallow recently, but I'm back and so here's my initial return post. Hopefully some people are still paying attention. Anyway. . .

I'm interested in hearing about how old school DMs prep for their games. In the comments please answer the following questions:

1. How much prep do you do for a typical session? How much time?

2. What materials do you have in front of you at the table?

3. How much do you actually have written down vs. what's floating in your head?

4. Have you found this changes over the course of a campaign?

Edit: Added the "How much time?" part to question 1.

1970s Fantasy Art: Philippe Druillet

Philippe Druillet is, along with Moebius and Caza, one of the founding visionaries of the movement that took french comics by storm in the 1970s. This movement found its locus in the magazine these artists founded known as Metal Hurlant. The American Heavy Metal magazine was the version of this material that manifested in the States, but Heavy Metal as a magazine lacked the artistic and idealogical vision of its progenitor. Metal Hurlant was about taking comics where they had never been while Heavy Metal seemed caught in an adolescent fascination with the "adult material" it featured. Now I retain a certain fondness for Heavy Metal as it was the first place I ever saw work by Bilal, Moebius, Druillet, and many others, but I also can see its limitations as compared to the creative vitality of Metal Hurlant.

I had largely forgotten about Druillet in particular until several years ago when I stumbled upon a copy of his Lone Sloane/Delirius collection at a used bookstore. This was roughly translated edition put out by Heavy Metal in the mid-seventies, but that didn't matter: my brain was already smashed all over the insides of my skull. The comics in this book were a fever dream of what every Heavy Metal album cover tried to be and failed. Here was the Heaviest Metal of them all.

Few artists have captured the same infernal imaginative ferocity that fills the work of writer's like Lovecraft, Clark Aston Smith, and William Hope Hodgson but Druillet has. His work evokes a demonic universe of howling gargoyles, beastial cyborgs, and satanically designed interstellar warships. Well you don't need me to TELL you. Just look at what this man puts down on paper.

I'm uncertain of the dates of many of these pieces, and Druillet has continued to work up until the present. Its entirely possible that some of these are from the eighties or even later, but I'd argue that his work retains a certain resonance with the decade which birthed D&D.

Here's a youtube video featuring more of his work:

Pendragon Images

I've been thinking a bit about Pendragon recently.  In 2008 we ran a Pendragon campaign where we played out the Uther period in The Great Pendragon Campaign.  We're thinking of playing Pendragon again in a few months when our 4E campaign comes to a good stopping place.  I did a review of the game a while back which you can look at HERE.  So here's some classic Arthurian images for you: