Hit or Miss Game Weekend

This weekend was a bit of a hit & a miss. I'm not able to go to Game Hole Con....not sure if I would if I could 'cause it's too close to the family farm and even as much as I love to sling dice, I'd probably rather visit my family. I know, I know....total a-hole move, but that's where my folks, and my Great Nephews live.

I didn't get to game on Friday, which was our scheduled game, but a family issue came up for the GM and believe it or not I did not just set the bar on the matter of gaming vs. family.

I did however, manage to snag some choice titles for my growing habit problem addiction Appendix N library. Before I get to that though, I need to share this HUGE (to me) bit of news: I have FINALLY slain the garage demon! I.E. I found the !**^!%$#! CO2 monitor that was beeping due to low battery. I swear that thing has been going off about every minute since freakin June. My garage is more of a mess than usual because I've been tearing through boxes, moving crap, even unplugging my garage doors (I thought that was it for a hot minute). I just could not actually localize the source of the sporadic beeping. One would think that the damned battery would.....JUST....EFFING...DIE!, but no, I had to use those fancy-dancy long-term lithium batteries. That fucker probably wouldn't be dying until 2025! Anyway I found the detector wrapped in something else in a box and now it is relatively quiet. Now the only high-pitched tones are in my head (tinnitus).

OK, I think I got that out of my system.

NO MORE BEEPING!!!

Evidently not...

Anyway, I decided to go hit up some Half Priced Books in the city and I did find some OSR stuff, but somebody in charge at the one store is smoking some crack. They had a nice-looking 3rd (I know, bear with me) printing of the Deities & Demigods for $150. They also had a good (?) copy of the basic rulebook for $60....not the set, just the book. 

No bueno

A different location did yield a nice little find for me. I've thought about picking up some Edgar Rice Burroughs books, but I specifically didn't want Tarzan or John Carter of Mars books. I'm not a Tarzan fan and I think I'd like John Carter of Mars, but I'm still hurting from the completely unavoidable fiasco that was the Disney movie. I liked the movie, would've loved a series, but allegedly the movie was a failure. Of course it was a failure because Disney screwed with the marketing, changing the name and then pulling funding.

I'm full of digressing today.

So I did find some Ace Paperback copies of ERB's books and got six of the seven books of the Pellucidar series and all three books of his "Lost World" series. Even though I was using my phone to help me look for certain titles, I really got only those three books "lost world" books by pure happenstance as I was focusing on the Pellucidar series.

I'm sure the observant among the 12 regular readers here will notice there is a Tarzan title in the group......evidently Old Man Burroughs did a crossover novel.

To me, these books are perfect Appendix N fodder. I mean, Burroughs and specifically the Pellucidar series is actually mentioned in the Appendix N (I hadn't bothered to check until just now). Maybe I should have picked up some of the other books they had, but I had enough of a score for now.

Lazy Sunday Morning Gaming Shopping

Erik did me a bit of a solid last week (and tried again this week) to post for me last week because Sunday I had to spend the day travelling early am to an undisclosed location......basically I had to stay up after NTRPG's midnight auction and head out to the airport at 4AM. I knew that day of travelling was going to wreck me and my internet access at my destination was unknown at the time.

Anyway, I'm still at my undisclosed location and this morning was a lazy day so I decided to head on over to the next town and peruse the "sights".......

....yeah this town was....rather...crunchy. Like granola crunchy.....like they don't put up flags for Pride month 'cause the flags are up year-round and painted on the street already.

Meh, not a big deal except.....except the only place I could find open to get a bite to eat before the bookstore opened was a vegan café. Actually had no idea it was a vegan café at first, but hungry is hungry and vegan "wings" made out of cauliflower is not far off of decent bar food of fried cauliflower......

The great thing about these hippy (there was definitely a hippy vibe in places) areas is that they have some great hole-in-the-wall stores. Tons of tiny shops packed with stuff. I wandered into an art supply store and found some pens that I like, but in sizes I normally don't see, as well as my favorite mechanical pencil and replacement lead, both at better prices than I'm used to! Went ahead and picked up a little notebook and a fancy-schmancy (well, seemed like it) Japanese marker that just works different than what I'm used to.

Up the street was the book store. Wasn't quite what
I was hoping for, but I did find a few books for my Appendix N collection and another book (not shown) that I only had a PDF of. That book was "expensive", relatively speaking, but the other books were cheaper than I'd find at HPB, so a win in my book.

I'm so, sorry....that wasn't an intended pun.

This one book, With a Single Spell, is already in my collection, but one of the author's other books, set in the same world, is something I pretty much buy every time I see it in a store. I'll pick it up and just give it to the first friend I find out hasn't read it. I'm going to read this copy on this trip and then gift it like I do the other book......

While the bookstore was a draw, the real reason I went down to granola-town was to visit an indoor "flea market". It wasn't an indoor flea market, despite what they advertised. Instead it was basically two of these small store fronts linked together and stuffed with a few, pretty sure it was five, but there wasn't a firm boundary between three of the places. Lots of nice stuff, reasonably priced with the exception of the clothes. Evidently "vintage" clothes are worth more than common sense would lead one to believe.....

I found some cool stuff, most of it was too big to pick up and travel back home with, but I enjoyed looking at the one booth just stuffed with DVDs, Legos, and action figures. There was stuff I liked, but nothing that had to come home with me......until I turned to leave and saw a little bowl of dice stuffed in the corner of a large display case. What caught my eye were the Gamescience dice, but it looked like there was some Holmes set dice and a couple other old-assed dice.....along with a giant 12 sided d4.

Totally worth the $8. Those Gamescience D20's are numbered 0-9 twice and inked in two different colors.

Not a bad haul for a lazy Sunday morning!

Appendix N Video Collection

 

I'm just about to enter a mandatory two-week quarantine for work (required for travel, evidently) and I'll freely admit I have more than enough to do during those two weeks.....BUT if it's anything computer related then odds are I'll be doing it in front of the idiot box, er television.

Technically I don't watch "television". I mean clearly I view stuff on the device commonly known as a TV, but I don't have cable, nor do I watch on-air broadcasts. Between Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Vudu, and my massive video collection streaming from my home's Plex server.....I'm good. My setup is such that I can easily replicate this setup wherever I travel, as long as I have a decent internet connection. 

I know, you've read the 1st two paragraphs here and have probably already gotten to the "that's nice, quit bragging you SOB" level of excitement and are already thinking...."what's the point?"

Man you are impatient!

My point is that I watch a lot of movies and long before my Appendix N book collection started, I had been collecting Appendix N movies. Now I wasn't collecting Appendix N movies deliberately, it's just that I like to play OSR-ish RPGs and I like to watch movies, so there is bound to be some overlap. Speaking of overlap, since I do tend to collect "stuff" in general, and in this case books and movies specifically, it is real easy to accidentally buy movies I already own. I use a service called Libib to catalog my libraries and it's free for the 1st 5,000 items. I highly recommend it. You can even publish you library so others can see what's in it....mine is cstogdill.libib.com (only my movie and wanted book libraries are public.)

I thought I'd share 10 specific titles from my Appendix N (Movie) Library, and hopefully solicit some recommendations to add to my collection:

The 13th Warrior is a great RPG flick and does a great job of showing a low/no magic campaign as well as a culture clash of sorts. One of my favorite aspects of this film is the transition from the lead not knowing the Viking's language to being able to speak it. Lots of cool touches that just make me feel like it could have been an actual campaign brought to the big screen.

Army of Darkness is totally a RPG movie. It literally has swords & sorcery and seriously?.....the hero chops off his arm and attaches a chainsaw (I know that was in the previous movie, but still...). With all the weird stuff going on, you can't tell me there wasn't a GM coming up with some crazy rolls behind the screen. Hail to the King Baby!

The Beastmaster was one of my favorites growing up. I saw it again recently and it wasn't at all how I remembered it, which was actually a good thing as it was almost like watching a new movie. I think of Dar as more of a sword-wielding Druid than a barbarian, but whatever. Just don't watch Beastmaster II or Beastmaster III!

Conan the Barbarian is a great Appendix N addition, but I specifically mean the 2011 version with Jason Momoa. I know this won't be a popular opinion, but I liked it far more than the Schwarzenegger version. I liked seeing that young Conan was clearly born a bad-ass and wasn't some muscle-bound jock slave that was taught to kick ass. I also liked how there were more references to the larger world and Conan's other adventures (like his pirate days) as well as there was more sorcery going on. Just overall a better film and I wish it had done better in the box office so we could have gotten some sequels.

Heavy Metal is not something that seems appropriate for this list, but hear me out. 1st off there are some sequences that do fit this list, but the real reason this is on the list is because of the fact that Heavy Metal was in heavy rental rotation with my peer group growing up. I can recall watching this while we rolled up PCs or even just talked about gaming. I have fond memories of watching this while reading the PHB and DMG, so if there is any movie that will take me back to the early 80's, this is it.

Now, switching RPG genre's from Medieval Fantasy to Western (I'm thinking very much about Aces & Eights here) the movie Open Range gets me wanting to sling dice. I there's a couple reasons why, but at its core is how I see the main protagonist had one occupation and then clearly transitioned to another, something that is a thing in Aces & Eights.

Ok, while we're switching genres, when I first saw Underworld I was 120% convinced it was a straight-up rip-off from White Wolf, and clearly I wasn't the only one who saw that. I could explain why this film is worth watching, but I'll make my most persuasive argument: Kate Beckinsale wears skin-tight leathers....constantly.

Ok, back to more a Medieval Fantasy, but only for one more film. I actually remember seeing Willow in the theater when it came out. I was off for an evening at the very beginning of Boy Scout Camp Mitigwa and I saw it with some of my new counselor friends. We ended up quoting this film all summer. It has swords, sorcery, .....clearly a multi-classed hero. I have no idea what the Nelwyns are supposed to be, because I think they're more halflings than dwarves, but clearly neither. In any regard, big fantasy film that I think aged quite well.

Ok, last, but not least is Zombieland. As far as a modern-day zombie film I get that this is largely a comedy, but it is also a good story about the formation of the party. If you've ever played Zombies!!! or possibly Final Days (I know, another KenzerCo game), then Zombieland is a fitting addition.

Now I deliberately skipped some no-brainers, like the Lord of the Rings or Monty Python & the Holy Grail, but U was only limiting myself to 10 entries and if you factored in some of the cheesy sci-fi films....Appendix N entries in the DMG had plenty of Sci-Fi in there....., not to mention the numerous other gaming genres there are these days, and my list could have been just huge. No, 10 entries seemed sufficient.

Now I've stated, and kind of shown, that I have many other titles that would qualify for an Appendix N Video Collection, but I am wise enough to know that I don't know what I don't know........so I would ask if there are some particularly good movies I should be watching for RPG inspiration. Bonus points if they are available on the main streaming services!

About the Appendix N Library

I made it back from my business trip to Ft Bragg/Fayetteville NC and even though my luggage space was tight I managed to make space for a couple books I picked up from a used book store. Both of them were compilations of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. I only had one Leiber book so far and these two basically filled out the rest of the stories I didn't already have.

Last year I started building up an Appendix N library in earnest. I hit up the used book stores on the regular and have a list of the books I'm looking for. Last year I was "stuck" in the Jacksonville FL area for a month and I found a couple treasure troves of bookstores.

I probably should go back a bit and explain what Appendix N is for those that are coming from another headspace. In the back of the 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, listed as "Appendix N" Gary Gygax compiled a list of authors and wrote "All of the above authors, as well as many not listed, certainly helped to shape the form of the game. For this reason, and for the hours of reading enjoyment, I heartily recommend the works of these fine authors to you."

So basically the main man himself says that these authors were not only inspirational for AD&D (and clearly all subsequent RPGs) but just good reading. Some of the works by the listed authors can easily be pointed to as inspiration for specific elements of AD&D. I'd list them, but why? You should figure that out yourself.....and while you're at it take some inspiration for making your own tweaks to your game (or not).

So we have a 40 year-old recommended reading list.....have you ever tried to go to the library to pick up an old, non-mainstream book? Not as easy to do as you would think, unless you happen to be part of a HUGE library network (like Tenkar has in NYC). Sure, inter-library loans will help some, but you've got to wait in line with all the other nerds trying to do the same thing.

Actually a LOT of the "official" Appendix N authors had their works published as dime-store paperbacks. Hardcovers aren't always available....they may never have been made, or were made in much smaller numbers. Sometimes you'll luck out and find a compilation or omnibus version with a few books under one cover, but I've found that out more with my own personal Appendix N list.

This is the thing as well.....you really should have your own Appendix N list. The official one in the back of the DMG is a good start, but there has been a lot written in the last 40 years. You might want to add or remove genres, etc. I'll add my personal list at the end of this post, after a couple bits of advice.

Lets say you have your beginning Appendix N list, now where to start?

I'm going to suggest working a bit backwards and even before picking up your 1st book, well your next deliberate Appendix N purchase (undoubtedly you already have at least one book...right?) figure out how you're going to track your library. I dislike buying a second copy of a book that I don't need because I wasn't tracking...... I personally use Libib, which is free. Google documents/sheets can work just fine, but even a simple hand-written list will suffice, as long as you always have it on you. I'm to the point now where I have most of the books I've been looking for, so I often have just a couple here and there from specific series, or hardcovers I want to replace my paperbacks. In Libib I just have a specific library called "Wanted Books" that lists what I'm needing.

As far as actually getting the books you want for your library.......well, you'll inevitably need to put in some leg work. Used bookstores are my personal go-to. The larger chains are hit and miss, but they have multiple locations and are usually the leading places where people go to sell books in the first place. I do like Half Price Books and when I'm in OKC or Dallas I hit up a few. I have had a couple good finds, but I think the days of walking into an entire library of cheap gaming books is long-gone. Still, there is a gem here & there. The smaller used bookstores, the genuine small business type places (regardless of physical size) have been really good to me. They've been the best place for me to find the old trade paperbacks. Lastly, and I've only done this a couple times to close out series for my library, you have the online retailers like AbeBooks. These retailers are worth checking into after you've been hitting the bookstores a bit and you get a feel for what certain books cost. Just yesterday I bought a book to finish out a series because I could do the mental math and realized I'm just paying an extra $2 for shipping over me buying it in person. Since it could be months or years before I saw that book in the wild......a $2 "premium" is totally worth it.

This weekend I'm relaxing from my trip and organizing my Appendix N library (see where I got the inspiration from?) I've bagged up some of my trade paperbacks to help protect them and generally figured out which books I still need to close out certain series. Now I enjoy the hunt for adding to my library almost as much as I hate buying unneeded dupes. I'm hoping that at least one Tavern reader is motivated to start/formalize their own Appendix N library and maybe....maybe have a bit better luck than I have (not that I'm complaining....)

Frugal GM's Appendix N Library (Authors):
Poul Anderson
Piers Anthony
Robert Asprin
Terry Brooks
Jim Butcher
L. Sprague de Camp
Lin Carter
C. J. Cherryh
David Farland
Craig Shaw Gardner
John Jakes
Robert Jordan
Katherine Kurtz
Tanith Lee
Fritz Leiber
John Moore
Andrew J. Offutt
Jack Vance
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Robert E. Howard

I could be missing some authors, but I've deliberately avoided authors of actual RPG material or TSR books, well at least the ones I know of.

Kickstarter - Appendix N Updates - I'm Still Confused

Here's the latest Appendix N Kickstarter update. I backed for $100. I got my first shipment (which didnt have the bells and whistles of the 2nd shipment) which was the first 2 adventures. Did every that was supposed to get their first 2 adventures?

So, I'm gathering from this update that the current shipment will include #3, 4 and 6 and some extras that were in the 2nd shipment of the first 2 adventures.

I like John. I really do. I almost wish he had just thrown in the towel on this. Because the endless stretch goals made this one hell of a money sink. This is a solidly in the red project. Again, in print stretch goals can kill a successfully funded Kickstarter. In this case, we ave folks that still haven't gotten their first shipment five years after it was supposed to ship

November 28, 2017
Posted by John Adams (Creator)
Hey Folks,

Full update today.

As I prepared the next two modules in print to ship, I was not happy with the amount of material in them as compared to the first two modules. I know it has been too long and I need to wrap up this project, but I went ahead and expanded the two adventures a bit and made them much deadlier too. I have also added almost all of the Add-On Adventures to these two modules as well. I know some folks did receive a couple Add-On Adventures in print during the second shipment, but not everyone. Now everyone will. And lastly, I have also included the Kickstarter-Only Add-On Adventure #6 by Michael Curtis, “Room and Boarded.” Pictures of each module packet are below with the details.

Each of these two module bundles have been made by hand in the BHP workshop (other than the thee covers) and each bundle has been signed and numbered by me.

I am currently shipping to the $500, $200, $100 pledge levels, to those who offered extra for shipping, and to the few folks who did not receive either one or both of the first two shipments. I will post the progress each week on Fridays.

Appendix N Adventures #5: "A Face to Face With Dzyvatz," by Yves Larochelle is a much larger module that is nearing completion (just waiting on cover and map art). The plan is to have it ready, released, and printed by Gary Con. Again, everyone will get a pdf of the module and those who gave extra for shipping and the pledge levels above $50 will get a copy of it in print.

Thank you for your continued patience. See you on Friday.

Appendix N Adventures #3: “The Treacherous Cobtraps” Bundleby Jimm Johnson
"Vance’s Merry Men" by Michael Curtis with Cover and map

Appendix N Adventures #4: “The Witch of Wyfield” Bundle by John Adams
"The Green Orb" by Sal Mac and John Adams (with Cardstock Map)
"Gifts of the Only" by Daniel J. Bishop
"The Perplexing Disappearances in Brambury" (with Card stock Map) by John Adams
"The Untimely End of Scaviolus Hitherhill" by Michael Curtis

Wayward Kickstarter - Appendix N Adventure Toolkits (DCC RPG Modules) - Five Years and Counting

Its July, 2017 and that means that Appendix N Adventure Toolkits is now at the FIVE years past due mark and still not fully fulfilled.

That's just part of the last update. Anyhow, YEARS ago I got my copies of the first two adventures. Someone told John it would be wise to get me mine, to keep me "on the good side." I guess it did, and John sure has gone through some genuine tragedies over the past five years (con crud not being one of them.) Still, lets take a look at where we are at:

- Five years later and folks are still waiting on the first two adventures. There are four more promised via stretch goals and a digest sized game box. All in print. All shipping NOT together. Anyone else see the problem here?

- Folks that got the first 2 adventures after the initial shipments got bonus material. Why? I have no idea but there are still folks that haven't gotten the items promised in the initial Kickstarter offering.

- Did I mention in the midst of all this there were complaints that the initial releases were showing up in stores with backers (years later) still out of luck?

- I was idealistically stupid. I backed for $101 at 5 of each offering (the more to give away) and that included shipping. Any idea how much shipping has increased over the last FIVE years?

- Read this about International Shipping

Yes, a fool and his Kickstarter are doomed for failure.

- I don't think that this can ever be completed in print. The money is long gone and even if it weren't, there isn't enough raised to print and ship HALF of what is promised. I think John should release the PDFs of ALL that was promised to backers in PDF and call it a day. Fall on the sword and close your career in gaming on a quasi positive note.

All that and he's still given us more than Gareth and #ConManKen combined.

Has "Appendix N" Gone Retail Before Shipping to the Majority of it's Kickstarter Supporters?

Hardly a week goes by without getting an email from someone asking me if I know the current status of the Appendix N Kickstarter - everyone wants to know when they are going to get their goods, and since I got mine three months ago, I must have some inside knowledge.

Here's the simple answer - I have no inside knowledge. But I do listen and I do read.

The last update on the Appendix N Kickstarter indicated the hope to get everything to everyone before the end of the year. Which would mean some folks would be getting theirs six months after I got mine.

Nowhere did it mention that Appendix N releases were being released to the general public before getting into the hands of those that supported the Kickstarter. It's been brought to my attention that the Appendix N releases are hitting retail distribution, like NOW. Is it possible that someone miscoded an entry? Sure - but at multiple locations?

Here's the direct links:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy8twu?Appendix-N-Adventures-The-Ruins-of-Ramat-and-the-Vile-Worm

http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=87453#.Ukhq64akoz4

http://www.gamekastle.com/index.php?m=product_detail&k=2&p=87453

http://www.gtsdistribution.com/pc_product_detail.asp?key=5211CE4AF79642BF87A231A8AE01DFD6

Now, as a community, we've bitched and complained when Kickstarters have shipped to retail before landing in the hands of those that supported the project. This might be a distributor screw up - but if folks can make a purchase and receive product before those that supported the Appendix N Kickstarter (especially those that kicked in extra for shipping after the fact) then there is a real problem here.

The Paizo link actually cost $11.01. I just ordered a set (shipping hurt but what the heck). When I get my Paizo copies, I'll post a pic. Hopefully folks will have pics of their Kickstarter copies to post before then.

Just a Wee Bit of Fiction - "The Contract"

(When +Tim Shorts told me that he and a few others were to putting together an anthology of Appendix N short fiction, I was sold. Right away my mind started churning. Below is the initial results of that churning. Just a simple scene thus far. No rewrites or editing yet - pure simple thoughts. Oh, and i find it difficult to tell stories without elements of humor, dark or otherwise. I'm a much better storyteller than i am a writer - Erik)

Skkkkttttttt!

The dwarf pulled a stone across his axe blade, then tested the edge with a finger.

Skkkkttttttt!

Another trip for the stone across the edge.

“Will you stop with the sharpening? It’s the same every night, and except for the rabbit I killed with my sling we haven’t encountered anything in this damn forest!”

Looking up from his axe, the dwarf slowly put the stone to the side. He looked at the young human, face pocked with acne, and reminded himself he was dealing with youth yet unspoiled by things left best unspoken in the world beyond.

“Lad, I’m here for me blade. Val...” he paused to spit as he always did when he called the sorcerer by name, even if he was getting to like the weird coot, “he hired you for your hands and eyes. When we get to the tower midday on the morrow, my blade will keep you alive as your eyes find the traps and your hands do what ever they need to grant us safe passage. This blade needs to be sharper than your eyes if you want to come out again.”

“Yeah, yeah! Whatever! No one told me it would be nearly a week in the wilds, sleeping on bare ground just so I could earn a full share of the treasure. This is not what I signed up for!”

“Actually” said a voice that seemed at first to come from everywhere and nowhere, “you signed a contract. You said you could read. I even had you initial each section.” Val The Sorcerer (because he wore the wardrobe of a sorcerer right down to the funny hat) approached the discussion.

Reaching into his robe he pulled out a handful of parchments, shuffled them a bit and then started reading from one.

“'I, Meagenbrand Osworth the Third, have read the above Guild Contract and agree to the terms stated herein.’ Then you signed it. Damn signature ran right into the paragraph above. So, you did read it, right Meg? You wouldn’t have just signed the silly thing without reading, because the trip, lack of accommodations, responsibility for supplying your own bedroll and rations, it was all there. Tenkar even scratched his X as witness.”

The dwarf grunted in agreement.

Meg kicked at the dirt absently with the toe of his boot.

“Val, it was two pages long. How was I to read all that and decide right then and there?”

Tenkar looked up at the youth. “Lad, you do realize that me and the sorcerer get two shares each to your one, right? ‘Tis in the contract...”

Pulp Mill Press is Looking For "Appendix N" Styled Short Fiction Submissions

+Tim Shorts from the Gothridge Manor blog and a few others have gotten together to form Pulp Mill Press with the intention of publishing Appendix N flavored anthologies of short stories.

How f'n cool is that?

Here's the official announcement:

As of today, Boric G of the Dwarven Stronghold, Ken Harrison of The Rusty Battle Axe, Sean Robson of Tales from the Flaming Faggot and myself have formed Pulp Mill Press. 

We are announcing that Pulp Mill Press is putting a fiction anthology together, short stories in the tradition of Appendix N, called Libram Mysterum.  

We are looking for short stories with interesting characters and innovative plots.  If you are interested in submitting a story please read the guidelines first.  While all of us are very excited about the project, it is a lot of work, and following the guidelines will help streamline the process.

Hell, Tim gave me the heads up last night and I started a little piece. Not sure if it's the piece I will stick with, but I've got the thoughts sloshing around my head now ;) 

It's a Good Day For Kickstarters - Ruins of Ramat (DCC RPG Appendix N) and tremulous PDFs in Hand

Alright, its kind of hard to actually call PDFs as being something "in hand", but I got my links to both the DCC RPG Adventure Ruins of Ramut (the first of the DCC RPG Adventures in the Appendix N line) and tremulous (notice the lack of a capital "T" in the title), the storytelling game of Lovecraftian horror today and I'm happy as a cultist in a pile of poop. Good, sacrificial poop. Heh

Ruins of Ramut is a Zero level funnel for DCC. I have yet to read it through, but I like the art and I love the map. Just like the pieces from Goodman Games, the map could be sold as an art print. Nicely done.

Tremulous comes in at nearly 250 pages. This is going to take some reading. It's based on Apocalypse World, but the writing isn't the faux "I'm so fucking cool and so fucking insane" bullshit that turned me off to AW, so hopefully I can read through this and just lose whatever sanity I would lose to the Mythos anyway. I can't throw tremulous against  the wall in frustration like I did my paperback copy of Apocalypse World - at least not without likely destroying my Google Nexus Tablet ;)