Nobody Asked Me, But...

Being an occasional feature where I discuss a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

• My enthusiasm for the free rule set In the Emperor's Name prompted me to join the Yahoo Group and get involved in shaping the second edition. Craig, the lead writer and developer is incredibly gracious and open to feedback. I think the rules are rounding into nice form, and they were already quite good before any of the recent upgrades!

• My buddy Rico from Play Unplugged got back from Gen Con with a few goodies for me. I now have to read and review the new RPG Part-Time Gods from Third Eye Games. I am about 25 pages in and I am really loving what I am reading. Players run humans imbued with the power of low-powered gods in a modern-day supernatural setting. So you might be the God of Knives--anything that has to do with cutlery is your domain. You could just as easily be the God of the Laundromat. Sounds weird, huh? But it works, and when I began reading it reminded me of that day way back in 1990 when I wandered into Walden Books and picked up that first Vampire the Masquerade softcover rule book. Anyway, look for my review on Play Unplugged later this month.

• I also got a copy of the Kereboros Club (Fate Edition) from Gen Con. My Saturday game group (and hopefully the Sunday morning crew as well) have begun exploring Fate-based games in earnest, so a Victorian Supers setting using Fate is right up my alley. It's a big, thick book of RPG goodness that I will not get to until after Part-Time Gods gets its due. Very excited to delve into it, though.

• I am nearly finished painting a bunch of Skorne stuff for a customer. I like the models, but after painting all of that heavy armor with recessed details, it makes painting simpler models like Kroot and 15mm sci-fi so much more refreshing.

• I really enjoyed the recent Batman Retroactive from Lein Wein and Tom Mandrake. Mr. Mandrake has long been one of my favorite comic book artists, and his stuff has lost none of its power over the years. And it was just nice to read a new comic with thought balloons.

• Batman Dark Knight Rises continues to film here in Pittsburgh, and as I write this, the film crew is outside my door making it snow in August! I love the movies!

That's all for now--thanks for visiting!

--Scott