Big Robot Dinosaur

"Big Robot Dinosaur"
by Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

Dad's working on something special
Down in the basement
I yelled goodbye as I headed out
To wait for the bus

At school it's the usual tortures
Pushed and tripped in the hall
Hit in the head with a half-eaten orange
Face washed in the snow

Got home so fed-up and angry
My dad came to me
Took me down to the basement and said
"It's finally ready, son!"

My senses reeled, my heart stood still
Before me glowed a glory
Fruit of my father's laborious weekend
Towering three to four stories

We're on the rampage in a robot dinosaur
Me and my dad in his robot dinosaur
We're in the cab of a robot dinosaur
Stop on society, robot dinosaur
My tool of vengeance is a robot dinosaur
Talons ripping, robot dinosaur...

Midnight Shrike

Since I can't draw for shit, I've taken to doing Photoshop logos for some of my Champions characters. Format so far tends to be a base insignia for each super-team, with the individual logo and hero name overlaid.

This one turned out the best.

Hyboris

This is the most ambitious campaign I have in the pipeline; it's based around Nikan's old RoleMaster campaign, but with everything changed to fit my esthetic.

The Aethyr came from beyond the celestial sphere to Hyboris, fleeing the evil which destroyed their world. The Silver Aethyr Akkar left his insular people to explore the new planet and study its peoples. He made allies and aided the young races of Man in building great empires, so that when Tya finally came, the people of Hyboris were ready to fight. This epic battle is called the Sundering, as it ended in the destruction of one of the Hyborian moons, which is now a rocky ring circling the world. The release of mana caused by the Sundering elevated Akkar and his allies to godhood, and led by the great warrior Mardok they fought the Destroyer Dragon on equal footing. Their battles lasted centuries, and resulted in the Dragon being rendered into several weaker, but still godlike, Aspects.

The war ended after both sides suffered grievously; Akkar was slain by the traitorous Devash, Aethyr who served the Aspects of Shadow and Whisper; the Aspects of Corruption and Cataclysm were slain by Mardok, who was poisoned by Corruption in the fight and himself killed.

It is over a thousand years later; the High Men rule over great Empires, while the more fecund Common Men make up the bulk of those ruled. A young race of Amazons--the Mante-- bring gifts of technology, civilization, and philosophy to the world. The Aethyr withdraw from the doings of man.

Within the dark and decadent Dragon Kingdoms of the Devash and Sargothans grows a darker threat still. The heretics of the Reunifier Cult strive to resurrect the slain Aspects of Corruption and Cataclysm in hopes of restoring the Seven Aspects back into the Great Destroyer of Worlds. Reviled by both followers of the Hyborian Gods AND the Dragon Aspects (who quite enjoy their autonomy, thank you), the Reunifier Cult delves into deeper, fouler magics than any diabolist or necromancer.

Characters will be pregenned from Player requests after a brief overview of the RM system, what classes are actually used, new classes of my design, etc. It's a complex system that I've played for over a decade, and I'm barely confident I can run it. I hate this kind of system normally, but since I've played it so long am sort of used to it--at least moreso than any flavour of D&D.

XP will have to be really simplified. Looking at standard 1K-2K awards plus 250-800 bonus points for conspicuous valor, roleplaying, etc.

HI-ZERO

This RPG Campaign uses the Unisystem, specifically All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

It's the early days of the Global Outbreak, and the few states with active ZERO (Zombie Emergency Reaction Organization) teams have been folded into the reorganized Hangar-18, the Federal Department in charge of Supernatural Phenomena.

During the Bush administration, H-18 was corrupted by the PNSC-Project for the New Satanic Century- a group of hard-line America firsters willing to sell our national soul to the devil for power. The new administration appointed a reformer--the mysterious Simon Abraxas-- to head up the department and ferret out what infernalists still remain.

That's all abstract and far away, though. The players are members of the newly formed ZERO-HI team, tasked to contain zombie outbreaks throughout the State of Hawaii. In spite of the state's tiny size, it's a very critical task -- the state's international nature and ties to Asia make it a key entry point for infected, and any outbreak could easily overrun one or more of the islands in a matter of days.

If you're in the ZERO Team, expect things to be brutal. The dead hate the living, and ZERO...hates the dead.

Campaign Ideas

These are all Hero System. Talking options over with folks here, I had to be reminded that I run World of Darkness. Guess I've gamed too long with a buncha WoD Haters. Anyway, I'd prefer doing old Mage or nu-Vampire, but have no idea what you actually DO in nu-Vamp. LOVED the Mekhet book though.

- Space Marines: Military SF, no relation to 40K. More akin to Aliens or Starship Troopers.
- INSID: The Intelligence wing of the Space Marines uni. Think of it as NCIS in space.
- Hangar 18: Modern-day occult investigation by a shadowy government conspiracy. In development, links to the EADC, Victoriana and Paragon City campaigns.
- Paragon City: Champions Supers
- EADC/Paradise Lost:  Superagents a la James Bond, with high-tech in the modern era.
- Victoriana: 1890s Steampunk with a bit of Theosophy and space gods. I had pregens for Maui ready to go, but don't know how compatible they'll be with another group.

All above will use the Space Marines eco system or a variant, save for Champions. Champions will have PCs designed by me with input from the players, so I can keep point totals a bit flexi; I like complex, rare-use powers, and strict point totals will discourage it.

Returned to Honolulu

I was laid off by Pacific Wings, and could no longer make rent. Therefore I have returned to Honolulu to stay with my folks for awhile. Hopefully, once I'm gainfully employed here I can find my own place. Reconnecting with old HNL friends is difficult; many seem to have moved on and others are so different I barely recognize them. Others just never answer their goddamn phone.

Only one has remained the same as he always was, and that's not completely a good thing.

Happier note: since moving in with the 'rents, I have gotten to start cooking again! I love to cook, but when it's just myself it's a bit expensive to buy things like veggies because even the smallest lot spoils too quickly.

Best dishes have been an onion and beef soup which turned out great - I've only done it once before, and didn't have a beer to use this time so I was happy it turned out as good as it did and a portugese soup called Calo Verde which I got from Brian Lambert's great foodblog Forkbastard.

Jasen has mentioned that his gaming group may need a new GM. They sound really picky about what they'll play, though. If I can't find some compatability I'd rather walk. Hard and firm is no D&D. Posting campaign ideas next. Met two other game groups; Dennis seems to run a very cerebral and awesome Call of Cthulhu game, but he has such strict player limits it seems I may have to knock someone off for their spot; the Vampire group I met through Torin is great and a really easy to talk with bunch. They didn't even hold my being Torin's friend against me! Problem with them is they live in BFE and there's a real, totally insurmountable, levelling differential that more or less guarantees I'll be a third-rater forever. More on the oddness of MET LARP later.

Better Pix

Darn Picasa only makes it LOOK like I rotated the pix. Didn't ACTUALLY
rotate the pix.

I Was In An Accident

So, I left for work an hour early so I could grab lunch and hang out
with the Q&A guys before my shift. Along South Kihei, in front of Maui
Lu, I got rear-ended by a black truck John Hughes estimated as going at
about 50 MPH from the impact pattern. I threw me into an SUV which
managed to wipe out my radiator whilst leaving the SUV totally unharmed.
The baby inside didn't even wake up.

Three people got the bastard what hit me's license, so they'll probably
get him on felony hit-and-run, which is pretty bad. John thought I
should get checked out, so I dropped by the hospital and got looked at.
Nothing's broke, and soft tissue damage won't show up for a day or so. I
have a two-day sick note and some party favors--valium and vicodin-- YAY!

Check the grisly pix below.

Focalin Day 1

So I'm seeing someone about my array of mental problems. We've decided to treat my concentration/focus issues with a drug called Focalin. Hopefully, it will accomplish the wonderful things crystal meth did for me without the drawbacks of being addictive and having to hang out with people I wouldn't normally like.

Anyway, working on day one. It advises not to drive under the influence. And lasts all day. Hope they're not serious. I am noticing some changes. Told Lisa about the treatment, mainly because I'll need someone else to tell me if I'm having some of the listed side effects, such as, oh, psychosis.

Given that I never got that on crystal meth, I highly doubt the Focalin will make me psychotic. Still, don't want to lose my job because I thought I was a cherry tomato all of a sudden.