There is a gap between the one-shot and the campaign that is rarely filled. The gap between the one or two session scenario and the campaign that will run over the course of years in multiple sessions. The gap between one-shots like Viral and Lady Blackbird and full campaigns such as Impossible Landscapes and The Curse of Strahd. It is this gap where the shorter campaign takes place, somewhere between say four or five adventures and say, a maximum of twelve. Yet the hobby does not often offer campaigns of such length, tending towards the extremes in terms of length rather than the median. That though, is not an issue with Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I. This is a collection of eleven mini- or micro-settings, each complete with a background, character options, NPCs, a detailed mini-campaign, adventure seeds, bonus material, and more. Taking in everything from collecting ghosts to return to Earth from across the Solar System and running the rails between bubbles of stable reality to playing the stock market which measures and tracks the worshippers of your god and searching signs of intelligent life on a distant planet as you become that life, this anthology brings a together a plethora of weird and wonderful campaign ideas designed to be played in three to four sessions (but can go longer if the extra content is used).

Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I is published by MacGuffin & Co. following a successful Kickstarter campaign and the first thing that you really need to know about it is that it is systemless. There are no stats of any kind in the book. Which means that the Game Master will need to put in some extra effort when preparing one of the book’s campaigns, providing the necessary stats and abilities, and so on. However, after explaining what a roleplaying game and a micro-setting is, the authors do discuss the choice of system in the book’s introduction. What is great here is that they suggest a number of different roleplaying games, pairing them with each of the various micro-settings in the book. These range from Fate Condensed, The Black Hack, and Cthulhu Hack to Savage Worlds, the Cypher System, and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Now any of the micro settings in Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I can be adapted to the rules system of the Game Master’s choice, but the suggestions can lead a Game Master and her players to try out a new set of rules or if they already know one set of rules, the Game Master can pick up this book and prepare the setting paired with her preferred rules straight away. (And then look at the other settings.) It should be noted that two of the settings carry content warnings, but these are kept short and to the point.

Each of the settings and campaigns in Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I follows roughly the same format. It opens with three pages of background, followed by a page or so each of character ideas and locations. These initial pages are for both player and Game Master, but the remaining pages, beginning with ‘Secrets’ are clearly for the Game Master’s eyes only. This is followed by a list of NPCs, the mini-campaign itself—consisting of four adventures, the latter full of surprising twists, before being rounded off with a handful of adventure seeds and some bonus content. The latter can be as simple as a bonus adventure, but can also include further character ideas and tables for creating random elements in the setting. The book itself is rounded out with bonus content for all eleven campaigns.

Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I very quickly gets on with the first setting and campaign—and it grabs the reader from the off. ‘Ghost Ship’ combines Dead Like Me with Office Space, but in space! When somebody dies, their spirit passes on, but only on Earth. Which is a problem when someone dies off-world. Someone has to collect the ghosts—some of whom are not always friendly and need to be harpooned!—and return them to Earth. The setting classifies the ghosts by belligerency, and has the Player Characters as ghost collectors discovering that there is much more going on and that some of the ghosts really do not want to go back. It is followed by ‘Twisted Rails’ in which the Player Characters crew a steam train ferrying freight and passengers from one Bubble of stable reality to another, riding the rails which have been laid across the chaos in between that resulted when reality broke down. The Player Characters will have to contend with rail pirates on parallel lines attempting to capture their train. This campaign is accompanied by tables for creating new Bubbles. The third campaign, ‘Not Far to Bermuda’, gets a bit weird. It is set aboard the Wanderlust, a large passenger liner which has been on the Atlantic Islands Cruise for at least two-hundred-and-ninety-four days. Fortunately, the food has not run out, though it varies unexpectedly, and whilst discipline and society has not exactly broken down or broken out into violence, it has coalesced into a series of cliques which need to be carefully navigated. This is where the Player Characters come in, being members of the hospitality staff, such as poolside entertainer, excursion leader, or events manager, whose old roles seem to have fallen away as the trip has continued. Quite where the ship is and where it is going is the focus of the campaign as the voyage continues.

‘Guardians’ is a flashback to the seventies and rural France with the Player Characters as nuns whose reputation and conduct has resulted in their being seconded to the ‘les Sœurs de Notre-Dame de la Vérité’ (‘The Sisters of Our Lady of Truth) whose duty is to guard ‘la Fosse de l’Enfer’, literally a ‘Pit of Hell’. This campaign can vary in tone from dark comedy to psychological horror and comes with a table of options for the dark secrets that each of the nuns is harbouring, and plenty of suggestions as to what exactly is in the pit. This is potentially the darkest of the campaigns in the anthology. ‘Atlantis City’ goes under the sea to explore what happened to the mythical lost city when it was sunk in ages past. It turns to gambling and becomes a den of vice and criminality, the aquatic equivalent of Las Vegas or Atlantic City. As the Player Characters take over a casino, they have to contend with the Kingdom of the Merfolk and the Deep Ones of the Deep Collective attempting to muscle in on the vice trade along with rival casino crews and city politics which have been dominated by the same family for millennia. The other darker setting in the anthology is ‘Duskhollow P.D.’, which combines hard-boiled detective stories with horror in a weird interzone urban sprawl where the rain never stops and where the crimes can involve cults, sorcerers, revenants, and more, including something squamous. This campaign differs from the others in that there is no one secret to what is behind the nature of the city, but several which the Game Master can pick and choose from, and rather than run a campaign with a beginning, middle, and end, be run as a series of one-shots into which the Game Master can insert the clues. Of all the campaigns in Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I, it is not a case of ‘run and done’, but intermittent cases which can be run in between other campaigns.

‘MIX: Missing In X-mas’ is the jolliest of campaigns in Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I, but starts with a bang. It is Christmas night and Santa Claus has gone missing somewhere over Germany. Where could he be? This is no Nightmare Before Christmas, but the Player Characters—Elves, Reindeer, Gingerbread Persons, Snowpersons, Nutcrackers, and Toys—have to leap into the breach to continue the deliveries as well as discover quite where Father Christmas has got to. The campaign comes with a big table of presents to deliver and plenty of drops down the chimney to go wrong and get out again without any child being the wiser to the presence of the Player Characters. ‘Primetime Colosseum’ is a campaign in which the Player Characters are gladiators in an Ancient Rome where myth and magic are real, including resurrection potions. So gladiators can fight and die and come back and fight again. The various roles are not so much inspired by classic gladiator types, but by modern wrestling. The campaign itself sees the Player Characters and their gladiatorial school hit primetime, find fame and fortune, and suffer the consequences. Of all the campaigns in the anthology, ‘Wizard’s Staff’ feels the most familiar in which the staff and assistants of the notoriously evil enchanter Balphior who have to step up and fill in after he goes and dies in unsurprisingly bizarre circumstances. They are going to have to cover in his absence and survive the avaricious interest of others if they find out about their master’s death. This requires a degree of cunning and subterfuge, but can be comedic too.

The penultimate campaign is ‘Start-Up Culture’. This is a world in which the gods are real and their power and influence via the number of worshippers they have is tracked on the OSE or ‘Oracle Spiritual Exchange’. The players get to create their own god, such as the ‘God of Reluctant Teamwork’ or ‘God of Lazy Afternoons’, and power said god up the OSE by proselytising and gaining worshippers. Rounding out the anthology is ‘Fixer Upper’, a piece of straight Science Fiction in which the Player Characters are robots surveying a planet—the ‘Fixer Upper’ of the title, in the far future to determine three things. If it is suitable to be inhabited by humans, if it needs to be terraformed, and if it is already occupied by a species exhibiting ‘Personhood’. As the players roleplay through the campaign, their robots not only explore more of the world, but begin to diverge from their programming to the point where they are the ones exhibiting ‘Personhood’. It is a fascinating philosophical piece in the vein of Philip K. Dick with which to close the anthology.

Physically, RPG Micro Settings Vol. I is very nicely presented. It is done in full colour, with artwork and typography which is different for each and every campaign. This gives each a distinct feel and makes them standout when browsing the book.

Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I offers some memorable, fully developed campaign ideas which it combines with flexibility in terms of choice of system and running time—any one of them could be run in the suggested three to four sessions, but also easily extended with the plentiful story hooks and seeds. Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I is an exemplary elevensome, full of good ideas and entertainingly brilliant concepts that you will want to run as a Game Master and roleplay as a player.
—oOo—
Both Reviews from R’lyeh and MacGuffin & Co. will be at DragonMeet on Saturday, 3rd December, 2022.

NO FUTURE: Lovecraftian Horror Meets the Punk Revolution would normally be reviewed as part of the Fanzine Focus strand, but it is not really a fanzine. Although originally intended to be part of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest for 2022, the publisher decided to do it on its own via Itchio, when Kickstarter moved ZineQuest from march to August to coincide with Gen Con, its format—A4 rather than A5, its singular content, and the production standards all move it away from the ’zine ethos and look and towards a more professional product. As a result, it stands somewhere between a fanzine and prozine. It is a trend which has been growing with each successive ZineQuest, to the point where it is quite difficult to determine the difference between a fanzine and a publication simply using the format and the promotional support of ZineQuest to present a whole scenario or even an RPG. NO FUTURE: Lovecraftian Horror Meets the Punk Revolution does itself no favours in making a such a determination. Although the cover can be described as Punk Art and Punks are the protagonists of its scenario, the style and layout of the first issue’s content evokes neither Punk Art nor a fanzine sensibility, and the glossiness of the first issue just does not scream Punk! However, whether or not NO FUTURE: Lovecraftian Horror Meets the Punk Revolution is ’zine or not ’zine, it does not meet the criteria to fit the Fanzine Focus strand, but it does include content which is interesting and which does involve Punks.

NO FUTURE: Lovecraftian Horror Meets the Punk Revolution – Issue #1: “The Five Techniques” is published by Pent Up Press and contains a single scenario designed to be run using Trail of Cthulhu or Cthulhu Dark. The former is the clue orientated roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror from Pelgrane Press and the latter the rules light RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror designed for simple, minimalist play. It could easily be adapted to the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror of the Game Master’s choice. What makes the scenario stand out is its time period—the 1970s, its setting—Northern Ireland, and its protagonists—members of punk rock band. The set-up is this. The would-be Investigators are members of The Gutters which formed in London. The band’s bassist, Ciaron McCarthy, has died and his bandmate, Mickey Grayes, has persuaded everyone to give Ciaron a proper Punk wake in his home village of Conhale in County Armagh in Northern Ireland. This sets up some fantastic tensions. The Punks themselves are very much the ‘fish out of water’ amidst the tensions of the Troubles. Not just their clothes, but their anti-establishment sentiment will make them standout in the conservative society of Armagh, already tense from the locked down presence and influence of the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary supposedly keeping them safe from the IRA.

The Investigators will feel and experience this tension almost from the start. The journey from London has been long and tiring when the Punks are stopped by an IRA checkpoint and questioned. The villagers are reluctant to talk to the interlopers, but will warm to them with a drink or two. The British Army will take a seemingly mild interest too—at least initially. All whilst the Investigators suffer odd dreams, or even daydreams of dreams, spiral patterns are marked here and there, and then one of their number runs off…

As written, “The Five Techniques” is systemless, but the scenario includes notes on running it in either Cthulhu Dark or the GUMSHOE System of Trail of Cthulhu. The latter comes with stats for some NPCs and new Investigative and General Abilities, all musical in nature. For either system, there is a set of tables for creating the background of the Punk, covering ‘Creating Your Punk’ and ‘Getting the Band Together’, as well the scenario’s set of dreams and four decently done handouts.

Whether run for Cthulhu Dark, Trail of Cthulhu, or another roleplaying of Lovecraftian investigative horror, “The Five Techniques” is more folk horror, more Green Room meets Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, rather than Lovecraftian horror per se. It also adheres to the style of play of Cthulhu Dark in which the Investigators can only confront the Mythos. They cannot fight it directly, for it is too powerful, too unknowable, and such efforts are doomed to end in failure, resulting in the Investigators’ deaths or insanity. Thus “The Five Techniques” is more Purist than the traditional Purist mode of Trail of Cthulhu to the point where the motivations of outré threat are never explained and the Game Master is not expected to explain them either. Only in the epilogue which each player gets to narrate for their Investigator is there time to wonder at what happened and the horror of it. Here though, is where “The Five Techniques” does not support the Game Master as the scenario does not say about the responses to what happened for those living in and around Clonhale, whether the villagers, the British Army, the R.U.C., or the I.R.A. There will be consequences and it would have been useful to be given pointers as to what they might be.

Physically, NO FUTURE: Lovecraftian Horror Meets the Punk Revolution – Issue #1: “The Five Techniques” is busily presented with plenty of decent artwork and good handouts. The writing is decent and the plot sufficiently straightforward that the Game Master can easily run this in a single session or as a convention one-shot. In addition, the scenario has a pleasing historicity, which includes the appearance of Northern Ireland’s most famous Punk band.

The seventies is a period which has been little explored in Lovecraftian investigative horror, and much of what has, has been inspired by the Grindhouse, exploitation cinema of the period. NO FUTURE: Lovecraftian Horror Meets the Punk Revolution – Issue #1: “The Five Techniques” shifts Lovecraftian investigative horror to the seventies in a historical sense and location, placing the unknowable against a framework of real-world tensions, making the already fraught situation all the more fraught, the result being a unique for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying.

By the time you read this, the Triffid Ranch will be on the road and set up at the Blood Over Texas Horror for the Holidays show in scenic downtown Austin. Naturally, this means that the gallery won’t be open … Continue reading →

One of the first blogs I encountered was Tim Knight's Hero Press. He had a lot of the same interests I did and he writes about a lot of cool stuff.  I like to joke that Hero Press is "The Other Side" of England.

Like my Johan, he has a character that has gone with him from game to game, but in particular Villians & Vigilantes.  His character, the Acrobatic Flea, is something of a mascot of Hero Press.  He has built the Flea for many universes, much like I do for my Larina.  

So it stands to reason there is a Flea in NIGHT SHIFT.

The Acrobatic Flea for NIGHT SHIFT

Aspiring reporter Sean Edward Ridire got his dream job at Weirdly World News. Figuring out he would get the big scoop on the truth about UFOs and aliens. But a chance encounter with a vampire and helping a victim out introduced the vigilante known only as the Acrobatic Flea to the world of the supernatural. 

In the worlds of NIGHT SHIFT this Acrobatic Flea patrols the dark streets of Knight City protecting the innocents of the world from the creatures of the night. Donning a protective suit and special night vision goggles he keeps his identity secret. Using his contacts at WWN he hunts down the stories AND the monsters.  

Here he is for Night Shift. NIGHT SHIFT is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The Acrobatic Flea
3rd level Survivor (Human)
Archetype: Correspondent

Strength: 12 (0) 
Dexterity: 14 (+1) S
Constitution: 15 (+1) 
Intelligence: 13 (+1) P
Wisdom: 14 (+1)  
Charisma: 15 (+1) S

HP: 16
Alignment: Light
AC: 5 (tactical suit)
Attack: +1

Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+1/0Melee bonus: 0 Ranged bonus: +1Saves: +4 to death saves. +2 to all others.
Survivor Abilities
Stealth skills; Climbing; Danger Sense (1-4); Sneak Attack +4, x2; Read Languages 80%

Survivor Skills

• Open Locks: 35%
• Bypass Traps: 30%
• Sleight of Hand: 40%
• Move Silently: 40%
• Hide in Shadows: 30%
• Climbing 75%
• Perception: 50%

Skills
Research, Insight, Notice (x2)

Gear
Tactical suit, night vision goggles, climbing gear.

--

This could be a lot of fun! I like this, I would love to use the Flea as an NPC one time. Hope you approve Tim!

A special one today. I was inspired by recent events for this one.

The Magaga Beast

Frequency: Unique
Number Appearing: 1 (1)
Alignment: Chaotic [Chaotic Evil]
Movement: 60' (20') [6"]
Armor Class: 3 [16]
Hit Dice: 20d8+80***** (170 hp)
  Hit Dice (Gargantuan): 20d20+80***** (310 hp)
To Hit AC0: 4 (+15)
Attacks: Trample, Bite (every other round)
Damage: 4d12+2
Special: Cause confusion (speech), Immune to mind-affecting magics, Regeneration, Summon drumpfs 
Languages: Common*
Size: Gargantuan
Save: Monster 20
Morale: 12 (NA)
Treasure Hoard Class: See below
XP: 7,750 (OSE) 8,000 (LL)

Str: 17 (+2) Dex: 9 (0) Con: 20 (+4) Int: 5 (-2) Wis: 5 (-2) Cha: 3 (-3)

Once every four years, the dreaded Magaga Beast will rise up out of its dismal lair to attack the countryside, eating everything in its path. Standing 45' tall, the bloated Magaga Beast, and thankfully there is only one, lumbers through the countryside eating, babbling on, and worse summoning other horrible creatures to its side. It appears as a behemoth creature, vaguely humanoid in shape, though it lower half is obscured by its massive flesh. Two arms stick out with tiny, useless hands. It has slapped a large bit of yellow straw onto its own head in a close approximation to hair.

It is large and virtually unstoppable, but slow and slow-witted. It babbles on in something resembling common, but any who listens to it becomes confused. Its main attack to just trample over everything in its path. It can reach down with its giant maw and attack to eat. On a critical bite attack, it can swallow a person whole. It can only bite once every other round.

Its worse trait is it attracts a large number (2d20) of drumpf goblins to its side to encourage it on. In the presence of the magaga beast, drumphs have a moral of 12 and are more prone to violent behavior to "protect" what they see as their lord and god. The magaga beast will happily eat any drumph that gets too close to its mouth. Nearly as bad is the trail of offal it leaves behind. This offal trail can cause sickness for any that do not save vs. poison. A fail means they are incapacitated for 2d6 days. Success means they can not breathe unless they move at least 10 ft. away

The magaga beast is immune to any mind-affecting magic. Simply put there is not enough of a mind here to be affected. The magaga beast regenerates 5 hp per round, even if reduced to 0 hp it will regenerate. Though if it is brought down to 0 hp it will hibernate for another four years, stirring as soon as two years if disturbed. 

Various communities have tried different means to defeat or sway the magaga beast. Giving it food only makes it demand even more. Others have sent various warriors for justice at it. But sadly it just keeps coming back. Even when reduced to 0 hp it finds a way to come back.

--

The resemblance to any real person is purely conjecture.

Hard-copy Dallas Morning News readers saw the Best In DFW Awards listings first, and online readers have to be subscribers to see the listings, but Dallas’s pretty much only carnivorous plant gallery had a singular entry this morning. Specifically, the … Continue reading →

Last weekend before things get weird around the Triffid Ranch: the gallery opens on November 19 from noon until 5:00 pm, complete with debuts of new enclosures, with the usual “admission is free, masks are appreciated” disclaimer. This will be … Continue reading →

The Hole in the Oak is a scenario published by Necrotic Gnome. It is written for use with Old School Essentials, the Old School Renaissance retroclone based on the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1980. It is designed to be played by a party of First and Second Level Player Characters and is a standalone affair, but could be connected to another scenario from the publisher, The Incandescent Grottoes. Plus there is scope in the adventure to expand if the Referee so desires. Alternatively, it could simply be run on its own as a self-contained dungeon adventure. The scenario is intended to be set underneath a great mythic wood, so is a perfect addition to the publisher’s own Dolmenwood setting, but would be easy to add to the Game Master’s own campaign setting. Further, like so many other scenarios for the Old School Renaissance, The Hole in the Oak is incredibly easy to adapt to or run using the retroclone of the Referee’s choice. The tone of the dungeon is weird and earthy, part of the ‘Mythic Underworld’ where strangeness and a degree of inexplicability is to be expected.
The first thing that strikes you about The Hole in the Oak is the way in which it is organised. The map of the whole dungeon is inside the front cover, and after the introduction, the adventure overview provides a history of the dungeon, an explanation of its factions and their relationships, and details—but definitely not any explanations—of its unanswered mysteries. The latter can be left as they are, unexplained, or they can be potentially tied into the rumours which will probably push the Player Characters into exploring its depths. Or of course, they can be tied into the Referee’s greater campaign world and lead to other adventures, or even developed from the players’ own explanations and hypothesises should the Referee be listening carefully. Besides the table of rumours, the adventure includes a listing of the treasure to be found in the dungeon and where, and a table of ‘Random Happenings’ (or encounters). The latter is placed inside the back cover where it is very convenient.
In between are the descriptions of the rooms below The Hole in the Oak. All sixty of them. These are arranged in order of course, but each is written in a parred down style, almost bullet point fashion, with key words in bold with details in accompanying parenthesis, followed by extra details and monster stats below. For example, the ‘Nonsense Study’ is described as containing “Cobblestones (round and smooth). Root walls and roof (clean; hand-worn patches). Arched roof (8’ high),” It expands up this with “South: Smell of tea and crumpets. Warm light. Quiet bleating (words?).” It expands upon this with descriptions of the room’s bookshelves, upholstered chairs, and monster stats for the latter. There is a fantastic economy of words employed here to incredible effect. The descriptions are kept to a bare minimum, but their simplicity is evocative, easy to read from the page, and prepare. The Hole in the Oak is genuinely easy to bring to the table and made all the easier to run from the page because the relevant sections from the map are reproduced on the same page. In addition, the map itself is clear and easy to read, with coloured boxes used to mark locked doors and monster locations as well as the usual room numbers.
In places though, the design and layout does not quite work. This is primarily where single rooms require expanded detail beyond the simple thumbnail description. It adds complexity and these locations are not quite as easy to run straight from the page as other locations are in the dungeon.
The dungeon in The Hole in the Oak, has an earthy, musty feel to it. Roots protrude in places from the walls and ceilings, and will sometimes lash out, talk to passers-by, or even hide things they steal. The inhabitants—factions even—have a mouldering feel to them too, many of them secretive and deceitful, and several of them would be more than willing to eat the adventurers if they can. Obviously, the Ghouls will—and will play dead as if drowned by the river—to ambush intruders, whilst the flock of sheep-headed fauns in its spiral-shaped home will invite visitors in for tea before striking. The most dangerous of the dungeon’s inhabitants consists of several giant lizards and a mutagenic Ogre whose breath could warp any adventurer he exhales on. There is plenty of weirdness too, including ghostly battles, black skeletons which seem to do nothing but stand there, and a strange cult of heretical Gnomes dedicated to decidedly odd, if megalomaniacal, object of veneration. Throughout, there are lots of lovely little details and oddities that make The Hole in the Oak much more than a simple series of connected rooms.
However, The Hole in the Oak can be a tough scenario. Not so much the traps, but the denizens. These include the aforementioned Ghouls and giant lizards, as well as the troglodytes. Of course, this encourages careful play, just as any classic Old School Renaissance dungeon or scenario should, and the likelihood is that the Player Characters will be making two or three delves down into it before exploring its fullest reaches.
Physically, The Hole in the Oak is a handsome little affair. The artwork is excellent, the cartography clear, and the writing to the point.
The Hole in the Oak can be used as an introductory dungeon—and it would be perfect for that, but it begs to be worked into a woodland realm of its own, its various details and connected rumours used by the Referee to connect it to the wider world and so develop context. Whichever way it is used, The Hole in the Oak is a superbly designed, low level dungeon, full of musty, fusty flavour and detail, presented in a format that makes it incredibly accessible and easy to run.

We are finally getting some proper cold weather here in Chicago! I am not going to complain about it. It's November, it's Chicago. I know what that means.  

It is also Friday and that means it is time for a Follow Friday. Especially important this week with Twitter in melt-down mode.

So if you follow me there, I am sticking around to the end, but here is where else you can find me. 

Blog (here): https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com

DriveThruRPG: https://drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/8419/The-Other-Side-Publishing?affiliate_id=10748

Facebook: https://facebook.com/OtherSideblog & https://www.facebook.com/timothy.brannan/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_other_side_pub/ & https://www.instagram.com/timsbrannan/

MeWe: https://mewe.com/group/5c598927dc9a663c488557e9 & https://mewe.com/i/timothybrannan

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/timsbrannan

Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@timsbrannan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/timsbrannan

I am still figuring out Mastodon, and MeWe is rather dead. But you can always find me here.

I do hope Twitter sticks around though.

dragonspiritblog:

Art by  clockbirds

alviaalcedo:

Sky blue wyvern ✨

A little break during plants and flowers dragon week ^^

The Strange Land is a scenario for Space: 1889. First published by Game Designers’ Workshop in 1989, it was the first Steampunk roleplaying game. Inspired by the works Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle, it presented an alternate past of Victorian-era space-faring, in which Thomas Edison invented the ‘ether propeller’, a means to propel space vessels through the ‘luminiferous aether’ to first the Moon, then Mars, and later Venus and Mercury. All are proven to be inhabited, Venus by Lizardmen and dinosaurs, but Mars by Canal Martians, Steppe Martians, and High Martians, and the world itself was arid and dry, its cities connected by a network of canals that had been seen from Earth. Mars was also the source of Liftwood, the mysterious tree cultivated for the antigravity properties of its wood, which could be used to keep sky galleons and then when Earthmen arrived, their armoured, steam powered flyers aloft. The great powers rushed in make trade deals and ultimately establish colonies on the Red Planet, just as they would on Venus. In the two decades since Edison landed on the Moon and then on Mars, all of the Imperial tensions of the age have been brought to Mars and exacerbated by the lay of the land of the new world.

Space: 1889 would not remain in print for very long. Game Designers’ Workshop cancelled the line in 1990, but Heliograph, Inc. would reprint many of the titles at the turn of the century. In 2010, the Pinnacle Entertainment Group published a Savage Worlds edition of the game called Space 1889: Red Sands. More recently, in 2015, German publisher Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing published a new edition using the Ubiquity System, originally seen Hollow Earth Expedition from Exile Game Studio. Notably, this edition emphasised the role of the European powers, especially Prussia under Bismarck, in the setting, as opposed to the role of the British Empire in the previous versions. The Strange Land is available for both the Ubiquity System of Space: 1889 and the Savage Worlds rules for Space 1889: Red Sands. It is the latter version of The Strange Land that is being reviewed here.

The Strange Land concerns the fate of the young Canal Martian boy, Kime, and is divided into two parts. The first part is set on Earth and is an investigation into his kidnapping which leads into industrial unrest, whilst the second part takes place on Mars, and more directly involves industrial unrest. The scenario can be played straight through, but ideally, the second part should take place later in the campaign some time after the first. In particular, it is suggested that the Player Characters for the first part be from Novice to Seasoned Rank, and from Season to Veteran in the second part. The scenario also suggests that the Player Characters, or at least a few of them, be British. The scenario has a nice sense of historicity and although the scenario calls for more middle- and upper-class character types initially, any working-class character, or a character with radical leanings will have much to do in the scenario.

The Strange Land opens with the Player Characters invited to stay at the Hampshire estate of Lord John Feltam-Hithe, where at the end of a lengthy dinner, his young ward, an orphaned Canal Martian named Kime, will perform an amazing feat—he will levitate into the air! The Player Characters have the opportunity to interact with the other guests, including an explorer, an industrialist, a businessman, a poetess, and others, but after performing for the night and retiring, Kime has disappeared. Lord Feltam-Hithe presses upon the Player Characters that the boy is in danger and must be found. Their investigations lead first to one of the staff and from their to decidedly rotten circus, which has pitched its tents outside the nearby town. The circus owner is a vile piece of work, poorly treating both staff and exhibits, including, it turns out, one John Merrick! Who proves to be the most noble amongst all of the NPCs that the Player Characters will encounter as they conduct their investigation, which will also reveal more about Lord Feltam-Hithe’s parlous financial situation.

In the third scene of the first part to The Strange Land, the Player Characters literally follows the tracks to London and get involved in the London Dock Strike of 1889. In the setting of Space: 1889, this is exacerbated by taking place on the Southern Aerial Docks, which is currently being occupied the striking dockworkers. Rumour is flying about an ‘Angel of the Docks’, a figure who has become a figurehead to the striking dockworkers. Could this be Kime? If so, the Player Characters need to find a means to ascend to the Southern Aerial Docks. Here the author provides several NPCs which can become potential contacts for the Player Characters, including a historical figure or two, along with several means of accessing the Southern Aerial Docks. These means are inventive and the author is clearly having some fun with them. Ultimately, which should happen is standoff between the striking dockworkers and the strike breakers, with both Kime and the Player Characters sort of in the middle, and the situation getting resolved one way or another.

It is at this point that the scenario could have ended and nobody would have been the wiser. However, The Strange Land has a second, much shorter part, which takes place on Mars, a year or two after the events of the first part. The Player Characters are sent to the aid of a hill station towards the edge of the British sphere of influence on the Red Planet. A local noble, Shune, wants the help of the commander of the hill station in ending a labour strike at the nearby pumping station, Astolor Station—which helps keep the waters flowing through the canals of the dying planet. The commander of the hill station would rather not get involved, and certainly not involve the British residency on Mars, but there are rumours too that a British hostage has been taken as well. So a labour strike, a kidnapping, and an unpleasant, condescending Martian noble, but how are they all connected? This is a simpler situation than in the first half of The Strange Land, but not as linear and more open in how the Player Characters approach the situation. Whether they decide to give help to Shune or negotiate with him, or storm the pumping station or parlay with the strikers, there are consequences to their decisions. The various options are discussed and supported with details of the situation’s major NPCs, so rather than running her Player Characters through the plot as in the first half, the Game Master will primarily reacting to their decisions.

Physically, The Strange Land is a short book. It needs a slight edit in places, but the few pieces of artwork and the single map—that of the Southern Aerial Docks—are all decent. However, it would have benefitted from a few more thumbnail portraits of the NPCs, and definitely more maps. Whether that is of Lord Feltam-Hithe’s estate, the region around Astolor Station, and of Astolor Station itself. If not that, then at least an illustration.

Whether written for use with Space 1889: Red Sands or the original Ubiquity System version of Space: 1889, The Strange Land is a solid little scenario. (With a little effort, it could no doubt be adapted to new version, Space 1889: After, currently being Kickstarted by Strange Owl Games.) It takes the Player Characters to the highs and lows of society on both Earth and Mars, and the first half, set on Earth could easily be run without the need to run the second half. There is an enjoyable sense of working-class radicalism to both halves and together they allow The Strange Land to explore the underside to Victorian life the reform movement in Space: 1889.

—oOo—
The Strange Land was the worst scenario we played at Gen Con 2022. This is not to say that the scenario itself is bad. In fact, given its author, it is no surprise that it is a decent, playable, and enjoyable scenario—as written. Yet, of all the gaming experiences we had at Gen Con 2022, it was the worst. Attending Gen Con as a group, we signed up to play a total of five games and got into four of them. These were, in chronological order, Pirates of the Shattered World, X-Crawl, Delta Green, and Space: 1889. Of these, Delta Green was a blast, Pirates of the Shattered World entertaining if crowded, X-Crawl disappointing, and Space: 1889 utterly dreadful. This is despite the fact that our X-Crawl game, which was due to take place in Goodman Games’ Wizard’s Van, was to be run by the game designer, and was an event that we were really, really looking forward to, was cancelled—with good reason. So yes, a gaming experience which was cancelled and thus involved no gaming whatsoever and meant we did not meet the game designer, was a superior gaming experience than the Space: 1889 game.

So why was it so bad?

It took too long to get started and too long for the Game Master to explain the rules. It took too long to get to the hook for the first half of the scenario—the disappearance of Kime—and thus get us involved. When we wanted to roleplay, the Game Master would attempt to move the plot on and when we attempted to investigate, the Game Master would ignore our efforts. The Game Master added a couple of scenes and details that having read and reviewed the scenario are implied, but not really suitable additions given that the scenario is being run in a convention timeslot. So, we felt unengaged in the scenario and grew increasingly bored over the course of the session. In fact, we were communicating this to each other via our Whatsapp group, to the point where we agreed two things. First, it looked like the session of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition that the Game Master’s wife was running on an adjacent table, was a whole lot more energetic and fun, and that we wished that were playing that instead. Second, when towards the end of the session when the Game Master announced that the scenario was not yet finished, but could be if we decided to stay after the session was supposed to end if we had no pressing appointments, we all agreed that we really, really needed to be somewhere else.

All of which would be exacerbated by ‘Red Hat Guy’. The gaming group of consisted of myself and four other friends. The sixth player was ‘Red Hat Guy’. So named because he wore a red baseball cap. He sat down, selected a character, did not want to know who we were or who our characters were, and only seemed to come alive when there was combat involved. He made no contribution to the investigation or the roleplaying, what little of it we were allowed to do, and said virtually nothing for the whole of the session. However, he proved to be as bored as we were. Towards the end of the session, the player sat next to him sent the following message on our Whatsapp group: “Red hat is skimming through boob pictures. My game is now complete.”

Now in hindsight we should have done something about this. We should have told Red Hat Guy to stop or gone to the Gen Con organisers. We did not. Why not? We were in shock at the audacity of anyone doing such a thing. Had we done so, it would have upended the game, disrupting it, and somehow that did not feel right. Had the one female player been sat next to Red Hat Guy it might have been a different matter. He might never have begun browsing pornography on his mobile phone and the session would have slouched to its end, with none of us the wiser as to how he was feeling. If he had, then she would have very likely, clearly asked him not to, and that probably would have brought the gaming session to end.

Even to this day, we are still in shock even now at what happened with Red Hat Guy. Thankfully, we did not see him again and if we did, we would not want to game with him again. His actions capped what was already a terrible gaming experience, one that we really wanted to get away from, but are never going to forget.

Sort of an overview, sort of me doing more mental gymnastics. 

Note: This one got away from the original thesis, so I cut chunks out for another post later. 

I have been thinking about a few things this week, namely my 1979 Campaign and my Isles of Avalon one. I flirted briefly with combining them and then realized quickly that by doing so I would lose everything that made the 1979 Campaign special. So I might have ideas that work for that, but I think I need to keep it as it is for now.  One day I'll play it. 

Isles of Avalon is less of a campaign and more of a campaign location. I have a lot of ideas for it. Too many to be honest. But two things in it are prominent. 1.) It has to include an Island nation of Necromancers. 2.) It has* to be run under AD&D 1st Edition.

How are those connected and what does it have to do with today?  Well, I was going over the materials for the IoA idea and began merging the two projects. I quickly realized that I would lose what made the 1979 Campaign idea special to me (moving from a hybrid Holmes Basic/AD&D to pure AD&D) and I also thought maybe I am not wed to the idea of IoA as a pure AD&D 1st edition setting.

I love AD&D 1st Edition. Really I do warts and all. I do want to do a lot more with it in my personal gaming even if it is never seen by you, my reader. After all I never really talked much about the AD&D 2nd Edition games I was playing in here.

But these last two weeks (and most of October) have given me some moments to pause and think. The question remains "What is it I want out of this really?"

The AD&D First Edition Experience

This one is key. I want something like AD&D 1st ed. Which will prompt many to say "then play AD&D 1st Ed, dumbass!" Which is very, very valid. But I also have all these other games that I want to try and I played AD&D 1st ed, for over a decade. I love it, but it sometimes feels like moving back in with your parents or hooking up with your ex-girlfriend.  So. What are my options?

Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy

This one is great, but it isn't really AD&D is it. Plus this is the system I am using for War of the Witch Queens and it is really great for that.

Hyperborea

I have been reminded this week of how much fun Hyperborea is. It is much closer to AD&D. The game is tied very closely to the world and it is a world I enjoy, but some pieces of it don't fit with my idea of what I want to do for my various campaigns. One thing is certain, the ethos of Hyperborea will inform what I do with my Isle of Avalon.

Castles & Crusades

I do love Castles & Crusades and it does provide the AD&D 1st experience I want. Plus I LOVE all the Codex books on world religions and myths. It doesn't quite have the same feeling to it as Hyperborea though.  On the continuum of gritty to light it goes Hyperborea, then OSE-Adv, then C&C. With the endpoints as DCC on the gritty and Hero's Journey First Edition on the light. Still, though I do love this game a lot and I really want to do a lot more with it. 

Special Note: The 1979 Campaign

This one is a special case. The purpose here is to recreate a certain style of play that I would have done in the Fall or early Winter of 1979.  I will only use materials that would have been available then or is closely related.  Rules are a mix of Holmes Basic (not B/X) and AD&D, in particular the AD&D Monster Manual.

--

Why all these mental gymnastics? I am aware that my kids are getting older and moving on. My oldest is a professional pastry chef now. My youngest is in college and spends all their time writing code. They don't have time for dad and his elf-game anymore. Well...they do still play D&D, just with their own groups of friends. My time to get some games on with them is limited and I want to maximize what I can.

So. Let's see what I can cook up here. I know...get to the point already.

Isles of Avalon

While I love this name, people who have seen it online and not bothered to read the posts (if you are reading this then that is obviously not you!) were confused with the Arthurian Isle of Avalon and felt they were informing on something. Thanks, but I wrote tons about that in Ghosts of Albion. Still, though, I might tweak the name to be Isles of Avalon Hill to honor its origins. 

So before I put together a campaign (and this would be a sandbox or hex crawl) and try to figure out what rules to use, I think I need to work out some details.

1. This archipelago of islands is old. Really, really old. An empire rose here, grew to greatness, fell into decadence, finally to infighting and decay, and then to dust and forgotten legends.  

2. There is an island of Necromancer kings. This was one of the key notions. Of all the islands, this one is the one that still yearns for the "old times." I think I am coming around to the idea that there is someone called "The Necromancer." Feels ominous. 

3. There is a small island that is home to the Vampire Queen. The Vampire Queen is a reoccurring character in my games. One of her influences is the classic Palace of the Vampire Queen from Wee Warriors, then Pacesetter, now Precis Intermedia.  Wee Warriors and Precis Intermedia also have the Misty Isles, which is another model for my own Isles.  The Vampire Queen lives on a remote island here. 

4. There is the "Big Island" that still has active wizards. The Empire is gone, but there are still wizards that come here for the same reasons there was an empire here. The connection to magical energies here is the strongest. Whether it is a confluence of ley lines, built on the remains of a long-dead but highly magical creature, a magical meteorite hit here, or some combination of all the above.  The only remaining edifice of those times is a place called the Citadel of Conjurers (or at least my original notions of what that place was when I read it in Dragon #91).

Not looking for grand plots. Not looking for world-changing apocalypses. Just a place to do some hex crawling.

Either Castles & Crusades or Hyperborea would fit this fine.

I am leaning more towards Hyperborea for this, but I really, really want to play some Castles & Crusades.

Anyway, random thoughts on a cold Chicago day.

We’re now on the final approach on the end of 2022, with all this entails. Combine last week’s weather’s repeated flirtations with freezing temperatures with this week’s blatant PDAs, and the flytraps and pitcher plants are now nicely on their … Continue reading →

Another Old-school mail call this week and this one is quite timely. I finally got my Hyperborea leatherette Players and Referee's Guides.

If you have been here for any amount of time you know of my love for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, now just called HYPERBOREA.

This new set, 3rd Edition, does not disappoint.

As you can see it comes with the HYPERBOREA Player's Manual, the Referee's Guide, the Atlas of Hyperborea, dice, and a matching dice bag.

Now I have all three editions of this game. I don't need all three, but I can't find myself parting with any of them.

AS&SH and to a degree HYPERBOREA was where I started my ideas for the War of the Witch Queens, but I have moved it on to Old-School Essentials now. I would still LOVE to do something with HYPERBOREA, something special really. 

HYPERBOREA is firmly in the AD&D rules camp of the OSR clones, though it does only go to level 12. 

Part of me wants to run the Dark Wizard Games modules from Mark Taormino. There is some overlap in themes to be sure. I just wonder if some of the Eldritch Weirdness of HYPERBOREA would be lost in the Gonzo weirdness found in the Dark Wizard adventures.

I have talked before about how great these would be for B/X or OSE, but maybe this is where I need to go. 

Another option is this.

Now, this would work and The Lost City and Castle Amber both have solid Clark Ashton Smith vibes. Into the Borderlands and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks also fit the tone of HYPERBOREA well. Same with Isle of Dread which is very sandboxey.  The Temple of Elemental Evil is the odd one out unless I do a little massaging. 

Level wise I think it all might work.  Into the Borderlands covers levels 1-3. Isle of Dread covers 3-7. Barrier Peaks covers 8-12. The Lost City 1-3 (though I argue more like 2-4), Castle Amber 3-6, and Temple of Elemental Evil 1-8 (or more). I can already see how I could do this, to be honest. The trouble is I have run most of these with my kids already.

Still might be fun as an intellectual experiment. 

dragonspiritblog:

Art by  clockbirds

manfrommars2049:

untitled, by xiaoyu huang via ImaginaryDragons

18 months after the first Triffid Ranch carnivorous Plant Porch Sale started out of expediency, they have to stop for a while. The biggest reason is for allowing all of the temperate carnivorous plants in the inventory to go dormant … Continue reading →

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a five page, full colour, 959.82 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy. It is art free, but the cartography is excellent.

Where is it set?
GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage is set in Prax in the Eiritha Hills.

Who do you play?Player Characters of all types could play this scenario, but as written are expected to be members of one of the tribes of Prax. A Humakti will be useful, and a worshipper or shaman of Daka Fal would be approriate. magic and enchanted weaponry will be very useful.
What do you need?
GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the Glorantha Bestiary.
What do you get?GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage details a Daka Fal shrine in the Eiritha Hills of Prax. It consists of a simple complex of just five rooms, its description in the main, focusing upon the undead threats currently inhabiting its handful of rooms. Three reasons are suggested as to why the Player Characters might be journeying there, the easiest being that a recent party of pilgrims failed to return from its annual visit, and their queen or khan commands them to investigate.

The Game Master has the option to throw in a random encounter or two, but once there, the Player Characters quickly discover it to be infested with the undead. One add fact is that the most recently dead, and the first ones they will encounter, are skeletons rather than zombies. This is an extended combat encounter, with no roleplaying or investigation required. However, there is scope for the Game Master to expand the scenario a little. One way would be to expand on the restoration of the shrine after it has been cleansed of the undead, whilst the Game Master add details about Daka Fal and his worship to the shrine, and possibly add physical details and possessions to the undead, suggesting who they might have been in their former lives and what they were carrying, which could lead to further adventures. The descriptions of both the shrine and its undead are perfunctory at bests, uninspiring at worst.
GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage is not badly written for what it is, but very much like the earlier GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar, GLORANTHA: A Trek in the Marsh, GLORANTHA: The Avengers of Earth Temple, and GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest, it is underwritten and leaves a fair amount of development work for the Game Master to do before she brings GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage to the gaming table. Probably not as much as the other scenarios from this author, but to really bring it alive, the effort is required. Of course, since if the Game Master is going to have to do that development work, she might as well grab the map and start from scratch.
Is it worth your time?Yes—GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage is surprisingly not awful. That does not mean that it is actually adequate, but it contains the germ of an interesting encounter if the Game Master is willing to develop the set-up, add the flavour, and the detail, which of course the author failed to do. Then of course, the Game Master can do something about making the dungeon, or rather shrine, interesting.No—GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage is a self-contained mini-dungeon bash which the author kindly leaves much of the interesting detail, stats, and flavour to be found in the back story—as is his standard practice—for the Game Master to develop herself. Cheap, cheerless, characterless, and charmless. Mostly.Maybe—GLORANTHA: A Grim Pilgrimage is surprisingly not without potential. The location, the backstory, and possible hooks could all be developed into something more interesting and playable than the mini-dungeon it currently is. Of course, the author could have done that for the potential purchaser too, but why break the habit of the rest of his scenarios for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha?

One of my favorite adventures is X2 Castle Amber. It covers so much of what I love in an adventure. Plus it is full of great Clark Ashton Smith homages and nods.

Among these homages is the Neh-thalggu or the Brain Collector.  It is such a creepy ass monster and I really love them. 

If the amount of OGC on them is any indication, then others like them too. You can find them for d20 3.x style, Pathfinder, and 5e.  This is in addition to official D&D stats for Basic and AD&D 2nd Ed.

Neh-thalggu (Brain Collector)

NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1
SIZE: Large
HD: 14 (d10) (77 hp)
MOVE: 60 ft.
AC: 16 (natural armor)
ATTACKS: Bite (1d10) + Poison (Save vs. Con or Paralyze), Claws (1d6) 
SPECIAL: Brain collection, Incorporeal, Spell Casting
SAVES: M
INT: Genius to Supra-genius (20-22)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral
TYPE: Aberration
TREASURE: 8
XP: 6,000

The neh-thalggu, also known as the Brain Collector, is a creature from the Outer Darkness.

Neh-thalggus hail from distant worlds, traveling the gulfs of space on immense living ships that swiftly decay when they land upon a new world, leaving behind a deadly cargo of hungry monsters. Neh-thalggus are crablike nightmares with lamprey-like mouths, twitching eyes on their legs, and several blisters along their back that hold human brains. Some speculate that neh-thalggus encountered in this reality may merely be juveniles of their kind, perhaps exiled from their home worlds by greater kin until they can prove their worth on other worlds.

Combat: Neh-thalggu attack with their mouths they attempt to latch on with their mouths and claws to extract the brain from their victims.  They attack primarily with their mouths (bite) and then try to latch on with their claws.  On a successful bite and claw attack the victim must make a Constitution save or become paralyzed. Once paralyzed the creature will remove the victim's brain. 

Brain Collectors. Neh-thalggus are carnivores, but they do not digest humanoid brains they eat, rather, these brains lodge in one of several bulbous blisters on the creature's back and help to increase its intellect. Their brain collections may be a morbid form of currency in their home realm, or the thoughts in these brains may merely be fuel for a dark apotheosis into an even more sinister mature form.

Incorporeal: A neh-thalggu is not wholly in our reality but always remains partially extradimensional. Thus it can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, +1 or better weapons, magic, or psionics, with a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source. It can pass through solid objects at will, and its own attacks pass through armor (except for its bite attack, which is treated as if a corporeal attack). It always moves silently unless it chooses otherwise.

Mind Masters. Neh-thalggu masters lord it over their lesser kin by applying the drained brainpower of their victims toward mastering psychic magic and mesmerism. They may inhabit elaborate mindscapes as their lairs or may subtly influence the thoughts and senses of creatures they lure into their lair in furtherance of convoluted plots to manipulate the societies around them while they dwell in secret. Some dwell alone or with mind-controlled slaves, while others organize clusters of their own kind to spread their sinister schemes and feed their insatiable alien hunger.

Spell Casting. Neh-thalggu can cast spells as 1st level wizard. For every brain, they collect they add one more level of spell casting for a maximum of 12 brains to 13th level wizard.  For this reason Neh-thalggu will target wizards and other magic-using characters.

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Might need some tweaks, but yeah this is one nasty beastie. 

The plot hook is obvious. A bunch of never before seen monsters are attacking the countryside the day after a shooting star was seen. Worst of all are reports of a "ghost monster" that feeds on brains. 

Don't forget the Indiegogo campaign for Amazing Adventures going on right now!  Grab the books and you can use this guy.