Well, falling behind a bit again, but here are this week’s links.
I’m trying to straighten out my sleep schedule, so I can be properly rested (which leads to eating better and working out more and apparently way more patience with people). Getting up to seven hours of sleep a night is costing me two to three hours of Cool Stuff every day, and something’s gotta give. Priorities are: family, work, writing (I did some this week! But it’s not ready to post), then reading.
Still, some good stuff this week.
Kickstarter Projects
Building An Elder God
We’ve got a small gaming group at work (three regulars, plus a couple of sometimers) that get together at lunch. All sorts of games are played, some more regularly than others, but we’ll try just about anything that plays in under an hour. We also seem to have an innate love of the tentacle.
I skipped Miskatonic School for Girls, but this looks like it’ll fit really well.
We are so playing this when I get my copy.
Your friends helped to do a little light research
On how to call up a gibbering horror from beyond
But now those jerks want to call up their own god
What’s a cultist to do?
Building an Elder God
A game of Lovecraftian construction
Build your god
Shotgun your rivals…
.. or banish sections with the Elder Sign
Heal your own beast with the Necronomicon
Be the first to complete your god
Fun for cultists aged 6 to 600
It’s almost 60% funded with almost four weeks to go, I’m pretty confident this one will pull through.
Heh, cool… I’ll get to build Elder Gods on my lunch break.
Illustrating Legend
I am already predisposed to like Rule of Cool because of their position supporting Child’s Play. They were giving away their beta rules for Legend in exchange for donations to Child’s Play — but they are still making it available for download, even if the Child’s Play drive is on hold.
Anyway. They want to drum up some money for more and better art for multiple projects. Unlike many Kickstarter projects it’s not quite taking the place of preordering physical products, though the backing level for PDFs of major releases produced in the next 18 months is only $15.
I’m quite tickled by some of the perks, though. Yes, the hand-delivered leather-bound version of Legend, by the developer, and a game run by him is kind of cool (and expensive), but I have to admit that I really, really like these two.
- $25 backing: Your name in the credits under Benefactors and a “Yell At The Devs” Card with unique RSA key, good for two instances of proper cathartic yelling, as well as all of the lesser rewards.
- $60 backing: All lower rewards, excluding the monster, and an opportunity to request an ability! This request will be fulfilled, even if Jake cries like a tiny baby confronted with the end of all things.
The honesty of the latter — “we will sell out, even if it makes us cry” — amuses me no end. It occurs to me that it might also act a grounding rod for the ‘yell at devs’ card. “JAKE, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” “Keith made me do it!” sort of thing.
Almost five weeks left, almost 150% funded. Most of the higher rewards are sold out, including ‘request an ability’. You can still get a ‘Yell At The Devs’ card, though.
Monster Stock Art
I’m disappointed that the Monster Stand-Ins project was cancelled (it looked pretty certain to not be backed, so Joe pulled it rather than ride it to the end), but this one looks certain to succeed (about 115% funded, with over three weeks to go as I look at this). If I thought I was going to do something commercial with Echelon I’d be tempted to jump on this, but at this point I don’t so I don’t have a use for it.
For those who do, however, this looks like a really good deal (only a few hundred dollars for around a hundred print-ready monster images, and a hundred more for all the web versions as well).
A little over two weeks to go, and it’s about 125% funded.
Science & Technology
Pivothead glasses record what you see in 1080p
As much as I cannot think of a use for these that isn’t at least a little bit creepy…
That doesn’t stop me from wanting a pair.
FREE 3D Software Suite
Until the end of the month, DAZ is offering three of their 3d modeling packages (DAZ Studio 4 Pro, Bryce 7, and Hexagon 2.5) for free download.
Blog Posts
Critical Hits
Vanir tells us of 10 Epic-Level Problems Nobody Thinks About. As much as this is not a serious post (I’m pretty sure), some of these are still worth thinking about.
Fantastic Maps
Jonathan is one of the best RPG cartographers I’ve seen, and is gracious enough to put up tutorials and discuss technique pretty freely.
I expect any links I put to him will end up in the Hall of Fame, but for now here are brief tutorials on creating grunge brushes in Photoshop and in GIMP.
Gothridge Manor
Tim lists some of his woes and misery trying to print a ‘zine (I feel for you, this is part of why I try very hard to not buy non-duplex printers), and gets some good advice and links in the comments.
Isomage
I may have posted this link before, but Isomage’s random cave generator looks pretty cool.
The Wandering Gamist
John is adapting D&D tropes and mechanisms to Traveller mechanics.
I’m not terribly familiar with Traveller, but his Fantasy Traveller series is making me want to be. Right now he’s focusing on adapting magic, starting with arcane magic, divine magic, and black magic.
About a month ago I posted a link to Flynn’s conversion of an aboleth from the RSRD to Traveller rules, Traveller/RSRD conversions might prove to be a popular idea.
Untimately
Brendan explains how he zooms in and expands detail in a hexmap he is using for an Adventurer Conqueror King campaign.
Wampus Country
Erik describes some well-known (and some less-famous) cults in Religion in Wampus Country. I like how they feel, they very much suit the setting.
Videos
Bruce Lee Playing Ping Pong
… with nunchaku. This is crazy.
(And apparently the media widget here doesn’t support wimp.org… ah well)
Non-creepy use: Issue a pair to every police officer and require that they be worn and active at all times when on duty.
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