Tag Archives: BoHM

HEADBANGER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: THE ROCKTAGON…

BoHMLogo

THE ROCK ON WHICH THE METALSPHERE IS FOUNDED

Life in the Metalsphere is, paradoxically, both extremely anarchic and extremely ordered. Whereas the very ethos of Rock & Roll demand that the listener fight conformity and champion the individual, human nature being what it is, those same champions inevitably impose ideological standards all their own and a new order eventually asserts itself.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the strictly controlled, neo-feudalistic dark age culture of the 31st century, where might makes right and a person’s Metalocity rigidly determines their station in life. After the chaos and destruction of the Thousand Psychic Wars, humanity craved order. Those who were strongest after the war, the Lords of Rock, were the ones to establish that order and they imposed their ideas and beliefs on it, ideas and beliefs based on the music that had literally shaped the universe around them.

There were eight Lords of Rock, each one dedicated to a specific musical style that had a particular effect on sub-quantum superstrings and helped them to take command of large armies and even larger sections of space during the war. To end the destruction they agreed to divide known space among themselves. They each established a School of Rock, and wrote a Book of Rock, which serves as the source of cultural mores, military doctrine and iron-handed law in their domains to this very day.

While individuals are theoretically free to wander where they will and do what they please, the reality is that all of their behavior is predicated upon a firm foundation of beliefs and mores related to the School of Rock in which they were raised. It influences all their interactions as surely as the moon effects the tides, and the degree to which a headbanger adheres to the principles and edicts of their school will ultimately determine their place in society.

Those who are the paragons of their School will eventually become Metalheads (31st century feudal knights) or even Warlords. The most insanely devoted might even become Inquisitors, hunting down the impure and cutting them from society like a cancer. Those who are found wanting will find themselves becoming thralls or, even worse, ‘Scavvies’: scavengers who have no rights and are scorned and abused throughout the Metalsphere. All throughout human space, Issuing the statement ‘I am more Metal than you!’ has serious implications and proving that, or having it proved against you, has severe consequences for your station and status in life, no matter how ironically that conflicts with the central conceit that Rock & Roll is all about rebellion and freedom.
RockatagonDial

THE ROCKTAGON

When shown together, the Eight Great Schools are represented by holy icons arranged around a stone or metal octagon, and it is very common to see this symbol in talismanic form around some headbanger’s neck, adorning the hull of a Warp Craft or tattooed on the skin of a thrall. While all respect the  integrity of that mighty symbol as a whole, most keep the icon of their school aligned at the top when wearing or branding it.

When the borders of the Metalsphere were initially established, there was a great deal of interstellar territory traded to ensure that two styles who were vehemently opposed to each other were placed on opposite ends of space so they wouldn’t be warring neighbors in the new order. Thus the Rocktagon not only shows the various schools, but also their placement in space and their natural oppositions. As it worked out, the numbering of the schools and their representative elements all seem to naturally echo their mystical and elemental nature as well, which tends to reinforce the holy validity of the structure in the minds of the citizens.

Each school has a mystical number in addition to their holy icon, and this is based on their position on the Rocktagon as well, starting with the Nazarites at space number 1 and moving around in a clockwise manner to end with the Yngwie at number 8. The number of an opposing SaintOsbourne (3)school is always considered a ‘discordant’ or unholy number and headbangers, being a relatively superstitious lot in general, will typically avoid imagery, activities of even repetitions associated with it, even when this leads to absurd consequences.

Each school is also associated with a mystical element or concept, whichusually shows up in the harmonic resonance of their musical style. Again, based on the positions of the various styles on the Rocktagon these naturally oppose each other, reaffirming the unshakable truth of the Rocktagon as the driving force behind all of existence.

Finally, every school has a Patron Saint, typically a legendary figure of Rock from the before time.Their original names have been lost to the mists of time, and they are often portrayed in mythical, sometimes fantastical forms, but each was at one time the paragon of the musical style represented by the school founded in their image and many headbangers believe they watch over and guide those whose are worthy.

METAL WORKS…

BoHMLogoBefore I get started talking about the ‘works’ this week, I’d like to point out that I’ve disabled the comments section of The Vorpal Mind because I just couldn’t control the spam. In one week, I received some 2000 comments that were related to fake guichi bags, Dr. Dre beats, Nikes, Chinese Gibberish, etc. and there is not enough time or desire in my life to filter the damned things, so I just turned the whole shebang off.

It’s not like I need them anyways. I have a full forum board that is quiet as a ghost town, but delightfully free of spammers, so if you have some comments, please feel free to register over there and post in the appropriate section. I’d love to talk games with you.

On with the motley…

TITANS PLAY-TEST DECKS ARE NIGH

Been working on two projects this week: the interface for For Gory! and the cards for Barbarians of Heavy Metal: Titans. I’m still working on more imagery for FG! this weekend, and whipping up some dice imagery for Jim to implement into a roller, but I do have some new material to report on for BoHM:T.

I’ve finally finished the card lists, with all the rules and numbers set out in Excel and ready to be transferred to a physical format for play-testing (a formidable task). I’ve created six different riders for the game and created custom card deck lists for them, along with a half dozen Titans, so I know what I need to produce for the first demo. Currently, I have the following decks sorted:

jethro-tull-b-and-w-630-80

Nicodemus Bosch, a Ledite Alchemist, in a Nomad class Titan, the TUL-J3THR0 WHISTLER.

‘Iron’ Eddie Dickenson, a Sabbathite Prince of Darkness, in his Blitzkrieger class 1RN-M41D3N EDDIE

Lita Osbourne, a Sabbathite Occultist, in her Juggernaut class SAB-V0LUM4 SUPERNAUGHT

IMG_2718IronMaidensUli Hammet, a Yngwie Gladiator, in his Blitzkrieger class    AX3-YNGW13 AXEMASTER

Courtney Mustaine, a Yngwie Warp Mistress, in her Nomad Class 5UN-1C4RU5  ICARUS

Rex Wenzell, a Nazarite Priest in his Juggernaught class   4RC-H4NG3L ARCHANGEL

With these decks, I’m sort of throwing ideas around, testing out a lot of different systems, hull types and play-styles, including close combat, tactical and strategic dominance, heat manipulation and other strategies for eliminating the competition.

The naming conventions are intentionally tongue in cheek, with most of the riders being named after famous musicians (mixing the first name of oneEddie_Mummy_1024 with the surname of another), or, in the case of Nicodemus, famous artists. The same goes with the Titan names, which are a satirically metal take on the model numbers/names of the old Battletech mechs, using metal terminology, band names, and song and album titles.

I’m going to put the design down for a week so I can come back and tweak it before I create the physical cards, but I should have a play-test version ready in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime though, I’m going to update my original design diaries from Strange Stones in preparation for completing a section of this website which will incorporate a guide to the background info behind the cards in the game, which will be laid out in the manner of a ‘Headbanger’s Guide to the Galaxy.’ In this way, I will slowly reveal the setting in all its glory, a bit at a time. Until that materializes, however, follow the Strange Stones link to see how it all started and has slowly evolved…

Good Riddance 2014. Now, Get To Work 2015…

2014 blew.

It was a terrible year for me professionally and personally. As a result, I think I got less done that whole year than I did in the 3 months I spent on my thesis. This was exacerbated by the fact that, one year after receiving my MFA, I’m still working as a substitute teacher and, in December, had to take part time work at a retail store just to make ends not quite meet.

And just to give me a good kick before exiting stage right, the year ended with my wife getting majorly ill during the week of Christmas. Good riddance 2014, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

But now it is 2015. A new year and a new stab at getting the next phase in my life and career started. Getting a job has been a bust so far, but at least I had an interview. Finally. After over a year trying. I do, however sense a change, a sense of positive renewal, as the Doctor once said in ‘The Twin Dilemma.’

So, what about all the games I have been working on?

Quarterback Blitz

20140322_133543I started this as a thesis project and it turned into what is considered by quite a few people to be an excellent playable simulation of professional football. What many do not know is that I took the game to Topps in September of last year and nearly sold it to them. Unfortunately, after consideration, they found it a bit too complex for their customer base, so no sell, but they did tell me that is was very true to the game and want me to call them up if I have any more game ideas (I may try and sell them a Baseball or Hockey game in the near future, time will tell).

So, with  the feedback from them and working out some strategic issues with a college football coach, I am on the verge of taking the game to another company. Problem is, I need to rewrite a small chunk of it, including remaking about 108 cards, and after a year and some change, I’m kind of burnt out. So, I’m giving it a rest for a month so I can come at it fresh.

The cool news is, I’m ready to release a print and play demo after I get the new cards done and will do so, probably in March. I’ll also be taking it to another company to try and sell it, and possibly get a proper job. In the meantime…

For Glory!

BoLBGMapV3The Barbarians of Lemuria board game I designed has been done for over a year. In that time, I have tried, without success, to get it into physical production. Now, as you might have ascertained from the start of this post, I am not in the position to self-finance this thing. There is too much risk, especially when you consider there is more to producing a physical game than calling up China and sending them some files. There’s production costs, shipping costs, storage costs, distribution costs, etc. So I’ve given up on producing a lavish table to board game and am switching formats.

I’ve been a huge proponent of mobile technology as a platform for board gaming and RPGs for the last 5 years. At UTD, I spent a great deal of my time trying to convince the people in charge that not only were mobile games going to increasingly challenge AAA games for entertainment dollars, but that hybrid games, using table-top components and digital interfaces, were going to eventually become the norm, allowing for incredibly complex board game simulations. Flash forward to today and we now have X-Com the board game with its mobile interface, Golem Arcana, a digitally enhanced TT wargame and a host of completely digital mobile board games.

SampleHeroesSo I’m turning For Glory! into a digital board game app.The potential audience is larger, the production costs are smaller (just time, really) and without shipping, distribution, storage, and a production company taking up at least 50% of the profit (Google Play and iTunes stores only take 30%), the profit margin will be much higher. I’m currently working on the UI screens and my programming partner is going to use Unity’s 2D platform to realize it as software. The game will be pretty much the same, it will even be designed so up to 6 can play, but it will handle all the rules work for the players. You can see the aesthetic feel I’m going for in this incomplete rough of the character select screen.

FG_Screens_01_CharSelect

Barbarians of Heavy Metal

Ozzy1People have told me what a unique concept BoHM is, and how they’d love to see it realized. My first attempt at doing that ended in a failed Kickstarter and a lot of rather pointed comments from my target audience about how unwelcome a truly digital table-top RPG is. Problem is, I don’t want to do another strictly P&P book RPG. I want to do something different. And besides, the same problems with a print boardgame apply to print RPGs, but doubly so. As a real world example, my Barbarians of the Aftermath supplement has yet to sell through its 2010 hardcover print run (as far as I know. C7 hasn’t sent me a sales report in over a year) but the 2009 PDF still sells to this very day!

So, as the IP was important to me, but the format really wasn’t (although I would have loved to have  been the one who revolutionized the RPG industry with a digital TTRPG), I tucked it away until I could find another medium for it, instead of rushing out yet another variation on the standard RPG. This month, I found that medium: the Tactical Card Game.

SpikeAn idea I’ve been noodling around with for some time, the Tactical Card game is an attempt to model the strategy and tactics of tabletop wargaming using strictly cards. During my recent research into the history of wargaming (as a hobbyist and academic), I have identified a number of elements that define wargames and can be easily translated into an abstract card based system. The system uses dice, like a regular wargame, and it also has a tactical maneuver system, based on my system for vehicular combat in Barbarians of the Aftermath. But it doesn’t require miniatures, terrain models or even a large table to play.

I had been designing the TCG concept as a vehicle for the Pirate game my business partner has been working on for some time, but I realized it was also an excellent vehicle for introducing the BoHM universe. It allows me to focus on a specific part of that setting (Titans, giant heavy metal mecha, like the one above) and reach a less niche audience: casual card gamers. It can be easily expanded, into aerospace fighters, starships and even headbanger vs. headbanger musical dueling, and all those different games can be designed to work together so that you can have truly massive conflicts that cover multiple scales simultaneously (great for team tournament play). Plus, card games are cheap to produce and much more attractive to production houses.

So I’ve also been working on that. An example of the play area (which has already evolved significantly by this point) can be seen below.

LayoutExample

VOID Hunters

event_horizon_gravity_driveI’ve been fiddling on and off with this thing for ages now. It started off as a simple supplement for DCC, but I quickly realized this was not the best way to accomplish my goals for it. Then I built a system from scratch. And scratched it because it didn’t feel right for 70’s sci-fi.

And now I’m back to wondering if it wouldn’t work best as a digital TTRPG and how the might change the design. I love the idea of the game, but as with BoHM, I don’t just want to crap out another RPG. I want to make something that adds to the industry in a significantly different way, and truly inspires people to play it, like DCC. It’s simpler than BoHM, rules wise, and like the original D&D, there is no specific setting, just thematic tools for creating your own, so it might be the best game for introducing the DTTRPG concept.

The potential for expansion through in-app purchases are practically infinite, it would (again) reach a whole new audience and the costs would (again) be minimal, so I think it would be worth doing a small demo of the app to generate Kickstarter interest and that is the plan for now.

That’s My Year Full, Then

Those are my product plans for 2015, but no plan survives contact with the enemy (the enemy in this case being not fully employed and constantly scrambling to make ends meet), so there are no guarantees that even half of it will materialize. But I design games. It is not what I do, it is who I am. I could no sooner stop doing this than stop breathing, so I will continue to plug away at my projects until they are done and out the door, regardless of my situation. Expect to see at least one or two cool things from Jabberwocky in 2015…

What’s Going On…?

If it’s been a bit quiet around here lately it’s because I’ve been very busy putting things together, working on rules, creating graphics and otherwise building on games in order get them ready for release. As a one man production band (who is also trying to join university faculty at numerous schools and do the odd job to keep the green flowing) this means that I tend to neglect the social media more than I should, so here is an update for those worried that their favorite projects might be vaporware (short answer: I never produce vaporware, it all gets done)…

QBB

Quarterback Blitz is reaching the end of the prototyping stage. I plan to start shopping it ’round to production companies at the end of this month. All that really remains is finishing the miniature prototypes, but in the meantime, play-testing is going along at full speed with the makeshift models I kludged together out of electric football players and assorted gaming bases. I even managed to get the cards done up professionally by a great printing company in Hong Kong (who printed and delivered my cards in 5 days total). Here are some images of those below:

20140630_10121520140630_101237So QBB is going gangbusters, if the enthusiasm shown in play-testing is any indicator (even with people who don’t like football as a rule), and has most of my attention at this time. It looks to be a winner with sports fans and gamers and a big seller for JM and whatever company agrees to produce it.

VOID HUNTERS & BARBARIANS OF HEAVY METAL

SpikeI have spent the last few months really debating with myself over whether or not this company will make RPGs anymore. A variety of catalysts from the state of the industry, to the behavior of the customer base, to the financial viability of making anything more than pizza money off of all the blood, sweat and soul that goes into making a good RPG, were pushing me to say to heck with the whole hobby. Seriously. It is, frankly, easier, cheaper and more rewarding to build board, card and electronic games, and wit them, good transmedia friendly IP.

After a good long think, I decided to go ahead and finish at least two of my RPG projects and see where they go before giving up on the industry altogether and just focusing on all those other things. Fortunately, I have some willing partners who are going to help me see those two games to life as the first all digital table-top RPGs.

Void Hunters is now going by the title VOID: the RPG of Seventies Science Fiction and I have completely divorced it from Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics game. I loves me some DCC (seriously, if you haven’t tried it, get your butt to their site and join the band), but the restrictions were too stifling and I’ve decided to design my own mechanics while adopting some of the attitudes of that great game: Red Shirts dying by the dozen, player characters struggling to survive in a hostile universe, unforgiving patrons and merciless horrors in the dark, all of this will be part of the experience. It is at the back of the line, development wise, but I add material to it daily and should have a demo to show soon.

BoHM is my passion project and one of the main IP concepts I want to develop along transmedia lines. As a result, I’m looking to do a lot of different things with it, including seeing it materialize as a Digital TTRPG. But first, I’m going to be working on smaller, non RPG games to develop the background and prototype systems for what will be a mechanically unique take on RPGs. Can’t say much on that  right now, but as soon as the QBB prototype is finished and the proposal sent out, I’m getting right on a slew of material set in the BoHM universe. Watch this space.

FOR GLORY! & THE PIRATE GAME

SampleHeroesFor Glory! is done, it is just waiting on production. That requires money however, and, in the course of considering gaming in the 21st century and the old models of doing things, my partner and I have decided that it is ludicrous for us to go the route of, say, Ticket to Ride or Small World and build a physical game first and a digital version later. The up front costs of production and distribution are so ludicrously high these days, we have decided that it is better to do the digital version first and, if sales justify it, use some of the money from that to produce a physical copy. The up front costs for digital games are so much lower, the entry level so much cheaper for the consumer, and the ability to automate and expand so much more convenient for everyone, that I’m all about digital devices as a board gaming platform (and have been for a number of years). So I’d expect to see For Glory! released on a tablet near you before a physical copy rolls off the presses.

The one exception to this seems to be card games. My experience producing QBB’s cards has shown me that there is a much better chance of a return on your investment with sufficient quality to justify physical card games. As such, the Pirate Game, which was formerly planned to be a proper board game, is now being redesigned using a new system I’m developing to function as a card based wargame. As this system will be the basis of the larger BoHM plans I mentioned earlier, I will be working heavily on this after QBB is wrapped up for the month.

RAAARGH! THE GAME OF GIANT B MOVIE MONSTER COMBAT

Kark01Some of you may remember this project from last year. It is an actual video game, not a table top  board game or RPG, and it has been waiting for mobile technology to catch up a bit and the right production team to come along. Well, the good news is that I am in final negotiations with a company to finally finish it. Most of the design work is done and all that is left is programming and testing, so I look forward to this tearing up a tablet near you soon.

SUMMARY

So that’s what’s on the block. Fortunately, a lot of it is well on its way to done, so we should see 2 or 3 of these out by the end of the year with the rest following up shortly thereafter in 2015. In the meantime, I’ll try and get some more specific updates on individual games up later this week,,,

Living, Eating and Breathing Game Design (Part 2)…

So my academic work from the previous post is all geared towards graduating in December, but a man (and his family) gotta eat, and that means making stuff to sell. In my case, that means more games.

I have three games that fall into this category, but only one of them is actually going to get any attention before next year, considering my rather hefty workload.

BATTLE BLOCKS

I’ve always loved wargames. Moving massed armies around a board and trying to go all Sun Tzu on your opponents backside is a hobby that has consumed a good 3 decades of my life. And up until about 6 years ago, I enjoyed the other aspects of the wargaming hobby that I now have absolutely no time for: building and painting the models and scenery that made such battles possible.

More recently though, it is nigh impossible for me to really enjoy that hobby anymore and, like many guys my age, I’m always looking for options to ply a good table-top wargame (particularly my favorites, Warmaster Ancients and De Bellis Antiquitatis, for which these base sizes are perfect) without having to invest the time and money in hundreds of models. that’s when it struck me to come up with that option.

GreekSelection

A selection of unit labels for Greek Battle Blocks (all images © 2013 Jabberwocky Media)

Enter Battle Blocks. Basically I found that if you take a 40mmx20mmx6mm wooden block and plop a sticker down on it to give you a general idea of what sort of unit it represents, you not only can cheaply create a number of armies for testing out strategies or mixing up forces (which is particularly good for Historical Wargaming where the armies tend to be grouped rather tightly by era) but the look and feel of the blocks moving along a

map recreates the mood of ancient generals controlling their forces from a tent on the back of the line. Very thematic. And they work for any ancients type game because unit composition is fairly standard. This for instance:

GreekHoplites

Hoplites (© 2013 Jabberwocky Media)

A standard greek hoplite armed with spear, sword, shield and light armor. The shield shows a unit insignia so that you can group blocks appropriately (in Warmaster Ancients, for instance, a unit will be comprised of three such blocks) or so you can

show army affiliation in the case of grand strategic games like DBA (the above would represent a Spartan Hoplite and, no, I’m not yelling that out).

I’ve got a full batch of Greeks done up and I’m working on the Persians off and on (trying to draw cool looking Persian headgear that reads well at this size is a bit of a challenge) and I’ll likely try and get these out as a PDF sometime in January or February (after the Super Bowl). No Kickstarter, just a PDF that folks can buy and print out on sticker paper with instructions for constructing the blocks, and possible an easy set of quick-play wargames rules to go with them.

VOID HUNTERS: THE DCC GAME OF SEVENTIES SCIENCE FICTION

I do play games at least once a week. I have no business being a game designer if I’m not willing to make the time to do that. And I’m not talking about my own stuff, but other people’s games. It’s good for clearing the ol’ mental palette.

One of the games I’ve been playing is Dungeon Crawl Classics, which is a fantasy game with a strong 1970’s vibe. You heard me jive turkey! I’m gaming like it’s 1974 and I’m lovin’ it!

Well, since I can pretty much write an RPG in my sleep, and DCC is so popular at the moment, I figured I’d create a sci-fi version of it and, after discussions with Joseph Goodman and signing a licensing agreement, I’m going to start work on Void Hunters, the DCC game of Seventies Science Fiction in November, while my For Glory! Kickstarter is rolling, with a Kickstarter to follow in the Spring of 14.

The default setting is focused on the horrors of space exploration, including isolation, alien terrors, and weird quirks of science and nature that defy man’s understanding of the universe. The rules will follow closely in the gritty mold of DCC and reinforce the notion that space is a cold, lonely, uncaring thing that will kill the unprepared, and, when faced with an infinite variety of things that can kill you, it’s practically impossible to be totally prepared.

Dan_DYT3
Adventures would largely be based around sandbox style exploration of the universe, discovering the remains of other civilizations that died out long before man took his first steps into the universe, fighting against alien super-predators that are bred in the darkest and harshest environments, and salvaging the remains of lost expeditions that fell prey to unknown forces or the predations of their fellow men. Basically, DCC In Spaaace! But there will information for setting up Feudal Dark Sci-Fi settings (like Dune or 40k) and War Amongst the Stars settings (like Ender’s Game or Starship Troopers). Here is a list of the game’s major influences…

BOOKS

All the Stars a Stage (James Blish, 1971) – The imminent destruction of the sun forces humanity (now a matriarchal society in which men are considered largely useless) to flee for the stars in untested starships. Over 50 years of dangerous exploration to find a suitable homeworld ensue.

Dune (Frank Herbert, 1965) – The prime example of the Feudal Sci-Fi setting, the universal order has regressed into a series of interstellar Dukedoms ruled over by an Emperor; space travel and psionic disciplines along with human computer/assassins are controlled by guilds; and Machiavellian schemes, political assassination and interstellar war are the primary past-times of the noble houses.

Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card, 1985) – Although the full novel came out in 1985, the basis for it appeared as a novella in Analog magazine in 1977. Mankind, still recovering after a narrowly won war against an implacably alien insect race known as ‘the buggers,’ starts training the next generation of children to become generals and launch a pre-emptive strike against the aliens before they can regroup and return to finish humanity off.

Gateway (Fredrick Pohl, 1977) – The core premise of this story, an ancient and long dead alien race leave behind a stargate and several hundred ships for humanity to discover and experiment with, would make an excellent setup for a Void Hunter’s campaign. The fact that the poor humans have little control over where they are going (Habitable world? Dead world? Edge of a black hole?) and when they might get there (Do we have enough supplies to last the trip or will we starve in space?) just makes it all the more fun. Throw in a 1849 era gold-rush mentality as people risk it all for a chance to get rich off the unknown, and a greedy corporation looking to exploit them when/if they return, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for adventure.

Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke, 1972) – The subject of this novel is another space born artifact from a long lost alien civilization, which would qualify as an extremely unusual hulk: part space craft, part world. The ‘biots’ also make for highly interesting alien fauna.

Ringworld (Larry Niven, 1970) – Louis Wu and company crash land on the mother of ancient archeological artifacts, a Ringworld, and are forced to explore it’s massive, bizarre structure in order to find a way to escape. While not all that dark, and featuring a number of different alien races, Ringworld does provide a perfect example of exploring the remains of a lost alien civilization while interacting with the retro-grade descendents and strange creatures that make up the flora a fauna around it. It is a massive, campaign worthy, sci-fi sandbox.

Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein, 1959) – For more military based campaigns, there isn’t a great deal of combat in the book, but there is a great deal on the no holds barred, anything to survive mentality humanity may adopt in order to cope with the extreme circumstances surrounding interstellar war. Brutal training for a brutal people to fight a brutal enemy in a variety of brutal environments..

Solaris (Stanisław Lem, 1970) – The perfect example of what happens when man inadvertently discovers that life doesn’t neatly fit in the pigeonhole that he places it in, and the consequences that emerge from that arrogant assumption. I won’t give away the core story element that makes this novel unique, but suffice to say, sometimes the observer doesn’t realize that they’re the one under the microscope.

Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader (Rick Preistley, 1987) – Although a game book, not strictly straight fiction, the first edition of the world-popular WH40k game set forth a dark interstellar empire in its decline, its teaming subjects living a feudal existence underneath a brutal regime venerating a corpse Emperor and beset by external enemies and internal corruption. The original is still the best and presents humanity and space as terrifyingly uncaring and full of black humor. It also provides a ton of story seeds revolving around the exploration of new worlds, the rediscovery of lost worlds and salvaging of massive ‘space hulks,’ essentially mega-dungeons in space.

MOVIES

spacejockey13Alien (1979) – A crew of space miners, ordered by the Company to investigate a signal coming from a mysterious moon, end up exploring a dangerous world, encountering the crashed hulk of an alien spaceship and bring aboard a parasitic alien life form that stalks the crew in the ‘dungeon’ of their own spacecraft. This is the quintessential Void Hunter adventure in the Dark Sci-Fi paradigm.

 
The Black Hole (1979) – No aliens, space demons or lost civilizations, just a mad scientist in a massive ‘lost’ space ship (the sci-fi equivalent of an evil wizard’s dungeon complete with the robot equivalent of orcs and an ogre) perched on the edge of the most destructive force in the universe with all the danger that entails.

Dark Star (1974) –Somewhat less serious than some might expect from the title, the comedy is still black as the void of space, the end result of the film is fairly fatalistic and the clear insanity of the crew after a long space voyage (not to mention the dark nature of their ongoing mission) is likely to remind players and GMs of the black humor and absurdity that even the most well meaning and serious RPG adventure devolves into after a long night’s play. It’s like somebody took an actual sci-fi RPG session, wrote it into a screenplay and then filmed the results.

Event Horizon (1997) –This movie came out well after the seventiesevent_horizon_gravity_drive, but it encapsulates the horrors of space exploration and turns them up to 11. A search and rescue team finds a spacecraft with a prototype interstellar drive that went missing 7 years earlier. As they explore the ‘hulk’ they find that, on its maiden voyage, the Event Horizon uncovered horrors beyond human comprehension. It’s ‘The Shining’ in space with a little bit of ‘Hellraiser’ thrown in for good measure.

Outland (1981) – Again, shortly outside of the seventies, but still deep in the ethos of many of the stories from that time. No aliens, just man’s inhumanity to man in the pursuit of interstellar resources and profit. Often described as ‘High Noon in Space,’ nothing better captures the frontier nature of space, where help is not around the corner and running away is not always an option when you’re surrounded by an environment that is totally antithetical to human life.

Silent Running (1972) – While this film is set within the solar system, it has many elements that define seventies sci-fi. Man’s inhumanity and self-destructive nature, the delicate nature of life and maintaining it in the cold dark of space, and a perfect example of how some last remnant of a lost civilization could end up floating in space (becoming a Hulk, in VH vernacular).

MAGAZINES

A lot of the science fiction I read that really defined the themes of seventies science fiction came from a selection of magazines that were popular during that decade and into the eighties as well. I can’t necessarily remember the specific stories or the particular authors, but the influence of these periodicals, whose stories reflected the time they were written in, will impress the feel of the era on you like nothing else can.

Omni – A magizine of technology, science and science fiction, it boasted articles featuring some of the most influential writers, scientists and artists of the time, including Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and H.R.Giger. The stories were a bit on the weird side. One story that sticks in my brain to this day involved an alien shape changer that absorbed people to feed itself and then took on their form and memories. It haOmni Magazined escaped from a government black site and became the lover of a woman who took it in after she found out it had eaten and taken the form of her ex-husband. She basically kept it as a lover until she started to think it might leave her, at which point she turned it over to the government, stoned out of its mind on oregano, which acted as a powerful and addictive drug for it. Yeah, that’s the kind of weird stuff the seventies was known for…

Analog – The premier science fiction magazine of the time, it collected the works of authors known and unknown and many of its stories really reflected the zeitgeist of the time, one of uncertainty and fear of the unknown. Find yourself a dozen or so back copies form this period and you’ll probably have enough material for an equal number of adventures.

OTHER STUFF

There are a ton of other ideas fighting for space in my head, but one of the things I’ve sussed out in grad school is my working limitations. I can handle about three things at any one time (although I have reams of ideas noted down for future development). At the moment, For Glory!, Quarterback Blitz and Void Hunters are what I’m splitting my time between, with all of them in various stages of completion, slowly rolling off the assembly line of my mind one after the other. Once I graduate, I’m going to have to assign one of those three slots to non-gaming work (most likely teaching) so my production will slow down a bit, but I can comfortably conceive of releasing two or three things a year (especially if I get summers off). Hopefully, those initial three will establish Jabberwocky Media as a top-notch game company and firmly establish my vocation as professional Game Designer…

BoHM UPDATE…

Over at the Kickstarter, I’ve added another couple of updates.

The first is simply a modification to the iMetal Stretch Goal so now we only need to exceed our goal by $1000 to open that one up. The second, posted today, includes new Reward Level Upgrades, a hardback version of the book and a Metal Master (our fancy term for GM) screen with an included 32 page adventure: War Pigs!

All of these were requested by backers, so if there is something you’d like to see us produce, let us know in the comments. You don’t ask, you don’t get!

Also, Jeff has provided us with some more WIP art! Let him know what you think!

Ozzy1

THE ROTTEN ONE…

Behold the first pencil sketch from Jeff Laubenstein for Barbarians of Heavy Metal: the Patron Saint of Punk, The Rotten One (click for a larger image)…

Rotten Sketch 2

It’s a WIP, but you can already see why Jeff was the only artist who could truly realize the bizarre world of the 31st century.

The Kickstarter is almost 40% of the way there after a little over a week and still going strong. Whatever reason you have for not backing BoHM, never mind the bollocks and forget your holiday in the sun! Make a submission to our pretty (oh so pretty) product if you want to be anarchy! God Save the Queen!

THE JABBERWOCK IS REBORN….

Jabberwocky Productions is no more. We left is dead and with its head, we’ve come gallumphing back as Jabberwocky Media LLC!

What this means, in a nutshell, is that we no longer do freelance web or multi-media design. We are, instead, totally focused on the design and production of games, both digital and analog, as well as any emergent trans-media products that pop out of those designs, such as novels, audio-plays (and interactive audio plays), comics, whatever.

Here are a few new projects in the works:

BARBARIANS OF HEAVY METALBoHMBook

Currently in Kickstarter mode, BoHM is the Table-top RPG of Rock & Roll and Giant Robot Combat in the 31st Century. It is a unique product in the RPG industry in that we are releasing it not only as a book, but as a Digital Boxed Set that allows you to play the game completely from your tablet. Everything you need to join your friends for epic adventures in the Metalsphere is contained in a single app, including dice, character generators, GM tools, the lot. Take it anywhere and play anytime.

We are planning on an April 2014 release for BoHM for those who join in the Kickstarter and a general release in August of that year. You can find more info on it here.

FOR GLORY!!!

The Barbarians of Lemuria Boardgame, For Glory!!! puts you in the character of a hero seeking BoLBGMapV3fortune and glory as you traverse the lands of Lemuria. This will be a massive game with two playable maps (one for small groups of 2-4 players and the other for 5 to 8), 12 different characters to play, over 400 cards including encounters over six types of terrain, exotic treasures, wily companions, mysterious sorceries and more.

The game is in its final prototype form and only awaits final art and some final playtesting. The Kickstarter for For Glory!!! will start sometime in the Fall.

THE PIRATE GAMEAaarghShip

Designed by Angelo Lombardi, this is a game of dueling pirate ships. It uses a unique worker placement mechanic to represent you as the captain assigning your limited crew of scurvy dogs to the various tasks needed to send your opponent down to Davy Jones locker!

A deceptively simple game that is easy enough for the whole family to play while still keeping things interestingly tactical for the adults, it will come with two ships, two miniature pirate crews and two decks of cards, enough for two courageous captains to conquer the waves.

It is currently in development for a 2014 release…

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS? TAKE IT TO THE FORUMS…

We now have functioning forum boards for those of you who have questions, want to talk about one of our games or just have ideas you want to share in general. You can find the forums here.