October Horror Challenge - Piranha 3D (2010)

 For Day 30 I decided to do an alternate prompt. "Best Gratuitous Nudity" 

Plot

Spring break turns into a total slaughter when ancient flesh-eating fish are let loose at a lakeside resort.

Review

This movie is schlock, but it's funny and has a lot of gratuitous nudity. The movie has a phenomenal cast. My two favorite  members are Richard Dreyfus (which is a nice Jaws call back) and Jerry O'Connell. O'Connell plays an absolute sleezeball and has one of the funniest moments of the flick. He get's his too, in a hilarious way.  If you're cool with low brow humor, this is a fun ride full of blood and boobs. 

Your Game 

These are updates of some stats for SURVIVE THIS!! I did years ago. This one honestly could be used in any of those games, but I think it'd be extra appropriate with Bloody Appalachia and Camp Blood.

Piranha, Prehistoric (Animal) 

Armor Class: 12

Hit Dice: 10 (3 HD)
Move: 5/15 (Swim)
Actions: 1 

Attack: Bite (1d6)
Special: Blood Frenzy, can leap up to 10 feet out of water

Bonuses: +1 to melee attacks, +2 to melee damage

Alignment: Evil

Morale: 10

Madness: 0 (6)
Terror: 9

HDE: 1

The smell of blood will cause a piranha to frenzy, giving it advantage on attack rolls, but giving it a -2 AC penalty.

Movies Watched: 33

New to Me: 19.66

October Horror Challenge - Split Second (1992)

Day 28's prompt was "Sci-Fi Horror."

Plot

In a flooded dystopian London, a burnt-out cop, Stone, obsessively hunts down the thing that killed his partner years ago.

Review

Rutger Hauer plays the lead in this one. He's nuts and as always, just cool. Neil Duncan plays a detective assigned to keep an eye on him. He starts out nerdy but ends up just as crazy as Stone. Kim Cattrall plays Stone's love interest and the film also features a few British actors I typically see in supporting roles. 

I read that this one was a sci-fi/action/horror flick. It feels way more sci-fi action. Honestly it's just a weird flick and kind of slow. Hauer and Duncan are entertaining and the flooded London setting is cool, but otherwise I feel this one is just kind meh. Really not too much to say about the film. Its fine for what it is, but unless a friend wanted to watch it while we were hanging out, there are many other flicks I'd rather watch.

Your Game 

The creature in Split Second might be supernatural or it might just be some kind of mutant.

The Killer (Outsider)

Armor Class: 14
Hit Dice: 34 (8 HD)
Move: 12
Actions: 1 or 3 (claw/claw/bite)
Attack: Claw (1d8), Bite (1d6)
Special: Toughness +4, Psychic link to any creature it bites

Bonuses: +5 to melee attacks, +4 to melee damage, +5 to Athletics: Basic, +6 to Stealth

Alignment: Evil

Morale: 10

Madness: 7 (12)
Terror: 15

HDE: 4

Movies Watched: 31

New to Me: 18.66

100 Days of Halloween: Day 2

These unusual punishments come from Chamber of Chills #1.

It kind of feels like I'm slacking already, but I don't actually have new game content for this one. This was  just a single page from the above mentioned issue, but it really stuck out to me. While you could definitely use these punishments as inspiration for any game, I think they'd add great flavor to SURVIVE THIS!! The Blackest Space or the original version of the game. 

Rayguns & Robuts Review

Rayguns & Robuts is a retro sci-fi tour de force by Levi Combs, the mad genius of Planet X Games. Most of the content was written by Levi, with a contribution from Luau Lou. The cover is done by Planet X regular Ed Bickford (who also has some wonderful interior art). The rest of the interior art is done by Lawrence Hernandez, JE Shields, Dan Smith, and James V. West. In addition to the awesome artwork for the games itself, there are a couple of fantastic retro comic book ads for other PX content. These just add to the character and sheer awesomeness of Planet X Games books.

The book is a system neutral (OSR adjacent). Instead of giving stats for a bunch of new equipment and things, this book assumes you already have a system you like that has those things. The book contains an overview of the setting, ROBUTS and why they could have rebelled, planets and destinations, an adventure, and the craziest collection of characters you've ever seen. Seriously, you're players will never forget characters like Professor Mantis (a literal giant mantis scientist in a lab coat) or the cyborg chimp, H.A.M. 

This book is wild. Seriously, everything Levi rights is just interesting af. There's so must style. I love that every time the mechanical villains are mentioned they are ROBUTS in all caps. This setting feels alive and weird in all the best ways. To be quite honest this is the kind of strange sci-fi setting I was hoping for with Alpha Blue many years ago (in the days before its author went full asshole). 

When/if I do run this game, I think I'm going to use Survive This!! The Blackest Space. Scorched or the original Blackest Space are great options too. White Star is another great option. They all seem like a great fits. The few stats that are in the book would be easy to use with them. You can get your own copy of Rayguns & Robuts here. While you're waiting on your copy to arrive check out this great Spotify playlist Levi made for it.

Pipeworld - Tabletop RPG Monster Manual Zines

You have one week left to back Pipeworld, the latest Kickstarter by Bloat Games. Pipeworld is like his last Kickstarter, Overworld, but instead of Legend of Zelda, it focuses on Mario Bros. The zine will be presented in system neutral, SURVIVE THIS!!, and 5e formats. You can choose your desired rules system. If Eric keeps this up, we're going to have everything we need for a Smash Bros tabletop setting!

Overworld KS Coming Soon

Overworld is the next Kickstarter by a game designer that creates epic content and is just one of the nicest folks I know, Eric from Bloat Games. Seriously though, I do want to brag on my friend for a second. Eric is a kind soul and has given me some great opportunities to be creative and get my work out there. I can think of several times in the past he's made his games more accessible to folks. I've never really heard him speak negatively about another publisher's work. Eric is just a good dude, that makes great content, and does so without stirring controversy (redacted one-sided nut job incident aside). This is why I love promoting and supporting his work and why I think you should too.

Okay, now that my love letter to Mr. Bloat is done, I'll talk about the project. Overworld is a bestiary zine inspired by The Legend of Zelda! The zine is going to be released in three different formats. There will be a system neutral version, a 5e version, and a version written specifically for Bloat Games take on the OSR, SURVIVE THIS!!. I personally am going to pick up the 5e and SURVIVE THIS!! versions. A little birdie told me there will be a bundle option to get all three, and to be honest, that's the one level I'll most likely back at. I think the use in 5e is obvious. If you're using this book with SURVIVE THIS!! there are several cool ways you can use it. It will provide great classic monsters for Fantasy and Vigilante City. The creatures can be new alien species for SURVIVE THIS!! The Blackest Space. A really fun option for Dark Places & Demogorgons, We Die Young, and What Shadows Hide would be to have the pc's sucked into The Legend of Zelda (or your world's version of it). Think of the fun of your werewolf riot girl or J'town geek questing through Hyrule trying to snag the Master Sword to defeat the bad guys and get back to the real world.

You can go to this link and click "Notify me on launch" to stay up to date with the project.  If you want more Legend of Zelda inspired content from Bloat Games you should consider checking out Eric's Patreon. The image below is a sample of the cool stuff he's doing there.

Character Creation Challenge - Day 24

Today's character is doing his best to avoid death in The Blackest Space.

Griz O'Janen

Evade: 13
HD: 1
HP: 13
Armor Points: 1 (furry)
Level: 1 

Race: Gnargfang

Class: Smuggler

Move: 35

STR: 1 INT: 2 WIS: 4
DEX: 3  CON: 3 CHA: 3

Luck: 4

Attack Damage

Claws +1to hit, d4+1 damage

Telekinesis +3 to hit, 1 damage (60' range)

Laser Pistol +3 to hit, 1d6 (100' range, 20 shots per clip)

Energy Rifle +3 to hit, 1d8 (200' range, 15 shots per clip)

Knife +1 to hit, d4 damage (60' thrown)

Race Traits: 

• Enhanced Sense: Advantage on sight, hearing, and smelling checks; Dark Vision 50'
• Claws and Fangs: d4+ STR damage
• Great Leaper: Advantage on on jumping and climbing checks 
• Furry: 1 AP and ignore first 2 damage from cold sources (then apply AP)
• ability to use Grnarcryst weaponry and armor
• Way of the Eye: +2 Evade, Telepathy (100', only works on willing), Telekinesis (60', 5lbs., can do one damage with ranged attack), can understand, read, and speak any language encountered 

Race Traits: 

• Fake Papers: Advantage on attempts to gain or create forged papers for ship, crew, cargo, etc. and bluffing attempts
• Sense Weakness: ignore 1 AP when gain an attack Benefit, may use Luck to gain an additional random Benefit
• Luck of the Stars: 25% chance of regaining extra Luck point at the start of each session. Regain Luck point after successfully pull off a big score
• Smuggling All the Time: Advantage on all checks involving hiding items, people, and self. Advantage on searching checks.

Equipment

92 Galactic Repute, Sensor Comm, Laser Pistol (2 extra clips), Energy Rifle (1 extra clip), Simple Breather, Medi-Pak, Knife, Backpack, Quality Wine, Small Mirror

Background

Born with access to the Eye of Koshka, Griz was destined to become a Meta-Psyche or Emerald Champion. Well... that's what his parents thought, at least. However, while he appreciated his psionic and the advantages they gave him, he preferred a more roguish carefree life style. As soon as he could, he left home and joined a pirate crew. While he learned a lot and it was exciting, he found the life of a space pirate to be too violent for his tastes. He took to smuggling and has never looked back.