Once Upon a Geek

I finally got my copy of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Roleplaying Game, and turns out I’m in it!  Well… I’m not exactly IN the game, but I am mentioned in the credits and some of my playtesting group’s contributions made it into the game!  Sorry to subject you to what follows.  I’m not trying to brag, I’m just sharing my excitement!  Here is a picture of me going all Gollum with my new prize.

I’ve only just started flipping through the set, but I gotta say this is a truly gorgeous game!  Each book has glossy, full-color pages.  There are several loose character sheets, each printed on heavy-cardstock.  There are punch-out cardboard tokens for Story Points.  It’s just well put together and beautiful.  For a video walk-thru of the box set contents click here.  For a seven-page PDF preview of The Player’s Guide, click here.  I’ve only scratched the surface of the contents and can’t wait to read it cover-to-cover.  For now though, here are a few things I’ve noticed that relate to my playtesting group…

CREDITS

Here are the credits listed on the inside cover of The Player’s Guide.

And a close up on the Playtester’s paragraph…

Hooray!  My thanks to Cubicle 7 for the shout-out!  My group, called THE UNIQUE GEEKS, consisted of Sterling, SGhoul, Scott C, Shavenger, and myself.  We read through early drafts of the rules, ran a few adventures, and created lots of characters and gadgets.  Then provided feedback to Cubicle 7 on all of this.  I’m happy to say some of our contributions made it into the final draft!  Now, I hope I’m not breaking some unspoken playtester rule by talking about which contributions were from my group.  If so, I deeply apologize to the almighty playtester gods and humbly offer to sacrifice myself on the altar of the omniscient 20-sider.  Additionally, I’m not trying to take anything away from David F. Chapman or the folks at Cubicle 7.  They’ve created a great game and deserve to be praised for everything they did.  They did all the heavy-lifting creating the game from scratch, we just came along and piggybacked on their ideas and made a few suggestions.  I’m honored to have been invited to the playtest and honored that the folks at Cubicle 7 thought some of our suggestions were good enough to include.

GADGETS

For one particular adventure, I developed four different gadgets.  Gadgets are unique devices or tools characters carry with them for specific purposes.  While going through the new box set, I was blown away as I stumbled across two gadgets I created printed right next to the Sonic Screwdriver and Psychic Paper!  Wow!  I created the “Engineer’s Mate” and the “Engram Eraser”, both shown below.  Click the image to enlarge.  I created these gadgets for an earlier draft of the rules, so some of the stats have changed since I came up with the concepts.  However, the gadget name, traits, and purpose remain the same.  My compliments to whoever wrote the descriptive paragraph.  They did a great job taking the idea and explaining it succinctly and effectively.  Nicely done!

You can’t tell from this scan, but each gadget on the page below is perforated so you can pop them out of the page!  So cool!

TRAITS

One of the areas we provided lots of feedback and suggestions on was “Traits”.  I’ve noticed looking over the new box set that several of the “Traits” we suggested have been incorporated.  Now it’s quite possible that several other playtesters suggested the same particular “Traits” that we did, so I’m not claiming that we’re solely responsible for these.  “Traits” we suggested that appear in the final game include: Sense of Direction, Animal Friendship, Owed Favour, Unattractive, Owes Favour, Argumentative, Dark Secret, Impulsive, and Selfish.  Again, my compliments to whoever wrote the lengthy descriptions for each of these.  We just shared a germ of an idea from a game mechanic perspective, whereas someone at Cubicle 7 beautifully wrapped explanations and examples around it.

That’s it for now.  I’m going to take a deep-dive into these books and savor every detail!  In fact, I may be so wrapped up in this game that I fail to post here for a few days. 

The Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space role-playing game by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd was released a couple weeks ago in England, and I should finally get my hands on a copy today!  I ordered the game through my LCS, which is getting it from Diamond Comics Distributors.  Diamond has it listed on their shipping list for today!  Hot dog!

I’ve posted about the game previously, but again I gotta say how impressed I am with the package they’ve put together for this game.  First off, it’s a box set.  How cool is that?!?!  What game company has put out a decent RPG box set in years?  Everyone just publishes hardbacks nowadays.  Also, this box set is packed!  Check out the video below done by my buddy The Acrobatic Flea.  He posted this on his excellent blog, HeroPress, to demonstrate how nicely this box set was put together.  It’s even got a hinged cover!  Way to go Cubicle 7!  Even if you don’t care for Doctor Who, you gotta admit this is a well-designed product.

Click here if you can’t see the embedded video above.

Below is a list of the contents as you saw them in the video:

• Player’s Guide (86 pages)
• Gamemaster’s Guide (144 pages)
• Adventure Book (30 pages)
• Character sheets (including pre-generated characters for the series cast)
• Dice
• Blank Character Sheets
• Gadget sheets
• Story Point Tokens

You can purchase a PDF version of the box set right now from DriveThruRPG by clicking here.  You can also join the discussion forum for the game by clicking here.

Upcoming supplements to the game include: Doctor Who Gamemaster’s Screen; Aliens and Creatures; and Defending the Earth (U.N.I.T. box set).  Also, next summer they’ll release a Matt Smith/11th Doctor themed edition.  It won’t be an all-new edition, mostly just updating the visuals and the branding.

Finally, I’ve heard a rumor that there is a credit to me and my playtesting group inside – Shag (and the Unique Geeks).  I’m totally stoked about that!  I got mentioned in an official Doctor Who publication!  My life is now complete! 

Because nobody demanded it! Here are some updated pictures of my Comicatorium (a.k.a. Shag’s Sanctum Sanctorum).  Did some rearranging recently and I’m pretty pleased with the results so I figured I’d show it off here.  My thanks to the Irrepressible Gena for her assistance and inspiration.

Biggest change below is the new flat-screen monitor for the desktop!  Hooray!  Love it!

Added a new bookcase, which will help get some things organized.  I still need to fill the shelves (which won’t take long).  Yes, the top shelf of the left bookcase is entirely full of Doctor Who audio dramas, and the middle bookcase is almost entirely full of Doctor Who books and RPGs (with Doctor Who videos and magazines stacked on top).  Some of those book shelves are actually stacked three deep.  Feel free to be jealous or horrified.  Your choice.

This corner is most interesting because all the yard equipment is gone!  We enclosed an outside shed-like-thing and moved all the yard equipment out there.  So my Comicatorium is no longer an impromptu garage.  Also, got my Tom Fleming prints framed and hung.  Loving them!  Thanks to Sterling for buying the Aquaman print and starting my love affair with Fleming’s work.

Finally, here is the overflow of comic boxes from my closet.  The nice thing is that they are alphabetized and organized!  Hooray!  I’m now up to 47 comic long boxes.  I’m dreading ever moving again.

As I’ve reported here previously, I’m totally excited for the release of the Doctor Who roleplaying game by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.  Myself and four friends were playtesters for this RPG back in the first quarter of 2008, so we’ve been waiting a long time for this to come out.  Below are the three solicited items so far.  I CAN’T WAIT!!!!

Additionally, over on Cubicle 7’s forum you can preview the Blank Character Sheet, as well as seven pages of the Player’s Guide.  These pages look gorgeous!  Great work by Cubicle 7!  My thanks to my buddies over at HeroPress.net and Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery for mentioning these preview pages. Otherwise I may have missed them.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Core Set

On sale November 30, 2009

Imagine you could go anywhere. This world or countless others, encountering strange alien races, new cultures or hostile environments. Now imagine you could travel to any time. See the pyramids and the Sphinx (back when she had a nose!), discover who (or what) really built Stonehenge, meet the first Emperor of Japan, or travel into the far future as humanity spreads to the stars. Where would you go?

With Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, the power is in your hands! You can go anywhere or anywhen in the universe. It’s not going to be easy. It’ll probably be dangerous. The universe is a hostile place, full of Daleks, Slitheen, Krillitane, Sontarans, Plasmavores, Cybermen, Sycorax, Judoon and worse. There will be fear, heartbreak and excitement, but above all, it’ll be the trip of a lifetime.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space is a roleplaying game set in the universe of the world’s longest running science fiction show on TV – the BBC’s Doctor Who. Published in a boxed format, the core set includes:

• Player’s Guide (86 pages)
• Gamemaster’s Guide (144 pages)
• Adventure Book (30 pages)
• Quick Start Guide (4 page)
• Character sheets (including pre-generated characters for the series cast), Blank Character Sheets, and Gadget sheets
• Story Point Tokens and Dice

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space has been written to appeal to both the experienced and first time gamer.

Doctor Who Gamemaster’s Screen

On sale December 14, 2009

Packed with all the information a Gamemaster needs for easy reference during a session of Doctor Who, this ‘deluxe’ four-panel thick screen will last for years of Adventures in Time and Space.

Aliens and Creatures

On sale January/February 2010

In the vast expanse of space wait creatures beyond the imagination. Mutants housed in impenetrable armour, vast criminal families that disguise themselves in the skins of their victims, and thousands of cloned soldiers ready to conquer and crush.

But it’s not all evil and danger out there. The songs of the peaceful enslaved echo through time, while others try to protect the weaker species in the endless night of space.

Aliens and Creatures is an expansion set for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game.

Within this box you will find:

• 148 page rulebook detailing many of the creatures faced in the Doctor’s latest adventures including the Cult of Skaro, Davros, the Weeping Angels and the Hath, as well as additional rules for creating your own creatures both as enemies or as playable characters
• 32 page Adventure book, featuring a whole new ready-to-play adventure and many ideas for additional stories
• Additional Story Point Counters
• Alien Record Cards for easy reference

Assuming all is well with air travel, I should be in Atlanta this morning!!! Me and 30,000 of my closest friends all weekend long! Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.  It’s the 6th largest convention in the city of Atlanta, has over 500 guests (actors, authors, artists, bands, etc),  and offers over 2,750 hours of panels, seminars, demonstrations, and workshops. Check out the DragonCon website for details on the event!

Below are a few snapshots from Dragon*Con 2008.  I typically take about 400 pictures each event.  While these aren’t really the best quality shots, they do give you an idea of some the diverse things going on.

Click here to view all my Dragon*Con photos on Flickr.  Also, for some of my favorite Dragon*Con shots click here and click here.  Finally, you can read about my 2008 Dragon*Con exploits by clicking here, here, here and here.

Shag and Captain America.  Check out my t-shirt.  Eat that, Steve Rogers!

Shag and Iron Man.  Again with the t-shirt backing up Tony Stark’s Civil War position.

Gareth David Lloyd & James Marsters from the Torchwood panel

Comic writer Peter David

Comic writer Mike Baron

The Convention Vixens

You never know who you’ll run into at Dragon*Con.  Race and Serv with Axl Rose.  … yeah, right.

The Unique Geek Board of Directors dinner

Iron Man!

Adam West and the Batmobile in the parade

Speed Racer’s Mach 5 in the parade

This Marvel vs. DC shot shows you just a tiny fraction of comic book costumes to be found at Dragon*Con

Talk with you sometime next week.  Assuming I recover.  

One Week Until Dragon*Con 2009!!!

‘Nuff Said.

Finally! Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space role-playing game release has been officially announced.  Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd has been working on this for a LONG time.  It’s nice to see that they’ve finally been able to announce the month of release.  Watch for it coming in October to a den of geeks near you.

Okay, I just got permission from Cubicle-7 to reveal a long-held secret…

Myself and a handful of Unique Geek listserv members were playtesters for this new Doctor Who RPG!!!  Myself, Scott C (of NeedCoffee.com), Sterling (of New Bard’s Press), Kevin Powell, and Shawn Linton were all playtesters for this RPG. We did the playtesting back in the first quarter of 2008.

While we can’t talk about the game or the mechanics, I can say that I’m excited for this game to come out!

Sweet cover to the box set too! It’s a box set!  I love RPG box sets!!!

BLUE DEVIL WEEK continues here at Once Upon a Geek! Today we’ll be spotlighting places Blue Devil has turned up outside of comic books. Don’t forget, on Friday we’ll feature an exclusive ONCE UPON A GEEK interview with the creators of Blue Devil!

Animation

Blue Devil made a few cameos in the Justice League Unlimited animated series, including the episode “Dark Heart” in which he had a non-speaking appearance along with most of the league. He had a line in the episode “Destroyer” in which he yelled for everyone to get to the Javelins.  Those minor appearances led Blue Devil to a lead role in the comic book Justice League Unlimited #25.  In that issue, Blue Devil struggled with his role as a hero because the people he rescued were frightened by his appearance.

Action Figures

Justice League Unlimited

The first Blue Devil action figure was produced as part of the Justice League Unlimited toy line in 2007 (seen below). This figure is 4.5 inches tall (5 inches if you count the horns).  While he doesn’t look exactly like a Paris Cullins drawing, it’s a pretty good representation of the original Blue Devil design (admittedly with an “animated series” look to him).  You’ve got the trident, the goatee, the earring, the pointy ears, the flared shoulders and collar, the blue and yellow colors look great, and the devil design around the belt is there.  The horns aren’t exactly right and he’s got a tail for some reason, however, those can be overlooked.  I was just happy to see a Blue Devil figure produced!

DC Direct

There is another Blue Devil figure due out July 22, 2009 from DC Direct (see below).  This figure will stand 6.5 inches tall and is patterned from George Perez’s drawings in the classic 1986 History of the DC Universe comic book.  I’m not entirely thrilled with the face on this prototype figure. My hope is that the final figure’s face will look slightly more like the comic character.

Unproduced Super Powers Figures

Believe it or not, Kenner was developing Blue Devil and Shockwave action figures slated for the Super Powers collection back in the mid-1980s.  Unfortunately, the line was canceled before these figures could be produced.  You can read all about it, see presentation artwork, and mock-up figures by clicking here.  For information specific to the unproduced Blue Devil figure click here.  For information specific to the unproduced Shockwave figure click here.

You really gotta check out those unproduced Super Powers figures.  They look so friggin’ cool!  I would’ve loved these figures as a child.  It also goes to show how popular Blue Devil was during the mid-1980s.

Games/Trading Card

Heroclix

Here is a Blue Devil HeroClix game piece from WizKids. HeroClix is a collectible miniatures game in which players construct teams of heroes and villains to play out a battle turn-by-turn on a grid map. Blue Devil came in three different ranks: Rookie #43, Experienced #44, and Veteran #45 (shown here).  While the Blue Devil figure looks the same for each rank, the Rookie and Experienced feature Blue Devil on an elevated plane (to represent the use of his trident when flying).  The Blue Devil HeroClix are from the “Collateral Damage” set produced in 2006. The Rookie and Experienced ranks are considered to be “uncommon”, while the Veteran rank is considered to be “rare” (meaning somewhat difficult for collectors to obtain).  The Rookie is worth 50 points, the Experienced is worth 76 points, and the Rare is worth 100 points (showing that Blue Devil became more powerful later in his career).  If all that is meaningless to you, don’t worry. The cool thing is they made a Blue Devil game piece and used his costume from Shadowpact.  I love the trident and the flames!

VS Trading Card System

There were two Blue Devil cards from the “VS System” collectible card game produced by Upper Deck. In the game, players build and play a deck of VS System cards in an attempt to win a game against their opponent.

The first card is “Blue Devil: Dan Cassidy” and is #DCR-045 from the “Infinite Crisis” set produced in 2006. His attack rating is 4, his defensive rating is 2, and he has a casting cost of 2.  When activated you lose 4 endurance, however, when Blue Devil leaves play you gain 6 endurance.  The quote on the card is, “Lately, all Big Blue does with his powers is throw drunks like me out of the Oblivion.“  Phil Noto did the art.

The second card is “Blue Devil: Big Blue” and is #DCR-046 from the same set.  His attack rating is 10, his defensive rating is 10, and he has a casting cost of 5.  When activated you lose 4 endurance, however, when Blue Devil leaves play you gain 8 endurance.  The quote on the card is, “Our heavy hitter used to be a stuntman, but a magical accident turned him big, mean, and blue.“  Great art by Alex Horley!

Now, if all the attack, defense, and casting cost jargon is meaningless, don’t sweat it. Just be happy they included Blue Devil in this popular card game.

Mayfair RPG

Role-playing statistics for Blue Devil were published by Mayfair Games in 1993 for the DC Universe Who’s Who Volume 3 role-playing companion. Mayfair’s supplements featured role-playing statistics for each character, tips to role-playing the character (such as personality and subplots), and a complete list of comic book appearances for the character.  These were designed as companion pieces to DC’s Who’s Who loose-leaf edition published around the same time.

Below you will find the front-side and back-side of the Mayfair Who’s Who Blue Devil entry. If you are interested in reading the text, click the image for a larger version.

DC Trading Card

This final Blue Devil piece comes from the 1991/1992 DC Comics trading card set produced by Impel Marketing. Blue Devil is #37 in the series and the art was done by artists Paris Cullins and Robert Campanella. If you are interested in reading the text, click the image for a larger version.

That’ll do it for Blue Devil appearances outside of the comics.  Be sure to come back tomorrow where we’ll look at some favorite Blue Devil covers.  Also, don’t forget that on Friday we’ll have the very first ONCE UPON A GEEK creator interview featuring Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn!

When playing role-playing games, which action resolution system do you prefer? 

Do you prefer the elegance and simplicity of a single die roll?  Or do you prefer the tactile sensation of a bunch of die clacking together in your hand just before you roll? 

Do you believe in calculating the sum of multiple dice, or are Successes and Failures the more statistically valid approach? 

Or do you shun dice altogether, preferring the logic of comparing ability scores?

Vote in the new poll here at ONCE UPON A GEEK and let the world know!  Also, feel free to comment explaining your feelings further!

Believe it or not, there was a time when Watchmen wasn’t the pinnacle of comic book achievement.  Back in 1987 it was simply a comic book being published by DC and was subject to the same exploitation as all other mid-80s comic books.  To be specific, it was the subject of three role-playing supplements from Mayfair Games.  The most shocking fact about this is that Alan Moore actually approved these RPG supplements, making them the only Watchmen spin-offs to be endorsed by Alan Moore himself.

I own one of these RPG supplements (seen above) and have included scans of the Watchmen statistics below.  These supplements expanded upon the Watchmen characters and provided previously-unrevealed information on items in the Watchmen-verse. The three supplements were: Who Watches the Watchmen?, Taking Out the Trash, and Watchmen Sourcebook.

Who Watches the Watchmen? by Dan Greenberg is a pre-Keane Act adventure module which contains complete statistics for the Watchmen characters. This supplement also includes original artwork by Dave Gibbons.  This is the supplement I own and the one the scans below come from.

Taking Out The Trash by Ray Winninger and Alan Moore, the second adventure module, included an eight page pull-out sourcebook featuring “Veidt’s Plan for World Peace and Unification,” statistics and background details for the Minutemen, and a “Watchmen Chronology: 1938-1985.” It also included “The World of the Watchmen,” an essay co-written by Alan Moore, which gave a capsule history of the characters and world, including information not given in the comic mini-series.

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Watchmen Sourcebook by Ray Winninger was published in 1990. This 128 page volume was presented in the same style as the comic mini-series, where the readers progressively piece together the story as they go along. Its “scrapbook” format provided additional background information on the Watchmen universe and its characters including newspaper articles, movie scripts, letters to and from family members of the heroes, and friends of the Watchmen and Minutemen.

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Here are the scans of the Watchmen RPG statistics.  If you are interested in reading the text, click the image for a larger version.

In a fantastic interview by Comic Book Resources, both Dan Greenberg and Ray Winninger say that Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons were extremely helpful during the development process of these RPG supplements. Below is an excerpt from that interview.  You can read the entire interview by clicking here.

Greenberg emphasizes how helpful Alan Moore was, noting that he was “particularly generous with his time and patience in giving detailed answers to my inexhaustible questions. I was especially honored when he started calling me to talk about his latest ideas.”

Winninger had similar experiences with his collaborative efforts: “On all of our various DC Heroes projects we received a lot of cooperation from various DC creators, Alan and Dave included.” “Shortly after I picked up the Watchmen assignment I called Alan in Northampton,” says Winninger. “He was unbelievably nice and excited about the project. During that first call he spent almost two hours telling me exactly what was about to happen in the next nine issues of the comic, down to the level of individual panels and page layouts.” Winninger adds, “I still remember him saying ‘Right, issue 12. We open with six pages of corpses.’ I spoke with him several times thereafter to bounce my ideas for the adventure off of him, to clarify details to get his approval on the manuscripts and such.” And, as Winninger points out, Dave Gibbons provided original cover art for the Mayfair “Watchmen” books and added new interior art as well.

Alan Moore was supportive of everything Winninger planned for the “Watchmen” role-playing game supplements. Winninger says, “I don’t recall him ever vetoing anything. I certainly wouldn’t have used anything he didn’t like. He and I riffed together on some of the new stuff — backgrounds for some of the Minutemen is one detail I remember.”

…..

“The idea to have Captain Metropolis engineer a plot to force the characters to work together popped into my head in the middle of my first phone call to Alan Moore,” says Greenberg. “I blurted out the idea while we were brainstorming, and he approved the plotline on the spot. He even made helpful suggestions which I adopted — like using Moloch as the logical fall guy for Captain Metropolis. Making Moloch a double patsy — first for Metropolis and then again for Ozymandias — could lend another layer of poignancy to the Moloch-Comedian scene in the comic.”

According to Dave Gibbons, the new Watchmen tie-in video game, Watchmen:  The End is Nigh, is based upon material from these role-playing adventures.  To read Gibbons interview, please visit click here.

Here are more scans from the supplement.  If you are interested in reading the text, click the image for a larger version.

While compiling information for this post, the Watchmen Comic Book Movie web site was an invaluable resource.  To read their write-up on the Mayfair Watchmen supplements, click here.