The Cutting Edge: Part One of A Handful of Men by Dave Duncan

Another victory for the dollar spinner rack from Half Price Books. Good thing too! I went to look at Amazon and see what it would run to pick up the material in e-book format and it's over $7 bones a pop. What's worse is it has a different cover and while I understand that art and graphic design and all that good stuff is a personal matter, and this cover isn't my favorite by far, the new version is made of fail. If you're going to charge premium prices, make sure you've covering all your bases eh? Mind you, this doesn't seem to be too far from how Dave himself thinks if you read his web page.

While I realize that no everyone has access to a local used book store, or a yard sale, or even that you can't find all the books you want in a particular series or setting, I have so many other books currently, and so many more I could buy for well under $7, that I'm afraid unless those books go on sale at some point, Dave Duncan or Tor, the publisher, will never see a penny of my reading his materials.

I've never read any of his books before mind you. That's one of the benefits of the dollar spinner rack. I can afford to pick up a book by an author, like Dave Duncan , who I've never read before and see if it's something I want to continue with.

Having never read any of the work here before, I will note that despite it being a sequel to a previous series, that I didn't have any problem reading it or following along with the characters. It does end on a massive cliffhanger though, so if that is a problem for you, you may want to avoid it.

Below I'll be discussing spoilers from the book so if you'd rather avoid those, read no further.

1. Magic Words. One of the interesting things about the 'magic system' in this series is that there are words of power. Many game systems go different routes to bring such magics to the game, including 3.5  which, like previous editions, had it's various "Word" spells. This doesn't count specific classes like the 3.5 version of Tome of Magic. Here, when you attend an older person, they may sound off their knowledge of a word of magic and if you have 'talent', it will grant you power.

For me, in D&D, that might be a good reason why mages go adventuring at all. Only by fighting and killing other mages can they learn these 'words of power.' Each would can be used to advance a spell level so that you could learn higher level spells. Sure, sitting in a tower may get you access to the material, but if you don't actually know the words of power to unlock the ability to learn a 2nd level spell, you'll never be able to cast it. Here to learn higher level spells you'd have to continue to earn new words of power.

2. The Future: There are a few bits that involve seeing the future here. One of them involves a scrying pool that when you put one foot in, shows you things you should move towards, and if you put the other foot in, it shows you things you should avoid. Another one showcases how a person who is always seeing the future might act. They often get confused with how things are and what is actually happening. It makes them less likely to be taken by surprise mind you but at the same time doesnt' put them in good standing in social situations.

3. A Mage By Any Other Name: The setting is populated by all manner of powerful spellcasters. The most powerful of which, are known as Warlocks. These 'titles' are a manner of honorific as it's revelead that of the 'four' traditional ones, there was a non-Warlock who was more powerful than all of them. It also doesn't account for other variables. This to me, reminds me of the older editions use of names for the different levels of the core classes. Instead of every cool sounding noun getting it's own core class or prestige class or paragon levels or whatever going on nowadays, the titles are ranks or honorifics.

4. It's A Small World After All. Despite the novels' length, it is only the start of the story and some of the.... I don't want to say secondary characters, but characters whose presence in the novel is under felt, have a way to go before their story impacts the core tale. These characters though are from a forgotten and/or lost race and aren't known, in general, to the outside world. Indeed, even among their own people they can hide from one another if they choose. One of the games the mages there play on outsiders is, when ot wiping them out entirely, is of making their journey go in circles. If there is a hidden race or society or group, there should be a sound reason why they're not known outside of, "Oh, no one goes down that street."

5. Love. There is a 'Roman' style society here in its glory. Their ruler is a good man. Not great in ll virtues mind you but a sound leader. His love for his wife however, is almost more of a matter of function and of her attractiveness. This leader's right hand man however, is a lover of the ladies and has already seen himself, in a scrying pool, with his lord's wife. But the way things are developing, you can tell the wife, who is treated more as an object as opposed to a person, isn't against such a potential future because it involves her making decisions. Her sense of values and what she wants out of life are also much different than what her husband wants. She would be content to learn to love her husband and their daughter if they could do so in solitude as opposed to being part of the court life. In many ways, it echoes another famous love story that went wrong show cased in many tales like the movie Excalibur. NPCs, subplots, themes of betrayal and tragedy, can all add deeper elements to a campaign that embraces them.

6. Duty. When good king Rap uses his magical abilities to see what is going on in the grander scheme of things, he is overcome with a sense of great evil preparing to come. He find that it's his duty, his solomon duty, to stand against this. It's an interesting thing because when he's asked if it's to save his own home, he answers that it's to save the world. Failure to save the world would be the same thing as failure to save that home. Characters that need motivation to take up arms or to get out of the tavern, can be motivated when they know that failure to do something, results in the end of the game.

I enjoyed the book and will look for other volumes in the series next time I'm at Half Price books. I like the way the writer is able to transition from deep personal moments to hand waving seasons in order to move characters closer to one another over large spans of land or to age the younger characters in the book without it seeming to be skipping important parts.

Dave Duncan handles a large cast and is able to bring them together to start the real struggle that won't occur till at least the next volume.

Pantagruel from Teratic Tome

For those who don't know, the Evolved Grottoes & Griffons Teractic Tome, is a Monster Manual style book. The PDF I have weights in at 120 pages, but that doesnt' count things like the cover or table of contents.

While I haven't fully read the Teratic Tome, I am impressed by the cover. It reminds me of the original Manual of the Planes with punny adventurers facing something very mighty.

Looking through the book, that mighty creature is Pantagruel. No, not that Pantagruel although it could very easily be described as that one. After all, this one is returning from a journey gone horribly wrong.

No, the things that struck me about this Pantagruel were it's 'epic' use. It's presence is enough that any creature with 2 hit dice or less that looks upon him dies.

His physical abilities, hit points, magic resistance, and other bits, are on par with the other 'big boys' from the day. It's been a while since I've looked but Orcus 120 hit points and Asmodeus either 199 or 200 right? He's at 216 or so.

Those things, while impressive, didn't strike me as nifty as another bit. See, before Pantagruel shows up, there are numerous signs. Knives hurling themselves at people for example. Animals exploding from insects building hives within them. Things of horror.

It gave me a 'good' feelign. I don't know if it was a deliberate nod to Elder Evils but in feel, that's exactly what it is. This makes Pantagruel something more than just another monster to fight. Before he's even seen, before he's even known, there are signs of his approach.

The interior illustration, if that is indeed Pantagruel on the cover, doesn't live up to that full color awesomeness, but that would be a hard sell. If you can give your players a 'chill' through such an image, it's well worth the fight.

I wonder if the authors will hire someone to do a Pathfinder version? It's not as if Pathfinder has a lot of epic level foes in it's ranks either. That would be nifty. Hell, 4th edition anyone? If Kobold Press can do a Kickstarter to get a 4th edition version of their Midgard Bestiary out, might be worth checking to see if the demand is there.

Looking forward to seeing how many other monsters stand out with some nifty bits that can be incorporated into the campaign.

Berserk 36 by Kentaro Miura

I'm out of touch. I didn't even know the new Berserk came out until I saw that a new animate 'movie' came out. Immediately bought both. Don't know if I'll be talking about the movie outside of "m'eh" and yet it's a "m'eh" with potential if they cover the core story elements cut out like Puck and Skullknight and actually, you know continue it.

Anyway, Berserk 36 was like visiting an angry old friend. Kentaro's art reminds me of Goerge Perez or Jim Lee in that his detailed line work is awesome. I still refer to my art book despite the fact that the text is all in Japanese. I figure it's an art book right?

The book continues to make use of some elements that I find would be right at home in most campaigns.

1. Curse Magic Items. Elric had Stormbringer. Guts has the Berserk Armor. With it pain and injuries that don't outright kill him are... well, not healed by the armor, but modified enough that he keeps fighting. Bad news is that in this state he makes a frenzied berserker look sane. Still, unlike Elric, Guts has at least one comrade wo can pull him out of the frenzy.

2. Ritual Magic is very powerful. Despite the limited knowledge of magic that Lady Farnese has, she is able to do a ritual magic that prevents magical entities from entry. A mystical barrier if you will to prevent fully monstrous magical creatures from entering it. While it's use is somewhat limited and it doesn't stop those things that are hybrids of magic, it's powerful enough to stop those that are fully of 'the other world'. Many games use some type of this effort but often have such long casting times or high material component costs that they're not very practical. Here the same is true but they do have the time and knowledge to use it.

3. The Foe Too Big To Face! Many times a character will encounter something that they just shouldn't be able to defeat. In Star Wars, A New Hope, the rebels have no chance against the death star but it does have a certain famous weakness. In How To Train Your Dragon, Toothless, as powerful and unique as he is, is not where near powerful enough to battle 'the Red Death'. Here, Guts comes face to face with 'The Sea God'. It's so enormous that the ship sized creatures that he has been fighting with the ship he's taken passage on, are essentially it's whisker's and decides the only way to kill it is by going to it's heart!

This is old hat as they say. I've seen Thor do it with Celestials and other heroes with Ego the living planet and I'm sure other people could point out numerous instances of the foe too powerful to simply beat down. In 4e, it might be possible to use a Skill Challenge to model how best to overcome this entity. In another game, it might be possible to just model many of the 'antibodies' or other efforts of the host body to repel the invaders. Make the players realize what a do or die situation they're in and don't hold back!

4. New Character Bring It. Isma has just joined the crew but already in this new world, she's shown that she fits right in as she is capable of turning into a mermaid. In traditional games, the power level of the core group may grow and grow to such a point that a fresh character starting at the recommended baseline power level wouldn't have a chance to survive much less contribute to the game. There are numerous ways around this including splitting the party or the focus of the campaign and giving the lower level characters appropriate enemies and side liens and goals and then they're the way Kentaro takes and that's to make the new character have a 'hook' or a unique ability that lets them jump right into the fray.

The only problem with Berserk 36 is that despite it's hefty length, we're left with essentially a very long high level fight which means that we've got to wait until the next issue to get resolution. Damn you Kentaro!

Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology

Milton J. Davis and Charles Saunders assemble a variety of material here that reminds me of some of the older anthologies in that, for me, it's a lot of names I didn't recognize and a lot of different writing styles with some good, some bad, and some great stuff. I initially didn't realize that there was an Imaro story in the book itself until I got to the end.

I'll be discussing specific spoilers below so if you'd rather avoid those, know that for the low price, it's worth looking into.

Among my favorites are the following:

Skin Magic by P. Djeli Clark. It has a few elements I enjoy in a story. A different style of magic, in this case, a cursed thief who can summon monstrous creatures from inside himself. In some ways, this ability reminded me of Corum's early ability in the first trilogy where can can summon monstrous creatures that are undefeatable. It's also got the 'young' hero going on where the character is still learning of his abilities and learning how to work this curse into an actual ability. The character is still very vulnerable at this point. Very much like a low level character.

The Three Faced One by Charles Saunders. In terms of role playing games, I think the concept of a high level character, as Imaro is here, looking for rest and recuperation, but most importantly, anonymity from his previous heroism, is an interesting twist on a hero's rise to power. Imaro did all that in the last of the series and paid a heavy price for it. Now he needs time to heal and recuperate. It's not that he's all the sudden in a boring situation, for after all, what fun would that be, but that he is no burdened with the weight of all his previous expectations.

In a role playing game, as the players gain more and more levels and powers and toys, the weight of those background elements can weight heavily on them. One of the fun thing about Spelljammer, Ravenloft, and Planescape, is the ability to quickly move the campaign to fresh territory. Big hero in country X? You're nothing in country Y. This leaves the opportunity to revisit older material in future stories while also expanding the campaign setting.

In The Wake of Mists and The Generals Daughter, the former by Kirk A. Johnson and the later by Anthony Nana Kwamu show some interesting choices that can be put into a RPG. In the former, the main character is essentially whisked away from a battle to go through a quest to gain power. The readers keep getting hints that there is a price for this power. In the General's Daughter, the main character's daughter dies and he is given the opportunity to save her, but at the cost of many others who would suffer from his actions.

In the Wake of Mists has enough naming conventions and ideas in it to mine for a small adventure in and of itself. In between encounters the character, Sangara, is healed of his wounds so that he may approach each challenge at full strength. Almost like having a cleric that.

Characters, no matter how powerful, may encounter situations where sacrifice may be called for. There may be an attack on multiple fronts that they can't handle all at once. Characters may also be called on to make tough choices. Do you save your friend, or a city? Do you save your wife, or a world?

Kickstarter: Potential and Problems

Tavis asked an interesting question last time around. So interesting I thought it would make an interesting post.

"For my own education, Joe, what's the benefit to you of picking things up through Kickstarter rather than waiting until they're at Games Plus and you can be sure they suit your interest at that moment? There might not be one overarching answer to that, but I'd find your roundups even more useful if you made this explicit in each case."

Maybe next month, when going over what's late and what's here, I'll talk about the specifics but here are a few things that get me personally interested in a Kickstarter.

1. Price Point: While its great that several Kickstarters have some sort of retail program, that aspect will continue to fall under scrutiny I'm sure. Especially as Kickstarters are late. It's one thing to tag a person for $100, it's another to tag a store for $1,000.

But in speaking of Price point, the consumer usually gets a decent discount, or at the least, gets a PDF copy of the book. In some instances, that PDF copy may cover multiple systems. These are value added things. In other cases, shipping is free. Even if the item may not be stocked in a FLSG, like Games Plus, and I order directly from the company, I'd pay shipping fees. Some Kickstarters take that fee onto themselves. Again, value added.

But, and here's the dreaded but, time is money. If your project is going to be six months late, saving 10%-30% really isn't saving anything as I could have used that money somewhere else.

2. It's Not Going To Be Available. Tavis mentions Games Plus. This is one of the best hobby stores, if not the best, I've ever been to. Fairly knowledgeable staff. Friendly, gaming space, special orders, massively wide selection. But they still can't stock everything and somethings they can't get hold of. 1650, a miniature Kickstarter I mentioned, would be a good example of something they don't normally stock. One Kickstarter I was thinking of backing, Spherewars, falls into the same category. Red Box Games comes and goes.

When speaking of Red Box Games, his distribution is not consistent throughout the 'Net. In some places, it's strong. In others, sell offs have already occurred. When popularity hits, they stock again.

Doing a Kickstarter allows one to get in on the ground floor of a thing and to purchase items that may not be available.

For me, those are the two primary things.

3. Exclusive Items: Way down on the list, the exclusive item! For miniatures, this is especially true. Sculpts that you're just not going to get anywhere else hit my 'collector' brain.

Now I know that isn't what other people do though. From my experience in talking with people who back projects, they tend to fall into a more 'community' style backing.

For example, King For A Day and Midgard Tales, both allow a fair amount of user interaction with the content. For some people, this is immense value added. They get to be a part of something. They get to work with professional designers. They get to feel that they've added to the material and that other members of the community can enjoy that. Same is true of Dwimmermount for a long time. James was running actual adventurers for people with the material. That's a hell of a community!

Time for the ass hat.

I don't care about that. I want the final finished product as polished as if it were coming out of a professional game company. Yeah, I'm leaving myself wide open to failure there as lord knows my bookshelves are packed with "see page XX." Thank you White Wolf and AEG for the memories.

In terms of potential problems, for me, that part is about the money. Eden, Otherworld Adventurers, Freebooter, and other companies have done successful Kickstarters and I didn't back them because my funds were tied up in other Kickstarters. So for backing Red Box and getting nothing, I could've backed Eden and received my rule books and miniatures. For backing It Came From the Stars and having no book on that end, I could have backed Spears of the Dawn.

Remember Kickstarter makers, when you're late, you've not only delaying the fulfillment of your initial obligations, you've potentially taken money from someone else whose better than you and whose next Kickstarter may get that money you got first time around. Why back a company again that failed to deliver when hey, here's another company with a similar niche product that did meet their goals?

And in terms of that money, let's say I didn't back other Kickstarters with those funds. The amount of projects I've backed is probably in the thousands of dollars. Way too much in a more serious tone he said but at the same time, those are all dollars I'm not spending on existing products and not spending in a local game store.

As a company, I guess I'd ask Tavis, and other publishers, when people raise the red flag about the FLSG situation, which is already under assault from Amazon, which is already under assault from electronic books, both PDF and now e-books, and under assault from a still, at least in America, fairly weak economy, by, for the most part, taking the FLSG out of the distribution chain, how much are you effecting the gaming industry as opposed to the gaming community? Every physical product sold outside the distribution chain is one less purchase from the FLSG.

I remember post year 2000 there were a ton of new game companies doing PDF and other formats. I remember 'professionals' moaning and weeping bitter black tears about the "lower cost of entry" to the "business."

What the hell happened to those innovators eh? They discovered Kickstarter and realized that money does help eh?

Anyway, my primary reasons for doing Kickstarters are pretty base and simple and when they're late, they are sucking the air out of the room. In this case, my wallet. Hard to make an impulse purchase if you've backed something else that you 'hope' will show up.

Pre Feb Kickstarter Bitching

Okay let's see how things are progressing eh?

Overdue:

1650 Rulebook: I am a sucker for miniature games. This one was due in September. Looks like, if we're lucky, Feb is when it will hit. The miniatures are looking fantastic. Communication on actual progress could be better.

Dwimmtermount:I'll take flack for it but James and Tavis screwed this one up enormously. Due last August, the project took hits because James wasn't done and what's worse, wasn't providing updates or communicating to the backers even as he was updating his own blog (which is a great read most of the time) and doing paid work for Wizards of the Coast. Then Tavis took over the updating. Made a lot of people happy.

But James dad became sick and he dropped off the face of the earth. People take family illness different. When my own father died not from the lung cancer but from the chemo, I was so devastated I lost my job. In James case, his method involves not talking to his business partner but allowing someone else to post an update a month after ignoring requests for information from his backers. This has lead some to feel James is being picked on.

Again, not what actually happened in most instances.

There are multiple problems here. Tavis has the legal responsibilities but none of the money or IP. James has the money and IP but is still out of touch.

Who could have predicted something terrible could happen? Here's the thing, James isn't the first person this has happened to on a KS project. He won't be the last. This tragedy couped with his already late project has showcased that if you do not have realistic goals at the start of your campaign that your grand vision is going to come to a screeching halt and while people are going to give him a huge pass, rightly so at this time, it's late not just BECAUSE of his personal issues. It was late prior to them. The perfect storm of late products.

It Came From the Stars: Due last June. No tragedy that I'm aware of here just someone who apparently didn't know how long it was actually going to take. Another instance where a "nice" guy isn't able to complete the project. At least he hasn't started another Kickstarter while this one is so overdue. I'll be eager to see something in the updates outside of, "No guys, I'm serious, this time I'm getting almost finished with a section of the book!"

King For A Day: Due last September. On one hand, the PDF, the draft of it anyway, has been sent out. On the other, man, I love Jim but seriously, his issues in getting this one done showcase, again, how even the "nice" guys don't really understand what they're getting into. I've read only a tiny bit of the PDF so far because it's been so long I've lost a bit of interest and will wait for my physical copy before going back to the book. Jim has also learned, the hard way, that asking for support on a new Kickstarter project while you haven't delivered on the previous one, is a long, arduous climb to the top.

Midgard Tales: An example of even the best may fall eh? The guy behind this has been doing this sort of project before there was a Kickstarter and I didn't pay attention to what was going on until I realized that it was just past due, in this case, December. Looks like March I believe it will be ready. On the other hand, other people working on this project are doing new Kickstarters. I wish them luck. Again, these are all "nice" people. They're great on the various social networks. If I funded every project by a nice person, I'd be out on the street looking for cat food and STILL have no finished projects at home.

Pirate Goblins Box Set: Material was supposed to be here already. Guy doing the project seems to be a nice guy but many backers feel that his story doesn't add up. He had plans to do some follow up miniatures including a Dwarf Pirate Box Set but his failure to get this one done in a timely fashion and keep the people who made the project possible seem to indicate that it may not happen now.

Player's Companion: When I came home today, this book was waiting for me. It's a solid looking book. With my squirrel like attention span, this book, which was due in May of 2012, went straight to the bookshelf. Tavis, another "nice" guy, and I'm not putting these "nice" around like I'm being sarcastic, he's a stand up guy, already has another Kickstarter in mind. As I'm probably never going to play this game due to my wandering eye, the chances of me backing another Kickstarter of his, especially while there is another project under his company banner overdue, are exactly zero. Again, not because he isn't a nice guy, not because I don't think he's learned from these experienced, but my faith in his ability to deliver in a timely fashion, especially while the other project is outside of his direct ability to actually finish, remains minimal.

Red Box Game's: Due last October. Lot of the blame so far has been falling on the Trollcast with some shrinkage and other quality assurance issues. Tre already has another kickstarter going to make more products with the guy who hasn't been able to finish everything already. I'll keep an eye on that. Tre's mentioned that he'll be sending out a partial shipment even though it's going to cost him in terms of shipping funds. Good. Again, Tre seems like a nice guy but people using Kickstarter as a funding process either need to understand that it's a business and that sacrifices may be necessary for the short term finances in order to attract people to future Kickstarters. If I receive my goods and if I'm happy with the quality there are a few things in his new Kickstarter I'll order if they become unlocked.

Sedition Wars: Due last November.If you appreciate large savings from using China, you have to appreciate that its out of your control when there are issues and the boat is late. Seeing a lot of unboxing videos so I'm sure mines on the way. Looking forward to seeing the quality up close and personal.

Steampunk Musha: Was due in October 2012. I'll be honest. This one pisses me off a little. If you have a company involved, and in this case, supposedly under the banner of Fat Goblin Games, and they don't know what's going on with the project, that's never a good sign. Turns out the guy doing the writing, another decent guy, has had hell of issues. I'm not going into those here because if he wants them shown to the world, he can do those updates himself. Another classic example of the RPG industry one man standing business model being a terrible model. Updates have been very bad due to creator's issues and the fact that the game company itself didnt' step in and provide any updates does not fill me with warm fuzzy feelings. Not saying they're a bad company but why does the guy have an association with the company if that association is basically "Yeah, I work for them." or something along those lines?

Tectonic Craft Studios: Due last June. Yeah, over six months late. What's worse, as I've been playing with some of the material I've bought separately, it appears to be overpriced compared to the Warhammer Fantasy scenic material. Not good for the guy here. Not sure how the prices compare on the 40K stuff which tends to be more expensive. Updates have been hit or miss. Would not back again at this point. Again, another "nice" guy but six months late and not willing to take it on the chin to ship material out because of the financial issues it would cause? I can appreciate that. I hope he can appreciate me not backing him via a Kickstarter again and just using his store or, you know, buying terrain from another party. The stuff isn't bad to put together but some stuff it just doesn't work for. The Chaos Gate for example? The Trenches? Hope the buildings and other material works out better and that he keeps updating the instructions and shows some more videos.

Tentacles and Eyeballs:  On one hand, he got hit by Wizards of the Coast with a cease and desist due to the use of WoTC intellectual property. On the other, well, it was due in October and it's almost Febuary. Still, he has been in communication with the backers, has shown painted models, has shown alternatives to the stuff we are no longer getting and been rather 'cool' about it.

Not Due Yet:

28mm Demons and Devils Already some drama in terms of metal and resin as people are thinking that the reason resin is getting ready to be dropped from the line up is a quality issue. No opinion. I'll start worrying about it when it's late.

A Gallery of Rogues: Despite the fact that Jim's last project was late, I do enjoy his work and his project isn't some massive $100+ dollar tome. In addition, I like the art by Eric Lofgren. Unsure if this one will get funded. People are still waiting for the physical copies of Jim's last project even though the PDF was sent out.

Assimilation Alien Host The master behind this project is involved with "Troll Cast", a new material that's not quite resin or plastic or something along those lines. Thanks to various molding issues, Red Box Games is well behind it's initial goals and I keep seeing people reference his material in their own Kick Starters. I will be VERY curious to see if he can get his own project out on time but it's not due till May so even though the surveys themselves haven't been sent out yet, I'm not too worried about it.

Blackwater Gulch Rebels and Reinforcements: First one was very late. Supposedly they've got a new partner now. Looking at that partner though, they have several late projects already. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Cthulhu, Mythos Foundry Style: This one is ongoing. The 'green' they have of the Big C is impressive. He's not a big fat guy looking upset that adventurers have come to his lair and killed his dog or something as several other miniatures of the Big C seem to make him with some fat gut.Way too early on this one but I'll be curious to see where it goes.

Gnomish Adventurers Box Set: Stonehaven miniatures is a top notch Kickstarter success. While the initial project, a dwarf adventurers boxed set was late, they kept everyone in the loop and it was a great Kickstarter with a lot of neat stuff that came out. This one appears to be following in a very similiar pattern and I'll be looking forward to seeing what end materials I'll wind up getting.

Imbrian Arts Miniatures: This one will be interesting. Like Reaper, he offered a package where you get miniatures throughout the year. The first batch is not quite due but almost. Hope he makes it.

Kingdom Death: So far off in the future I'm not worried about it.

Pathfinder Online: Don't care about the computer game. Wanted the freebies, the miniatures, the PDF's, and the exclusive modules. A while before it's due.

Reaper: I'm one of the people who did the metal for a year and have been happy with it so far. The stuff I don't personally want I'll probably wind up giving away as presents or something along those lines.

Relic Knights: Still some time to go on this one. The previews have continued to pop up so I'm happy with hos the company is keeping us all in the loop.

Stuff I haven't Decided On:

Darklands:It's more than made it's goal but with so many miniature KS already late I'm only thinking about it thus far. Still some time on it so...

Games and Gears Pro Studio Brushes: Double headed brushes that should be ideal for wet blending with acrylic paints. I'll probably pop down for his one but funds are always in motion so we'll see.

Discover the Painting Pyramid: I have several painting DVDs. They are entertaining and get me motivated. Here they almost seems too much for the compleatist in me and that holds me back a little. I'll review it before it ends.

Ichor Greenblood the Vampire King: 2nd Edition Deity

As I've grown older, I've come to hate the names that are descriptive like Stoneheart, Anvil Fist, or other things that look like they belong in a super hero setting. However, when I was a young teen, I thought this was awesome!

I can't remember the full details but the deity was based on part on a character I played that used the Compleate Spellcaster by Bard Games and was... yes, a Necromancer! The summoning spells back in those days eh? Of course most of them weren't useful immediately but they could be given the proper time, funds, and methods.

Anyway, another one from the continuous sheet feed paper.

Ichor Greenblood the Vampire King
Lord of the Undead
Lesser God

Ichor Greenblood has only recently become a god. His base of power is the location where the negative energy flowing from the Dark Domains and the World of Atroy are strongest, Draxcon's Ruins. As for Ichor himself, many say that he actually thrives on the power of his worshippers which include all the undead, and mortals thirsting for the power of the undead.

Ichor, unlike many gods, actively involves himself in the affairs of the mortals seeing hyow powerful they have gornw of late. He insures that none can ever effect him in his place of power and has been known to actively attack mortal wizard's whose power and pride have grown too great.

If there is one known thing that Ichor fears, it is having Karak released. If that ever happened, Ichor would loss much of his power, perhaps even his godhood. The location of Karak is so well kept that many simply think the former lord of the Dark Domain is dead.

Alignment: Ichor Greenblood himself is Chaotic Evil. His priests are usually chaotic evil with the lawful evil leading while the rest are neutral evil.

Requirements: Wis 9
Symbol: A black hand clutching the moon.
Colors: Dark green and black.
Special Abilities: 1) May command undead at two levels higher 2)+1 to save vs death magic for every five levels of the priest 5)May chose spells from the magic users school of necromancy as full strength spheres.

Spheres: Major spheres, Combat, Healing (Reversible only unless the priest uses it to heal himself), Necromantic and Summoning. Minor spheres Elemental and Protection.

Weapon Proficiencies: Must take greatmace. Afterward may spend proficiencies as the priest sees fit.

Non Weapon Proficiencies: Religion and Blind Fighting.

Recommended: Armorer, Weaponsmothing, Engineering, and Herbalism.

Armor: May wear any but upon becoming an official high priest must find and slay a black dragon and skin it, proving the power of death over life in even its mightiest forms. Many priests also do not use shields since they could not use their tow handed weapons, but those that take small weapons may use them. Special Note: Due to the undead nature of their god, the priests take on some of his weakness. In the daylight, any dexterity bonus they may have is cancelled. In addition, also in daylight, they have a -2 to hit and initiative.

The priests of Ichor Greenblood worship their god with intense devotion. Many believe this is because their god actually walks the world and attacks his foes openly and with no reluctance. Others think that since Ichor was once a mortal, that they too may become godlike.

Ichor's priests usually garb themselves in dark metallic plate mail and wield great maces after their own lord. In combat, they can be deadly as they known that their souls do not go to join any god save theirs and shall then become powerful undead minions to join in future battle against all that lives.

In addition the priests often seek to men the wound between the god Death and Ichor by forging alliances with the priests of Death and gathering to attack small villages and manors that have no protection. Toward all other religions, they laugh.