Thursday, January 17, 2008

Meet the crew

Winter War, my local con, is fast approaching. If you can come to Champaign, Illinois during the weekend of February 8-10 why not come on by and play some games? The schedule thus far is available as a pdf here and new games will no doubt be added between now and then. Heck, come and run something! For my own part I will be running two games. Sunday afternoon I'll be offering "Dragons of Ancient Days II", an OD&D event. The first time running this we laughed and had fun and people were assaulted by giant slugs, but I must admit that I did have a strong handle on the subtle differences between the original version of the Big Game and the later editions I knew better. This time I've done my homework and hopefully we can have the same loosey-goosey time without the mechanics being quite so off-the-cuff. Though if I have to choose one of the other, I'll pick silly funtimes over getting the rules right.

Saturday afternoon I'm offering the final installment of the Obiwan Shinobi Trilogy, an EC adventure set on a planet where cowboys pack lazer pistols. Here is the character art for my soon-to-be pregen PCs:

Art courtesy World of Synnibar, 2nd edition.
Obiwan Shinobi, elf cyaborg ninja/psi-witch.


IG-666, robodroid warlock

Obiwan Shinobi and IG-666 are repeats from the previous two installments. Obiwan Shinobi had to stay in the picture because I named the trilogy of adventures after him. IG-666 is just too awesome not to include. I considered also keeping last year's breakout star, the criminal/gigolo Hansel Manho. (Does that link lead to the first appearance of a duffel bag in EC?)

Josh just nailed the characterization of that dude. But part of the fun of running an EC event is making crazy new PCs. Maybe Hansel can headline my next adventure. The ninja jedi and the wizard droid are fun characters, but at this point I've about run them into the ground. Sometimes you just need to move on creatively, you know?


The dice led me to a Dwarf with a huge strength. God bless Warren Ellis and Stuart Immomen for providing the perfect art for a dwarvish luchadore. The website freetranslation.com tells me that "El Enano de Hierra" is Spanish for "midget of iron". Please someone let me know if that's not even close.
Kali, the female Klingon that appeared in a episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, provides great art for disgraced Admiral Karogga, klengon psi-witch. I love the hair!
When the dice and the Race Determination chart came up with "Monster" I knew this PC had to either be a Manion Devil or Bee Girl. Google Image Search is surprisingly short on Manion Devil art. I don't normally use photos for my character art, but this cosplayer of some Kamen Rider character just totally works for Princess Sweetpollen, warlock/doxy!

The folks making the Gold Key comics version of Star Trek didn't have a lot to go on. When they started the mag they had no series bible, just a few publicity photos. Hence, disco klingons and horribly off-model Leonard Nimoy. But this panel just clicked as the art for my as-yet unnamed Klengon criminal.

Presently unnamed Frankenstein warrior. Art from the Doc Frankenstein comic that alternates between totally awesome fights with werewolves and over-the-top diatribes against religion in general/Christianity/Catholicism. More werewolf shooting, please!


Evalin 57, Frankenstein pioneer.

Now if you want to play in my EC game and none of these characters are your bag, just follow this link to my rules for bringing your own PC to my game. I'm using those same parameters for all of these characters, with the exception that Obiwan and IG's stats are previously determined.

By the way, googling for things like "bee girl", "female klingon", and "frankenstein woman" can yield some, ahem, interesting results. When searching for PC art it's almost enough to get a guy to switch SafeSearch back on. Almost.

8 comments:

  1. Disco Klengon for me, please! Whoever plays the Disco Klengon, please let them know that they're taking my seat and I'm totally envious.

    Both Frankenstein pics are awesome, btw.

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  2. It's "El Enano De Hierro", and you spell it "luchador", not "luchadore".

    "Luchadore" would souund like this:

    loo-tcha-DOR-ay

    ...and all the Mexicans would lokk at you funny and maybe take your wallet.

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  3. I am having to make a painful and difficult decision. There will be a performance of my Titanic mystery dinner on the Saturday of Winter War. I'd really love to be in it, and there's a bit of extra effort going into the costuming this time which would be fun.

    On the other hand, I'd miss the Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening slots. In other words, no EC. At the moment, Winter War and your session are winning, but I hate having to make the choice.

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  4. Obiwan Shinobi puts me in mind of Thomas Arashikage... aka Storm Shadow of the G.I. Joe mythos.

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  5. Doc, thanks for the Spanish lesson. Kathleen, I would certainly prefer if you came to my game, but I totally understand it if you choose your other engagement. When I finally lure Doc Rotwang over to Champaign for some gaming I planned on calling you and Dave Hoover over for some EC action.

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  6. Crazy Fun!
    Rock on!

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  7. I've decided. Winter War wins. It's my one chance a year to see certain friends and to play games nobody in my group runs. In other words, I've mailed in a piece of paper bearing the words "Obiwan Shinobi in the Wilden West" written next to the words "Saturday Afternoon."

    When you get the good Doctor to town, better believe I'll be there!

    I am belatedly fulfilling the promise I made some time ago and submitting an event myself. (Too late to get into the pre-reg packet or the printed one, but I hope Don will accept it and post it at the con itself.) It's a horror LARP - not everyone's cup of tea, I know, but I hope folks will have fun with it.

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  8. Doc, thanks for the Spanish lesson. Kathleen, I would certainly prefer if you came to my game, but I totally understand it if you choose your other engagement. When I finally lure Doc Rotwang over to Champaign for some gaming I planned on calling you and Dave Hoover over for some EC action.

    I would be so on that so quickly it wouldn't even be funny. At least... not 'til I got there. =P

    peace... Dave

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