A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

A pair of topics today, each too short for a viable post on their own, mashed into one, like Peanut Butter and Bacon!

Agone RPG: According to the wiki page, Agone is "an epic fantasy roleplaying game based on novels by award-winning fantasy writer Mathieu Gaborit". 

According to me, these books were a steal on ebay, where Troll and Toad is offering ALL FIVE of the books for the eminently reasonable rate of $5.19, plus $4.99 shipping, for a grand total of $10.18.  Well, says I, a complete game and four supplements for 10 dollars?  How can I go wrong?

Apparently this game was the bee's knees in France, where there were over 30 supplements published, but only the afore mentioned 5 were translated into English before the publisher, Multisim, went out of business.  Oddly enough, only two of the books upon which this game was based have been translated into English, and those were only in extremely limited editions, although I have come to the conclusion tha they do not inf fact exist, after a somewhat exhaustive search of teh intarwebz. 

So I'm guessing that might have been a contributing factor when T&T was considering their pricing.  Note: its probably a good idea to get the material a game is based on out to the public before trying to sell said game.

I haven't had a chance to give the actual materials more than a perfunctory glance, but I did note that, had I paid full price for the 5 books, they would have gone for over $100.  So that's a win in my book. 

Harlan Ellison: Closing out my gushing fanboy posts on Harlan Ellison, I have written a letter which I will mail later today that let's Harlan know that I would like to make an RPG based on I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream.  I expect to either be ignored, or to have a shrieking swarm of slavering lawyer/locust hybrids descend upon me and flay the skin from my bones.  Let the record show, for posterity, that the following list captures what I believe to be his finest works.

'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, A Boy and His Dog, The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World, Paladin Of the Lost Hour, Mephisto In Onyx, The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, The Deathbird, Demon with a Glass Hand, Basilisk, Shattered Like a Glass Goblin, I'll just save time and say Deathbird Stories because every single story in there is a winner, Night and the Enemy

And seriously, no conversation of Unca HarHar would be complete without mentioning The City on the Edge of Forever.  It's the episode of Star Trek you show to people who don't like Star Trek.  As amazing as the final product was, though, it's nothing compared to the crazy-as-a-shithouse-rat versions that Ellison originally turned in.  The drama surrounding the rewrites Roddenberry's staff made after he submitted his final version is the stuff of legend, and the link provided gives the whole story.  Trust me, it's well worth your time.