Ever Hear the Sound of a Nuclear Bomb Going Off?

 

Posted by Alex Wellerstein at his awesome blog, Restricted Data, this is one of only a few recordings where the audio has not been resynched to match the explosion - this is raw and uncut.

And absolutely fucking terrifying.

FtA: The Cascade

"I can do this!", Abadall grunted, eyes closed, brow furrowed.

"Are you sure?" Sinwise looked doubtful.

Not answering, he reached out with his mind, grasped the boulder that blocked the passageway, and began to lift.  Sweat beaded his bald head, and the veins in his temples began to stand out.  The boulder began to move, slowly but surely.

"I... I think I've got it..."

Suddenly, Abadall's eyes flew open, and the boulder dropped with a thunderous crash.  His mouth opened and closed as he gasped for air, and his hands flew to his throat.  Sinwise stepped forward, saw the gills that had spontaneously formed on Abadall's throat, and stumbled backwards, yelling frantically at the rest of the group to back away.

"He's Cascading!" Sinwise screamed.

Abadall's hand suddenly burst into flame, and his shirt began to flutter and stir, as though something was moving beneath them.  The flesh of his left leg melted like wax, and folded beneath him.  Collapsing to the ground, he began to emit pulses of flame from his hands, growing steadily brighter and hotter.

Sinwise managed to scramble to cover just in time to avoid being roasted alive as Abadall exploded in an eruption of flame and flesh.

Peeking over the edge of a rock, he saw that the boulder had been incinderated in the blast.

"At least he did that right."

The genetic material of the PCs in From the Ashes is extremely volatile,  and generates their mutations.  This genetic instability is also the harbinger of their doom, as it can sometimes unravel with dramatic, and often disastrous, results.

Each level attained increases the instability, and thus the risk of Cascading.  Whenever the character fumbles while utilizing one of their powers, a Cascade check is made.  There is a percentage chance equal to the character's level x5 that they will spontaneously mutate, and slide one level closer towards total genetic breakdown.  Note that this check is performed again each time they fail, making it possible (although unlikely) for a character to slide from Level One all the way to Level Ten as a result of a single fumble.

Z World Detroit

http://www.indiegogo.com/zworlddetroit?a=498813

It's a shame this will probably not fund, I would totally go there!  There's still 30 days left, I suppose, but with only 5% of their goal raised so far, I think it's probably unlikely.

Still, hope springs eternal - donate!

Reordering the Blog

It may surprise some of you who have only recently begun reading this blog to know that this was originally conceived to house rules for a game that I've been toying with.  As it says on the banner, I reserved the rights to talk about other things, but since then, this blog has meandered, wandered and gotten just plain lost in my fascination with 2e and other shiny objects that capture my attention periodically.

The game been on my mind of late, however, so I figured I'd (re)introduce some of you to What Has Come Before with regards to the game.  I've gone back and added "FtA" to blog post titles that are relevant to the game and mechanics, and will continue to do so going forward. 

The reasons for this are twofold.  First, it makes it easier for me to find them when I need them.  The From the Ashes tag is used for things that are related to the From the Ashes RPG, as well as actual From the Ashes RPG posts, so FtA in the title helps to distinguish the actual content of the post.

Secondly, for those of you who could care less about my Heartbreaker, it allows you to skip right by it without wasting time.

See?  I'm a giver.

Other People's Stuff

I've mentioned before that I have a predilection for buying other peoples' RPG collections.  Since then, I've acquired one or two more collections, and lost a whole lot of space en mi casa.  As I've gone through these collections, I've found that my favorite part of these endeavors is not so much the box sets and the books, as it is the ephemera that accumulates over a lifetime of gaming.

First off, maybe it's just the subset of people I got these from, but every single one of them had at least one bootlegged copy of a book, printed out on several hundred pages of loose paper, holes punched and inserted into binders.  Someone in our group does that, but I always figured it was just him.  Apparently, pirating was a well established form of gaming before the internet made it popular. Hipster pirates, if you will.

Secondly, I now am the proud owner of enough pregenerated NPCs to last a lifetime of gaming.  Going through them was like getting a glimpse of their previous owners' gamer souls, if you please.  One person was obviously a huge fan of Wild Mages, as 95% of the characters were either Wild Mages, or dual/multi classed, with one of the classes being a Wild Mage.  I remember reading about that class in the 2e Tome of Magic and thinking, "Who would be crazy enough to play that?" 

Now I know.

Another collection had two copies of the Starship Troopers Bookshelf game, which had been owned by the person's uncle (who apparently got him started in gaming).  This uncle was, according to the label stuck on the inside of each cover, retired from the United States Marine Corps, and he took his gaming VERY seriously.  There was a handwritten note that he had (I imagine) meant to send out, but never gotten around to, where he offered criticisms of some of the finer points of the game, and offered suggestions on how it could be better.  Also in the book was his own modification for the game, taking the whole "Science Fiction" thing out of the game, and turning it into a way for him to reenact the battles he himself had fought.

The real fun, though, is the campaign material.  One of the collections netted me an entire megadungeon, painstakingly drawn out on graph paper, and slipped inside clear plastic pockets.  This person had connected a grease pencil to a string, and tied it to the binder, and was using it to mark the party's progress through the dungeon.  The seven levels and the exterior were detailed on approximately 30 or 40 pages, initially typed on a typewriter, and then annotated in pen.  There were even random encounter tables in the back, with the stats of the monsters included!

All kinds of stuff is out there, I hit Craigslist every couple of days, looking for my next big score.  I should call the History Channel and see if they have room in their lineup for a guy who looks for D&D products on Craigslist!

Synnibarr Lives!!!!!

I had a whole blog post written up and ready to go, and I'll probably put that up tomorrow, but then I saw this.

My first reaction was to laugh - seriously?  Synnibarr??????  Well slap my ass and call me Shirley, Kickstarter has officially jumped the shark!

Then I read that author Raven c.s. McCracken (still don't really quite get that name) apparently suffered a house fire, which caused him (?) to lose his home, his pets and the artwork for the original book, and I felt bad for having laughed.  Then I started looking through the Kickstarter page, and hell - he's got an introduction from Dr. Richard Garfield, inventory of Magic: The Gathering!  And there's all kinds of other stuff being offered too!

And he's askign for $55,000 - I'm not sure how long it's been up and running, the first update was put up 4 days ago, so my guess is that it hasn't been too long, but there has only been just under $2,000 donated thus far.  To be honest, I'll be shocked if it makes it, but who knows?  Kickstarter is a magical place, where anything can happens, and people become rich beyond the dreams of avarice!  So what the hell, I threw some money at it.

So kick in, and help out!  According to Raven c.s. McCracken (LOVE that name!) there has been a "complete redesign and update", so what's the worst that can happen!

Only $53,000 left to go, so get to donating!!!

The Edition Wars Take a Nasty Turn...

I don't care how much you like THAC0, we're playing Labyrinth Lord!