I have initial copies of two Cannibal Contagion printable sheets available for download. The two-page PDF includes both the Character record sheet and the Cannibal-in-Charge info sheet. Check them out and let me know what you think!

- NPC

Update: Cannibal Contagion is currently in continued development and update on my other website.

“Swords. Guns. Zombies. Betrayal.”

Thrown into a world gone mad…

where the dead won’t stay dead…

where your best friend can become a murderous cannibal in a matter of minutes and won’t stop at anything in her quest to hunt you down and eat you…

…your characters must survive the chaotic forces of flesh-eating psychopaths that seek to consume them, and figure out just what the hell is going on – and how they can stop it. To help you, you’ll have an arsenal of savage weapons, and maybe some super-special hidden tricks up your sleeves. Better hurry up, though, ’cause the clock’s ticking, and when the stroke falls, all hell will break lose (like it hasn’t already)!

Cannibal Contagion: Samurai Slaughterfest is a game of mental stress and violent survival against hordes of supernatural cannibals. The players use high-stakes playing-card battles to determine the outcomes of their actions, with a heavy focus on pure primal narrative and totally badass action.

(coming soon from Reality Merchants Games)

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

Hey everyone, Nathanael here. It’s been a while since I last posted, in truth because I’ve been so busy with other projects that I just haven’t had the time. Wanna know what’s been going on, and what’s in the near future? Read on!

The biggest project that has occupied my time is a new site called Awropla (or Awesomeroleplayers.com), which is based on the premise of Campaign Networking. People can sign up for free, without any ads, and upload and host their campaign information. Characters can be journaled, campaigns chronicled, quotes submitted, and all are tagged, enhanced, and cross-referenced with one another to promote an idea of a community based on shared gaming information. Gamers can start their own online forums for their gaming groups, and use them to plan events and discuss their downtimes.

Needless to say, this has absorbed a large chunk of my time and focus, and I’m hoping it will go officially live in the near future. As it currently stands, I’ve just disabled the feature that required all new accounts receive admin approval before being able to post. Now, anyone can sign up, fill out the reg form, log in and start posting. If you’re reading this, head on over to Awropla, check it out, and let me know if you have any suggestions.

After Awropla are three major game design projects, one being Verses, one a LARP, and the third a fan-made (that fan being Me) game based on a fantastic-awesome-stupendous-fabulous animated TV show which I won’t name at this moment. I think our Saturday test campaign of the Verses RPG is coming to a conclusion soon, at which point we’ll be reviewing the system one last time to see if it is indeed worth sharing with external playtesters. It’s been a lot of fun so far, and I’m hoping it can stand up to the final scrutiny. The LARP, on the other hand, hasn’t really been touched much lately, but I’m hoping to give it a second test session after the holidays have passed and folks are all back and ready to game some more.

Yet another gaming project of mine has been the recent establishment of a dynamic gaming group I call the Portland RPG Noob Crew. The extended details can be found at that link, but the basic gist of the project involves finding locals who want to game but for various reasons never really have, and helping them find out if they enjoy the hobby. We’ve had one session so far and it was a whole lot of fun. The next session has just today been scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 8th.

So, what else is going on?

• Last night finally saw the long-awaited end to the Little Fears game we started several months ago. Our last session was 5 months back, and I know we’re all glad to finally have some closure. Perhaps I’ll make a post about it on Awropla - if I do, I’ll link it here too.
• We’ve got a LARP session planned for GameStorm 10, which is coming up in March 2008. More details on that as it gets closer.
• I have decided that after this holiday season, I will no longer run extended gaming campaigns, at least for a good long time. I just don’t think I’m cut out for them anymore.
• I’m debating closing the forums for now. Now that I’ve moved my personal gaming stuff to the new Awropla site, the forums see no use, and are just taking up dead space.
• I’ve started playing LotR:O again. Oh yeah. Like I have so much time on my hands as it is.

That’s it for now. I hope to update a bit more regularly, now. =)

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

I’ve been having some cravings lately. Here they are, my gaming soul bared to the world so that I might have them fulfilled:

* I need to play Twilight Imperium again. Soon. Very soon, and with all the expanded rules. I’m talking a “veteran’s night” here, with 6 to 8 folks who have played before, know the ropes, and want to play again.
* I need me another night of D&D&D, but this time, I want to play. Who’s down for playing, and who’s down for running?
* Beer + Lunch Money at the Goodfoot (or Stark Naked?) - who’s down?

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

Last night my new Sunday group met together for the first time to create sessions for a brand new Sunday campaign. Due to fluctuations in the player roster, the previous campaign fell through*, and this new one has taken its place.

I’ve already posted the campaign backstory here, but in summation, it’s a game of adventure, exploration, and intrigue in a New World across the ocean. The characters are part of a small colony, the very first on this newly-discovered continent across the western ocean. Two nations have joined together to build this colony, those being the “Enlightened Norsemen” N’Parthan Commonwealth and the Turkish-inspired nation of Khaaza-Ji, whose people are respectfully referred to as Northwardik and Ahzali, respectively. Three ships were sent out, two arrived, and the third was lost at sea. The third ship had most of the military folk on it who were supposed to guard the colony, so the last two weeks since arrival have been rough, as all in the colony have had to learn to handle themselves, should martial forces be needed.

Currently there are four players, and each of their characters in the game has a specialty at which they are considered the best. Evan (the new guy) is playing Milly Borghild, Northwardik, the “Mean” character. Alex, also in the Saturday game, is playing Ulrik Tolak, Northwardik, the “Battle” character. Scott, another player in the Saturday game, is playing Rassmas Thorgier, Northwardik, the “Scout” character. Finally, Drake (returning Sunday gamer) is playing Atallah Sevda, Ahzali, the “Risky” character.

There’s not much else to say about it at this point. We meet again in two weeks for the first full-on gaming session, and I’m pretty excited. I think we’ve got an awesome group.

* I still intend to try the Bloodstone campaign sometime in the future, possibly soon after I get over my upcoming Year of Nostalgia kick. As much as I’d like to, I doubt it will use the Burning Wheel rules, because it’s next to impossible to get my players interested in something so incredibly meaty.

UPDATE: I’ve decided to start a Story Hour thread over on the Savage Worlds forums. As the next sessions roll by, I’ll get creative and write up some stories of the games.

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

While riding the bus this morning and listening to my Creative Zen Vision M, jamming out to some sweet tunes by Manowar (seriously, if you haven’t heard their song Courage and you’re a fan of inspiring metal, check it out ASAP), I had a really simple yet excellent idea to try out next time a player brings forth a min-maxed Combat Zombie character into one of my games.

As a game master, I prefer that players enter my game with characters possessed of solid concepts and lots of good and chewy story fodder, like relationships, opinions, financial investments, and personal histories, to name just a few. Aspects like these give me a lot of juice to fuel my ideas, and the players only benefit from these considerations in the long run.

However, I don’t like saying no to a character just because it lacks these things. I like to think that just about any basic character sheet can potentially be turned into roleplaying gold, if only the right amounts of inspirational creative pressure are added to the right spots. I enjoy the gaming company of several individuals who often struggle with their character concepts when they surpass the base mechanical aspects, and sometimes I struggle as well with helping them grasp deeper ideas and attach them to that character sheet.

Due to the hectic nature of the last few weeks, I was unable to get an AP report up for the third session of our Saturday campaign. However, since the last two sessions have both been part of the same extended scenario, combining their reports makes it easier to collect my thoughts. So here we go!

The Cast

• Alex, playing the part of Captain Daylen Forgrun.
• Gaston, playing the part of Calvo Sotelovich.
• Nathanael (me), Arbiter, playing the part of Mihoaela Tatiana Kojimirin.
• Nievita, playing the part of Aeroica Mindal Tsvetkov.
• Scott, playing the part of Khazimir ibn Zalikahn.

Two Saturdays ago was the second session in our Undiscovered Countries campaign, using the Verses RPG rules system. In my last post on this game, I gave some details into the setup, the system, and the campaign premise, so I’ll skip all that and get right to the meat.

The Cast

• Alex, playing the part of Captain Daylen Forgrun.
• Gaston, playing the part of Calvo Sotelovich.
• Nathanael (me), Arbiter, playing the part of Mihoaela Tatiana Kojimirin.
• Nievita, playing the part of Aeroica Mindal Tsvetkov.
• Scott, playing the part of Khazimir ibn Zalikahn.