Damnation Vans I have known

Yeah, I've been away. Well, I've actually been right here  but my internet time has been all focused on work, the job, making the doughnuts, etc.About a month ago, I did announce on the Encounter Critical yahoo group  that I'll be doing a Special, Damnation, Issue of  phasic, the E.C. fanzine. I even read the novel, Damnation Alley by Roger Zelanzy in preparation for this special edition. Um, yeah, more on that later.

I've gotten a hand full of submission and haven't written a thing for this issue. The submissions include  material by a pretty heavy hitter in rpg writing and blogging circles. This is good, to have an issue of phasic in which I'm not the contributor of the majority of the material. I think I will do an illustration for the issue as my sole contribution.

If any of you Polyhedral readers would like to get in on the act, just write some nonsense about a transportation device for an rpg and e-mail it my way. (Do I need to give ya my e-mail?) By "an rpg" I mean, it needs to be  Encounter Critical  compatible. I feel that E.C. is pretty compatible with the early editions of Basic D&D and BRPG. (Isn't that the Ruin Quest system or somethin'?)  If you have ever played an rpg you're probably in the ball park for E.C. material creation.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here's a photo of a Damnation Van I've known. I took the photo, if that counts as "knowing" it.

Help needed to recreat the at of Deities & Demi Gods

I am sure that most of the rpg blog-o-sphere is, by now, familiar with Kickstarter programs. And, you have probably heard that Jeff Dee is recreating long lost illustrations from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. (I'm assuming you all know this story.)

Now, if you have a buck or twenty, is the time to help with another Kickstarter program. This one is to recreate illustrations from Deities and Demi Gods that are the work of Diesel LaForce. There are only five days left to fund this project but over $1500. needs to be raised. You know you need another old school illustration to decorate your huge ruined pile. (I mean humble domain, of course.) When payday rolls around this weekend you can treat yourself, and some loved ones if ya like, and pledge your support to this program.

Now I'm gonna go up-date my resume and send it to my local NPR affiliate.

Yor: The Hunter from the Future

How have I missed this? It came out in 1983 but it looks like it was produced in 1976. It's got cavemen, cave-women, fire, floods, some funky looking space craft, explosions and more! Thanks to Jay's Gamma World War tumbler page for enlightening me with this Yor promo poster.

The Faces of Vanth: Darth Viraxis & Co.

Yes folks today the image of Darth Viraxis will be exposed to the world. If you have read the Darth Viraxis f.a.q. you will know what to expect, if not, be warned as you may find the image startling and disconcerting. But first...

I'd like to share a bit of Encounter Critical news. No, Fifth Edition of E.C. is not in the works. In fact, a second edition of E.C. is not in the works, barring the Labyrinth Critical project. But it has come to my attention that E.C. is now being played in, at least, two languages. English we know and now a group of Portuguese speaks have posted their E.C. experience on the entree'-net. You can see some dandy picks from their game session (they had brownies and ice cream!) and read about it here.

Now I drag out Darth Viraxis and Court. First we have my rendering of the Viraxian Guard. These guys are basically Darth Viraxis' Stormtroopers or Red Shirts. Yeah, their supposed to expendable so, might as well get a laugh at their expense.

Why's that guy got green hair? Why not and it gives him the distinguished weirdo look, just the look for one of Darth Viraxis' personal guards. Here's the man himself, the titanic tyrant of the Might Land and parts beyond...

I will not go into the details of why D.V. wears fuchsia armor exclusively. Despite his appearances, he is not a man to underestimate. After all, he is the commander of the Empire of Darth Viraxis! About the image design, I wish I had given him a flint lock pistol in his right hand rather than that weird looking blade he's holding but it's good for now.

Here are the guys that you, player characters, don't want to tangle, or tango, with. `The Virazian Marines are my red flag in the game, they enforce game balance and plot continuity. Player Character stats go to a possible 18, the Viraxian Marines stats go to 20. If the P.C.s are level 1 then the V.M. will be level 3 and they will always have superior weapons and technology too. So be sure not to make fun of the fuchsia insignia on their armor.
I've made a few more images for the Vanth setting. I thought I would try to represent all of the possible races. I have done a few Frankensteins and an Ape Sultan commoner but haven't done an Amazon or a Lizard Man. I don't really fell a need to produce images of these last two. Hero Machine really isn't designed to produce Robodriod images. Oh, I did make one Vulkin but haven't done a Klingon yet. I'll roll out whatever I can throw together over the next week or so.

The Faces of Vanth: Goblings

Segment two of the faces of Vanth features the Gobling race. A dream race comprised of the magical or, nature forbid, the biological cross between the Goblin and Hobling races. Example number one must lean heavily toward the Hobling side of the family. He's a sharp dresser and is ready for adventure with his leather armor, sturdy gloves and a torch. (Do demi-humans have infer-vision in E.C.?) He also has a dandy looking dagger that's probably a family heirloom. This chap looks like he'd have an Intelligence score around 12, pretty high by Gobling standards.


Gobling number two is an example of your more common Gobling, old leather armor, blood stained clothing and the same weapon ol' Gram-pa Gobling used to bash his way out of the caves each morning. He dose retain the Hobling tendency for snappy fashion sense!


Did someone get up out of the wrong side of the bed or did they wonder a bit too close to the Phasic Swamp? Either way, I designed this guy as a Mutant Gobling but I guess he could be a mutant anything with and enlarged cerebral hemisphere, weird ears, one enlarged hand and one cloven hoof. He has wide array of weapons and assorted armor and, true to his Hobling heritage, he's still got a plaid sash under the utility bandolier which he found, Kong knows where.


Lastly, for today, we have an example of a Bionic or Cyborg Gobling. What more do I need to say about this guy? If he doesn't get you with the energy weapon he has for a left forearm, watch out for that crowbar!
So far, I've only designed enough images for one more post. But time is certainly on my side in our temporally deceptive world of the Blog-0-sphere. Don't miss tomorrow's post when I reveal images of Darth Viraxis and his Viraxian Guard.

The many faces of Vanth: Hoblings

Arcadian over at No Signal! has been working on a project he is calling Labyrinth Critical. He's converting the races and classes of Encounter Critical for use with the Labyrinth Lord rules. He's certainly got my support, as well as, the support of every other E.C. nerd in existence I'd imagine.

So, the ol' creative wheels started turning and I started using Hero Machine to render images of the folks which I imagine inhabit the Mighty Land of Vanth. Here are my ideas of representatives from the Hobling race. Example one is a fairly average Hobling, he could even pass as a Halfling, gawd forbid, in other game settings.

Image two represents what player characters might experience as their first contact with the Hobling race and the third image represents the appearance of a Hobling Commoner. The advanced options in Hero Machine includes a pair of Bunny Slippers which I intended to put on Commoner #2. But the Bunny Slippers didn't load with the program, I'll be sure to use those slippers later.

I have only designed one female Hobling and this greatly confused Sally. Not because there is only one female, like Smurfette, but Sally didn't understand why she had short hair and furry feet. Once the image was finished, I labeled it and explained that she's a Hoblizon. Her bright crimson armor gives me the impression that she may be a security guard from the Xanadu Casino in Tidy Island Bay on the Mercenary Coast. Watch out for the semi-automatic in her shin holster!
Tomorrow I'll present the Goblings. (half Goblin & half Hobling)

A few more comments on the Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book

It turns out that the S.W.G.P.B & T.G. is divided into three sections. The first part is the fictional Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide. The second part is a discussion of the development of the sounds and languages of the Star Wars franchise and the brief third part is Selected Alien Language Scenes from Star Wars.

In my previous article about the S.W.G.P.B.& Travel Guide I did not give any information about the author, Ben Burtt who was a sound engineer on the first three Star Wars movies. Mr. Burtt also worked on E.T., Alien, Indiana Jones, and The Phantom Menace. (Just to name the movies mentioned in S.W.G.P.B.& T.G.) So, this is a guy who has played a very influential role in the entertainment industry for the last forty years. I certainly enjoyed section two, titled Behind the Sounds, which provides a first hand account of his work and development of the major languages, and sounds, for Star Wars.

I wanted to share this one antidote from the development of Ewokese. Too add emotional elements, realism and believability, the languages of Star Wars where loosely based on actual spoken languages. Voice actors for these languages were most often native speakers with no training in theater. Ewokese became based upon Tibetan and other languages from that region. Here Mr. Burtt describes he search for native speakers while Ewokese was being developed.

"As I continued to search about, another unusual individual turned up, an eighty-year-old Mongolian tribeswoman who had just recently, and for the first time, been brought to urban civilization. She spoke no English, but was congenial, as long as she had a desired beverage on hand. We called her Grandma Vodka, and she spoke Kalmuck. With shot glass in hand, she exuded some very charming folktales in a raspy high-pitched voice that inspired Ewok." (p. 150 - 151)

The fun and irony of the above antidote really made me laugh.