[Atomic Robo] [Kerberos] GenCon Events!

Friendly reminder: Today's the last day to register games for GenCon, so if you haven't gotten on that, get on it.

Another friendly reminder: Pre-reg begins tomorrow, I believe. No it doesn't! Brace yourselves anyway.

If you're eager to check out Atomic Robo's progress, we'll be conducting the first public playtests at GenCon in August. It looks like we ("we" being Andy Blanchard, Chris Czerniak, Morgan Ellis, and myself) will be offering six scheduled sessions between us:

• Thursday, August 16th at 2:00 pm
• Friday, August 17th at 2:00 pm (two sessions)
• Saturday, August 18th at 12:00 pm
• Saturday at 2:00 pm (two sessions)

And possibly a Sunday game as well. Odds are also good that you'll see some ARRPG games at Games on Demand, too.

You can find all of them in the schedule as Atomic Robo: Sneak Preview. Not an evocative name, maybe, but it gets the point across. The blurb's the same for all of them:

Action! Science! Robots! Playtest the new RPG adaptation of the hit indie comic book series Atomic Robo, coming soon from Evil Hat. No experience with FATE or higher-dimension mathematics required.

But that's not all!

I'm also running a FATE Kerberos game on Friday at noon called A Past from the Blast. I am unreasonably amused by that title, partially because it's almost clever, and partially because I'm not actually sure what it means yet. This is how I design convention scenarios, folks!

Anyway, the blurb sure makes it sound like it's about something:

Danger! Intrigue! Explosions! It's all in a day's work for the Strange members of the Kerberos Club, who answer the call when a series of bombings spark panic in the streets of London.

(Any similarities in format between those two blurbs are entirely coincidental.)

Lots of good gaming to be had at GenCon this year! See you there.

Morgan Ellis' The Spirit... of the SHATTERED EARTH!

Back in 2008 -- seriously, 2008! -- I posted this:

Finally played in Morgan Ellis's "Spirit of the Shattered Earth" game -- well, I say "finally," but it's only the second time he's run it at Strategicon -- which was a lot of fun. If you know your post-apoc references, you'll dig this game. Any game that explicitly acknowledges Kamandi and Thundarr is all right in my book. I caused a ruckus as Gorlla, the Mighty Crorc. I've encouraged Morgan a couple of times to get his act together and publish this thing in some form or other, so hopefully he'll do that.

This is sort of him doing that, via this blog.

Behold, the Shattered Earth!

What he's done is organize the scenario builder and the pre-gens he normally uses into a single, Blackbird-esque packet, so you can just download it and play it at a con or something. It's a totally no-prep game (other than all Kamandi reading, but you should be doing that anyway) -- like Danger Patrol and many other games of its ilk, it relies on player input to get the ball living radioactive boulder rolling.

I just love this map.

Here's what Morgan has to say about SotSE (and if you haven't heard this first paragraph delivered in his stentorian Saturday-morning-cartoon announcer voice, you're missing out):

Eons ago the world was sundered in a great cataclysm, the cause of which can never now be known. Humanity’s civilization was cast in ruins. In its place lies The Shattered Earth! A world of savagery, mutation, super science, and sorcery. But a few heroes still fight for freedom and justice against the forces of evil in a world gone mad! 

The Shattered Earth is a gonzo post-apocalyptic setting inspired by all sorts of post-apocalyptic media, the main inspiration is of course Jack Kirby's classic comic book Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth. But there are many other influences as well, like Marvel Comic's Killraven, TV's Thundarr the Barbarian, films like Planet of the Apes and The Road Warrior, and RPGs like After the Bomb and Gamma World. It's all about running fun, over the top, 1970s era comic book style post-apocalyptic adventures. I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget the Kirby dots! 

If you'd like to hear an explanation of how I run The Spirit of The Shattered Earth and FATE convention games in general, you can check out the Actual People, Actual Play Podcast: Episode 44 FATE for Convention Games: Hail to the King Baby.

(Definitely listen to that episode of APAP. It's pretty great.)

So there you go. Download it immediately. The Shattered Earth needs heroes!