Courtesy sofeminine:

Suraya Singh

There is no way this could possibly go wrong.

My coworkers made some announcements at ICC. Some attention should be paid to them. Unfortunately, I wasn't in attendance, due to ongoing illness.*

As usual, White Wolf loves surprises and I can't say much about our future plans. But there's an important bit here: play the way you want to. Our books are there to support your games.

Yeah, our books are a little bossy sometimes. I made the call a while back that we wouldn't second-guess every piece of advice we gave, and I know other developers have made similar calls. But that's for clarity. Really, make these games yours. Make 'em dark as coal or shiny as diamonds.

There's no canon -- not in the Harry Potter or Star Trek sense. Just a mythology. And you can do what you like with that mythology.

Want the Lasombra back? Bring 'em back. Want to play Batman with fangs? Go right ahead. Hell, you've got my blessing to play a Ravnos filksinger who tours with ren faires. In the so-called nWoD, even. Your game.

My Vampire will stay Go and Brick and The Godfather, with a hopeful smidge of Nick & Norah.** Yours is whatever you want it to be.

* I made a partial return to the office this week, but will still largely be working from home and playing catchup for the next several business days.
** Tiny hint about an upcoming book.

Anybody on the Internet who thinks they can beat Ken Cliffe senseless is very much mistaken.

Aaron Voss might be able to take Ken, but only the Batman way -- preparation, and knowledge of his one weakness.

This guy...



...is also this guy...

Ghosts are the spirits of the dead and forgotten, carried on the dust and wind. Ghosts have no motive power of their own, and will give anything to be creatures with water again.

The surest way to summon a man's ghost is to find sand that he spit or bled on as he died, or that his corpse was covered in.

Sometimes you can hear the howling of ghosts in an approaching dust storm. Cover your mouth, or one may become part of you.

There are some cults which believe that a body has no soul until it breathes the red dust and takes on a ghost.

The only constant on Mars is the wind.

(Read more Cavaliers of Mars at RPGnet, or through the tag link on this post.)

Tomb stalkers are strange machines that haunt the Cydonian monuments. Most who encounter a tomb stalker see it at a distance, or hear its low, keening voice on the wind.

Tomb stalkers stand at a variety of heights, though rarely less than three stories tall, on three flexible, metal limbs. These limbs descend from a ridged, metal head from which also dangle a variety of manipulators and tentacles.

The characteristic rust-coloring of the tomb stalker gives credence to the theory these machine-beasts spend long periods of time lurking beneath the sand.

Their most feared ability is the death-ray, a beam of light emitted from the stalker's single, ovoid "eye." Creatures struck by the death-ray are alleged to experience swift deadening of the nervous system, before being raised and drained of vital fluids by the stalker's tentacles.

Tomb stalkers are the bane of those who raid the Cydonian temples and graveyards, but whether they are active guardians, opportunistic predators, or something else entirely remains a subject for campfire speculation.


(Read more Cavaliers of Mars at RPGnet, or through the tag link on this post.)

Like humans, Zaius are a higher ape. While physically less versatile than humans, they are much stronger, faster, and more resilient. They require proportionally more food and water; in these latter days, this has made them primarily a people of cities and other large settlements.

Zaius are well-known as physicians, priests and engineers.

An adult Zaiu walks about 7 feet erect.

Head for Numbers: You can compute mathematical formulae in your head with extraordinary speed. This is particularly true for physics and geometry -- you'll rarely miss catching a thrown object, and can intuitively understand all kinds of engineering issues. Roll a bonus die when this ability is useful.

Durable: You are enormously difficult to kill. Roll a bonus die on any stabilization or healing check.

Land Legs: You are not well-suited to the riding of animals. Roll a penalty die when attempting to ride or grapple with a traveling beast.


(Read more Cavaliers of Mars at RPGnet, or through the tag link on this post.)

(Read more Cavaliers of Mars at RPGnet, or through the tag link on this post.)

The human computers of the Martians. Their brains have grown to such prodigious size that they force a deformation of the skull and a bleaching of the skin. The shapes of their heads are not unlike those of the Skarrans, but their foreheads bulge queerly, as if an alien brain-mass throbs beneath.

Roundheads are known for brilliance, treachery and devotion to their quasi-religious order. They believe they are the heirs of the First Martians, and as such entitled to respect and deference from all the other forms of Martian.

They often decorate their heads with ornate mathematical tattoos. Many roundheads are the custodians of atmosphere processors.

Knowledge Mastery: Whenever consulting your previous knowledge of a subject, roll a bonus die.

Respected and Feared: When seeking audience with a powerful figure, or to impress a group of people through fear, roll a bonus die.

Treacherous in all Things: When trying to directly help another character, roll a penalty die.

(Read more Cavaliers of Mars at RPGnet, or through the tag link on this post.)

Will Hindmarch discusses new playstyles for Google Wave. I'm not as down as he is on traditional post and chat play, but I do think he's on to something here.

The Frisky, a CNN sister site, tells us that men don't like vampires.

I retaliate by pointing out a vampire mouth in a beer can you can jack off with.

(Link safe only for my workplace. Thanks, Orrin and dixiecyanide .)

...and in my defense, I was under medical care at the time, is that A Princess of Mars is basically a Disney princess movie already, if you just look at it from the right perspective.

I've had some difficult health problems recently. I'm assured they'll all be dealt with in time, but I've missed a lot of work and virtually all play for the last couple of weeks. I'll continue to appear and disappear for a little while, most likely.

Game Trade Magazine has posted a writeup on Count Dracula, last seen in the pages of Gangrel.

The Man Himself: Count Dracula

It includes a fighting style people will probably hate me for!

Sadly, they appear not to have published the fiction Ben and I wrote to go along with this, which is another adventure of the Count and Felix in our psychobilly splatterpunk tradition. I'll see if I can get permission to put it up someplace else.