AOD

Well, the artist came through for us, so we’re proud to announce that Serpent Scales #1: The New Konfederacy is now one sale in the Atomic Overmind Press Webstore, in both its Savage Worlds and HERO 6th Edition flavors.

The PDF will also be available for sale at DrivethruRPG.com, Paizo.com, e23, IPR, and Studio 2 Publishing a little later this week. We hope you enjoy it! We’ve got a lot more in store this year for The Day After Ragnarok!

Due to a small communication issue with an artist (our fault, not his) Serpents Scales #1 (Both Savage Worlds and HERO versions) will be on sale tomorrow at noon EST. Honest.

Here’s a little snippet of what’s to come:

Night-Rider

This is a local Klansman, possibly not connected with Birmingham or any larger Klan group. He rides out on Klan business, and his familiarity with the ground and with hunting weapons make him a surprisingly formidable irregular.

Savage Worlds Statistics

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d4, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Riding d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d6, Survival d8, Taunt d6, Tracking d8
Charisma: 0     Pace: 6     Parry: 5     Toughness: 5
Edges: Woodsman (in local area only)
Hindrances: Callous
Gear: Hunting rifle or shotgun; cavalry saber or hunting knife

Notes

  • Big Stupid Hood: If the GM wants to give the heroes an edge against a pursuing squad of Klansmen, note that wearing white robes at night gives a -2 to a night-rider’s Stealth, pretty much wiping out the advantage of darkness. The hood also restricts peripheral vision; -1 to visual Notice checks.
  • Big Scary Hood: The reason night-riders wear the robes and hood, of course, is that they don’t intend to hide. The uniform exists to frighten (supposedly) superstitious blacks into thinking that the Klan are ghosts or specters. Whether that works or not, it does add +2 to the Klansman’s Intimidation and Taunt tests against locals if the Klan has already committed an un-answered outrage (cross-burning, lynching, etc.) in the area and gotten away with it.
  • Occasional Armor: Every so often, a night-rider puts on a chain mail vest (+2 Armor) under his robes. Klansmen are often wannabe medieval screwheads to begin with, and an increasing number of scrapes come down to steel instead of shot in the rural South. Depending on how primitive the GM feels like making the local community, 1 in 4 or 1 in 6 night-riders wear chain mail. (1 in 10 in the Grand Kounty itself.)

HERO 6th Edition Statistics

STR: 10 DEX: 10 CON: 11 INT: 8 EGO: 8 PRE: 10
OCV: 4 DCV: 4 OMCV: 3 DMCV: 3 Spd: 2
PD: 3 ED: 2 REC: 4 END: 20 BOD: 10 Stun: 20
Advantages: AK: Local Area 11-, Interrogation 11-, Riding 11-, Stealth 11-, Survival (Subtropical) 11-, Tracking 12-, TF: Horses, WF: Blades, Small Arms.
Complications: Psychological (Callous), Psychological (Klan Believer)
Gear: Hunting rifle or shotgun; cavalry saber or hunting knife

Notes

  • Big Stupid Hood: If the GM wants to give the heroes an edge against a pursuing squad of Klansmen, note that wearing white robes at night gives a -2 to a night-rider’s Stealth, pretty much wiping out the advantage of darkness. The hood also restricts peripheral vision; -1 to sight PER checks.
  • Big Scary Hood: The reason night-riders wear the robes and hood, of course, is that they don’t intend to hide. The uniform exists to frighten (supposedly) superstitious blacks into thinking that the Klan are ghosts or specters. Whether that works or not, it does add +2d6 to the Klansman’s PRE Attacks against locals if the Klan has already committed an un-answered outrage (cross-burning, lynching, etc.) in the area and gotten away with it.
  • Occasional Armor: Every so often, a night-rider puts on a chain mail vest (4 PD/4 ED, Required Roll 12-) under his robes. Klansmen are often wannabe medieval screwheads to begin with, and an increasing number of scrapes come down to steel instead of shot in the rural South. Depending on how primitive the GM feels like making the local community, 1 in 4 or 1 in 6 night-riders wear chain mail. (1 in 10 in the Grand Kounty itself.)

Wait, it’s the 16th of February, right? Serpent Scales #1 should be out, and all of you should be enjoying it by n…oh wait. Yeah. Snow. LOTS of snow. *sigh*

As anyone on the East Coast of the US knows, we’ve had something approaching Fimbulvetr here, and it has put us a little bit behind. Nevertheless, Serpent Scales #1 IS coming, and both Savage Worlds and Hero 6th Edition versions will be ready to go on February 22. Promise.

In case you missed our last post on the matter, Serpent Scales is going to cover a wide variety of topics in the world of The Day After Ragnarok, things that aren’t quite big enough for a full release. The sizes and prices will vary, for now, and we’re shooting for one a month to start with. Just to whet your appetite, here’s a little snippet from the first one, now in layout:

Serpent Scales #1: The New Konfederacy

Rebuilding the nation from the wreckage.
Rebuilding it in strength and unity.
Rebuilding it free of taint and corrupt blood.
Rebuilding it into a beacon of faith and protection.

Surely everyone can agree with that plan. But the devil is in the details: the nation they rebuild is the Confederacy, or worse. The strength and unity they seek are tyranny and conformity. The blood they would purge is that of their fellow Americans. Their beacon is a flaming cross.
They are the Night Riders, the Army of the New Konfederacy, the Invisible Empire. They are the resurgent Ku Klux Klan.

So, watch for it this coming Monday!

Aaaaaaand…we’re back. Or getting back, anyway. January is almost gone, and we’re finally getting out heads together here at the AOP offices. Rather than announce our plans for 2010 in one big posting, I think we’re probably better announcing them as we get them nailed down.

So today, we begin with our upcoming plans for Kenneth Hite’s The Day After Ragnarok. We have some really interesting stuff lined up for it up through the Summertime. Lengths and formats may very, so we’re just talking titles for now. Without further adieu…

Memphis: Gateway to the Poisoned Lands
(Winter 2010)

A City Pack for the Bluff City at the dawn of the new barbarism. Memphis makes a great jumping-off point for a “Wolves Across the Border” game of mercenary action and intrigue in the ruins of eastern America.

Capetown: Diesel and Venom (Spring 2010)

A dieselpunk City Pack for the dark side of the British Empire, where industrial ophi-tech spreads gloom — but doesn’t spread the wealth. Fight the power on the gritty streets with Nelson Mandela, or grit your teeth and double down for Crown and country.

The Belly of the Beast: The Speleo-Herpetologist’s Handbook (Summer 2010)

Get the inside story on the Royal Society’s elite band of dragon-delvers — and lots and lots of horrible things to kill and flee from. You think it’s bad outside? You ain’t seen inside, yet.

Behind the Serpent Curtain: The Soviet Sourcebook
(GenCon 2010)

Everything you need to adventure in Stalin’s dark empire, including details on the NKVD, the Jotun, and the Red Army. Will include a Moscow City Pack, and a Plot Point campaign: “Objective: Science City 14!

Serpent Scales: Fragments from
the World After the Serpentfall (ongoing)

Don’t want to wait for just one release per season for your favorite post-Ragnarok game setting? We’ve got you covered. Serpent Scales is an ongoing series of smaller releases, covering a wide variety of characters, organizations, items and monsters in the world after the Serpentfall. Watch for the first one debuting on February 15th!

So spread the word, there’s much more Ragnarok to come!

The holiday season is past, and we’re soldiering into a new year here at Atomic Overmind Press. We’re getting our plans in place for 2010, so expectto see some cool announcements here next week.

In the meantime, Tehran: Nest of Spies can now be purchased at E23, DriveThruRPG, Paizo.com, and from our friends over at Studio 2 Publishing.

Check back next week for new of upcoming AOP projects!

aop1002_101_cthulhu_webKenneth Hite’s Cthulhu 101 is out in the wild now…and, of course, subject to the judgment of others. Fortunately, the judgments so far have been positive! Here are a couple of cool mentions the book has gotten out on “teh Intarwebs”.

Reviewer Bill Bodden was kind enough to give Cthulhu 101 a review over at FlamesRising.com. Check it out here.

We’re also thrilled that Cthulhu 101 has made OgreCave.com’s 2009 Christmas Guide, ending up in the Twelve Stock Stuffer Games list. Thanks, guys! You can check out the full list of great gift ideas here.

…hope you survive your time here. At long last, Tehran: Nest of Spies is here, and available for purchase in the Atomic Overmind Press store! 35 pages of Persian City Sourcebook for the Savage Worlds game system can be yours for just $7.95. This book is literally hot from the digital forge, so watch for it to arrive at our other sales partners in the next few days!

As another preview of the contents, take a look at the map of Tehran in the wake of the Serpentfall. Click the image below for a larger look!

Tehran_map

DAR_TNOS_72It’s a proven fact, jury duty ruins everything! However, that duty is now complete, and we can get back down to business. We’re spending today putting the finishing touches on Tehran: Nest of Spies, but it will probably be later in the day before we finally get all the bugs ironed out. In the meantime, here’s another glimpse of what lies in store. Behold, the Ganj!

Ganj

Awakened by the Serpentfall, the ganj crawled out of the earth’s fissures and caves and back into Persia’s nightmares. The dreaded “jewel serpent” resembles an enormous cobra, with its scales studded with faceted encrustations: sapphires, emeralds, rubies … and always one great diamond in the beast’s forehead. The ganj can sniff out large concentrations (or even a few carats) of crystallized carbon–jewels and gems, in other words. Tehrani banks and jewelry stores have to hire monster-killing parties every so often, to clear out the qanats or sub-cellars underneath them as the ganj draw closer. Fortunately, ganj are solitary creatures: where one ganj is “hunting,” others stay away. The exception, of course, is mating season, when any female ganj that has discovered and “nested” a sizable hoard attracts predatory males by the dozen.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6(A), Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d8
Skills:
Climbing d8, Fighting d8, Guts d6, Notice d8, Stealth d6
Pace:
9   Parry: 5   Toughness: 8 (14 on head)

Special Abilities

  • Bite: Str+d4
  • Fear: Seeing a ganj requires a Guts roll.
  • Glittering Shield: The gem-like coruscations of the ganj’s head scales attract the eye: attackers must make a Smarts test to avoid aiming for the ganj’s jeweled armor (Armor 6). Only attackers who succeed at this Smarts test can reap the benefit of the ganj’s Large size (+2 to human-sized attackers).
  • Mineral Sense: The ganj can detect crystallized carbon within 200 yards; it receives +2 to all relevant Notice checks and ignores darkness or similar penalties.
  • Quick: Discard action cards of 5 or lower.
  • Resin Spit: The ganj spits quick-hardening resin at its prey, at ranges up to 20”. Treat the resin as an entangle, aimed at a single target. Each round after it hits, the penalty to Agility or Strength attempts to break free increases by -1. Use the Drowning rules for the long-term effects of being trapped in ganj resin.
  • Size +2: The ganj can get up to 40’ long.

…and that, my friends, is JURY DUTY. The City of Alexandria, VA is putting its demands on key members of the Atomic Overmind Press staff today, so we are regrettably forced to push the release for Tehran: Nest of Spies off until Wednesday, Dec, 2nd (there are a few remaining touches that are necessary). We apologize for the delay…blame The Man!

However, to whet your appetite for Tehran: Nest of Spies, we’ll give you a little taste of what’s in store. Meet the head of the Iranian Gendarmerie…and it’s not who you’d expect.

Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr.

schwarzkopf300dpi_coverColonel Schwarzkopf (b. 1895) may be best-known to Americans as the chief investigator in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, or possibly as the voice of the Gang Busters radio program in the late 1930s, but in Persia he is the trusted commander of the National Gendarmerie, and has been since 1942. Put in charge of Persia’s only national police force during the Allied occupation, he brought the same dedication, honesty, and organizational skills to the task that he’d used as Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. With his wife and son (back in New Jersey) presumed dead after the Serpentfall, Schwarzkopf has re-dedicated himself to his men and his adopted country, an attitude that gains him enemies and grudging respect in equal measure in the corridors of power.

He speaks German, Persian, and Russian in a raspy voice, a consequence of a gas attack during WWI.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d10

Skills: Driving d6, Fighting d6, Guts d10, Intimidation d10, Investigation d8, Knowledge (Criminology) d8, Knowledge (Logistics) d10, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Riding d10, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Streetwise d8, Survival d6, Tracking d6.

Charisma: 0     Pace: 6     Parry: 5     Toughness: 8

Edges: Brawny, Command, Connections, Danger Sense, Investigator, Nerves of Steel, Quick Draw.

Hindrances: Anemic, Callous, Code of Honor, Loyal

Special Abilities

Gendarmes: As head of the Gendarmerie, Col. Schwarzkopf can call on a squad of Gendarmes (2d6 available) anywhere in Persia. (Use Police stats, DAR p. 81; replace Driving with Riding d6, increase Shooting to d6.)

DAR_TNOS_72Well, it’s taken a bit longer to put together than we would have thought, but it’s finally coming together….Tehran: Nest of Spies is finally in a state that we can announce a firm release date. The PDF will be available for sale on Monday, November 30th!

In the wake of the Serpentfall, Persia lies balanced between the desperate British Empire and the malevolent Soviet Union. Both powers have toyed with Persia in the past; both would gladly swallow it whole in the present. Their machinations reach a fever pitch in Persia’s historic capital …Tehran: Nest of Spies!

The Savage Worlds version of the book is actually on the cusp of completion. However, we’re going to hold off for one more week so we can get past Thanksgiving, and also prepare the HERO 6th Edition version of it for simultaneous release.

We’ll be posting a little preview after the weekend, as well as some details about length, price, and where it will be available for sale. Watch for the news!