Gen Con 2010 also was a time of great planning, and while we can’t talk about everything that went down there yet, lets just say there are some very exciting possibilities in the future for AOP.

We’ll have some announcements about other new material soon, but it’s been a bit of a while since the last The Day After Ragnarok release, so news about that seems to be the highest priority. The next release for DAR should be coming up on the horizon soon, namely Memphis: Gateway to the Poisoned Lands. We’re not announcing a date certain yet, but for now we’re going to call it “very early Fall.”

Also, if you’ve been having trouble finding The Day After Ragnarok at your FLGS, that’s understandable…we’re in between printings! We hope to have that situation rectified in just a few weeks, so keep an eye out here for more news on that front.

Things have been a little quiet around Chez Overmind since Origins, but one really important thing happened: we were nominated for two ENnie Awards!

Nominated for the Best Setting category is The Day After Ragnarok, by Kenneth Hite. We’re exceedingly pleased that a setting we love so much has gotten the nod from the ENnie judges. If you haven’t checked out The Day After Ragnarok yet, click on over to the product page here, scroll down, and give the Foreshadowing Ragnarok posts we did a look!

Next up, in the Best Regalia category, Cthulhu 101 has gotten the nod! The first in Atomic Overmind’s 101 Series of books (soon to be followed up by Zombies 101), Cthulhu 101 is a great introduction to the world of H.P. Lovecraft and his effect on games, music, comics and popular culture in general.

Voting for the ENnies is open to the public until midnight, July 25th. We’d truly appreciate your support as fans of our books, so head on over to the online voting site here, and thanks so much!

THE ISLAND THAT TIME FORGOT!

Wreathed in mist and veiled in mystery, Monster Island was bad enough during the BIG ONE, when it held cannibal soldiers sworn to kill and die for Hirohito, and savage tribes who worshiped Golyeong, the MIGHTY “gorilla ghost.” After the Serpentfall, who knows what TREMENDOUS horrors might be RISING UP in Monster Island’s jungles, awakened from the prehistoric past?

Inside this HUMONGOUS 27 page PDF you’ll find:

• MASSIVE statistics for five GIANT monsters, six deadly dinosaurs, and three more mysterious foes!
• Three HUGE volcanoes, a TOWERING plateau, and many more adventurous locations, mapped and trapped and ready to go!
• A truly COLOSSAL showdown adventure — “Deploy All Monsters!”
• VASTLY useful game-building tools and advice, including the Top Five Other Places to Fight Dinosaurs, a QUITE FRANKLY EXCESSIVE Monster Island Encounter Generator, and tips on moving Monster Island into your own campaign!

ALL of this ENORMOUS excitement can be yours, when you …

RETURN TO MONSTER ISLAND!

Just as a note, only the Savage Worlds version of this Serpent Scale is available currently. We’ll have the HERO 6th Edition one ready as soon as we can.

SS#3: Return to Monster Island

Savage Shortlist: Top Five Other Places To Fight Dinosaurs

In the wake of the Serpentfall, a lot of pilots have seen a lot of strange things all over the world. Sometimes they land and check it out; somewhat less often, they return to report their findings to general disbelief.

Caprona Lake, Antarctica

The Nazi refuge of Neuschwabenland is not the only warm-water anomaly on the Antarctic coast. An immense submerged volcano heats Caprona Lake to subtropical temperatures behind impenetrable ice cliffs along the Walgreen Coast south of Easter Island. Around the shore of that lake, in a district the size of Ceylon, fog shrouds a thick jungle dotted with open savannas. The Soviets may be planning to colonize Caprona Lake, to counterbalance the Nazi base across the continent.

Hupei Province, China

In the mountainous border between Hupei and Szechwan provinces, botanists have discovered forests full of “dawn redwoods,” trees thought extinct for tens of millions of years. Japanese, Nationalist, Communist, and mercenary forces operate in this remote region—and report sightings of mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, and savage flightless birds. Perhaps some Late Cretaceous dinosaurs survive even deeper in these valleys.

Mato Grosso, Brazil

See Day After Ragnarok, p. 74 for the anomalous volcanoes and strange monsters that make this state the rumored “doorway to Muspellheim.” The Mato Grosso has increasingly become a target not only for prospectors and ranchers, but for Ahnenerbe sorcerers out of Paraguay and Rhodes Scholars looking for more strange biota for their experiments. Fringe archaeologists and adventurers comb the region looking for the Lost Cities of Akakor, Muribeca, and “Z,” and for Colonel Percy Fawcett, who disappeared on much the same quest in 1925.

Nsumbu Forest, Rhodesia

This vast, immensely dense thicket of thorn bushes—approximately the size of Maryland—sits in the middle of an arid, treeless plateau between Lakes Mweru and Tanganyika on Rhodesia’s northern border with the Congo Protectorate. Inside the thorn barrier, a lush valley collects rain and runoff water from the whole area, creating an Edenic garden almost inaccessible to man. And a perfect hideout for an air pirate looking to expand his operations into the Congo.

Roraima Plateau, Venezuela

Straddling the border between newly aggressive Venezuela and vulnerable British Guiana, the Manhattan-sized Roraima Plateau towers into the clouds topping cliffs rising 1,300 feet above the jungle. Lord John Roxton led two expeditions into the area, in 1910 and 1914, disappearing on the second. Since the Serpentfall, Venezuelan Air Force pilots have reported numerous pterodactyl sightings in the region, and Rhodes University geologists are studying a peculiarly corrosive dust given off by caves and tunnels at the base of the plateau.

Whether you’re opposition consists of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the island’s native inhabitants, the risen corpses of those who fought and died her during the war, or the island’s monstrous inhabitants, Return to Monster Island has something for you. Here’s a little taste of what lies ahead of you, intrepid explorers, after the jump cut!

Uwabami

Named for a giant monstrous snake in Japanese legend, this is the IJN pilots’ nickname for an enormous 120’ serpent they’ve seen sunning itself in Kaijushima’s eastern rivers. Its ribs can expand into rudimentary “wings,” allowing it to glide like a flying fish. It is fully amphibious.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+12, Vigor d8
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d8, Guts d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d10
Pace: 16     Parry: 6     Toughness: 22 (2)

Special Abilities

• Aquatic: Pace 16.
• Armor +2: Scaly hide.
• Bite: Str+d12, AP 2. Heavy Weapon.
• Constrict: Uwabami bites when he succeeds at a Fighting roll and entangles when he succeeds with a raise. The round he entangles and each round thereafter, he automatically causes damage to his prey (ignoring armor) equal to Str+d8. The prey may attempt to escape on his action by getting a raise on an opposed Strength roll.
• Crush: Str. Against human-sized opponents, Uwabami merely crushes them with a coil, not even bothering to wrap them up. He can make a crush attack anywhere along his length.
• Fear -2: Seeing Uwabami requires a Guts roll at -2.
• Flight: Pace 10, Climb 1, but only over distances of 220” or less.
• Gargantuan: Heavy Armor. Attacks against him by man-sized creatures are made at +4. Uwabami’s attacks are Heavy Weapons. Ignore vehicular armor. He has no Stomp attack.
• Hardy: Uwabami does not suffer a wound from being Shaken twice by a physical attack.
• Poison: Anyone Uwabami bites must make a Vigor roll at -4 or become Exhausted until healed. Physical activity (such as combat) will bring on another Vigor roll (also at -4) in 2d6 rounds. Once Incapacitated by the poison, the victim must make another Vigor roll (also at -4) or die in 1d6 rounds.
• Poison Drool: Any human-sized target adjacent to Uwabami’s head must make an Agility roll to escape the melon-sized droplets of venom dripping from the great snake’s jaws. Getting splashed with venom causes the above Poison effects; Vigor roll is at -2.
• Reach 7: Uwabami can rear and strike out to a third his length.
• Size (+14): Uwabami is 120’ long and his head is 10’ around.
• Tail Lash: Uwabami can sweep all opponents (and objects) in his rear facing (or adjacent to his rear third, if he’s extended) in a 7” long by 14” wide rectangle. This is a standard Fighting attack, and does d12+7 damage.
• Weakness (Heat and Cold): Giant snakes are cold-blooded; they make Vigor rolls to withstand temperature extremes at -1.

tetsubo57 gives us a VERY kind review over on YouTube.

We usually don’t post on weekends, but this is too cool not to share. A gentleman name Bloodrunsclear on Youtube has put together a fake trailer for a Day After Ragnarok movie! Check it out!

Thanks to Kurt Wiegal and all the folks over at Game Geeks for the awesome review!

Serpents Scales #3: Return to Monster Island

Wreathed in mist and veiled in mystery, Monster Island was bad enough during the War, when it held cannibal soldiers sworn to kill and die for Hirohito, and savage tribes who worshiped Golyeong, the “gorilla ghost.”

After the Serpentfall, who knows what horrors might be rising up in Monster Island’s jungles, awakened from the prehistoric past?

Serpent Scales #4 ¡Técnicos En Contra De La Serpiente!

Fascist Sinarquistas battle fanatical Kulkulkan cultists. Where can decent folk turn? Aztec mummies ravage the city as exiled Nazi doctors steal the organs of the poor for mad experiments. What can stop them? The Atomic Piledriver, the Anaconda Vise, the Frankenstein Death Swing. Can any man face them and live?

In Mexico after the Serpentfall, courage must wear a mask.

We’re back from the GAMA Trade Show in lovely Las Vegas, NV, and we didn’t come away empty handed! The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design, in conjunction with the Game Manufacturers of America, decided the nominations for the 2010 Origins Awards this past week, and we’re extremely proud that two of Atomic Overmind’s products made the cut!

The Day After Ragnarok was nominated for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement, and Cthulhu 101 garnered a nomination for Best Game-Related Book. The 2010 Origins Awards will be voted on and awarded at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH, June 23rd thru June 27th. We hope we’ll see all of you there!