We’ve been gratified and impressed by the One-Sheet and adventure submissions we’ve gotten for The Day After Ragnarok, and we’re pleased to announce the release of one today!

Author H. M. ‘Dain’ Lybarger inaugurates this ongoing series of all-killer no-filler adventures with Hollerin’ Pines.

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” —Mark 16:17-18

The heroes visit a quiet town—where something nasty is brewing below the surface…

Hollerin’ Pines is available NOW in the Atomic Overmind Press store for just $.99, and also at DrivethruRPG. E23 availability very soon!

Savage Worlds, The Day After Ragnarok - 8 Comments »

Although we are keeping main world development on The Day After Ragnarok clenched tightly in Kenneth Hite’s cadaverous talons, we would like to official announce our intention to produce adventures designed for the setting. The Overmind is hereby issuing a call for submissions for adventures for the world after Serpentfall!

One Sheets

To begin with, we are very interested in The Day After Ragnarok “One Sheets,” of the format seen on the Pinnacle Entertainment website here: http://www.peginc.com/product-category/one-sheets/

For those, given their short length, a formal proposal isn’t necessary. We only need to see a paragraph of concentrated awesome pitchness before green-lighting a submission for a DAR One Sheet. We can offer a flat fee of $50, paid within 30 days after acceptance of your finished One-Sheet. The word limit is a hard and fast 1,500 words, including Savage Worlds statistics, so make sure your idea is compact, and to the point.

Longer Adventures

So, you’ve proven yourself on a One-Sheet or two, or are an established industry professional who’d like to write for The Day After Ragnarok? Then you are hereby invited to send us a proposal for the longer-form tale you’d like to spin in the shadown of the Midgard Serpent’s rotting corpse. For something like this, as you might expect, we’ll need a formal proposal. What we’d like to see in a proposal is the following:

• A short summary of the plot, including any key locations, NPCs, or other major features.
• A “back cover blurb”– how you’d advertise this adventure on, say, the Atomic Overmind website. If you can’t sell it to a reader, you’ll have a harder time selling it to us. Use the blurbs for the already existing Serpent Scales,  Tehran: Nest of Spies, Or Memphis: Gateway to the Poisoned Lands as examples.
• You’ll be required to submit art notes with your final manuscript as well. The specifics will depend on your adventure length.
• If your adventure needs a specific map, or floor plan we need to see it as well, even (especially!) if it’s only a rough sketch. Depending on specifics, and your interest, and your skill, we may hire you to create a final version.
• If your adventure happens to work with a piece of pre-existing free or public-domain art or cartography, that’s definitely a benefit.

All these proposals will be reviewed closely, so please put your best writing foot forward. We’re mostly interested in shorter, easy-to-play adventures that are easily slotted into ongoing games, in keeping with the Savage Worlds ethos of “Fast, Furious, Fun.” We suspect that 3,000 to 5,000 words is the sweet spot for single adventures. However, a really good pitch for a longer adventure, or a linked series of adventures, will get us interested. The per-word rate will be in the standard range for professional writing for hobby games on a work-for-hire basis, and Atomic Overmind Press will pay within 30 days of acceptance of a completed adventure.

Final Notes

All submissions should be emailed to submissions@atomicovermind.com, and must contain one of the the following in the subject line: [DAR One Sheet] for One Sheets or  [DAR Adventure] for longer proposals. Please allow up to a week for a reply (although hopefully we’ll get back to you much sooner than that).

So there you have it, your chance to make your mark on the world of The Day After Ragnarok. We look forward to being amazed at just how good your game is!

Savage Worlds, The Day After Ragnarok - 11 Comments »

Well, it took a bit longer than I had hoped to get it prepped, but its done. Say hello to the second set of Figure Flats for The Day After Ragnarok, Forces of Oppression. Forces of Oppression covers three different groups of human foes. Jacob Blackmon’s art brings you paper miniatures for:

• The Japanese Army! – The forces of Japan, bent on expanding the Empire.
• Nazis! – The cause of the Serpentfall, featuring soldiers of the Wehrmacht, SS troopers and even Ahnenerbe sorcerers!
• The Klan – Heavily armed and horse-mounted hate-mongers of the Poisoned Lands!

Presented in three different formats for your convenience, this 10 page PDF has what you need to battle these organizations, wherever in the world after Serpentfall you encounter them. Simply print them out on some cardstock, cut out the ones you need, an you’ll be ready to go!

Buy it now for just $1.95 in the Atomic Overmind Press Store, or from our friends over at DrivethruRPG.com!

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Today (finally) sees the release of the first set of Figure Flats for The Day After Ragnarok. Set 1: Behind the Serpent Curtain covers the threats and enemies that lurk in the Soviet Union. Jacob Blackmon’s art brings you paper miniatures for:

• Forces of the Red Army! – Red Army Soldiers, Red Army Officers, Red Army Pilots
• The NKVD! – NKVD Commissars, NKVD Agents, Soviet Psychics
• Simian Soviets! – Manrillas, Oranghumans, Maboons, Chumanzees
• And more! - Chinese Soldiers, and the mighty and fearsome JOTUNS!

Presented in three different formats for your convenience, this 10 page PDF has what you need to battle the forces that dwell behind the Serpent Curtain. Simply print them out on some cardstock, cut out the ones you need, an you’ll be ready to go!

Buy it now for just $1.95 in the Atomic Overmind Press Store! 

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Next up, a little update about what’s on the agenda as far as book releases go from Atomic Overmind Press in 2013. We’ve got some things backed up from last year, and we’re anxious to get them out there for everyone’s enjoyment.

New Tales of the Yellow Sign

First up for release this year is Robin D. Laws’s short story collection New Tales of the Yellow Sign. This collection expands the classic horror mythos of weird tales pioneer and Lovecraft precursor Robert W. Chambers into new vistas of unease and imagination. Over the course of eight troubling stories, writer and visionary game designer Robin D. Laws lures you into diseased timelines, impossible pasts, and the all-too-terrifying present.You can already get it in Kindle form on amazon.com, or in epub form over at Smashwords. New Tales of the Yellow Sign will be available in PDF form in just a few short weeks, and should be available in print form in mid-March. We’ll be putting up pre-orders for it starting next week.

Cthulhu in World Mythology

Next up is Jason Colavito’s  magnum opus Cthulhu in World Mythology. Ancient myths, once dismissed as fantasies, can now be seen in their true light—as a record of the coming of Cthulhu and his reign on the early Earth. Strange archaeological sites, once dismissed as merely “religious,” can now be viewed as deliberate imitations of Cthulhu’s lost city of R’lyeh and its non-Euclidean architecture. If you have ever watched Ancient Aliens and wondered whether ancient astronauts were real, Cthulhu in World Mythology provides essential proof. The print release will hit stores in May of this year, but the PDF and Epub/Kindle versions. will be unleashed in late March. We’ll start pre-orders for the print version when the e-versions release. Delve into the pages of Cthulhu in World Mythology if you have an open mind and are ready to hear Cthulhu’s call!

Zombies 101

The third book we have confirmed is the second in our 101 series (finally), Zombies 101! We all know the zombie apocalypse is on the way, and Zombies 101 is here to help! Author Kenneth Hite and his Brains Trust (Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales, Cthulhu 101) walks you through the tangled maze of lore concerning the risen dead in legend, fiction, media, pop culture…and even your very own backyard! Pay close attention, because the dead are stirring in their graves… Zombies 101 will also feature the art stylings of Cthulhu 101 artist Drew Pocza!

This second installment in the 101 series will mark a bit of a change for the 101 Series, as we’ll be switching to hardcover for this and subsequent installments. We’ll also be formatting it for release in electronic forms beyond simply PDF as well, so it should be fun all around. Current plans are to have this one ready just in time for Halloween 2013!

Reprints & Other Business

Currently, both Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales and Cthuthu 101 are currently out of print, and we’ll be doing our best to get them back into print later in the year. Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales will likely get some sort of deluxe re-release (Ken and I are still talking possibilities for this over) while Cthulhu 101 will get upgraded to the new hardcover format mentioned in the Zombies 101 information above. Gameplaywright’s The Bones: Us and our Dice is still available as well.

And, of course, there are the requisite ideas that are floating around that might coalesce into something interesting. But if last year taught me anything, it’s to keep a lid on those until they are fully formed. Rest assured that notice will be posted about them here when/if they do come together.

Comments? Questions? Please talk about it in the Atomic Overmind Press Forums!

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It’s 2013, and it’s going to be a good one for fans of The Day After Ragnarok. Here’s a roundup of what’s in store.

DAR Meets Its Fate

The most obvious thing coming up for The Day After Ragnarok is, of course, the Fate Edition of  it. The Fate Core Kickstarter blew right though the stretch goal, so this will really be happening! Since the adaptation parts will be written by Leonard Balsera, it’s a bit difficult to say exactly when the book will be completed, but as soon as the Fate Core Kickstarter is complete, we’ll be working with him to figure out a reasonable timeline for the book. If you’re a backer of the Kickstarter, you’ll be getting a PDF of the Fate Edition of The Day After Ragnarok for free, but we’re planning on having both the PDF and a print version of it available for sale as well. Additionally, we hope to adapt all the existing Serpent Scales to Fate, and produce Fate-compatible versions of future ones.

Figure Flats Finally

This one’s short and sweet: we’re start releasing the Figures Flats for The Day After Ragnarok next month. February, that is. The current plan is to present them in two-faced, three-faced, and counter format. There well be 3-4 sets, and more details should be forthcoming in about a week. These will be available in PDF form for sure, and we’re exploring some print options.

Walking in Memphis

The project we’ve gotten the most question about, is, understandably, Memphis: Gateway to the Poisoned Lands. It’s the second entry in the Cities of the Emerald Night series, a little refresher might be in order. I quote from the marketing text…

“After the Serpentfall, floods and horrors rise all along the Mississippi valley. Only the Bluff City survives, kept alive by hard choices and harder men. Strangers come to Memphis from deep in the dark, from out in the wild, from all over. They set out for the Delta, or for the wild Poisoned Lands, ready to kill or to heal, but most of all ready for trouble. Because we’ve got trouble, right here in the River City …”

You can read a bit more about it on its product page. I’m happy to announce that, after talking with The Day After Ragnarok creator Kenneth Hite, we have agreed to aim for a Spring timeline for completing it. Ken’s currently getting settled in with his new gig as a staffer at Pelgrane Press, so we haven’t set a deadline yet. We’ll get more specific as things settle into rhythm for him. But when the cold of winter begins to pass, we should all be walking in Memphis.

More Serpent Scales

In addition to the Memphis release, Ken has a few more things he wants to detail about the post-Serpentfall world. So, a few more Serpent Scales will see the murky light of day in 2013. The topics? Well, that’s largely up to Ken…but I did hear him muttering something about Mexico.

Additionally, Ken and I have decided that we are going to take a big step: we’re going to actually open up the world after Serpentfall to some outside input. I am going to take some time to work out some submission guidelines, but if you have an idea for a person, place or thing for The Day After Ragnarok, you’ll have a chance to run it by us. If we like it, we might just pay you a little something to write it up for everyone’s enjoyment, and publish it as a Serpent Scale. I should have submission guidelines put together by the first week of February, if everything goes well.

Something Slumbers…Something Secret

And just what kind of update would this be without a vague allusion to something big coming up later in the year? Well, there is. Something big, exciting…and brand new for the world after the Serpentfall. I can promise you all that it’ll be the coolest thing we’ve done so far.

So there you have it, the plans (as much as we can reveal, anyway), for The Day After Ragnarok in 2013. We’re excited to get it all on track, and we hope you are too! Questions? Comments? Let’s talk about it in the Atomic Overmind Press Forums.

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Nothing like starting out with a bang eh? That’s right, you heard correctly, The Day After Ragnarok: Fate Edition is now a stretch goal for the Fate Core Kickstarter! The FATE system had always been on our radar as a system we wanted to make The Day After Ragnarok available for, and the time had finally come. We’re extremely excited to be working with our good friends over at Evil Hat Productions to bring Kenneth Hite’s dieselpunk world of super-science and sorcery to the players of the Fate system. Fred Hicks has just announced our impending (hopeful) collaboration:

This is post-apocalyptic pulp like no other! Mighty-thewed barbarians and grim mercenaries roam the desolate plains of Ohio. Giant snakes, and those who worship them, prowl the ruins of St. Louis. Pirates battle the Japanese invaders in the South China Sea. Bold British agents, equipped with experimental ophi-technology, thwart the insidious infiltration of Stalin’s humanzees. Sky-raiders strike from hidden bases in the Sahara, deros skulk in South American caverns, and the Texas Rangers fight electrical death worms to save Los Alamos. Kenneth Hite presents a world of savage swords and rocket men, of were-serpents and war-apes, from Australia’s battered Empire to the proud city-state of Chicago. And across it all lies the trillion-ton corpse of the Midgard Serpent, killed by atomic fire but still poisoning the Earth with every night that passes. Welcome to the world at the end of the world!

With this Fate Core translation, you’ll be able to use The Day After Ragnarok as an alternate timeline-gone-wrong backstory for your Shadow of the Century game! The Fate Core Edition of The Day After Ragnarok will include the tale of how the Century Club went down fighting the Midgard Serpent. Learn how Jet Black flew the atomic bomb into the Serpent’s mouth to end the fight, and read the sad and tragic tale of Sally Slick, the sole survivor of the battle who now wanders the wastelands of America, keeping the spirit of the century alive for just one more day.

Thanks to our partnership with Atomic Overmind Press to bring you this stretch goal, once we reach $285,000, backers at the EXPANSIONS level and higher will be able to receive the Fate Core Edition of the Day After Ragnarok in PDF form for an upgrade cost of absolutely nothing. So let’s bring on the apocalypse, folks!

You can check out the entire announcement here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/fate-core/posts/386514. AOP is proud to already be a backer of the Fate Core Kickstarter, and we encourage all of our fans to back it as well!

FAQ

We realize that fans may have some questions about this new development for The Day After Ragnarok, so I’ll try to head a few of those off at the pass.

Does this mean that The Day After Ragnarok material is going to be only made for Fate now?

Absolutely not. The Fate Edition of DAR will be a stand alone product. We’ll still be supporting the Savage Worlds and HERO System versions fully.

Will the Fate Edition be available in printed form as well as PDF?

Absolutely. A print version will be available for purchase.

Who will be writing the Fate System adaptation material?

We’re proud to say that’ll be Mr. Fate System himself, Leonard Balsera. 

When will the Fate Edition of The Day After Ragnarok be available?

Hard to say exactly, but mid-Summer 2013 is as good a guess as we can make at this point. 

Will the Fate Edition get in the way of new DAR material being produced? 

Absolutely not. With a fan base that’ll hopefully be getting even broader, this actually should be a help, not a hindrance to producing new DAR material. In fact, look for an update soon about things on the horizon for DAR.

Any other questions? Feel free to ask away in the Atomic Overmind Forums!

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Happy New Year!

One does not aspire to starting out a new year with a mea culpa, but after a year like the last one, it seems pretty necessary.

As you may or may not know, Atomic Overmind Press’ central operations are run by exactly one person: me, Hal Mangold. It’s a second job, a labor of love, and a chance for me to partner up with people I respect and just generally make cool things.

Unfortunately, 2012 was a terrible year for me, probably the third hardest I’ve ever dealt with. Almost involuntarily, something had to give…and unfortunately it was my administration of and attention to AOP. Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention to Atomic Overmind Press will no doubt have noticed a bit of a drop-off in page updating, product releases, and even attention to the AOP forums. This is something that I can only profoundly apologize for. A few great things got accomplished (Unhallowed Necropolis being the standout), but not nearly what I was hoping for.

2012 is now gone (and good riddance), and the issues that bedeviled me for that period have been largely resolved. Thus it now falls to me to right the ship that is Atomic Overmind Press and get her sailing in a positive direction again. To start with, let me offer you a couple of promises for 2013 and points going forward.

1. Regular (meaning at LEAST weekly) updates to the Atomic Overmind Press website and Facebook page, and increased interactivity on Twitter.
2. More consistent attention to and participation in the AOP forums, including prompt attention to rules questions and product questions for all our game lines.

Over the rest of this week I’ll be posting on the plans for all of our game lines and book projects. Having hopefully learned something in the past few years, I’m going to be super-conservative on dates, so we can actually come through on what we promise. That said, there are some exciting things coming along for Atomic Overmind Press and our publishing partners…and a few things I can’t even talk about that.

It’s a new year, and we’re making a new start here at AOP. This marks our fifth year of operation, and I hope you’ll join us for the really neat things to come in 2013.

Hal Mangold
The Overmind

Atomic Overmind News - 12 Comments »

In this, the fourth installment of the Gasmask Gazetteer, we uncover a house of horrors in the most unfortunate area of London, the Spitalfields Rookery. This lodging house teems with lost souls and false hopes. It is the type of place one intends to never enter, but where sometimes the only source of information (or suitable, anonymous fresh meat) can be found. Yet, two Undertakers can be found nearby with an unfamiliar beast said to aid them in their hunting of the living dead. This creature is described below, as are new Monster Hunter Stunts for Undertakers, as well as additional equipment and other content suitable for characters of any Calling.

The Gasmask Gazetteer is a supplement for Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised, of interest to and use by Narrators and players alike. Each installment of the Gazetteer shines a light upon a location in the city of London, 2105 A.D. and the inhabitants thereof and relates to a specific Calling. These places are described in grim detail for use by Narrators seeking locations to include in their games of Unhallowed Metropolis and include statistics for important nonplayer characters. Further, players may find these locations and non-player characters useful in describing the backgrounds of their own characters. Finally, each installment of the Gazetteer concludes with several items intended for the use of players, including new Calling-specific Stunts as well as a number of new combat Stunts, Qualities, Impediments, or equipment of use to any character.

 Gasmask Gazeteer #3: Spitalfields Rookery is now available in the AOP Webstore, or buy it from our friends over at Drivethrurpg.com.

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The fine folks at Tor.com are giving away two copies of Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised. Click on over to Tor.com here to enter!

Next: Autumnal updates all around.

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