This is the 200th post here on Dispatches From Kickassistan. For some blogs (and bloggers), that's not very much, but considering that, on average, my post tend to run on the longer side, it means something to me. This weekend was a pretty busy one, with last minute prep for a game that didn't happen on Sunday, my Saturday night Swords & Wizardry game and work on the top secret Kickassistan project (see below, Announcement #2), so I wasn't left with much time for blogging. In fact, as I sat down to write this, I almost missed the milestone significance of Post #200 and to go straight into talking about some other gaming nonsense (don't worry, that gaming nonsense will still get written about) when it hit me and here I am, and here you are, now writing and reading about how I've somehow managed to post 200 times on this blog in the past year two-and-a-half months. And so, here's some announcements:
Announcement #1: The Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad Turns One!
The Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad campaign is now officially one year old! Or rather, it will be on Thursday, when we're having a birthday party for it. So far, only one PC has hit 3rd level ( +Bear Wojtek's stark raving mad Vane Barbute), but he then lost that status in a level draining fight with an undead pimp known only as the Bone Lord. So, lots and lots of 1st & 2nd level characters in this bunch. So, right now, let me send out birthday wishes to all the involved parties: +Edgar Johnson, +Gabriel Perez Gallardi, +Wayne Snyder, +phil spitzer, +James MacGeorge, +Jason Hobbs & +Bear Wojtek, happy goddamn birthday, jerks! Here's to the past year of massacring PCs and apemen/snakemen/lizardmen/bonemen/toothmen alike and to many more!
Announcement #2: The Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad Zine!
This is an idea that has been percolating around Kickassistan Central Command for awhile, but the Kickassistan Tourism Authority has decided to release a periodic visitor's guide to Ur-Hadad and her environs in fanzine format. This is the secret project that +Edgar Johnson, +Wayne Snyder & I have been working on for some time, but work has progressed to the point where it's getting close to completion and we should have our first issue out somewhere in the next few weeks (I'm not stupid enough to predict a date, but I'm stupid enough to say "in the next few weeks"). This will be both a print and pdf product, and you'll be able to order them here through the blog as well as through "the popular electronic retailers."
It feels good to get that out, I've been holding that one in for a long time. The Metal Gods players have known about it for awhile (many of them have been instrumental in writing it) and +Harley Stroh & +Doug Kovacs have been really supportive (Doug has been calling it "the Adam Muszkazine"). Once we get all the articles edited, it's off to layout (me) and then off to Goodman Games to make sure it passes Joe Goodman's test of adequate awesome. All of this is why I'm not willing to talk about a "due date" for the project, mostly because I don't know what to expect in many of these regards.
Yesterday, +Wayne Snyder shot out some of the first pics for the zine yesterday, and I've got to say, this stuff is really exciting. Followers of Dispatches will be familiar with Wayne's work from the header image here as well as a few other posts over the past year, and the wider community may know him for the work he's done on +Jack Shear's Devilmount project. We're not looking for submissions to the zine yet, but may be for future issues. Stay tuned to the blog (and the zine!) for opportunities for the interested.
Well, folks, that's it. 200 posts down, one year of the Metal Gods and the cat's out of the bag on the Metal Gods zine. I hope you're as excited as I am.