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NAGS Society Dispatch Archives — 2005: Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • July • Aug • Sept • Oct • Nov • Dec [2001-2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008] December 31, 2005 — Many Fudged Monsters It seems the URL has changed for Mike Harvey’s translation of D&D monsters (from the d20 System Reference Document) to Fudge terminology. Here’s the link to his Fudge D&D page where you can find these potential enemies for your heroes. December 30, 2005 — Graham Hancock GrahamHancock.com pulls together resources on all of my favorite topics: the supernatural, lost civilizations, archæological discoveries, &c. Well worth a look. December 29, 2005 — Turning the Pages The website of the incomparable British Museum features a thoroughly useful resource: Turning the Pages. The site uses Shockwave format to create a “3D” experience of reading fourteen great books, including the Notebooks of Leonardo and the original, handwritten and illustrated Alice in Wonderland (Alice’s Adventures Underground). It took me a little mousing practice to get the pages to turn — but it’s extremely realistic and satisfying. As one might expect, a broadband connection is required to get the full effect. December 28, 2005 — Dragon Bones Richard Johnson and rattrap Productions have released a supplement for their pulp miniature game .45 Adventure: Dragon Bones. The blurb states: “The time and place is Mongolia of the 1920s. Warlords and free-roaming bandits battle for control of the countryside. Your team of researchers and explorers must race against time to recover the fossils and get them out of the dangerous warzone and back to the safety of the International Zone in Shanghai.” (44 pp., $6 US). December 27, 2005 — Damned Human Race Gabriel Landowski’s excellent Colonia website, featuring rules for conducting colonial battles as well as some inspiring, illustrated battle reports, appears to be getting a makeover. It’s now available at DamnedHumanRace.com. December 26, 2005 — A Matter of Scale Scale has always been a bit of a thorn in Fudge’s word-based ointment. Mike Harvey has written an extremely informative article for Fudge Factor on the subject, entitled Repeating Scale. Yes, it’s still mathematically-based, but Mr. Harvey manages to make it a little more intuitive, I believe. December 25, 2005 — Milestones Museum I love places like Hampshire’s Milestones Museum: a museum that recreates past places in 1:1 scale. The website gives only a taste of what it would feel like to walk down a Victorian street, but one might be inspired to seek out such a recreation nearer to home. December 24, 2005 — Garage Makeover This link is more about the context of gaming than the content (and it concerns a miniature wargamer rather than a roleplayer, but I believe many of the issues are the same). Extreme Gamer Makeover: Garage Edition is the harrowing story of one man’s quest to tame the mess in his garage in order to have more space for gaming…. December 23, 2005 — Surfing the Apocalypse Borrowing a link from a thread on the Miniature Page, Surfing the Apocalypse has a little something for everyone. Adventures a plenty, enough weird science to shake a stick at, and quotations from the Bible and the Buddha. December 22, 2005 — Engines of Our Ingenuity Always worth another Dispatch, Engines of Our Ingenuity is a PBS radio show from the University of Houston, TX hosted by John Lienhard which examines technology thoroughly relevant to Terra Incognita;— the Jacquard loom, Dionysius Lardner and early steam power technology, and Mesa Verde: Another civilization abandoned at its peak. There’s also a book version that you can get from Amazon.com. December 21, 2005 — Dirty 30s If you’ve not been in awhile, remember Dirty 30s as a great online source for images and facts about the 1930s, the heart of the pulp era. December 20, 2005 — Font Menu & My Fonts Sometime the perfect font will make that player handout or freebie download come alive. Font Menu and My Fonts are two sources for professional quality fonts. December 19, 2005 — Ghost Town Timeless Games, publishers of the pulp newpaper-reporting rpg Boomtown have released a new supplement, Ghost Town. December 18, 2005 — Nineteenth Century Websites Nineteenth Century Websites is a collection of links to websites, mainly concerning popular Victorian authors, but also art, architecture, culture, &c. Many of the links will be familiar, but the author links are new. December 17, 2005 — Bound for Glory If you missed the link on the Miniature Page, the Library of Congress hosts yet another brilliant exhibit of photos, this one entitled Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1944. The photos are breath-taking, the color vibrant and unexpected in images from this era. December 16, 2005 — Castle Chelmsford 3D Mikko Kurki-Suonio at the wargaming site Small Cuts created a great one-off or convention game: Castle Chelmsford 3D. Inspired by the old chestnut Castle Wolfenstein, the game goes like this:
December 15, 2005 — The Book Of Unremitting Horror Dave Allsop and Adrian Bott and Pelgrane Press bring us the Book Of Unremitting Horror, a sourcebook for running horror adventures. See the Ogrecave Christmas Gift Guide for a review by someone who’s actually read the book. December 14, 2005 — Pulp Heroes Rattrap Productions’ .45 Adventure is a solid set of miniatures rules for the pulp era. The site contains several free scenarios free for downloading, and you can try the demo version to see if the rules interest you. There’s a comic — The Gargoyle — and a bit of fiction — Death Soldiers of the Jade Hood — with guidelines for gaming it. December 13, 2005 — Tesla Bill Beaty has put together a nice page of links concerning that famous, underappreciated gadgeteer, Nikola Tesla. Be sure to scroll down, as there’s a lot there. December 12, 2005 — Etherscope PDF To continue the ætheric vein, the new game of “cyberpunk Victoriana” from Goodman games, Etherscope, is available for download as a pdf. Read the story on the Miniature Page for the long list of online merchants who can sell it to you (288pp., 43 MB, $24.99 US). December 11, 2005 — Æronefs Online Aeronef, the classic set of wargaming rules from Wessex Games, in which you can pit fleets of airships against one another, is now available for download as a pdf for $9.26 US. The text is exactly the same as the paper version, but the line drawings are replaced by color photographs of ’nefs locked in mortal combat. December 10, 2005 — Royalty Free images from Veer The ever-helpful Dirk Collins sent along this link to some great royalty free maps and Victorian images from Veer. December 9, 2005 — Steampunk Chronology If you’ve forgotten or not visited in awhile, take a few moments to marvel at Krzysztof Janicz’s exhaustive Steampunk Chronology and Steampunk Links. They are truly feats of bibliographic prowess worthy of our adulation. December 8, 2005 — Live Science LiveScience.com, particularly the history section, features a collection of online tidbits of interest to the Terra Incognita player or game master. December 7, 2005 — 1000 Islands 1000Islands.com is an online resource for the region on the US Canada border where the Great Lake Ontario feeds into the St. Lawrence River. I was interested in the section on shipwrecks. December 6, 2005 — Copplestone’s Lost World If you’re looking to get into 28mm Victorian Science Fiction/pulp miniatures or you’re filling out your collection, you could do worse than the Lost World offer from Copplestone Castings. You get 12 intrepid explorers, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and even spiders thrown into the mix. A few aquarium plants and you’re ready to go! (Copplestone minis are available from RLBPS in the US; they don’t have the offer on their site at this point, so you’d have to calculate the currency exchange and shipping to see if it’s still a bargain…). December 5, 2005 — Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals The Carroll A. Deering was a five masted schooner launched in Maine in 1919. In 1921 it was discovered off the North Carolina coast running beautifully under full sail,but completely devoid of crew. Learn more about the mystery on this great page from the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum site. December 4, 2005 — Edward the Confessor Found The online version of the Telegraph describes how archæologists using radar technology located the subterranean tomb of the English saint, Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. December 3, 2005 — Rampaging Possum Folk A number of intrepid pulp heroes at the Alternate Universe gameshop in Pueblo, Colorado have been having great fun with Howard Whitehouse’s Astounding Tales. Have a look at this thread on the Miniature Page for write ups of the adventures (no pictures, unfortunately, but well-written words can make a picture, can’t they?). December 2, 2005 — Ogrecave‘s Gift Guide Each year at this time I like to plug the Ogrecave Gamer‘s Gift Guide. The good folks at Ogrecave put together lists of potential purchases (gifts or otherwise) in several categories (under $20, over $20, downloadable, &c.). December 1, 2005 — Gimghoul Castle The aptly-named Gimghoul Castle is proof that one can find spooky environs in one’s backyard. Here’s a bit on the Legend of Gimghoul from iBiblio and another tidbit on the legend from the Carrboro.com site. November 30, 2005 — Return to Skull Island The imminent release of the remake of King Kong spawned this thread on the Miniatures Page about gaming on Skull Island. November 29, 2005 — Think-AboutIt Think-AboutIt.com has a lot of dross to wade through, but every now and again you’ll find a golden nugget. November 28, 2005 — Catching Up It seems that whenever the NAGS Society Home Campus takes a holiday, Microtactix releases some new cardstock creation. This time we have an update to the Twilight Street line of grungy modern buildings, scaled for clicky miniatures. It’s intended for modern day settings, but with a few modifications, many of the buildings could fit into a pulp setting. Also, “Stormwalker” has a nifty gallery of 15mm VSF miniatures and scratchbuilt vehicles over at Displaced Miniatures. And finally, Grey Ghost Press has, at long last, shipped the Deryni Adventure Game. Five years in the making, this will be a fabulous implementation of the Fudge system. Congratulations to Grey Ghost for making this dream come true. November 22–27, 2005 — Isidore of Seville & a Brief Hiatus Isidore of Seville has amassed a wealth of information on a broad swath of topics, from the Complete Petra to Echidna Central. N.B.: The NAGS Society Main Campus be on holiday through November 27. November 21, 2005 — Caught Creatures TI website and Fudge logo designer Daniel Davis has released his first monster-art-haiku book, Caught Creatures:
November 20, 2005 — The Raider Fans of the Indiana Jones movies and modern pulpy movies in general will enjoy TheRaider.net, and online homage and information clearinghouse about Dr. Jones and his exploits. November 19, 2005 — Riddle of the Sphinx I’ve never played, but Jeff & Karen Tobler’s Riddle of the Sphinx looks like a fun computerized version of the Egyptian-explorer experience. The collection of reviews includes the thoughts of those who have played as well as screen shots of the lovely graphics. November 18, 2005 — The Egypt File The NAGS Society relies upon its sister organization, the National Geographic Society, to disseminate information as it becomes “unclassified.” The Egypt File includes downloadable maps, links to articles from NG Magazine, and links to other sites of interest. November 17, 2005 — Exquisite Victorian Links Exquisite Victorian Links provides some portals to information for those interested in a more civilised time. November 16, 2005 — Everything you wanted to know about the Nautilus …But were afraid to ask. Disneysub.com is an exhaustive resource on the cinematic version of Nemo’s pride and joy. November 15, 2005 — Palmyra’s Curse The Curse of Palmyra Island provides a concise overview of the mystery surrounding this Pacific island, courtesy of Labyrinth 13. November 14, 2005 — Over the Edge Atlas Games has just released a second edition of the classic rpg Over the Edge. Although not at all in the TI timeline, Over the Edge is extremely inspirational in its open-ended character creation process (quite like Fudge’s subjective character creation option) and the wonderfully written characters and locations in the book. November 13, 2005 — Beneath the Waves Planned Movement Productions has finally posted their latest rules — Beneath the Waves — to accompany the fabulous tutorials on fashioning VSF submarines from Pringles cans. November 12, 2005 — RPG Library The RPG Library is an extensive collection of links to roleplaying games, relevant articles, and inspirational websites, all free for the download. November 11, 2005 — Monographs from Chaosium Continuing its long standing support for the Call of Cthulhu rpg, Chaosium has just released three new monographs — works written and edited by fans of the game, distributed by Chaosium for all to enjoy. Two of the works are adventures (one book with a Halloween theme) while the third monograph includes some detailed player handouts to inspire your own adventures. November 10, 2005 — Historical Women Sleuths As part of the Women in World History site is this page listing a plethora of historical mysteries featuring women sleuths. November 9, 2005 — Back to School, CoC Style Chaosium has announced that the guidebook for everyone’s favorite alma mater, Miskatonic University, is ready for release. Just in time for the holiday season, too. November 8, 2005 — Adamant Entertainment & Northern Crown It seems that Gareth Skarka’s Adamant Entertainment has become the exclusive publisher of support products for Northern Crown, Douglas Anderson’s rpg of adventure in an alternate early America. Douglas himself has joined the Adamant team, so I imagine the material will be good. I realize that Northern Crown predates the Terra Incognita timeline by a good many years, but I think it’s too good to pass up. November 7, 2005 — The Harrow The Harrow is an online ”open journal” devoted to horror and fantasy fiction. The Harrow seeks “to recapture the spirit of those friendly genre magazines of yesteryear, where editors worked closely with writers and fiction was a joy rather than a business,” writes editor Dru Pagliassotti. November 6, 2005 — The Balloon Museum Albuquerque, New Mexico is the proud new home to a museum devoted to hot air ballooning. Have a look at the site for some details about some of the exhibits one might find. November 5, 2005 — Antarctic Anomalies Cyberspaceorbit.com hosts a wonderfully-hodgepodge page on various Antarctic Anomalies such as Lake Vostok and strange magnetic fields. November 4, 2005 — Lost Cities When your group’s not up for a full-blown rpg session, sometime a card or board game will do the trick. Lost Cities is a card game of exploration and adventure, playable in about half an hour. You can get it at Funagain Games and read more at Boardgame Geek. November 3, 2005 — Lateral Science It has been some time since the NAGS Society Dispatched a link to our favorite site devoted to Victorian Technology: Lateral Science. November 2, 2005 — Centaur Moves That old chestnut, the Centaur of Volos, has once again moved its ætheric address. The site is great inspiration for the kind of work the NAGS Society is famous for. November 1, 2005 — Tidbits from National Geographic The November issue of National Geographic contains several little tidbits worth passing along. First is an advert for a new show on their cable TV NG channel entitled Is It Real?: “There are those who believe in what is often dubbed the ‘paranormal’ and those who believe in only that which can be proved with science. This series uncovers, with both believers and skeptics, the truth and tales of ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs and other phenomena so that you can determine “Is it Real?” Then there is the release of a beautiful new illustrated historical timeline: The National Geographic Visual History of the World. October 31, 2005 — Something for Spooky Day As is usual. poking about in the Dungeons & Dragons site will turn up something useful for historical gamers. For example, in anticipation of Halloween they have released some extremely utile free Maps-a-Week: Heroes of Horror, including a graveyard and vampire’s castle. And I have the fondest memories of being slain multiple times in the Tomb of Horrors. If you think your Victorian or pulp heroes would like a crack at it, you can download the art packet for free and get the module (S1) itself at RPG.com. October 30, 2005 — Etherscope Preview A look at the Goodman Games website reveals that a preview of their upcoming Victorian “cyberpunk” rpg Etherscope is available. The preview provides the cover, the table of contents, and several pages from the book detailing the feel of the game. October 29, 2005 — Time is Running Out If you plan to join Steve Currey’s Expedition Company on its 24 day journey into the Hollow earth (June 26 to July 19, 2006), you’d better contact them soon to reserve your spot. October 28, 2005 — Hollow Earth Expedition Exile Game Studio apparently previewed their upcoming rpg Hollow Earth Expedition at GenCon. According to the website:
October 27, 2005 — The Fortean Bureau The Fortean Bureau — “A magazine of speculative fiction” — had a Lovecraft-inspired issue this month in 2002. The current page states they are no longer accepting submissions, alas going the way of Would That it Were. October 26, 2005 — Warlord A brief thread on the Miniatures Page concerning gaming E.R. Burroughs’ Pellucidar books turned up this link to an old DC comic set in the hollow Earth: Warlord. The website provides all the cover images and synopses of the comics. October 25, 2005 — A History of RPGs on Everything 2 Everything 2, which would seem to be a Wikipedia type thing, has a nice, informative, and detailed Brief History of Roleplaying Games by Victor Raymond. October 24, 2005 — Terragenesis Gary James’ Terragenesis has long been a scratch-builder’s wonderland of inspirational images and tutorials. He has now allied with the Model Makers Resource to add a store to the website featuring professionally-made scenics as well as tools and materials to build your own. October 23, 2005 — Reconnaissance in Force Reconnaissance in Force provides illustrated, inspirational battle reports from a variety of eras (colonial, post-apoc, and sci-fi, et al.). Of course For Queen and Country is smack in the TI timeline, but I think the Wastelands and Trailer Parks section is a hoot. October 22, 2005 — Crimson Skies Universe The alternative-universe pulp game Crimson Skies has been available in multiple versions and formats through the years. Crimson Skies Universe is a clearinghouse of information about the universe, the video game and the boardgame. October 21, 2005 — The Haunted Neighborhood Grows Joining John McEwan’s Victorian Mansion from Reviresco is a fabulous cardstock version of Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride: The Liberty Square Haunted Mansion. The back of the building has some "spooky tombstones" and copyright information, but the piece remains impressive and inspirational for miniature gaming in the TI timeline. October 20, 2005 — Stan Grist It has been ages since the NAGS Society has Dispatched a link to the site of a prominent Society member, Stan Grist. His Adventures in the Unknown are well worth exploring. October 19, 2005 — Wee Little Zombies Bringing you up to date on the 15mm zombie project, I can heartily endorse Roger Campbell and 15mm-fl.com as the American distributor for Alternative Armies miniatures. I received my order expeditiously and Roger threw in a free blister for good measure. Perhaps all miniature distributors do this for new customers, but no one has for me before… The Alternative Armies zombies are mediæval in feeling (intended for HOTT) but generic enough for a more recent setting. Their “Hordes of the Dead” are great, somewhat flamboyant skeletons that I look forward to painting up for an encounter in Jimland. And, it seems that Ed at Two Hour Wargames has got his 15mm zombies and hunters ready for sale. You have to be a member of the THW Yahoo Group to get early dibs on the figures…. I placed my order at 7:40 p.m. tonight and got confirmation that the miniatures would be mailed at 8:13. October 18, 2005 — Sacred Sites SacredSites.com is a great jump off point for learning about those crucial sites that invite adventure. October 17, 2005 — TM Terrain TM Terrain builds custom terrain and buildings to your specifications. For example, look at the 19th Century section of the Gallery for some examples of fabulous western buildings. They also have a "hardware store" of bits such as windows and shutters you can buy for your own scratch builds. October 16, 2005 — Illuminations Mystae.com offers some illumination of our usual suspects: secret history, mysterious documents, &c., &c. October 15, 2005 — The Voynich Manuscript Noticing that most of my old links to Voynich MS websites have disappeared (mysteriously…), I offer this new one by René Zandbergen, named, appropriately, The Voynich Manuscript. October 14, 2005 — Secret Societies Wearisome yet unavoidable exigencies have prevented the NAGS Society from Dispatching on its appointed schedule. Many apologies. Heading back to the Wikipedia, we find this entry for Secret Societies. October 13, 2005 — The Hudson Tubes Going underground in New York, one could explore the Hudson Tubes, now home to the PATH trains, and one of the earliest subway systems. October 12, 2005 — Subterranean Rivers Having lived in New York for many years, I am fascinated by the idea of urban subterranean rivers. One could have guessed that there would be a Wikipedia about the Subterranean rivers of London. October 11, 2005 — The Lost World For those with an acceptable bandwidth connection to the internet, the 1925 version of The Lost World is available as an MPEG download from Archive.org. October 10, 2005 — Through a Pinhole I remain fascinated by the concept of pinhole photography. This site — Pinhole.cz (originally in Czech) — even features a downloadable, print out and fold up pinhole camera. October 9, 2005 — Ravensblight MiniatureWargaming.com posted the link to the free cardstock Haunted Mansion from Ravensblight, but I feel compelled to recommend checking out the rest of the site. You’ll find print-out toys, art work, music, fiction, and various horror-related links that are worth following. October 8, 2005 — Knuckleduster & Real Estate Proprietor Forrest Harris has thoughtfully updated the NAGS Society about the latest items available from Knuckleduster Publications. First up is a slew of figures, both painted and unpainted, from the Foundry as well as some great original figures from Knuckleduster — I’ve chuckled before about the “sharp dressed band” and the incapacitated gunfighters would make an authentic addition to any town. Knuckleduster also carries Gutshot and has lowered the price for the Cowtown Creator and The Knuckleduster Firearms Shop (both of which I own and recommend; they contain Fudge stats to boot!). Finally, you can liven up your games with reproduction old west playing cards and piano music on CD. Of course, your painted minis will need a place to live. The new resin buildings from Arnica, Montana look great and are certainly easier than scratch-building. The Kilroy, Ind. Wild, Wild West buildings also look fabulous. October 7, 2005 — Return to Jimland Huzzah! Jim Wright has graciously agreed to make Adventures in Jimland, his game of adventure and exploration in wildest Jimland, available for download. The NAGS Society will host the files on the Adventures in Jimland page. Action, romance, humor, adventure, really big beasts, and bigger guns. October 6, 2005 — Catching Up Whilst the NAGS Society Home Campus was on holiday there were, of course, any number of exciting announcements that we missed. Just in case you did too, here’s a round up of the relevant items for our time period: Just in case you’re on the lookout for 15mm zombies and hunters, both Rebel Miniatures and Two Hour Wargames will be releasing some in October (look for a folder entitled ATZ Greens on the THW Yahoo Group for a look at the zombie greens). I also picked up a Zombie Horde from 15mm.co which was expeditiously dispatched from Scotland, though they now have a US distributor in Florida as well. John McEwan at Reviresco has followed up his lovely cardstock mansion with an equally lovely cardstock paddlewheel River Gunboat. Perfect for plumbing the Heart of Darkness. Double G Press showed me I should have been writing rather than thinking with their upcoming Victorian/Edwardian-post-apocalyptic-setting Ravaged Earth, using the ever-popular Savage Worlds system (of course Marcus Rowland beat both of us by many years with Forgotten Futures V: Goodbye Piccadilly). September 28 - October 5 — Unsolved Mysteries UnsolvedMysteries.com (which, they assure us, is not affiliated with the television show of the same name) examines some of our favorites. Among them, some urban legends, for example. N.B.: The NAGS Society Home Campus will suspend Dispatches until October 5 due to pressing business further southward. We trust you can remain busy until transmissions resume. September 27, 2008 — Dungeon & Cellar The ever-generous Jeremey Claridge has released a new and improved cardstock dungeon, this time with a Victorian cellar variant. One could combine the two, along with some judicious purchases from Microtactix, for a thrilling subterranean adventure. September 26, 2005 — Berlin in the Underground Berlin in the Underground is trying to sell you a CD ROM, but there is a bit of information and a few images on the website, and the premise of a tour of subterranean Berlin is tempting. September 25, 2005 — Horemheb’s Tomb As usual, Osirisnet.net is a fabulous resource for researching ancient Egyptian architecture, among other things. Have a look at the maps and graphical reconstructions of General Horemheb’s tomb. September 24, 2005 — You and Whose Army? You and Whose Army is the hobby page hosted by Amazon Miniatures. You’ll find some good scratch building advice, some inspirational images, rules here and there, and other sundry tidbits. September 23, 2005 — Victorian Secrets Victorian Secrets is a fabulous website devoted to preserving photographically the gorgeous Victorian era homes in the Washington DC area. September 22, 2005 — Rescue at the Tar Pits Rattrap Productions have released a free solo adventure for their pulp miniature game .45 Adventure entitled Rescue at the Tar Pits (9 pp. pdf, free). See the .45 Adventure Download Page for this and other goodies. September 21, 2005 — Sci Fi Genres Kay Fowler provides an instructive list of Themes/Genres in Science Fiction, which groups science fiction novels, from the 1800s to modern books, in categories such as “Political/Massive War/Doomsday Weapons Disaster” and “Religion/Theology/Anti-religion and Science Fiction,” among others. September 20, 2005 — Computer Undead An article in Wired magazine from 1999 entitled “The Undead” discusses the fascinating persistence of punchcard technology in business computers. And here’s an article from Columbia University on Herman Hollerith, a Columbia alum who utilized punchcard technology to streamline the U.S. Census of 1890, making a huge contribution to the future of computing. September 19, 2005 — Philip Pullman I can’t say enough good things about the young adult fiction of Philip Pullman. The Sally Lockhart books are set square in the TI timeline, the His Dark Materials trilogy is a fascinating mine of great ideas, and I‘ve not yet read Spring-Heeled Jack, to which I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy. September 18, 2005 — nanowrimo It’s more than a month away, but I’m just giving you plenty of time to ready yourself for November, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. If you missed it, Chris Baty’s brainchild is that you write a 50,000-word novel between November 1 and 30. No editing, nobody needs to see it, but just get it done. I tried and failed a few years back, but many other stouter souls have been successful. If you have any dreams of being an author, this is the way to go. September 17, 2005 — The Socrates Club Jorge Arredondo’s SubterFUDGE page features a wonderful setting concerning Victorian superheroes: The Socrates Club. September 16, 2005 — Victorian Supers (a la GURPS) The Central Nexus presents a GURPS version of a campaign idea I‘ve long been considering: Victorian Super Heroes. September 15, 2005 — 2012 The 2012 site would seem to be the brainchild of those who believe that embracing the Mayan calendar is the One True Way. Of course, the NAGS Society understands the ramifications of such a philosophy. September 14, 2005 — The Hollow Earth V-J Enterprises host a nice webpage discussing the niceties of the Hollow Earth Hypothesis. September 13, 2005 — New York Underground A former New Yorker for more than a decade, I have a soft spot for books such as Julia Solis’ New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City which details the subterranean secrets of Gotham. September 12, 2005 — Secret London Walks If you can’t get to London itself, the virtual Secret London Walks will give you a taste for the mystery. September 11, 2005 — Secret Architecture MasonicInfo.com features a book by David Ovason entitled The Secret Architecture of Our Nation‘s Capital that promises to reveal the real secrets in Washington D.C. September 10, 2005 — Find Articles Find Articles is a fabulous site that will help one to do just that. The double-edged sword of the internet is that the vast quantity of information leaves one confused or overwhelmed, laboring to remember just where one read that informative tidbit. September 9, 2005 — A Cabinet of Australian Curiosities The Cabinet of Curiosities is the online accompaniment to an exhibition that examines the development of western science in Australia. September 8, 2005 — Naval Combat The latest addition to Fudge Factor will be useful when adventures leave dry land: Naval Combat in Fudge. September 7, 2005 — Laughter of Death Great White Games has released a free, 16 page pdf adventure for their Savage Worlds Rippers game: Laughter of Death. Set in 1892 in Transylvania, the adventure features a creepy circus and no doubt has many possibilities for the Terra Incognita game master. N.B.: the link leads directly to the pdf download. Unfortunately, the NAGS Society has really fallen behind with Great White’s recent releases. I see they have a bunch of Savage Tales adventures that look great, and a modern horror game called Fear Effects. September 6, 2005 — Skygaze Skygaze is one of those omnibus sites devoted to our favorite mysteries of the unexplained. The diligent may turn up an unexpected tidbit. September 5, 2005 — Easter Island Getaway The website of the Easter Island Foundation provides a variety of useful links on the subject, including maps and resources on travelling to the island itself. September 4, 2005 — NG Goes to Africa The September issue of National Geographic magazine is entirely devoted to Africa, including a new map. The supplementary material on the website makes a nice reference in its own right. September 3, 2005 — The Cobalt Club Printed Poison features some fabulous links, such as that to the Cobalt Club — “a refined and genteel haven for ladies and gentlemen of breeding who crave a relaxing evening with classic radio serials.” September 2, 2005 — More Printed Poison Printed Poison, the free pdf magazine devoted to pulp, is up to issue 5. The ’zines feature gaming material, fiction, and number 5 has an original boardgame. September 1, 2005 — NOVA: Mystery of the Mega Flood An upcoming special on PBS will treat the mysterious catastrophe that shaped the topography of eastern Washington State (US) several thousand years ago — Nova: Mystery of the Mega Flood. “The so-called ‘Scablands,’ 200 miles east of Seattle, are a vast region of weird terrain, including gorges hundreds of feet deep, enormous pits, huge boulders scattered as if dropped by giants, undulating hills that look like huge ripples, strange layers of silt and ash, and a ‘waterfall’ five times wider than Niagara — but without any water. The name Scablands perfectly suits the scarred and wounded landscape, which baffled most geologists throughout the 19th century and much of the 20th. To them, no plausible explanation fit all the facts.” August 31, 2005 — Lists from Morton Grove The Morton Grove, IL (USA) library provides a wonderful online database for all to utilize — a listing of fiction by genre, setting, subject, &c. August 30, 2005 — African Imagery African Imagery features numerous photographs of modern Africans and the country, many of which will be inspirational for historical gamers. August 29, 2005 — Eagle Eye Agency I spent an agreeable afternoon with family playing a wonderful board game from Family Pastimes — Eagle Eye Agency. All players take the role of detectives working together for the Eagle Eye Agency. There are 26 cases (and a kit is included for writing your own) and one travels around the board, managing your resources as you are limited, gathering clues to the mystery. Each of the 60-odd buildings has a clue of varying relevance to the case. When you think you have it solved, or you run out of travel cards, someone checks the solution book to see if you’ve solved it. Of particular interest were the many red herrings and the ambiguous nature of the clues — they’ll point you in the right direction, but you still have to do some creative thinking. You can play solo or with up to eight detectives. I got my copy in the US from Fair Play Games. August 28, 2005 — The Unquiet Tomb To continue the theme, the Unquiet Tomb offers photo essays recording visits to abandoned or historic buildings, cemeteries, and oddities. August 27, 2005 — Dark Places UK Darkplaces.co.uk is “an independent meeting point for all explorers to chat, meet, share information, show off pictures and videos about exploring Urban and Underground places of Interest. We explore Drains, Quarries, Mines, Bunkers, Abandoned Buildings and anything else with history. ‘We shall not cease from exploration.’” August 26, 2005 — Labyrinth 13 Labyrinth 13: True Tales of the Occult, Crime, & Conspiracy is due in book form sometime this year. August 25, 2005 — Archives Hub The Archives Hub website claim to be “revolutionising access to the archives of UK universities and colleges.” The July 2002 collection of the month, entitled “A Cabinet of Curiosities” provides some interesting links. “Curiouser and Curiouser” has more. August 24, 2005 — Modeling Basics — Casting My most recent project was creating a latex mold and casting my own terrain in resin. This essay by Jay “Cozmo” Curtiss provides excellent guidance for doing it yourself. August 23, 2005 — Mysterious Islands The Great Lakes have always held a certain fascination for me. Mysterious Islands: Forgotten Tales of the Great Lakes is a website promoting a book and video of the same name that explores some of these mysterious spots. August 22, 2005 — The Portland Found Back in 2002, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they had found the wreck of the Portland, a ship lost off the coast of New England in 1898. August 21, 2005 — Mysteries Magazine If you prefer to pursue your quest for mysteries in old-fashioned, non-electronic fashion, Mysteries Magazine may be for you. August 20, 2005 — Looking Into the Dark Places Ellis C. Taylor’ Looking Into the Dark Places is a fabulous guide to those “mysterious forces that shape our thoughts, our deeds, our world; and how they (ultimately it), manipulate every participant and every constituent in every incident in an eternal contest between light and dark.” August 19, 2005 — The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras Mithraism was a fascinating Roman cult/religion/sect which is perfect as the backstory to a good pulp or penny dreadful story. David Ulansey fills in the details in The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras. August 18, 2005 — Subterranean Myths and Mysteries Subterranean Myths and Mysteries “is dedicated to the idea that the structure of our planet, the history of our species, the underlying truths disguised as our myths, legends, folklore and ‘pop culture’ imagery, are not quite what we have been led to believe.” August 17, 2005 — Hack -n- Slash This is not even in the genre ballpark, but the NAGS Society proudly supports all games that use Fudge, whatever their stripe. Digital Alchemy has released a fantasy rpg using Fudge entitled Hack -n- Slash. I have recently completed a project and have another planned for which this is perfect, so I welcome it. August 16, 2005 — Ruritania 1844 Ruritania 1844 is a new rpg being developed online on the Ruritania1844 Yahoo Group with opportunities to make suggestions directly to the author. It’s a game of adventure and intrigue set in my favorite (fictional) European republic, Ruritania. August 15, 2005 — Northern Crown This one has been a long time in the making — Northern Crown: New World Adventures from Atlas Games. It began life as Doug Anderson’s Septentrionalis, a free D&D variant set in early colonial America. Several years later, it has been transmogrified into an impressive commercial release (168 pp., $29.95 US). Of course, it predates the TI timeline by centuries, but it’s just the thing for bringing to life those Ben Franklin as Gadgeteer adventures in J. Gregory Keyes’ “Age of Unreason” series. August 14, 2005 — A Worthy Reference The estimable Krzysztof Janicz, who brought us the exceptionally utile Steampunk Chronology, has done it again. Now he’s published his extensive collection of Steampunk Links. Everything you might need will be there, so have a look. August 13, 2005 — Hyper History I believe it has been some time since the NAGS Society first Dispatched a link to the fabulous Hyper History Online and the (four foot long) World History Chart. August 12, 2005 — Mexican History Mexico Connect hosts a nice timeline of Mexican History which compares contemporaneous developments in the rest of the world and copious links to informative articles. August 11, 2005 — Answers.com Answers.com is a good catch-all online reference. Simply type in your query and the site will pull up relevant resources such as Wikipedia, dictionary definitions, the thesaurus, &c. August 10, 2005 — Knowledge Before Their Time 2Atoms Ancient Mysteries has a few bits about our usual suspects among the ancient mysteries. August 9, 2005 — CyberMuseum: Ancient Mysteries The CyberMuseum: Ancient Mysteries site features images of some of our favorite inspirational sites. August 8, 2005 — Submarine Caves in the Caribbean Here is a photo essay from the US Geological Survey depicting a submarine cave beneath the Caribbean island of Navassa. August 7, 2005 — Normandy in Cardstock Microtactix has released a new line of 15mm cardstock buildings for recreating Normandy, France in WWII called BattleLands 15 Normandy: 1944. While outside of the TI timeline by a few years, such buildings were certainly built before 1944 and could be used for a variety of western European settings. August 6, 2005 — Victorian Trading Co. Sometimes is seems like the summer æther slows down the Dispatches. If you insist upon getting thoroughly into character, the Victorian Trading Company can provide you with accoutrements from a more civilized era. August 5, 2005 — The Boomtown Planet Ever since playing Gangbusters back in the day, I have loved the idea of an rpg based on playing a newspaper reporter. Timeless games has released just such a game in The Boomtown Planet (pdf, 119 pp., $7.99 US). August 4, 2005 — Fort Dune If you’re keen to try a French Foreign Legion defending Fort Zinderneuf style adventure but don’t want to commit to scratchbuilding a fort, Imagine Image has come to the rescue with a free, downloadable cardstock Fort Dune. It is, however, designed for 1/72 miniatures, which is close enough for me for 15s but would probably not scale up well for 25/28s. August 3, 2005 — Chichen Itza in Style Awhile back I Dispatched the link to David Kuijt’s fabulous Aztec Step Pyramid rendered in foamcore; I even fashioned a 15mm version myself (near the bottom of the page). David has now posted a new tutorial on making a larger scale version of the Castillo at Chichen Itza with something called Sintra: expanded PVC with wood-like qualities — his finished model weighs 80+ pounds! August 2, 2005 — “We’re Archæologists, Not Grave Robbers!” Straight from Ann Dupuis, publisher of Terra Incognita, Fudge, and the power behind Grey Ghost Press, comes today’s free adventure: “We’re Archæologists, Not Grave Robbers!” The download consists of four files: The adventure, “We’re Archæologists, Not Grave Robbers!”; A collection of eight intrepid Nags suitable for early 20th-century Egyptian archaeological exploits and a Player’s map of the tomb. Ann has run this adventure at numerous conventions to general acclaim. Enjoy! August 1, 2005 — Quartermain from RLBPS Aaron Malchow sends word that miniature sculptor Mark Copplestone has created a new Allen Quartermain figure exclusively for RLBPS (The Robert L. Bowling Painting Service, the American source for HLBS Company miniatures, if you’ve not yet had your fill of initials). The catch is that it’s only available at conventions. See their summer schedule to get your hands on one. July 31, 2005 — A Simple List This one is simple: a list of the world’s deepest caves. July 30, 2005 — Homemade Lightning Aspiring Teslas might be interested in R.A. Ford’s Homemade Lightning: Creative Experiments in Electricity. July 29, 2005 — The Lost City From the wonderful Pulp_Games Yahoo Group comes this pointer to the Lost City, a blog consisting of atmospheric images that will inspire any number of adventures. July 28, 2005 — The Forbidden Knowledge TheForbiddenKnowledge.com treats those topics about which you want to know the TRUTH. July 27, 2005 — RIAP The Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena is the Ukraine’s answer to the NAGS Society. July 26, 2005 — Even More Curiosities The New York Public Library held an exhibit in 2002 entitled “The Public's Treasures: A Cabinet of Curiosities from the New York Public Library” which examined this fascinating practice from the 16th and 17th centuries. July 25, 2005 — A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities I’ve not read it, but Jan Bondeson’s A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities looks to be a fascinating resource for the adventurous. July 24, 2005 — Tom Dickson‘s Solo Colonial Wargames Page The demand of Life often deny one the time necessary to join comrades for a detailed wargames or roleplaying campaign. Hence, the sub-hobby of solo gaming. Tom Dickson provides some great resources for Solo Colonial Wargames. July 23, 2005 — Magickal Mystery Tours Vincent Bridges hosts the Magickal Mystery Tours site, which hosts actual tours of Places of Mystery, as well as providing some great online information about chestnuts such as Fulcanelli and the Mystery of the Cathedrals. July 22, 2005 — Houses of Mystery Although one is certain that cable television runs shows like these all the time, Goldhil Home Media sells tapes on interesting topics such as Houses of Mystery — Cathedrals and more interesting stuff as you scroll down. July 21, 2005 — Strange Glass and Ancient Blasts The online magazine Nexus ran this wonderful article concerning the possibility of atomic blasts thousands of years ago. Of course, our old friend David Hatcher Childress is the man with the facts. July 20, 2005 — Etherscope This November, Goodman Games and Sword and Sorcery Studios will bring out Etherscope, a new rpg billed as “cyberpunk Victoriana.” Read the press release for more details on what looks to be a promising new addition to the genre. July 19, 2005 — Gigantic Geoglyphs? Continuing the theme, eavesdrop on this online conversation regarding some interesting images straight from NASA. July 18, 2005 — Satellite Discoveries The NAGS Society paved the way for satellite surveillance of terra incognita. SatelliteDiscoveries.com will bring you up to date on the latest mysteries uncovered through these detectives in orbit. July 17, 2005 — A Gothic Chronology The heyday of Gothic fiction predates the Terra Incognita timeline by some years, but one can’t resist adding Gothic atmosphere to Victorian adventures. This Gothic Chronology can point you in the right direction to the primary source material. July 16, 2005 — Subterranean Seattle When one imagines mysterious subterranean labyrinths, one generally calls to mind ancient European cities such as Paris or Rome. The work of the NAGS Society has revealed the existence of similar ruins beneath the rain drenched streets of Seattle, Washington. Have a look at the Wikipedia-based Seattle Underground Tour. July 15, 2005 — Egyptology Another addition to my ongoing list of great young adult books that are useful for gaming is Candlewick Press’ Egyptology. It’s presented as an Egyptian explorer’s journal. complete with sketches, notes, as well as enclosed cards, letters, parchment, and bits of scroll to unfold and read. It’s exactly how I would like a Terra Incognita supplement to look. I’m sure hard core Egypt fans will find little new information, but the presentation is everything. July 14, 2005 — The Scientific Papers of Steven J. Smith The NAGS Society is not entirely sure what to make of the Scientific Papers of Steven J. Smith. For example, have a look at the treatise on the Tehachapi Covert Underground Complex. July 13, 2005 — Map of the Week For some reason, the NAGS Society was under the impression that Wizards of the Coast had ceased producing their excellent Maps of the Week. Well, we were quite wrong, and some of the recent cartography is eminently useful for Terra Incognita adventures. July 12, 2005 — Steampunk Comics Not to be outdone, Krzysztof Janicz sent along the following links to some online steampunk comics: Robot and Me, the Adventurers Club, and Thomas Edson: Time Traveler. July 11, 2005 — Hipkiss’ Scanned Old Maps The ever-helpful Dirk Collins has unearthed this excellent site containing scans of old maps: Hipkiss’ Scanned Old Maps. July 10, 2005 — San Splendido If you’re looking for a banana republic to invade with your new Caribbean Empires figures from Brigade Games, Tom Mouat has created just such a place in San Splendido. The setting was apparently used for educational games to teach defense policy — suffice it to say that it features lots of interesting tidbits, including a scenario or two. July 9, 2005 — A Mansion on the Hill This one has been well-advertised, but a perfect backdrop for a TI game is John McEwan’s cardstock Victorian Mansion from Reviresco. The HO version is on the second page of “Paper and Multimedia Kits” (and the 1/64 version is listed again), although one could easily scale the 1/64 plans for other scales (as I intend to do). Make sure to specify “International Shipping” if you order the downloadable pdf to avoid paying shipping charges. Also, the download includes 34 (!) separate files, so make sure you get everything. July 8, 2005 — Occult Advances You can find the latest scoop on hidden knowledge on the Occult Advances website. July 7, 2005 — Lost City The ever-useful Wikipedia offers this useful entry on Lost Cities. July 6, 2005 — Ghost Towns One can never explore too many ghost towns. Here is the Ghost Town Webring, devoted to forgotten communities in the US that refuse to disappear. July 5, 2005 — Tales of the Gold Monkey Back in 2002, the NAGS Society lamented that lack of cable television prevented us from watching the excellent, short-lived adventure pulp TV series Tales of the Gold Monkey. Years later, one can catch up on nearly anything by means of the wonders of DVD technology. The Tales of the Gold Monkey website features an online store where one could put his hands on DVDs of the series. July 4, 2005 — Back to the Future with CS Hobbies Browse through the CS Hobbies website from some amazing (if pricey) model and diorama kits for your favorite vintage pulp and sci fi stories and films. They are perhaps more ad astra than terra incognita, but who knows when you’ll need a cavorite sphere or Dr. Zin’s Robot SPYder from Jonny Quest? July 3, 2005 — Lights on Brown Mountain My local newspaper ran a story today on one of North Carolina’s more famous anomalies, the Brown Mountain Lights. Only members of the NAGS Society know what happened that fateful night in September, 1913, when the whole thing started. July 2, 2005 — Terrain by Petco Following up on yesterday’s Dispatch regarding Angkor Wat, have a look at some of the aquarium accoutrements produced by Petco: Here are direct links to the ruined temple, a four faced Buddha, and tomb ruins. [Submitted by Aaron Malchow.] July 1, 2005 — Angkor Wat Angkor Wat is one of those Places of Mystery that haunt one’s imagination. AngkorWat.org is a thoroughly utile resource devoted to the site. The NAGS Society extends its thanks to one and all for patience while we worked out the formatting issues in our Daily Dispatches. We hope they appear in a more æsthetically pleasing format henceforth. Particular thanks to Aaron Malchow for reminding the Society to effect repairs. June 23-30, 2005 — Sundry Items of Interest and a Hiatus Here are a number of interesting tidbits:Lileks.com is the website of Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist James Lileks. Of particular interest to us are the sections on Urban Studies, with great vintage photos and postcards of Minneapolis, New York City, and that famous pulp city, Fargo! That Rocketmen game Dispatched about previously now has its own website. This link has made the rounds of the appropriate fora, but if you’ve not yet seen it, have a look at “Matakishi’s” breathtaking urban terrain, cobbled together from bits of cork and wood, though not yet painted. The NAGS Society would love to open a Campus in the building with the yellow dome. N.B.: The NAGS Society Main Campus will go on hiatus for a week. Dispatches will resume July 1. June 22, 2005 — Grey Ghost & Fudge Factor Goodies If you’ve not been in awhile, have a gander at the new Grey Ghost Press website. Not everything from the old site is available yet, but it promises more frequent updates and has a spiffy new look. Fudge Factor has a newish article by Jorge Arredondo called Task Force 43, a WWII supers/occult campaign idea that looks great. June 21, 2005 — Yesterday’s Tomorrows The Museum on Main Street (sponsored by the Smithsonian) hosts a wonderful exhibit on historical visions of the future entitled Yesterday’s Tomorrows. The site features images, links, even a discography of “songs about the future,” along with lesson plans for teachers. June 20, 2005 — DavidSzondy.com The NAGS Society has long recommended David Szondy’s excellent Tales of Future Past Site as a source of inspiration for gaming in terra incognita. I hadn’t yet explored much of his main site — DavidSzondy.com — which includes goodies such as links to some great radio plays and a promise that his company will produce some original “radio” dramas to be broadcast via the internet. June 19, 2005 — Steam Wars Steam Wars is a fascinating website devoted to Larry Blamire’s labor of love. June 18, 2005 — Tales of Old China Tales of Old China will provide “a storehouse of material on a distant world,” according to the site. It’s definitely a useful inspiration for gamers. June 17, 2005 — Shades of Earth Just squeaking inside the TI timeline (set in 1938), Shades of Earth from Hinterwelt is an alternate history, WWII, Nazis, zombies, occult, magic, &c. game that is now available for download at RpgNow for $10 US (238 p., nearly 20MB!). June 16, 2005 — Rockets, League & Men The NAGS Society still anxiously awaits the release of TI illustrator DT Strain’s 50s-ish retro sci-fi game Rocket League. For those who like to build their own rockets, Wiz Kids, famous these days for pirate games, will now release Rocket Men, a 50s-ish retro sci-fi game. The website even features a cartoon! June 15, 2005 — Info, Please InfoPlease.com is an all-around useful site for uncovering tidbits of knowledge. June 14, 2005 — The Great Temple of Petra The Brown University Department of Anthropology takes us on an online tour of the Great Temple of Petra, the ancient, hidden city in Jordan. June 13, 2005 — 1000 Websites When I left the EnWorld thread attempting to compile 1000 non-rpg websites for RPG ideas, they had gathered ‘round about 500. Well, the list continues to grow, and they now have 685! An impressive list that will inspire anyone. Also, I once downloaded the list that someone had converted to .doc format;— if anyone knows the link, please let me know. June 12, 2005 — Burning Void & Campaign Plotting The Burning Void, a website devoted to roleplaying, writing, and cooking, features a nice article on campaign plotting, based upon James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish. June 11, 2005 — Western Pulp Pulp magazines comprised a variety of genres in addition to the Indiana Jones style two fisted archetype most gamers think of. One of them was the pulp western. Here are two resources for western flavored pulp palates: Western Heroes of the Pulp features pdf downloads of the stories themselves;— and Welcome to Pulpwood is a Yahoo Group devoted pulps of all stripes, including the westerns. [Both courtesy of David McMahon.] June 10, 2005 — Savage Heroes & London Fog Savage Heroes is a fan site for the popular Savage Worlds game from Great White Games/Pinnacle. The site features a plethora of conversions of various games to the Savage Worlds system (TI is not among them) but down on the list is a fabulous adventure by William Reger set in Victorian London entitled London Fogs. June 9, 2005 — Bureau 13 NAGS Society associate agency, Bureau 13, has its own top secret website. You’ll find a variety of resources that might interest the TI GM. Also, at the Tri Tac Games home page of the game itself, I noticed they have a great CD of inspiring images: Scenes of Horror, Industry and Adventure. June 8, 2005 — New World Conquest The Games Workshop Conquest of the New World site is up, as promised, and I find it a great resource for tips on making jungle terrain and other “lost world” accoutrements. June 7, 2005 — Midway City Z Man Games apparently has plans for a pulp/cyberpunk rpg that look to have interesting possibilities: Midway City. You can read about it in a press release on Gaming Report. I couldn’t find anything about it on the Z Man website, but I just may not know where to look. June 6, 2005 — The Marsden Archive Browse the Marsden Archive, photographer Simon Marsden’s online archive of wonderfully atmospheric images that are perfect for inspiring gamers. June 5, 2005 — Secrets of New York About ten years ago, I began research to write a sourcebook for New York City from the Paleolithic to modern times. The project has languished, but the good folks at Chaosium have assembled the next best thing: Secrets of New York. William Jones’ guide to Gotham in the 20s through the lens of Call of Cthulhu will no doubt be a fascinating read and perfect for pulp gaming of all sorts. June 4, 2005 — Christchurch & Anne Perry I got to the Christchurch (New Zealand) City Libraries webpage through interest in the infamous Parker-Hulme murder case (involving the future Victorian mystery author Anne Perry) but I discovered that a little digging on the site reveals a wealth of information on a part of the world of which I know little. June 3, 2005 — Building Brownstones The DisplacedMiniatures site features an extremely useful illustrated tutorial for scratchbuilding brownstones for those urban encounters. Of course, they’re useful for any period from the mid 1900s to the modern day. June 2, 2005 — Girl Genius Online Thanks to the intrepid Adriane Brown, the NAGS Society is no longer unaware that Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius comic is now online, and updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’m afraid I left poor Agatha back at issue #6, so I’ve got some catching up to do! June 1, 2005 — Mysterious Places It seems that ages have passed since the NAGS Society last Dispatched the link to Mysterious Places, a wonderful guide to “sacred sites and ancient civilizations.” May 31, 2005 — Horror and Incentive at Fudge Factor Veteran Fudge gamer Tony Spallino has written a new horror adventure for Fudge Factor: Kilbrandeen House. And, as incentive for you to get those Fudge-related notes polished up, Grey Ghost Press has promised a copy of the 10th Anniversary Fudge hardback to everyone who has an article accepted in Fudge Factor during June. May 30, 2005 — History is Where You Stand The Calverley Collection is a treasure trove of information regarding the history of the Peace River Region of British Columbia and Alberta. The collection sounds like a historian’s (or a compulsive GM’s) dream: “In its entirety, the Calverley Collection consists of more than 250 books, 30 large binders full of documents and ten archival boxes.” May 29, 2005 — 4 2 Explore 4 2 Explore is an online educational resource, intended for teachers and students, I would imagine, but equally useful for gamers seeking information. Delve into the various subject areas (Social Studies, for example) to find links, suggestions for projects, &c. May 28, 2005 — Samarkand For those of us based in the west, Uzbekistan’s ancient Samarkand provides a properly exotic location for adventure. There’s certainly at least one adventure in this scholarly piece on Timurid Architecture in Samarkand, for example. May 27, 2005 — Noble Knight Games The NAGS Society must acknowledge the excellent service provided by Noble Knight Games. I ordered an out of print game on Wednesday, chose the cheaper media mail for shipping, and yet still received it on Friday at noon. Aaron Leeder stocks new games as well as an impressive collection of OOP gems. May 26, 2005 — People, Places, & Things Second Rat Games has released a useful resource for GMs — People, Places, & Things: You Are Here (79 p. pdf, $13.00 US). They are a collection of maps, plot hooks, and printable tiles for gaming with miniatures. The setting is modern, but a little work could transform them into period locations. May 25, 2005 — The Boy King’s Face The National Geographic community is awash these days with news of a forensic reconstruction of the face of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen. Read the story in the online version of National Geographic or put your hands on a paper copy of the magazine. It’s nice when your mummies have a face. May 24, 2005 — Buffalo Chip Buffalo Chip, the Virtual Armchair General’s Cardstock western town, is now available as PDF files in addition to hard copy. The cardstock western neighborhood gets more crowded every day, including Microtactix’s Vulture Gulch and Eric Hotz’s Whitewash City (though I think Buffalo Chip may predate them). It’s my opinion, though, that Buffalo Chip will have to be available for download if it is to compete. May 23, 2005 — The Egypt Game Continuing a running theme of young-adult fiction full of gaming ideas, I bring you Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game. Written in 1967, the book features kids enjoying what we would call Live Action Roleplaying (LARPing). For me, it captured the excitement of first discovering D&D back in the day. May 22, 2005 — Dungeon Bash The Other Game Company’s Dungeon Bash ($9.95 US, 29p. pdf with various printable tiles, &c.) is ideal for creating a first-person-shooter, Tomb Raider-style game for solo play. May 21, 2005 — Death Beneath the Desert Death Beneath the Desert is a wargames scenario by Tom Hinshelwood pitting modern troops against Egyptian undead. It’s easily portable to the Terra Incognita timeline and adaptable to roleplaying. Such things happen to members of the NAGS Society all the time. May 20, 2005 — The Weekly Universe The truth, NAGS Society style, can be found online at the Weekly Universe. For example, here’s the scoop on the airship sightings of 1896 and ’97. May 19, 2005 — Terra Incognita @ CanGames The theme of this year’s CanGames in Ottawa is Behemoths. In this spirit, the Eric Paquette presents Leviathan: Rumors indicate that a great beast is sinking ships in the Atlantic. The NAGS Society must investigate and uncover the truth. Happy gaming! [Saturday, May 21 from 9:00 to 1:00]. May 18, 2005 — The Past Below Continuing our theme of subterranean curiosities comes this story in the Sacramento News Review on the decaying world beneath the sidewalks of California’s capital. Complete with schematics and photographs. This adventure writes itself. [Submitted by Adriane Brown]. May 17, 2005 — Jules Verne Exhibition Straight from Dave Wilson on the GASLIGHT Yahoo Group comes news that the Musee National de la Marine in Paris is running an exhibition on Jules Verne to honor the centenary of this death. The website (in French) affords an excellent overview of the exhibition for those of us on restricted travel budgets. May 16, 2005 — Cincinnati Subway The NAGS Society is absolutely fascinated by the idea of secret history buried beneath our feet, With this in mind, read the fascinating history of the Cincinnati Subway. [Many thanks to Adriane Brown for pointing out the missing link.] May 15, 2005 — African History Sourcebook Fordham University hosts a fabulous Internet African History Sourcebook. May 14, 2005 — Fudge Factor Reborn I’ve once again managed to miss an update to Fudge Factor, the free online magazine devoted to Fudge. This update was its rebirth as a more-or-less-weekly journal in the style of a blog. This will hopefully spur on authors to polish up their articles and send them in. May 13, 2005 — Radio Journeys The NAGS Society Home Campus enjoys neither the bandwidth nor the technological savvy to get a “podcast,” but for fans of old time radio, this one from Radio Memories looks good:
May 12, 2005 — Museum of Civilization The Canadian Museum of Civilization hosts an informative website with numerous resources and links of interest. May 11, 2005 — Make Your Own Monster Hunting Goggles Courtesy of Daniel Davis and SecretCreatures.com comes this tutorial on how to turn a cheap pair of goggles into the perfect accessory for monster hunting. May 10, 2005 — Museum of Victorian Science If you happen to be near north Yorkshire, the Museum of Victorian Science in Glaisdale would seem to be a fascinating place to visit. May 9, 2005 — PBS Online The NAGS Society generally discovers useful PBS companion websites through felicitous serendipity; it has finally occurred to the Home Campus to conduct a more thoughtful search. The PBS Website is organized in sections. Here is a list of sites supporting their world history programming, for example. You can also search for topics of interest. May 8, 2005 — RPG Blog and FATE RPG Blog features an interview with Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue, authors of the FATE rpg, a popular customization of the basic Fudge rules. May 7, 2005 — New From Brigade Games The NAGS Society home campus recently took delivery of a package of new toys from Lon Weiss at Brigade Games and we thought we’d pass along mention of a few and sundry of the more interesting items: 15mm Adventurers — Adding to the 15mm GASLIGHT figures line we have four new characters: A Japanese madam (who just looks like a woman in a dress), a geisha girl, a German colonel (in pickelhaube), and a mad scientist (shooting a ray gun). Save for the colonel, the figures are more pulp than VSF, which is fine, owing to my next purchase; To Be Continued by GASLIGHT — The Pulp supplement to the GASLIGHT Victorian Science Fiction skirmish rules. I’ve only had time to skim the rules, but they provide a framework for creating a pulp serial campaign with cliffhanger episodes that culminates in an Exciting Conclusion; Caribbean Empires — Somehow Mr. Weiss divined the thoughts of the NAGS Society who had been feverishly combing the web for a “Banana Republic” style game. Brigade Games has just released the Caribbean Empires line of 28mm figures, including US Marines, South American head-hunters, Haitian zombies, and more to come. No rules as of yet. May 6, 2005 — More Tales of Zimdar Scott Mathews’ excellent Tales of Zimdar site is once again online, You’ll find the history of the Lost Land of Zimdar, battle reports on its conquest, modelling tips, links, and even a handy online GASLIGHT character generator. May 5, 2005 — Would That It Were Stops Accepting Submissions Don Muchow, editor of the free, online historical science fiction magazine Would That It Were has announced that the magazine is no longer accepting solutions and will go on an irregular update schedule. This is unfortunate as it is the only paying gig for historical science fiction that I know of. The site will remain available for browsing. Perhaps a show of support from the public would be just the shot in the arm to keep that old steam boiler bubbling. May 4, 2005 — Pulp Era J. Carpio and Chapter 13 Press’ new pulp rpg is available from Barnes & Noble: Pulp Era: Cinematic Adventures in the Yesteryear. From the Chapter 13 website: Pulp Era is the Serial Pulps from the 1930 and 40s with a twist. All the two fisted action of the Pulps with a touch of modern cinematic action... Think Doc Savage and the Spider being written by the likes of Woo or Tarrantino. May 3, 2005 — Whitewash, Junior Tony Charles has combined my love of cardstock buildings and 15mm miniatures by printing out Eric Hotz’s Whitewash City at 50% and using it for 15mm Civil War games. If you’ve not been by in awhile, Eric’s lavishly illustrated Whitewash City site shows cardstock terrain done right. And I’ve just placed my order for the Gold Town Copper Edition. While I love shoot-em-up games as well as anyone, there are other kinds of conflict that games could and should explore. May 2, 2005 — Earth Mysteries “The term Earth Mysteries, coined in the early 1970s, is today used to describe a multi-disciplined or ‘holistic’ approach to the study of ancient sites and landscapes. It tends to fall largely outside the accepted range of mainstream research and is generally regarded with suspicion by academics.” May 1, 2005 — Painting The Great Warriors The Wargames Foundry website holds a plethora of wonderful resources for gamers as well as miniature enthusiasts. If, for example, you’re trying to paint up some WWI soldiers, John French has created an invaluable painting guide for British, French, and German troops.
April 30, 2005 — Secret Creatures Secret-Creatures.com is the new online venture of Daniel Davis, TI cover artist and website designer and Fudge logo designer, among other things. Shop Secret Creatures for your some original clothing with the Davis touch. April 29, 2005 — Conquest of the New World Games Workshop’s summer campaign this year is entitled Conquest of the New World. It’s based on Lustria, the “New World” analogue that’s home to Lizardmen and other folks. Thus far, the website has nothing but a “trailer” for the campaign, but the support materials elsewhere, such as in Black Gobbo 38, are useful for modelling any lost world. April 28, 2005 — Plastic Fudge I have been meaning for æons to try my hand at using Fudge as the basis for a wargame. Here is another try that has beaten me to the punch — Plastic Fudge by “CmdrCody.” April 27, 2005 — Rolling the Bones 93 Games Studio has come out with an interesting OGL supplement that might interest the TI GM: Rolling the Bones: A Graveyard Supplement (41p pdf, $5.00 US). Cemeteries are fascinating locales for all types of adventures — horror, ancient mysteries, or good old fashioned shoot outs — and this supplement can help you to make your graveyards a little more interesting. Note that the NAGS Society has spent some time in rural cemeteries in northern Alabama and they are fascinating places. April 26, 2005 — Soldiers of the Queen Soldiers of the Queen is an indispensable online resource for Victorian military photographs. They obviously won’t help you to get the colors right, but the details are all there. April 25, 2005 — Demian’s Gamebook Demian’s Gamebook is a fabulous catalog of those darlings of the ’80s, the Gamebook — choose-your-own-adventure, turn to Section XX, &c. Great for solo play in downtime in between gaming sessions. There are even some new ones coming out, such as the Fantom Empires steampunk series. April 24, 2005 — Treasures of the World One thing that makes for great adventure is a treasure worth fighting for…. The PBS website Treasures of the World is a nice resource detailing several such baubles, including the Hope Diamond, the Mona Lisa, and Borobadur. April 23, 2005 — Armamentarium For those who want to get the details of their Lost Roman Legion just right, Armamentarium is an excellent online resource for Roman arms and armor. The Beginner’s Guide is helpfully illustrated. April 22, 2005 — Pulp Project 1557 As a reminder to the pulp gaming community, the Wiki based Pulp Project 1557 is still up and running as an online, encyclopedic resource for information on the pulp era. Consider contributing a nugget of knowledge to the Group’s understanding of the pulp era. April 21, 2005 — Victorian GURPS The NAGS Society is fond of Dispatching the link to Mark Whitley’s fabulous Victorian GURPS website. I come back to this one over and over as a resource and for inspiration. April 20, 2005 — So You Wanna … SoYouWanna.com is an interesting website that “teaches you how to do all the things nobody taught you in school.” April 19, 2005 — Magic Machines Magic Machines: A History of the Moving Image from Antiquity to 1900 is a fascinating online resource detailing the history of motion pictures from ancient times to the modern day. The web pages feature lots of links and images. Especially interesting to Gadgeteers are some of the outmoded technologies. April 18, 2005 — Iron Stars As was promised, Majestic XXII’s VSF æronef game is now supported by a line of miniatures from Brigade Models. Have a look at these fabulous ætherships. April 17, 2005 — A Non-Euclidean World I understand very little of this, but the Hyperbolic Non-Euclidean World and Figure 8 Knot website provides what is no doubt learned exposition on the idea of a non-Euclidean world and the (mathematical) modeling thereof. Game masters will find lots of meat for their Gadeteers and Mad Scientists to babble on about. April 16, 2005 — World Wonders from the Wonder Club The Wonder Club website features some nice little tidbits in their Complete Listing of World Wonders, from the usual seven ancient suspects to seven underwater wonders. April 15, 2005 — Encyclopedia Mythica The Encyclopedia Mythica provides numerous online articles on the world’s mythologies. Do you know where to find Makam Ajaib? Find out in the Encyclopedia Mythica. April 14, 2005 — Gold Town … And another game to distract you from role-playing! Eric “Whitewash City” Hotz has released a new old west tile boardgame available as a pdf — Gold Town. It’s a new take on gaming in the old west;— see Eric’s inspiration for the game. And of course you can use your Whitewash City buildings, of which I’m a great fan. April 13, 2005 — Tutankhamen Out of the Box Games has released a new card / board game of Egyptian treasure seeking entitled Tutankhamen — great for pick up games between rpg sessions. April 12, 2005 — Victorian (and Edwardian) Cinema The redoubtable Dirk Collins sends along this link to a Telegraph story about the recent discovery of a cache of Victorian and Edwardian motion pictures. From Gladstone to Snow White, it sounds like a fascinating glimpse into the Terra Incognita time period. April 11, 2005 — Tour Egypt The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism will be happy to facilitate a tour of Egypt’s fabulous antiquities, either virtually via their website or, for the truly devoted, in person. April 10, 2005 — World Wide School The World Wide School is a great source for online versions of your favorite old books — adventure stories, travel records, &c. — nicely tidied for online reading. April 9, 2005 — GURPS Mysteries GURPS sourcebooks are always extremely useful for gamers. With Steve Jackson Games’ new online venture e23, you can get your hands on GURPS books electronically. The newest release looks fascinating: GURPS Mysteries. It’s just the ticket to help you create compelling mysteries to challenge your players. April 8, 2005 — Treasures of the Sunken City Yet another of PBS’ excellent websites accompanying their Nova series, Treasures of the Sunken City follows an archæological expedition to the city of Alexandria, Egypt, lost beneath the waves, along with its wonder of the Ancient World, the Pharos. April 7, 2005 — Historical Mysteries Anitra Freeman has assembled an extensive bibliography of Historical Mystery novels from 2000 BC to 1980. Our time period is covered on the pages from 1640 to 1880 and 1880 to 1980. April 6, 2005 — Jarania The NAGS Society has Dispatched the link to the excellent BritishEmpire.co.UK site before, but we didn’t even realize there was an associated set of rules for running a colonial campaign — Jarania. Note that the author of The Sword and the Flame is Larry, rather than Lori, Brom. April 5, 2005 — Miskatonic Madness Miskatonic Madness is a two player board game set in the ever-entertaining Miskatonic University. Download the free game (2 MB pdf) from Yog-Sothoth.com. April 4, 2005 — Meta-Religion Meta-Religion.com, a website intended “to promote a multidisciplinary view of the religious, spiritual and esoteric phenomena” has a large number of links to both religious (orthodox and otherwise), scientific, and philosophical topics. April 3, 2005 — Lost Books Have a look at Lost Books: “Through this column I hope to bring to your awareness the lost books I have found and continue to find. We will share the thrill of the hunt, the satisfaction of the read, and the joy of recommendation. Read away!” —D.D. Shade April 2, 2005 — Zombies The release of All Things Zombie from Two Hour Wargames has lots of folks with zombies on the brain (which, of course, is a highly unfortunate thing to have…). In the spirit of things, MiniatureWargames.com has posted links to a tutorial on making zombie dogs and a call out to join the list of folks interested in nineteenth century Chinese Zombies (If you’ve never done the 100 club, Eureka takes credit card information, but you won’t be charged until enough people sign on to make sculpting the miniature worthwhile to them; time will undoubtedly pass). April 1, 2005 — Newton’s Cannon While the action transpires more than one hundred years before our time period (’round about 1720, to be exact), J. Gregory Keyes began his exceptional “Age of Unreason” series of books with Newton’s Cannon. Magic, science, great gadgets, and a teenage Ben Franklin as the hero. Well worth your time. March 31, 2005 — Victorian Science in Context I’ve not seen the book from the University of Chicago Press — Victorian Science in Context — but it looks fascinating. N.B. — I’ve just upgraded the Macintosh Babbage Engine at the NAGS Society Home Campus from the archaic OS9 to a more modern OS X. Any glitches in the next few days (or weeks) are due to my feeble attempts to ascend the learning curve. March 30, 2005 — Victorian Villains Victorian Villains is a free, online card game (inspired by CCGs) for gaming those battles between heroes and villains, in a more civilized time of course. March 29, 2005 — Time Traveller’s Guide to Victorian Britain The Time Traveller’s Guide to Victorian Britain is an excellent resource for enlivening your historical gaming. And, if you look at the tabs along the left-hand side, you can find similar guides to other English epochs — from Roman to modern. March 28, 2005 — Jimland to Close Up Shop [& Update] Jim Wright has announced on the Jimland Yahoo Group that he intends to shut down the site as of May 1. If you’ve not had a look at this wonderful, free VSF game, then by all means join and download the rules and entertaining Reports from years of exploration. I’m hoping that we can convince Jim to keep the site active so that gamers who do not yet even know that they need to visit Jimland can still have the chance to do so. Update: Of course, Adventures in Jimland is now available, free for download, on this very website! March 27, 2005 — Building Airships This thread from the Miniature Page a few days back provides a plethora of links for those interested in constructing their very own Zeppelin. March 26, 2005 — War Terrain Projects War Terrain is a commercial war games terrain site which features a great section of do it yourself projects. Examples include paper trees, tombstones, and a beautiful Spanish village. March 25, 2005 — More on Da Vinci Here is another fine site concerning Leonardo Da Vinci, the Man & the Inventor. March 24, 2005 — Through the Looking Glass Although I don’t think it’s the title best suited to the subject matter, Through the Looking Glass is a superb website devoted to the history of the United States’ military submarines, from the USS Holland of 1900 to the WWII boats of the ’40s. The site features hundreds of photos, crew lists, specifications for the subs, and even a technical drawing or two (I’ll be building a Holland just because they provide the plan…). March 23, 2005 — The Lost City 01 Games’ Blueprints have already taken us to the City of the Dead. Now we can explore the Lost City. March 22, 2005 — Hex Mapping Despite its probable lack of practicality, I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. Games Workshop’s Ken Kennedy gives a detailed look at how he makes modular hex-based terrain, intended as a large scale map for a campaign. March 19-21, 2005 — Various & Sundry Ultra-secret business will keep the NAGS Society Main Campus from Dispatching until Tuesday. Here are a few tidbits to tide you over until then: Courtesy of David “The Major General” Helber on various fora comes this link to the new Japanese animated VSF film Steamboy. The Circus Historical Society website is extremely informative about that entertainment oddity, the circus. March 18, 2005 — Basement Generals The Basement Generals are a wargaming group based in Kansas City, USA. The website has a section devoted to pulp, and a look at the Galleries reveals a few VSF images. March 17, 2005 — World War One Trench 3-d Virtual Tour Thanks to the BBC and the wonders of the computing age, you can now take a 3D tour of a WWI trench. March 16, 2005 — You and Whose Army? You and Whose Army is a nice little wargames site hosted by Amazon Miniatures that features a bit of modelling and painting advice, a smattering of house rules, and even a multi-nationality online name generator. March 15, 2005 — Fudge Turns Ten Fudge (and Terra Incognita) publisher Grey Ghost Press announced at the GAMA Trade Show that May will see the release of the 10th Anniversary Edition of Fudge, in hardcover, with a plethora of extra material that was originally intended for a supplement. March 14, 2005 — Wild West Structures If you’re in the market for a western town, you could buy the book of plans from Wild West Structures and build your own. Unless your doing the old west in N or HO scale (10 or 15ish mm) you’ll have to adjust the plans a bit. As a resource for scratchbuilding, the pictures are wonderful as is. March 13, 2005 — Anomalies The Anomalies website features a number of nice articles on sundry strangeness, historical and modern. March 12, 2004 — Egyptian Pyramid from Hirst Arts Intrepid archæologists are always in need of an ancient tomb to explore. Hirst Arts makes molds from which you can cast your own pyramid in plaster. March 11, 2005 — Graph Paper Printer If you’re in need of some graph paper (or a bunch of fancier patterns than squares) try Philippe Marquis’ Graph Paper Printer (PC shareware). Alas, there is no Macintosh version, so I can’t take it for a spin. March 10, 2005 — Lucky Mojo And if Planet X isn’t enough, I found a healthy dose of Lucky Mojo. March 9, 2005 — Planet X Inbound Planet X, if I remember correctly, is the one headed towards collision with the Earth, and whose imminent arrival is causing all of our environmental problems. The Planet X Inbound website will fill in the details I missed. March 8, 2005 — Influenza The Dispatches are late as I lay nearly slain by some unnamed virus (none of the name recognition of influenza but all of the fun). Yet another fabulous PBS website (accompanying a film) details the horrific Influenza Pandemic of 1918, which, I can still remember being shocked to learn, claimed more American lives than combat deaths in all 20th century wars combined. March 7, 2005 — Non-Sequitur & Agyris Map I arose on Sunday to discover that a comic that I don’t normally read — Wiley Miller’s Non-Sequitur — has taken on a VSFish League-of-Extraordinary-Gentlemen/Series-of-Unfortunate-Events feel. Have a look at this Sunday’s to see what I mean. The series started February 20th. You need to get a free trial membership to read comics from the archives. Also, the story is Sunday only;— it doesn’t continue in the daily comics. Also, TI cover artist and Fudge logo designer Daniel Davis has released a gorgeous print map of his acclaimed fantasy world Agyris. March 6, 2005 — An Amazon I have been thoroughly enjoying the recent DVD release of the second season of Wonder Woman. Although still quite pulpy, season two was updated to the modern day (circa 1977, that is). The first season, which I think is superior and more appropriate to our time period, is set in 1942. Have a look at both on Amazon.com March 5, 2005 — An Anniversary As of today, the NAGS Society has been Dispatching daily (more or less) for four years. I hope that gamers have found at least a few of the links useful through the years. March 4, 2005 — The Internet African History Sourcebook This one is shamelessly pilfered from MiniatureWargaming.com but it was too apropos to pass up. Fordham University’s Internet African Sourcebook is an excellent online guide to that most mysterious of continents. And if you look at the top, you’ll see that there are also sourcebooks for Ancient, Indian, and Islamic History, Science, &c., &c. March 3, 2005 — Myst Reinterpreted Myst was the only computer game I played with any regularity (if by regularity you mean buying it, disappearing into the basement for three days, and only reemerging when the game was solved…). Myst Reinterpreted is Ed Krohne’s play-by-email game set in the world of Myst and using Fudge for rules. March 2, 2005 — The Birth of a Genius Readers who are NOT elementary school teachers will probably not know that today is Theodor Geisel’s birthday, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss. I have always threatened to put together some Seuss-inspired terrain, and one could easily field a Seuss army using HOTT for rules. The NAGS Society has perhaps been most inspired by his technology. The Butter Battle Book, for example, is a treasure trove. Every gadget has some sort of power source, gears to make things work, and support for long bits. It all makes sense if you accept the premise of the world. For a 157- page alphabetical encyclopedia of Seuss’ work, download Edward Connery Lathem’s free Who’s Who & What’s What in the Books of Dr. Seuss. March 1, 2005 — Early Photographic Images And for more on early color photography, have a look at this fascinating site on Early Photographic Images, including a bit on Miss Acland & Early Colour Photography in Oxford: the work of a pioneer woman photographer as well as Lawrence of Arabia. February 28, 2005 — WWI in Technicolor Pulled from a thread on the Miniature Page comes this link to some color images from WWI. Looking at pictures in black and white makes it seem somehow unreal;— color brings home the fact that these were real folks. February 27, 2005 — Drones & Shadows Far too much time has passed since I plugged the Drones, a free rpg inspired by the novels of P.G. Wodehouse, and one of the inspirations for the NAGS Society. Another, which I can’t mention often enough, is Craig Griswold’s excellent, free Into the Shadows. February 26, 2005 — Stereoscope Awhile back on his wargaming site Little Lead Heroes, Andy Cowell was experimenting with that popular Victorian art form — stereoscopic photography. He thoughtfully provides some examples and links to informative websites to get you started. Of course, this Victorian art evolved into the Viewmasters that were so popular when I was a lad. February 25, 2005 — Old Time Victrola Music Nothing spices up your gaming than some appropriate period music. Old Time Victrola Music sells CDs of music recorded from an actual hand cranked Victrola. February 24, 2005 — The Mummy’s Revenge The Mummy’s Revenge by Jeb Boyd is the first adventure in Adamant Entertainment’s new Thrilling Tales line of pulp pdf resources (20 page pdf, $4.50 US). February 23, 2005 — Buddhist Universities Sadly, the NAGS Society home campus knows less about Asian history than it should. Fortunately, the ætheric web is an excellent resource for filling this gap. For example, here’s a brief article on six ancient Buddhist Universities in India. February 22, 2005 — Blue Prints The NAGS Society is always on the lookout for competent cartography. Of course, most of what one finds on the web is intended for fantasy gaming, but it’s usually easy to adapt to a historical setting. For example, 01 Games features a line of Blueprints that includes a great new City of the Dead that’s just begging to be explored. And they’re a steal at $1.65 US. February 21, 2005 — Ghost Presidents AdventureTravelAbout.com has the scoop on the ghostly former residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — ghost presidents in the White House. February 20, 2005 — .45 Adventure If you’d like to get your (cybernetic) hands on the new pulp wargame .45 Adventure from Ratrap Productions, follow these instructions posted on the Hot Lead Steel Sinews Yahoo Group: Not really a promotion, but for $5 anyone can get a full copy of the PDF version of the game. If you take advantage of this offer and want to purchase the book when it arrives the following week, I will deduct the $5 from the $14.95 price. Even if you are not interested in the printed version, you might want to take advantage of the PDF offer. After next week, the PDF will go to RPGNow.com and be listed at $7. Here is what you will need to do. 1.) Starting Sunday 2/20 and ending Saturday 2/26, send an e-mail to HLSSowner@yahoogroups.com (include your name and e-mail address where the PDF can be sent). In the subject line put $5 PDF. 2.) You will be sent a PayPal account name with instructions. If you would prefer not to use PayPal, then contact me as well and we can work something out. 3.) When the $5 is received at PayPal you will be sent the full PDF version of the game. 4.) When the books arrive, I will send an e-mail asking whether you would like to get the printed book for $9.95. If you want it, then additional instructions will be sent. If you don't then that's okay too. February 19, 2005 — Colonia Colonia — Turn of the Century Wargaming is Gabriel Landowski’s excellent colonial wargaming site, featuring a number of exciting battle reports complete with photographs and maps. February 18, 2005 — Into the Congo with Chapin and Lang For an excellent online guide to a real-life voyage into the Heart of Darkness, have a look at the American Museum of Natural History’s Congo Expedition 1909-1915, conducted by James Chapin and Herbert Lang. February 17, 2005 — Dead Sea Scrolls If you’re interested in some background to Amanda Dickerson’s TI adventure Dead Sea Murder, ibiblio hosts a wonderful online exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. February 16, 2005 — Egyptology Online EgyptologyOnline is an excellent resource for the scoop on Egyptian archæology. For example, the list of Great Discoveries is indispensable. February 15, 2005 — Adventure Travel Let About.com be your guide to Adventure Travel. There is still some terra incognita in 2005. February 14, 2005 — Adventure House Adventure House reprints some of the greatest pulp stories so that we whippersnappers can enjoy them too. February 13, 2005 — Pulp Hero & DIY Wagons August will bring the release of the newest descendent of the classic Justice, Inc.: Pulp Hero. At this point, it’s nothing but a bullet on an upcoming release list, but I’m sure more information will be forthcoming. As always, I advocate learning about history and the TI timeline by doing it yourself. For example, if you’d like to know more about the wagons and stagecoaches used in the Old West, head to the Hansen Wheel and Wagon shop, pick up some plans, and build yourself a full-scale wagon. The only problem then is where to keep the horse…. February 12, 2005 — Get Ready to be Gutshot After long years of design and playtesting, Mike Mitchell and Mike Murphy’s western wargame Gutshot (170p., $19.95 US) is finally here! Have a look at the Hawgleg website to learn more and get your hands on a copy. Once it arrives at the NAGS Society we’ll let you know how it plays. Now you can put those new Knuckleduster figures to work! February 11, 2005 — Source of the Nile Source of the Nile is an old Avalon Hill boardgame of exploring Darkest Africa. You can get a taste of the game on BoardGameGeek.com and then have a look at amarriner.com for the whole scoop. You’d have to go to Ebay to get an original copy, but I think an enterprising soul could cobble something fun together with what’s available online. February 10, 2005 — Mysteries of Ancient China In honor of the New Year, have a look at the Crystalinks page devoted to Ancient China. From pyramids to dragons to Nushu to that Great Wall, China provides plentiful inspiration for the TI GM. February 9, 2005 — StrangeArk StrangeArk is an appropriately named website devoted to cryptozoological pursuits, including links, a bibliography, and even fiction. February 8, 2005 — Paper Æronauts Fiddler’s Green has just released some new cardstock models of some aviation pioneers — this time from the French balloon craze of the late 18th century, where it all got started. My favorite is the Blanchard/Jeffries Hydrogen Balloon of 1783 (here piloted by Ernie) which was intended to be propelled by oars. February 7, 2005 — Inventions at the Smithsonian The Smithsonian Institution’s website features a nice collection of resources on Inventors and Scientists. February 6, 2005 — The Empire Club The Empire Club (“The World Renowned Gentlemen’s Club for Daring Adventurers”) is the masterwork of a group of inspired gamers in the NYC area. The website includes great write-ups of their characters and capsule descriptions of 50 (!) episodes of their pulp adventures. This must have been some group. Well worth your time for pulp inspiration. February 5, 2005 — Old Time Radio And when your eyes get tired of reading the pulps, sit back and listen to some Old Time Radio shows. February 4, 2005 — Captain Spectre Captain Spectre and the Lightning Legion is a free, extremely high quality online pulp comic by Thomas Floyd. You can almost feel the pulp beneath your fingertips. February 3, 2005 — Adventure Archive The NAGS Society main campus is far too busy to partake of these newfangled games one plays on Babbage Engines. For those lucky souls who do, Adventure-Archive (note the site is originally in German) links to and reviews a smorgasbord of computer adventure games, such as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis 2. February 2, 2005 — About Time The Ancient History About.com site hosts a nice collection of resources concerning Calendars and Time. February 1, 2005 — Egyptian Adventures & Pulp Advice The latest in Green Ronin’s excellent Mythic Vistas series is Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra. While intended for bringing the d20 system to ancient Egypt, it is sure to abound with inspiration for pulp archæologists. The boxed set contains three books for $39.95 US. Or you can get a taste with the Book of Days player’s guide as a $10.00 pdf. For those who like their pulp undiluted, Adamant Entertainment has released a new 33 pp. pdf in their Thrilling Tales line: The Gamemaster’s Guide to Pulp Adventure. You’ll get an introduction to the multifaceted pulp genre, a timeline of the ’30s, and a random adventure generator. January 31, 2005 — Museum of Ancient Inventions Smith College hosts an online Museum of Ancient Inventions, which features photographs and brief articles describing a variety of ancient innovation. January 30, 2005 — Haunted Lodgings HauntedCastlesandHotels.com will arrange you a proper stay in authentic European haunted sites. January 29, 2005 — Stingray Way back in November of 2003, the NAGS Society Dispatched links to a couple of undersea miniatures games: Depth Factor (which no longer seems to be available) and Aquazone. At some point in the meantime, Salute Games posted the information from the original inspirational article in Practical Wargamer. Have a look at Jim Wallman’s Stingray, an undersea adventure game based upon a television show. January 28, 2005 — All Info About Myths and Legends All Info About Myths and Legends offers an A-Z index of links to online information on historical myths and legends. January 27, 2005 — Internet Sacred Text Archive There’s nothing for your pulp adventures like a good sacred text, forbidden or otherwise. The Internet Sacred Text Archive provides a great online resource for all types of spiritual writings. January 26, 2005 — Total War by ’64 The Austin Chapter of the Lone Star Historical Miniatures Group hosts a fabulous website detailing their alternate history game based upon the fiction of Harry Turtledove: Total War by ’64. Inspiration abounds for designing and conducting a large scale campaign that spans the globe. And the map is gorgeous! January 25, 2005 — Junglerunner Junglerunner offers tips for planning your own adventure in terra incognita and online journals of those folks with the luck, courage, time, and resources to circumnavigate the globe. January 24, 2005 — Flunkies of All Sorts A couple of new miniature releases will round out anyone’s 28mm collection with a few choice tidbits. First, from Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures are five new packs, including some Stalwart Companions and Freakish Flunkies. (And really, this is why I am forced to prefer 15mm to 28;— with amazing figures like these coming out all the time, I’d break the bank). And for some flunkies from farther west, Knuckleduster Publications now has its own line of western civilians (which includes a three piece band based upon ZZ Top). They have a roughhewn quality which makes them look like they’ve stepped out of a Remington painting. January 23, 2005 — Johnny Quest I have been thoroughly enjoying the DVD of a great two-fisted pulp Saturday Morning Cartoon— Jonny Quest. Have a look at the Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures site for an excellent primer and then get your hands on the DVD. January 22, 2005 — Dino Dig Dino Dig is one of many fast, free card/board games from Invisible City Productions. You’re a paleontologist completing against colleagues to find and assemble the largest dinosaur. January 21, 2005 — Supreme Martian Overlord Supreme Martian Overlord is a website devoted to all things War of the Worlds, which is timely in light of two imminent cinematic versions of the classic. January 20, 2005 — Signposts J.R. Mooneyham’s Signposts is a collection of webpages presenting “An Illustrated Speculative Timeline of Future Technology and Social Change.” There’s a lot of interesting speculation one might glean from poking around the links. Happy hunting! January 19, 2005 — Building the Next Generation of Mad Geniuses The toy company Meccano has a wonderful Crazy Inventors series — have a look at the Steam Boat Construction Set, for example (and here’s the box it comes in ). Of course, they have an airship too. It’s my considered opinion that toys such as these are the proper means to develop mad geniuses of the future, and who is to say that their parents can’t build their own contraptions when the little ones go to sleep? January 18, 2005 — Dynamic Dioramas I particularly enjoy building terrain for miniatures as a means of creating imaginary worlds. Dynamic Dioramas is the website of Joseph Neumeyer, a true master at modeling the imagination. January 17, 2005 — TrekEarth Good photography can inspire gamers to better roleplaying. TrekEarth — “learning about the world through photography” — is a great place to go for inspirational images. January 16, 2005 — RPG Library It has been too long since the NAGS Society mentioned this excellent collection of resources for roleplayers: the RPG Library. January 15, 2005 — Great Zimbabwe PBS’ Nova does its usual excellent job on the mysterious Great Zimbabwe, which is itself part of a larger piece on the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. January 14, 2005 — Leonardo’s NAGS Society Lab The secret laboratory used by NAGS Society associate Leonardo Da Vinci has been discovered! Fortunately, he only works on projects for the NAGS Society in the sixteenth century, so his best work will remain secret… for now. January 13, 2005 — The History of Costume While I suppose the online History of Costume’s lavish illustrations of typical dress from antiquity to the end of the Nineteenth Century are gold for painting miniatures or live action roleplayers, I find them inspirational for putting one into the proper period mindset for roleplaying. January 12, 2004 — Beyond the Supernatural I will admit that I’ve never played a Palladium game, but the new release looks tempting: Beyond the Supernatural (second edition). You can check out a free eight page preview at Gaming Report. January 11, 2005 — A Wonderful Feat of Adventure “A Wonderful Feat of Adventure,” from the January 1901 issue of The World’s Work, details the Cape to Cairo journey of one Ewart Scott Grogan. The photo is reason enough to check out the article! That’s what an African explorer should look like. January 10, 2005 — “It’s My Own Invention…” The ninth Forgotten Futures book by Marcus Rowland, entitled “It’s My Own Invention…: Adventures in Victorian and Edwardian Weird Science and Technology” is now available! The NAGS Society has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this little gem. And now you can register your copy via Paypal to support Marcus and the great work he does. January 9, 2005 — Writer’s Advice This post from the folks at the Burning Void details a great list of books for writers that will also help for developing roleplaying characters and adventures. January 8, 2005 — Jess Nevins The NAGS Society has frequently Dispatched links to Jess Nevins’ extraordinary online Pulp and Victoriana resources;— but we’ve never actually tracked backwards to his collection of bookmarks. It’s not been updated in awhile, but I’m certain there are still treasures to be unearthed. January 7, 2005 — Interactive History Following up upon the Lexicon idea, Interactive History is an innovative type of roleplaying derived from the out-of-print game Aria, in which players take the role of countries or cultures rather than individual characters. Juha Vesanto has created a Fudge version of Interactive History, detailing the necessary rules and providing links to games using the concepts. January 6, 2005 — Lexicon Lexicon is an absolutely unique RPG posted by Neel Krishnaswami on the 20' x 20' Room discussion forum. Players write articles concerning the game world being created in mock scholarly voice, referencing and refuting one another. When you’ve finished the game, you have an encyclopedic tome bringing to life an imaginary world. Of course, you could treat any genre in this fashion, from fantasy to steampunk to far future. January 5, 2005 — The History of Computers The Hitmill History of Computers site features a nice alphabetical online encyclopedia of the history of computing devices, from the abacus to the present. January 4, 2005 — MagWeb I’ve recently become a member of MagWeb, an online archive of articles from gaming magazines. Most of the magazines are on historical, military, or wargaming themes, such as Age of Napoleon, the Courier, or Savage and Soldier. But the roleplaying world is represented in magazines such as Shadis and the Dungeon Architect. All of the articles from the collected issues have been converted to HTML which you can download for personal use. For $10 US you get unlimited access for a week; after you get hooked, $75 buys you a year of reading. January 3, 2005 — Once Upon a Time Once Upon a Time is a different way to approach gaming from Atlas Games. You spin your own fairy tale, incorporating elements from the cards you draw. For an evil edge, try the Dark Tales expansion. Of course, I imagine both Victorian and Pulp adventure versions…. January 2, 2005 — DyeHard’s Updates DyeHard, a.k.a. Brian Broocks, has gradually been updating his excellent website. You’ll find some wonderful, inspirational, and instructional resources on making wargames terrain and vehicles, specifically for Victorian science fiction in 15mm. Another Major General in the works! January 1, 2005 — Think Baby Names Sometimes when sitting down to create a new rpg character I can easily choose my skills, gifts, and faults but get a block while trying to come up with a name. ThinkBabyNames.com can come to the rescue with its database of names, history, nicknames, &c.
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