for A totally artificial holiday celebrated by purchasing stuff on sale. Sort of like Mother's Day or Boxing Day. In theory a day for players to show their appreciation for their GMs by purchasing them stuff. (I have gotten exactly one item from a player for GM's Day.) In reality I suspect that most GMs buy stuff for themselves.

Companies that I know celebrate the day - focussing mostly on D20:

Expeditious Retreat Press (Great stuff, great sale, if I didn't already have most of their stuff this is who I would concentrate on.)

E. N. Publishing

Creative Mountain Games

Silverthorne Games

Ronin Arts

Adamant Entertainment (including their subsriptions, I am really thinking about that one...)

The Auld Grump

Well today;'s GM's Day! (And the crowd goes mild.)

Last year I received my first ever GM's Day gift. Now if somebody would buy me a digital camera for GM's Day I'd be all set! (This is a joke, even when I have owned cameras I have almost never used them. About the only thing I would use one for is the World Works terrain. Cameras are just not something I think of.)

Mostly I buy stuff for my favorite GM, the one I see in the mirror each morning. Lots of good stuff this year... I could have spent much more, including on some of the Adamant subscriptions. I have Skull & Bones, and its magazine Bucaneers & Bokors is one of the discounted subscriptions. Not getting it is slightly silly, I have purchased the first three issues already. The Thrilling Tales pulp D20 subscription is more expensive, but sounds like fun. Sadly I seem to be the only one with a taste for 1930s film pulp action or noir games in my local area. (Unless I wanted to do something with Indiana Jones... )

Last year I also gave my first GM's Day present, to a kid who was just starting out, I gave him the first Campaign Planner from Ronin Arts, he was struggling.

Counting my goodies I got 8 items for $24, not bad. I got the big ones first, then added little things that looked interesting. The silliest was A Dozen Pockets Picked. The characters don't run around picking pockets, but if they kill mook #5 and check his pockets it might be fun to have.

The Auld Grump

Wow, and I thought that I went overboard! Going a wee bit Zombie crazy are we?

The Auld Grump, who has an All Flesh Must Be Eaten scenario on a back burner...

Fl0ydski,

You will not believe this but I had just finish a two page review on AFMBE and the Unisystem. while doing the pre-post check and my dog decided to sit against the tower of the computer and turn it off..... So pissed am I at the moment.

A quick recap because I have to go to work soon.

The game All Flesh Must Be Eaten (AFMBE) is based around the core system called Unisystem. It is this that makes the game work - beyond the average system. Unisystem has the ability to portray as a player character normal Jo trying to survive the Rise to a Demi God - Angel or Demon viaing for the souls of Humanity without losing anything in the process.

This is a direct quote from the rules section.

"All actions are resolved in one basic manner. Roll a ten-sided die (D10). Then add the Attribute and/or skill numbers the Chronicler deems applicable.
Tell the result to the Chronicler, who adds or subtracts any circumstance modifiers (for example, noticing something is more difficult in darkness than in broad daylight). If the final result is a 9 or higher, the action was successful. If the result is less than 9, the attempt failed. The higher the total value, the more successful the action is (in some cases, just being successful is enough; in others, the degree of success may have some significance). This is the central feature of the Unisystem. Most other rules
revolve around this basic element. This basic rule applies when using skills, engaging in combat, working magic, and so forth."



The system came to light with CJ Carrella's WitchCraft and Armageddon the End Times, I love these setting. I was luckily to get both these books as they hit the shelves – their revised version just polished the goodness inside. It put magic in a real world setting and added a nice gritty feel to it. As some systems do it didn’t gloss of the nature of magic but made it alive and functioning.

The ability of the Unisystem is that the system is one item that is used for everything with in the game. This allows it to be woven into the stories and become invisible to the players, not a stop start process. The system is complete enough to give a great coverage of rules but not being rule heavy at the sometime.

With AFMBE it adds one thing that was lacking in both WC and Armageddon – Zombies! Now I know most games have zombies and one stat or template fits all… Well AFMBE is like having a Mr Potato Head for Zombies. It allows you to build the style(s) of shambling undead from the inside out (and most of the time the inside is out!). Also it adds the Deathworlds and general ideas that I would not have thought myself. The Book itself and others of its series are quite light-hearted in the Night of the Living Dead way

The two other books I picked up of AFMBE have many uses but in my eyes this is what I got them for

Enter the Zombie – Wire-Fu! This source allows you to add the “Crouching Tiger” to your game after seeing the trilogy of these movies, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers (very cool indeed) I knew that I wanted this. It also does the Matrix. The rules given in the standard systems of Unisystem allow for some great combat but it’s not Wire-Fu!

Dungeons and Zombies – Need I say more? No really I got it to allow me to play D&D with the Unisystem – with real Metaphysics. The ability to go and play a fantasy setting that allows you to do what you have read in novels is what gaming is all about (in my eyes at least), spell slot magic didn’t exist in the books until it was were written for the games themselves.

My idea gaming worlds are very much like Laurell K. Hamilton’s work of Anita Blake and Mary Gentry (without all the porn! Porn is good in its own place and time), or like a Shadowrun world set in the now. If anyone remembers “BloodShadows” (a D6 game) then you are getting my drift. And now with these books in mind think about Wire-fu elves or boom-Stick toting Dwarves.

Savage Worlds and the Unisystem as been likened to each other time again and again. It’s their ability to use the system to its max without slowing it down any. I have every intention to Savage areas of AFMBE and other goodies from the Unisystem line. Most of its Fluff anyway for Savage Worlds is very complete in itself.

If you are interested in AFMBE or any of the other Unisystem games, start with from DriveThruRPG – it’s a free download for the full game. Yes a full game of 328 pages of pure joy. This will give you the Unisystem in a nutshell, and you can add any of the other sources to this or you can go and get other core books to add.

Oh did I mention it was FREE!!!!

AFMBE is fantastic and has metaphysics but WC add a whole new level and Armageddon pushes it even higher. With the combination of these books is a "Hell" of a lot of fun.

I hope this has helped.

Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

Lord Ab,

That was exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Thank you!
I have really, really been wanting to get back into RPG'ing and Zombies are
definately the route I've been wanting to take.

The whole Deadworld(s) they've "fleshed" out in the 3 main books and the supplements "Atlast of the Walking Dead" & "One of the Living" sounds excellent.

I downloaded the Witchcraft RPG book. I'll take a look at it this
week. The Unisystem sounds very interesting.

AFMBE & Enter the Zombie and Atlas are likely to be my first on the buy list.
Probably followed by Fistfull because I love old west settings and nothing
goes better together than Zombies and Six Shooters. And the caveate- it's
written by the Deadlands guy!

-Floyd

ps. I've not seen House of Flying Daggers yet, but I've watched the other 2 more than a few times. Might I recommend Iron Monkey(a little more commical, but excellent Wirefu. Donnie Yen is in this one)

My major purchases this year:

Frost & Fur (Monkey God)

The Little People (Avalanche)

The Artificial Hero's Handbook (Ronin Arts)

Thrilling Tales: Mad Scientist (Adamant Entertainment)

Hot Pursuit: D20 Guide to Chases (Adamant Entertainment)

And a bunch of little 1 and 2 dollar items, and some freebies while I was there.

Frost & Fur will eventually be joined by Frostburn by WotC, if I ever do an arctic campaign. Of the purchases Artificial Hero is for immediate use in Steampunk, Hot Pursuit will see immediate use for all games. The little Ronin Arts releases for general niche filling.

The Little People I picked up despite the rather suggestive cover, it is acrually very good, but Avalanche covers tend to be a bit... PG13?

I intended to pick up Grim Tales, but forgot, ah well, maybe later.

The Auld Grump

I couldn't get one as a PDF...

I like Artificial Hero quite well, except for one thing... The author also illustrated it. He is a gifted game designer, but those who love him should keep him away from the drawing tablet.

I am so glad that you can copy and paste from a PDF, I am doing so with all 55 pages. (Yes, the illos. are that bad.) The text is very useful, but pseudo mangs, bad pseudo manga, is not something that I want to waste ink on.

Frost & Fur is very good, I need to think of a reason for folks to visit the South Pole. In this game someone has already gone to the North Pole, a black flag with a golden 'N' still flutters there.

The Auld Grump, and there is a thin spot in the ice, where something came through it....