The games I wished I owned are the announced, but never published, supplements for The Day After Ragnorak. I loved Ken Hite’s “Conan the Barbarian: 1948” setting when it came out in 2009 (a tagline I stole from an RPGnet review at the time; it’s accurate). The basic setup is that in the waning days … Read more
Tales of a GM is running the 12 Days of Dicember, a project dedicated to dice in all their randomized glory. The question for the first day of Dicember is “Which is your favorite set of dice?” For me, it’s my Ragnarok dice. I bought these Chessex dice at MEPACON 2010 for my The Day after Ragnarok lunchtime campaign. The smokey … Read more
The apocalypse is back on. Ken Hite’s The Day After Ragnarok is a campaign setting for Savage Worlds and Hero System that in which the Nazis’ managed to summon the Midgard Serpent in the waning days of World War II, only to see the Americans slay it with a nuclear bomb. The original campaign book, … Read more
Another MEPACon has come and gone, taking with it two weeks of frantic game preparation and 12 hours of actual play. The convention was held in Clarks Summit, near Scranton Pa. on November 12-14 and looked to have the typical attendance of 100 gamers playing a mix of board games, organized play, and one-shot RPGs. … Read more
My events for MEPACon Fall 2010 are up and ready for registration on Warhorn. The convention is being held Friday, 11/12/10 through Sunday, 11/14/10 at the Ramada Clarks Summit in Clarks Summit, PA. I’ll be running three events — “Catch and Release” (Star Wars: Saga Edition), “The Champions of New York” (The Day After Ragnarok), … Read more
The Ruins of New York is a scenario for The Day After Ragnarok, a campaign setting by Ken Hite published by Atomic Overmind Press and written for the Savage Worlds role-playing game. This scenario was run at MEPACon Fall 2009. You can read my playtest notes and learn more about the adventure through my Week … Read more
Major Simon Cartwright is a globetrotting spy who’s traveled to all the surviving major cities in the world … as well as most of the ruined ones. He’s a debonair spy, one who revels in the glamorous aspects of the world of espionage: fast cars, high stake gambling and beautiful women. At the same time … Read more
Jason Freewalker is a second-generation lawman, his father having become a Texas Ranger just after Serpentfall. In the early days after Serpentfall, he rode with his father, battling scaly monsters crawled out of the Rio Grande to drink the blood of children and the Serpent cults arose from the Gulf looking to spawn realms of madness.
He’s been riding and shooting since he could walk, and he’s wanted nothing more or less than to walk in his father’s footsteps. Tragically, he’s done just that; the year he became a Ranger, his father died at his side, fighting an infestation of ghouls in Houston. He now proudly wields his father’s gun – a pearl-inlaid, silver-gilded Colt .45 – and wears his steel-toed, Serpent-skinned boots (their skin being about the only good thing to come out of those Fallspawn).
In another life, Ollivander Ellis might have been a physicist or astronomer, but instead he grew up in the world of the Serpentfall. It’s lead him to dedicate his life to understanding its arcane secrets … and fighting them when they’re unleashed upon the world. He’s battled latter-day Nazi mystics in Argentina, negotiated with the … Read more
Coromir is a modern barbarian. Born outside of Pittsburgh, as a teenager his family was slaughtered by the Black River Cult. He barely escaped the culling, and spent the next few years living on his own in the wilderness of western Pennsylvania. He swore an oath to avenge his family’s death, and when he was 19, he succeeded in finding and killing the naga behind the cult.
His desire for revenge was not sated however, and rather than return to civilization, he pledge his life to hunting abominations. His travels have taken him throughout the ruins of the United States. He has been consistently disappointed with the people he’s found there, cowardly, manipulative bastards all too eager to pay someone else to solve their problems, obsessed with returning to the Old Ways. As though technology can save them. As though a gun can help you when you’ve used up the last of your precious bullets.
He’s taken their silver and beer … but he’s refused to live with them.