VIDEO: X-men: Days of Future Past brings the post-apocalypse

I'm really looking forward to this new installment of the X-men. It looks like they've done a bang-up job of envisioning a desolate future. This clip apparently appears early in the film with mutants on the run. It'd make a great adventure scenario--similar to the first part of the Gamma World War campaign's adventure path.

In any case, the visuals are stunning--and that's more than enough reason to post it!

Excelsior!

Seven Gamma-related Odds and Ends for Inspiration

I've been working on some more GWW ideas, but they're not quite ready for posting. In the mean time, here's a few post-apocalyptic items to feed your gaming ideas:

1. Nerd-haven blog io9.com has a great post debunking (ha!) purported security of on underground bunkers. There's a few thoughts to take away from it, including this little nugget:

And then there would be the threat of other survivors — once all the local Wal-Mart, Target, and sporting goods stories have long since been picked clean, the roaming scavengers would regard any remaining shelters as a major jackpot.

Anyone searching through rural areas of Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Texas (areas with a high proportion of these bunkers) could simply canvass the area with a metal detector, since these bunkers include EMP shielding, which requires a metal lattice. Construction contractors that worked on the bunkers, regardless of the confidentiality standards held during the building process, will also know the specific location of bunkers in the area. So the people inside the bunkers could easily become sitting ducks, waiting for a series of assaults from other survivors.

This seems like good fodder for a raiding party adventure. In Gamma World War it would likely be the mutants turning the tables on the valids (who typically prey on the mutated hordes for experiments). So this gave me some ideas for a variety of mission types, including rescues, reprisals, and yes, the ever-essential supply raids. Maybe even a few pure-strain-on-pure-strain attacks (drill-tank attacks between subterranean fortresses!).

Anyway, be sure to check it out as the article is, in fact, filled with similar ideas for other scenarios.

2. Also, if you're looking for some images of ruined or foreboding environments (GM screen art?) for your campaign, I added a new tag "background" over at the Gamma World War tumblr. This includes older images from the blog too.

3. Remember that Mars Attacks comic is coming out next Wednesday! Looks like fantastic war-of-the-wrecked-worlds mayhem:

4. Speaking of unwelcome visitors, the apocalyptic alien invasion show Falling Skies returns tonight. Rumor mill says the aliens are now 100% focused on exterminating the humans!


If you were looking for material to fill out your campaign, there's a Falling Skies wiki and comic to pull from. Between 'Mars and 'Skies, I've found a good mix of inspiration for GWW's own alien invaders.

5. Fantasy Flight Games (based here in my home town!) is currently producing a line of pre-painted plastic minis for their Arkham Horror game, including this great series of monsters that are waiting to terrorize your PCs. Or maybe they ARE the PCs:

6. While we're on the subject of monsters and mutants, check out this REAL tarantula infected with some sort of fungus that gives it antlers:

Stat this guy up (and enlarge by a factor of at LEAST x5 for your next game! I call him "Tarantlera". (P.S. click to enlarge, I made it smaller 'cause it's kinda' icky. P.P.S. By the time your players figure out how to pronounce "Tarantlera" their PCs will already be dead.)

7. Finally, this is just a fun article about illustrator Ken Kelly who did some of extraordinary work for the Micronauts toy line packaging back in the 80s. Apparently one of his best-loved pieces, Antron, was lost for ages. His work inspired the new evolutionaries for GWW. These guys have GAMMA written all over them:

UPDATE: Gah! How could I forget that Pitford: Gateway to the Ruins for Mutant Epoch is now out. Better make that EIGHT Odds and Ends then!

Sneak peek of IDW's new Mars Attacks! comic #1

OH YES, I WILL BE ADDING IT TO MY PULL LIST.

Story & Letters by John Layman
Art by John McCrea
Colors by Andrew Elder

...with a cover by sci-fi legend Wally Wood!

Images: Comic Book Resources, visit their site for more pics!

1990s Planet of the Apes meets Alien Nation comes sooooo close...

...but no cigar. Still, it's at least worth noting this article up on io9 about a forgotten, 1990s Alien Nation / Planet of the Apes crossover comic called Ape Nation. At first glance, appears to have "Gamma World War!" written all over it. Here's the rundown:

Long story short, a Tenctonese vessel from Alien Nation time travels to Earth's apish future. Unlike the movie, these Newcomers have conquest on the mind.

Promising, right? Just to be sure, let's check it against the GWW litmus:

• Mutants? CHECK. Ape-men are def. mutants.
• Aliens? CHECK. L.A. County is chock full of space invaders.
• Humans? CHECK. Doesn't look like they're featured, but still technically part of the PoTA universe.
• Global post-apocalypse setting? CHECK. Just regular, old PoTA world though.

According to the article the story seems to focus more on power struggles (snore!) and getting aliens drunk on sour milk.

My heart pines for a true successor to the GWW title--something that really expands on the aliens coming to clean the clocks of humanity and mutant-kind leftovers. If only....

Four "Gamma" Heroes from Tom Scioli

I'm enjoying the HELL out of Tom Scioli's American Barbarian. Lately he's been churning out some superb one-off art too, which might as well be inspiration for your next Gamma adventuring party.

PYRO "ROCKETMAN" KING

RAGNAR

ROBOT DRACULA

THREED

 Find more great stuff and the weekly web comic at American Barbarian website.

American Barbarian gets a publisher!

You may recall me shouting from the rooftops back in May about my love for Tom Scioli's awesome web comic American Barbarian. It turns out my earlier wish will come true: alternative comics publisher AdHouse Books just announced today that it will release the series as a 6"x9" hardcover early next year.

This is great news for Barbaric Americans and anyone with red-white-and-blue hair. Pre-order page is up, but the link isn't quite active yet. I'm ecstatic to see the wonderful work of creators like Scioli and Joe Casey get the real world treatment. Congrats to them and kudos to AdHouse for making it happen.

You better believe I'm getting my mutated mitts on this one!

Gamma Inspiration: Original Kirby Sketches

Here's some original artwork by the King of Comics himself posted over at Bleeding Cool. The top image is an unused cover that Kirby illustrated for Black Magic. Thought this would be a fitting tribute with yesterday being "Kirby Day" (his birthday).

Very cool!

Appendix "G": Inspirational Sources

Literature, movies, and TV have long served as inspirational sources for games (duh!). Fantasy games in particular have a well known list, created by Gary Gygax and co. that has been amended through time, but it's name has remained: Appendix N. Star Frontiers was among one TSR's early efforts at science fiction and they published a comparable list of sci-fi for that game as well.

It got me thinking that it would be nice to have an "Appendix N" for the Post Apocalyptic genre. And while there's no codified criteria, I think there are some easy ones to list, not to mention a few that I personally enjoy. So I've begun compiling a list, which also includes some of my own choices that may or may not be directly related to P.A. per se. For instance, I'm not sure Buckaroo Banzai counts as post apocalyptic, but it's certainly weird and wahoo enough that I find it inspiring. :)

I'm calling the list Appendix Gamma or Appendix G for short. I've had this on the blog for a while, but I've added several new links recently so it seemed appropriate to call it out. It's not a "complete" list (and that's also kind of on purpose since it's mainly stuff I'm looking to inspire this blog) but at least the "easy" ones are on there. Feel free to drop any other suggestions in the comments.

"American Barbarian" = Psychedlic Thundarr = Awesome!

Do you like barbarians? Do you like them in a far future "post, post-apocalyptic" setting? Do you like awesome, Kirby-esque artwork that makes you weep for your childhood?

Then you will love Tom Scioli's American Barbarian web comic. Here's hoping he publishes it in hard copies. I've already decided that I'll be getting five or six paper routes to keep this guy in business.

He's co-creator of Godland, which takes a different page from Kirby's galactic aesthetic. The artwork is just incredible. While the Kirby Krackle is virtually an atomic element in his universal pallet, his talents add up to more than just an homage to the King of Comics. No, the cosmic repertoire is just a jumping point for Scioli and partner Joe Casey to push the concepts--and the medium--to the limit.

Check it out:

• American Barbarian
• Tom Scioli's blog
• Comic Book Resources interview
• Godland
• I09 blurb

All images: Tom Scioli

Penny Arcade's take on Gamma World

Click to see the comic larger on Penny Arcade's site.