I want to Static yesterday afternoon to pick up a few boosters for Call of Cthulhu and picked up a new RPG for the games I’m intending to run.

The final decision was between A/State, Children Of The Sun and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Preferably I would have went for A/State but it wasn’t in and Warhammer was my third choice, so CotS won through.

Last night I had a flick through the book and it seems different enough to give the players a more unique experience than they may be used to. It also helps that no-one else is familiar with the game or setting so we’re all starting on the same level.

A/State and WFR will be picked up at some point but I’m wanting to see how successful the first game or two of Children is before subjecting the group to anything else.

With any luck in the next few week I should have the start of a new gaming group.

I’ve got two new encyclopedia posts in the works. One is about the Kingdom of Onel and the other deals with the Waystation system, a system used to travel from one star system to another.

No warp speed in this story. I’m using an altogether different and impossible method of getting to the stars.

With a shiny new logo and a bag full of new inspiration I’ve decided to start a new regular feature of the site.

On a semi regular basis I’ll share a character/planet/ship/event from the book and post a little about them.

First up we have the site’s namesake, the freighter Desert of Zin.

Name and Class

Designation: Desert of Zin

Class: Aberdeen-class freighter, heavily modified.

Crew

Captain: Stephen Hightower
Executive Officer: Annabel Cross
Crew: Isobel Layland, Michael Almont, Kurt Spiers

History

The Desert of Zin was built 52 years ago (before current story events) at the Cotti Shipyards. The Cotti Shipyards were, before their takeover by the state, the fourth largest manufacturing concern in the known galaxy. The Desert of Zin, an Aberdeen-class freighter, was the one of the last ships built by the then-independent shipyards.

The Zin had been owned by a number of low tier criminal organisations over 49 years until it was impounded by the Royal Star Fleet of the Kingdom of Onel. Two months later it was left for scrap and found by Stephen Hightower, a Commander in the Special Operations branch of the Royal Star Fleet.

Hightower had been working with Spec Ops since his joining the R.S.F as a boy and was looking for a new ship which he could use to infiltrate the Kingdom’s criminal underworld which has gained power by a considerable degree in recent years. As his cover as a second-rate hoodlum had never been broken he decided to take things to another level entirely. He found what he was looking for in the Desert of Zin.

So for almost 3 years now Hightower and his crew have been rubbing shoulders with the whole family of criminals, from the lowly gutter scum to the “business people” keeping the machine running to the investors at the top who just want to see more pennies coming in than going out.

And it’s after 3 years of mixing with the bad and the worse when the Desert of Zin and her crew have been pulled away for an entirely unconnected new job.

A search and rescue mission.

What could go wrong?

Yeah, remember the Original Star Wars Trilogy?

No, not the one in the cinemas before Ep 1-3.

The ORIGINAL Trilogy. The one where Han shot first?

Well, read this.

Finally a version of Star Wars I would be happy owning.

About bloomin’ time too.

Taken on Christmas Day, outside Newburgh Parish Church.

Trying the mind control out on the wife…

Recently I’ve had it in mind to dust off some old role-playing books and gather some like minded citizens to have a few games of whatever to help while away an evening.

Booze and snacks would help as well.

So I’ve got some vague ideas regarding what to run:

• Call of Cthulhu - A quality horror game in the “creeping evil” vein which can be set in the 1920’s or present day.
• Mechwarrior - Set in the Battletech universe. The system is good but the character generation is over-complicated.
• Delta Green - A Call of Cthulhu based setting in the present day. It involves U.S. Government conspiracies and Mythos-related investigations.
• Elric - Based on the Elric stories by Michael Moorcock. Doom laden fantasy.
• Children of the Sun - A dieselpunk game. Apparently bridging the gap between steampunk and cyberpunk. I don’t have this yet but I’m tempted to pick a copy up. Unfortunatly the company producing this are no more so getting a copy might be difficult but I’m sure Static Games have a copy.
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - Given the choice between AD&D and Warhammer, I’d pick Warhammer every time. It’s considerably darker than most fantasy games. A strong possibility.

I think I have enough potential players for two separate (and comfortably small) groups but if anyone wants a game then send your requests to the usual address. (Which I’ve just realised is no-longer on the site. Must fix that…)

I’m faffing around with the design so it may look truly awful if you happen upon the site at the wrong time.

Or you might feel that the usual design leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s a good job that I don’t do this for you then…

Although my monthly comic buying is on an indefinite hiatus, I am sorely tempted to pick up Loaded Bible from Image comics.

Check out the Newsarama post here. It has some nifty preview pages.

It seems that the classic television show The Prisoner is heading for a remake.

The remake will be 6 (aye, very good) episodes for SkyOne.

And ex-Doctor Who Christoper Eccleston has been linked with the lead role.

I have to admit I’m in two minds about this one. The original series of The Prisoner has always been amongst my favourite tv shows. And it is usually expected that remakes are little more than shadows of their former selves.

But then the new Battlestar Galactica series is a remake (well, it’s a re-imaging apparently) and there was a Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) remake a few year back with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer which I really enjoyed.

Even the new series of Doctor Who is kind of a remake. Well, it’s not really. It’s more of a re-styling.

I’m hopeful that it’ll be good. A bit hopeful. A wee bit hopeful. Not very hopeful at all.

Hmmm, better wait and see.

BBC has stuff about it here and here.

A small thing, especially when there’s so much more to be written, but giving it a name makes it almost official.

It’s called Kingdom’s End for two reasons.

1. That’s the name of the planetary system where the bulk of the story takes place.

2. The events in the story will signify the beginning of a time when the kingdom is under a severe threat.

So this is the first of the official Kingdom’s End posts.

And hopefully not the last.