Hey Man, well this is Babylon

I’ve signed up to run a session of Cannibal Contagion at the upcoming Go Play! SEPDX #17. The date will be Saturday, December 6th, and the location is Guardian Games (they’re linked on the right sidebar). I’ve got room for four, possibly five players, so go over and sign up if you want to enjoy an afternoon of zombie comedy action!

Just an update, I’ve got four freshly-printed drafts of the the Cannibal Contagion 4th draft rules sitting right here. I’ll be mailing them out tomorrow during a list of other errands I need to run. If you’ve requested such a draft, expect it sometime next week!

- NPC

Here’s another update from the art desk, sent to me freshly inked by the amazing Vero and Leo. This piece will open chapter two: “The Survivors”

Awright! I’ve just now compiled and uploaded the new fourth draft of the Cannibal Contagion playtest rules. There have been a crapload of updates and revisions. This will be the last major revision for a while, so download it, read it, and let me know how your play goes!

• Threat Pool now called Adversity pool, so as to no longer cause confusion with Threat scores
• Bad Guys are now called Threats, and have been made a lot easier to distinguish and employ
• Added new Allies rules, which function as special Gear
• Added clarifications to existing Gear and Weapons rules
• Updated and improved rules on Turning characters and threats
• Updated the contagion aftermath effects to fit the new Adversity rules.
• Added a whole mess of new sample NPCs and Threats
• Implemented new “cold open” narrative structure
• Added lots and lots of example text
• Updated CiC and Player sheets to have lots more information and better use of space

As always, the downloads can be found here

I posted this on my personal blog, but figured I’d try the same here. I’m currently looking for a few groups across the country who would be willing to try out Cannibal Contagion’s upcoming Fourth Draft Playtest. To best facilitate this, I’m offering to print out the copies of the playtest rules and send them out to you at no cost. I’ll even include some character sheets in the mix.

So, if you have a group that is up for playtesting something new, and the idea of a comedic survival horror session interests you, drop me a comment, and we’ll work it out. Thanks!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

Bitches

• Not being able to play Resident Evil all the damn time is a new bitch for me. Fortunately, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence makes that desire a little more possible.

Roses

• I very recently acquired a GameCube, and now I’m addicted to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. It could very well replace Beyond Good & Evil as my most favorite video game, and that’s a bold, almost dirty statement.
• I’m nearing completion of the fourth playtest draft of Cannibal Contagion. Stay tuned, as it’s going to be a big one!

Hopes

• I’m organizing a group read-along of George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones in the next two weeks. I’m really, really excited about this, and I do hope it comes together nicely and turns into a grand fun time for all involved.

I recently started playing Oblivion on the PS3. Okay, I like this game, but… let’s just say were I ten years younger, I would love this game. I just don’t have the time these days to devote to traveling this fully-immersive fantasy world. There’s just so much to do that I’m completely overwhelmed. I wonder how this bodes for the upcoming release of Fallout 3, which I’ve actually reserved a day off from work so I can play all day? Will it too be a completely suffocating expanse, or will there actually be some kind of story I can play along with? Hmmm, we shall see…

I’ve been updating a crap-ton of stuff for Cannibal Contagion. I’m gonna wait a few more weeks before I post the new playtest update, as there are so many changes and additions that I think it deserves a bigger all-encompassing release. The Contagion and NPC rules have been drastically re-written, I’ve added a big mess o’ sample bad guys, and I’ve made allies easier to incorporate into the flow of the game. Slowly but surely, the game is falling into the perfect flow, and I’m very proud.

I’m totally in love with the stuff that Vero and Leo have been sending me. Here’s a sneak peek at a piece from the core rules, intended to introduce the section of the rules for running and arranging the game:

Fabulous! Every new pic they send me makes me all the more excited. So far, with spacers for full-page art, the game is quickly approaching my original mark of 125 pages, and there’s a small chance it might even be more.

This weekend is Dragoncon, which I am sadly not attending for financial reasons. I asked Greg to print out a few copies of the Quad RPG and give them out on the game floor at the convention. He and his girl took it a step further, and totally awesome-ified them.

Here’s one of the special collector’s editions of the Quad RPG:

I love you Greg.

I just now posted the two-page PDF of the Quad “Quick and Dirty” RPG on the Quad Page. It’s designed as a game you can print on the front and back of a sheet of paper, fold into your wallet, and play just about anywhere and at any time. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks to Travis Brown, Cannibal Contagion now has discussion forums over on the GoPlay! PDX website. Drop on in if you have questions or ideas!