Hey Man, well this is Babylon

Aaron from the Geek in the City Podcast peruses a copy of Cannibal Contagion, shortly before playing in a fantastically hilarious session of the game. “Richard Thruster” will forever be in the annals of Cannibal Contagion fame, Aaron. Thanks for playing!

(original picture source here)

Okay! Several folks here and elsewhere have asked me how they might attain copies of Cannibal Contagion, either hardcopy or digitally, without having to arrange a pickup from me directly within town. Here are the answers.

Go here! You can find links to both the hardcopy order AND the PDF order. I personally fulfill all orders of both the book and the PDF, and this method also gives me the most direct profit.

If you simply MUST use Drive-Thru RPG, then here’s the page for the CC PDF. I only get 65% of the cost of those sales, but on the plus side there are spots there where you can leave user reviews.

Speaking of reviews… have you read and/or run and/or played it? Post some reviews! I’ll love you forever and buy you beer.

Tomorrow I’ll be sending a review copy to IPR, as well. *crosses fingers*

So I cross-posted my Jesus Camp Massacre Ap thread to a few other locations, for purposes both of promotion (duh) and to spread the word of the greatest gaming session I’ve ever run in my entire life. One place I was certain would love it is the forum for Fear the Boot, one of my long-time favoritest gaming podcasts ever. I disagree with about half of what they say (such as one of their design episodes wherein they said “stat + kill” systems were the best because they always worked, or some such), but they’re consistently hilarious, and they tend to be a bit over-the-top with their own offensive jabs at, well, just about everything.

So I posted it here, and the responses were unanimously positive. Unexpectedly, the moderator (Chad, who is known by all to be the most offensive, outspoken, loud-mouthed, and proudly controversial of all the show’s hosts) stepped in and locked the thread due to “numerous complaints” about its offensive nature. For a podcast with such a tongue-in-cheek approach to such subjects, this really, really surprised me – amused me, even. How ironic.

So I responded:

I’m more amused by your locking of the thread than anything else. You’re one of the most offensive people on the FtB podcast, admittedly so. I’ve heard you say things on there and especially on the Bonus Episodes that would make sailors blush. Yet those episodes are freely available for the downloading of anyone and everyone, and people can even freely comment on them.

But I try to share some obviously tongue-in-cheek gaming fun with my fellow ‘Booters – people that I know from experience and many days of listening to the podcasts are thick-skinned and can handle this style of humor – and it gets locked for poking fun at religion?

No, not upset at all, just highly amused at the sheer irony of the situation. Ah well, it’s your board, do as you want.

But after thinking on it some more, it all made sense: Chad’s just jealous at how motherfucking awesome that session was. I’m sorry, Everyone Else On Earth, that your own games just pale in comparison to the One True Game that was the Jesus Camp Massacre.

Keep the Faith, everyone!

- NPC

(cue the slow bass drum and Mr. movie Guy)
Wisconsin. 2009. Early Summer…

A boy who struggles to quell his inner sins and reach a more glorious light…

A girl who bears his child, born from a love that can never be…

An athlete who cannot deny the truth of his Self…

An outcast who torments herself as punishment for not fitting in…

A boy whose imagination would be his greatest undoing…

A martyr who would defy the world and stand up for her beliefs – and her love of another…

The chaos of fate threw these teenagers together, to claw their way out of The Jesus Camp Massacre.

This past Gamestorm (GS11) was host to many wonderful moments of gaming, and I am proud and delighted to say that one particular game rises above all others of my recent memory in sheer awesomeness. That session was the Jesus Camp Massacre, a demo game I ran of Cannibal Contagion.

This post has taken me a long time to get up for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I keep coming back and re-editing and re-writing it. It has to be perfect – the session was just that awesome. So now, several months later, I’ve decided to re-write it one last time, and come hell or high water I will be posting this AP review today. I’ll warn you all now: This review will likely offend some people. Read at your own risk. Read more

Read all the juicy details here!

I’ll be selling the last of the signed-and-numbered copies of Cannibal Contagion’s first print run there. Additionally, I’ll be giving out free copies of the PDF to all who take part in the demos, as special thank you gifts for coming in and playing my game. I’m also looking forward to kicking some ass in the Left 4 Dead Survival Mode tournaments.

See you there!

Three updates!

First off, I want to let everyone know that the Cannibal Contagion pre-orders were put in the mail yesterday, as well as the special prize copies won during the GameStorm events. Expect them hopefully before the end of the week.

Second Update: I plan on having a new website up on the day after Zombie Day (see below). This new site will be a portal for Alliterated Games, leading to the forum, this blog, and pages on the various games.

Third Update: If you weren’t already aware, you should all attend “May of the Dead” Zombie Day at Guardian Games, on May 30th. It’s an all-day 11 AM to 10 PM (and later, for the adults and night owls) event. Events include: Two planned demos for my own newly-published survival RPG Cannibal Contagion, two separate 8-player prize tournaments of Left 4 Dead on the XBOX 360 (and all-day general playing of Left 4 Dead as well), two demos of the now out-of-print exclusive board game Last Night on Earth, some full-expansion tournaments of Zombies!!! the Board Game, six select zombie movies playing non-stop on the projector screen, a zombies-themed recurring D&D campaign, a zombies-themed demo scenario for the RPGA, some prize rounds of Zombie Flux, and multiple on-site zombie makeup artists – if you get made up as a zombie, you get a store-wide discount at the store for the day, and you are eligible for special prizes too!

I’m giving away free PDF copies of Cannibal Contagion to anyone who players in the demo sessions, as well. You should all come. It will be a grand affair indeed!

I’ll likely post an actual flier in the next week. But for now, mark your calendars, and come join the contagious fun.

And a surprise fourth update! I promise, I am still working on those GameStorm game reports. Life got unexpectedly chaotic these past few weeks, so suffice it to say I’ve been very distracted with other issues. The drafts grow a little every week, though, and I’ll be posting them when they’re perfect.

Glee!

50 fresh new copies of Cannibal Contagion were waiting at my desk upon my return from lunch. It is a good day!

I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on the current status of Cannibal Contagion’s first print run and pre-orders. I received the initial test print prototype a week and a half ago, and it was indeed very nice. The layout was fantastic, the art was crisp and evocative of the atmosphere I seek to create.

There has been a minor problem with the cover, though, that I am seeking to get straightened out. Only problem is that Lulu’s support team takes at least a day to respond to any email and follow-up, which adds up when multiple questions and interactions are necessary. Once the cover issue is resolved, though, I’ll be placing the first bulk print order. I hope to do this before this weekend. I don’t want this sitting on my shoulders while moving to my new place, ugh.

But yes! Soon! The book is AWESOME, and just holding it in my hands and smelling it’s freshly-printed deliciousness almost brought me to tears. I finally accomplished one of my dreams. Awesome.

I just now finalized my order for the first test copy of Cannibal Contagion. Lulu estimated a delivery time of about 2 weeks, based on print time and shipping speed. At 206 pages, it has greatly exceeded my initial estimations of size, and that’s with only fairly minimal art content.

So in more of less two weeks of time, I’ll be looking it over, and if all is well, placing the order for the first 100 copies. I’ll be shipping the pre-orders out ASAP. I’m expecting to have them in the mail by the middle of May, but the print time might change that.

I’m overjoyed right now, if you couldn’t tell.

Last night I played my first game of Left 4 Dead in months, and while a bit rusty, we kicked ass. It was great to buy a new Xbox, take it home, plug it in, and get an invite to play within 10 minutes. Fabulous. So yeah, I have zombies on the mind, oh yes.

The Cannibal Contagion Print Draft is about… 3/8 of the way to completion. I’ve got the basics the way I want them, and I’ve formatted and inserted the art all the way through to just at the end of the character creation section. I want to take this moment to once again elucidate how fucking awesome I think the internal art is. Leo and Vero did a knock-down bang-up fantastic job capturing exactly the feel I was looking for. I’m almost getting a bit choked up each time I place another of their pieces within the text, because each one works so damned perfectly. Seriously, folks, mega kudos. You rock.

Something else? Thanks to working on this document, I can’t get “Eye of the Tiger” out of my head.

One Last Thing: I Promise you, I am working on some play reviews of the GameStorm sessions. However, they are far from complete, and I’m choosing to put more creative direction into assembling the print draft of the game by next week’s deadline. So, once that deadline is reached, and the draft has been sent to the printer, rest assured there will be reports. Oh yes.