Untold: It’s ALIIIIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The game is live and out there! I have been waiting two years to say that. I had posted previously about the game Untold from Wandering Men Studios here. I have been working with these guys since the play-test of the system. Since then I have seen it coalesce into the game that the designers had envisioned.


What is Untold? Well the blurb at the web site states it as thus: designed to combine all the best elements of Role Playing Games (RPG's) and Collectible Card Games (CCG's) and toss the rest. Untold is a CBRPG (™): Card-Based Role Playing Game. It is exactly the same as any other RPG, but the primary physical "tools" of the game are different. Instead of rulebooks and character sheets, the only "tools" you need in Untold are cards!

So Untold is a role playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons and GURPS, with a toe in the card based world of Magic: The Gathering without the blind collectability, but is wholly its own creature with its modular mechanic and card based rule set.

Untold uses cards for building a character deck within is found the skills and statistics to allow the player to create a hero is the Splintered Serenity campaign setting created by the Wandering Men. All skill resolution is determined with the use of a twenty sided die, which has become a staple in many game systems based on the “d20” model. The cards themselves provide rule information and statistical information for resolution.

This not a d20 variant system like True 20 or Pathfinder, but rather its own unique concept. Untold allows for a unique story telling element as well as character customization process. Untold allows for changing character statistics by creating a story to effect that change. For example, a hero needs to have a greater Body stat. (Body, Mind, and Soul are the three “stats” of a character called Aspects) The player might weave a story at the table that by divesting themselves of useless equipment they become quicker and more sure on their feet. The point based building system and modular card mechanic allow for this shift on the fly, by the player removing equipment from their hand and turning the Body card around to show the new advanced number. (Some cards like the Aspect card, are divided into four quadrants allowing for more versatility in the game and few cards to keep track of) The cards are generally divided into three categories for the player. Story, Site, and Hot swap cards, which dictate when such cards can be substituted of “swapped out” during a game. Story swaps can only be switched out as the example above, by telling a role playing story, Site swaps are usually equipment and can only be switched out at certain locations determined by the game master, and an example would be a town or base. Hot swaps are the most versatile cards and usually represent powers or skills that the hero possesses. Allowing the character to have as many as there are available points for. These can be placed into the hand at the beginning of each action to allow access to the ability.

The game does play quick, with minimal start up time, or resolution of action once a player is familiar with the abilities their character possesses. Damage reduction, or hit point calculation is actually the deck points in the player's possession. As your character takes damage you lose cards, you physically watch your character get whittled down. This can be slightly frustrating as well as disconcerting as you take damage and your ability to respond to continued threats is diminished through attrition. The math challenged, like me, might have some difficulty determining what cards to discard to make up the damage they sustained or when healed or regain equipment adding back into their hand. But this is usually as minor inconvenience as using a scratch pad as in other RPGs to tick off damage sustained.

As I stated it plays quick, in one game I played we had twelve players in a multi-tiered adventure, with complete chaos. Different factions were working against one another, some players were novices, and others were wily veterans who could meta- game a system back to the stone age and still others were there to revel in the said chaos. Part of the success was the GM's skill at running, but it was also the ease of the mechanics in play.

Artistically the game is gorgeous, the cards are quality stock with great art from up and coming artists like Tom Babbey, John Gonzales, and Patri Balanovsky. The accompanying website offers free content in the way of adventures, plot hooks, and rules. There are ecologies and personalities to help a game master flesh out there own realities, not just Splintered Serenity. Fiction by Ben Lee, Nathan Ellsworth, and Corey Blakenship give the world of Splintered Serenity its own life.

The setting itself is a post-apocalyptic sword and planet version of Earth with other realities encroaching, with creatures and races of the Elder Dark planning humanities utter downfall. There is super science and sorcery, high adventure and gritty doom. Gotta love a package like that!

I recommend to gamers that are looking for something a little different, even if a card based mechanic does not thrill you, look at the setting, and the content. The world of Untold is worth the time.

Princess of Mars: Traci Lords is Baaaaack!!!!!

I finally broke down and dropped my five bucks to rent Princess of Mars, written and directed by Mark Atkins. The direct to video 2009 release stars Antonio Sabato, Jr. as John Carter and Traci Lords as Deja Thoris. This film is based on the series of adventures penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs of Tarzan fame. The stories were "planetary romances", what has become known as Sword & Planet. There were roughly a dozen or so of these stories, usually serialized in various pulp magazines, the majority surrounding John Carter as the main character.

John Carter was a Virginian who had served during the Civil War as an officer. He was adept at shooting, riding, and he was deadly with a sword in his hand. All prerequisites for what was to come. Through a process which could only be related to astral projection, but with physical form, John Carter finds himself on the red planet that the natives call Barsoom and we know as Mars. He finds with the lighter gravity of Mars he is stronger, faster, and able to make tremendous leaps. He befriends, a four armed tusked warrior named Tars Tarkas, of a race called Tharks. He rescues Princess Deja Thoris from the Tharks; he goes on to embroiled in the events and politics of Barsoom. He saves the planet from suffocation by revitalizing/turning on the air pumping station that maintains the thin atmosphere. The first story ends with John Carter declared War-Lord. All the John Carter tales are related in the first person as Carter returns to Earth periodically having learned to secret to willfully travel between worlds, so the tales are as he related them to one of his descendants. (Burroughs)

The Mars of Burroughs imagining is a post-apocalyptic desert planet, inhabited by humans, myriad multi-limbed beasties, an assortment of weird races, and mad scientists for Carter to pit himself against. The world is drying up, becoming arid and inhospitable. Ancient technology manifests itself in things like air ships, flying sleds, radium guns, and afore mentioned pumping station. There are other super-science plot devices such as brain transplants from living bodies to synthetic ones and between species. The cultures are all honor bound warrior based societies with an emphasis on personal combat and reputation. With the technology becoming rare as it breaks down with little knowledge to replicate or repair, the societies have fallen back on swordsmanship and hand to hand combat as a means to wage war.

The Burroughs' books are great fantasy and an exemplarily example of pulp fiction that would go on to influence generations of writers, including Robert E. Howard and later day literary heroes like R.A. Salvatore.

Now the movie: not bad. Not good, but not bad. The movie actually does a fine job of adapting The Princess of Mars. But like so many Sci Fi Channel productions it suffers from a very low budget. But unlike the upcoming Conan film, the one of ARNOLD fame and even the new Solomon Kane film that will be released on DVD here in the States, this film actually follows Burroughs' story closely.

The film Princess of Mars has modernized John Carter, (Sabato) in that he is a Captain in the Marines rather than a Confederate officer, in the Middle East rather than in the Old West prospecting gold. The Mars of this new rendering is a planet in the Alpha Centauri region called Mars 4. John Carter agrees to be part of a teleportation experiment to this remote and theoretically inhabitable world. This gets around the fact that hard science has ruined the planetary romance and the turn of the century speculation about the Mars of our solar system.

When he arrives, as in the novel, he encounters the Tharks who are amazed and entertained by his prodigious leaping ability and strength. The rest of the film follows the original Burroughs' plot loosely, replacing the enemy city-state of the novel with the machinations of another Earth man that had also agreed to the experiment.

The nit and the picky: the production value is stupendously low. In the Burroughs tale the Tharks are ten foot four armed green giants. In the film they are men in rubber masks, but at least they kept their tusks. The make up is not bad, and at least they try to keep some semblance of the original envisioning, but like the thoats (6 limbed beasts) that are reduced to bipedal raptor-like creatures, the extra limbs are lost to save CGI money. The green screen shots are painfully obvious as such, and the swords, which were such an integral part of the society, are really cheap wall hanging pieces and have no uniformity of style: Roman gladius, sabers, and psudo-celtic broad swords. Of course there is Traci Lords, her acting was stilted, her facial expressions minimal, I half suspect from Botox to fill in the lines of a hard lived life. I envisioned a younger, fresher faced Deja Thoris, but admittedly, at 42 she still looks great in a leather bikini. The editing between scenes and cut scenes are rough and sometimes jarring. The film lacks the epic swashbuckling scale that the novels possessed.

The cool and geeky: This is John Carter of Mars as a live action film! There is a bigger production slated for 2012, but this came first. It stayed close to the source material as I said to hear the name Deja Thoris or Barsoom spoken aloud; to enjoy a version of Tars Tarkas befriend John Carter is geeky coolness. Despite the lack of a budget I think those that worked on this film wanted to make a good John Carter of Mars movie, but it is hard to realize that sweeping vision on a stipend. Sabato looks like John Carter, tall and muscular, dark haired, with honorable sensibilities. He might not have been the southern gentleman of Burroughs' stories but he is the man he could be in this modern, ambiguous era. And the former Calvin Klein model is not half-bad as an actor.

I caution that this film is really for die hard geeks like me. I will say at least they tried, and I don’t think they did a bad job considering what they had to work with. I would also point to this movie and say to those making the new Conan and the 2012 John Carter of Mars, a good story can be adapted faithfully. I would also caution them that all the special effects in the world do not make a bad story any better.

Saturday Morning Pulp: Demon Dogs!

Mangus suggested this week's post as part of the title for this blog deals with my love of Saturday morning goodness. I have always loved cartoons. For those that want to sound more mature we can call it animation. Cartoons are for the kid in all of us, some just never lose enjoyment them. From Looney Toons to Snow White Disney’s first animated feature in 1937 to Ralph Baksi’s Wizards in 1977. The last is a lot more adult then the other two though. Animation has been a way to tell stories in motion that really could not be done in live action, as an artistic expression, or just make us laugh; from Marvin the Martian to Vampire Hunter D, cartoons are for the kid in each of us. It has been a great medium for pulp fiction.


The list of cartoons, or animation if one prefers, that deals with the pulp style of adventures and space opera would take up blog space for years to come. From the Max Fleischer's Superman, Johnny Quest, Zorro, Planet of the Apes, even Popeye, the list stretches on. But my favorite cartoon that screams pulp action is Thundarr the Barbarian.

Thundarr the Barbarian, created by Joe Ruby ran from 1980-1982 on Saturday mornings. A post-apocalyptic world summed up with the introductory voice over: The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!


Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...


A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil.

He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!

Okay, tell me anyone who loves sword and planet or pulp sci-fi would not be all over this? I loved this show before I even knew about the definitions of various styles of fantasy or sci-fi. I just knew there was this kick-ass barbarian tearing through a world of mutants and wizards! I was there ever Saturday, and to prove my original statement about the kid in all of us, my dad was on the couch right beside me! This show is classic sword and planet style of fiction with the mix of science, magic, and primitive weapons. The hero Thundarr is of the typical barbarian mold, he is tough, strong, and straight forward. He fights for those too weak to fight back for themselves. Princess Ariel provides beauty, smarts, and sophistication to the group, along with her sorcery. Then there is Ookla the Mok, a bestial warrior that tosses half ton trucks and uses tree trunks as spears. He is Thundarr's best friend and provides over powering muscle and savagery when needed. He has also seemed to work himself into pop lexicon with the phrase: "What the **** is a Mok?!?!"

The main plot of the show has Thundarr and company traveling across the blasted waste of the world fighting to free humans from the oppression of wizards, mutants, and pretty much anyone else that wants to attack the weak and defenseless. He is a hero for younger kids, straight forward fighting for what is right for right's sake alone. The plots are simple and jump right into the action. This is Saturday morning cartoons though; it is aimed at the 7-12 crowd. That does not take away from the series in any way, but rather it makes the other aspects more important and appreciated by me now as an adult.

For example the background painting of the setting shots; just the imaginative way that such an apocalyptic future was visualized. The city-scapes that were buried almost intact, to amusement parks and old ocean liners used as homes, to establishing shots of the cataclysmic destruction. The wizards were each unique in their powers and the technologies they sought or possessed. The mix of old world tech and magic makes this a great setting for pulp fantasy geeks like me.

The stories were simplistic but not dumb, some of the ideas for Thundarr's adventures were very good, and could have been developed along more adult oriented themes if they were written for such an audience. For example the idea of the wizards themselves ruling over their own little fiefdoms and Thundarr seeking to destroy them would make for a good series of more adult oriented adventures. The deeper intrigues of warring wizards could be explored with Thundarr and his companions caught in the middle. But I digress into speculation and the realm of fan-fiction.

Needless to say Thundarr the Barbarian was a fun pulp fantasy for a younger audience with enough to hold an adult's interest too. The series is supposed to be released in DVD later this year in a bundle with several other Saturday morning cartoons and I will be in line on release day!