Friday, May 25, 2012

ROLF!: Rambo Goes for Cheetos

NUELOW Games has just released our latest ROLF! supplement, "Attack of the Commies from Jupiter" and it features John Rambo from such great movies as First Blood and... well... um. BUT Rambo also appears in Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III, and Rambo--which, oddly, takes place after Rambo III. That must be the George Lucas Effect somehow bedeviling Sylvester Stallone in reverse of something.

At any rate, here's a little Battle Scenario you can play with a friend, with one of you playing Rambo, the other playing the cops he must battle. It makes a perfect prequel to "Attack of the Commies from Jupiter"--which may or may not be based on a leaked treatment for "Rambo V." (Feel free to copy this text so you can print it out if you like.)



RAMBO GOES FOR CHEETOS
A Battle Scenario for Two Players



The Battle
The night in Roswell, New Mexico, was dark and sultry when troubled, always-looking-for-peace-but-only-ever-finding-violence Vietnam War veteran John Rambo went down to the corner Stop 'n' Go for a bag of Cheetos.

In the parking lot, he encounters two police officers on their way to bust some heads at the Occupy Roswell protests. They mistake Rambo for one of "them dirty hippies" and they attack.

The battle continues until Rambo or the Riot Cops are defeated.

If Rambo's Brawn is reduced to half of his starting total, a Hippy Chick jumps in to help him fight the Riot Cops. She is controlled by the gamer controlling Rambo (or a third player if one happens to wander into the room). When the battle is over, she invites Rambo to join the peaceful hippy commune that she is part of. (And thus, the stage is set for "Invasion of the Commies from Jupiter"!)


JOHN RAMBO
Brawn 33; Body 14; Brains 6.
Traits: Too Sexy For My Shirt.
Combat Maneuvers: Castrate, Dodge, Double Strike, Furious Fists, Strike Pose, Signature Move.
Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Machinegun (Medium Weapon, deals 4 points of damage. Ignores Armor). Big-ass Knife (Medium Melee Weapon. Deals 2 points of damage).


ROSWELL PD RIOT COPS (2)
Brawn is 26; Body is 13; Brains is 5.
Traits: Coldhearted.
Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Castrate, Disembowel, Dodge, Do Lunch.
Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Riot Gear. (Armor. Absorbs up to 5 points of damage.). Night Stick (Small Melee Weapon. Does 2 points of damage. Pepper Spray (Small Melee Weapon. Ignores armor. Does 1 point of damage and target must roll a successful Body ATT check or be unable to use any Combat Maneuvers for 1d6+1 rounds.), Taser (Small Melee Weapon. Ignores armor. Deals 3 points of damage.)


HIPPY CHICK
Brawn is 11; Body is 16; Brains is 4.
Traits: Nimble, Sense of Honor.
Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Debate Philosophy, Dodge, Seduce.
Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Hemp dress, colored with natural dyes. Rake (Large Melee Weapon; Deals 2 points of damage).

Please click to get a copy of ROLF!: Attack of the Commies from Jupiter for just $0.50. It is fully compatible with all editions of ROLF!, including the free ROLF! Old Skool.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Don't be left out!

I'm probably the only person who's going to be amused by this, but "Jeff Grubb's Dyvil" mini-RPG is such a great game that it's currently charting as a "Hot Seller" on a website where it's not even available for sale. :D

(This happens, I think, because people who entered the Onebookshelf.com network of e-book and e-RPGs websites through DrivethruFiction.com to buy some of NUELOW Games' fiction anthologies already had "Dyvil" in their carts or moved them to there due to the Wish List sale. Stilll....)

With a game this amazing, are YOU going to be the only person in the civilized world to say you HAVEN'T purchased a copy?! Click here to get yours today!!

No need to fight! If you have the disk space, the game is yours!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

It's Superheroes ala ROLF! in "Bullets to the Head"!

Legendary superhero couple Bulletman and Bulletgirl are back in action in the latest NUELOW Games supplement to ROLF!, as they take on the nefarious villain Der Kopf. He has not only kidnapped their son, but he is threatening to turn their hometown into a crappy place to live!


"ROLF!: Bullets to the Head" features new traits and combat maneuvers that will let ROLF! players make their own superhero characters if they want to move beyond the stuff we offer in the supplements. But you can also start playing almost immediately by using the six pre-generated characters (Bulletman, Bulletgirl, and their son Billy; along with their foes Der Kopf, his Robots of Doom, and his Flying Robots of Doom), and four linked Battle Scenarios.

During the Golden Age of Comic Books, the stars of this supplement, Bulletman and Bulletgirl, were among the most popular characters around. Bring them into the Now with superheroic rollplaying!

"ROLF!: Bullets to the Head" is on sale now at DriveThruRPG.com and RPGNow.com... click here to get your copy or to look at previews. The price? Just $0.60!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Don't miss the big Wish List Sale!


If you have any NUELOW Games products on your Wish List at RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, or DriveThruFiction, you should consider making those "gonna get someday" into "gonna get now" products. There's a sale running that means you can get things that have been on Wish List for a while for 25% off!

Treat yourself! You deserve it! (That, and I can use the royalties to buy cat food :) }

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Super-Powered ROLF! (Feedback welcomed!)

We're putting the final touches on "Bullets to the Head," a ROLF! superhero battle scenario from the fevered minds of yours truly and L.L. Hundal, with illustrations culled from the wonderful art collections made by DM Studios.

We've incorporated super powers into the game as smoothly and simply as possible--ROLF! is supposed to be quick and easy to play after all--by making them Traits you gain by sacrificing Combat Maneuvers during character creation.

L.L. Hundal's game group had a blast making and beating up Superheroes, but I'm always up for more feedback when it comes to something like this. (Anyone remember my resistance to including Hats in the game? Well, I'm having a similar reaction to these ideas, and I was proven wrong in my knee-jerk conservatism then. Am I hesitating for the wrong reasons yet again... fearing that something will make the game more complex when all it's really doing is making the game more fun? And I am thinking I am completely wrong here, because this is not that much more elaborate than the expanded Mutant trait first presented in "Creature Feature.")

ROLF! players... take a look and speak your minds in the Comments section! This is your chance to impact the game before we put something out. Please play along with us. Pretty please?





A New Trait for ROLF!: The Rollplaying Game of Big Dumb Fighters
By L.L. Hundal and Steve Miller


Super Power: The character gives up one or more Combat Maneuver slots in exchange for gaining a personal Super Power, or a Super Power granted by Stuff that is worn or weilded. A Super Power increases a character's Brawn or Body by 2 points, in addition to granting one of the following special abilties.

Giving up 2 Combat Maneuver slots gains the character a personal Super Power. He can either increase his Brawn by 2 points, his Body by 2 points, or he can pick one of the following abilities: Flight--Functions like Run Away!, except Flight can't be countered by another character using Run Away!, and the character doesn't leave the fight but can used Ranged Attacks while aloft and he can chose to land and re-engage with Melee Attacks the following round; Super Speed--The character always acts first in the round and he gets to take an extra action at the end of each round, so the combat sequence becomes ABBAA; Super Strength--All melee damage dealt by the character is doubled and all damage suffered is reduced by 1 point.

Giving up 1 Combat Maneuver slot gains the character an item that can be worn or wielded (including a Hat). The item grants Flight, Super Speed, or Super Strength, as described above. The character does not possess the power if he isn't wearing or wielding the item.
Characters can replace up to four Combat Maneuver slots with Super Powers.

Finally, for each Super Power chosen, the character has the chance of gaining a bonus power. The character's player rolls 1d6 and consults the following results: 1. No bonus; 2. +2 Body ATT; 3. +2 Brawn ATT generated by something worn or wielded; 4. Personal and permanent +2 Brawn ATT; 5.Personal and Permanent +1 Brains ATT, including the extra Combat Maneuver slot; 6. Choice of Flight, Super Speed, or Super Strength (generated by Stuff or some food or drink the character must consume for the power to work--the character must carry doses of this with him, and it is considered a Small item).

Major Beefcake awaits his stats!
Illo by Darrel Miller.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The latest in the REH Collection: 'Oriental Stories, Vol. 2'

Now available at DriveThruFiction.com and DriveThruRPG.com is Oriental Stories Vol. 2: Four Pulp Fiction Tales by Robert E. Howard, the latest entry in NUELOW Games' series The Robert E. Howard Collection.


It some ways, this book is a one-stop example of why I put this series together: While all the stories featured are action-oriented tales set in the Middle East and Near East, they each are each examples of the range of material that Howard wrote--one is historical fiction with a comedic bent, one is pregnant with supernatural menace, one is a horror-tinged action story, and one is straight-up adventure fiction. The only thing we don't get here is the conversational, tall-tale telling style he used when writing the Steve Costigan and Breckenridge Elkins stories.

I hope you'll consider checking out the collection, as the purpose for the series is to show that Howard was more than just the creator of Conan the Barbarian.

As a thank-you for your support and for visiting the NUELOW Games blog, you can purchase the Oriental Stories Vol. 2 for just $1 through this special link. (That's almost half off the regular price.)

If you have only read Howard's fantasy tales--such as Conan or King Kull--I encourage you to check out his other work, because he was capable of much more.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

A spur-of-the-moment feat for d20 Systems

I'm doing a proof-reading pass--I TRY to catch the bugs, even if I often fail--on "The Voice of El-Lil and Tales: Oriental Stories, Vol. 2", the next planned collection of Robert E. Howard stories from NUELOW Games. The following paragraph inspired a feat, which I am swiftly putting own here. It will be revised before I do anything else with it... or discarded if I discover that it is already identical to other ones already out there. (I am currently working on a couple of d20 System projects where something like this could fit perfectly, even if it was inspired by a bit in "The Fire of Asshurbanipal":

Steve knew that Yar Ali was a grim veteran, not to be stampeded by silly fear or senseless panic; he well remembered other occasions upon which Yar Ali’s seemingly telepathic instinct had warned him of danger before that danger was seen or heard.
--Robert E. Howard


Danger Sense [General]
The character has an uncanny knack for recognizing traps and ambushes before they are sprung.
Whenever the character with this feat enters a discreet area--a new room or corridor or stairway in a building or dungeon, a canyon, valley, mountain-face, or jungle glade in the out-of-doors, just to mention a few examples--he can may a DC12 Wisdom check to feel that "something isn't right." (The player has to request the roll, and the GM only provides the most general response that there is some sort of danger lurking in, or related to, that chamber.)
The character also receives a +2 bonus to all Search and Spot skill checks relating to locating traps or hidden attackers.

Tor waits while Gudrun tries to figure out
what triggered her "danger sense"