A couple of years ago, Jamie Davis and I wrote a scenario book on the fighting around Tanga in German East Africa during World War I. We never had any idea it would be used in this way:
http://gamingwiththegnomies.blogspot.com/2011/04/gnome-wars-battle-of-tanga-0-prologue.html
Look at the cool videos that Chris made:
The GASLIGHT Compendium promotional video: http://animoto.com/play/ZrqPoho1fKVMKmTk1uuWdA
What is the GASLIGHT Compendium? http://animoto.com/play/hz2VT06Hb8xGAuWvokSZ4A
GASLIGHT Compendium photo shoot: http://animoto.com/play/mfSbyae2QLKzTe0vpze1kQ
Over the weekend I completed the cover of The GASLIGHT Compendium. We’re giving the book the final once-over and then it’s off to the printers. The book will be 190 pages, with color throughout.
The G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Compendium meets all your VSF and Pulp needs, from skirmish and role-playing to large battles and airship fleet actions.
Victorian Science Fiction (VSF) gaming is set in the world in which the predictions and visions of men like Jules Verne, HG Wells, and H. Ryder Haggard are true. In G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Main Characters and Extras battle in a world of steam-powered vehicles, fantastic weapons, lost worlds, and terrible creatures. Pulp gaming pits steely-eyed, flint-jawed, barrel-chested, two-fisted, deadeye, tough as woodpecker lips, stud among studs, no kidding, stuff-of-legends hero-type guys against colorful, charismatic, egomaniacal, dastardly, nefarious villains and their mindless minions. The G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Compendium has rules for the creation of characters, the construction of vehicles and weapons, and the generation of fantastic creatures. This open-ended approach is one of the reasons G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. has been so successful over the past eleven years.
The G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Compendium includes material from four books: G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (for skirmishes), Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (for larger battles), Adventures and Expeditions by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.. (role-playing), and To Be Continued… by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (Pulp). All the systems are completely consistent, allowing players to tailor their G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. VSF or Pulp games. In addition The Compendium includes new rules for airship fleet battles and more detailed rules for aerial vehicles in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. or Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.. The vehicle hit charts have been revised and combined, and there are specific vehicle hit results for walking, driving, flying, and legged vehicles. The record sheets used during game play have been completely revised.
For my son’s birthday he wanted me to run a wargame for his buddies. After some discussion, we settled on a GASLIGHT WWII game featuring the Eureka Jurassic Reich figures — Nazis riding raptors.
The game involved an American patrol in trucks moving along a road. They run into a secret base where the Germans are constructing a flying saucer. The base is protected by, among other things, a German squad riding raptors.
Most of the boys just wandered around shooting at people. This one American squad, run by my daughter, snuck around, scaled the fence, and had two guys get to the saucer to plant an explosive charge. Unfortunately, the two Americans were killed before the charge exploded, so the Germans won the game.
The boys had a good time and then went out to play tag in the dark until nearly midnight while I awaited angry calls from the neighbors.
In the morning we played Blood and Swash in my tavern.
This is an early sketch of the front cover of the Compendium. The rest of the cover will be coming in a few days. I love the lancers on ostriches fighting the cossacks on raptors. Very cool.
We finished up the photo shoot of publicity stills for The GASLIGHT Compendium on Sunday. We shot the pictures in my quarters, which were built in the 1920’s, but have a Victorian looking fireplace.
My daughter had been part of the “crew” for both days of shooting. At the end, she wanted to get into a shot. We can’t use the images, but she had fun with her 15 minutes of fame.
We got a lot of usable shots from both days. Now we’re in the process of editing pictures and working them into add copy.
We’re just about done with The GASLIGHT Compendium. This weekend, we staged our final photo shoots. Below are some pictures from Day 1 at Warhorse Farm, Gettysburg, PA.
We shot a variety of pictures, including ACW, generic Victorian adventuress, and pulp. Warhorse Farm was an ideal location, despite the time of year, because of the woods, large rocks, and hand-built split rail fence.
The weather was hovering just over 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so our model liked the wool ACW uniforms.
We had to get our model to stop smiling, since we didn’t want it to look like our Victorian Heroine ENJOYED killing bad guys. Then we needed her to smile, so Sam demonstrated his Heisman Trophy pose.
The crew all had a good time with this shoot.
This is a picture of Chris (right) and me (left) with our model (center).
We plan to use these photos in The Compendium and also in promotional materials.
I’ve written here a few times referring to the upcoming release of the eagerly anticipated GASLIGHT Compendium. We’ve contracted a very talented artist for the cover art. Above is a small detail from the cover art to whet your appetite. Look here from time to time for more sneak previews and information.
Another prop I wanted to build for the upcoming photo shoot was a rocket pack ala The Rocketeer or the Commando Cody serials from the early 50’s.
This has been a joint project with my son. Last night we put on the finishing touches.
This started with two three-liter (not two liter) bottles, some plastic cups, and a funny shaped shoe box. The wing was cut from black-core foam board. The frame is from an old cub scout back pack.
This is a picture of my daughter wearing the rocket pack that gives you an idea of scale. We didn’t want the wings to be too large — just large enough to suggest a control surface. Tommy made the turbine-looking tops of the pack out of card stock cut, folded, and fastened with a brad. We “primed” all the plastic with Krylon Fusion (which is made to stick to plastic), and then everything was sprayed with metallic paint.
We wanted the bottles to be labeled with some chemical name. We pulled out the periodic table, took a little license, and determined that GASLIGHTe makes it fly! What a coincidence.
The designs were made in PowerPoint and printed onto a full sheet of label material. Then we cut them out and affixed them. This was way easier than gluing on card stock or heavy paper. I found a pack of 100 full-sheet labels online for $10. I only needed one sheet to make spotting dice for Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII, but I figured I’d find use for the other 99 sheets over time.
The HAWKs are painting up 8 sets of figures given to us by friends of Wally Simon. We will be running games at Historicon 2011 for kids under 10 years old. They will get one British army, one Continental army, a ground cloth, two paper buildings to assemble at home, a copy of Big Battles for Little Hands, and perhaps a couple of hills. The intent of this project is to help grow the hobby.
This weekend we finished painting the figures. This has been a club effort. It took four Saturdays to paint all the figures, even though we are applying just a very simple block painting. We just need to finish up the terrain bits and play test the scenario. Finish the figures provided a great sense of accomplishment.
We plan to solicit others to donate their unused armies that we might continue this effort in future conventions. Chris and I both have a bunch of old plastic Airfix ACW figures we plan to donate. Jay Hadley recently handed us a bunch of WWII ships. This could turn into a very nice tradition.