One Thousand and One Nights and One Night
a role-playing game campaign design ’zine Vol.: 1, Issue: 19, December 15, 2007
Fall Quarter is Over!
Earlier this month, I finished my
Aero graduate class. At print–time,
I do not know my final grade, but I
figure I did well. This gives me
some time to enjoy the holidays and
get some more done on the next few
1001+1 issues. I hope that you all
have a safe holiday season and I
look forward to publishing again in
the new year! See you then!
Modern Odd Game Design
This month, I’ve been kicking around the idea
of a modern game and have gathered a bunch
of things to string together to
accomplish that. First, the film
National Treasure: The Book
of Secrets (Bruckheimer) is
coming out soon. I loved the
first movie and I anticipate this
one. It’s got a great mix of fact,
myth, conjecture and wild
speculation that I just love. It’s
the perfect flavor of setting for
a conspiracy–esque game that I’d run.
Secondly, I’ve been reading stuff on Wikipedia.
I read the listing on The Adventures of
Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
(Sherwood). I came across the following very
interesting items:
• a huge robot and a box of Hitler's cigars
• “Find the Jetcar, Said the President–A
Buckaroo Banzai Thriller”
• Lepers from Saturn.
Then I read in the listing on Philip K. Dick that
“Dick was ‘resurrected’ by his fans in the form
of a remote-controlled android designed in his
likeness. The android of Philip K. Dick was
impanelled in a San Diego Comic Con
presentation about the film adaptation of the
novel, A Scanner Darkly. In February 2006,
an airline misplaced the android, and it has
not yet been found.” I also read about the
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Content © Wooden Leg Named Smith Productions 2007
Website: 1001nightsand1night.110mb.com
Yet Another Gaming Podcast
Earlier this month, I mentioned gaming
podcasts. Another one that I’ve been listening
to is the Godzilla Gaming Podcast
(www.godzillagamingpodcast.libsyn.com).
Mike and Cam are two gamers in Japan and
they have lots to say about gaming in English in
a foreign country. A great segment of the show
is where they talk about Japanese snacks! Some
of them sound very interesting. It’s one to listen
to when you need that gaming goodness!
What I’m Reading: Bloody Benders
I picked up a copy of Rick
Geary’s The Saga of the
Bloody Benders (one of his
Treasury of Victorian
Murders graphic novels). It’s
the story of a family of serial
killers in Kansas that were
responsible for over two
dozen murders between
1872–73. The Bender family
showed up in Labette County,
Kansas and built a small store and restaurant,
called the Wayside Inn. The one–room building
had a sheet to separate the room in half, with
the cooking done on one side and the store and
restaurant on the other. The sheet divider was a
very important prop in the killings.
A likely victim arrived at the door and was
shown a chair, with his back to the sheet. The
daughter, a pretty girl named Kate, would talk
with the victim while he ate and get all sorts of
information–where they’re going, who they’re
meeting and the purpose of their trip. If they
were alone and with lots of cash, far from
friends, the father John Bender would smash
them in the head with a sledge hammer
through the sheet. Kate then dragged the body
into the cellar and slit the victim’s throat.
They’d steal his money, sell his horse and bury
the body in the orchard out back. And with
times being what they were, the victims were
not missed for a long, long time. The Benders
(continued on Page 2, First Column)
published in association with the Corvis Babbage Cliological Society
’zine art is either open source or through fair use of copyrighted works
One Thousand and One Nights and One Night
a role-playing game campaign design ’zine Vol.: 1, Issue: 19, December 15, 2007
Bloody Benders (cont.)
killed a whole bunch of people and then
disappeared. There is a lot of speculation on
whether they were really a family or just four
criminals who worked together to kill and rob.
Rick Geary does a great job
with the subject matter. I love
his art, it’s really got a good
feel for that time period and
the characters and even the
everyday items around them
are very detailed. He is a
favorite artist of mine since I
read Blanche Goes to New
York, a Cthulhu–esque comic
from 1992.
The Bloody Benders would make a good
encounter for any party. They could be used in
nearly any setting, especially an Old West game
(and would work quite well in a Deadlands
Reloaded (Pinnacle) game), standard–bog
fantasy (in the wild lands between two towns)
and even in modern times (an old hill–billy
family in the Ozark Mountains).
More Modern Odd (cont.)
2000 year old Sword of Goujian. In fact, one
part said “After being in water for 2000 years,
the Sword of Goujian till has a sharp blade and
shows no signs of tarnish.” So, here’s the mix!
First, Hitler’s spirit was trapped in his
cigar humidor after his suicide by
Himmler, a mage of the Aryan
Brotherhood. He faked his death and
escaped to Argentina but lost the
humidor in transit. It found it’s way
into a storage area in Paris where PK
Dick’s android ended up. A freak
electrical storm released Hitler’s spirit
into the android and now he’s on the
loose, searching for the magic sword.
Hitler gets a bunch of zombies
powered by magic from Saturn and
steals a proto–type Jet Car vital to US
(continued on Second Column)
Content © Wooden Leg Named Smith Productions 2007
Website: 1001nightsand1night.110mb.com
Page 2
Another Good Free ‘zine
Roger Carbol writes an excellent ‘zine based
upon *gasp* REALITY, mixing news headlines
(or small news bits) into the D20 (WOTC) OGL
system. It’s called Knowledge (Current Events)
(roger.carbol.com/rpg/K_CE/K_CE.htm) and
he’s up to issue #14. It’s a great resource to add
a bit of flavor to a modern game, even other if
other systems are used. Go Roger!
To the Future with Mutant Future!
Goblinoid Games (www.goblinoidgames.com)
will be releasing Mutant Future, a D20 (WOTC)
retro–clone game in the same vein as the 1st
editions of Metamorphosis
Alpha (James Ward) and
Gamma World (WOTC). The
retro-clone games have had
quite a following. These
games are D20 (WOTC) but
with a focus on game style
from our youth (or at least the
youth of the hobby), like the
Blue Box Basic D&D (WOTC). Several other
companies are producing retro–clone games–
Goblinoid also has Labyrinth Lord and Troll
Lord has Castles and Crusades, just to name a
few. I’ve downloaded the free copy of Labyrinth
Lord (a hardback book is also available for sale)
and it’s pretty good. I’m looking forward to
Mutant Future as I am a great MA/GW fan and
a fan of other post-apocalyptic games as well.
I’ve even been in the Goblinoid Mutant Future
forums talking about it and the designers have
been very cool! If you like retro–clone games,
be sure to go to Goblinoid Games.
Even More Modern Odd (cont.)
National Security. Everybody and their kid
brother are looking for this car. The real prize,
however, and what everyone is really after is the
script of “Find the Jetcar, Said the President–A
Buckaroo Banzai Thriller” in the trunk! Why?
Add some Ken Hite’s Suppressed Transmission
(Steve Jackson Games) and serve in a Savage
Worlds! (Pinnacle) Bureau 13 (Tri–Tac) game.
published in association with the Corvis Babbage Cliological Society
’zine art is either open source or through fair use of copyrighted works