There we go.

I told you those riders and goblins would appear.

We’re still in the holding pattern of “nothing new to report” updates, but finished pieces of art are hitting my desk with startling regularity at this point. On the other hand, one of my artists is currently in the process of getting uprooted out of his second apartment in as many months. (Which sounds like a complete nightmare.)

So… two steps forward, one step back.

I am very tempted to say at this point that we are perilously close to the point where I would have the art in hand necessary to start the final layout pass on the book. (After which we would have another pass to lay in the SRS, then a final digital proof, and then the additional proofing steps required for the physical book.) But I remember that the first time I was tempted to say something like that was in December of last year just after I finished revising the Grimoire… and then all my artists disappeared. So, like I said, still in a holding pattern here.

This is a fun little dice game I recently re-discovered in one of my desk drawers. I picked it up a couple of years back, so its probably still kicking around. It actually predates the collectible dice games (such as Dragon Dice) which followed in the wake of Magic the Gathering, and instead descends from older traditions.

Cosmic Wimpout comes in a small plastic tube containing five dice, a sheet of instructions, and a “Cosmic Wimpout” sticker. Four of the dice are white and the fifth is black. The four white dice are printed with a 5, a 10, and four symbols. The black die comes repeats the 5 and the four symbols, but replaces the 10 with the “Flaming Sun” symbol.

At the beginning of the game you decide on the game goal (usually 300 or 500 points) and the first player roles the dice.

Three matching faces (on the same throw) are known as a flash, and score various numbers of points depending which symbols or numerals you’ve matched up. Five matching faces (at any time) is known as a Freight Train and, naturally, scores far more points. Unless you roll five 10’s, in which case you’ve scored Too Many Points (a Supernova) and you automatically lose the game. (There’s also a Freight Train combination which automatically wins the game.)

The Flaming Sun is a wild card. The Flaming Sun Rules states that you must use the Flaming Sun to complete a flash if it is at all possible.

A “5” or a “10” by itself scores 5 or 10 points (respectively). A Flaming Sun can also be used to simulate these, unless (of course) the Flaming Sun Rule is in effect.

If you don’t score any points on a role that’s a Wimpout. Your turn is over and you’ve lost all the points accumulated in that turn. Wimping out with all five dice is called a Train Wreck. Unless you Wimpout you can continue rolling any non-scoring dice.

You can stop rolling at any time, scoring the points you’ve accumulated, unless:

1. You haven’t rolled yet.

2. You May Not Want To But You Must — if you’ve scored with all five dice you must roll all five dice again before stopping (risking a Train Wreck).

3. The Futtless Rule states that all flashes have to be cleared – meaning that if you’ve just scored a flash you must score additional points by rolling the non-scoring cubes. The Reroll Clause states that you cannot clear a flash while matching any one of the flash faces when clearing. (So if you roll three fives you’d flash; at which point you’d have to reroll the remaining dice and score additional points… but if one of the dice comes up a five you’d have to roll all the remaining dice again.)

Finally, once a player has reached the game goal everybody else gets one last chance to catch up and surpass their score.

It’s a fun little game. It fits easily in a lapel pocket I’ve found and is easy to teach to your friends quickly. Any number of people can play and it’s appropriate for just about any social gathering.

I don’t know how available this game is any more, so I’m going to include the address found on the instruction sheet:

Cosmic Wimpout
P.O. Box 3199
Greenfield, MA 03012

That’s current as of 1993 – which is, of course, an eternity in this industry. I hope you have luck finding it.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Company/Publisher: C3, Inc.
Cost: $4.95
Page count: n/a
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 1999/05/28

In the years since this review appeared, Cosmic Wimpout has appeared on the web!  You can find it here. Apparently the game has been around since the 1970’s.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

This is another “holding pattern update” for Legends & Labyrinths: I’m still not at the point where the production of the book is entirely in my hands (i.e., I’m still waiting for artists to deliver finished pieces), so I’m still not willing to start making guarantees and promise release dates (having been met with so many disappointments and setbacks over the long history of this project).

But I am, as promised, waving my hand in the air and saying, “Still here.”

Meanwhile, I have now seen work-in-progress pieces featuring the adventuring parties of both of the Legend in Your Own Time groups. Well, sort of. One of the pieces currently only has the horses and wolves the characters will be riding. But I’ve been promised that the characters will appear in the final piece! 😉

(And since this was WIP was actually delivered to me a couple of weeks ago, I should be seeing the finished piece within a few days.)

This is a site maintenance post. I’ve had a handful of people report a problem where the images in the left sidebar overlap onto the main text boxes. It looks like this:

(Thanks to stm for the picture.)

The problem is that (a) as far as I can tell, the size of that left sidebar should be specifically set and (b) I can’t actually replicate the error, which makes it almost impossible for me to fix it.

So, if you’re seeing this error please reply to this post and let me know what operating system, browser, and screen resolution you’re viewing the site with. The more specific you can be, the better. (For example, I’m specifically using Windows 7 Home Premium (Service Pack 1, Version 6.1, Build 7601) with Firefox 16.0.2, Chrome 23.0.1271.95, or IE 9.0.8112.16421 with Update Version 9.0.11 and a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024.)

The problem has been reported with:

• Mac OS X 10.4 with the Camino browser at 1024 x 768
• Ubuntu Linux with Firefox 10.0, but also Firefox 9 and Epiphany (gnome web browser)

Inspired by Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon and Adapted to Fantasy

Deep in the bowels of the earth, the mining of the dwarves broke through into the Cacophony: A vast substrate of strange, fluted rock through which howled an unnatural gale-storm of subterranean wind.

Others might have destroyed such a place. Or sealed it away to save themselves from its terrible roar. Fortunately, the work of dwarves is fraught with care: “With cautious skill, tap by tap — a small chip of rock and no more, perhaps, in a whole anxious day” they discovered that the whole of the Cacophony was made up of a twisted morass of differentiated spires.

And each of these Spires, when separated from the Cacophony of the whole, possessed a unique and ethereal song of haunting beauty.

For generations, therefore, the dwarves have worked: Carefully choosing and extracting each songspire so that its music can be heard. They are rare and beautiful objects, prized by both dwarves and surface dwellers.