FUNKY DICE FOR THE WIN!!!

My Sicherman dice

Today I acquired - courtesy of eBay - a pair of Sicherman dice.

At first glance you might think these are just ordinary six-siders... but notice the "8" on the left die and the two "2"s on different faces of the right hand die.

These are true math rocks. And, almost, totally pointless in a gaming situation. 

They only work as a pair (so I must be careful not to mix them up with my many, many other six-siders).

One die has faces numbered 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and the other is numbered 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4.

Invented by Colonel George Sicherman of Buffalo, New York, in 1978, these dice have exactly the same probability of generating each number between 2 and 12 as a normal pair of six-sided dice (e.g. one in 36 for a total of two; two in 36 for a total of three etc).

Sicherman dice are the only other design of a pair of six-sided dice that replicate the probabilities of 'normal dice' (while using positive numbers).

Except for doubles - you're screwed there as the probabilities are clearly not the same. 

So, what's the point of these dice? Who knows? It's just playing craps with probabilities, a mental exercise.

But they're funky dice I didn't have, so I had to add them to my ever-expanding dice pool.

I guess you could use them for Traveller (or any other 2d6 system where it's the total that counts, and doubles don't give you any bonuses).

I'm pretty sure it was the prodigious Simon Miles, of Dunromin University Press, who first introduced me to these special dice at some point last year, during a commentary on - surprisingly - RPG dice. But from the moment I saw the Sicherman dice, I knew I had to own a pair.

However, I fear this may have opened a fiery portal to the world of other obscure math rocks...

Honestly, I Can Justify Buying These Two New Games

Remember back in February when I implied that I wasn't going to buy any new roleplaying games?

Well, much to no one's surprise, that pledge didn't exactly last. Although I would argue that my recent purchases may have some degree of utility in my proposed 'anime-influenced' fantasy campaign that I'm hoping to run with Twilight Sword.

In the past week, I have acquired the Pirate Borg Starter Set and the core rulebook (and some add-ons) for the new Conan: The Hyborian Age roleplaying game.

Both are peak examples of modern production standards, although I know already my chances of actually running either are next to next to zero.

These are reference works, first and foremost, because I am fascinated by pirates and I am fascinated by Conan, and always imagine slipping elements of both into my fantasy games.

First off, though, I have to point out, for those who aren't already aware, the Pirate Borg Starter Set is probably the best RPG starter set I have ever seen.

For a ridiculously low cost (when you consider what's included), you get all of this in the solid, deep box:

That's an introductory rulebook, a campaign book, item cards, a pack of character sheets, some reusable character sheets with felt pens, three sheets of card counters, several battle mats and game maps, and a full set of  gorgeous (stylishly simple) dice.

None of these are cheap quality or flimsy. These items are designed for use at the games table. Even the inside surface of the box lids (top and bottom) have useful charts and tables on.

Much of this material, obviously, can be used with other game systems - which is good, as I still dream of running a nautical adventure, even if not with this elegant Mörk Borg hack.

My other purchase - this time from eBay - was an ex-Kickstarter bundle of core material for the, as yet, unreleased to retail new Conan roleplaying game, published by Monolith.

Unlike Pirate Borg, I haven't read more than a few lines of this yet, but from what I've seen it looks a reasonable simple and uncluttered system (especially compared to previous Conan RPGs that were overwhelmed by character feats, abilities, splat books etc).

I already appreciate the use of large text and white space (as you can see from the random selection of pages below), which tells me this should be straight forward for a numpty like me to grok.

As well as the core rulebook, my eBay bundle included a large map of Conan's world in the Hyborian Age, two packs of blank character sheets, and a collection of ready reference rules sheets to use when running the game.

There's Rock Solid Movement At The Tower

 

Work has - sort of - begun on my 1:12th scale castle tower. A big sticking point in my mind has always been how I would "decorate" the exterior. I wanted a degree of texture, rather than just wallpaper with pictures of stones on!

Rachel came back from Miniatura the other day with three sample packets of cut stone to experiment with.

I really liked this in principle, but Rachel's dad - who has a better eye for these things than I do and is less inclined to launch into a project without a detailed plan - thought these might actually be too fiddly for such a large structure.

The current top contender for my brickwork is looking like embossed card, although, while I've found the right scale on eBay, I'm not sure if I'll be able to find exactly the design that I have pictured in my head.

I've ordered a single sheet of "old wall", so we can see what it's like "in the flesh" and make a decision.

It's not a major step forward, but, at least, things are moving, and I'm starting to formulate solid plans rather than just vague ideas.

When The Raven Flies aka Revenge of the Barbarians aka Hrafninn Flýgur (1984)

Having survived a Viking raid when his parents were killed and young sister kidnapped, Irish youth Gest (Jakob Þór Einarsson) spends 20 years planning his revenge.

Arriving in Iceland, it isn't long before he's Yojimbo-ing things up between his two targets, the blood-brothers Erik (Flosi Ólafsson) and Thord (Helgi Skúlason).

These Vikings had fled to Iceland with their men, to escape the wrath of King Harald of Norway after a failed coup attempt, so they're not exactly trusting to start with.

Gest very quickly starts playing them off against each other, and when one is killed you expect the film to be heading into its final act.

However, things get complicated when Gest discovers not only has one of the men married his sister (Edda Björgvinsdóttir), but also fathered a child, Einar (Gottskálk D. Sigurdarson) with her.

An almost legendary film that's hard to track down these days, When The Raven Flies goes by several names (the "When" seems to be optional in the main title, for instance), including Revenge of The Barbarians in the States and Hrafninn Flýgur in its original Icelandic.

Touted as the "most authentic Viking film ever", this Icelandic-Swedish co-production from 1984 certainly benefits from its shooting locations in Iceland, complete with black beaches and craggy hills; and unremitting weather, alternating between torrential rain and gale-force winds; as well as a cast speaking Icelandic.

But When The Raven Flies also owes a debt to the sword-and-sorcery genre so prevalent in cinema at that time, not that there's any magic or monsters in this one, but it has that gritty, Earthy, small-cast feel of so many similar cinematic stories featuring people swinging swords and axes.

While the overarching plot may not be that original - we've seen it played out with samurai, Wild West gunslingers, fantasy warriors, and gangsters - the Viking period, with its set attitudes to honour and ritual, gives it a fresh feeling.

The verisimilitude is heightened through the use of unusually-fashioned weaponry, which I'm presuming are the 'real deal' compared to flashier Hollywood armaments.

I also loved the fact that everyone rode the small but powerful horses native to Iceland, just adding another layer of authenticity to the drama.

The film is, naturally, violent throughout, but the bright red 'blood' - and avoidance of too much dwelling on injuries - lowers the gore factor down to almost Saturday evening family viewing.

Easy to root for, Gest is a pretty cool hero, armed with his spear-concealing shepherd's crook and an array of deadly throwing blades.

While he's barely set foot in Iceland before he's killing off bad guys, it's all part of a methodical, long game.

And I couldn't stop myself from making Batman comparisons (inspired by the murder of his parents before his eyes), even though it's never expressly stated how long Gest spent on his training and how long on actually setting his Machiavellian scheme in motion (we discover that it began quite some time before he arrives in Iceland).

Possibly because it's subtitled, I must confess at times I felt this 105-minute tale dragged a bit in the middle (there is an English-language cut of the film on the DVD, but that was about quarter of an hour shorter and I wanted the full experience).

However, the pay-off at the end is worth the time invested, especially as it sets up the potential for another cycle of violence... as happens with blood feuds.

When The Raven Flies turns out to be the first part of a Viking Trilogy, but, except for brief trailers on the disc, I know nothing (yet) about the subsequent films, In The Shadow Of The Raven and The White Viking.

I was lucky enough to snag a DVD - via eBay and shipped in from Germany - for just over £3, around a tenth of the price I've seen the film listed at (when it crops up on either eBay or Amazon).

If you like Viking films, then I'd definitely say this is one worth hanging on for, just be careful not to pay over the odds.

DEATHSTALKER WEEK: Deathstalker (2025)

Warrior and scavenger Deathstalker (Daniel Bernhardt) is pulled into the "machinations of the gods" when he steals a magical amulet from a dying prince on a battlefield.

Teaming up with goblin-dwarf wizard Doodad (Laurie Field, voiced by Patton Oswald) and thief Brisbayne (Christina Orjalo), this trio of rogues have to first undo the curse on Deathstalker that has bound the amulet to him.

Then they have to find an (impractical) four-bladed magical sword and thwart the apocalyptic plans of the evil sorcerer Nekromemnon (Nicholas Rice), his right-hand goon, the undead Jotak (Paul Lazenby) and their legions of monstrous Dreadite soldiers.

Written and directed by Psycho Goreman's Steven Kostanski (who was born three years after the original Deathstalker was released) Deathstalker (2025) is a loving tribute to vintage, low-budget, swords-and-sorcery flicks.

It is set in a land awash with Hawk The Slayer mist, and our heroes fight their way through a never-ending onslaught of Power Rangers (and Psycho Goreman) style rubber-suit monsters and Evil Dead-style stop-motion creations.

And, yes, the infamous porcine-faced humanoid makes a return appearance, although he's had a bit of a glow-up since the original movies. You may call him a pig-man, but to me he's a Gygaxian orc.

The ultimate weapon that Stalker is seeking - as I suspected the other day - is even an on-the-nose homage to Alert Pyun's The Sword and The Sorcerer.

In fact, the only thing that really differentiates this from the earlier Deathstalker movies is the total absence of sleaze. There's no nudity (gratuitous or otherwise), not even a hint of sexual tension between Stalker and Brisbayne. Instead, they are treated as <shudder> equals!

And, you know what, I didn't miss it. Deathstalker's linear plot is a blood-spattered, non-stop riot of over-the-top cartoonish violence, interspersed with some witty dialogue, subtle foreshadowing, and a cavalcade of rubbery monsters that could easily have just rolled out of an old school Dungeons & Dragons adventure.

You may recognise him as Kirill from John Wick or Agent Johnson from The Matrix Reloaded, but Daniel Bernhardt, who has a definite air of Jon Hamm in his mien, is superb as the titular antihero and the door is definitely left wide open at the end for sequels.

I, for one, would welcome further adventures with Bernhardt reprising the role.

The only nit I would pick with Kostanski's script - and this is as much personal taste as anything - is giving Deathstalker a backstory that necessitates him having a "pre-Deathstalker" name.

Honestly, this is completely unnecessary as the name could have been excised from the script and it would have read just as well if he was a "man with no name" type.

The film was part-funded by Kickstarter in 2024, but (for reasons) as there were no Blu-Rays (or even DVDs) on offer as incentives I just chipped in at the lowest level to get my name in the credits... because I'm easily pleased.

This did mean I had to import the Blu-Ray off my own back this week - thanks to eBay.

I know there are going to be those who moan about what's missing from the traditional Deathstalker formula (even though, surprisingly having now seen the film, it is front-and-centre in the comic book spin-off released by Vault Comics in the wake of the Kickstarter).

However, if anything, 2025's Deathstalker proves you can still make outrageous, trashy, dark fantasy sword-and-sorcery movies in this day and age that cater to audiences both old and new.

My "thank you" in the credits: best $10 I've ever invested in a Kickstarter 😉

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Albert Pyun

Back in 2022 we lost the B-movie maven Albert Pyun.

He'd hit the ground running in 1982 with his first movie, The Sword and The Sorcerer - which gave us the legendary blade-firing Tri-Sword.

And it was through this movie, which I wrote about on a previous blog back in 2011, that he achieved a god-like status in my eyes when he made contact with me via the comments section of that post.

My write-up had concluded with a trailer for Tales of An Ancient Empire,  the long-awaited sequel to The Sword and The Sorcerer.

It so happened that I had acquired what I thought was an 'official' DVD of that sequel via eBay, but as Albert would go on to explain that was actually an unsanctioned early cut that he was not best pleased to discover was out in the wild.

He sent me a link that allowed me to view the first 18 minutes of the actual cut of Tale of An Ancient Empire... and it was such an improvement on the first version I had seen.

I've always had a preference for sword-and-sorcery B-movies, so my knowledge of the rest of Albert's vast oeuvre was very limited.

IMDB, which has a lengthy biography of Albert, says this of him:

"He is credited with pioneering the cyborg sub-genre and is considered to be a maverick and renegade in independent genre cinema. With over 50 titles to his name, he has enjoyed a prolific career spanning 30+ years and has earned himself a fevered cult following."

I did enjoy his take on Captain America, from 1990.

From our brief interactions well over a decade ago, Albert came across as a genuinely nice, and enthusiastic, film fan and it was his willingness to reach out to me all those years ago that really made an impression.

That he was keen to engage with a random small-time blogger such as I and ensure that I saw, and reacted to, the film as he had actually envisioned it spoke volumes.

Albert Pyun passed away on November 26, 2022, at the age of 69.

Let's Talk About Stats, Baby, Let's Talk About You and Me

I love stats.

It all dates back to my school days and it's all because of Dungeons & Dragons and the other RPGs I was being introduced to in my formative years.

Those early roleplaying games were a gateway drug to broadening my vocabulary and learning the importance of numbers, percentages, chances etc
 
I may not have been the greatest pupil to ever walk the hallowed halls of my prep school or grammar school, but - on top of my creative writing I was developing at the time - I maintained my obsession with the magic of numbers.

Throw comic books into the mix and suddenly the revelation of Official Handbooks and Who's Whos from Marvel and DC were like catnip to me.

I'm pretty sure I picked up all the original run of DC Comic's A to Z Who's Who of their deep character roster at the time, but it was Marvel's Official Handbooks to The Marvel Universe that really blew my tiny socks off.

Entry from The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2005

These actually went into technical minutiae and even rated characters on strength, durability, fighting skills, energy projection, intelligence, strength etc

This was gold dust for an info-hungry gamer like me. Even if I wasn't looking to adapt a Marvel character directly into an RPG setting (almost certainly 2nd Edition Villains & Vigilantes), there was enough detail (even height and weight!) here to create a character based off of a Marvel character!

Sure, there were official Marvel roleplaying games, but these Handbooks felt like I was getting the details direct from the source.

To this day, I have an eBay alert set-up for Marvel Handbooks, as I've developed a special interest in the later "themed releases", comic book-sized updates featuring current characters from a particular storyline (e.g. the comparatively recent Empyre) or genre (such as 'horror' or Conan The Barbarian) .

People have devoted whole podcasts to these kinds of books (and it's easy to see why, there's just so much to talk about) and smaller companies have also dipped their toe into the "handbook" field (I try and grab them when I see them).

I primarily love comic books for the wild, superheroic, storylines and incredible art, but having these encyclopaedic volumes of facts and figures makes it all the more real for me, building a degree of verisimilitude that I can then port over into my gaming.

Well, that's the idea anyway...  

My treasured collection of The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe A - Z

PULP PICTURE OF THE MONTH: Tarzan And The Leopard Woman (1946)

Growing up in the '70s, Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan reruns were a fixture on television's three channels. My favourite was Tarzan And The Leopard Woman.

Sadly, these days, despite the millions of channels we now have on offer, you rarely - if ever - see the old Tarzan movies, so I had to turn to eBay to pick up a bargain DVD box set of half-a-dozen Tarzan tales, including Tarzan And The Leopard Woman.

I hadn't seen this film for decades and had forgotten what it was that had so appealed to me as a youngster. Turns out it was cosplay.

Within moments I was transported back to my childhood; with my parents' old leopard-print car rug thrown over my shoulders and a handful of cutlery I became a leopard god-worshipping cultist again!

The Leopard Men, wearing their parents' old car rugs...

Tarzan And The Leopard Woman is a very simple, but smart, 75-minute tale, about a tribe of leopard god worshippers, who mask their attacks as the work of real leopards, trying to prevent British colonists from forcing 'civilization' on their home land.

The cultists are aided by Ameer Lazar (Edgar Barrier), a Western-educated native doctor who resents the West's domination of the area, but they foolishly think they're smarter than Tarzan.

Tarzan is joined by stalwart companions Jane (Brenda Joyce), Boy (Johnny Sheffield) and Cheeta the chimpanzee.

But trouble starts brewing on the home-front with the arrival of Kimba (Tommy Cook), who claims to be have gotten lost in the jungle, but is actually the younger brother of the Leopard Men's priestess Queen Lea (Acquanetta).

Young Kimba is torn between his boyish crush on Jane and his desire to prove himself as a warrior and return to the Leopard Men with her heart... literally.

Having tricked the colonials into thinking the attacks on caravans were simply the work of hungry leopards, and that they had now wiped them out, the Leopard Men then launch an attack on a caravan bearing four young women from Zambezi, destined to become teachers in the new British colony.

The women, along with Tarzan, Jane and Boy, are kidnapped - to be sacrificed to the Leopard God.

But luckily Cheeta is on hand to save the day!

The truth is, watched with 21st Century eyes, we have to have a certain amount of sympathy for the "bad guys", but - as is often the case - they simply go too far.

Tarzan And The Leopard Woman is a glorious slice of black-and-white pulp adventure, with the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden doubling nicely as the African jungle.

Queen Lea of The Leopard Men (Acquanetta).

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Conan and The Fox

Last week I wrote about how I encountered Conan The Barbarian in comic books (courtesy of the wonderful, old digest releases), but I reckon this must have also been around the same time I discovered him in literature as well.

This was reminded of the first Robert E Howard books I ever owned.

It must have been the very early 1980s when I found myself, during a shopping trip to Maidstone with my parents, as a young teenager in a discount book store (I seem to recall it was one of those shops that sold remaindered titles and craft bits and bobs, kind of a forerunner to today's The Works) and my eye was immediately drawn to the exciting covers of The Howard Collector and The Gods of Bel-Sagoth, which turned out to be anthology titles focusing on the output of Robert E Howard, father of Conan.

I also acquired Wereblood and Werenight, which would turn out to be game-changing sword-and-sorcery titles for me.

These short and pacy novels had an air of Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser about them, and I strongly suspect Fritz Leiber's dynamic duo were a major influence on author 'Eric Iverson'.

At that time, I was deep, deep, deep in the early bloom of my love of Dungeons & Dragons and all things RPG and those two novels were a major influence on me.

But then I could never find anything else written by Eric Iverson. I always hoped he'd continue the adventures of Gerin The Fox, the protagonist of Wereblood and Werenight.

It was only about a decade or so ago that, thanks to the creation of the Internet, I discovered that Eric Iverson was actually just a pen name of alternate history aficionado Harry Turtledove... and that there were more Gerin The Fox tales.

They turned out to be reasonably easy to track down at the time, on Amazon and eBay, but given how much I loved the original duology as a teenager I still haven't cracked open these later books for fear they can't recapture that magic.

It's probably about time I tried though...  

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Karen Allen - My Most Enduring Childhood Crush

I watched Raiders Of The Lost Ark again the other day, as it's one of my "comfort films" that help centre me in this crazy world in which we're living.

It is also the film I've seen most times and the most times in the cinema.

Part of the appeal, on top of its pulpy majesty, is the presence of the stunning Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, the plucky two-fisted bar owner who doesn't take crap from either Indiana Jones or the Nazis.

Unlike most young boys of my generation I was never the big Princess Leia fan (that would come later as I grew to admire Carrie Fisher the person), it was all about the tough cookie Marion with her lovely freckles.

I clearly recall that the second time I watched Raiders on the silver screen, I spent the whole duration of the movie transfixed by the sight of Marion (ie Karen Allen), rather than watching the film as a whole.

From her iconic first appearance in her bar to her final moments with Indy, I was hypnotised.

After the second or third viewing at the cinema, 15-year-old me even wrote to the movie's production company, trying to get an autographed photo of her. Instead I got back a simple head shot, that I still have framed and on display in the office.

In more recent times, I acquired a signed photo of her from Raiders, through eBay, but the provenance is a bit iffy, so I'll never know for sure if it was really signed by her hand. But, to me, it's the real deal!

PROJECT 60: Hang 'Em High!

The latest addition to my nameless Dead Man's Hand town is this delightful MDF gallows - already built and complete with some rope to make tiny nooses out of!

This came from the same eBay trader as the blacksmith's. Unlike that one construction, the gallows is unpainted and requires some decoration on its base. But that shouldn't be too difficult. Should it? 

The trader has a number of other fully-built and painted pieces of Wild West set decoration (a lovely boat and several more buildings of various sizes), but I don't think I can justify spending more on this town just yet. Can I?

Who's Ready For Some Ruff Justice?

I suspect the cover is a strong clue to the quality of the Ruff Justice series

The arrival of any eBay purchase brings with it a certain frisson of excitement, but it's been a long while since I was as hyped as I was about today's arrival of 10 trashy Western novels all the way from the Good Ol' US of A.

This was my very first purchase from eBay in the States (as opposed to the UK, where I've shopped frequently since the year 2000) and it granted me a thrilling point-by-point ability to track the parcel on its 15 day voyage from Oklahoma to my front door.

My new Ruff Justice collection

But what had driven me to make such a trans-Atlantic investment?

Booktube, of course!

Late last month, my favourite Booktuber, Michael K Vaughn, took delivery of a box of Westerns that he'd been sent ahead of June on The Range. 

Among this collection was a book from a 1980's series I'd never heard of before: Ruff Justice.

I was immediately hooked by its obvious low-brow, sex-and-violence trashiness and knew I had to get some Ruff Justice titles for my growing collection.

But it turned out that even the individual titles (and Goodreads says there's 28 in the "adult Western" series) are nigh on impossible to find over here in the UK or are ridiculously pricey when they do appear.

So, I gave up hope of ever getting to read the adventures of former army scout Ruffin T Justice, and just kept my fingers crossed that maybe one day my eBay alert would flash up an affordable edition.

But then later, just Googling the series name threw up a link to eBay in the States. Normally I'd just move on, ignore it, and keep hunting on this side of The Pond. 

But the 10 books listed in the bundle looked in decent shape and once I'd calculated the combined cost of the books and shipping it worked out at just over a couple of quid per volume. I thought that was really reasonable, and an investment that wasn't likely to come along again any time soon.

So I pulled the trigger.

And, boy, I'm glad I did. 

The books look great and I can't wait to dive into the first (Widow Creek, number four in the series).

As someone who hungrily devoured Mack Bolan: The Executioner pulp novels in his formative years, I'm braced for a certain level of glorious crassness (not that I recall any rumpy-pumpy in The Executioner, that was all just killing).

It has to be said that the few reviews I've seen online for this less well-known Western series (written by Paul Lederer under the pseudonym of Warren T Longtree and published by Signet) are a mixed bag but generally aren't exactly flattering. 

But who cares, right?

I wonder if Ruffin T Justice will find his way into my Dead Man's Hand games or possibly some future roleplaying game scenario?

Only time will tell.

Before we go our separate ways, I must point out that I was incredibly impressed with the packaging of these books (I guess I'm used to Amazon's often 'devil-may-care approach to shipping books).

Here's a photo-record of my unboxing experience:

The Town With No Name Welcomes The Saloon With No Name

The first complete building for my Dead Man's Hand game (the marquee venture of PROJECT 60) now sits in pride of place in my rather crowded games room.

However, I didn't build the "multi-part, two-storey building" from Great Escape Games (purveyors of all things Dead Man's Hand and much more), instead I came across an already built kit on eBay for the same price as the kit.

All it needs now is a lick of paint. 

Of course, I have the other buildings - still unassembled - that I've acquired in recent months, but I reckon this saloon will be a great icebreaker.

Come to think of it, I haven't even conjured up a name for my nascent Frontier town, let alone considered what the saloon will be called. The Gem (as in Deadwood) is too obvious, so I'll have to give the old noggin a good shake and see what comes out.

In the meantime, the two-story building is sitting on my gaming table in the games room, surrounded by clutter that I'm sure I tidied up a few weeks ago, and a family of Border Reivers that I've been too slow about packing up (as my first wave of cowboy figures are off being professionally painted)!

The saloon was incredibly well-packaged by trader The Last Nazgul

The detail and features on this kit are amazing

Can't help but love that the all the levels are detachable, so figures can move in and out

Current visitors to the saloon appear to be Border Reivers!