Black Tokyo Races: The Revised Ubume

Right now, I’m in the mood to revise and consolidate the information for my three key settings: Black Tokyo, Heavy Future and Otherverse America. 

Sitting on my computer right now are revised race drafts for Black Tokyo and Heavy Future, and a player’s handbook to the Choicer nation that does the same for Otherverse America. By the way, if anybody wants a playtest copy of any or all these documents, just email me, I’ll get them out to you next time I check my email.

You saw some of the revisions I’m making to Heavy Future a couple of posts ago, and some preview art for Culture of Choice. Today, take a look at how I’m updating the Ubume race from Black Tokyo. I’ve always liked the race, and ever since I published Gothic Christianity and The Black Bestiary, in which I’ve tied this BTU race to Otherverse America, albeit in a tenuous way, I’ve been wanting to do more with them. I’d always liked the core concept, but wasn’t sure if the race was playable enough, though it certainly had some flavor.

So take a look at the version of the Ubume race that appeared in Races of the Tatakama, and the upcoming revised version. They’re fairly similar, though I made a few changes in the description to make the race seem a little more action-friendly rather than just being melancholy, mournful and somewhat passive undead. I also gave them a ton of new body-horror alternate racial traits, some really nasty stuff, and I’ll likely add a few more options before I finally publish the book.

The art, by the way, is not something I own. It’s just something cool I found on Tumblr somewhere and stuck into my ‘campaign inspiration’ folder. But damn, I want the eventual art to be that horrific and creepy.

CHRIS

Ubume (as presented in Races of the Tatakama)

Medium Undead

           

            Ubume are tragic undead bound by misfortune, guilt and longing, but sustained by a selfless hope. The Ubume have chosen to become undead, and to exist in a body of cool gray flesh, rather than to return to the Karmic wheel as the penance for a crime only they themselves prosecute. Ubume are the restless, transfigured sprits of women who died in childbirth, whose children died in the womb and never tasted the air.

Their sin, as the Ubume themselves see it, is that their mortal bodies were too weak or sickly to bring their child into the world. Rejecting heaven and the comforting amnesia of reincarnation, the Ubume wander the world, the sleeping soul of their dead child wrapped tightly in their arms, in the hopes of giving their child a chance at life, however meager.

Appearance

            Ubume resemble the human women they were in life, but their spiritual pain has warped and twisted their bodies. Their skins are cool and gray, and their bodies are slick with a cold, clammy ichors. Their jet black hair hangs in matted clumps, slick with their death-ooze and stinking of dried blood. They carry the inert, sleeping soul of their child with them; sometimes, the undead appears to carry her child in her arms, a heavy burden wrapped in tattered, blood splattered cloth and spider webs.

At other times, her child-soul merges with her own undead flesh, entering her dead womb and making the undead creature appear vastly pregnant. Her unbreathing child’s umbilical cord trails between the Ubume’s legs, connecting dead mother to dead baby in a perversely natural way.

Reproduction

            Ubume are female, but are effectively sexless creatures. Bound by the weight of tragedy, these undead women have no interest in sex or romance, and little capability to indulge in such acts even if they were interested. A Ubume’s vagina is tattered and torn, her reproductive portal hanging between her legs in tattered, fleshy ribbons.

Homes and Lands

            Ubume walk the shadowed roads between settlements. They are unwelcome in many communities, seen as an obvious ill omen, and blamed for any miscarriages suffered by a villages’ women. Like the Akaname, Ubume linger on the bottom of the social order. As unwelcome and eerie nomads, Ubume have no lands or community of their own, though many elder members of the species attempt to aid their younger siblings whenever encountered.

Ubume Racial Traits

            Size and Type

            Ubume are Medium Undead. As a medium creature, the Ubume receives no special bonus or penalties due to her size.

Her base land speed is 20 ft; she moves with the uncomfortable walk of an eight month pregnant woman, even when her dead child is carried in her arms. However, the Ubume’s base land speed is never reduced by armor or encumbrance.

Undead Immunities (EX)

            Ubume have all the immunities common to Undead player characters.

            Ability Score Modifiers

+2 STR, -2 DEX, -2 CHA. As an undead, an Ubume has no CON score. The burden the undead mother carries has strengthened her rotting form, but her endless pregnancy has made her graceless, and her tragedy makes it difficult for her to interact meaningfully with others.
 

Enhanced Senses

Ubume can see clearly even during the blackest night, and have darkvision with a 60 ft range.

Racial Skills

As an incarnation of thwarted motherhood itself, Ubume are surprisingly kind and caring to mortal children, and their presence doesn’t terrify or unnerve young children the way it does adults. The Ubume receive a +4 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks made against any creature in the Young Adult age category or younger, as well as Diplomacy checks made against child-undead such as Jinzu or Ohaguro (described fully in an upcoming sourcebook).

            NPC Ohaguro and Jinzu (as well as other child undead) have an initial attitude of indifferent to the Ubume, and will not attack the ghostly-mother unless commanded to or attacking in self-defense.

            Burdened Womb (SU)

The Ubume always carries her unborn child’s spirit with her, in the form of a baby’s corpse, half buried under a layer of sticky, blood soaked leaves and detritus, and swaddled in rags and spiderwebs.

            She must either carry it in her arms, leaving only one of her hands free, or absorb the spirit child into her womb as a full round action. When carrying her child, the Ubume cannot wield any two handed weapon, and is considered to be carrying a Light load.

            While her child sleeps within her dead womb, the Ubume gains use of both hands, and is not considered automatically encumbered. While her child is inside her, the Ubume’s spirit is burdened, and she suffers a -2 racial penalty on all WILL Saves.

Dust of Guilt (SU)

 Once per day, as a move-equivalent action, an Ubume can stroke and caress her dead child. A low and freezing wind blows from the Great Universal Tree and sweeps across the land. Dust and leaves from the spirit child’s corpse billows into the air like a tornado.

           

All creatures within 30 ft of the Ubume must succeed at a WILL Save (DC 12 + the Ubume’s WIS modifier) or become overcome by a nameless grief. Those who fail their saves become shaken for as long as the Ubume remains within 30 ft and for 1d6 rounds after.

            Women suffer a -2 penalty on their WILL Save, as the Ubume’s grief is uniquely feminine. Any creature who has ever lost a child, suffered a miscarriage, undergone an abortion or experienced any similar tragedy is rendered cowering for the duration of the effect on a failed save. If the creature saves successfully, they are merely shaken for the duration.

           

            Motherhood and Rebirth (SU)

The Ubume’s greatest desire is to lay down the burden of her ghost-child, and to give the child a chance at mortal life. All Ubume instinctively know a ritual which will return their child to life, but it may take decades of unlife before a Ubume is ready to perform this strange ceremony.

            The Ubume must give willingly give her burden-child to a living sentient female, who must willingly undertake the ritual, and know the consequences of failure. This female must be of any good alignment The living woman must hold the dead child in her arms and succeed at three STR checks (DC 12, DC 15, DC 18) as the corpse child becomes progressively heavier. Only other women can attempt aid another checks to aid the mortal woman.

            If all three checks are successful, the dead infant in the woman’s arms opens its eyes and returns to life as a mortal new born. If the mortal woman fails any of the three checks, she dies herself, and may not be raised or resurrected by mortal means. The Ubume cannot attempt the ritual again for a year after a failure. Each time this ritual fails, the Ubume herself suffers 1d3 points of permanent CHA drain, as parts of her fading humanity die with the slain volunteer.

           

            Once the ritual is complete, the Ubume returns to life, becoming the woman she once was. The character is effectively rebuilt as a Human or Half-Elf female, losing all Ubume racial traits and gaining the traits of her new race.

Ubume Alternate Racial Traits

            Compassionate Motherhood (SU)

            Her curse of undeath is divinely sanctioned, and the Ubume is a strange, melancholy agent of heaven. She serves Inari, goddess of fertility, in her own way. The Ubume is a divine midwife.

            Three times per day, the Ubume can cast Stabilize as a first level cleric. In addition, she receives a +2 racial bonus on Treat Injury checks. By touching  a pregnant female and casting stabilize, the Ubume can ensure that the pregnancy is pain-free, easy and healthy for both mother and child. A single touch can avert a miscarriage or other tragedy.

            Once per level of experience, the Ubume can touch a pregnant woman or a child in the Infant age category or younger and ensure that child grows up strong and healthy. The child receives a +2 racial bonus to its CON score and a +1 racial bonus to any other ability score of choice.

            This ability replaces the Ubume’s Dust of Guilt racial trait.

            Envious Motherhood (SU)

            The Ubume has no chance to be reborn; her child will never live. Driven mad by grief, rage and jelousy, the Ubume is an especially deadly predator. She feeds on living mothers and their children, and is utterly without mercy or sanity.

           

            The Ubume inflicts one additional dice worth of damage with any successful attack inflicted on a pregnant female creature, and automatically inflicts maximum damage with any successful attack on any creature in the Child age category or younger. A pregnant woman who his critically hit by the Ubume must succeed at a FORT Save (DC 12 + the Ubume’s WIS modifier) or miscarry.

            This ability replaces the Motherhood and Rebirth racial trait.

            Ubume-Chan (SU)

            The Ubume died so young she is not fully aware of the cosmic tragedy of her death; to her, her dead child is a companion and playmate. Cute and disturbing in equal measure, the Ubume-Chan is among the most cheerful of her kind.

            The Ubume-Chan treats her dead child as a familiar as a sorcerer of ½ her total character level (which stacks with any wizard or sorcerer levels she may have). Her dead child can walk outside her body, like a ghostly toddler still attached to its smiling, dead mother by a spectral umbilical cord. The Ubume-Chan receives the Alertness feat when this ghost-child is within arm’s length. 

The Ubume-Chan can choose to allow her fetus to walk on its own, freeing her from the effects of the Burdened Womb racial trait. While walking free, the fetal ghost can range up to 20 ft from its mother. However, while her child is out of her arms, the Ubume-Chan acts last in a round (her Initiative score is effectively set to zero) as her attentions are diverted to her ghostly child.

           

This racial trait adds a new option to the Ubume’s Burdened Womb racial trait.

Ubume (from the upcoming revision)

Medium Undead

Ubume are tragic undead bound by misfortune, guilt and longing, but sustained by a selfless hope. The Ubume have chosen to become undead, and to exist in a body of cool gray flesh, rather than to return to the Karmic wheel as the penance for a crime only they themselves prosecute. Ubume are the restless, transfigured sprits of women who died in childbirth, whose children died in the womb and never tasted the air.

Their sin, as the Ubume themselves see it, is that their mortal bodies were too weak or sickly to bring their child into the world. Rejecting heaven and the comforting amnesia of reincarnation, the Ubume wander the world, the sleeping soul of their dead child wrapped tightly in their arms, in the hopes of giving their child a chance at life, however meager.

Our Appearance

Ubume resemble the human women they were in life, but their spiritual pain has warped and twisted their bodies. Their skins are cool and gray, and their bodies are slick with a cold, clammy fluids. An Ubume’s hair hangs in matted clumps over her eyes, and she stinks of clotted blood. Ubume carry the inert, sleeping soul of their child with them; sometimes, the undead appears to carry her child in her arms, a heavy burden wrapped in tattered, blood splattered cloth and spider webs.

At other times, her child-soul merges with her own undead flesh, entering her dead womb and making the undead creature appear vastly pregnant. Her unbreathing child’s looping purple umbilical cord trails between the Ubume’s legs, connecting dead mother to dead baby in a perversely natural way.

In the modern world, Ubume can sometimes hide their undead nature and pass for human. It takes effort she is not often emotionally able to expend, but in the modern world, this deception is often necessary. Though sunlight does not harm them, Ubume stay indoors until dusk and prefer to travel by night. With much effort, an Ubume can even be beautiful, with the glow of false motherhood, but this deception is a very fragile one.

Our Sexuality

Ubume are female, but are effectively sexless creatures. Bound by the weight of tragedy, these undead women have no interest in sex or romance, and little capability to indulge in such acts even if they were interested. A Ubume’s vagina is tattered and torn, her reproductive portal hanging between her legs in tattered, fleshy ribbons. It is difficult for the undead woman to enjoy any form of sexuality, though some crave the touch of a living woman.

Ubume are obsessed with bringing their ghostly child to term. They know doing so will free them from their undead state, but also know that failure will scar them and likely murder the mortal woman who assists in a failed attempt. They make such attempts only rarely, and often with the assistance of exorcists.

Our Faiths and Beliefs

Ubume consider themselves damned souls and punish themselves more harshly than any deity ever would. Jizo, the Buddhist protector of children, aids the Ubume as best he can, and his devout follow his example. Ubume are welcomed at any temple or shrine dedicated to Jizo, and his miko will gladly risk their lives to aid Ubume in birthing their ghost-child.

As the ghosts of women who died during pregnancy or labor, Ubume fate is inextricably linked to Izanagi’s karma, and to her minon, the Ubume Empress. The race is tempted and tormented by Izanagi at every turn, and many worship the dark goddess of Hell out of desperation.

The Places Important to Us

In the Takama, where they are most common, Ubume lack any true home. Ubume walk the shadowed roads between settlements. They are unwelcome in many communities, seen as an obvious ill omen, and blamed for any miscarriages suffered by the villages’ women. Like the Akaname, Ubume linger on the bottom of the social order. As unwelcome and eerie nomads, Ubume have no lands or community of their own, though many elder members of the species attempt to aid their younger siblings whenever encountered.

Ubume are more rare in the modern world, mostly due to the fact that the Earth Realm’s superior medicine allows more women to survive their pregnancies. There are a few places where Ubume rise in numbers greater than mere tragic chance would account for. During the early 1960s, a chemical spill that polluted the Agano River Basin, in Niigata Prefecture caused an epidemic of birth defects, still births and deaths during pregnancy that continued until well into the 1980s. A tragically high number of Ubume trace their suffering back to the mercury-tainted river.

In Nagasaki, the presence of the Ubume Empress has made the emergence of new Ubume more likely. By perverting the Gothic Christian faith, the Ubume Empress has created a city of guilt and shame- women plagued by guilt over an abortion might rise again as Ubume ghouls after their mortal lives end.

The Languages We Speak

Ubume begin play speaking the languages the knew in life, typically Japanese. Ubume with high INT scores can choose any language as a bonus language, except for secret languages, like Druidic.

Ubume Racial Traits

All Ubume share the following racial traits.

Size and Type

Ubume are Medium Undead. As Medium creatures, Ubume receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

                                                               

Ability Score Modifiers

+2 STR, -2 DEX, no CON, -2 CHA.

As an undead, an Ubume has no CON score.

The burden the Ubume carries has strengthened her rotting form, but her endless pregnancy has made her graceless, and her tragedy makes it difficult for her to interact meaningfully with others.
 

Slow and Steady Speed (EX)
Ubume have a base land speed of 20 ft, however, her speed is never reduced by armor or encumbrance. Ubume move with the uncomfortable walk of an eight month pregnant woman, even when her ghost-child is carried in her arms.  

Burdened Womb (SU)

The Ubume always carries her unborn child’s spirit with her, in the form of a ghostly child, which may be dead, or may be sleeping. The Ubume can carry her ghost child in one of two ways.

·         She may carry the ghost child in her arms. Doing so occupies her off hand and she is considered to be carrying a Light load.

·         Alternatively, the Ubume can absorb the ghost child into her womb, or release it, as a full round action. While the ghost child is in her womb, the Ubume’s spirit is burdened, and she suffers a -2 racial penalty on all WILL Saves.

Darkvision (EX)
Ubume have Darkvision with a 60 ft range.

Dead Child’s Cry (SU)

The Ubume can allow her ghostly child a semblance of life for brief seconds, and when she does, the ghostly child cries mournfully for itself and its mother.

Once per day, while carrying her ghost child in her arms, the Ubume and her child simultaneously unleash a hellish scream as a standard action. All creatures within 30 ft + 5 ft/two levels who can hear the Ubume must succeed at a WILL Save (DC 10 + the Ubume’s CHA modifier) or become frightened as long as the Ubume continues to wail and for 1d4 rounds afterward. The Ubume’s cry is especially terrifying to women, and female characters suffer a -2 penalty on this saving throw. On a failed save, they become panicked instead.

Ghost Mother (EX)

As an incarnation of thwarted motherhood itself, Ubume are surprisingly kind and caring to mortal children, and their presence doesn’t terrify or unnerve young children the way it does adults.

The Ubume receive a +4 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks made against any creature in the Young Adult age category or younger, as well as Diplomacy checks made against child-undead such as Jinzu. NPC children and child-like undead have an initial attitude of indifferent to the Ubume, and will not attack her unless commanded or attacking in self defense.

Motherhood and Rebirth (SU)

The Ubume’s greatest desire is to lay down the burden of her ghost-child, and to give the child a chance at mortal life. All Ubume instinctively know a ritual which will return their child to life, but it may take decades of unlife before a Ubume is ready to perform this strange ceremony.

The Ubume must give willingly give her burden-child to a living sentient female, who must willingly undertake the ritual, and know the consequences of failure. This female must be of any good alignment. The living woman must hold the dead child in her arms and succeed at three STR checks (DC 12, DC 15, DC 18) as the corpse child becomes progressively heavier. Only other women can attempt aid another checks to aid the mortal woman.

If all three checks are successful, the dead infant in the woman’s arms opens its eyes and returns to life as a mortal newborn. If the mortal woman fails any of the three checks, she dies herself, and may not be raised or resurrected without the direct intervention  of a deity. The Ubume cannot attempt the ritual again for a year after a failure. Each time this ritual fails, the Ubume herself suffers 1d3 points of permanent CHA drain, as parts of her fading humanity die with the slain volunteer.

           

Once the ritual is complete, the Ubume returns to life, becoming the woman she once was. The character is effectively rebuilt as a human female, losing all Ubume racial traits and gaining the traits of her new race.

Undead Immunities (EX)

Ubume have all the immunities common to Undead player characters.

Ubume Alternate Racial Traits

The mournful and melancholy Ubume race is reluctant to discuss their undead curse, and each woman’s curse is different. Thus, some Ubume might bear different abilities than her unfortunate sisters.

Absorb the Tissue (SU)

Modifies: Burdened Womb

The Ubume can draw the soul-stuff of her ghostly child back into her body, becoming hideous and inhumanly feral in the process.

She gains a third option for her Burdened Womb racial trait.

The Ubume can absorb the child completely into her undead body, or release it, as a full round action. She becomes huge and hideous, her body hunched over under the weight of her now ponderous limbs. The Ubume gains the Powerful Build racial trait, but while her child is completely absorbed, she cannot use any INT or CHA keyed skill, except for Intimidate.

Black Obstetrics (EX)
Replaces: Ghost Mother

The Ubume died on an operating table, and her soul is imbued with an uncanny medical knowledge as a result. Perhaps she can save lives even after she has died?

The Ubume receives Skill Focus (Heal) as a bonus racial feat. Once per day, when the Ubume makes a Heal check to assist a female creature or a child of either gender, she may add her total character level as an insight bonus on the check. She must declare the use of this ability prior to making the check.

Black Womb (SU)
Replaces: Dead Child’s Wail

The Ubume’s womb is a portal to a place of eternal and lonely cold, to the darkest corner of the Black Else.

The Ubume receives Vaginal Prison as a racial bonus feat. However, the Ubume can only use this ability while carrying her ghost-child in her arms (or letting it walk free, if the Ubume-Chan alternate trait is also chosen), and her Vaginal Prison inflicts cold damage rather than acid damage.

Bloodseeking Cord (SU)
Replaces: Dead Child’s Wail

The Ubume can lash out with the knotted and congealed umbilical cord that dangles from her ruined vulva.

While the Ubume has the ghost-child in her womb, she can summon the umbilical cord for use as a whip as part of an attack action with it. She treats her umbilical cord as a +1 whip; at 10^th level, her umbilical whip is treated as a +1 wounding whip instead. The Ubume’s umbilical whip cannot be disarmed or sundered.

Compassionate Motherhood (SU)

Replaces: Dead Child’s Wail

Her curse of undeath is divinely sanctioned, and the Ubume is a strange, melancholy agent of heaven. She serves Inari, goddess of fertility, in her own way. The Ubume is a divine midwife.

Three times per day, the Ubume can cast Stabilize as a first level cleric. In addition, she receives a +2 racial bonus on Heal checks. By touching a pregnant female and casting stabilize, the Ubume can ensure that the pregnancy is pain-free, easy and healthy for both mother and child. A single touch can avert a miscarriage or other tragedy.

Once per level of experience, the Ubume can touch a pregnant woman or a child in the Infant age category or younger and ensure that child grows up strong and healthy. The child receives a +2 racial bonus to its CON score and a +1 racial bonus to any other ability score of choice.

Envious Motherhood (SU)

Replaces: Motherhood and Rebirth

The Ubume has no chance to be reborn; her child will never live. Driven mad by grief, rage and jelousy, the Ubume is an especially deadly predator. She feeds on living mothers and their children, and is utterly without mercy or sanity.

           

The Ubume inflicts one additional dice worth of damage with any successful melee attack inflicted on a pregnant female creature, and automatically inflicts maximum damage with any successful melee attack on any creature in the Child age category or younger.

A pregnant woman who his critically hit by the Ubume must succeed at a FORT Save (DC 12 + the Ubume’s WIS modifier) or miscarry.

Ubume-Chan (EX)                                         

Modifies: Burdened Womb

The Ubume died so young she is not fully aware of the cosmic tragedy of her death; to her, her dead child is a companion and playmate. Cute and disturbing in equal measure, the Ubume-Chan is among the most cheerful of her kind.

She gains a third option for her Burdened Womb racial trait.

The Ubume-Chan can free the ghost child to play on its own. The ghost child drifts at a distance of up to 20 ft from the Ubume-Chan, and is treated as a Sankai familiar as a witch of half the Ubume’s total character level. The Ubume’s dead child can walk outside her body, like a ghostly toddler still attached to its smiling, dead mother by a spectral umbilical cord.

The Ubume-Chan receives the Alertness feat when this ghost-child is within arm’s length.  However, while her child is out of her arms, the Ubume-Chan acts last in a round (her Initiative score is effectively set to zero) as her attentions are diverted to her ghostly child.

If the Ubume-Chan’s Sankai familiar is slain, the Ubume is considered nauseated for 24 hours. At sunset of the following day, the Ubume-Chan’s ghostly child/Sankai familiar reforms.

Swollen Breasts of Eternal Pregnancy (EX)
Replaces: Ghost Mother

The Ubume’s unending pregnancy has swollen her breasts to gigantic size. You receive the Busty Extreme starting trait as well as the Mega-Busty feat as a racial bonus feat.

White Ubume (SU)

Replaces: Dead Child’s Wail

The Ubume’s skin is the color of cold milk, and her hair hangs down over her eyes in long ivory strands. She is a harbinger of inevitable death.

When the Ubume inflicts a critical hit with an unarmed strike or natural weapon attack, rather than inflicting standard damage, she can reduce the target’s maximum age by 1d4 years. The target undergoes the immediate physical effects of aging, and a target moved past its maximum age dies instantly. The Ubume recovers 2 HP per year of aging inflicted. She cannot raise her HP above its normal maximum total in this manner.

Last Art for Culture of Choice Coming Soon

Well, I just got the flat colors for the racial illustrations that I'll be including in Culture of Choice. These are Vic Shane's flat colors (he'll be adding shading and highlight layers later) of the Ubasti, Fluxminx and the new Demi-God species.

You've seen the Ubasti and the Fluxminx in prior products, but the Demi-Gods are new. They're an evolution of the Dreamborn Mau race- this mysterious breed of Choicer superhuman that might actually be quasi-divine, or might be a product of some kind of cutting edge 22nd Century tech. I'm designing them with elements similar to both Black Tokyo's Kami, and Psi-Watch's Military Post Humans. Like those two races, the Demi-Gods have a lot of modular, selectable abilities that allow wide customization on a mechanically strong framework. Players can make these guys into anything they want, pretty much.

Expect the final art, and the finished Culture of Choice probably next week sometime. After that, some you'll be seeing some Heavy Future and Black Tokyo content.

Blessed Be,
CHRIS

New Heavy Future Content: Revised Races

 

Well, I'm finally putting Heavy Future together as a cohesive setting. It had its origins as a cobbled together, make it up as you go along sourcebook for Galaxy Command, which was equally improvisational. Spurred by some fan interest that was basically generated by accident (a thread about Tournament of Rapists over on theRPGsite.com mutated into a discussion of Heavy Future, and once I joined in, I think I earned some new fans)....I've decided I'll be revising both Heavy Future and Black Tokyo. I want to put out nice shiny new race books first, as I did with Black Operators earlier this year, followed by tighter setting books and core sourcebooks like the eventual POD version of Enchantments of Black Tokyo.

Right now, I'm sitting on a very tight manuscript for what I'm calling Heavy Races Revised. This massive sourcebook will consolidate most (but not all) the player races from the various Galaxy Command and Heavy Future sourcebooks, including a lot of my Legion of Superhero homage races from Action Galaxy in one place. There's a few races I left out, just because they don't really fit the Heavy Future/grungy late 70s sexy sci-fi aesthetic I want to keep. For example, I left out the Neuros, because the race is very staid, very law-abiding and pragmatic, and the Proximites fill the 'genius alien' niche in a more genre appropriate way. If I decide to 're-include' the Nueros, I can do so with them as NPCs. Same for the Hiawathans form the original Galaxy Command- the Tal-Anon fill the 'space Native American' niche in a more interesting and fun way, so I just deleted the excess. 

One thing I did do was break out several of the cultural templates: Pacificians, Leather Clones, ect into their own neo-human races. These races are genetically compatible with baseline homo sapiens, more or less, but have such radically different cultures, I figured I'd make them stand alone races. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to riff on late 70s/early 80s identity politics. 

So today, take a look at the chapter header for the Neo-Humans section of the sourcebook, and a look at the Afro-Futurist player race, which should be pretty fun. I'll preview some other stuff later. 

CHRIS

It’s the Stellar Year 4,576.

The future’s a dirty, all-analogue place. Technology got more advanced, but the culture and politics of this fucked-up future still stinks like 1976. The galaxy’s equal parts grunge and glam, polyester and leather. It’s a place where billowing Afros never went out of style, where the heroes spark up joints the size of a baby’s forearm and blast off for the Frontier. It’s a galaxy of stoner nomads cruising the galactic backwaters at FTL speed, banging cute alien spacers with only a cheap-ass Dr. Youp’s Condom to protect them. It’s a place where the smuggler always shoots first, and the Cosmic Televangelists of the Imperial Church of the Galaxy are always tryin’ to get their cut.

It’s a Heavy Future, where futurism takes a back seat to pulpy, retro-futuristic, blasphemous kick-ass adventuring.

That’s all you really need to know. We’ll make up the rest as we go along.

Who’s Who in the Dirty Future

The galaxy’s a crowded place. Just about every star has a sentient race living beneath it. Humans are everywhere, but they share the galaxy with a myriad of other races. Some of them, like the Synths or Pacifians, the humans created, either by their technology or through their deeds. Other races evolved without any human involvement, but that’s not to say their evolutions weren’t tampered with.

Once upon a time, a race of psionic manipulators called the Psyren ruled every part of the galaxy worth ruling. They fucked it up, though, and they lost it all. Ruins of the once great Psyren Empire can be found all across the universe, including in some secret places on Old Earth itself. Treasure hunters seek out Psyren ruins, because even though the ruins are perilous in the extreme, a single scrap of old Psyren tech can turn a salvager into a merchant prince.

Beyond the ruins, the Psyren left strange species behind. Races as diverse as the  Testorites, the Tal-Anon and many others can trace their lineage back to some Psyren experiment or the other.

Neo-Humans

The following species come from human stock, and are products of evolution or design. Neo-Humans usually can breed with baseline humans and have some kind of evolutionary or cultural connection to the mother world…no matter how tenuous.

Species	Size, Type and Subtypes	Summed Up In One Sentence….
Afro-Futurist	Medium Humanoid (human, psionic)	Proud technologists inspired by the glory and achievements of Old Africa
Free Spacer	Medium Humanoid (human)	A motley crew of human spacers serving with a variety of libertarian space fleets
Jesus Clone	Medium Outsider (human, native)	Mass produced clone Messiahs with potent healing nanites in their blood
Leather Clone	Medium Humanoid (human)	All male race of muscled gay clones from a hotly radioactive Frontier system
Pacifician	Medium Humanoid (human, Pacifican)	Nanite blooded adventurers from a perfect planet of love, sex and peace
Pulsa	Medium Humanoid (human, psionic)	Race of twin-born farmers who were once great warriors with natural force blasting powers
Testorite	Large Humanoid (human)	Nerdy 20th Century kids brought to the future and transformed into barbarian adventurers
Trius	Medium Humanoid (human, psionic)	Skilled martial artists capable of conjuring duplicates of themselves from psionic energy
TV Head	Medium Monstrous Humanoid (human)	Conformist cyborgs with bulky television screens for heads

 

Afro-Futurist

Medium Humanoid (human, psionic)

Afro-Futurists are a proud and sometimes arrogant breed of mankind- the sons and daughters of Earth in general and Africa in specific. In contrast to the Corporation Command, which gets paler and more xenophobic with every passing decade, Afro-Futurists live free among the stars, aboard dark-skinned colonies built upon the ancient traditions of the Motherland.

Appearance

The difference between a brown skinned baseline human spacer and an Afro-Futurist is a matter of style, attitude and worldview rather than genetics. Though fully human, Afro-Futurists have engineered a new definition of humanity out among the stars.

Afro-Futurists gird their burnished black skins in colorful armor based upon Zulu warrior garb, or augment themselves with lean, angular cyber-systems inspired by Moroccan sculpture. Afro-Futurists favor vibrant colors and intense eye-catching patterns handed down along family lines for millennia. While some soldiers favor energy weapons or slugthrowers, most Afro-Futurist warriors prefer to prove their courage with an assortment of ultra-advanced melee weapons. They wear massive Afros or proud Jamaican dreads or intricate Bantu knots masterfully knit by their droid servitors.

Homeworld

Afro-Futurists might hail from any of a dozen major settlements, or a hundred smaller stations or arc-ships. Most hail from the high-tech and orderly world of Medicoake, known for its excellent cybernetics engineers and galaxy-class medics. Others hail from rough and tumble New Kingston, renowned for the artistic soul of its people and the quality of its native Glow. Afro-Futurists hailing from the semi-legendary Esperanza colony, which often drifts out of phase with the rest of the galaxy, are mysterious, sultry and soulful galactic nomads, exploring the cosmos on their own enigmatic missions.

Sex, Drugs and Violence

Despite what the Command’s educational streams would have you believe, many of the innovations that allowed humanity to reach the stars had their origins in the Old Earth continent of Africa. Afro-Futurists draw strength and inspiration from the old ways of pre-starflight Africa, in faith, in dress, in style. The soulful funk playing on Outlaw Sex Station 09 has its origins in African rhythms, and the equations that allowed the first hyperspace jaunt evolved from algebra first calculated on the Arabian Peninsula and no Afro-Futurist will ever let you forget either.

While some Afro-Futurists are staunch racial separatists, only romancing other dark skinned human spacers, others are polygamous and sexually adventurous in the extreme.  To the citizens of the wider galaxy, the dark, driven and ultra-confident Afro-Futurists are an attractive mating prospect. When it comes to expanding their consciousness, Afro-Futurists view the Glow as a sacrament rather than a recreational high. Few have much taste for harder drugs, sticking to tried and true local Glow strains or other native psychedelics.

Politics & Culture

Afro-Futurist worlds reject the stifling conformity and hard-line ICG faith of the Corporation Command. Those nearer to Command Space do business with the Command when they must, but often on their own terms. Medicoake, for example, provides top quality medical care to Command citizens with the creds to pay for it, but refuse to be bound by the trillion plus pages of Command medical authority regulations. Afro-Futurist worlds are decorated in African styles, with faiths inspired by pre-Christian and pre-Islamic tradition, or syncretic forms of either faith, that bear little resemblance to the strict, soulless ICG.

Most of the Afro-Futurist diaspora is on good terms with Free Spacers, and in many ways the two populations are interchangeable. There’s a lot of strong black hands at the controls of Free Spacer star-haulers. The one exception is New Kingston’s long standing feud with Treant, a blood feud over control of the galactic Glow trade that dates back more centuries than the inhabitants of either world can really count.

Names

Afro-Futurist names are drawn from pan-African culture, often modified slightly over the millennia. Some Afro-Futurist worlds do not use surnames, while others do, and these surnames are often unique and original, coined terms drawn from the star-flight era rather than the European surnames the African diaspora were labeled with two millennia ago.

Example Male Names: Ayo Twospectrum, Kwame Atomspinner, Mosi Genescribe

Example Female Names: Ekua Darkstar, Nia Starglide, Uhura Lightstep

Languages

Afro-Futurists begin play speaking Galactic Common and one Earth language of choice, most often an African, Caribbean or Middle Eastern language. Afro-Futurists with high INT scores can choose any language as a bonus language, except for secret tongues like Druidic.

Afro-Futurist Racial Traits

All Afro-Futurists share the following racial traits.

Size and Type

Afro-Futurists are Medium Humanoids with the human and psionic subtypes. As Medium creatures, they receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed (EX)

Afro-Futurists have a 30 ft base land speed.

Ability Score Modifiers

+2 to any ability score of choice.

Afro-Futurists hail from a diverse array of homeworlds, stations and experimental utopian habitats, and are as varied and versatile as any other sapiens.

African Excellence (EX)

Afro-Futurists take enormous pride in their skills and the way they raise their precious children. The Afro-Futurist gains Skill Focus in one Craft or Perform skill of choice as a racial bonus feat.

Human Blood (EX)

Afro-Futurists count as Human for all effects related to race.

Naturally Psionic (EX)

Afro-Futurists gain the Wild talent feat as a bonus feat at 1^st level. If the Afro-Futurist takes levels in a psionic class, he instead gains the Psionic Talent feat.

Psionic Aptitude (EX)

Whenever the Afro-Futurist takes a level in a psionic class, he can choose to gain an additional power point instead of a hit point or skill point.

Raised Fist (Ps)

As a standard action, the Afro-Futurist can raise his fist above his head, unleashing slow pulses of gold and green light. All Afro-Futurists, including the character within 30 ft gain a +1 morale bonus to saving throws for as long as the Afro-Futurist continues to hold his fist aloft. The Afro-Futurist can use this ability at will.

Afro-Futurist Alternate Racial Traits

Afro-Futurists from distant worlds- especially the lost colony of Esperanza- often display startling powers.

Confident Brother/Sister (EX)
Replaces: Naturally Psionic and Psionic Aptitude

The Afro-Futurist is confident in the strength of his limbs, and the power of his fists, when the situation calls for them. The Afro-Futurist receives a +1 morale bonus on unarmed strikes and on STR checks.

Hyperspatial Song (SU)

Replaces: Raised Fist

Esperanzan Afro-Futurists have mastered a kind of sound based magic thanks to their long sojourn in hyperspace. As a full round action, an Esperanzan can unleash an eerie, somewhat musical cry that offers a variety of mystical effects. An Esperanzan can use Hyperspatial Song a number of times per day equal to 3 + his CHA modifier.

The possible effects of a Hyperspatial Song include:

·        Healer’s Song: Heal a wounded creature within 30 ft who can clearly hear your song for 1d4 HP per five character levels (max 4d4 HP).

·        Warrior’s Song: Inflict 1d6 points of Sonic damage per five character levels (max 4d6) against all targets within a 30 ft cone (REF DC 12 half).

·        Worker’s Song: Acts as a Mending spell cast on a single object of size Large or smaller within 30 ft, with a caster level equal to the Esperanzan’s total character level.

Liberationist (EX)
Replaces: African Excellence

Your distant ancestors were enslaved, and you refuse to allow other sentients to suffer in bondage, regardless of their skin color or species, or even their status as AI! You receive a +1 morale bonus on attack and damage rolls against any known slave owner, slave captor or trader, or bounty hunter.

Medicoake Medical Training (EX)
Replaces: African Excellence

Medicoake is known galaxy wide as possibly the best hospital-station in existence, and its Afro-Futurist physicians and cyberneticists are without equal. You receive Skill Focus (heal) as a racial bonus feat. You may choose one particular medical specialty, such as cardiology, neuro-science, genetic engineering or similar callings; you receive a +1 competence bonus on Heal checks made within that specialty.

Psyren Blood (EX)
Replaces: Human Blood

The Afro-Futurist counts as Psyren for all effects related to race (and likely has hair in a distinctive, non-African shade such as silver, azure or green.)

Soil of the Motherworld (SP)
Replaces: Raised Fist

The Afro-Futurist wears a ceremonial vial around his neck containing soil from the heart of terraformed Africa. This vial is considered to be a holy symbol; if it is lost, the Afro-Futurist must make a pilgrimage to Earth to replace it.

If the vial is emptied on the corpse of an Afro-Futurist slain within the past hour, it acts as raise dead. Only the Afro-Futurist who owns the vial of soil can use the magic in this manner.

Upcoming Magic Items: Anime Homages By the Ton

One of the most fun elements of writing for Black Tokyo is working in homages to my favorite anime, including both explicit and all-ages anime. I've homaged everything from Legend of the Overfiend to Kiki's Delivery Service in the setting, and with each release, I cram in more content.

I'm working on the POD version of Enchantments of Black Tokyo and thought it'd be fun to show off a handful of new armor and weapons. You should be able to guess pretty easily what anime these particular items come from. They're a small but very fun part of this project.

Meantime, I'm doing some pretty solid work on the Heavy Future race book, while I wait for art for Enhantments POD to trickle in.

So without further commentary, take a look at some new magic items for Black Tokyo.

Genki Road Jacket

Aura moderate transmutation CL 5^th               

Slot armor Price 45,500 gp (DC 31) Weight 2 lbs

This hot red faux-leather racing jacket is specially reinforced for hard use and is designed to keep bikers alive when it all fucks up. Gang or motorcycle club patches usually adorn the back.

The Genki Road Jacket is a set of +3 racing leathers, which provide a +5 competence bonus on Drive checks.

While wearing the Genki Road Jacket, any motorcycle or similar vehicle driven by the character becomes nearly impossible to destroy. The motorcycle’s tires have their Hardness and HP doubled while the rider is astride the bike, and the vehicle has effectively infinite fuel. In addition, jury-rigged repairs made by the wearer of the Genki Road Jacket are considered permanent repairs as long as he or she is astride the bike.

Construction

Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, fuel the engine, workaround

Cost 22,750 gp (DC 29)

                                                                                                                                                   

Over Thrust Uniform

Aura overwhelming conjuration CL 15^th         

Slot armor Price 258,000 gp (DC 37) Weight 2 lbs

Normally, this sexy black and red school girl’s uniform is cloth. Not much cloth, but cloth, a fetish-whore version of the typical school uniform that exposes the belly, with a bright red and gold neckerchief that hangs just above the wearer’s almost-revealed nipples.

The Over Thrust Uniform is a +3 school uniform of determination. Upon the wearer’s command, the Over Thrust Uniform can transform into a set of +3 Grade II Powered Armor of determination, with a flight speed of 500 ft (good). Even in its powered armor state, the Over Thrust Uniform is revealing, basically an armored rubber sleeve that reveals the wear’s midriff and the topmost curls of their pubic thatch, armored thigh highs and helmet. The Over Thrust Uniform has the near nudity armor property despite its full life support capabilities. While the Over Thrust Uniform in powered armor form, the wearer is treated as if she possessed the Super Kawaii feat as a bonus feat.

The Over Thrust Uniform can remain in its powered armor form for up to 33 minutes per day, which need not be consecutive, but must be taken in one minute increments. The wearer is always considered proficient with the Over Thrust Uniform in its powered armor form.

Construction

Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, breath of life, call powered armor (greater), military flight

Cost 129,000 gp (DC 35)

VTOL Leggings

Aura moderate transmutation CL 5^th

Slot feet Price 34,000 gp (DC 30) Weight 8 lbs

These heavily armored leggings are reinforced with gunmetal grey hull plating, painted in stark black and white hazard striping. VTOL thrusters on the booted ankles, accented by gold highlights, provide the wearer with superior maneuverability.

VTOL Leggings are +2 Armored Leggings. While wearing VTOL Leggings, a character with an existing flight speed gains Hover as a bonus feat, and their in-air maneuverability improves by one category (to a maximum of perfect). While airborne, the character receives a +2 insight bonus to Initiative. If the character begins an encounter on the ground, their Initiative score improves by +2 as soon as they take to the air.

Construction

Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, fly

Cost 19,000 gp (DC 28)

Expelling Scissors

Aura moderate abjuration CL 5^th      

Slot weapon (pair) Price 80,640 gp (DC 33) pair Weight 3 lbs

Why wield a weapon that makes sense, when you can score some style points? Expelling Scissors are gigantic, razor edged scissor blades made from gleaming, glittering orange steel. The weapon can break apart (or unify) at the pivot, transforming into either a single heavy blade or a pair of single-edged scissors.

Expelling Scissors are treated as being a paired set of +2 keen butterfly swords. If they are wielded as a combined weapon, treat the resulting weapon as a single +3 keen butterfly sword instead.

When the Expelling Scissors make a successful melee attack against a character wearing any school uniform with magical properties, the Scissors make a targeted dispel magic check against the item’s caster level (DC 11+ the item’s caster level), using the Scissor’s caster level. If the check is successful, the school uniform’s magical properties are suppressed for one minute. A second successful attack and successful dispel check made during this time completely destroys the magical school uniform. If the Expelling Scissors are wielded as a combined weapon, they receive a +2 bonus on the dispel check.

                                                                                

Construction

Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, dispel magic, keen edge

Cost 40,320 gp (DC 31) pair

Genki Guitar

Aura moderate evocation CL 7^th      

Slot none Price 21,200 gp (DC 29) Weight 3 lbs

This modern electric guitar has a glossy red plastic finish with black and white accents. It’s covered with the stickers, that if you know your anime history, are identical to the ones on Kaneda’s bike in Akira.

The Genki Guitar is a +2 anarchic rocker. Once per day, the wielder can use the spell to summon a glowing red moped, which remains in existence for up to 7 hours.

Optional While summoning the moped, the wielder can attempt a DC 25 Perform (stringed) check. If this check is successful the wielder can choose any one of the following benefits for the moped. This benefit remains in place until the moped vanishes. Failure means only an ordinary moped is summoned, and even then only for a maximum of 4 hours. On a natural 1, the Genki Guitar gains the broken condition and will not function for 24 hours at which point the broken condition is removed automatically.

·         Moped gains a +4 dodge bonus to AC and a +2 bonus on REF Saves

·         Moped gains 150 ft acceleration

·         Moped gains a maximum speed of 800 ft and a non-combat speed of around 100 mph

·         Moped gains a Flight Speed of 300 ft (average)

·         The Moped acts as a Techno-Amp for the Genki Guitar

Moped

Small Land Vehicle

Cost 1,800 gp

Squares 1 (aprox- 5 ft x 5 ft)

AC 11 (+1 size) Hardness 5 HP 15

Base Save +0

Offense

Maximum Speed 500 ft Non-Combat Speed 50 – 60 mph

Acceleration 50 ft

Propulsion gasoline or electric motor

Driving Check Drive

Driving Space atop the vehicle’s single seat

Forward Facing facing the front wheel

Decks 1

Construction

Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, chaos hammer, ghost chassis, creator must be chaotic

Cost 10,600 gp (DC 26)

Thanks for the Support!

To everyone who commented on my last post: thank you. So much.

The controversy over Tournament of Rapists has been really unexpected and nastily personal. I'm glad a lot of you are enjoying Black Tokyo and its adult-oriented and unique content.

Right now, I'm planning on re-releasing the Tournament of Rapists content as part of the upcoming Black Bestiary II. If anybody wants a copy of the original in the meantime, I'll gladly email it to you. Send me an email at the address atop this page.

I'm about to head into my civilian job, so I don't have too much time, but right now I'm working on a few projects.

1. Expect a Print on Demand version of Enchantments of Black Tokyo, with vastly expanded content, in terms of new class archetypes, spells, items, ect, soon. If all goes well, that might end up being our first POD title.

2. Black Bestiary II is in the works. The Assault Witch image on the top of this page will be included, as a homage to the Strike Witches anime. Expect a lot of heroic flying girls and alien war machines.

3. I'm putting together a massive revised race book for Heavy Future, which consolidates and revamps all the content from Galaxy Command, Action Galaxy and Heavy Future into one cohesive race book.

And most of all, thank you folks.
CHRIS

My Least Popular Book Ever

Well, I expected some push-back for posting Tournament of Rapists yesterday, and I was not disappointed. Because I wrote a sourcebook about rapists and sexual predators, I'm by definition a misogynist and potential rapist myself. Of course I am.

I'm not going to do much talking about this book, because I'm already working on my next book, and the one after that, but I do want to share Mark Cathro- my partner and publisher's- reaction to the vitriol filling up the Skortched Urf Studios Facebook page.

Thanks for contacting us, I'd be happy to speak about the title.

First, some background.  I'm the owner of Skortched Urf' Studios (Mark) and I've worked with the author of this product (Chris) for almost ten years now.  When I started publishing RPG material Chris did a lot of freelance work for me.  He then wanted to publish his own stuff, but didn't want to tackle the behind-the-scenes stuff like laying out products, marketing etc.  He wrote, I laid out and found art and it worked out very well.  Chris named his imprint Otherverse Games, and Skortched Urf' Studios is the publisher.

Over time Chris took over more and more of the production; doing his own layouts and forming partnerships with artists.  At this point Chris does all his own work, but has decided to keep publishing with Skortched Urf' Studios since we've been working together for so long.

I say all that to give you background.  Before the title in question (Tournament of Rapists) was published I didn't know a thing about it.  I don't vett his work, tell him what he can publish or oversee him. 

Now, I don't say that to distance myself from Chris or his work.  I say it because it is the truth.  Chris is a big boy, he can publish whatever he darn well pleases in my opinion.  I for one think he is a mad genius with some of the crazy stuff he comes up with; including *this* title!

What I think most people don't realize is that the participants in these tournaments are the *BAD GUYS* that the PC's are supposed to kill!  Most of the "stat blocks" are for monsters/creatures for the PC's to fight!  I mean, people are up-in-arms about the TITLE of the book, can you imagine fleshing out the main bad guy who actually puts these things on so your party of good guys can go dismantle the entire organization and kill the Half-deamon Billionaire industrialist who runs it?  Now *THAT* is a bad guy worth fighting in my opinion. (See my remark about Chris being a Mad Genius, and I do mean that in a good way!)

Is there a metric ton of shock-value in what he does?  Yes, absolutely.  Is there a wealth of creativity and world-building in the settings Chris comes up with?  Again, yes.

Does he put out safe, kinda like what you already like but with some "twist" to make it a little different titles?  Hell no.  He's got a setting that pitts pro-life and pro-choice abortion factions against each other in a sci-fi setting with the volume turned up to 11.  Is that my cup of tea?  Not really.  But I do respect the hell out of him for *not* taking the safe route.  

Sci-fi abortion war setting.  Sexual-predator daemons rampaging all over Tokyo. Like I said, he's a mad genius with the freedom to play in a sandbox of his own making.

Sure, a bunch of people are going to be upset.  Some of them will send us nasty emails or post things on forums or whatever.  (Most having never actually read the content, just upset about the title.) All his titles are marked clearly as for adults.  If you don't want to buy it, then please don't.  I do, however, firmly believe in free speech; *especially* when it involves something objectionable.  (Yes, it cuts both ways; everyone is free to criticize Chris and I for even putting it out.) I also think Chris is playing "The Internet" like a cheap fiddle because the same, few predictable people that seem to be outraged by *everything* will continue to insist that something on the internet they don't like *must* be destroyed.  And now people are talking about his titles and contacting me to ask about them. :-)

I've seen people assume Chris has "stolen" artwork.  (He hasn't.)  They assume he must be a horrible human being that wants to rape people or whatever.  (He isn't. And by the same token, do these same people also think George R.R. Martin wants to have sex with his sister because he wrote about two of his characters engaged in incest?)  He's a guy with a huge imagination who loves RPG's. 

If a novel with this title was written and Jim Butcher, Anita Blake or Jack Reacher were going after the bad guys it might be a best seller.  But Chris makes it a game supplement and everyone who just reads a title assumes that it's about the players to run around sport-raping people for XP?  Time to gather up the torches and pitch-forks, right?  How many of the most vocal detractors have *actually* read the content rather than just the title?

Shocking title?  Yes, 100%.  Do I think we should hang Chris, burn his corpse and salt the Earth where his bones lay for *daring* to put out a controversial title (in a long line of them) that no one, anywhere, is under any obligation to purchase?  Nah, not really. But that's just my two cents.

Anyway, I do hope that clarifies some of the questions/concerns are about this title.  Thanks for contacting us!

-Mark

 Skortched Urf' Studios

 

That says what needs to be said.
Thanks, Mark.

CHRIS

Tournament of Rapists

Hey, real life has been busy and complex, which has prevented me from posting preview images and new content as much as I'd of liked. I did however finally finish the Tournament of Rapists- my new monster sourcebook for Black Tokyo Unlimited. This adults only sourcebook is actually really grim- a bunch of new sexual predators for the BTU campaign world.

This new book's available at the usual places. Next up, expect some movement on the long awaited Technology Unleashed Print on Demand gadget book, as well as some other potential POD titles if that first one goes well.

Next time, I'll preview some Heavy Future and Otherverse America content.
CHRIS