#op cowboy zine

[sleepyone2three]

Do I have a problem with self control and poor spending habits? For sure. But I also know I'm going to have a lot of stuff to be looking forward to 💕

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: Space and Stars

This week's themes are all loosely categorized under space, from space-westerns, to space-fantasy, to some games entirely within their own genre.

Boar Beasts on A Barbarous Planet, by Z.W. Garth.

Boar Beasts on a Barbarous Planet is a 2-page Push Powered roleplaying game of boarfolk warriors surviving on a planet of swords-and-lasers, covered in hostile biomes and littered with the sci-fi tech of planetary invaders who couldn't cut it in this harsh world. 

Players take on the role of warriors dedicated to protecting their sounder from the many threats that plague them, in this harsh, psychedelic world. 

Push games use an interesting 'push-your-luck' mechanic, in which your can choose to re-roll and add to your roll in order to make a "weak" success stronger - but roll too high, and you meet disaster. In my opinion, it's an SRD that feels a little over-looked in the indie scene.

This game is meant to be brutal and violent, on a world that is difficult to survive. Your characters enter the story battle-scarred, and will leave the story worse, possibly even dead. This looks to be a game that’s full of prompts and roll-tables, so if you like random generation, I recommend checking this one out.

From Out of the Boundless Deep, by Scyllaycs. 

From Out the Boundless Deep is a two-player game about a mech pilot and an engineer working on the starship the Boundless. The game follows the pilot’s dangerous missions off the ship, the engineer’s meaningful repairs onboard the ship, and the brief moments the two meet between missions.

This game has two players, and no set GM. If you want to be a character who’s interacting with a dynamic set of stats and risky endeavours, you can pick up the Pilot. If you like building and modding things to set up the two of you for future challenges, then the Engineer might be more your style. The Game itself is split into two phases: Ship Phase and Mission Phase, with each phase giving the player a chance to shine. A Tarot Deck will be used to provide benefits and drawbacks throughout the course of play.

This is a game where you can really explore the conflict and community between two characters, in a situation where they can’t always communicate in a way they’d like. It doesn't demand an epic storyline but definitely has the space for it. This is also a great game for two people who have different and complimentary styles of play. 

Dead Belt, by A Couple of Drakes. 

Dead Belt is played by building a Belter and taking them out into the Belt to scavenge randomly-generated starships, using things you already have laying around: a six-sided die, a deck of common playing cards, and a few tokens of whatever sort happen to be close at hand.

With a dozen unique ship deck plans, over 100 flavorful prompts, and plenty of character stats to help you avert certain death, no two ships will ever feel the same. You’ll board these derelict starships, navigate barriers, dodge threats, monitor your air-supply, and salvage as you go.

You’ll deal with all the dangers lurking onboard these starships, push your luck, and finally return to spend your hard-won booty to secure better equipment, improve your skills, pay down your crippling debt, and hopefully, maybe, eventually set yourself up to live out your dreams far from the Belt.

There are three ways to play this game: Solo, Co-Op and Rivalry. This means that in a two-player game, you can choose to either work together or attempt to sabotage each-other in a race for pay. This game is an homage to Cowboy Bebop and similar Space Westerns, with a lot of tantalizing options designed for duet play.

Vaults of Vaarn, by graculusdroog.

Vaults of Vaarn is a 48-page, black and white tabletop RPG zine, which presents setting information, a full game system, and character creation procedure for adventures in Vaarn, a vast blue desert that lies at the very end of time. The game is built on the chassis of Knaveby Ben Milton, with lightweight rules, speedy character generation, and gameplay that emphasizes creativity and problem-solving on the part of players and referee. 

This game setting feels like a space opera smashed together with acid fantasy, with bright colourful descriptions of strange monsters, NPC’s and locations. It is a dangerous setting that is designed to work with OSR games, primarily Knave but I have a feeling it would be pretty easy to steal ideas from this for other OSR systems as well. If you’re a fan of big space epics like Dune or weird futures like Numenera or Gamma World, this game is probably worth checking out.

If you want to see what the community has created for this setting, I recommend checking out the submissions to the Vaarn Summer Jam of 2022!

Nibiru, by Araukana Media.

Nibiru is a science fiction tabletop roleplaying game, set in a massive space station in a neighbouring solar system. Players take on the role of Vagabonds; people who woke up in the space station with no memories of their past.

Nibiru tackles themes of memory, nature and artificiality through simple mechanics, evocative art and immersive worldbuilding.

This is a game in which you create your character’s backstory as you play, filling in pieces of memory as you explore a space station filled with strange inhabitants and abandoned or deteriorating locations. The way you write about yourself will also fuel your character progression, with rewards for creativity and turning some of your memories into tools that you can use as you play. The setting is unique, evocative, and has a lot of potential to tell a compelling and heart-wrenching story. 

If you want to see a bit of the game in action before buying it, there is a Quickstart Guide available on DriveThruRPG!

Other Space Recommendation Posts

Star Trek (and its sequel)

Space Adventures

Space Westerns

Space Fantasy

[deadeery]

For the artist ask game, 28-30!

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

Sense im fairly new to posting my art publicly, this year is my first time applying for zines! Im currently in the Op summer festival zine, and i got accepted into the One piece cowboy zine :D!! I have also participated in Artfight for two years now

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

Hm, anything i usually get into i get inspired even if its just doodles!! although one manga series i collect yet ironically don’t draw for is Blue Period

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

My miku and uta pieces >:o!! I like those two the most because i had fun messing w the colors. Although i don’t put much effort into rbing them for exposure. Whoops. And i recently noticed some of my artworks don’t show up in the searched tags… is this a common problem

[caspercryptid]

Dirty Laundry

Day 3 of @aughtpunk and @wyntera‘s peapod mchanzo week! also, totally based off of @dilfosaur‘s drawings of Hanzo and McCree in her zine- the great sequence of them at the laundromat.

Blood, Hanzo thought, was unnecessarily messy. What’s more, it sprayed ridiculously far, and he really hated close quarters combat. Hated it. There was nothing worse than fighting with a bow at point-blank range. Though by the sound of it, McCree wasn’t faring much better.

So at the end of it, a two man “scouting” mission was him, Jesse, a massive pile of bodies and two sets of utterly ruined clothes.

Hanzo loathed how utterly in love with McCree he was, loathed that the cowboy managed to look positively poetic in the red soak of the sun and splattered in blood. Loathed the stupid grin rolling across his features as he pulled his shirt up to wipe the blood off his face, exposing the tanned expanse of his stomach.

It just smeared more blood on his cheek, and McCree made a face.

“Okay hon, We’re gonna need to go to a laundromat. I don’t even think we’re gonna be allowed on the dropship like this. Hell, I wouldn’t be allowed on a Blackwatch dropship like this.” McCree’s expression turned thoughtful, and Hanzo forced himself to focus his gaze back on Jesse’s face.

“Come to think of it...did a blackwatch op here once that ended a little like this. C’mon.”

Numb, Hanzo fell into step beside him. McCree led them through back alleyways of the tiny town of Grand Mesa, stopping at the back of one business. He rubbed at the wall, revealing an ancient keypad. A few taps and-

“Trenchcoats.” Hanzo monotoned.

“Your superiors made a safebox full of Trenchcoats.”

McCree gave him a grin that outshone the sun, and Hanzo scowled as his heartrate picked up, trying to keep his joy at bringing that expression forward down. McCree, undettered, just pulled out the trenchcoats and tossed him one, pulling the other around his shoulders.

The premonition that Hanzo got as he saw the way it fit perfectly across McCree’s shoulders turned out to be right, and his pooled around his ankles like a burlap evening gown.

To Jesse’s credit, he didn’t laugh at Hanzo, just stuffed the rest of the brown coats back into the box.

“Gabe wasn’t much for frivolities, and too many fatigues and drop ship seats ruined pissed him off. Plus ill fitting clothes are an easy mark in and of themselves, so he spared himself the effort and just put a bunch of trenchcoats in the dropboxes out back of...more lax laundry establishments. Made us all keep quarters with us on missions, or go out on the street to beg for ‘em.”

Hanzo pictured the proud young man in blackwatch old photo albums, a bandana around his neck, in a trenchcoat, begging for quarters. He snorted.

“I would have liked to have seen that.”

McCree let out a low chuckle as they started towards the front of the store.

“You shoulda seen Genji. He was the worst because he was naked half the damn time so he didn’t carry any. But he had an undercover op, got some really comfy clothes, and of course, mission went sideways. Liked them so much that he made me carry the clothes around for him while he went diving in fountains for quarters in illios. Scared the shit out of tourists. Think he’s still got that hoodie...”

They fell quiet as they went in through the door, but the bored looking cashier barely spared them a glance before she gestured vaguely at the last row of machines.

“Keep your backs to the door. One run’s a quarter. No full nudity.”

Her part said, she went back to her newspaper.

“Much obliged.” McCree started towards the back, Hanzo still staring at the cashier in shock.

She blew a bubble of gum and popped it.

Alright then.

McCree was already getting undressed, pulling off his flannel. Hanzo tried not to stare, but it was difficult. The finer curves of his form just drew his eye- following along like long calligraphy brushstrokes.

“You know hon, if you wanted to look, you only had to ask.”

Hanzo flushed, his eyes flashing back up to McCree’s, bright with laughter. Hanzo turned sharply, untying his gi and pulling it off, tossing it with rather more aggression than necessary into the washing machine.

He caught McCree eyeing him appreciatively as he turned back around, and smirked.

“What’s that expression you americans use? Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

McCree winked.

“If you’d let me.”

Hanzo grinned, pulling the trenchcoat back around his bare shoulders.

“Ask again later, Cowboy.”

“I certainly will.”

Hanzo turned back around under the pretense of adding the last of his clothes to the machine. He couldn’t keep his grin off his face.

Maybe something good could come of all this after all.

[spectrestatic]

Blackwatch Timeline/Headcanons

I’ve been yelling all my blackwatch timeline headcanons @umbrellacentral and by his request Im going to dump it out here. This is mostly my own take of the characters and influences from the fic Hang the Fool(its amazing go read it (I bought the zine i’m so excited!)).There is some gore drawings of what I hc gabe too look like under his mask. It’s all under the cut.

Ok so I’m being very flexible on the timeline and just going with what works imo, as well as adding more symbolism. I’m doing this with a lense of reaper76 byw. Ok here we go.

-the omnic crisis ends and overwatch is still going gabe wants to diaspers but the un holds them together 

-gabe is offered the position of strike commander but gabe refuses

-gabe doesn’t want to be in the spotlight having to appeal all the governments and play for the crowd so they give it to jack instead 

- but gabe starts blackwatch as a secret information overt ops branch of overwatch to do the work that overwatch can’t do with all the spot light shining on them 

-gabe didn’t care about appealing to anyone and was willing to do what it takes to make the world safer and dam the world for judging and turning on its heros so quickly  

-it starts very small with gabe and a small team of soldiers (with gerald) and will occasionally get assistance from the other originals(ie ana, jack, rinehart, ect)

-hes the lone king of blackwatch (reyes means king in spanish(i love the symbolism in it(with his eventual fall(giving him the fallen king archetype))) 

-they operate like this for a few years getting a few new members but not much

-and they work like that until a special op on route 66 in deadlock gorge it goes to plan until a 17 year old deadlock punk single handedly(ha) takes out half his sqwad 

-jessie nearly turnes the tied but not before getting subdued by gabe himself and when he got a look at the scrawny, under fead,spitfire kid in spurs and a cowboy hat with the talent and wits to be someone great

-gabe pushes jack super hard to let them take jessie into overwatch instead of prison(jack thinks its a terrible idea to hire a criminal even if its a 17 year old one(but he trusts gabe and allows it but making sure its well hidden and kept top secret))  

-gabe gives jessie the deal join blackwatch or prison 

-jessie accepts but isn’t allowed to do any missions for a year while gabe trains him military style to try and force the gang outta him but some wildness will never leave jessie 

-gabe spends a lot of time training jessie and they grown to have a brotherly bond 

-after the year of training (and now that jessie is 18 and is considered a adult) he starts running missions with the squad and he excels, in it falling into the rhythm of the missions

-after a few years of jessie going on missions and with gabe’s constant guidance and training he gets better and better to the point where gabe has nothing to teach him so gabe asks ana to train him

-she out right refuses at first (parah is 8 at this point and mercy has joined overwatch at 16) until gabe stategicly puts ana and jessie on a mission where her eyes from above can see how capable jessie is and she knows gabe did that on purpose but when she saw just how reckless jessie was she couldn’t help but agree to train him

-she starts training him in mid-long range sniping but jessie prefers to be in the thick of the fight that disappoints her 

-jessie is getting kinda cocky from going from being a gang grunt to being trained personally by 2 world class soldiers and having a dead shot aim it starts to get to his head ana tires to contain it and keep him humble but he doesn’t listen 

-genji “joins” overwatch 5 years after jessie with a bunch of other reformed criminals in between(actually looking for a second chance)(not talon)  

-genji starts out with overwatch but his rage and brutalness doesn’t look good on cameras and he is whisked over to blackwatch 

-jesse tries to approche genji on multiple times only to be deflected(ha im hilarious) but jessie doesn’t stop and builds up a almost friendship before genji lashes out( afraid to get any sort of personal/platonic relationship because if his own brother would cut him in half what would a friend do?he never wants to give anyone the chance again)  

-but jesse didn’t stop rebuilding the tower of trust and rebuilding it agian when genji knocks it down

-jessie explains to ana why he is trying so hard its that jessie got a second chance to do good in the world thanks to gabe and he wants genji to know that he can have that too

- a year goes by and jessie is still getting more arrogant and both ana and gabe are getting too busy to keep it in cheak and after a piniculary bad deflect from genji jessie hubris gets the better of him and he makes a reckless move on a mission and has his arm blown off 

-he’s equipped with a default prosthetic arm(boring in his opinion)

-genji relents on pushing jessie away and they become best friends and gabe starts to take more time to look out for them that was the chink in the king’s armor talon was looking for they started sneaking in their soldiers

-((also i know jessie and pharah having a brother sister relationship is popular but where is my genji and pharah friendship?? like little pharah finding genji crying in a closet and she gives him his stuffy(and he still has it!!) and barinding the wires on the back of his head or genji letting her draw on his armor with sharpie because it pisses off the doctors((like i need this blizzard please)))))

- a few more years pass and moira joins blackwatch (about the uprising time)

-she gives jessie a cooler arm after getting tired of his pestering 

-gabe starts to notices somethings are off in his records and startis digging trying to find whats up at the same time gerald has been put in charge of finding talon and at about the same time as amile is kidnapped gabe finds the talon operatives hiding in blackwatch and overwatch 

-((moria and amile actually became friends before she was kidnapped and moira is actually concerned for widowmaker but window doesn’t care about anything anymore and just takes it as being about her conditioning))

-gerald is murdered before gabe can tell anyone and seeing how talon can hurt the people your close to he instead of going to the others he goes to moria to make him a weapon that can fight talon in gerald’s place  

-and ana is “killed” by talon as well and gabe is too afraid to tell anyone and make them another target and starts letting the paranoa set in 

- he goes to moria to make him stronger to fight talong she gives him a more mild version of the wrath powers not a smoke monster just yet he can let bullets slid though him 

- jessie and genji have noticed how gabe is acting and try to reach out to him just thinking its gref for ana and gerald but he shrugs them off but ever stubborn jessie keeps poking around trying to figure out whats happening and gabe catches him going though the files and jessie thinks talon has gotten to gabe and gabe is afraid talon will get to jessie and they have a huge argument and jessie takes off and genji follows not the much later

-gabe is now the lone king again adopt his crumbling throne gabe works to get to the bottom of what talon is doing using more unsavory practices to get what he needs and jack has been ignoring/choosing not to see what is happening right in front of him to gabe 

-5 years pass and in switzerland hq jack finally stops gabe and they have a huge argument about everything thats happened how jack was blind to what was happing how talon was in there ranks and jack argues back of how it all started because he wanted to let a criminal in  and they let out all the emotions they were hiding from each other and themselves they windup just hugging promising to fix it together that they can do anything together 

-that’s when talon blows up the base with the 2 of them in it gabe is killed shielding jack and jack is still badly wounded but manages to get himself out with the help of mercy he’s taken to a hospital as a john doe 

-but jack has given up on overwatch with gabes sacrifice  

- mercy goes back for gabe and finds his body trying to reanimate it-self she uses her staff to give it the extra power let his cells regenerate but is effects aren’t immediate and he’s buried

-when the cells finally start up again he wakes up buried alive he uses his newly acquired smoke powers to get out  he stands in the graveyard and sees morrison’s grave and collapses with grief 

-he sees a gard coming to here the commotions and he runs or more accurately floats out of there 

-he goes underground(metaphorically) and resolves to take revenge on talong for what they have done to his family

-now he looks like this between the smoke 

-he finally takes the role of the spotlight he hated to get his job done(dismantle talon) he makes the costume to appeal to the public as a monster he’ll take the blame for the man he loved and play the monster the world decided him as and use that to avenge his family

- while jack gives up on overwatch he gives up on the vision of the future he had  the hope they can make the world better 

                    Ok thanks all for now thanks for reading to me babble, i might add more later.  

[audiopedia2016]

What is UNDERGROUND FILM? What does UNDERGROUND FILM mean? UNDERGROUND FILM meaning - UNDERGROUND FILM definition - UNDERGROUND FILM explanation. Source: Wikipedia.org article, adapted under http://ift.tt/yjiNZw license. An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre, or financing. The first printed use of the term "underground film" occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, "Underground Films." Farber uses it to refer to the work of directors who "played an anti-art role in Hollywood." He contrasts "such soldier-cowboy-gangster directors as Raoul Walsh, Howard Hawks, William Wellman," and others with the "less talented De Sicas and Zinnemanns continue to fascinate the critics." However, as in "Underground Press", the term developed as a metaphorical reference to a clandestine and subversive culture beneath the legitimate and official media. In the late 1950s, "underground film" began to be used to describe early independent film makers operating first in San Francisco, California and New York City, New York, and soon in other cities around the world as well, including the London Film-Makers' Co-op in Britain and Ubu Films in Sydney, Australia. The movement was typified by more experimental filmmakers working at the time like Stan Brakhage, Harry Everett Smith, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, Ron Rice, Jack Smith, George Kuchar, Mike Kuchar, and Bruce Conner. By the late 1960s, the movement represented by these filmmakers had matured, and some began to distance themselves from the countercultural, psychedelic connotations of the word, preferring terms like avant-garde or experimental to describe their work. Through 1970s and 1980s, however, "underground film" would still be used to refer to the more countercultural fringe of independent cinema. The term was embraced most emphatically by Nick Zedd and the other filmmakers associated with the New York-based Cinema of Transgression and No Wave Cinema of the late 1970s to early 1990s. In the early 1990s, the legacy of the Cinema of Transgression carried over into a new generation, who would equate "underground cinema" with transgressive art, ultra-low-budget filmmaking created in defiance of both the commercialized versions of independent film offered by newly wealthy distributors like Miramax and New Line, as well as the institutionalized experimental film canonized at major museums. This spirit defined the early years of underground film festivals (like the New York Underground Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival, Hamilton Underground Film Festival, Toronto's Images Festival, and others), zines like Film Threat, as well as the works of filmmakers like Craig Baldwin, Jon Moritsugu, Carlos Atanes, Sarah Jacobson, and Bruce La Bruce. In London the Underground resurgence emerged as a movement of Underground cinema clubs which included the radical open access group the Exploding Cinema. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the term had become blurred again, as the work at underground festivals began to blend with more formal experimentation, and the divisions that had been stark ones less than a decade earlier now seemed much less so. If the term is used at all, it connotes a form of very low budget independent filmmaking, with perhaps transgressive content, or a lo-fi analog to post-punk music and cultures. Taking place in basements across America, underground film has long had difficulties in gaining mainstream acceptance. A recent development in underground filmmaking can be observed through the Lower East Side based film production company ASS Studios. Founded in 2011 by writer Reverend Jen and filmmaker Courtney Fathom Sell, the group avoided most modern methods of production, choosing to shoot all of their work on an outdated Hi 8 format and usually with no-budget. Utilizing many New York based performers, their work generally contained camp elements and taboo themes. These films were commonly screened at venues & bars in and around New York City.

[sleepyone2three]

And the list continues to grow...

Do I have a problem with self control and poor spending habits? For sure. But I also know I'm going to have a lot of stuff to be looking forward to 💕