[d20 Modern] Evil Dead: Swallow This!

[talien]

Evil Dead: Swallow This! has a plot of utter ludicrousness - the forces of evil have been summoned by an incantation into our world and now the heroes must deal with the consequences. Of course, the forces of evil are immortal - they do not distinguish differences in time and space. If the heroes are to defeat the demons, they must fight the forces of hell on their own terms, wherever or whenever it may be.

The heroes are also more than a little crazy. After looking into the pulsating, pustule-ridden heart of evil, how can anyone stay sane? And yet they battle on. Insanity is common - the PCs are likely to be pushed to the brink of madness just by dealing with the forces of evil. Then they fall off the edge, smash into the bottom of the gorge, and the cliff falls on top of them. And they STILL keep fighting.

If you've ever screamed, "Why don't you get a gun and SHOOT IT!" at the pathetic victims of any horror movie...this is the game for you.

Evil Dead: Swallow This! contains 2 new professions, 4 new uses for skills, 7 new feats, dozens of demonite-hunting equipment, 6 new spells, madness and time travel rules, 5 FX items, and 11 deadites to slay with.

You can pick it up at http://www.retromud.org/talien under Freebies.

 

[Vigilance]

Come get some

 

[Alzrius]

Talien, being a big fan of your previous work, I immediately downloaded and read through this one. Only one thing to say here:

Groovy.

You've totally captured the feel from the movies, from horrifying to comedic to zany. Give yourself a pat on the back. Just not with that possessed evil hand.

That said, I think some deadites got into your work somewhere, thinking it was the Necronomicon, and made some changes trying to make your product less than it could otherwise be (maybe because it tells how to boomstick those ugly mo' fo's right back to Hell). Here's what I've seen so far:

- The first paragraph begins "Terminator: Future Fate is a d20 Modern campaign supplement." Now, while some portions of your work here were lifted from T:FF (such as a large part of the section on time travel), this is still a different game (though it'd be groovy seeing Terminators vs. Deadites), and should say "Evil Dead: Swallow This! is a d20 Modern campaign supplement."
- A sidebar mentions Department 7. Now maybe I'm just outta the loop, or maybe I've just heard too many voices and seen too many godless things, but I don't know what Department 7 is or where its from. Can we get some background there?
- On page 7, second column, fourth full paragraph (under "Background"), it reads "The ghost of Raymond Knowby explains that the Book of the Dead contains a spell, time/space rift to banish the evil...but is stabbed in the back with the ancient dagger by Ash's demonic severed hand." What it probably should read is "The ghost of Raymond Knowby explains that the Book of the Dead contains a spell, time/space rift to banish the evil. When they find the missing pages from the book, Annie begins to read the spell...but is stabbed in the back with the ancient dagger by Ash's demonic severed hand." Also note that this section of the background neglects to mention that Ash destroyed the original Necronomicon, and that Annie read from the missing pages she had brought with her.
- The timeline seems muddled a bit to me (such as the Necronomicon disappearing in 1300, but Ash arriving in 1393 (and I thought he arrived in 1300 too)), but I haven't played all the games, so this could just be a deadite playing with my mind.
- Just like in T:FF, under the recommended products for other settings, you've misspelled Goodman Games's Broncosaurus Rex as being Brontosaurus Rex, which it isn't (I'm not even going to comment on how that setting isn't truly prehistoric, but is set in a parallel Earth in the 22nd century where a planet full of dinosaurs has been discovered).
- The "Illusory Death" extraordinary quality listing for the Deadite Skeleton should be in bold text.
- Is a Deadite Twin alive or undead? It says under "Special Qualities" that it gains the undead type, but later under "Abilities" it says "As the original" with no mention of Constitution becoming "-". Nor does it say in the template's introduction that the type changes to undead. (I personally would have it still be alive, since Ash's deadite twin was alive until he killed it, and it later become undead...which I imagine would be accomplished here by adding the Deadite Twin template and then the Candarian template, yes?)
- Under the "Games" listing, you don't have "Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick" listed. I never played the game, but iirc, it was for the Xbox (and no other platform) and may have been the sequel to "Evil Dead: Hail to the King." I think there might have been more games out there also, but I'm really not sure.

I also just wanted to ask, why did you change the subtitle from the preproduction "Gimme Some Sugar" to "Swallow This!"? I personally liked the former better.

Nice work with this game and keep the good stuff coming! Hail to the king baby!

 

[Piratecat]

Yoink!

 

[talien]

Heheh,

Alzrius, you keep me honest.

1) Typo, d'oh!
2) Department 7 is an organization from d20 Modern. They really really REALLY want you to use it in your game as an organization. I made mention of it because it's very possible a lot of folks want to play Evil Dead without the Ash-type characters. If you have d20 Modern, it will make more sense since it's fleshed out there.
3) Good point, thanks.
4) The timeline drives me completley insane. There's a few problems with it:
* It is said the book disappeared in 1300.
* The game plays with the timeline and sends Ash back prior to that time.
* In the movie one character states, "The book looks pretty good for being 3000 years old."
I shifted the timeline a few times. I'm hoping someone more enlightened than me can clean up the inconsistencies, because frankly I wasn't able to reconcile everything.
5) Ah geeze, I know that's a common error -- very likely MS Word caught me and I listened to it. Mentally, I know it's Broncosaurus Rex. Really, I do.
6) Bolding is easy enough to fix.
7) Deadite twins are undead but can look like the living. Need to make that note about Con though.
8) Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick isn't out yet and I have very little information on it. As soon as it comes out (next year) I intend to put it in. Incidentally, I played it at Gen Con.

GROOVY!

9) I changed the title for a few reasons.
* I tested it with a bunch of folks and "Gimme Some Sugar" was not as recognizable a quote from Evil Dead II.
* "Gimme Some Sugar" didn't make sense to everybody.
* "Swallow this!" is listed in an interview with Campbell as being his favorite movie quote.
* "Swallow this!" has some connotations that indicate it can be both a violent and simultaneously naughty/humorous game. I felt that more adequately portrayed the movie with as few words as possible.
* I personally just like "Swallow this!" more because every time I say it a shotgun blast goes off in my head.

Thanks for your comments. My wife, who is an editor, looked back over it and said, "Uh, why don't you print this out and let me edit it." So I'll be sure to clean up all three games out there now before the year is out.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

First I'd like to say, this is really cool. Thanks talien!

On page 16 the Create Time Drops spell says, "Drinking the drops the drinker's Madness Rating by 1 per drop consumed."

I'm assuming this should actually say, "Drinking the drops increases the drinker's Madness Rating by 1 per drop consumed."?

 

[talien]

I was so embarassed by the Broncosaurus Rex screw up that I made all the changes listed by Alzrius and uploaded it again this morning. So grab a fresh copy if you want those changes incorporated.

Bran -- I'll fix that next go round. Good catch.

I'm printing it out today and will have the wifey edit. That should help immeasurably.

 

[Alzrius]

Just wanted to ask, do you really need a Wisdom less than 8 (that is, a possible score of 1-7), to use the Housewares feat? I ask because its presumeable that Ash himself has all the feats listed in the Feats section, but in order to have Groovy and Hail to the King, you need a Wisdom of at least 13, which makes the Housewares feat impossible to have with those.

 

[talien]

Hrm. Tripped up by my own logic.

I'm sticking with the fact that Bruce Campbell has said, and I agree, "Ash is an idiot."

He is. I'm going to lower the requirements on those other feats or change it to a different statistic.

 

[Alzrius]

Talien, another question about that Housewares feat.

Given that you can only take the feat if you have a Wisdom of 7 or lower, what happens if the PC then has his Wisdom score increase (such as by adding an ability point or by a magic item, etc) to 8 or higher? The general assumption here is that whenever you don't meet the prerequisites for a feat, you can't use the feat, but in this instance, that would mean the PC can never improve his Wisdom score past 7, otherwise he'll have effectively wasted a feat. Is this really the case?