Meme-Free Zone

Another repeat GURPS bundle, last offered in June 2022 - GURPS Space

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/G4Space2026

  

Last time this was offered after GURPS Essentials and Fantasy, and I said "This is in many ways the most interesting offer of the three to me - snag is that I already own the parts that interest me as dead trees - sometimes in earlier editions, but I'm more interested in the concepts than the rules anyway..." As with all of these bundles it's worth checking what you already own and deciding if you want all of it, it may be cheaper to cherry pick if you already own a lot of it.

Many apologies for the delay in posting this, due to me being an idiot and somehow going through the entire evening without remembering...

Two offers for the Orbital Blues RPG, a "lo-fi space Western RPG" from SoulMuppet Publishing. One's a repeat, the other all-new

ORBITAL BLUES (from June 2024)
   https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Orbital2026

 

ORBITAL BLUES AFTERBURN (new)
   https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Afterburn

 

In 2024 I said "This is an interesting idea but presentation is a little garish and offputting if you just want to read the rules and understand the system quickly. A plus is that it's pretty cheap. On the whole I think it's worth a look if you're in the market for this sort of game and setting."

Since then I've been reminded that there are much more garish RPGs out there (borg borg borg) so that isn't really an incredibly strong objection. I haven't had a chance to check out the Afterburn bundle properly yet but it seems to continue the themes of the original game, and remains pretty cheap. I think both are worth a look.

This is another repeat bundle, set in the huge largely unexplored rift that splits the Empire and can make travel very difficult. It's a repeat offer adding some new material - if you previously bought it you will receive the new parts automatically. Apologies that I've posted this so late - I've been a bit busy tonight and it slipped my mind.

TRAVELLER GREAT RIFT (Nov 2022)
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2026GreatRift

  

Last time this was on offer (with another bundle containing the rules etc.) I said "OK - Traveller is probably the best-loved SF system out there, and the Mongoose version is VERY popular. You're getting a ton of stuff for your money. Need I say more? Unless you really dislike SF or the setting, or already have everything here, I'd recommend buying them." To which I might as well add that long-term exploration is something that earlier versions of Traveller didn't handle very well; you were mostly in a mapped and reasonably well-documented empire, and it was rare to encounter the complete unknown. This bundle, and others like it, have really changed that, and I really welcome the change.

This is a bundle of material in the "Voidrunner's Codex Special" featuring a spacefaring expansion for D&D 5E and Level Up from EN Publishing.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Voidrunners

  

The idea is to use the D&D or compatible rules for SF adventures; it's aimed primarily at SF-only campaigns, but designed so that combinations of SF and fantasy can be used.

This isn't actually something I need, since I already have plenty of SF games and settings including several I've written myself, but if you're mostly familiar with D&D or Level Up this may be a good route to running SF adventures. It's reasonably priced and you're getting more than a gigabyte of material (admittedly including a lot of deck plans etc.) and may be interesting to others who want to mine it for ideas, cool ship designs, etc.

This is a bundle of material for Age of Ambition, an RPG about a fantasy world trying to modernize and adapt to technology and rapid social and political changes following an alien invasion:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Ambition

  


I'm not familiar with the rules system, but it looks reasonably playable and layout is good. If you get the complete bundle you're getting a lot for your money including numerous worldbooks and adventures, and the setting is novel enough that players ought to find it interesting. 

This is a bundle of two-player RPGs for Valentine's day, the fourth such offer from Bundle of Holding. They come from a variety of authors and publishers, genres range from Georgian romance to far future exploration and horror

 https://bundleofholding.com/presents/ForTwo4

  

This isn't really my preferred style of play - I prefer a larger pool of players - but if you like a more intimate approach to gaming the bundle is pretty cheap and may be worth a look. My personal favourite from these is probably Retired: The Ordinary Life of a Former Supervillain, which looks like it could be a lot of fun, and might be expanded to a larger group of characters, but several others look entertaining.

This is a repeat of the "deep-space alien horror" SFRPG Hostile from Zozer Games, based on the Cepheus Engine and previously offered in April 2022

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025Hostile



Last time I said "My impression is a game that works pretty well if your players can live with corporate betrayal, virtually unkillable monsters, and the other tropes of this side of SF. I'm not entirely sure I want to play in that sort of universe at present, but it's well worth a look and pretty cheap." I don't see any reason to change any of that.

Another bundle for this system is coming soon.

Some histories of science fiction claim that the first SF convention was held in Philadelphia in autumn 1936. That was actually an impromptu gathering of fans, not an organized convention, and the first real convention was held in the UK a few months later, in Leeds in January 1937.

But it turns out that there's another event that can make a reasonable claim to have priority over both - in 1891! The Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete was basically a media con way ahead of its time, held in London's Royal Albert Hall in March 1891. The media in question was Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Vril: The Power of The Coming Race, first published in 1871. The Bazaar was a charity event set up to raise money for a hospital, and lasted several days. The fete included cosplay, jugglers, magic acts, and much more. It wasn't a huge success, and didn't really pave the way for later fandom, but it could be an interesting event to throw into a game set in this period.

An overview of the earliest SF conventions

The Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete

Video about the event

The programme for the event (PDF)
Courtesy of Royal Albert Hall Archive. Ref. RAHE/1/1891/5

Many thanks to Rob Hanson for bringing this to my attention.

Pointed out by Brian WINOLJ - the original drawings for a set of illustrations that were in a 1906 printing of The War of the Worlds by artist Henrique Alvim Corrêa, which are in some cases better than the Warwick Goble illustrations of 1897 - Wells liked them anyway. Lots of pictures, scroll down the page. Yours for an initial bid of £350,000, more likely a million or two.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3066374/Original-drawings-depicting-iconic-Martians-HG-Wells-s-sci-fi-masterpiece-War-Worlds-sale-350-000.html

Today's walk took me first to Little Venice where I disposed of a few slices of slightly stale bread in the traditional way, by feeding them to the assembled ducks, coots, swans etc. Along the way I managed to fumble one bit of bread so that it was still between my fingers when a swan grabbed it, and I can now truthfully say that I have been bitten by all of the main vertebrate groups including birds, reptiles (lizards, tortoises and snakes), fish, amphibia, and mammals (including primates).

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of this, for fairly obvious reasons, but I did get a couple of nice pictures of some coots that are nesting on the rudder of an old sailing barge at Little Venice:
( Coot nest )

It's noticeable that their main nesting material seems to be old plastic bags and other rubbish.

I took a slight diversion because I wanted to visit a shop in Church Street market, and found my way back to the canal at the weird upside-down house - photos tell the story:

( Upside-Down House )

After a nice lunch in Camden Town I went on to a pub in Great Portland Street, where the Britain in 2014 Worldcon (World Science Fiction Convention) committee made an announcement of epic importance; they'd won the bid (to nobody's great surprise, since there were no other contenders), and Loncon 3 will be held on 14th-18th August 2014, but more importantly the guests of honour will be:

Iain M. Banks
John Clute
Malcolm Edwards
Chris Foss
Jeanne Gomoll
Robin Hobb
Bryan Talbot

Much rejoicing on this from me, and from the assembled gathering.

For much more on this see

www.loncon3.org


After that I went home, stopping to get a few more pictures of the Crossrail works at Royal Oak Station - suddenly realised that you can see them from the bridge by the station where there is a temporary structure over water pipes, raising the ground level by a couple of feet.

( Crossrail conveyors )

And so to the computer, and this update.

Tomorrow - the school term begins...

PS - have a small bonus convoy of baby ducks, a photo I took a few days ago.

( We have a convoy... )

Later: Forgot to say that there is a livejournal for the Worldcon, loncon3