Cool Things for the Apocalypse: Eerie Presents Hunter

While investigating the largest local new/used book store (there aren't many of them around here, unfortunately) I found a really cool gem worth mentioning:

Hunter retails for on $20 with 172 pages of gruesome post-apocalyptic tales inside, a real deal!
I snagged it for $10. Woot!

Awesome cover, and contains the full run of the "Hunter" stories presented over several years' worth of issues in Eerie magazine between 1973 and 1981. This is great stuff, and its something I would have loved back when it was new and I was too young. I remember being fascinated by the likes of Eerie, Epic, Heavy Metal, and Savage Sword of Conan....those were the "mature" cntent magazines I was forbidden from buying. By the time I had the freedom to do so, hunting down back issues was a pain...so it's great to see Eerie getting compilations like this, which I can add to my Dark Horse collection of Savage Sword of Conan (up to Volume 8 so far although I'm still reading volume 3).

If you're not familiar, Hunter is a character (the first of several, actually) who holds the name, a wandering adventurer in a post-apocalyptic wasteland as only the seventies could imagine it, inspired by the likes of Omega Man and Planet of the Apes (as the book indicates in its foreword). Hunter is a half-mutant armed with ancient artifacts of the old war, and mankind's last hope against the slavering hordes of demon-mutants. This book has all of his stories as well of those of his successors in very clean restorations of the original black and white tales. It's some got very good art. Those grognards out there who predate me by a few years probably were lucky to read some of this when it was new.

If you love mutants, post-apocalyptic adventures and that special vibe that only the seventies could pull off with its crazy spin on SF and a perpetual terror of the cold war blowing everything up for good, you'll love Hunter. You could probably get some good story bits out of this as well for a Mutant Future or Mutant Epoch campaign.

It turns out Dark Horse is reprinting all of the old Eerie magazines in archived volumes. They're a bit pricey, but I may have to start collecting them. If there's one thing I believe hasn't aged as well over the years, its comics; I don't really know why, but for me the late sixties and seventies were a unique golden age in the evolution of storytelling in comics, when story still mattered more than graphics. Anyway, I'll have to keep an eye out to see what's next in the Eerie releases now that I know about this.

Decisions, Decisions. Plus, A Break Week! Also, Classic Monsters

My next entry in the "Watchers" series will happen next week, probably...it's been a busy week for me so I haven't had time unfortunately to devote to my next entry. But it shall resume soon, I promise!

I've had a rather limited budget lately due to an enormous number of post-baby medical bills I've been paying off, car issues, the shopping event of One Million Diapers plus all the accoutrements that accompany having a wife and child. The short version is that this left me with one choice for myself out of three possible, tantalizing choices, which included: Dungeon Crawl Classics (the gold foil edition plus modules), ringing in at around $80-90 before discounts; Dragon's Dogma, a console RPG which sounds rather interesting (but costing $60 right now)....or option #3, the one I didn't expect but went for: a new copy of the World of Darkness rulebook and Hunter: the Vigil core rules. Dunno why I decided on that, but I think it had to do with the fact that poor 'ol DCC is rather pricey for yet another fantasy retroclone/pseudo-retroclone that as interested as I am in it I know I'll never play (but hell, I'm still picking it up later in June, my copy is on reserve), and I have no time for Dragon's Dogma right now when my backlog include Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim. Seriously. By the time I get around to trying Dragon's Dogma it will be a $20 special, I'm sure.

Anyway, I once got a chance to read Hunter: The Vigil and really liked the premise, much improved over the old Hunter: The Reckoning. Maybe I'll get a chance to run this one. Plus, it would be a chance to enjoy some modern supernatural/horror gaming again, which I really miss.

But you know, I do have one good old fantasy game book freshly added to my collection: Classic Monsters the Manual for Castles & Crusades has at last arrived. This one was one of the "freebies" (paid out of my meager return on online book sales) but well worth it. It's lots of classic monsters, but anyone who (like me) really loved the old 1st edition Fiend Folio and who also likes C&C will love this book. It's probably one of the best overall products Troll Lord has put out since...well, the Castle Keeper's Guide, I suppose. It also dramatically boosts the monster count for C&C, cleans up and presents converted stats and backgrounds for about 200 monsters, most all of which are derived from the OGL versions of those classic fiends that were converted by way of Tome of Horrors, and in that sense it is delectable old school comfort food. Just having the Hooked Horror, Adherer, Huecuva, Flumph and more under one roof, poised and ready to strike in my C&C games, is worth it.

Actual Monsters Inside May Vary; No guarantee of actual chimera or drow chick promised*

Anyway, apologies this week, my blog's been a lot of meandering thoughts, chatty nonsense and discussion of computer gaming habits and buying tendencies. More real game content soon!

*between the 4th Crusade (green cover) Monsters & Treasures and Classic Monsters, I am surprised we haven't got an official entry on drow somewhere in C&C as an official 8th race option, since they seem to spend a lot of time fighting monsters.