Voices From The Pulpit (Ramblings of an Inadequate Messiah)

This Weeks Releases: Doctor Who, 100 Sci-Fi Seeds and Barbarians of Lemuria!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:25:05 GMT

Yay! We have three new books out this week :)

Released This Week: Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG, 100 Sci-Fi Adventures Seeds and Barbarians of Lemuria (Legendary Edition)!

T-Shirts

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:38:46 GMT

Really quite like some of these un-pc t-shirts :p

Linky Linky

If Twilight was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:36:30 GMT

For all of the Twilight lovers and haters out there...

If Twilight was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest (Cracked.com)

Cthulhu Merchandise...Ski Masks...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:23:15 GMT

ok... I love Cthulhu merchandise as much as the guy in the next padded cell, but somethings completely baffle and blind side me... such as the Cthulhu Ski Mask... http://tinyurl.com/ybsu4uk

I can just see a bank robber donning that one!

Dragonmeet 2009 Special Guests

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:42:14 GMT

Hi all,

Dragonmeet: London is pleased to announce the following as very special guests for this years show.

Erik Mona (Paizo Publishing/Pathfinder)
Robin D. Laws (Author/Game Designer)
Simon Washbourne (Barbarians of Lemuria)
Brennan Taylor (IPR/Galileo Games)
Andrew Looney (Looney Labs)
Gregor Hutton (Box Ninja; 3:16)
Gareth Hanrahan (Game Designer & Author)
Jeff Richard (Moon Design)
Mark Barrowcliffe (Author; 'The Elfish Gene')
Jonny Nexus (Author; 'Game Night')
Stephen Deas (Author; The Adamantine Palace)
David Devereux (Author; Hunter's Moon)
Jon Hodgson (Artist)
Linda Pitman (Artist)

Best wishes,

Angus

SFX #190 - Adventures in Time and Space...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:53:53 GMT

SFX #190 - Out now! Including "The Long Game" on page 17 which briefly chats to Cubicle 7's Dominic McDowall-Thomas and Dave Chapman about Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space!

Wave RPG Game

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:04:38 GMT

I'm contemplating running an Amber game (or my old Threshold game which is similiar to Amber in many ways) using Googlewave. If I did would anyone be interested?

Off to Germany...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:52:33 GMT

I'm off to Germany for the rest of the week. Flying by London this evening very quickly and then off to Essen to be one of the 150,000+ attendees at Spiel - the worlds biggest and best non-electronic gaming convention.

I have a reasonbly crowded schedule of meetings with various European distributors, and a few publishers, at the show. Plus a reasonably crowded aftershow party schedule - so one way or another I'll be pretty knackered by the time I board the plane back to the UK on Sunday.

See ya!

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Preview #2

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:42:57 GMT

New Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Preview is up... http://tinyurl.com/ylkpnyt

Sad Kermit sings 'Creep' and 'Hurt'

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:40:40 GMT

Kermit covering Radiohead's Creep... you know, it's odd hearing a childhood icon say the f-word!

...but not as odd as watching the video of 'Hurt' that has Kermit covering the famous Nine Inch Nails song (which Johnny Cash also very successfully covered).
This is really not a video to watch if you want your childhood memories of our fav...ourite green friend to remain intact... although I always wondered what happened to Kermie after the Muppets... little did I realise he spiralled so far down...

The World of Sparkles

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:38:20 GMT

If Twilight had pre-dated Vampire: The Masquerade we'd have had The World of Sparkles. In the LARP version everyone could cover themselves in glitter...it would have been so much fun!

(Preview) Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Character Sheet

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:13:11 GMT

A preview of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG Character Sheet for you all :) http://tinyurl.com/yldyt52

Gameforce Holiday - Relaunching January 2010

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:46:48 GMT

Hi all,

Unfortunately finding a new venue has proved trickier than I had hoped - especially as we'd only be there for two meetings before taking December off (and the first of those meetings clashes with Spiele in Essen which a number of people attend so our potential first meeting in a new venue would have a smaller attendence than usual).

As such the decision has been made to put the club on a short hiatus and relaunch it in January 2010 at a new venue.This will hopefully give us time to find somewhere suitable with longer term potential.

I will update the mailing list and website/facebook group with news as soon as everything has been arranged and confirmed.

Please accept my apologies for the temporary Gameforce Holiday and I hope to see many of you at Dragonmeet in London on Saturday 28th November (www.dragonmeet.co.uk) and also in January at our new location.

Yours Sincerely,

-- 
--
Angus Abranson
Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
www.cubicle7.co.uk
Publishers of SLA Industries, Victoriana, Starblazer Adventures, QIN:
The Warring States and the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game
oxxxx[====================>

Dragonmeet 2009 Tickets - On Sale Now!

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:00:54 GMT

Tickets for the tenth anniversary of Dragonmeet - taking place on Saturday 28th November 2009 - are now available to pre-order.

Advanced tickets offer you savings from buying tickets on the day and also allow you quicker entry to the event.

Tickets are available to be purchased via Paypal and can be ordered at http://tinyurl.com/y9ayget

We look forward to seeing you on the 28th!

--
Angus Abranson
Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
www.cubicle7.co.uk
Publishers of SLA Industries, Victoriana, Starblazer Adventures, QIN:
The Warring States and the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game
oxxxx[====================>

Questions - Answers

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:36:08 GMT

Just dropping by quickly to answer some questions imagnocean posted for me....so here goes....

1) Are you ok?
Generally, yes. Probably more 'ok' than I've been in many years in many aspects.

2) Do you think you will ever settle down properly?
Depends in what way 'settle down' really. In a job, in an area, with a partner...?
Job wise I've always been pretty settled. I was with Leisure Games for over 20 years and now I'm running my own company I can't really see me moving on from that for many, many years to come - if ever - unless things didn't work out and went belly up (which hopefully they won't).
Area wise - no idea. I still *really* want to live abroad again - preferrably in several countries and cultures. The thing that I have to do is either get a place which is 'base camp' that I can store all my stuff or sell most of my things to make everything a lot more managable when moving. There's no way I can jump places with the amount of stuff I currently have!!!
Partner-wise. I don't know. Maybe one day. I'm happy being single and having my own space. Being able to do what I want to do and not feel guilty about not spending time with my other-half. Work - especially now I'm my own boss and am at the beginning of the journey - has to be my primary focus. That said I watched (500) Days of Summer recently and it certainly hit a few home truths in some areas, so you never know. I could bump into someone tomorrow that would change my entire outlook on steady and longterm relationships.

3) when was the last time you turned off your phone, didn't go on your computer, and got outside and did something that allowed you to be alone with your thoughts and nature?
My phone is on 24/7. The only time it gets turned off is when I'm in the cinema (and recently even then it only gets put on silent vibrate), the last time I wasn't on *a* computer was when I was away - but then I can check my email through my phone. The last time I didn't check email at all anywhere was probably when I was in Cornwall for 5/6 days back in March/April 2008. I also forgot my phone on one of those days too actually.
Last time I went outside and was alone with my thoughts and nature was probably a couple of months ago when I popped over to Avebury stone circle (about 20 minutes by bus from my place) and chilled out for a few hours under the sun and shade of a stone.

4) If you had a garden with great soil, what would you grow?
Not sure I'd have time for gardening at present, but if I did I'd try and start up a veg and herb garden and become a bit more self-sufficent.

5) Have you stopped putting salt on your pizzas? :P
I hardly have pizza's anymore! Seriously. After we moved to Swindon I think it was the best part of 4-5 months before we had a pizza...and no salt on that one (although I have done once since). I mainly cook my own meals these days, and take pack lunches to work, so rarely actually eat out anywhere. I haven't had an Indian since March!!! Chinese since July!! What's happened to me!!!!! :p

Gig #003 Fleetwood Mac, The Adventurers @ Wembley Arena 25th May 1988

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:58:57 GMT

It was deep into my GCSE exam period, I believe the friend I went with may have had an exam the next afternoon actually, but we weren't going to let that stop us.

Fleetwood Mac were on their "Tango in the Night" tour and playing Wembley Arena. Niot onyl was Tango in the Night one of their biggest albums spawning some great tracks, but the line-up was one fo their best (that fragmented shortly after the tour) - Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevuie Nicks.

They played a brilliant set that housed not only a good chunk of 'Tango in the Night' but also their back catalogue such as The Chain (from Rumours) and Sara (from Tusk).

In support they had The Adventures, a band getting significant airplay at the time with their hit single "Broken Land" *(that was the most played song on Radio 1 in 1988) and album The Seas of Love.

Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies

The Adventures - Broken Land

Gig #002 - Def Leppard, Loverboy Wembley Arena 12th April 1988

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:53:58 GMT

It was just under four months between my first two gigs. I was still 15 so couldn't exactly afford to go rocking and rolling every night at that point!

My second ever gig saw me return to Wembley Arena and another tour of a classic album - Def Leppards "Hysteria" Tour. The album was huge, they were huge and they had a string of really great hit singles floating around the charts from the title track "Hysteria" to "Animal" and "Pour Some Suger On Me" to the ballard "Love Bites". I loved every minute of them live and even ended up buying my first gig t-shirt at the show :p

I can't really remember too much about Loverboy, the support for the night, apart from they were very, very 80's MOR.

The video I selected for Def Leppard is actually from the 1988 Tour.

Def Leppard - Animal

Loverboy - Queen of the Broken Hearts

Gig #001 - Whitesnake, MSG, Wembley Arena 29th December 1987

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:14:45 GMT

I've decided to chronicle the gigs I've been to over the years. No matter how cringe worthy some of the bands I've seen have been I'm going to post each gig in order, including the support bands, venue and date and include a video of all the bands involved in said gig experience... for better or for worse.

Although I'm sure I will come across many bands that YouTube won't be helpful about because they were so small in the age before the internet and cheap digital cameras/phones for even the crappy quality gig-vids that people film. I'll do my best though and will try to provide links to websites for those I can't find decent footage of.

Anyway, first up I travel almost 22 years into the past to a cold evening on the run-up to New Years Eve. There I was at Wembley Arena for my first ever live music experience, courtesy of a friend having a spare ticket, to see... WHITESNAKE supported by MSG (then known as the McAuley Schenker Group although previously were Michael Schenker Group). It was Whitesnake's "1987 Album Tour" - which had a host of really classic songs on it. Whitesnake were fantastic and I sang along like crazy and couldn't get them out of my head for the next couple of days. I wasn't really into MSG though.

Whitesnake - The Still of The Night

MSG - This Is My Heart

Cubicle 7 Interview: Dominic and Angus

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:23:50 GMT

The Cubicle 7 interview with myself and Dom has now been posted ... http://tinyurl.com/lqefq9

San Diego Comic-Con 2010

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:21:35 GMT

I've managed to pre-book a four day pass (plus preview night) for San Diego Comic-Con 2010 next July.

I've never been to the show before but have long wanted to.

The next step is get Cubicle 7 on the waiting list so we can have a stand there one day. I have heard horror stories of a 3-5 year waiting list for stands, but we'll see. For now I'm just over the moon that I finally get a chance to attend, meet people and see all the cool stuff on show (or atleast some of the cool stuff on show as I'm sure I won't get the chance to see all of it as it's a very big show and there are so many seminars, panels, advance screenings, etc that I won't be able to fit everything in to my schedule.

Cubicle 7 Entertainment and Arc Dream Publishing Announce Partnership

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:47:07 GMT

Cubicle 7 Entertainment and Arc Dream Publishing Announce Partnership

Arc Dream Publishing and Cubicle 7 Entertainment are pleased to announce a new publishing partnership. Cubicle 7 will publish the “Wild Talents” game line developed and produced by Arc Dream, beginning in January 2010 with the Second Edition of the “Wild Talents” roleplaying game. The “Wild Talents” sourcebooks “The Kerberos Club,” “This Favored Land,” and “Grim War” will follow in February, March, and April, with further releases planned throughout the year.

Arc Dream Publishing’s president and managing editor Shane Ivey said, “We’re very excited about the dynamic approach that Cubicle 7 is taking with its game lines, and we’re thrilled to be working with Angus and Dom to bring ‘Wild Talents’ to a broader audience than ever before.”

“Arc Dream, in my opinion, are one of the big up-and-coming companies. They continually come up with top quality ideas and realize them in astounding products packed full of inspirational words and artwork. They have a great creative team working with them and we’re very pleased to now be part of the process allowing their games to reach stores and fans around the world.” added Angus Abranson of Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

“Wild Talents,” written by Dennis Detwiller, Greg Stolze, Kenneth Hite, and Shane Ivey, first appeared in 2006 in a limited edition of 1,000 books, published by Arc Dream with the help of hundreds of fans of its World War II superhero roleplaying game “Godlike.” Arc Dream’s president Shane Ivey explained: “Manufacturing a full-color, hardback game book like Wild Talents would have been ruinously expensive for a modest outfit like ours, so we took the matter to the fans directly. We set up a sort of ‘pledge drive.’ Fans of the game could pledge to place a pre-order, but we would ask them to commit to the actual orders only if and when enough pledges came in to finance the book. We expected it would take a month or so to generate all the pledges we’d need. It took 36 hours. That showed us very clearly the enthusiasm among our fans for Wild Talents. We released the limited edition and immediately set to work developing the next edition of the game.”

About Arc Dream Publishing

Arc Dream Publishing is a partnership between publisher Shane Ivey and game designer Dennis Detwiller. In addition to “Wild Talents,” Arc Dream publishes the acclaimed World War II roleplaying game “Godlike” and the multiple Ennie Award-nominated “Monsters and Other Childish Things.” Arc Dream also works with Pagan Publishing to develop new sourcebooks for the Origins Award-winning “Delta Green” game setting.

About Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd

Founded in 2006 Cubicle 7 Entertainment was set up by Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas, two gaming entrepreneurs who wanted to create a games publisher fostering some truly iconic brands. Since then the company has published role playing games from a growing list of properties including Victoriana, SLA Industries, Starblazer Adventures (based on DC Thomson’s 80’s Starblazer comic series) and 7th Circle’s Chinese fantasy Qin. In June 2009 Cubicle 7 announced it had joined the Rebellion Group.

Victoriana is a fabulous fusion of Victorian adventure and fantasy myth, SLA Industries is a gritty futuristic urban horror fuelled by classic British punk imagery, whilst Starblazer Adventure is set firmly in the heart of classic 80’s space opera where gigantic fleets prowl the starlanes and devilish scientists operate enormous engines of destruction. The English translation of French publisher 7th Circle’s Qin propels players in to the epic fantasies and tragic events of ancient Chinese legend.

Arc Dream Publishing
www.arcdream.com

Cubicle 7 Entertainment
www.cubicle7.co.uk

Playtest Open Call, New Licensed Fantasy RPG

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:39:34 GMT

Would you like to play a role in the development of Cubicle 7 Entertainment's new licensed fantasy RPG? We're looking for enthusiastic playtesters to help make sure that the game is the best it possibly can be.

The playtest will involve reading the rules, playing the game and reporting back to us on what works well, what doesn't work so well, and any other comments you have on how it all plays.

The official announcement is still a while away, so you will be required to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to ensure that the game details are kept secret.

If you're interested in joining the playtest, please email me at roger @ cubicle7.co.uk

Thanks

Roger Calver - Playtest Coordinator
Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
www.cubicle7.co.uk
Publishers of SLA Industries, Victoriana, Starblazer Adventures, QIN: The Warring States and the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game

Assemblage 23 looking for European Tour Dates

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:32:22 GMT

I know there are several promoters that read my LJ and/or Facebook accounts so thought I'd pass this along. If you do book them please think of me for a freebie ticket! :p

Attention Promoters!
Assemblage 23 is planning to tour the US in support of the upcoming album "Compass" in April and May. We're going to be touring Europe at the beginning of the year, so I need to start booking now so we have enough time to get everything sorted. We'll be touring with the Australian band Angel Theory as support.
If you are a promoter or know a promoter who would be interested in putting on a show, please contact me at tomshear@comcast.net
Even if we've recently discussed this, please contact me so I can get your contact information. My studio computer recently kicked the bucket and took my promoter contact file with it.

London Excursion - Dark MIlls Festival

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:27:36 GMT

Hello LJ-land!

Yes, as strange as it may seem I do indeed still live.

I may only walk the hallowed nodes of LJ rarely these days but I haven’t forgotten you altogether. Even if the hot new thing called Facebook has stolen me away from my old love. I guess when I moved out of London I kind of moved out of LJ at the same time. Certainly seems a bit like it...

Anyway, I had a brief weekend excursion into London last weekend so why the hell not update this in celebration of the event!

Saturday saw myself and a friend (Linda) drive over to South London for the Dark Mills Festival – an all day event of bands, theatre, stalls, etc. Although we only really attended for the bands and also to see the Chris Achilleos (http://www.chrisachilleos.co.uk/) exhibition that the show was also putting on.

Chris Achilleos was an artist who I always link to the 80’s. I think it’s because his air brushing style was very popular in the 80’s and his work was featured in a lot of the Games Workshop magazines and games that I read and played back then, along with his art books being incredibly popular in book stores, etc. It was interesting to actually meet the man himself and look at the many, quite iconic, pictures that reminded me of my teenage years.

The bands were a fairly mixed bunch. None, that we saw, were dire or anywhere close – but some were certainly better than others, and some certainly had a better sound system (or rather volume) attributed to there sets. During the course of the day we ended up catching ten of the bands. The highlights for me were Kommand + Kontrol (who’d I’d like to see again with better sound), the brilliant Imprint and the main reason why we went to the show – the fantastic The Eden House.

One of the problems from hosting an outside music festival with so many bands on the bill was that none of the bands had overly long sets. I think it was about 30 maximum. Which, whilst great to see such a selection, meant that the bands we really liked seemed to be over before they’d really started. I certainly want to see The Eden House again at their own headline gig so catch a full set (plus also see them properly, as the bandstand wasn’t very raised and as soon as there were people in front of you on the steps all you could really do was listen to the band without the chance of seeing anything).

All in all though I had a really nice day out. We crashed at a hotel in Wimbledon and then popped into The London Edge (Alternative Fashion Expo) in Olympia on the Sunday for a few hours so Linda could have a look around and meet some of her clients.

So, a brief excursion into London, but a really nice and certainly busy one :)

(Trailers) The Wolfman, Avatar

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:49:05 GMT

Is it just me or is there a spate of potentially really good movies coming out over the next twelve months?

The Wolfman

The Avatar trailer isn't up on Youtube as yet - but the Apple Movies site has a really good HD trailer on site...