Bedrock as a sandbox? Or just a one-shot through Uncle Giggles' haunted house?

First things, first: Happy 50th Anniversary to "the modern stone age family!"


Yep, 50 years, folks. Wow! Or maybe more relevant: "Yabbbbbba Dabbbbbbba Dooooooo!" Now, The Flintstones may not be totally RPG/D&D/etc-related, or even really Back in '81-ish (although I know for sure I was still watching them back then, everyday, after school, so we'll count it, right?

Having some fun with the Flintstones thing this morning I couldn't help but think about Bedrock as a place for a group of adventurers to discover, or even to roleplay the main characters through some sort of scenario. There certainly were many episodes where we got to enjoy the adventures of Fred & Barney. They were always getting themselves into some sort of trouble.


One in particular that makes me think RPG was the episode called "A Haunted House Is Not A Home." This creepy joint could make for some fun times in any sort of haunted house session - you pick the game/ruleset. I mean seriously, check out some of those traps to disable and dark rooms to explore. Also, dig that sweet "switchbladed" axe at the end of the clip - first it's a Hand Axe then it's a Battle Axe!




If that doesn't feel quite right, then maybe float the Lost World/Hollow World/Savage Worlds type of boat and either mix in the 'stones and some of their gadgets (i.e. artifacts?), or maybe just the setting of Bedrock itself. Sound crazy? Yeah. Stupid? Possibly. Fun? Who knows. I'd give it a whirl, just to find out. In fact maybe I'll have some Flintstones-inspired quick&EZ RPG fun with my kiddos later today. After all it is their anniversary, for Dino's sake!

Brand new old school pulp tales 2-in-1: "I'd buy *that* for a dollar!"

Just a quickie here, because time is money... or money costs a lot of time... or ya can't buy good time for a nickel any more... or somethin' like that. Plus this little tale is actually about money... or at least not spending much of it.

Anyway, my family and I hit the Halloween shop yesterday (after lunch, after church) and right next door to it is a Dollar Tree store. So I made a quick stop to check the Star Wars action figs/cards/etc, 'cause sometimes they have some cool stuff in these joints.

Now, in case you don't have them in your area, or if you've never heard of them before, the Dollar Tree is just one of the myriad dollar-store chains that seem to be everywhere these days. This one in particular truly is "everything for a dollar" (not *everything* in one huge pile for only a dollar, but a dollar per item).


So... I check the toys section real quick (for my kiddos, of course, right?... yeah right - LOL) and see nothing really cool, so I turn back and take a gander in the books section. Now these are usually some pretttttttty sucky offerings, ranging from cheesy knockoffs of legit characters/stories/etc to self-help/diet books and the like. But I did see a couple sci-fi/fantasy covers and authors (Andre Norton, Glen Cook, etc) so I dug a little deeper in behind the mess on the shelf.

That's when I saw this bad boy:

Slaves of the Laughing Death/Satan's Murder Machines - Some nice family reading time material, right?

Yep, two original The Spider stories in one paperback novel sized book. Sa-weeeeeeeeet! Now I'm not a HUGE Spider fan, as I haven't had a ton of experience with these stories. I am, however, a very BIG fan of pulp in general, especially the oldschool '30s/'40s stuff like Doc Savage, The Avenger... even The Shadow. I have far too many of the Bantam Doc Savage reprints to list here (most of those I actually only paid $1 each for too, but that's not a deal I can pass along like this Dollar Tree one), a dozen or so of the Warner Avenger books, and a handful of the Shadow books as well. I also have a small selection of the Nostalgia Ventures/Sanctum Books pulp-style magazine reprints that came out not too long ago, mostly of Doc. But I only have one, single-solitary book/magazine reprint of The Spider, so this one I found yesterday was a rare gem to my cheap@$$ eyes. (We're talkin' Dollar Tree, remember?)

OK, back to this book: These are NOT the Pocket books rewritten/updated versions that came out in the '70s. Those had a whole new image and artwork, and new(er) cars/gadgets/etc. Don't get me wrong, I dig these types of Men's Adventure books/illos too, but when you're expecting a creepy '30s pulp dude, you don't really want to see a blonde Mack Bolan on the cover. Dig?

Yeah, *not* this.

As far as I can tell these are the original stories, just reprinted in the '90s as doubles, in novel paperback form, not pulpish, trade paperback/magazine form. Here it is at The Vintage Library. Browsing that site, it looks like I may have overpaid for this little tome. Some of these are FREE there. Doh! - Of course there's that little thing of the $7.95 shipping (not sure if that applies to free stuff, but I suspect it does). Yeah, I'll just stick with the Dollar Tree for now.

So of course I immediately (nearly) tore the place apart looking for more titles, as this is #6 in a series of these doubles, but sadly I didn't find any more. So I'll be hitting a few more locations near my home and near work, just in case there are any more treasures there just waiting for me to find. If you dig pulp, you may wish to do the same.

Now get 'yer hands off me booty!

"I was falsely accused of a hideous crime... yada-yada-yada..."

Am I the only one getting totally GEEKED about the new (old) show Nikita? Maybe. Still, be it a remake, a reboot, a reimagining, or even just a regurgitation, I'm usually always a sucker for this crap.


Now, I will admit that there really isn't much "Back in '81"-ish about this show, BUT these types of shows and movies, when done right, can take me back to the days, somewhere in '81-'86, sitting with some buddies around a kitchen table, with this rulebook,


and these dice,


playing through modules like this (or a totally ad-lib'd one),


with slick, bad@$$ dudes and chicks like this:


See, I'm a HUGE fan of the late '90s (-early '00s) La Femme Nikita,


the original French film, subtitles and all,


and even the re...make with my girl Bridget (Point of No Return),


... so this new Nikita might be a total suckfest, but I just HAVE to give it a shot. Tonight at 9 (EST), on The CW... we'll see. OK, now I'd better get back to Section, before they decide to cancel me.