Fred Hicks

@deadlyfredly

President of Evil Hat (I publish Fate, Blades in the Dark, Monster of the Week, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, &c). Liberal in politics, reposting, & use of the block button. Be advised, I limit parasociality when I can. Permanently in AMA mode (so ask).

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Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· 22d

First the apple, next the

The cover to Jess Nevins' Fate World of Adventure RED PLANET. Well worth checking out!

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· 27d

Tachyon Squadron is way up there on my list of "underappreciated gems" from the Evil Hat catalog. And it's hugely discounted over at DriveThruRPG right now as a part of Christmas in July! www.drivethrurpg.com/en/featured_...

Spacefighter pilot callsign GUNNER taking action in the cockpit!

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 10

Inside the dragon’s hoard you find 1d4 empanadas.

Happy birthday sign in gold and black with dragons aflight. Plate with three empanadas on it in the foreground. Table covered in “stone”.

My youngest is 15.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 9

Groovy.

Blades '68 limited edition (otherwise all black cover with artwork showing members of a swingin' sixties heist crew inside of the 6 and the 8)

Blades '68 Standard Edition (same crew, this time in a series of overlapping growing-in-size circles to show the crew in action, in colors of golden orange and blue)

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 7

What do you mean, you're not on Cam's patreon yet?!

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 7

Let's Fucking Go.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 7

One of the fun things about running Bits & Mortar is encountering retailers who can't believe that it's free and based on taking the risk of actually trusting each other to be looking out for each other but... yep. That's really how it works.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 6

With Alt text!

From the founding of our company over 50 years ago, Chaosium has always championed human creativity. The vision of design and creation set by Greg Stafford in 1975 continues to this day.

Chaosium does not use AI in our projects.

Unfortunately, like our friends at Evil Hat recently discovered, Adobe has implemented a new feature that creates AI-generated descriptions of images. Adobe quietly inserted these AI descriptions into our new Time Without Tide Quickstart without our knowledge or consent. Being AI, these descriptions contained various errors.

We have now disabled this feature on Adobe, and uploaded a new version of the quickstart to the Time Without Tide Backerkit page.

We regret this happened, and invite you to please download the new version of the Time Without Tide Quickstart. Link in the comments.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 6

A visual guide (with as-required-by-the-setting alt text)

BlueSky account settings page, with the Accessibility row highlighted. Click on this to get to the setting I'm talking about.

BlueSky Accessibility settings page. "Require alt text before posting" is enabled, here.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 5

Time to try to kill these fine friends.

Grid map, big circle up top with a crack-in-the-world vortex effect going on, long corridor leading down to our heroes, on the cusp of the final battle of The Buried Spire

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 3

Always looks something like this on the cusp of being ready to ship things out. Respond to those surveys and resolve those failed charges, y'all. It's a big help to any project-runner.

Status queue for a backerkit pledge manager. 4412 orders are ready to ship out, but there are 219 folks who've never responded to their survey and 42 with failed charges still pending resolution by the relevant customers.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jul 1

Meanwhile, close to DC…

Alert Montgomery - Heat
Emergency Alert Montgomery County has issued a Heat Emergency Alert from 8 pm Wed., Z/1 to Mon., Z/6 at 8 am. Residents should prepare for heat index values to reach 105 degrees Fahrenheit. These
dangerously hot temperatures & heat index values could cause heat- related illness such as heat
exhaustion or heat stroke. Stay in an air-conditioned
locations. Stay hydrated. Take frequent breaks in a
cool, shaded area Alert Montgomery - Heat
Emergency Alert Montgomery County has issued a Heat Emergency Alert from 8 pm Wed., Z/1 to Mon., Z/6 at 8 am. Residents should prepare for heat index values to reach 105 degrees Fahrenheit. These
dangerously hot temperatures & heat index values could cause heat- related illness such as heat
exhaustion or heat stroke. Stay in an air-conditioned
locations. Stay hydrated. Take frequent breaks in a
cool, shaded area

Alert Montgomery - Extreme
Heat Warning National Weather Service issues an Extreme Heat Warning for Montgomery County from 10 am to 8 pm
both Thurs., 7/2 & Fri., Z/3. Heat index values will exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit each
day. More details:

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jun 14

Otherworld (1985)

A family silhouetted against a red sky

OTHERWORLD

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jun 3

You pustulent sons of assholes. What the goddamn fuck, @adobe.com. You trying to make me quit InDesign? Because this is how you make me quit InDesign. (Please, folks, I do not want you popping into my mentions to tell me the alternatives. I know the alternatives.)

InDesign's preferences panel, the Generative AI tab that I never asked for, with AUTOMATICALLY FUCKING ENABLED ALT TEXT GENERATION.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jun 3

This was really clever.

Fredrik Sellevold
·56 mins ago
Spirit of the Century is probably the rpg I've the most fun running, and definitely the one where I had my most inspired GMing decision; when the party was furiously and fruitlessly arguing about which way to break a supervillain out of prison, I cut to "Okay, so you're in the escape car, with Dr Earthquake, and the police is in hot pursuit!"

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jun 2

Oh it was definitely influential amongst the designerfolk of a particular era, and I think there's plenty to point out active today that is at least a spiritual if not a system descendant in that respect.

Astrokiwi on reddit:

There's a lot of games that have "spend a point to activate an aspect for a bonus, or receive a point to activate a negative aspect", but as a subsystem rather than as a core system.

"Hope" works like this in The One Ring - when you spend a Hope, if you're acting in line with your "distinctive feature", you gain an extra die.

"Determination" works like this in 2d20 games - in addition to the normal Momentum spends, you can spend a Determination if you're acting according to one of your Values, for a particularly big bonus.

The core thing of using descriptions for bonuses & penalties, but also requiring you to spend a point to give some mechanical bounds, is pretty common now, and it does seem to really have been Fate that really established that formula. It just tends to be part of a system rather than the whole system in a lot of current games.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jun 2

TUNE IN TO THE REBEL BROADCAST EDITION
Attention all Rebels monitoring this freq—*bzzt* …is Naba
Turbosmith broadcasting from the southern fringe of the
Lazerzone! We *crrzzzt* …a swarm of skeledrones. Losing altitu—*
frrrrrmmm* …cannot allow Necrokadnezzar to *PZHSS* …
beginning encoded transmission NOW!

In 2015 Masters of Umdaar became one of Evil Hat’s most popular
releases in the Fate Worlds and Adventures line. We spoke to
creator Dave Joria about building it out into a full standalone game
alongside other Fate titles like Fate of Cthulhu and Shadow of the
Century. That journey took several twists and turns as the size of
the project expanded and the direction changed. Unfortunately,
at this point our investment in Umdaar outstrips our confidence
that a standard commercial release would be profitable.

However, we know there’s a dedicated fanbase waiting for this
game and frankly we refuse to let all the incredible work that went
into Umdaar go to waste. So we are pleased to present Umdaar: The
Rebel Broadcast Edition—a 400+ page pay-what-you-want PDF.

We’re proud of the efforts made here by the many contributors to
Umdaar, but keep in mind that this rebel broadcast may be accompanied by some static. Keen-eyed fans will notice we’ve repurposed some existing art and, in compiling the final 400+ pages,
some typographical errors may have slipped through. If you spot
one, feel free to let us know at https://evilh.at/umdaar-corrections.

While Umdaar is unlikely to see a full print release, if there is sufficient
interest—and your download of the game is certainly a sign
of that!—we may create a print-on-demand (POD) offering after
we’ve collected and corrected those pesky typos. Stay tuned.

Thanks for your support. Now go: The fate of Umdaar rests in
your hands!

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jun 2

Please note that after years of development, the ambitious vision we had for this game outstripped our production budget. Given the funds Evil Hat has already invested, we couldn’t see a path to profitability under a standard commercial release. But we don’t want all the incredible work that went into Umdaar to go to waste. So we’ve pulled back on our plans to commission the prodigious amount of art a 450+ page book would require and decided to release this Rebel Broadcast Edition of Umdaar on a Pay What You Want basis.

All that said, we’re proud of the effort put in here by the many contributors to Umdaar. The game is fully playable and loaded with stunts, stat blocks, and inspirational tools to bring your pulpiest science-fantasy and planetary romance stories to life.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Jun 2

464 pages. Pay what you want. UMDAAR: Rebel Broadcast Edition. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

Under attack by a giant floating robot zombie tentacle-head shooting plasma blasts out of its eyes, beset by robot soldiers on cyber-raptors, two heroes stand against an army. An orange-skinned four-armed woman with long hair in a braid, wielding an energy-charged axeblade, leaps towards the zombie-head, while a brown-skinned cyborg hero pops a shot off with a gun protruding from his metal arm, holding a blazing plasma-dagger in his off-hand.

UMDAAR
Planet of Swords, Super-Science, and Sorcery
Rebel Broadcast Edition

Dave Joria, Misha Bushyager, Mahar Mangahas, Pam Punzalan, Helena Real, Soup, James Mendez Hodes

More robo-soldiers riding cyber-raptors. One takes a direct hit to the chest as the others charge forward.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· May 26

This They Live remake seems kinda tame TBH

White bumper sticker with plain black block text:

PLEASE BE PATIENT

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· May 21

Neat how the changing of the website icon in my various open tabs to google sheets and docs that I keep open helps give me an early or at least additional warning that there's probably some inbound bullshit afoot.

Old Google Sheets web icon on the left, new "improved" Google Sheets web icon on the right, arrow pointing from old to the new.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· May 16

How it started #bitsandmortar

Publisher Coalition Forms Pro-PDF Pro-retailer Initiative Bits and Mortar.
(August 9, 2010 -- Indianapolis, IN) The past several years have seen growth in consumer
acceptance of PDFs and eBooks. With an eye on using this to drive customers to their friendly
local game stores, a coalition of publishers have formed Bits and Mortar, a pro-retailer, pro-
brick-and-mortar, pro-PDF, pro-eBook initiative.
Bits and Mortar uses simple methods and existing technology to allow retailers the ability to
quickly and easily offer their customers PDF versions of the physical games they purchase in
store at no additional charge.
The Bits and Mortar publisher coalition includes Arc Dream Publishing, Cellar Games, Cubicle 7,
Evil Hat Productions, Pelgrane Press and Rogue Games.
“We love real, physical brick and mortar game stores, and we want to see them survive — and
thrive — even as the digital content options for gaming become more prevalent,” said Fred
Hicks of Evil Hat Productions.
“Today’s game-buying customers want the best of both worlds: the portability of an e-book,
and the lasting durability of one made out of paper, glue, and ink. They want to be able to
support their favorite local game stores, and they want to be able to support their favorite
publishers,” Hicks said. “The Bits and Mortar initiative is all about making sure they don’t have
to choose one or the other. We want them to choose both, every time.”
Richard Iorio of Rogue Games added, “By offering free PDFs together with the books sold in
game stores, Bits and Mortar publishers are giving retailers a free value-add that keeps
customers coming to the store, and in turn keeps that store in business. Everybody wins.”

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· May 11

• Haven't looked this young in 20 years. • Gave no legal permission to use my likeness in this image. • Gave no legal permission to use trademarked logos placed on incorrect product images & layouts shown here. • Them Fate Dice are jank, yo. • Contemplating legal action. • Enjoy, motherfucker.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Apr 27

Brian always does stellar work. Highly recommended.

Scientist from the Kaiju Incorporated RPG. Purple hair, side-shave, round-lensed black glasses, t-shirt showing a flaming mask, ID badge, tentacle tats on the arms, lab coat.

A video game hero punches the coins out of an oversized shark-man in boxer shorts (from Save Game, a Fate World of Adventure).

Cover artwork for the Fate World of Adventure, THE AGENCY, about completely regular people who have secret agents cyber-beamed into their brains for totally on-demand and stress-free do-gooding.

Image shows a screaming woman in glasses falling from an exploding plane, with an inset image of her available brain-implanted team of special agents connected by a glowing line to her temple. Also inset, a group of masked cartoonish terror goons and their leader.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Apr 18

Sinister spacecorp for my Mothership game, reporting in (gotta have my own Weyland-Yutani...)

K V E
Khumalo Voss Explorations
Seeking Tomorrow, Today

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Apr 18

How tonight's Mothership game is going.

Drawing of a toilet with a big centipede like bug crawling out of it and the words Shit Fast overhead. Source unknown.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Apr 17

I just can't run a game without a) redoing the layout on the character sheet b) and the play aids c) and going kinda nuts in a miro board. It's a problem.

Screenshot of a "10k foot view" of a miro board (an online collab whiteboard service, biz-focused) for a Mothership campaign titled "D.TERMINATION", featuring a new character sheet, class options, consolidated and reformatted tables from the source, and what looks like a map of some sort of lunar trench settlement.

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Feb 28

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Feb 10

... shit, we're fucked.

Adrian's ancient authentication, with one of the symbols circled, looking like two "back to back" B-shapes, rendered in sharp angles...

A movie poster for Brightburn (the one about an evil Superboy, essentially) with THE SAME SYMBOL OH NOOOOOOO

Fred Hicks@deadlyfredly· Feb 2

Conclusion of session 38 of Vanished Empire (my every-other-Sunday-ish D&D campaign) saw the conclusion of the group's first proper dungeon delve in a dungeon I entirely designed (a dead god's vault that once contained seven very dangerous swords). Behold the dungeon bullshit I put them through!