Jacob Blackmon Blogs

Today's Transformers Contact is Beachcomber . [Queue Tim Russ' famous line from "Spaceballs"] Beachcomber is one of the few Autobots who is noteworthy for their pacifism. He's not a fan of the war, especially for the destruction is causes to natural splendors and innocent creatures. However, he has sided with the Autobots and knows that sometimes violence is necessary to defend such places. I'm pretty sure that if the Decepticons ever attempt to utilize Yellowstone National Park and its underground volcano as a means to generate Energon, Beachcomber will be on the front lines to stop them and protect the sacred lands. Otherwise, Beachcomber serves as a background character for the Autobots, being a skilled naturalist, cartographer, and expert geologist. This places him firmly under the command of Perceptor: the Autobots' head scientist. If you enjoy this content, please help support my friend Owen Stephens and his fight with cancer . BEACHCOMBER “ Know the...

Recently, Hasbro announced a new SAW Viper figure being released for the GIJoe toy line. Based on its concept art, I decided to make this quick Threat Build for the GIJoe Essence20 rpg by Renegade Games Studios. If you enjoy this content, please support my friend Owen and his fight against cancer . S.A.W. VIPER Cobra S.A.W. Vipers are the heavy gunners of the Cobra army. CODE NAME : S.A.W. Viper THREAT LEVEL: 4 SIZE: Common HEALTH: 4 MOVEMENT: 30ft Ground  STRENGTH: 5 SPEED: 5 SMARTS: 2 SOCIAL: 2 TOUGHNESS: 18 EVASION: 15 WILLPOWER: 12 CLEVERNESS: 12 SKILLS Athletics +d4 Awareness +d2 Brawn +d2 Culture +d2 Driving +d2 Might (Power Tool) +d4* Streetwise +d4 Targeting (Machine Gun) +d6* Languages: Usually English PERKS Bullet Stopper: The highest threat level Cobra in the combat gains a bonus to Evasion equal to the number of Cobras with the Bullet Stopper perk in the encounter with them. If the highest threat level Cobra has the Bullet Stopper perk, they do not...

Today's Transformers Contact Build is Bumper ! Bumper is not a well-known character, but one might consider him to be a fan-favorite, or sorts. Originally released an an unnamed robot mispackaged as Cliffjumper and mistaken for both Cliffjumper and Bumblebee, he earned fan-created names such as "Bumblejumper" and "Bumper" from this packaging error. Finally, Bumper gained his own place in the Transformers universe when the Dreamwave Comics series used him as a new character in 2004; providing official status to the name "Bumper." Transformers fan AeonMagnus created a customized tech spec for Bumper -- along with several other bots who had similar packaging errors -- that were used in the creation of this Contact Build. This article is unofficial, fan-made material using the Transformers Essence20 rpg by Renegade Games Studios. BUMPER “ The key to victory is being in the right place at the right time .” Bumper is a young and inexperienced Autobot, new to...

Today's contact build if the last of the Autobots from the original 1984 release: Windcharger! Of all the original Autobot toys, Windcharger had to be one of the worst. His transformation was infantile-simple, and his robot mode was incredibly uninteresting. Despite this, he was a great character in the setting. Unlike many other Autobots, Windcharger possessed a superpower: a could control magnetic forces using his arms like poles of an electromagnet. This was something we saw him use to great effect and in lots of creative was during the original G1 animated series. Less so during the Marvel comics, where he barely appeared. Unfortunately, as his toy was incredibly unpopular, Windcharger was one of the confirmed deaths -- seen next to a dead Wheeljack -- during the Autobot City battle in the '86 Transformers Movie. WINDCHARGER “ Quick action equals quick victory .” Of all the Ark's crew who crash-landed on Earth, Windcharger is unquestionably the fastest on the ground, at...

Today's Essence20 Contact build features the Autobot mechanical engineer: Wheeljack ! While billed as the resident mechanical engineer of the Autobot faction, he's more like their mad science weapons designer. He spends less time on fixing things around the Ark, leaving that to the likes of Hoist and other engineers, while Jack is busy in his lab trying to build his newest toy that is designed to help end the war... only for said device to ultimately blow up in the face of whomever is brave enough to use it. He's even gone so far as to augment himself with advanced weapons and a few technological surprises, including jet fuel in his arms allowing him to launch himself into the sky like a rocket, and shoulder-mounted magnetic gyro-inhibitor shells designed to hinder the mental and movement faculties of Decepticons struck by their blasts. And that's just the normal kind of thing he goes into the field using... I also find it interesting that, according to his original tec...

Here is my Timeline Template I use to write all of my Earth-based rpg campaign timelines. I've used this for numerous campaigns, including my own Super Powered Legends series, Marvel, DC, and GIJoe/Transformers. Is this timeline a bit western-world biased? Yes. I'm a white dude who grew up with public education. I'm doing the best I can here. But the great thing is you can copy and paste this template for yourselves and alter it according to your own campaign and add other events from world history. Now, when I use this template, I follow several guidelines: * Fictional events of your campaign's world history are not given any special notations. * For any actual world history events, I underline the event , as to separate it from the fictional history of the world being created. * When writing events that are happening in a currently-active campaign, I tend to  write them using a red color font , to note they are important to the current setting. Enjoy building your tim...