The Invisible Monster Revealed!

 Last session, our heroes took a job to salvage the luxury liner Aurora Queen from the Belt for an insurance company. They find the ship damaged and were unable to locate many passengers. The injured Captain told them a vicious invisible monster was stalking the ship!

The cast:
Jones: human, ex-soldier
Lor' el-Am: Hadozee engineer
Mitchell: another human and ex-Space Marine
Trzkt: Vrusk scientist

The team used the ships internal comms (powered by emergency power) to make a call for other survivors. They heard from two: Big game hunter, Gareth Dugal and actress Vena Kallor who were barricaded on deck three. They decided to first find a means of making the invisible monster visible. They searched the galley for flour with no luck. They settled for a seltzer bottle. They then proceeded to engineering to try to get the power back on. This required splitting the group: Lor'el and Mitchell stayed in engineering and Trzkt and Jones went back to the electrical board on the bridge. They managed to get the power back up, allowing Lor'el to notice insectoid creatures in an open cargo hold!

The creatures turn out to be petrified specimens, but they are fearsome in appearance. The party also finds locked boxes, which they break open. One contains a number of unusual gems.  Another has archeological artifacts, and the last one has more petrified animals.

Taking the gems with them, they decide to head toward deck 3. Lor'el has a grease gun they hope to use to reveal the creature. On deck two, they find more evidence of struggle but no bodies. The creature attacks, and Jones tries to appease it with the gems (maybe they are its eggs?), but the creature shatters several and scatters the others they fight, and Lor'el is wounded, but the creature is forced to run from their atom rifles. It hides in a room, but they run in after it. Lor'el delivers the killing blow with a monkeywrench, and the giant creatures topples onto her and Jones, requiring Mitchell's help to get them out.

They free the actor and the hunter from deck 3. There are no other survivors. In the aftermath, the Captain manages to spin things in his favor and downplay the incident, saving the insurance company money, but keeping the party from a big payday. Taine is impressed with them though, and becomes a partner with them, funding a ship, provided they do work or him when he needs them to.

Vrusk for 5e

Another species in my 5e pulp sci-fi game, which will probably be somewhat familiar to those of you that remember Star Frontiers... 

VRUSK

Vrusk resemble giant arthropods, though they have internal skeletons. Eight legs grow from their abdomen, four on each side. Their torso is upright and humanoid, with two arms connected at the shoulders. A Vrusk's shoulders are double-jointed, so they can rotate their arms in a full circle without straining any muscles. They can reach any point on their abdomen or behind their backs easily. Vrusk hands are circular pads with five, evenly spaced fingers around the edge.

Vrusk have a highly regimented society where everyone knows their role and performs it for the good of all. This was not always the case and hive conflict in the past hastened the environmental decline of Marva and nearly drove the Vrusk to extinction. Modern Vrusk are seen as industrious, stoic, and rational. Their Council of Experts advise and oversee the various citizen committees which manage most aspects of Vrusk society. Vrusk consider it their duty to serve their race in whatever capacity required of them.

Of course, Vrusk have their free thinkers and eccentrics just like any other people. Where the Vrusk collective cannot find creative ways to utilize these individuals, they are politely ostracized, and they drift elsewhere in the system.

Homeworld: Marva 

Average Height: 1.5 meters tall, 1.5 meters long

Average Weight: 85 kg

Phenotypic Variation: Vrusk skin and carapace varies in color from dull red-brown to black. Their eyes likewise vary in color. These distinctions to not represent any meaningful groups within Vrusk society so far as humans know.

Reproduction: Two sexes, oviviparous

Traits:

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom scores increase by 1.

Age. Vrusk mature similarly to humans, and have a life expectancy of 175 years.

Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this species.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 feet.

Ambidexterity. All Vrusk are ambidextrous and gain an ability to use any melee weapon that does not have the two-handed property in either hand. When fighting with two melee weapons at once, you are able to have your ability modifier to the attack in the second hand, provided it is a light weapon.  

Comprehension. Given their complicated, hierarchical society, Vrusks are attuned to intricacies of social dealings. You gain advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Deception) checks.

Educated. The Vrusk education system is second to none, you gain an additional skill proficiency of your choice.

Natural Armor. A Vrusk’s hard carapace provides natural protection. You have an Armor Class of 13 plus your Dexterity modifier when not wearing armor. If there are multiple features available to determine your AC, you choose which one to use.

Poor Swimmers. A Vrusk is a poor swimmer, and you will have disadvantage on Strength (Athletic) checks for swimming.

Languages. You can speak, read and write in Solar Trade Common and Marvanic.

Plasmoids for 5e

A species in my 5e pulp sci-fi game, which will probably be somewhat familiar to those of you that remember Star Frontiers... 

Art by Jason Sholtis

PLASMOID

Plasmoids are rubbery, elastic invertebrates. They can change their shape at will, creating a number of pseudopods as needed. Their skin is a flexible and surprisingly tough membrane. It generally is dull gray and lined with dark veins that meet at the Plasmoid’s two eye spots. The internal structure of a Plasmoid is much more chaotic than other species. Their central nerve bundle or brain and subordinate nerve clusters, numerous small hearts and other internal organs float in proteinaceous fluid with the consistency of pudding. 

Plasmoids are generally good-natured, philosophical and thoughtful. They seem unconcerned with wealth, power or status symbols. They are infamous for their strange sense of humor. They love old jokes and groan-worthy puns. Human comedians who can’t buy a laugh on New Terra can get rich performing on Merkuro, though few are willing to make the trip to that forbidding world.

Homeworld: Merkuro

Average Size: 1.3 m tall, 1 m wide

Average Weight: 65 kg

Phenotypic Variation: Individual Plasmoids are not quite identical, but do not vary in predictable ways reflecting ethnicity or familial relationships.

Reproduction: Sequential hermaphroditism, offspring bud off of mother

Traits:

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age.  Plasmoids are fully mature within 1 year after budding and usually live up to 250 years.

Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this species.

Speed. Your walking speed is 20 feet, though this may be improved by adding additional limbs.

Blindsight. You have blindsight within 30 feet by using your chemical and tactile senses.

Elasticity. You can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch along its narrowest dimension, provided you are wearing and carrying nothing. You also have advantage on ability checks you make to initiate or escape a grapple. 

Grappler. Because of your elastic nature, you have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that you have grappled.

Resilience. You have natural resistance to piercing and slashing damage.

Shape Self. If you are not incapacitated, you can reshape your body to give yourself a head, one or two arms, one or two legs, and makeshift hands and feet, or you can revert to a limbless blob (no action required). You can have a total number of limbs equal to your Dexterity Ability score divided by 2. A Plasmoid needs at a minimum of 2 legs to be able to walk at base speed. A Plasmoid with 3 legs has a walking speed of 25 feet, and 4 legs or more has a walking speed of 30 feet.

As a bonus action, you can extrude a new pseudopod that is up to 6 inches wide and 4 feet long or reabsorb one into your body. This requires concentration until the start of your next turn. If you have three or more arms, you gain one additional unarmed melee attack or grapple as a Bonus Action during your turn when using an Attack action. Also, you can perform a Use Object Action as a Bonus action. You can use this pseudopod to manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour out the contents of a container without the use of a Bonus Action.

Languages. You can speak, read and write in Solar Trade Common and Merkuran.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1981 (wk 2 pt 2)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around July 23, 1981. 

Legion of Super-Heroes #280: So Reflecto wasn't Ultra Boy, he's Superboy--but a Superboy who thinks he's Ultra Boy. The Legion sets out to interrogate him to find out the truth. When that proves inconclusive, they decide to travel back to the 20th Century to see if they can solve the mystery. This story seems to take place before (at least partially) the team-up with Batman in the Brave and the Bold issue this month, as that is foreshadowed here.

New Adventures of Superboy #22: Bates and Schaffenberger put the Teen of Steel through the ringer in a story titled "The Heroic Failures of Superboy." A series of heroic deeds seem to lead to worse unintended consequences, so Superboy gets so bummed out he leaves Smallville. 

In the Krypto backup by Rozakis and Tanghal, Krypto proves himself a hero to canine kind as he saves a dog falsely accused of being rabid from execution and catches two human crooks.

Sgt. Rock #357: Kanigher and Redondo end this one on a darker note than usual. Rock and Easy save an orphan from a bombed convent school, and Rock discovers the boy wears his dogtags. He recalls saving an orphaned infant and recognizes this must be the kid grown older (just how long has this war gone on?). Anyway, Rock goes through various perils to get the kid to his new family, but in the end we see the family are secret Nazis! 

In an amateurish early work by Ron Randall, mutants in 2095 overwhelm the last of the human troops that had sought to exterminate them. Finally, a clan feud in the Scottish highlands is settled by the serpentine Beast of Blackloch in a tale drawn by Jan Duursema.

Unexpected #215: Not much good this month. Harris and Rodriquez present a Victorian era tale of a Scotland yard detective who falls for a beautiful woman while investigating a series of murders of woman, only to discover she's the murderer, killing attractive women she is jealous of. Snyder/Ayers give us a non-horror story about a woman looking at old pictures of her kid with the twist he became a criminal and got the electric chair. Snyder doubles down on no horror with a "comedic" (in form, if not result tale of a guy who daydreams about flying, and one day he does. Snyder's third story is slightly better than the other two and is about a guy in a post-apocalyptic future who throws away his gun because because its a continued symbol of violence and hate--only then to be weaponless when he needs to save a woman from a pack of feral dogs. I did say only slightly better!

The last story by Wessler and Nebres has a woman and her hypnotherapist husband scheme to stop her brother's new girlfriend from becoming his wife and inheriting his money by hypnotizing her into worrying about his age and healthy. When the girlfriend dies from worry, the hypnotherapist goes to jail, but the sister's ambitions are thwarted after her brother cremates his money with his girlfriend.

Unknown Soldier #256: Haney and Ayers/Tlaloc come up with an inventive problem for the Soldier. He's concussed in a bombing in London, and wakes up what he's told is months later in an underground resistance enclave. It seems the German's have conquered the UK and the USA has signed a treaty. Before he figures out its all a Nazi trick, he gives away the location (vaguely) of the Enigma machine! Before he can plot his escape, the Germans are coming to kill him.

In the Dateline: Frontline, we get a Comics Code safe taste of the cruelty of the Bataan Death March, before the protagonist manages to escape the Philippines. The Micheline/Simonson Captain Fear comes to an all to soon, but action-packed conclusion. Fear and the ninja team-up to leave the Spaniard without gold or the document. There's also a story about a Japanese soldier who believes he's following Bushido and two American soldiers: one who tries and fails to understand his enemies code, and one who is dismissive of it.

Warlord #50:  Read about this issue here. No backup this month.

World's Finest Comics #272: In the Burkett and Buckler/Giella Batman and Superman lead. Supes hears that Batman has been getting more ruthless lately, and this being 1981 not 1986, he goes to try to cheer his friend up, not violently confront him. He invites Batman to the Fortress of Solitude. It's tempting, but these criminals aren't going to capture themselves--so Superman basically kidnaps Batman. At the fortress they reminisce about old times and Superman thinks it maybe Robin leaving that changed Batman's mood. Anyway, Superman has speed away to help some people caught in an avalanche. It turns out the avalanche was artificial created to get him away from the fortress so robots with phasing abilities can rob the place. They don't expect Batman to be there though. He manages to keep the robots at bay until Superman gets back. The robots are being controlled by an alien spacecraft, but that gets away. To be continued.

Haney and von Eeden/Breeding send Green Arrow and one of followers to Vlatava to return Count Vertigo's body--but it's all a trick! And a very Haneyian trick, at that. Now Vertigo has gained new power. In the Rozakis and Saviuk/Rodriguez Hawkman story, Katar traps a Thanagarian invasion fleet in hyperspace, which shocks Hawkgirl with its callousness--enough that she makes the long overdue demand that he call her Hawkwoman, not girl. On the other hand The Robot Killer learns tolerance in the Conway/Delbo Red Tornado story where he and Reddy most rely on each other after getting trapped after an explosion. In the Bridwell/Newton/Mitchell Mary Marvel story, Mary uses her brains to defeat a one-off villainess, Chain Lightning, who figures out she can steal Marvel's powers.

West Coast Avengers: Radioactive Fallout!

Last night, we continued our double exploration of out of print games by running through the MSHrpg adventure Last Resort using Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. 

Not remembering how close Pyro was to done, I elided the end of that combat, and the crew picked up with the interrogation of the mutant villain. He spun the say tale about the caves to the North and Mr. Chu. The team called in the park rangers to pick him up, too, and moved on to cliffs.

Soon they ran in to Whirlwind, and even after Hawkeye successful suckerpunched him (metaphorically speaking) Whirlwind put up a good ight, refusing to go down, even though he had no success in hurting the heroes. He eventually tells them a similar story to the others.

Finally, reaching the cliffs, Tigra is scouting a cave, when she spotted a big green guy seated on a log in a clearing. Hawkeye is sure it's the Radioactive Man, and shoots a foaming radiation absorbing arrow, that bounces off the guy's back. The battle is joined, and the first round is a draw. Then, the Radioactive Man attempts to sicken them all with an intense dose of radiation. Not only do they resist, but Tigra turns her acrobatic escape into a counter-attack, and claws at his face. Wonder Man stepped in to deliver the knockout punch.

Hawkeye yells at him for hitting Radioactive Man right as he was about to say something about the Mandarin.

Olshevsky's Marvel Time Revisited

I had forgotten I had written a post about this back in 2018. I've updated it a bit here. To allow their characters to stay evergreen, both Marvel and DC have established "sliding timelines" so that the present is always today, and modern Heroic Ages of their respective universes are only 10 or 15 (or some less specified number) of years old.

(There is some evidence Dan DiDio was looking to kind of abandon this at DC in favor of "generations," but then he got the boot before he could do it.)

As I've mentioned before, this was not always the case. George Olshevsky's Marvel indices argue that in the early years, Marvel seemed to preceded in real time. While most are unfazed by this, at least this guy thinks abandoned it ruined the Marvel Universe. While I wouldn't go that far, I do think there are certainly tradeoffs. The eternal present comes at the sacrifice of allowing characters to truly grow and inevitably means big changes are impermanent.

Anyway, here are the "Marvel Years" as outlined by Olshevsky. He measures them by years in Peter Parker's life. The actual calendar years are my addition and relate to the most likely real-world translation (if your were inclined to do that) based on the time of publication.

YEAR ONE [1960-1961] (PP-HS-SophY):
June*- FF spaceflight.
Sept. - Peter Parker is a junior in high school.
Winter – events of FF #1.
(Hank Pym in the Ant-Hill) (The Hulk)
Spring (March-April) – Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man [Aug 62]
intro Thor
debut Ant-Man

YEAR TWO [1961-1962] (PP HS-JunY)
debut Wasp
Intro. Dr. Strange

YEAR THREE [1962-1963](PP HS-SenY):
Sept. – PP is a senior in high school.
Sept. – The Avengers form.
Oct. – The X-Men go public. [Sep 63]
November – Ant-Man becomes Giant Man.
mid-Dec. – The Black Widow first appears.
March – Iron Man fights Hawkeye and Black Widow.
May – Reed and Sue engaged. Johnny and Ben almost meet the Beatles.
June – Hawkeye joins Avengers. PP and JS graduate High School. Quicksilver and SW join the Avengers. Reed and Sue marry. Nick Fury named director of SHIELD.
July – Galactus arrives. Sentinels. Quentin Quire is born. (this wasn't in Olshevsky!)

YEAR FOUR [1963-1964] (PP-CY-1):
Peter Parker’s freshman year of college.
Winter- Captain Mar-Vell arrives.
Feb. - Bobby Drake (Iceman) turns 18.
Late May-early June – 1: Lorna Dane
Summer. Franklin Richards born.

YEAR FIVE [1964-1965] (PP CY-2):
September. The Vision is created. Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne are married.
Late Sept-early Oct – 1: Sunfire
June-July: Hank McCoy goes to work for Brand Corp

YEAR SIX [1965-1966] (PP CY-3):
October – Beast gets furry.
May – GXM#1. The New X-Men

YEAR SIX [1966-1967] (PP CY-4):
Sept – Thunderbird dies.
Jan – Jean Grey replaced by Phoenix.

If Jean Grey was 24 when she is presumed to have died (based on the dates on her tombstone), and she is the same age as Peter Parker, then she must have died around 1968-69. This might jibe well with X-Men #101, which depicts snow in New York City on Christmas, something that has only happened 18 times since 1900, but did happen in 1966.

*Obviously the start date is speculative. Fantastic Four #1 was published in August of 1961 so the events must have occurred before that. 

The DC Comics Work of Alan Grant

Art by Norm Breyfogle

The Scottish comics writer Alan Grant passed away yesterday. He started his career with 2000AD and Judge Dredd, but I became aware of him when he and co-writer John Wagner teamed up with artist Norm Breyfogle on Detective Comics. For me, and I think perhaps a lot of others, that late 80s-early 90s run really defines the post-Crisis Batman. The run added several interesting villains to the Batman's rogues gallery, and one perhaps the pantheon of all-time greats: The Ventriloquist.

His other big contribution to DC was probably the Lobo limited series with Keith Giffen and Simon Bisley. Lobo had first appeared in the Omega Men, but this series recreated him essentially and catapulted the character to super-stardom for a time--and unfortunately, over-exposure.

To get a taste of Grant's DC work, I would suggest starting with Batman: The Dark Knight Detective vol. 2, The Batman/Judge Dredd Collection, and  Lobo by Keith Giffen & Alan Grant Vol. 1.