Getting Class

art by "Reno" Maniquis

In planning for my own Weird Adventures game (that I’ll hopefully been kicking off soon), I’ve been thinking about classes. The standard D&D classes don’t map as well to a pulpy world. What’s are archetypal for traditional genre fantasy isn’t as archetypal here. 

Now, this is not to say the standard D&D classes couldn't be used straight in fantasy pulp setting--fighters being the various tough guys, clerics the evil battling priest, etc.--but I think down that run lies something more like Shadowrun, not Captain Easy, Sam Spade, or the Green Lama.  Which is not meant to be an insult to Shadowrun, nor to suggest I'm not doing a bit of incongruous genre mashup myself, here.  I just don't want to loose that cheap whiskey-esque pulp flavor.

I suppose there are two solutions. One would be to add several more classes--Private Eyes, Gangsters, Mystics, etc., but I’m concerned with what the sheer number of these might be, and (a perennial issue in class base systems) what gets to be a class and what doesn’t. Is an ex-soldier just a fighter, while a gangster’s something different? Or vice versa? Or none of the above?

D20 Modern uses an interesting system wherein the classes are mapped to ability scores. There’s the Strong hero, Fast hero, Smart hero, and so on. This strikes me as a potentially adaptable system as it distills the all the various character types found in different types of pulp fiction to archetypes as unadorned as (maybe) the D&D basic classes are for standard fantasy.

My only concern is, does that take away some of the “flavor” and immediate role-recognition that more delineated classes provide.  I suppose there's D20 Modern once again, and the addition of "occupations"--but then have I just exchanged classes for "things that are sorta classes-lite?"  Of course, Warhammer FRPG used a similar sort of system, and I liked that implementation there.

Anybody got any thoughts in this regard?

Warlord Wednesday: Warlord Sightings

I'll leave Morgan and Ashir in peril for another week, to delve into the Warlord crews appearances in other media...

Skartaris and its prominent citizens appeared in an episode of Cartoon Networks Justice League Unlimited.  Airing originally on September 24, 2005, "Chaos at the Earth's Core" features members of the JLU getting drawn into the inner earth by Jennifer Morgan's magic.  Morgan and his allies need help in the fight against Deimos, who has raised an army equiped with advanced technology, and seeks the mysterious "Great Stone"--which turns out to be kryptonite.  It's a well done episode where all the Warlord supporting cast make an appearance.  It can be found on the season 2 boxset.

In 1982, Remco released a line of action figures to cash in on the popularity of Masters of the Universe, and they chose Warlord as the center of this line.  Other figures were comic cast members like Deimos and Machiste.  Another figure called "Mikola" doesn't appear any any comic I'm aware off, but he resembles the Warlord character Rostov, a bit.  Rounding out the line were non-Warlord DC characters Arak and Hercules (Unbound).

Weird Adventures Update

art by Chris Huth

I thought it was time for a little update on the progress of my forthcoming Weird Adventures campaign supplement.  While it hasn't been coming along as fast as I'd like (curse you, full time job!),  at this point it's still on schedule. 

I thought I'd share part of the outline for the chapter on the (Strange) New World which is home to the City and several other locales I've mentioned here:

I.  The Union (The territories in the loose federation of which the City is a part)

• The City [detailed extensively in its own chapter]
• New Lludd (quaint, and decaying old Ealderish townships)
• The Smaragdine Mountains (place of hillbilly giants, bootlegging ogres, and conjure-men)
• The Steel League 
• The Dustlands
• The South (rural land stretching from the Smaragdines to vast swamps)
• Freedonia (maverick territory on the border with Zingaro)
• The Stoney Mountain West (vast expanses, and ancient ruins)
• Hesperia (the once-island land of Heliotrope and San Tiburon)

II.  Borea, The North (The mostly unsettled land to the north of the Union)

III. Zingaro (The Union's revolution-torn southern neighbor)

IV. Asciana (The torrid continent south of Zingaro.  Here be lizard men.)

Out of the 80s, Out of the Toy Chest

The eighties is a time famous (or infamous) for toy properties with synergistic multi-media marketing. It seems like every one of them came complete with cartoon series and comic book in addition to the usual merchandise. Very few (okay, none) had role-playing game tie-ins. That’s a pity, because several of them had some potential...well, at least some potential elements suitable for swiping for rpg inspiration.

Everyone will immediately think of the big guys like Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe (which my friends and I did make an rpg for back in the day, based on TSR’s action table games), and Transformers. Those are all good, but I’m going to dig a little deeper...

Inhumanoids tells the story of an armored-suit-wearing group of scientists fighting a trio of newly re-awakened part kaiju, part Lovecraftian, subterranean monsters--the Inhumanoids. The scientists are aided by the surviving members of ancient, prehuman races, who had imprisoned the monsters in the first place. Armored heroes battling subterranean monsters? The rpg applications ought to be obvious.

The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior played with the timeless brother against brother theme, as a personalization of the very rpg-like battle of Order against Chaos. The heroic brother, siding with Order, and his retinue get turned into living crystal. The other brother sides with chaos, and he and his cronies get turned into rock/magma. Both of them got a wizardly advisor, too. Crystar probably doesn’t warrant its on game, but crystal-men and magma men would be pretty cool editions to an already existing one.

In a similar “novel character conception” vein, is Sectaurs. It’s another fantasy, though this is one is perhaps a post-apocalyptic science fantasy taking place on a distant planet. The current natives have insectoid characteristics--the good guys are humans with antenna and compound eyes, while the nasties are more insectoid humanoids. Both sides use giant insects are mounts, and use carapace-derived armor and weapons. There are also the “Keepers of the Way,” a secret society trying to resurrect the lost knowledge of the ancients and pull the world out of medievalism. Sectaurs might make a good campaign, but again might mainly inspire an insectoid race (or races) to drop into a game.

There are so many other possibilities. Particularly, if wander a bit and outside of the cartoon-promoted big guys.  Remco’s Pirates of the Galaxseas had little going for it beyond the name, but that name is really cool. For the sweep-spot of utter imaginative craziness and utterly poor toy design, we need look no farther than The Other World, where all the action figures were bendies, but the creatures were all of the “this has to be a D&D monster already” variety. Exhibit A being our friend Froggacuda, here:

More Images from the City

Racing Ornithopters

During the annual "Champion of Innovation Competition" in 5888, flying craft powered by various sorts of raced through the canyon of streets down the length of Empire Island.  The ensuing traffic disruption led to City eoldormen prohibiting such races in the future.

Bone Wars

Competing archeological expeditions to northern Freedonia to excavate mounds and a related underground complex, led to allegations of armed robbery, hijacking, and assault, but yielded amazing finds like this skull, larger than even those of the Ancients. 

The Homunculi City

In 5889, visitors to the World Exposition, marvelled at an entire city of minature, artificially created people.  The exhibit had to be closed down briefly for retooling, as the crowds of giant, leering faces were leading to violence and turmoil, born of superstitious terror, among the city's tiny inhabitants.

Ghoul Queen

A 5866 publicity photo of Morthylla, the first (and only) ghoul "it" girl.  Morthylla disappeared from public view seven years after this picture was taken, though persistence rumors suggest she continued to perform in the subterranean Grand Guignol theater of her people for at least another ten.  Any film from these Undertown theater days would be highly valued by collectors.

Legion of Hate

The self-styled Knights-Templar of Purity are a secret society and criminal organization which can be found throughout the Union, but most common in the South and rural areas of the Steel League. The knights engage in a campaign of terror and intimidation, aimed primarily at racial and ethnic minorities. There goal is the cleansing of the New World of these “undesirables” and its return to of the land to its “rightful” owners.

The true origins of the group is unknown, but they came to public prominence perhaps a hundred years ago, and have waxed and waned in influence throughout the intervening years. Their traditions hold that the white man of Ealderde is actually descendant of the true master race of now-sunken Meropis, who was eventually overwhelmed by their giant servitors--the people mainstream New World history calls the Ancients. This master race was being “perfected” by higher, angelic beings from a planet which is unseen today, and possibly destroyed. Their overthrow by the Ancients is held to have thwarted the process of the spiritual evolution of the human species.

This supposed revelation came to a penniless, drifter (known in the Knight's lore as "The Great Man") from a strange “artifact” found atop a granite monadnock in the South. He began to preach that the granite mount was to be the site of the Temple of Purity, from whence the paradise-on-earth to come would be ruled. But first, the descendants of the peoples holding humanity back would have to be purged.  This included the Natives of the New World, the Black Folk, the giantish hill people, and the Yianese.

Tragically, hard economic times caused more people than might have otherwise to be swayed by the man’s poison pronouncements. Soon, white-robed and hooded Knights-Templar circles were springing up across the South, and brought violence wherever they appeared.

The typical Knights-Templar is not a particularly skilled fighter, though the most fanatical members may sometimes be of the gifted. They view thaumaturgical magic as tainted, and view practioners of those arts as debased and degenerate.  Generally, the knights-templar prefer to let force of numbers and surprise work to their advantage. They seldom attack police or even adventuring groups directly, unless they feel they have the upper hand. They also use their anonymity when outside their hoods and robes to their advantage. Some small towns are virtually controlled by the group, though this is seldom apparent on the surface.

There is some speculation about the mysterious artifact which seems to have led to the group's formation. Self-proclaimed defectors have told authorities that the founding circle has a wizened, severed head, which whispers (sometimes shrilly yells) glossolalic proclamations, which are then interpreted by the High Panjandrum of the Temple as yet more venomous hate.

The Moral Stages of an AD&D Player

My brother was in town last week, and our reflections on our AD&D days of yore led me to think about how the ethical/moral assumptions of our gaming group changed over time--at least, in regard to how what sort of characters we chose to play in AD&D.

Starting out with a background of comic book superheroes, sanitized versions of Arthurian legends, and Tolkien, we tended to play Good characters (except for the odd Druid), because in our mind that’s how heroes were suppose to be. True, the actions demanded of characters can (from some perspectives) create a certain moral disconnect, but we were blissfully on troubled by that.  This era featured a large number of paladins and bards in our group.

Moving into high school, our characters spent more and more time bathed in moral shades of gray. Some of this was getting older and more “sophisticated”--in the sense that high school kids conceive the term. Another part was our influences changed: Conan, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, and modern movie heroes were the touchstones we drew upon. This was an era where there were few paladins played, but many thieves and barbarians, and the not uncommon assassin. Fairly antisocial acts were common, and downright infamous acts might be committed on occasion.

My assumptions on the next stage rests on less evidence, as my high school group is long disbanded and scattered, so I don’t know how they would have evolved in their character preferences as they moved into adulthood. However, I can say that the late twenty- to forty-somethings I game with now seem to have synthesized both of the previous styles. Characters don’t tend to be paragon’s of virtue--though this is “realistic” given the career paths they tend to follow--but there is little of the outrageous villainy or gleeful antisocial behavior that sometimes showed up in our late teens.

Anybody else see these similar sorts of shifts with time in their gaming? Or maybe different ones?