A Few of My Favorite Aliens

Aliens species in most science fiction rpgs are of the of the human body animal head variety or just human’s with odd skin color--which might be cool if they gave them so interesting personality.  There are some pretty interesting aliens in games.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Vrusk
From: Star Frontiers
All the species in basic Star Frontiers are pretty cool (Zebulon’s Guide has some clunkers, though) but the corporatist, insect-appearing (though not actually intervebrate) Vrusk are good ones.  They avoided the cliches of evil insectoids and (mostly) hive culture.

Kronin
From: GURPS Aliens
At first blush these guys are a “warrior race” cliche (okay, not just at first blush), but two me there are a couple of interesting things about them.  One is that their societal structure is based around cadres and avoids the usual “Klingon Empire” thing.  Two, their noseless humanoid appearance reminds me of the Acroyear in the Micronauts comics, who are one of the coolest warrior races ever.

K’kree
From: GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 2
Horse-like herbivorous sophonts on a holy crusade to cleanse the universe of meat-eaters. Not only due the K’Kree break with typical humanoid alien design, they turn “peaceful herd animal” expectations on their ear.

Arilou
From: Star Control
These guys are from a series of computer games and are just green-skinned humanoids.  What’s interesting about them is they reference the classic little green men from flying saucers motif.  Their ships are inertialess too, making them unique among the sentient races--and mysterious. The fraal from Alternity's Star*Drive setting are a somewhat similar idea, perhaps better done, but without the cool saucers.

Pentapod
From: Traveller: 2300AD
2300AD had several well done species, but the biotech-using pentapods are my favorite. Interestingly, the pentapods themselves are biotechnology--constructs made by deep sea intelligences on their homeworld.  It’s a set-up that could be easily used for horror, but the pentapods are one of the closest allies of humans.

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises ends Christopher Nolans Batman trilogy and presents the most coherent story arc in a series of superhero films so far.  While the Marvel and previous DC efforts have mostly been isolated adventures with a few through lines, Nolan and his collaborators have crafted something a bit more novelistic.  This culmination of the trilogy reaps the harvest of seeds sown way back in Batman Begins and (if perhaps only in a subtle and incomplete way) challenges the very notion that “being the superhero” is actually the best thing the protagonist could be doing with his life.

TDKR begins by dealing with the consequences of the previous film.  The ending of The Dark Knight, I had interpreted as just a set-up for further adventure, but instead has led to a Gotham with increased police powers and no need for Batman.  This victory is hollow for its two architects (Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne) because it’s based on a lie.

They don’t have to fret too long about that though, because (as Selena “Catwoman” Kyle) quips to Bruce: “a storm is coming.”  That would be a bulked up Tom Hardy as Bane: a bruiser with a needlessly complicated plan and a weird (but engaging, to me at least) mechanically altered voice.  Pretty soon, the Dark Knight returns, but only to face a beat down at Bane’s hands and a Knightfall. Then, Bane isolates Gotham and makes it a No Man’s Land, that the U.S. government fears to intrude on.

TDKR weaves a lot of elements from various Batman storylines (more than I’ve mentioned above) into a coherent enough for a superhero film whole. There are Nolan twists along the way that are not really surprising if one knows the comic sources, but are still dramatically satisfying.  The only quibble with one of them is that Batman’s world’s greatest detective skills are hardly in evidence.

The film isn't without problems.  The villain’s plot is pretty convoluted and has some logic flaws,which may bug some people. It is a looonngg movie, and there are some things that could have been trimmed.  The Bale scratchy Bat-voice is still in evidence--though I’ve gotten use to it after three films.

It doesn’t offer the “fun” of the Avengers or The Amazing Spider-Man, and it probably isn’t as genre expanding as the film proceeding it, but TDKR delivers on the promise of The Dark Knight by giving a dramatically solid payoff to that film and a strong ending to the series.

Random Rampage Table

On occasion, someone in the City can be heard to ask, incredulously: "What's climbing to the top of that skyscraper?!":

1. nonhuman hominid or primate
2. Gargantuan crustacean (lobstrosity)
3. Fifty-foot showgirl
4. Gi-ant
5. Flesh golem compose of parts of 1-6 other giant creatures
6. Animated statute
8. Man mutated by thaumaturgic accident
9. Gigantolycanthrope
10. Ghost of another creature (roll again to determine which)
11. Amorphous blob or slime
12. Mega-flumph

Have You Heard?

Art by Lester

There's a new crime boss in the Hell's Commot neighborhood of the City.  He's connected to the Hell Syndicate but not (as far as is known) an infernally "made man" himself.  They call him (strangely) "the Mermaid," but his real name may be Marbendlar.

He holds audiences at the Iceberg, a new club off the Circus, where the bright-lights bleed into the darkness of the Commot.  The interior of the club is like an ice cave, all white and glittery with stalactites.  The band plays on a stage that looks like an white ice flow on an indigo night sea.

What power does this weird wizened and legless homunculus have to command the respect (well, fear) of hardcases and tough guys? No one is sure.  Some say that (though he's new to the City) "the Mermaid" has been around a long time, and is used to being in charged.  Some point to accounts of an odd little idol snatched from gill men in  skirmish in the last century.  No pictures exist, but the description is similar.

If you should meet Marbendlar (or whatever his name is), don't call him "the Mermaid."  He hates that.

Hey Kids! Weird Adventures now has a Google+ Page.  Follow here.

Warlord Wednesday: Sins of the Father... (part 2)

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son" (part 2)

Warlord Annual #4 (1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Pat Broderick; Inked by Bob Smith.

Synopsis: The Evil One flies around doing some low level terrorizing before magicking himself up a tower.

Meanwhile, Jennifer and Morgan arrive in the magical realm under the river where Morgan tossed the Hellfire sword. They make their way to a castle: the place of the Keepers. A woman greets them and takes them for an audience with the queen.

The beauteous queen knows what the two are there for. She likes Morgan and would grant him the sword but there’s someone else that wants to claim it: Dagon Soul-Stealer, King of the Undead. He’s defeated all other would-be claimants so far. Morgan agrees to fight him, and the queen whisks him away to the land of the undead. The hellfire sword is there, stuck in a rock—but this guy's there too:

Morgan, not wanting to waste any time, shoots Dagon right between the eyes—to no effect. Morgan is on the defensive until gets Dagon to follow him up a cliff, where he’s able to get the Undead King off balance and knock him into a pit of spikes below.

Morgan moves to claim the hellfire sword—but Dagon bursts forth from the pit! He’s got Morgan and plans to finish him off with the hellfire blade. As if it has a mind of its own, the sword slips from his grasp and falls within Morgan’s reach. Morgan snatches it up and decapitates Dagon with it.

The queen explains that the sword chose Morgan. His life force was stronger, and the sword feeds off life force. The blade reclaimed Morgan and will forever belong to him and his heirs.

Morgan and Jennifer are transported back to Skartaris. Ashir points out the Evil One’s tower to them:

Jennifer and Morgan head out for the tower. They don’t notice Tinder tagging along behind them, concerned for his friend, Chakka.

TO BE CONTINUED

Things to Notice:

• There's a sword driven into an anvil in the castle of the Keepers that looks familiar.

Notes:

One wonders what the personification of Death Morgan met in previous issues thinks about this king of the undead?  "Dagon" is the name of Semitic fertility god.

Weird Adventures Mailbag

Occasionally, people gearing up for Weird Adventures games drop me a line to ask about stuff I didn’t cover in the book and haven’t gotten to yet on the blog. Sometime rpg artist, Lester Smolenski wrote just this weekend to ask about languages in the Strange New World.

That’s something I can’t believe I haven’t covered!  Here’s a list of some of the most important ones:

Common: The language of the Union and Borea.  It grew out of a trade pidgin of predominantly Lluddish extraction, but informed by various Gallian dialects, Dwergen, and words borrowed from several Native tongues.  It’s distinct from Lluddish, but the two are (mostly) mutually intelligible.

Esparian: A language family originating in Ealderde, but now more widely spoken in Asciana and Zingaro.  It comes in several ethnic/national varieties including Zingaran, San Zancudan, Puerto Oroan, and Hidalgan, with various degrees of mutual intelligibility.

Gallian: A language family with varieties spoken in the states of the Gallian League and some places in the New World.  Varieties or dialects include Neustrien, Poitêmien, and  Averoignat.  The last is not fully intelligible to speakers of the first two.

Hobogoblin cant: A Common-based argot.

Korambeckish: The language of the eastern Empire of Korambeck.

Lluddish: The language of Lludd, Alban, and the Mer-folk.  See also Common.

Ruthenian: The language family originating in Ruthenia.

Staarkish: A language family of Western Ealderde.  Varieties include Staarkish proper, Luthan, Graustarkian, and Doppelkinnian, which are distinct but mutually intelligible.

Vatilian: A language of southern Ealderde.  All varieties (including Trysteran, Tryphemian, and Bengodian) are mutually intelligible.

Yianese: A language family of the Empire of Yian. It has many varieties.

Beneath the Fog Sea

The children of port cities are wont to crowd the docks when any airship comes in, but none generate the excitement that the return of a vessel laden with strange subnebulous treasures does. Many’s the young lad or lass who dreams of one day being one of the daring divers who brave weird miasmata and battle strange creatures to win fortune and fame.

The modern world has four strata. The highest is the upper atmosphere of relatively benign flying things. Just beneath are the High-Lands of plateaus and mountain-sides where humanity dwells. Lapping at these lands at the lowest elevations is the Fog Sea, a region of roiling, glowing, multicolored mists. These mists are eldritch things: toxic, mutagenic, or both, with lengthy and concentrated exposure. Inhospitable though this region may be to humans, there are many flying or floating creatures which make it their home.

The deepest depths of the fog shroud the lowest strata: the Low-Lands--the Undersea. Here one may find true oceans of water (gray and toxic from absorbing the overhanging fog), but more importantly, here lie the ruins of a once great civilization. This is thought to be the ancient home of man--before whatever happened, happened, forcing him to seek higher ground. Ancient treasures--both of wealth and knowledge--were left in these ruins. Though sailing a whole vessel through the fog is generally considered too risky a move, divers and diving craft are sent down to reclaim these treasures.

The fog isn’t the only danger. If the strange flying and floating things weren’t enough, the ruined cities themselves are inhabited by monsters. Some are mutated animals, others are humanoids--perhaps the degenerate descendants of the humans left behind. These savages view divers as violators of their territory at best--and potential meals at worse. In the shadowy depths divers do battle with these creatures, steel against steel--as firearms often misfire dangerously when submerged in the fog. The psychoactive properties of the mists have given strange powers to the creatures that dwell in it--but sometimes limited exposure does the same for divers, too.

Still, despite the dangers of death or loss of humanity, the rewards are great. There is no shortage of youths willing to sign on for a voyage beneath the Fog Sea.