Some Art for Inspiration

I don't think you can not get at least some gaming inspiration out of one of these:

Art by Don Lawrence

Not all green giants are jolly, apparently.

Art by Barry Windsor-Smith

That doesn't sound good.

Art by Frank Thorne

Some monsters require some assembly to be truly menacing.

And you scoffed at my giant mummy post!

Hard Science Fantasy

Art by Bruce Pennington

Genre titles are really imprecise things, so let me explain what I mean: A setting that looks like fantasy, but is in fact sort of post-technological science fiction. What would make it "hard" as opposed to the usual science fantasy is that it wouldn't resort to what are essentially fantasy concepts like extradimensional entities or psionic powers to do it. The fantastic would come from at least moderately more possible sources like near Clarketech ("any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") nanotechnology, cybernetics, and bio-engineering.

I haven't really seen this out there in gaming. True, Numenera presents a world utterly drenched in nanotech that can be tapped like magic by the masses, ignorant of it's nature. But Numenera still has psychic powers and extradimensional monsters, though. What I'm envisioning is more like Karl Shroeder's Ventus (where the "spirits" animating the natural world are AI controlled nanotech) or the Arabian Nights-flavored Sirr of Hannu Rajaniemi's The Fractal Prince where spirits in ancient tombs are digital mind emulations and the jinn are made of "wildcode" malicious nanotech.

Beyond nanotech, monsters would be genetically engineered creations of the past or descendants thereof. Or perhaps genuine aliens. Gods would be post-human biologic or AI entities--or often some combination of both. Or figments of human imagination. Or leftover bombs.

Why a more "rigorous" science fiction masquerading as fantasy world than the usual Dying Earths or what not? No real reason other than it seems to me starting with far future science fiction and figuring out how it would be rationalized by a more primitive mindset might yield a fresher take on the standard fantasy tropes.

Warlord Wednesday Delay

Your regularly scheduled Warlord Wednesday is delayed until next week. I misplaced my copy of the nest issue and didn't get a replacement until too late. Instead, here's a tease--the cover of the next issue:

And a bonus 2 page spread from issue #3 by Chad Hardin:

Used Treasures

Amazon Marketplace sellers delivered onto me several used books this week, a few of which I hope will provide some game inspiration:

The Book of the Weird by Barbara Ninde Byfield periodically comes to my awareness, but this recent post by perdustin finally made me quit procrastinating and order it. Head over there and read the post, but suffice it to say, it's just as charmingly pre-D&D as I had hoped. Well worth the time to track down.

Star Barbarian and Lord of Blood by Dave Van Arnam form a science fantasy duology. I haven't heard much about them (I was drawn them by the title of the first and the Steranko cover on the second volume.)

but check out this cover blurb on Star Barbarian:

Centuries before the multiwave-drive ships had come to Morkath of the Caravan Stars--bringing colonists, empires, confederations of plunderers. Finally, the planet was exhausted and left to descend into barbarism. 

Now, savage tribal leaders fought over the blighted lands. Among those warriors was the young hunter Jamnar, who vowed to reclaim Morkath from the demonic powers that gripped it--the dark god Shaphath, the priestesses of Astaphar, the evil priests called Kvununun... 

The mighty Jamnar would have aid in his quest. Prosperon, the interstellar castaway, would lead him to the forbidden temple of Telshasoth. But only if Jamnar himself dared to enter the temple's portals--and therein seize the 3000-year-old secret of a lost civilization--could he hope to save his people and a planet plunged into infamy and terror...

How could I pass that up?

Apollo

Fights As: L15
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 3
Hit Points: 210
Attacks: 1 (2 with bow)
Damage: as below or by weapon
Save: L18

S: 20   I: 20   W: 18   D: 23   C: 23   CH: 24

Special Abilities: as an Olympian, and see below

Apollo usually appears as a well-formed, beardless youth, with an almost feminine beauty to his features, and curly blonde hair. He tends to wear clothing merely to accentuate his body and seldom takes on any unattractive form.  Apollo takes almost as many lovers both male and female.

Despite his vanity, Apollo isn’t shallow. He’s an aesthete and both artist and patron in the fields of music and poetry. He’s a medical researcher and designer of both diseases and cures. He’s a mystic with an interest in prophecy and overseer of the Oracle at Delphi. Finally, like his sister, he enjoys the hunt and the sport of archery.

Apollo has photo-emitter nanites implanted in his skin so that he can generate light of variable degrees up to flash blinding anyone (4 point penalty to attack rolls and armor class) within 30 feet for 1d4 rounds. He carries a bow with computer aided targeting (+4 tp hit, negates penalties for firing into groups), that actually fires arrow-like micro-missles that do 2d6 damage, but can be programmed to explode (7d6 damage), or to release preloaded toxins or poisons (per bio toxin bomd in Muture Future or poison type).

Subterranean High Strangeness

Frank Frazetta

The old cliche says "truth is stranger than fiction." I don't know if any of the tales here are true, but hey, they're presented as such--and they're certainly strange. Strange in a way that would be great fodder for modern (or modernish) adventures, particularly of the dungeoncrawling sort:

Subterranean Lumberjacks
On December 26, 1945, there was an explosion in the Belva Mine in Fourmile, KY. What was apparently reported much later (1980-81) was that survivors recounted takes of a "door" opening up in a wall of rock and a man dressed like a "lumberjack" or "telephone lineman" emerging to reassure them they would be rescued. He then disappeared the way be came.

Trapped miners in Shipton, Pennsylvania, experienced similar strangeness. Again survivors reported meeting strange men (similarly clad to the Belva lumberjacks, according to some accounts) who told them they would be rescued and gave them a bluish light and showed them some halographic visuals. The miners seem to have been unclear if their benefactors were fully corporeal. I bet.

Mine Monsters
It could be a lot worse. Just read this pretty likely untrue account that appears on a lot of internet paranormal sites:

PENNSYLVANIA, DIXONVILLE - Mine inspector Glenn E. Berger reported in 1944 to his superiors that the Dixonville mine disaster which "killed" 15 men was not the result of a cave-in, but rather an attack by underground creatures capable of manipulating the earth [partial cave-ins], whose domain the miners had apparently penetrated. Most of the dead miners were not injured by falling rocks but showed signs of large claw marks, others were missing, and one survivor spoke of seeing a vicious humanoid creature that was 'not of this world' within an ancient passage that the miners had broke into. The creature somehow created a "cave-in", blocking himself and another inspector [who closed his eyes when he felt the creatures 'hot breath' on his neck] from the main passage until another rescue party began to dig through the collapse, scaring the "creature" away. 

Shaverian Mysteries
The monsters don't confine themselves to miners, apparently. The 1967 issue of the Hollow Earth Bulletin prints portion the so-called "The Messerschmidt Manuscript" that proports to give the account of a French woman, who describes her horrifying kidnapping at 19 by deros (or something similar) from an elevator in a building basement in 1943. She and other women endured months of captivity in the hands of monsters than sound a lot like George Pal's morlocks in physical description until they were rescued by pale men in gray, metallic uniforms who slaughtered the beastmen and gave the former captives clothing and medical attention.

44 Cities
It's not all monsters down there, though. An article in the Summer 1978 issue of Pursuit Magazine puts forward a claim by a Dr. Ron Anjard that he knew personally of 44 underground cities in North America. He learned this from anonymous Native American sources. Maybe these relate to the lost cities of the Grand Canyon? Or some of those giant containing tombs?

Ghita's World

This is a map of the world of Ghita of Alizarr, a Sword & Sorcery character created by Frank Thorne, debuting in Warren's 1984 #7. Thorne had worked on Marvel's Red Sonja, but Ghita is much racier fare. Eventually, Thorne got around to providing a map--and here it is, suitable for game usage:

Oh, and here's the text that accompanied the map to give the "flavor" of the strip: