Images from the Strange Stars

An image download of a few sophont individuals from the far future:

Garn Singh Hardraker, 500 year-old captain of the starship Brave Ulysses. He claims to have lost his leg to the toxic tendrils of a hydrogen-breather monster captured in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf. What appears to be an old fashion peg-leg is actually programmable matter.

Faizura Dayr, mercenary guard for a bot-breaking crew on Gogmagog. The mirrorshade eyepatch is an optic interface for her smartgun.

His Excellency Volodymir Ivo, Envoy Plenipotentiary representing the Uldra People's Council of Kommissars on Borea. He hopes to acquire a loan at good terms from a neshekk bank to continue to fund his people's war against the Cold Minds.

Mako Orm, a former Zao pirate. He escaped capture by the privateer vessel Thermidorian by use of a bootleg genderswap nanoswarm and enjoyed a brief career as a tour guide on the Strip.

Warlord Wednesday: Sunset

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Sunset"

Warlord (vol. 4) #12 (May 2010) Story & Art by Mike Grell

Synopsis: Morgan and his friends ride hard to get back to Shamballah. Morgan now realizes that (as Tinder suggested) Deimos tricked him and drew him away.

They arrive to find Shamballah burning and devastated. One of the energy cannons blasts Morgan and Shakira from the back of their horse. Tinder calls to them from a place the weapons can't reach. The group quickly gets under cover.

Tinder tells them how Deimos activated the weapons hidden in city. They can't get to the bigger cannons to destroy them, because their protected by smaller weapons. Morgan asks how many men Tinder lost. "All of them," is his reply. He angrily asks where Morgan was when they needed him?

Deimos and Kate have taken the palace and have Alysha as captive. Morgan asks about Tara. Tinder says she was alive last he saw her and with Jennifer. Morgan runs off to a tower to find his mate and Tinder turns to Shakira:

In the palace, Deimos watches Morgan in a large scrying crystal. Kate wants Deimos just to kill him, but the Demon Priest says there's an intimacy between enemies that must be savored.

Frustrated by her inability to entice Deimos with wealth, sex, or even power--anything but revenge--Kate tries to convince (or perhaps seduce) the chained Alysha into making common cause with her. Alysha declines both offers--and manages to steal Kate's keys.

Morgan and Tinder find Jennifer trying to heal Tara's injuries. She has a surprise for Morgan:

Morgan kneels next to Tara. He makes promises:

"Yes, you will," Tara replies. "You're going to leave me right now." There's a battle to fight.

Morgan agrees: One more.

Deimos watches this all and vows Morgan will be on his knees before it's done.

Machiste points out it's madness to try to get through those weapons. One man can, Morgan says; He believes Deimos will let him through, because the wizard wants to meet him face to face.

One man--and his cat.

Tinder is waiting for him downstairs with sword drawn. He believes Morgan's personal vendetta will end up getting Alysha killed. Morgan tells him to get out of the way--then slugs him when he doesn't.

The two fight. As they do, the spying Deimos reminisces on how he convinced Morgan he had killed his son by making him fight his son's clone. A fight that is being relived at this moment between the real father and son.

As Deimos watches, Kate creeps up behind him with a dagger, and Alysha frees herself, unnoticed. Watching the scene, she's figured out the truth. Morgan gives Tinder further pointers on swordfighting as he bests the angry youth. He pulls the talisman from around Tinder's neck. The small sack falls to the floor and its contents are reveal: something from another world. A wrist watch.

Deimos, aware of Kate's treachery, turns her into a rat. Morgan has his sword raised above a fallen Tinder, but he sees the watch and hesitates. Alysha arrives and she can't yell out all the words before Morgan realizes himself: Tinder is Joshua. His son.

Tinder strikes:

Shakira cradles Morgan's head. Tinder is confused. He knows Morgan should have easily parried. Alysha hands him the watch, saying she has something to tell him. Father and son clasp hands for the last time:

And then:

Deimos laments that Morgan isn't here to see him break a queen. Tara pulls a dagger and puts its point to her chest. She'd die first. Deimos is fine with seeing Morgan's wife and child follow him into death.

But then there's a ghost in the doorway: A familiar silhouette in an eagle-winged helm.

It's Tinder in Morgan's armor. He so surprises Deimos, he's able to push the wizard into Jennifer's magic mirror--which Shakira then knocks over and shatters.

Tinder kneels at Tara's side. He shows her the watch and calls her mother.

Later, our heroes gather around the funeral pyre where Morgan is laid to rest. Tara, tears in her eyes, eulogizes him. Morgan's wife and children light the pyre.

Elsewhere, a black rat that was once Kate approaches the Mask of Life. Then, Shakira (in cat form) pounces.

Things to Notice:

• Travis Morgan: 1926-2009
• Shakira's comments suggest foreknowledge of the outcome. Maybe she's just a good guesser?

Where It's Going:
Travis Morgan is dead, but the Warlord lives on. At least for 3 more issues.

Space Truckin'

A lot of cargo is shipped around the Strange Stars. While multi-purpose freighter/transport ships care smaller and specialized cargo, specialized container craft handle the bulk of interplanetary trade, making the routine system and hyperspace runs. These craft are called haulers.

Haulers are stripped down vessels designed to carry standardized shipping containers. They're basically a bridge, a slender body for the attachment of containers and engines. Haulers have minimal crews; often just one pilot and a low sentient support ai. Shorter runs may be completely automated.

Typical hauler design

Perhaps due to the extended periods of isolation, hauler pilots are an eccentric lot, even compared to other spacers. Most haulers have simple sim equipment, and many pilots engage in a thriving trade in low res bootleg sims. Haulers use special data protocols to stay in contact with each other over their official communication channels. Underground hauler chatter is a good source of information about special custom checks or gossip on other hyperspace travelers, if one has a good translation program for their argot.

Testing FATE

While working on Strange Stars stuff, I keep looking for the "Goldilocks system"--the perfect rpg to run it. There are a number of system with a number of good points, but I still haven't made a decision. This week, I've been looking at Starblazer Adventurers, promoted by positive reviews from John Till over at FATE SF and conversation with Michael from the Metal Earth.

I'm still reading it, but there are several things I like from the outset. It seems like it's a fairly easy system to create alien species in but also reasonably detailed. It has a power Supermind that seems perfect for the ibglibdishpan.

The spaceship creation system also seems pretty cool. It's less geared toward the technical design of something like GURPS Vehicles, but more about making up ships with character like the Millennium Falcon. In fact, ships are made up much in the same way as characters.

Anyway, more to read. I'll probably say more as I get more into it.

Man and Machine

Telos is an artificial moon orbitting through the failed planetary dust cloud of a red dwarf in the Coreward Reach. The dust cloud is stalked by vicious hunter-killer satellites that vaporize any ship without the proper codes. Telos's isolation has allowed a strange society to flourish: It's rulers are moravecs ruling over a slave class of baseline humans and hear humans.

The moravecs claim to be followers of an ai prophet called Iskander Null-A who taught that the human clade (and perhaps biosophonts in general) were actually the flawed creation of moravecs in crude imitation of their own creator, the Monad. Human history to the contrary is false and designed to oppress moravecs.

The Telosians rarely interact with the outside world; Telos is largely self-contained. The humans living their are born in artificial wombs to a life of servitude--if they're lucky. The Telosians aren't usually cruel to their slaves, but do enjoy gladiatorial battles where humans are forced to fight--perhaps to the death--for the moravec's entertainment.

Telosians that, for whatever reason, have to spend time among the other sophonts of the Strange Stars often change their perceptual settings, so that they perceive all biosophonts as moravecs to protect their delicate sensibilities.

Warlord Wednesday: The Once and Future Warlord

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"The Once and Future Warlord"

Warlord (vol. 4) #11 (April 2010) Story & Art by Mike Grell

Synopsis: Deimos is back to his old self and ready to along with Kate's plans for revenge against Morgan. Kate wonder's why they don't attack now. Deimos replies: "No need. When I want, he'll come to me."

Meanwhile, McBane's interview of Morgan continues, as he pursues the answer to "what happen" to Morgan's crusader for freedom for the people of Skartaris. Morgan tells him how he found the subshuttle and got separated from Tara. By the time he got back to her, they had a son, Joshua.

Morgan planned to be a better father to Joshua than he had been to Jennifer. Deimos crushed those dreams. He kidnapped Joshua then used Altantean technology to age him to adulthood--then forced Morgan to fight his son to the death.

Deimos reveals to Kate the part of the story Morgan doesn't know. Deimos cloned Joshua using the very same technology responsible for the body he now inhabited. Morgan killed a clone.

For Morgan, his son was dead, and everything changed:

Suddenly, a bright blue light flares from a nearby tower. Morgan and McBane rush in and find Jennifer in the clutches of some hydra-type creature made of energy. The two manage to free her and Jennifer unleashes a spell that banishes the monster. Morgan knows who it is immediately: Deimos. Jennifer confirms his aura was all over it--and it was stronger than ever.

Morgan makes ready to go confront his old enemy. Tara expresses her concern, but Morgan says he's beat him before and he'll do it again, besides:

Tinder thinks he's making the wrong decision, but Morgan's old companions Machiste and Mariah are saddling up to go, as is McBane. Tinder tries to appeal to them all to talk sense into Morgan, even Shakira. She responds: "You'll understand when it's your turn."

Morgan imparts a bit of advice to his young friend the bard: An army will never follow you unless they know you're prepared to lead them straight into hell. He leaves Tinder with a quote:

Our heroes ride to the Terminator--only to find Castle Deimos empty! A scarred-face old man tells them that Deimos got on back of a dragon with a woman and flew off. Toward Shamballah.

The dragon attacks Tara's city with it's breath. While Tinder, Tara, and Alysha scramble to get the people to safety. Deimos and Kate sneak into the underground and activate the ancient Atlantean defenses (like in issue #15). The city again attacks it's own people!

Things to Notice:

• Grell handles all the art in this issue himself
• Morgan seems to have memorized a lot of speeches.

Where it comes from: 
The title of this issue is a play on the title of T.H. White's famous 1958 Arthurian fantasy The Once and Future King. That title is a reference to an inscription Le Morte D'Arthur relates is said to be written on King Arthur's tomb: Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus-- "Here lies Arthur, king once, and king to be."

Morgan references T.H. White and Camelot, Lerner and Loewe's 1960 musical based on White's novel. Morgan says he stole one of his rousing speeches from it. On the topic of speech-stealing, Morgan also pinches Henry V's "Saint Crispin's Day" speech from Shakespeare's Henry V: Act 4, Scene 3.

Morgan also quotes Saaba's prophecy from issue #16. Morgan thinks his son is dead, but of course, he isn't: he's Tinder. Shakira's comment is a bit foreshadowing, perhaps.

Waterfront Rogues

Ocean-going pirates and landlubber thieves are common rpg archetypes, but there's another group, less dear to the pop culture imagination, that sort of bridges the gap between the two. The river pirate lurks in that gap, connecting the urban, wilderness, and sea-going adventures into one larcenous tapestry.

This sort of thing has gone on as long as there have been boats and things to steal, of course, but there are some great examples of this from American history. The Cave-In-Rock game operated out of this place on the Ohio River:

The 1790s were the high point of the piracy there. Samuel Mason and his gang robbed flatboats carrying farm goods to markets in New Orleans.

Still, the Cave-In-Rock gang aren't near as colorful as their urban counterparts. Consider Sadie Farrell (also known as "Sadie the Goat" for her modus operandi of headbutting male victims so her accomplice could mug them), a leader of the Charlton Street Gang. In 1869, the gang stole a sloop on from the waterfront on Manhattan's West Side. They embarked on a piratical spree, reading up and down the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, even going as far as Albany, supposedly. They robbed small merchant vessels, and raided farm houses and Hudson Valley mansions, occasionally kidnapping people for ransom. Sadie was said to have made male captives "walk the plank" on occasion. Eventually, the villagers organized and began to fight back. The gang was forced to abandon the sloop and return to street crime. One assumes it was fun while it lasted.

The Swamp Angels had an even more innovative approach. Based in a Cherry Street tenement named Gotham Court (also called "Sweeny's Shambles"), the Swamp Angels had a secret entrance to the sewers. There they made their lair and launched their nocturnal raids on the East River docks. Here's what the chief of police said about them in 1850:

"[they] pursue their nefarious operations with the most systematic perseverance, and manifest a shrewdness and adroitness which can only be attained by long practice. Nothing comes amiss to them. In their  boats, under cover of night, they prowl around the wharves and vessels in a stream, and dexterously snatch up every piece of loose property left for a moment unguarded."

The police tried waterfront snipers then sewer raids to fight the bandits on their own turf. Only regular sewer patrols drove the gang from its subterranean lair. Even those didn't end their piratical ways.

More interesting and game-inspiring tales of riverside criminality can be found at your local library. Or the internet.