Following Yonder Star

While I was vacillating on where to do a seasonal game session, Casey Garske was writing one. Unholy Night is an old school hexcrawl taking place in Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus. If that's not high-concept enough, it's got demons, cultists, and dinosaurs. At a "pay what you want" price on drivethru/rpgnow, it makes a great stocking stuffer--for yourself.

Holiday Special

The holiday's are quickly approaching and I haven't decided yet whether to run a holiday-themed adventure on G+ or not. I have done Weird Adventures sessions of that type in previous years, and at one time wanted to get my adaptation of Chris Kutalik's Slumbering Ursine Dunes done in time, but work on Strange Stars--and just plain work--got in the way.

Having started my Land of Azurth 5e D&D game, I've entertained the idea of running one in that setting. Something inspired by Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, maybe with some further inspiration from Rankin-Bass other Santa origin, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town--a Winter Warlock, perhaps?

On the other hand, time is drawing nigh. I guess we'll see how the holiday spirit moves me.

The Dragonborn of Sang

Art by Yuriy

In the desert Country of Sang in the Land of Azurth, there dwells a race of warriors called the Dragonborn. They are few in number, but they are at war with all other folk, including other breeds of their own kind. Only rarely do they permit themselves companions.

The Dragonborn fight--and fight among themselves--to prove their strength. Only the strongest of each breed can keep the vigil. Only the strongest can stand steadfast through the long years in the caves where the ancient machines incubate the next generation. Only the strongest can ensure the Dragonborn survive.

When the hatchlings come mewling and snapping from the incubators, this is what their guardians tell them: "We came from the void. We are not of this small world. But here in this desert, in the bones of our old ships, we abide. You will grow and fight. The strong will survive to teach the hatchlings that follow after, as I have taught you. This is what it means to be Dragonborn."
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Wednesday Comics: Holiday Shopping Guide

Want to give the gift of comics this holiday? Or give yourself the gift of comics? Here's a list of where you can get some of the comics I've chronicled this year:

Jim Starlin's Dreadstar: The Beginning
This hardcover contains Metamorphosis Odyssey (fully colorized) and The Price graphic novel, plus the first Dreadstar graphic novel I've yet to get around to.

Artesia: The Book of Dooms
Volume one of the Artesia epic is out of print and pretty pricey in either hardcover or paperback on Amazon. In digital format, though, you can get a great deal: the first volume is under ten dollars on Drivethru Comics (a little bit more on Comixology) and you can get the whole series plus the rpg in a bundle on drivethru for a steal at $24.

Prophet
I haven't done an issue-by-issue review of Prophet (yet), but I've sang its praises on more than one occasion. Their are 3 volumes currently available and I belief a fourth will take it to the end of the first series.

My Various Appendices N

Some G+ discussion last week reminded me that my D&D inspirations haven't remained constant over the time I've played. Not only have I discovered new media and new influences, but playing the game itself shaped what I found most inspirational. To but them all in a single list would suggest an equivalence across time that never really existed. Here's my stab at personal gaming archeology:

The Platinum Age

It's hard to remember my earliest inspirations completely, but I suspect they relied heavily on the small amount of fantasy I had been exposed to. Interestingly, D&D related material figured in from the beginning: my first AD&D character (the first version of D&D I ever played) was an elven fighter/magic-user who wielded the Sword of the Magus--like Landron, the hero of the D&D Endless Quest book, Mountain of Mirrors in 1982. In his adventures, he gained a pegasus mount and medusa's head, suggesting Clash of the Titans figured strongly in my cousin the DM's mind and probably my own. Beyond that, I suspect Bullfinch's Mythology, Sidney Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur (more for illustrations by N.C. Wyeth), and Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur loomed large. Even more important was probably Tolkein's work, The Chronicles of Prydain,  Hawk the Slayer, and the TV fantasy Wizards & Warriors.

The Golden Age

By 5th grade, I had moved into DMing Basic D&D. By this point, Sword & Sorcery played a bigger role, mostly as filtered through comics like Warlord and Savage Sword of Conan, and barbarians films like Conan the Barbarian. The pulp stories that inspired those sorts of comics followed. The first setting I created in junior high was written up in a style similar to the Greyhawk boxset but clearly following the Hyborian Age model as particularly outlined in The Official Handbook of the Conan Universe. Country names borrowed from Howard appear (Argos, Shem, The Black Coast), mixed with a dinosaur and volcano-filled savage land similar to the one inhabited by Ka-Zar. The center of play was a sprawling, decadent city--essentially Lankhmar by another name.

The Silver Age
High school saw a break in playing D&D. My group moved on to other games: various superhero games, Shadowrun, a little bit of Rifts. Our D&D campaign shifted to GURPS where the inspirations were much as they were before, though real history began to influence me more, as did the gritty look of the Warhammer Fantasy rpg. Then, their was a break for college, where I played not a single fantasy rpg.

Joining an old high school friend's gaming group in 1995 after college, I was under the sway of the resurgence of epic fantasy--a subgenre I had mostly avoided before, besides Tolkein. Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow & Thorn was all over the world my friend and I co-created, though there was also a bit of Jordan's Wheel of Time, and more than a little of the Known World Gazetteers.

Restoration
By the time that campaign indeed, it was 1996 and my gaming took another long break for medical school and a couple of years of residency, allowing me to skip third edition in all its iterations. While my return to gaming predates this blog by a few years, the archive here is as good a chronicle as any of where my head has been since.

Hang out in the Dunes

The first release of the Hydra Collective (one hopes the first of many) and the first Kickstarter I ever back to deliver on time: Slumbering Ursine Dunes is now available for you non-backers on drivethrurpg (and rpgnow) in pdf.

Hopefully they'll be some unbiased reviews coming soon, but you can take me word for it: I've read it three times now and that familiarity has not dimmed the enjoyment I get from reading it. Most modules are kind of dry, but dry this most certainly is not. Though it's a good read, it doesn't give the impression it was meant it was meant only to be read. On the contrary, it's meant to played--to be explored. More than that, while it's got a unified backstory, it's written modularly so that it practically begs to be kit-bashed for your own setting.

Get your own copy today!

Wednesday Comics: Science Fiction

Last week saw the release of two new science fiction comics worth checking out.

Prophet Strikefile

Prophet Strikefile #2 continues a look at the world of Btandon Graham's far future sci-fi remake of Extreme Studios' Prophet. If you liked the ongoing series, you'll like this. Here's a sample:

ODY-C 

ODY-C #1 is a sort of a psychedelic space opera retelling of The Odyssey with all of the male characters switched to female. It reminds me a bit of Lob and Pichard's previous sci-fi retelling Ulysses, which I do think is just the same sort material.  The jaded gods seem similar and there is an element of fetish-wear in some of the costume designs. It also reminds me a bit of Barbarella, which seems to have been Fraction's intention.