The Hanna-Barbera Multiverse

With the news that DC is doing a crossover with some Hanna-Barbera characters, it got me thinking about applying a DC style multiverse to their diverse stable of characters. This might be useful for a Hanna-Barbera Supers Universe game. Here's what I've got so far:

Earth-Anthropomorphic
Description: Anthropomorphic animals capable of speech exist side beside with humans and have humorous adventures.
Series Examples: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Magilla Gorilla, Peter Potamus, Quick Draw McGraw

Earth-Familia (or Flintstone)
Description: A world where humorous family adventures take place. Civilization was very advanced in the Stone Age and dopplegangers of famous people in the 20th Century recur in various eras. By 2062, there is at least one city in orbit.
Series Examples: The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Roman Holidays

Earth-Quest
Description: A relatively (in comparison) mundane world of pulpy heroics. There are no costumed heroes and no talking animals, though pets may display near human intelligence.
Series Examples: Jonny Quest, Clue Club, Jana of the Jungle, and Valley of the Dinosaurs and (in the future) Sealab 2020. The unadventurous There Are the Days may also take place in this world, if anyone cares.

Earth-Mystery
Description: A world with a inordinate number of meddling teen mystery solvers and their unusual sidekicks. Some animals here have human-level intelligence and limited speech, but this may not be a universal condition and they are still treated as animals. There is at least one costumed superhero on this world, possibly more. By the 2070s, there is extensive undersea settlement. Astro and the Space Mutts may also take place in this world, meaning the Jetsons's dog has a counterpart in this universe.
Series Examples: Scooby-Doo, Funky Phantom, Captain Caveman, Galloping Ghost and Buford, Speed Buggy, Dynomutt, (in the future) Jabberjaw.

Earth-Superhero
Description: A world of costumed and non-costumed heroes across multiple eras that take on super-villains.
Series Examples: Birdman and The Galaxy Trio, Space Ghost, Mightor, Teen Force, Shazzan, and The Herculoids.

Earth-Impossible
Description: A world of superheroes that are more cartoonish in nature. This may also be the world of the child heroes without adult involvement.
Series Example: Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, The Powerpuff Girls, also possibly the Space Kidettes.

Dictionary of Azurth Update

Here's the latest version of the Dictionary of Azurth with entries from recent events in my game (the Motley Isles, the Confection Perfection, and the Chromic Witches) but also new stuff like Roquar the Nome King and Wizardry, the magazine for the magical practitioner.

Chronology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Unlike the comic book version of the Marvel Universe with its sliding timeline in order to keep characters perpetually young, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to employ real live actors and has no reason not to tie things to real dates since the actors are just going to get old anyway.  The movies don't pin themselves down so much on when the actual films take place (or their references are contradictory), but we do know quite a bit about the events before them:

Tony Stark was born on May 29, 1970.

Hank Pym resigns from SHIELD in 1989.

Howard and Maria Stark are assassinated by the Winter Soldier on December 16 1991.

Anyway, check out these timelines here and here.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Battle for Earth (part 2)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Battle for Earth (1980) (part 2)
(Dutch: De Strijd om de Aarde)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Under Storm' guidance and with the work of Mordegai and his people, the shelter soon has power for the first time in centuries. Balder, though, is jealous of the favor Mordegai is showing Storm, so he decides to switch sides. He breaks the Azurians free and helps them get back to their craft. This is how they show their gratitude:

Still alive, Balder stumbles back and tells Mordegai and Storm what he has done. Storm believes they'll be back in force soon--and he's right. A squadron of Azurian ships are sooner approaching the shelter. The Supervisor is so eager to get revenge on Storm he's come in person.

The shelter is not as defenseless as the Azurians believe. Storm directs their magnetic ray weapons to be fired. The Azurian fighters are pulled down to crash against the mountain. The people of the shelter engage the survuving Azurian floating down on parachutes. The attackers are routed; the survivors run into the forest.

In an effort to contain Storm and his forces, the Azurians come out of hiding and occupy towns and villages surrounding the mountain. They deal ruthless with the local populations, but many of the townsfolk escape and flee to the shelter in the mountain for safety.

Storm realizes it's now all out war. He and Ember lead an army out of the mountain--but they are unaware that the Supervisor knows there plans, having planted spies among the refugees. Still, as they march, more and more troops join Storm's army to help take back the planet.

The Supervisor directs General Solon to take his elite squadron and "bomb the army back to the Stone Age." Solon expresses reservations about another secret weapon, but the Supervisor isn't having it. His squadron flies out and finds where Storm and his troops have pitched camp at nightfall.

The human army appears defenseless. Solon begins to think this will be easy, but then Storm activates an ancient device he's brought with them:

As if they were all struck by lightning the ships fall from the sky. Solon manages to survive by bringing his ship down in something approximating a landing. His only thought is avenging his men. He stumbles into the human camp:

TO BE CONTINUED

The Hidden Country Setting

A significant number of works of fantasy take place in some sort of lost or hidden realm within the real world: Oz (at times), Neverwhere, Pellucidar, the Savage Land, Fraggle Rock, Hogwarts, and some versions of fairyland are all around here somewhere. This sort of setting doesn't seem to have been often used in fantasy rpgs, at least outside of modern/urban fantasy.

I suppose their are reasons for this. The Medieval(ish) nature of most fantasy gaming suggests a historical(ish) setting. The scales many settings inhabit would preclude them being tucked away in some corner. Perhaps there's also a fear with the modern world close by it would be too easy for it to intrude.

These seem to me to be only relative contraindications. Most gamers (at least of the old school variety) are comfortable with plenty of science fictional or science fantasy elements that violate the pseudohistorical milieu  The scale may be sort of a problem (though Burroughs never set that stop him in Tarzan's Africa and a Hollow Earth could have plenty of space) and a smaller scale setting isn't necessarily a bad thing.

This sort of setting opens up some new elements: Lost-like underground bases complete with enigmatic video instructions, modern world epherma as treasure, secret societies working in both "worlds." Pretty interesting stuff, I think, with a lot of potential.

Civil War

Captain America: Civil War (or as my friend Matt Penn insists it must be called "The War of Superhero Aggression") manages to transmogrify the 2006 crossover even that made me virtually stop reading Marvel into an entertaining film, though it is inferior to its predecessor, Winter Soldier.

Civil War plays with interesting thematic elements: individual freedom vs. control, dealing with consequences of well-intended acts, the destructiveness of vengeance, Iron Man vs. Captain America (ok, not a theme)--but mostly it's about superheroes wailing on each other, and it doesn't think a whole lot about what it has to do to get there. So we get an unelected monarchy lecturing the Avengers about accountability after a handful of civilians die when the Avengers prevent the release of a toxin into the city of Lagos that would have killed who knows how many, and the U.S. secretary of state rushes headlong into putting American superheroes (several of whom were super-secret agents of the U.S. government just a film ago) into the hands some sort of UN committee.

Now, even if all that can be made since of with the pat "the Marvel Universe is different from our own," we also get former soldier Captain America being the staunch "we can't be under someone else's control!" guy, which for most of the translates as "my friends shouldn't have to face consequences for their actions!" The film has to have those who oppose him behave stupidly and heavy-handedly to make his position justified.

The villain in the film seems to have accounted for all these things, because his plan hinges entirely on people performing very specific actions that there's no way of knowing they would do. He and Batman vs. Superman's Lex Luthor must have take the same super-villain prognostication classes.

All this, though, is in service of a superhero punch 'em up, which is a sight to behold. We get all of Marvel's crew and sees some great tricks pulled out including one big reveal I won't spoil, but also the classic bit of Ant-Man riding Hawkeye's arrow. This battle is probably the best done multiple characters battle in a supers film-- it beats any of the X-men films in that regard, I think.

We also get the intros of Black Panther and Spider-Man. I'm ready for that Black Panther film now. This Spider-Man is probably my 3rd favorite cinematic portrayal (though I have no doubt there are many places where Marvel Cinematic Universe adherents are proclaiming he's finally "done right" now that he's in the "Universe.") but I don't blame the actor as much as the writing and the use he's put to in the film.

All in all, it's a solid superhero film. I'd put it above Age of Ultron.

Projects Update

It's been a while since I outlined where my current rpg projects stand. This will just focus on the bigger ones (the one's I've discussed here; I always have a few slow-burn, "for the future" things, as well.) First off, let me say there's been a bit of a global delay as I got married the end of last month and I'm now in the midst of integrating houses, so progress will be slower for a bit. Anyway, let's run the list:

Strange Stars OSR: First (and hopefully the only major) round of edits/suggestions are on hand, and I've begun responding to them. All the art has been done.

Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak: Also has gone through first round of edits and art is in process. I'll be running this in Juna at NTRPGCon.

Cloud Castle of Azurth: Still in the writing process. On a little bit of a hiatus to get one of the other projects off the table.