Hexcrawl on the Planet of the Apes: The Set Up

art by Declan Shalvey

I'm getting ready to start my Planet of the Apes hexcrawl so I prepared a document outlining the mission that brings the PC astronauts to the ape-ruled future. Following the ideas in my initial pitch, there are easter eggs linking to other 70s sci-fi shows:

Wednesday Comics: Future Quest #2 Annotations

My on-going look at Don Lawrence's Storm will take a break so that we can revisit Future Quest, one of DC's re-imagining of classic Hana-Barbera characters. This will contain spoilers.

"Part Two: Visitors from Beyond"

Future Quest #2 (2016), Written by Jeff Parker; Art by Eric "Doc" Shaner, Ron Randall & Jonathan Case

The main cover. Features the nonhuman characters of several Hana-Barbera series: Bandit from Jonny Quest, Blip from Space Ghost, and Zok, Igoo, Gloop and Gleep from The Herculoids.

"Now a spaceship?" Space Ghost materializes in the Everglades and appears ready to blast Jonny and Hadj with his power bands. He seems to be in conflict with someone named Omnikron, then he disappears. The kids next discover a crashed spacecraft, Space Ghost's Phantom Cruiser. Inside, is an injured, unconscious Jan and an irate Blip.

"A lot of tough guys that point guns at kids." A bunch of goons--agents of FEAR from Birdman attack. They also have a spider eye-bot like the one employed by Dr. Zin in the eighth episode of Jonny Quest ("The Robot Spy"). The boys are rescued by the timely arrival of Race Bannon and Birdman.

"Don't you dare point guns at my family!" Dr. Quest and Deva Sumadi arrive in a two-man flying craft of the type we've seen previously employed by Dr. Zin's henchmen in "The Fraudulent Volcano." The badguys manage to get away, though, airlifting out the Phantom Cruiser. They also discovered an unconscious Jace, still under Inviso power.

Jezebel Jade. She appears to be working with Dr. Zin. Jade appeared in two episodes of the original Jonny Quest series. She appears to have a history with Race Bannon, has Dr. Zin hints here again.

Blood & Treasure

John M. Stater of the Land of Nod blog has released the second edition of his retroclone adjacent (meaning it isn't actually a retroclone, but uses the OGL to approximate something resembling older D&D) rpg Blood & Treasure. Unlike genuine retroclones, B&T isn't about emulating an out of print game. It aims to wed the simpler rules and playstyle of historic editions with some of the options and flavor more familiar from modern games. It's a delicate balance to pull off, but John's efforts achieve this better than just about anybody.

John adds some interesting new stuff; he outlines the differences between this and the previous edition here. One of my favorite new details is thieves getting to assemble a crew for jobs at 6th level--though they may not be trustworthy. I also likes the simple variations he provides at the end of the description for every class so you can be a Jester instead of a Bard or a Ninja instead of a Monk.

The art in this edition is great, too. I mean, check out that cover! The interior is good, too, and in an array of styles in true old school fashion.

It's available now on drivethrurpg/rpgnow.

A Hexcrawl on the Planet of the Apes

Here's a rundown (in pictures) of a game of exploration in the Planet of the Apes setting...

In 1980, a team of astronauts are put into cryogenic suspension on a satellite as part of study of longterm suspended animation in the face of classified information obtained from the "ape-o-naut" visitors from the the future in 1973.

The astronauts awaken over a millennia later, to a post-nuclear war world ruled by apes!

Humans are either subjugated by the apes or tribesmen living in the wilderness.

The relics of advanced technology remain, such as the ancient, underground subshuttle system.

Will the astronauts be able to change the future and save the human race--or maybe even find a way back to their own time?

Suicide (Squad) is Painless

I was never terribly excited for Suicide Squad. This isn't my preferred version of the team, and the trailers recalled Guardians of the Galaxy, which was not among my favorite of Marvel films. The negative reviews didn't change my perception. After seeing it last night, I feel like I misjudged Suicide Squad, and I think it is a better movie than rap its getting.

First off, it does resemble GotG in some ways, but uses those similarities to different ends. GotG's AM Gold soundtrack and stock characters were meant to pander and reassure. It wants desperately to convince you that this is like those these things you like and in doing so become on of those things. Whatever Warner Bros.' and Ayers' intentions, the film Suicide Squad seems indifferent to your like or dislike. It wants just to entertain. It uses (or overuses) musical cues like captions or narration to save itself time spent with building scenes or establishing drama. It's got other stuff it wants to do. The characters could all be described in a single comic caption box, but unlike GotG, to the extent that any have hearts of gold, it's only to accentuate the realpolitick evil of Amanda Waller (who out dicks Dick Cheney) and sometime sanctimonious soldier Rick Flagg.

Suicide Squad is perhaps the most comic book-y of comic book movies since the Batman 1966 film spinoff.  It's first 30 minutes plays like a Marvel after credits sequence with cameos and references to movies that haven't been made yet. "Of course a DC Universe exists; let's just start from here," it says, rather than wasting any time trying to prepare a timid audience or slowly build suspension disbelief. Metahumans. Superman's dead. Ancient witches. Batman. And on we go! Harley Quinzel was a Marilyn Monroe breathy-voiced psychiatrist who falls for the platinum-capped psychopath she calls "Mister J" is only as convincing as the images themselves burlesque backstory you know. Either you buy it or not, we ain't going to try to convince you.

In the end (again like GotG), it succumbs to defeating a narratively poorly sold and visually uninteresting and CGI swirly world menace, in a run of the mill superhero action sequence. Before that it's a live action 00s comic, and the extent to which you like it may be dependent on how you feel about that.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays

Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays (1981) (part 4)
(Dutch: Het Geheim van de Nitronstralen)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm and the Earth forces set a trap for the Azurian pirates by hiding in a slow moving cargo vessel they know the raiders won't be able to resist. The plan works, but neither Bitak or the traitor Benjamin are among them. Apparently, she took one of the spacecraft the pirates had captured and they took off.

Storm is convinced he's got to pursue Benjamin. He takes a dimension ship to go from Azurian colony to colony looking for them. He doesn't have much luck.

Benjamin and Bitak have reached a Azurian colony Benjamin was searching for: a place where they find an old enemy of Storm's, the Supervisor. When Benjamin tells him why they've come, he agrees to help them.

Back on Earth, Storm decides they had best finally solve the mystery of Bitak's powers. Eventually, Mordegai's notes guide a young scientist, Correll, to the answer: Azurians of a certain rare bloodtype will develop powers when exposed to nitron radiation. As luck would have it, 100 Azurians they tested have the bloodtype and are willing to be experimented on:

It works!

Out on the Azurian colony, Bitak has become displeased with Benjamin. After he slaps her, she blows up some of his work and runs away. Benjamin tells the Supervisor it doesn't matter: he now knows the secret of her power. The Supervisor embarks on his on plan to develop more telekinetics.

In a stolen ship, Bitak is picked up by an Earth patrol. She tells Storm and the others about the plans of Benjamin and the Supervisor. Storm summons the telekinetic Azurians they created.

They don't have the wait long. The Supervisor's force arrive. His telekinetic forces create fierce storms and waterspouts, but they are neautralized by the Earth telekinetics. Then, it's old fashion ship to ship fighting.

The Supervisor wants to retreat. Benjamin pulls a gun on him; he's not willing to give up so easy. Unfortunately for him, the Supervisor also had the rare bloodtype:

The Supervisor manages to escape, but most of his forces aren't so lucky.

Bitak and the other telekinetics decide to take the dimension ships and find their own world where they can live in peace. Storm and Ember bid them good bye.

The Apes of the Redwoods for 5e

In a previous post, I presented the fairly human apes of the original Planet of the Apes films. The two (so far) prequel films present a far more ape-like vision of evolved apes. They are probably less suitable as PCs but would make interesting monsters/NPCs. This is the apes as we see during Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Chimpanzees/Bonobos/Orangutans
Medium humanoid
AC 12
Hit Points: 11 (2d8+2)
Speed: 30 ft. (quadrapedal); 20 ft. (fully bidepal); 30 ft. (climb)
STR 16(+3) DEX 14(+2) CON 14(+2) INT 9(-1) WIS 12(+1) CHA 10(+0)
Skills  Athletics +5, Perception +3
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages sign language, limited Common

Actions:
Multiattack. A chimpanzee can make two fist attacks, but prefers a melee or ranged weapon.
Fist. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft.; Hit: 6 (1d6+3) bludgeon damage.
Spear. +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature). Hit: 1d6+4 melee piercing damage.
Rifle. +4 to hit (range 60/180 ft.; one creature).  Hit: 2d8+2 piercing damage.

The above stats hold for Gorillas, though I would make them a bit stronger, STR 17 (+3)--with damage adjusted accordingly--and a bit less intelligent (INT 8) and Charisma 9. This disagrees a bit with the Ape entry in the Monster Manual, but I think they undercut gorillas.

Mark over at Cross Planes presents a slightly different view of the same characters.