13th Age

 

I've had the 13th Age core book for sometime, but after picking up most of the rest of the publications for the game in a recent Bundle of Holding, I decided to give it a try. My online group was willing to give it a try. 

For the unfamiliar, 13th Age is sort of an "alternate evolution" of D&D. Debuting in 2013, it sort sort of took D&D 4e and stepped in a rules lighter direction, adding some freeform elements, quite different from the specification of 3e versions of the game. It's roughly equivalent in crunch, I would say, to 5e, but lighter than 5e in some areas.

We spent the first session in character creation. It took perhaps a little longer than 5e because the freeform elements required a little more thought. What are these elements? Well, the biggest is that every character has "One Unique Thing" some (noncombat) thing that sets them apart from perhaps everyone else. Not only does this serve as a character hook, but it allows the player to define something about the world. 

Then there are backgrounds. Unlike 5e backgrounds which are essentially packages of skills and accoutrements, 13th Age backgrounds are player defined (and presumably GM negotiated) broad skills. You could do something simple like "Miner," but it could also be something like (one my wife picked) "Gnomish Debutante." Like the One Unique Thing, backgrounds have the effect of fleshing out the world to a degree. The only downside I see to them is that characters might not be as "well-rounded" in the arena of adventure related tasks as their 5e counterparts. Still, that just means that (like older versions of D&D) skills are likely of less importance.

One final element not found in typical D&D is that every character has a relationship to one of the settings Icons, vaguely defined (so the GM can flesh them out more) beings of great power and importance in the setting. Characters can have a positive, conflicted, or negative relationship with one or more Icons. These are meant to be adventure hooks. You roll to see when they might come into play.

Anyway, the group seem to like what they've seen of the system so far and are interested in giving it a go.

The Age of the Wizard Kings

 

Millennia after the technological civilization of humankind was cast in ruins, a strange, new world had risen from the old. This time was known as the Age of the Wizard Kings as it was dominated by practitioners of magic. While the most of humanity had reverted to primitivism, the smaller, near human folk that are the ancestors of elves, dwarfs, and halflings, dominated the eastern part of the continent through their mastery of magic.

The Wizard Kings at earlier times had been ranked according to power, but by the time of the Orc Incursions that ravaged the land and threatened the stability of their rule, they were more or less equal in power. They held a magical contest to see who would possess a mystic tome of great power. Details have been lost to time, but someone that contest resulted in the ascendance of the Dark Lord, whose ultimate defeat came at a terrible cost. The city-states never recovered and were easy conquests for the human tribes entering the region.

Despite the millennia since it's fall, the influence of the Age of Wizard Kings can be felt in the present day. Many of the spell formulae known by human mages in the present day and many half-buried ruins and subterranean treasure vaults current adventurers seek to plunder date from this period.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1982 (week 1)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of February 4, 1982. 

Arak Son of Thunder #9: Thomas and Colon/Rodriquez are following the Conan playbook and have Arak and Valda head out to sea, trying to get to Constantinople. The sailing is of course not smooth as they must fight back against piractical types. In the Viking Prince backup by Kanigher and Duursema, the Prince loses an arm saving a woman from druidic sacrifice, but she knows a place he may be able to get it magically reattached!

DC Comics Presents #45: A freak accident while stealing tech secrets for the Soviets turns a Kristopher Kross (not that one) into Kriss-Kross (not the other ones) into a lame, one-off villain for Superman and Firestorm. But Conway does get to plug his upcoming Firestorm series.

Ghosts #112: This title gives up the ghost with this issue, but they saved some not bad stories for it. Also of interest is the editorial that thanks the writers and artists and plugs some new/upcoming DC titles. It particularly spends time on the titles in what it calls the "mystery genre" which include Saga of the Swamp Thing (premiering later this month) and the upcoming The Dark Force--which will see print as Night Force.  

In the stories, Harris and Texeira have a kid named Joey who is allowed to join the bigger kids pirate club rise to lead it after being possessed by the spirit in an old pirate's skull. Kanigher and Bender send John Wilkes Booth to hell where he has to live out the assassination he committed over and over--in Lincoln's place. Finally, in a proto-Death Note, a cop gets ahold of a page from Death's book and uses it to extort money from people looking to prevent their death or the death of a loved one. When Death comes to get it back, he extorts immortality from Death, too! The Grim Reaper tricks him though, and he gets eternal life--buried alive!

Justice League #202: I don't know what Conway and Heck were thinking on this one. It's like a Space: 1999 plot or something. Batman's injured while doing repairs on the outside of the JLA satellite. Before his teammates can get to him, he's picked up by an alien medical ship, whose automated systems heal him--but in the image of its presumably long-dead creator, Ursak. The process leaves Batman deranged. His teammates have to defeat him, before they can get the ship to heal him again, then Hawkman reprograms it and sends it on its way.

Weird War Tales #111: I had this issue as a kid. Kanigher and Spiegle do the sensible thing and team-up G.I. Robot and the Creature Commandos on an island with dinosaurs and survivors from Lemuria. Well, technically they are Atlanteans from an Atlantide colony in the Pacific--and they are survivors, but instead their robot descendants. Due to the Doctor's snaky tresses the Atlanteans decide to attack, but the Creature Commandos dispatch them. The Atlantean leader appeals to a fellow robot for help, but as with all G.I. Robot stories, the robot's humanity shows through, and J.A.K.E sacrifices himself to save the Commandos.

Wonder Woman #291: This is probably Thomas' Marvel roots showing. A gigantic and ultra-powerful alien, The Adjudicator, arrives to judge the Earth, as he has countless planets before. He discovers all the parallel Earths and plans to judge a number of them, too. Wonder Woman calls in the assistance of the JLA. Black Canary heads to Earth-2 to warn the JSA, Green Lantern heads to Oa to see what the Guardians know about the alien, and Superman goes to the Fortress of Solitude to search its archives. Wonder Woman and Zatanna are left to challenge Adjudicators physical manifestations: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The two battle the Horseman Famine in India and manage to defeat it.

The Rise of the Orc

 Orcs first appear in the annals of history in the Age of the Wizard-Kings. Though they had already been mutated from pre-cataclysm humanity, they were at that point less divergent than today. As highly organized military bands, they raided across the mountains and into the lands of the Wizard-Kings. They were greatly feared due to their mastery of some of the lost technology of humankind. 

Latter day scholars have been skeptical on this point, but surviving writings from the era make it clear the Orc bands struck rapidly through the use of motorized conveyances. Their depredations further destabilized the fractious, petty kingdoms and hastened the end of the Age. The chaos that followed, however, was damaging to Orc culture as well, and those in the East did not retain much of their technology in the aftermath.

The Orcs see themselves as the defenders and preservers of High Human Culture. They wish to restore a perhaps-mythic paradise called Murka. The fierce war eagle is their symbol for this land and for their own people. The ancestors of the Orcs apparently survived much of the devastation of the collapse of previous human civilization by moving underground, and modern Orcs continue to be at least semi-subterranean. They believe in the necessity of keeping their race "pure," and tend to remain apart from other peoples. They have a reverence for items of technology and often worship ancient machines with grisly sacrifices. 

Orc knowledge of ancient technology is generally more advanced peoples. Some Orcish groups in known regions have abandoned the marauding ways of their ancestors, but not their love of technology. They often make a living as tinkers or mountebanks.

There is said to be a still-thriving Orc Empire to the West in possession of powerful and frightening ancient weapons of war.

The Gygaxian D&D Implied Setting Recipe

 

I present this only semi-seriously, and I'll admit to a less than unassailably rigorous methodology--but I think I have identified the key ingredients and steps involved in creating a D&D setting that would have the true old school D&D (as opposed to Old School Rennaissance) vibe. These steps were developed from pondering the various inspirational reading lists supplied by Gygax, including some forum responses regarding the most important works there in, and comparing it to the implied setting of the manuals and the explicit setting of Greyhawk.

Here's what I came up with:

1. Take Middle-Earth and excise the human nations/cultures, gods and history.

2. Replace with the relevant material from Howard's Hyborian Age (making sure to keep the ethnography and mass migration) and add additional nations/cultures and deities as needed from the Elric Saga and the fantasies of de Camp.

3. Work in a cosmic struggle between Law and Chaos, derived from Anderson with seasoning from Moorcock

4. Place at least one Lankhmar stand-in urban center.

5. Sprinkle in lost worlds from Burroughs and some extra dimensions from Theosophy and de Camp.

5. Strain out any pulp magic in favor of a "logical" and pedantic magical system flavored with Vance, but with a foundation in de Camp/Pratt.

6. Downplay any doomed or destined, great heroes in favor of a cast of scoundrels rounded up in Vance's Dying Earth and Leiber's Lankhmar. 

7. Pull monsters from anywhere and everywhere, including science fiction (particularly post-apocalyptic). 

8. Emphasize underground environments with a hint of St. Claire and Leiber's Quarmall.

Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1982 (week 4)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we review the comics hitting the newsstand on January 28, 1982.

Action Comics #530: Wolfman and Swan are dragging this storyline out, but Superman and the Brainiac he reprogrammed for evil finally get to confronting the Planet-Eater. And predictably, evil Brainiac (now more evil than ever, we are told) betrays Superman and plans to use the device to clear out the clutter of the current universe so he can start anew. Superman manages to defeat Brainiac, though, stopping the Planet-Eater and trapping Brainiac inside.

Speaking of draggin things out, Aquaman is still hanging on that alien planet, but he manages to get a creature to blast him, and he's vibrated back to Earth's ocean. In a pointless crossover, the Atom and Jean just happen to be sailing by so they can rescue him.

All-Star Squadron #8: It's now December 30, 1941, and Liberty Belle, the Shining Knight, plus the new hero, Steel, defeat an assassin sent by Baron Blitzkrieg. The main story is by Thomas and Gonzales/Ordway, but the recap of Steel's origin is handled by Conway and Heck. This makes since because that team created Steel in 1978's Steel series, but it only lasted 5 issues thanks to the Implosion. This issue also has some file entries in the back.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #2: Thomas and Alcala/Shaw pick up where issue #1 left off. Thomas, showing his Marvel roots, has the team almost immediately beset by internal conflict. Pig Iron, not use to his new body, inadvertently wreaks havoc as he's just trying to leave town. Shortly after, he's approached by A.C.R.O.S.T.I.C. (A Corporation Recently Organized to Instigate Crimes) who want to pay him to join their side. Pig Iron declines, so they set their operative, the Armadillo on him. The team shows up, and ultimately Pig Iron decides to join the Zoo Crew after all. 

Detective Comics #513: Conway and Newton continue the Two-Face story from this month's Batman. Batman has been missing for a week, and Two-Face's gang has been on a crime spree. Robin thwarts one of the crimes and forces the goons to tell him Batman's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Batman devises his on escape by molding a plastic tray into a mask of Two-Face's scarred visage and using it to freak the criminal out. By the time Robin and the police arrive, Batman has captured the criminals. In the aftermath, Bruce tells Alfred and Dick of his decision to move out of the penthouse and back to Wayne Manor.

In the Burkett/Delbo Batgirl backup, Barbara tangles with a biker gang known as the Demon Riders but receives help from a mysterious stranger.

New Adventures of Superboy #28: The Kryptonian criminals from last issue finally seem to have convinced Superboy that they are his parents, much to the distress of the Kents. Superboy's own memories seem to confirm it. Superboy releases Sar-Ul and Ralsa from where he imprisoned them and goes with them to another world. It turns out to be be under a red sun, so they are powerless. Superboy reveals he's onto their memory-falsifying telepath tricks. He leaves them on that world where they can't cause trouble.

Dial H for Hero arrives in this issue as a backup. The villain (presumably created by a fan, so we can't blame Rozakis and Bridwell for the name), the Senses-Taker, goes on a crime spree and only the kids can stop him.

Unexpected #221: This is a sci-fi focused issue. In the opener by Snyder and Catan, a group of astronauts return to a devastated Earth with a desire to repopulate it. The grow their children in an accelerated way in some sort of artificial wombs, though there's dissention among the group about this. In the end, the evolutionarily advanced children emerge and reject their flawed parents to set out on their own. The next story by Ditko is an old fashioned if creative Atlas style story about an electromagnetic alien that can inhabit and animate any material. 

The next story by Kelley and Ayers is the only non-sci-fi piece, and also the worst. I guy runs to a woman's aid and inadvertently kills her assailant only to discover she was the assailant and the other guy her victim. The final story by Conway and Zeck has an explorer on Pluto getting frozen to the spot with no way to call for her thanks to frozen oxygen from a ruptured tank, but she saved by alien creatures she previously didn't recognize as being alive.

Unknown Soldier #262: This issue has two new backup features: Balloon Buster and Tomahawk. Both of these characters I feel like are under-appreciated. Kanigher and Spiegle reintroduce Balloon Buster, telling his origin, and recounting part of an encounter with Enemy Ace. I feel like this basically recaps stuff from previous appearances, but I'm not sure. There's no Balloon Buster Archives to consult! The Tomahawk story by Haney and Delbo starts out on an odd note: Tomahawk at odds with Washington and his foreign military supporters over the execution of a deserter who needed to return home and tend his farm. Tomahawk is whipped for insubordination to a von Steuben. Tomahawk is then sent on a scouting mission as punishment and is captured by the British force's allies, the Delaware. He escapes and makes it back to the fort, only to find he is under arrest for the attempted assassination of Washington!

The Unknown Soldier story by Haney and Ayers/Tlaloc involves a French painter sent to pretend to paint Hitler's portrait while secretly encoding the German preparations to counter D-Day. When he gets so angry at Hitler's callousness that he paints him in an inflattering light, he's marked for death, but Soldier as a master of disguise manages to get the painter out alive and the painting out intact.

World's Finest Comics #278: Rozakis and Buckler/Marcos team-up Hawkman with Batman and Superman to finish off the Hawkman arc. The three go to Thanagar and execute a plan to take down Hyathis' rule (if it was this easy, why wait until now?). Hawkgirl briefly appears again, but before Hawkman can attempt to reconcile, she's gone again. Barr and von Eeden continue their Green Arrow story, with Ollie's quick thinking and quicker reflexes saving him from a fall to his death. He discovers who framed Green Arrow for murder, and it is ironically, the informant whose identity Ollie went to jail to protect.

The Kupperberg/Spiegle Zatanna story shows the shortcomings of the anthology format as executed as Zatanna takes on dog-nappers and goes to a dog show. The Bridwell/Newton Marvel family story has the group taking on a new villain, Darkling, who appears this issue. Mary has to defeat her, because the male Marvels can't hit a woman.

Back to Broken Compass

 

One of my two gaming groups picked back up last night after the holiday hiatus. We got back into the "Serpent Throne" adventure for the pulp version of Broken Compass.

I've noticed that CMON has made the pirate supplement, Jolly Roger, and Voyages Extraordinaires, the supplement for Jules Vernes type adventures, available on drivethru. They both seem pretty cool, but there are other things from that last Kickstarter I hope they get out soon.