Weird Revisited: Combat as Bloodsport

The original version of this post appeared in 2018.

 

A common reframe in the old school landscape is "Combat as War vs. Combat as Sport," often used to negatively contrast elements of 5e and particularly 4e concerned with encounter balance and "the encounter" as a fundamental unit of game action in general with the old school. Without getting into the merits of how this argument is typically framed, I think that even if we accept this as true, there is a way to lean into those elements of modern D&D and come out with something cool. Instead dungeoncrawling for treasure (mainly), maybe the dungeon environment could be the battleground of a big tournament.

X-Crawl deals with some of this territory, I guess, but from what I read of it, it is set in the modern day, and seems very much concerned with the celebrity aspect of things, bringing in a lot of professional athlete cliches. All well and good, but I'm more interested in something more like Dragonball Z. The fighters are in it often for the personal betterment--a personal betterment that is practically apotheosis, which dovetails nicely with D&D advancement. What if the gods or immortals or whatever design the dungeons as tournament grounds, and foundries to forge new exalted beings to join their ranks?

In this context, the lack of XP for gold makes perfect sense. Also, "levels" of dungeons are like brackets of a tournament. In order to give a good spectacle, you don't want scrubs advancing to take on the contenders too soon. Mainly playing this sort of setting would just mean thinking about the game differently. The only change might be that there wouldn't be any nameless rabble or humanoid tribes with kids and the like. Everybody in the dungeon is playing the game!

Wednesday Comics: DC, November 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 August 5, 1982. 

Adventure Comics #493: This digest gives us one new story along with the reprints: Challengers of the Unknown by Rozakis and Tuska/Mushynsky. This is a retelling/updating of their origin complete with the plane crash and "living on borrowed time" but seems to suggest that the crash was an accident. We'll see next issue.

Wonder Woman #297: Nice cover here by Michael Kaluta. Mishkin and Colan/McLaughlin introduce a new menace in the form of Aegeus. He's a Greek terrorist looking to establish a utopian community on an island but discovers an ancient ruin where he is given the thunderbolts of Zeus and the winged horse Pegasus. He attacks a group of U.S. military jets bringing him to conflict with Wonder Woman. In the end, he kidnaps Steve Trevor.

A new writer, Joey Cavalieri, joins artists Staton and Trapani on the Huntress backup. Helena takes a position as a liaison between the D.A. and the Police Comissioner's office, but Harry isn't exactly happy to be working more closely with his girlfriend as it reminds him of her superhero activies he worries about. That evening, Huntress is preparing to confront a gang running a protection racket, when she's startled by a Batman-like shadow. A new hero, Blackwing, joins the fray, but promptly knocked out and unmasked by the gang. It's Charley Bullock, intern from Cranston, Grayson, and Wayne.

Arak Son of Thunder #15: Arak and Satyricus are in the port city of Thessalonika trying to find out where Valda was taken. They run afoul of the Byzantine soldiers and find out Valda has been taken east as a prisoner, but they also hear that the town has been beset by a ghost or invisible monster. Arak learns that the invisible creature is actually an invisible hydra or the ghost of a hydra summoned by the tavern keeper to rid the city of the foreign soldiers. 

Racing to the docks to try to get a ship to follow Valda, Arak has to fight the monster. The tavern keeper's daughter is killed by a collapsing wall, so he learns a lesson, I guess. Arak then continues his quest to find Valda and Malagigi.

In the backup by the Thomases and Colon, Valda awakens as a captive of the Hun priest Chelchak, he of the horse-had mask. Valda killed the hun leader's prize mare and is now scheduled to be sacrificed. Chelchak has taken a shine to her and attempts to get her life spared. When the Kagan will have none o it, the priest transforms into a horse and carries Valda to freedom. At the river, Valda is reunited with Malagigi who shows her that all the horses of the frank army have mysteriously died. Valda realizes that it was Chelchak's spell which killed them. Without the horses, Carolus Magnus cannot continue the war against the Huns.

Blackhawk #252: Evanier and Spiegle have the Blackhawks tasked with the recovery of Professor Merson, a scientist and inventor who has been nabbed by the Germans. They receive intelligence which places the professor, an avid gambler, is at a casino in Beldorf. Flying over South Belgium, the Blackhawks are delayed when they spot a destroyed town. Survivors claim that a giant War Wheel was responsible, and the Blackhawks suspect that this is one of Merson's inventions.

At the casino in Beldorf, Blackhawk meets Domino, a specially trained female assassin tasked with killing the team. She gets the drop on Blackhawk, but then departs. The other Blackhawks have located Merson and separated him from the Gestapo guards, but it turns out that Merson is willingly working with the Nazis for financial gain. After capturing him again, Blackhawk interrogates him, and figures out a way to stop the War Wheel with an electric shock. Still, before Blackhawk can get Merson back to the Allies, he's again ambushed by Domino, who again chooses not to kill him, despite her orders. Blackhawk smugly muses to his team later that he must have been the kiss they shared in Beldorf.

I like this book, reading it today and when I read it the first time, perhaps 3-4 years ago, but I don't know if it would have appealed to me in '82.

 

DC Comics Presents #51: At least 3 issues this week have a Masters of the Universe preview by Kupperberg and the not ideal art team of Swan and Hunt. As this is one of them, it's as good a place as any to talk about that story. Zodac shows up at the royal court and demands that He-Man be brought to him so that he may take him from the world forever. This leads to a lot of fighting between Zodac and He-Man. Meanwhile, Skeletor is trying to get into Grayskull with the Power Sword and Superman is somehow transported from Earth and starts fighting him. (They fought previously in DCP.) He-Man finally makes it to help Superman and appears to have been killed by Skeletor, but survives. Zodac shows up to say essentially "well, it worked out ok. So, my works done." Cosmic beings, am I right?

In the main story, a Superman/Atom team-up by Mishkin and Saviuk, the Atom goes back in time by dipping in the Time Pool (which we last saw in those Atom backups in Action #522-523) to the 19th Century, sees Superman apparently killed battling aliens in the American West. Back in the present, he tries to see if he and Superman can avert the Man of Steel's seeming destiny. This involves Var-El, the ancestor of Superman whose old lab Superman and Hawkgirl visited back in issue #37. The aliens are technology thieves and Var-El--still alive in the 19th Century--has been fighting them. Superman doesn't die, of course. Instead, what the Atom saw was Superman shrinking himself Atom-style. The heroes are unaware that Var-El is still alive in the past, so that's a dangling thread for another issue. 

Fury of Firestorm #6: Conway and Broderick/Rodriquez have Firestorm escape the Pied Piper-controlled masses from last issue by creating a firehose and blasting the Piper. Defeat by Firestorm is the least of the villain's problems, though, as he finds himself being turned into a satyr by the power of the Pan's Pipes he stole. Firestorm visits the Piper in the hospital. He can't tell the hero the current location of the pipes, but Firestorm learns that a dealer in Greece named Pandrakos sold the pipes to Senator Reilly. 

Firestorm flies off the Greece and discovers Pandrakos is really Pan! The god has taken command of a ship and transformed all of the ship's crew into satyrs. He has his pipes again and uses the music in an effort to hypnotize Firestorm, but our hero traps him in a metal box and dumps him in the sea. When his music can't be heard, it's effects disappear, and everyone turns back to normal.

Justice League #208: The "Crisis on Earth-Prime" continues. The All-Stars and the JLA, meeting for the first time in 1942, fight for a bit as superheroes do, but then team-up and answer the call of FDR. He's received a mysterious piece of electronic equipment (from 1982, it turns out) and they all get to hear the ultimatum Per Degaton delivers to all the world's major powers. He's got ICBMs and he will demonstrate them tomorrow at dawn. 

Meanwhile, in Earth-Prime's October 1982, the JSA must contend with mutated survivors. They discover that the Cuban Missile Crisis went hot in this world, thanks to some missiles disappearing. The more mystically inclined suss out who's behind this: Per Degaton.

Back on Earth-Two, aboard a Royal Navy warship, the All-Stars and Leaguers stand by to observe Degaton's demonstration. Aquaman warns all sea life to flee. On schedule, an ICBM drops into the area and goes off. Zatanna shields the assembled vessels from the shockwave and other destructive effects. Then, appearing out of the center of the blast zone, a transparent flying bubble appears, carrying five unconscious JSA members. The heroes regroup on the flagship's deck and get to work on making a plan.

All-Star Squadron Annual #1: In Roy Thomas fashion, this story seems to exist to plug some continuity headscratchers. It provides an explanation (that no one was clamoring for) for the excess of champion boxing trainers in Golden Age comics--1 each for the Guardian, Wildcat, and the Atom--with a "split personality" angle. It also references the retcon regarding the relationship of the Earth-Two Green Lantern to Earth-One's Guardians of the Universe. Still, it's not a bad story, and the Gonzales/Ordway art works well for it.

Planes of Law--Complete!

Everything Lawful, in one post!

The Twin Paradises

The Layers of Heaven (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

Arcadia

The Planes of Pure Law

Acheron

Hell

Gehenna

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1982 (week 4)

My ongoing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we review the comics hitting the newsstand on July 22, 1982.

Action Comics #536: This is more of the Omega Men crossover, and Wolfman/Kupperberg and Staton/Trapani have the injured Superman in the hands of the Mole and his gang. They've taken him to an underground city they're using as a hideout. The Mole plans to auction of the right to kill the Man of Steel, provided he gets the weapon they use in exchange. The Omega Men are from space and don't know from spelunking, so Lois leads on a search for Cave Carson. Kallista's magic is able to locate him. Carson isn't interested in helping, until Lois tells them that Superman is in danger. They hop into the Mighty Mole and take off. Carson suspects he knows where their heading. His crew discovered the abandoned city, and one of his former crew absconded with a prototype Mighty Mole.

The group arrives in the nick of time and rescues Superman, with Lois shooting the villain about to kill him. In the aftermath, Superman takes the Omega Men to the JLA satellite in an effort to help them get the fuel they need, but the Teen Titans show up needing help, so this story actually precedes the Teen Titans issue earlier this month.  

All-Star Squadron #14: Thomas cannot get enough Per Degaton--or maybe "plotter" Conway is the instigator here. Anyway, this is sort of the backstory of this month's issue of Justice League. Degaton regains his memory, steals Professor Zee’s time machine, then discovers the existence of Earth-Prime. He rescues the Crime Syndicate from their imprisonment and enlists their help in stealing atomic missiles from Earth-Prime Cuba of 1962. When they try to double cross him, he hurls them into another dimension.

Meanwhile, on Earth-2 in 1942, the All-Star Squadron members battle a badguy called Nuclear. After he disappears, they return to their meeting room and discover the presence of the Justice League.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #8: Scott Shaw turns one man band on this book, taking over writing duties from Thomas. It doesn't really change much in terms of content. Everyone experiences a segment of missing time and it turns out this cosmically powered Bear from outside spacetime known as the Time-Keeper is responsible. He was awakened from his hibernation by the time travel shenanigans of Bow-Zar mentioned last issue. He does the usual time villain thing of turning Captain Carrot old and the other usul time villain thing of turning the rest of the Crew into babies. Even with Yankee Poodle backup them main story still seems to drag on for too many pages.

Detective Comics #519: I may never forgive Conway and Kupperberg for forcing me to write the description: "Batman has his final showdown with Colonel Blimp." But really though, it's not bad despite the Batman TV show sort of concept behind the villain (complete with backstory of avenging his father's disgrace for championing blimps to the military, then having his career tank). It seems like maybe one of the writers read something about blimps and got his imagination fired up, because we get tidbits like blimp hangars can be so big they can have rain inside. Anyway. Batman and Robin use teamwork and a combo of brains and brawn to win the day, so it's a decent Batman yarn.

In the Batgirl backup, she's on the trail of Velvet Tiger. Batgirl manages to capture most of the villain's gang, but the Tiger escapes thanks to her brother's mercy. Frustrated by the Ward's action but more by her own failure, Barbara returns home to her loving and understanding father, who definitely knows what it's like to have the villains get away!

New Adventures of Superboy #34: I know the Yellow Peri only from the Who's Who and would never have guessed she debuted in the 80s, but here she is, courtesy of Rozakis and Schaffenberger. She's a circus sideshow performer who gives herself real magical powers by conjuring up an imp named Gazook from a book of magic and names herself the Yellow Peri. When her attempt to help the farmers around Smallville goes awry and Superboy gets in the way, decides to bedevil the Boy of Steel as revenge.

The backup is Dial H was hero which is still about the water-based villain Naiad trying to get revenge on her former friend, the movie director. Our heroes defeat her, but then somebody shoots the director!

Unknown Soldier #266: Haney and Ayers bring this title to close with the Soldier trying to kill Hitler and stop a doomsday weapon--which involves bioengineered octopuses with vampire bat genes--during the fall of Berlin. Old Unknown Soldier allies Chat Noir, Sparrow, and Inge give their lives for the cause. The Solider kills Hitler (Braun commits suicide) then impersonates him to stop the weapon from being deployed before appearing to give his own life to save a child. I can't say I will miss reading this title in the months (and years!) to come, but I do like the character of the Unknown Soldier and wish something a little different had been done with the title. Not sure what. I feel like Larry Hama might have been a good fit.

Weird War Tales #116: The stars the Creature Commandos and G.I. Robot now have bigger billing on the cover than the books title. In the first story by Kanigher and Carillo, the Commandos encounter a prevously unknown Greek goddess in Sicily: Inferna, daughter of Pluto. The lonely goddess has taken a shine to Shrieve, but her fiery love threatens to burn them all up until Myrra convinces her that she's going to destroy the thing she's after. Lovelorn Inferna relents and returns to the Netherworld.

Better is Kanigher's and Infantino's sentimental and goofy, but charming, G.I. Robot tale. On the island of Tattu, Sgt. Coker wonders if the G.I. Robot ever gets lonely. When they get back to camp, Coker finds a package that contains a robotic canine named C.A.P. The robo-dog's a big help to them both, as he swims out into the ocean to expose an ambush from a Japanese sub. A great white shark tries to eat C.A.P., but J.A.K.E. shoots the shark and takes his pooch back to the military scientists for repairs. Coker is happy that J.A.K.E. won't ever have to worry about being lonely.

 

World's Finest Comics #284: The Burkett/Tuska Composite Superman story continues, with Supes Superman bringing the Legion back to the 20th Century to help him and Batman fight their foe, who now calls himself "Amalgamax." Even with the Legion's help, Amalgamax is too tough, but once they figure out is identity, Batman and Superman formulate a plan to trick the villain into thinking that he has a lethal disease that can only be cured if he gives up his powers. Amalgamax falls for it.

This turns out to be the last issue of World's Finest with more than one story, though I guess you wouldn't know that until next month. As it is, only Green Arrow by Barr and Spiegle is left. Ollie stops a young girl, Ronnie Tempus get away with stealing a hot dog because she's hungry; her grandfather spends all their money on a grandfather clock. When Ollie takes Ronnie home, the old man explains that  he feels that he must keep the clock working, because when it stops, he'll die. The Clock King, loser that he is, tries to steal to clock, but Green Arrow stops him. The clock stops and old Tempus has a heart attack, but GA gets him to the hospital and he survives, having learned to pay more attention to people than clocks.

Et in Arcadia Formicae Sunt

Arcadia was born from the schism between Absolute Order and the Archons which believed in transcendence, those who raised up the Heavenly Mountain. The Archons of what would become Arcadia, were in awe of the Mountain, but worried its rigors would not create the optimal balance of Order and Good for the most souls. The Mountain, they felt, risked unacceptable numbers of souls potentially falling to Chaos and error in the name of a goal that might never be attainable. Only through Mechanus could the Cosmos be salvaged, but the algorithms must be modified to reflect the needs of the willful souls of the Primes. Arcadia would be that benevolent Order. 

Long ago, the greatest of Arcadia's builders distributed their being among a crafted species. The ant-like formians carry out and carry forward the great working through that divine spark within.  For the souls which come to reside in the ordered collectives of Arcadia, the formians are both humble servants and strict correctors of infractions. They model for the other inhabitants self-less service of the community.

Visitors to Arcadia find it a place of great serenity and happiness. Its souls live in ziggurat arcologies with terraced gardens and precise, geometric parks. They are amiable, though highly conformist and given to speaking in aphorisms regarding the virtues of their lifestyle.

It could be said that Arcadia is a benevolent dictatorship. While the souls have a great deal of freedom, there is little tolerance of behaviors which are detrimental to the community. Friendly warnings and lectures are the first response, then tasks meant to create awareness. If those interventions are ineffective or resisted, the community practices ostracism and a truly rebel soul will find the plane itself rejecting them.

Swords Against Sorcery: Showdown in The Tower of Eyes!

Last weekend, we continued the playtest of Swords Against Sorcery, the Bronze Age comic book Swords & Sorcery system I have been working on. Here are the characters in the session:

• Zanjar, Gallant Thief (Tug)
• Thunda, Barbarian Acolyte (Andrea)
• Korag, Primitive Warrior (Jason)
• Kharron, Cursed Warrior (Paul

When last we left our heroes they were facing the mind-boggling inner dimension of the Tower of Eyes. They had to travel through this space presumably to reach the sanctum of the wizard Narznn Gath who had tried to kill them. Everyone had to succeed at a Tough (2 successes) Instinct+Sorcery roll to be able to navigate the space without error. Several didn't succeed and so received a "Confused" penalty condition when trying to navigate. Luckily, they have Thunda's instincts, honed to the Shaman's Realm, which allowed her to be their guide.

They had barely began their descent when a strangely doubled bellow assailed them from all directions. They hastened on, only to have a hulking monster appear some distance below them--they materialize on the catwalk in front of them! 

The creature named himself in both his voices at once: Y'gnathra! And he announced his intention to kill them! Y'gnathra's stats in the system were:

This made him a formidable opponent! The player's were going to have to be smart and luck. They had get Momentum (often by taking risky rerolls by "Tempting the Gods") and by spending that Momentum.

Kharron, unafraid of any demon, strode forward, slashing his blade. Against the odds, he scored a blow. Thunda followed that up by calling upon ancestral spirits to bedevil the creature, hampering its attacks, but it still sent Kharron sprawling with a backhand blow, and a combined attack by Zanjar and Korag to blind it and push it from the walkway failed.

Y'gnathra proved able to transport quickly from one place to another too. Frantically seeking a means of escape as they fought to hold the creature at bay, Korag's keen hunter's vision noted an ornate doorway out of this central space a couple of levels beneath them. They all made daring escapes to the crosswalk below and ran for the door, but again Y'gnathra teleported in a way to bar their path. Thunda and Kharron made it past, but Y'gnathra caught Zanjar and Korag and tossed them like missiles, causing our heroes to fall into the room beyond the doors in a jumbled heap. By now, Zanjar had exhausted his Luck. Further "damage" would place him in The Hand of Doom!

Y'gnathra withdraws. In a round ceremonial chamber, the wizard Narznn Gath stood before a floating mirror in the shape of a stylized eye. He turns and removes the dome he wore over his head, revealing...

Narznn Gath welcomes the group. He had always intended they should be present for his ultimate triumph. He is drawing forth Occuloth the All Seeing from the Outer Dark, so he can merge with that being and attain his power. While he gloats, Korag tries an attack, but the many eyes of Narznn Gath give him an advantage, and he avoids it. 

The wizard waves a hand and casts a spell to bind them all. Kharron and Korag resist binding, but they pretend to be caught by the energy bands. They ask while Gath tried to kill them, he reveals he didn't--it was an a strategem to bring them here, as his auguries had said they would be present when he merged with Occuloth.

When he turns back to his mirror through which a swirling cloud of eyes and tentacles can be seen approaching through space, the free heroes make their attacks. They are unable to seriously harm Narznn but they keep him off balance and distracted until the others free themselves. Korag makes a rushing attack against him, slamming the wizard against the mirror, then he's grabbed by tentacles from beyond.

An inhuman voice booms: NARZNN GATH....YOU HAVE SUMMONED ME AND I HAVE COME...YOUR INITIATIVE AND RESOURCEFULNESS HAS EARNED YOU MY FAVOR...I SHALL MAKE YOU PART OF MYSELF...AND SET YOU TO EXPLORING DISTANT CORNERS OF THE COSMOS I HAVE NOT BEHELD IN EONS FOR THE NEXT FEW MILLENNIA AS REWARD!

The wizard screams as he is drawn into the mirror.

The heroes now find the interior of the tower much more mundane than before. The magic has fled. They quickly find the exit and depart for more civilized realms.

All Your Hydra Favorites

 

A new Bundle of Holding launched yesterday featuring all the Hydra hits including a few cuts from yours truly. Here's the list:

• Chris Kutalik's sourcebooks and modules set in his Weird-infested Marlinko Canton, a Slavic myth-inspired, acid fantasy world of Moorcockian extradimensional incursions, Vancian swindlers, and petty bureaucrats: Slumbering Ursine Dunes; Fever-Dreaming Marlinko, plus its free Map Pack; Misty Isles of the Eld; the hexcrawl What Ho, Frog Demons; and the collection that started it all, the Hill Cantons Compendium II.
• From another Hydra stalwart, Trey Causey, the Strange Stars; the pulp-era rulebook Weird Adventures and Strange Trails; and a deceptively whimsical foray into a wild wizard's mad magic mansion, Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak.
• Zedeck Siew's Malay-themed sandbox module about river exploration, horrific eternal bargains, and a very hungry crocodile, Lorn Song of the Bachelor.

You might expect to pay as much as $74.50, but for a short time you can get all these books for the low, low price $14.95!

Don't wait! Order today!