Journey to the Center of the Mind

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night with a quest in the role of Zabra Kadabra (the pre-gen enchantress from Mortzengersturm). 

Viola, the Clockwork Princess, needs a suit of armor called the Quicksilver Panoply as some sort of control mechanism for the metal giant she plans to unearth to overthrow the Wizard of Azurth. This armor hasn't been made but has been conceived of in the mind of Gob, the giant, crystalline gnome who was the co-creator or constructor of the Land of Azurth.

She wants the party to use a backdoor she had previously placed into the dreaming or meditating mind of Gob as he sits quiescent in the center of the Earth. Easy enough, she says.

The party is dubious, but she gives them a cubic device for making entry and tells them about the basic inhabitants of Gob's mind. There are the friendly, glittering and birdlike Fantsies, and the malevolent, noxious Phanfasms. She also tells them in thumbnail sketch what they need to know to collect the armor pieces.

Off they go. They discover the crystalline recesses of the mind to also be inhabited by other creatures. Some are dreams or thoughts of Gob, but there are goblins who were smuggled in by the Phanfasms, and they have formed too factions. Some are soldiers of the Phanfasms in areas they seldom go themselves. The others are rebels, mentored by a Kobold druid, seeking liberation from Phanfasm control.

The party manages to get on friendly terms with the rebel goblins, but has to almost immediately slaughter a group of Phanfasm soldiers.

Avoiding fighting with most dream creatures, the part comes to a dining hall where High Elven warriors in finery are supping. The elves refused to speak with the party, and their snoody air is irritating to the group. Things seem about to come to a head when the party is determined to cross through their hall, no matter what.

This adventure is an adaptation of the Role Aids adventure, Swordthrust. It's one I've long wanted to reskin for Azurth, and I'm glad I finally got the chance

Two Species, Two Systems

For comparison, here are two of my Strange Stars setting sophont species in both Black Star and Star Scoundrels terms. Both are pretty simple! For Black Star, species just provides innate traits as listed. In Star Scoundrels the species is a Trademark which is sort of described by the words in parentheses after it. Those words might also suggest Edges that could be selected.

Follow the links with the names to get more background on the species.

HWURU

In Black Star:

Traits: Claws, Tough.

In Star Scoundrels:

Hwuru (Strong, Climb, Forest Survival, Claws, Intimidate)

BOMOTH

In Black Star:

Traits: Extra Limbs, Acute Hearing.

In Star Scoundrels:

Bomoth (Enhanced Hearing, Extra Manipulators, Music, Slang, Philosophical, Unflappable)

Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1983 (week 1)

My ongoing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of January 6, 1983. 

Blackhawk #257: We get a Chaykin cover on this issue. He'll go on to do some good stuff with the Blackhawks later in the decade. For now, Evanier and Spiegle are continuing the story from the last couple of issues. The Blackhawks manage to track Merson to Zurich and strongarm him into creating an antidote for the Ubermeister transformation. Four Blackhawks fly to Paris to get von Tepp. Chop Chop is guarding Merson but gets ambushed and outfought by Domino.

In Paris, Blackhawk is captured by von Tepp and his monster. Von Tepp steals Blackhawk medallion as a trophy. He doesn't know it's the nightmare medallion, and his will being somewhat less than our hero's, is overwhelmed and he dies of psychic distress. Blackhawk shoots the monster with von Tepp's luger not knowing it is his friend Stanilaus. It's not too late to save him though. as the rest of the Blackhawks show up, and they administer the antidote to Stanislaus, who (in the following few days or weeks) recovers.

 

DC Comics Presents #56: The most notable thing about this issue is the cover by Kane that prefigures the iconic cover to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7. The story by Kupperberg and Swan is less memorable. Superman and Power Girl are teleported to another universe that is ruled by some be-permed jerk named Maaldor, who forces them to compete in gladiatorial games or see the people of that universe destroyed. The Swan's art renders a story staid that in the hands of a Marvel artist of this era would have at least been dynamic. I do kind of like the usual Bronze Age Superman ending where Supes has to kind of trick the badguy rather than beat him up.

Fury of Firestorm #11: The Hyena bugs me because her/his (there are two now) whole deal is really just a werewolf schtick and Broderick draws the creature as a wolf person not a hyena person and the colorist goes along with it. We learn Summer infected her Arizona doctor with the Hyena curse, and Ronnie is apparently also infected but holding it at bay with Firestorm powers, I guess. There's a fight atop the World Trade Center, where Firestorm blasts the Summer hyena, sending her falling presumably to her death, but it's continued next issue. Also, Stein's ex ostensibly enlists Ronnie's help to try to convince Martin to get back together with her. 

Justice League #213: After a lackluster arc the last two issues, Conway and now Heck/Tanghal bring something that starts out a bit more interesting. In fact, it's very Marvel-y, like a combination of Hank Pym's recent (in 1982) woes and weirdly, Ant-Mam & Wasp: Quantumania. Due to some career setbacks, Ray Palmer suffers a nervous breakdown and, when his wife Jean and Hawkman attempt to help him, he rebuffs them and vanishes into an unexplored, sub-atomic world--the Microcosmos. Using one of Ray's inventions, the Justice League follows him, but they lose their memories in the process. They encounter a mysterious woman called Wanderer and have to fight reptilian humanoids she calls Devil Guards, minions of Goltha, the micro-world's tyrant whose symbol is curiously like the Atom's. The heroes go with her to the capital city, unaware that the Atom, now a comparative giant, is a captive there, Gulliver-and-the-Lilliputians style, just behind a castle's walls.

Wonder Woman #302: Mishkin and Colan bring the Artemis story to a close. Wonder Woman spends much of the issue chained in a dungeon which provides plenty of time for flashbacks to tell Artemis' origin story: how she was Hippolyta's best friend and the first chosen "Wonder Woman" emissary, but then was corrupted by Man's World and defied Athena's will. The skeletal Artemis is out to kill Hippolyta, but Diana manages to escape just in time to stop her. In one-on-one combat, she defeats the original Wonder Woman by stealing her sword, the source of her unlife. Artemis's skeleton crumbles to dust. Elsewhere, Circe, the sorceress responsible for reviving Artemis, watches and vows revenge.

In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and DeCarlo/DeZuniga Helena thwarts a D-grade villain called Pat Pending whose gimmick he uses a lot of novelty gadget inspired stuff, but he uses a drug to (I guess) slow his respiration and heart to fake his death--and sets Huntress up to look like a murderer. How he wakes up and escapes before an autopsy is performed, I hope gets explained next issue, but I'm not holding my breath.

Arak Son of Thunder #20: It seems like the Thomases and Gonzales/Alcala are sort of padding out the issue count on this journey to White Cathay. This issue, as Arak and his companions cross a vast desert led by the priest Johannes we get fantasy desert danger buffet including a sandstorm, sinkholes, a giant antlion, and undead warriors. Meanwhile, the sorceress Angelica watches it all, and it gives her a chance to fill Malagigi in on the history of her land. The city is currently besieged by tartars, and Angelica seeks the answer to a riddle which will bring a powerful demon to her side. Malagigi, knows the answer, but refuses to tell lest it lead to harm for his approaching friends.

In the Valda backup, Valda is on the hunt for Pip, the son of Carolus Magnus that got disowned last issue. She has to fend off a pack of wolves, but eventually she finds the hunchback prince hiding in a graveyard. She gets him to shelter, then she hears a ghostly evil voice...

Star Scoundrels

 

I mentioned Black Star from LakeSide Games a few weeks ago, but since I've discovered another neat, rules lite, space opera game, Star Scoundrels is from Peril Planet. It's another game clearly intended to play Star Wars without obviously violating the IP and mentioning that. It uses the Action Tales system I've appreciated in the cyberpunk game Neon City Overdrive, which is also pretty much the same system as the fantasy game Dungeon Crawlers and the author's game Hard City for Osprey.

The basic mechanic is a d6 dice pool of Action Die and Danger Die, with graduated success from complete failure to complete success. Dice are added to the pool based on player traits, Threat (enemy) traits, and situational modifiers. All rolls are done by the players. 

Each Danger Die can cancel out a matching result on an Action Die, and uncancelled 6s on Danger Die accumulating Pressure. Pressure gives the GM the ability to make things more difficult for the players when it reaches a certain level. It's like Threat in 2d20 games in that regard but isn't near as much of an economy around it nor as many rules relating to it.

PCs are described by Trademarks (sort of a basic concept, role, profession, and alien species), Edges (specializations or talents linked to a Trademark), Flaws (disadvantages or troubles), gear, Grit (hit points), and Flow (the Force stand-in). Flow can be used to increase the success of roles or use a second Trademark die in a check.

Starships are statted similar to Threats. There are some fairly simple rules given for space battles and a table of random space travel encounters.

There are also random tables for adventure generation, planets, and names.

All and all, it offers the barest bit more crunch (but in places that flesh out a character a bit more) than Black Star while remaining very rules light. Either would be a great choice for a Star Wars pickup game or one shot.

Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1983 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we look at the comics hitting the newsstand on December 30, 1982.

Detective Comics #524: Conway and Newton get to the end of this Squid interlude and the point of this 2-parter: namely to build up Conway's next big villain, Croc. Batman, though injured, manages to escape the Squid's deathtrap. After some ranting, Squid sends the assembled thugs out to search for him, but one, Croc refuses, calling Squid a loser. Squid accosts him and we see Croc's reptilian visage revealed for the first time. 

Batman makes it home where Dick Grayson is holding a reception for the circus folk, including the Flying Todds. While Alfred is bandaging Bruce and the two are talking with Dick, Trina Todd blunders in. Dick is sure she now knows Bruce is Batman.

Elsewhere, Squid is still ranting about how he's going to overcome this setback. Suddenly, a window breaks and there's a shot. Squid sees Batman arrive and after a melee shoots and kills him, yelling in triumph... Except none of that happened. There was a shot through the window, but it hit Squid and he dies there on the warehouse floor, experiencing one last grandiose fantasy. The shot was fired from a neighboring roof by Croc, avenging the insult from earlier.

In the Green Arrow backup, Ollie defeats Executrix with reflector-signal arrows and grills her for information about Machiavelli. In the meantime, Machiavelli has convinced the Wall Street Irregulars that criminals can run Star City better than its elected officials. Later, he crashes a town hall on the anti-strike proposal and gives a speech that is greeted with cries of "Mac for mayor!" Green Arrow starts to intervene, but one of the villain's goons gets the jump on him.

Weird War Tales #121: We get it already, Bob Kanigher, people are horrified and repelled by the Creature Commandos, and they are unjustly ostracized! The last 3 issues, at least, have had the Commandos in Allied control territory where they can be mocked and ridiculed before they head out to some ridiculous but uninteresting mission. Where are the robot Aztecs/Lemurians and such of early in his run? So here, the Commandos anger the carnival freakshow performers because customers would rather gawk and ridicule them for free instead of paying. Then, they head to Holland where 3 beautiful Dutch Freedom fighters show an interest in Shrieve, Velcro, and Griffith. They turn out to be robots. There's also a windmill firing rockets. This later stuff is crazy enough to work, but it's thin.

In the second story, German spies steal the U.S. Navy zeppelin LZS-6, but they didn't reckon with Gremlins, and they all meet their doom.

Action Comics #541: Wolfman and Kane bring us to the finally of the Satanis storyline, and it's pretty much one long fight. It's sort of modern (or Marvel) feeling in that regard, and it's all Gil Kane art, but in the end, there aren't really any twists or surprises sufficiently surprising to make it not feel perfunctory. It's well enough executed, but not really memorable. Meanwhile, in the Daily Planet, Lois seems to be getting a bit jealous of Lana in regard to her relationship with Clark, and a mysterious "Mr. Moore" (whose face, in soap opera style, we aren't shown) arrives at the office.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #5: I hadn't noticed last issue, but Moench took over as writer after #3. That explains the degree to which the origin given in the past two issues doesn't seem to entire jibe with what we were told before. Anyway, the tale of Arion's origin continues, this time revealing how he met Chian and Wyynde. Arion breaks free and also frees his friends. Danuuth is defeated and routed (but not killed), though at the cost of the life of Calculha.

All-Star Squadron #19: Thomas and Ordway have the Squadron, responding to Brain Wave's challenge, fight their way into the Perisphere on the grounds of the '39 New York World's Fair and find members of the Justice Society unconscious and captive, forced to dream of making a bloody assault on the Japanese, and being killed in the process...which will eventually kill them in the real world. Brain Wave taunts the Squadron and they are pretty much powerless this issue to do anything but watch this happen. Far be it from me to tell a guy with a career as long as Thomas' how to right funny books, but devoting whole issues to the exploits of others while your ostensible protagonists set on the sidelines seems a questionable approach, at least.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #13: Shaw and Goldberg/Gordon have Southern Califurnia beset with a snowstorm thanks the the villainous Cold Turkey and his minions. The Zoo Crew tracks him down before he can muscle his way into part ownership of a rich gold mine. There are also extended (and unfunny) Bob Hope and Marx Brothers gags, would no doubt lost on the titles presumed readership even in 1982.

Jonah Hex #70: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga start with Jonah dumping White Claw in a grave before he and Emmy head out to steal his Colt dragoons back from the Shoshone. Meanwhile, Ernest Daniels, the last man involved in the robbery which led to the death of Hex's fiancee those years ago has made a better man of himself over the years but feels that isn't enough and sets out with one of his sons to find Hex and try to make amends. His other son, Jason, has an alternate plan, hoping to kill his father and his brother and inherit his father's fortune.

Ernest and his good son wind up with Jonah and Emmy in the hands of a cult leader nut who calls himself the Manitou and plans to blow a damn, flooding a town, and have it planned on the local Indian tribe to start a war. After Manitou leads his men out, they manage to escape but run right into the hands of Jason and his thugs.

New Adventures of Superboy #39: Kupperberg and Schaffenberger take a break from the Freaky Friday storyline for a holiday themed issue. When Flash Thompson Bash Bashford gets all cynical about Christmas, Superboy takes him to a post-apocalyptic Smallville on an alternate Earth where there is no Christmas, and amazingly, that works to cheer him up. 

In the Dial H backup by Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Adkins the Chris and Vicki dial up the heroes Rock and Roll (heroes again created by their friend Nick Stevens) to deal with an emergency. Meanwhile, the police are flummoxed on a case, which is just what the Master wants--and somehow, he has Greg King, Chris' father, doing his bidding.

World's Finest Comics #289: Third Gil Kane cover this week. Moench takes over writing duties, but the approach is so consistent with the previous arc I feel like the editor Wolfman is has a strong hand in it. While I think the emphasis on the bromance between Batman and Superman is an interesting element, it seems a bit overdone. I wonder if it's this series that perhaps suggested the romantic pairing of Batman and Superman stand-ins in The Authority? Anyway, Batman is unable to prevent the death of a mugging victim and that triggers his childhood trauma. Meanwhile, Superman, a Kryptonian orphan among mortals, is feeling isolated and melancholy, and the two get together for some friend therapy and the Fortress of Solitude. Then there's some business with a meteor that contains these worm-like, living alien probes. After first, the probes are making weapons in the Fortress go haywire, but they eventually calm down and talk to our heroes.

The probes say that they were created by the Kryll, a race which had lost emotion in their quest for immortality and sent these probes out to find it. After coming to Earth, the probes have discovered through the mopiness of Superman and Batman that emotion requires death, and so the probes sacrifice their own lives and transmit this message to their makers. 

Holiday Viewing

Got some time over the holidays? Over at the Flashback Universe Blog, Jason Sholtis and I have been watching selected episodes of old TV shows available on streaming and reviewing them. Something here is bound to be what you are looking for!

Mr. Lucky (1959)

Gigantor (1964)

Barbary Coast (1975)

Raumpatrouille Orion (1966)

M Squad (1957)

Riverboat (1959)

The Renegades (1983)

Space: 1999 (1975)

Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982)

Yancy Derringer (1958)

Blackstar (1981)

Miami Vice (1984)

Blake's 7 (1978)

Peter Gunn (1958)

Cliffhangers (1979)

Dragnet (1951)

On The Frontier

My recent readings in science fiction have had me thinking about Star Frontiers. The setting more than the game mechanics. I've done various riffs on the species and things before, but I don't think I've ever really thought about how I'd run it "straight"--at least not since I ran it in middle school. Here are some bullet points of things I've thought of:

Managed Tech

"We of the Institute receive an intensive historical inculcation; we know the men of the past, and we have projected dozens of possible future variations, which, without exception, are repulsive. Man, as he exists now, with all his faults and vices, a thousand gloriously irrational compromises between two thousand sterile absolutes – is optimal. Or so it seems to us who are men."

- Jack Vance, The Killing Machine

Technology marches on and Star Frontiers is very much retrotech, which I would mostly keep, I think, but rather than just pretend technology never advanced in some areas, I like I would lampshade it with the existence of something like the Institute in Vance's Demon Princes novels that limits the available technology. Perhaps they do so because of the excesses of the past? Maybe AI or transhumanism or both drove humanity to Frontier Space from their homeworld?

We're Pan-Galactic

The pervasive Pan-Galactic Corporation could drive things in a cyberpunkian direction, but I think I would want to wink at the dystopian potential of this rather than making it the primary theme. Corporate futures aren't uncommon in science fiction pre-cyberpunk (it shows up in the 70s comic Star Hunters, for instance) but I'd think I'd want to take a sort of American Flagg! or 2000AD satirical nod to it rather than make everything about fighting the system.

Rockets

Star Frontiers doesn't mention any sort of gravity generating tech and Knight Hawks has ship decks aligned like floors in a skyscraper. I'd retain that hard(er) science fiction approach.