The Omega Team

Here's an idea for a campaign for an action/covert mission rpg. Outgunned is what I'm thinking of, but it would work with something like Top Secret/S.I. too, I think. I see it as having something of the vibe of an 80s indie comic, so keep that in mind when reading the pitch:

In the "near future" (from the 80s, so maybe it's like mid to late 90s?) a young man with immense, psychic power has gone rogue, escaping the top secret facility he has been living in. His ultimate goals are unclear, but the first thing he does is make the world's nuclear arsenals inoperable. The Soviets (they're still around) suspect some sort of U.S. super-weapon attack (which isn't far from the truth, really). Everybody's paranoid and non-nuclear war breaks out in various places around the world.

That was just this guy's first trick. What will an unstable, poorly socialized individual with almost god-like power and a grudge against the U.S. government do next? The government doesn't want to find out. The PCs are the agents they send to solve the problem--with extreme prejudice. They're the solution of last resort: the Omega Team*.

The Omega Team would be an eclectic group of experts in various fields tasked with tracking this guy down and ending his menace. He probably has recruited others with paranormal abilities (but much lower powerful levels), and he moves around a lot, so it's no easy task.

The idea shameless lifts the basic plot idea from Marvel Comics' Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja, but Akira, Thriller (the comic), Odd John, and the anime Lazarus are also inspirations, as well as 80s team stuff in general like G.I. Joe.

*The Omega Team was the name of a comic my cousin, brother, and I created as kids about a group of mutants working for the government. I've recycled it before for this idea.

The Patchwork Kingdom Crawl

 As has been pointed out before, the kind of frontier envisioned by old D&D owes more to Westerns than it does to the Western European Middle Ages or most of the fantasy works in the Appendix N. The modern idea of the "points of light" setting is perhaps closer to these things but still tends to miss the mark for many sources of the game's inspiration.

There's another option that shows up often, in disparate places from Le Morte d'Arthur to Star Trek, and many works in between. We have heroes wandering from one place to another, perhaps with a goal, perhaps not. These places are more or less civilized jurisdictions, but they have unusual customs (from the perspective of the protagonists) or eccentric or antagonist authorities. While one of the examples I mentioned above describes voyages covering a significant amount of territory (interplanetary!), some fairy tale-ish or picaresque stories (like Oz novels) do the same thing over a much smaller area: A patchwork of fiefdoms or petty kingdoms. The sort of campaign that could easily be made from a map of Holy Roman Empire:

This differs from the points of light setting in that there really isn't a distinction between wilderness for adventure and civilization for safety. In fact, the challenges of the wilderness in such stories may be much more limited than the challenges of civilization. The various eccentric monarchs and humorously dangerous social situations Manuel finds himself in in Figures of Earth are good examples, as are the strange and isolated cities John Carter visits in his wanderings across Barsoom.

The advantages of this sort of setting to me would be that it's very easy to work in all sorts of adventures from social conflict and faction stuff to traditional dungeons and overland travel.

Wednesday Comics: DC, August 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm reviewing the comics released on the week of May 17, 1984. 

Sgt. Rock Annual #4: This was, I think, the actual first issue of a Sgt. Rock comic I bought. There weren't many of those--this may be the only one. It was the cover that captured my interest, I suspect. The story gives almost as much "screen time" to the Iron Major as to Rock himself. We see how he lost his hand to frostbite on the Eastern Front saving a soldier in his command from a freezing river, a soldier that dies this issue before he can get him to medical attention. The Iron Major is the sort of honorable Wehrmacht soldier that crops up in Kanigher's stories, the better to portray wear as a tragedy for all involved, I suppose. In this story, though, there are examples of German war crime and depravity for the Major (and the reader) to disapprove of, dispelling any idea he might be typical. In the end, faced with being complicit with war crimes, he chooses to shoot an SS officer who would use see the people of a village killed to get at Easy Company. He and Rock part with an understanding--but an understanding that includes the likelihood of one of them killing the other in the future.

Batman #374: Nice cover by Newton and Giordano. Moench and Newton/Alcala bring back the Penguin who hasn't been a solo villain in a story since 1982 in Brave and the Bold #185. The story does a bit of a thing I don't like in comics: where the feelings (or presumed feelings) of the readership is projected into the world of the comics. Penguin perhaps isn't taken seriously as a villain in 1984 perhaps due to hangover from the 60s Batman TV show, ergo in the DC Universe Penguin isn't taken seriously. Still, I like the characterization Moench gives him. It's a bit like Meredith's TV portrayal but with a greater hint of menace. If the Penguin isn't considered a threat in the DCU, he seems to be saying, it isn't because he isn't actually threatening. Anyway, the Penguin is staging a series of crimes so he can get the recognition he feels like he deserves. He pulls off his caper and gets away with information that could lead to international geopolitical consequences. Meanwhile, Vicki frets over whether to publish a shot she snapped of him that portrays him in the light he wants--and of course, she's also still worried about Julia perhaps moving in on Bruce. A worker at Gotham children services is convinced Jason needs to be taken from Bruce. If she only knew!

Arak Son of Thunder #36: In the aftermath of the defeat and unmasking of the serpent men, there are suspicions regarding the identity of the traitor in their midst with Alsind's uncle and Arak having a mutual mistrust. Josephus tells them to seek the sword, and Arak does just that with his vague, demigod powers. He leads them to a place to dig where eventually they break into a buried chamber with the burning sword floating in the air. After Arak grasps the sword a giant worm attacks them reveals himself to have the upper torso of a man and the body of a snake. Arak kills him, but as he dies the Lord of Serpents projects his image into the room and whisks Alsind and his Sharizad away with magic. Alsind's mother is revealed as the traitor, and she is killed by his uncle. Arak vows to get the youths back.

There's another "Young Arak" backup with art by Forton but really nothing of import happens, other than we get some Quontaukan (borrowed) mythology about the world being on back of a turtle.

Flash #336: I don't know that this run gets the credit (or the blame) for it, but this is pretty close to 21st Century style decompression here in the Bronze Age. The most noteworthy thing in this installment is there really isn't even a super-villain adversary in it. The Flash has saved the Mayor from mind-control enforced suicide and the Mayor tells him about the hypnotism, but the Flash is unable to trace the control device to the Pied Piper. When he's told about the rockslide destroying Peter's house, he races to check on Cecile and is told a dead woman has been found in the ruins--but it winds up being someone else: the assistant of a tabloid journalist bugging the home. Realizing where Cecile must be, the Flash digs at super-speed to reveal the intact sensory deprivation tank with a still-living Cecile inside. Cecile is momentarily grateful, but her coldness toward Flash soon returns. We learn later this issue that she blames the Flash for the death of someone whose grave she visits. The Flash tracks down the men who set off the bomb above the house and links them to crooked attorney N.D. Redik. Redik jumps from a window to commit suicide rather than go to jail.

G.I. Combat #268: In the first Haunted Tank story, Stuart's Raiders are exhausted and ordered to R&R in a small French town near the front. Mostly, they slip around a table in the cafe while the populace, grateful for their efforts, do things for them. When the German's attack the town, though, the Raiders can't let the civilians fight the battle alone. The second story is "Battle of Two Flags" and I think Kanigher has done this idea before, complete with elevating the Confederate battle flag, albeit divorced from any historical context.

There's a story by Kashdan and Cruz about an American MP whose shiny brass belt buckle saves his life, then a Mercenaries installment that sees the trio agreeing to arm and train a group of Pacific Islanders to fight their enemies for a handful of pearls. The Islanders are poor modern soldiers and ultimately reject the weapons and training of the Mercenaries as useless, instead finding the courage to fight in the way they already know.

Omega Men #17: Moench takes over as new regular writer with Smith/Tanghal handling art duties. Felicity begins acting strangely and Doc determines she is receiving a telepathic distress call. After determining the source, a group of Omega Men fly off to check it out. They find an asteroid and beign to explore.They accidently reactive an ancient Psion experiment which starts producing duplicates of Tigorr. They began attacking each other and then the Omegan's ship. Primus goes into the cave Tigorr originally entered to investigate.

Meanwhile on Euphorix, the judiciary recommends exile for Alonzo Dulak for his part in the "Crisis of the Shield," and a distracted Kalista concurs. A spy carries word to Harry Hokum who plans to woo Dulak to his side.

Star Trek #7: Barr and Barreto/Villagran put Saavik through pon farr (erroneously spelled "pon far" throughout this issue), so Kirk and crew must divert to Vulcan with Kirk's son, David, who happens to be visiting, to find Saavik's intended, Xon (whose name is an easter egg for Trek fans, being named for a character who would have appeared in the scrapped Star Trek Phase II series). The problem is Xon isn't there and is on some secret mission for the Vulcan government. Saavik finds out where he is from Sarek's computer and steals a ship to go after him, and Enterprise pursues her. We get Saavik's origin as half-Romulan, an idea that appeared in the Wrath of Khan script and in a line of dialogue filmed but cut. Fans had deduced she was part Romulan, though, based on the fact that the language she and Spock spoke in a scene in WOK wasn't Vulcan as presented in ST:TMP. Anyway, this detail and the tease about Spock's katra suggest Barr is getting access to inside information.

Superman #398: In the first story, Cavalieri and Swan/Hunt bring back Mickey Norris for his last appearance, the kid Superman fan we first saw in issue 388. Mickey is inadvertently causing problems for the Man of Steel as he plays because he's conjuring menaces and stealing Superman's powers each time he pretends to have one. Superman uses Mickey's powers to his advantage, having the kid conjure a solution. The second story by Kupperberg and Saviuk/Jensen is sillier but I kind of like it: Superman's Clark Kent clothes stored in the secret pocket of his cape get inhabited and animated by alien energy lifeforms. 

Tales of the Teen Titans #45: Wolfman and Perez/de Carlo pick up an unspecified time after last issue. Changeling is still dealing poorly with the death of Terra as the other Titans try to get on with their lives with Donna's wedding to Terry approaching. Joe and Raven develop a friendship as Raven continues to deal with things she won't share. Wally and Francine visit, but Wally doesn't share that the use of his power is causing him pain and he maybe be seriously ill. An immediate crisis emerges when Aqualad and Aquagirl show up at the Tower near death. After they are given medical care, Aqualad tells them that the H.I.V.E. has attacked Atlantis. The team wants to put a stop to H.I.V.E. once and for all.

Religion in Middle-earth

Art by Falmarin de Carme

I came across this site a couple of weeks ago that compiles additional background material generated for a Finnish Middle-earth based role-playing campaign. What I found most interesting is its extrapolation and elaboration of the religions for Middle-earth. 

This is a perceived area weakness pointed out in Tolkien's work in the past. In Imaginary Worlds, Carter notes critically that Tolkien's world "has no religion in it." In Dragon #127, Rolston in his review of Lords of Middle-earth for MERP gets to the gamer brass tacks of it:

According to Lords of Middle-earth, Middle-earth has a "seemingly inexhaustible collection of deities, pantheons, practices, and religions." However, all of them are wrong. Eru is the only god, and the Valar and the Maiar are simply his servants. Enlightened folk (Elves and Dunedain) practice a nonritualistic monotheism with no formal clergy - pretty boring stuff by FRP standards. 

A lot of epic fantasy has followed Tolkien's areligious example (Jordan's Wheel of Time series, for one) and as modern society becomes ever more secular, it probably is less and less seen as a deficit. Still, if you think of religion is a fascinating aspect of the real world well worth including in imagined worlds (where you at, Gloranthaphiles?) it's cool to see the work Sampsa Rydman has done here. The religions described build on the details provided in Tolkien's extensive writings and (so far as I am familiar with the lore) the new things added seem consistent.

For instance, the orthodox worship of Númenor is as described in terms of its simple ritual and insistence that only the king prays to Eru. The description of a Trinity of Eru, Word, and Flame Imperishable seems a credible extrapolation from details given. Likewise, the sort of Satanic faith of the Black Númenoreans is given a creed that is consistent with what me know about the downfall of their land but with reasonable details as to what Sauron might have convinced them to get them on his side. "Doing evil" (from the point of view of the doer) has historically not really been a common motivator for human religions, so it makes more sense that those that Sauron seduced to his cause were given some other line: "The Valar have wronged both you and the true god, and the true god will redress that wrong if you help him out."

Art by Angus MacBride

Of course, an issue with religion in Middle-earth is canonically we know what's true and what isn't. For a game campaign I think it might be more fun, as Rolston implies, if that weren't true. Going as far as Jacqueline Carey's The Sundering duology and switching the moral polarity of the two sides doesn't really help, but borrowing her idea that the Creator is out of the picture and the lesser gods have differing understandings or interpretations of how to carry out their mission leads to a more ambiguous situation with more possibilities for equally valid appearing religions. In other words, something like the sort of cosmologies or interpretations offered in fantasy works that utilize Judeo-Christian mythology as their backdrop. Really just making the complete truth unknowable to beings within the world (even immortal ones like the elves) would serve the same purpose, though I think most people familiar with Middle-earth would tend to make assumptions that would make this minimal change approach Less effective.

I don't think a Middle-earth game (or a game in any setting) has to have religion (unless you got clerics, in which case, you sort of already do), any more than you are required to explore any other element of culture, but if you're planning to run a long campaign I think it's an interesting facet to add.

Wednesday Comics: DC, August 1984 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of May 10, 1984. 

Atari Force #8: This is another one of the stories from that analogy that was so formative to my early comics fandom, Best of DC #61. It's plotted by Conway but writer by Helfer with art by Garcia-Lopez and Villagran. In a misguided attempt to find and help Morphea, Babe and Hukka take a ship and go off-course, crashing on a planet where two hobbit-sized alien species are at war. Though he doesn't understand the conflict or their language, Babe manages to side with the native species fighting and helps its last survivor get revenge on the invaders. The Conway/Helfer story here may not be seminal in the way of "Anatomy Lesson" or "Who is Donna Troy?" but it is a well-done story with good visual storytelling. Its inclusion in the anthology shows the breadth of DC Comics in the era.

New Teen Titans #1: Here we are at the 1st issue of the new, direct-sale only, better paper Titans book. The issue opens with credits indicating Wolfman and Perez are the books co-editors as well as creators. There's not an indication of how much time has passed since last month's Tales of the Teen Titans #44, but it's long enough that Jericho is an established (if still new) member of the team and no mention is made of Tara's death. Anyway, in a training exercise Jericho uses his power to take over Raven, leaving him horrified at his brief glimpse of Raven's inner struggles and turmoil. He convinces the rest of the team they need to help Raven, but none of them know how, and then Raven rebuffs them and announces she's leaving the team.

Before that can happen, Jericho again enters Raven's mind, hoping to find some way to help. Instead, he experiences something akin to hell and gets the notice of the part of Trigon that dwells inside her. Jericho is cast out and Raven disappears. As the Titans try to determine what happened, sky outside the Tower grows dark and there's thunder accompanied by sinister laughter.

DC Comics Presents #72: Kupperberg and Saviuk/Jensen come up with perhaps the most unusual team up this title has seen. The dimension where Maaldor (him again!) is basically a god has succumbed to his madness--a madness that might spread to other worlds. Sensing this danger (and the suffering of Maaldor) Phantom Stranger recruits Superman to go to that world with the only person capable of fighting madness with madness: the Joker. Once he gets the hang of manipulating reality, Joker threatens to betray his allies, but the Stranger and Superman are one step ahead. It's an unconventional story and not the best this title has had to offer, but not the worst either.

Fury of Firestorm #26: We left Firestorm in pretty dire straits, having been bitten by a cobra and being attacked by animated toys. Firestorm manages to get out of this predicament by using his power to transform some of the toys into a mechanism to suck out the poison. Seems dubious to me, but hey, it's a comic with a ghost of a Native American shaman fighting a guy with fire for hair! Anyway, despite being weakened Ronnie insists they pursue the villains who escaped by hijacking helicopter. He isn't up to stopping them alone, but luckily, they get close enough to Reilly's office that the fight gets Lorraine's attention, so she comes to help as Firehawk. Ultimately, though, after animating the Statue of Liberty, forcing Firestorm to turn it into a "bop bag," Black Bison and Silver Deer get away. 

Justice League of America #229: Conway and Kupperberg/Marcos continue the War of the Worlds. Firestorm and Martian Manhunter are teamed up despite Firestorm's newfound and relentless distrust of the Martian. Laying the groundwork for what is to come, the President quizzes Aquaman on where the League's most powerful members are, and he acknowledges they've been absent of late. Elongated Man shows up to help, though. Martian warships converge on the League Satellite and the Challenger boards it, though they manage to defeat him. Seeing to confirm Firestorm's suspicions Martian Manhunter dons a space suit and takes a Justice League shuttle, going it alone. In reality, he intends on facing the Marshal himself.

Ronin #6: Miller brings his groundbreaking limited series to an end a bit over a year after it began. It might have backed more of a punch if it had come out in a timelier fashion, but he saves some of his most elaborate layouts and intricate pencils for this final chapter--even if those sometimes leave the action a bit confusing. Casey fights her way into Aquarius to rescue the Ronin, which she now knows to be Billy. A visit to her husband, Peter, allows him to reveal that Virgo built this samurai fantasy to exploit Billy's power to transform itself from a machine to actual synthetic life. In the end it's freeing Billy from Virgo's clutches that is the solution to defeating it. Casey commands him with his ronin mentality to commit seppuku for his failures. The shock brings down the system, but the ending is ambiguous because the Ronin still seems to be alive. Anyway, work like this definitely paved the way for the real innovation in mainstream comics away from just newsstand superheroes.

Vigilante #9: Wolfman and Andru/Adkins continue the story from last issue. Chase escapes the burning house (just barely), but Ebert is dead, and a singed business card is the only clue. Chase is still thinking about taking the judgeship and has a couple of meeting that lean heavy into talk of "bleeding heart liberals" and "ACLU types" letting criminals off, but maybe this isn't the ethos of the title as much character development for the supporting cast. Later, the Electrocutioner and Vigilante tangle again, and the Electrocutioner kills another criminal. Meanwhile, JJ tracks the business card to a factory and decides to hack their computer. He rashly goes to the factory in person, falling into a trap set by the Controller. The next morning, Chase and Terry see a news reporter indicating JJ's body was found in the Hudson.

Wonder Woman #318: The story by Busiek and Norvick/Magyar is a fill-in, though its message is perhaps in harmony with the one in the ongoing story. Wonder Woman is transported to the 63rd Century to save the then-conquered Amazons from a race of sort of Magenta pig-faced orc aliens who have invaded Paradise Island. Once they are defeated, Wonder Woman (and Aphrodite) convince Hippolyta and her tribe that this happened in part because they strayed from the mission they were given.

The Huntress backup by Cavalieri and Beachum/Martin continues with Helena tangling with the ninja-like Nightingale and trying to solve the mystery of her friend's murder. The detective work here is good. With that and the art, this is one of the best of Cavalieri's Huntress stories. Shame it hasn't been collected.

Urshurak

Scott 'Dwarfland" Driver once opined that there was often more gaming inspiration to be had from "bad" fiction than from good. He was specifically talking about the works of Lin Carter, but I think this is often true in general. I haven't read Urshurak by the Brothers Hildebrandt and Jerry Nichols, so I can't comment on it specifically, but that seems to be the internet consensus. Here's a typical review.

Regardless, the art was surely the main selling point for purchasers in 1979. That and curiosity got me to pick it up on ebay a few months ago. It's gorgeous if you like the work of the Hildebrandt Brothers, though it could easily, I suppose be derided as too traditional or even generic nearly 50 years on. Certainly, the images and a thumbnail description of the plot mark it as a work of a more naive time when it comes to genre fantasy. There are heroes and a quest with swords and sorcerers and elves and dwarves in a vaguely faux Medieval Europe sort of setting. There are some sci-fi elements (it's a bit of fusion of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars), but no gestures toward realism, grittiness or deconstruction to be found.

Perhaps it's just nostalgia, but naive fantasy has a certain sort of appeal to me, though. It's not that I never want fantasy to go new places, but having seen the new places it has gone over the decades become, in their own way, stale or cliched or really shine in their focus on aspects other than adventure and action (which are the most relatable of fictional elements to the gaming table), I sometimes feel the pull for gaming inspiration to the things that wouldn't have made my reading list a decade or so ago.

And honestly, more fantasy epics could probably benefit from high tech Amazons. 

Weird Revisited: Further Ideas on Clerics

Prismatic Wasteland's call for a Blogging Conclave seemed like a good time to revisit this post originally presented in January of 2020:

It is no secret that clerics have always held a bit of an uneasy place in D&D. They were supposedly inspired by the vampire hunters of Hammer Horror with some further borrowings from Crusader orders. Even if later editions with variable domains, weapons, and powers have ameliorated there implicitly Christian, monotheistic origins, we are still left with them serving pantheons drawn from modern imposed-systemization on characters from later versions of myth, a systemization alien to actually polytheistic religions. But still, it's only a game, we can run with that, right?

Well, we're still left with unanswered questions regarding how the cleric class fits into the structure of religious organizations. Do all priests have spells? If so, where do they get the experience to go up in level?

Here are some possibilities drawn from real world examples that are potential answers, though of course not the only answers, to these questions. Most of these assume clerics adventure because they are "called" to in some way. Whether this is a legitimate belief on the part of the cleric and society or a mistaken one would depend on the setting.

Lay Brothers 
Clerics are not ordained priests but warrior lay brethren, like the sohei of Japan or the military orders of Europe. They would overlap a bit with paladins, but that's real just a matter of whether they were stronger in faith or battle. In this version, priests might or might not have spells, but if they did it would strictly be at the dispensation of their deity.

Prophets/Evangelists
This is more or less the idea I proposed in this post. Clerics are outside the church hierarchy, though they may or may not have started there. They were chosen by their deity for a special purpose. They may be reformers of a church that has been corrupted or lost it's way, founders of a heretical sect with a new interpretation, or the first in ages to hear the voice of a new god. Priests here may have no magic or may be powerful indeed but erroneous in their theology.

Mystics
Similar to my "Saints and Madmen" ideas before, mystics are either heretics or at the very least esotericists with a different take on their religion than the mainstream one. The difference between this and the Prophet above is that they have no interest in reforming the church or overturning it, they are either hermits or cult leaders who isolate themselves from the wider world to pursue their revelations. John the Baptist as portrayed in The Last Temptation of Christ would fit here, as would perhaps the Yamabushi of Japan, or certain Daoist sects/practitioners in China. They might be not at all scholarly (with all spells/powers being "gifts of grace" unavailable to less fanatical priests) or very scholarly with powers/spells coming from intense study or mediation which even more mainstream priests cannot master.

Special Orders
Clerics are members of special orders within the church hierarchy dedicated to recovering the wealth and lost knowledge of dungeons for the the glory of their deity and the betterment of their church. Not all  priests have spells. Clerics are priests chosen for their aptitude or particular relationship with the divine or whatever. These orders may be quite influential within the church hierarchy, but their mission thin their ranks and keeps them in the wilderness and away from centers of power--perhaps by divine will or by design of church leaders.