Classic Space Opera

In getting the creative juices flowing for some Star Trek gaming--and also thinking about doing some more Pulp Space posts--I've been reading some old school pulp era Space Opera. While (as anybody who reads this blog regularly knows) I'm a big fan of the pulps, I'm not as versed in science fiction pulp stories.  I figured it was time to remedy that.

I picked up Best of Edmond Hamilton in digital edition. I haven't read any of it yet, but I did snag a story by Hamilton from Project Gutenberg called "The World with a Thousand Moons" from Amazing Stories. That story has a spacecraft full of rich kids at play getting commandeered to rescue a dastardly space pirate and his crew from where they've crashed on an asteroid inhabited by nervous system-controlling parasitic insect-things.

Following the pattern of "writer whose wife I'm a big fan of," I also got the collection of Henry Kuttner stories, Thunder in the Void. I've only read a couple of stories so far, but they've been good ones with all the pulp flavor one could ask for. "Raider of Spaceways" has the son of the President of the Americas (who happens to be slumming it as a farmer on Venus) take on a space pirate and a deadly entity from Venus's eternally dark side. In "Thunder in the Void," a wrongly convicted man is broken out of a prison in Antarctica to take part in a daring raid to steal radium fuel. It's daring because space travel is certain death (thanks to xenophobic entities on Pluto) without the protection of a race of energy beings. When the heist goes wrong, and the Plutonian menace strikes someone close to him, our hero goes on a seemingly suicidal assault against that distance world!

What I've read so far has made me interested in reading more. The stories from both these authors really move--and though they both lack their respect wive's subtler hands with mood and character, Kuttner and Hamilton write stories with cool ideas.

The Techno-Matriarchs of Cygnet XIV

Here's another obscure Star Trek species for Starships & Spacemen:

CYGNIANS
Requirements: INT 9 (female); STR 9 (male)
Ability Adjustments: INT +1 (female)
Skill Adjustments: Technical +1, Contact -1 (female)
Metabolism: Iron Based

Cygnians are a humanoid species from Cygnet XIV, a class M moon orbiting a circumbinary gas giant. Cygnet XIV is a Federation member, notable for its technological acumen and gynocratic society.

Though female Cygnians are outwardly indistinguishable from humans, Cygnian males bear a greater resemblance to Neanderthals and have a much lower intelligence. Males are not allowed to participate in government and are essentially wards of a female family member. They are seldom seen off their homeworld.

Cygnian females are somewhat prejudiced against males of other humanoid species. Other Federation nations have found it expedient to use female representatives when dealing with them. Cygnians females often view males in positions of power as so bizarre or silly, that have been known to play pranks at the males' expense.

Notes: The natives of Cygnet XIV never appeared in any Star Trek show, but were mentioned in the Original Series episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday." The technicians of Cygnet XIV overhauled the Enterprise computer and gave it a stereotypical flirtatious female personality, much to Kirk's irritation.

Warlord Wednesday: The Obsession

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"The Obsession"

Warlord #112 (December 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Machiste has regained the throne of Kiro and has the adulation of its people--all except Mariah. She can’t get Morgan off her mind and begins to hatch a plan to act on those yearnings.

In the inland sea, Morgan and Shakira are making good time in the stolen aqua-sled until they’re attacked by a sea monster. They eject from the sled after its canopy punches a hole in the monster’s head.

Our heroes wash up on shore. They’re only just getting their legs under them, when a group of horsemen attack. Morgan is knocked out and captured, while Shakira is mistaken for an abducted princess.

Mariah visits the swordsmith that made her first Skartarian blade and gets a replacement. On her way home, an old woman approaches her in the marketplace and offers her a love charm. She even says Mariah won’t have to pay for it unless it works for her.

Later, Mariah sneaks out of the bed while Machiste’s sleeping and heads out to find a way to get to Morgan. She visits a wizard:

After haggling, he casts a spell to transport her to Morgan.

Meanwhile, Morgan has been taken in chains back to the horseman’s city. There Shakira is greeted as Princess Orana, who was being held for ransom. Thinking quickly, Shakira tells them Morgan was one of the kidnappers but had a change of heart and helped her. She commands he be freed.

The real kidnappers, a Baron and his cronies, are perplexed as to how the princess could have returned. The Baron needed the princess alive to show him the location of her father’s treasure vaults, but he needed to keep her from her coronation, so he (the next in line of succession) could take the throne. The Baron has to of his lackeys ride out to check on the princess to see if this new arrival is an imposter. 

Morgan sees them go and gets curious, so he follows them. They go to the cave where they've got the princess stashed. She bashes one in the head with a stick, but they overpower her. When Morgan show’s up, the tables are turned. As expected, she looks a lot like Shakira.

As they ride back to the palace, she feels Morgan in on Baron Jergmav’s plan. Shakira’s in danger and is totally unaware. That is until the assassin’s attack. It’s not Princess Orana they’re up against, though:

Shakira runs out of the palace in cat form as Shakira and Orana are coming in. The assassin’s are on her heels. They accuse Morgan of being a warlock and Shakira his familiar. Morgan’s response:

Morgan makes short work of the assassins. The Baron tries taking Orana hostage, but Morgan just shoots him.

With Orana safely crowned, Shakira and Morgan ride out of the city. They haven’t gone far when they encounter a familiar figure on the road: Mariah. She shows Morgan the charm:

Things to Notice:

• This issue has a Watchmen ad on the cover.
• In the last few Fleisher issues (and this one) Morgan refers to Shakira as "youngster," which is odd.

Where it Comes From:
The main plot of this issue is inspired by The Prisoner of Zenda.

Meet Team Victory

How about an art post for a Monday? Here's Lester B. Portly's great Chester Gould-esque rendition of the current characters in my online Weird Adventures game.

Expect to see more of Lester's work in this style in the Weird Adventures Companion!

Wings of War

Here's another obscure Star Trek species for Starships & Spacemen:

SKORR
Encountered: 2d4 (5d10)
Movement: 120' (40') (F) 480'(120')
Intelligence: Average
Psionic Potential: 4d4, inactive
Hits: 1d8
Armor: -1
Combat Skill: 12
Save: L1
Attacks: 1
Damage: By weapon or 1d4 (2 claws)
Morale: 10
XP: 10

The Skorr are avian humanoids found in several systems in the constellation Hercules. They are six-limbed beings, possessing a functional pair of wings. Skorr are taller than humans on the average with a more gracile body type. They are even less massive than expected for their physiques due the large number of hollow bones in their skeletal structure.

Though not a Federation member in the mid-23rd Century, the Skorr are a member of civilized galactic society. Two centuries prior, however, they were a warlike and expansionistic. They were capable of interstellar travel and bred rapidly, producing 1 to 3 eggs in a clutch that were rapidly aged in communal incubators.

The Great Teacher Alar brought a new religion and way of life to the Skorr people, and they abandon their warlike ways. Alar's brain patterns were recorded shortly prior to his death in an indurite sculpture known as "The Soul of Skorr." It is their holiest relic. It's theft once lead the Skorr to begin marshalling for holy war against all of galactic civilization. Luckily, the Soul was returned before hostilities broke out.

Notes: The Skorr first appeared in the Star Trek Animated Series episode "The Jihad." The location of their homeworld was never mentioned, but since the Skorr are virtually identical to the Aurelians who Worlds of the Federation says hail from Xi Herculis, it seems reasonable to believe their related and colocal.

The Party Dies at the End

John Dies at the End is a "horror comedy" from Don Coscarelli based on the book of the same name. It's supposedly going to get a theatrical release this year, but I decided not to chance it ever playing in this podunk town, so I watched it on Amazon's video on demand.

Spoiler: The title is misleading--but in a way, it reflects the fractured narrative of at least part of the film. The plot can be summarized pretty easily: Two slackers wind up taking a strange drug ("soy sauce") they got from a fake Jamaican that expands their consciousness and allows them to perceive and combat extradimensional, supernatural horrors, lurking in our world. The film is part trippy drug narrative, part body horror, and part black comedy like if Evil Dead 2 was a bit more like Clerks.

It's also great rpg fodder. I think you could easily get a game of Unknown Armies out of it, or maybe an unusual game of Call of Cthulhu. It's got a premise and setting in the Lovecraftian mode (or maybe Clark Ashton Smithian) with totally unlovecraftian heroes and tone.

It would also be interesting to run a modern D&Dish game like this: A weird drug opens the doors to Narnia (or Moria) located right here but hidden by virtue being on a different vibrational frequency. Maybe under the influence of the drug, slacker twenty-somethings brave the maze co-occurring with the steam tunnels beneath their university and do battle with very deadly monsters--and try not to freak out in the process?

Send in the Clones

For Starships & Spacemen, here's an obscure species from the background of Star Trek: The Motion Picture:

Requirements: CON 12
Ability Adjustments: CON +2, STR+1, CHA -1
Skill Adjustments: Combat +1, Contact -1, Technical -1
Metabolism: Iron Based

Arcturians are a Federation member species from a densely populated world in the Alpha Boötis system. They’re a militaristic people, valuing unity and discipline above individuality. Beyond military service in the Federation, Arcturian mercenaries serve throughout the galaxy.

Arcturians have reddish gray or purplish gray skin that droops in distinct wrinkles and folds, and deep set eyes. They have two sexes (though they’re often difficult for other species to tell apart), but Arcturians have given up sexual reproduction. Instead, all Arcturians are clones of a select few genetic lines.

Despite their military nature, Arcturians don’t revel in combat. Many display a degree of emotional restraint reminiscent of Vulcans, and they're often stereotyped as a dour people.

It’s unlikely the Arcturians' homeworld is the product of natural evolution: Their star is too metal poor. Federation scientists speculate that it was engineered by some super-advanced civilization in the distant past. Given their clone nature, some have speculated that the Arcturians themselves were engineered by this same race.

For more Trek conversions, check out our S&S Star Trek rpg group on G+.

Note: Arcturians just appeared in the background of ST:TMP and have never been featured prominently. They don't even show up in any of the Trek rpgs. What little information has been published about them comes from the costume designers for the film. See Memory Alpha.