First 5e Session

Last Sunday my gaming group met for a character creation session in 5e in preparation for our upcoming Land of Azurth game (now with a logo!). I gave this this doc ahead of time to get them prepped. We were joined by two new players that weren't in the Weird Adventures crew so we're at 7 now.

No one was over-burdened by too much prior study of the Player's Handbook, but everybody found it easy enough to use--particularly in comparison to some older editions. A outline of character creation with page references would have been a help, though.

We wound up with a frox thief, a human bard, an infernal-blood (don't call 'em tieflings!) sorcerer, a human fighter, a wood elf ranger, and an Azurthite dwarf cleric of Iolanthe. A fairly non-muscle heavy bunch, but the ranger and fighter ought to be able to handle it.

I'm planning on running this more sandboxy than my "mission style" approach to Weird Adventures. After the first adventure, the player's will get a list of rumors/adventure seeds to choose from for the next session--a technique I've seen put to good use in Chris Kutalik's Hill Cantons game.

The players seem eager to get started and so am I.

Wednesday Comics: Conquerors of the Counter-World

"Conquerors of the Counter-World"

The Multiversity: Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1 (November 2014), Written by Grant Morrison; Art by Chris Sprouse & Karl Story & Walden Wong

Last week saw the release of the second part of Morrison's Multiversity storyline. Society of Super-Heroes takes us to the world of Earth-20 where a pulp- and serial-flavored group of heroes is battling for the fate (heh) of their world against an invasion from Earth-40 lead by Vandal Savage and (presumably) a Society of Super-Villains.

Earth-20 first appeared in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1 and its prominent heroes are named in Final Crisis Secret Files #1. Earth-40 is a bit of a puzzle. Comments Dan DiDio made about the Countdown: Arena limited series suggested Earth-40 was the home of the government operative pulp versions of the Golden Age heroes in JSA: The Liberty Files. It's possible the concept of this Earth has changed, but it's also possible that Vandal Savage and his crew took over that world sometime after World War II.

Anyway, here's a scorecard with the prominent players and what you need to know:

Immortal Man (Earth-20) 
First Appearance: Final Crisis Secret Files #1
The Pre-Crisis Immortal Man first appeared in Strange Adventures #165 (1965) and appeared sporadically for two years, then didn't show up again until 1984 when his backstory and link to Vandal Savage were revealed. Then he died in Crisis. This Earth-20 version adds the interesting wrinkle of apparently also being Anthro. Anthro is a Cro-Magnon born to Neanderthal parents and has fairly light-hearted adventures until he settles down and becomes the father of modern humans. He first appeared in Showcase #74 (1968). Pre-Crisis Immortal Man was a different prehistoric guy (Klarn Arg) but he is said to have been from the Bear Tribe, which is the name of Anthro's tribe, too.

Doc Fate (Earth-20)
First Appearance: Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1
Doc Fate is more of a man of action that his Golden Age (and other Earthly) counterparts. He's also a person of color, who tells us he was adopted (both differences from other Kent Nelsons). His helmet is also explicitly tied in to Novu, the Proto-Monitor, not Nabu the Lord of Order. (Unless those are one and the same?)

Mighty Atom
First Appearance: Final Crisis Secret Files #1
The original Al Pratt Atom first appeared in 1940. Like this version, he was a short guy with no super-powers who toughened himself up to fight crime. This version trained using the Arn Munro method. This is a reference to the old Charles Atlas ads and exercise regimen, but also to the pre-Crisis character Arn "Iron" Munro from Young All-Stars. In the series, Munro was the son of Philip Wylie's Hugo Danner from his 1930 novel Gladiator, one of the inspirations for Superman. Interestingly, "Mighty Atom" was the stage name of the strongman Joe Greenstein.

Lady Blackhawk (Earth-20)
First Appearance: Final Crisis Secret Files #1

There have been more than one Lady Blackhawk over the years, but all of them were so named because they were the only female member of the Blackhawks at the time. This Lady Blackhawk appears to be who her all-female team is named for.

Green Lantern (Abin Sur)
First Appearance: Final Crisis Secret Files #1
On Earth-0 ("New Earth"), and on Earth-1 Pre-Crisis, Abin Sur was dying alien Green Lantern that bequeathed his power ring to Hal Jordan. This Abin Sur looks sort of like a demon (or the Demon), which is his reason for keeping his existence secret from humankind, much like the rationale of the Overlords in Clarke's Childhood's End. He wears a costume more reminiscent of the Golden Age Green Lantern than the Silver Age one his origin is taken from.

Strange Stars Update

Here's the mostly-done first page of the Instrumentality of Aom spread in the Strange Stars setting book. Lester B. Portly continues to do awesome work! The setting book is still on schedule for a fall release.

Demihuman Height Reference

The 5e Player's Handbook gives us the following height ranges for demihumans: Dwarf, 4-5 ft.; Elf, under 5-over 6 ft.; Halfling: 3 ft.; Gnome: 3-4 ft. Here's a few images illustrating what those heights actual mean.

In the halfling and gnome range is homo florensis. The skeleton discovered was a bit over 3.5 ft.

In the dwarf and short elf height range are the Pygmy peoples of Central Africa. Height for males is under 4'11". I imagine dwarves are built less like pygmies and more like Neanderthals, though.

A Little More About Elves

With my first session of my face-to-face 5e game in the Land of Azurth coming up this weekend, I've had a few more thoughts about the elves in Yanth (which is timely, given than one on more of my players will probably play one).

High Elves (as they are called in the PHB) reflect reflect the most civlized elvish group. They tend to live apart from humans and the little folk (halflings, dwarves, some gnomes) that are associated with them. They tend to live in small settlements, maybe centered around fanciful, fairytale sort of castles (something like the Vadhagh in Moorcock's Swords Trilogy). They dress in pseudo-"High Medieval" sort of dress (a couple of centuries behind other folk) and talk in the sort of cod-Shakespearean way that Thor used to in Marvel Comics.

Wood Elves are more primitive than their high elf cousins. They're half The Hobbit's wood elves and half Elfquest. Part "indigenous people in harmony with nature", part "fairy forest trickster." The Elfquest elves, the Rankin-Bass wood elves, and Moebius's concept art for Willow are all good visual inspiration. They probably have a similar speech pattern to the high elves, but maybe with a little more Robin Hood banter.

As the pictures might indicate, elves won't be universally physically attractive--but they all have the fae glamour about them.

Places of Note in Yanth

Apiaria: The Hive City of the Bee Folk and center of the domain of their Queen, Melitta XLI. Relations between the humans of Yanth and the bee folk have been pleasant but formal for some time. Wealthy Rivertown folk imbue an antiaging tonic made from bee folk royal jelly.

Castle Machina: Just outside of Rivertown, an old castle is the workshop-palace of the Clockwork Princess Viola I of Yanth. The barracks, sheds, and small laboratories around it are known as "Mechanicstown" and house the tinker gnomes and others that assist the Princess.

The Enchanted Wood: An ancient and dense forest north of Rivertown where the plant and animal life encountered is very often capable of speech. It is said to be the domain of an old and eccentric druid.

The Great Standing Stone Sages: A circle of eight monolithic stone heads in which reside the intellects of great sages of a past age. Their names and their scholarly specialties are: Whindbog the Historian, Blathrur the Astronomer, Pomphus the Philologist, Laangvynd the Geographer, Eggedd the Scientist, Baombast the Physician, Drohninon the Mathematician, and Nowhitaul the Theologian. These learned minds may be consulted by touching their respective stone, allowing telepathic communication as long as the contact is maintained. They will answer questions put to them, though they tend to do so with a degree of irritation and condescension.

Horologopolis: A subkingdom in the Country of Yanth where many aspects of the lives of its citizenry are predetermined at birth by extensive application of the astrological and numerologic sciences. Horoscopes are prepared and zealously tracked and rechecked through a citizen’s lifetime by the great tabulating engines controlled by the Master Time Keeper, a giant, many-armed construct with a head like a clock face. Those who stray from their appointed role or seek to alter their fate in significant ways are corrected by his agents, the more humanoid, but likewise clockfaced, Watchmen.

Rivertown: Largest city in Yanth, at the confluence of the Yellow and Flint Rivers. It's a center for trade and home of an infamous, waterborne, red-light district called (appropriately) "The Floating World."

Wednesday Comics: Princess Aura in Her Underwear

...and Flash, Ming, and Thun, too--but they don't make for the click-grabbing headline.

I picked up IDW's Definitive Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim Volume 1 last week with a bit of hesitation has I already had Checker's and Titan's first Flash Gordon volumes, but the full Sunday pages size (actually slightly larger) and colors( that are a good compromise between Checker's glossy ones and Titan's too muted ones) are worth it. Though at a little larger than 16 x 12, it isn't exactly portable.

Another interesting thing about these full reprints is that they reproduce the paper dolls that Raymond did along with the strip.

As promised, here's Princess Aura from 1934:

Her papa, Ming:

Lura "Vultan's favorite":

Flash Gordon:

And last, but not least, Prince Thun the Lion Man: