Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Battle for Earth (part 3)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Battle for Earth (1980) (part 3)
(Dutch: De Strijd om de Aarde)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Solon has come to offer Storm help, saying he can show the humans a way into the city of the Azurians. He wants revenge on the Supervisor who sent his men to their deaths. Balder doesn't trust him, but Storm agrees to go along.

Solon leads Storm, Ember, and a nameless extra across a marsh where he seems to prove his intentions by saving Storm from a monster. They enter the city from an old sewer pipe, and make their way through the tunnels until they come up through a manhole and find:

Balder gloats to Solon they they discovered his treachery by him discussing his plans over an open comm. He throws Solon, Storm, and Ember in the dungeon.

Meanwhile, the extra, though fatally wounded, made it back to the camp to tell Balder what happened. Enraged, Balder leads an all out assault on the city. Though the humans fight bravely, the advanced technology of the Azurians inflicts heavy losses.

The Supervisor watches the battle on his viewscreens but also finds time to get grabby with the beautiful serving girl, Silene--who it turns out is the fiancee of Solon.

She steals his keys from him and frees our protagonists. They run to open the gate, but some where along the way, they lose Ember in the crowd. There is no time to look for her. In the control room, Storm and Solon take out the guards and raise the gate. Balder and the army pours in. The fighting is fierce, but eventually the Azurians are overcome.  The Supervisor has one surprise left though:

He demands a ship and safe passage for himself and his remaining men. Mordegai grants their request. The Azurians fly off to an old, deserted Chultu Monastery in the mountains once known as the Himalayas.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Shooting Star Folk

The Shooting Star folk (or Asterians) are a vagabond and rowdy bunch, who are generally not welcomed among the Stars and Planets that comprise polite society of the heavens. They are forever crashing into things, (Planets, Stars, each other) and despite the danger, consider it a great thrill to do so, burning bright and screaming to the void.

Sometimes their dives or their landings sap them of too much celestial energy, and they must consolidate themselves into more suitable forms for whatever place they find themselves. There they wait until their fellows scream by and rescue them. [The Warforged for 5e is a reasonable approximation of earth-bond stats.] A few are known to be in the Land of Azurth at present.

Despite their unruly nature, the Shooting Star folk have a monarchy. The Tsar of Shooting Stars is Zorka. He holds little real authority over his far-flung and itinerant people, beyond being revered as the most daredevil and thrill-seeking of them all. His holds court in the void between Mars and Jupiter when he isn't out surveying the heavens on long orbits.

The Hanna-Barbera Multiverse

With the news that DC is doing a crossover with some Hanna-Barbera characters, it got me thinking about applying a DC style multiverse to their diverse stable of characters. This might be useful for a Hanna-Barbera Supers Universe game. Here's what I've got so far:

Earth-Anthropomorphic
Description: Anthropomorphic animals capable of speech exist side beside with humans and have humorous adventures.
Series Examples: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Magilla Gorilla, Peter Potamus, Quick Draw McGraw

Earth-Familia (or Flintstone)
Description: A world where humorous family adventures take place. Civilization was very advanced in the Stone Age and dopplegangers of famous people in the 20th Century recur in various eras. By 2062, there is at least one city in orbit.
Series Examples: The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Roman Holidays

Earth-Quest
Description: A relatively (in comparison) mundane world of pulpy heroics. There are no costumed heroes and no talking animals, though pets may display near human intelligence.
Series Examples: Jonny Quest, Clue Club, Jana of the Jungle, and Valley of the Dinosaurs and (in the future) Sealab 2020. The unadventurous There Are the Days may also take place in this world, if anyone cares.

Earth-Mystery
Description: A world with a inordinate number of meddling teen mystery solvers and their unusual sidekicks. Some animals here have human-level intelligence and limited speech, but this may not be a universal condition and they are still treated as animals. There is at least one costumed superhero on this world, possibly more. By the 2070s, there is extensive undersea settlement. Astro and the Space Mutts may also take place in this world, meaning the Jetsons's dog has a counterpart in this universe.
Series Examples: Scooby-Doo, Funky Phantom, Captain Caveman, Galloping Ghost and Buford, Speed Buggy, Dynomutt, (in the future) Jabberjaw.

Earth-Superhero
Description: A world of costumed and non-costumed heroes across multiple eras that take on super-villains.
Series Examples: Birdman and The Galaxy Trio, Space Ghost, Mightor, Teen Force, Shazzan, and The Herculoids.

Earth-Impossible
Description: A world of superheroes that are more cartoonish in nature. This may also be the world of the child heroes without adult involvement.
Series Example: Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, The Powerpuff Girls, also possibly the Space Kidettes.

Dictionary of Azurth Update

Here's the latest version of the Dictionary of Azurth with entries from recent events in my game (the Motley Isles, the Confection Perfection, and the Chromic Witches) but also new stuff like Roquar the Nome King and Wizardry, the magazine for the magical practitioner.

Chronology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Unlike the comic book version of the Marvel Universe with its sliding timeline in order to keep characters perpetually young, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to employ real live actors and has no reason not to tie things to real dates since the actors are just going to get old anyway.  The movies don't pin themselves down so much on when the actual films take place (or their references are contradictory), but we do know quite a bit about the events before them:

Tony Stark was born on May 29, 1970.

Hank Pym resigns from SHIELD in 1989.

Howard and Maria Stark are assassinated by the Winter Soldier on December 16 1991.

Anyway, check out these timelines here and here.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Battle for Earth (part 2)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Battle for Earth (1980) (part 2)
(Dutch: De Strijd om de Aarde)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Under Storm' guidance and with the work of Mordegai and his people, the shelter soon has power for the first time in centuries. Balder, though, is jealous of the favor Mordegai is showing Storm, so he decides to switch sides. He breaks the Azurians free and helps them get back to their craft. This is how they show their gratitude:

Still alive, Balder stumbles back and tells Mordegai and Storm what he has done. Storm believes they'll be back in force soon--and he's right. A squadron of Azurian ships are sooner approaching the shelter. The Supervisor is so eager to get revenge on Storm he's come in person.

The shelter is not as defenseless as the Azurians believe. Storm directs their magnetic ray weapons to be fired. The Azurian fighters are pulled down to crash against the mountain. The people of the shelter engage the survuving Azurian floating down on parachutes. The attackers are routed; the survivors run into the forest.

In an effort to contain Storm and his forces, the Azurians come out of hiding and occupy towns and villages surrounding the mountain. They deal ruthless with the local populations, but many of the townsfolk escape and flee to the shelter in the mountain for safety.

Storm realizes it's now all out war. He and Ember lead an army out of the mountain--but they are unaware that the Supervisor knows there plans, having planted spies among the refugees. Still, as they march, more and more troops join Storm's army to help take back the planet.

The Supervisor directs General Solon to take his elite squadron and "bomb the army back to the Stone Age." Solon expresses reservations about another secret weapon, but the Supervisor isn't having it. His squadron flies out and finds where Storm and his troops have pitched camp at nightfall.

The human army appears defenseless. Solon begins to think this will be easy, but then Storm activates an ancient device he's brought with them:

As if they were all struck by lightning the ships fall from the sky. Solon manages to survive by bringing his ship down in something approximating a landing. His only thought is avenging his men. He stumbles into the human camp:

TO BE CONTINUED

The Hidden Country Setting

A significant number of works of fantasy take place in some sort of lost or hidden realm within the real world: Oz (at times), Neverwhere, Pellucidar, the Savage Land, Fraggle Rock, Hogwarts, and some versions of fairyland are all around here somewhere. This sort of setting doesn't seem to have been often used in fantasy rpgs, at least outside of modern/urban fantasy.

I suppose their are reasons for this. The Medieval(ish) nature of most fantasy gaming suggests a historical(ish) setting. The scales many settings inhabit would preclude them being tucked away in some corner. Perhaps there's also a fear with the modern world close by it would be too easy for it to intrude.

These seem to me to be only relative contraindications. Most gamers (at least of the old school variety) are comfortable with plenty of science fictional or science fantasy elements that violate the pseudohistorical milieu  The scale may be sort of a problem (though Burroughs never set that stop him in Tarzan's Africa and a Hollow Earth could have plenty of space) and a smaller scale setting isn't necessarily a bad thing.

This sort of setting opens up some new elements: Lost-like underground bases complete with enigmatic video instructions, modern world epherma as treasure, secret societies working in both "worlds." Pretty interesting stuff, I think, with a lot of potential.