One Last Tease

With Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak poised to go off to the printer, I figured one last tease of a two-page spread was in order. The art, as always, is by Jeff Call.

Ozian D&D

There's been a bit of discussion on Google+ about Oz-influenced D&D. From its conception, Oz has been an important (though certainly not the only) influence on the Land of Azurth (particularly for the primary campaign site, Yanth Country), so I've thought some about how Ozian elements can be used to inform D&D fantasy.

First off, it must be aknowledged that "Ozian fantasy" may not be a precisely defined thing. The portrayal of Oz itself changes from the first book to later books by Baum--and to an even greater degree throughout the "Famous Forty" and beyond. Oz in the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is mostly uninhabited, and the places that are inhabited are mostly agrarian, but later books pile on more and more civilization. Baum's vision is of an American fairytale, and so the early books lack standard European-derived or Arabian Nights-inspired creatures and characters: The Tin Man is a woodsman not a knight. Ultimately, however, knights, dragons, and genies all become part of Oz.

(Anyone interested in Baum's American fairytale conception and examples of it in his non-Oz fantasies should check out Oz & Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum by Michael O. Riley)

With that sort of lack of specificity in mind, here are my broad suggestions for how to make a D&D campaign more Ozian:

Lost worlds/hidden kingdoms instead of dungeons: Whether standard D&D or Oz, exploration and discovery plays a part, but D&D's exploration sites are often known areas of material wealth and danger near settled areas that are usually purposefully visited to be exploited. Ozian sites are unknown or little known areas, accidentally discovered, like the lost worlds of adventure fiction.

Animated Simulacra and Talking Animals instead of the usual demihumans: Both D&D and Oz have nonhuman characters, but Oz’s are more individual, not representatives of "races." They also aren't the near-human types of elves, dwarves, and halflings. In fact, all of those races would probably fall under the "human" category in Oz. (In the first book, most Ozites are short like halflings, not just the Munchkins).

Social interaction/comedy of manners instead of combat or stealth: Violence and death sometimes occurs in the Oz books, but conversation and timely escape are the most common ways of dealing with problems. While this may in part be due to them being century plus year-old children's books, some of the exchanges in Dorothy and the Wizard are not dissimilar to the ones that occur in the works of Jack Vance, albeit with much less wit or sophistication. No Ozian villain is too fearsome not to be lectured on manners--at least briefly.

Magical mundane items or magical technology instead of magical weapons: The noncombat orientation of Oz extends to magic items. Magic belts, mirrors, food dishes, etc., occur in Oz but few magic swords or the like that you see in D&D or European legend. Oz blurs the lines between science/technology and magic to a degree. (The examples of this that are more Steampunkian or magictech seem to be unique inventions, however.) Pills and tablets will fantastical (though perhaps not magical in the sense the term would understood in Oz) properties are more common than potions, for instance. In general, foodstuff with fantastic properties, both natural and created, are more common than in D&D.

Faux-America instead Faux-Medieval: Ozian society seems almost 19th century in its trappings, or more precisely, it is a society that is not foreign (except where it specifically means to be) to the a young reader in the early 20th century. It lacks most of the elements of the real world of the 19th Century, however, like industry, social conflict (mostly), and (sometimes) poverty. It also lacks complicated social hierarchies: there is royalty, but no nobility.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Labyrinth of Death

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues with his adventures in the world of Pandarve. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Labyrinth of Death (1983) 
(Dutch: Het Doolhof van de Dood) (part 1)
Art by Don Lawrence; script by Martin Lodewijk

Storm, Nomad, Rann, and the would-be  pirate crew are on their way to Rann's home asteroid. The crew are none too happy as they're looking for plunder. A mutiny is in the offing.

The mutineers attempt to kill Storm by ramming a timber into the cabin while Storm, Rann, and Nomad are inside. The cabin's smashed but Storm manages to dive out of the way. Still, Storm's knocked out and the leader of the mutineers get's the drop on him.

Nomad is forced to surrender. Soon, Storm and his friends are being marooned on a tiny asteroid:

Storm discovers large eggs in the nest of some sort of bird. They don't have to wait long to see the mother:

Meanwhile, Theocrat Marduk is still trying to find the Anomaly (Storm)  but his technicians can't get a fix. He demands his unwilling bride-to-be Ember be brought to him so she can give a description of the Anomaly to help them. Ember, however, has escaped with the help of a woman with a hidden face. She leads Ember into the cities sewers.

Back on the asteroid, Storm hits the bird in the head and Rann wraps his sash around its eyes, trying to escape the darkness the bird flies--and our heroes ride it all the way to Rann's home.

Rann is reunited with his daughter and the poor space bird is sent on its way. Storm on his a few days to rescue Ember before the wedding to Marduk. Rann relates he knows of a quick way to reach Pandarve's surface: The Devil's Ride. Storm and Nomad take that ride:

TO BE CONTINUED

Again, the Giants!: Sanctum of the Stone Giant Space God

This is the second in a series of posts riffing of the giant theme of the classic Against the Giants:

Hightlights include:

1. The kirbytech festooned inner chamber of the helf-sleeping stone god--and his powerful telepathic signal.

2. Stone Giant partisans and the PCs with only the vaguest notion of what this alien conflict is about.

3. Weird wandering creatures escaped from some sort of ship collection.

Mortzengersturm's Got Cover

These is the final (hopefully) front and back cover designs for Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak. If all goes as planned, the print edition will debut at North Texas RPG Con in June. The pdf will be available sometime before from rpgnow/driverthrurpg. Though this hasn't be finalized yet, I expect the pdf will have a little bit of exclusive content not in the print version (because their aren't space constraints).

More to come!

Again, the Giants!: Wedding of the Hill Giant Chief

This is the first in a series (maybe) of posts inspired by the classic Against the Giants:

Highlights include:

1. Hill-billy Hill Giant father-in-law keeping the groom under lock and key so there's no cold feet!
2. Monstrous would-be Mother-in-Law!
3. Battle-hardened bridesmaids at a bachelorette party bash!
4. The Ettin moonshiner cooking up his "Catoblepas Kick" for the festivities.
5. And of course, the clan's prize pigs!

A Weird Alien on the Planet of the Apes

"THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD" 

Player Characters:
Jeff Call as Brock Irving
Lester B. Portly as Eddy Woodward
Jason Sholtis as Francis La Cava

Nonplayer Characters:
Ted Cassidy as Eezaya

Synopsis: Irving, Woodward, and La Cava set out to investigate the site of a fallen meteor and find an alien monster with the power to turn men to stone!

Commentary: The alien is this adventure first appeared in Perseus Against Monsters (Perseo l'invincibile) (1963)--which also goes by a bunch of other names. The creature bears something of a resemblance to the alien in an episode of Space:1999, "The Dragon's Domain," but I can't conclusively say they are the same one.

This creatures eye blast was sort of petrifying but turned bodies to hardened ash, sort of like this:

The PCs spent a lot of time trying to think of a creative way to defeat the monster, but it proved to be fairly susceptible to bullets, ultimately.

I used this theremin music to represent the monster's alien call. It's petrifying eye blast made a sound like the Martian heat ray sound effect from Pal's War of the Worlds. (You can hear it here. eventually).