Minotaurs, Mazes, and the Eyes of Gob

 

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last Sunday with the party exploring further into the Level 4 of the brain of Gob. They find the passage into one of Gob's eyes where they find a bunch of Phantfasm-serving goblins sleeping. In the other, a theriocephalic Phantfasm is instructing bored goblins on evil.

In Gob's equivalent the pineal region, they find a throne with an armored boot upon it. Another piece of the armored suit they were seeking! The quest was nearing completion.

Soon after they came upon a labyrinth stalked by a minotaur, or as it turned out, minotaurs. They killed one and looted his ring of Hill Giant Strength. Then they made their slow way through the labyrinth by following a wall constantly with their left hands. When they got to the exit, the other minotaur they had covered it with a large stone. They killed this one too and stole his magic items as well.  It required the additional strength of a blessing to help them roll aside the rock.

Then they came to a dungeon or torture chamber with skeletal former victims in cages dangling from chains.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1983 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on newsstands around July 21, 1983.

House of Mystery #321: The House gets shuttered, and unfortunately, it's last harrah seems to be inventory stories. That's outside of the mild humorous frame story by Mishkin/Gonzales, which has Cain receiving a letter about his cancellation and protest its closing by first accosting Karen Berger and then Joe Orlando. He also meets another version of himself, which does make me think of the modern, post-Sandman version of the character. The Bronze falls to the Modern Age.

In the other stories, DeMatteis and Redondo tell the story of a vampire being used by the U.S. government to deal with problems and detractors, who eventually turns on his handlers. There are a couple of comedy shorts, but Mishkin's last story with Geroche is also humorous (or intended to be) with a night custodian at a building inadvertently thwarting a mad scientist turned into a rampaging monster by unplugging his power source--because it's causing interference with the custodian's work music.

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #12: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner wrap up Supergirl's fight with her menacing minis. She manages to dig in and survive in the disintegration pit they dropped her into, but also get handily cured of the radiation sickness due to some element of the pit. She's forced to expose the minis to gold kryptonite to stop them. Professor Drake is killed by his mysterious boss for her failure, and Supergirl gets a lecture from Lt. Peters about leaving this stuff to the cops which is kind of ridiculous, whatever one thinks of super-vigilantism.

In the Lois Lane backup by Cavalieri and Oksner/Hunt, Lois recounts a story about seeing one of her criminal sources killed by the blowgun killer, who she also winds up chasing on a motorcycle while wearing a business skirt suit and wearing heels.

Batman and the Outsiders #3: In the Outsider's first outing after their origin is sort of a clunker. There's some necessary establishing of their base of operations and their status quo in Gotham, and then they investigate some chemical plant bombings. It's all the work of Agent Orange, a deranged Vietnam veteran who wants revenge on the government, which he plans to get by unleashing a bomb on Gotham. 

Green Lantern #169: Cavalieri and Delbo reveal that the "War of the Rings" of the previous issue is just a simulation the Guardians are forcing on Hal as a test. When some of the other Lanterns question the need for that test, the Guardians use it as an excuse to take up the rest of the issue with a story about a Lantern on the cheekily named world of Tanjent, art here by Simpson/Martin. Unlike the rest of his people, Symon doesn't have mental powers, so his parents exile him to the moon and clone another son. Symon is made a Green Lantern then most make peace with the people of Tanjent and "invaders" who turn out to be exiles like him. He then comes to embrace his own clone brother. The people of Tanjent come to recognize the error of their ways. Like anyone hearing this story, the Lantern Krista is not completely convinced of her masters' methods.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Harris and Moore/Trapani we get the conclusion of the Lysandra Saga. As she and her people begin to move their world of Zintha, the other Lantern of her Sector shows up to reveal Zintha's son isn't going nova at all, but instead a living being about to give birth. Moving Zintha would doom mother and baby. Lysandra stops her people form making a mistake and they end up with two suns in their sky. It turns out the mother sun is in fact named Thar, and was the source of her people's deity of that name.

Sgt. Rock #381: In the main feature by Kanigher/Redondo, Rock is told by an SS doctor that he's implanted an ampule of the ridiculously fictional sound "rabidicine" poison in when, and a wire is pulled out, it will enter Rock's bloodstream. He wants Rock to escort him to safety. The poison thing turns out to be ruse, but the doctor gets his just desserts in the end as a German troop carrier mistakes him for an enemy and torches him with a flamethrower. 

The backups involve information on the P-61 Black Widow, the Long Tom 155mm gun, and a out of flash satire of M.A.S.H. called "S.M.A.S.H." by Ed Burdej. This is his lone DC credit, and his other two credits are TV parodies (including another M.A.S.H. parody) in Archie humor titles.

Legion of Super-Heroes #304: Levitz and Giffen deliver an issue more focused on the characters than action. Most of the issue involves introducing the students at the Legion Academy as Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel train them. We also get to see the trainees' differing perspectives on Wildfire, and we see what happened with the Dawnstar/Wildfire relationship: she left to find someone with a physical body. Ouch. The question posed on the cover winds up being a bit deceptive. The Legion ultimately decides than none of the trainees are yet ready for full membership, a decision that honestly comes out of left field.

Warlord #74: I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn/Randall get to recap what's gone before for someone that might be jumping on in the guise of an evening discussion between Jinal and the reptilian Barasha.

Superhero Teams in RPGs

As a follow-up to my post on pulp teams, I thought I would address the perhaps more common issue of teams in supers rpgs. As with superhero character concepts, I admit to some dissatisfaction at times with the sort of teams that get built by players in supers games. There's nothing wrong with the superhero formulation of Reints' old high concept pitch of D&D about Conan and Gandalf fighting Dracula, but just as most everybody's (or at least a lot of people's) D&D isn't so eclectic, I don't see any reason why every supers campaign needs to permit playing Golden Age Sandman (Vertigo version) and Witchblade versus the Beyonder. 

Having a team that really feels like it fits goes beyond just identifying what supers subgenre or style (Four Color, Golden Age mystery men, realistic, gritty, etc.) is going to the subject of play, though I think that's probably the first step. Before we considering other things, I want to talk about superhero teams as they occur in comics. I think there are three broad categories:

• The Band: A small group (3-6, maybe) of disparate members thrown together for some reason. Their dynamics are more based on tropes around specific personalities/story roles rather than anything else (see the tvtropes articles like Four Temperament Ensemble, Four Philosophy Ensemble, and Five Man Band, among others), though they sometimes have a theme (elements being common). Examples: The Fantastic Four, The Challengers of the Unknown, the original Teen Titans, the original X-Men.
• The Supergroup: Solo characters who come together as a team. Neither their powers or their personalities tend to be coordinated, but they bring individual histories and backstories with them. One or more Supergroup tends to be a big deal in most comic universes, but not all of them. The building up to the formation of one might be short campaign itself.  Examples: the Avengers, The Justice League, the Mighty Crusaders.
• The Ensemble: Purpose-built groups of new or mostly new characters. They are typically attempts to create something of a Supergroup (but without the characters being previously established) or a band (but with so many members they can't all get a distinct, stock personality). They tend to have power portfolios that are easily understandable in terms of combat/team roles (the Brick, the Blaster, etc.) and often sport really on the nose codenames. Examples: The Authority, Youngblood, the new X-Men, the Outsiders (original team), Squadron Supreme.

Assembling Your Avengers (or what have you)

Creating a Band or Ensemble is pretty easy, it just requires coordinating character creation. Once the general subgenre, style, and tone is agreed on, players can discuss concepts to either get personalities or powers/roles divvied up.

It might seem as if a rpg superhero team of newly minted characters could only ever be a Band or an Ensemble. That's true in the literal sense, but I think things can be done to sort of replicate the feel of a Supergroup, if that's what you want to do. It requires coming up with more about the characters than just their name and powers, however. 

Emergent worldbuilding is popular in some circles, and I think a supers campaign can certainly be done that way, but I think it's bound to be less satisfying if a Supergroup is what you're after. Most people, even very creative people, just don't always come up with their best stuff at the spur of the moment. Best is certainly not always required--in fact in a supers game meant to replicate the comics, you probably don't always want your best. But people also don't want to be saddled with ill-considered ideas as important character concepts.

I suggest people take a little time and come up with at least the stuff that would have happened in the first issue (or maybe, in these days of decompression, the first arc) of their character's comic: besides the basics on the character sheet, that would include supporting cast, home base, and at least one antagonist. I actually favor going a little farther and sketching the contents of an original DC Who's Who's/ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (not the Deluxe addition, I don't think. Too detailed!) style entry for the character. That still leaves a lot to discover (or backfill in play), but it allows a foundation to credibly kayfabe a character with a history.

The Adventures of Doc Savage

In 1985, NPR ran a Doc Savage serial in the style of old-time radio. The series adapted two of the original novels by Lester Dent Fear Cay and The Thousand-Headed Man, in 13 episodes. The latter adaptation was done by Will Murray, who has also penned original Doc Savage novels.

The series was released on CD by Radio Archives, but it also appears to be available on a couple of places on the internet, including here.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1983 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I've looking at the comics released the week of July 14, 1983. 

This week sees the publication of Green Arrow/Green Lantern #1, the first issue of a limited series reprinting the seminal run by Adams and O'Neil from 1970. As it's all reprints, I won't review every issue, but I felt like the first issue deserved mention as this would likely be the place a lot of Gen Xers first read these stories.

Flash #326: Bates and Infantino/Martin move things along with the Flash gets booked and arraigned for manslaughter. Flash feels like his life as Barry Allen is over, and in an uncharacteristic display of frustration he trashes Barry's apartment. Meanwhile, the hospital goes psychiatric ward after Fiona claims Barry visited her and that just can't be! This issue really displays the difference between these really law-aligned Silver Age DC heroes and Marvel's more outlaw ones. I can't imagine many Marvel characters turning themselves in this situation (except maybe Captain America), or there really being a context where they would feel safe to do so.

Batman #363:  Jason is back with the circus, but he's also playing amateur detective trying to find the Chimera, a thief whose crime spree seems to have trailed the circus' travels (and whose appearance seems inspired by Rondo Hatton's). Batman's also there, watching out for Jason, but Bruce in disguise and the Chimera in disguise confuses Jason's investigation. The Chimera gets the drop on Batman and leaves him at the mercy of lions, while Jason confronts the thief and finds out the villain has been impersonating his friend Waldo the Clown. Newton/Alcala's art works notably well this issue.

Omega Men #7: Silfer and Smith (through the first Citadelian) lay out the secret origin of Vegan civilization and X'Hal, and it's distasteful in the centrality of rape to the story. Beyond that it has a fantasy/parable kind of feel that isn't bad. It reminds me a bit of Starlin's science fantasy works like Metamorphosis Odyssey. Like Tigorr, I don't completely buy the conceit that the First Citadelian, as the serpent in the Okaaran garden isn't the cause of their aggression but merely the revealer of it. And it seems pretty simplistic to blame the Citadels tyrannical rule on the Vegan people merely being flawed. Tod Smith takes over this issue from Giffen as regular artist.

G.I. Combat #258: The first Haunted Tank story continues the weird time travel/fantasy detour, with Jeb turning out to be some sort of "chosen one' for Zeena's people via a prophecy given then by their oracle (who seems suspiciously like the ghost of J.E.B Stuart). He's got to marry Zeena after defeating a rival suitor in axe to axe combat. I assume they'll get back to World War II eventually. The second Haunted Tank tale hammers home the common reframe of this book regarding valuing your equipment. Craig rides a burning tank into a skirmish over an oasis. Easy Company has a cameo.

In the Mercenaries story, the trio is in Negombo, Sri Lanka, and hired by a mysterious guy name Han to secure a shipment of guns for the government against theft by Leftist terrorists. Turns out the rebels are the good guys and the mysterious bald dude who has a poisonous snake wrapped around his arm is the baddie! 

Kashdan/Catan serve up one of those "from the equipment's POV" about combat boots in Korea, and the issue is rounded out with one of Kanigher's dueling POV stories set on Omaha Beach on D-Day.

Warlord Annual #2: I wrote about this annual in detail here. This issue introduces Krystovar, a Warlord sidekick who I thought was unfortunately under-used.

New Teen Titans #35: This story really irritated me because Wolfman and Perez use a trope I really don't like. Sarah Simms' ex goes crazy, kidnaps her, shoots a guy, then holds some other people at gunpoint. Cyborg finally realizes he's been a jerk by dodging her calls and he, Changeling, and Raven go to the rescue, only because the plot demands it, a single troubled guy with a gun manages to hold them off, initially defeating cyborg with a graze and beating Changeling in a fight. The plot needs time for the guy to do his crazy, so the Titans get nerfed. It's not an uncommon thing in comics, but I feel like this usage is particularly bad.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #17: I have never before read the waning issues of Pasko's run. With Bissette and Totleben on art, and Abbie and Matt Cable reintroduced, it's beginning to look like Moore's run which follows. Swamp Thing and friends just happen to run into Abbie and learn of her marriage to the now-alcoholic Matt Cable. They're occasionally attacked by grotesque monsters in full Bissette style, which seem to appear and disappear, suggesting perhaps they are products of an unwell mind--like one in the grips of delirium. Harry Kay, having wandered off, gets stuck in a bear trap and is retrieved by the occupant of a strange insect-ship-- Anton Arcane. The Sunderland conspiracy story is still limping along, but it sort of feels like something vestigial.

Superman #388: Lois returns to confront Perry and Lana for stealing her story and is finally convinced her anger is misplaced, but not before getting in a fight with Lana that involves Lana shoving her face into a punch bowl! Meanwhile, Superman helps out a young fan with telepathic powers who is captured by (yet another never to be seen again) group of extradimensional aliens looking for a place to send their undesirables. Though the synopsis may not convey it, I think it's a better than average issue in the typical Bates/Swan mold.

The Pulp Team

As with several genres adapted to rpgs, pulp gaming presents a little bit of a problem going from the inspirational fiction to the gaming table in that pulp fiction/movies/comics tend to be about solo heroes or a primary hero and sidekicks but rpgs tend to be about a group of equals. It's perhaps reasonable to play Indy plus Short Round and Sallah or even Doc Savage plus his Fabulous Five for one story arc, but it might not be as desirable for a long campaign.

On the other hand, a group composed of Indiana Jones, Jake Cutter (from Tales of the Gold Monkey), and Sam Spade may be fine for some, but seems to be less satisfying to me for a long-term campaign, because the characters don't see cohesive. 

The solution seems to me to build a group wherein the characters are roughly equal, but each has their own specialty, and they have the same theme/subgenre. Sort of like if the Fabulous Five didn't have a Doc Savage to outshine them. There are really more examples of this in comics rather than the pulps (though that may just be my knowledge of the pulps is less). Check out the Challengers of the Unknown:

Having the same subgenre is important for keeping power levels similar. Having the same sort of theme is important for helping support their reason for staying together as a group. Of course, both of these can be stretched a bit. 

Sometimes teams are brought together or forced to stay together by an outside force. DC Comics' The Secret Six and Suicide Squad (either the Silver Age nonsupers version or the later supers versions) are examples of this, but so is the more eccentrically charactered League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. For that matter, the Avengers, particularly in the Ultimate Universe and the CMU start out like this too.

A Cold Reception on Level 4

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last weekend with the party still searching the lower levels of the mind of Gob looking for pieces of a magical suit of armor. Having explored the 3rd level, they had moved on to level 4, but avoided a room that appeared to be the site of a battle shrouded in some magical mist.  Their avoidance had been rewarded by the lucky discovery of an armor piece in a kobold gut-wagon.

Now, though there was nothing to do but brave the battle. They chose to skirt the edges of the room, having several near-misses with combatants--and some not misses, as a stray lightning bolt injured two of them. A group of the avian Fantsies, clearing the fallen, informed them that this was the site of an eternal battle between good and evil. They kept creeping around, and Waylon "recoveed" a Ring of Flight from the body of a slain ogre that almost literally fell into their path.

After skirting the room they encountered a giant with a whip and a captive woman wearing one of the gauntlets. Classic story: the giant claimed the woman was a monster and had to be imprisoned, while the woman protested her innocence and begged for release. The party didn't for a minute completely buy the woman's story, but they also questioned her imprisonment and treatment. And, at the end of the day, they needed that gauntlet chained up with her! They negotiated with the giant to let them get the gauntlet, but when they tried, the imprisoned demon in a woman's form escaped. Still, mission accomplished!

Next, they encountered a statue of one of the evil Phantfasms with the bird-like wings of a Fantsie instead of arms. They remembered the statue whose wings he been removed on an upper level. They went to retrieve them, the statue breathed cold at them and nearly killed poor Waylon.