In the backup by Levitz and Giffen, Princess Projectra is crowned Queen of Orando after her father's death, but her cousin challenges and defeats both her and Karate Kid in a trial by combat for the crown.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1982 (week 3)
In the backup by Levitz and Giffen, Princess Projectra is crowned Queen of Orando after her father's death, but her cousin challenges and defeats both her and Karate Kid in a trial by combat for the crown.
Monday, January 16, 2023
Science Fantasy Knights
I feel like knights in a post-apocalyptic setting is an under utilized setting in rpgs. The sort of thing where in the mid- to far future, human civilization has gone back to something more like the Middle Ages. Often magic will have returned or old science will seem like magic. There is some pretty good source material out there, but the only game I think can think of is Mutants in Avalon.
Fiction-wise, we've got: Moorcock's History of the Runestaff, Christopher's Sword of Spirits trilogy, and Harrison's The Pastel City (less so the sequels), at least. Comics-wise there isn't an exact fit (beyond the adaptations of Moorcock's work), but Camelot 3000 is close. There is even an 80s cartoon and toyline in the form of Visionaries.
Stephen King's Dark Tower series does a bit of this, but also leans on Western aesthetic and tropes and does that a bit more. Into the Badlands likewise has an Western element, but also wuxia.
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1982 (week 2)
Monday, January 9, 2023
D&D Icons
Thinking about the 13th Age Icons this weekend, I think it would be fun to replace them with these guys. Really, it wouldn't take much modification of the official 13th Age crew.
Caruso the Bard probably wouldn't make the cut, though.
Friday, January 6, 2023
Games I Liked in 2022
The pandemic led to more gaming, and that continued in 2022. In addition to running my long-standing 5e Land of Azurth game, I ran a few other systems:
Broken Compass: I really like this rules lite pulp game, and so do both the groups I've run it for. It makes for a great palate cleanser when you might get tired of a longrunning campaign in something else. I hope to run it more in 2023.
Marvel Heroic: I ignored this game at the time it was released, but I really shouldn't have. After running it for a short-time, I think it will become my go-to supers game in the future. There are somethings I don't like about it, but it runs quick and has a comic book feel. I might "update" a game to Cortex Prime (the latest iteration of the basic engine) if I was to run it again.
Rocket Age 5e: I only ran one session of this. I don't think it's a bad system, but 5e just doesn't seem the best to me for pulpy, retro-sci-fi. I think if I tried to run this setting again, I'd likely do it in Broken Compass. I would still recommend Rocket Age (both 5e and otherwise) for the setting material, though.
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1982 (week 1)
Monday, January 2, 2023
Transportation Acquired
Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night with the party intending to go to the Country of Sang and meet up with the Clockwork Princess now that they had secured the Elders of Yai as an ally against the Wizard. Waylon asked the Elders if they could provide transportation. They could, not directly, as the folk of Yai don't leave the city, but they did at one time have a suitable craft. It had been stolen by an impetuous member of their community, Gill-24, but it was currently located not far from the city in the mountains.
The Elders agree to sleep-train the party's biggest fanboy, Irwin-37, to fly it and send hm to accompany the group. With that accomplished, they set out down a precarious set of hidden stairs on the outside of the city's dome. They trek through the mountains, avoiding conflict with a creature like a cross between a porcupine and a grizzly, before reaching the ship's crash site. Of course it was guarded by robots.
The party has bcome pretty good at destroying robots by now. Shade even made constructs her favored enemy!
Inside the ship, they discovered a group of imprisoned creations. Two telepathic, floating things clued them into the fact that the ship was now under the control of a pirate named Garbulex. Garbulex threatened the party over the intercom and tried to turn a giant monster loose on them, but Irwin-37 saved the day by putting the creature back in stasis.
The party decided Garbulex was going down. They made their way to the control room where Garbulex did a share swivel with tented fingers and gloating thing.
Then the fight started.
Garbulex has some sort of energy sword and a cloak that seems to have a life of its own like Dr. Strange's in the movies. He looks to be a formidable opponent.
Then Kairon polymorphs him into a chicken.
His unpolymorphed cloak manages to fly the chicken out of the ship, despite the best efforts of the party to kill them both. Despite their foes' escape, the party are the easy victors and now have a ship.