Weird Revisited: Found in a Shoebox

This a Weird Adventures post, originally present in August of 2012...

Cataloging of a deceased adventurer’s belongings revealed a shoebox full of assorted old photos.  A few held more than sentimental interest:

The Dark Manor
The most dangerous photo of the lot.  If stared at during night, the photo may open a portal to the pictured manor in a strange demi-realm shrouded in mist and populated by people who appeared to come from a gothic horror yarn. Anyone transported to the realm will be there for 24 hours on earth--though the exact time in the demi-realm is variable: anything from one night to a two weeks.

The Gold Women

A set of automata construct by a Staarkish thaumaturgist two centuries ago.  They disappeared from a private collection in Lutha during the Great War.  This photo has an address in Metropolis written on the back of it.

The Succubus
Naughty postcard from roughly 40 years ago.  It can be used to summon a succubus once per week if the incantation written on back is read and a few drops of the summoners blood (or other body fluid) is spilled into a circle draw on the floor.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1982 (week 2)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around February 11, 1982.

Batman #347: Slifer and von Eeden/Marcos present one of those "people talk about Batman" type stories within a story as a small-time crook tries to persuade a buddy to join in on a bank robbery, but his friend relates two tales of their biggest obstacle: Batman. In the end they decide to go straight. More interesting is the politics of the story. A group has been setting fire to slum tenements ostensibly as a "blow against capitalism." Batman calls it the "big business is bad syndrome." When the arson hurts someone in the community Batman is able to show the group the error of their ways. 

The rest of the issue is filled with mystery "shorts" with Bat Family characters: Batman and a retired police detective turned security guard solve the mystery of a detective's murder. Then, Alfred gets in the game by proving that the nephew of a friend's employer murdered his uncle and made it look like suicide.

Flash #309: Bates and Infantino/Smith have a time-traveler from the 98th Century comes back to the 1982 to find out if superheroes are real, and if so, steal the powers of one to save his future from a monster. The Flash prevents the visitor from stealing his powers but helps him by leading the guy back to the day Barry Allen became the Flash (April 23rd, if you were wondering) and allowing the visitor to get duplicate Flash powers. The visitor returns to his time and as the Flash of the 98th Century, sacrifices himself to save his people.

In the Dr. Fate backup, all seems lost as the Helm of Fate has been stolen by Malferrazae and Inza is dead. Inza's spirit reveals to the grieving Nelson that there is a way to bring her back, by reuniting her body with the entity of jealous the Lord of Chaos made from her. Nelson smartly defeats the Jealous entity, by showing interest in her, causing her to turn her wrath on herself. This allows him to snatch back the helm and reassume the mantle of Dr. Fate. Using his power to his utmost, he is able to defeat Malferrazae and repair the damage done. Inza is restored and the riff between the couple patched.

G.I. Combat #241: The Haunted Tank crew in some ways seem to be the luckiest guys in the war. They are being transported from North Africa to Sicily on an LST, but they are attacked by German aircraft. Everyone else on the ship is killed, but the vessel runs aground and the door opens to let the Tank about before the ship is consumed in an explosion. Anyway, Jeb is guided by his superiors to a series of locations seemingly for no reason, but really to to drive a narrow wedge through the enemy lines while the American forces followed in secret behind them. The tank is destroyed, but the crew survives and wins the day. 

The second Haunted Tank yarn is a flashback to their earliest days in Africa. Once again, the Tank is the only survivor of a squadron, but Jeb grabs his dead captain's helmet to replace his missing one, inadvertently spurring the company coming behind them to come to their aid in an assault on a German fortress.

The other stories include a history of the song "Taps," and a story by Allikas and Bercasio set in the Korean War where a rich kid learns he can't always buy his way out of work or trouble, but steps up and becomes a better man and soldier. The O.S.S. story involves trying to keep the site of the D-Day landing secret from the Germans. Hitler thinks the Allies are using reverse psychology via a captured spy and the landing will be in Calais, but Control is employing reverse reverse psychology. Or something like that.

Jonah Hex #60: Hex has been kidnapped and is on a ship to China. When pirates attack, Hex falls off the ship, but then washes up on the Chinese coast. He's nursed back to health by a local couple, but then captured again by the authorities. It turns out a Warlord wants Hex to do something for him--and they've got Mei Ling captive to ensure his cooperation. 

The El Diablo backup by Cohn and Ayers/DeZuniga has the town all riled up due to some abductions which they blame on a new religious group that's moved into town. I was thinking wrongly accused Mennonites or something, but nope, they are full-on robed, Satanic cultists into human sacrifice. They call up the Devil, but El Diablo turns the tables on them, because he and the Devil apparently have an understanding.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #1: Just in time for the movie (premiering on February 19, 1982) we get a new Swamp Thing title by Pasko and Yeates. After a recap of his origin, we find Swamp Thing near Limbo, North Carolina, near the Great Dismal Swamp. He's having a bad time of things, as he loses a hand while trying to save some dumb hunters from a bear. While waiting on his hand to regrow, he befriends a strange young girl who's father was preparing to kill her because he thinks she's a witch. Instead, he accidentally kills himself after the Swamp Thing intervenes. Meanwhile, a guy working for the Sunderland Corporation is after Swamp Thing. He's got Swamp Thing's dismembered hand, and he tells his boss Swamp Thing is dying.

The Phantom Stranger backup is by Jones and Spiegle. The Stranger bears witness to the strange end of a corrupt Baptist Preacher who fleeces his parishioners and uses his church as a front for his heroin operation. Unfortunately for him, one of his flock is a former voodoo practitioner, and when she gets wise to his con, she summons a swarm of cockroaches to end him.

New Teen Titans #19: Wolfman and Perez bring back Dr. Light and again play him as a joke to the heroes. He tries to rob an Indian exhibit in (I guess) a Midway City museum, only to run afoul of visiting museum curator Carter Hall in his Hawkman identity. Somehow, his light power brings to life monstrous incarnations of Vishnu. Light leads them to the Titans, hoping they will protect him from the vengeful beings. Once Robin and Hawkman get the truth from Light, Starfire uses her power to reverse the effect and banish the creatures. Light goes back to jail.

Superman #371: Wein and Swan have Superman puttering around the ol' Fortress, when he discovers a 

race of tiny, other-dimensional aliens have taken up residence in the Kandor replica Superman built in the old bottle. They want to live and normal sized people somewhere in our universe. Superman helps two volunteers to grow to human-size, but they are devolved into humanoid monsters by Earth bacteria. Superman is able to turn them back to normal with Kryptonite. He promises to work on a way to vaccinate them all, but until then they must remain in the bottled city as the new Kandorians. This has the feel of a "discontinuity nod" as the tvtropes folks say.

Rozakis and Calnan bring "The Private Life of Clark Kent" over here from World's Finest. An exposure to the rays of a purple sun gives Superman temporary mind-over-matter powers, which leads to numerous instances of hm creating money out of nowhere until he realizes what's going on. 

13th Age

 

I've had the 13th Age core book for sometime, but after picking up most of the rest of the publications for the game in a recent Bundle of Holding, I decided to give it a try. My online group was willing to give it a try. 

For the unfamiliar, 13th Age is sort of an "alternate evolution" of D&D. Debuting in 2013, it sort sort of took D&D 4e and stepped in a rules lighter direction, adding some freeform elements, quite different from the specification of 3e versions of the game. It's roughly equivalent in crunch, I would say, to 5e, but lighter than 5e in some areas.

We spent the first session in character creation. It took perhaps a little longer than 5e because the freeform elements required a little more thought. What are these elements? Well, the biggest is that every character has "One Unique Thing" some (noncombat) thing that sets them apart from perhaps everyone else. Not only does this serve as a character hook, but it allows the player to define something about the world. 

Then there are backgrounds. Unlike 5e backgrounds which are essentially packages of skills and accoutrements, 13th Age backgrounds are player defined (and presumably GM negotiated) broad skills. You could do something simple like "Miner," but it could also be something like (one my wife picked) "Gnomish Debutante." Like the One Unique Thing, backgrounds have the effect of fleshing out the world to a degree. The only downside I see to them is that characters might not be as "well-rounded" in the arena of adventure related tasks as their 5e counterparts. Still, that just means that (like older versions of D&D) skills are likely of less importance.

One final element not found in typical D&D is that every character has a relationship to one of the settings Icons, vaguely defined (so the GM can flesh them out more) beings of great power and importance in the setting. Characters can have a positive, conflicted, or negative relationship with one or more Icons. These are meant to be adventure hooks. You roll to see when they might come into play.

Anyway, the group seem to like what they've seen of the system so far and are interested in giving it a go.

The Age of the Wizard Kings

 

Millennia after the technological civilization of humankind was cast in ruins, a strange, new world had risen from the old. This time was known as the Age of the Wizard Kings as it was dominated by practitioners of magic. While the most of humanity had reverted to primitivism, the smaller, near human folk that are the ancestors of elves, dwarfs, and halflings, dominated the eastern part of the continent through their mastery of magic.

The Wizard Kings at earlier times had been ranked according to power, but by the time of the Orc Incursions that ravaged the land and threatened the stability of their rule, they were more or less equal in power. They held a magical contest to see who would possess a mystic tome of great power. Details have been lost to time, but someone that contest resulted in the ascendance of the Dark Lord, whose ultimate defeat came at a terrible cost. The city-states never recovered and were easy conquests for the human tribes entering the region.

Despite the millennia since it's fall, the influence of the Age of Wizard Kings can be felt in the present day. Many of the spell formulae known by human mages in the present day and many half-buried ruins and subterranean treasure vaults current adventurers seek to plunder date from this period.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1982 (week 1)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of February 4, 1982. 

Arak Son of Thunder #9: Thomas and Colon/Rodriquez are following the Conan playbook and have Arak and Valda head out to sea, trying to get to Constantinople. The sailing is of course not smooth as they must fight back against piractical types. In the Viking Prince backup by Kanigher and Duursema, the Prince loses an arm saving a woman from druidic sacrifice, but she knows a place he may be able to get it magically reattached!

DC Comics Presents #45: A freak accident while stealing tech secrets for the Soviets turns a Kristopher Kross (not that one) into Kriss-Kross (not the other ones) into a lame, one-off villain for Superman and Firestorm. But Conway does get to plug his upcoming Firestorm series.

Ghosts #112: This title gives up the ghost with this issue, but they saved some not bad stories for it. Also of interest is the editorial that thanks the writers and artists and plugs some new/upcoming DC titles. It particularly spends time on the titles in what it calls the "mystery genre" which include Saga of the Swamp Thing (premiering later this month) and the upcoming The Dark Force--which will see print as Night Force.  

In the stories, Harris and Texeira have a kid named Joey who is allowed to join the bigger kids pirate club rise to lead it after being possessed by the spirit in an old pirate's skull. Kanigher and Bender send John Wilkes Booth to hell where he has to live out the assassination he committed over and over--in Lincoln's place. Finally, in a proto-Death Note, a cop gets ahold of a page from Death's book and uses it to extort money from people looking to prevent their death or the death of a loved one. When Death comes to get it back, he extorts immortality from Death, too! The Grim Reaper tricks him though, and he gets eternal life--buried alive!

Justice League #202: I don't know what Conway and Heck were thinking on this one. It's like a Space: 1999 plot or something. Batman's injured while doing repairs on the outside of the JLA satellite. Before his teammates can get to him, he's picked up by an alien medical ship, whose automated systems heal him--but in the image of its presumably long-dead creator, Ursak. The process leaves Batman deranged. His teammates have to defeat him, before they can get the ship to heal him again, then Hawkman reprograms it and sends it on its way.

Weird War Tales #111: I had this issue as a kid. Kanigher and Spiegle do the sensible thing and team-up G.I. Robot and the Creature Commandos on an island with dinosaurs and survivors from Lemuria. Well, technically they are Atlanteans from an Atlantide colony in the Pacific--and they are survivors, but instead their robot descendants. Due to the Doctor's snaky tresses the Atlanteans decide to attack, but the Creature Commandos dispatch them. The Atlantean leader appeals to a fellow robot for help, but as with all G.I. Robot stories, the robot's humanity shows through, and J.A.K.E sacrifices himself to save the Commandos.

Wonder Woman #291: This is probably Thomas' Marvel roots showing. A gigantic and ultra-powerful alien, The Adjudicator, arrives to judge the Earth, as he has countless planets before. He discovers all the parallel Earths and plans to judge a number of them, too. Wonder Woman calls in the assistance of the JLA. Black Canary heads to Earth-2 to warn the JSA, Green Lantern heads to Oa to see what the Guardians know about the alien, and Superman goes to the Fortress of Solitude to search its archives. Wonder Woman and Zatanna are left to challenge Adjudicators physical manifestations: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The two battle the Horseman Famine in India and manage to defeat it.

The Rise of the Orc

 Orcs first appear in the annals of history in the Age of the Wizard-Kings. Though they had already been mutated from pre-cataclysm humanity, they were at that point less divergent than today. As highly organized military bands, they raided across the mountains and into the lands of the Wizard-Kings. They were greatly feared due to their mastery of some of the lost technology of humankind. 

Latter day scholars have been skeptical on this point, but surviving writings from the era make it clear the Orc bands struck rapidly through the use of motorized conveyances. Their depredations further destabilized the fractious, petty kingdoms and hastened the end of the Age. The chaos that followed, however, was damaging to Orc culture as well, and those in the East did not retain much of their technology in the aftermath.

The Orcs see themselves as the defenders and preservers of High Human Culture. They wish to restore a perhaps-mythic paradise called Murka. The fierce war eagle is their symbol for this land and for their own people. The ancestors of the Orcs apparently survived much of the devastation of the collapse of previous human civilization by moving underground, and modern Orcs continue to be at least semi-subterranean. They believe in the necessity of keeping their race "pure," and tend to remain apart from other peoples. They have a reverence for items of technology and often worship ancient machines with grisly sacrifices. 

Orc knowledge of ancient technology is generally more advanced peoples. Some Orcish groups in known regions have abandoned the marauding ways of their ancestors, but not their love of technology. They often make a living as tinkers or mountebanks.

There is said to be a still-thriving Orc Empire to the West in possession of powerful and frightening ancient weapons of war.

The Gygaxian D&D Implied Setting Recipe

 

I present this only semi-seriously, and I'll admit to a less than unassailably rigorous methodology--but I think I have identified the key ingredients and steps involved in creating a D&D setting that would have the true old school D&D (as opposed to Old School Rennaissance) vibe. These steps were developed from pondering the various inspirational reading lists supplied by Gygax, including some forum responses regarding the most important works there in, and comparing it to the implied setting of the manuals and the explicit setting of Greyhawk.

Here's what I came up with:

1. Take Middle-Earth and excise the human nations/cultures, gods and history.

2. Replace with the relevant material from Howard's Hyborian Age (making sure to keep the ethnography and mass migration) and add additional nations/cultures and deities as needed from the Elric Saga and the fantasies of de Camp.

3. Work in a cosmic struggle between Law and Chaos, derived from Anderson with seasoning from Moorcock

4. Place at least one Lankhmar stand-in urban center.

5. Sprinkle in lost worlds from Burroughs and some extra dimensions from Theosophy and de Camp.

5. Strain out any pulp magic in favor of a "logical" and pedantic magical system flavored with Vance, but with a foundation in de Camp/Pratt.

6. Downplay any doomed or destined, great heroes in favor of a cast of scoundrels rounded up in Vance's Dying Earth and Leiber's Lankhmar. 

7. Pull monsters from anywhere and everywhere, including science fiction (particularly post-apocalyptic). 

8. Emphasize underground environments with a hint of St. Claire and Leiber's Quarmall.