Tabletop Gaming Feeds

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were on stands in the week of June 6, 1985. 

Losers Special #1: With this, the first of the Crisis Specials, I think we hit a new phase of the event. We saw the Losers die in Crisis #3, but this issue gives them more of a sendoff and introduces a lot of readers to the characters, probably--if they bothered to buy the issue. Easy Company and a town of civilians are pinned down by German rockets. Bravo company was supposed to take those out, but they're all dead. The Losers take up the mission. Along the way, they reminisce about their individual pasts, catching the reader up on the characters that originally had solo strips, but were brought together as a team. The Losers take out the emplacement, but they are separated into two groups by smoke. Separately, Sarge and Captain Storm are killed. The smoke clears and Gunner, Pooch, and Johnny Cloud manage to regroup, but then a German plane strafes the area, killing them. The Navajo Johnny Cloud prays to the sky as he dies and sees an image of a Native American deity. Then, something strikes the hill. When Easy arrives, there is no trace of the Losers' bodies.
This story is a better death for a group of war comic characters, but it doesn't fit perfectly with their death as depicted in Crisis. Presumably we're meant to assume they were taken from the battlefield just before death to truly die in Markovia at the hands of shadow demons. But how did they get moved and healed? This story can't take place essentially at the same time as that part of Crisis #3, because Rock and Easy appear in that issue in 1944 Markovia, too. I suppose it's possible this issue was retconned out of existence before it was ever published. This is how they would have died, had not the Crisis occurred transtemporally.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #6: The Monitor's adversary gets a name this issue (Well, two, since the Psycho-Pirate just calls him "Monitor."): The Anti-Monitor. He gives the whining Psycho-Pirate enough power to control the emotions of the populaces of multiple Earths. Pirate starts pushing the peoples of Earth-S, X, and 4 to suicide in the anti-matter wave. 
Meanwhile, the Monitor's satellite is falling apart. The heroes scramble to save themselves while Alex gets read to attempt to bring the other surviving Earths into the Netherverse. Harbinger knocks him out and takes on the risk herself. Disparate groups of heroes (somehow, it's not clear) are transported to the 3 battleground Earths where they are forced to contend with the mind-controlled heroes of those worlds. Black Canary is wearing her new costume here that we haven't seen before outside of her Who's Who entry. 
In the Anti-Monitor's base, the Psycho-Pirate suffers feedback, and he loses control of the Earths' people. Harbinger manages to link Earths S, X, and 4 with the merging Earths 1 and 2 in the Netherverse, but she burns out her power, leaving her just Lyra. On Earth-2, a new Wildcat debuts and a group of villains mysteriously disappear. On Earth-1, Brainiac scoops up Luthor from and tells him he has a plan...

DC Comics Presents #85: This is the first of two Alan Moore Superman stories this month. Here he teams him up with Swamp Thing with Veitch and Williamson on art. A patch of still-surviving fungus from Krypton known as the bloodmorel infects Superman causing hallucinations and overheating. It will eventually lead to death from overexertion, and the Last Son of Krypton seems powerless in his delirious state to do anything about it. Trying to get away from people, Clark luckily encounters the Swamp Thing, who manages to link Superman to the Green through the remaining fungus. Immersed in cool calm, Superman is able to sleep and when he awakes the fever is broken. He returns to his life, unaware of the help of Swamp Thing.

Fury of Firestorm #39: Conway and Kayanan/Chen finish up the Weasel story from last issue. Firestorm manages to escape Weasel's death trap but can't capture the villain. Ronnie does some sleuthing and figures out that the connection of the people killed and those attacked is that they were all at Standford in the 60s. Even knowing that, Stein still can't figure who the Weasel might be. The Weasel attacks again and Firestorm manages to best him this time. The villain is unmasked as John Monroe...some guy nobody remembers. Ronnie heads back to New York and graduation.

Justice League of America #242: Conway and Tuska/Machlan continue the story from last issue. Aquaman finds Mera, and they make up surprisingly easily. Meanwhile, the rest of the League splits up and blunders around the Canadian woods like teens in a slasher film and get taken out by Amazo. There's even a ridiculous sequence that seems perhaps a riff on a similar scene in Temple of Doom where Elongated Man just keeps talking utterly oblivious to Gypsy dealing with an irritated grizzly bear behind him. In the end, Amazo throws most of the League in a deep hole and covers it with a Boulder.
There's a MASK preview insert "Assault on Mount Mayhem" in this issue, Superman, and Tales of the Teen Titans as well, but I don't have a copy of it.

Tales of the Teen Titans #57: Cyborg's surgery is a success, and he's more human appearing than ever. He's sent to rehab and meets a tough physical therapist who I feel like should be named Sarah Potential Love Interest unless I'm totally misreading Wolfman's intentions. Meanwhile, the other Titans are hanging out at the pool then doing a little training, oddly unconcerned that the Fatal Five are out there with a new member the Titans failed to stop them from busting out of prison. 
That new member is Jinx, an Indian sorceress from who only speaks Urdu until Psimon gives her telepathic language lessons. The Fatal Five come for Cyborg's doctor, and grab him too, not recognizing the hero with his makeover. They want the scientist to awaken Neutron. Cyborg sabotages Neutron's containment vessel to a degree, causing an explosion they we are assured didn't hurt the guy inside. All the strain causes his new plastic veneers to start melting down, though.
Later. Psimon interrupts a press conference by the Major to demand ransom from the city, boasting the Fatal Five now has Neutron on its side.

Vigilante #22: Wolfman/Kupperberg and Smith/Maygar continue the story from last issue with Nightwing and Chase in a running fight across multiple locations, each saying tough guy things to each other and demanding the other stand down. Meanwhile, a guy with a heroin addiction sets out to commit a burglary on condo with no one home and winds up, through a series of bad breaks and worse choices, killing 3 people with a stolen pistol and causing a police car to wreck. He ends up out of bullets and executed on a rooftop by the Vigilante. When that makes the TV news, Nightwing and Chase overhear it and both realize that Chase isn't the current killer vigilante. Chase hadn't even known for certain. Nightwing leaves agreeing to hold off his hunt for the other vigilante so Chase (who feels responsible for inspiring the guy) can handle it, which given the murders and Chase's mental state seems a bit irresponsible. but bro code and all that. 

By Phil Martin
Self Published
Knave
Level 2

Come for the frogs.  Leave when it all goes to hell. The small hamlet of Roudenbush moulders on the edge of the Great Cheerless Swamp. Built at a crossroads, the town sustains itself on a mix of merchant caravans stopping for provisions, those that seek treasure in the swamp, and the bounty of the swamp itself. Wooden, thatched-roofed residences and stone municipal buildings make up the town. Two weeks ago, a tide of giant frogs breached the town’s outer wall, causing chaos in the streets until they retreated back into the swamp.

This thirteen page adventure uses three pages to describe seven overland locations and a five floor wizard tower. Napkin notes for an adventure, it exemplifies the IF rather than a THEN. 

My brief foray in to products recommended that live in Itch has ended as I am, and no one else, is completely shocked. I find it FASCINATING in what both people seem to be willing to pay for nothing and in what people are willing to publish. For Money.So, some giant frogs showed in a a town int he swamps and rampaged through. I guess you’re going to do something about it for some reason. There’s some abandoned wizards tower in the swamp with a magnifying glass turning frogs giant. That location is called Frogtown. There’s also a wandering knight called Sir Robin Hell. Get it? 

I’m in a foul fucking mood this morning. This thing isn’t help that any.  I’m not going to waste a lot of time on it. Fourteen pages and it manages to put in just a few with encounters in it. This is nothing more than napkin notes. It’s not an adventure. It’s possibilities, rather than specificity. 

What do we mean by this? There is some rather common tendency to be seemingly afraid of outcomes. It is as if the designer is terrified of actually stating something concrete may happen. In this sense it is more like a hex crawl but without the scope of a traditional hex crawl. You come across a village of 100 gnomes living in a mesa. “The hive-mind seeks the return of myconids that have gone missing, believed taken by the lizard folk as food / offerings. Will exchange fly agaric mushrooms from their grove for myconids that are found and returned “ I’m paraphrasing the set up but the outcome is from the adventure. This is classic “giant hex crawl.” But it’s not “overland journey to the adventure site.” In the starting village there are a couple of NPC’s. The are not specific to the adventure, just a list of NPC’s for the most part. One of them is a guy you can hire, Buckingham Craddlethatch. The second floor of the five floor “end site” tower in the swamp reads, in its entirety “Ruined arcane library and alchemical lab. Most of the tomes are mildewed and illegible, but an intact Chaos Spellbook can be found among them. If Buckingham Cragglethatch is with the party, he finds a book bound in human skin. Perusing it, he will suddenly announce that he must leave immediately. “ 

Those two encounters are representative of most of what is going on in this. They are possibilities. They are the “collapsed stairwell to another level of the dungeon that the dm COULD expand upon if they were so inclined.” In a traditional hexcrawl adventure these are the core of the adventure. It’s a wide open area that the party brings themselves to in order to exploit. Contract this to the standard “overland adventure” portion of adventures where to travel to get to an adventuring site. These are instead dangers and Lair, with associated lair treasures. And then contrast these two types of things to the keys found in most adventures. Obstacles and encounters to overcome. Those three encounter types serve much different purposes, influenced by the scope of the adventure and environment. 

The muddling of the streams here results in adventure that is nothing but napkin notes for a small adventure.

No more itch for awhile.

It’s Name Your Price at itch, with a suggested price of $5.

https://daseinphil.itch.io/hell-comes-to-frogtown

 To build the Radu Family’s criminal enterprise using the formal Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) domain rules, we treat them as a Syndicate embedded within a Class II Market (a major city/metropolis of roughly 10,000 to 29,999 families). This blog post picks up from OSR Commentary - Running classic TSR modules like L2: The Assassin’s Knot (Len Lakofka, 1983) and B6: The Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Running classic TSR modules like L2: The Assassin’s Knot (Len Lakofka, 1983) and B6: The Veiled Society (David "Zeb" Cook, 1984) using the Castles & Crusades (C&C) system is an exceptional pairing.Because Castles & Crusades uses the Siege Engine mechanics but explicitly retains the math, tone, and architecture of Early Edition D&D (specifically AD&D 1e and Basic/Expert),Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So everyone knows I will be at North Texas Con this week. My books and maps will be for sale at the Black Blade Publishing Booth. I am running three sandbox adventures for the event: Scourge of the Demon Wolf, The Domain of the Rat Lord, and The Deceits of the Russet Lord. 

I will be available to answer questions throughout the event, and I am looking forward to meeting everyone who can make it.

Happy Pride! June is a month to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. Especially in the times we live in, when kindness, respect, and inclusion seem to be under constant attack, we all must come together and fight back. Kindness is punk, and silence is capitulation!

I want to do my part as an ally because too many of my friends, loved ones, and fellow gamers are members of the LGBTQ+ community. While we all dream of a day when who you are and who you love are non-issues and universally respected, we are not quite there yet. Love is love!

To celebrate, I’m sharing a list of ten perfect games to bring to the table this month. You can check out the full CBR article here:

https://www.cbr.com/lgbtq-ttrpgs-to-play-with-friends-pride-month

And on a more personal note, I want to recommend Closet, a game by Paco García of GMS Magazine. I had the chance to back his crowdfunding campaign, and honestly, I absolutely love it. I think it’s an excellent tool to help us step into other people’s shoes and empathize a lot more with the struggles the LGBTQ+ community faces daily. You can find it on DriveThruRPG here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/528214/closet

When someone attacks a party member, we all roll initiative!

 Adapting the iconic archetype of He-Man into The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition requires blending high-powered sword-and-planet heroism with the game’s gritty, 2D6-based mechanics. Since Sword of Cepheus 2e utilizes the clean, readable formatting compatible with Cepheus Deluxe: Enhanced Edition (dropping the traditional digit-string UPP), high-tier legendary characters are represented using Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By brine Self Published Yarn & Bone/Universal

A mage sits in a cemetery, sipping tea while his diggers excavate Lady Veshra’s grave. He must speak only in rhyme lest his lungs collapse. His murdered wife possesses the living to assist his ritual. The cemetery fights back with sentinel crows and grief wraiths. Veshra’s descendant wants the Soulstone inside the coffin… her last asset. Tonight he joins his true love in life or in death.

These twelve pages describe the idea for an adventure rather than adventure. 

I don’t even know what’s real anymore. I don’t know how I got here. Somehow this made it on to my list. I THINK that means someone had to specifically ask me to review it. I know itch is worse than DriveThru and so I don’t go clam digging there. Maybe while I was drugged up? 

It’s just twelve pages outlining the concept of an idea. A dumb ass mage who has to sip tea is digging up a grave to get some magic thing. There are undead in the cemetery, and a ghost-thing, and some other chick shows up with mercs who wants the same thing the mage is digging for. That’s the outline. And it takes twelve pages to do that.

Look, I’m not saying all of the ideas here are bad. One of the hooks has you showing up, as relatives, to rob the grave. “You arrived early to claim it before your “dear cousin” and her hired thugs “ That’s good writing and a decent hook. Or the local official sending you to deal with some chick who he thinks is batshit crazy who insists her ancestors grave is being robbed. As “hired hands” goes at least its got some life. 

And, thus, some of the framings in this are fine, or more than fine. But it never does anything with them. It’s just a collection of motivations and ideas. Heavy on art and whitespace. I can’t emphasize this enough: this is not an adventure. It is a collection of ideas that one could build an adventure from. 

Whoever asked me to review this must have been trolling. I see that the system, Yarn & Bone, is variously describe as world-first, conversation heavy and solo. Who knows. But it also says its compatible with all RPG systems. In the sense that this is just a collection of ideas, yes, it is certainly compatible, just as the OED is as a roleplaying adventure. 

Gentle reader, why have you not shit in a box and charged $5 for it? 

It’s Name Your Price at itch, with a suggested price of $5.

https://casadeocio.itch.io/the-steep-mage

The old road east from Ervessos to Grancazarel skirts the northern edge of the Madding Plains, but no major roads pass through the heart of it. The Madding Plains are the only place where the frensy flowers grow and when those flowers bloom, madness reigns.
The flowers with colors reminiscent of dancing flames have a pollen that can intoxicate most humanoids. In low doses it is consumed recreationally in honey or alcoholic beverages, particularly popular in Mayura. When it is breathed in a concentrated form or for an extended period, individuals can enter an enter a state of ecstatic mania. Those that seek out this experience repeatedly are called Madders.
Madders eke out a meager living on the plains, foraging edible plants and stealing the eggs of the flightless owu (and sometimes getting killed or injured) for sustenance, but when the blooming of flowers peak, they in the heart of the area for a raucous festival. On some years they stay there, but on others the revelers breakup into smaller bands that rove wider region becoming a nuisance and sometimes a danger.
Halflings are the other group which live in the plains. Of all the mortal peoples, they alone seem immune to the frensy flowers powerful effects. They do much of the collecting of the honey made from the flowers and brew the mead made from it. The Madders can sometimes be an impediment to this, but the halflings don't let this deter them from their chosen livelihood.
More than merely an economic endeavor, the halflings view the harvesting and brewing as a sacred duty to a god that did not abandon the Earth with the others but instead sleeps (perhaps sleeping off a hangover) beneath the plain. Bok, as they name him, is the god of intoxication and the brewer's art. They depict him as halfling-like in stature, with an un-halfing-like girth (Parsulan halflings are un-Hobbitishly thin) and shaggy-fetlocked, cloven hooves.

 To adapt Skeletor for Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition (the 2D6-based classic fantasy RPG), we need to translate his iconic Saturday-morning cartoon profile into a terrifying, high-tier sorcerer-warlord. In Sword of Cepheus, high-tier threats are lethal due to the bounded accuracy of the 2D6 system. This blog post picks right up from Darkness From The Cultclassic film Legend 1986 For SwordNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 These tables pick right up from D100 Sword and Sorcery Wastelands and Ruins Table For Castles & Crusades rpg with Treasures

Like last Sunday’s post, today’s feature focuses on someone I met through the Puerto Rico Role Players community. Angel and I have crossed paths in a couple of different fields; since we both work in the education sector, albeit in very different roles, we’ve always had plenty of ground to cover.

He is a longtime gamer who, much like my own compulsive homebrewing habits, absolutely loves tinkering with systems and creating his own rulesets. Let me share my interview with him so you can get to know him and his work a little better.

Introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you create?

I’m Angel Miranda, better known as Enyol. I’m a full-time teacher and part-time TTRPG designer.

How would you describe your creative endeavor?

I design all sorts of things for different TTRPGs. I’ve designed 4 different game systems and published one. I’ve designed monsters, classes, and rules for Pathfinder 1e and D&D 5e; most of these have been self-published.

How did you discover TTRPGs?

I discovered TTRPGs in college, when I saw a group of people playing at a table. I was immediately interested in it. I’ve been playing and running games since 2006.

Do you actively play TTRPG? What are you playing?

I’m actively playing at the moment. I’m running a Paradigm Odyssey campaign (a system of my design and my baby), and I’m a player in a Daggerheart campaign and in a D&D 5e Campaign.

What do you want to play next?

Next, I’d like to keep playing and polishing my Paradigm Odyssey system with friends and strangers, and I’d love to test out Fabula Ultima and Vagabond.

What projects are available, and what are you working on next?

I’m currently working on a Spanish-language TTRPG YouTube channel for my local audience, and I’m always looking to take Paradigm Odyssey to different stores across the island.

Where can people get your project?

People can find me on YouTube at: Roleplayers de Boriken and on Instagram at @Paradigm.Odyssey.

Any closing thoughts? Final commentary: Remember rule #1, always have fun

Thank you, Angel, for sharing your time and your creations with us. You can check Angel’s DriveThruRPG page here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/31128/enyol

 In classic fantasy, Githyanki are astral-sailing, sword-wielding, psionic zealots who escaped mind-flayer enslavement. To make them fit the Victorian aesthetic of Victorious, we can reimagine them as The Aether-Born : an ancient, aristocratic race of planar travelers who view Earth’s British Empire as a crude, amateurish imitation of their own cosmic dominion. This blog entry picks right upNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Going on 10 years ago I got inspired by various sword and sorcery things to create a game called Dead Wizards. It's set in a sandy desert city. Very much a "sand and sorcery" idea inspired by mummy movies as well as Lankhmar and Conan and a bit of Al-Qadim.

My first pass at it was a hack of Swords & Wizardry where I think the main difference was that spells were cast by burning hit points. I ran that a couple of times.

A bit later I revised it and ran it again, briefly. Then I changed the whole system to be based on the image above, using the old to-hit matrix as the core mechanic of the game. Partly, this was a grognard response to anti-THAC0 folks. Just a bit of tongue in cheekiness.

I sometimes went hard to defend descending AC...

The idea shifted in 2020 and became a "let me see if I can make this a game based on those animalistic goons from the movie Heavy Metal." So I did. And it was called GOZR. I say all this because I've been working on Dead Wizards again after a lot of years in limbo. I want back to the last and fullest draft of the game, which was pretty good, actually. The rules in that version are essentially GOZR. I've abandoned the THAC0 matrix, mostly. But there is a small "to hit" matrix on the character sheet. Much simplified, it has 4 categories of difficulty (Basic, Arduous, Grueling, and Epic) with target numbers for each of them for only 2 basic skill areas (Cunning and Prowess). I think this is a really nice amalgam of GOZR's simple target number system and the old to-hit matrices. It's easy on the eyes and intuitive. You're trying to do a daring leap to grab a sacred relic off the giant demon's head? Sounds like an Arduous task, at least. You roll 1d20 vs. your Arduous Prowess target. Once set, the targets never change. But you can pick up various benefits here and there and acquire situational boosts. The idea here is to keep it player-facing and as math-less as possible. Target is 9, you need to roll a 9. You have an advantage? +1 to the roll. Oh, the demon takes notice and now is actively protecting the sacred relic from your grasp? It's now a Grueling task. So those are just some thoughts about the game in development. Clever observers will note that I still haven't produced that space fantasy game, ZSF. Hell's bells, West... you already playtested it, you already have Troika! based books about the same setting. What's the hold up? Yeah, I'll get to it. Inspiration is fickle, you know. 

By Brendan Barnett
Self Published
Generic/Universal
"Lower Levels"

If legends of the Golden Gargoyle are true it could mean infinite wealth for any who possess it. Trouble is, nobody has a clue where to find it.  That is, until a goblin falls out of the sky with a pouch of gold dust and a map to a hidden cave, high in the mountains. What you can make out amongst the blood splatters is very promising.

This forty page adventure uses sixteen pages to describe eight rooms in a low-conflict cave full of goblins. It’s meh, mostly because it uses forty pages to describe eight rooms in a low-conlift cave full of goblins. 

Great looking little pdf. And I assume print book? Nice cover. Pretty little isometric map inside that is itself an art piece, like you might see as a two page special insert in Dragon or Mad Magazine. Nice illustrations and a layout style that looks pretty with its use of word color and boxes and highlights and so forth. And not garish, in spite of its use of pinks and purples. Nice accomplishment there!

Did you want to buy a coffee table book? Cause this is an awfully nice looking coffee table book.

It’s just real hard to take this seriously as an actual adventure given the page count to encounter ratio. Forty pages. Eight rooms. In spreads, of course. What is it that the designer wanted to do? DId they want to write an adventure or did they want to make a great looking book? Room one. This is all of the text on the first page of room one: A large rectangular chamber. In the centre a stone gargoyle statue sits atop a tall pillar with the word ‘umop’ roughly carved into it. The word ‘uado’ is scratched above each of two sealed stone doors to the north and west. The ceiling (30′ up) is covered in spikes. The floor is littered with broken bones. Searching the floor yields 10gp in assorted coins and a silver ring (40gp). It bears the image of a human figure immersed in a river.” There’s some line breaks in there. The second page has open and down in normal and reverse print. Yeah, the words are mirrors and one opens the doors while the other does an anti-gravity. Two fucking pages. Two fucking pages for this. And this is the norm for the adventure. Simple rooms, spread out over two pages.

We can, I suppose, ignore this. We can simply accept that the designer decided two pages per room. What we get, then, is eight (or nine, for an A/B room) are some relatively simplistic rooms. The interactivity here is basic. I’m pretty sure there’s one ‘fight’, with Vampire Kinght[sic] Armour. Nobody present really cares that you are nosing around in the caves. I can’t help but think that this could have been much better i it were larger. The goblins, cultists, bats, tomb, all with zones in the dungeon, expanding the thing to something with more going on and room for the adventure to breathe. 

The language used, for the room descriptions. Is rather plain. A large rectangular room. THis is not the height of language use to evoke imagery. The exception is the isometric map. It’s a pretty great art piece, harkening back to all of those Bat Cave and Hall of Justice isometric pieces from comics, or, the Starship Warden piece I have hanging on my call. Very evocative, but not exactly something you can run from. (There is a more traditional map as well, to run from, the isometric piece not being the most clear on room connections.) 

I can’t say it’s true or not, but it certainly FEELS like the isometric map was the starting point of this adventure. As if it were created and then the rooms followed on. Like the adventure, proper, was secondary to this and/or inspired by the art piece. That doesn’t have to be bad, but in this case the adventure just doesn’t feel worked enough. 

It remains interesting to me the many ways that the various subcultures produce bad adventures. Starting from bland, or assembly line, or wordy, or mini combats, or rote, or art, or layout, or, or, or.

https://pocket-sized-perils.itch.io/grotto-of

This is $5, Aussie, at Itch.io

 In ACKS II, classes are built using a point-allocation system distributed across four categories: Fighting, Thieving, Divine, and Arcane. Demi-human races require purchasing a "Race slot" that modifies these allocations and establishes baseline racial traits. This blog post entry picks right up from Integrating Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) with the legendary, chaotic, Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

In the Berlaith region of the content of Parsulan, there is a magical body of water known as the Prismatic Lake. The reason for the name is obvious: clear as it is (and its waters as remarkable pellucid), they are tinted with a rainbow of colors. The reason for the lake's unusual appearance is the naturally occurring manastones that are embedded in its depths that leak arcane energy into the water.

The lake covers nearly 40 acres and is near circular. Scholars believe it was formed by the unlikely interaction of a shadow cyst emergence causing a collapse into an underground space beneath, possibly an attenuated dungeon root. The heart of the cyst was lost, causing it to burst, but the resultant magical release altered the landscape.

However, it came to be the Prismatic Lake draws wizards and other adventurers hoping to harvest the manastones within. It's not an easy task, given the strange effects the magical energies can have on divers in addition to the problem of working the stones free underwater. Monsters are also attracted to the stones, so they pose another danger.

A (somewhat) easier target for adventurers out to make quick coin is catching the lake's fish. Several highly unusual varieties live there, each with magical properties. Alchemists and magical researchers will pay handsomely for specimens, particularly alive. Would-be fishers should beware: many of the fish are dangerous due to the same magical properties that make them sought after.

 In the gritty, sword-and-sorcery framework of The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition, Lord Darkness from Ridley Scott’s 1986 film Legend functions perfectly as a lesser god, an arch-fiend, or a manifestation of absolute Eldritch Chaos.True to the simulationist, highly lethal nature of the Cepheus Engine, Darkness is not just a high-stat brick to be fought in an open field. He is an Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Greg Daley
Tarichan Games
1e
Levels 2-3

Dead bodies turn up, purple with poison. Word reaches the village that a pair of bodies have been found at the ford of a lonely vale, slashed and bloated. A wyvern has been seen on the mountain nearby. The adventurers explore the valley below the mountain, on the search for the killer. Can the characters defeat a threat from the frigid mountains? Will they defeat the creature and overcome the curse of the peak?

This 55 page adventure presents a small wilderness area and a four level dungeon with about 75 rooms, with the dungeon proper using about sixteen pages. There’s a conspiracy afoot, or two, all caused by the dwarves in the dungeon that the party will no doubt get mixed up in. You might think of this as a “normal” dungeon that then has some framing to it to spice it up by way of the conspiracies. While not particularly evocative, it’s a solid little bit of adventure that perhaps illustrates how to add emerging plot to an otherwise “normal” dungeon.

The marketing blurb above lays out the basic situation that the party stumbles upon. Two imperial tax collectors turn up dead, fat with poison and covered in wounds and a wyvern has been seen flying about in the mountains nearby. If you poke about the wilderness some you find a few unusual things. A stream full of grey silty runoff. A farm near the mountains has had some improvements. A nerid is pissed her pond is now polluted with the grey runoff. There’s also a trio of ogres and their minions who have taken up residence on a small hill, waylaying passersby that the party can run afoul of. 

In the mountains there was an old dwarf diamond mine that suffered a cave in and has been shut for a long time. A clan has moved back in and restarted the mine, surreptitiously. That’s causing the runoff. The farmer is working with them in exchange for his brand new roof and some new dwarf tools he has, as well as a future payoff. So far, just run of the mill stuff. But, the dwarves DID poison the tax collectors, who were getting too close to their secret, and have been flying a wyvern kit to scare folk off. Which is a tad complicated because there IS a young wyvern nearby as well. So, the party can kill a wyvern and the killings continue, which puts the party in bad with th (not really detailed) town. Not nice dwarves. Talking to the dwarves reveals a problem, there are monsters in the mine, could you pretty please? This is a trap, with the dwarves planning, through several subterfuges (including drugged food; breaking Host law! Forshame!) to kill off the party. The monster in the mine is a rock dude who is overseeing a nursery of rockling eggs that the dwarves fucked with and thus he’s been causing tremors to drive the dwarves away. Finally, the dwarves stole of “gem seeds” from him, and they are playing to make the underlying kindof dormant magma/volcano erupt to score a big diamond haul from the gem seeds. Which is also going to result in the nearby town and settlements getting ravaged from the eruption. And then, a dimensional dude is going to show up who wants the gem seeds also to create a gem warrior army for his rebellion efforts back home in his own dimension.

It sounds like a lot going on and maybe a bit convoluted, but I assure it is not. Instead, it is CONSTRUCTED, with what’s going on being the goals of the various entities. Let’s start by, say, building a dwarf mine/home/dungeon. They’ve moved back in to reopen a family holding and, being greedy fucks, don’t want to pay taxes and want to keep their secrets. So we’ve got a level or so of their clanhome and workings. And then have some abandoned parts with more verminy type creatures and a creature on the bottom causing them major problems. All pretty standard, yeah? And grounded in some real motivations, those yahoos who hate the gubberment and their taxes. Which fits in perfectly with the greedy dwarf thing. I love that it is playing to that, not just stout humans, but greedy fucking dwarves. And this is causing the killings, the wyvern thing, the fucking with the rock dudes nursery, the trick violations of host law,  and finally the potential eruption. Who gives a fuck about the people nearby? We care about our clan .. and gems. Really nice implementation of demihumans as an alien culture that LOOKS normal until you dig deeper, and, one of the dwarf themed adventure I think I’ve ever seen. 

Then, lets take that and build in the killings as a hook, and the required wilderness/overland portion to support the investigation of the “wyvern” attacks. We put in some clues for those paying attention, and dump in the nearest farmer as a further clue as they need a little support in their mine and have paid him off ‘in kind.’ We expand that wilderness a little also with the ogre fort to throw in some extra danger as the party tools around and then add the real juvenile wyvern as a decoy/aside to complicate the situation further. Everything is built around and supports the initial idea: the dwarf clan home/mine. Really excellent job constructing the supporting situations around the central conceit, which is itself built on the solid greedy dwarf foundation.

The encounter style is relatively terse. There some summary up front of the overall situation which helps frame the terse encounters. That summary could be clearer, it’s a little scattered, but it’s fine; one read through and you’ve got it. This allows for a wilderness encounter that reads: “3/Grey Brook- This stream is filled with a grey, cloudy silt. Dwarves or other underground creatures may identify the contaminant as dust from crushed rock. Those who have mined previously may identify this as mine tailings, from a process which pulverises rock.” That’s it. It’s a clue to more going on, a fact for the DM to build on. Or, a freshly hewn fence at the farm. A creek near the farm with a gangway hidden in bushes on one side and a cart hidden on the other side. Hmmm. Why’s that there? A body, killed by the “wyvern” may reveal stomach swelling … ingested poison. But you’ve got to pay attention, both as a player and as a DM to build on these little dropped facts and make it your own … in exactly the way a DM should in an adventure.

On the downside, the summary/intro is a little bit of a mess. It’s not a disaster, but things are scattered, repeated, and so on. It needs a hard edit with some laser focus to make it really stellar, but, again, not a disaster by any means. There’s not much for the town AT ALL, and a little bit more there in terms of personalities or complications would have gone a long way to supporting this part of the adventure. It’s essentially nonexistent. And the “adventures” presented in this section are really more of telling the DM the arc of how the designer expects things to happen. Investigating the killings, hunting the wyvern, finding the dwarves, getting fucked over by them maybe, the rock dude and dimension guy showing up … potentially the party being led there by the dwarves, and the potential eruption. The dwarves don’t really have an organized order of battle for when/if things go south with them. More of arcs or milestones than “adventures.” And, then the scale on the overland map is fucked up I think? It’s putting everything pretty much on top of each other if the “one square equals 20 feet” legend is to be believed. The writing could be a bit more evocative also. The rooms are fact based, maybe with a sentence or two on usage which is not supremely relevant. For example “7/Ablution Rooms These are a set of sparse washing rooms, divided for female and male dwarves. “Beard” dwarves wash with their sisters, for modesty. The rooms contain each contain three sets of chambers. The first is for dry clothes and towels, the next contains (cold) showers, and baths. The final room is for necessary (if unpleasant) functions. All of the rooms are solid, stone hewn, and work with hidden mechanisms, hiding unnecessary pipes, levers, or drains. “ No great sins here, but also nothing too evocative. The greater situations in the complex lend themselves to this fact-based descriptions, still allowing the greater play opportunities. 

Pretty solid. Maybe a little cumbersome in places, which more focus would help with, but I suspect that comes with time and practive.

This is $3.50 at DriveThru. The preview is fifteen pages with a decent variety in there. Good preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/553089/em3-wyvern-of-whitepeak-old-school?1892600

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on May 30, 1985.
The "Meanwhile..." feature this month mentions work continuing on new Batman project that isn't named but is clearly Dark Knight Returns. There's also discussion of a Matt Wagner project that is the forthcoming Demon limited series from the following year. Interestingly, there's also mention of a Jason's Quest revival that never came to fruition.


Detective Comics #552: Moench and Janson pick up the Black Mask story from this month's Batman. Black Mask recruits more members into his gang and takes more deadly reprisals against people he feels have wronged him, which are mostly newly installed Janus execs. He also has Circe, the model who jilted Sionis when his fortunes turned, kidnapped and subjects her to a diluted portion of the cosmetic. After that torture, he gives her an ultimatum: join him or get the full treatment. Circe accepts a mask without the tainted cosmetic in it. Batman figures out Sionis is Black Mask just as the False Face Society, but he can't find out where his hideout is or what his ultimate plans are.
Cavalieri and Moore/Patterson have Green Arrow and Black Canary facing a rash of tenement fires, arsons that Arrow believes were committed by the owners for the insurance and redevelopment. The meat of the story, though, is about what happens when Black Canary confronts a fire-throwing super-villain arsonist, Bonfire, and the Canary is strangely frozen with fear. After her rescue, she later tells Ollie that she had a strange episode of deja vu while in the blaze. Later, she's looking through her scrapbook at old pictures of her mother, the first Black Canary, and she's struck by a revelation.

Action Comics #570: The first story by Kupperberg and Schaffenberger/Hunt has a Superboy vibe, except that it has Jim Olsen as its focus instead of some random Smallville kid. A blast of cosmic energy splits off Jim's inflated ego into a super-villain who calls himself Alter Ego. The bit of mystery here isn't in Alter Ego's identity. Superman figures that out early on. Rather it's in how Jim got split and how to fix it.
The second story by Boldman and Bender/Marcos is more "humorous" than the first. One might say "silly," even. After saving a man's life, Superman accepts the guys invitation to dinner for beef bourguignon, but then stays and stays, making a complete annoyance of himself. This could have easily turned to horror as having a super-powered bore for a house guest might in real life, but once the man blows his top at the super-freeloader, Superman drops the act and reveals the truth: the man had been infected by some alien something or other in the initial incident and only making him angry could cure him. 
I mention the "stuck in the past" nature of this era of Superman a lot but should also point out this isn't inertia or ossification. Superman was different at points in the 70s ("Kryptonite No More," and all that). Superman was different just a few years prior with stories by Wein and Starlin and Wolfman. This was a choice editorial made.

Ambush Bug #3: Giffen, Fleming, and Oksner deliver their funniest issue yet, provided you like silly, absurdist humor goofing on silly DC characters of the past. It's actually kind of clever, structurally, we get vignettes in text and comic form uncovering what happened to a lot of obscure and best forgotten in the estimation of Fleming and Giffen DC characters like Egg Fu, The Green Team, and Binky. It's also sneakily taking a swipe at Crisis on Infinite Earths and the rationale for it, as all of the segments point to a mysterious woman being involved in their disappearances or deaths. In the end, we find out who is responsible: Jonni DC, Continuity Cop. Just as she confesses, she's blasted by Darkseid for the recurring "next issue, a fight with Darkseid" gag.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #34: Kupperberg and Duursema get Arion and Chian back to the City of the Golden Gate and into the business of selecting a new king. In Atlantis, that's done by a council of wizards presided over by Arion. These days the wizards have only the barest magic except Arion, but still tradition. There's one scheming wizard up to no good, though, and he disrupts the proceedings and gets Arion trapped by shadow bat things. Meanwhile, Wyynde is reunited by Mara. He finally returns her affections in a leering sort of way which puts her off. Apparently, having a dog head for a while changes a guy! Who isn't put off by the new Wyynde is the princess and potential successor to the king, T'Galla. She and Wyynde get along quite well to the irritation of Mara.

All-Star Squadron #48: Mike Harris takes over as artist. This is his first work for the Big Two. He goes on to do a fair amount of work at Marvel in the '90s on grittier titles like The 'Nam, The Punisher, and Cops: The Job. Here, the All-Stars travel to the UK, meeting the Blackhawks on the way. Churchill wants them to find the Shining Knight who disappeared investigated something at the site of Camelot. The All-Stars find Shining Knight in the company of other Arthurian characters who turn out to robots. Our heroes are captured, and they learn that Dr. Fate's old enemy, Wotan, is behind it all.

World's Finest #318: Cavalieri and Delbo/Alcala bring back Sonik who had his debut and only appearance to date back in issue 310. Beyond that the issue is very much of its era. Lilanne Stern is now on RTV. There's a wealthy popstar named Marlon Monroe (a Michael Jackson stand-in) who is menaced by robots made by one of his staff, and a boy in a bubble with an immunodeficiency syndrome someone may be trying to kill. Superman and Batman are on the case though, and everything works out in the end.

Tales of the Legion #326: We start the reprint era this month, so I won't be reviewing this title anymore, but I wanted to note it. 

V #7: Newell steps in as writer, and we an issue that focuses solely on Julie as she goes back to her now empty hometown, trying to get some time to herself to go to terms with everything that has happened. A mother and father get mentioned and the implication is that perhaps both are dead due to the Visitors, though based on the V wiki, this appears to be new material. Anyway, she's followed by an assassin that has the appearance of a high school friend, but when a Visitor patrol attacks them, the assassin seems to have a change of heart and saves her life. The issue is rather ambiguous on several points, which was perhaps Newell's intention.