Tabletop Gaming Feeds

 The road in a Sword & Sorcery setting is rarely just a means of travel; it is a gauntlet of ancient grudges, desperate survivors, and cosmic indifference.Here is a D100 Random Encounters Table designed for grit, atmosphere, and high stakes. This table picks right up from D100 Sword & Sorcery Random Urban Encounters Table for Castles & Crusades rpgThe Trail Encounters Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Shanklimb
Self Published
OSR
Levels 4-6

In recent months, strange mushrooms have erupted across a corner just outside the Mulchgrove. Local foragers reported vivid, peculiar dreams after extracting them – visions of mosslings sharing tea with mammoths, a boulder tucked in for naptime, and other odd sights. Now the dreams are coming uninvited, in daylight, to people who never touched the mushrooms at all.  The mosslings of Mulchgrove are divided. Most believe the fungi are a divine offering – though no two can agree which god sent them, or why. But it’s to be sure: someone, or something, is broadcasting.

This eleven page adventure describes fifteen rooms, mostly linear, in some caves. Low on interesting, you get some sub-standard descriptions of slime mold rooms. Nothing to see here, move along, move along. 

The locals have discovered a new type of mushroom. You’re hired to check it out. You find some caves with some friendly trolls in them. They grow moss. In beds fertilized with corpses. Looks like slime molds have attacked their caves. You go kill the slime molds.

Aimless, perhaps, is how I would describe this. There just isn’t much motivating going on in any sense. The situation in the local village is “oh, look, new mushrooms!” with no real sense of urgency behind it. The hooks are all Hiring in one sense or another, usually with a “I’d some of that new mushroom variety …” There’s little personal motivation in any of that, just a blatant appeal to your desire to play D&D tonight or go to a bar instead. There’s not much of a hunt for an entrance, I guess all of the locals are blind or something, just “here’s the hole in the ground!” and then, once inside it’s more of the same. You enter a room with moss in it. This room has trolls and moss. The trolls are friendly. They don’t care. Well, one room has some sleeping trolls in it who are not pleased at being woken up, if you hang around. I wouldn’t be either. Anyway, they don’t care. Yeah, they are fertilizing their ground with corpses, but there’s no indication they are KILLING people. The descriptions are entirely neutral on that point. “Investigating the corpses: Human commonfolk, arranged with almost ceremonial care. Their hands are folded, mouths held agape with sticks. No possessions of any value.” Sure thing man. No one cares. Well, the trolls are not happy that their moss tunnels have now been invaded by slime molds. Pretty please? This puts us, I don’t know, halfway through the encounters? So you wander around looking at moss and trolls until you reach the barricades that block off the other half of the rooms. Once there things change. You kill gelatinous hulks and other mindless blob things. Yeah! You did it! ‘ 

The last half of the room, eight rooms, are handled in two pages. So, two pages of content here. Two pages of things to do. You enjoy yourself here.

Room descriptions are in the old OSE style and meh. “The Threshold Black walls (thicker roots). Translucent threads (hang from ceiling, like a curtain).” This is ok, but not great. It’s just not very evocative, but, at least, it’s not overly long, thank god. 

There’s just not much here. Stab the blob things. Maybe don’t touch the pools that are obviously acidic. It’s like The Adventure Of Getting Inzto My Condo! Avoid the church people in the drive and hit the open gate button on the app. Don’t yell at the old person driving slowly in front of you. Open the garage door with the opener. Park in the garage being careful not to hit the concrete post on one side. Roll 1d6, if you get a 1-3 then the car on the other side is present also and you should not hit it. Push the elevator button. Wait forever. 1-3:d6 other people get off on floor one, slowing your ascent. Yeah. Ok. I guess things happen. I guess? Do they matter? No. 

Also, I’m annoyed that the numbers on the map are in a black font in purple background blobs. This is my usual Hard To Read rant. And, then, the dungeon proper, “This dungeon is made up of an expanding fungal root-system, the roots of which form mid-sized tunnels and rooms.” I guess the roots are hollow?

Nothing here. Move along. Move along. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/560343/corpse-husbandry-an-adventure-in-dolmenwood?1892600

My vacant in Hawaii last week got me thinking about the subgenre of pulp adventure fiction that dealt with tales of freighter captains or sailors making having adventures in various ports of the South Pacific. The radio show Voyage of the Scarlet Queen is in this genre as are Howard's adventures of Sailor Steve Costigan. Aviators get into similar sort of adventures in the same locales as well, as seen in the 80s TV Tales of the Gold Monkey and the comic strip Terry & the Pirates.

I think the same basic setup of these stories could be transported to a science fiction setting. Imagine a group of relatively closely spaced, small worlds (to be "realistic" about it, they would likely have been placed there by an Arbitrarily Advanced Civilization). It could be a Dyson Swarm or its remnant like in Reynolds's Revenger series, or it could just something like the Vega System as presented in DC's Omega Men (which could be a kind of modular ringworld, I guess). Why small worlds? Well, I think it better reflects the island or city focus of the source material and makes it easier to place them relatively close together.

Whatever the setup, this system is on the hinterlands of "galactic civilization," a place where outlaws, adventurers, and malcontents would drift to from the more controlled, "safe" worlds. Within the source material, of course, this is the unexamined Western-centric view of South Pacific, but in a science fiction setting this could more genuinely be the case. Similarly, the elements of colonialism and exploitation of native peoples is probably something to avoid (unless one wanted to make that a central conflict of the setting), but like in Vance's Demon Prince series, a lot of unique or eccentric societies may have grown up there as generations of nonconformists fled the core. Perhaps among the ruins of an alien Precursor race, ideas about whom may be part of the eccentricity of some of the societies.

The vibe could be very retro pulp, but you could just as easily do it with inspiration from Cowboy Bebop or with an Alien/Outland aesthetic.

 The House of the Rising Sun is the sixth volume of the Arduin Grimoire series, released in 1980. Authored by David A. Hargrave, it is a seminal piece of the "Old School Renaissance" (OSR) DNA, known for its kitchen-sink fantasy style, high lethality, and unapologetic weirdness. This picks up from Diving into the Arduin Underworld - OSR Commentary On Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Adapting Travis Morgan, the iconic Vietnam-era pilot turned barbarian king, requires balancing his modern military background with the high-adventure tropes of a "Dying Earth" or "Lost World" setting.In Sword of Cepheus (2nd Edition), Morgan is a high-ranking character, likely having completed 5–6 terms before being "stranded" in Skartaris.Travis Morgan: The WarlordSocial Class: 9 (Officer/Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 The sprawling, soot-stained alleys and marble-clad plazas of a Sword & Sorcery city are often more dangerous than any dungeon. This table is designed for Castles & Crusades, leaning into the gritty, "Long 90s" gritty-industrial aesthetic and the pulp tradition of Howard and Leiber. This picks right up from d100 Random Wilderness Swords & Sorcery Encounters table for CastlesNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Gabor Lux
EMDT
OSRIC
Levels 5-8

Linquar the Eternal has fallen, its palaces and temples decaying in the teeming jungles. Few dare to head for the misty island plateau where the ruins stand, and even fewer have succeeded in claiming its treasures from the savage ape-men who now rule in its citizens’ stead. The great city is largely forgotten, and even its name only refers to a squalid pirates’ nest that had once been its trading outpost. What had been the capital of the isles is known as a cursed and abandoned place that’s better left undisturbed. But more often, it is simply known by its current inhabitants… as the City of the Ape-Men!

This sixty page adventure is an Isle of Dread, but with ape-men in the lost city. A complex environment with large groups to challenge the parties looting efforts, it does a hex crawl with some locations being mini-dungeons. Bring those cargo ships to haul away the loot and avoid the pirates while dodging the secret masters manipulation of the apes. The logistics game is the only thing missing. 

We’ve got the ol Dread here, a jungle island with some dinos and ‘big fucking snakes’, the former seat of an empire that prospered from the spice farmingo n the island. Their former slaves, the ape-men are now all that’s left, along with a smaller island off the coast that has a pirate town on it that can serve as a home base. You hex crawl the island looking for spice, pirate-loot, and the wonders of the fallen empire. Don’t worry, in spite of dinos and ape-men there are also a handful of giant frogs, frog-lizards and frogodiles. 

The hex encounters, about twenty, range from the very small “R. The weird rock: A large stone with a spongy, greasy surface stands here with nuggets of a rare ore embedded in it (2500 gp).” to more involved paragraphs to handful (sixish) of mini-dungeons. These range from the “wildlife wants to eat you”, with flying manta rays and dinos and snakes and spiders, to monoliths and locales from the old empire, usually with some mythical bend to them. (Meditation on the holy ruins on the highest peak gives you a +1 to two stats … if you can make it to the top.) 

Running throughout we’ve got LARGE groups of ape-men running around, like, in groups of five to forty. And then in their bases near the lost city, proper, groups of forty to seventy. Ouch! I love a large group of enemies to challenge high level parties in an open environment like this where the party can plan and plot, and flee in a crazed terror through the jungle when the masses appear. 

The apes are divided in to three factions, buying for power. They hate each other, but, also, they hate all humans more. Like, ravenously hate them. They are taking instructions from their GODDESS, a talking statues. We’ve all seen Oz, so we know what’s up, Turns out that there are tunnels full of spider people who are the secret masters, subtly working the apes against each other to keep their numbers low. But, also, they are gonna make sure that nosey adventurers get fucked up hard. Once technologically advanced, their crashed spaceship is on the island also. Don’t worry, it doesn’t really go gonzo at all. The whole place is nice and sandboxy.

I do have a few issues though.

I can’t make much sense of the elevation contour lines on the map. I think the text says something like the island rises to 1200 feet high, and the map says that contour lines represent 1200’ feet. I assume there’s a typo in there somewhere, but, also, I’ve had a REAL hard time making sense of the contour lines on the map. There IS a separate map that just shows the contours, and it helps a lot, but that’s alot of referencing back and forth when trying to relay information to the party. 

The hex crawl instructions are decent, and none of those fucking environment/humidty rules that I hate dealing with in crawls. “You can’t wear platemail!” Fuckoff. You’ll have to kiss me first. My major issue is, with most hex crawls and this one, the lack of mentioning how far you can see/landmarks when getting high up. It makes sense to climb a tree, or a plateau, to see what’s around (See also: the Fallout Red Glow At Night) and a sentence about that would have been nice. 

Given that there is a high likelihood of this being a treasure extraction game, the pirate town could have used a little more as well. It’s covered in several pages and there are several factions there as well. A little more on off-loading the goods and/or a pirate ship/response to the party brining in loot would have been nice. A sample raiding ship or two, perhaps? There is enough, generally, to understand that there SHOULD be complications but a sentence or two, maybe a paragraph, on potential extraction play would have slotted in quite nicely for this one.I might quibble as well with their being simple ruins that are unlooted in a town full of destitutes, or bordellos opening at sundown in a lawless place, but those are just quibbles. It’s also full of good human nature type things like “Linquar’s beggars are downtrodden wretches begging for scraps. At night, more aggressive begging also takes place if the beggars outnumber the opposing party 2:1”

This is a better jungle crawl than Dread. Where Dread was a little sparse this contains the makings of a nice long game, with factions and complications, as well as a base, to help support that longer arc of a game. There are real rewards for dealing with a group of forty flying dinos, or making it through the ape-city, or climbing the highest peak. Intelligent play, by following ruined roads that see from up high, will help direct the party to most places. Three is a place to recruit and offload loot. The apes are presented as SO hateful, though, that it doesn’t leave much room at room for factions, other than, perhaps, subtly working them against each other. 

This is $6.40 at DriveThru. The preview is the first thirteen pages, which shows the island map and some of the town and general instructions. That’s probably enough, although, as always a page of the island encounters or lost city encounters would have been nice as well.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/559570/city-of-the-ape-men?1892600

 Thought I would share a health update with all y'all...

After about ten rounds of chemo, at least fifteen rounds of Keytruda, and four rounds of a nuclear treatment, my most recent scans show that the nuclear treatment, Lutathera, has actually stopped the tumors from growing on my spine, ribs and pelvis, and may in fact be shrinking them. We're working on getting another round of Lutathera to see if we can make more progress, but the fact is that they have stopped my cancer from growing. My original prognosis was that I wouldn't be here today, but I've actually started to substitute teach a few days a week when I'm feeling up to it, and I have some hope for hanging around a few more years. Thanks again for all of the prayers and support that you've sent my way, and for the support you've all given Mary and Grace as well. We truly appreciate it.

 The Adventurer's Backpack from Troll Lord Games is a major expansion for the Castles & Crusades role-playing game. It is primarily designed to streamline character creation and expand player options with a focus on equipment, classes, and magic.Core Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Originally published in 1980 for 1st Edition AD&D, C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a perfect candidate for Castles & Crusades (C&C). Because C&C is built on the "Rosetta Stone" of the Siege Engine, it is largely compatible with 1E modules with minimal on-the-fly conversion.This picks right up from Aethel, the Sunken Core Inner Earth Sword & Sorcery Campaign Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Adapting the classic C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan to the Barrows & Borderlands (B&B) framework requires shifting the focus from standard dungeon crawling to a high-stakes, survival-horror "extraction" crawl. This blog post picks right up from Adapting X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d' Amberville) By Tom Moldvay For Barrows & Borderlands RpgIn B&B, the primary antagonistNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Patrice Crespy
Kabuki Kaiser
OSR
Levels 1-4

It was bound to happen. Too many relics. Too many books. Too much past stacked in one place, the Monument Valley of scrolls and mouldy tomes. The Lucubrarium of Unobsolescence has gone wrong. In Bec–de–Corbin nearby, folk forget their names mid–sentence. Chalk–pale, traits blurred by scratches and hollow wrinkles, eyes sunk. Static. Howls in the night. The militia still stands at the keep and demands tolls, then forgets what it’s doing. The rain just won’t stop. Thugs move in, bold as daylight. And when night comes, the lights go out.

This 44 page digest adventure uses seven or eight pages to describe about forty locations in a town and in a two level library/abbey. You can tell what it is trying to do, but in spite of some great specificity it mostly fails to create the environment it is going for.

There’s this library place, including relics, with a small town around it. Some kind of memory eater/void monster shows up and people start forgetting their names. Some of them no longer have faces. Others are worse, their heads a ragged black blob and howling continually. You show up in town, make it to the library/abbey, and … do whatever. Loot the place for relics I guess. 

Kabuki has some decent ideas and can conjure up some great imagery. The whole “forget your own name” is a nice touch. The ragged face monsters and howling and so on are quite appealing to me, personally (ever since The Void supplement for 3.0, I was captivated by it. Who doesn’t love Munch? At one point one of the random atmosphere tables has “A white noble dress fit for a young lady, nailed to a wall, torn. THAT’S NOT ME, written across the chest in coal.” Well now, that’s a statement, isn’t it? There are little bits and pieces of shit like this scattered throughout that are just great imagery. 

Let us transition somewhat to the following entry. This particular location is a part of the “in town” section. “Falkenrot Manor Earl Falkenrot’s a ghoul — kept secret for ages by his family. When the Faceless came, they wandered off and left him here, locked down in the cellar. Half– Faced, black pits for eyes, ravenous.” Nice concept. Decent ghoul description. Mostly backstory. As a concept for something it’s great. As an actual place, meant to adventure in, it’s pretty lousy. And there is A LOT of this.

The town map is irrelevant, just a kind of conceptual thing with some numbers on buildings. The descriptions are short and=, again, just concepts. “Watchtower Deserted. An alarm fire atop has been spent. Did anyone see it?” Well I don’t know, did they? Are there consequences one way or another to that? 

That bit at the end, it’s some kind of hipster pretension. And THAT absolutely IS prevalent everywhere. The whole “let’s put in a meaningless question under the pretext of giving the DM possibilities!”  There’s a forest wolf encounter. The wolves are hungry and want to steal food and run off, mostly. That’s great! Except we also get “No food, they come in.’ This is supposed to, I think, convey a sense of menace. It does not. Nearby this, in a description meant to be atmospheric, about the journey to the town, it ends with something meant to convey the inclusion of the party in the description. “Chatter about the heist, maps, treasure. Or dead silence. Up to the table.” Why, yes, it is up to the table. But also, what’s with the sentence “Up tp the table?” Ol Craig used a cut down sentence, with dropped words and fragments, in order to save space. Space clearly isn’t an issue here given the ‘luxurious’ room given to simple tables. A couple of pages for “Which of the six howlers show up” could be compressed to maybe six short sentences. Or, the text implies that only three howlers exist, so, perhaps not having a table at all? This sort of needless randomness drives me crazy; an adventure is almost always better when the locales are themed around the specifics of a creature rather than just giving a random determination, for these sorts of encounters. 

And how about those dungeon rooms? “Portcullis: Disjointed and stuck shut. S7 STR with up to 4 characters adding their STR to lift/bend. One attempt only.” Great! That’s how we get those thirtyish rooms down into the quite small page count devoted to locations, with the bulk of the text being other tables. The interactivity here boils down to finding, say, the wormacide that helps you fight the giant bookworms, or being confident in answering a forgetful sphinx’s riddles. 

Not Kabuki’s best work. It feels like it needs another couple of polishes to make everything come together and work as a cohesive whole. Better integration of the various major enemy groups, and a more solid effort in brining out the … joylessness? Melancholy? The forgetful nature of things.

This is $5 at DriveThru.The preview really shows off the worse parts of the adventures, the sparse table nature. Things change, the text style and descriptive style, deeper in and that, being the bulk of the adventure, is where the preview should have focused. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/556896/the-faceless-howl?1892600

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) through Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of April 11, 1985. 

Red Tornado #1: Busiek and Infantino/McLaughlin give Red Tornado his first solo series. It feels like this was maybe greenlit before the new Justice League as the old League shows up in it (though the story specifically says they aren't the League but the "world's major heroes.) Anyway, everyone's done on poor Tornado: Lana Lang says in a news report he can't be trusted. Kathy worries her relationship with his alter ego John Smith won't work because he's passive and unambitious. Even the League shows up to demand he cease operating as a hero. Obviously, a super-villain is beyond it. The Construct is trying to drive a wedge between Red Tornado and humanity by manipulating human thought processes with a signal. I've never been a big fan of "poor misery on the hero" stories, but ultimately it depends on where its going.

Superman #409: The first story is more Silver Age throwback goofiness from Boldman and Swan/Williamson. Ferlin Nyxly, a villain who has apparently appeared before, is up to his old tricks of stealing alien technology and using it to oppose Superman. He does so here, and due to circumstances not worth discussing, Jimmy and then Lois have to "pilot" Superman in his fight with the bad guy.
The second story by Stradley and Schaffenberger/Hunt has Superman fretting his double life, feeling he doesn't give adequate time to either. Maybe he should just be Superman and not Clark Kent? A talk with a tech at GBS convinces him Clark Kent matters too.

Amethyst #7: While traveling, Prince Garnet reveals to Amethyst both where he's been and what it has to do with Fire Jade. We learn that she is the former Lady Emerald who in her youth had been sucked into limbo with Prince Garnet, though she escaped much sooner, she had been tied to the malign creature that ruled there, and when she died of poison, her soul went there and the creature offered her the chance to rule beside him as Fire Jade rather than pass on into the realm of death.

Arak Son of Thunder #46: This was an issue I bought off the spinner rack. The Thomases/Lofficiers and DeZuniga present a story that the series was perhaps begging for: Arak Son of Thunder meets Thor (or Thunor, here) God of Thunder! Arak tells his traveling companions a tale of his time with the Norsemen. Seriously injured in a battle over a beached whale, he's taken by a Valkyrie to Valhalla. Initially, his claim of being the son of a thunder god leads to a brief fight with Thunor, but once he proves able to wield the god's hammer, he as accepted as a brother. After all that, he's returned to Earth.

Batman #385: Moench and Hoberg/Patton bring the Calendar Man case to an end with Batman and Robin apprehending him at the Gotham Zoo, and Robin playing a pivotal role. Batman and Robin reach and agreement regarding their partnership in this issue, with Jason being the voice of reason here. This and him referring to Bruce as a father and him as a son makes it all the more unfortunate that this version of the character got wiped from the comics history in exchange for the more difficult Jason Todd who will get killed by a call-in gimmick and later be resurrected as an anti-hero.

Batman Annual #9: Barr and a group of artists do a series of shorter stories meant to show different aspects of Batman. The first with art by O'Neill/Ordway is the best, with Batman tracking down the killer of the parents of a boy in Jason's class, to keep the boy from being consuming by a desire for revenge as Bruce Wayne was when his parents were killed. The second has art by Nino and has a more bloodthirsty Batman manipulating a group of bankrobbers and a violent terrorist cell into wiping out each other through use of a well-timed cracker (or the Christmas cracker variety). Jurgens/Giordano illustrated Batman solving the murder of a former tennis pro, embittered after being paralyzed in an accident. It's one of those stories that pauses in the middle to give the reader a chance to solve it. The final story with art by Smith is Rashomon-like in that a young child, a teacher, an arsonist, and Batman himself, tell different versions of just how events went done when Batman saved the child from a burning building and took a bullet form the arsonist.

Flash #347: Both sides present their closing arguments in the Flash's trial. Meanwhile, the Reverse-Flash, or someone masquerading as him is taking out the Rogues one by one. Frye decides to return to vigilantism to track the Reverse-Flash down and rashly increases the power on his never-before-mentioned nuclear pacemaker installed by his scientist brother. He manages to get film of the Reverse-Flash, though.
In another strange development, jurist Nathan Newbury appears to have powers of mind control/suggestion. I'm sure he's not going to use those to get the Flash convicted!

Jemm, Son of Saturn #11: This penultimate issue has a some really nice, dynamic work for Colan in places. The White and the Red Saturnians go to war and Jemm and friends try to get back to Earth. On Earth, the gang trying to take out Tull storms his base. Tull has outplayed everyone, though. He stops the war with the power he absorbed by draining the life of the Koolar warrior, then starts draining more White Saturnians. Jemm uses his power to stop him, but it isn't enough until Bouncer, having discovered Tull's lab, his comatose body and the machinery, throws a big piece of it to crush Tull.
Final victory isn't one though, as a Koolar with a grudge against Jemm has kidnapped Luther and taken him to Earth, demanding Jemm face her.

Legion of Super-Heroes #12: In the opening, Levitz and Lightle/Machlan have the Legionnaries taking on group of space pirates using Bgtzll phasing, but most of the issue is about the Legion election and other big changes. Everyone from the new President of Earth to the Science Police is speculating on what the outcome might be. The three founders move to a rotating advisory status and become reservists, and Element Lad again becomes leader. Despite its low-stakes premise, this is a well-done issue that interestingly showcases the importance of the Legion to their world.

Omega Men #28: Klein and McManus continued the weird tale of Wombworld. The six Omega Men scale a furry (at least it looks like it) tower complex of Psions and seem likely to be killed, until Ryand'r seems to convince another alien in the Psion's employ to help them. However, it's revealed the alien almost intended to help them and is working with the entity that runs the station to confound the Psions.
In a "Tales of Vega" short by Steve Parkhouse, two bumbling hunters encounter a crashed starship on a jungle world. The spaceship is active enough that it repeals takes actions to repel the invaders, scaring them away but starting a fire for them to cook their food with.

Star Trek #16: Barr and Sutton/Villagran have Excelsior return to their own universe, but they are hardly greeted as heroes, as Styles in the Christopher Pike backed up by a group of other ships, takes them into custody. Kirk makes a sly play to get what he wants from Starfleet. He leaks his logs to an Andorian reporter assigned to Starfleet, Lyndra Dean. She writes a story revealing the most recent Mirror Universe incursion and Kirk's role in defeating it. Kirk is again a hero, and there are protests outside of Starfleet command in his favor. Starfleet tries to pressure Dean to reveal her source but she doesn't budge.
The Admiralty agrees to give Kirk a ship again--the Excelsior, but they assign Spock to captain a science vessel, Surak. Dean is surprised when flowers are beamed into her apartment with a thank you card from Kirk.
This was a fun issue. one of the best of the week.

Last Ascendant rpg adventure on the 31 of March saw our party saving Lightwave from the machinations of Green Lizard. The PC's agreed to escort Lightwave back to San Maco out in California. The party broke off from the the Ghost of Hong Kong. We brought Lightwave to the local hospital and got her checked out after the Green Lizard had taken multiple genetic sample.  San Moros is Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Back in July 2010, I wrote a post right here on Stargazer’s World about how comic books were a parallel passion of mine and how deeply they influenced my role-playing games. As I’ve been putting together this “40 Years a Gamer” retrospective, I realized I needed to revisit that topic. It’s easy to list movies or literature as the main drivers of fantasy gaming. Still, for me, comic books provided a visual, episodic template that directly translated to how I ran my campaigns. The pacing, the larger-than-life characters, and the shifting status quo were exactly what I wanted to replicate behind the GM screen.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing these inspirations in a series of social media posts on my Facebook Page, Sunglar’s Musings. Now, I want to collect them all here into one definitive list, creating a full picture of the panels and pages that inspired my gaming over the last four decades.

The Fantasy Cornerstones

If we’re talking about the absolute bedrock of my fantasy gaming, three works shaped my love for the genre: Tolkien’s books, the Dragonlance Chronicles, and Elfquest. I discovered Elfquest through the Starblaze Graphics collections, and Wendy and Richard Pini’s work defined my conception of elves, trolls, and faeries (the Preservers in the comics) more than Professor Tolkien ever did. It gave me a template for the exact sort of fantasy story I love to tell: stories about family, love, epic themes, and, most importantly, a narrative that can have closure for some characters. At the same time, new adventurers face new challenges in a living world—a lot like a TTRPG campaign. Chaosium even published an Elfquest TTRPG in the 80s, and they crowfunded a deluxe edition a few years back.

You can read the Elfquest comics online here: https://elfquest.com/reading-room/

Then there is Groo the Wanderer. This may seem like an odd choice, but hear me out! Groo is a hilarious comic by the legendary Sergio Aragonés that brilliantly pokes fun at fantasy barbarians and countless other genre tropes. I discovered Groo directly from the creator himself while visiting a comic shop in NYC back in the 80s. He heard me speaking Spanish with my mom, called me over to his table in the back of the store, and we started chatting. I left that day with the original eight Pacific Comics issues and have been reading Groo ever since. In high school, I would sit in class and scrawl Groo’s stats in the margins of my notebooks for whatever RPG system I was playing. While I never officially introduced Groo into a campaign, his incredible cast of supporting characters provided ample inspiration for NPCs in all my games—especially The Sage, Chakaal, and Taranto. I did include a lost dog named Rufferto looking for his master in a game once, though! There should always be a little room for fun and absurdity in our fantasy games, and Groo is the perfect reminder of that.

Rounding out my early fantasy influences are Marvel’s adaptations of Robert E. Howard. I first knew Conan through the 1982 movie, which I talked my paternal grandfather and uncle into taking me to see on a summer trip to NYC. But I really got to know the mythos through the comics. In December 1983, I got my first issue, Conan #156. Soon, I was buying Savage Sword of Conan, King Conan (which shaped my ideas of domain-level D&D play), and Red Sonja. Sonja was such a strong lead that I based a major rebel leader NPC on her in my 1993 AD&D 2nd Edition homebrew; her descendants are still part of my campaign world today. And I must mention The Official Handbook of the Conan Universe. I read it repeatedly, and its format influenced how I organize my own campaign materials.

Swords, Sorcery, and the DC Universe

Over at DC, Mike Grell’s The Warlord and Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duusrsema’s Arion, Lord of Atlantis were massive for me.

My mom picked up back-issues of The Warlord on a business trip, along with a huge stack of Rom Spaceknight. I first read the adventures of Skartaris completely out of order. Still, the sword-and-sorcery elements hit so hard that in the summer of 1988, I based a homebrew NPC named Janna directly on Shakira the werecat. Janna became the love interest of Ranger Oliver (whose player was a big Green Arrow fan, particularly The Longbow Hunter, tying it right back to Mike Grell!). She was the daughter of the Cat Lord (remember him in Monster Manual II?). Eventually, she replaced her father and became the mythical ruler of all felines in my campaign.

Arion gave me a different perspective. Arion’s battle against the Lords of Chaos to protect Atlantis gave me an immediate, tangible reference point for the Law vs. Chaos alignment conflict in D&D, long before I ever read Michael Moorcock’s Elric, or learned about Poul Anderson’s influence on the development of the alignment system for D&D. I also loved the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths connections to DC lore, the Lords Chaos and Order in the DC universe. Then there is the fact that Arion’s co-creator, Jan Duursema, illustrated the original AD&D comic. Another gaming connection!

Sci-Fi, Aliens, and the Apocalypse

My sci-fi gaming drew heavily from a few specific series. First up is Atari Force. I discovered the universe in the mini comics tucked inside Atari cartridges. Still, it was the comic book series and graphic novel illustrated by José Luis García-López that truly inspired me. Many of the comic’s characters became NPCs in my high school Star Frontiers campaign and later campaigns. Some elements from the comics and the visual aesthetics still influence and inform my sci-fi games, including the Wanderers of the Outlands and the Stars Without Number campaign.

Conqueror of the Barren Earth started as a backup feature in The Warlord before getting its own four-issue mini-series. Eleven-year-old me loved this post-apocalyptic mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy. With its strong female lead, Jinal Ne’ Comarr, it became a huge reference point for me when I eventually discovered games like Gamma World and Rifts.

For the Alternity and dX campaigns I ran in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Christopher Moeller’s beautifully illustrated Iron Empires series was hugely influential. Only the first two books, Iron Empires: Faith Conquers and Sheva’s War, were out when I ran those games, but I now own all three, including volume 3, Void. There is even a TTRPG for the setting called Burning Empires, based on the Burning Wheel system. I once walked all the way across Manhattan to get a copy of it at The Complete Strategist, but I still haven’t played it!

On the weirder side of the spectrum, I devoured the Spanish editions of Gods from Outer Space (Los Dioses del Universo) when I was nine. Let’s be clear: the book these comics are based on, The Chariots of the Gods, is unscientific, Eurocentric hogwash that minimizes the achievements of other cultures. But as a kid, I knew nothing about that. They were just wild ideas that fascinated me and informed my early TTRPG worldbuilding. Today, I sometimes go back to those concepts at the table, but those meddlesome creatures from beyond the world are now cast firmly as oppressors and antagonists.

Superheroes, Cyberpunk, and Pulp Action

Regardless of the genre you are playing, your adventuring party is essentially a superhero team. Each member has their roles and powers, and the dynamics between them set the tone for the game. For me, one team in comics exemplifies that perfectly: the Legion of Super-Heroes. I read the Legion for years; the old stories in DC digests in the early 80s, the Great Darkness Saga, and the 1994 reboot. The Legion taught me, as a GM, how to handle the varied dynamics of a vast, diverse cast, proving that interpersonal relationships are what actually make a game interesting. The Five Years Later storyline also taught me not to fear tearing down a campaign and rebuilding it into something different when your stories need a reboot.

Another huge superhero influence was Hammerlocke, a 1992-1993 nine-issue series drawn by Chris Sprouse. It was a brilliant mash-up of low-power superheroes, cyberpunk sci-fi, espionage, and mystery centered on a space elevator and cyborg Archer Locke. It showed how to run superheroes in a completely different setting from the four-color mainstream adventures and directly influenced how I construct those sorts of stories.

Finally, let me tell you about an old character whose current adventures are my favorite comic being produced today: Flash Gordon. For years, Dan Jurgens’ DC mini-series adaptation (where Flash was a washed-out basketball player) was my benchmark for a modern version of the character. But then came Dan Schkade. As the creator of the current daily strip, he tells refreshing stories that respect and build on the classic mythology while making it feel completely new. He inspires my gaming by showing how to create fresh content that builds naturally on the work that came before it. Reading his strip makes me want to run games based on pulp characters, a reimagined Defenders of the Earth, and it really makes me want to finally run that Mystara game I’ve always dreamed of playing.

Looking back, these comics taught me pacing, worldbuilding, and how to create larger-than-life situations that still felt grounded in character relationships.

What comic books shaped your time at the table? Let me know in the comments.

 Creating a d100 encounter table for Castles & Crusades requires a mix of gritty realism, ancient mystery, and the "weird" elements typical of the Swords & Sorcery genre. In this style, magic is often dangerous or corruptive, and the environment is as much an enemy as the monsters.Below is a table designed for wilderness travel, ruins, or borderlands. This blog entry picks right up Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Daniel Hicks
Self Published
ACKS
Levels 4-6

Warning! Barrier Peaks is my all time nostalgia favorite. 

A spaceship was transferring dangerous exotic lifeforms for sale at another point. A defective containment unit released one avid Hund, which quickly killed those present and set about freeing its kin. The acid hounds killed or fatally wounded every passenger and member of the ship’s crew in short order. Unfortunately, this occurred while the pilot was making manual course corrections in the outskirts of this solar system and with the autopilot disabled the ship drifted off course for weeks. More recently, she ship has crash-landed, and

presents a hazard if approached.

This five page adventure uses about two pages to present about thirteen rooms in a crashed flying saucer. Basic descriptions, simple map, not much beyond the most basic of encounter structures. And, of course, too small for its theme. But, hey, it’s got more rooms than pages, so there’s that!

A classic flying saucer has crash landed, so imagine a circle layout, about a dozen rooms along the edge and one or to interior, with a circle hallway in between. It crashed because some Acid Hounds got loose. You’ll find all seven of those 3 HD dudes in the first room you encounter after entering through the hole in the side, the cargo hold. At some point you’ll also face a nanite cloud in one of the rooms. This is the extent of your actual challenges. Otherwise you find the door bracelets and collect the blasters and auto-heal patches. IE: the usual. There are more than a few missed opportunities here, like “The ship’s main reactor (‘captive-star’), centrally

located, has burned out, and cannot be restarted without the aid of a similar vessel.” You can self-destruct the ship from here, and you can loot some platinum wiring. But, no word on what looting the captive-star is/does. Sad. No green slime in the shower. No malfunctioning auto-doc. There’s just nothing involved at all going on in this. I mean, even combat, after that first room, except for the nanite swarm. You gotta have some shit to fuck around with in an adventure. Grave tubes. The jungle level. Wait, I’m describing Barrier Peaks….

These small page count adventures have a real problem with matching their theming to their size. The Lost City of Infintium! Two pages. The Endless Maze of Nilhelm. Four pages. If you’re going to theme your adventure to something that really needs more pages and has endless possibilities then you really need to make it more than the five pages, for example, that this one is. 

Descriptions here are sparse. “Shower’ A small area for changing clothes sits outside the two shower stalls. Two dials are in each shower: one to turn it one and off, one for water temperature (a range from freezing to brisk).” There are also some general notes in the beginning about lighting and doors, but no real evocative descriptions are present, even for the Acid Hounds.”Acid hounds have pale green skin and a tripartite jaw.” Ok. Drooling acid? Foaming at the mouth? Mangy fur? Allof the descriptions are very businesslike with little to inspire here.

The map, here, is not great. It’s black on white. The room numbers are in a light blue that doesn’t stand out real great. But also there are other notations on the map. B, P, b, c, 3C, C. These are quite dense, nothing which kind of bracelet gets you through a door, a sub-ro number and the location of bodies. Yes, you can figure it out. No, it is not the most cognitively easy thing you’ll ever look at. If you can light blue the font then the door codes could be in a different color, and if you can put symbols on the map then you can put body outlines on the map, all of which is easier to look at tell what is going on at a glance. 

There’s not really much here of interest, if anything.

This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $2.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/558966/chipped-saucer?1892600

 Bringing the "Prince of Panache" into the Cepheus Engine (or similar 2D6-based OGL systems) requires balancing his high-camp theatricality with his legitimate genius. In the 1966 series, Vincent Price played Egghead as a "self-styled smartest man in the world" who spoke in egg-based puns and relied on chemistry and gadgets rather than brute force.Here is the profile for Egghead, tailored Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Adapting a character like Claw the Unconquered—the cursed, demon-handed barbarian of DC Comics fame—requires balancing his immense physical prowess with the unpredictable nature of his magical affliction.In Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition, Claw fits the Barbarian or Gladiator career paths perfectly. Below are the mechanical details to bring him into your campaign.Claw the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Long-time readers of my blog know I have a long-standing abiding interest in space exploration. One of my hobbies is flying space simulators and writing realistic add-ons for them.  Artemis II launched a few days ago and is now heading to the moon for a fly-by. The flight's purpose is to check out the Orion capsule on a multi-day mission. Rather than just orbit the Earth the whole time like Apollo 7, NASA decided to use the time to perform a flyby of the Moon. The mission's various orbits have been cleverly designed so that, even if the capsule's propulsion system failed, the crew could return to Earth, including the lunar fly-by.

Because of the mission profile, the only time of the month Artemis II can be launched during this part of the year is during the full moon, as that is when the moon's orbit places it closest to Earth. Because of the the astronaut had a first-of-its-kind opportunity to take a picture of the entire Earth.

What you are seeing is a photograph of the entire Earth. It is not lit by the sun, which is behind our planet. But lit by moonlight. The camera settings were set to longer shutter times and other settings to allow more detail to be visible in the photo.

Some unique features you can see in the picture include the stars surrounding Earth. And you can see city lights as well. In the lower right, you can see the zodiacal light. At the bottom and top, you can see the green auroras hovering above the poles. And looking carefully at the edge of the Earth, you can see the edge of the atmosphere outlined by the sodium line caused by meteors burning up in thin air.

Enjoy, and Godspeed, the crew of Artemis II

Link to the Photo