Feed aggregator

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Sixth Doctor Adventures, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 In Decaying Orbit—the atmospheric sci-fi horror tabletop RPG focused on exploring a doomed orbital facility and uncovering lost memories—The Red Room serves as one of the station’s most ominous, high-tension focal points. This blog post picks right up North West of Earth By C.L. Moore - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg - Expanding The Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Covers and details for Big Finish’s grand finale for Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker are here

 

Circuit Breaker, this year’s Doctor Who multimedia epic, continues throughout August and September. The various chapters are standalone adventures while also building into one huge storyline. By the end, it will have wound its way through Titan Comics, Doctor Who Magazine, BBC Audiobooks, East Side Games, and books from Puffin and Penguin Random House. The grand finale, however, will play out in audio releases from Big Finish. Covers and details of those two audio releases are now available.

Big Finish’s contributions comprise the two-hour series finale, Full Circuit (a full-cast audio drama) and two Short Trips-style audiobook stories released together as Short Circuits. Both will be out in September.

Circuit Breaker sees UNIT recruit the Fugitive Doctor to help with a major crisis. Objects from throughout the Time Lord’s history have mysteriously appeared in UNIT’s Black Archive. Each radiates the same strange energy which threatens to tear time and space apart over the skies of London. The Fugitive is the only one who can return them to their proper place. But the danger may be more linked to her own past with Division than anyone realizes…

The cast of Full Circuit includes Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor, Ingrid Oliver as Osgood, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Omari Douglas as Andrew, and Dan Starkey. You can also expect more casting news closer to the release date. Dan Starkey also reads both stories in Short Circuits.

 

“It all pays off at UNIT Tower, facing a massive threat to the planet, and only they can stop it!”

Robert Valentine, writer of Full Circuit, said: “I was thrilled to write the climactic episode of the Circuit Breaker saga, and it was quite the responsibility. The Doctor, Osgood and Andrew have been on this perilous journey together, and it all pays off at UNIT Tower, where Kate Lethbridge-Stewart is facing a massive threat to the safety of the planet, and only they can stop it.

“It was also huge fun pairing the Fugitive Doctor with Osgood and Kate, because Jo Martin’s Doctor is an irreverent, no-nonsense incarnation with no sentimental baggage about her UNIT allies, so her Doctor can say things to them that no other version of the Doctor could. And that was a blast to write!”

Valentine also script edited Short Circuits, about which he said: “What I love about the two Short Circuits stories is the sidelights they cast on the two main Circuit Breaker characters brand-new to Doctor Who – the formidable villain known as the Conductor, and Osgood’s gifted assistant, Andrew Turner – and the extra depths they give them.”

 

 

Full Circuit by Robert Valentine:

The Doctor, Osgood and Andrew are joined by Kate Lethbridge Stewart. A final mysterious object is manifesting, this one at the pinnacle of UNIT Tower itself.

A Time Bomb! Which threatens a dark future for all of the Doctor’s incarnations.

Only this Doctor can save herself – and her other selves – from this intricately woven scheme.

 

Doctor Who: Short Circuits. Cover by Soundsmyth Creative (c) Big Finish Short Circuits contains these two short stories: Battleships by Alex Hewitt

Meet the Conductor. This cadaverous specimen is a peerless tactical genius. But life is hard for a man who stands out from his fellows, and this formidable mastermind must outwit certain rivals before setting his sights on his true enemy.

Get Rich or Die Trying by Alex Hewitt, from a story by Natasha Siegel

Meet Andrew – a young man with a good job and a mysterious benefactor. Following a coded message to the Jurassic Coast, where a team of palaeontologists are digging up a dinosaur skeleton, Andrew encounters a stranger who gives him a so-called time-travel device. Before he knows what’s happened, Andrew is plunged back through history, all the way to the Jurassic Period itself. Why has he been sent here?

Who is his anonymous benefactor? And is he the victim of a sinister experiment? Only time will tell…

 

Doctor Who – Circuit Breaker: Full Circuit is now available to pre-order for just £13.99 (download to own) or £21.99 (download to own + collector’s edition CD), exclusively from the Big Finish website. And, Doctor Who – Circuit Breaker: Short Circuits is now available to pre-order as a download to own for £11.99.  

Plus, a multi-buy bundle of both releases is available for £23 (download to own) or £31 (download to own + Full Circuit collector’s edition CD). 

 

 

Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker #2. Art by Jay Anacleto (c) Titan Comics Circuit Breaker continues with Dawn of the Daleks, from Titan Comics on the 4th of August

 

The post Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker Big Finish Details appeared first on Blogtor Who.

I’m writing this in the last minutes at my desk before I pack it all in and leave on the Rally. It’s dark and quiet in the house, but I can hear Ken getting dressed upstairs, getting ready for whatever the day brings us. Yesterday was packing day. It’s the day when we organize all of the things we’ll need to camp and cycle our way across Ontario and into Quebec, more than 600km all the way to Montreal. You get two bins, and you can put anything in them you like. I like to split it up – all my camping things in one bin – my tent, my sleeping pad, my blanket and the stupid camping pillow I bring every year because I suppose I’d rather use that than haul a full size one. (Apparently, since I do it every year.) The other bin gets clothes, cycling stuff, toiletries – and I presume that it is where everyone on the rally puts their yarn and needles.

I am not 100% sure, but I think that is a picture of everyone who has yarn in their bins on the rally this year. I love everyone in that snap, and not (just) because they are knitters. I was watching them all pack up yesterday – putting things in bins, hugging and laughing together, already the tight little knot that we’ll be all week and it struck me that what I love best about them is how committed this team is to taking care of people, both each other and the world they live in.

The weather forecast for today is horrible. Not just bad, or a bit rainy… horrible. Cataclysmic. The worst possible cycling weather. “Special Weather Statement” kind of weather. That statement says things like “heavy rainfall” “multiple thunderstorms” “flooding.” There is every possibility that we will be riding 122km tomorrow in nothing but rain, from the minute we gather to depart, all through the day until a bunch of exhausted, wet, dirty people have to set up tents in a deluge, and then lie in it all night.

We are all hoping this doesn’t happen. Sometimes the forecasts are wrong, sometimes storms just miss towns or cities or groups of cyclists. Right this minute there is only a drizzle. Here in Ontario sometimes these epics are swept out over our great lake to make crashing waves and dramatic scenes and not at all dump on people on bikes and we have our fingers crossed for that. We all spent yesterday trying to laugh it off and not worry about while simultaneously checking the weather for here (Toronto) and where we’re cycling too (Port Hope) to see if maybe it had improved. (No luck yet. Feel free to continuously check the weather as many times as you like too – more people worrying about it can only help manifest the skies we want. If you want to try this, think “tailwind” as well.)

We did something else yesterday – I watched all of Team Knit quietly decide, one by one, that we will double down on caring for each other. The longer we were there the nicer we all got. The Rally is hard, we are always sweet to each other on the road, finding extra kind words, getting someone a coffee, waiting for them so they’re not alone – these gestures are what our backbones are made of out there. All of our success is built on helping each other through it, doing your best to lift someone else knowing that they will lift you, and this exceptional difficulty calls for exceptional kindnesses. I saw as each member of our little pod decided that the way they would find their way through this would be by floating someone else. It works, and it is so lovely when it does.

It is the way the Rally is too, a couple of hundred people all working together deciding that helping someone else is so often the best way to help yourself- whether it’s helping someone change a flat, or deciding that you will use some of your time each year to fundraise and ride through a tsunami to change the lives of grownups and kids with HIV/AIDS.

It works, and it better, because frankly, the weather looks like trash all week.

Team Knit would like to thank you for supporting us and helping us. We’d like you to know that when you donate you lift us up too – and that we can feel that you’re on our team. Many hands make for light work, and the tiniest donation ripples into a big help when it goes into the pile with the rest of the knitters, and we are so, so grateful that you know that and give to this cause. We are all almost at our goals thanks to you, but as always we have hopes to leave those goals in our formidable wake.

Off we go.

Welcome to Day 2 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Stature (Prompt) + Drive (Weekly Modifier) + Blessed (Weekly Modifier) + Pulp & Two-Fisted Adventure (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Nathaniel Morrow (Fantasy Name Generator used for the name: 20th-century English name generator)

Nathaniel Morrow was a young, renowned pilot for the Morrow Traveling Airshow. His daring abilities and his drive to be the best made him known far and wide, cementing his reputation as the preeminent aviator on the circuit. His remarkable stature among other, far older pilots was exactly why Doctor Lars Peukert reached out to him to test-fly the experimental Peukert X-71 Hyper Plane.

Boarding the aircraft at Dr. Peukert’s secret facility in Seattle, Nathaniel intended to cross the Pacific in record time. Unfortunately, the doctor’s team lost contact with him shortly after takeoff. As the silence stretched on, he was widely presumed lost at sea.

Against all odds, Nathaniel unexpectedly touched down at Pearl Harbor, shattering the speed record. The military dismissed his wild tales of where he had been, convinced the young pilot was simply blessed—surviving in such a badly damaged aircraft was nothing short of a miracle. Yet, upon returning to Dr. Peukert, Nathaniel recounted the full truth: during his flight, he had passed through a strange storm cloud and entered a wondrous, uncharted world. He had spent weeks surviving in that lost land before finally escaping back to his own reality.

Thus began Nathaniel and Dr. Peukert’s relentless drive to find the lost land beyond the storm.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: The Snowmen, 2012 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 Green Martians (Tharks, Warhoons, and independent hordes) are the terror of the dry sea beds. Standing 10 to 12 feet tall with four arms, tusks, and an innately warlike culture, their encounters should range from lone honor-bound duelists to terrifying clan migrations capable of leveling a city-state. This entry picks right up from Building The Red Planet Empire - Mixing Warriors of Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Peter Jewicz
Mellow Golem Games
"OSR"
Level 5?

This twelve page adventure uses about three pages to describe four rooms in a hag lair. It sufferers from the generic/universal curse and relies on tables for a substantial portion of the adventure. Abstracted content with little specificity to help bring it alive. 

The legend of the beast is persistent in these parts, a terrible force that dwells deep in the swamp and strikes fear into the hearts of those who live nearby. Little do they know, the beast is but a pawn, for something far more sinister lurks within the bowls of the swamp.

Ah, the generic/universal adventure. They seldom fail to not disappoint, even when statted for “OSR”, as this one is. There is something about them that makes a designer seemingly fearful of providing anything concrete to it. The designer wanted an adventure in which the party shows up to a village on the edge of a swamp. Fearful and superstitious locals. Talk of The Beast, everywhere, the cause of all ills. And then a journey through a swamp, full of dread, before finally arriving at the beasts lair, only to find out Muhahahahaha! The beast is the pet of a swamp hag! 

Instead, we get little of that.

Adventure writing can be hard. As a designer you have to get out of your head what you are imagining and get that down on paper so that when someone reads it they can get close to what you intended. We get what the designer wanted here because they out right tell us “To get the full effect for this mini-adventure, make sure to play up the townsfolk’s fear of the beast.” That is, in principle, great! You want a town that seems immersive to that point. The adventure designer needs to help bring that about. This doesn’t do that. The village is quite minimal, just one line or so about the town being on stilts and moldy. That’s fine, but, what isn’t fine is the lack of the The Best present in their ramblings. Or any rambling at all. We might look to the rumors table, but all we get is abstracted information like “1 The swamp has been especially active lately.” or that the swamp spirits are angry. There’s nothing much here at all about The Beast. I love that it’s called The Beast, but there’s nothing more. None of its misdeeds or lame calves or anything. The designer needs to bring an adventure alive through specificity for things like this. Yes, the DMs job is to run with it and expand on it but you have to give them SOMETHING to work with. 

Then we get to the swamp. This also is abstracted away. Just roll on a page full of random tables. “3 A large depression that collects rainwater.” or a smell that “A salty taste, similar to being near an ocean.”  That’s what you have to work with here; it’s totally abstracted away. There IS an encounter table, or single line entries or so, and it does show some decent things in it. “A series of stick figures are attached to the trees. Until they are destroyed, those traversing this area of the swamp walk in circles always arriving back at the figures.” That’s creepy as all fuck. And it deserves more than a line on a d12 encounter table. The swamp needed to be fixed encounters, or a pointcrawl or something, with the entries worked to bring them to life. 

The lair, proper, is four rooms. You get The Beast room, a Catoblepas, and then a potion room. In the potion room you get told EXPLICITLY how to make a potion, by a journal, that gets you through a bramble corridor. Then you hit, surprise, Lareth the Beautiful! Err a swamp hag. No hints of a hag up to this point at all. It’s all wasted. 

Make the town afraid. Make the swamp a real area and bring life to the best of the encounters on the table. Hint at creepy things to foreshadow the hag. 

Tables ruin adventures. Yes, old school uses tables and randomness, but not to create the entire adventure from. 

This is $2 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages. You get to see the “village” and the “swamp”, or at least the dressing for it. The preview should have shown a bit more of the adventure, a lair page, for example. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/571424/lair-of-the-swamp-beast?1892600

Welcome to Day 1 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Discipline (Prompt) + Drive (Weekly Modifier) + Works Hard (Weekly Modifier) + Fantasy (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Antonia One Eye (Fantasy Name Generator used for the name: Bandits)

Antonia was born into poverty in Karral, a major metropolis in the southern trade routes, where the imperial ways meet the Thunsen River. Living as an urchin and pickpocket in the bustling streets, she lost her left eye, leaving a terrible scar, after stealing from a powerful crime lord, the heir of the elder Thief Lord.

Banished from the city by the Beggar Master, Antonia was forced to survive among the outlaw bands in the hills outside the city. Despite the hardships and cruelties she faced, Antonia was driven by a thirst for vindication and revenge, quickly rising to leadership among the brigands.

Other bands would raid caravans, spend their coin wantonly, and engage in internecine infighting. Antonia’s crew was disciplined, recruiting the most skillful warriors and cunning spotters. They carried out the most daring heist with the greatest rewards.

Antonia One Eye became known as Queen of the Bandit Hills.

The One Eye’s crew carried out the daring attack that captured the new Thief Prince, ransomed him to The Brotherhood of Shadows for a fortune, and the head of the old Beggar Master.

Known for her tenacity and diligence, none of her crew were ever found despite the Thief Prince hunt and bounties. Rumors insist Antonia sails a pleasure barge down the canals of the delta of exotic and ancient Nefatara.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

 Here is a full d100 Treasure Table tailored for the Tower of the Serpent Horde, fully compatible with Castles & Crusades (and most classic OSR systems). This post picks right up from A d100 Abomination and Undead Sword & Sorcery Random Encounter Table for Castles & Crusades rpgIn true Sword & Sorcery fashion, the hoard favors ancient relics, dark alchemical compounds, Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Another way of recasting different groups of elves I've thought about is to draw inspiration from the wuxia tradition with its various kung-fu sects/schools/cults. Wikipedia has a nice (though I'm sure incomplete) list by author of these.

Though, I'm not opposed to kung-fu elves, mind you, perhaps in the case of elves, these would be based around a particular school or style of magic? They could be based on the elements or maybe the Classical Planets. They would presumably each be centered in a particular locale, probably remote from wider civilization.

Using this approach, different types of elves would have less physical or temperamental differences, but perhaps more philosophical ones. There might be rivalries between them. Since it's not an ethnicity but an allegiance, elves could move from one to the other, though perhaps not without some penalty.

I think this approach also has the benefit of making elven subtypes less background and more factions to interact with in gameplay.

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the yearly tradition of RPG a Day, this time for 2026.

Quick recap for the uninitiated:

RPG a Day is a social media event started by David F. Chapman (aka Autocratik) that has been going on for the past 13 years. The purpose of the event is to celebrate all the positive aspects of tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) by sharing our experiences, ideas, and creations via social media posts, videos, blog entries, or other creative endeavors. If you decide to participate, there is a series of daily prompts to spark your creativity and encourage discussion. Tag your content with the hashtag #RPGaDay2026 so everyone can follow along!

You can find the prompts at Autocratik’s blog. He also partners with Anthony Boyd (aka Runeslinger), whose blog Casting Shadows also features the prompts along with an alternative set of questions you can use.

I’m reproducing this year’s infographic with the prompts and instructions below.

Okay, with that out of the way: what are my plans for this year?

The infographic mentions that this year can be approached as a character creation challenge, and I’m taking up that challenge. I hope to create 31 short NPC descriptions, aiming for two to four paragraphs each. We’ll see how well I manage to stick to that goal!

To set things up, I took the daily prompt. I combined it with the weekly modifiers (on the left side of the calendar) and the daily modifiers (at the bottom of the calendar), which are based on the Monday’s Child nursery rhyme—a poem I didn’t know until I saw the reference on the infographic. Together, these three elements give me the theme and motivation for each NPC.

To determine the genre for each character, I created this little random table to roll on:

Die RollGenre1Fantasy2Science Fiction & Space Opera3Cyberpunk4Superheroes5Pulp & Two-Fisted Adventure6Horror (Cosmic & Personal)7Post-Apocalyptic8Western

After rolling 31 times, here is the master list I’ll be working with throughout August:

DayPromptModifier 1 (Week)Modifier 2 (Weekday)Genre1DisciplineDriveWorks HardFantasy2StatureDriveBlessedPulp & Two-Fisted Adventure3PoiseIntellectFair of FaceCyberpunk4CharmIntellectFull of GraceHorror (Cosmic & Personal)5BurdenIntellectFull of WoeFantasy6ReachIntellectFar to GoScience Fiction & Space Opera7MercyIntellectLoving & GivingWestern8ResolveIntellectWorks HardCyberpunk9PrivilegeIntellectBlessedPost-Apocalyptic10SecretAssociatesFair of FaceSuperheroes11TactAssociatesFull of GraceFantasy12LossAssociatesFull of WoeHorror (Cosmic & Personal)13StrainAssociatesFar to GoPulp & Two-Fisted Adventure14RegardAssociatesLoving & GivingScience Fiction & Space Opera15EnduranceAssociatesWorks HardWestern16ComposureAssociatesBlessedPost-Apocalyptic17IntensityInstinctFair of FaceSuperheroes18DirectnessInstinctFull of GraceCyberpunk19DesireInstinctFull of WoeFantasy20PromiseInstinctFar to GoHorror (Cosmic & Personal)21CharityInstinctLoving & GivingScience Fiction & Space Opera22GritInstinctWorks HardPulp & Two-Fisted Adventure23FortuneInstinctBlessedPost-Apocalyptic24DistanceEmotionFair of FaceWestern25FamiliarityEmotionFull of GraceFantasy26RegretEmotionFull of WoeSuperheroes27HungerEmotionFar to GoHorror (Cosmic & Personal)28DevotionEmotionLoving & GivingCyberpunk29LabourEmotionWorks HardScience Fiction & Space Opera30PrideEmotionBlessedPulp & Two-Fisted Adventure31EdgeAbilityFair of FacePost-Apocalyptic

I don’t think I can invent 31 completely original names on top of everything else, so I’ll be using Fantasy Name Generator to help generate them.

These NPCs will be posted right here on the blog and shared across my socials: Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and Sunglar’s Musings on Facebook. I also plan to post a Spanish version of each NPC over at Desde la Fosa.

These are the prompts in Spanish in case you want to participate in your language:

This will run alongside my regular schedule of movie and video game inspiration posts, my Saturday Recommendations on Sunglar’s Musings, and hopefully Sunday interviews here on the blog.

That is an ambitious schedule, and something might fall through the cracks along the way, but I’m going all in! We’ll take stock of how I did by the end of August.

I hope you join us on this adventure for August 2026. Don’t forget to tag your posts with the #RPGaDay2026 hashtag. The RPG a Day community on Facebook is also a great hub for sharing posts and interacting with other participants. Whether you complete all 31 days or pop in for one, join us to celebrate the positives of this great community.

See you tomorrow!

 Adapting Vampire Hunter D into the Cepheus Engine (a 2D6 2D6-based open-tabletop sci-fi RPG system) is a natural fit. Hideyuki Kikuchi’s world combines far-future post-apocalyptic technology, bio-engineering, cybernetics, and gothic horror—the exact intersection of Cepheus Engine’s high-tech sci-fi rules and grit.

Filet crochet is a technique that uses a simple grid of open and filled mesh squares to create beautiful pictures, patterns, and geometric designs. And it's all done using just chains and double crochets! I'll show you how to filet crochet in right and left-handed video tutorials on Moogly! Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. […]

The post How to Filet Crochet appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

0

 Created by famed German author Karl May in the late 19th century, Old Shatterhand (the alter-ego of Karl, a German surveyor turned wild-west legend) is one of the most famous European pulp heroes of all time. Known for his superhuman punching power—capable of knocking out a man or a horse with a single blow to the temple (hence his name)—he is a polymath, master marksman, tracker, and a Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

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 August 1, 1985. 

Crisis on Infinite Earths #8: After his fight with Supergirl, The Anti-Monitor makes it back to his base and adopts a new look before deciding to head for Qward where his "plan B" is being constructed: an anti-matter cannon. Psycho-Pirate and Flash have no choice but to accompany him.
Meanwhile in the 20th Century, some heroes are gathered in the old JLA satellite with T.O. Morrow to try to repair Red Tornado. Atom is investigating inside Red when he sees something activating. The heroes scramble to safety as the android explodes. Blue Devil is knock through a portal to the Vega System, and Firehawk is forced to make herself a new costume.
In the 30th Century, the Legionnaires monitor the 5 remaining Earths. Brainiac 5 frantically looks for a means to save them, while refusing to mentally acknowledge Supergirl's death.
On Qward, the Flash breaks free and takes Psycho-Pirate captive. He threatens to kil him and forces the villain to manipulate the Thunderers into attacking the Anti-Monitor. With that distraction, the Flash sabotages the energy core of the cannon. Running faster than he has every run before, he turns the energy back on itself. The cost is his own physical integrity, as he painfiully begins to disintegrate. He mentally says goodbye to his friends and family (mentioning Fiona who was forgotten in his comic by the end!) and feels himself slip back in time as he dies. He tries to warn Batman and the Joker, before he is gone leaving only his ring and costume. Unlikely Supergirl, none of the other heroes are aware of his passing or his sacrifice.
I feel like Crisis is improving in this second half. The first six issues seem mostly putting the pieces in place and establishing the stakes. There is still more than a little "just go with it" with Wolfman's plotting, but it's an engaging read.

Blue Devil Annual #1: This is called Blue Devil Summer Fun in the monthly checklists published in the issues. I feel like this issue was the real highwater mark for Blue Devil. My brother and I read it and re-read it as kids. I'm happy to say, I feel like the work done here by Mishkin/Cohn and Cullins/Martin holds up. Thanks to Wayne bringing back a crystal ball-like egg from Ile Du Diable and stashing it in Dan's workshop, Blue Devil is drawn into a battle with Felix Faust which has already entangled several occult and weird guest stars: the Creeper, Man-Bat, Madame Xanadu, Phantom Stranger, Etrigan, and ultimately Black Orchid. The heroes fail to stop all the imps that hatch from the egg from reaching a birthing pit, despite Dan chasing them with a butterfly net, and Etrigan gobbling up everyone he can find. The imp is transformed into a duplicate of Nebiros made of sand. The heroes manage to pull him apart, but the battle is only over when Phantom Stranger sucker punches Faust.
The issue is Blue Devil at its best: an action-comedy romp. One of my favorite bits is Xanadu and the Stranger at various points each telling conflicting versions of the origin of Black Orchid. Xanadu's tale is a pastiche of Daredevil's origin, while the Stranger's is a pastiche of Spider-Man's. Mishkin/Cohn also have a lot of fun with Etrigan's rhyming commentary.
It's a shame the series wasn't consistently this good, though its humorous approach was probably not what the majority of comic readers wanted in 1985. 

DC Comics Presents #87: Maggin and Swan/Williamson introduce the last Superboy of the pre-Crisis universe, the Superboy of Earth-Prime. Superman is mourning the loss of Supergirl, presenting an opportunity for the Superman Revenge Squad. They send him to an alternate Earth. Shortly after his arrival, the last son of Krypton of that Earth begins to manifest his Kryptonian powers. Superman introduces himself and the starts coaching the boy on his powers. They work together to repel an alien invasion. After that, they work to return Superman to Earth-1 via the alien's technology, but as soon as Superman's through, he's again ambushed by the Revenge Squad.
The backup story tells the origin of Superboy Prime. In this universe, Clark Kent and Superman are well-known from comics and media, but there is still a real Krypton and Jor-El, and this one has developed a teleportation device. Due events, only the infant Kal-El is sent to Earth where he is adopted by Jerry and Naomi Kent. They name the baby Clark, after Naomi's maiden name, realizing they have named him for a comic book character. On this Earth, Clark Kent grows up with super-powers.

Fury of Firestorm #41: Kayanan's back on art, and we get a Crisis crossover. Like a lot of these, it brings Firestorm up to where we see him in Crisis #1. Ronnie and Stein have move to Pittsburgh and Vandermeer College. Doreen and Cliff Carmichael are here, too, so Ronnie has similar social dynamics to before. Harbinger arrives to recruit Firestorm, but her job is complicated by Psycho-Pirate who she brought with her. His emotional manipulation of Stein causes Firestorm to fight at first.

Hex #3: Fleisher and Texiera/Garzoin don't give Hex a minute to catch his breath. He flees Borsten's minions through the desert, them gets set upon by punks looking to rob him when he stops in a town to wonder at the populace all hallucinating from some drug. He's rescued by a guy in an aircraft that offers him a job as his muscle, but then he turns out that guy is the dealer pushing the drug by aerosolizing it in an area and getting people addicted, before starting to charge. Hex objects to all this, the two fight, and the pusher falls from the aircraft.
Meanwhile, Borsten's under pressure by corporate types to deliver the Wild West gunfight he promised, as they're tired of watching kidnapped World War I soldiers fight it out. He yells at his minions to get him Hex so he can save face. The pressure must be getting to the old guy, as he again has to rushed to the rejuvenation tanks. 

Justice League of America #244: Conway and Staton/Machlan deliver a different perspective on the last few pages of last Infinity, Inc.issue. The JLA members that escaped the assault last issue regroup in the satellite then go to Earth-Two to enlist the JSA for help. Meanwhile, the Infinitors begin to suspect Heywood and Mekanique mislead them just in time for the JSA/JLA team to arrive. Mekanique gets away, but Steel and Commander Steel get a one-on-one combat, which Steel wins.

Outsiders #1: I bought this back in '85. I seemed special with the metallic ink on the cover. Barr and Aparo present a direct sale only book in the style of New Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes. Like those comics, there's a time jump between this issue and the concurrently published Batman and the Outsiders. The Outsiders are in L.A., they have a new member, Looker, and they are no longer partnered with Batman. They make a reference to "bad blood," but that's as much as we get.
The team is undercover, guarding the controversial opening of a nuclear power plant. They are unprepared for a group that acts and talks like a mid-century TV family that breaks into the core and seems to absorb radiation, the Nuclear Family. The Family turns out to be androids. The Outsiders let them go with a disguised Looker in the place of Mom to trace them to their base. She gives herself away, though, when she gasps in horror at their radiation-scared creator's plan to cause a nuclear explosion in Los Angeles. 

Vigilante #23: Cool Smith/Maygar cover. Kupperberg and Smith/Mitchell pick up the story as Judge Chase is heading into the courtroom. In flashback, we find out Marcia noped out of his craziness. With that and the faux Vigilante still out there, Chase is a wreck. His first case doesn't help because it's exactly the sort of thing he and so many other 80s vigilantes are always going on about: a drug smuggler gets off on a "technicality." The Killer Vigilante gets the smug lawyer that got him off, though, and unfortunately a young woman he is partying with. Meanwhile, the Electrocutioner reappears, doing his own killer vigilante thing. Marcia goes to a therapist to seek advice for how to help Adrian, spilling his identity, though attempting to conceal his name.

By Gordy Higgens
Self Published
OSE
Levels 4-6

The ‘Toymaker’ has gone missing – and nobility across the realm are scrambling to get their hands on his highly sought-after dolls. Hauntingly beautiful, and scarily well made.

His workshop is hidden, deep within the ‘Whispering Woods’. A dark and desolate forest, that locals warn all who dare enter, never return… that is, all except the Toymaker. To find his workshop, you must navigate the pitch black wood, haunted by imprisoned demons, zealous lumberjack wardens, cursed werewolves, possessed dolls, an entitled elf prince and a gaggle of other monstrous horrors. The balance of power in the woods is shifting – will the evils that lay trapped here be released unto the world?

This 52 page adventure presents about thirteen hexes and a couple of dungeons with about thirty rooms total in a dark forest kind of fairytale vibe. Sinister plots abound while the party tries to navigate a lot of competing goals in an adventure built to run.

Ok, so, as I’m describing what’s going on I’m going to have to ask you put aside certain feelings you have. Like, when I say “toymaster” or “puppets.” I know we’ve all been indoctrinated to expect certain things from the use of those themes. I promise this one isn’t like those others. Also, I suspect that the cover art might be a bit offputting. The designer is also the artist, so, hey, sorry man! I think the interior art is fine but the cover, along with the title “master of puppets” both sort of lean in to some tonal and historical implications that we are ALL bad people for having but which are true nonetheless.

Let’s think of a dark forest fairy tale vibe, maybe with a touch of farce in it, similar to Gone Fishin. And there’s a lot going on in this place. The Whispering Woods are a kind of dark forest/mirkwood stand in. All ancient and old and dark and foreboding with rumors of ancient battles and demons. And that the woods will whisper to you. There are woodcutters in the forest, who were once a kind of border guard keeping an eye on the woods but over time are perhaps a little financially focused. Especially since their funding was cut. Funding? Yes, the elves used to fund them. Let’s think a more Fey-like elf than a Tolkein-elf. ANyway, the border guards get their funding cut and now the mission has degenerated. Why does it need border guards it’s a literal demon forest, the trees are demons. Some old elf king defeated an invading demon army long ago and turned them all to trees. His magic axe, along with his bloody handprint, is embedded in a tree stump in the middle of the woods. Also, the trees can’t be cut down. Let’s think a super strong ironwood. In to this comes the Toymaker, who lives in the woods and makes wooden dolls. Expensive wooden dolls. That everyone just loves to get for their rich ass trust fund kids, like some fairy tale stanley cup. Yeah, he figured out a way to cut down the trees and makes dolls from them and lets the border force sell the remaining wood. Also the dolls whisper things, an attempt by the toymaker to embed his little chukies in to the nobility in order to influence them and gain power because, yeah, the demon from the tree is now in the doll, kind of, bound by the doll clothes. A couple of the dolls get loose and the toymaker goes looking for them, only to get killed by some werewolves in the forest. Werewolves that are turning the border guards and whose curse starts from a different fey-elf that was kicked out of elflandia, is 143 in line for the throne, and now wants to take over the wood and thinks that a perfect way to start that is kicking everyone out starting with the border guards. I think I just wrote a page on that shit? And theres more people/groups running around in there. A slightly different framing of the toymaker would have hit better, but it all kind of makes sense in an evil consequences kind of way and is not as “pretext” as the length of description might otherwise imply. These are just things following from others naturally, if pushed just a little. 

The hooks are the usual lame hired/dream shit, but the first one reads “A local Count wants the doll he ordered for his daughter’s birthday, but the Toymaker failed to make his delivery last week.” This one, I think, could have been pushed more and be the center of the adventure, much the way Gone Fishin was. A little expansion, a little more farce. And it’s gonna fit in well with people you meet in the forest, cavalier mercenaries who are sent by THEIR patrons to get toys for THEIR kids. A little push here in the writing, the absurdity, a tinge of evil, future chukie foreshadowing, insane offers, this would have lent a nice opening vibe that would frame the rest of the adventure instead of having just some genero stuff. 

There are a decent number of NPC’s in this. They are well organized with wants, needs, knows, offers to the party, along with short little descriptions like “Wild red hair. Always shouts, unable to speak at a reasonable volume” or “A nude, 2’ tall, crudely made wooden puppet. Exclaims ‘oh boy!’ frequently.” Perfect little nudges for the DM. You can talk to a lot of people and things, including a termite queen who can be particularly useful in a forest full of evil wooden chuckies. Not everyone is friendly, and a lot of the situations are tense and almost all can lead to some combat, but the talky talky option is there for a smartie partie. Think of the cavalier mercenaries, as an example of talking and fighting. 

Magic items are decent. “Royal Ceremonial Sword – +2 Elven Glass Blade, with gold leaf details. Used in knighting ceremonies. On a critical hit (19-20) it shatters, doing maximum damage. Repairs itself in 1d6 turns” and “Thief’s Lantern – Emits an area of light only visible to the wielder, and others that touch them.” These are nice little examples. Interesting effects to be sure. Useful, fun, unusual. They FEEL magical, especially the lantern. 

The entries start with a little overview that could be a read-aloud (In fucking italics! Don’t do that!) with certain words underlined and bolded (I’d do one or the other, not both) and those bolded/underlined words are then followed up with in their own sections with more details. A Sentence or two for each keeps them each to scan and run. Descriptions are not winning awards but are still pretty good. “A large open-cut marble quarry. Filling with water from a spring on the northern cliff face. A dull glow emanates from the loudly bubbling depths. Red handprints cover a nearby marble boulder. “ I don’t like “large”, but, not a bad little description and it hints at many things to follow up an examination on. 

There is A LOT to get in to trouble with in this, mostly from the party fucking around. Not in a Museum Tour kind of way but just the party doing normal shit. The locations can be fantastic, like a buried titanic statue you enter through a mouth, filled with stac/tags inside. Some of the wanderers seem rough, like 2d6 werewolves, but, hey, it’s OSR. You’re going to be doing a lot of freeing people, questioning them, and so on to get information you need to find the workshop, itself a twenty room dungeon. All without getting screwed over by the captives and/or people you meet along the way. Can you, having discovered termites, put together that this is an excellent resource to take advantage of in a wood themed adventure? If so, the designer was ready for you. Or, you can just stab them. How shall you navigate the mercenary knights? “Contract knights, mounted on warhorses. Equipped with expensive weapons and armour. Annoyed they couldn’t just pay someone beneath them to fulfill their quest “ Overemployment has always been a thing man.

This is $10.50 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages, showing rooms keys. Great preview. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/569545/the-master-of-puppets?1892600

 X13: Crown of Ancient Glory (1987), written by Stephen Bourne for TSR’s Classic Dungeons & Dragons (BECMI) line, stands out as one of the most structurally expansive modules of the Expert series. Billed as a transitional Expert/Companion adventure for level 7–10 characters, it moves away from simple dungeon crawling into a sweeping, multi-act political drama. When examining Crown Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Almost all my game designs include some form of "meta currency". Luck points. I got the idea originally from the TSR AD&D adventure module CB1: Conan Unchained. In that module, David "Zeb" Cook gives us a cool luck mechanic invented for the adventure to help mitigate the disparate outcomes of a typical AD&D game vs. what you see on the big screen (the module cover is literally a photo of Arnold in the Conan movie). In other words, Conan does amazing feats that are difficult to simulate if you're just playing the game straight.

Cook's idea was simple. Each PC has a set number of Luck Points that only the DM knows. You as a player have no idea who many points you have. Here's a screenshot of the text. 

I actually adore this. I've tried to use it a couple of times in one-shots with mixed results. Players need to embrace the idea and you gotta remind them to use it or they just keep playing normally.

Anyway, for Dead Wizards, there is Sand. Sand is the meta currency. Players know how much they have and they can spend it to auto-succeed in tasks or to take over narrative control of the game for a very short time (kinda like The Pool).

The auto-succeed is called a Sand Storm. The idea is the Judge rolls a secret d6 to see how many actions you can get away with. You start describing your actions. You stop when you feel like it, but once you exceed the number of actions rolled by the Judge... you're run out of luck. If you exceed it, your excess action not only fails but it fails in a terrible way. So it's a gamble.