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I've done a little bit of housekeeping here on ye old blog, and I've also shifted (as you can see) to an Army Ants theme for a bit, since that is where my head is right now. Of course I've got the core rules available as a PWYW download or (if you love killing trees as much as I do), it's also available in print. 

Furthermire, I've started a series of posts following an actual play experience. You can see how the game works and following along with my silliness. 

I've also got an Army Ants Companion going. This should be a full release at some point, but for now I'm keeping everything new that I create in a separate document that you can access and use as you see fit.

Semper Formica!

This post first appeared in 2017, but I think a trotted out back in 2020 as well. The occasion of the double repeat is discovering a post on RPGnet forums about a cool Hellenistic setting by Kenneth Hite I remembered from Supressed Transmission coming to Kickstarter, only to be disappointed to see the post was from 2018 and the projected abandoned...

Historically accurate Aristotle? A social media thread about bad history in historical costume drama caused me to recall an idea I had years ago upon a re-read of Aaron Allston's wonderful Mythic Greece: Age of Heroes. At the time, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was still in syndication, and while not particularly good, it did suggest the using of Greek Myth and geographic as a backdrop for a fantasy setting that might not otherwise have a lot of the trappings of Greek myth. For the most part, Hercules stuck to the big names, but there's no reason you couldn't get as detailed as Allston's book, but give it a wholly un-Mythic Greece feel.

The changes can be big. Reign: The Conqueror (based on the novel Arekusandā Senki by Hiroshi Aramata) re-imagines the life of Alexander the Great as a sort of science fantasy thing with giant Persian war machines and Pythagorean ninjas. Or, they can be subtle, like Black Sails weaving historical pirates with a sort of prequel to Treasure Island. (The difference I see between this last one and a standard historical setting which would generally tend to insert fictional characters, i.e. the PCs, into history, is the "high concept" of the literary/historical mashup.)

A lesson on Greek myth every week? So I say go ahead and run a Kirby-esque space opera based on the book of Exodus. Recontextualize the War of Roses to have it take place in something like Warring States Japan. Or take the history presented in the Book of Mormon and turn it into a hexcrawl as Jeff Reints did.

Let history be your guide, not your boss.

Meh. I have now tried three times to record a video of this process, but each time something has gone wrong, and I ended up having to start all over. I am going to chalk that up to a learning experience, and go back to the way I usually do this - sorry you don’t have any video to watch.

Anyhow, I feel like making an ant and taking him on some adventures. I’ve been doing some Army Ant writing, and I have some ideas for things to do with that IP (ooh, look at me. I have an IP).

When I was ten, my first three GI Joe action figures were Flash, Breaker, and Stalker. I didn’t like Flash too much, because the whole sci-fi thing didn’t fit with GI Joe to me. I didn’t want my GI Joe getting into my Star Wars. Breaker was kind of boring, because he was a communications officer. Stalker was cool. He was the team leader. He had camo.

As you might have noticed, some of my Army Ants are inspired by some GI Joes, but I’ve never built my homage to Stalker. Time to fix that. I like that history ties Stalker and Snake Eyes, and that both Tracker and Zak are black ants - gives them a bit of kinship.

I ended up in the hospital for a few days this weekend (I'm doing much better now), and ended up channel surfing (which I never do). This gave me a chance to watch the History of the Navy Seals on A+E (as well as some wrestling documentaries), so it was an entertaining day. That also inspired me in this direction.

While the rules state that you start at level 2, I’m going to start Tracker here at level 3, so that he can survive solo for a bit. This gives him the following: 

Level 3 

100 Mission Points

D8 Action Die

I have 30 points to distribute among traits. I’m going to make him a Ranger, which means he has to have at least D8 Spirit (and he’ll get +1 edge with Spirit checks)... I don’t want to go less than D6 anywhere, because he’s solo, and I don’t want any glaring holes. I’m going to lean heavily into Spirit (since he’s going to have to sneak past a lot of foes to survive on his own), and I’ll lean towards Reflex over Body (small and fast is his game)...

Body D6

Mind D6

Reflex D8

Spirit D10

The character I made for the core rules has very different Traits, even though they are both Rangers. This makes me feel good - you could put together a team of Rangers and have them be versatile. 

As far as skills, he has 8 points (since his action die is D8), and must have Nature +1 and Stealth +1. Random thought - Nature should include swimming. If I’m trying to swim against a current, I would roll Might + Nature to do it. I sense some house rules (or GM guidance) coming up…

Going through the list, I also like Aim, First Aid, and Infiltrate for him. All are needed on some level. Aim is important for everyone, but first aid/infiltrate are secondary to my character. I go back and forth between Aim or Stealth for the +3, but end up with Aim - the higher die and automatic +1 edge give me a lot of power already in Stealth without the extra +1 point allocation, but that +1 aim might be really important. 

Tracker, Ant Ranger

Level 3 (Action Die D8) 100 XP

BODY D6 | MIND D6 | REFLEX D8 | SPIRIT D10

+1 Edge SPIRIT Checks

Aim +3 | First Aid +1 | Infiltrate +1 | Nature +1 | Stealth +2

As far as rank, I roll D6+0 and get 1. He started as an A-1 Private. He got an automatic bump in rank at level 3, but he might have advanced during level 2. He would roll D6+2 after each mission, and he’d have completed an average of 7 missions (since a typical mission grants 10 MP). I’ll roll D6+2 seven times and see what happens…

5+2=7. He moved to A-2 after his second mission.

3+2=5. Nothing.

3+2=5. Nothing.

6+2=8. Moved to A-3 after his fifth mission.

5+2=7. Nothing.

1+2=3. Nothing.

5+2=7. Nothing.

Upon turning level 3: 5+3=8. He gets to move to Corporal, 2nd Lieutenant, or Petty Warrant Officer. The reality is that with his lower Mind, he’s unlikely to get higher results, and staying as an enlisted soldier is going to be his best bet. Besides, the character he is based on is a sergeant, so I kind of have to go that route… A-4 Corporal he is!

This gives him 30 Clout (from being level 3) +15 (from his rank), for a total of 45. He starts with a basic kit (free). I’ve decided to add a weapon to the game, so I’m having him take an AM-3A spitfire rifle, with more damage but compact range:

AM-3A Spitfire Rifle

(20 Clout | D6+1 | Range 20)

This powerful, short-range weapon was designed for use in tunnels.

This is 20 clout, leaving him with 25 to go. I really want him to have a silencer (6 clout; 19 left). He’s got camouflage fatigues (4 clout; 15 left), and I’ll get 2 field grenades (2 clout), 2 smoke grenades (2 clout), 6 aid kits (6 clout). He now has 5 clout left. I go with binoculars (4 clout), and use the extra clout point to get another field grenade. 

Standard Issue Gear

AM-3A Spitfire Rifle + Silencer

Camouflage Fatigues

3 Field Grenades

2 Smoke Grenades

6 Aid Kits

Binoculars

I now have to work out my other stats, based on what I’ve done so far:

3 Actions Per Round (from being level 3)

Defense: 7 (half of his Reflex is 4 + his level of 3)

Armor: 0 (because he's not wearing anything)

Grit: 18 (because of D6 Body x level)

Move: 3 (everyone starts here)

Moxy: 3 (from his level)

My actual setup as I'm working (along with my Hellfire Club gift pack from Christmas I haven't used - and my camoflage lanyard):

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 May 2, 1985. 

Sword of Atom Special #2: This issue actually has a July cover date, but there is some discrepancy in the sources regarding when it came out. Anyway, Strnad and Kane are back with another Lost World/Sword & Planet-ish tale. A bird-riding group of raiders called Skul-Riders attack New Morlaidh and kidnap women, including Laethwen. At around the same time, Paul Hoben and Norman Brawler have arrived with an accidentally shrunk Jean, intending to find Atom and get his help to restore her, but she too is kidnapped by the raiders. Atom, Voss, and Paul join forces to track the riders to their city where it turns out a dictator using mind control technology is responsible for the raids as he seeks breeding stock to bolster his cities ranks to realize his dreams of conquest. When his people are freed from control, they kill the tyrant themselves, and our heroes return home. Atom gives Jean and Paul the shrinking belt as he can't use it anymore.
Atom will appear in several issues of Crisis but that's it until 1988.

DC Comics Presents #83: Rozakis is the writer on this team-up of Superman and the Challengers of the Unknown. The artists are a bit of a puzzle: We have both Kirby and Toth, both with inks by Theakston. Toth's work only appears over a couple of pages in a flashback sequence. It seems weird to engage two such celebrated artists in this way, which makes me think the issue as we got it was a "plan B." Anyway, this is Kirby's last major work for DC, though his last actual work (a cover) won't come until after Crisis.
Zo-Mar, a Kryptonian criminal from the pre-Phantom Zone days, escapes from a prison space capsule and infiltrates the Earth with a mystic card that gives him the power of mind control--including those of Superman and the Challengers of the Unknown. It also (handily) keeps him from developing Kryptonian super-powers. Our heroes manage to get the card from him, but then he gains powers! They ultimately use a trick to defeat him and destroy the card. Zo-Mar is sent to the Phantom Zone.

Shadow War of Hawkman #4: The limited series comes to a close just as it seems it was getting started, but Isabella makes it clear at the end that this was merely the first battle in a potentially longer war. We open with several examples of the Absorbacon being used to still secrets from humans, and thus economic and political spoils. The Shadow War is to be an infiltration and covert coup rather than a fledged-fledged invasion.  The Hawks are still in the fight, though. They sneak back onto their own ship, defeat the Thanagarian agents, then destroy the ship so it can't be taken again. They track down the Absorbacon, but fate takes a hand as Rab Mekir, enslaved to the machine, takes his revenge on Fell Andar, leading to his own death. This vanguard defeated, Katar and Shayera can return to their secret IDs and cover lives, but we see there are still Thanagarian deep cover agents on Earth.

Wonder Woman #326: This one has a July cover date, too, though likely released in May. Newell takes over as writer with Heck still on art, and we're back to the stuff that was going in back in issue 316. Wonder Woman follows Keith Griggs and Lauren Haley back to the Central American nation of Tropidor and again encounters the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. Also, Etta is really angry with Diana for some reason.

V #6: This is another issue with a July cover date. Bates and Infantino/DeZuniga wrap up the whole Meagan arc. The rebellion rescues Meagan, ironically to keep him from blowing up the alien mothership as they fear the severity of reprisals, and they are helped by a scheming faction of Visitor leadership looking to undercut Diana. Unfortunately, Meagan's head-bomb starts to malfunction, so he takes a ship and heads back toward the Mothership on his own. He explodes before he gets there, though, taking out some Visitor fighters and thwarting Diana's plans to recapture him. She remains unaware of the bomb throughout the whole incident. 
On Earth, the Visitor experimentation facility is taken out, and Ham and friends force the lead scientists to inject themselves with their own mutagen.

Contributing host Ray MacKay recently sat down with Brock Smith about his Payne campaign, now on Kickstarter. You can watch the whole show with Brock on YouTube.   Ray: We…

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