Sorcerer's Skull

There are a lot of opinions about setting in rpgs and how much is the right amount or too much. Consequently, a lot has been written about it by a lot of people, me included. As readers of this blog likely know, I am pro-setting, in the sense that I personally like thinking of and writing about them, but one might also have intuited that I enjoy them as a player or GM. They are a major part of what gets me into a game, a fundamental part of supporting imagining the game world. I realize there are people who like their settings merely implied or at the least as light as possible, and that's their right, but to me that would reduce an rpg to the same sorts of pleasure I might get from a board or arcade game, and that would not have been enough to sustain my longterm interest.

As I have been working on the setting for my new campaign, I've talked with my players for the first time about how I feel about GM creation vs. player creation of setting material. It's not that it was a secret before, but it never game up in an explicit way. My personal observation is that while most players don't want to be given a lot of homework to play a game, they also don't tend to be told impromptu to imagine things for a world. A framework to inspire their character creation tends to be what most of my players are looking for, though how much they intend to flesh things out varies.

Encouraging this sort of engagement, though, means that the world is a bit out of focus until we get into the playing of it. I can have thought of a lot of things, but a lot of details I have in mind stay flexible on until the players get their hands on them. In the end, the worlds winds up being a collaborative process even if it mostly starts in my mind.

Here's an example. In creating Azurth, I clearly called out that despite a number of animal people in the setting, there were no cat people. Now, the fact that I noted that and didn't mention a whole list of other animal people that would never appeared in Azurth was meant to suggest "something's going on here." And it was. 

However, my friend Jim, in creating his bard Kully missed that. Jim did a very flavorful, brief character write-up, nailing the Ozian sort of vibe. The only problem was he mentioned Kully encountering a Cat Man at a pivotal moment.

I could have suggest a change to that detail and in some circumstances, I might have. Here though, because I had already intended something to be going on with that point, I used what Jim came up with. I told him that Kully had had that encounter, which was odd because there aren't supposed to be Cat-folk in Azurth, and so no one believes him. Jim was creating a little mystery in his characters backstory, which wound up tying into a minor mystery of the entire setting. Kully's backstory became setting material supporting a future reveal that at least one player was going to care out.

Not all instances of a player's view of the world and my own having a discrepency turn out so serendipitously, but I think it's worth looking for those opportunities and leaving things just a little fuzzy to facilitate those clarifications.

The tale as it's told in Mayura (a city, it should be said, that never chooses truth over a good story) is that an aged, latter-day Wizard-Kings, Mordrey, upon his death split his kingdom among his children. For reasons known only to himself, he bequeathed rulership of his capital to his most unassertive son. While Mordrey had seen fit to place powerful wards upon city so that no one of his blood could rule if they took the city by force, the timid Prince despaired that one or another of his grasping and ambitious siblings would find some indirect means kill him and take the prize. Fearing any day might be his last, he threw himself into pleasures to live life to the fullest. He began spending his inherited fortune on distractions. Entertainers and artists flocked to the city to partake of his largesse.

The prince died young and without an heir, though not at the hands of his siblings but as a result of his sybaritic pursuits. By then, he had inadvertently placed the city on the course it holds to this day, passing through the end of the Age of Magitech, the Demon War, and the darkness that followed, largely unchanged, if not unscathed. 

It is true that, despite popular depictions (often popularized by the troubadours and theater troupes of Mayura, itself), a city of its size and importance must have citizenry beyond artists and performers. Of course, there are craftsmen, merchants, beggars, and servants. But how many artisans are only supporting themselves until the quality of their verse is recognized and rewarded? How many moneylenders or soldiers are perhaps actors researching a role? 

Mayura is still a monarchy technically, though its ruler is not of the line of Mordrey. Instead, a grand, annual, nonlethal fighting tournament held at the Aristeion colosseum used to select who will serve as the ceremonial ruler for the next year and a day. Competitors are drawn from all over Parsulan, and the event is bolstered by matches and demonstrations by the professional gladiators in the arena's training schools. The Mayura citizenry feel that having such a formidable and dynamic public representative helps deter otherwise bellicose neighbors. They also appreciate the coin brought in by the spectators to the competition.

The work of running Mayura is done by an elected council of citizens interested in that sort of drudgery. The actual ruling in the sense of setting a course for the city's future is currently done by an unelected former dancer, the Lady Petalutha. The paramour of a former four-term King, Petalutha has parleyed her celebrity into a position of real power, and no one sense has been willing to brave public disapproval to make her give it up. By all accounts, however, she is a capable leader, bolstering Mayura military, leading to a quelling of the coastal pirates, and pushing for trade deals that have benefited her city. She is not well liked by the old nobility who control the lands around the city-state, however, who would prefer a more tractable head of state.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on May 16, 1985.

Batman #386: This was the subject of the last recorded but to date unreleased episode of The Bronze Age Book Club and an episode I am fond of. Moench and Mandrake set out to create a new major Batman villain, and they are more successful here than Moench's attempt with Nocturna and Night-Slayer at least to the extent that Black Mask continues to appear and has even been in a movie.
We're introduced to Roman Sionis scion of a wealthy family and subject of childhood trauma in parallel to Bruce Wayne. After his company releases a poorly tested cosmetic that has horrible potential side effects, Sionis is ruined and snaps, becoming the masked crime boss Black Mask and contesting with Batman as the head of the False Face Society of Gotham. Black Mask uses his toxic cosmetic to kill his enemies, and Bruce Wayne is his next target.

Jemm, Son of Saturn #12: Potter and Colan/MacLeod bring the series to an end, if not a definitive one. The Red Saturnians storm the one remaining ship of the White Saturnians and Synn, grieving the death of her lover, distractedly agrees to end hostilities, but in no way indicates a willingness to make peace with Jemm. In fact, Jemm's own people are still ambivalent about his actions. He flies to Earth to save Luther from the Kamah, the last belligerent Koolar. His fight with her is sort of perfunctory, but its decisive. Meanwhile, Lincoln and Crazy Eddie find Bouncer still alive in the rubble. They offer him to come with them to find a place to live and he agrees. They reunite with Luther along the way, but not before the boy and his alien friend say their goodbyes. Jemm returns to his people even if they are not yet ready to embrace him.

Amethyst #8: I have this issue, but I didn't remember anything about its contents. Mishkin/Cohn and new artistic team Jurgens/Kesel (though we're told Colon will return to the title he co-created next issue) finish the Fire Jade arc. After her identity is revealed to Princess Emerald, Fire Jade attacks, but Prince Garnet appeals to her, and she hesitates, allowing Amethyst to take out the demonic creature commanding her. Then, what's left of Lady Emerald in Fire Jade, sacrifices herself to stop the grim reaper from taking Citrina. It's doesn't have the old woman, but it does give her enough time to pass on custody of Gemworld to Amethyst before dying.
Meanwhile, Prince Topaz and Lady Sapphire are caught in a storm and seek refuge in an isolated city which is under the leadership of White Opal, brother to evil overlord.


Arak Son of Thunder #47: Arak and friends are in a harbor in China and Arak is unsettled by all the dragonboats given the beef he's got with the Serpent. Seemingly confirming his suspicion, a real dragon attacks some ships and Arak dives in to save a woman, but Arak himself is knocked out. He's rescued by his old ally Haakon who is in China possessing as a Byzantine ambassador as part of a scheme. After all that, Valda and Arak get some time alone, but then Mu-Lan attacks, and it isn't the Disney version!

Flash #348: After seeing the footage Frye recorded, the Flash believes Reverse Flash is back. He tells Cecile, who starts an investigation of her own. Meanwhile, Reverse Flash keeps taking down the Rogues, and some in the police force wonder if the Flash is responsible.
While all this is going on, the jury in the Flash's trial deliberates. They are deadlocked until Nathan Newbury steps in. Contrary to my expectations, he actually seems to be trying to help the Flash. He uses a device to show the jury what really happened: that the Flash is Barry Allen and so had a good motive reason to murder use lethal force to stop Reverse Flash. They jury members are all going to vote for acquittal, but then Reverse Flash appears in the strange realm Newberry has taken them to and somehow possesses him. He then uses Newberry's power to make the jury vote unanimously "guilty."

Legion of Super-Heroes #12: Levitz and Lightle/Mahlstedt send Timber Wolf and Karate Kid's Sensei to Lythyl, a planet like a combination of a deadly martial arts tournament and a bondage club, to fulfill a request from their dead friend. Things get bad enough that some other Legionnaires have to come to the rescue, but they managed to rescue a boy named Myg.

Omega Men #29: Klein and McManus/Mitchell continue the Omegans' trying to get out of the Psions' research station. Their benefactor, the mysterious Artin, through robot minions requires them to complete a task on their way out. The Omega Men penetrate the Psion temple of the Four Questions with Kalista projecting an image of the Psion leader Malthus. In the end, the identity of Artin is revealed, and its Primus, only he doesn't look like the Primus we've known.

Red Tornado #2: Busiek and Infantino/McLaughlin continue on from last issue in pretty much the same mode. The Construct gloats while civilians reject Tornado even as it helps them, and Superman shows up to enforce that the JLA meant their prohibition of Tornado's heroics by tearing the android limb from limb. He self-repairs but in the end he's had enough and says he's never going to help humans again. The Construct takes control of electronic devices across the globe. T.O. Morrow figures out the Construct is behind all this and begins formulating a plan to fight back.

Star Trek #16: We get a new writer this issue, L.B. Kellogg, with a same artistic team. This story is less like a TOS episode and more like something we would have gotten in a later series. Sulu, Uhura, and Bryce go on an undercover mission in a capture ship to make contact with a dilithium smuggler on a space station who happens to be an old flame of Uhura's. Meanwhile, Kirk and the Excelsior discover the mining is being done by slave labor. Uhura and Sulu take down her old lover, putting an end to slave trading and illegal mining, and Kirk promises to relocate the aquatic native species whose environment has become untenable.

Superman #410: Bates and Swan/Williamson give us another one of those action-free puzzle stories so common to Superman comics in the era. Superman stops a satellite falling toward Hawaii by kicking it into a volcano, but after Clark Kent writes the story evidence goes forward that it didn't happen, and Clark's fired in disgrace after (as Superman) he's forced deny being the source of the story to keep Earth's trust in Superman. It's all a hoax contrived by Lex Luthor in a plot to take down Superman, but how it plays out we'll have to see next issue.

Faceless Howl is an adventure from Kabuki Kaiser for the rules lite, dark Sword & Sorcery system Many Sought Adventure, but is easily useable with any D&Dish system with a bit of work and a lot of other systems as well given it isn't a rules heavy adventure.  I received a review copy of the pdf. I don't do a lot of reviews here, but previous publications from Kaiser have received praise from quarters I trust so I wanted to check it out.

The adventure involves "malign entities of pure oblivion" known as the Faceless who are devourers of information and have been drawn to an ancient repository. Not only is this bad for said repository, but it's also bad for the townsfolk of the neighboring of Bec de Corbin ("Raven's Beak") who have their identities and knowledge eaten by the Faceless, turning them (eventually) into Howlers. Complicating matters (if they were already complicated enough) are the Ragshadows, who are subterranean evil, fairy-tale-ish goblin sort of creatures who opportunistically operate alongside the Faceless to steal physical physical valuables.

That's the set up. The adventure is broken into two parts not counting getting the PCs involved: the village and figuring out what's going on, then a crawl through the repository. There's a clock to ensure the situation escalates. The presentation is fairly terse with prose that is informal, generally evocative and occasionally staccato delivery.

It's style and the overall graphic design place it in the tradition of things like Mörk Borg and the sort of NSR/OSR stuff you find on itch. Like those sorts of publications, it values brevity but supplies you with random tables and other necessary tools, and atmosphere, but expects the GM to bring it to life. Beyond aesthetic, this isn't standard, D&D fantasy either, so people looking for that find not find it's weird, horror sort of approach to their taste. 

For me, though, Faceless Howl, is the sort of adventure I tend to look for when I don't have any other particular thing in mind. It isn't particularly combat heavy, and its atmosphere and bit of mystery is the sort of thing that intrigues my players. Its brevity would make it easier to reskin to make it fit whatever setting I'm running at the moment.

If that sort of stuff sounds appealing to you, you should check it out. It's available on drivethu.

Art by Guy Wurley
The ramshackle boomtown called Salvage by its inhabitants and the Scrapyard by outsiders is built amid the fallen combatants of an ancient battle. The colossi are named for their color. Red Knight lies on its back, reaching for a sword that is out of reach. Blue Knight fell forward. Its weapon is long gone, but one hand is raised. The plains have made half-hearted attempts to reclaim the giants, and the knives of time have marked them, but they remain, tempting those interested in making a quick fortune or simply curious about their enigma. The colossi are unusual treasure troves, or above ground mines, made as they are from rare materials and magitechnologies unreproducible in the current age. 
All the prospectors, adventurers, scholars, and thieves looking to claim their own piece of the colossi, and the merchants, dealers, entertainers, and bandits looking to get rich off them, crowd into haphazard buildings constructed along and amid the fallen giants. It's a dangerous place. There is no law in Salvage and plenty of desperate characters. Guns are more common that elsewhere given the relative abundance of both artificers and the raw magitech materials.
The danger isn't just from the inhabitants. There are caustic fluids, poison gases, and other environmental hazards to be sure, but also the colossi are not as dead as they appear. They haven't moved in ages, but not all of their internal parts have been stilled like their limbs. Component constructs, perhaps something like immune system elements, sometimes react violently to scavengers crawling through a colossus's insides. Some grow independent and feral and prowl outside the bodies as if their look for prey or raw materials to affect repairs.

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 9, 1985. 

Warlord Annual #4: This was the first Warlord Annual I bought off the stands, because it has a map of Skartaris in it, which will appear again in Who's Who. I reviewed this issue here.

Atari Force #20: Baron and Bareto/Villagran give the Martin Champion and by extension the rest of the Atari Force their day in court on New Earth. Thanks to Morphea and Targg the court gets a good look at the malevolence of the Destroyer through his psychic residue. Though they are exonerated, there are still powerful forces in New Earth society arrayed against them, so Champion and friends choose to use a device to jump to a new universe to see what else is out there. There's also another humorous Hukka story by Fleming/Giffen/Kesel.
Helfer tells us in the editorial that Atari Force isn't getting canceled because of sales (it's a middling seller) but because it was decided this was the right ending for the characters. I have to say, I'm a little skeptical. I buy it's middle of the pack on sales, but it is a licensed book. Surely a middling wholly DC owned book would be better for the company than having a publishing slot taken up by a licensed book? I do think, though, that the creative teams they've put on the book couldn't figure out anything more to do with the characters. Conway's later issues and Baron's entire run have mostly relied on them being on the ship but not encountering much interesting. No "strange new worlds and civilizations" here. The only mystery is why they didn't have anyone would better ideas, particularly when they were giving the book great artists?

Crisis on Infinite Earths #5: Wolfman and Perez/Ordway open with the Antimatter a bit confused. He thought he destroyed Earth-One and Two, but he hasn't gotten the victory he should have gotten. He lets Psycho-Pirate play the Flash while he investigates. Earth-One and Two have sort of merged and different eras in time are bleeding over. Harbinger and Alexander Luthor assemble a group of heroes to explain what is happening: the Monitor gave his life to power a transfer of the Earths to a netherverse to hide them from his Adversary, but now they now are trying to occupy the same space which will destroy them anyway. The only choice is to re-integrate them as a single universe as it was in the beginning.
We get a lot of cameos, and Travis Morgan, the Warlord, even gets some dialogue. 
The Adversary adapts to these developments, though. He takes control of Red Tornado (In a limited series on sale now! Or then, I mean.) and transforms the android for his own purposes. Flash briefly breaks free of the Psycho-Pirate, and we get a glimpse of the shadowy Adversary's face, and he names himself as the Monitor, though he doesn't look like the Monitor we have seen.

Fury of Firestorm #38: Conway and Kayanan/Akin/Garvey have Stein arriving at Vandermeer University in Pittsburgh to start a new position only to find the campus afraid and under siege due to mysterious and vicious killings of facility members. Stein is in danger of becoming the next victim as he is attacked by the Weasel in his apartment. The Weasel keeps ranting about once he kills Stein, he'll be out of danger. Ronnie is out for a date with Doreen where Cliff accuses him of cheating, thanks to his uncharacteristically good grade on a test, when he is summoned to form Firestorm.
Thanks to poor vision and bumbling, both Stein and Raymond are captured by the Weasel and put in a deathtrap with molten steel about to pour on them.

Jonni Thunder #4: Thomases and Giordano bring this detective story/superhero hybrid to a conclusion. First, Jonni has a confrontation with "Slim" Chance which she only wins by wielding the power of the Thunderbolt without the idol. Then after some uncertainty and romantic tension with Harrison Trump, the rival PI, they are ambushed by Red Nails and her crew. Luckily, Jonni has now figured out that the power is in her, not the statue, which gives her the element of surprising, keeping them alive along enough for Detective Sanchez to swoop in with the police. The series ends with a hope for more Jonni Thunder adventures. We'll see how that goes.

Justice League of America #241: The Tuska/Machlan combination on art doesn't do this issue any favors, but mostly it's tough to get back into the New League after the disruptions. A conversation with Vixen prompts Aquaman to head out without telling anyone to find his estranged wife, Mera. Vibe agrees to let Steel date his daughter then gets a new less garish (slightly) costume. Then the team under J'onzz's leadership heads off to Canada where Amazo is on a rampage. J'onzz splits the party, and he and Dale are almost immediately attacked by the android.

Tales of the Teen Titans #56: Wolfman and Patton/DeCarlo bring Raven and the Fearsome Five (minus 1!) into the story. Agents of Gizmo assault STAR Labs to steal Neutron who has been brought in in a containment capsule. Raven shows up and deals with them ruthlessly, but when she realizes what she's doing, she instead uses her power to heal the patients there. Meanwhile, Gar greets Jericho and his mom at the airport to bury the hatchet, and Cyborg undergoes surgery to replace his obviously mechanical limbs with more natural looking ones. The rest of the Titans deal with an attack by the Fearsome, uh, Four, and are defeated in two engagements. The Fearsome Folks make off with a another encapsulated super-being from Tri-State Prison.

Vigilante #20: Wolfman/Kupperberg and Smith/Maygar reveal that giving up the Vigilante identity may not prove so easy for Chase. The Vigilante is still in the streets, more violent than ever, including killing a cop. Meanwhile, Chase seems like he's having a nervous breakdown as he is tormented by nightmares where he is the Vigilante committing these acts. He wonders if he might somehow have lost his mind and actually be responsible. Nightwing fights with the murderous Vigilante in the streets, but winds up getting thrown off a bridge. Later, he crawls in through Chase's window to confront him.

The Weird Wood of southern Parsulan is an ancient forest infused with potent arcane energies. In halls of Magical Academy at Abraxad, surrounded and protected by the wood, it is labelled as Forbidden and students have been disciplined or even expelled for entering it other than by the proscribed paths. Treasure seekers and adventures from other places sometimes travel the forest, however, but many don't return.

What is known from the reports of those that enter it is that the forest is a place of unusual magical power. At the very least, it alters a visitor's perception of time and distance. The wood is also said to be the abode of strange spirits, beings inhabiting both biological and mechanical forms.

Faerie woodlands are hardly a rarity in Parsulan, but somehow, the Weird Wood has become infected or entwinned with technomagical devices in addition to its natural, elemental powers. Some point to its relative proximity to the Field of Fallen Colossi and suggest some stray, animate portion of the giant combatants may have made its way to the forest. Others argue that given the sheer number of constructs and amount armament debris found there, moss covered or half-buried, it must be the remnant of an assault by a substantial force. Perhaps in times past someone marched against Abraxad, and this is the result? If that is true, then Abraxad would surely have record of it in its extensive libraries, but those remain closed to outsiders.

Whatever their origins, it is these artifacts that draw the scavengers.

The commonly encountered fae of the forest are mostly harmless and appear as small, crude figures or vaguely animal or insect shapes of metal. They seem to mimic biological life in a rough but analogous way to the manner Meks resemble humans. 

The larger, more dangerous entities are harder to describe with certainty. Some appear as beasts with mechanical and biological parts. Others are shifting shapes of churning metal, churning storms of fury and blades.

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.

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.

Mostly discussions about alignment (probably since time immemorial) seem to circle around 3 opens about it: it is just a suggestion for roleplay; it represents cosmic teams of some sort and isn't about character morality; and most commonly its bad and we just ignore it. 

Gareth Hanrahan's The Gutter Prayer suggests to me an interesting tweak to idea 2, one I haven't seen before. I mention previously the saints in that world who were empowered by the gods not due to faith or ideals, but rather due to be somehow psychic compatible with the deity, making passing divine power through them possible. You might say the saints are in alignment with the deity.

So, what if alignment was a bit like that? It does present being on a cosmic team but not a team the character chose, a team that they were born into. This connection would allow the character to speak alignment language and to be recognized as "marked" by that team, perhaps. Characters are free to behave whatever way they want, but they can't (or at least can't easily change) this affinity any more than they could change their bloodtype. It should probably be randomly generated or determined by class, I suppose.

For most characters, a lack of affinity with the ethics of the deity wouldn't be an issue under most circumstances, though for people like clerics and paladins who get more out of the connection, it would matter.

The metaphysical implications for a setting with this would be really interesting, I think. There are a lot of ways it could be operationalized. 

In Southeast Parsulan, the Karkharoth badlands are an inhospitable, monster-haunted region of gullies and ravines between low, barren, red ridges, at times scarred by jagged rock formations like rows of fangs. In a broad canyon surrounding one of a rare oases is the fortress city-state of Kamazot.

The broken and desolate terrain isn't natural but instead due to the folly of man. In the Age of the Wizard Kings, attempts to push the then-fertile lands to even higher yields, coupled with sabotage from rival lands led to disruption of local fae elementals and a wounding of the land. The weakening of the polity made the region vulnerable to raids from the humanoid nations to the north serving to further depopulate the old kingdom.

The Demon War might have thoroughly returned the badlands to wilderness and ruin, but a warlord rose to organize disparate tribal groups and led them to re-occupy Kamazot. The armies unearthed ancient magitech weapons and restored them to the repaired fortress walls. The city they rebuilt developed into an autocracy organized along military lines, which persists to this day. Despite its regimented society, Kamazot has always been opened to outsiders who prove their worth. Even humanoids and those of monstrous ancestry are occasionally accepted into their society. 

It is rare for rulership succession in the city-state to be passed hereditarily. Instead, the clan generals elect an Imperator. The current ruler, Dornon Gundark, is unusual in that he was a clanless outsider who rose through the ranks due to his battle prowess and canny out-maneuvering of rivals at a time when Kamazot had been weakened by poor leadership.  He enjoys both popular support and the loyalty of most of the generals. Those less supportive are kept in line by his command of the Red Hawks, an elite force drawn mostly from those born outside the city and discriminated minorities such as humanoids and Darklings.

 Dornon directs his forces to seek out magitech weapons to add to the state's arsenal. He is very fond of cannons, the bigger the better. He pays handsomely for the recovery of weaponry from ancient ruins and dungeons.

His interests in technology extend beyond weaponry, however. Recently a railroad line was completed linking Kamazot with the Northern Parsulan industrial hubs. The line passes a perilous route through humanoid territory, however, and must employ adventurers and mercenaries both the trains and crews effecting repairs. Another line is planned between Kamazot and the port of Ervessos, but interests in the rival states of the Lightbearer Republic and Grancazarel oppose to close and alliance between those regional powers.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on April 25, 1985.

Tales of the Legion #325: Levitz/Newell and Jurgens/Kesel deliver what feels a bit like a cable TV season finale in that things with the Dark Circle reach a fairly abrupt (but pat) conclusion. The Legionnaires storm their base and discover that the Dark Circle leaders have cloned themselves (also that Ontarr is one of them). The leaders seem to commit mass suicide, killing their clones as well. Afterward, Gigi and Dev-Em get flirty, and White Witch and Blok fall asleep together watching future-TV.
Then we have a coda where Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl explain that Tales is going all reprint form this point on, so this will likely be the last I talk about it here. It feels like they left some plot threads dangling (with the Dark Circle and the stuff with Dawnstar and her new love) that just sort of get dropped.

Action Comics #568: In the first story by Yee/Kupperberg and Norvick/Rodriguez, a bullied schoolgirl is a conduit for a demon ("Ravenjh") to attack her classmates. When Superman gets involved, the demon briefly possesses Lois, leading in the aftermath, to the two of them having a discussion of why their relationship failed.
The second story by Wolff and Bender/Marcos gets the cover and is more humorous. An alien filmmaker comes to Earth and asks for Superman's help in choosing an actor to portray him in a movie. It seems that all humanoids look alike to the alien, which is proven by their choice of a rather un-super would-be actor to portray the Man of Steel.

Ambush Bug #2: Giffen, Fleming, and Oksner keep up the funny this issue. We're first introduced by Jonni DC, keeper of continuity of the DC Universe, a topical character given what's going on over in Crisis. Most of the issue though, deals with Ambush Bug dealing with the threat of Quantis, once a scientist working on a cuteness formula, now a giant, man-koala. Jonni DC's powers prove insufficient to deal with the menace, so it's up to Ambush Bug to save the day with an antidote.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #33: Kupperberg and Duursema/Mandrake conclude "The Magic Odyssey." Jhy and Jheryl work to free Arion from his mother, Majistra. They enlist the aid of the entity known as the Weaver, who ultimately restores Arion's magical powers, so the sorcerer can battle his mother, himself. Meanwhile, Chian discovers Tokomata's treachery and gets into a fight with him. He's caught in the blast of the evil released with Majistra's defeat and injured, then Chian finishes him off. 
Arion returns, to the physical world and is reunited with Chian who is really sorry (again) about being duped by somebody who wanted to kill him. Arion uses his power to restore Wyynde to normal. Next, they're headed to Atlantis and a new arc.

All-Star Squadron #47: McFarlane provides the pencils for most of this issue retelling the origin of Dr. Fate and his first encounter with Wotan. McFarlane's stylization is already starting to be evident, but his work here still has an amateurish look. After Fate finishes, the Squadron gets word that Winston Churchill requests their presence in Britain.

Detective Comics #552: An assassin named Cutter is offering his services to the Gotham Underworld to get rid of Batman. Our hero here's about this and fakes his death to catch both the assassin and mob bosses off guard. It's a clever story, though Moench parallels it with Julia Pennyworth's first published story about a historic tree being cut down in the name of progress, which doesn't really add much.
Cavalieri and Moore/Patterson continue the "Green Arrow versus Immigration Enforcement" story. After arguing with the official running the detention facility, Ollie is thrown in detention himself. Dinah Lance helps him break out of detention, along with two Salvadoran refugees. They head for the next stop on the "underground railroad" and leave the refugees there. Apparently, that's that, and the government just let's Ollie get away with it! A night later, Green Arrow makes his way back to Oliver Queen's apartment, unaware that Onyx is watching him.

World's Finest Comics #317: Cavalieri's and Stroman/Aiken/Garvey finish up the Cheapjack story. Batman's cover is blown, and he takes a beating from Cheapjack's thugs, but he rallies as Superman arrives. Cheapjack has built a giant machine that is part shack, part construction equipment, and he threatens to kill Massimo's daughter in its back-hoe claw grasp, but the heroes use smarts to save her, and Cheapjack is defeat, then consigned to the comics limbo he deserves.

The youngest state of Southeastern Parsulan is at once ill-omened and favored with great promise. Morrgna, capital of the Republic, is famed for the strange lights that can frequently be seen in its night skies: the aurora-like ribbons and curtains of pale color, sometimes with faces or forms moving through them and the flickering will-o'wisps that pass through the streets or hang in place for a time before fading. Such lights are often seen in association with the irruption of shadow cysts and they do seem to foreshadow the difficulties the area has with demonic forces.

At the same time, the Republic seems to be on the rise. Less than two decades ago, it was a sparsely populated backwater, ravaged by the demonic Wild Hunt. The tide turned with the so-called Miracle of the Church of Saint Lampada, wherein Leonhart Urzen, now First Citizen of the Republic, led a band of refugees in repulsing an assault by a demonic host. The cost of victory was the death of Leonhart's adventuring companions and their retainers, a group now celebrated as the Fallen Heroes. Those Heroes are entombed with honor in a crypt beneath the great church, guarded by special Keeper-Priests, for reasons that are doctrinally obscure. They are venerated on All Heroes Day, and the night before their spirits and those of the city's other dead are propitiated with offerings and their forgiveness is sought through rituals led by the priests.

Leonhart guided the formation of the Republic by inviting in neighboring cities and towns, and organized a militia, both protect the land against demonic incursion and to collect magical artifacts that emerge from the shadow cysts and bring them to Morrgna's dungeon vaults for safe keeping. While citizens guard the cities and serve in officer roles, Mercenaries and adventurers compromise most of the forces sent into emergent shadow cysts and patrolling beyond the walls of the cities and towns. Those who die in service are considered to be added to the ranks of the Fallen Heroes laid to rest with the original group beneath the church. Though few would refuse such as an honor, agreement to this burial honor is said to be a stipulation of admittance into the militia's ranks.

In the post-industrial fantasy, The Gutter Prayer, by Gareth Hanrahan, gods are essentially strange loops of magical energy, powered by worship and quite obviously a lot more trouble than they're worth. At least most of them don't eat the souls of living being like the gods in R. Scott Bakker's The Second Apocalypse series, but that's about the only thing one could say in their favor. 

One of the interesting things in Hanrahan's portrayal are the saints. These saints are much like "The Gifted" in my Weird Adventures setting and in other posts in that they are people effectively imbued with super-powers by a god. As such, they make good inspiration for an approach to clerics in fantasy rpgs.

Saints differ from your standard cleric of the D&D variety in a few ways. One, they don't seem to cast spells, just manifest divine powers. Two, they aren't necessarily people of high faith, but ones who just happen to be on the same psychic wavelength as the god, making it easier for the god to establish a connection and work through them. Third, the saints, then, aren't the evangelists and expanders of a faith, generally, but it's holy warriors.

I've long felt that having clerical magic-users that are separate and distinct from regular priests and priestly hierarchies worldbuilding-wise, and this remains a really good approach, I think, and I feel like Hanrahan provides a flavorful implementation of it, with an interesting take on the gods, in general.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on April 18, 1985.

Batman and the Outsiders #23: The story continues from last issue: the Outsiders are trying to rescue Halo from the Aurakles. First, they travel to Japan to retrieve the ritual necessary to call forth the Aurakle whose soul is captive in Katana's sword. They compel the being to take them to its dimension. There they defeat the Aurackles in a surprise attack leading up to a threat to destroy them all via Black Lightning's power and Metamorpho turned into a conductive line. The Aurackles give in and let Halo go. Halo is conflicted over the fact that she stole Violet Harper's body, possibly even inadvertently killing the young woman, but Katana tries to assure her that Violet was a terrible person who didn't deserve life, making Violet (like Terra) one of the "utterly evil young women" of the era. Halo isn't completely convinced, though, so maybe Barr isn't either. Davis' art is perhaps not as polished as what will come from him in a few years, but it's already great.

Blue Devil #14: Mishkin/Cohn and Kupperberg/Maygar introduce Kid Devil, whose Marla's nephew, Gopher, in a devil suit he built from stuff in Dan's workshop. Smart kid! Dan is, at first, annoyed, but when the plane Gopher's parents are arriving in is hijacked, Kid Devil is helpful in saving them.

G.I. Combat #278: The first Haunted Tank story by Kanigher/Glanzman is sort of weird (which has been happening a lot lately). The Elder Craig is having nightmares and survivor's guilt about his former tank crew from WW I that were never recovered. When trying to defend a bridge at Riviere Du Diable, the crew finds a tank and bodies from the previous war, then slip into some liminal realm (time travel maybe?) where they are unable to act in their defense, but the ghosts of Craig's old crew come to their rescue.
There are 3 short World War II stories. One is brief Haunted Tank piece about the younger Craig, but the other two feature non-series characters: a G.I. in love with a French girl trying to save her village and a klutzy apiarist G.I. who uses his bee-knowledge to save the day.
Finally, there's a Mercenaries story, but it is one of the weakest some far, I think. After foiling a kidnapping attempt against some guy in San Francisco, they agree to be his bodyguards and go with him to his secret research vessel, Pandora, in Antarctic waters where he's developed a ship-based satellite-killer missile. All of this makes him seem like a super-villain, but before we can explore any of this they are attacked by a Soviet ship. The Mercenaries sink Pandora rather than let it fall into Soviet hands.

Green Lantern #190: This Predator arc takes a weird turn. As Stewart tries to get his ring to tell him his predecessor's secret ID, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the reporter Tawny show up with video tapes that record Stewart visiting with the two heroes at Carol's house in Coast City, something that none of them remember. Suddenly, everyone is paralyzed, and Predator swoops in and pops the tape out of the player. Katma is unaffected and tries to stop him but can't. The others have no memory of these events.
Meanwhile, Hal is on a stakeout, trying to figure out who the Predator is. He follows him, but the Predator alludes him. In the abandoned theater where the Predator had apparently been holed up, Hal catches the distinct smell of Carol's new perfume. 
Also, Guy Gardner starts to come out of his coma.

Infinity, Inc. #16: The Thomases and McFarlane/DeZuniga introduce Mr. Bones, who has a design that sort of anticipates McFarlane's Spawn. Before this though, the issue has a beach volleyball match to get in some gratuitous swimsuit shots not unlike a lot of stuff we'll be seeing in X-Men in the latter eighties. Among the bikini beauties is the newly introduced Yolanda Montez, who we aren't told much about yet, but she arrives with Wildcat. Anyway, after all this, Bones catches Fury alone and kidnaps her. To be continued!

New Teen Titans #10: Having finished the previous storyline, this issue is mostly setup for things to come. Lilith is made an Olympian god, and the other Teen Titans are sent back to Earth. Everybody is happy, except for Azrael who's really broken up, and the Titans are perhaps realistically but amusingly not terribly sympathetic to him. Cyborg kind of makes fun of him, and Azrael flies off. Meanwhile, a Tamaranian ship heads toward Earth to retrieve Koriand'r now that the Citadel is defeated.
Most of the issue is devoted to Joe and Kole. He helps her go looking for her father. In a sequence like something out of one of DC's bygone horror titles, her scientist Dad rants and tries to force them away. Joe possesses his body and they go into his laboratory, which they find full of monstrous human mutants created to find some form that could survive a nuclear war. freaked out, Joe and Kole flee. I'm sure that's not the last we've seen of Dr. Weathers, though.

Sgt. Rock #402: The main story by Kanigher/Redondo tells something of Wildman's background as the seemingly neurologically locked-in G.I. is about to receive a metal for bravery. Wildman manages to wake up and move to declare he doesn't deserve the award as the real act of heroism was performed by a former student of his who had just joined Easy.
In the second story, a reprint from 1974, an Indian survivor of a U.S. Cavalry attack on his village gets revenge on the soldiers by stealing their horses in a mountain trap. When a blizzard descends, the warrior pragmatically uses the horses to survive while the soldiers freeze to death.

Saga of Swamp Thing #38: Moore and Woch/Totleben get "American Gothic" underway with the Swamp Thing returning to Rosewood, Illinois, which he last visited about 3 years ago to the day in issue 3. Flooding Rosewood didn't get read of the vampires, but instead caused them to evolve into an aquatic, eusocial form, even more dangerous. Before telling Swampie anything more of the secrets he wants, Constantine wants him to deal with those vampires, so Swamp Thing wades in to do that.

Warlord #94: I reviewed this issue here.

Who's Who #4: More C's! Looking at characters particularly related to the period I've been reading here, we have Circe from Wonder Woman who re-appeared not too long ago, Computo showed up in Legion, and the Construct who just turned up last week in Red Tornado #1. Color Kid is also fresh off an appearance in the Legion of Substitute Heroes Special #1. There are also several entries for characters/organizations that had their first appearance in this period: The Creature Commandos soldiered through Weird War Tales for a period close to its ending; Colonel Future from introduced in Superman #378 and had at least 1 appearance since, and then there's Croc who got a whole arc in the Bat-titles. Two of these represent dangling mysteries: The identity of Colonel Computron was left unrevealed, though maybe it has been post-Crisis, as the character has had a few appearances. The generic, shadowy villainy of the Council from Supergirl is likewise noted here, though it never got fully exposed or dealt with. In the "Obscure Characters that Trey likes" column, we have Claw the Unconquered with art by Giffen.

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.

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.

My earlier post on the new setting I'm working on drew some questions related to the uninvolved gods and how the cleric class would work. I thought it was worth a post of its own. 

When the gods withdrew from the world it was no particular impediment to organized religion. To the contrary, priests could now make whatever pronouncements or demands they wanted without fear of divine contradiction or rebuke. The populace, worried at what the loss of the gods' favor might portend for the future, were eager for any message than offered hope or a path to the gods' return. In this period, the power of the temples increased, but so did conflict between them and various self-proclaimed prophets and spiritual teachers. 

This situation didn't last, thanks to the devastation of the Demon Wars and the invasion by the demons' monstrous allies. Human civilization was devastated, and cities became isolated. The society that had sustained and supported the temples and the priesthoods faltered, and once again faith in the gods was shown to be no protection against calamity. 

The priests and temples remain, though, particularly in the major city-states. The gods are real, after all, and no one expects them to return to a world that doesn't honor them or keep their ritual observances. Certain rituals, too, perform an important civic function and rulers rely on their observance to perpetuate their legitimacy.

In the smaller villages and hinterlands, though, the temples and shrines were mostly abandoned, the priests fleeing to the cities or killed in the conflict along with much of the rest of the population. As time passed, and these regions became (somewhat) safer, the common folk returned, but the priests often didn't.

Into this void strode another form of clergy. Those who, without official blessing or ordination, were able to wield a portion of divine power. They roam from village to village performing spiritual important services. They officiate marriages and civic ceremonies and conduct community rituals at festivals. They mediate between villagers and the spirits or the dead and perform exorcisms when necessary. Joining with other adventuring sorts, they also kill monsters threatening the people. These individuals are often called "Shepherds." They are the most common representatives of the absent gods encountered outside of the city-states.

Shepherd is the name used by the Nimble rpg for its "mostly cleric, but some druid concepts" class. It seemed a good as name as any to use here. 

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 April 4, 1985. 

Legion of Substitute Heroes Special #1: My brother and I had this issue back in '85, but I would have guessed we had at least another issue of Ambush Bug under our belts before this came out since I recall us already being familiar with the Giffen art style and humorous approach. It's possible with the vagaries of the newsstand, we didn't pick it up until a little bit later, I suppose.
Anyway, from the cover's faux editorial note on this issue makes it clear this is a humorous one-off to forewarn more traditional Legion fans. But in addition to the Subs, it features Matter Eater Lad heavily, and Pulsar Stargrave, perhaps suggesting that Legion lore isn't really as serious as some fans might think. The government of Bismoll has just purchased a new computer system, and Senator Tenzil Kem (the former Matter Eater Lad) has concerns. These fears seem warranted since the computers look like a whole herd of the Legion foe, Computo, and they are confirmed when the computers attract and embody Pulsar Stargrave. Luckily (maybe) Kem had already called in the Subs!
Mostly, they wander around lost while Kem solves the problem, though Polar Boy helps in Stargrave's defeat by freezing him to make him brittle, and then the unconscious Stone Boy delivers the decisive blow--when Kem drops him onto Stargrave from a height.
It's a silly issue, but an entertaining one.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #4: The uh, crisis deepens this issue. Batgirl and Supergirl share a moment in Gotham where Supergirl is able to help her friend out of a paralyzing despondency. In Japan, the Monitor oversees the origin of a new Dr. Light, who (I guess) is meant to be a lot more powerful than the original, because he certainly pins a lot of hope on her. Earth-6 is destroyed by the antimatter wave, but Pariah manages to save Lady Quark. 
Despite the new allies for the Monitor, his foe is also on the move. The shadow demons coalesce into larger shadow beings in the vicinity of the various towers/tuning forks. And though w're told that this is all part of the Monitor's plan, Harbinger strikes at the command of the enemy, apparently killing her mentor. Pariah assumes they are doomed. At that moment, the heroes of both Earths 1 and 2 can only watch in horror as their worlds, consumed by anti-matter and all is nothingness.

Atari Force #19: Baron and Bareto/Villagran bring our heroes home to New Earth but hardly get a warm welcome. They are forced to make a landing in an area where a new robotic weapon system is being tested. They survive that but then are taken into custody, there to await their trial. 
In the Taz backup by Hannigan and Wray we learn why Taz was carrying the red alien adversary when we first encountered her. It highlights Taz's singleminded pursuit of vengeance.

DC Comics Presents #83: Barr and Norvick/Hunt serve up some deep cut villains for this Superman/Batman and the Outsiders team-up. An accident turns Alfred Pennyworth into the villainous Outsider once again (last seen in 1977), and Superman joins forces with Batman and the Outsiders to defeat him and his ally I.Q. (last seen in 1982).

Fury of Firestorm #37: Nino's art is interesting here, but Cavalieri's story is confusing filler. We have a frame sequence where Martin and Ronnie are eating sushi and trying to figure out what recently went wrong with their powers (a plot point I don't recall) and flashback to an event earlier in their career where they lost control of their powers due to feedback but Ronnie figured out a solution to the problem due to a dream he had, after he attended an astrologist's lecture who told him to pay attention to dreams. Or perhaps that was part of the dream? I don't know, but it didn't hold my interest.

Justice League of America #240: This is another fill-in, this time by Busiek and Sekowsky/Mandrake. A frame sequence establishing two S.T.A.R. Labs research discovers a person in the time streaming and tracing their timeline to find out who they are. It turns out to be Phineas Quayle, a genius physicist from the 1930s whose altruism led him to travel time to seek out a solution to the Great Depression. Appalled by the future he saw, Quayle came to see superheroes as emblematic of the societal decay and rampant individualism he perceived, so he becomes the super-villain the Anomaly to defeat the Justice League and save everyone by "fixing" the future. He was defeated but made his escape into the timestream where he was trapped until the researchers freed him. He goes off to plot again, and the researchers just sort of shrug and assume the JLA will deal with him again.
The story very much feels like a Silver Age throwback, which was the intention. They even brought in classic JLA artist Sekowsky to pencil it.

Shadow War of Hawkman #3: We get a bit clearer idea this issue of what the Thanagarians are after. Apparently, all the upheaval on their homeworld has caused them to lose some of their technical know-how and the Hawks on Earth are the only ones that still have this tech they see as essential for conquest. They still seem advanced enough to cross interstellar space to come to Earth and steal stuff, which seems to be enough for most conquerors, but hey, can't be Thanagarians without antigravity belts, I guess. We also learn Shayera is still alive as she rescues Katar from Fell Andar and his crew. It turns out it was poor Mavis that died. 
The Thanagarians hook up one of their number's brain to the absorbacon and start surveilling everyone on Earth to see who else might know the location of the Hawks' tech. Katar and Shayera realize this will happen, so they destroy their devices hidden at the museum then sneak into JLA headquarters (getting in a fight with Aquaman and Elongated Man) to wipe info from the computers. Unfortunately, the Thanagarians have found and commandeered their spacecraft parked in orbit before they accomplish this.

Tales of the Teen Titans #54: Randall is on art here as Slade spends a short time in jail on the gun charge, and Gar pushes his friends away as he plots to kill his enemy. In the end, Slade is tired of being the Terminator, and Gar finds he can't kill him, so instead the two talk, and Gar gains some understanding. I think overall the issue is well done. I don't mind giving villains depth or nuance, nor do I mind this sort of "bad guy imparts wisdom" story, but absolving Slade by putting all the blame on Terra for her "being evil," and adding additional details to make it an easier sale (like revealing she had killed the king who helped raise Gar in Africa) is a bit much. I think Wolfman could have told a similar story without rehabilitating Slade to such a degree. Or even better, He could have never portrayed Terra and her relationship with Slade that way he did in the first place!

Vigilante #19: Wolfman is back as writer with Denys Cown on pencils and Maygar on inks. Vigilante gets involved in a family tragedy played out as a deadly confrontation between a young gang member in Chinatown and his father who is a gunrunner for the Tongs. The issue is one long fight sequence we begin in media res, interspersed with flashbacks to both events in Chase's life and that of the gang member leading up to this moment. Chase gets ready to assume his role as a judge and does what all superheroes seem to do when they quit: throw their costume in a round, domestic-style trashcan on the street corner.

 I pitched the idea that I have been kicking around to my players after the last session, and they were into it. So into it they have already began thinking about characters, despite the fact we were going to play a module for a month or so while I got prepared! Still though, I'm glad to have the enthusiasm. Everybody seems interested enough in Nimble, too, which is the system we plan to use over 5e.

Anyway, there interest made me go ahead this weekend and get down in writing things I had been kicking around regarding races/ancestries in the game.

Darklings: These will be the Tiefling stand-ins. They are mutants essentially, born to human parents exposed to the tainted mana emanating from the demons' side of the Terminator or from Shadow cysts.

Dwarves: Spontaneously generated from the spilled ichor of a fallen titan. Like your usual Dwarf but given this is a setting with ancient Magitech, they have a inclination for that. In fact, there's a rumor a cabal of dwarves is trying to create a machine god to run the cosmos more efficiently that either the titans or gods did.

Elves: Like your typical elves really, though I think longer lived that the D&D standard. Dark elves (the name has nothing to do with coloration) are likely holdout titan-partisans.

Halflings: Svelter than the D&D standard, mostly like the half-foots (feet?) in Dungeon Meshi in appearance. Like in the 4e "lore," they will be a nomadic people, either in big wagons or barges.

Meks: Mechanicals. They were created as servants and soldiers by the now-fallen Magitech Empire of Alphanion, but have developed more independence over the centuries. They reproduce via Mothernodes, ancient pieces of Magitech sometimes found in Alphanion ruins. They take the place of the Warforged, but broader in conception. The Steam Men of Hunt's Jaekelian novels, Mattie from Sedia's The Alchemy of Stone, and the droids in Star Wars are also influences.

Myrclawr: Cat people of the anime/manga variety. They are also a created species from the Age of the Wizard-Kings.