Feed aggregator

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.

 This blog post picks up with the PC's hired by the Ghost of Hong Kong right after last session to take down  to recover a 5.25-inch floppy disk from a flooded basement in Lowertown. This session picks right up from Ghost of Hong Kong by Steve Miller Pulp Hero As An NPC for The Ascendant RPG Including NPC Villains, Trophies, and more!The Integrating a Golden Age deep-cut Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 So we picked up with the party dealing with the fall out from our last mission New Flesh Rpg Adventure - Mission Brief: Operation "Threnody in Glass" Adapting The Cultclassic TV show T.H.E. Cat into our New Flesh campaign. Part II The Assassins! We dived deep into Bidonville Blues  adventure after parting ways with T.H.E. Cat & his network of contacts. We went Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

As part of the excitement for the upcoming Puerto Rico Comic Con, which I posted about yesterday, and all the gaming goodness that is happening there, I learned of a project for a system-agnostic TTRPG supplement being created by a very talented local artist in Puerto Rico, Eliana Falcón-Dvorsky, who posted about the project in the Puerto Rico Role Players Discord Server, and I was immediately curious. Eliana was tremendously kind, replying to my questions, sharing details about art and the upcoming gaming project, and gracefully answering the interview I am sharing with you below.

Who is Eliana Falcón-Dvorsky? 

I am a writer and artist born, raised, and living in Puerto Rico. I eat, breathe, and obsessively think about storytelling and character writing, frankly. My main publication work is my own webcomic, Cosmic Fish, which I write and draw. I’ve also worked as a colorist and editor for Somos Arte’s La Borinqueña, and as an art director, storyboard artist, and character designer for Dakiti Productions’ animated adaptation of Rockolandia. I’m also a huge anthropology, gardening, and cooking nerd, so it’s not all art, haha!

How would you describe your art? 

I tend to have two distinct styles, and some people know me either for one or the other, rarely both. I’m usually known in larger circles for my “cute art” and the application of a lot of Puerto Rican folklore and criticism of our sociopolitical situations in my work. For my closer social circle, they know me as a bit of a darker writer and artist, constantly exploring complicated themes with as much nuance and empathy as I can. So, there’s an interesting dichotomy in my work that I think tends to cross over once in a while due to overlapping themes or design choices, but only now am I a little brave enough to finally start showing all sides of my work.

How did you discover tabletop role-playing games? 

I used to RP a lot with friends back in the forum days and early days of Skype and Discord, so the transition has been pretty natural, honestly. After Hurricane Maria, I was looking for a bit of a distraction while everything in real life was descending into chaos. Back then, I lived in a rural area in PR. We didn’t have running water for 5 months, electricity for 8, and I’d be driving over debris, flooded bridges, and broken roads that were ready to collapse for about a year. I lost a few family members, either directly or indirectly, in the aftermath of the storm. Tabletop suddenly became an interesting and welcoming hobby I could play with others in person, without needing electricity or being online. The group didn’t work out, sadly, but it opened the door for me to play different games and plenty of homebrew systems with my online friends once I managed to get back online. 

What games do you like to play?

I’m definitely a very RP-oriented kind of player because of my past, and I focus a lot on balancing player-dynamics in the groups I’m in. In my DMing, I tend to prioritize the player’s narrative goals and themes, finding ways to challenge them as writers (all of us are writers and artists) or to help them explore something they’ve never had a chance to before. I’m a storyteller first, but I always try to find a group that looks for a nice balance of play/combat systems and RP to be able to challenge myself. For a long time, I played homebrew systems designed by a friend of mine from Australia. And for a while, it was very liberating because of the diverse classes my friend’s system focused on, which I felt many mainstream systems lacked. It was after that we began expanding to other systems like Daggerheart and Blades in the Dark. I tried getting into Triangle Agency, but it didn’t click. I’ve tried getting back to D&D, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently the only way I’ve been able to play it since 2017.

What are you currently playing? 

I’ve been playing the same weekly Blades in the Dark campaign for almost 2 years now. We play it on Discord, so we try to get our RP and character moments in written RP during the week and then play a heist or session on the weekend. It’s worked for the most part, but admittedly, we’re very invested in the drama hahaha. It’s been really fun, and it’s been fantastic to work with a team that goes over lines and veils and other table etiquette that I wish were a bit more common locally. I think for a game like BitD, communication and these tools are very important.

What would you like to play?

I think after two years of Blades in the Dark, I’d like to explore brighter settings, not necessarily simple, but I could go for a theme set in a forest or someplace more diverse. I’d like to try a longer Daggerheart campaign or The Quiet Year. I’d love to play Eat the Reich, which I got during a Kickstarter campaign, but I haven’t had the chance yet. If not, my girlfriend is the one with a long list of different systems and games, so I tend to follow whatever she’s vibing with.

 What are you working on (that you can tell us about)? 

Right now, I’m juggling a few personal projects, trying to see where I can fit their output. I’d love to go back to Cosmic Fish even if it’s not as consistent as I could before; I have a horror comic set in Puerto Rico that I’d love to start, a children’s book that’s been in the over for a while now, but I also really want to expand my first TTRPG worldbuilding module, Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes. So, I have a lot of diverse projects in the works! 

Tell me about your project, Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes? What is it about? 

Arcton has been a setting I’ve been using on and off for about 7 years or so. It started as a response to how I would fix WotC’s Thay and a few other issues I have with the worldbuilding of that setting as a whole, and it slowly began evolving into its own thing. Because the system it was built on was one of the discontinued homebrew designs made by my friend from Australia, the book is currently more of a system-agnostic worldbuilding module that offers tools and inspiration rather than concrete stats.

Arcton is a northern nation founded by eight liches after they succeeded in their revolution and “ascended”. Each lich runs a region and uses the Officers (or living servants) to gather citizens, bring them back as enslaved undead, and force them to work in mines or their armies. However, the story is about the citizens, about the history, the context, and what role YOU can play in it.

The first book is an overview that explores worldbuilding, history, flora, fauna, and some NPCs, and offers the necessary tools to inspire DMs and players in their campaigns. With the rise and normalization of thoughtless and effortless AI slop, I’m really hoping this book inspires people to read and to add their own take to my work, create their own interpretation, and try to build something of their own without a machine, no better than an undead, to do the thinking and working for them. I think anyone can be a storyteller, and TTRPG’s popularity is proof of it. I want more human stories! The book is a tool by creatives for creatives, and it really tries to cover as much anthropological background and art as I can in 106 pages.

The goal is to then release supplementary books covering 2-3 regions per volume. These will offer maps, details, biographies, lists of encounters and items, NPCs, story hooks, and enemies for each region. Some might change genres, from a government conspiracy drama to a murder mystery set in a nomadic town, to even an adventure story about finding a library of forbidden knowledge, adding more inspiration to a craft sparked by creativity.

I understand you will have it available at the Puerto Rico Comic Con. Where can people find you there?

YES! My main focus is still my comic, Cosmic Fish, but I will be at 115-E in artist alley, at the rightmost end of the hallway. I’ll also be selling plenty of TTRPG stickers and goodies. The comic my girlfriend and I work on, named Weekend at Benny’s, will also be available, and it takes place near Arcton. 

 What other ways can people get Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes, and support your other projects? 

From May 7th to May 28th, Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes will be available on Backerkit as part of Pockettopia. The goal is to help the book become widely accessible for a limited time. I’d also like to try to unlock bonus items for you to use in games, including character/NPC and item cards, setting prompts, tables, and hopefully help fund the next book that covers Ingala and Fraye, my recommended suggestions for first-time explorers.

Thank you, Eliana, for participating in this interview. If you are in Puerto Rico, be sure to visit her at PRCC; if not, be on the lookout for her Backerkit project. You can follow it via this link: Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes.

As a bonus, when you follow the project, you get access to a 19-page preview of the material. I am blown away by these 19 pages alone. I used some art from the Backerkit preview page in the post, but there is more art in the preview.  I love the heraldry, the symbols, the full-page art. Beautiful! The setting seems very imaginative, and I really want to learn more. Make sure you check it out.

By Dougal Cochrane
Self Published
DOlmenwood
Levels ... 2-3?

No Funkadelics appear in this adventure.

[…] Lately, the witch owls are squabbling about whether to move on to new hunting grounds, or remain to continue preying on travellers. The owls comprise two factions, led by witch owls named Horned Hextus and Nightshade.

This eleven page adventure uses 3.5 pages to present seven locations in and around a small forest temple. It is too small for the gameplay it wants to encourage (intrigue) so instead we;re just gonna have one titanic battle. The formatting is BADLY confusing. 

I like the art style in this. All of it, I think. Nicely evocative. So, remember, I said something nice.

I hate this. Do I hate it? Maybe not hate. It’s disappointing to see something fail so hard at what it’s trying to do. Like, so hard that I hate the failure. And the environment that surrounds it to generate it.

There’s this temple in the woods. The chick priestess there makes swords for people. And has no guards so a group of six Witch Owls move in and take over and start eating her memory. And they ambush people coming to the temple and eat their memories and use their shadows as guards. And they have two factions who disagree on what to do, one group wanting to stay and one group wanting to leave. 

No level range to be found anywhere, on the cover, in the adventure, in the description. 2-3, I’d guess, based on everyone inside having 2HD. The hooks are the same lame-o getting hired/go find quest-gover nonsense that every adventure has. 

I don’t really know where to begin with this. It’s small. Seven rooms and only four of them are interior as in inside the temple. Of those four, which are right on top of each other (there’s no fucking scale on the fucking map! Which means its a fucking art piece and not a fucking map.) The two factions are right next to each other. Three owls and some shadows in one room and three owls and some shadows in the next room. Literally right on top of each other. How do you do faction play like that? “Frank is next door, go stab him. And by ext next door I mean you can see him, 20’ away, right there. Go stab him,” “HEY! I CAN HEAR YOU ASSHOLE! I” STANDING RIGHT HERE!” All six owls, both factions, in two rooms. Why have factions? Why give the owls motivations and wants and pretend that you can appeal to them? Why not just stuff all six in one room? The map/environment is so close in that it doesn’t make sense. At all. If you want some owl intrigue then you need a larger map. You need to put different owls in different places. Divide up all six, give them some shaky allegiances. Put in some dangerous areas not related to the owls. THEN you can play factions and seek things out for one owl and appeal to a different ones sensibilities and so on. It’s clear, with the whole faction thing and the different owls wanting different things, that this is the concept that the designer wanted. And, yet, we got all six owls in two rooms like, I don’t know, twenty feet apart from each other? With no order of battle? The concept, as implemented, is a failure.

And then there’s the writing and formatting. “A strange river of weird aspect” is how room one, a river starts. What does strange mean? It has a waxed moustache, all Poirot style? What does weird aspect mean? Those are conclusions. A well written description will cause the players to think “hmmm, that strange”, but you don’t use those words to describe things because they don’t actually describe anything. I’m down with twisting the english language, stealing words, making up words, using words out of their normal usage, anything, really, to get across a meaning, a vibe of the location in question. But you can’t use weird or strange; those don’t actually describe anything.

As for formatting … something weird is going on. I’m going to copy in a section of the main room description of one of the rooms. I’m not cherry picking they are all have the same issue. But, also, I’m not sure if what I want to talk about it going to come through in this copy/paste: “A stone portico (cracked slabs, spotted with purple guano) holds a promenade of statuary columns (heavily eroded almost smooth, stag and deer headed shapes) leading to carved steps and columns supporting a wide doorway.” The bolding here, I don’t know, it seems, noun-like? Are we just bolding nouns? Features? They are not followed up on elsewhere. And then the mini-description in the parens. I think we can all see what the INTENT was with this. To provide a little more description of those features. But I don’t think this works AT ALL. I think it’s a confusing mess. Either I’m having a stroke (I AM out of velo 9’s. And gin. And coke. And coffee.) or this is a just a muddled mess of a description with the parens, bolding and so on. It’s too much, I think, competing for our attention, including the word usage. It reminds me for al the world of those adventures that try to use color-shaded boxes to color code every section and paragraph of an adventure and in the end their attempts to bring clarity just result in a big ugly confusing mess that you want to burn instead of reading. And its STILL hard to find out which rooms have monsters in them!

There were supposed to be factions. But the place is too small for that. There’s no real interactivity here, once you rid yourself of any possibility of factions. Just long room descriptions with things overly described for no reason. 

Someone had an idea. This parliament of owls thing, with factions and birds nests and how that works with deer people and witch owls and so on. I would assert, though, that in spite of all of the additional words, it never got beyond, as a concept or in implementation, what I just typed up there to describe it.

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

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/558919/parliament-of-owls?src=newest_recent?1892600

 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.

There’s going to be a massive tabletop presence at the Puerto Rico Comic Con (PRCC) this year, happening from April 3rd to the 5th at the Puerto Rico Convention Center.

It figures this is the year I won’t be able to make it! We have a family vacation to a beach house planned for that weekend, and my son has been looking forward to it for weeks. Fatherhood absolutely trumps all other plans. But just because I won’t be there doesn’t mean the rest of the local gaming community shouldn’t go all out, or that folks off the island can’t support the creators showing up.

Running Friday through Sunday, PRCC is hosting a dedicated tabletop event called the Dungeon Experience. It’s going to feature trading card games, board games, TTRPG demos, and more. Planeta Meeple and the Cardboard Cave Podcast are both participating. The folks at Planeta Meeple aren’t just acquaintances; they’re good friends who do a ton of active work to promote and support the tabletop community here in Puerto Rico. If you are going to the con, please visit and support them. If you aren’t going, give their socials a follow.

You should also look out for Keiggy, a local artist and member of Dungeons & Dragons Puerto Rico. She will be over at table 232 in Artist Alley, selling her handmade, reusable D&D character sheets and doing portrait commissions. Check out her work!

Our friends at Titan Games will also have a massive setup right by Entrance B at booth 1307. They always carry a huge selection of tabletop gear, including a great spread of role-playing games, so make sure to stop by their booth.

These are just a few of the friends and creators I know will be setting up shop, but I’m sure there are plenty more. In fact, there is one specific project I want to highlight in detail, but I’m saving that for tomorrow’s post!

Who did I miss? Who else has tabletop projects at PRCC this year? Let me know in the comments so I can help spread the word.

 Barrows & Borderlands (B&B) is an indie OSR (Old School Renaissance) powerhouse that mashes together 1970s-style tabletop gaming with a "cracked-reactor" aesthetic. If you’ve ever wanted to play a game where a 17th-century pikeman and a psychic mutant explore a radioactive dungeon, this is it.  This blog post picks up from Adapting B4 The Lost City By Tom Moldvay.For Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Para Bellum Wargames, the developer and publisher of the fantasy Regimental Miniature Wargame “Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings” and updated Skirmish system “Conquest: First Blood” releases a completely new Model for the Nords in April. The Einherjar defeated the Jotnar and earned their undying fealty when Angbjorn, the Bear, defeated Alvaldi, the Shaman King of the Ice Jotunn. While this saga has been told and retold, embellished by every generation to make the victor more glorious and the defeated more wretched, few understand just how close the duel was or how much was at stake.

“This model includes bonus pieces for our gamers to allow their creativity to unfold…” says Stavros Halkias, Founder and Creative Director. “Depicting the climax of that famous duel, Winter’s End lets you field Alvaldi (as an Ice Jotnar) and 2 Angjorns (as a Konungyr or Blooded) one may be used individually in battle and the other depicting him mid leap in the thick of the action!”

Sold as a set of 3 miniatures, fans can create this model in any number of ways, with pre-cut spaces for magnets for gamers to recreate the flying effect pictured, on their gaming table. Each box will include two separate head molds as well allowing for custom creation. The Winter’s End Founder’s Exclusive plays as an Ice Jotnar in game and is considered an alternate pose or upgraded model for in game action. This is a limited edition of 990 pieces, each sequentially numbered.

The Nords Winter’s End is available for Pre-Order now at an SRP of USD 175.99 /EU 159.99. This will be released on April 30th worldwide, while numbered supplies last. A very limited quantity will debut at Adepticon where we are launching this edition in booth 1202.

www.para-bellum.com www.facebook.com/ParaBellumWarGames

Reposting this from 2024 is my reminder to myself to get around to finishing this series one of these days. I also think I may revise a couple of the ones I have already written.
 
One of these days, I'm going to completely finish (and maybe publish) this series on the Great Wheel, but until then, here's everything I've done.
The Planes of Pure Law
The Planes of Chaos
Hell
CarceriHadesArboreaElysiumBeastlandsGehennaTwin ParadisesThe Layers of Heaven (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)ArcadiaLimboYsgard

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on March 28, 1985.

Ambush Bug #1: Giffen, Fleming, and Oksner bring us the solo debut of a character Giffen has pushing for a while now. I loved this issue when it came out, and I think it holds up reasonably well today. The plot of the main story involving Republican terrorists threatening to release stores of old nerve case unless the Congress votes to begin production of new nerve gas, is not so alien to our current political moment to have lost its satire, if some of the details (like a joke about Boll Weevil Democrats) belong to a different time. Giffen's latter 80s style of a lot of panels with rough black line borders and no whitespace in between has reached its mature form, though characters are not quite as stylized here as they will get.

Action Comics #568: With the cover of this issue, I wonder why they didn't publish it as the February issue? The stories continuing to be continuity-free, so I don't see why this month's and last month's couldn't have been switched. Anyway, the first story isn't the cover story but a bit of silliness by Maggin and Swan/Williamson about Superman being called in to help when a stage magician's magic (he has real magic but doesn't use it in his stage performance) accidentally sends the audience (including Perry White's grandkids) to India.
The second (longer) story by Boldman and Bender/Nino goes with the cover. A thief fleeing the 30th Century into the past, accidentally delivers a device into Jimmy's hands that he thinks is some sort of matchmaking device after suggests he come to a particular street corner where he meets the lovely Jennifer, with whom he matches so well. Soon, Lois and Clark get in on the matchmaking, pairing Lois with detective Preston Chandler, and Clark with the librarian Mindy, who turns out also to be the superheroine Nova-Woman. In the end, Science Police Officer Shvaughn Erin shows up to reveal the device isn't a matchmaker, but a thought actualizer, drawing images from a person's subconscious and making them solid. She takes the device back and the dream dates disappear.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #32: Kupperberg and Duursema continue "The Magic Odyssey" with part 3. Confidant that his magic has returned, Arion ignores Yoshiro's warnings and goes on a quest to recover a dark jewel that can somehow turn Wyynde back to normal. Unexpectedly he is returned to the Darkworld where he arrives at the place he spent some many years in his youth. He encounters Ghy, a somewhat sinister looking imp that was nevertheless a childhood friend. Unfortunately, as we saw last issue, Arion has fallen into a trap set by Tomokata (who's trying to steal Chian from him) and Dark Majistra who was imprisoned inside the dark jewel, but now freed.
Meanwhile back in Atlantis, King D'Tilluh has taken his own life. As the ministers debate who to name as his successor, T'Galla, the king's warrior daughter barges in having just returned home.

All-Star Squadron #45: Continuing the story from last issue, Johnny Quick and Libby get the location of Blitzkrieg's hideout from his assistant, Zwerg. Johnny is delayed, but Liberty Belle and Hawkgirl attack the hideout where Blitzkrieg is using the vibrations of the Liberty Bell to cure his psychological blindness? Yeah, it didn't make much sense to me either!
The two battle Zyklon while Blitzkrieg rants and waits for a lightning strike to power the device, Frankenstein-style, which will restore his sight. Hawkgirl and Zyklon knock each other out. Lightning strikes, and it restores the Baron’s sight but also giving Belle sonic powers! Blitzkrieg manages to escape, though.

Detective Comics #551: Moench and Broderick/Smith continue the Calendar Man story from Batman. Doing some sleuthing, Batman figures out where Calendar Man is likely to strike next, but he sidelines Robin out of fear that Calendar Man will make good on his threat to kill him. Batman surprises Calendar Man at his caper, but the actions of a thug who figured Calendar Man wasn't up to the task of killing Batman, distracts the hero and Calendar Man escapes. Batman gets home to find Jason is missing, having rashly gone out as Robin on his own.
Cavalieri and Moore/Patterson present a Green Arrow backup that seems ripped from today's headlines. After a run-in with overzealous immigration enforcement at a diner, Ollie and Dinah try to help the undocumented immigrant brother of an El Salvadorian refugee working there. Ollie learns that there is a network of people helping those fleeing the war-torn country get into the U.S. A Catholic Church turns out to be one such sanctuary, and that's where Ollie meets Francisco, the man he's looking for. Unfortunately, immigration enforcement raids the place, and Oliver is taken into custody with Francisco and the local priest. Elsewhere, the mysterious Onyx gets ready to begin her search for Oliver Queen.

Jonah Hex #91: Fleisher and Morrow have Hex encounter a "nearly eighteen" year-old runaway looking to become a trick rider in a Wild West show after he saves her from a rattlesnake. A romance blossoms, though Hex protests (weakly) about their age difference. He goes with her to Rory Starbuck's Wild West Review but runs into trouble when he catches some disgruntled former employees in an act of sabotage. Ultimately, Hex briefly disguises himself as a clown to catch the badguys--but also catches Carolee two-timing him with Starbuck after taking literally his protestations that she should be with somebody younger.
Meanwhile, Emmylou is having hard time making good her escape from Brett and his gang, and when she does, she appears to fall into an abandoned well. The next issue blurb promises something we won't expect. I wonder if it has anything to do with another ad for Hex (coming in June) in the letter column?

Sun Devils #12: Jurgens and Mitchell bring the series to an end, and it's a bit anticlimatic. The Sun Devils reunite with the beaten Rik and go on to take the Starcrusher back from the Sauroids, but there's no boss badguy to confront here, just a lot of minions. Perhaps the real interesting developments of the issue are elsewhere. Earth is made aware in time to throw off the Crustate attack. Rik and crew (after some soul-searching) decide not to use the weapon to destroy the Sauroid homeworld, but then they turn it over to the Centaurian leader who promptly does so, then brands the Sun Devils outlaws so they can't reveal the truth of what he did. After their goodbyes, the team splits up to go into hiding, Rik takes off on his own, supposedly, but he's aware that Anomie, who he forgave but said he couldn't be in a relationship with again, has stowed away on his ship.                                        
Tales of the Legion #324: Levitz/Newell and Jurgens/Kesel have Ultra-Boy, Mon-El, and White Witch arriving at a scene of planetary destruction that Gigi is certain is the work of Dev-Em. The Legionnaires tangle with a masked Dark Circle agent that is as powerful as Dev-Em, but then there is more than one of them. Unmasking their defeated opponents, they find they are Dev-Em clones. The Dark Circle reveals that are holding the real Dev-Em captive with Kryptonite. Meanwhile, Dawnstar still pines from her love from the previous lackluster story.
In the backup by the same writers with art by Colon/Martin, Invisible Kid has to solve the mystery of why a project to map the planet Ordse is being sabotaged.

V #5: Bates and Smith/Alcala continue the story from last issue. Earl Meagan (the Carl Sagan stand-in) continues his personal mission of against the Visitors over the objections of Resistance who thinks his attack, if carried out, will cause massive reprisals by the aliens. Predictably, Diana's overtures of peace are a ruse, and she takes Meagan captive on the Mothership, unaware he's carrying a micro-nuke in his body. Meanwhile, Ham and Chris infiltrate the Visitor facility where Kyle is being kept and learn it is essentially a big food science experiment in fattening up humans to make them tastier!
In the letter column, the editorial vaguely references big changes coming to the TV show that will put the comic out of step but promises a special issue soon to reconcile the two. The letters are an interesting time capsule. Many praise V (a series now mostly forgotten I think) as the best science fiction TV show since Star Trek (The original series, of course. TNG is still about 2 years away.)

World's Finest Comics #316: Cavalieri's and Stroman/Aiken/Garvey's latest villain to challenge the combined might of Superman and Batman: Cheapjack, the top hat-wearing leader of a biker gang called the Werewolves of London that operate out of the woods on the outskirts of Gotham, I assume. The cover says he's "back," but this is actually his first appearance. He's started a gang war by kidnapping the daughter of the head of the Massimo crime family. He wants to corner the drug market to flood the streets with his new drug, synthedrine. Batman and Superman go undercover in the rival gangs to stop the war.
Team-up books are always a bit weird continuity-wise, as the can't (or at least typically don't) fit easily with what's going on in other books. We get that here as Bruce Wayne seems caught between potential love interests: a businesswoman and a nightclub owner, without any mention of the separate love interests he's caught between in his solo books. Superman, despite all this going on in his books, finds a lot of time to gang out in Gotham, buddying around with a guy that the rest of the DCU would suggest he's had a falling out with at this point. 

CATALYST GAME LABS’ BATTLETECH REFIT & REDEPLOYMENT 

Catalyst Game Labs refits the seminal BattleTech IP with two new box sets and a rulebook for redeployment in August, and available at the Gen Con Game Fair 2026. The same game and universe you’ve loved for four decades receives its best-yet presentation of art, fiction, miniatures and rules. 

For the first time in more than thirty years, a new BattleTech Starter Box, Core Box and Core Rulebook were developed simultaneously for a joint release in August 2026. In preparation for this refit, Catalyst ran the largest public playtest in BattleTech’s four-decade history, ensuring all revisions to our game of heavy metal mayhem were well-honed and battle-tested. 

While rules changes were made to improve the tabletop experience, this is not a new edition of BattleTech. As always, BattleTech remains remarkably the same as when it first appeared in 1985’s Second Edition boxed set.

Starter Box 

The Starter Box builds off of the success of the Beginner Box and Essentials, but ups the ante. As a starting point for new players, it eases novice MechWarriors into the BattleTech game as smoothly as ever. But now, the reverse of each half-page record sheet offers a taste of the exciting equipment and rules that the full BattleTech game brings to your table. The box includes two fan-favorite, ilClan-era BattleMechs: the dogged Hammerhead and the brutal Kontio!

Core Box 

Likewise, the new Core Box uses the bestselling A Game of Armored Combat boxed set as the foundation to construct an immersive, fun experience. A highlight of the new Core Box is the Sagas lore booklet. This brand-new primer opens the doors to the BattleTech universe with a series of gorgeous, all-new art pieces, but also guides players through choosing a faction, a style of play, and more. The eight high-quality, ready-to-play miniatures included in the box represent a cross-section of more than thirty years of beloved BattleTech lore. They include the Hollander and Rakshasa that first appeared in Technical Readout: 3055; the Solitaire from Technical Readout: 3067; the Uziel and Mad Cat Mk II that premiered in the MechWarrior 4: Vengeance computer game; the Vulture Mk IV Prime that first hit game tables as part of MechWarrior: Dark Age; and the Regent and Eris from the new ilClan Era Recognition Guides.

Core Rulebook 

Building on the critical and commercial success of the BattleMech Manual, a half-year of public playtesting brought forth the most cohesive, approachable, and dynamic set of rules for BattleTech ever: the new Core Rulebook. Thanks to the support of the Catalyst Demo Team Agents and the wider BattleTech community, the Core Rulebook also contains a comprehensive

Missions section: a shared, fundamental framework allowing players to easily create a huge variety of BattleTech games. This flexible toolbox allows for everything from quick pick-up games to epic clashes, and makes it easy for anyone—from the newest players to grizzled veterans—to build a force, choose a mission, grab some miniatures and start rolling dice!

Core Rules Changes

After six months, five playtest packets, and thousands of hours of playtesting, we’ve finalized the BattleTech Core Rules Changes document, which you can find here, alongside a review and reflection on this process from developer Keith Hann. We can’t thank our fabulous, worldwide community enough for their expertise, enthusiasm, and time as we developed this new rulebook and box sets. Thank you! 

As always, existing BattleTech mapsheets, Technical Readouts, and all models remain fully compatible with the new Core Rulebook. Additionally, of the thousands of ’Mech record sheet variants published over the past forty years, less than .05% required a small tweak (just those for units which have Watchdog CEWS or Bombast Lasers). Odds are that you’ll never see an existing record sheet that’s not fully compatible.

As usual, Catalyst is attending AdeptiCon 2026 in force! In addition to our plethora of games, we’ll have a diorama showing off the new BFM: Volcanic map, along with all of the new models found in the Starter Box and Core Box! We’ll also have samples of both boxes in our display cases, along with a complete sample of Aces: Snowblind, our next Alpha Strike cooperative campaign box, currently at the printers. Stop by the Grand Ballroom, snap photos, ask us questions and play some BattleTech! 

For those not attending, we’ll be livestreaming throughout the show. Be sure to catch our first segment, at 10 a.m. CST, where we’ll extensively cover the details of this announcement, answer questions, and more. Check out all of the excitement 

youtube.com/@catalyst-game-labs.

Leap into the Action! 

BattleTech remains one of the best-selling tabletop miniatures games in the hobby, with well over 10 million plastic miniatures sold in the last eight years. This refit and redeployment of the new Starter Box, Core Box, and Core Rulebook celebrates the seminal BattleTech universe, while making it easier than ever to leap into the action. Whether you’ve been here the whole time, you’re coming back to the game for the first time in decades, or picking it up for the very first time, fabulous, narrative-driven games await you on the battlefields of the Inner Sphere!

We’re here, on the final installment of the retrospective of my past 40 years as a gamer. It will not be the last post on the topic, mind you; this is just the end of the decades-long account of how gaming has been a part of my life. This instance overlaps with the previous post because I left off just as Hurricane María devastated the island.

If you don’t mind me paraphrasing The Sound of Music…

How do you solve a problem like what María left?

I won’t go into too much detail. Suffice it to say that in September 2017, Puerto Rico suffered some damage from Hurricane Irma early in the month, and on September 20th, María devastated the island as a Category 5 hurricane. This CNN article, one year later, is a great summary of the impact and aftereffects, if you are interested.

Irma began to wreak havoc with our gaming schedule. A week-long blackout after Irma meant we cancelled game plans for both the home game and the Desde la Fosa game, and we might have gotten two or three sessions in before María hit. We had a Geeknic planned for the weekend before, and we cancelled it. All gaming stopped after that!

With no power and gas shortages, we could not meet to play. From September to December, I played twice. I was lucky to return to work about 10 days after the disaster, but there were very few leisure opportunities. Friends from Puerto Rico, Role Players who lived nearby and knew I was going stir-crazy, dropped by, and we played board games, helping me stay sane!

My friends from Puerto Rico Role Players came to my rescue post-María.

The weekly gaming group met once to try to continue the D&D 5e campaign, but we knew we would not be able to meet regularly for the time being. Two players were across the island; one was about to leave for the mainland US to continue his PhD research. So, we finished some plotlines and paused the campaign until we could gather again.

The final D&D 5e session of 2017.
From left to right: Luis Lao, Edgardo, Richard, Mariana, José Fernando, Naida, Fernando, and Roberto (me).

Desde la Fosa was similarly affected. We met a few more times, but over the next few months, two of the team members emigrated. While the channel continued to post content and videos about RPG a Day and other topics, getting together to play games and stream them online stopped.

By November, some of us had power, but connectivity was spotty, so we could not reach players across the island. One player remained out of the country, so we decided to start another campaign until we could get back to D&D 5e.

My god, these are Stars Without Number!

In November 2017, we had session zero of our Stars Without Number (SWN) campaign, a few days after Thanksgiving. We were grateful to be all together and well! We called the campaign Alternate Frontiers Without Number, because I mashed up the aliens from Star Frontiers and Alternity to populate the SWN sector I rolled up using the book’s tools. I posted about my conversions for the campaign here and here.

The smaller group consisted of five players playing D&D 5e (José Fernando, Fernando, Naida, Carlos, and Luis Lao) and one player who rejoined us (Raul), while Mariana, Edgardo, and Richard could not play at that time. I planned a “short” campaign, which for me is anywhere from 9 months to a year.

This plan worked out great because, a few months later, my wife and I found out we were going to be parents! My son was going to be born in December, so I planned for the campaign to end before his birth, when I planned to take a hiatus to help with his care.

Alternate Frontiers Without Number was a lot of fun! It solidified my love for Kevin Crawford’s work. We had a satisfying story arc with an epic finale. Luis Lao’s girlfriend, Aileen (now his wife), played a few sessions with us, as well as Fernando’s brother, who dropped in for a cameo in the game.

The crew after Desde la Fosa, playing Free League Publishing Games.
From left to right, top to bottom: José García, Luis Lao, AJ, Gustavo, José Fernando, José García, José Garcia (again, he was the GM after all!), Kenneth, and Gustavo.

We also played with friends from Desde la Fosa. José García ran Symbaroum for us before AJ left Puerto Rico. The Symbaroum system and setting made me a fan of Free League Publishing. We also played some more Free League games when José García ran Coriolis for Felipe, Enith, Tracy, José Fernando, and me.

On December 18th, we played the 53rd and final session of our SWN campaign. My son was born the next day!

The last session of the Stars Without Number Campaign.
From left to right: Luis Lao, José Fernando, Fernando, Naida, Raul, Carlos.

I am your father!

Parenthood is the most wonderful role I have ever had in my life. From the moment I carried him after his birth to today, my son’s presence has filled me with endless joy. Despite the hardships and challenges, the rewards are thousandfold, and being called “dad” is my favorite moniker.

As I’ve said before, TTRPG gaming is part of my wellness routine. It helps me relax, refocus, and keeps me connected with my close friends. However, I recognized that caring for a newborn requires time. I paused my weekly campaign, telling my friends I would take a few months off, and when I thought Marchelo’s sleep patterns and care were something my wife could handle on her own once a week, we would start playing again.

I knew this was unpredictable. But my son’s sleep patterns were so regular that he would slumber through most of the night, getting up only once to feed and be changed. When he was four months old, we had established a routine, and my wife, knowing how much I missed gaming, encouraged me to resume weekly gaming. We only took a short hiatus!

The good, the bad, and the gamer

I wasn’t ready to get back to playing D&D 5e in my homebrewed world and all the prep that entailed. We still had a lot to do with my newborn son. Also, I started a new job a month after he was born, so I was taking on many new responsibilities. We were going back to gaming, but I wanted to run a simpler game. There were also some genres I had never run, so, in consultation with my players, we decided to run a western-horror game using Down Darker Trails from Chaosium, designed for use with Call of Cthulhu (CoC) or Pulp Cthulhu, but using Troll Lord Games’ Amazing Adventures.

This was a great experience. Chaosium’s adventures are the sort of adventures I enjoy: a framework with lots of setting information I can use to run a game. This was the smallest group of players in ages: Naida, Fernando, José Fernando, Luis Lao, and Carlos. It kept the adventure lean, moving at a good pace, not too complex for me as a GM.

Creating characters for Down Darker Trails.
From left to right: José Fernando, Carlos, Fernando, Naida, Luis Lao,

While currently I don’t think I will run Troll Lord Games for the foreseeable future, back in 2019, playing Amazing Adventures motivated us to change the system when we restarted the fantasy campaign we paused in 2017. We switched systems from D&D 5e to Castles & Crusades.

There, Crusade. There, Castle.

As 2019 ended and 2020 began, Puerto Rico was still recovering from Hurricane María, and a series of earthquakes struck the southwest of the island. Despite the new hardships, we soldiered on with gaming, and in February 2020, we restarted the fantasy campaign but converted it to Castles & Crusades. It was great to return to the campaign we had paused three years before. Mariana and Edgardo had married and moved from Puerto Rico, but Carlos, Fernando, Naida, José Fernando, Richard, and Oscar returned to the campaign. Naida, sadly, did not finish the campaign, and losing a player was not the only challenge we would face. We began playing in February, and by March, the Covid-19 pandemic had hit Puerto Rico, and we were in lockdown!

Just before the pandemic lockdown!
From left to right: Oscar, Richard, Carlos, Naida, Fernando, José Fernando, and Luis Lao.

We moved the game online, and while we played a few sessions in person when lockdown orders were lifted due to lows in infection rates, outbreaks soon kept us playing remotely again. We finished the campaign a year later, playing virtually.

Online map over Zoom

This was a challenge; we tried Discord first, but eventually settled on Zoom for ease of use for all involved. At first, I was not a fan of playing online, but we adapted. My friends were great sports; some really were not into playing online, but they soldiered on, and we managed. All this was compounded by some health issues that affected my voice, which made playing online even more difficult.

Playing online would be a good practice for the future.

Listen to them — children of the Red Death.

After finishing our fantasy campaign, I wanted to play something different, so we played a mash-up of the Victorian-themed Ravenloft setting, Masque of the Red Death, using the horror toolbox system by Kevin Crawford, Silent Legions. We called the campaign Legions of the Red Death.

Do you see a pattern? First, we switched the latest iteration of my long-running homebrew campaign from D&D 5th Edition to Castles and Crusades. My fantasy campaign has adapted to different editions, from BECMI to AD&D 1st Edition, 2nd Edition, D&D 3rd Edition & 3.5, Pathfinder, and then to D&D 5th Edition. But never mid-campaign! Then playing a Call of Cthulhu adventure using Amazing Adventures, and now Masque of the Red Death using Silent Legions.

Carlos, Fernando, José Fernando, Luis Lao, and Oscar returned for this campaign, and José García from Desde la Fosa officially joined the group. These six core players have been the regular weekly group for the last five years!

From left to right: José Fernando, José García, Fernando, Luis Lao, Oscar, and Carlos

This campaign lasted most of 2022, and by the end of the year, we began planning for the campaign we are currently running: Savage Fading Suns.

The stars are fading, and if they die, we die, everything dies

Here was another mash-up: The Fading Suns setting with the Savage Worlds rules. I had intended to play it using the latest iteration of the setting rules, but after reading and discussing them with the players, we settled on Savage Worlds, which has quickly become our go-to system.

With the same six players (Carlos, Fernando, José Fernando, José García, Luis Lao, and Oscar) and Felipe, who dropped in for a guest appearance, we’ve been playing Savage Fading Suns since December 2022. Over three years now. As of this writing, we’ve played 130 sessions.

From left to right: Luis Lao, José Fernando, Roberto (me), José García, Fernando, Oscar, and Carlos

This has not been a campaign without challenges! My health worsened, and I had trouble speaking. My friends stuck with me while I struggled to run games because they knew how important it was to me. I got treatment and improved, and then I had to spend extended periods of time away from home due to work, so we moved the game to Discord and continued playing virtually when I was away, which was more often than not.

This was not the only game I’ve played these past three years. José García ran Free League’s Alien game for us on Halloween 2023, Ten Candles for Halloween 2024, and I ran The Dare, a CoC adventure, using the Eldritch Hack rules for Halloween 2025. Keeping alive the recent tradition of running a setting with different rules from the ones it was written for.

Playing Alien, Ten Candles, and The Dare.

I also played a two-session fill-in game of an improvised TTRPG I put together when some players could not make our regular session, and a fantastic Fabula Ultima campaign that José García ran, which I would love to finish. For an online gaming weekend my friend Brightcadle (that’s his Discord handle) organized, I ran a Savage Worlds one-shot for Yamir and Maite, a Shadowdark one-shot for the same event, and ran a play-by-post short campaign with my good friend Pierre, whom I miss every day.

By September 2025, I was back in Puerto Rico. We’ve been playing face-to-face again. Since being back, I’ve also re-engaged with Puerto Rico Role Players. We had a holiday event at El Gremio in Cayey, and a Geeknic in February, where I playtested a TTRPG system I am developing. I am celebrating these 40 years as a Game Master and gamer and reconnecting with the local gaming community after an extended absence due to work-related travel.

The Savage Fading Suns campaign has maybe six to nine months left, or thereabouts, before we conclude. I am famously bad at predicting when a campaign will end, especially one I’ve been wanting to run since 1996, when I first read the Fading Suns book. This campaign has been meaningful not just for that reason, but also because my players stuck with me during my illness and my travels.

I am lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful friends, who sit down to play our weekly game, but beyond that, those who are part of my immediate circle of friends, the Puerto Rico Role Players community, and those I reach and interact with through social media and this blog.

I am truly lucky to have had this hobby for most of my life, for the people I’ve met, the connections I’ve made, the lessons I’ve learned, and the abilities that I have developed every day. Thank you all for this wild ride. Here is to many, many years more!

One final note: I mentioned which movie the first section title came from. Who can tell what other movies I reference in the other sections? A few are rather obvious. Let me know in the comments.

I'll be posting a bigger update soon, but I wanted to give a shout out to Christopher Cortright and his supplement Five Foes for Stalwart '85. As a publisher, I'm not able to review or rate it (at least, I think that's why), but I'd gladly give it five stars if I could. Chris did a nice job with this, and I hope you support him.
Thanks!

WotC is presenting us with a new turning point. Legacy names are back in the spotlight, and the messaging leans heavily on a return to roots and closer ties to the community.

That framing only works if you ignore how recent the last few years have been.

This is the same company that was actively distancing itself from that legacy. Now it is being used to stabilize the brand. That is not a return. It's a full on pivot.

Nothing about what happened just disappears. This was not a routine edition change. The way decisions were handled, and how they were communicated, broke trust with a large part of the audience. That is not something you move past by changing tone.

There is also a pattern that is difficult to overlook. Announcements about listening more closely to the community have already been made. An advisory group was presented as part of that effort, with clear assurances that it was not just for appearances.

Eight months later...crickets.

The response to criticism follows a similar pattern. People who point this out are dismissed as contrarian, as if the issue is attitude rather than memory. In reality, most of that criticism is coming from people who spent years supporting the game and helping it grow. What has changed is not their position, but their willingness to ignore what has already happened.

This is why the current moment does not read as a meaningful shift. It reads as a reset attempt.

A different tone, familiar names, and the expectation that time will smooth over the rest.

That may be enough for some. For others, it is not.

Because trust is not rebuilt through announcements. It is rebuilt through visible change and consistent follow-through. Until that exists in a way people can actually see, this is not a return to roots.

It is corporate damage control.

Our Land of Azurth 5e game concluded last night with our heroes facing down a shadow creature of immense size. Every bite attack it made threatened to swallow one of the party, and it periodically emitted bursts of necrotic energy. Luckily, they have Dagmar to keep throwing out the healing and two energy weapons they obtained long ago from visitors from the future (or perhaps past?). Erekose drained his energy rifle attacking the creature and was forced to go back to his sword. Ultimately, they destroyed the monster, but it went out in a blast of negative energy.

Dagmar checked on the emaciated form of the Wizard. He was alive but barely and not saying anything useful. Waylon tried shooting the black, anti-glowing orb over head with his energy pistol. The blasts seemed to burn it, but it didn't take it long to heal. 

A group of Gloom Elf priests in tall hats emerged from the shadows (naturally!). They didn't attack but suggested the party's actions were futile. The Anti-Sun was already beginning to manifest in this world. It had provided the power that allowed the Wizard to manifest a giant shadow to fight the machine of the rebels, though the effort had drained him. They did not care. The Anti-Sun was here!

The party's response was to attack them. In a few rounds, they had killed the elven priests, but the avatar of the Anti-Sun was still hung above their heads. Luckily, they remembered (with a hint from the DM!) that they had previously defeated a shadow dragon by overloading one of the energy weapons. They did so again, and the resultant explosion put a ragged hole in the black sphere. Dagmar gave her all into a blast of radiant energy that finished it off, closing the portal.

The party heard noises in the chamber outside and prepared for another fight, but it turned out to be the soldiers of the rebellion led by Queen Desira of Virid and Warrior Princess Bellona of Sang. They related that once the giant shadow of the Wizard was defeated, and the Gloom Elves mysteriously withdrew, the city fell quickly. Their forces were just mopping up. 

The party debated saving the dying Wizard but ultimately decided to let him die rather than risk it.

The princesses suggest the party return to the camp and get some food and rest. They do, and the first person they know they run into is Kory Keenstep. He talks circumspectly about a trip back in time that he chose not to take, but his sone Kully did. When queried further, he suggests the party talk to the Clockwork Princess, Viola.

The party finds her in the command tent. She reveals that defeating the Wizard might have likely led to the destruction of Azurth, as his existence constituted a causal loop around it. The only way to protect against that was to stabilize Azurth's history.

Instead of using a children's story to serve the evil ambition of one man, Azurth needed a new story to sustain it. So, the princesses sent back a storyteller, Kully the bard, to tell the faeries, the proto-goddesses of Azurth, a new story. One not subverted by the wizard.

The world would reset in about 14 hours.

The party asked if they would remember. Viola said she wasn't certain. Possibly they would since they had been to the beginning of Azurth themselves. They'll just have to find out.

The following morning, the party awakened in their residence, the former Dove Inn in Rivertown. There were no signs of war or occupation anywhere. The statue in the town square is not of their rivals the Eccentrics, but of them.

The End

The Masters of Mayhem are:

Dagmar ...... AndreaErekose .......... BobShade ........... GinaWaylon .......... TugZabra ......... Kathy
previous members:
Kairon ........... EricBellmorae ...... Haigenand Kully Keenstep ...... Jim

Jason and I are still working on our 2-page comic for the first issue of the Swords Against! Sword & Sorcery anthology. Jason sent me the inked first page so I could start laying out the lettering, and that's what the images here are from, though there is a still some clean-up and shadowing to come on the art.

This is how it starts with the barbarian Karkath:

And this is how it ends for him: