Weird Adventures: buy it now.

Weird Adventures is out on rpg.now on .pdf.

I very rarely recommend or review anything, but I give this my highest recommendation.  I burned a toner cartiridge printing it out and burned my weekend reading it.  I really, really dig it.

It is one of two published settings that I would even consider running an entire campaign in.

Not only do I want to run it, I want to play in it and I want to write a novel that takes place in the setting. I will almost certainly hack my house rules to fit the setting and use it in its entirety at some point.

In the immortal words of Jack Kirby- Don't ask, just buy it.

The Hidden Halls Lvl 2, Area 3

The map is on the left

3. Ante Chamber:

Illumination: Pale green crystal, gently pulsing on the ceiling.

Smell: Dust and Mildew

The noise of rushing water is very loud here; it’s cold and the floor is coated in a very thin layer of frost.

A rusted portcullis blocks the easternmost entrance to this room.  A character with 14 or greater strength has a 1 in 6 chance of being able to lift the portcullis. A character with an18 or greater strength has a 2 in 6 chance. Two characters may pool their efforts, but the space is too constrained for more. Unless it is propped up by something, the portcullis will close immediately after it has been released. A metal pole will hold it indefinitely, a wooden staff will hold for 1d4 rounds.

Beyond the first portcullis lies a reception area. The walls are painted in a flaking pastel yellow. The decayed remains of a wardrobe lie in a heap against the south wall; broken fragments of what may once have been a table and chair are strewn across the northwest corner. A search through the wreckage of the wardrobe will yield 200 GP contained within a purse of rotten leather.  The remains of the desk conceal a gold pen and a matching inkbottle cut from onyx; the workmanship on these items is exquisite and if sold as a set they may yield up to 100 GP.  What appears to be a broken gearbox of some sort is situated on the west wall, north of the exit. Presumably its function related to the portcullises. It is rusted, smashed and in no way reparable.

The corridor exiting the room to the west is blocked by a set of portcullises separated by a 10’ passage. An assortment of bones are scattered across the floor of this passage. Any one who cares to examine the bones will note that they are exclusively phalanges, ulna, radius, carpals and metacarpals (bones of the hand and forearm). The portcullises both operate under the same principles listed above.

Two rounds after the portcullis set in the west wall is raised the skeletal hands on the floor will become suffused in a sickly green glow, reassemble themselves and attack; there are 20 of them in all.

Guard Hands

AC 8 [11]

HD 1 hp (attack as 1hd monster, can not score a critical hit)

MOVE: 6

ATTACK: Gouge 1d4-1

No more than 5 hands can attack a human sized target at once.

If the bones are not destroyed (burning is the only way to be certain) the trap will reset itself in 6 hours.

The Revolution Will not be 100% Compatable

Sorry, but there it is. You will be able to export and import things like critters with no real problems, but mechanics wise everything else is on the table right now. However, the setting itself will be compatible with whatever version of THE GAME you wish to use.

What the hell am I on about?
For example: I'm thinking that Dexterity = Armor Class; wearing armor actually detracts from AC, but provides a bonus on wound table saving throws.

Also I'm going to step away from the universal ST and replace it with a dual ST (physical/mental) system.

At this point I'm just about done with the character generation rules. It's slow going though, because I'm still committed to 2000 words a day on the novel and I'm trying to make headway on my comic project as well. and then there's the ICONS game...

By the way, that's a pretty old drawing up there, I still suck, but not quite that much.

[Icons] Lost Lands

This is (very) brief survey of some of the lost and hidden areas of the Earth Zero Universe, the setting for my icons campaign. I will be detailing them in play, and then writing them up here; Aquaticus and Island X are both soon to be visited by the heroes. The panels from page 6 of the Earth Zero comic (Cosmic Tales) I'm slowly putting together. The second panel is a redraw of something I posted previously. The artifact depicted is the Seer Sphere, the ultimate information gathering device. the doodz are Ord (the cybernetic looking fellow, and his brother... Aos (I can't be the only one who picked their online nick based off a character can I?)

No-space: a plain that lies between the parallel universes of Upper-space.

Hundulan: A Pleistocene world located in a hidden area of the Antarctic. Sustained by paleo-magic and ruled by sorcerous Neanderthal Priest-kings.

Posidinus: The remains of an ancient civilization hidden beneath the waves of the Atlantic. This civilization consists of 10 warring city-states.

Aquaticus: A second submarine realm, located in the pacific. Ruled by Nairamus, the Aqualord.

The Hollow: An alien constructed dinosaur preserve inside the moon.

The Nexus: The extra dimensional home of the Universals (space gods) possibly located in its own pocket dimension.

Dead Space: The primal universe, which lies outside of and is inaccessible from the multiverse. It predates the big bang and is largely energy depleted. It is the home of the No-gods, a group of evil space gods that staged and unsuccessful attempt to invade Upper Space 35 kya, using the Earth as their beachhead. They were driven back and the rift gate they created was destroyed, but the advanced Neanderthal civilization was destroyed in the process and many Universals were killed. They will stage another attempt at the close of the 23^rd century.

Island X: An island inhabited by giant radioactive monsters somewhere in the pacific.

1e DMG acquired. MSH denied!

I picked this up on a field trip to the awesome Black and Read books in Arvada, CO. I was actually looking for a copy of the Marvel Super Heroes (FASRIP) rpg but came up empty.

Whatever, I've been wanting a copy of the DMG for the last couple of years, but had missed it on my previous outings to B&R, because they'd moved all the old school D&D stuff out of the used RPG section and into another section of the store. They had a shit ton of stuff. I should have taken a picture; it was unbelievable. I had to force myself to leave the store with just two items. (I also scored a copy of the Moldvay basic book, but my wife decided that I'd actually bought that for my 10 year old son and I haven't figured out a way to get it back yet).

Anyway, it's been 20+ years since I've read this 1e DMG I'm looking froward to sticking my nose into it.

In other news, I'm thinking of launching a second blog for my ICONS stuff, because I feel wrong about posting it here, which leads to frustration on my part, which in turn leads to less posting over all on any topic as I feel (for lack of a better term) creatively clogged.

Returning to the topic of MSH, I must admit some frustration. I played the hell out of this game in the late 80's and I had numerous opportunities to buy it, but passed them all up. Now, I want a hard copy really, really badly and there are none to be found at what I consider to be a reasonable price.

That said, for the .05 of you who are unaware, the complete MSH catalog is available at Classic Marvel Forever for free to download. Sadly, whereas I prefer to read novels in electronic format (i.e., on the Kindle) I require hard copies for gaming books.