Mutants of Metal!

This last Saturday was the Socal “Minicon” game day. I was actually scheduled to play in a morning game and an afternoon session, and also to do a dungeon crawl session of OD&D in the evening.

As it was almost an hour’s drive to Orange County, I eventually decided not to play two sessions then have to run my own game all worn out, so I decided to show up for Cyclopeatron’s afternoon Gamma World game as the one session I would play in.

As any regular reader can probably tell, I don’t do much playing outside of my own group (although these experiences tend to make for some entertaining posts). I have most often found it to be a disagreeable experience at best. I really just prefer to hand pick my players for a regular group, and if I get the rare itch to sit down as a player, I try to get somebody in my group to run something.

But if I was going to run a game at this event, I decided I needed to also play in somebody else’s session. Bob “Cyclopeatron” seemed like a decent enough guy online, and he had a truly interesting idea for a Gamma World one-shot.

I hit the road around 1PM, and if you are from anywhere in LA you know Saturday afternoon traffic to The OC can be a bummer of a bitch. The I-5 was a big part of the trip, and at one point it turns into three lanes and is just a nightmare. So as you can guess I was running a bit late for the 2PM session.

The area was right around Disneyland, and it tripped me out. I haven’t been to Disneyland in over 20 years, and things in the area had really changed. When I was a young man the area around the park was pretty open, but it had really developed since then. Residences and big hotels and shopping areas – Oh my! I was a bit disoriented by that, but found the location of the Minicon pretty easy once I got away from the big traffic.

The event was being held in a large glass community room near the pool, and it was a great and well lit room for gaming in. There were three tables in the room with upwards of 8 people at each, with a fourth table outside with a game going on. For sure a great turnout! I found Cyclopeatron’s table, introduced myself, and after going back out to get better parked the game was on.

OK, here is the basic premise of the scenario. This Gamma World setting was set in a very far future, in a time when all living things had been so mutated and interbred so much that all things contained human, animal, and plant genes. I had seen this premise in some old sci fi of the 70’s, and found it interesting.

Our characters were a band of heavy metal musicians. In this world, this kind of performer was a respected sort of bard, and travelled the lands bringing rock to the huddled and heavily mutated masses. My character, “Child Eyes,” and another player’s charcter were The Tipton Brothers, and we seemed to be the main force behind the band. We came from a famous rock family. Our mother had recently been killed, our home destroyed, and our family heirloom and relic “The Gibson Guitar” had been stolen.

In our travels we found a flyer for another band, “Zygotus,” who featured the Gibson in their photo. We had found our guitar, and we needed to go to the local town of dogmen to await Zygotus’ arrival for a big concert. There was a lot of arguing with the local town guards, because we didn’t want to leave our weapons (swords, axes, exploding ninja stars, flamethrowers, etc.) at the door. They seemed to have the ability to scan us for powers and weapons, so we didn’t have much choice. We spent a lot of time at this, and quite frankly I was worried that we would ever be able to finish up this game in the one sitting we had for it. My boy Child Eyes Tipton wanted to confront the band right there on stage at concert night. That would eventually happen, but there seemed to be a lot of the typical screwing around with minor things and issues that I don’t think have much place in a 4-hour one time session. In the end though, this wasn’t really a big issue.

We got to confront Zygotus on stage, reveal them for cyborgs and robots, win the hearts of the people, and get our Gibson back. We ended the night and the game with our band (which I don’t think we ever named but I was referring to as “Van Tipton”) bringing true flesh and blood rock to the masses.

I know the way I tell the tale might sound lame, but this was actually a really great session. We had a lot of laughs with our weird characters, and all the heavy metal imagery was fun. The only thing missing was actual heavy metal to listen to (I had my boombox in the car, but the room was just kind of crowded with other gaming for tunes to be played). Also, Cyclo is a fairly soft spoken guy, and in a room full of loud gaming it was hard to hear what he was saying sometimes. But he had a strong grip on his scenario, and things moved along pretty well despite a lot of piddling around by our characters.

Cyclopeatron got applause from us at the end of the game, something I cannot really recall from any game I have played in. My own damn regulars certainly don’t throw a clap my way, and I give them my heart and soul.

Anyway, congrats to Cyclopeatron (real name “Bob”) for a great showpiece game. I think he really needs to put together a scenario pack featuring themes and situations from this session (using Mutant Future of course) and make it available (to sell or otherwise) to the old school retro clone community. I think he might have a Carcosa level hit on his hands.

OK, that was my session as a player. For the night shift I ran my OD&D game, and I’ll follow up on that in my next post later this week.

Kerfuffle?

Check out this interesting post at Grognardia, because as far as all the philosophical and political themes bandied about in the old school community – well, I’m the village idiot so don’t ask me what I think. Although I love some things that have come along in the OSR, especially awesome (and free) ones like the Old School Encounter Reference, I really would have been OK plugging away with my games these days just like I did in the old days. Making do with my own adventures in my own game world, occasionally dipping into published adventures.


I got back into gaming two years ago not even aware there was a renaissance going on, but that was just icing on the cake. I love talking about games and sharing my experience, but I have no need to buy lots of the current popular items like Carcosa, or James Raggi’s inspiring efforts of self-publishing. They interest me, but I already have such a huge backlog of my own gaming material I may never get around to everything I want to gamewise. And I’m trying to have less things I own cluttering my life. I ain’t getting any younger, you know? If I don’t need something I don’t really want it.


The new stuff is exciting and inspiring, but I don’t really need it. That is selfish and not really helpful to the community, but that is just how it is. I have plenty of game stuff to last me a lifetime, and if I do buy something new to use that will be once in a blue moon, and is more likely to be something from back in the day, like Tegal Manor or something from Ebay, over something written ,produced, and published by a blogger.


So some scrubs have decided to self-publish, and they are using a copyrighted logo. There are those who are worried this will bring bad attention from WOTC, and they have a point. But I don’t know how much it would affect me personally. I don’t really buy the new material from the OSR, nor do I buy anything from WOTC. Besides the occasional miniature, I don’t go into game shops and buy games. I have not paid money for a new item from the makers of D&D since probably the late 80’s. Something like The Night Below or Dark Sun I have I got from Ebay or something like that. I guess I’m not really supporting anyone. I’m just running my damn games.


Anyway, wherever I stand, I have to say I most admired the words of Will Mistretta on the Grognardia post. Will is a rabble rouser and I don’t often agree with what he has to say, but these are bold words, especially when you consider that most of the self-publishers who actually have something to be worried about read Grognardia. Here, without paraphrasing but not necessarily in order, are some of the comments Will had to make on the thread. Viva le revolution!





"..No, because in many cases Legal Code is shaped and part of the Moral and Ethical values of a culture. I'm not sure how you can sit there and say trying to link the two together is 'immoral', as you try to imply Will…"


“…All I can say is that I'm glad the men who forced the Magna Carta, the American revolutionaries, the conductors on the Underground Railroad, Ghandi, Rosa Parks, and many more weren't of your ilk…”


“…An uncritical "the law's the law" attitude is a lazy cop-out that aids and abets the worst kinds of corruption and tyranny. The idea, if you can call it that, that legality and illegality map directly to ethical right and wrong respectively is as dangerous as it is inane. And that's saying a lot…”


“…The only two men with a rightful claim of ownership over the game or its name are dead and so I don't care what the law says in this case. D&D belongs to gamers everywhere now. I applaud these guys for having the guts to tell Hasbro where to shove it…”

“…You think it's possible to separate the two. I don't. I see some brave (or foolhardy, the only difference is often in the results) individuals challenging the supposed "right" of a faceless corporate entity to exert arbitrary control over a great game loved by millions that they had no part in creating. Good for them. D&D should belong to the world, just like chess, poker, baseball, and all the other great games...”

Call of Cthulhu Friday: Princess Tasha

During the 90’s I had a long running CoC campaign that I called “Canal House.” The character home base was in a small, two story house on the newly built Canals of America in Venice Beach, California. The house was owned by a mysterious, well-travelled man named Mr. Troy (sort of a chubby little Truman Capote type guy) who filled the house with antiques, many of which had an occult background. It was set up as an antique shop, appointment only.

In the very first game Mr. Troy, who had a lot of Hollywood friends and associates, held a party at Canal House that included the new player characters. They came from diverse backgrounds, but for one reason or another were at that party. There was a Texas cowgirl who was coming to California to try to be a star in westerns, a big heavyweight boxer who was looking for his big time break, a New York gin mill torch singer who had survived a previous CoC campaign I did, and a private investigator with a heavy military background.

Occultists looking for an artifact in the house assaulted the party with clubs and knives. They were dressed in white robes and skull masks, and as most guests ran in terror the player characters stepped up and fought them off. Impressed, Mr. Troy hired them on the spot to stay at Canal House and work for him in occult investigations. In return, he would use his contacts to help them with their desires. A few adventures were had, including fighting more occultists in the Santa Monica mountains, fighting off attacks by Deep Ones that swam right up the canals to Canal House, and facing a fire God on the Santa Monica pier (on the same date as the pier burned down in real life).

Several games in one of my regular D&D players, Planet Janet, decided to give Call of Cthulhu a try (she fell in love with the game right away after hemming and hawing about playing it). She came up with Tasha Romanoff, a sort of Anastasia type who escaped from her mythical Finnish kingdom when her evil satanic uncle killed her family and took over in a military coup. Hiding out in Venice Beach, Tasha was attacked by agents of her uncle, and was saved by the players. Tasha joined the house group and adventures continued.

One great scenario was in a New Mexico mining town under sway of Mythos forces. A pair of evil mine baron brothers ran the place, and some cool encounters took place, including a cowboy style shootout on a dark street in the middle of a rainstorm. At one point the big boxer and Princess Tasha were stripped and tied up by a weirdo brother who intended to molest them both. But the other brother, a fast draw revolver fanatic, demanded a fast draw between him and the naked and bound boxer. The boxer was untied, and with an amazing roll on his to-hit percentage shot the gun toting brother dead, and knocked the other one out. This was actually one of a few times the boxer had saved Tasha, and he became sort of a bodyguard for her. You will see the irony of this at the end of the story.

Eventually it became time for Tasha and friends to go to her kingdom, “Midgardia,” and wrest it from the clutches of her evil uncle. She had gotten word that a rebellion awaited, so off they went to Europe to infiltrate the land. Hooking up with loyal soldiers of her family, Tasha and friends stormed the castle, fighting their way in. Tasha was separated, and ended up in a chamber with her uncle and some monks. She was tied up naked on an alter ready to be sacrificed to uncle’s dark gods.

The party and soldiers fought their way to the sacrificial rooms, and it was the boxer, Tasha’s protector, who burst in first. Now, boxer was a rough and tumble dude, but at this point in the game he was relying on his now trusty elephant gun more than his wits or fists. You know how over reliance on guns can backfire in CoC. Even though there were some of uncle’s soldiers with rifles in the room, boxer shot his elephant gun at uncle, although his focus was suddenly on the invaders and not Tasha.

I told the player “Gary, you know that there is a chance you’ll hit Tasha, right? Her and uncle are pretty much in the same hex.”

Gary was just all “Gotta do it. Gotta.” He was always the combat hog who wanted to take out the bad guy.

So ‘click’ ‘boom’ Gary’s boxer shot his gun, and rolled a 00. Now, CoC had no crit or cruddy, but in any game I run I ask my players before a campaign if they want crits and fumbles. They almost always say “yes.” So it was with this game, and a 00 is going to mean a malfunction, or a hitting another target next to the intended target. Sooo…Gary misses, and I tell him to roll damage. It ended up being something like 16 points. Tasha, with 9 hit points, leaves this veil of tears in a violent way as her young, lovely dark haired head is blown into a hundred bits by a gun designed to take down mastodons.

The soldiers open fire and kill the boxer. Soldiers and the other characters come in and after a bit of shooting fun take out uncle and his men. When the PC’s fully realize what happened, there is some nice sanity loss all around for all. Young Princess Tasha has come home.
In the campaign wrap-up, the PC’s take train and boat home. On the long trip, they lay their heads down at night. They dream of the horrible things they have fought together and overcome in America all the way to Europe, and the dream usually ends with visions of beautiful Princess Tasha’s head turned into red, oozing oatmeal on an alter to dark entities.

Nice, eh? Could you ask for a sadder and more horrifying end to a campaign? Well, it is Call of Cthulhu after all.

I went to Comic Con

About 35 years ago. Yeah, haven’t been there during the modern heyday of Comic Con, but in the 70’s I totally got to go two years in a row as a kid. My parents took me, and dropped me off at the hotel it was held in to hang out all weekend while they went and partied in San Diego proper.

It was held pretty much in the basement of the hotel. I don’t remember which one or if it is even still there, but it was all pretty low rent compared to today’s con. But it was amazing to me. I had yet to go to any kind of con, so I was just blown away by all the merchandise and stuff. Then it wasn’t a huge venue for film promos, but comic book companies were there, and always big names for the panels. I loved Captain Sticky. Cap was a big fat bearded guy in a superhero costume, and he had a Batmobile type care parked out in front of the hotel. The car was even more awesome than Batman’s car, because it shot peanut butter out of a turret on the roof! Captain Sticky was a real life local celebrity, because he had some kind of comic book cable show down there. He was an everyman hero, aiming his heroic sights on crooked car rental companies and other modern villains of day to day life.

But in reality, my best experiences were meeting Stan “The Man” Lee, and also Mel Blanc. A small group of us gathered around Stan (no crowd would be small around him these days, back then nobody but a diehard comic collector would have recognized him), asking questions about Howard the Duck and other stuff. But I got to spend close to an hour by myself talking to Mel! It was by the pool, and he was sitting down most of the time because he had broken a leg recently horse riding and was quite old. He did all the Looney Tunes voices for me, and sang a song for me in Speedy Gonzales’ voice. It was the most amazing celebrity moment of my life (although David Lee Roth giving me a hit off of his whiskey bottle backstage at a Universal City Walk concert in 2002 was a pretty nice highlight too).

Comic Con looks amazing these days, but I want to be honest, I don’t have a great love for crowds, especially crowds of super geeks. The smell of Dork-ass in huge quantities is like Kryptonite to me. But every year, as I watch some of the con coverage on G4, I remember those great little childhood memories of the early con days.

Revenge is a dish best served cold in D&D

Alphonse Mucha: non-fantasy fantasy artist

I don’t know art, but I know what I like. Today Google reminded me that it is the birthday of Alponse Maria Mucha, a Czech artist born 150 years ago.

I discovered Mucha not all that long ago. When I have an NPC coming up in my games, especially a female, I tend to do general searches online looking for particulars (young-girl-brown hair-flowing dress, etc.) that match my image of the NPC to show players. Unfortunately, I personally can barely draw the proverbial straight line. So that is how I found his stuff.

Mucha’s most prolific time was in the late 1800’s, and they for sure have that classic time’s style. But what struck me is how lots of his images seemed to be women dressed in a sort of timeless quality. I know some Ren Faire hippy girls who look and dress a lot like some of these ladies from Mucha’s art (give you another idea why I still work Faires and hang in the World folk music scene). And the look of so much of the art fits my vision of parts of my fantasy world, from English derived societies to far flung foreign lands. Queens, princesses, ladies of the court, peasants, gypsies, serving wenches, sorceresses. So many of the drawings could have multiple meanings.

Hey, don’t take my word for it, Bratty! Just Google him, look under images, and fall in love. Let me know what you think.

Call of Cthulhu Fridays: The Sundered Veil

(above image is fan art for this story found online)

OK, with scheduling conflicts and so much going on right now, I won’t be running any of my game stuff for the group for a few weeks (I don’t do my main 1st edition campaign if anyone is missing, and the alternatives I do also depend on who is there). I’m going to let regular player Ben do his D&D next week for those of us available.

But without actually GM’ing, I lose a little inspiration for my blogging (so you have an idea what will happened if my group falls apart). So I thought that at least for Fridays I would keep myself inspired, and hopeful that I will get to do a CoC campaign for my group at some point, that I would do regular homage’s to stuff related to Lovecraft, which I have been reading a lot of stuff on lately.

OK, so recently I have been rereading the first two League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Graphic novels, and then some. In them, Allan Moore shows an even bigger love of the Wold-Newton stuff than Phillip Jose Farmer himself! It seems like almost all of literary fiction exists in the world he has set up. Forget the laughable Sean Connery film (shame it was one of his last) based on The League, I think Moore’s LEG is one of the greatest triumphs of modern comic/lit genres. The amount of stuff from fiction created since the dawn of man that he has included is just astounding. Entire books have been written to act as a guide to the people and places he references.

In the back of the Volume 2 series (the one where the Martians from War of the Worlds meet resistance from Captain Nemo and the rest of the league), there is a text story (with some artwork) that tells a tale about an astral team-up with Allan Quartemain, John Carter of Mars, Randolph Carter from Lovecraft’s dreamlands cycle, and the Time Traveler from H.G. Wells.

Wow, who could even imagine such a teaming? The weirdo/genius mind of Allan Moore, that’s who. To add to the level of geek cool, here Randolph Carter is a great nephew of John Carter, who of course views his future dreamer nephew as a bit of a wuss.

At the start of the story, Allan Quartermain visits an old mystic friend looking to partake of the Taduki drug from his adventures in King Solomon’s Mines and other places. Passing out and going into a metaphysical trance, Quartermain enters the astral realm. Here his disembodies spirits encounters two other such souls. One is John Carter, his spirit body in transition from earth to his soon to be new home on the Red Planet. Also in spiritual transition is Randolph Carter, the grandnephew of John. As the three wonder the purpose of their meeting, H.G. Wells unnamed Time Traveler and his wondrous machine shows up. The Time Traveler tells them that fate has brought them to him, and they are to help him defeat forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. Awesome.

The quartet is soon attacked from nowhere by motley, primitive beasts that the Time Traveler curiously describes as being known both as Morlocks and Mi-Go. Escaping on the time machine, the group travels to the material world of the far future. It is the sphinx from the Eloi time, but even further into the future than that, when that once lush area is now a desert in a dying earth. Apparently the Time Traveler has made this lasting far flung structure his home base in the battle against the Old Ones. After explaining the problem of ancient Godlike creatures invading the mortal realm, both the Carters realize that they are not bound to any realm and are actually forms destined to other places, so they fade away. John goes to Mars to win Dejah Thoris and begins his adventurers there, and Randolph heads off for his adventures to Unknown Kadath.

Things go from bad to worse when Quartermain is possessed by Ithaqua the Windwalker, and returns to the mortal realm. The Time Traveler is left to his further adventures in the time stream, and Quartermain manages to become free of his possession in the earthly realm. Broken by the loss of his Taduki drug, Quartermain heads off to the Middle East to become an opium addict for awhile before he joins the League.

This team up is amazing, really. To me as a fan of all of them; Lovecraft, HG Wells, and Edgar Rice, this really blew me away. If this sounds good to you, I recommend you get your hands on either the comic issues, or better yet the graphic novels. The story is several pages long in small print, so you for sure get a lot of meat for such a short adventure.

Oh, for extra awesome, the comic book portion of the book begins on Mars, where John Carter, Gulliver of Mars, and other literary Mars figures and creatures gather to fight off the Mollusks from War of the Worlds. Too much cool, man!