Winter War final program is up

http://winterwar.prairienet.org/pdfs/WW2007FinalProg.pdf

Hmmm, looks like my Mazes & Minotaurs game got moved from Friday night to Saturday morning. Pat, I'll be picking you up earlier than I expected! Expect me at 8 AM.

D&D Minis for PCs

Every once in a while I flip through the galleries for the D&D minis line. I was looking for some alternate figure ideas for my current PC, Osric the Slayer. He's a human barbarian type with a elf-forged greatsword. Here are the contenders.This Barbarian Mercenary doesn't seem any more interesting than the Longtooth Barbarian I currently use.

The sheer size of this Human Dragonslayer's sword draws attention away from the wielder, which goes against my own personal answer to the riddle of steel.

This Redgar: Human Fighter might work. I'd have to see an actual production copy up close to make that call.

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I also found this Xeph Soulknife that looks like a good pick for Abu of the Thousand Scars, my Xeph souldknife cohort. I dig the action pose.

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Next are some minis that I think would make great PCs.

I have one of these Cleric of St. Cuthebert dudes. He's based on this awesome picture. Two words describe this guy: bad ass. This mean motherfuckin' servant of god makes me want to play a cleric. I don't say that often.

If Osric the Slayer is killed and unable to be revived, I plan on buying my own Goliath Gleric of Kavaki. When I saw this pick I said "Damn!" I said it out loud. Because he looks exactly like the mental picture I have of this half-giant knight/wilder character concept. I never expected to find a big guy in plate mail wielding a great club.

What can I say about this Warforged Wizard? Regular readers already know of my fascination with spellcasting robots.

This Spellscale Sorcerer is too weird to not love. Spellscales aren't one the approved list in Jon's campaign, so I'd probably use this guy for some sort of magic-using Elan.

Morning video

Calling Doctor Rotwang! Calling Doctor Rotwang! The 80's is finally coming back! I was gonna post Fall Out Boy's rockin' track "This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race" but I simply had to share this one. Behold the greatness that is the New Young Pony Club's "Ice Cream".

Justice League 5k: The Big Four (and Robin)

In the year 5000 Venus is home to a matriarchical society. Wonder Lad hails from the one Venusian city that practices gender equality. After some initial mistrust the inhabitants of the planet have accepted him as their champion.



Bat Lass and Robin patrol the crime-infested, industrialized asteroid belt. Why is Robin a cigar-chomping midget with a green mohawk? Because it's the future, that's why!

The Super Twins, Super Lad and Super Lass, are this era's heroes from the House of El. They are the sworn protectors of Earth, but are young and inexperienced. Superboy and Supergirl as siblings is what I was shooting for with these two.

These heroes are the founding members of the Justice League of the Solar System. Wonder Lad and Bat Lass are recognized as the seniormost members, but at the heart of the team is the charisma and cache of the Super Twins.

Justice League 5000: The Prelude

I don't normally read big crossover events. The original Secret Wars was important to me. It and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe were the comics that made me a big Marvel nerd as a kid. When I got back into comics in the early 90's I bought the Death of Superman story arc in trade and followed the Rise of the Supermen story that followed. I really dug the Amalgam experiment and bought all those issues in floppy or trade. I only own one comic with the words "Civil War" on the cover, and that would be Nextwave #11. A few years back I stumbled across the DC One Million trade paperback. I had missed this crossover the first time around, but the trade looked interesting, so I picked it up.

The basic deal witht the series is that the Justice League (kicking it in full iconic membership mode) met and interacted with the Justice League of the far future. How far in the future? One million issues of Action Comics in the future, hence the name of the series. That works out to more than 80,000 years.

This is a fun, wild ride of a comic story, so much so that I have considered tracking down the issue not compiled in the trade. One of my favorite parts is from one of the Superman books, IIRC. Superman is in the year 80K or whatever, and tracks down Platinum of the Metal Men, who is still alive in the distant future. She gives Supes a broad outline of the history of the House of El, the superhero dynasty he will one day found. One basic theme of her tale is continuity. The superheroes of the future will be legacy figures of the iconics of the present.

From those couple of pages of background exposition came my idea for a sci-fi superhero adventure: Justice League 5000AD. Think basically along the lines of the Superfriends in space, in the future. The project never made it out of the brainstorming stage, but I designed a lot of characters for it with Heromachine. I don't think I'll ever run JL5K. I'm not very good at supers games and inexperienced with sci-fi. The project seems to play to my weaknesses. So instead, I'll share with you all the character designs. Feel totally free to steal this stuff for your own gaming, should you feel so inclined.

scenic Wapella, Illinois

My friend Tom (he of the House of the Dildo incident) snapped this picture while out and about.

Quote of the Day

Time travellers with high-tech equipment? That's probably the most mood-destroying 'creature' ever published for M&M (or any other RPG for that matter)! My players would simply lynch me if I used this sort of thing in my campaign. If you want to mix swords and rayguns just play Encounter Critical. Please leave such sci-fi nonsense out of our beloved Bronze Age!

-Fan feedback sent to Griffin Magazine after the release of Hekatoteratos, the Mazes & Minotaurs monster book, collected with many other comments in the PDF reprints of 1st edition M&M materials.