BEN 10 - ONE OF THE BEST ORIGINAL SUPERHEROES IN A LONG TIME

I don't think this show gets enough attention. The original Ben 10 (not so much the shows that followed) was a breath of fresh air in the cartoon superhero genre. While the main character was a kid and the show was clearly directed at younger audiences, I feel the show had plenty to offer older audiences. 

While the titular Ben has most of the power in the show, it is imperfect and quirky, making it fun and unpredictable. Along for the ride but by no means background characters are his cousin Gwen and their grandpa. Gwen is tech savvy and has much to offer along the way while grandpa seems very aware of what is going on for most of the series and ultimate is revealed to be something of a Men in Black sort of guy. 

The villains in the show are a combination of enemy-of-the-day and ongoing foes with many return appearances and even evolutions in powers and then nature of the characters. This creates an immensely entertain romp through a very good comic book universe of its own. There are the usual combination of disasters, low-level thugs, and super villains to keep the action ever-changing and interesting. 

Ben's powers are also an amazing bit of power and world building, using a strange bit of tech to produce a set of powers that are not fully understood and ever-evolving but which also tie into the world at large. The limitations of his powers also make for a fun set of parameters in which the character can be written or, in a TTRPG, could be played.

SPACE KNIGHTS

The Space Knight of Galador make for a great cosmic campaign. Offering you many timeframes in which to play the Space Knights can be played as a war story sort of campaign as you play through their conflict with the Dire Wraiths or any sort of space adventuring you would like to play in. 

One of the benefits of the playing a Space Knights campaign is that all Space Knights share certain base powers. This allows the group of players to really get to know and share their collective knowledge of their characters' base powers. Shared powers are then enhanced by each Space Knight having some unique powers and gimmicks that distinguish them from the others, allowing each player to still stand out. 

With the entirety of space as your playground and a vast collection of aliens, cosmic entities and mysteries as the inspiration for your adventures it is hard to see this sort of campaign ever growing stale.

WHY SUPERHERO RPGS ARE SOME OF THE BEST RPGS YOU CAN PLAY

When it comes to TTRPGs there is always that moment when you sort of hit that invisible wall where you feel you are either out of material or maybe you are just tired of playing the game you are playing. This is perfectly natural and is generally a biproduct of simple creative burnout or feeling the constraints of the genre into which your game is placed. Superhero games really don't suffer this and offer an incredibly free environment in which to play and here are some reasons why?

1) Easy Transition Between Characters One of the biggest things to haunt players of TTRPGs is character burnout. We have all been there with that character that seemed like a great idea or was fun to begin with but is wearing thin. Comic books traditionally involve easy ins and out for characters without ever needing much in the way of plot or explanation. Between guest appearances, random team-ups, reserve team members, the seemingly flimsy barriers between realities, cosmic realms, and much much more, there are so many reasons a struggling player could swap out a character or take a break and divert to a different character for a bit.2) Guilt-free Character Death One of the staples of comic book stories is that nobody really ever dies. Death and dying are handled pretty fast and loose and while character may be presumed dead or even dead for a while, they eventually come back in some fashion. Even if the original character dies, their costume and mantle is often picked up by another and the hero persona continues even though it might be a new person under the mask. Long dead heroes can be returned through all manner of means from mystical reanimation, fake or false deaths (in any number of forms). A hero may not have died but been kidnapped and brainwashed by a victorious villain, only to be rehabilitated by his former teammates or some well-meaning bystander.

3) Good Fun Comic books, even at their darkest and grimmest (with a few exceptions) are still just great fun. There isn't much that doesn't feel right in a comic. Any character, any backstory, any event just feels right. Seldom is something objectively unfun in a comic book setting. The most mundane activities can easily be turned into amazing fun and adventure in the context of superheroes. A day at work, a trip to the mall, or a vacation can quickly turn into another action-packed issue.

4) Flexible Pacing The wide variety of comic book stories spans such a huge array of topics and styles of storytelling. This is true not just across different titles but within the same title. We frequently see the same characters in action-filled romps and going through emotional and heavy stories and everything in between. For a tabletop game, this means being able to tell so many different stories with the same characters.

5) A Weird and Wild Universe Superhero universes are generally huge, filled with all manner of exotic people and places. From fictional cities and countries to alien peoples and into god and cosmic entities a comic book universe is a vast, unending playground. Not only can you choose to start in any one of these amazing places, but you can freely transition from one to another without sacrificing the integrity of your characters and stories. The X-Men may have started in a posh mansion in New York but they have travelled the cosmos and visited lost worlds, travelled through time and dimensions. Characters from all over the multiverse can come together, interact, and even form up into the same teams. The Avengers have gods and aliens among them. The Justice League has several aliens as well as earthborn interstellar police officers.

6) Playing With, Outside, or Against the Conventions A lovely part of comic books and superheroes is that they are so widely known and have such established tropes that they provide easily accessible frameworks upon which to tell stories. Whether you adhere to the traditions of comic book stories, work outside of them or blatantly work against them your players are certain to get it and enjoy the met knowledge of what you are doing. Because comic books are traditionally told from a very omniscient point of view, it is easier for players to be comfortable with metaknowledge and playing off of it.

7) No Pretense of Balance Because the characters in comic books are traditionally depicted as have a very mixed bag of power sets and power levels operating alongside one another TTRPGs based around the genre do not suffer so much from the expectation that characters will or should be balanced nor is there an expectation that their enemies will be matched to them. This makes it quite easy for players to be happy with their characters regardless of their power level and for GMs to create stories that involve enemies with highly variable power levels. Part and parcel with this is the concept of teamwork and the struggle to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Characters with wide-ranging power levels have an opportunity to find new ways that their individual powers can be used together and weaker characters are encourages and often rewarded for finding unique solutions to defeating enemies well outside their power level. Let's not forget that Spider-Man has defeated Juggernaut despite having no powers that can match the unstoppable mutant.

I hope that I have demonstrated to you why I think that superhero TTRPGs may be the ultimate in TTRPG fun and freedom, perfect for one-shorts, short campaigns, or an ongoing campaign in an ever-changing cast of characters and stories.

Using Multiple 15mm Historical Cultures and Periods To Make Fantasy Human 15mm Armies.

One the main issues with trying to come up with interesting human armies for fantasy miniatures games comes from the fact that humanity is the default baseline from which all other fantasy races are established. 

Diverging too far from established, recognizable, human historical archetypes makes it difficult to see a human army as that leaving them seeming like sort of fantasy race instead. This becomes even more difficult as you get to smaller scales like 15mm or smaller. The details on the figures are not as distinct and it more so a matter of archetypal forms and shapes.The vagaries of smaller scales does, however, open up some opportunities for creating fantasy armies that are still human, even if they are not 100% consistent and recognizable as a historical army. 

Key to this, in my opinion is to pick a period of time and work within that period as much as you can or pulling from other instances in that period with similar aesthetics. 15mm or smaller scales allow us to do this by allowing us to focus on the shapes of armor and weapons rather than facial features that distinguish disparate ethnicity. It is important to consider the overall level of technology in the equipment depicted in the miniatures you gather together though there is room for some minor stylistic departures or instances where one troop might seem more advanced than others. In these instances you can create some reason for it like elite, magical, or something else thematically appropriate for your army.

To illustrate this, I am going to use a series of images depicting miniatures from Khurasan Miniatures. Khurasan has an excellent variety of historical armies that includes many often ignored historical forces. Khurasan also tends to have excellent photos of of painted miniatures from their ranges. I want to be clear that in this discussion I will be comparing and contrasting between examples from their range and am not condemning any of their range. Any discussion of suitability will be restricted to the context of this discussion and the example army I'll be outlining.

So, let's begin. 

Ever since I was a kid I loved the idea of all cavalry or mostly cavalry armies. When I was younger I love the Mongols and Huns and later Rohan. So the example I will go with today will be a fantasy cavalry army. To this end I think I will draw from mostly Dark Age/Early Medieval/Post-Roman sources as chain and scale armor was common here and will make the army stand out against other armies with later refined armors like plate, brigantine, half plate and the like. I know that an argument could be made that ancient armor could allow for a fantasy half-plate but let's ignore that for now.

CAVALRY SPEARS

Let's begin with basic cavalry. This will give a baseline for the army from which we can then establish heavier/elite units and other units. For this army the baseline will be medium armored cavalry armed with spears. I like round shield with circular bosses, so I'll try to avoid other shields and more ornate bosses. Miniatures that have different bosses on round shields make for easy conversions. 

Out of all of the Khurasan Ranges the Later Western German Noble Cavalry are the only figures that match my needs exactly. The Roman Principate Cavalry with Lancea would also work, though their shields are ovular. I do not own these figures, so I do not know how they scale, but if they scaled well enough you might be able to mix them into the same unit just saying that the shield variation comes from rider's tastes. Both sets of figure present shield and shorter spears.

KM-1603 Later Western German Noble Cavalry w/ Spear

KM-1610 Late Eastern German Cavalry Followers w/Spear and Trousers

Principate-CAV Principate Cavalry with Lancea

KM-1604 Late Western German Cavalry Followers w/Spear

LANCERS 

Making a distinction between the Medium Cavalry Spears and Lancers allows me to take advantage of the wide array of wonderful long lance carrying cavalry. The come in a variety of armor levels. These would represent a heavier, charging cavalry.

KM-545 Patrician/Early Byzantine Heavy Cavalry, Lance and Bow

KM-1609 Later Eastern German (Samarticising) Noble Cavalry w/ Lances

Nike-Med-Round Nikoforian Lesser Armored Cavalry with Lances (picture shows kite shields but code is for rounds)

Gonzo Sci-Fantasy - Running and Playing It - Equipment and Monsters

Hello All,

Welcome back to this second post about gaming Gonzo Sci-Fantasy. Last post I went over a brief description of what it is. This post will focus on some basic guidelines for equipment and encounters in this settings.

Running this sort of setting as a game is not all that hard unless you are trying to imitate the tropes of a specific series of books or shows. Most fantasy RPG classes, weapons, monsters and abilities are all present in Gozo Sci-Fantasy completely unchanged or with some minor tweaking to the flavor text. These settings still have warriors, rogues, casters and other such archetypal elements though the origins or exact natures of their powers may be different. For example, a paladin or cleric is a bit harder to explain if your world does not have actual gods though this may just mean that these characters tap into a different energy source than wizards or are simply not present with wizards taking over all casting roles. It might even be possible to have your "divine" casters tap into some sort of new secret power source that is wholly unknown to most and may as well be a "god".

EQUIPMENT
Weapons and equipment often exist in these settings unchanged in function but with a different character. Simple materials such as steel and iron are often given new names or replaced by convoluted names like "plasteel" or "armorite". Their effectiveness in the game remains mostly the same. What we do often see is a proliferation of weapons and defenses with magical effects, making the whole setting a bit more high powered. A warrior might wear a suit of armor that is defended by "magnetic sealing" that gives it extra protection, working much like magical armor. This is easy enough to do by just subbing in appropriate magic items from the lists and giving them those snazzy names. Other items might actually provide spell like effects and as such items such as "shield bracelets" or "climbing gloves" can simply be designed as a simple item with a built in spell effects and a number of charges available before it must be recharged or reloaded with a handy dandy power pack.

There should be little concern over making such items available to PCs from the start as it is certainly a guarantee that the threats will rise to meet them and their enhanced capabilities. Anything they can do, the bad guys can do better (until they fail).

MONSTERS AND ENCOUNTERS
Most encounters in this sort of setting are pretty much the same as fantasy RPGs. A group of heroes find themselves in a dangerous place facing the local dangerous inhabitants. One of the main differences is that I have found is that the encounters are often in their own lands and not just dungeon squatters as they are often portrayed in RPGs. This is not universally true but when you are fighting the Centaurpedes you may very well find yourself doing so on their home turf. Creatures are often depicted as minions of a greater power or monstrous beasts which are often unbeatable, often needing to be simply stopped or avoided rather than defeated outright.

Monsters are often caricatures of humanity with some feature enhanced to make them seem bestial, more enlightened or just plain weird. Robots and cyborgs are also popular themes in this genre along with hybrid creatures. These themes are often encountered in varying mixes in creatures as well. It is not strange thing to encounter a robotic minotaur, dragon, or giant and using the statistics of such creatures with minor modification should be no great task. Add some armor and damage capacity and immunity to mind-effecting abilities and you have a pretty straight forward robot monster.

Another element that factors in, especially in the cartoons of this genre, are traps. Villains in gonzo universes love to throw death traps at the heroes. Such traps are often convoluted and elaborate, providing the heroes plenty of opportunity to figure them out and escape. Spikes, energy fields, horrible substances or timed bombs. Power draining effects seem particularly popular methods of menacing heroes.

Gonzo Sci-Fantasy - What is it?

Hello all,

It's been a bit since I blogged on gaming in general. Life has taken over and I am pretty sure that blogs have been relegated to a bit of an old guard status, replaced by Facebook groups and YouTube channels but as I started here, I thought I would revisit this realm of communication to begin talking about some things that have come to mind for RPGs, miniatures and gaming in general. To start this return, I would like to talk about gonzo sci-fantasy.

This is the sort of fantasy that really used to the be the norm back in the days when I first started gaming. Fantasy itself was a lot more wondrous and over the top and hadn't learned to take itself so seriously. But this form of fantasy went a step further and intertwined itself with science fiction. Worlds built on this foundation were full of odd mash-ups of knights on robot horses, ray-gun wielding folks clad in strangely medieval garb, or laser word wielding barbarians. Monsters were often simple, odd-ball and a bit goofy. 

Sometimes it was as simple as adding a techno prefix or suffix to and existing medieval/fantasy word or crushing together two words to make strange compound words. This was most frequently done when naming equipment and creatures as it provided an instant reference point for what such a thing was. In cartoons of this sort, these combos were often as blatant as they sounded and seeing the critter on the old 480p TV screen after school or Saturday mornings left zero question what it was. 

Some of the best examples of this from my own childhood and recently, thanks to Netflix, my adulthood are cartoons such as Blackstar, He-Man, She-Ra and, Thundarr the Barbarians even Thundercats. These shows were masters of "punny", forced, literal combinations of words and concepts into some memorable bits. I recall fondly wielding a broomstick as Thundarr's Sun Sword and battlling imaginary foes that were odd robotic versions of mythological creatures or wacky hybrids. 

In the early days of RPGs these things were not foreign to players and we saw much of this sort of fantasy bleed over into D&D and even more so Gamma World. Whole adventures such as "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" was a D&D adventure that through the party into a crashed spaceship where fantasy and science fiction collided. Meanwhile, Gamma World often presented technology in the hands of post-apocalyptic savages as magic, indistinguishable to those people from true mystical abilities. The presence of psionics is another note of science fiction in fantasy as psionics or psychic powers have a long history of being magic explained as science.

So, there you have it. A brand of fantasy that was, for many of us, part of a splendid, wondrous childhood that has since gone to the wayside. It's fun, it's forgiving, and it is pretty simple to do. In my next post in this series, I'll look at some ways to run such a setting using tools you already have available in your existing collection of RPGs.

Take care,

And get out and game.

-Eli

20 Leagues Under My Belt - Living Statue

While technically not an entire league, I wanted to post this latex adversary paint-up. This is a plastic stone or claw golem miniatures from the Reaper Bones line. I have cut it from its original base to help with an issue in how the plastic legs were positioned and re-based it. This is a simple paint job with a brown base coat, yellow sand wet-brushing, then a washing with brown tone from Army Painter, over which I did a drybrushing of a lighter sand color to highlight. 

Figures such as these are indispensable for Pulp Alley. They can pop up everywhere from tombs to desert ruins or even in the ranks of villainous leagues. They are also great for museum scenarios, art galleries, rampaging through the city after being mistakenly awakened. There just aren't enough uses for an animated statue. This particular miniatures is extra useful as it is quite generic in it style and could easily be placed in any number of cultures.