DC Relaunch Redeemed?

Confirmed at the Fan Expo Canada convention is the fact that DC Comics, my long time favorite comic book universe which recently received my undying scorn for their horrible new relaunch plans, will be publishing a new Justice Society of America comic book set, get this, on Earth 2.

Earth 2 is back! Hallaluyah! With any luck we'll see Power Girl, the Helena Wayne Huntress and the All-Star Squadron too.

Ah, DC, you are starting to restore my faith in you. Keep it up. Of course it was my idea*.

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Barking Alien

*Go to the last comment by me on that post.

Hail to The King!

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby!

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Barking Alien

Here I Am, Smurf Me Like A Hurricane

Apparently, we, that is, those of us in the New York City area, are due for some rain...




Now to quote Grandpa in the Robot Chicken sketch, "I didn't evacuate when them chipmunks went rabid, and that was bad. I sure as hell ain't evacuating for a little rain..."

'Course if you watch the sketch...well that didn't go so well. Hmmm.

Anyway, Forever Blue - Part 3 will likely continue tomorrow evening or early Monday, weather permitting.

Stay safe and dry my little Smurfs!

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Barking Alien

UPDATE: All is A.O.K. here at Barkley's Den. I barely noticed the Hurricane in my part of New York City, though I am aware of considerable damage and difficulties felt in lower Manhattan and the outer borough areas. For my part, it could have easily been little more than a heavy rain storm with some wind.

Looking forward to winter.

Blast from the Past - Forgotten Firsts

I've been so distracted by my Smurfs RPG project that I totally forgot to continue running down my list of the first PCs I ever made for various games over the past 34 years. A good thing too. As I mentioned before, as time goes forward toward the present day I had fewer and fewer PCs and I remember less and less about them (with a few notable exceptions of course).

While I've actually played more in the last two or three years than I have in the 10 years or so prior, I still only recall those characters or elements of characters that, for better or worse, really stood out.

1980s

Star Frontiers by TSR - Had a Dralasite. Loved to make his whole body look like one big fist and uppercut people.

Space Opera by Fantasy Games Unlimited - Had a furry alien pilot from a coldish, swamp/marsh/moor type place. Thought of him as vaguely muskrat like.

Middle Earth Role Playing by I.C.E. - Had a Dwarf. Found a magic comb that always made his beard look good.

Rolemaster by I.C.E. - Practically no memory of my PC. Possibly a Dwarf there too.

Marvel Superheroes by TSR - Don't really remember my guy. Possibly the only Supers RPG where I can't remember my character.

DC HEROES by Mayfair - First guy was called Kid Chameleon. Powers similar to Marvel's Absorbing Man.

Ghostbusters by West End Games - Gabriel Zimmerman, the Egon of the group who was actually a specialist in UFO conspiracy and alien abductions.

Star Wars, Role Playing Game by West End Games - Dreg, a Rodian Smuggler whose starship was called the 'Unstoppable Emerald Endeavour' in Huttese but which translates poorly into Corellian as the 'Incurable Illness'.

Mekton by R. Talsorian Games - First guy was...damn I don't exactly remember. He was cool though and had a mecha with numerous redundant systems and weapons. The running gag was that villains would knock the gun out of his hand and he had another gun. If it happens again, he has another gun hidden some where. Disarm him so he drops his laser sword and he whips out another laser sword, etc.

Shadowrun by FASA - Harlan Quinn, aka Harlequin, Elven Street Samurai and twin brother to my friend Pete's character Ozymandias Quinn, an Elven Mage nicknamed Oz. Our driver was a rigger named Mortis Morrisson, aka Rigger Mortis. lol. Ah that was a fun game.

Call of Cthuhlu by Chaosium - Private Detective killed by an unnamed horror in the fifth or sixth session. Managed to hide a key clue in my shoe prompting a crazed scavenger hunt first for my shoe and then the items and places listed on the note in the shoe.

Also created characters for MegaTraveller, Chill, James Bond, Paranoia and a number of others during this time.

1990s

Cyberpunk 2020 by R. Talsorian - Netrunner dude. Pretty cool. Very anime inspired.

Torg by West End Games - Don't exactly remember but I played a Sci-Fi/Star Trek like dude. My friend modified the setting slightly so that other realities crossed into the ones from the game. Cool concept and my friend ran a great adventure. Torg sucked however.

World of Darkness by White Wolf - Merged campaign featuring Vampire, Werewolf and Mage. I played a Mummy. Loved that character and that campaign. One of the few truly great games I've been in as a player.

Deadlands by Pinnacle Entertainment - Modified setting by a friend. My character was a Northerner, steampunk style weapon inventor. I was hiding out in the campaign town under orders from the President who wanted to make sure no enemy forces kidnapped me and forced me to make weapons for them. One of the other PCs was my bodyguard. It was like 19th century witness protection. Another great game and a fun PC.

Played a number of other games during this time, mostly as ones shots. These include but are certainly not limited to Amber Diceless, Runequest, Legend of the Five Rings, 7th Sea and a few others.

2000s and Beyond

Most of what I've played in the 2000s has been either D&D 3.0-3.5 or related, homebrewed D20 variants or the occaisional game at a convention. I haven't really played anything 'new' as a player in a while. I have run a lot and had this 'Blast from the Past' series been about games I've run I would need to post several times a day for several months to cover everything.

It's been fun remembering past characters but it saddens me somewhat that I don't remember as much as I thought I would have. It also bums me out a bit that there simply isn't all that much to remember. I seriously wish I knew more excellent GMs over the years but sadly I did not. I knew a small few fantastic ones, a fair number of OK ones and a good portion that just didn't do it for me. I also knew a bunch who just sucked the fun out of the games they ran.

If I have one wish or goal in this hobby, it's to not be remembered as one of those guys. I want people to recall having fun in my campaigns even if they can't recollect the details of the campaign itself. Furthermore, I hope they remember their characters because it's a sure sign, to me at least, that they had fun playing them in a campaign I ran.

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Barking Alien

Random Dungeon Encounter Table By Barking Alien

SNARK WARNING! 

Snarky humor is in effect. Those with sensitive or weak constitutions should exit the theatre for this performance. 

I don't mean to be a jerk with this post...but I can't help it. The need has arisen in me and I have to let it out. So, without further ado... A Random Dungeon Encounter Table By Barking Alien Things you might meet in a given room of a dungeon...

Say it's been around 12-15 sessions or adventures since your PC party has visited a dungeon and either they or you have decided it's about time for one (it could happen). Now, assume that for whatever reason, even though you've decided a dungeon will appear in this next session, you haven't thought about what will be contained in it. That is, you haven't thought about or decided how to stock your dungeon. I don't know, maybe you've been drinking or staying out late with the guys or your special lady and just haven't had time to devote to your game. First, shame on you. Second, we've all been there (well ok...not me...but I'm sure someone has).

This is the chart I would use for myself if I were running a D&D type game and needed to determine what was in any given dungeon room. This chart uses a D20, 1-20, since I would probably have a D20 on me. Not a D30, as that would be completely useless in 100 out of 100 games I generally run.

Here goes...

01- Come up with something.

02- Make up a Monster. I mean jeez Adam, you've been reading monster books for 30+ years. You can't think of a monster? Go collect stamps you numb-nut.

03 - Take a cool trap from a movie and tweak it a bit. How many damn movies have you seen? See 02!

04- Someone is imprisoned here. Name them. Just name them. You know people the players don't know. Take two names and combine them you lazy wad.

05- A classic monster you really like is guarding a magic thing. I don't know, a thing. A spear, an amulet, a bag. Does it matter? It's frickin' random. If you cared you would have made something up before hand and not needed this chart.

06- Two monsters. That'll freak them out.

07- Oh man, remember that neat medieval looking robot from that one Anime your boy Rob showed you? Yeah that. That's in there. And like 100 pieces of gold or something.

08- Door opens, overstuffed closet gag from Hanna Barbera cartoons. Complete with basket ball and skis.

09- Door opens to the tavern scene from last week's adventure. Step through, go back in time and relive that session. What're you bitchin' about? It's not like you spent time coming up with something for this one.

10- A Dragon. A frickin' huge Dragon. He won't attacked. He is wearing glasses, looking at blueprints and trying to figure out how in the hell he got into this room.

11- Door opens to reveal 3 additional, optional random charts. Now the fun begins.

12- Door opens to space. Outer space. Stars. The Void. No Air. PCs are propelled out of the corridor and into space by explosive decompression like someone just opened an airlock. TPK! You the man! Brag to all your DM buddies.

13- The room is painted green. Green walls, floor, ceiling, etc. There are chairs in it. If the party enters, closes the door and sits in the chairs, the door will reopen after a minute and a man in odd garb will tell the PC closest to the door that he is on in 10 minutes, right after the commerical. The door then closes and doesn't reopen. Nothing further happens.

14- Door opens, room explodes. I love explosions.

15- As 14 but room waits until all PCs have entered.

16- As 14 but room is empty. Hallway the PCs are standing in explodes.

17- Room is circular and contains a fountain in the center filled with water. I don't know. Water weird or elemental I guess. Something watery.

18- Remember the last time you did a cool dungeon room with a different group? Yeah? Good, do that. They'll never know.

19- A group of 1D8 goblins, with 1D6 visual differences from regular goblins, with 1 of 4 (1D4) different weapons. Let's waste as much time on this as possible.

20- Seriously? You need 20 of these things? Dude, COME UP WITH SOMETHING! Lazy jackanape.

I can be a little hard on myself.

My apologies to the blogosphere at large. While I do not personally like or use Random Charts in my games, I have seen a number of GMs use them to excellent effect (though not often in my experience). Now back to some serious smurfing...

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Barking Alien