Justice Knights (fanfiction concept)

Justice Knights of the Round Table = Justice Society of America
King Artur Bendragon (= Sandman): Inherited Cornwall and Britain from his father Uter. He wields an enchanted sword, Calibrun, given him by the Lady of the Lake , that makes anyone struck by it fall asleep (and presumedly bleed to death). He rules from the City of London . His wife is a Roman noblewoman named Ganhumara. He is accompanied by his bastard son, Amr, and his dog, Cabal.
Queen Ganhumara Bendragon (= Red Tornado): Desires to be a knight and will often dress as one and seek adventure. Artur and his knights are aware of her deception and mock her ambitions.
Sir Bedwyr (= Flash): Welshman and Artur’s first recruited follower. Artur recently made him the Duke of Neustria. Bedwyr lost a hand when lightning struck him during the Battle of Mont. St. Michael, but that lightning bolt also gave him magical swiftness. He moves twice as fast as the swiftest falcon.
Sir Cei (pronounced Kay, = Hawkman): Artur’s half-Welsh nephew, Cei carries a magical shield with the device of a hawk on it and allows Cei to levitate and glide through the air. He is a powerful, almost unbeatable warrior and heavy drinker.
Bard Taliesin (= Johnny Thunder): Welsh bard who has traveled infrequently with Artur since Artur’s Annwyn campaign. Taliesin freed Dagda, a lesser god and former king of the tuatha de Danaan, from the Cauldron of Plenty in Annwyn. Dagda is now Taliesin’s companion and wields powerful magic to help him. Taliesin often finds himself in adventures for which his martial skills are inadequate, causing the knights to mock him.
Sir Peredur (= Dr. Fate): Welshman and Keeper of the Cauldron of Plenty. He can draw on great magical might from the Cauldron.
Sir Gwalchmei (= Hourman): Another of Artur’s nephews, Gawaine ate a magic apple while in Annwyn that granted him the strength of 12 men for one hour each morning.
Myrddin (= Spectre): Advisor to Artur, as he was to Uter before him, Myrddin is a half-human, half-demon prophet with great magical power.
Sir Drustanus (= Green Lantern): Pict prince loyal to King Mark and, above him, Artur. While in Ireland , Drustanus found a magic torch that burns with a green flame. The torch has other magic powers.
Sir Erec (= Atom): The newest, and a very promising, knight of the brand new Round Table. He is a Gaul and the most romantic of the knights. He is also the shortest of the knights.

Emergency Preparedness Article Submitted to Local Newspaper

[from Aug. 2006]
On Thursday, August 24th, State Representative Terry Parke hosted “Emergency Preparedness – Homeland Security & Avian Bird Flu Event” – and Poplar Creek Public Library was there! No, not on the speaker panel, but there in the audience taking notes. This was a genuinely informative seminar with a crack panel of knowledgeable speakers who had to answer to an audience that was enthusiastic about learning more. We learned a lot about how local government would respond to a pandemic that we can use to help educate our patrons better!

Terry Parke opened the panel discussion by bringing up the Streamwood microburst event of 1990. That was interesting because most people probably think of “emergency preparedness” as a recent buzz term, but the need for it has been here forever. Dr. Stephen Martin, Jr., Director of the Cook County Dept. of Public Health, set the tone of the evening by stressing that this was the government being honest and straightforward with the public about an important issue. In the case of a pandemic, he said, “The government will get everything right in the first 15 minutes. That’s the easy part; the hard part is the months of recovery that will come after.” He and another speaker from Cook County emphasized the need for faster vaccine development.

The Streamwood and Schaumburg police departments, even the FBI, all were represented and their speakers emphasized the cooperation between departments government now enjoys at all levels.

The Illinois Departments of Agriculture and Public Health, and Sherman Hospital , were represented and their speakers emphasized what the medical response would be specifically to an avian flu pandemic. Like the other departments, they emphasized the cooperative nature of hospitals and public health departments these days, but they also had hard numbers for what services they could offer to how many people in the unlikely event of avian flu spreading to humans in the U.S. There were helpful hints for family preparedness too, and a reminder to volunteer before an emergency happens so you can be trained to know what to do.

Some interesting things came up in the Q&A part of the session too. Someone brought up Citizen Corps as an opportunity for us all to help out. Someone else said the government needs to do more to get information to the people. Good thing so much of it is already at his local library!

If I Ran Marvel Comics

[Originally posted to Superland in Nov. 2006]
If I ran Marvel

The following titles would continue to be published in their current
format, conditional on their sales figures remaining high:
Astonishing X-Men
Amazing Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man
Wolverine
Uncanny X-Men
X-Men
Ultimate X-Men
New Avengers
Ultimate Fantastic Four
Ms. Marvel

The following titles would be published in a "new, budget-conscious"
format – black and white and cheap, recycled paper. Cover price
would be dropped as low as it could go:

Fantastic Four
Captain America
Moon Knight
Ghost Rider
Heroes for Hire
Black Panther
X-Factor
Sensational Spider-Man
Cable/Deadpool
Thunderbolts
Daredevil
Incredible Hulk
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Squadron Supreme
New X-Men
Iron Man
New Excalibur
Punisher
Exiles
She-Hulk

All other titles would cease paper publication and be available
online via the Marvel.com web site, readable only by paid
subscribers. A subscriber could download a set number of any issues
per month without having to subscribe to specific titles.

[Sept. 2007 Addenda]

The above was a snap-shot of Marvel Comics at the time I wrote it. I did not mean to suggest, for example, that Ms. Marvel was so good a title it deserved its top 10 spot, but that it was selling that well at the time. The important formula here makes the comic book titles irrelevant -- the 10 best-selling titles get the quality publishing treatment, the 20 next best-selling titles would get the low-budget format (pulp comics, as disposable as comic books were in the early days, though not quite that cheap), and the rest would live on online. These positions would stay the same for one year.

At the end of that year, comics in each tier might be shifted up or down, depending on if their sales increased or decreased. If a comic book shifted up, it would not only be guaranteed a one-year shot at the higher tier, but 12 back issues would be reprinted in the better format.

These methodology would give fans the biggest say ever in how their favorite titles are published, while allow less popular titles to remain in publication without operating at such a loss. By reducing 2nd tier expenses as much as possible, it should be possible to reduce prices back down to a dollar or lower, allowing much more impulse shopping by marginal comic book fans.

Lastly, and not touched on by the past essay, is the importance of getting the comic books into widespread distribution and mainstream advertising, especially the mid-tier comics that are more likely going to attract impulse shoppers. Using all these methods, I would restore Marvel Comics to popularity and profit without relying on movie revenues.

Umbral Gloom Fiend from Dragon #353 retroconverted to AD&D 1st ed.

[Originally posted to Greytalk, April 2007]
Fiend, Umbral Gloom
No. Appearing: 1 or 1-6
Armor Class: -3
Move: 18”//18”
Hit Dice: 7+24
% in Lair: 5%
Treasure Type: B
No. of Attacks: 8 tentacles
Damage/Attack: 1-6/tentacle
Special Attacks: Engulf, spells
Special Defenses: +1 or better weapon to hit, regenerate 1 hp/rd, spells
Magic Resistance: 55%
Intelligence: Very
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Size: Large (9’ in diameter)
Psionic Attack Strength: 150
Attack/Defense Modes: E/F, G

Umbral glooms are servitors of an evil goddess, both summoned by her clergy and sent to punish them. Glooms appear to be masses of rubbery, glistening black tentacles studded with purple eyes of varying size. Although large, umbral glooms are made up mostly of shadow and are very light. They like to sneak up on their victims under cover of magical darkness and engulf them.

Umbral glooms have 120’ infra-vision, a 70% chance of hiding in shadows (as per thieves), and have a +4 bonus to saving throws vs. enchantment/charm and illusions. Once per day, a gloom can share this bonus by touch, lasting 7 rounds. Each strike with a tentacle requires a saving throw vs. spells or the victim suffers hopelessness (as per a symbol of hopelessness). A gloom can try to engulf one man-sized opponent or two small-sized opponents. Victims must save vs. wands or be engulfed; engulfed victims have a -2 penalty to hit, no chance of casting spells, and must save vs. hopelessness each round engulfed. In addition, glooms have the following spell-like abilities: darkness 15’ radius at will, knock 1/turn, teleport (to shadows within 360’ only) 1/turn, scare 3/day, plane shift (self to Demi-Plane of Shadow only) 3/day, and phantasmal killer 1/day. They are immune to blindness, cold, energy drain, poison, sleep, paralysis, and polymorph.

Frequency of Gods Worshipped in South Province

[Originally posted to Greytalk listserv in July 2005]
A project I have decided to revisit of late is the Draken Pantheon concept that I last shared with Greytalk back in 1999. I would like to follow up my Ahlissa Gazeteer with an article on the Draken Pantheon. For those not familiar with the concept, it's a pantheon that would be widely and officially recognized throughout the "Draken" (my name) Peninsula, that area on which South Province/Ahlissa, Onnwal, and Idee/Naerie are found.

The trouble was, I had three different versions of how deities ranked in the hierarchy of this pantheon, and they were all based on pre-Living Greyhawk sources. Wanting to include as much outside (my own) work as possible, I compiled deities from all three of my major revisions, Morgan Rodwell's Ahlissa article, deity lists from the Living Onnwal and Naerie groups, and the just-provided list from the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer (my copy is in storage). These are the only sources I am aware of that have tried to list deities worshipped in the region in order of importance (if "Ivid the Undying" did it, I don't recall such a section). For each deity list, I took the number of deities on it and assigned each deity points equal to where they were on the list, with first ranking highest. Then I added points for each deity, giving each a relative "weight" in importance/priority. I did ignore where "agricultural deities" were lumped together, as well as ignoring demi-human pantheons altogether. Ties were resolved by taking deities I had ranked higher first.

As a side note, since Zilchus headed the list with 99 points, it occured to me that I could make each number a percentage and say that each percentage gave the amount of people on the peninsula who recognize (if not revere) that deity. I tried to think beyond that to how this could become a game mechanic for assigning deities to NPC clerics quickly that would be weighted for frequency of worship (low rolls would mean obscure deities, where a very high roll would almost surely mean Zilchus). However, median rolls would make for a wealth of Procan clerics, which certainly would not fit well with my campaign.

Without further ado, the list in descending order is as follows:
1. Zilchus = 99%
2. Hextor = 70%
3. Procan = 52%
4. Xerbo = 47%
5. Fharlanghn = 45%
6. Beory = 42%
7. Norebo = 40%
8. Pholtus = 38% (but how many are dedicated monotheists?)
9. Olidammara = 32%
10. Heironeous = 30%
11. Kurell = 26%
12. Osperm = 25%
13. Nurell = 23%
14. Kord = 22%
15. Celestian = 20%
16. Delleb = 20%
17. Jascar = 20%
18. Fortubo = 19%
19. Pelor = 18%
20. Trithereon = 17%
21. Atroa = 16%
22. Ralishaz = 16%
23. Mayaheine = 16%
24. Velnius = 15%
25. Alia = 13%
25. Wee Jas = 12%
26. Phaulkon = 12%
27. Daern = 11%
28. Erythnul = 10%
29. Boccob = 10%
30. Syrul = 9%
31. Ehlonna = 8%
32. Bralm = 8%
33. Telchur = 7%
34. Llerg = 7%
35. Pyremius = 6%
36. Asmodeus = 5%
37. Obad-Hai = 5%
38. Incabulous = 5%
39. Kelanen = 4%
40. Sotillion = 4%
41. Lydia = 3%
42. Wenta = 2%
43. Rudd = 2%
44. Geshtai = 1%
45. Tharizdun = 1%

An Alternate Campaign Path

Campaign Overview
The goal of this campaign would be to re-experience a wealth of Old School gaming in as short a time as possible, taking a tour of various classic modules, game settings, and early incarnations of the D&D rules.

Year 1
Month 1 (representing 1971)
Rules: Chainmail
Setting: Castle Blackmoor
PCs: 1st level
PCs, newbies all, decide to explore that old haunted castle.

Month 2 (1972)
Rules: Blackmoor house rules
Setting: Town of Blackmoor
PCs: 2nd level
The PCs explore the surrounding town between delves into the castle dungeon.

Month 3 (1973)
Rules: same
Setting: Environs of Blackmoor
PCs: 3rd level
The PCs are attracting attention around town and are being asked to take care of things outside the city, like securing Wolf’s Head Pass.

Month 4 (1974)
Rules: D&D, 1st ed.
Setting: Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure (El Raja Key)
PCs: 4th level
The PCs are asked to go to Glendower to explore Maure Castle .

Month 5 (1975)
Rules: D&D, 1st ed., with Greyhawk & Blackmoor
Setting: Temple of the Frog
PCs: 5th level
The PCs learn of shenanigans going on at the temple and need to deal with them.

Month 6 (1976)
Rules: D&D, 1st ed., supplements I-IV
Setting: Lost Caverns of Tsjoconth
PCs: 6th level
Learning of the lost treasure trove, the PCs go treasure hunting!

Month 7 (1977)
Rules: D&D, 1st ed., + AD&D Monster Manual
Setting: City State of the Invincible Overlord
PCs: 7th level
The PCs find a magic portal that leads to the city state. The PCs are unknowns there, but could become somebodies here!

Month 8 (1978)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed. (MM, PH)
Setting: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
PCs: 8th level
The PCs are hired to deal with a cursed valley full of giants near the city.

Month 9 (1979)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed. (MM, PH, DMG)
Setting: Village of Hommlet
PCs: 9th level
A high priest of Lolth and his forces are hiding out in the moathouse by this large village.

Month 10 (1980)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed. (MM, PH, DMG, FF)
Setting: Isle of Dread
PCs: 10th level
While sailing back to Blackmoor, the PCs land on the Isle.

Month 11 (1981)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed.
Setting: Assault on the Aerie of the Slavelords
PCs: 11th level
The PCs, now barons of Blackmoor, go to Suderham (read, Maus) to deal with those darn slavelords.

Month 12 (1982)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed.
Setting: Lost City
PCs: 12th level
A curse laid on the PCs by the slavelords trap them in a buried pyramid full of monsters.

Year 2
Month 1 (1983)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed. (+MM2)
Setting: Ravenloft
PCs: 13th level
The magic portal under the pyramid that led to “freedom” instead leads to the domain of a vampiric arch-mage.

Month 2 (1984)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed.
Setting: Dragons of Despair
PCs: 14th level
The lands neighboring the vampire’s domain are plagued by gigantic dragons.

Month 3 (1985)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed. (+UA, OA)
Setting: Temple of Elemental Evil
PCs: 15th level
The way home for the PCs is guarded by a demon princess and hidden in her elemental nodes.

Month 4 (1986)
Rules: AD&D, 1st ed. (+DSG, WSG)
Setting: Treasure Hunt
PCs: 16th level
The PCs arrive on an island near Blackmoor, where they easily best the local gnolls.

Shazam Family Archives vol. 1 Graded

Master Comics #23 “Capt. Nazi’s Assassination Plot.” Grade: A. Heavy on coincidence, but exciting and historically relevant.
Master Comics #24 “Death by Radio.” Grade: A-. A clever crime in the debut of otherwise B-grade villain, Mr. Macabre.
Master Comics #25 “The Case of the Face in the Dark.” Grade: B+. Not a logical chain of events, but Jr. stopping an invasion of Alaska is a great ending.
Master Comics #26 “The Return of Mr. Macabre.” Grade: B+. Turning Macabre green may have made him less interesting.
Master Comics #27 “Captain Nazi and the Blackout Terror.” Grade: A-. First in a series of adventures that are clearly set in Europe, with England being used as Jr.’s home base.
Master Comics #28 “Hitler’s Headquarters of Horror.” Grade: A+. A well-constructed “get-in, get-out” adventure tale highlighted by Freddy disguising himself as a short Nazi major and (maybe?) capturing Hitler.
Master Comics #29 “The Iron Heel of the Huns.” Grade: A. A solid, credible tale of the problems facing a resistance movement.
Master Comics #30 “Captain Marvel Jr. Saves the Doomed Army.” Grade: A-. A disturbing tale of Capt. Nazi poisoning U.S. troops – too disturbing for the light punishment Capt. Nazi keeps getting.
Master Comics #31 “The Case of the Missing Ambassador.” Grade: B+. Mr. Macabre is running a spy ring now. His only superpower seems to be his ability to take a lot of punishment from Jr.
Master Comics #32 “The Cripple Crimes.” Grade: B-. A weirdly ineffective tale of a Fagin-like corrupter of poor kids. Dr. Krool is more effective when he’s threatening kids with a Tommy gun than when he’s hiding behind some curious legal document that Jr. has to waste time stealing.
Captain Marvel Jr. #1
“Wings over Dazaggar!” Grade: B+. Another exciting, though not nearly as well drawn, encounter with Capt. Nazi.
“The Shadow that Walked.” Grade: B-. A sudden shift in the oeuvre has Jr. tackling urban crime and a mystery foe that any non-powered superhero could have handled.
“The Case of the Cripple Kidnappers.” Grade: C+. Capt. Marvel Jr. is starting to look more like Johnny Thunder than Capt. Marvel, as he takes on a gang of insurance scammers, including a man in drag for no apparent reason.
“The Cracked Safecracker.” Grade: C-. Magic powers are easier to believe in than this tale of elderly parents so naïve that they have no clue their son is a criminal.
Captain Marvel Adventures #18. Grade: B. Mary Marvel debuts in a goofy tale, highlighted by some rare comic exchanges between Billy and Freddy as well as the humor of seeing the vastly different art style of each character side-by-side. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that Mary Marvel is hot.