Avengers April

Top 5 personal favorite comic book heroes.

1: Kitty Pride

2: Shazam /Captain Marvel

3: The New Mrs Marvel/Khamal Khan

4: Batman

5:Lockjaw

Top 5 Super hero RPG's

1: Villains and Vigilantes

2: Marvel SHRPG (Yeah Feeble powers)

3: Heroes Unlimited

4: Code Name Spandex

5: God Like

Top 5 Super Hero Teams

1: The Fantastic Four

2: The Justice Society of America

3: The Justice League

4: The Avengers

5: Pantheon

I have been playing RPG for as long as they have been around, I can still remember creating my very first D&D character out of the 3 original books. While I was able to play a few games of OG D&D in my youth it was not till I discovered Villains and Vigilantes and began a weekly campaign that last long into the 80's and not only became my favorite RPG but it was my gate way into super hero role playing games. At one time I owned a copy of almost every Super hero RPG her was.

While I still love and play D&D, SHRPG are still my favorite genera to play.

April is dedicated to the world of Super Heroes, fitting as this summer will bring us several Super Hero films and both DC and Marvel are beginning there latest round of changing there world to bring it up to speed with the culture of 2015 (there words not mine).

Supers are the new zombies, they are showing up in every aspect of the media and it's about time!

Comics are the blood stream of the American mythology, no other genera is as prevalent and as important to our collective social zeitgeist (ooo big words)

So lets start with Villains and Vigilantes, one of the first SHRPG systems and one of the best. Somehow this 35 page game works. Despite the random power table (random powers are always awesome) and the fact that your first character is supposed to be you-with powers? Which I never liked because at the time I was like 9 and really me with powers at 9?

Yet despite that V&V creates a system that lets you play the Justice League and create scenarios where both Bat Man and Superman can shine, few other systems work that well with out modifications.

I’ve played almost every SHRPG and V&V is just a great Little game that works as well in 2015 as it did way back in 1975.

Now about the Marvel Super Hero system. Let's see there have been about 8 RPG systems with the marvel name, mostly from TSR/Wizards of the Coast but a few others managed to jump on that license when TSR became WOTC, but lets face it . The original Marvel Super hero role playing game from TSR is still the best.

It had an amazing collection of random powers and was one of the first systems to include the weird stuff like Anatomical Separation, but that’s not why original marvel rocks.

No, Marvel rocks because instead of numbers for their stats you had words. You did not have a strength of 35 , no you had a AMAZING strength or you had EXTRAORDINARY laser blast or if you had a bad die roll, you could end up with feeble powers. Yes I have Ice powers at feeble, I cant stop a bank robbery but I can make sure all the victims have an nice cold glass of water!

One of my all time favorite moments in my long career of role playing was playing my robot with feeble Psyche and Amazing Chameleon blending. He just stood in the corner blending in to the wall till someone told him what to do.

“Ok guys we go to the bank and we get the robot to...where is the robot? Dang it we left him at the base again.”

Now lets move on to the last member of the top three Heroes Unlimited. You have got to hand it to palladium, they have consistently been advertising product on almost a monthly basis for almost 20 years. I remember Mechnoid Invasion and early TNMT games from them way back when the number on the calender did not have a 20 in front of it so, yeah long time. Heroes Unlimited has some amazing stuff, mainly in the step by step descriptions and amount of detail they put into each part of there game. Want to know everything you can do with your flame powers, then HU is the game for you. It took an hour of modding and stuff but I was able to build almost every idea I had for a character in HU. The problem was no one actually played any palladium games,because no one understood the rules. I have played a lot of HU and we just made the rules up when we had to because we did not understand the system.

Had they just edited HU a little better and had a more liner combat system I think it and most of there non RIFTS product would have done much better, still you have to hand it to Palladium for remaining an active and consistent presence in the RPG world. And they did create RIFTS which is a glorious Juggernaut of a mess -Yay Mechanoids.

The list could go on, but those are my top three. So why comics, why super heroes? Because Comics are the only genera where you can tell every story you can think of and it all works. Fantastic Knights fighting horrendous monsters, how about Iron Man facing off against the Mandarin?

Dark gritty noir detective investigating a kidnapping? How about the Batman ?

You want to talk pathos and teenage angst. Spider Man?

And who does not want to have Lockjaw as a dog?

Comic books are the mythology of America, they are our stories. We laugh with them, cry with them and cheer them. They help us through the dark times and the bright.

Super Heroes are not amazing because of their powers, they are amazing because they are the best of us. Superman, Captain America, Batman, Spider man even Archie they are the people we wish we could be, because they are the best-and worst of us.

Super Heroes and Comic Books are the mythological legacy we leave behind us. I love Comics and the SHRPG genera because of the adventures I can have as a Super. No other game lets me save the world and still worry about my homework

Over the next month I will be running a Marvel Super Hero's campaign to celebrate Avengers April and the new SECERT WARS/Convergence story lines coming out from marvel and DC this summer starting tomorrow

So tune in true believer as the mighty Heroes of Fresno, Nebraska do battle with the evil forces of the Crime Circus, the time travailing thief Nick 'O Time, the mysterious Lot 27 and the other villains who seek to make a name for them selves.

I will post all the Wham , Bang, Smash excitement and the information on the bad guys as it happens true believer

So, till next time.

Go out and make your own mythology

 Be excellent

MEGA DUNGEON MARCH PT 4

The Mega-Dungeon. Who built it, why did they build it, whats in it?

We have taken a look at some of the best the hobby and explored some of the ways to make the story of the Mega-Dungeon more interesting then Ork/Room/Pie so that our heroes have a reason to keep coming back.

Now lets face it though, even after all this the real reason we love Mega-Dungeons is Monsters and Treasure, epic puzzles that make no sens and the big bad at the end.

That is if there is an end and no matter what the mega-dungeon does have to end, not in the sens that “well you got to the last room and killed Orcus so I' am throwing this away” end, because a good mega-dungeon will live on and on through each person who explores it and each person who runs it. Look at Castle Greyhawk.

But all stories end, even in our hobby. Characters reach 20^th level. Players move away, games get boring. Mega-Dungeons end!

The question is how do you want yours to end?

A big fight at the end with a huge boss monster and the players retiring?

Passing the Mega Dungeon on to others to run by publishing it-Like Barrowmaze?\

Posting blogs about it like this one?

All stories end, I chose to end my Mega Dungeon story this Wednesday March 25^th at Seths games and Anime with a big boss fight at the end, before we take a month off to play Supers.

The main theme of the Mega- Dungeon March campaign was the party was looking for a long lost magic submarine called GAO SHARK! Ages ago GAO Shark had been a mechanism used for good, but it had been lost and used by the forces of evil as a Pirate vessel (This is Freeport after all) . Year after year the mutated Minatorycrew set out from there secret base inside the Dungeon to attack ships and take there cargo.

This all comes to a stop as the final fight will be an epic slug fest between the party and the crew of the ship.

Should the party be successful then Mega Dungeon March will come to an end. They beat the Big bad of the scenario and got a ton of EXP and stuff and a Robot Shark!

If the party fails then mega Dungeon March ends with the villains victorious, the power of GAO SHARK remains in the hands of the Mutated Minotaur Crew who will then make a deal with the evil adventuring company of VAIN or perhaps align them selves with the 4 lichs?

No matter what the story ends at 10Pm March 25^th.

All stories have to end, that’s just the nature of Stories.

Perhaps in may we will begin a new Mega-Dungeon and a new party of adventures will be ready to plunge into the dungeon and face the various tasks awaiting them

And yes, GAO Shark is 20 ft so yes I did manage to fit in that 20” shark in the 10” room.

Thanks for exploring the mighty madness that is mega-dungeons with me

Till next time'

Stay excellent!

Next Month: Avengers April: Super Hero RPG's

Mega Dungeon march 3

No matter how big or small your creation is, there has to be a reason for most of the stuff that’s there. Sure you can toss in a few things that are just cool but for the most part each part of the dungeon should tell a story.

Now when you are talking 5-8 levels, each with 80 to 100 rooms then that story can get confusing?

Most Mega-Dungeon builders have a main theme for each level and then a story or theme for each zone of the level. Much of that depends on the history of the location and the overall direction the Gm wants his Mega-Dungeon to go.

Your average Mega – Dungeon level is about 25 to 50 rooms on the small side and can go up to 500 rooms on the larger Mega Dungeons. The average level is usually divided in to 4 zones and the Gm starts from there, its like putting a complex puzzle together. Layer after layer goes in so even the most pointless broom closet has something to do with the story.

I have begun my March Mega- Dungeon game (At Seths Games and Anime in ventura CA) most of my Dungeon is stolen from other dungeons and mashed together but I have decided to take parts of the product I own and begin to add on to them to create my eventual Mega dungeon.

So with the whole, level/zone story idea, lets take a look at one of the Zones the players explored this week and the story I was telling.

The Zone they were exploring was a series of rooms built around a giant bridge stretching across a deep chasm, with bubbling lava far below (my dungeon is starting in a Volcano because Volcanoes are cool).

Almost from the moment they entered the zone they began to get the idea that they were not the first people in this area, this was deduced by the discovery of beds and discarded food stuff. It seemed someone had lived here before and had some control over the bridge.

What happened to them? Well when the party discovered a Beholder who was the victim of a Summon monster spell. It informed them the “Wizard” had summoned him and told him to guard the room till he got back, sadly for our Beholder the wizard has yet to come back.

Further clues were discovered when the party captured and interrogated an ogre who told them of a band of Evil Adventures led by a man named VANE(Like Bane but with a V). These criminals were wandering about the dungeon killing things and asking about the strange pool of bubbling liquid..

Thus the theme of the Zone continues, that this place has a history of being used by adventures as a base. Usually to control the bridge and charge people (or things) to cross it.

But who built the bridge originally, well that part of the story came to pass when the party stumbled across 4 Lich's.

These undead fellows were busy going about summoning something.

So now we have 4 Lich's, a lost beholder and a band of evil adventures going about slaughtering the ogre inhabitants of the level. Meanwhile what's up with the strange pool of bubbling black liquid that has been worshiped in the past? Could it be what brought the Lich's? Could it be some connection to our old pal Jubilex?

See how the story of the Zone takes shape as the party explores, which in turn leads to the theme of the whole level.

Toss in a strange fountain that has the unusual ability to pop up killer frogs every now and then for the typical mega dungeon weird thing and we have another 3-4 sessions worth of adventuring in and around the rooms that make up this part of one level of the mega-dungeon.

See in closing the mega-dungeon is not about the fact that its huge and full of weird stuff, its about the small things that will keep the party interested enough to remain in the dungeon. With out those themes and story’s and weird corners where strange puzzles lurk, its just a large empty space with Ogres. And if its just rooms with Ogres and 20 ft sharks then the party will lose interest and seek ether rewards else where.

The Dungeon has to remain interesting.

Next Tuesday the party will explore deeper into the Volcano dungeon and we will have further shenanigans with the Lich's and other mysteries to explore.

Till next time.

Be excellent.

Mega Dungeon march PT 2

Who built this and why?

While many of the Mega Dungeon products donate many pages to the history of the location and it's many factions the fact of the matter is, who built this and why.

I'm an all powerful arch mage and I dedicate the last few years of my life to a trap and riddle filled, monster infested summer home? Why, well because I want to protect all my secrets and treasure from greedy types after I die? So now I’m retired into my Multi level fun house of doom, it's 3 AM and I get up to go to the bathroom and I forgot that the hall way between my bed room and the potty has 87 Traps.

Why would I build this? Why not just move to the beach, open a hot dog stand and change my name?

In building and populating the Mega Dungeon one has to consider the implications of what and who is in the Dungeon, while clever tricks,traps and riddles are cool. People and things live in this place as well. Where do they sleep, what do they eat and most importantly where do they poop? Do the many inhabitants know about the various traps and riddles that populate the dungeon? Have they ever met the guy who built the place? Why are they choosing to live in the dungeon as opposed to some place safe like a Volcano?

Yes as usual I am being a tad silly. But why it is fun to shake the cage the fact is Mega-dungeon’s of the past, present and future should in some way make sens and have a history and evolving story.

Gone are the days of static encounters and goblins sitting on 6000 GP, even as we embrace the nostalgia of the OSRIC movement we still want our Dungeons to look organized and make sens and we want to know who built this and why?

Now there are a few classic starting points a potential GM can explore when designing his Mega -Dungeon as he asks him self who and why?
1: Built by one dude. This is perhaps the oldest origin story for a mega -dungeon as we go all the way back to Castle Greyhawk and the mad arch mage Zaggy who much like the Winchester mystery house people never stopped working on the place.

From its humble beginnings as his closet all the way to the grandfather of all mega dungeons we know today as Castle Greyhawk. The castle of the mad arch mage is a perfect example of one guy building the place and if some of it makes no sens? Well he was the mad arch mage.

2: Built by several dudes. “They dug to deep”. Pick your favorite underground dwelling race, say they built a city down there and then say for what ever reason they abandoned it or they got killed. Over the years the place gets inhabited by various monsters and ghosts and then some adventures come along and-Mega Dungeon. The Mines of Moira from Lord of the Rings would be a example of this kind of place.

3: Prison of the Ancients. At some point in the past a group of powerful dudes ran afoul of another group of powerful dudes and they fought each other, for a while. A long while!

At some point one group realized the war was futile, they were evenly matched so they came up with a plan to imprison the other group in the hopes that some time in the future someone would find a way to defeat them(thanks for that guys). So an epic trap and riddle filled prison was built, the group was led in to the trap . Immortal guardians were left behind to watch over the victims of the trap and the winners faded out of existence.

A few hundred years latter the traps start fading, the Adventures set off to deal with the imprisoned once and for all and BAM Mega-Dungeon.

90% of the time its a bad dude that’s trapped in the Dungeon (Diablo) but its always more intersecting if it is a good dude I think because you have the moral problem of “Do we free the now insane angel or what?”.

Slumbering Tsar and Godholm are examples of the prison idea.

4: Just sort of developed over time. Using this method allows you to explain why some of the levels have no connection story wise to the other levels. Year after year things happen in the area to help with the evolution of the location.

Maybe it starts with a wizard building a tower, then he discovers a rich gold vain and hires some dwarfs to mine it. While mining it they discover some ancient burial ground and stop digging. A few years latter a graveyard is built on the land above the hunted miens. Then the grave yard burns down and a mental asylum is built on the ruins and then.

Well you get the idea, the mega-dungeon evolves over time as the history of the location evolves to the point in time where the heroes get involved.

Most of the mega-dungeons use this idea.

No matter how you decide to start your construction you have to remember that the dungeon has to tell a story. If that goblin has been sitting on that chest of 6000GP for 320 years, why?

If the ork tribe lives down the hall from a vampire and a deadly riddle involving lava, why?

And so on. As the dungeon evolves and the party explorers it you have to have a reason to keep them coming back, each level should have a story that will lead the party to another level. There does not need to be a liner end goal (Stop the cultist from freeing Orcus). There can be a lot of smaller goals(under -mountain, castle greyhawk)

No matter what story you deiced to tell remember the mega dungeon starts with two questions. Who built it and why is there a 20 ft shark in a 10X 10 room

Till next time.

Be excellent

Mega Dunegon March:Part 1

MEGADUNGON MARCH:

Mega-dungeons The name brings to mind strange and twisting corridors spread out over a vast and multilevel zone filled with traps, riddles and monsters. How did that 20ft shark get in that 10ft room? Who cares, its a mega-dungeon Why is One Drow elf guarding a ivory horn worth 6000 GP? Who cares, its a mega-dungeon

The mega-dungeon has existed as long as our hobby has existed The fledgling days of D&D go hand in hand with the tales of Castle Greyhawk. My very first D&D adventure was in the Godholm mega-dungeon way back in the late 70's. While I have never designed my own mega-dungeon I have been collecting them for the past few years and have wanted to run/play a mega-dungeon campaign for a while now.

Over the past 5 years or so there has been a upswing in the Old School nostalgia wave over D&D and many a fan has out out his or her own version of the OG D&D books, such as OSRIC and Lamentations of the flame princes.

With this surge of RPG nostalgia has come a lot of work on mega-dungeons, whole web sites are dedicated to these classic adventures and many a fan has sought out to create there own.

Over this month we are going to explore the idea of a mega-dungeon, take a look at some of the great existing mega-dungeon products and maybe start work on our own?

The first question in exploring the ecology of the mega-dungeon is of course, who built this place and why?

Was it all the work of one really bored demon? (Yeah one level is good but 8 is better) or is it like Moira carved out year after year by the dwarfs who dug to deep? Perhaps it evolved over time as various inhabitants moved in and out? Maybe it has a long and twisting history? Or maybe it appeared over night?

Who knows?

Its a mega-dungeon and one thing mega-dungeons do not ever have to do is make sense. Castle Greyhawk make sens? There was a slide to China in the dungeon. Godholm make sens/ it had an elevator and WW11 soldiers fighting dinosaurs And yes the ever present 20ft shark in the 10 ft room.

So let us start mega-dungeon march with a list of the many mega-dungeons out there right now and links to the various sites dedicated to them shall we? I will try to keep it to product that is actively available . Thankfully most of these are either free or available as a PDF at one of the many RPG download sites such as “drive-through RPG.”.

I am not seeking to reinvent the wheel hear after all, plenty of work has already been done on this topic. All I offer is a fresh and often silly look at them.

Mega dungeon resource links

http://dungeonaday.com/categories/Intro (Dungeon a day's mega-dungeon)

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?p=504466

This site is amazing and I go back to it time and time again as a resource for Dungeon building

http://castletriskelion.blogspot.com/ (castle triskelion)

http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle.html (the definitive castle greyhawk page)

List of Mega Dungeons

Garry Gygax's Hall of Many Panes.

Dragon Mountain for D&D

Anomalous Subsurface Environment (ASE1 and ASE2-3, available for Labyrinth Lord) 

Barrowmaze ((I & II, available for Labyrinth Lord) 

Castle Greyhawk (WG7 Castle Greyhawk for 1st Edition AD&D, Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk for 3rd Edition D&D, Castle Zagyg series for Castles & Crusades)  (The OG Megadunegon and still one of the best)

Castle of the Mad Archmage Adventure Book (available for Adventures Dark & Deep and Pathfinder) 

Castle Triskelion (available for AD&D 1st Edition)  Also on the Web

Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock (available for 3rd Edition D&D) ( I had this one, it was amazing. Sadly never got to run it as it was stolen)

Dwimmermount (available for ACKS and Labyrinth Lord)  (maybe? Lot of stuff revoling around this one))

The Emerald Spire Superdungeon (available for the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game) ( I was kind of diaspointed with this one)

Rappan Athuk (available for Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder) (Awsom)

Stonehell Dungeon (available for Labyrinth Lord, Down Night-Haunted Halls with 2 bonus Supplements) 

Temple of Elemental Evil (available for 1st Edition AD&D, has sequel adventure Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil for 3rd Edition D&D) 

Undermountain (Undermountain I and II for 2nd Edition D&D, Ruins of Undermountain boxed set, Expedition to Undermountain for 3rd Edition D&D)

World's Largest Dungeon (for 3rd Edition D&D)

 Undermountain: the Lost Level, Maddgoth's Castle, and Stardock. For 3^rd edition

Greyhawk Ruins (2E)

Ruins of the Dragon Lord (3E)

Caverns of Thracia (1E and 3E) (judges guild and frog god game)

The Tomb of Abysthor (3E) (frog god games)

Eyes of the Stone Thief? \

Castle Blackmoor - by Dave Arneson - 1971

Castle El Raja Key - by Rob Kuntz - 1973

Hobby Shop Dungeon - by Ernie Gygax - 1978 (Still activ I have been told)

Maure Castle from dungeon 112, 124 and 139

The Darkness Beneath mega-dungeon levels in Fight On! magazine

 Night Below in 2e AD&D 

Numenhalla

Tegel Manor (judges guild and Frog god games)

The Lost City of Barakus (frog god games)

Vault of Larrin Karr (frog god games)

The Slumbering Tsar. (frog god games, I have this one and its amazing)

 Big Rubble of Pavis

City of the Spider Queen  (all hail lloth)

Tomb of Iuchiban

 Dungeon Under the Mountain line

Ikia (think about it)

Mori is copyright the JRR Tolkien fund.

Castle Greyhawk is the creation of Gary Gygax and is copyright by the Gygax family

any other mega-dungeons I refer to are copyright by there original designers and publishers.