Galaxy Laser Team comic #1 (Ekatón) - English translation

If you know your GLT, you'll probably notice that I'm missing the turtle-crab...

Happy Holidays all!  I hope your season has been amazing so far and that you ring in the new year exactly as you most enjoy.

Tomorrow will mark 10 years since I published my first post on this blog.  I kind of can't believe that...while I've had my lapses...it's something that's still a part of what I do and think about.  It probably helps that many of the people I've met through blogging (even my meager and sporadic output) are some of the folks I'm happiest to know in this world of ours.

I've been giving a fair amount of thought recently to directions I might try steering things in 2026 in an effort to streamline my blogging focus....and maybe stumble into more completed projects along the way.  So...we'll see how that goes, I guess...but in the meantime, I wanted to go ahead and share something else I've put a little time into lately.  (I'd like to think of this as my "Christmas gift to the world"...or the first part of it, at least...but I do realize that its weight doesn't really merit that kind of lofty description...!)

To cut to the chase, these links will take you to an English translation of the first issue of Ekatón: El Pueblo Perdido del Espacio, a comic series included in the Argentine children's magazine Anteojito beginning (I believe) in 1980.

Ekatón #1 in English (A5)

Ekatón #1 in English (A5, in an order to print and fold into a booklet)

The longer explanation goes something like this:

The picture at the top of this post shows a selection of characters from a reasonably well-known set of cheap plastic space figures initially released in the late 1970s.  While I'm not even sure if all of the names under which they were sold have ever been gathered together, they are now most often called the Galaxy Laser Team, or occasionally the Star Patrol.  At this point, there's been quite a bit written (and filmed) about these toys, so I'm not going to dive into their history right now.  If you're interested, you can find some great blog posts about them here and here, and plugging "Galaxy Laser Team" into your favorite search engine or video site search bar is sure to give you a number of informative results.

Another look at not-Chewbacca and one of the astronauts (to show a bit more detail than what can be seen above due to their color)

Now, they may not look like much, but something about the sculpts and the coloration (some of my actual childhood figures are pictured here) made these toys pretty freaking memorable for those of us who played with them way back when.  They're even being manufactured again (in loads of new colors) by Tim Mee Toy!  The thing was, while they were obviously made to cash in on a specific cultural phenomenon of the late 1970s (one that still earns new fans today), there was never a background story to accompany the figures.  Well...so I thought...until a few(?) years back when I found out that a children's magazine in Argentina, Anteojito, included a five-issue comic insert in the early '80s that featured characters based on the figures.  (Or...maybe the figures were based on the characters...?  I'm not sure if anyone knows for certain the order that everything took effect, but my guess is that the figures came first...)

While this comic series, Ekatón: El Pueblo Perdido del Espacio, has been widely available on the web for a while now and has even been reprinted fairly recently, I had never seen it translated into English.  So, I've tried to correct that.

The "cover" of the English translation

Some caveats(!!)

1)  I do not speak Spanish very well, so this translation is mostly from ChatGPT.  I did make some edits for syntax and flow, but nothing substantial was changed.  This seemed to me like a reasonable use of AI, since the creative nature of the task is minimal, BUT I recognize that others may take issue with that choice.  I hope you won't hold it against me too much.

2)  It is, admittedly, kind of sloppy...especially the "starburst" word balloons.  I made it in PowerPoint, and my efforts only roughened the already rough edges of the files I started with.  It is meant to be more utilitarian than ornamental, though.  And fwiw, I think the PDFs I have located of later issues are in better shape than the one I used for this installment, so as I continue this project, future editions may be a bit prettier.

3)  On that note:  I do not own any of this material.  I got this PDF from Scribd, and scans of all the original comics can be found pretty easily with a web search.  However, as noted above, this story has recently been reprinted in a deadtree form, and so it is possible there will be concerns about my posting it here.  I hope that adding the English translation will give others reason to believe this is a worthwhile thing to make available, BUT...well, please let me know if you believe it's a problem!

Some figures near the characters they presumably inspired

One final thing...not really a caveat, but a note...if you get some value out of this, please let me know!  I will eventually make my way through all five issues simply because I want to know the whole story and be able to page through it like I would any other comic.  However, if I know there are others who have enjoyed or are enjoying the project, it will certainly encourage me to work on those sooner rather than later.  (And perhaps it goes without saying that I would welcome anyone else who wants to join the effort...or even take it over, since I'm sure there are others much more qualified than I to tackle the translation and layout challenges...!)

I'm hoping the Cosmic Spark will play more of a role in future episodes.

With all of that said, I hope you enjoy!  Those links again (and please let me know if they're broken...):

Ekatón #1 in English (A5)

Ekatón #1 in English (A5, in an order to print and fold into a booklet)

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Closely Related Species(?), Holiday Edition

Source...showing I'm clearly not the first to make this connection...!

Source

Source

Source

(Yep, that last one is a DC Comics toy...a 2025 Superman tie-in.  I almost used a photo that actually showed Supes and Krypto...but obviously the childlike surprise that results from ripping the arm off a yeti is always worth reliving.  Also, that feature...which may work on all the limbs, but hopefully not the head...has to be a nod to the fate of Empire's wampa, eh...?)

Source

The holiday season with the Specials...

On this date 45 years ago, 2tone greats The Specials appeared on the British music program Top of the Pops, wearing holiday sweaters and turning in this great performance!  (Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's mimed; I still won't call it anything but great...!)

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LATE EDIT:  It isn't sitting well with me that I didn't tie this into gaming and the slowly growing list of material meant for the Monstrous Heartbreaker and its related games.

SO...here's a link- and callback when I turned to these fellows from Coventry for help in shaping a sound to be cast by classes capable of wielding rude magic...

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Blank Expression

1st-level Sound

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 30 feet

Duration: 8 hours

Attack/Save: WIS save

You choose one target creature within range.  If that creature is familiar with you, they forget who you are and their history with you for the duration of the sound.  The creature may still be aware that someone of your name and description exists, but they are unable to make that connection to you.  A successful save negates the effect.

[Biome] Goblins for 5e-ish games

I've been thinking a lot about forest goblins lately.  You know how that is.

So...I guess I should start by just making it clear that I like goblins.  Quite a bit, actually.  This is at least partially a direct result of my loyalty to the lovable little troublemakers in Magic: The Gathering.  I really enjoy playing so-called 'typal' decks, and Goblins are probably the creature type that I've built around the most (with Merfolk as the only other group that could maybe mount a challenge for that 'honor').  Goblins have a great history in the game and a lot of solid cards that still manage to feel like underdogs due to their often tiny stats and goofy themes...even if we all know they're actually quite good within the rules and goals of the game...

For the most part, MTG's goblins fit a fairly standard fantasy model.  There have been lots of little green guys.  Over 30+ years of history, though, they have managed to mix it up pretty well...with a few quick examples being the turtle-like Akki from the plane of Kamigawa and the bipedal rodents who serve as snacks for dragons on the plane of Jund.

Which (sort of) brings me to forest goblins.  Creatures in MTG usually represent at least one of the colors of the game, and goblins are the iconic small creature type for the color Red (with the accompanying iconic large creature type being dragons).  Red is the color of chaos, emotion, fire, and lightning, and...perhaps most informatively with regard to goblins...its mana is found naturally in mountains.  This fits nicely, I think, with our regular association of goblins with mountains, hills, and caves.

There are MTG goblins that touch each of the five colors, and some of my previous blog posts probably reveal my affinity for the little guys all across the spectrum, including those that (perhaps unexpectedly) deal in Blue or White mana.  After Red, though, MTG's goblins are most common in the colors that serve as Red's 'allies'...Black (death from the swamps) and Green (growth from the forests).  And as with many aspects of fantasy fiction, I have often found myself drawn to the elements that reflect a connection to nature...which in the case of goblins, usually means they tend toward the feral and shamanic.  Here are a few of the cool gobbos that touch green:

Naturally (heh), I'd like to work some goblins into the gaming projects that are currently solidifying around my hopes and daydreams.  They've shown up in the Monstrous Matters campaign as part of a pretty key plot point, and there's no reason they shouldn't be able to menace the elite soldiers in UNLTD or the time-traveling Agents of SKA (time goblins?).  And there's one other very specific reason that I want to make some solid rules for forest goblins...which I'll get to soon...hopefully in my next post...hopefully.  As with many fantasy species, though, I think goblins lend themselves to categorization based upon their biome of choice...so it should be easy to have a simple setup for creating Forest Goblins, Swamp Goblins, Desert Goblins, and so on...

I have the Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica and checked out the Goblin species there for some inspiration.  Also drawing from the Goblin's stats as a 5e monster and as an OGL species from Arcanist Press's More Ancestries & Cultures, I think a ____ Goblin that covers the necessary bases while allowing for some environmental flavor should be pretty straightforward.  Let's try this...

[Biome] Goblin

Forest goblin art by Paul Bonner, found via the Scent of a Gamer blog

_____ Goblin Traits

Speed: 30 feet

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Darkvision: Goblins typically have darkvision at a range of 60 feet; for some biomes, evolution may have led to this being lost or even replaced by a visual ability more useful in that environment.

Size: Adult goblins are generally between 3 and 4.5 feet tall; their weight can vary greatly due to a large range in how thickly they are framed.  Overall, they are usually classified as small.

Age: Goblins usually mature faster than humans, reaching adulthood and old age at earlier points in their lifetimes.  A 50-year-old goblin is a rarity.  Some groups of goblins may age at about the same rate as humans, but you will never find goblins that are as long-lived as elves or dwarves.

Languages: Goblins are fluent in the common language of the game world, as well their own particular dialect of the Goblin language. They are often literate in settings where this is feasible for a goblin.

Nimble Escape: You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.

At HOME in the BiOME: You aren't just a Goblin.  You're a Mountain Goblin.  Or a Swamp Goblin.  Or maybe a Forest Goblin.  You may treat whichever biome you are from as favored terrain, with the corresponding bonuses granted to a Ranger with the Natural Explorer ability.

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Gnawgahyde (G.I. Joe) - Level 2 Expert

No fancy intros for this one.  I'm just getting down to business: cooking up stats for another figure from my shelf of random nostalgia...

Let's go with...Gnawgahyde, the Dreadnok poacher.  And maybe his pet boar Clyde as well...

Working for now with the basic building blocks of Warrior, Expert, and Adept, Gnawgahyde seems fine for an Expert.  If I get classes filled out nicely at some point, and I have a good Hunter/Ranger type, I guess he matches that archetype pretty well, but for now...Expert will do.

Here's his old file card...

From YoJoe.com

I'm not sure why we don't get any information on where he's from...unless it's just supposed to be so freaking obvious from his appearance.  This was before any of us knew of Steve Irwin, so Crocodile Dundee was America's greatest cultural reference point for Australia...and Gnawgahyde here certainly has an aura of 'villainous Crocodile Dundee' about him.  I think you can also argue that Gnawgahyde has Bayou Billy vibes, so I'll admit that I did have to do a quick search to confirm that his accent and dialogue also point to an Australian origin (vs. the rural American South).  And also...isn't it a little odd that his real name is so hard to come by?  From what I've seen, the only notable reference to it is on the file card accompanying his 2011 figure...

Also from YoJoe.com

Clyde "Gnaw" Hyde.  Hmm.  Okay.  Maybe because Naugahyde is a registered trademark?  (Side note: there's definitely something gameable in the Nauga, the creature whose 'hyde' is used in its production...)

Image from Wikipedia

And, isn't his warthog named Clyde?  Did he name a pet after himself...?  His figure from the newer Classified series has a warthog named Porkbelly (plus a macaque named Yobbo), so maybe there's a retcon at work here...

...

Well darn, what was it I was saying about getting down to business...?  Time to do that for real.  Then maybe I'll look around to find a replacement hat for my Gnaw figure.  (I'll get to Clyde a little later, too...)

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Gnawgahyde

Clyde "Gnaw" Hyde

Promo image from Amazon

Expert, Level 2

Human

Born: Australia, 1950

Occupation: Poacher

Affiliation: Dreadnoks

STR       DEX        CON      INT       WIS      CHA

16 (+2)  13 (+1)    14 (+1)   9 (--)   12 (--)  5 (-2)

HP 10   Move 30 ft.

Attack Bonuses: melee +4/+2, ranged +3/+1 (+6 w/two-handed small arms)

Proficiencies (Expertise***)

Saves: Dexterity, Intelligence

Weapons: All simple weapons, two-handed small arms***

Armor: Light armor

Languages: English, French, Swahili

Skills: Stealth, Nature***, Animal Handling***, Insight, Perception, Survival

Tools/Talents: Traps***

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Showing some appreciation for 'generic' character classes...

Because I'm really starting to appreciate them.  Quite a bit, actually!

I can remember when I first came across NPC classes in the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide (Warrior, Expert, Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner) back in...hmm, like 2003...?  I thought they were such a good idea that I immediately wanted to start making characters with them.  The Expert class, especially...I mean, why wasn't it already a widely used option?  It just seemed so versatile, and (personal side note, skip to next paragraph if that sounds terrible) it matched up with what I had as a sort of lifelong dream, to earn the right to be considered an Expert in one topic or another.  (It's why I eventually pursued a PhD...I was levelling up myself(!)...and arguably became just that, for one specific thing.  One beautiful, very narrow, practically worthless, conversationally tedious thing.)

I also liked that the DMG specifically highlighted the Expert class as one that may be worth promoting to the big leagues...to pull a quote from the SRD:

The expert could make a PC-worthy class choice, but only for those players willing to create a character focused on something other than a traditional adventuring career.

As someone who was pretty new to the ways of D&D and enjoying the chance to immerse myself in whatever class ideas I could get my hands on, this sounded awesome!  And then...I thought it was pretty cool when I happened to open the Sage miniature in a Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game booster and realized that they had actually made him an Expert, according to the full RPG stats that were found on each mini's card (on the opposite side from the skirmish game stats).  (I think, anyway...)

The Sage, from an eBay listing; I can't wait to see the other side of the card and be proven right.  Someday.  Maybe.

When I eventually realized (via the SRD) that the 3.5 book Unearthed Arcana also included so-called 'generic classes' (Warrior, Expert, Spellcaster) that served as amped-up versions of the NPC options...and I found out that the True20 system, right from its start in the original Blue Rose book, sorted every character into a similar tripartite taxonomy...I started to really take an interest in this approach!

I think that part of the reason I've become so drawn to these classes is that they're a fairly clean combination of aspects I like in some of my favorite RPGs.  I love D&D-style class-and-level gaming because of its history, its implementation of genre archetypes, and its interesting 'stories' that are told without any dice being rolled, just by internalizing the abilities of a specific class.  And I love West End Games' Ghostbusters (maybe my fave RPG ever) and many of the games it has inspired, as their straightforward attribute + skill mechanics are easily grokkable and contribute to a freewheeling tone where it seems like, somehow, 'normal' people fit in and anything goes when it comes to the adventure.

Dr. Peter Venkman's Ghostbusters stats; from the very helpful collection at Ghostbusters International

I like where generic classes sit in between these two approaches and have had them in mind a lot lately while considering the setting that shares a name with this blog, especially since I typically think about the Monstrous Matters campaign as some variant of 'Ghostbusters + D&D.'  And to a lesser extent, I like applying the generic classes to thoughts on UNLTD/POA/whatever I end up calling this 3.75-inch action figure skirmish game thingy I'm kind of working on...

So, let's see...

I have one spot in my home where I actually display action figures (other than the Lego minifigs that topped our wedding cake).  The lineup changes based on whim and convenience.  Here's a pic I took a few months back; I figure that eventually, I'm going to want to have all of these characters statted out for playing war, so I guess I'll start with that parapsychologist down in the lower right (next to Tars Tarkas) since I already have some 'official' numbers to base him on.  Seems like a good testing ground for an Expert class (and I certainly have no issue treating the Venkman of the first film as a Level 1 character!)...

(He came from the awesome Plasma Pack set featuring the entire 'busting quartet in 3.75" form, btw...a pretty awesome 48th birthday gift from the parents this summer...!)

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Peter Venkman, Ph.D.

Expert, Level 1

Human, 34 years old

Affiliation: Ghostbusters (the 'real' ones)

STR       DEX        CON      INT       WIS      CHA

10 (--)  13 (+1)    10 (--)   11 (--)   19 (+3)  19 (+3)

HP 4   Move 30 ft.

Attack Bonuses: +0 melee (expertise with unarmed attacks), +1 ranged

Proficiencies (Expertise***)

Saves: Dexterity, Intelligence

Weapons: All simple weapons

Armor: Light armor

Languages: English

Skills: Investigation, Insight, Perception***, Deception***, Persuasion***

Tools/Talents: Parapsychology

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Wishing you happiness on the American holiday that happens today...

Thanksgiving is kind of a tricky one, eh?  I mean...I don't think there's anyone out there saying it's a bad idea to take some time and reflect on the things you're thankful for in life.  And obviously, celebrations of the harvest have a pretty solid standing in the history of humanity.  But...over time (and potentially right from the start of the modern tradition, since it was apparently a bit of a propaganda move on President Lincoln's part), we've built a mythology around the holiday that is undoubtedly problematic when placed in in the full context of the United States' first couple centuries (and especially its treatment of the land's native inhabitants).

Now, I actually think that this mythology can be helpful, as we can build on aspects of it that we hold dear with a modern perspective and lessons learned over many more decades of the "American Experiment."  And I'm definitely not looking to hinder the holiday vibes of anyone who wants to take the opportunity on this one Thursday every year to appreciate their blessings.  Unfortunately, it seems that another tradition has developed among many Americans, in which any attempt to place the story of the holiday within an honest historical framework is treated as a challenge to America's core values (about which we also seem to agree less and less by the day).

And yeah, it's weird that the holiday's most enduring symbol is the turkey, whose role in the festivities is to become the main course.

Lincoln was also the first president to pardon a turkey, a tradition that was later ramped up by Reagan and enshrined as an official presidential act by Bush the elder.  This image (swiped from Roadside America) shows a monument to Jack, the bird spared by Lincoln in 1863.  I could really get behind a holiday that was all about pardoning turkeys...

Despite the fact that I'll probably never be able to unlearn the things that force me to see Thanksgiving as a nuanced American holiday (not that I'd want to unlearn pretty much anything) rather than a controversy-free celebration of how God has Blessed America, I'll probably always have a soft spot for a lot of the day's traditional imagery.  This can almost certainly be traced, at least in part, to a specific memory from 1982 when...fresh off of Halloween and apparently of the belief that every holiday should be a reason to cosplay at school...I decided to attend kindergarten dressed as a "Thanksgiving Pilgrim."

Sadly, no, I don't still have this outfit.

(And speaking of being thankful, I should be forever grateful for having a family that indulged my ridiculous wishes enough to help me put together things like this costume...)

In a way, I guess it is sort of a shame that I can no longer have a blind appreciation for what I represented in that outfit.  But...I also guess that's an inevitable result of being open to changing one's opinion as new information and perspectives are encountered.  I'm good with that.

Now, to shake off the seriousness and potentially invalidate anything of value that I managed to articulate, here's a silly RPG class:

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The Pilgrim

Image source

Hit Die: d12

Alignment: A Pilgrim must be of lawful alignment.

Proficiencies
Weapons: Simple weapons, firearms

Armor: Light armor
Saving Throws: Constitution, Wisdom
Skills: Religion (INT), Survival (WIS)

Borne on the Mayflower
At 1st level, you gain advantage on all checks related to seafaring.

"By God's visitation, reigned a wonderful plague..."

Also at 1st level, you gain advantage on all rolls to resist disease.

Signature Smoothbore

Beginning at 2nd level, you get a +3 expertise bonus and +1 to damage rolls when firing a musket or blunderbuss.

Image source

Blessed
Starting at 3rd level, whenever you roll a 1 on a d20, you may choose to reroll that die.  You must use the result of the reroll.

Ability Score Increase
When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.

Damn the Heretics and Horrors
At 5th level, you gain an enhanced ability to thwart the will of those who oppose your God.  This works as a Cleric's turn undead ability that affects not only undead creatures, but also creatures of any Witch or Warlock class.  You may use a cross or Bible as a holy symbol.  (As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring your enemies. Each undead, Witch, and Warlock that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.)

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Geeky SKAturday: Arcade Allstars

After posting a couple weeks ago that JER's ska rendition of the Ghostbusters theme was a no-brainer inclusion for the nearly random collection of items that make up this blog, I knew that this band would also make an appearance before long.  When considering what angle to take in presenting them, however, I realized that the Canadian band Arcade Allstars are a great match for all that is Monstrous Matters, on multiple fronts:

1.  Just look at that album cover!

I knew there were tabletop gamers in the band after one of the members responded on Reddit to one of my nerdy ska threads (about either the Rudie class or the Agents of SKA...and in which I learned that they refer to their D&D party as the Arcane Allstars 😂), but they really outdid themselves with the cover of their recent album Destined 4 Disaster.  The band members themselves as the miniatures being used in a game by fantasy characters is just...well, basically I hate that I didn't think of it, and now I won't feel like I should use it on the off chance I have an album in need of a cover at some point in the future. 😅

2.  They belong on a gaming soundtrack

I've been meaning to post at some point about ska songs that would make up a nice soundtrack for gaming in the absurd world of the Agents of SKA, where ska bands travel through the timestream preserving its integrity for future (and past) generations.  D4D has a track that definitely belongs in that group:

My assumption is that the title is a reference to the character select screen of a fighting game...and perhaps specifically some edition of Mortal Kombat...

...and it's possible, in fact, that this tune is actually a cover of some well-known video game theme that I'm just not familiar with (as someone who hasn't invested much in video games since 1995 or so).  I'm assuming (there I go again) it's an original, though, and it definitely captures the feel of 1990s video game action.  It would similarly be a great background track for the daring exploits of the Agents of SKA.

3.  Superman makes an appearance

There was a time when songs referencing Superman were a feature on this blog (as much as just about anything could be called a "feature" here)...and the Arcade Allstars have (at least) one as well!  Here's a live rendition of "Blue Collar"...

4.  They've influenced a spell...

...or, as I call them for the Rudie class, a sound.  Filling out the potential repertoire of the sound-wielding adventurers that take part in an Agents of SKA campaign is something that I have unfortunately neglected, even while writing this year about the exact sort of RPG campaign where they would make the most sense.  So...here's one to address that, along with the song it's based on.  (And truly...no disrespect is meant to anyone with mutton chops, 44 years old or otherwise...!)

Mutton Chops

1st-level Sound

Range: Touch

Duration: 24 hours

One creature gains mutton chops and advantage on Charisma checks for the duration of the spell.  The target may attempt a saving throw if they choose; if successful, they only grow one mutton chop, with the side of the face determined randomly.  (If the target creature doesn't have a face, the mutton chops manifest as whatever seems like the closest analog possible for a being of their physical form.)

5.  I'm sure there's more...

Truly, I'm certain there is.  This crew appears to have a solid nerd core (although not to be confused with nerdcore, of course), and based upon the pleasant interaction I've had with their saxophonist Cody on Reddit, it seems that they may also be nice folks to boot.  I'd be surprised if this is the last time the Arcade Allstars come up on this blog...

UNLTD: The somewhat silly acronym that wouldn't die in my imagination

I love a good organizational acronym...usually a backronym (maybe?)...in my gaming.  From SLOP, to the CROwN, to BADGER, to the Agents of SKA, to...well, probably some others I'm not remembering...there's definitely an argument to be made that I've spent too much time playing with letters in my head for the purposes of organizations that don't actually exist.

In addition, those who have paid close attention to the RPG settings that have interested me over the years (no, I don't expect that to actually apply to anyone) will know that I have had a long-running fascination with applying the portal fantasy trope to my games.  The earliest expression of this that I can remember took place at my bachelor party back in 2011 (celebrated at Con Nooga), during which I DM'ed a short adventure built on the premise of an Earth expedition into a dungeon on another world.  Because I'm a sucker for a good acronym, I started out with the plan that the adventuring team would represent the United Nations League of Terran Defense...or...♬dunh dunh dunh♬...

UNLTD

By the time I actually ran the adventure, the org had changed into the Unaffiliated League of Terran Defense, or UnLTD.  Because that's...more rebellious...?  I'm not really sure, and I was never sure how to feel about that lowercase N (especially when I thought about logos), and I always kinda felt like a "League of Terran Defense" sounded more like the human protagonists in a kaiju story than what I was using it for.

Anyway, this idea would ultimately see publication in Fight On! #14 as "Agents of the CROwN," as the fictional team was redirected to the Council for Research on Otherworldly Narratives...also featuring Kelvin's clean and distinctive artwork...

Now, the Stargate reference that Kelvin brought into the mix isn't really something I had thought of, but it made so much sense and would go on to influence my thoughts on portal fantasy gaming quite a bit in the decade-plus since then.  I eventually realized that some variation of Stargate + D&D is actually a pretty common idea to pop up in online RPG discussions.  (This will come up again, gimme a sec...!)

So then, quite a while (more than 2.5 years) ago, when I was in one of my phases of thinking a lot about gaming with 3.75-inch toy soldiers, I started tagging my posts with "UnLTD."  I think I was zeroing in on that as a name for the ruleset, as the whole "League of Terran Defense" idea kind of seemed to work, and the name could imply the unlimited possibilities of gaming with the huge variety of 1:18-ish scaled figures out there.  But...somewhere along the way I hit on the name People of Adventure, which could be a tribute to Fisher Price's Adventure People (one of the OG toylines in that scale) and could be abbreviated POA...almost clever as the name of a game with action figures.

Recently, though...I was thinking about some of the figures I need to stat up for the game.  These are some that I think my Mom found at Dollar Tree and kindly sent my way...

And I couldn't help but get Stargate vibes from these.  And then, at some point, it hit me: The absolute LEGENDS among 3.75-inch action figures (for a lot of us, anyway) are the G.I. Joe and Star Wars lines...and isn't Stargate kind of a wacky combination of those two?

For whatever reason, now that I'm thinking about the figures that way, the name UNLTD seems pretty good again!  Why wouldn't the United Nations put together a League of Terran Defense to protect Earth from fantastic invaders (and potential invaders) from other worlds?

Yeah, that gun is something else...I'm gonna have to have a post on that, I think...

I think that UNLTD lives on...!

(As I always write when I don't know how to end things...more to come!)

Geeky SKAturday: Ghostbusters!

Relative to the amount of time I spend actually sharing things on here, I spend way too much time considering whether or not I should blog about random stuff I come across on the web.  In doing this off and on for almost 10(!) years, I've managed to bounce around enough topics to have a blog that's kind of about everything, and kind of about nothing, and kind of about just whatever's in my head at the moment.

But occasionally, I see something that I know I should share...AND that 100%...no, 110%...fits whatever it is I blog about.  It is this:

I've featured the work of JER from Ska Tune Network before on here (for Sonic and Pokémon tunes, if you're keeping score).  And this certainly isn't the first time this classic theme has been given a ska makeover (it obviously works well with a third wave ska punk treatment!), but it's definitely worth noting when the immensely talented ska evangelist JER takes a crack at it...

ChatGPT seems to have opinions about the sort of games I want to play

I've been continuing my experimentation in using AI to code games/game aids by playing around with a character generator for the various threads of gaming that bounce around in my head.  The main games and settings I'd like to establish by the end of the year (fingers crossed but yeah right) are the Monstrous Matters setting, my own little fantasy heartbreaker (and an associated setting...?), and People of Adventure (POA), my take on skirmish gaming using action figures, with rules rooted in the RPG mechanics of the first two.  And then, beyond that, I'd eventually like to have something concrete in place for Agents of SKA, Underground Elemental Beastfighting, and probably 100 more that I wrote about one time and promptly forgot about.  Anyway, as I (use ChatGPT to) build the generator, those first three plus Agents of SKA are the campaigns I've included to form the skeleton to which I can add other settings later.

So, of course, in the midst of making adjustments and returning code to me during our conversation, ChatGPT decided these should be the campaigns I make characters for:

Classic Dungeons

Underworld

Skyward Isles

Vault Raiders

Mutant Frontier

Agents of SKA

Generic Fantasy

Post-Apocalypse

Science Fiction

Wha--?

Now, to be fair, I'm running with three different systems for the characters — 5e, my Monstrous Heartbreaker, and a system neutral option — so I think the really generic choices on there can be chalked up in part to the AI "wanting" campaign names that it finds very appropriate to associate with "5e" and "System Neutral."  Still, though...I truly don't get why chatbots will occasionally change things up like this out of nowhere (it's made a similar call for my species and class choices, as well as the general layout of the generator)...almost as if they think they know better even on matters of opinion, intention, and creativity.

And...well, maybe that's true, as when called out on it, ChatGPT first apologized(!), then went on to say, "That’s the version I included in the code above — these are your intended campaigns, right?"

Oh, okay...trying to tell me something, ChatGPT...?

We did get this little misunderstanding worked out, but it didn't take all that long for it to contribute some campaign options once again, with the choices becoming:

Agents of SKA

Underworld

Epic of Elaria

At this point, I started to wonder if maybe this AI has its own fantasy heartbreaker that it's looking for a chance to bring into being.  I asked it to create a cover for an Epic of Elaria RPG book and got this...

...so I guess it's pretty much generic fantasy, but the elves have one really long ear that they use for...making precise measurements...?

I'll post more here if I find out more about what happens in this Epic, or in any of the other campaigns toward which I'm being guided...

A slice of 1970s RPG life (IN SPACE!)

While I have unfortunately never gotten to roll dice with him, I knew that my uncle played D&D during its very early days. He suppposedly even wrote for an RPG fanzine, and while I had never seen any solid evidence of this before, my mother recently sent me some of his handwritten notes that she found in old papers from my grandmother's house. Apparently, we get a little glimpse here of what his adventures were like while playing with his acquaintance George as DM. No idea if this George fellow is anyone I've heard of otherwise, but it seemed like it'd be neat to type up the notes and share them here. Hopefully Mom will find more soon...

July 19, 1975

I was recently able to take part in a very unique campaign of Dungeons & Dragons. Because the setting has some really interesting differences from most of the ones I’ve played in up till now (more John Carter than Conan), I thought it would be worthwhile to write up some session reports for the fanzine, so that others can see just how flexible D&D is. I’ll try to remember the story as precisely as I can, but please remember that these are all “after action” reports, so I may miss some details here and there.

When I arrived at my cousin Joel’s house for a summer visit, he asked if I wanted to take part in a D&D campaign his neighbor George had been working on, that had been described to him as “a fantasy war in space” (I think he even said George just calls it “The Star War”). I thought this sounded amazing and, having just picked up the Greyhawk supplement, figured this would be a great chance to try out some of its options before returning to my own D&D group next week. So, we gathered last night at the home of another neighbor (Ted) to have an introductory session where we learned about the setting and created our characters. The adventuring party would be Ted, Theo (we were lucky that with two Theodores in the group, they use different nicknames!), Joel, and me, with George as DM.

George said it would be okay if we wanted to play nonhuman characters (even ones that are usually monsters), and that it would be easy to work them into the campaign world as aliens from one of the billions of planets in the galaxy where the adventures take place. I asked if I could play a Bugbear (from Greyhawk, described as “great hairy goblin-giants”), and George worked out some stats for it really quickly. One of the interesting things he worked into it is that my character (called Chewy by the others) can’t speak Common due to the way my vocal cords are shaped, BUT I can understand it, and there are many characters of other species who are able to understand my language when I speak it. This actually seems like it could make for some interesting roleplaying moments, so I’m excited to see where it goes. At first it seemed like it would get annoying really quickly, but that definitely didn’t happen in our short first session of play.

I also wanted to keep the faux-medieval fantasy theme typical to D&D going a little bit, so I asked if it would be reasonable for my Bugbear to have a crossbow as a main weapon. George said yes, but that it should be set up to fire energy like the raygun-type weapons the others are using. He said he would work something out about how those of the Bugbear species like using crossbows for some reason.

With the options being wide open, I don’t really know why Ted, Theo, and Joel all just wanted to play humans, but they did. Ted is playing an older spellcaster named Ben that George kept referring to as “sort of a space wizard who is also good in combat,” and Joel is this classic “farmboy who wants to be a hero” type guy with an amazing last name: Starkiller. (I actually can’t even remember what his first name is; I just called him Starkiller all night, because that’s just badass.)

Starkiller has some skill in flying, but the main pilot of the group (as George said we should have at least one in the party who owns and can fly a starship) is played by Theo, a pirate named Hans. I figured it would be cool if Hans and I had a history together, so we worked out this fairly elaborate story where he saved my life one time and now I’m completely dedicated to his protection and service. So, it was decided that Chewy the Bugbear is also a bit of a pilot himself.

After giving us a brief overview of the campaign world he has created (which honestly sounds absolutely amazing, and which I could never do justice by trying to describe it here – the key point is that in the galaxy, there is an evil Empire that is in control, and a group of rebels have been joining together to try to fight back against it), George had us introduce our characters to each other and jumped to an actual in-universe scene to make it all more impactful. You guessed it: We met in a tavern! I wish I had a recording of the way George described this “cantina” as he called it, and all the incredible species of aliens drinking in it.

The story so far is pretty straightforward. Starkiller and Ben were given what I assume is the key MacGuffin of the first adventure, some plans for a planet-destroying starbase which are being carried by one of the robots they have with them (both of whom were outside the tavern for our first meeting). So, they hired me and Hans to take them to the planet where they are supposed to deliver them. It was actually a pretty fun scene in terms of interaction, as Theo had Hans go on and on about how great he is as a pilot and how good his ship is, and he actually haggled with them on a price for the job (even though we all knew we were going to take it).

That was pretty much the end of the main story for the evening, and we’ll pick up next session as we head to a new planet on Hans’s freighter to deliver the starbase plans. There was a final little bit of roleplaying where George introduced this alien bounty hunter who wanted to capture (or maybe kill?) Hans. My first impression was that this alien (who I’ll admit had kind of a ridiculous name, Greed-O) was going to play a role in the unfolding adventure, but I hope that wasn’t the case, since Hans pretty much immediately killed him! George and Ted also talked a little about how Ben’s past is going to play a part in upcoming sessions, and apparently George gave Ben and Starkiller some sort of magical weapons that will come up again. I am guessing it’s the “blade of light” that Ben wielded during the tavern roleplaying scene, but we’ll find out more as the story unfolds.

I’ll be back to the journal tomorrow night with updates!

-HAG

From here