Meta Monday: Nintendo Power magazine's 1989 Zelda fanfiction

When I started thinking about putting together these Meta Monday posts, one of the first items I had in mind was today's topic.  I think this is probably a pretty obscure little piece of Legend of Zelda lore, but for some reason, it became planted firmly enough in my 11-year-old brain to get me to seek it out decades later...

In the very early days of Nintendo Power magazine, the publishers held a fiction contest.  I don't remember if I even saw the original announcement (I became a loyal reader but wasn't there from the very beginning), but the winners were announced in the magazine's sixth volume, May/June 1989.  The top entry was printed in that issue...the short story "Friends," by Robbie H. Lawton.

Image from Nintendo Power, and taken from this Tumblr post

For whatever reason, this story was really memorable to me.  Maybe it was the fact that, at the time, I was in the process working myself into an obsessive frenzy over the NES, and The Legend of Zelda was a magical and mysterious entity I had yet to explore.  Maybe it was because it seemed to be written by a kid like me, and I had an idea that I could contribute to the world of Nintendo with a creation like this.  And maybe it was just because it's a delightful little story.

In the tale, we meet young gamer Jason, who is working his way through the The Legend of Zelda like countless other youngsters at the time.  Instead of tapping away on a control pad, however, Jason climbs into his television and adventures around Hyrule as Link's partner.  The story is about searching for the seventh dungeon, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and...given away by the title...friendship.

Another image from the story, also snagged from that Tumblr post

I went to the right place when I decided to try searching up the old story, as a post on Reddit quickly led some kind and helpful Zelda fans to point me toward a thread started by a child of the Jason of the story (who goes by PunishedYoshi on Reddit).  It seems their grandmother actually penned the tale and submitted it to Nintendo Power, and after a long search, they finally located it in a Tumblr post by nteamhero.  If you'd like to read the story in full, just click that Tumblr link...it's a quick read and truly is...well, delightful!  (That's through my thick nostalgia glasses, of course...)  And according to PunishedYoshi, their grandmother also drew at least some of the accompanying pictures, in which case...awesome!

(And for whatever it's worth, it also seems that r/zelda has some genuinely nice folks among its posters...)

Anyway...I really love these little stories of things that happened on the periphery of gaming and pop culture history.  (And, the older I get, the more I think I just like remembering being young...)

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Since I jotted down some details on Toads for 5e and my fantasy heartbreaker the last time I talked NES on here, this seems like a good time to take a look at Link and Zelda's species...!

Hylians

Image from the Zelda Wiki

Hylians are very similar to humans and may indeed be simply a subgroup of humans.  They're pretty diverse themselves, though, as there seem to be various races and ethnicities within Hylians as a group.  It should be noted, however, that they have pointed ears and often a degree of innate magical ability.  So, maybe they're more like elves.  Largely town elves, I guess.  You can find out more about them at the Zelda Wiki's Hylian page.

Ability Score Increase:  Your Wisdom score increases by 2. Choose one additional ability score to increase by 1.

Age/Size:  Hylians seem to age at about the same rate and are around the same size as humans.  They are medium creatures.

Name:  Whatever you like!  Known Hylian names include Akrah, Benny, Garini, Irene, Link, Sonia, and Zelda.

Speed:  Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Preternatural Hearing:  Hylians have excellent hearing and get advantage on all Perception checks involving listening.  In an ability that is also likely related to their pointed ears, Hylians are able to send and receive messages to and from other Hylians over great distances...and even when in different dimensions of existence.  To telepathically communicate in such a way, both Hylians must succeed on a Wisdom check.  Its base difficulty is 10, with 1 point added for each hundred miles of distance between the two Hylians.  If they are on different planes, the difficulty is simply 10, but both rolls are made with disadvantage.

Magical Nature:  Hylians know one cantrip that can be learned by any type of Mage in your campaign.  Per DM, this can be chosen or determined randomly from the spell list(s).  Hylians use Wisdom as their ability for any spellcasting checks.

Languages:  Hylians can read and speak Hylian and Common.  Other languages may be known according to the guidelines of your campaign.

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Meta Monday: Doki Doki Panic and the greatest(?) NES game of them all

The article feed on my Google Chrome home page (do we call that a chromepage? and if not, why not?) shows exceptional insight when it comes to understanding what will get me to click and read.  I know a lot of us have had moments where it seemed like an algorithm channeled via our phones -- whether for ads, or news, or autofilling our sentences -- must have had access to our verbal conversations.  Occasionally, it seems like that access extends to my thoughts.

Yesterday, I was thinking about what I would like to post for Meta Monday today.  Realizing that my likely subject would lead me to talk about the 1988 Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. 2 (hereafter SMB2), I started thinking about where I could place it in my list of NES favorites.  Because it might be my favorite.  I know that the third entry in the series gets the most ink as the greatest NES game of them all, and the first is always referenced in Top X lists because of its immeasurable influence on the industry.  I never got a lot of experience with 3, however, and the classic Super Mario Bros. -- while certainly way up there for me (and maybe my favorite when it comes to setting) -- just can't QUITE compete with the upper, upper echelon of games in my memory (that'd be The Legend of Zelda, Punch-Out!!, Dr. Mario, and Double Dragon for anyone keeping score).

SMB2, though...it's up there.  So I definitely had a little "no way...!" go off in my head when this article (with this photo) popped up in my feed:

Darn you, Google...even your clickbait apparently works on me, because I should have known that the list would include #1 and #3, but my precious SMB2, which 11-year-old me paid an insane forty-five of my own 1989 American dollars for so I that could experience the adventures of Mario and his friends in the dream world of Subcon, is nowhere to be found.  Underrated!

The article isn't bad, though.

I got my NES for Christmas 1988, which was also the holiday season that SMB2 was burning through toy aisles.  I don't think I even laid eyes on a copy of it until that fateful day the next year when I happened to be at the right store, at the right time, to pay whatever was asked of me to get it into my hands.  There were aspects of it that really were revolutionary to me at the time.  Being able to select different characters, with different capabilities, just seemed brilliant.  You could play as a Mushroom Retainer!  And apparently, his name is Toad!  AND the princess FLOATS!!  It was worth every penny.

From this r/nostalgia thread

I don't think any of us knew it at the time, but it's a well-known Nintendo factoid now that Mario 2 was released in Japan as a completely different game, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.  There are lots of internet sources that can provide a much better summary of this history than I am qualified to give.  (You can check it out its page at the Nintendo Wiki here, should you be so inclined.)  In short, though...it apparently began life as a tech demo that was influenced by -- and perhaps was even intended to be used for -- the Mario series.  It would then be developed in coordination with Fuji Television as a game accompanying their event known as Yume Kōjō '87 (Dream Factory '87).  When the game released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 was deemed too difficult and not innovative enough to satisfy the American market, Doki Doki Panic was reskinned into a Mario game.

A character comparison between the two games; found this on Pinterest.  Many other changes are also documented here.

(A note before I forget: I would not be surprised if there's something about the presentation of the Arab family in Doki Doki Panic that, with the benefit of almost four decades' worth of reflection, is less culturally sensitive than many -- including me -- would prefer.  Not what I'm getting into here, although please feel free to let me know if you have any insight in this area!)

Now...what exactly makes it meta?  Well, even when we got the game here in the States, there was still a meta element to it, as the instruction manual's intro explained how Mario and his buds ended up in a world that he originally saw in a dream...

The whole manual is at the Internet Archive

In Doki Doki Panic, however, the meta stakes are taken up to another level, as the characters actually make their way into the Land of Dreams through the pages of a book!  Here's the game's intro:

(In a more realistic art style, that would actually be at least a little creepy.)

Visiting the worlds of the tales we tell...that's the guiding motif of these Meta Mondays, and I actually think that SMB2 -- and, even more so, its original implementation as Doki Doki Panic -- not only matches this theme...it also might be the greatest NES game ever while doing so.  It's definitely up there.  Although maybe I just need to spend some more time on SMB3.

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Now...because I'm doing a reasonably good job of keeping this a sort-of-focused tabletop gaming blog, let me tabletop-game-ify something from SMB2!  As I noted, I really dug getting the chance to play as different characters, and Toad was especially fun.  Not only was it cool as hell to play a Mushroom Person, but being the fastest and strongest also meant that he was great at pulling up shrubs to get coins that gave me a shot at extra lives.  Since I'm trying to figure out this Monstrous Heartbreaker thing...and since the species in the game will likely be VERY 5e-based (especially since I've discovered I even like 5e species builds in OSR-based games)...why don't I take a crack at the Toad (as a species) for 5e?  I'm sure it's been done already, probably many times, but maybe not this quick and dirty before...

Toad (the species)

Image by Shigehisa Nakaue, found at Wikipedia

Toad (Mushroom People) Traits

Your Toad character has unique traits based upon their (possibly) fungal origins and lifestyle.  (Remember, the mushroom cap is part of their head, not a hat...)

Ability Score Increase:  Your Strength score increases by 2. Choose one additional ability score to increase by 1.

Age:  Toads seem to age at about the same rate as humans.

Size:  Adult toads are generally 3-4 feet tall and weigh around 40-50 pounds.  They are usually classified as small.

Name:  Toad seems to be a really common one...but don't let that limit you!

Speed:  Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Loyalty:  Toads have advantage on all attack rolls against an enemy who is engaged in combat with one or more of their (the Toad's) friends.  They also have advantage on all ability checks and saving throws related to tasks that will save a friend.

Languages:  Toads are fluent in the common language of the game world (often English), but are also sure to know at least one other language that originates somewhere in the Mushroom Kingdom.

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Meta Monday: The Sabin Train Suplex becomes an MTG card...

I just have a quick nod to something interestingly meta for today's post.  There's actually a LOT worth rambling about with this, as it comes at a sort of inflection point for Magic: The Gathering...which is morphing from a franchise obsessively restricted to its own universe into a brand that devotes about half of its efforts to mixing in other brands.  As you might imagine, there are plenty of people who don't like the fact that Spider-Man will soon be battling it out at Friday Night Magic against MTG's elves, angels, and dragons.

My thoughts are still developing on this.  In the meantime, though, I find it interesting that connecting all of these universes from different types of original media may provide for some interesting twists in reality.  I don't know that this is the best example of it, but it's the one that really got me thinking...

This is card is from an upcoming MTG set based upon the Final Fantasy franchise.  Apparently this reference is instantly recognizable to FF fans, as there have been all sorts of articles the past few days about "Final Fantasy's biggest meme" being turned into a Magic card.  (I'll admit that I wasn't familiar with it, but you can check out its Know Your Meme page here if you want to get a little more info.)  Briefly...in Final Fantasy VI, the monk character Sabin has an ability called Suplex...which does what it sounds like it should do...and for some reason, he can use this move on a train...

So now this ability is a card that can either damage a creature (nail 'em with the wrestling move) OR get rid of a train (or any other artifact).  I'm having a really hard time even articulating in my own head why this is an interesting meta twist to me.  I guess it just seems like such a video game moment.  So if we follow the trail of...

1.  There's a game about summoning fantasy creatures to battle for you. (MTG)

2.  When playing a game about summoning fantasy creatures to battle for you, some people are able to tap (haha) into that magic for real, casting spells and bringing other beings into our reality. (Duel Masters)

3.  Because some of the magic that can be accessed is based upon a narrative originating in a video game, there are spells that follow the strange physics of 16-bit computing as practiced in a certain time and place. (FF in MTG)

Hmm.

Well, I think there's something cool here.  Maybe at some point I'll figure out how to express it in such a way that others find it cool too...[shrug emoji]

Meta Monday: Duel Masters

The Duel Masters franchise is one that I would honestly say I've been a fan of for a long time, but I've really never dug in very deep.  That may be slowly changing as it catches more and more of my attention as a decidedly meta take on a fantasy world.

It all started with a manga more than 20 years ago.  If the story I read was correct...and I'm remembering it correctly...creator Shigenobu Matsumoto was supposed to make a comic based on Magic: The Gathering.  The intention was for him to tell a story set among the fantastic planes of MTG.  What he delivered, though, was a tale of a young boy (Shobu) striving to become a Magic: The Gathering champion...

From Wikipedia

It wouldn't be until later in the series that the manga would lend its name to a completely new card game, clearly inspired by the mechanics and the five-color cosmology of MTG but operating as its own entity.  There's definitely a sort of MTG meets Yu-Gi-Oh! aura about it, and it seems to have been a pretty smart move by Wizards of the Coast.  (I realize that last statement doesn't get written very much in our hobby these days...)

From the Duel Masters Wiki

I was just observing from the sidelines as the game made its way to the States and gained a reasonable amount of popularity.  And when I saw that the second set was called "Evo-Crushinators of Doom," I could tell that there might be something interestingly self-aware about the property.  I would eventually pick up one of the GBA games, and Fr. Josh and I split a set of mega-discounted starter decks at Dragon Con one year.  (In fact, my favorite experience with the game itself is probably the time my friend John wanted to get in a lunchtime game of MTG at Georgia State, and while I found myself without a Magic deck, I did happen to have a Duel Masters deck on me.  John graciously allowed me to play the Duel Masters deck in a game of Magic...dividing combat values by 1000, of course...and it worked pretty darn well!)

While the game seems to still be going strong in Japan, it hasn't had an English release in almost 20 years.  There was an attempt to reboot/reinterpret it as Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters, but this didn't last very long.  And so, in 2025, there doesn't seem to be much of a push for the IP in North America.

Thankfully, the animated series is readily available via streaming, and the property's meta bona fides really come out in these episodes.  We eventually realize that as a Kaijudo Master in training (Kaijudo being "the way of the monster," the dueling that takes place between...duel masters), Shobu is actually capable of summoning creatures from their own realms into ours.  Before long, Shobu and his friends make their way into these fantastic worlds (referred to as "Civilizations" and bearing great similarity to the five colors of MTG).

It's also worth noting that the English dub of the anime takes the multiversal nature of the storyline to even another level, as the characters often seem to be aware that they are characters in an animated show.  And while I haven't watched a ton of it, what I've seen has been a lot of fun.  It's clear that the team localizing the show for North America really enjoyed what they were doing with it, as the dialogue is often a rapid-fire series of pop culture references, fourth wall acknowledgments, nods to genre clichés, and good old dad jokes.  It won't all land for everyone, but I'll admit that I have laughed out loud on more than one occasion (not full-bodied guffaws, but definitely audible chuckles...).

I really think I have to incorporate something along the lines of Duel Masters into the Monstrous Matters universe.  The idea of being connected to fantastic realms via a card game is just too cool to ignore for someone like me who, gaming-wise, might be a cardflopper at heart above all else.  I did write up a Card-caster class for OSR gaming way back when in connection with the Tenkar's Landing crowdsourced hexcrawl project...so maybe I need to dust that off and see if I can work it into something that will fit into my fantasy (monstrous) heartbreaker...

Oh man, I love that art by my bud J.R. Mounts...!

Meta Monday: Psychedelic wizards, living on Earth-Prime, and the D&D Cartoon

Fr. Josh has continued to indulge me in working his way solo through my first Monstrous Matters campaign.  At some point I'll probably get it in my head that other people want to read details about my game sessions and write up some specifics, but until then, I'll just say that it's gotten a little weird.  Which I think is something most of us would like to be able to say about our fantasy RPGs, so I'll definitely take it.  Eh...what the heck...as a small example, the MM team (Josh's character "Fingers" Watson plus less experienced agent and son-of-a-Ghostbuster Bobby Flech) found some scrolls while exploring part of a dungeon.  I decided to just let these scrolls be randomly assigned from among the full range of traditional fantasy spells, and...well, one of them turned out to be a Wish scroll.  And then it got used when Fingers was on the brink of death, but not just to get healthy, but also to fulfill Fingers' childhood dream (seemingly nourished by a healthy helping of Dungeon Crawl Classics) to become a psychedelic wizard.

So, not only did they succeed at the first mission (encountering goblins in the mountains of western North Carolina and seeking out the story behind their actions), but Fingers is now known as Tape Deck the Something, and is finding his consciousness progressively merging with that of the millennia-old spellbook for which he is the latest in a long line of psychic hosts.

It's pretty fun.

Along with thinking about the role of the Monstrous Matters team lately, I've also been reflecting on how many of my favorite comic book moments have come from those most "meta" of ideas, the ones that fully embrace the inherent silliness of superhero worlds but also acknowledge the powerful space they occupy in the human psyche.  I'm thinking about stuff like when Julius Schwartz helped Barry Allen build a cosmic treadmill to get back to his own universe, or when the Fantastic Four met God, and he looked like Jack Kirby.  And, of course, there's the story in what might be the greatest single issue in comics history (IMHO), Grant Morrison's "The Coyote Gospel," in Animal Man #5.  (The art -- by Truog, Hazlewood, and Wood -- and that Brian Bolland cover are also pretty badass, but hopefully it isn't TOO unfair that I usually think of it as G-Mo's masterpiece...)

From the issue's page at the DC Database

All in all, I'm wondering if I should take the premise of the Monstrous Matters team a bit more in this...for lack of a better term, I'll use this one a second time, complete with quotation marks once again..."meta" direction.  There are a lot of implications tied up in this.  I think there's quite a bit that changes if the monsters that are finding their way to our world aren't just similar to the ones in our stories and imaginations, but are actually shaped by our stories and imaginations.  It's one of my favorite aspects of superhero comics...and I'm wondering how it could play out at the gaming table.

And so, each Meta Monday, I hope to explore this theme a little bit, or at the very least take a look at some examples of this metatextual approach to RPG-style fantasy.  It's entirely possible I'll never follow up with a second Meta Monday, but right now, I'm feeling it.  And there's probably nowhere better to start looking than at what is in some ways the root of it all: Dungeons & Dragons itself, and its well-known '80s cartoon.  Remember, those kids didn't just haphazardly stumble upon some interdimensional portal; they took a D&D carnival ride there.  And they met a mysterious mentor/observer who happened to speak English...and they ended up with abilities they were undoubtedly familiar with from the tabletop game.  Whoa.  Meta!