Dogwood City A to Z: The Nature Family

Despite my declaration of gritty, grounded heroes as a key inspiration for the Dogwood City setting, I'm finding it harder and harder to ignore some pretty fantastic characters as the month and the alphabet move forward.  Today, I'll look at a group that I've really taken a liking to...the Nature Family, as headlined by Nature Boy:

 

Nature Boy has an outstanding pedigree, being created by Jerry Siegel and John Buscema.  His first appearance is dated March 1956, so he came along before Barry Allen sped onto the scene (see what I did there?) and reinvigorated the superhero genre.  Overall, Nature Boy would only appear in three books, all self-titled.

His origin is pretty interesting.  As a child, after mysteriously surviving a plane crash at sea, he's given the ability to control the elements, becoming a "Master of Wind, Rain, and Fire."

It's almost like he's an updated Captain Marvel, only drawing on a slightly more natural mysticism.  Slightly.  After all, it's still gods and goddesses he's dealing with...

As compared to the Marvel Family, though, there's just something about the approach...and the name...that makes Nature Boy seem like Shazam made more modern and...I dunno, groovier.  I mean, check out this villain he faces:

Why, yes, that is a being from Jupiter playing Pied Piper with the citizens of Centerville.  And if that didn't hit on your inner beatnik enough, at the end of the issue, Nature Boy goes full-on proto-hippie:

Ah, but there's a Nature Family, right?  Yes, in the issue of Nature Boy's first appearance, we also get to meet the similarly themed Nature Man:

Strangely, we never know how the two characters are connected.  Are they related?  The same person at different points in time?  Who knows?

Of course, a couple of issues later, we see a one-page story featuring Nature Girl!  In it, she...ah, heck, here's the whole story:

And...that's all we know about her!  (I do like that this story seems to be a tasteful tribute to the jungle girl stories of the preceding decades.)

Nature Boy can be found on both Wikipedia and the Public Domain Super Heroes wiki.  I highly recommend checking out this groovy cat and his way-out family.

Nature Boy

Real name:  David Crandall

Level 15
11 Hero Dice

Defense 16

2 lighting bolts (melee or ranged) +11 (2D damage)

Nature Boy can fly using the power of the wind, can control the elements with a successful saving throw, and occasionally exhibits weird powers you'd never suspect (like an ability to seek out the source of "sorrow-vibrations").

Nature Man
Real name:  Hmm.  Maybe David Crandall?
(Um...okay, Nature Man might just have the same stats as Nature Boy.)


Nature Girl
Real name:  Ah, who the heck knows.  Let's just give her the same attributes as the rest of the family for now.  Except for her name.  She probably has a different name.

Dogwood City A to Z: Miss Fury/Margo the Magician

Today we hit the halfway point of the A to Z challenge, and I realized that I haven't featured a single female character yet.  I wanted to correct this.

My first inclination was to go with Miss Fury.

Then I realized that it's a bit counterproductive to try going the gender equal opportunity route only to feature a chick in a catsuit.  (Even if that has proven pretty successful as a comic book trope.)

I also thought about featuring Margo the Magician.  She's a stage magician...who's the daughter of a stage magician...and is actually capable of true magic, so she uses this to fight bad guys.  Sound familiar?

But...I've already posted a handful of copies (or pre-copies) of well-known characters, and I'm not finished on that front.  So another one of those today seems kind of lame.

But maybe...both of them together...yeah, I can go with that!

Miss Fury

Real name:  Maria Drake
Level 7 (4)

6 (4) Hero Dice

Defense 14 (13)

2 claws (melee) +6 (--) (2D damage)
OR
Fist (melee) +6 (+4) (1D damage)

Miss Fury sometimes wears an enchanted panther skin that heightens her abilities and grants claw attacks.  Numbers in parentheses are Miss Fury's stats when not wearing the suit.  (She often goes without the suit due to a belief in bad luck owing to the skin's enchantment.)

Of note, Miss Fury is one of the first female superheroes and apparently the first to be created and drawn by a female cartoonist.  Here she is at the PDSH wiki.

Margo the Magician

Real name:  Margo Mattingly
Level 7 Magic-user

4 Hero Dice

Defense 13

Fist (melee) +4 (1D damage)

PDSH wiki link -- Margo's single Golden Age appearance

Dogwood City A to Z: London

Today seems like a good day to add a little more international flavor to the Dogwood City universe.  An occasional visitor from across the pond is the hero simply called London (a name made a little more intriguing to me now that we know Batman will soon be facing off against a vigilante called Gotham).  Naturally, London's British background helps him battle evil with the sort of manners and refinement that uncouth American heroes can only dream of:

 London's Golden Age origin is quite WWII-oriented.  As he is first introduced...

I don't think it would be too difficult to modernize this guy, letting him take inspiration from the horrors seen throughout London's history in order to improve his home.  One of the things that I think I really like about him is that he seems like he could easily be one of today's Real Life Superheroes.  The name and the costume are simple, classy, and timeless, like Will Eisner's Spirit.

Here he is at the PDSH wiki, and here's the issue where he first appeared.  Also, here he is fighting a boar:

This encounter actually took a rather grim turn, as the normally well-mannered London felt the need to display the poor pig's body for its villainous owner to find.  I think Rorschach would be proud.

Now, I can get fighting a boar in self-defense...but I think this little incident is worth retconning.  Golden Age comics are weird sometimes.

London

Real name:  Marc Holmes

Level 4
3 Hero Dice

Defense 13

Baton (melee) +3 (2D damage)

OR

2 fists (melee) +3 (1D damage)

Dogwood City A to Z: King Cobra

While surfing the Public Domain Super Heroes site one day, I was pretty intrigued to read about this "heavily armed terrorist army" that took on the Green Mask back in 1946.  Here they are...the Hooded Cobras:

It was hard for me not be struck by how much their battle flag...

...reminded me of another icon of my childhood:

G.I. Joe, along with superheroes, Star Wars, and maybe a few other properties here and there (MASK?  He-Man?), was a crucial pillar holding up my imagination back in the day.  The criminal organization that was the thorn in G.I. Joe's side always had a slick theme that I appreciated more and more as I looked back on it.  That's probably one of the reasons I think Hydra's so stylish; they remind me of Cobra.  (Yep, I know Hydra came first...)

Now, the Hooded Cobras aren't quite so slick...the resemblance in attire to a certain hate-based organization is a little weird...but it wouldn't take much of a stretch to see a similar influence going into the depiction of their leader, King Cobra...

...that you might see in the creation of this guy:

With that said, I think King Cobra and his minions seem like a fine menace for Dogwood City.  After all (spoiler alert), justice is sure to win in the end...

Here is what seems to be the one appearance of the Hooded Cobras.  For now.  (Oh, and tomorrow...back to some good old-fashioned costumed crimefighters.)


King Cobra
Real name:  Unknown
Level 4
4 Hit Dice
Defense 13

Attack +4 (by weapon)

Mastery:  Coercion



Hooded Cobra (rookie agent)
Level 1
1 Hit Die
Defense 11

Attack +1 (by weapon)

Dogwood City A to Z: Judo Joe

Here's another non-costumed hero for Dogwood City.  Well...non-costumed for now, anyway...I could easily see this character being set up nicely as the youthful version of a martial arts hero like those who became popular in 1970s superhero comics (Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger, Iron Fist, etc.).

Judo Joe is Joe Smith, an American high schooler raised in Japan, where he became a master of...judo.  He confirms most of these assumptions right off the bat:

In addition to judo, it appears that Joe has learned a bit about zingers of the verbal variety...

Judo Joe looks to be the only comic published by Jay-Jay Corporation (I'm assuming the company name is connected to the character).  The three issues of his adventures can be found here (as always, I can't guarantee you won't hit upon some good ol' historical racial insensitivity, but at least this comic is from the "forward-thinking" 50s).  Something kind of cool is that the character is all about empowering others by teaching them judo, and the comic itself featured some simple judo lessons:

You can also check out Judo Joe on the PDSH wiki here.

Judo Joe

Real name:  Joseph Smith

Level 7
5 Hero Dice
Defense 14

Devastating judo move (melee) +8 (2D damage)

Dogwood City A to Z: The Inner Circle

[Woohoo!  Looks like I'm gonna get this one in under the deadline!]

Tonight we'll look not at an individual, but at a group that wields a great deal of power in Dogwood City and around the globe.  The Inner Circle is a small team of scientists and military leaders who work to impose their vision of "good" on the world.  I'll let Colonel Ewan give a quick explanation, as he did for prospective member Major Ramsay.  He knows how to make it short.

We soon get to meet the rest of this very select group...

The Inner Circle has a lot of potential in Dogwood City adventures, from hiring vigilante crews for covert missions to serving as the big bad puppeteers behind a major conspiracy.

What I really like about introducing them now is that it would probably sell them a bit short to only stat them up in combat form.  I should at least give a nod to their areas of expertise, which means I get to talk about one of my favorite old-school roleplaying topics...skills!  While I haven't addressed them yet in my little shorthand method of presenting RPG stats, the GRIND, I should put skills in there somehow.  Somehow simple.

In the realm of old-school RPGs based at least roughly on that really popular game that most people know the name of, there are a number of different ways that skills are handled:

1)  Roll a d6.  This is usually "roll under" a given value, but may take the form of a bonus to the roll and a target number.  It has some roots in original D&D and used quite effectively in, for example, Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

2)  Roll percentile dice (d100).  This one makes sense as it's based on the abilities the original "skill monkey" class, the Thief.

3)  Roll a d20.  This can take a number of forms...it might be modeled after saving throws, based on the d20 System's mechanic of target numbers, or played as an attempt to roll under a relevant character stat.

4)  Roll 2d6.  I've seen this one, but I'm not gonna worry too much about it here.

Basically, I want a simple method of presentation that can be fit into whatever specific mechanic is used in a game's official or house rules.  So, when it comes to skills, I'm going to worry about three levels of competence for now:  Skill, Expertise, and Mastery.  And as far as Dogwood City goes, I'm only going to focus on the biggest one, Mastery.  (For a Batman-type character, I honestly don't want to take a the time to worry about everything he might be Skilled or an Expert in...)

For d6-based skill systems, each level of skill can be treated as one point's worth of ability.  For d20-based, they probably have a value of about +4 apiece, and with percentile systems, around 20% each.  So, for example, if a character is attempting to...oh, let's say pick someone's pocket...and an average character has a 1 in 6 shot, Expertise as a pickpocket will bump those chances to 3 in 6.

And so on.

Okay, this is all turning out much more rambling than I had hoped.  I should be altering the GRIND to reflect this soon.  For now, here's the Inner Circle!  Not much variety here, but I'm happy to finally be in the skills game, at least a little bit...

Major Garrett Ramsay
Level 4
4 Hit Dice
Defense 13

Attack +4 (by weapon)

Mastery:  Military Science


Colonel Arthur Ewan
Level 5
5 Hit Dice
Defense 13

Attack +5 (by weapon)

Mastery:  Military Science


Captain Ian Ahern
Level 4
4 Hit Dice
Defense 13

Attack +4 (by weapon)

Mastery:  Military Science


Lieutenant Michel Dupre
Level 5
5 Hit Dice
Defense 13

Attack +5 (by weapon)

Mastery:  Military Science


Rolfe Gunderson
Level 3
3 Hit Dice
Defense 12

Attack +3 (by weapon)

Mastery:  SCIENCE!!!

John Bain
Level 3
3 Hit Dice
Defense 12

Attack +3 (by weapon)

Mastery:  Engineering

Dogwood City A to Z: The Heap

I guess it's appropriate that a day after I post a little manifesto on the value of the non-fantastical in a supers setting, I hit the next truly monstrous entry into the Dogwood City universe.  The Heap will be known to some folks reading this as the answer to the question, "Who was the rip-off...Swamp Thing or Man-Thing?"  The truth is they both probably ripped off the Heap, perhaps intentionally, perhaps subconsciously.

Apparently, the Heap himself may have just been treading on ground covered in a previous prose story.  I guess swamp monsters is swamp monsters is swamp monsters.  There are a fair number of resources around the web with a bit of history on the connections of these creatures.

So, who...or what...is the Heap?  Here's a nice little blurb from one of his Golden Age stories;

...and now it does things like killing animals to drain their life-giving blood.  When it comes to people, he seems to stick to killing the bad guys only, so while he may be a monster, he tries to be a good monster!  While he originated in the Polish swamp of Wausau, the Heap eventually made his way to America.  Kinda like Frankenstein...those two should meet up sometime, eh?  Here's the Heap at the PDSH wiki, and here he is for Dogwood City:

The Heap

fka Baron Eric von Emmelman
Level 14
12 Hero Dice
Defense 19

2 limbs (melee) +15 (2D damage)

As an elemental plant creature, the Heap never needs sleep, is immune to effects targeting the mind, and is not subject to critical hits.  It has some limited control of the vegetation within 100 feet of it.

On a successful saving throw, the Heap can become immovably rooted into the ground and/or blend seamlessly into surrounding vegetation.