Showing posts with label Cartoons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cartoons. Show all posts

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Skull Mountain, Cross-Section Dungeons, and Birdman?

So as mentioned before, Jodi and I are viewing a ton of old cartoons, especially of late classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 60's and 70's. One that we are viewing is Birdman and the Galaxy Trio (the original, not the post-modern remake, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law).

So there we were, watching some real old-school super-hero antics, when in episode 12A: The Wings of F.E.A.R. (first aired November 25, 1967) the enemy base ends up being "Death's Head Peak" high in the Andes:

Death's Head Peak
Now, this is already cool enough, because, you know, villains lairing in skull-topped mountains is always cool. But then shortly thereafter, this scene popped up:

Cross-section of the F.E.A.R. lair in Death's Head Peak
And what have we here, an actual cross-section of the lair/dungeon of F.E.A.R., inside Death's Head Peak! Now what did that remind me of? Well, of course, this:

Sample cross-section of levels in Holmes
Now, of course, the original cross-section of levels as featured in OD&D Vol. III showed much of this, just not without the skull element. And there are plenty of other "skull lair" motifs in all sorts of literary and other sources.

But... did this brief scene perhaps help influence the development of the Great Stone Skull Dungeon in Holmes? Holmes would have been 37 when this show first premiered, so it is unlikely he was watching Saturday-morning cartoons at the time. Perhaps he saw it when his son, Chris, was watching? Inquiring minds want to know...

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Scooby-Doo Based Adventure Ideas

What with having plenty of time at home, Jodi and I have been watching a lot of classic cartoons lately, from Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies to Herculoids and Thundarr the Barbarian to the many, many various incarnations of Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo has had 43 films, 27 short films, 14 TV series, 5 television specials, 8 television shorts, 6 television films, 34 direct-to-video films, and 5 plays in the last 51 years (Scooby is only a few months younger than I am, it seems)!


We started out at the beginning, with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! the original series that aired from 1969 to 1970 (and which was on reruns forever and ever and ever during my youth). Though it was hokey, and even a child could see through most of the mysteries (which was kind of the point), even now, all these years later after not having watched it in some 40 years, it was a lot of fun to watch. Unlike many of the TV shows and movies of my youth, it aged fairly well.


It also explains a lot of what I still see today in my mind's eye when, in games, I am in a dungeon, or dealing with tricks and traps and chases and monsters, especially ghosts of course. And those pit traps? I think the villains from Scooby-Doo give Team Rocket from Pokemon a run for their money with the pit traps.

Anyway, I took the 25 episodes from the original 2-season run from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and created a quick and dirty inspirational chart for adventure locales, villains, and motives. Enjoy!

Click to embiggen
Roll once for each column. Not all combinations are necessarily going to make sense, but they will offer a springboard for imagination. If nothing else, maybe it will inspire you to give this 50-something year old show another look!


Saturday, March 28, 2020

[JMG] Now Available -- Lands of Ub -- Region 01A Frelengian Heartlands Map Pack

Domains, Geography, and Locations Maps
$1.00 CHEAP -- Pay What You Want (For a Short Time Only!)

Almost a thousand years ago, savage barbarians invaded the lands known today as Frelengia. For decades the people of the land were terrorized by these barbarians, until, in the 929th year of the Empire of Ub, a great warrior arose from among the peasantry. His name was Bosco, and he was a cowardly turnip farmer. But one day while a gang of gnolls was raiding his turnip patch, he got fed up and shooed them away with his pitchfork. This caused the entire local horde to break morale, as no one had stood up to them before, and they all fled the village.

Bosco, lifted on the shoulders of his fellow peasants, became a hero that day, the first in what became known as Warner’s Crusade – for that was his full name, Bosco Warner. From a few fellow peasants with courage, Bosco gathered together a mob of angry peasants armed with torches and pitchforks. He trained with foreign knights; his core followers became knights, and over time his peasant mob became an army of soldiers. And this army, together with his good friend, the wizard Frelengo, was able to throw the barbarians out of the land.

With their victory, the people proclaimed Bosco king, and he was crowned by his good friend Frelengo, after whom Bosco named his kingdom – Frelengia. Bosco ruled long and well, but never married nor produced an heir. Instead he adopted his loyal pig-folk squire, Hamhock, who became Prince Porque Warner, and soon thereafter became King Porque, upon the death of Bosco “The Great” in 989 AU (Anno Ub). King Porque I “The Kind” founded the First Warner Dynasty the Regnabit Porcorum (Reign of Pigs).

With the death of his good friend, the wizard Frelengo retired from politics and founded his own personal legacy, Prestidigitators University (or “good old P.U.,” as its graduates like to call it). He gathered together all the greatest wizards of the day, developed a curriculum, and built a college campus high in the Magic Mountains, where the mother campus of the university remains today, with the town of Warlock having grown up around it to serve the students. Even today, almost a century after the fall of Frelengia, PU still graduates no few magic-users every year.

Just a snippet of the Geography Map 

Altogether, from its founding to it fall, the Kingdom of Frelengia had five major dynasties:

First Warner Dynasty (Regnabit Porcorum), founded by King Porque I “The Kind” (Pig-Folk); ruled 989-1154 AU

Second Warner Dynasty (Regnabit Leones), founded by Leon I “The Lion-Heart” (Human/Lion-Folk); ruled 1140-1385 AU

Third Warner Dynasty (Regnabit Canibus), founded by Marcus Antonius “The Stubborn” (Dog-Folk/Cat-Folk) and his queen, Cleopatra; ruled 1385-1503 AU

Fourth Warner Dynasty (Regnabit Lepores), founded by Bugsomagnus I “The Great” (Rabbit-Folk); ruled 1503-1649 AU

Fifth Warner Dynasty (Regnabit Anatis), founded by Daffyd “The Black” (Duck-Folk); ruled 1649-1739 AU

By 1730 AU Frelengia was deep in decline, under the rule of the Third Mad King of the Fifth Warner Dynasty, Daffyd VII “The Maddest” (following Daffyd V “The Mad” and Daffyd VI “The Madder”). All her overseas possessions had long been lost, the dwarves and elves of the realm had long since declared autonomy if not outright independence, and another savage barbarian horde had appeared out of the north, the Svinings, Viking warrior-pigs who followed the savage god Svino and his sister, the goddess Sugga the Enchantress.

Even as the Svinings were invading from the north, the Empire of Ub (the Seventh Empire of Ub out of New Ubopolis) had sent an invasion force across the Sweet Sea, landing at Sweetport (known today as Uberia, the Imperial City). Caught in a vise between two powerful enemies, Daffyd VII took half his army and most of the royal wizards to meet the Imperial forces in the south, while Daffyd “The Black Prince,” his equally mad but very cunning son, took the other half of the army to meet the Svinings in the north. Both king and prince met their end on the same day in 1749 AU, the king at the Battle of Lost Forest (a massive battle in which armies of wizards reduced the forests and competing armies to ashes), and the prince at the Battle of Styborg. In the century since, the kingdom of Frelengia has fallen into disparate pieces. It is a time of chaos, a time of war, a time of danger – it is a time in search of heroes to right wrongs and drive back the darkness…

The Campaign
… but of course, most of your player’s characters won’t be interested in that stuff. Well, maybe the paladin, but the rest are going to be little more than mercenaries, adventurers, and murderhobos out for gold, glory, and power. To run this campaign…

You will need either Labyrinth Lord AND the Advanced Edition Companion OR Advanced Labyrinth Lord, by Dan Proctor published by Goblinoid Games; and

You also need Rabbits & Rangers: Cartoon Animals for Fantasy Gaming, by J. V. West published by Random Order Creations.

These three maps provide detail on the Domains, Geography, and Gazetteer Locations of the Frelengian Heartlands. The scale is 5 miles per hex.