Thursday, April 8, 2010

Your Regularly Scheduled Thundarr Will Be Delayed

Lords of Light! Well, it was bound to happen at some point. I'm running behind with "real life" obligations to the point where I completely missed the weekly Thundarr Thursday post. I'll try to have something in place tomorrow, but just wanted to let everyone know that something's coming. Stay tuned!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Furtive Faction: San Tass Helpers/San Tass Elles

Group Goals and Beliefs: To assist the downtrodden. To punish the "naughty." To bring joy to children and adult. To bestow gifts upon the meek.

Identifiers: Helpers are often dressed in red clothes with white lining at the cuffs and collars. They identify each other, one saying "He sees you when you're sleeping." The other will answer, "He knows when you're awake."

Group History: According to legend, San Tass Helpers (male) and San Tass Elles (female) were founded long before the Final Wars. The group's founder, "Saint Nickolas Krangel," was a citizen of the town of San Tass, thought to have been located near the Ancient cities of San Diego and San Francisco. A true benefactor, Krangel made it his mission in life to bestow gifts to those who were truly worthy. He would travel thorough the world in one night to deliver these gifts. (It is thought that he had a very advanced form of teleportation.) Legend has it that he kept a list of all of the good and bad people in the world - checking it twice before his worldwide rounds. Krangel was also a powerful telepath, able to look at the minds of anyone anywhere, knowing instantly if that person was sleeping or awake, or bad or good. The San Tass Helpers/Elles now follow the Doctrine of Krangel by making rounds throughout the Wastelands, bringing joy to the little ones and bestowing their gifts to those who are "good." Those who are "naughty" are met with punishment - sometimes violently, depending on the faction's stance. It is said that the most holy of San Tass religious texts - "A Visit From Saint Nickolas" - resides at Krangel's final resting at Nord Poll. Many pilgrimages to this holiest of places have never returned.

Game Information: This group is very church-like in its devoutness to The Most Holy Krangal. They follow absolute tenants of Christmastime, i.e., giving, charity, goodwill, peace, etc. However, they also know that the wicked is punished for being "naughty" (which is an absolute mortal sin to the Helpers). They know the Ancient texts refer to a flammable rock known as "coal" as a means to punish, so they have twisted the meaning to be "punishment by fire." So even though the followers are helpful and peaceful, they will violently punish the wicked by setting fire to their home, their belongings, or even them.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Military Classes And Buck Rogers Drop Into The Mutant Future

Some new Mutant Future material has surfaced at the blog The Library: Retro and Classic Fantasy Games.

Blogmeister Dave B. has first come up with a system of introducing modern military classes into the Mutant Future. His post on Modern Military Classes introduces the Pilot, Medic, Scientist, Scout, and Soldier to the post-apocalyptic hellscape. (It is a little reminiscent of a concept I had for introducing classes to MutFut, but I like what Dave has presented.)

Dave also statted up everyone's favorite displaced 25th century Earth defender with his entry on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Using his own Military Classes system, Dave created Buck, Wilma Deering, Dr. Heur, and even Twiki! If you ever wondered how Buck would fare in the world of the blasted future, now's your chance!

(Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Dave's excellent ideas for Labyrinth Lord too! Go check out the site!)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

[Thundarr Thursday] Ancient Armory: Aquagill

An Aquagill is an Ancient facemask that enables the wearer to function underwater as if they were above water. When wearing an Aquagill, the wearer is able to breathe underwater as well as speak. Treat the wearer as having the mutation of water breathing while it is in use.

An Aquagill is a soft rubber facemask with a hard clear plastic see-through faceshield. A large cup-like apparatus (the intake) fits over the nose and mouth. Unlike Scuba gear which acts as a self-contained air reservoir, an Aquagill takes in water through the nose/mouth intake and draws out breathable oxygen for the wearer. The deoxygenated water is then expelled through twin tubes on either side of the intake.

The Aquagill not only supplies air to the wearer, it also acts as a pressurizer on the wearer's body. Through Ancient processes (not fully understood), the Aquagill allows the wearer to descend to underwater depths that would normally crush them. Even at one mile underwater, the wearer will feel a slight pressure on his or her chest at most. An Aquagill uses a standard power cell which allows it to run for 1 hour before being depleted.

Even though the Aquagill allows the wearer to function underwater, this does not enable them to swim any better than they could without it. A set of swimfins or other swimming aid may be necessary to keep the wearer from flailing about helplessly. Also, since the Aquagill uses water as its air source, it cannot be successfully used outside of an underwater environment. Wearing an Aquagill in this situation would ironically be suffocating for the wearer since it is incapable of drawing oxygen from dry air. It will not protect the wearer from poison gasses, smoke, or other airborne contaminants.


NOTE: This item is inspired by the episode "Attack of the Amazon Women" from the classic Ruby Spears cartoon "Thundarr the Barbarian." Stay tuned each week for Thundarr Thursday!