Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

[BobGreenwade]

I've decided to start bringing together some notes for Space Wizards, and I could use a little input on the following.

 

1. The Thane. They have a few paragraphs in Terran Empire, but I'm not sure if they're anywhere else (like Arcane Adversaries). It seems to me that there was a villain in one of the old 3rd-ed Enemies books who was a Thane, but I don't recall which book (except that I'm pretty sure it was either Enemies or Enemies II). Any help on finding already-published information on them (especially under 5th Ed) would be appreciated.

 

2. Styles of magic. I've gotten to look through both FHG's, and I'm going to allow everything there except Beast Magic. But I'm going to add a few more arcana, starting with the obvious: Technomancy (where magic and technology intersect). Based on what's already been seen in TE and AW, does anyone have any other suggestions?

 

3. Aliens. Does anyone know of any good sources of alien species other than TE, AW, and the write-ups of Star*Guard and his crew in early issues of DH? (And of course the Hemalakites, from The Helmet Of Doctor Destroyer.)

 

4. Anything else. Besides blending High Fantasy with Space Opera, there will be elements of Pulp action, low-level ("plainclothes") Superheroics, gritty DC, and high-flying martial arts just short of Wuxia. Any resources or specific suggestions would be appreciated.

[Susano]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Try watching the anime Outlaw Star for some examples of blending magic and space opera.

[OddHat]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Biomancy - Magic based around manipulating biological functions, spell based genetic engineering, etc.

 

Crystal Based Magic - one of the best established tropes of New Age Science meets Magic.

 

Orders of Jedi and Sith tributes. People will use them anyway, might as well build them in to the setting.

 

Dream based FTL communication, maybe a full blown Lovecraftian Dreamlands.

 

Lots of links to the Kings of Edom, bringing them closer to the Lovecraft side of their roots.

 

Good luck with this.

[Curufea]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

And of course the ICE Space Master books.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Biomancy - Magic based around manipulating biological functions, spell based genetic engineering, etc.

 

Crystal Based Magic - one of the best established tropes of New Age Science meets Magic.

 

Orders of Jedi and Sith tributes. People will use them anyway, might as well build them in to the setting.

 

Dream based FTL communication, maybe a full blown Lovecraftian Dreamlands.

 

Lots of links to the Kings of Edom, bringing them closer to the Lovecraft side of their roots.

Good suggestions all -- especially the crystal, jedi/sith, and Edom ideas.

 

(Still looking for Thane info....)

[Susano]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Outlaw Star has Casterguns, that fire enchanted bullets and Taoist magic, that can do dang near anything. IIRC, the bad guys even attach an enchanted ward to the hero's ship in order to track it via hyperspace.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Outlaw Star has Casterguns' date=' that fire enchanted bullets and Taoist magic, that can do dang near anything. IIRC, the bad guys even attach an enchanted ward to the hero's ship in order to track it via hyperspace.[/quote']Sounds like a good idea for technomantic spells... OK, I've requested that the library pick up a copy (it'll probably come via interlibrary loan).

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

IIRC Avar-7 is the guy you're looking for.

 

edit: Nope, not Avar-7. No direct mentions in Enemies or Enemies II. Closest connection I can find is that in Classic Enemies, Oculon's alien eyes are from the Hzeel, and it's mentioned the Hzeel are enemies of the Thane. In 5th ed VIPER, Oculon's eyes are still from the Hzeel but no specific mention of the Thane.

[Susano]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Sounds like a good idea for technomantic spells... OK' date=' I've requested that the library pick up a copy (it'll probably come via interlibrary loan).[/quote']

 

Outlaw Star is 26 episodes. The DVDs come in three volumes, with 2 DVDs per volume.

 

I have more here:

 

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/animechar.html#OS

 

Oh.... there are shape shifters, genetically engineered lizard-men, and assorted ch'i powers.

[Doug Limmer]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

To pull out my favorite quote from Outlaw Star:

You cactus bastard! You were behind all this! Ruler of the universe' date=' huh? How come you were selling ice cream?[/quote']The lizard-man was genetically engineered? I thought they were a separate naturally-occuring race, like the cactus.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

I think I may be able to help you a bit, Bob.

 

1. There hasn't been much more mention of the Thane in official Hero Games books. However, in Digital Hero #5 Scott Bennie wrote an adventure, "Stars Of Blood," which includes a writeup for a Thane necromancer and his undead minions. As he points out, though, this isn't an official writeup; the stats were based on the Thane as he used them in his own campaign. Scott provides a few more details about "his" Thane in this post.

 

There was also some info about the Thane in the first edition of Champions Universe, for the Fourth Edition CU. To me it looks like that was part of the inspiration for Scott's stuff.

 

2. I'd say that the real-world magical traditions detailed in The Ultimate Mystic, such as Voodoo and Hermetic Theurgy, would be reasonable to use in a human-occupied future world where magic worked. If you plan to allow low-level supers in your setting, you might also consider the numerous "supermagic" spells from The Mystic World. IIRC TMW also includes Technomancy.

 

Of course there are several excellent HERO fan websites with writeups for magic spells, artifacts and the like, e.g. the ones by Killer Shrike, Markdoc and Robert Hall, that I could direct you to if you like.

 

3. For other CU aliens, your best resource would be Digital Hero. For example, DH #8 includes more detailed information about the Osathri, the Shiseki, and the Az'arc'a, including game stats. There's a substantial free sample from that article here. In DH #9 there are additional tidbits about the various aliens from Terran Empire that were cut from the main book. Again, some of that article is in a free sample. There's also an adventure revolving around the Shiseki in DH #11.

 

Now if you'd like to include true superpowered aliens in your setting, you might want to check out Mike Surbrook's expansion of the Nehkojin (from Ninja HERO) in the upcoming DH #35. This isn't official HU material, but Mike has provided a background that integrates the Nehkojin into the HU.

 

If you'd just like HERO stats for interesting aliens from various sources, you could always check my RPG conversion list. There you can find detailed stats for aliens from Traveller, GURPS Aliens, and Star Frontiers, among others.

 

4. You probably have these books already, but just in case : there might be useful campaign guidelines for the kind of game you describe in Ninja HERO, while the various characters in Galactic Champions could be adapted with a power reduction and name change.

 

I hope that helps.

[Susano]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

The lizard-man was genetically engineered? I thought they were a separate naturally-occuring race' date=' like the cactus.[/quote']

 

Nope... I read somewhere (somewhere! mind you) that the Saurians were developed from Earth lizards.

[Susano]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Now if you'd like to include true superpowered aliens in your setting' date=' you might want to check out Mike Surbrook's expansion of the Nehkojin (from [i']Ninja HERO[/i]) in the upcoming DH #35. This isn't official HU material, but Mike has provided a background that integrates the Nehkojin into the HU.

 

How'd you like them?

 

Oh, and for the record DH #23 has the M'Larrne, a wolf-like race I also integrated into the CU via some possible options.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Lord Liaden again.

And it was just the kind of info I was looking for, too....

 

PS: Mike, I'll be looking at both the Nehkojin and the M'Larrne. I might need to make some adjustments (and explain them using the passage of time and the intervening history), but offhand I can see them working out, at least for my own SW games.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

IIRC Avar-7 is the guy you're looking for.

 

edit: Nope, not Avar-7. No direct mentions in Enemies or Enemies II. Closest connection I can find is that in Classic Enemies, Oculon's alien eyes are from the Hzeel, and it's mentioned the Hzeel are enemies of the Thane. In 5th ed VIPER, Oculon's eyes are still from the Hzeel but no specific mention of the Thane.

 

Well, according to Classic Enemies, Avar-7 was vulnerable to magic due to the actions of the Thane, who were enemies of Avar-7's civilization, the Unity (an ancient culture of sentient machines, according to 4E Champions Universe).

 

4E CU also describes the Thane as a fantastically ancient race of malevolent sorcerors, now existing as undead beings animated through sorcery. I imagine Takofanes would feel right at home amongst them.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

BTW Bob, if you have easy access to it you might look up the Fourth Edition Champs book Alien Enemies for characters and concepts you could use. I can think of a couple that might fit with the campaign you have in mind.

 

One is the Arcane, a race of pseudo-Lovecraftian creatures dwelling on an dying planet. These creatures are skilled sorcerors, but have almost exhausted the magic on their world, so they seek to conquer another with more potential. They bear obvious similarities to the Thane and could be used to add more details to your version of them. I was always intrigued by their creation of the Midnight Society, humans enthralled by an alien artifact the Arcane sent to Earth, who are working to summon the Arcane themselves to this planet.

 

Another appropriate concept from Alien Enemies is the Pantheon. This is a group of immortal energy beings (which the 4E Champions Universe book calls "the Alpha") who interact with the physical world by bonding with organic beings, creating a blended personality and granting their "hosts" formidable superhuman powers. They often masquerade as the gods of any planet they visit, Roman gods in the case of Earth. I've used the Alpha in my own campaigns; while the Pantheon from AE were mostly what we'd now call "standard superhero" level, I decided that they were relatively young members of their species, and that ancient Alpha could be far more powerful.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

I think the old villain your thinking of is "The Slug"

but I dont remember which book

 

The Slug was an elder worm actually, hes from classic enemies, and Conqueors killers and crooks

 

the connection with the Terran Empire is covered on page 195 in the GMs vault section of the Terran Empire book

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

theres a technomage sourcebook for Babylon 5 that might provide some useful ideas

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

I think the old villain your thinking of is "The Slug"

but I dont remember which book

 

The Slug was an elder worm actually, hes from classic enemies, and Conqueors killers and crooks

 

the connection with the Terran Empire is covered on page 195 in the GMs vault section of the Terran Empire book

I know all about the Slug -- he's in CKC and GC. The Elder Worm and the Thane are two separate (if closely related) species.

 

The individual I'm thinking of hasn't been seen since way early on, in one of the two original Enemies books (which I have, but seem to have misplaced). He looks like what the description in TE says, essentially a lookalike to an AD&D Mind Flayer.

 

LL: I have AE, but I'm going to leave that one mostly alone except maybe to "flesh out" my own SW games. For a published version I'm keeping it in the HU.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

I know all about the Slug -- he's in CKC and GC. The Elder Worm and the Thane are two separate (if closely related) species.

 

The individual I'm thinking of hasn't been seen since way early on, in one of the two original Enemies books (which I have, but seem to have misplaced). He looks like what the description in TE says, essentially a lookalike to an AD&D Mind Flayer.

 

Hmm... nope, not in the Enemies books. Even the Slug didn't look much like a Mind Flayer in his first incarnation.

 

Could you possibly be thinking of the Prime, leader of the "Old Ones," from Wrath of the Seven Horsemen? The look of the character is bang-on Flayer, and his main schtick is various mental powers.

 

Aside from being another ancient alien occult horror, though, he and his minions have no connection to the Thane. They're much more similar to the Elder Worms in both origin and their relation to Lovecraftian "elder gods."

 

 

LL: I have AE' date=' but I'm going to leave that one mostly alone except maybe to "flesh out" my own SW games. For a published version I'm keeping it in the HU. [/quote']

 

Fair enough.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Hmm... nope' date=' not in the [i']Enemies[/i] books. Even the Slug didn't look much like a Mind Flayer in his first incarnation.

 

Could you possibly be thinking of the Prime, leader of the "Old Ones," from Wrath of the Seven Horsemen? The look of the character is bang-on Flayer, and his main schtick is various mental powers.

 

Aside from being another ancient alien occult horror, though, he and his minions have no connection to the Thane. They're much more similar to the Elder Worms in both origin and their relation to Lovecraftian "elder gods."

That's entirely possible. I'll check on it.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

This just occurred to me tonight as an element that might fit into your setting: how about the Nagas, the enemies of the Dragon from The Mystic World? We know almost nothing about their origins, other than they're an ancient mystical race that's somehow connected to the Dragon. AFAICT there's nothing to say that the Nagas don't originate from another planet in this galaxy. Given that they seem to be on Humanity's side against the Dragon, they would probably become involved as mankind moved out to the stars, as long as magic is still potent.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

This just occurred to me tonight as an element that might fit into your setting: how about the Nagas' date=' the enemies of the Dragon from [i']The Mystic World[/i]? We know almost nothing about their origins, other than they're an ancient mystical race that's somehow connected to the Dragon. AFAICT there's nothing to say that the Nagas don't originate from another planet in this galaxy. Given that they seem to be on Humanity's side against the Dragon, they would probably become involved as mankind moved out to the stars, as long as magic is still potent.

Great call! I think they're actually written up somewhere, but they definitely should be included in the Space Wizards setting. (And the Dragon is certainly active during the SW era....)

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Yes, the Nagas are described and statted in The Mystic World. Wherever the Dragon appears, they're sure to follow.

[Susano]

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Yes' date=' the Nagas are described and statted in [i']The Mystic World[/i]. Wherever the Dragon appears, they're sure to follow.

 

The Asian Bestiary has naga as well. Okay, mythological naga, but you might find the power sets useful.