Winsome Wasp's Wardrobe #10

art by John Buscema and George Tuska (from Avengers #51 1968)

Outcasts (Episode 8)

It took a while but I finally got around to watching the last episode of
Outcasts. Knowing that another series was not on the cards and that the end
did not wrap everything up, I was in no great rush to see this final
episode. Still, I have to say that, now I have watched it, it was actually
very good and probably one of the best of the 8 episodes.After confirming the existence of Carpathia's "host force" last week, the
invisible aliens decided (for reasons we'll never find out) to infect a few
of the inhabitants of Forthaven with another 'halo' virus, which the medical
team unimaginatively dubbed CT24. DJ Tipper Malone was the first to be
infected - thankfully this time the writers didn't bring in some new
character for just one episode.Meanwhile, using the emergence of the new virus to stir up trouble against
the ACs, Berger made his move against Tate, determined to take control
before the arrival of the next transport ship. And, just to add to their
troubles, Berger also got an message from the arriving ship about Fleur and
Project Omega - a new breed of AC. Seems Fleur was a new type of clone, one
with an enhanced brain, though I'm not sure what extra abilities she was
supposed to have (and, I guess, we'll never find out). Later, it's also
hinted that some of Tate's DNA might have been used to create her.Eventually, the Forthaven crew realised the four letter sequence they
detected earlier related to human DNA (took them long enough!) and was
causing the virus and so they set up some sort of ultrasonic shield
thingymabob. But not before Tate relinquished control over to Jack, of all
people! not to worry though as Tate was a good chess player (loved that bit
about Tate using individuals as pieces to ensure the best for everyone) and
Jack actually came to his senses and joined the Good Guys. The shield went
up, the virus was stopped and this also prevented the transport ship
communicating with Berger. Instead, it landed just outside Forthaven... ...and that was pretty much it (well, kind of).In a way, it's a pity we won't see the story of Outcasts continuing,
especially after a decent, engaging, reasonably thrilling last episode.
We'll never know what that "host force" or the transport ship were all
about. Nor get the dozens of other questions answered. Though we did get a
sort of answer as to why the people of Forthaven never ventured much beyond
their city walls. This was due to Tate's overprotective, slightly
suffocating rule, something that Berger wanted to address. That was nice. But, it was too little too late. If Outcasts had been this good from the
first episode, and not so depressingly dull, perhaps it wouldn't have lost
as many viewers and been shifted to a late night Sunday slot. It had a
decent cast and impressive vistas, but it really needed to hit the ground
running and not build up our involvement in the story over 8 long hours.Other than Doctor Who (and its spin-offs) one wonders whether the BBC has
been put off and will not bother to commission another sci-fi series in the
near future. Let's hope this isn't the case and that we'll still see more
space adventures soon!

Fishy Friday

Marrina

Strength: 5

Toughness: 5

Special Powers: 3

Status: 5

Originally part of Alpha Flight, drawn and created by the great John Byrne, she also became an honourary member of the Avengers (then again, who isn't in the Marvelverse?). Unlike most of the other Marvel aquatic heroes who were Atlantean, Marrina was one of the Plodex, an alien species. This meant when she became pregnant with Namor's child, she turned into a huge, savage monster. Just like normal women then (I kid!).

Torchwood: Miracle Day

Torchwood. Back on (US) TV at the beginning of July and, I suspect, here in the UK not much later.

Woohoo.

(Naff ad though)

Winsome Wasp's Wardrobe #9

art by John Buscema (from Avengers #49 1968)

Dr Nose

Short skirts and wibbly levers!

Dr Who's best Comic Relief episode yet. Just ... brilliant!

(goodness knows whether those links work - silly ipod app)

Fishy Friday

Tempest

Strength: 5

Toughness: 6

Special Powers: 8

Status: 7

As with many of DC's heroes, Aquaman had a sidekick, Aqualad, whose power just seemed to be able to swim really well. After hanging around with the Teen Titans for a while, Garth grew out of his little swimming shorts and changed his name to Tempest. He also gained mystical powers to manipulate water, change its temperature, fire blasts from his eyes, and more which actually makes him more powerful than his mentor. Poor Aquaman

I never encountered any hot elf chicks during my role-playing games!

Heropress' and The Underdark Gazette's Old School Renaissance tabletop gaming posts got me thinking about the RPGs I used to play, back in the day. I've reminisced about the internet and films before, so time for a short post about RPGs (not sure about "old school" though).

Sure, like everyone else D&D was probably the first game I knew existed, but the first game I actually played was ICE's MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing). Probably this was due to how much my friends liked Tolkien's books. It's a great little game, based on rolling d100s against tables of results and adding/subtracting the relevant skill/penalty. With the critical tables, it was also potentially quite lethal where single hits could kill a person no matter how many hit points they had. Plus MERP's spells were generally less powerful and certainly less flashy than those in D&D; more in keeping with the magic seen in LotR books, I guess.

I'm not sure my best mate took it too seriously though. He had a Dunedain fighter who, when faced with attacking orcs, would hide under the nearest table. Not very valiant nor in keeping with these "High" Men.

Next came Games Workshop's Golden Heroes, my first superhero RPG. To be honest, I spent far more time rolling up characters (it uses a random stat and power generation system) than actually playing the game. Compared with many modern day systems, it was refreshingly lightweight. It has since been reborn as Squadron UK, which rules that appear to be unchanged from the original.

At university, the system I played the most was ICE's Rolemaster (1st and 2nd editions), which was MERP's big brother. We played a huge, drawn-out campaign weekly for a couple of years only diversifying occasionally to play the odd game of Chill, Paranoia, Warhammer FRP, Tales from the Floating Vagabond and others. When I think back, I still don't think we completed that campaign created by our GM, Skippy. All I remember now is that I first played a young trainee mage - Ewart Caradoc - who luckily got hold of a powerful (though evil) shortsword, and then a Beastmaster - Qassam something-or-other - a nomadic, southern warrior who was great to play.

Rolemaster is still one of my favourite fantasy systems and I went on the play a number of RM PBeM games once I left Uni. I love it's complexity, the long lists of skills, and the combat tables (a different one for each weapon!).

Weirdly, I think the only time I played AD&D (2nd ed) was when I was around 30. Unfortunately, that was with a group who didn't take it seriously and just joked around. Characters would often die every other session, we'd go up 2 or 3 levels between sessions, the DM would try to kill us off in the most amusing way possible, that sort of thing. It was entertaining to begin with, I suppose, but I soon grew bored. I actually found PBeMs (or similar) and their writing elements more to my liking.

So, since then, I tended to play superhero PBeMs - first using the Aberrant system, then the HERO System (which I love), and briefly Silver Age Sentinels (SAS) and Mutants & Masterminds (M&M). Though I did play one long, epic fantasy PBeM which started using the AD&D 2nd edition rules and then moved onto Pathfinder.

Sadly though I no longer play tabletop RPGs as I don't seem to have the time nor the people with whom to enjoy them.