We're unleashing OSR cosmic destruction with mid tier wizards, alien cities, & the ruins of Boston & N'Yark today!
The blighted sun has arisen on Thundarr's world & last night I got a chance to take a look at season two episode fifteen City of Evil. Why is this episode that important to kitchen sink campaign? Well because first of all it happens almost in my backyard in & around the ruins of Boston Massachusetts in Thundarr's world. It also happens to feature Sarott, a lower tier trash wizard who demonstrates that not all wizards have to have war machines & citadels to become fantastic threats. Sarott is the kinda New England wizard guy that people avoid in the grocery store; you know the type someone with big dreams held back because of the fact that their bat crap insane. He's spent way too much time around the primal chaos of Thundarr's world probably in the service of one of the older wizards. My guess is that he's a throwback degenerate human ala Apes Victorious whose made good with some of the occult knowledge he's managed to plunder. He's also a cagey and shifty bastard who might have murdered his master & then fallen on hard times. My guess Sarott couldn't handle the reigns of power something akin to what we find in Adventurer, Conqueror, King or Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. Heavy is the crown & all that.
He's lusting after 'the gauntlet of power', the powerful relic/artifact belonging to the people of Reporta, a good size settlement of about hundred or so mutants, Moks, and people. Possibly built on the remains of a very small military base which housed the low rent robots, military hardware, and 'the gauntlet of power.' The gauntlet of power appears to be a hybrid of alien & human technology probably used to handle & manipulate the raw power of magic. Given its multiple functions and applications this relic of the ancients is more of a tool then a weapon. Its an awesome tool in a wizard's hands capable of unshrinking an entire city.
Thundarr and company put the hurt on Sarott, he's basically stopped cold & hurled into a portion of the ruins that seem to pepper this version of Boston. The gauntlet in the meantime returns to Gorn the leader of Reporta; a note about Gorn he knows the secrets of the gauntlet & I have a feeling that in the past a wizard owned the relic perhaps even controlling Logan Airport ruins.
Sarott stumbles onto the miniaturized 'City of Thieves' an alien city that survived the apocalypse with Logan's Run levels of Eighties technology. I say alien because nothing about this city matches the remains of cars, planes, buildings,etc. My guess is that when the two worlds merged things were stable for a bit say about ten years or so. Everyone is getting along & many of the day to day world's technology levels went up. A faster then light drive system is employed, genetic engineering becomes more common place & everything appears alright. Then the ugly head of technological magic rears it head & suddenly you've got factions, terrorism, industrial applications of primal chaos, & paranoia as the first of the wizards begins to appear. Magick in Thundarr's world warps both mind & body. Given this fact you can see the lines in the sand as the first wizards begin to appear as the heads of terrorist organizations, factions of armies, alien warlords as allies, and finally the runaway planet. Want a good example of a wizard who survived the Great Cataclysm? Mindok The Mind Menace is a good example of a wizard whose survived the events of the apocalyptic events. Why mention this? Because the City Of Thieves is a bunch of alien mercenaries straight out of the gate who have survived for generations in their miniaturized state.
Want to know why the United States military was working feverishly before that planet hurled between the Earth and the moon? Take a look at the techology level of the City of Thieves! This is straight up Mutant Future/ Gamma World's Ancient's alien technology! The shifty 1970's technology of the underdwellers of Apes Victorious might be a good stand in for these bastards. I mean these folks are straight up evil cutting a deal with Sarrott.
How much of a threat are these folks to the world of Thundarr The Barbarian? Well for two thousand years they've been producing their own food, energy, waiting for a wizard or the like to happen across them. I don't think that Sarott is the first wizard to cross their path but I do think he's the first fool to take them seriously enough to unshrink them. He might have wanted to look carefully around the area for carbon outlines of other wizards. In point of fact the gauntlet is used to unshrink the city, change poor Gorn into a mutated minion of Sarott, & handle the vast magical energies of the primal chaos of Thundarr's world. There has got to be a vast underground mega dungeon under Boston that probably belonged to Sarott's unseen wizard boss. Don't worry all of this was solved in the twenty minutes by Thundarr except for two facts one the City of Thieves's inhabitants have escaped into the world of Thundarr which could give rise to a whole new crop of wizards (everyone one of those city dwellers knows how to use the technological magical relics of Thundarr's world) & Sarott is still out there!!?
Why was the City of Thieves there in the first place? Well it was probably a spoil of war & far too valuable to destroy or it had been preserved by a wizard before the world of man was cast into ruins.
So what does all of this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & Adventurer Conqueror King? Quite a bit! The fact is that given the way that Sarott acts it seems to me he's got a bit of a reputation problem and there are some free optional rules for covering that for ACK's! Download the Supplemental optional reputation rules here Sarott is the perfect lower tier base wizard to throw into a kitchen sink Thundarr style campaign. He's cagey doesn't have much ability, and he's a bully of the first order. He's the perfect type of jerk to find wandering the halls and dungeons of Operation Unfathomable.
A gallery of production sheets from the show (Attention: two of the pictures show a topless, and a fully naked Ariel) gives the potential for more wizards & creatures to stick into your games. Now given Sarott's demeanor and candor he's an opportunist of the first order. There are possibly hundreds of potential Sarott's wandering the dungeons, fields, & ruins of Hyperborea. The fact is that petty wizards with delusions of grandeur are perfect foils for parties of adventurers and outlaws. I've always had Thundarr's Earth a step away through the borea winds from Hyperborea in my campaigns universe.
Map of HYPERBOREA by Glynn Seal
The Kickstarter for the second edition of Hyperborea is moving along at a juggernaut's pace & given the reception that the incredible looking book has had its no wonder. Now that being said there are still some awesome resources for AS&SH that you can download and plot out your own kitchen sink game. Such as the incredibly useful free maps by Ben Ball. You can grab those right here
He's lusting after 'the gauntlet of power', the powerful relic/artifact belonging to the people of Reporta, a good size settlement of about hundred or so mutants, Moks, and people. Possibly built on the remains of a very small military base which housed the low rent robots, military hardware, and 'the gauntlet of power.' The gauntlet of power appears to be a hybrid of alien & human technology probably used to handle & manipulate the raw power of magic. Given its multiple functions and applications this relic of the ancients is more of a tool then a weapon. Its an awesome tool in a wizard's hands capable of unshrinking an entire city.
Thundarr and company put the hurt on Sarott, he's basically stopped cold & hurled into a portion of the ruins that seem to pepper this version of Boston. The gauntlet in the meantime returns to Gorn the leader of Reporta; a note about Gorn he knows the secrets of the gauntlet & I have a feeling that in the past a wizard owned the relic perhaps even controlling Logan Airport ruins. Sarott stumbles onto the miniaturized 'City of Thieves' an alien city that survived the apocalypse with Logan's Run levels of Eighties technology. I say alien because nothing about this city matches the remains of cars, planes, buildings,etc. My guess is that when the two worlds merged things were stable for a bit say about ten years or so. Everyone is getting along & many of the day to day world's technology levels went up. A faster then light drive system is employed, genetic engineering becomes more common place & everything appears alright. Then the ugly head of technological magic rears it head & suddenly you've got factions, terrorism, industrial applications of primal chaos, & paranoia as the first of the wizards begins to appear. Magick in Thundarr's world warps both mind & body. Given this fact you can see the lines in the sand as the first wizards begin to appear as the heads of terrorist organizations, factions of armies, alien warlords as allies, and finally the runaway planet. Want a good example of a wizard who survived the Great Cataclysm? Mindok The Mind Menace is a good example of a wizard whose survived the events of the apocalyptic events. Why mention this? Because the City Of Thieves is a bunch of alien mercenaries straight out of the gate who have survived for generations in their miniaturized state.
Want to know why the United States military was working feverishly before that planet hurled between the Earth and the moon? Take a look at the techology level of the City of Thieves! This is straight up Mutant Future/ Gamma World's Ancient's alien technology! The shifty 1970's technology of the underdwellers of Apes Victorious might be a good stand in for these bastards. I mean these folks are straight up evil cutting a deal with Sarrott.
How much of a threat are these folks to the world of Thundarr The Barbarian? Well for two thousand years they've been producing their own food, energy, waiting for a wizard or the like to happen across them. I don't think that Sarott is the first wizard to cross their path but I do think he's the first fool to take them seriously enough to unshrink them. He might have wanted to look carefully around the area for carbon outlines of other wizards. In point of fact the gauntlet is used to unshrink the city, change poor Gorn into a mutated minion of Sarott, & handle the vast magical energies of the primal chaos of Thundarr's world. There has got to be a vast underground mega dungeon under Boston that probably belonged to Sarott's unseen wizard boss. Don't worry all of this was solved in the twenty minutes by Thundarr except for two facts one the City of Thieves's inhabitants have escaped into the world of Thundarr which could give rise to a whole new crop of wizards (everyone one of those city dwellers knows how to use the technological magical relics of Thundarr's world) & Sarott is still out there!!?
Why was the City of Thieves there in the first place? Well it was probably a spoil of war & far too valuable to destroy or it had been preserved by a wizard before the world of man was cast into ruins.
So what does all of this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & Adventurer Conqueror King? Quite a bit! The fact is that given the way that Sarott acts it seems to me he's got a bit of a reputation problem and there are some free optional rules for covering that for ACK's! Download the Supplemental optional reputation rules here Sarott is the perfect lower tier base wizard to throw into a kitchen sink Thundarr style campaign. He's cagey doesn't have much ability, and he's a bully of the first order. He's the perfect type of jerk to find wandering the halls and dungeons of Operation Unfathomable.
A gallery of production sheets from the show (Attention: two of the pictures show a topless, and a fully naked Ariel) gives the potential for more wizards & creatures to stick into your games. Now given Sarott's demeanor and candor he's an opportunist of the first order. There are possibly hundreds of potential Sarott's wandering the dungeons, fields, & ruins of Hyperborea. The fact is that petty wizards with delusions of grandeur are perfect foils for parties of adventurers and outlaws. I've always had Thundarr's Earth a step away through the borea winds from Hyperborea in my campaigns universe.
Map of HYPERBOREA by Glynn Seal
The Kickstarter for the second edition of Hyperborea is moving along at a juggernaut's pace & given the reception that the incredible looking book has had its no wonder. Now that being said there are still some awesome resources for AS&SH that you can download and plot out your own kitchen sink game. Such as the incredibly useful free maps by Ben Ball. You can grab those right here
This basically means that you can plot out everything you need for ruins, dungeons, & whatnot without ruining or disturbing your own books. Plus you can use it on tablets or other devices as needed and while your there you might want to grab All Too Familiar by Colin Chapman which has a boat load of familiars for your petty or mid tier wizards. So what are you going to do if your players are way too familiar with Thundarr The Barbarian's world to use it as a setting and you don't have the time to come up with a setting of your own but you really need a nearby post apocalyptic world for one step beyond the borea winds? Not to worry The Mutant Future Wiki has us covered! The Mighty Samson comic book from Dell has an excellent N'Yark setting which the overgrowth-covered ruins of New York where the ruins of Manhat might fit!
This is the perfect venue for your mid tier wizards or even Sarott to show up next. Mutants, aliens, etc. its all been sketched out for you and your players!
Sure its the end for the City of Thieves but what treasures and relics were left behind when it went down? Who out of the alien city will become a wizard or the latest menace to the wasteland?
Only you can decide!
Sure its the end for the City of Thieves but what treasures and relics were left behind when it went down? Who out of the alien city will become a wizard or the latest menace to the wasteland?
Only you can decide!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.