OSR Commentary & Review on MHAC -18 Marvel Super Heroes Unofficial Cannon Project Rpg Weapon X by Necromancer For The Marvel Super Heroes or FASERIP rpg

 
MHAC -18 Marvel Super Heroes Unofficial Cannon Project  Rpg Weapon X by Necromancer hit the FASERIP fandom back in 2018. It clocks in at thirty three pages of Marvel Weapon X NPC goodness. What MHAC-18 does is bring the Weapon X project NPC's into your regular FASERIP rpg campaign. 

 So what does the MHAC -18 Marvel Super Heroes Unofficial Cannon Project  Rpg Weapon X actually bring to the table top?! We get the low down on Weapon X from history, procedures, PC generation tables and lots of notable NPC's. Weapon X has been behind lots & lots of top secret dirty deeds & deals in the Marvel 616 universe. And we're not just talking Wolverine and Sabertooth here. 
Since World War II Weapon X has been playing around with everything from Gamma Radiation to the various weapons that have graced the stage of Weapon X. We get a full on tour behind the curtain within the Weapon X project. The writing, design, fonts, and layout are up to the standards of Marvel Super Heroes Unofficial Cannon Project standards. The information within MHAC-18 is very much outta of current Marvel canon. 
MHAC-18 is solidly done and gives the DM everything they need to drag and drop Weapon X as a complete organization, entity, etc. within thier own Marvel Super Heroes rpg or FASERIP game. And it's only thirty three pages of Marvel Super Heroes goodness. 

Marvel Super Heroes rpg pictures taken from Wayne's Books 

 MHAC -18 Marvel Super Heroes Unofficial Cannon Project  Rpg Weapon X can easily bring the Weapon X weirdness and paranoia into your FASERIP games. It does this in two ways. Because it allows the DM to drop in thier latest 'weapon' project into your own campaigns to run amok. All this can be done in the name of testing. Weapon X is excellent for using any shadow games, spy vs spy, etc. adventures. Not to mention the Sabertooth, Wolverine, or other heroes  connections to Weapon X projects. This brings in the manufacturing aspect of the weapons that can come into your own campaigns. Our own PC's have two very strong connections to the Weapon X organization. Because the Weapon X book has such strong NPC's they tend to shadow the Marvel Super Hereos Rpg campaign that thier in. 
Is the MHAC -18 Marvel Super Heroes Unofficial Cannon Project  Rpg  worth the download? In a word yes! Because it allows one to take the Weapon X organization, npc's and more into thier games. I've just been informed that the latest version of MHAC -18 Marvel Super Heroes Unofficial Cannon Project  Rpg Weapon X has been updated with a superior layout, updated material, etc.. So be sure to grab the latest version of MHAC-18. 

First Impressions & OSR Review of The Sword of Cepheus Second Edition Rpg By Omer Golan-Joel, Josh Peters, & Richard Hazlewood From Stellagama Publishing

 "A sorcerer blasting his enemies with the power of his mind. A muscled barbarian wielding a flaming sword against the local tyrant’s thugs. A gladiator who freed himself from slavery wanders the land, righting wrongs and smashing villains. Big muscles, big swords, eldritch sorcery, powers of the mind, terrible beasts. From Burroughs to Howard to Moorcock to Italian Peplum films to those dreaming of outlandish post-apocalyptic worlds, heroes raise swords against corrupt nobles, inscrutable sorcerers, and alien monstrosities."

"The Sword of Cepheus is a roleplaying game in the triple “Sword” genres: Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, and Sword and Sandal. In Sword and Sorcery, often-amoral protagonists face vile sorcery and horrid beasts as they complete awesome adventures for gold and glory. In Sword and Planet, humans finding themselves on barbaric or decadent alien planets use their superior brawn and valiant hearts to win fame, fortune, and the heart of an alien princeling. In Sword and Sandal, often set in a quasi-Biblical or faux-Roman world, men and women with sharp wits and strong sword-arms fight mythological creatures and overthrow tyrants. The common threads of all three genres are the blade-wielding protagonists who use their brawn, as well as brains, to fight foes both supernatural and mundane and undertake hair-raising, violent adventures."

The Sword of Cepheus Second Edition Rpg By Omer Golan-Joel, Josh Peters, &  Richard Hazlewood came my way this morning from  Stellagama Publishing. Now the first thing I noticed was that the size of Sword of Chepheus has increased by it's page count to three hundred and seventy seven pages. This change shows the roll over into role playing into  the triple “Sword” genres: Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, and Sword and Sandal genres. This is now reflected into the PC's generation system with 12 archtypes, 12 races of non humans, careers, & more. The magic system seriously reflects the corruption, mutation, and more. This system of magick is plugged into the Genres of thier category of Fantasy. Sword of Cepheus 2nd edition does an excellent job of capturing the lightning in a bottle aspects of Sword & Sorcery. 
The Sword of Cepheus Second Edition Rpg plugs into it's 2d6 adventure subject matter with gusto enabling the DM to get into running adventures right away with a plethora of monsters and creatures. There's the usual suspects from the world's most popular fantasy rpg but there's something profoundly diffferent in the presentation of these creatures. Because Sword is a complete rpg meaning you can buy the one book and get ready to run adventures! 
Treasure goes through the gamut of treasures found in rpg's from rings to helms as well as plunder. The section is well thought out and there's even a magical mishap table for when things go really wrong with the treasure. 
The encounter generating section is well done and has more then enough to get the players into trouble in a wilderness or a city. This is a really well done section with just enough randomness to create a campaign from the ground up. These encounters run from straight wilderness to complete urban areas. This section dovetails rather nicely into the NPC generation section. 
Finally we get a rather nice Super Science section that rounds out The Sword of Cepheus Second Edition Rpg. However overall what do I think of Sword of Cepheus Second edition?! In a word, I really like the changes to the sections, the overall feel, and increases in the system. The whole package doesn't feel unwieldly instead it feels like an overall 2d6 system of improvement. I highly recommend Sword of Cepheus Second edition. 

Using More Old School Resources For Designing Martian Adventures In The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg

So I've been looking at some of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom literature especially the Amazon entry on the Master Mind of Mars which has a great summery of the book; "In The Master Mind of Mars, Ulysses Paxton (late of the U.S. Army and long an admirer of John Carter) finds himself in the hands of that extraordinary scientist-surgeon Ras Thavas of Barsoorn. Renamed Vad Varo, the former U.S Army Captain is trained by Ras Thavas as an assistant in the 'transfer of life' operations for which the master mind is famous. Vad Varo witnesses one such transfer-the wicked old mind Xaxa, Jeddara of Phuundahl, into the young and lovely body of a nameless victim, while the mind of victim number 4296-E-263-H is now housed in the body of an ancient crone. When Vad Varo brings 4296-E-263-H to life he discovers she is Valla Dia and falls in love with the spirit and mind of the girl imprisoned in the 1000-year-old body that had been Xaxa's Incredible dangers and adventures follow as Vad Varo, determined to restore Val la Dia to her proper form, battles his way through weird countries and savage peoples until at last he meets with John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and brings Valla Dia safely to her home in Duhor." 

 When it comes too the Mastermind of Mars we have a real grab back of locations from the swamps of Duhar to the streets of Lower Helium. This all ties into what I've said before on this blog.  It was actually Curst Saden 2010 review that could my attention;"In the sixth installment of the Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it focusses on a new man from Earth named Ulysses Paxton, who after dying in World War One finds himself in a strange facility on Barsoom run by a crazy old man that is master of modifying bodies. There Ulysses is apprenticed by this old man and he assists him in various surgeries. He meets the love of his life, a beautiful woman, only to discover the man he works for has stolen her body and now houses the brain of the wicked Jeddara (queen) Xaxa. Thus Ulysses goes on a quest to find Xaxa and recover the body of the woman he loves. To accomplish this he recruits a religious zealot, an atheist and a Great White Ape that has had it's brain spliced with that of a man's and thus can talk.

This story is a little slow at first but it's very interesting. It contains action and suspense. For once this is not a tale about rescuing the damsel in distress, which is a nice break (unless you count the quest for the body Xaxa stole, so it's like the body in distress.....)

It's weird but it's fun. I recommend it." Jeddara  Xaxa is in my opinion only the start of the wicked Barsoomian royalty. Stay with me for a moment, there's a huge hierachry of royals each vying to out do each other to get ahead to the thrones of Barsoom. Backstabbing, asassination, and worse are the operating rules for Barsoomian royalty. How do I know any of this?! Because of the fact that assassins are legally employed & used throughout Mars.  This ties directly into the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition Assassin rules found in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeonmaster's Guide. 

Again totally stealing this photo from Wayne's Books. 

The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg also plugs into this sancitioned asssassination and duelist culture that infects Mars. Behind the scenes murders,poisoning, etc have to be rampant throughout Mars. Only this style of murder is going to be ritualized and prettied up with warrrior codes. This ties into many of the tribal elements that Leigh Brackett wrote about. So in other words the alignment of Lawful Evil certainly fits the assassins of Mars. 
This brings up Dragon magazine issue #64 with it's Assassins Guild article which goes into traditional assasins guilds. These secretive organizations could easily be applied to Mars. 

OSR Commentary On Marvel Super Heroes rpg MH AC2 Avengers Assembled By Bruce Nesmith

" The greatest collection of heroes, ever, annouced by their famous battle cry: Avengers Assemble! Includes a 32-page sourcebook with complete information on 30 past and present Avengers, 22 of their enemies, the Avengers mansion, and SHIELD! "
 The year is 1984, and we're deep into Marvel Super Heroes here comes Marvel Super Heroes Avengers Assembled by Bruce Nesmith. This blog entry is going to pick up right from here on the blog.  This supplement was a bit of a game changer for our group of players. Why? Because of the fact that all of the original Avengers and thier foes plus equipment, SHIELD, & more were laid bare. 

According to the Marvel Super Heroes rpg Avengers Assembled wiki entry; " Avengers Assembled! is a supplement presenting game statistics for 30 characters that have been members of the Avengers team, as well as 22 of their enemies, the Avengers Mansion, and the organization S.H.I.E.L.D.^[1] Avengers Assembled is a 32-page book, with a removal cover that has a detailed map printed on it of the Avengers' mansion.^[2] The supplement explores the mansion, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Nick Fury, 30 team members (two of these characters have additional secret identities, meaning there are actually 26 separate characters), and two Avengers associates.^[2] Each character has an illustration, as are some S.H.I.E.L.D. equipment and personnel" 

 Marvel Super Heroes rpg MH AC2  Avengers Assembled By Bruce Nesmith really has all of the makings of a first class campaign for the Marvel Super Heroes rpg. This supplement really sets the tone for the basic MSH rpg in spades. This is a sentiment echoed by Imagine magazine reviewer Pete Tamlyn; ""Avengers Assembled! will be an essential product for most players of the game".^[3] He stated: "Personal preferences aside, the Avengers are probably the ideal group to choose if you are going to run an extended campaign using MSH. There have been so many members and roster changes that your players are almost certain to be able to pick a character each without conflict over who plays which particular favourite, or someone getting lumbered with a character that doesn't suit their style of play."^[3] He continued: "There are a few grossly powerful characters among them, and I'd recommend that Thor in particular be kept as an NPC who can rescue the players in times of dire emergency, but the only real wimps, Wasp and Hawkeye, are among the most interesting characters to play. My only complaint is that many of the villains are also very tough, the sort of folks who take on the Avengers single-handed and are normally only defeated thanks to their arrogance and over-confidence, and will therefore be quite difficult for the GM to handle."^[3] Tamlyn concluded by saying: "Overall, a much-needed publication which will sell very well."
Sell well it did and laided the foundation for many of the Marvel Super Heroes rpg supplements that would follow.

What MH AC2 does so well is lay out the Avengers, SHIELD, etc into a usable format for both new players & DM's respectively. Sure Avengers Coast to Coast has it over MH AC2 in spades but Avengers Assembled came out first and laided out the blue print for the classic FASRIP rpg that we've all come to know and love. 
So is Avenger Assembled still useful today?! In a wood of course, this is a classic supplement & it's easy to use with all of the 1960's and 70's Avengers and thier villians! 

Hostile Rpg Session - Hide & Seek - Session Report II

 Tonight's Hostile game was a 'cat & mouse' operation between the crew and the Chinese agent from Tau Ceti who was much more then he appeared to be. The crew blew an air lock near space onto thier next port of call on Tau Ceti. This guy wasn't at all what he appeared to be. The crew were operating &  aboard the USS Franklin a Harbinger frieghter undercutting the competition. This game session picks right up where we left off last session here. 

The crew knew we had an agent on board who wanted to get to the next port of call. His weight gave the crew everything they needed to know because the guy was a full conversion borg. While rare they were not unheard of on Tau Ceti. The war had been intensifying along the old boarders. And Chinese were getting desparate. At any rate last game we'd taken some fire after landing were leaving fast! 

We had no idea of this guy's cababilities & we weren't taking any chances. Everyone suited up and we made checks to make sure the cargoes both alive and otherwise were secure. And then we went high into the upper atmosphere of Tau Ceti. And opened the entire ship to vaccuum. That's right we weren't taking any chances with this bastard! 
Our sky marshal saw this guy crawling across the floor space in our cargo hold. Without a second though he shot the guy with three shots and then a small grenade that blew the bastard out! The resulting explosion rocked the ship. With a series of great rolls our pilot kept control of the Franklin! 

The Chinese cyborg agent was carrying a rather large bomb on him! If we hadn't found it. He would have blown himself and our ship up! Checks were done and we continued on our way to our next drop zone. 

OSR Commentary On Marvel Super Heroes Rpg Project Wideawake By Jeff Grubb

 "They are the children of the atom, the next step in human evolution. They are mutants, hated and feared by mere humans. Some, like the X-Men and the New Mutants, are protectors of humanity. Others, such as the Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, want to be the masters of humanity."

"Now, the major marvcom mutants, well-meaning and malign, are collected in one book. More than 50 heroes, villains, and interested parties... are described inside, along with notes on the X-Men's mansion, important non-mutants, and the fearsome Sentinels -- mutant-hunting robots created by the United States government to deal with the mutant menace."

So the year is 1987 & we're in the middle of our Marvel Super Heroes rpg campaign & this add appeared in several Marvel comicbooks. Because mutants were such a big deal in certain circles of comic book readers.  A year earlier Jeff Grubb had written Marvel Super Heroes Rpg Project Wideawake &  it was the start of the Fall of the Mutants adventure line for our group. According to the Project Wideawake wiki entry;"MHAC5 Project: Wideawake was written by Jeff Grubb, with a cover by Kerry Gammill, and was published by TSR, Inc., in 1985 as a 32-page book"

For us this was the supplement that launched our group of heroes into the Days of Future Past comicbook world when we stumbled through an alternative Earth gateway created by a mutant kid with reality warping powers called Second Guess. This mutant kid not even ten years old could create doorways into alternative universes.Given my uncle proclivity for using the Marvel comics as reference & we soon found ourselves saving Second Guess from a group of Friends of Humanity supporters.
And then we found ourselves on an Earth so very much unlike our own. And it was not an easy slog back to save Second Guess from the Sentinels. Most if not all of the stats for the mutants that we met along the way came from Project Wideawake.
For me Project Wideawake is a great little supplement and Jeff Grubb's writing and design is tight. Not everyone feels this way however;
"Pete Tamlyn reviewed the supplement in Imagine magazine.^[2] He comments, "OK, X-Fans, this is the one you've been waiting for [...] if you have any interest at all in the X-Men and related groups then this product is essential."^[2] He found that the floor plans "are not really clear enough for any serious use without considerable work on the GM's part."^[2] Tamlyn added: "The coverage of Marvel mutant-kind is reasonably comprehensive. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have been left out as they were in the Avengers booklet; Beast was as well, of course, but they could hardly miss one of the original X-Men. Phoenix is in and, as might have been expected, is tough enough to take on everyone else in the booklet put together and win easily—the booklet sensibly recommends that she only enter games as an NPC. There are, however, some surprising omissions, including the Starjammers, Shi'Ar Imperial Guard and Alpha Flight. There are not many mutants in that lot, but they're all part of the X-Men circle. Another book, perhaps?"^[2] He continued, "I have got a few gripes as well. One or two boobs seem to have slipped past the proofreaders; for example we are told that Magma regains health points each round as long as she is in contact with the ground, but we are not told how many points per round. However, if you want to run MSH as it is designed to be run, some things are essential, and this is one of them."^[2] Tamlyn concludes the review by saying, "Final point: the booklet introduces a new rule to MSH. Supervillains now have negative popularity which is a measure of how easy they find it to cow hapless civilians. A nice idea."" 
Do I personally agree with Mr. Tamlyn's review?! No,because it seems unduly harsh and Dragon magazine would later have it's Ares section cover Alpha Flight and the Shi'Ar Imperial Guard. What Project Wideawake does is introduce the Xmen and thier enemies into the Marvel Superheroes rpg and it could easily be used with the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced rpg. 
Project Wideawake was a product of it's time and as such easily introduced the Xmen. I was later on replaced by the superior Children of the Atom supplement but for it's time Project Wideawake did it's job easily and with bells on. 

OSR Commentary - Marvel Super Heroes Advanced rpg & MX1 Nightmares of Future Past By Steve Winter

 "Picture, if you will, a world gone insane. A world where you cannot attend school, buy food or clothing, or even walk down the street without risking capture of imprisonment. Add to that picture, if you can, the specter of giant, killing robots programmed to hunt down and destroy you and everyone like you.This is the world waiting for you in Nightmares of Futures Past. Mutants have been declared outlaws and enemies, stripped of their constitutional rights, and condemned to quick death in battle or slow death in concentration camps. The heroes of our time are gone, either killed fighting oppression, stripped of their powers and locked away, or hiding in shadows…"

Marvel Super Heroes Advanced rpg has a ton of good and solid memories for me back in the 90's. There was one set of adventures that caused two TPK's. This was where we as a group of players proved our mettle. MX1 Days of Future Past is a very popular campaign and one of the foundational classic Marvel storylines for the X-Men & Marvel super heroes in general. 

 
MX1 Nightmares of Future Past by Steve Winter is only a thirty two page module but as an over arching campaign it's absolutely free roaming. According to scidhuv@ican.net's October 1998 Amazon review; "This set of rules is incredible I have used it many times. It presents a world where the characters have full control. There is no set story, but the book helps to setup different ideas in the GM's head. A must have for anyone who's tired of the same old boring campaigns but likes to have a nice set of rules to work with." 

MX1 Nightmares of Future Past can be set in your own hometown & the events can have an impact on your own hometown. The Sentinels take over the world and suddenly your own hometown is caught in the middle of events. For us it was the fact our DM made our hometown a Sentinel repair node and storage facility for the Eastern sea board. Heroes by the score were killed from Boston to Florida and thier uniform colours were  worn by the Sentinels adding insult to injury. 
How does this relate to the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced rpg? Marvel Super Heroes Advanced allows you as the player to generate the heroes you want as a PC. The system if it's properly worked with really takes full advantage of it's D100 roots & this customization really shines through. The MX series of modules however are brutal. And these modules play for keeps! My uncle was a brutal DM & we cameback for more. 

Make no mistake we've played through MX1  seven  times & we've gotten to this alternative timeline in countless ways. Messing with cosmic artifacts was one, another exiting a time/space gateway, accidently killing a timetraveller was another, etc. Each time we ended up back in Days of Future past where we were kicking behind on Sentinels. Which almost always seemed to catch up to our PC's?! 

Project Broken Hands - A Cepheus Universal & Independence Games's Rider rpg Crossover Campaign Set Up

 So over the weekend I pulled out Cepheus Univeral & began working on a one way time travel campaign. So I've been rereading the massive Cepheus Univeral book. 

I've been doing research into the Cepheus Univeral rpg because I'm getting ready to run a Rider crossover. The idea here is that the Knight Foundation is contacted by the CIA, an agent of thiers has gone rogue & broken onto Top Secret  'Project Broken Hands'. This is a location in the California desert where back in the Forties a UFO crashed. Since then the abandoned highway that used to connect to Route 66 randomly hyperspacial warps across space and time. 
Agent Thomas Fortuna has gone back to November 5th 1877 California & the hyperspacial doorway is only open for a limited time. Getting back could be problematic for the time who is equipped with machines modified for extreme off roading. Fortuna is a time paradox waiting to happen. 

For Project Broken Hands I'm going to be using Rider's New Liberty as the adventure location with the player's PC's getting in way over thier heads as they search for Fortuna. But the twist is that Fortuna is not alone! He's brought some friends to play in 1877!  Twist two is that a gang of outlaws gets ahold of 2024 technology and firearms. The players will have thier work cut out for them. 

OSR Commentary - Cannibal Scavenger Fleets & Trey Causey's Strange Stars - Session Report

 

Chris Floss artwork used without permission 

During tonight's Stars Without Numbers game centered around Trey Causey's Strange Stars campaign setting things got really nasty really fast. This blog post picks up from a few days ago on the blog here. 
Alright so the PC's got it in thier heads that they wanted to seek out a Scavenger Fleet & trade ancient parts and pre Scream artifacts with them. 
After some very good cyberspace rolls the player's cybersneaks were able to catch a deep interstellar scavenger fleet not too far from thier location. A jump into the hyperspacial gateway and a trip to an old system netted them an ancient looking scavenger fleet. They communicated and were able to make a parley. What they got wasn't what they were expecting when they encountered Cabilan mercenaries! 

The Cabilan were open to trade as long as they got to choose the crew member to be eaten for supper. They had not had any real non artificial humanoid meat in many months! The PC's were horrified but were able to trade some rare Earth cow meat for three minor artifacts! The Caliban were not completely satisfied and began to shadow the PC's space hauler! The PC's also noticed a sleeper ship among the fleet full of Caliban mercenary soldiers! 
The PC's took the space hauler into silent mode hiding in the shadow of a star until the scavenger fleet had passed or so they hoped! The cybersneaks then hid the star hauler's transponder signal and they quietly made thier way to the jump gate. The party wanted to get anywhere but this system. The problem is that the Caliban mercenaries are now aware of the party. 
The party dove randomly through the hyperspacial gatway & ended up coming face to face with a fleet of Gypsy ships. Randomly put together space junk that had become starships by clans of travelling Magi. 

The Magi were open for business and trade! So the player's began to trade some of the minor cargo finds that they had and found a spare hyperdrive. They trade food stuffs and some extra fuel that they had. The Magi insisted that they stay for a feast. The party's cybersneaks were looking deep into hyperspace to see if the Caliban mercenaries scavenger fleet were following. They had looked over the artifacts for any tracking devices. This is where we ended for now. 

The E.D.D.I.E. Cybernetic units Made By The Iron Maiden Corporation For The Cepheus Engine Rpg

 

The E.D.D.I.E. Unit is a cybernetic organism from a tech level sixteen society designed to operate down the time stream in a tech level twelve society. E.D.D.I.E.( Elimination, Detection, Destruction, Identification, Extermination)  units were created by the Iron Maiden corporation to police the time stream & destory any alien or forgein threats to thier timeline from alternative time lines. 

The E.D.D.I.E. units are engineered and produced around a cloned necro synethic flesh that sits on a mono organic frame. The unit is powered by two cold fusion bryellum cells that can operate continuesly for 12 years without need for recharge or replacement. E.D.D.I.E. Units fufill a number of roles from body guard to full bounty hunters. They operate independently of others of thier kind but will share information & grudgingly cooperate. 
Type: Combat CPU: 8 (0) Sensors: +3 Basic Damage: 1D6+2 Mods: Ambidexterity processor, Targeting matrix, Heavy combat chassis Resistance: 48/24/12 Armor: 12* cloned necro synethic flesh *full armor agains plasma attacks, half damage from conventional weapons Speed: 6m Skills: Gun combat 2, Tactics 2, Melee 1, Heavy Weapons 1 Designation:  E.D.D.I.E.( Elimination, Detection, Destruction, Identification, Extermination)  units  Purpose: Heavy infantry bounty hunting robot/cyborg Height: 6 ft, 2 in (1.9 m); Weight: 440 lb (200 kg) Basic Features: Armored Cyberskeleton Advanced Features:  plasma pistol, mimicry, sensors Intelligence: Advanced Mode of operation: "hive" network or rogue Land Speed: Moderate
E.D.D.I.E. Units are armed with two Lucky 88's  heavy plasma pistols which draw power from the unit's fusion cells. 
Weapon Lucky 88's heavy Plasma Pistols Range 250/500 Damage 4D 1D 30  AV Magazine WT Qualities1 Auto 4 

 

E.D.D.I.E. Units unless routinely A. I. scrubbed routinely develop consciousness glitches and full personalities. Given thier assignments in the timestream these personalities are hard nosed & quick to judge situations. E.D.D.I.E. units are 'shoot first and then shoot again' cybernetic units and should be approached with care and caution. 

Artwork used without permission & for educational purposes. The Eddie units are parody rpg creations and not meant to violate any copyright or trademarks of thier respective owners. 

Hostile Rpg Session - Hide & Seek - Session Report

 During tonight's Hostile game the players were playing Crew Expendable PC's including an 'air marshal' PC who was aboard as they were delivering ammo to Tau Ceti for the American corporation's forces. They were aboard the USS Franklin a Harbinger frieghter undercutting the competition. 

They were bringing back exo specimens for examination as the planet enters it's hot period. Warfare and battles also escalate during these periods as well. Things on Tau Ceti have been heating up over the past few months as tensions between East & Western corporate forces have intensified along the older battle lines. 

We've seen this play out as cartel forces are no longer there to keep a sorta of cease fire where they can make money from illict trade in the lower delta valley trails. We were landing at the American base/warehouse district and everything seemed to be five by five. The Franklin came in heavy & we started unloading immediately 

The fire came in immeditely & we knew it had to be Chinese agents! We had side arms because we were in a warzone. We had gotten over 70% of the exo specimens aboard including our must have special cargos. We cut way back on the prelaunch & got the Hell outta of there!We were carrying extra weight & that meant that we had a Chinese agent aboard! 

Now began the fun! As we had just refueled and were preparing for our next stop. We opened our guest's section of the ship & with some great rolls he was sucked into the Tau Ceti atmosphere or so we thought. 

Retro Review of The Marvel Super Heroes Rpg Advanced Player's Book

 When we're talking about solid rule books the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Player's Book seldom get's mentioned. This is too bad because it's a great rules book and contains just enough of character generation, rules, guidelines, etc. for the new player or the experienced player to really get into it. This blog entry is going to pick up right from our examination of the Judge's Book on the blog here. 

Wayne's Books has an excellent break down of the '87 and '92 versions of the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced set. What sets apart the Player's Book is the breakdown of the rules. According to Jeremy Grenier's 2006 Amazon review; "Ever since I was 10 or 11 I've been into role-playing games. I've owned many over the years, and think the gaming system introduced by Marvel for their Marvel Super Heroes Role-Playing Game (both Basic and Advanced sets) is by far one of the easiest to learn and run. The rules aren't complex, and the Marvel system is in my opinion the most enjoyable to play."
The Player's Book is a really solid break down of the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced rules and does a fantastic job of breaking down the rpg system. There have been many Marvel rpg's that have come and gone but the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced set remains for me. 

So what makes the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced set the one that I personally return to again and again? It's the fact that this is a robust and solid rpg system from the ground up. From character creation, guidelines, power use, and more all has been distilled down into a complete system. 
It's the complete package that works here for the players and DM overall. The rpg works on the play level and the PC generation level as a simple yet effective d100 system that overall doesn't need to be overhauled per say. 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Street Knight Rpg By Paul Elliott from Zozer Games

 Street Knight is a fast-paced homage to late-70s and early-80s TV shows such as The A-Team, Knight Rider, Street Hawk and The Bionic Man. Agents working for good bring justice to a jaded America. You drive high-tech cybercars and you are fitted with cutting-edge cybernetic technology. You are a blend of Man and Machine! Where law enforcement cannot, or will not intervene, the heroes step in, no matter how small or large the threat.

You can play this game straight down the line, or play it tongue-in-cheek, just like the source material. Ultra-violence, casual murder and the disregard for human life does not feature in these TV shows, and doesn't play much part in Street Knight, either. This makes it a great setting for introducing children to science fiction – the world is our own, familiar and well known, allowing kids to jump straight into decision-making, action and adventure.

"In Street Knight, we start play at the home base in Los Angeles, with southern California and the south-western states forming the central backdrop of adventures. It is 1984: there are no cell phones and no internet, making the technology available to the heroes that much more remarkable.  And don’t forget that the Cold War is at its height, with the threat of Soviet espionage and skull-duggery, ever present."

[no AI art]

The Street Knight Rpg By Paul Elliott is a complete 2d6 rpg of Eigthies cultclassic television action. What's great is that it's been done with the Cepheus Universal rpg system. This game plugs right into the Knight Rider, Street Hawk, Blue Thunder, The Highwayman, etc. Eighties action genre of the 'men & women who does not exist expect in a shadowy world on the edge of reality'.  International jewel thieves, drug cartels, etc. & criminals who operate above the law have the Street Knight 2d6 action rpg game that brings your player's PC's into the  crime war. 
At fifty seven pages the Street Knight rpg is perfect for the players & DM who don't have a lot of prep time. After 5 minutes or so you'll have a bionically enhanced PC who works for a shadowy organization. We get background, history, life events,  and more all for the player's PC's from the ground up set up in the Eighties. 

Street Knight does this and more! This rpg game has that and more for the players and DM who want to design a Eighties vehicle action themed 2d6 campaign. Iconic Eighties cars abound driven by modified cyber PC capable of taking on the criminals and more! This game has everything you need and packs it in nicely with no fuss this includes the Southern California campaign setting. 
Street Knight has the background, support personel NPC's, and more to give the PC's infrastructure to carry out thier crusade on crime. There's just such a Eighties vibe to Street Knight that I get goose bumps. Street Knight covers all of the basics and really echoes the holy trinity of Eighties vehicle action shows, 'Knight Rider', 'Air Wolf', & 'Street Hawk'.
 Except it doesn't have the Airwolf vibe to Street Knight because helicopters were left out. However it's an easy fix if you own Cepheus Universal. This brings up a question do you really need Street Knight if you own Cepheus Univeral?! 
Could Street Knight be added into the Hostile rpg?! Easily actually but there would have to be some modification for weaponry. The PC's would be playing for keeps and death would be far more common. So some of the Eighties action tropes will be lost.

Well, if you own Cepheus Universal then Street Knight has a complete rpg system plus campaign built in and ready go! You've got everything with Street Knight for that action Eighties campaign ready to play! 

OSR Commentary - Trey Causey's Strange Stars & Stars Without Numbers Scavenger Fleets

 

Chris Floss artwork used without permission 


"The year is 3200 and mankind's empire lies in ashes.

The Jump Gates fell six hundred years ago, severing the links between the myriad worlds of the human diaspora.

Now, the long isolation of the Silence falls away as men and women return to the skies above their scattered worlds.

Will you be among them once more?'

 Our player's PC's want two 'new' space haulers and getting into the deep dynamics of it. I turned back to Strange Stars setting's blog entry, 'From The Sorcerer's Skull Starships In The Strange Stars and this has to do with the hyper drive systems which the players are after; "One example of a lost technology is superluminal drives. The vast majority of modern craft are sublight vessels that utilize the hyperspace network to short-cut interstellar distances. The most advanced current civilizations have a rudimentary understanding of the science behind some FTL travel methods, but they are are currently unable to build them." A space hauler equipped with such a drive would have an incredible advantage. However, there might be far more going on then meets the eye. And hence why the hyperspace networks were used and relied on. 
Hyperspacial drives might be far more terrorfying then then the player's realize and the standard spike drive is the alternative which became industry standard. There are other technologies that the PC's want too salvage;"The salvage of ancient derelicts or wrecks is an important (and lucrative) activity. Gravity generators and inertial suppressors are only two of the important technologies than many civilizations are able to exploit, but not necessarily manufacture themselves. Intact data systems are a particularly spectacular find. There is always hope of engineering schematic files executable in modern nanofactories." This dives into the heart of Stars Without Number's rules and setting. Although the fantastic pretech & overtech are available the secrets to thier manufacture are almost certainly lost unless some space wreck or other ancient starship remains gives up thier secrets. 
Then there's the matter of the salvage fleets that are still flying in hyperspace and using the secrets of spike drives. These might seem like thier unlikely to be found in a Strange Stars setting but think again. 

Mandate Archive: Scavenger Fleets has the details on vampire fleets of stellar ships that swoop in & strip bare a planet that has any pretech technology. This could well be true of the Strange Stars setting or at least ours. Space is big & there's more then enough room for these scavenger ships to vulture themselves off of high tech planets. Thier presence a constant strain on the interstellar community who might simply chalk such invasions and visits up to space pirates. The scavenger fleets are simply another incarnation of this. Making deals with Scavenger Fleets could prove deadly or lucative depending upon the scavenger fleet's reactions. One group of whom I'm planning on using within thier own scavenger fleet is the Caliban.  All of this gets back to the fact that my players are hunting for hyperdrives & it look like it's going to be lots of space craft crawling coming up. 

Deeper Readings Into The Cities Without Number rpg & Trey Causey's Strange Stars OSR Setting

  "The world is neon and dust.

There is nothing more than the flesh. There is nothing greater than the wires. There is nothing to dream that is not sold and nothing to worship that is not made. It is a mirrorshade world of human reflections, every red hunger and every black passion worshiped in cathedrals of glass and greed. The great love their sins like children and the least want only to be great. Who could hope for more?"

Cities Without Number is a cyberpunk role-playing game built for sandbox adventures in a dystopia of polished chrome and bitter misery. It's both a full-fledged Sine Nomine toolkit for building a cyberpunk world of your own and an Old School Renaissance-inspired game system for playing out the reckless adventures of the desperate men and women who live in it. Whether polished metal or flesh and blood, your operators will risk their lives and more to seize those precious things a merciless world would keep from them.

Alright it's been a New York City minute since I've cracked open the  Cities Without Number rpg. Readin deeper into Cities has been interesting tonight after getting together with my players over dinner & rereading the rules. Anyone whose been reading this blog knows we've been running Trey Causey's Strange Star campaign setting books. Cities is a perfect supplement to use with Strange Stars because of the transhumanistic elements of this OSR campaign. 

What Cities Without Numbers brings to the table is a long and storied rpg of Cyberpunk goodness. Coupling it with Stars Without Numbers over the last couple of months has been interesting because it brings some perspective to our own cybered version of campaign Earth. This version of our own campaign Earth is well aware of the fact of the aliens & intergalatic scene of Strange Stars. 
Earth however is struggling under the wait of knowing that it's no longer the center of the universe. Earthlings are in demand because of the intergalatic space trucking driver shortage. The holo vids are awash with colony adds and space piloting school adds. 
Our own own party wants to hire two new drivers and aquire two brand new 'used' space haulers. Already our own operators are looking through thousands and thousands of adds for new talent and trucks. 
There are tons of adventuring opportunities in the belt for our own adventurers and operators. Our own party operates on both sides of the law lately and there's been some push back from the more wiley of the alien races. 
Our own party has been pushing hard since a run in with several of the cults of B4 The Lost City. More coming up as our operators work to get the party saved from the vicious locals.