Thursday, February 10, 2022

Whom The Gods Destroy - Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omibus, Strange Stars, & Stars Without Number rpg

 For our anniversary my wife bought me a lovely copy of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omibus. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a huge Jack Kirby fan. And going back a long time to the early Eighties and this includes Jack Kirby's Fourth World DC material. Reading through the Fourth World books is like taking a trip down the road of early childhood for me. 


 Because these books were so entwined with my uncle's Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. According to the Wiki entry on the Fourth World; " Though he wouldn't ever say it publicly, the New Gods books started right after the gods in Thor killed one another. The first page of Orion of the New Gods showed the same scenes from Thor—a planet torn in half and armored gods holding swords and dying on a fiery battleground.
[8]
"The Fourth World" dealt with the battle between good and evil as represented by the worlds of New Genesis and ApokolipsDarkseid, the evil lord of Apokolips, seeks the Anti-Life Equation which will allow him to control the thoughts of all living beings. Opposing him is Orion, his son raised by Highfather and his enemies on New Genesis.[9] Other characters caught in the deadly battle included the Forever People, an extension of the kid gang concept from the 1940s with a group of adolescents adventuring without an adult supervisor;[10] Mister Miracle, a native of New Genesis raised on Apokolips who triumphed over a torturous childhood to become the world's greatest escape artist; and Lightray, the heroic warrior of New Genesis. Their adventures would take them to Earth where the war continued." So where is this all going?! There are several OSR Jack Kirby & Fourth World homages. One of the absolute best is Trey Causey's Strange Stars & the OSR book.  Please note though, '
The OSR rules supplement seems to be based on the original SWN,
not the Revised edition (which has switched from descending to ascending AC).' Note that Trey also has even more Strange Stars expanded commentary over on his 'From the Sorcerers Skull' blog here. So what Strange Stars allows me to do is to insert in several Kirby like adventure & campaign elements into our on going Stars Without Number Revised campaign. Elements such as the drive box and many others. The Kirby like aspect includes the fact that the gods in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition's Dieties & Demigods have destroyed themselves. Or have they?!




















New Genisis made a quick Easter Egg appearance as a possible lost hyperspace shunt location. But it was quickly by passed recently when the players were fooling with an A.I. drive system. My recent review of 'A Delicate Matter' By Joseph Mohr has me in the mind that the Slavers are on the brothel planet selling a drive box to the highest bidder.Now I'll be getting my SWN players involved in the events of 'A Delicate Matter' & then follow it up with the Slavers. The Slavers are masters of bio occult tech & have a deep han erm tendril in the brothel planet.












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