Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Review & Commentary On MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set By The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project For the Marvel Super Heroes Rpg



 My own history with Marvel's Conan The Barbarian comic book & The Savage Sword of Conan black & white Seventies & Eighties magazine is well known to readers of this blog. And this brings me to a curiousity that I down loaded under the Others Google drive of Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project. This of course is MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set & it's paramount interest to a time traveling horror campaign such as mine. You can get 
MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set by joining the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project group on Facebook 

MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set consists of the The Conan The Barbian Watcher's Chronicle, the Grand Master's Log, & the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book by Necromancer. Let's tackle 'The Conan The Barbian Watcher's Chronicle' first. 'The Watcher's Chronicle' covers all of the lands of the Marvel comics Hyboria world. And unlike the original Robert E. Howard Conan story. The Watcher's Chronicle goes over all of the lands of Hyboria with some spactacular artwork taken from the original Marvel & other comic book sources. For a fan publication The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project does an excellent job of handling layout,fonts, and the whole package. 

We get history, we get massive info dumps on all of the major & minor heroes,villains, and more throughout the Watcher's chronicle. 
The staff of The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project does a bang up job on this box set giving both the DM & the fans what they want & what they came for Conan's world & his characters in spades. Something that mainstream game companies should keep in mind. 

MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set is a big sprawling fan affair that encompasses the totally of the barbarian's deep rooted connections to the Marvel comic books & magazines. This is even more evident within the The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Conan The Barbarian Grand Master's Log. Here we get the broader picture of the NPC's, gods, monsters, and madmen that plagued the barbarian hero throughout his career. 

The Grandmaster's Log is a lavish affair clocking in at over forty nine pages. And it tips the scales with dense profiles of both fan favorites & even minor horrors. We profiles on Elric of Melnibone, Red Sonja, Conan, & many more. For the dungeon master whose looking to run a time traveling campaign the fact that the Projet has included an index is a God sent. 
With so many NPC's it's easy to forget that running a campaign may mean flipping back & forth with physical copies. And the index makes this even easier. The Grandmaster's log is one of the essential cornerstones of this box set. And this fact alone makes it essential for a MSH's campaign. 
Even more lesser known magical items to modern Marvel fans such as the Cobra Crown get their due. 
And this is one of the places in which  The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project excels. Even if the fan group's organizational skills need a lot to be desired. We are getting all of these wonderful supplements for free. 
 On the right is one of my most hated Conan foes Kulan Gath. Even though he has appeared in numerous other supplemets of The Unofficial Canon Project. This smug sorcerer supreme of the Hyborian age killed not one but three of my heroes during the Eighties. My uncle was particularly fond of using this rather nasty piece of work. Each & everytime we seemed to defeat him he'd pop up again like an Eighties horror icon. 
The fact that he's so prominantly listed speaks volumes to the fact that MHR6 is well done. Kulan Gath is a major villain on par with Thoth Amon for his nastiness. He's gone toe to toe with the Avengers, the Xmen, and even several alternative Earth variant versions of Iron Man. And as recent as two years ago murdered off most of the 616 Marvel Super Heroes line up. Kulan Gath's connection to Red Sonja is deep & could easily be exploited by a DM looking to milk the Marvel/Dynamite comic book adventure arcs for a campaign. 


Finally we get deeply into the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book by Necromancer. And its a glorious little adventure that really highlights all of the Conan The Barbarian friends & foes. The Adventure book is like a Savage Sword of Conan magazine come to life with the strengths of the FASRIP system on display!

Necromancer does an excellent job with layout & bringing all of the singular Sword & Sorcery  details to life. Here all of the Conan NPC's get their due first. The stats are easy to digest & brings home the sheer scope of  Marvel Conan's world. The Eyes of the Serpent finds Conan & his allies partying & painting the town red. This is soon interrupted by Sword & Sorcery mayhem & violence. 
The PC's find themselves up too their eyeballs in the worst that Marvel Hyboria has to offer. And things go from bad to worst as the major players of Conan's world get involved within the plot. Players are going to have their hands full with  the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book. And the fact is the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is actually a mini campaign unto itself. 
 The Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is well laid out, easy, on the eyes, and the adventure itself is epic.  And the MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set is really set off by the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book. 
The Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is slightly different in it's pacing & feel as it plugs into the Sword & Sorcery asthetic the Marvel way. The Marvel way from back in the Bronze age with modern The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project FASRIP fan rpg system senibilities.
  MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set By The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project is in my mind one of the best things I've seen from this fan group. Make sure that you down load the MHR6 box set. 

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