OSR Commentary - Gunslinger Roleplaying Game by Thomas Denmark

 One of the hearts & souls of the Gunslinger Roleplaying Game by Thomas Denmark is the fact that the Engineer class is a full on beast. As long as they have access to pieces of spacecraft & Science Fantasy relics. Why because Gunslinger could easily be paired with the Warriors of the Red Planet rpg. This blog entry picks up from here on the blog. 

If the Engineer has access to weird tech artifacts then they can create some killer (literally dangerous) technological gadgets. This does not take away from the fact that Gunslinger is a fantastic game! 

According to Timothy Peter on Drivethru rpg;"The game is an outstanding addition to western themed old school games, with ER Burroughs inspired optional weird west lore, critters, and a super-science cross over into sci-fi Mars. As the Mars books of Burroughs began with the hero John Carter in a Western setting, this game situates itself very well to be used with Night Owl Workshops previous sword and planet game, "Warriors of the Red Planet." At the same time, one could easily just run this as an excellent pulpy OSR game for the Wild West in Texas. One thing this game does which is outstanding is include a few Apache archetypes. It is territory that modern games tend to shy away from, but this game approaches it from careful research and does so respectfully without any feeling of stereotyping. This is a lot to say for a pulpy game! Along with many character archetypes (10 in all), this 132 page book includes such detail as name tables, character background tables, extensive encounter and setting tables, and a menagerie of encounters including a host of wild animals and strange monsters. There are great descriptions of devices, contraptions and elixirs that the Engineer can create. And just when you think the book has finished - it continues with several interesting appendices including famous historical people of the wild west fully stated, historical dates, and a several useable maps such as a tavern or cave. The overall game looks very sharp and polished with a two column letter sized page (easily compatible for A4 printing). The art has very appropriate feeling pen and ink drawings of character archetypes and several encounters which are visually stunning. Oh, and did I forget to mention the game is so detailed about riding animals that the horse your cowboy rides even gets its own character sheet and can be trained to do certain things? This book is easily the best cowboy rpg I've seen in a long time, and in short manages to pack an incredible number of things in in a short page length. It is definitely one of these 'one book and happy' rpgs, and one that should not be missed in your collection!" 

Engineers are the wizards & weird scientists of the Gunslinger rpg. Engineers  are literally responsible for any of the weird tech within Gunslinger. And the 'dungeons' and 'ruins' of Gunslinger are ripe with lots of these artifacts. 

Twisting ThingsTowards the Darker Rpg - OSR Commentary On The Darker Rpg By The Red Room Crew

 Let's pick it up from here with the PC's party of military & civilian investigators done. The PC's are an investigative unit of the US government to determine if the world is being invaded by Dark Forces! Hint it is! 

This of course picks up the charcters involved up too thier eyeballs with the Tempus Fugit cult and it's machinations involving the kidnapping of children. These children are also being offered to a dark and twisted travelling troupe.  Here the underworld's influence is much more pronounced. And we have the Hellish underworld certainly being in more evidence. One thing I've had to do is to give the player's PC's smaller minions to bang on and destoy. Something that was evident from Shadow & son's review of Darker. 

Darker has a far faster PC generation set of rules then some of the other OSR games I've seen. This gives a far smoother version of play. I'm certainly incorporating earlier Wretchedverse rpg adventures into our current campaign. The Beyond & the Underworld don't really controdict each other per say. 

Something Wretched This Way Comes  seems to fit the vibe of Darker very well with it's mature themes plugging right into Darker. 

Beyond the cursed travelling troupe bring a front for Dark Powers there's certainly enough here to drive home of the connection betweeen New York City & Wrethed New Flesh's Avilidad. The themes of high weirdness and deabolical Underworld are not too far removed. I think that the Darker rpg reads as if the X files & the 90's show Millinum had a love child. 

OSR Commentary On MSL-1 X Terminate by Dale 'Slade' Henson For The Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Rpg

 ""Dominus. Mister Sinister. Apocalypse. In the old days, these villains operated under the name "Factor Three." But those old days are gone, right?" 

Wrong! They're back, and they're every bit as formidable as before. Chaos is their middle name. This time, they're using the technology of the day against you: X-Factor. Can you defeat these three emissaries of evil, or will they X-Terminate you in the process?" 

The year is '91 and we'd just finished the Days of Future Past series of modules. Back in our Earth Dominus, Mister Sinister, &  Apocalypse reared thier heads! This wasn't a group of take lightly! The X teams had split up and we found ourselves in the middle of the events of X Terminate by Dale 'Slade' Henson.  We knew we were dealing with the fictious X Factor team after doing some investigation. My uncle tied in the plot hooks from Days of Future Past's series of modules to the awakening of Apocalpyse. 
Things got very vicious as we dealt with X Factor almost fatally. We mistook them for servants of Mr.Sinister. Remember back then not a lot was known in universe about Sinister. There was enough of a mix up that we almost killed Beast! There was some very nasty confusion of our two groups. We accidently exposed X Factor on national television or so we thought. This was actually the hand of Sinister. And what we knew about Sinister went back to the Mutant Masacre event with the Moorlocks. 

So we didn't take any chances, after dealing with Sentinels. And other dire threats our party didn't pull any punches. 

Our party did a forray into the Moorlock tunnels beneath New York City to find out the extent of Mr.Sinister's crew.  We looked deeper into X Factor and began to see the hand of Apocalpyse. X Terminate became far more then most of the module and led into us becoming involved with our Earth's Mutant Rail Road.  Our party filled in the X Men's role in several areas. But our party was far more under the radar and operated from the shadows along the lines of the Wild Pack and Silver Sable. We had zero time for some of the grand standing of the X teams. And clashed with them on a regular basis when they came back. 
We also clashed with Apocalpyse who played for keeps & had little time for the niceties of the super heroic grand standing. We killed the Maruaders with impunity anytime we ran across them. 
X Terminate became a stepping stone X module for our own player's PC's and campaign ideas that my uncle had. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Subsector Sourcebook: Ashima By John Watts For The Earth Sector rpg

 "Is this where you meet your fate?

Ashima Subsector is named for a Semitic goddess of fate and, like all the subsectors in Earth Sector, the names were given long before anyone went into these areas much less settled them. However, here, the name has been rather appropriate. 

Originally, most thought that the Argentinians would end up dominating this subsector, but that was not to be.  Others thought the United States might move aggressively into the
subsector, but that never happened.  Some thought Nigeria would do the same as would Australia but, in the end, nine of the systems of Ashima Subsector would remain independent.  Argentina, the United States, Australia, and Nigeria each hold only one system while Israel, a late arrival to interstellar colonization, holds four."

"Ashima Subsector is a mix of colonies held by nation-states and independent worlds.  Often used as a gateway into the Sacrament Sector frontier, many still come to the subsector for opportunity."

"Filled with system maps, world maps, and physical data for each world, this book is a treasure trove of information for Referees who want to take their Earth Sector adventures further afield or for those who simply want a variety of worlds for their uses. Government, legal, cultural, and population details will assist the Referee in painting a picture of each world for their players.""

 Subsector Sourcebook: Ashima By John Watts For The Earth Sector rpg is the latest in the Earth sector rpg line of books. Everyone seems to forget just how cut throat the Earth sector is.  Subsector Sourcebook: Ashima does an excellent job of reminding the player's PC's just how cut throat and dire the colonial process is. Earth sector unlike other colonial entities is a combination of nation states supported by mega corporations for thier colonies. This creates deadly competition and sometimes outright warfare among these entities. 

 Subsector Sourcebook: Ashima has some great power plays between Isreal,  Argentina, the United States, Australia, and Nigeria colonies. These colonial worlds are varied and very well done. The writing of John Watts is tight and well done. We get a snap shot of each and every world along with it's meshing of the interstellar politics. These politics overlap and influence the Earth sector as well because it takes a lot of cash to support these colonies. 

This presents plenty of opportunities for spacers and adventurers to take full advantage of these colonies for shipping of passengers, gear, food, equipment, and more. There's plenty of trouble to be had as well because these worlds are highly dangerous and full of trouble. 
Is  Subsector Sourcebook: Ashima By John Watts worth getting?! In a word,' Oh yes!' especially if your into the Earth sector like myself. This Subsector sourcebook brings a lot to the table with plenty of new colonial worlds, factions, and opportunties for adventures. At one hundred and twenty three pages it doesn't overstate it's contents and brings fresh Earth sector goodness to the table top of a 2d6 

OSR Commentary On Flames of Doom MX4 By David 'Zeb' Cook For Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Rpg

 "Citizens of North America!" "It is your right to live free of fear! It is your right to choose your future! Do not support the evil work of an illegal government!" "The end of the Terror is at hand. Humans and mutants alike are rising up against the criminal agents who have usurped the rightful positions and duties of our government. Now is the time to strike! Only guns can free mankind!" "The Canadian Resistance Army is your ally. Strike down the Sentinels! It can be done!" --by order of Nick Fury, commander, Canadian Resistant Army It's no longer a game."

" It's not a fight for survival. It's not even hitting back at those who have hurt you. Now, it's all-out war. You have the chance to go from hunted mutant to leader of the revolution. Are you up to the challenge? How does the future end? Here is your chance to shape the world in the image you want. This adventure presents the end of a nightmare future, the fourth in the MX series of giant robotic mutant hunters versus super-powered resistance fighters. Can you prevail over the forces of tyranny and evil? Can you face the Flames of Doom?"  This blog entry picks right up from our coverage of MX3 Reap The Whirlwind. 

Flames of Doom MX4 By David 'Zeb' Cook is the fourth module in the series and the one where things got seriously weird for our group during the early Nineties. Flames of Doom appeared in Eighty Seven and acts as a bookend for the Nightmares of Future Past series. Make no mistake events, things, and sentinels are desparate. According to the Flames of Doom Wiki entry which has an adventure plot break down; " In the adventure, Mystique has become aware of the player characters, and sends the Sentinels to kill them. If this fails, Mystique meets the characters in disguise, and sets up an ambush. If this fails, Mystique offers a cease-fire in order to safeguard civilian lives if the characters will join her cause. If the characters reject her cease-fire, she declares all-out war." 

The USA is under Sentinel control but the Resistence has a plan involving the Iron Man armor. And the PC's are in the middle of it. Bear in mind that by this time our party of adventurers had been deeply involved in this campaign. We had been running resistence operations, blowing up Sentinel factories, running mutants through the underground. Flames of Doom has the PC's literally turning the war on it's ear. The PC's are the movers and shakers here. 
And this also means that the PC's are in the crosshairs and the sentinels as well as the Resistence.Even if the Resistence wins there's going to be decades of rebuilding of the world. And this means years of playablility & we went for another two years of actual Marvel Super Heroes Rpg Advanced play. 
David 'Zeb' Cook keeps his writing tight and the world building high with lots and lots of details on the Canandian Resistence, the Sentinel control zones, and more. Attitudes & reviews  towards this module go mostly postive; "  In The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games, Rick Swan called the Marvel Super Heroes game "a smooth introduction to role-playing for fans of the comics, and as such it's an qualified success." Swan went on to highly recommend Flames of Doom and the other adventures in the Future in Flames series, noting they "feature a future Earth where super-powered mutants are hunted down and imprisoned in camps." However, Swan warned that this adventure was not for the faint-hearted but rather for "ambitious players.""  We did a Hell of a lot with the Nightmares of Future Past series of modules from preventing the release of Sentinel Prime in the past, too taking out pockets of Human Supremecy cells, and taking out desparate mutant Resistence revenge weapons. 

Intergang Cash Out! -- Ascendant Rpg - Session Report

 During tonight's game it was a question of closing in on some of the cartel informants following last week's Ascendant rpg session. This week found our group of Dreadnaught Security specialists exchanging power armored mayhem through several small shops and offices downtown. This was after Intergang's sniper armored operatives were trying to pick off three of our guys last week

Our speedster Silver Streak made short work of the sniper armor and then took down the bigger bruisers waiting in the shadows! The forces of Intergang weren't done by a long chalk as they went about breaking into the local Bluddville museum,bank, and a credit union. Something's up because they've been wanting something really badly & our party isn't letting them have it. We simply brought the Intergang operatives back to the neighborhood scheduled for demolition and then brought it down on thier heads! Literally.  

We left them for Dreadnaught Security pick up later on! We want the cartel that hired them and feel that all of this stems back to events from Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold

Debts of Honor & Cash - Part II - Trey Causey's Strange Stars - Session Report

 We pick right up from part I of the last session with our party having going on a series of  trucking and cargo runs to get our former party member out of debt. During these runs we did a bit of trading along the way at the hyperspace gate waystations. 

Our group came across two blasters that were from Old Earth's United Planets & therefore very rare. The trader had a map to ship laden with treasure from the same empire. We bargained our trade goods and some fire gems for the map. 
We were able to secure the map for a small fee and then transmitted our completing the cargo run for the debter. We knew that our friend would soon be freed of his debt so it was time to take a quick VR trip to the local representive of the Library of Atoz-Theln about map. The representive didn't want payment per say but a favor back on Circus for the library. They varified the interstellar map being legit and from an earlier time period. This might be a rare coup. 
We ended the session here and then for the next five days I came down with whatever form of the 'plague' was going around. I was in bed & got very sick. As quickly as I came down I recovered! 

OSR Commentary On The Darker Rpg By The Red Room Crew

 My Red Room Wretched rpg campaign dried up several weeks ago due to scheduling conflicts with two of my players who are long haul truck drivers. That's scheduling conflict has changed & the second thing that's changed is the fact that all of the players are on board. 

The third thing that's changed is that I now have a 'working copy' of the Darker rpg to use at the table top level. The Darker rpg clicks almost all of my my boxes; "Darker is a contemporary mature horror RPG, OSR-compatible, challenging you to confront themes of faith, morality, and the human condition amidst escalating supernatural peril. Face the true nature of Good and Evil, moral erosion, and humanity’s decline, investigate modern-day horrors hidden behind a façade of normalcy and tackle contemporary issues like corporate power, ideological grooming, and the erosion of traditional values."  Darker rpg 'Red rpg system is kinda close to a B/X Dungeons & Dragons that's been expanded. 
The basic themes of Darker is that God is gone & no one sits on Heaven's Throne. Monsters & demons roam the Earth taking victims at will.  Spirits & gods carved out the planes of Heavens into their own planes. The various occult  factions of Earth are carving humanity up like a Christmas turkeys. Here come the PC's as do gooders & anti heroes just as creepy and dangerous as the foes they face. 
In our own Darker rpg campaign we had a local Tempus Fugit cult has been abducting children & offering them to the Machinatores. The cult's cybermancer's have been opening a portal under the direction of the Machinatores.. All of this is taking place in a rundown tenament building in New York.This portal connects both New York City and Avilidad with a fascimile of the building existing in both places because of the portal. This allows travel between the two places. 
The Machinatores are taking the kids for an unknown purpose while showering the cult with high end technology. Within the building are two laboratories within the tenament to try and analize them. 
The Machinatores guard thier portal with Scarri black monsterous asssassins. These assassins are used as terror weapons against the cult's enemies. The Machinatores are breaking down the local space time continuum & reality anchors to allow the Underworld to gain a foot hold. The PC's have been called in by the parents of one of the missing kids because they fear something sinister is happening. 

OSR Commentary On Reap the Whirlwind (MX3) By Caroline and Warren Spector For Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Rpg

 ""You've been hounded by jack-booted, white-shirted vigilantes. You've been hunted by killer robots."

"You've lived like an animal."
You've had enough.
Now it's time for mutants to fight back, time for the hunted to become the hunters. You've learned to survive, to thrive, by striking from the shadows. A thrust here. A blow there.
Now word has begun to circulate of a mutant with power enough to frighten the sentinels ... of equipment which can give mutants a fighting chance against their oppressors ... of a man with a vision, a vision of a mutant army capable of overwhelming any foe.
You'll strike like a whirlwind and reap what you can. Your lives will never be the same.
The thought appeals to you."

 Reap the Whirlwind (MX3) By Caroline and Warren Spector For Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Rpg amps up the themes & tone of the other modules that we've covered in this series to eleven. The PC's are at the center of the Resistence & come in as experienced operators & agents. The plot according too the MX3 Reap The Whirlwind wiki entry goes something like this;"In Reap the Whirlwind, the player characters must find and free a mutant woman whose power allows her to mask her mutant abilities as well as the abilities of mutants near her from Sentinels. The woman, Gilda Ginsel, was accidentally captured by a Sentinel and is being sent to a research facility where her power will be unmasked unless she is rescued. Once the player characters have freed Gilda, they must make take her to the relative safety of Canada via an Underground Railway, where they will meet up with Nick Fury and Wolverine." 
Make no mistake MX3 Reap The Whirlwind is a campaign module in every sense of the word. Not only are the PC's embroiled in Underground Railroad for mutants smuggling into Canada. But they find themselves  taken to the Canadian headquarters of Stark Enterprises, and have to fight off a cross-border raid by Sentinels.Then there's also the mini adventure in which the PC's have to join a mutant army down in Texas to overwhelm the local Sentinels! 
 Reap the Whirlwind (MX3) is a campaign module in which the world & campaign of Nightmares of Future's Past come vividly alive. The PC's are heavily invested in & a part of this world. They are a party to the future of this Earth in every sense of the word. The MX series of modules isn't for the faint of heart and are highly flexible. Even if the Resistence wins there's going to be decades of rebuilding of the world. 
Are the Future in Flames series modules worth the download especially MX3 Reap The Whirlwind? According to the module's wiki entry;"In The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games, Rick Swan recommended Reap the Whirlwind and the entire "Future in Flames" series as an excellent introduction to the super hero genre, but warned that these adventures were for "ambitious players."" 
We were one group of  "ambitious players." back in '91 or so. We took our PC's and played for through months of operations, assignments, sabotage, heroics and more in order too thwart the Sentinels. We lost a ton of PC's through this series of module but they were a blast. 

Things Among The Oort Cloud - Hostile Rpg Session Report

 At the edge of the Oort Cloud a giant radio telescope has been tethered on a super Earth near the Tyche gas giant. The Eye is a massive radio telescope &  joint collboration between three of the largest mining mega corporations. The Eye is  used to search large swaths of the galaxy for worlds with large swaths of natural resources. The mining mega corporations funded the Eye at the end of the Second Recession. The PC's are playing guard dogs to the exploratory science team.  This blog post picks right up from here on the blog. 

Randy's World is a large super Earth that has an unusually dense alien jungle eco system with tons of alien prehistoric lifeforms. The PC's are exploring a desert section of Randy's World & have found something interesting. There are scattered alien ruins & odd foundations in the middle of the desert. There is also a series of ponds & catch basins filled with organic liquids. These catch basins are surrounded by weird plants that appear no place else on the planet.
 What's really going on?! The fen is actually the holding point for the Things From Another world. There is a nearby hyperspatial gateway that leads to other points at the edge of the galaxy. The party hasn't investigated past the planet's natural resources and just learned about the ruins tonight. 

OSR Commentary On CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan For The FASERIPopedia! Rpg

 "Taking as its inspiration Saturday morning science fantasy cartoons and the Golden Age comics era character CROM THE BARBARIAN, this sourcebook brings the full fantasy roleplaying experience to FASERIPopedia!"

"CROM features some of the most startling art and monsters, most exciting characters and settings of any FASERIPopedia game!

A full sandbox chart set is provided to generate detailed "hexes" to explore or fight over as well as a generator for the scattered city-states of CROM's world!

The Bestiary lists cosmic horrors and exotic threats quite unlike the normal and a real challenge even for hyper league superheroes!"

Right, so let's pick it right up from here on the blog.   We're talking Sword, Sorcery, and Super Science! 
CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan  For The  FASERIPopedia! Rpg is an incredibly diverse sourcebook. Part Sword & Sorcery sourcebook, part low fantasy  setting & partially a campaign book all in one. Crom the Barbarian is set to take the FASERIPopedia! Rpg in slightly different direction. This is not Conan but instead a completely different character. 

We've used the Crom The Barbarian supplement like a side realm where the PC's have gotten themselves into some real trouble as raiders from Crom's world have given our Marvel Super Heroes rpg & Ascendant rpg players bloody noses. Crom is about as well organized and laidout as other  FASERIPopedia! Rpg (because an editor could go a long way towards getting this material into better shape). That being said there's so much good stuff that gets handed to the players and DM.  FASERIPopedia! Rpg supplements love to cover just about everything about the PC that they can. Crom is no different. 
Here we get a plethora of over arching themings that hit all of the right points for the the FASERIPopedia! Rpg. So for our own campaigns Crom's realm is a realm that is far removed from the normal Earth.
The realm of Crom was last accessed during the Seventies when portals from  Subterraea into Bloodville caused a major rift. This Rift was used by raiders from Crom's world for years in our Ascendant rpg campaign. Villainous goons from Crom's world are much more powerful then the PC's at first thought. And this comes into Crom's scaleable villain and NPC rules.  And then there's Crom's monsters and bad guys whom are designed on the Saturday morning 'Thundarr The Barbarian' model of more power and less brains. 
Crom presents some rather unique challenges to heroes of both Ascendant & FASERIP rpg powered games. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Faster Then Light: Nomad Synthoids By Robert Garitta For Cepheus Engine rpg & Faster Than Light: Nomad Rpg

 "Many science-fiction roleplaying campaigns fall into the standard, trading, good-mercs-beat-the-bad-mercs, shady work for credits, or hunt treasure. The addition of AI, whether robots or Synthoids, can change this dramatically. The presence of Synthoids in a campaign pose some underlying, somewhat uncomfortable, questions: What is it to be human or self-aware? How will humanity treat their children?"

"Given our history as a species, the answer to those questions is not encouraging. We’ve enslaved and oppressed other humans. Non-humans should be wary. Dystopian human societies may view them as slaves or even cannon fodder: send the Synthoid out to see how the monster works! Or stick a gun in a Synthoid’s hands and you have a soldier at a lower price than drafting and training a human."

"More enlightened worlds may welcome Synthoids as partners in their glorious progressivism and are proud that Synthoids are designed to survive and thrive while doing jobs that would break a human. Of course, Synthoids will resist oppression, since they are based on a human design. There will be escapes, riots and perhaps revolts. Humans may learn too late that their servants were really their replacements."

Faster Then Light: Nomad Synthoids By Robert Garitta hit the stands a couple of days ago. Meaning that right out the gate I'm behind in my Cepheus Engine & relatives Rpg reviews. 
Mr.Garitta hits the ground running with a discussion on the ethics of androids and cyber entities. That's not bad for a thirty two page set of rules that allows the DM or players to generate thier own android or artificial person PC. These rules cover the basics and slide easily into your Faster Then Light 2d6 rpg campaigns easily. The rules are fast and on point about the capabilities of androids. 
They hit all of the major resources to add in androids and the like to your 2d6 Science Fiction games. These rules and the entire supplement really cover the plight of the artificial worker or slave in a civilization and what that means per say to the culture. 

Faster Then Light: Nomad Synthoids hits the ground running & covers it subject well. It handles the subject with grace & wit. While giving both player & DM everything that they need to add in artificial people and androids to thier games. This is a no brainer purchase. Because if you've got even a passing interest in androids then Faster Then Light: Nomad Synthoids is for you. 

Intergang Break Out! -- Ascendant Rpg - Session Report

  This session picks right up after a few days have passed and Lady Elizabeth has healed up in Medical. The cartels have invested in bringing a specialist assassin group in the form of Intergang's Super Human divsion's operatives. Intergang decided to bring in thier latest power armor to do a bit of 'shopping' by robbing several of the local credit unions. 
Bludville isn't as important as Metropolis but it's got a lower finiancial profile then the cutting edge cities such as Metropolis or the waning popularity of New York City's Gothem city within a city profile. There was something being stored in one of the banks that Intergang were knocking over. This is when Silver Sable's Wildpack stepped in. The PC's backed off the Wildpack as this was thier collar. 

Intergang has completely gone off the reservation and came up against Silver Sable's Wildpack in tonight's game session. The PC's were minimizing the collateral damage to thier city as power armored Intergang operatives took out the vault. 
The PC's went full tilt against the Intergang operatives and didn't hold back. They took the fight into an abandoned neighborhood that was due for demolition. The crew took down two buildings on the Intergang operatives. Trapping them for Dreadnaught Security to pick up later on. 

This all echoes off from events from Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold

This is when Intergang's hitmen closed in with Apocalpyse precision sniper blasters and almost picked off two of our party! They managed to avoid the blasts and then had the ruins around them dumped on thier heads. Here's were we stopped! 

OSR Commentary - Marvel Super Heroes Advanced rpg & MX2 The X- Potential By Mark Acres

 "One Hundred Thousand to Attend Mutant Execution," one headline screams. "Senator Hints at Link Between Mutant, Commie Plots!" shouts another. In the Streets, white-shirted men wearing distinctive armband of the Knights of Genetic Purity march in lockstep, treading underfoot any suspected of being soft on mutants. In the public schools, kindergarten children raise their arms in clenched fist salute of the National American Social Improvement Party and chat the party slogan, "One People, One Blood, One Nation!"

"Is this but a super hero's nightmare? No. This is America; home town U.S.A., 25 to 50 years in the future. In this America, constitutional government is all but gone. Real power is held by the sentinels, a group of powerful robots programmed to seek out and capture or destroy all human mutants and all beings with any hint of super poewrs. Sharing power with the sentinels are a handful of political demagogues who keep the population whipped into a constant frenzy about the mutant menace. Any super heroes who survive in this hostile environment do so by constantly facing the full military, political, and technological might of a new totalitarian state in the making."

Marvel Super Heroes rpg Advanced holds a lot of nosolgia especially from the Nineties. We pick right up from where last left off from MX1 Days of Future Past on the blog here.  From Gates of What if we jumped to our home town right into the arms of The Knights of Genetic purity along with representives of  the National American Social Improvement Party. 
Our party hid right away only to be told that we'd have been killed by the Sentinel purges that swept through New England. As critic James Wallis noted in his review of MX2 The X- Potential;"a change from most Marvel Super Heroes adventures, the player characters are not fighting crime but fighting for their lives."  And fought we did because this was our hometown were the Sentinels had taken hold. Our own hometown is a repair depot and facility for the Sentinels. There were jobs aplenty as long as you don't mind working for the bad guys. 
The representives of  the National American Social Improvement Party run the day to day business of the Sentinels. The rest of the town had two manufacturing plants for parts, weapons, and sensors for the Sentinels. When we gated in the Resistence in our hometown had been crushed. We took thier place almost seemlessly. 
According to the MX2 wiki entry;"The X-Potential is the first of three adventures set in this bleak future. It adds more details of the world, then describes the events that will happen around a large political demonstration over several days. The players are free to intervene as they see fit. At various times, the gamemaster supplies them with front pages of "The Daily Journal"." 
What MX2 The X Potential does is take what we saw in X1 Nightmares of Future Past adventure/supplement and then adds to it by bringing the nightmare to the PC's home town or campaign city. MX2 adds in too the feel of 'the old town goes to Sentinel Hell' and then some. The face of The X-Potential is your PC's faces as the party becomes embroiled in these nightmare campaign world.What this does is give the player's agency and accessibility within the campaign. The struggle for the PC's lives leads there to being much more at stake. These nightmare campaign worlds were places that we adventured in and affected on a much more base and basic level. 
MX 2 The X- Potential shows that the PC's could and would affect the world on a far more campaign effecting level. The PC's actions have significant effects on the campaign world especially thier own home town. There's a dedication here in MX2 that allows the PC's influence to add an extra layer to the player's actions during play.
All in all MX2 The X-Potential is a classic larger then life adventure that hits the vibrarant notes for classic Marvel Super Hereoes rpg Advanced. There's someting really sastifying about busting the heads of Sentinels & destroying thier plans. We played through MX2 The X-Potential many times and it continued to have a solid play value as both adventure and supplement. 

Debts of Honor & Cash - - Trey Causey's Strange Stars - Session Report

 One of the pleasures of using Stars Without Number is being able to make the game work for you as a DM to keep the players engaged. The player's PC's are on Phase World's Grand Arena level looking for a Thrax warrior who was a part of thier crew many moons ago and they heard rumors that he's in the Grand Arena fighting, again. This session picks right up from where we left off last time. 

In Darthx The Destroyer's off hours he's been an instructor and gladiator coach within a seedy Gladiatorial school. He's been working at the Blood  Moon School from Citybook III Deadly Nightside. 

There's  got to be a reason because Darthx had gotten free from his old gladiatorial patron. So what's drawn him back?! Our party has been speculating on this as they made thier way to the Blood Moon school. The connection is that half of our party's fighter types was trained there and came up the ranks as gladiators. 
Darthx is on a suicide path because he's been going against mecha. We dodged   Cabilan mercenaries who wanted our hides quite literally. 
A few ambushes and traps took out four mercenaries with little fanfare. 

Inside the Blood Moon school we made our way to pay our respects to our old coaches & called over Darthx. We found out his old patron had his Thraxu blade  for ransom! Thrax warriors who have such a blade covet them as honor debts for a sum or money.  We pulled our cash and went to the patron. But such a debt was not easy to get out of. Because now we've got to make a cargo run for this guy to get out of the debt. 

Adventures With MA7 'The unofficial canon project' The Marvel Super Hereos rpg Golden Age of Heroes book For Marvel Super Heroes Rpg - Session Report

   MA7 The Marvel Super Heroes Rpg: the Unofficial Canon Projects Marvel Super Hereos rpg Golden Age of Heroes book is the primary resource for my buddy DM Peter's World War II campaign. DM Paul relies on   the Marvel Super Heroes Rpg: the Unofficial Canon Projects. 

We were hired by the Dark Angel 1935-1950 to recover Percy Von Horton who was brainwashed and coverted over to the Super Axis. Our 1930-1955 team of heroes The Red Line has been tasked with this & the Von Horton family. 

 The Battle Axis's agents fed  Percy Von Horton  a variation of the super soldier formula through agents.  Which has the unintended side effect of lowering the intellect of the user. Percy stopped using his yoga secrets & came too rely on the formula. He also came under the influence of Lady Lotus & she twisted his mind into the Super Axis. 

Currently we're on the track of the Super Axis in the United States out in the South Western United States. We think that Axis are out to damage the resource infrastructure of the US. We've got a safe house out in Arizona and we're flying there now. 

Circus Cargo Haul - Trey Causey's Strange Stars - Session Report

 My player's PC's picked up a cargo haul from Circus to Phase World through the hyperspace gateways. The player's PC's have ditched the cannibal Scavenger Fleet that they engaged with two or so sessions ago. We're still in the middle of our Trey Causey Strange Stars Campaign using Stars Wihtout Number Revised. This session picks right up from last session here on the blog. 

 The player's PC's picked up three tons of ore & were to deliver it to thier contacts on Phase World. The Gnomes seemed very nervous around the PC's & they were not up to chit chat with the PC's. The party checked over the cargo twice with scanners to make sure that there weren't extra devices through thier cybersneaks. The party found an extra radiation signature that didn't belong in the ore haul. A low grade radiaoactive isotope had been secreted among the ore. The party suspected Cabilan mercenaries! 

 They began to look into homing & tracking devices on thier space hauler. They found none. Then they found another bit of the isotope that had been secreted onto thier hauler via a cyberspace scan! They had no doubt that the Cabilan mercenaries were laying in wait along thier route to Phase World. And so they took the long way around via the secondary gateway. 

The  Cabilan mercenaries want the party's space hauler, the party, and the honor of consuming them. The party has been giving them a merry hunt so far. They've got drone ships now scowering the systems along thier route to Phase World because they aim to get paid. 

Hostile Rpg Campaign & The Edge Of The Galaxy -

 Several months ago, I dropped a hint into our on going Hostile campaign that there were alien artifacts left behind by ancient alien civilations. You can forget the run of the mill stock Science Fiction abandoned cities. 

No instead I started to think about really unusual alien hyperspace  gateways that were scattered throughout the greater area of our own solar system. These gateways connect to the outer arm of our own galaxy from our own solar system. 
What was left behind out on the edge of the galaxy are artifacts that defy explaination. Hyperspacial constructions &  spheres that can blast the sanity of anyone dumb enough to mess with them. HG Giger inspired bio mechanical worlds whose purpose is completely unknown and yet still continues to function & run. 

Artwork by HG Giger used without permission. 

There are worldlets left behind floating in artificial orbits that continue to explore, manufacture,etc. all for unknown purposes. There are lifeforms that are completely immicial to humanity and yet we have no clue as to thier makers or purposes.  Hyperspacial gateways that lead to God knows where and these are coupled with time travel animolies that can dissect a person's personal time spacial line separating the person into multiple timelines that they experience all at once. These are some of the ideas that I've been cooking up in the background of our Hostile campaign. 

OSR Commentary - FASERIPopedia Lost Empires Rpg Sourcebook By Johnathan Nolan & Ascendant Rpg Campaign update Report

 "CAMILLA!

Deathless Queen of a Lost Empire! Confused "jungle queen" in an Africa that seems scarcely to want her! Explore the extremely weird and at times cringe inducing world of Golden Age comics with this complete sourcebook on the public domain golden age character Camilla, a complete map of her strange world of the Lost Empire, FASERIPopedia statistics for all her friends and foes, rules to create your own Jungle Adventurers and White Devil evil-doers and a whole circus full of weird and wonderful new creatures! Stats for Viking War Galleys, Zebra Chariots, a German U-Boat, items, ancient languages -- this sourcebook has it all!" 
This picks up from here on the blog. 

So over the last twenty four hours, I've been going through some minor issues with one of our PC's. Within our group we've got the Daughter of Fantomah whose a stand in our Ascendant rpg for Wonder Woman. She's got a whole host of skills but her use of divine Egyptian magic comes in really handy. She's a strike first and ask questions later kinda of gal. The Daughter of Fantomah is a lower level Ascendant who makes up for it with divine magic. The Daughter of Fantomah is connected to the Lost Empire realm through the moongates. One of these connects to the Subterraea tunnels below Bludville. 

Linsey Warren was an ordinary 1980's teenager who along with her friends took a ride on the "Lost Empire Jungle Ride Rollercoaster". What happened to her friends is a mystery but Linsey didn't emerge from the tunnels below the ride until 2029! What happened to her friends isn't known. (Yes, this is a homage to the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon of the 1980's). Linsey's biggest question is what happened to her 1970's preducessor the last Daughter of Fantomah?! She's pieced together quite a bit of her origin after finding the Amulet of Horus. And taking the party into Subterraea. Bloodville was the sight of a major battle of the 1970's in the underworld tunnels where many of the heroes parished!

The Lost Empire became a major point of contension because of the pools of immortality. These pools are part of the Lazarus Pits of DC fame and offer far more then at first they seem. These pools are filled with the 'black blood of the Earth' and far rarer elements. 
These pools and others seem to form because of the planar radiations buffering against reality. These are in turn constantly being sought be despoilted and exploited by villainous goons. 
Here's where the FASERIPopedia Lost Empires Rpg Sourcebook shines (even though it's badly organized & such), we get scalable FASERIP rpg villains & goon rules. These are welcome additions because it allows the DM to push out some costumed villains for his campaign quickly and effortlessly.