Street King Throw Down! - Ascendant Rpg Session Report - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav- Session Report

  We had a diffferent sort of action in tonight's  Ascendant rpg campaign session. During last week's game, Plasma our resident fire user had his body gravely wounded. And we were able to get his body into a magnetic containment vessel. Things were not looking good for Plama and Dreadnaught Security, Inc. called in S.T.A.R.R. Lab specialists to handle Plama's case. 
Our party was told to get back on the case & that a lead had emerged from The Unseen Court who had witnessed the Psycho Warriors breaking into a local warehouse. 

The Unseen Court are taken from Ascendant's Served Cold By Karl Gustav with Alexander Marcus; "The Unseen Court: The Unseen Court is a group of street level heroes and crime fighters that emerged from Capital City’s homeless and transient population. Little is known about the organization, as its members are skilled at hiding in plain sight and protected by a large network of informers and supporters. Neither police, criminal, nor journalistic efforts to investigate the group have succeeded. What is known is that the Unseen Court is notoriously short on cash, with all of the organization’s funds being diverted into charitable purposes to help the city’s most needy" 
After meeting with two representives of the Unseen Court - Trash & Midnight Maiden  learned that the Psycho Warriors picked up some cargo & took off in thier high tech hover plane. The local cartel The Street Kings is incredibly upset with these invaders. 
The heroes decided to search the warehouse for clues. What they ended up finding instead was a group of cartel goons scoping out the warehouse! The party decides to head in and comes face to face with armed cartel enforcers & El Cazador, one of the deadliest El Cartel enforcers in Capital City! 

The party is down a man & still they closed in. Within seconds they were back to back with capes with powers they weren't expect. Then El Cazador gives them the following threat; "I have something to say. Listen, and listen closely. These words will not be repeated. You have been noticed. You are being watched. You are interfering in an important, natural, social process—justice, the balancing of scales. You bring your unwieldy conduct to this time of the settling of debts. No longer. Forget what you’ve found, forget who you’ve seen, pretend this never happened, or another debt will be accrued—yours. And all debts must be settled, and I am one that the true powers in this city send to settle them.”" 
The party attacked with gusto and crippled two of the Street King capes before they retreated due to an energy projector who kept them under cover we ended here. 

Enter The Psycho Warriors - Ascendant Rpg Session Report - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav-

 The PC's have been called into a new mission as they've made a cosmic entity report after encountering the High Evolutionary last session. Now the PC's are to perform a raid on an illicit drug lab except when they got there all they found was victims being tortured. And here's where things got sideways after a hovercraft comes for a landing at the illicit lab!  The illicit lab had been taken over from the cartels by some forgein concern! 
`

Immediately the PC's took on gun & energy rifle fire! These guys were playing for keeps! 
The PC's were confronted by a battlion of Psycho Warriors who looked like rejects from an S&M club combined with future soldiers uniforms. Even grievously wounded these guys kept coming! 

A few carefully placed grenades and the speedster Racer rolled really well! A small group of seven Psycho Warriors were taken out! Or they would be if the demonic entities that were animating them didn't keep them going! 
This freaked the players out as these things didn't stop! Plasma bursts and laser vision blasts later those same warriors were taken out! And so it went! There was no retreat as the warriors poured over the party and rained energy fire on them! 

Two of the player's PC's were wounded causing the PC's to retreat to get medical attention from a local Doctor's House lab & depot! 

Star Labs was closed on a Sunday! But our Plasma based hero Hothead was incredibly unstable. But the PC's got him medical attention on time getting our resident flaming hero into a magnetic containment tank in time! The players are pissed that they had to break off the action! 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Five - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav- Evolutionary's Revolution

 "“It may have taken a slide down the evolutionary ladder to enable me to slough off my madness, but I am lucid once more. Furthermore, my perspective on both the Human race and my life’s work has been profoundly altered by the experience. I have been to both ends of Human evolution. I have known first-hand the humble origins of life on this sphere, as well as the ultimate genetic destiny of the Earth’s highest lifeform, Man."
During last week's game by DM Paul The High Evolutiionary showed up! And this wasn't a guest spot. But a reveal! We had to think fast or  we would be on the end of a Marvel heavy hitter!  Note that DM Paul is using the High Evolutionary profle from Write Ups. org.  & his origin ties into our Ascendant Marvel/DC comics campaign. We were found out! 

We dug into our collective comic book lore and addressed the High Evolutionary citing the fact that wiping out the entire drug scene of could damage the genetic potential of the gene pool of our city by eliminating the random elements that mutation needed. Note that there was no way our party was going to take the High Evolutionary. This guy has gone toe to toe with the Hulk and Galactus. And survived! Jason Kilpatrick the Cybernetisit rolled really well 
He pondered this for a moment as his fanatics in power armor surrounded us. The High Evolutionary is a shadowy figure in DM Paul's campaign that runs a cult for the betterment of mankind and it's glorious destiny of evolution. He's mostly seen running ads in the back of New Age magazines.  
Then suddenly he says that he has to consider the data more carefully and then get back to us. He will with draw from the city for the moment. Bludville is safe for the moment but he would have to draw samples of our genetic material for further consideration. No problem with that. The High Evolutionary & his forces  would be leaving the city by the next day. 

We then had to report into Dreadnaught Security about these developments and then move on to our next assignment. 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Five - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav- Evolution's Edge

 "So this session picks right up with the PC's meeting the Everyman in the center of Bluddville's meat packing  district in a small park. ' The Everyman' taunted the player's PC's with some raher unsavory details of thier last meeting. And included some information including the fact that his drug operations have been affected by the inclusion of poisoned product to some of his users. And over the last several months he has been unable to track down the source. 'The Everyman' 's alliance with  the group's old villain Poker Face is fragile as he suspects his mentor's interference with his profits to both the vile mob and the villain himself'. Why is unknown. "  'The Everyman's suggestion was to investigate a warehouse down in the 'Bowels' the lowest neighborhood within Bluddville' 

The party went to grab 'The Everyman' but merely got an innocent person who had no idea how he got to the park from his house?! After a questioning of the poor slob the party decided to check out this warehouse.  After a drive through several ever worsinging neighborhood. The PC's came to a brand new & very out of place warehouse. The warehouse was guarded by several guys in white power armor & very high tech weaponry.  The heroes are thrown because they were expecting a gang of mob henchmen & drug dealers. Behind the warehouse a single strange hovercraft approaches & proceeds to land. The PC's sneak behind the warehouse to see a strange group of differently clad men take off a floating coffin deep into the warehouse.  The PC's decided that decresion is the better part of valor and sneak in back of the warehouse making rolls to avoid security cameras, security alarms, and more.  The warehouse is wired for sound!  Inside the huge warehouse the PC's spot a strange massive figure in red armor - The High Evolutionary! 

Too say that the player's are not happy to see this development is an understatement. In DM Paul's campaign the High Evolutionary is shadowy figure of a crackpot cult whose been sewing the seeds of humanity's 'glorious destiny at the head of godhood and evolution's end'.  This is where we ended! Note that DM Paul is using the High Evolutionary profle from Write Ups. org.  & his origin ties into our Ascendant Marvel/DC comics campaign. 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Five - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav- Gamber's Round

 The PC's in tonight's Ascendant rpg campaign session started poking around for evidence that Poker Face had indeed returned. The return of one of the group's old villains Poker Face means that the murder count could rise. This vile villain is highly unstable often getting frustrated in his schemes and taking his frustrations out on his victims. He has a hair trigger making this low level Ascendant very dangerous!  Tonight's session picks right up from May 1st session available for a read here.  Events in tonight's game up point the damage to the  criminal underworld from the fall out from Capital City Case Files#2 Served Cold. The adventure plot went something like this; "The heroes are sent to investigate a mysterious and brutal murder in a trendy apartment building by a Cartel enforcer, which leaves them racing to unravel the series of events that led to it, and trying to stop the rampage before it leaves any more corpses.." 

During tonight's game in Bludville the party finally got down and dirty with Pokerface's gang the  'Fifty'. What they weren't expecting was to go toe to toe with a mid level hired Ascendant thug called Bodyslaim  from the Cartels! This was a bit of a shlog for the party. They needed to work as a team because the mercenary Bodyslaim made short work of the team's two bricks. He literally brought two brick walls down on them. He both super strength, regeneration, and sonic powers! 
This attack came right on the heels of the party finding a vital clue and DNA evidence too the lair of Pokerface. 
The player's eventually dropped a car on Bodyslaim! And then before his regeneration could kick in called for backup from Dreadnaught Security to have him arrested. Dreadnaught sent in a clean up crew to take the mercenary in. 
The party then had the evidence gone over by thier own scientist Foxglove in Dreadnaught's crime labs. This is where I used the Ascendant Rogues Gallery for some of the background Dreadnaught Securities NPC's! 

 And the material is from Bluddville's meat packing plant neighborhoods. This is bad news. 
The party went toe to toe with the rest of the Fifty there last year while busting up one of Pokerface's dog fighting gambling and number's rackets! The party is also going to be crossing into one of thier villainous NPC mob bosses 'The Everyman'. A literal master of disguise who rules the meatpacking district with an iron fist! The party will have to arrange a meeting with the 'Everyman' to discuss terms! 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Four - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav & Gamblers Slaughter

 This half of our Ascendant rpg campaign picks up with the player's PCs getting done with second half of thier training under   Stan “the Lariat” Hansen in Japan at his training dojo. And then mopping up the last of  N.W.O. forcees  in our games from the Write Up's.org website. The PC's are being brought into Bluddville by Dreadnaught Security. And this loops around to last January's Ascendant session here.  Now a series of murders by poisoned blow dart on some of Bludville's high roll gambler's points up the return of one of the group's old villains Poker Face!  I used the character archtypes in the Ascendant Rogues Gallery supplement to sketch out Poker Face who doesn't appear in this session. But whose presence overrode the whole session! 

The events in today's session looped back around into Capital City Case Files#2 Served Cold. Several of the turfs and places in Bludville have been left in a bit of a vaccuum where Poker Face's gang 'The Fifty' have taken over. In this session the PC's got a chance to beat a bit on 'The Fifty before they brought out automatic weapons and RPG's causing the PC's to retreat or there could be more  collateral damage. 

PC's investigations revealed that the gamblers and thier funds were robbed as well as their finiances entirely drained. These gamblers had ties to the gangs and other criminals of the city. Poker Face is looking to buy his way into being a franchisee for Freak however this isn't his only angle.  Poker Face is looking for a substitute for  Freak (an Ascendant drug that grants temporary superpowers or triggers permanant powers in some users). The N.W.O. network is looking for a new distributor even though the leadership has been cut off & arrested. They don't believe that Poker Face is a good public persona for the drug. 

The player's believe that there's a third party interested in the lucrative drug trade within Bludville. And thier afraid that the series of murders could kick off a gangwar. All of the evidence they collected points to the fact that there may have been others at the crime scene. The party routed around looking for any tell tail signs of others at the crime scene. Of course they found that 'evidence' which was spur of the moment planting on the DM's part.  The party are planning thier next move and where to track down Poker Face (last time the vile villain got away with six murders of lotto winners).  

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Four - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav & Training Daze

 The PC's in tonight's Ascendant rpg adventure were training in Japan under contract to Dreadnaught Security. And thier taskmaster was   Stan “the Lariat” Hansen old partner in crime Steve Williams aka Doctor Death. 

The good Doctor brought in some his boys and began to have them spar as well as show them the ropes when it came to Ascendant mercenary tactics. The Lariet's Dojo as it's called is a multi level 'danger room', gym, and extreme sports area. The player's PC's had to out manuever physical obsticals ala flame throwers and the Death's Ascendant boys. These guys form the new Triangle of Power. 
During tonight's game two of the lower tier Ascendants almost took off  Starlight's head. Starlight is our resident telekinetic and energy blaster. She thought the TOP were playing a bit rough. The Triangle's response was that the bad guys were playing for keeps. 

The player's PC's dealings in Capital City have been iffy with the drug dealer's network being fueled by money from the sale of Freak.  Freak goes back to N.W.O. in our games from the Write Up's.org website. So the point is well taken actually. Dreadnaught Security is paying for the extra training and updating on the group's capacities and powers. 

And this is going to loop back around to the events of Capital City Case Files #2 Served Cold & last session right here. 
For tonight's session we used some of the rules, principles, and ideas that we had seen  the Ascendant Rogues Gallery supplement which is super critical for faster play. 

The PC's got a line on a shipment of Freak that was leaving the Oska labs for N.W.O.'s New York City dock's safehouse. And that's when the party got involved with Mokugeki. And this is where while taking out a dozen namelss  mooks. The ran straight into the giant head henchmen! He had the party choose between a red & blue card. The party chose the red card! 
And even after the training the party received Mokugeki gave the party some pause.. He was able to shrug off some killing blows and then full psycho killer on the party exending his claws! He slashed at everyone! 

Finally our psychic had had it with Mokugeki & dropped the gianr henchmen off the local pier. Needless to say that we may have saved the lead henchmen's life because this was when the Mark I Sentinels showed up and blasted the Freak lab into so much tinder. This is where we ended for tonight! 

 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Three - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav & Japanese Holiday

 So during last night's session the player's PC's were able to head off the murder in Capital City Case Files #2 Served Cold. Now after running into  Mark Shaw aka Manhunter from the late Eighties DC comicbook series the PC's are heading off to Japan. This is to talk with a high ranking Japanese mafia figure Stan “the Lariat” Hansen, whose a retired Ascendant from the mid 1970's. Hanson has the inside skinny on a combat drug Freak that trickled down into the underworld. This tricks out after events of Capital City Case Files#2 Served Cold. This session report and business come on the heels of this session here. 

So a couple of sessions ago we introduced Freak which is a super steriod which has a nine eight percent chance of allowing the user to become a lower tier Ascendant. The cost for the drug is high with prolonged use causing cancer and heart disease later on in life. Freak goes back to N.W.O. in our games from the Write Up's.org website. 

One of the things that we've found while playing Ascendant is that the Ascendant Rogues Gallery supplement is super critical for faster play. The book has  Chargen variant rules . And because chararcter generation was   probably the single part of Ascendant that my group found slow, and this book looks like it'll be a huge help for that. There's a chapter of hero archetypes with ready-to-play characters and easy ways to customize them.

For our games lower tier Ascendants have been a part of the landscape since the Golden Age. However with the events of 2022 the Ascendants have reappared on the international scene. Lower tier Ascended just didn't make much of a dent on the international stage. Capital City during the Eighties and Nineties was supposed to be a dream for the US but recession of 'o8 put the final nail into that idea. 
With age of the Ascendant coming into it's own Capital City is coming back to life except for the crime which is hanging on by it's finger nails. 

And that brings us to the PC's working freelance for Dreadnaught Security getting into the underworld of Japan. The Japanese have a completely different asthetic when it comes to the Ascendants. The Japanese culture is fascinated but the Ascendant are merely other celebrities. And so it goes. The Japanese underworld is another matter with the Ascendants being another set of tools in thier arsenal. 
The PC's met  Stan “the Lariat” Hansen, at one of his hotels and the party was surprisingly cordial. The meeting when off without a hitch and the party found out about the fact that N.W.O.'s drug dealings are cutting deeply into Hansen's terrority. The player's PCs are going to stay at the hotel and see Toyko for two weeks.  This is actually cover for them to train at 'the Dojo' the Ascendant training facility that Hansen actually runs on the side. This is too access the party's capabilities & powers.  And this loops around with Mark Shaw doing recon for Dreadnaught Security on the local drug lords and thier connections to the international scene. Here's where we ended! 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Two - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav

 'The PC's actually met with and had a full on productive meeting with Mark Shaw aka Manhunter. DC's Manhunter is one of the fore most Ascendant bounty hunters within our Ascendant campaign. Shaw had clues that we were more then willing to pay for about the Narco's cartel that had placed the hit on the couple who was living in the apartment complex. Our party are actually freelancers working for Dreadnaught Security. This picks right up from two weeks ago on the blog here. This game session took place several days ago, because of the holiday I'm only now posting it. 

Shaw Securities has worked closely in the past with Dreadnaught so this wasn't a total cross corporate issue. The fact that we found evidence of the superhuman drug  Freak among some of the ruins of the apartment brings the case to a whole other level.

Shaw directed us to the bounty hunter Sting and before we could leave the apartment we came face to face with Bruiser Brody. A cartel enforcer/hitman who single handedly beat the snot out of Kimado and Scar are two our party's hand to hand guys. 
The battle leveled a warehouse and caused some property damage this came outta of the player's PC's paychecks. And in the meantime the party decided to do a bit of bounty hunting on the side to pay some bills. That went better with them busting a gang of Ascendant organ runners. Worth a cool 50,000 this paid for the damage to the warehouse. Brody got a way and nearly put two our number in the supers medical unit. 

And this brings us to the fact that the player's PC's are totally unaware that I've been substituting various NPC's in and out of the adventure.  Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav  is extremely modular allowing the DM to have some flexibility with the materials, NPC's, and adventure itself. 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report One - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav

" The heroes are sent to investigate a mysterious and brutal murder in a trendy apartment building by a Cartel enforcer, which leaves them racing to unravel the series of events that led to it, and trying to stop the rampage before it leaves any more corpses.."

"Capital City Casefiles is a series of scenarios for Ascendant, the superpowered role-playing game of infinite possibilities. Each Casefile offers a single Issue of exciting play for a group of metropolitan metahumans with Power Levels ranging from 18 to 22 and a collective challenge rating of between 100 and 150 points.

These scenarios can be played in any order and are designed to be easy to run with any type of heroes, be they super-powered police, costumed crimefighters, or underground antiheroes. The Casefiles are set in Capital City, Delaware, a fictional city first introduced in the Ascendant rulebook and detailed in the Capital City Gazetteer and Map Set (available separately from Autarch). But don’t worry – if you’re not interested in playing in Capital City, you can easily adapt the scenarios to your city of choice. Capital City can be Chicago, Detroit, or New York. It can be your hometown with a fresh coat of graffiti and a layer of rust and grime. Whether you use the scenarios in Capital City or another metropolis, you’ll find the Capital City Casefiles to be something special. These aren’t just beat-em-ups or thinly-disguised dungeon crawls. Strip away the superpowers and the Casefiles could be police procedurals or detective mysteries. These are scenarios that challenge your problem-solving and role-playing as much as your tactical prowess; and they do so by taking advantage of the robust rules for Fighting Crime and Saving the Day found in the Ascendant rules."

In this Casefile you get:

• An amazing covery by Joe Bennett of "Immortal Hulk" fame
• 36-page ready-to-run scenario suitable for introductory play
• 4 new NPC antagonists and 2 NPC allies
• 4 full-color maps (wrecked apartment, wrecked townhouse, wrecked warehouse, and coffee shop)
• 1 printable player handout
  
  

Well once again I'm stepping beyond the screen to enter the dark and grimy world of DM Steve's Capital City Ascendant Rpg campaign. We settled into Capital City which has a has a decidely unsavory reputation; "Located on the west shore of the Delaware Bay, approximately 22 miles southeast of Dover, Capital City is the largest and most populous city in Delaware. The city’s founders, real estate developer Arthur Richville and financier Chase Livery, hoped it would be “a testament to the power of American capitalism.” From the art deco skyscrapers, with their dirigible docking stations and decorated cornices, to the streamlined trains that streak across the city’s elevated monorail, to the mighty Statue of Fortune that overlooks the Bay, Capital City was built to be the city of tomorrow – but tomorrow never came. True, more than 60% of the country’s Fortune 500 companies maintain an office here, and the city’s elite Richville neighborhood hosts some of America’s most luxurious mansions. But Capital City is also a city of poverty, crime, and decay, where endless rows of rusted factories and abandoned buildings are the legacy of lost hope, broken promises, and shattered American dreams. From “Fortune Favors the Old: The History of Capital City” by Eddie Exswiss and Mason Cortez" 
Our party is a group of independant contractors and Ascendants in the  heroes of Power Limit 18 to 22. The Ascendants have only recently emerged from the pages of history. And Capital city is the dark reflection of DC Comics Metropolis. And yes Superman has emerged from his phone booth but this is the street level of Capital City out in the MidWest. And there's been an explosive murder that we believe an Ascendant might be a part of this sorted affair. We're subletting our contracts from Dreadnaught Security. The PC's are naturally not trusting of the security firm but that's another blog post. 
Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav as a PDF is top notch with excellent handouts, well thought out layout, and really solid easy to read fonts. The whole affair clocks in on around thirty six pages. In tonight's game we got intoduced to our party via Dreadnaught Security's debriefing and police meeting about the incident. We then came to ruins of the apartment complex to bring Ascendant's senses to the site of the murder to look for clues. The clues within Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold are made with colour coated bullet points. Again very well done. And the module is very well organized so that it's easy for the DM to pull the adventure elements within Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold right into play. 

We didn't get too deeply into Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav  however there was more then enough there to hook the players into the murder scene. And DM Steve kept leaking clues here and there as Hawkmoor our vigilante with the enhanced senses. And Rifter our Esper has been working together played by Halley and Jeff (one of our married couples that play) to shift through one half of the apartement. And the rest of us began working the second half. We ended here. There were however some interesting developments with us running into Mark Shaw aka Manhunter from the late Eighties DC comicbook series.  

OSR Commentary On Autarch's Ascendant Rpg & Some Thoughts on The Rpg's Supernatural Factions

 Let's pick up on the Ascendant Rpg from where we left off on the blog. And look at  the Ascendant rpg system  & dive into some of the ins and outs what makes game work. For me it's the combination of classic Marvel Super Heroes & DC Heroes rpg system goodness with an Autarch spin work. 

Lurking below the surface of Ascendant is the setting conceit of the 'Gods & Champions of Old Returning' to the modern world. Make no mistake that this isn't 'the world's most popular rpg' even though Ascendant can do fantasy with little issue. Where Ascendant actually shines is in it's handling of squad level action. For those who own Ascendant notice how the militaries are protrayed in the game. This isn't a mistake on the writer's part. Ascendant is meant to handle small squad actions with super humans. Mercenary units, rogue nations, militaries, and even corporations are going to be very interested in super humans. And this is especially going to be true of PC's. Ascendant PC's are also going to be able to bring military assets of thier own this is especially true of mercenary units. 

A band of  Ascendant characters could well be able to handle both civilan and long term military contractors. The balance of power has shifted in the world of Ascendant. And I don't think that even the world of the supernatural is going to be ready for such a shift. 

Ascendant has a very advanced form of necromancy and several other powers that mimic the rise of the supernatural within the world of Ascendant. And Autarch has indicated that there will be more supernatural supplements coming up.
The supernatural factions within Ascendant have not been quiet at all. And in point of fact have been making waves in pop culture and the media.  This puts the spot light deeply on to these factions in certain areas. And it's the Ascendant factions that Alexander Marcis dive into in this interview from 2022. 

 

If we're looking deeper into the game the factional play is as complex & varied as Autarch's ACK's but we're comparing apples & oranges here. The bottom line is how Ascendant handles it's world & itself. But we'll get into more of that next time. 

OSR Commentary On Autarch's Ascendant Rpg & Some Thoughts on The Rpg

 So over the weekend I had a chance on Sunday to take another look at  the Ascendant Rpg.  Now I'd swear everytime someone takes on an rpg someone else has to suddenly pick it up in the hobby zietgeist on social media or the internet. 

So over the weekend I started rereading the Ascendant rule book. And it's a pretty clear & concise rules set up. I really love the mechanics of this game. If we look at the Drivethrurpg review of D.M. from 09/29/2022 he's got a pretty solid break down of the of the internal mechanic of the Ascendant system; "It looked complicated at first, but actually it's not a hard game to learn. The core mechanic is simple enough: AV + Hero Points vs DV + Hero Points = RV. Check that RV on the CHART, and roll a d100 to see what color result you get. Once we had that down it was very fast to use in play--by the end of the night a round of combat was going as fast as D&D, and we've spent years using d20 systems." 
And what this brings up is the fact that Ascendant is excellent for running squad level super hero rpg adventures. The secret too this is the way that the game handles it's mechanics and does it with a sly bit of maths & moving things right over into the hands of the DM. (Sorry I'm a dungeon master & not a game master. It's a bit of the OSR grognard in me folks). All of this goes deeply into the PC creation mechanics of the Ascendant rpg again referencing back into D.M.'s review here; "I liked that the system has both a simple and complex method of character creation. Half my group just sent me a concept and wanted me to make their PC for them since it was a new system, and the other two are the kind who enjoy the process of chargen as much as they do playing the game. (One of them is a recovering D&D 3.5 minmaxer.) I found character creation a bit complicated but was able to knock it out reasonably quickly with the simple method. The two players I mentioned said they had a good time diving through all the powers and perks and planning out their character designs--they liked the variety of powers and different ways to tweak them. Also important to me as the GM was that the complex method of chargen didn't mean that their characters were out of place in the same campaign as the ones I built with the simple method."  So why are  not doing more Ascendant rpg content Eric?! I'm glad you asked disembodied voice in my head. The real factor for me has been time. These days I have little of it. But after watching this actual play through with Alexand Marius I need to get back into Ascendant. 

The real factor is that as a DM I wanna create my own super heroes and universe coming up. There's a ton of idea that are roiling through my head after watching this play through. 

The Elf Human War - Rhapsody in Blood - The Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg's the Heroic Fantasy Handbook & The Bloody, Bloody, Arduin rpg

 The war between Elfs & Man  lasted 10,000 years on bloody, bloody, Arduin in ancient history. A fact that we're picking up from this blog entry here. Elves live a very long time & this war brought both Elves & humanity to the very edge of extinction on Arduin. 

This military entangelment must be one that needs hero's of myth & legend meaning this is the perfect type of campaign that Adventurer, Conqeuror, King's the Heroic Fantasy Handbook is ideal for. The Elves & humanity would try all kinds of risky, & dangerous magicks, tactics, & battles to end the war.  And we saw the exacutioner's blade arrive from the future according to Arduin.com; "Seven more attacks followed; all but the last failed. The seventh had the opponents coming from of the nexus that resided within Arduin itself; the Deodanth race and all their evil from the future had arrived. On the 27th day after their appearance, only 7,000 remained in the Elven army. 

They road to the great King’s Plain to the east of Thousand Thunder Falls where the main army of the Deodanths awaited them. The ebon ones attacked first, but before the first ebon killer had closed even half the distance, a great sound arose, accompanied by a cold, wild wind that swirled about the Deodanth horde, leaving a rime of ice upon their hearts. Faerie power had come. The sky seemed to buckle, and a blue twilight settled about the battlefield as the weird and ancient music sang its song of Elven power.

With shocking sudden swiftness, it was over. The plain seemed to erupt in a vast fountain of steaming black blood and blasted brains, covering the surrounding countryside with the withering stain that would take three centuries to fade. The few hundreds that had held back and thus lived immediately fled in all directions, bringing to motion for the first time this day the small Elven army. The king and his troops pursued with a cold fire of retribution burning in their hearts. For two weeks the Deodanths were harried and slain, but not without loss, the greatest being the mighty Elven King himself on the last day of the year.

His mourning men laid him to rest where he fell, atop the wind whipped Sorrow Slate Mountain, forever after known as “King’s Rest”.  Laid to rest near him were the eleven Deodanths that had ambushed him and been slain in turn by his guards, (though by the time they had arrived, the king had slain five of them himself before falling).  He had died as befits a true warrior king, in battle.  But when the king fell, so too did any hope that an Elven Arduin could truly have.

The news of the disaster that had befallen what had seemingly been one of Hell’s own armies gave many a grasping and scheming monarch short pause.  The only child of the dead king did declare herself Queen of Arduin and Warrior Queen of the last true Elves.  So Arduin stood with an inexperienced queen to guide an army of but 5,800.  The Human wolves gathered round their borders in increasingly bolder numbers.

Tarathala Dawnstar, queen and warlord, decided that if force of arms alone could not hold Arduin, they should follow the path pointed to by the hand of her dead sire: the path of magik and elder lore, the road to gods and demons, the trail to tears and danger.  So it came to pass that the Elven kind in Arduin became once again wizards, as well as warriors, and for 99 years, they reigned supreme in their ability to wreak havoc among their foes.  Each year, however, it became harder to maintain this ascendancy as the Human and inhuman foes of Arduin also became adept in those arts that invited doom and destruction.  Ever close crept the wolves of final, irrevocable defeat." That's right the deodanths arrived from the future to bring extinction to the Elves. The Elven races survives to this day on Arduin but what legacy did the War between Elves & Man leave across the planes & on Arduin?! Quite a bit is my take away from this incredible war. And the Human Elf war is an excellent time to set a campaign as well! The magicks are slightly different, the face of Arduin is also different, Faerie is a mess, and the future is far from certain. Making this the perfect time to have a marrage of the Arduin Trilogy &  the Heroic Fantasy Handbook

The Elves are desparate & highly dangeroys during the Human Elf War employing all kinds of dangerous magicks, demonic pacts, and perhaps even turning to the forces of darkness. History of course is written by the victors and Elves legacy might be found in Secrets of the Nethercity with Elven cult's secrets buried deep within that dungeon. These of course were fringe elements of Elven society but none the less they represent a desperate yearning to win the war. 

But there were doubtless other far more dangerous artifacts, research on other planes of existence, war time fortresses built just outside of reality, and much more now left in ruins & dungeons fit only for adventurers to explore. 
All of this was the Elves exploiting the Nexus gates of Arduin after all. They acted as the sole puppet masters making reality dance to their tune. This style of campaign is perfect because it last's 10,000 years enabling many adventures and possible campaigns to take place. With ACK's the ability is there for the PC's to carve out their own empire. But will it avail you naught?! Find out coming up! 

The Elf Human War - The Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg's the Heroic Fantasy Handbook & The Bloody, Bloody, Arduin rpg

 When it comes to the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg one of my favorite books has been the Heroic Fantasy Handbook . And one of the reasons is the way that they treat Elves in the Heroic Fantasy Handbook . The classic D&D race is given a far more mythological take then the standard Dungeons & Dragons fare. And this comes into the purview of using ACK's with Dave Hargrave's Bloody Bloody Arduin. 

Given how this treatment aligns with the high end of Heroic Fantasy is it any wonder why I think that  Adventurer, Conqeuror King is perfectly suited to handle some of the aspects of Bloody,Bloody, Arduin especially the early Elf Human war. This histroy is bloody, brutal, & nasty according to www.Arduin.com; " The Elf – Human War -The one true and rightful ruler of Arduin, King Tarafass Dawnstar of the Royal House of the Rising Sun, closed the borders of his kingdom, and forbade entry of non-Elves. He knew the findings of the College of Sages in Falohyr and what they portended for his realm. He called up his silver mailed cavalry, his bronze sheathed and rock steady spearmen, his silent archers clothed in forest green, and his personal guard, the famed Golden Knights of the Dawn. When asked why, he answered, “Because men are men, and ever their hearts shall covet the power about us”.

The predicted ultimatum arrived, borne by a dust covered messenger from the kingdom of Morvaen, their eastern Human neighbor. It demanded that the people of Arduin become as one with the people of Morvaen so that together they could rule all the nexus lands. King Tarafass sent the messenger flying home with the reply “Arduin has been Elven since even before the dark years, and Elven it stands or dies. Take us if you can!”

The first battle was joined in a pass in the Brass Mountains called “The Trumpet’s Throat”. The Morvaenian pikemen led the storm of the small keep that guarded the pass, and of survivors there were none. Rushing through the pass, the army of Morvaen spilled out onto the Plains of Paranon leaving destruction in their wake.

As the invading horde poured into the beautiful Forest of Flame, there was no thought of anything but victory in the minds of the three generals who lead them until Arduin’s first line of defense made itself known. The archers who waited that fateful day were as invisible as the very air about the wondrous trees that they called their home. Invisible, that is, until their green, glowing, raining arrow sleeted into the ranks of the invaders. Stunned but not beaten were the veteran pikemen of Morvaen, retreating and then reforming, gathering their arbalesters about them.

The Morvaenian generals deployed their wild mountain tribesmen allies to face the rain of whistling green death. Nearly annihilated, the barbarians were able to close in and to bring their axes to striking distance. Outnumbered, the tribesmen fell to the last man, but it gained time for the pikemen to regroup and overrun, outfight, and finally route the Elven archers. The few who managed to escape returned again and again to send a shaft through an eye here, a whistling death to a heart there, in a continual harassment and vengeance that lasted the long night through.

With dawn, the invaders left the forest that would henceforth bear the name “The Weeping Woods”. Tired, battered, and angry with their lost thousands within the trees, they were shaken to their souls to hear the brazen wail of the great Elf horn. Before them stood the bronze Elven spearmen and the remaining archers in green. As their cries of dismay whirled in their generals’ ears, the great horn again sounded, and with mighty shouts, the Elven host charged down upon them" 
The question is that in the wake of the Human Elf war which lasted 10,000 years only to be followed by the Nexus Wars. What treasures, magicks, & artifacts were lost on Arduin when the world burned with fire & war. How far did the conflict spread across the planes?! 

Could there be weapons, dungeons, ruins, etc. that were created & then lost across the planes when the Human Elf war raged?! Short answer oh yes very much so. And  the Heroic Fantasy Handbook  is perfectly suited to portay this conflict. This is a conflict where the  heroic is going to need to take center stage and heroes will be needed. These are only my intial thoughts on the subject & what does all of this have to do with the Nexus Gates?! More on that coming up!