Battling The Solution on The Mad Scorcerer's Isle - The Campaign World of CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan For The FASERIPopedia! Rpg

 During tonight's edploration of the scorcerer's tower on Crom's world  in the Mad Sorcerer's Isle hex we ran straight into another group of superheroes called 'The Solution'. These guys were tough to say the least. We've been dealing with our Ascendant Rpg  campaign. And we've been dealing with security robots, cybernetic sabertoothed cats, etc. within  the CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan  For The  FASERIPopedia Rpg. This of course picks right up from our last session here. 

Everything was going pretty solidly until we'd gotten a particular artifact called the Cyberseed. This is when we ran into Dropkick a cybernetically enhanced martial artist. 
Dropkick wasn't alone! He's part of a team called 'The Solution' . We ended up battling them through at least two levels of the tower! This was getting ugly fast and so we let the cyber seed go! Outrage was a real monster of an alien mercenary who rocked two of the PC's world. 
Charlemane's Champion took him one to one and almost got his clock cleaned. Almost until he dropped three walls on him with his sword. 

Outrage will survive but he did end up with quite a few sword cuts but they'll heal. Eventually anyway. The group took out 'The Solution's sorcereress Shadowmage early in the melee. 

The party was not amused because afterward we had to go deeper into the wizard's tower. We found a bunch of cyber seeds within a laboratory. And a dozen security bots. 
The party was getting tired and punch. Fire Falcon wasn't amused and went full 'nova' and melted all of em. 

We make use of the Ascendant's Rogue's Gallery rules and add ons. 'The Solution' in tonight's game are an up and coming super mercenary group with the rules for factions getting an excercise. 

Exploring the Mad Socrerer's Isle - The Campaign World of CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan For The FASERIPopedia! Rpg

 So awhile back I worked on the Mad Sorcerer's Isle hex from the CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan  For The  FASERIPopedia supplement to augment and expand our Ascendant Rpg  campaign. This session report picks up right from November7th on the blog. 

 Now the Sorcerer's Isle was originally an ancient citadel that was abandoned during Crom's early ages. This builting and it's holdings were supposedly haunted only to be taken over by a succession of sorcerer's and thier families over the generations. The place being abandoned during the last age. This place is the orgin point for at least three of our Ascendant rpg characters. The player's PC's were immediately attacked by humaniod warriors who looked rough and unfinished. 

The ancient buildings were in ruins that is above ground. Below ground was an entirely another story with vast sprawling complexes and centers full of energy sources and other machinery. This is    according to our own PC Livewire 'master of eletricity and magnatism'  Our party came across a hidden doorway leading down into a high technological tunnel with decontamination booths. The air was pleasant and highly filtered having a highly oxigenated smell about it. 

We were then attacked by soldiers who turned out to be advanced androids armed with blasters. They gave chase and we fled rather then fight. We want the citidel in decent shape so that we can figure out it's operation and more. We ended here today. 

We're using Ascendant's Rogue's gallery's characters  to dovetail with some of the origins of Ascendant's Rogues Gallery to Crom's world for our campaign. 

Crom's world has intersected with our own timeline at various points through out history. This includes our Ascendant campaign when a time doorway allowed Charlemane's Champion to come through. And yes we totally stole him from here. 

He has zero memory of how he came to the modern age. Super strong, highly resistant to damage, and yet capable of great charity. Charlemane's champion has become a valued member of our group as long as he can speak English. We taught him after saving him from a gang of super criminals who had him on ice. 

The Campaign World of 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!"

So I'm taking this time with the CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan  For The  FASERIPopedia supplement to augment and expand our Ascendant campaign. And today's blog entry is going to pick right up from here on the blog. CROM's realm is unique because of the fact that in our game it functions as a whole cloth Sword & Sorcery dimension. 

Crom's realm offers a whole campaign's worth of adventure because of the fact that there's a ton of wizards and warlords who have custom cyborg organisms left over from the ages before everything went post apocalpytic. The fantasy wastelands of CROM are not nice places. There are a ton of left over mutant and horrors from outside to challenge player's PC's. 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.

These incursions into our campaign world have shaped certain cults & occult groups which have crossed over from Crom's realm. Some of these cult members have gone on to be powerful wizards and shamans who thrive in Subterraea. While others are in our campaign world biding thier time and gathering followers. 

Meanwhile back in Crom's realm these cults have expanded to become major threats. The suppplement CROM has a ton of random tables, monsters, and tools to create your own threats. Be warned that many of these threats are far stronger then would at first seem to be scaled for a FASERIP & Marvel Super Heroes advanced rpg game. 

This gets back into some of the logicistics of scaling and creating a CROM campaign as the hexes of Crom's world are huge. There are literally thousands of ruins, dungeons, and more that have been left by the Ancients. And this offers a unique spin on an Ascendant rpg with me dovetailing some of the origins of Ascendant's Rogues Gallery to Crom's world for our campaign.

Crom's world also offers a nice 'Thundarr The Barbarian' & DC's New Gods style setting with the serial numbers filed off. This makes it easy to bring a brand new perspective to a campaign without stealing Marvel or DC properties. However some of Crom's monsters and NPC's can be very powerful so some caution is advised! 

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 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. 

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

 Last night I was messing around with FASERIPopedia Camelot & noticed a very interesting comment by the publisher; "Depending on the original source, there were anywhere from 150 to over 1500 (FIFTEEN HUNDRED) Knights of the Round Table. Going back to the original history of south-west Wales and Maurice / Arthur II (the historical real King Arthur) there were close-knit warrior nobles numbering in the dozens so in a weird way even though the Camelot stuff is all myth, it echoes and resonates with the original genuine history. :)" 

There are over a hundred NPC knights of the round table within Camelot. Bare in mind that these are actually going into our Ascendant Rpg campaign. We've got one PC's whose got a deep and abiding Camelot connection. Our Camelot buts up against the Unofficial Marvel Canon's Otherworld location sourcebook material. 

Let's get back to Camelot and the fact that our player Bretta's PC happened to wander into king Arthur's kingdom right in the middle of the inner city of New York City. Camelot's Whirlwind then took the character and she was made a female knight after a series of adventures that our PC's got sucked into. 
Camelot isn't well organized but the amount of material within it could keep a campaign going for years. Lady Elizabeth has run afoul one of the turn coat 'knights of the Round table'. She unknowingly insulted one of the most violent and terrible knights who keeps sending assassins her way. Lady Elizabeth however was able to find a magic sword after an encounter with a lost Roman era undead. 
Elizabeth was made a knight of the round table after defeating a nasty Saxon assassin in King Arthur's court. She's enjoying her status among the court but has had to devide her time between Camelot and the real world. 
Since we use a lot of FASERIP/Marvel Super Heroes in our Ascendant rpg games I use Alexander Marcus's conversion; "Since someone is bound to ask, to convert from Marvel/FASERIP, do the following: MIG should be equal to lesser of STR or END AGI should be equal to AGIL VAL should be equal to FIGHTING RES should be equal to PSYCHE INS should be equal to REASON CHA should be equal to INTUITION Feeble = 1 SP Poor = 2 SP Typical = 3 SP Good = 4 SP Excellent = 5 SP Remarkable = 7 SP Incredible = 9 SP Amazing = 11 SP Monstrous = 13 SP Unearthly = 15 SP Shift X = 16 SP Shift Y = 17 SP Shift Z = 18 SP Class 1000 = 20 SP Class 3000 = 24 SP Class 5000 = 30 SP So Thor (https://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/thor.html) would be something like: MIG 15, AGI 9, VAL 15, RES 11, INS 3, CHA 5, with Physical Invulnerability 5, Cryogenic Corrosive Electrical Ionizing Thermal Toxic Resistance 15, Immortality 20, Weather Control 15, Boomerang Bludgeoning Strike 16*, Hovering Flight 20*, Protective Deflection 15*; with *Powers being subject to a Deprived of Device Vulnerable State."

OSR Commentary - The Ascendant Rpg, FASERIPopedia's Crom , & the Unofficial Marvel Superheroes Cannon Project's Marvelous Myths & Monsters volume 6 The Otherworld By Andrew Goldstein

 So let's pick it up with our current Ascendant rpg campaign & Ginger aka The Pink Fey & her PC's connection to the Marvel  Otherworld. here on the blog.  Going through my older campaign notes I noticed that there was mention of  FASERIPODIA's Crom supplement. 

So what is Crom?! Well it's FASERIPopedia game's Sword & Sorcery supplement mixed with a healthy dose of Saturday morning cartoons of the Lords of Light variety. 
Last time we talked about mixing in the Camelot rpg supplement for FASERIpodedia's into the Unofficial Marvel Superheroes Cannon Project's Marvelous Myths & Monsters volume 6 The Otherworld By Andrew Goldstein  as a part of the Ascendant campaign setting to back up the Pink Fey's origin.
Me being the terrorist dungeon master wants to fade back into our Crom notes for our Ascendant campaign. Crom has more of a Thundarr meets He Man meets Marvel Super Heroes rpg feel to it. Camelot in our game touches several legendary locations in England and Wales. These locations also overlap into the Sword and Sorcery post apocalypstic world. And there may be more going on here with other hero's origins in our campaign then at first meets the eye. 
Crom has a ton of interesting details and bylines within it that crosses into the gonzo post apocalyptic asthetic of classic Bronze age Marvel style comic books. Crom's world is deadly and more then a match for several of the knight style super heroes we had last campaign. 
There are several meet points within Crom and The Otherworld supplement. This folds in nicely for our campaigns and it's going to be matter of deciding how deeply we want to go into the gonzo. 

OSR Commentary - The Ascendant Rpg, FASERIPopedia's Camelot, & the Unofficial Marvel Superheroes Cannon Project's Marvelous Myths & Monsters volume 6 The Otherworld By Andrew Goldstein

 In our current  Ascendant rpg campaign, the Pink Fey whose portrayed by Ginger one of our regular players has been going on about her PC's mysterious origins and her connection to the Otherworld. Well, thanks to the Unofficial Marvel Superheroes Cannon Project's Marvelous Myths & Monsters volume 6 The Otherworld By Andrew Goldstein  we've got our Otherworld adventure campaign setting location. The  Otherworld campaign setting goes entirely through the entire Marvel Celtic & English patheon with the comicbook mythologies, monsters, Fey, etc. 

The only issue is that the party doesn't currently have any 'real magic users' per say. Which has one of the other PC's thinking he might quest for Camelot?! Our Camelot changes each time it's visited due to it's strange Fey nature. And for this we've used FASERIPopedia's Camelot.  And there is a ton of good tools in  FASERIPopedia's Camelot for really filling out your version of Camelot. 

Camelot in our game touches several legendary locations in England and Wales. These locations provide an interdimensional focus for the forces of Camelot and the Celtic powers. Now comes the choices that I have to make on foes, adventure locations, side quests, etc. for our Ascendant rpg campaign. 

Marvel comicbook elements that I want to include: 

1. Captain Britain and the Captain Britain corps because it was such an iconic Eighties comic book run in Excalibur.
2. Morgan Le Fay because of the fact that she is such a great comic book villainess. 
3. D&D cartoon crossover because the players have been angling for it. 
4. New hero origins and callbacks to our WWII Marvel Super Heroes rpg campaign. 
5. Our heroes beating up on a few Celtic monsters..  
6. Sidequests and journeys into several loose campaign threads that need to be wrapped up from our WWII Marvel Super Heroes rpg. 

OSR Review & Commentary On CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying using FASERIPopedia! By Johnathan Nolan

 Using the retroclone superhero rules in FASERIPopedia, expand your game and run a whole fantasy roleplaying game using this sourcebook! OR -

"Embrace the world of King Arthur, one hundred of his Knights of the Round Table, their enemies, their Castles and Keeps, Abbeys, monsters, Magical Items and so much more!"

"Full rules for Knights, their Squires, Princesses, Sorceresses, Wizards, Witches, Men-at-Arms and Women-at-Arms and so many different creatures, people - one hundred entries detailing Knights of the Round Table, a gazette of the entire world of Camelot with locations and adventures and adventure suggestions, the whole sourcebook is devoted to giving you a fantasy roleplaying game campaign ready to roll- either using one of the King Arthur variants - youthful, heroic, old and silly - or just using the fantasy gaming elements minus the Arthuriana - or any mix you want to use!"

"The Bestiary lists all kinds of threats, and the encounter charts feature day and night variations for each type of environment as well as "overheard conversations", treasure chart, key and lock chart and even a traps and protections chart to generate random traps or other defensive measures!"" 

Anyone that knows me as a dungeon master & player knows that I take chances. And Driveby is having a sale & so I decided to take a chance on some FASERIPopedia! rpg titles. This included CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying using FASERIPopedia!. Now anyone whose in 'the know' realizes that FASERIP is the base system for TSR classic Marvel Super Heroes. Big shout out to Killer Shrike  from the Marvel Canon Project on Facebook. He turned me on to these titles and then guided me through on these. It was an add in Nexus magazine that sold me. Nexus isn't a gaming magazine but a conspiracy & esoteric  magazine that I used read when designing material for the Dark Conspiracy rpg. 
CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying using FASERIPopedia! is the end all and be all of FASRIP Camelot and Arthurian rpging. Camelot  uses a variety of public domain comic book and Arthurian lore into a pleasing package in three hundred & seventy eight pages. And Camelot  does it with PC options, customizable Camelot adventure locations, knight and courtly romance as well as much more. CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying brings home a variety of Camelot adventure options for campaign use because that's exactly what this is. CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying is a full blown FASRIP fantasy campaign done in a way that has excellent editing and very well edited pages. 
Now how would I use CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying? An excellent question and the answer is two fold..  Basically I had  the Marvel Super Heroes Rpg: the Unofficial Canon Projects Marvel Super Hereos rpg Golden Age of Heroes book printed out, spiral bound, with a colour cover & black/white interior. CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying would be excellent to use with Marvel Super Heroes Rpg Golden Age of Heroes World War II campaign setting.

Arthurian heroes were all of the rage during World War II the Golden Ages of the comic book. And it's easy to see where and when CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying could be used to enhance a campaign. Don't worry we're not done yet. 

Affectively we can use Camelot FR to great effect to create a customized campaign setting for FASRIP all by itself.
Because Camelot: Fantasty Roleplaying is part campaign and part sourcebook it's very easy to add it into other  logarithmic mathatically powered rpg's. And this includes Autarch's Ascendant Rpg which has an engine that it's author has provided conversions for.

This includes FASRIP powered rpg's where Marvel/FASERIP to Ascendant Rpg do the following:

MIG should be equal to lesser of STR or END
AGI should be equal to AGIL
VAL should be equal to FIGHTING
RES should be equal to PSYCHE
INS should be equal to REASON
CHA should be equal to INTUITION

Feeble = 1 SP
Poor = 2 SP
Typical = 3 SP
Good = 4 SP
Excellent = 5 SP
Remarkable = 7 SP
Incredible = 9 SP
Amazing = 11 SP
Monstrous = 13 SP
Unearthly = 15 SP
Shift X = 16 SP
Shift Y = 17 SP
Shift Z = 18 SP
Class 1000 = 20 SP
Class 3000 = 24 SP
Class 5000 = 30 SP

So is CAMELOT: Fantasy roleplaying using FASERIPopedia! worth the money?! In a word it is because it expands the options for super heroes rpg's and FASRIP. And Camelot does an excellent job with bells on!