The Eternal Champion You've Never Heard of - Johnny Melniboné From Grimjack (1984) #76 by John Ostrander With art by Flint Henry & Gary Fields

 So in the face book Stornbringer/ Elric group I happen to be active in we were talking about Elric parodies & homages.  And it suddenly reminded me of  Grimjack (1984) #76!  Grimjack (1984) #76 was published on Nov 1990 by First Publishing & it featured both Flint Henry's amazing artwork & pencils. The plot and details from my comic shop go like this; "Twilley gets involved in a battle of the bands – literally in "Battle Rock." Script by John Ostrander and art by Flint Henry & Gary Fields. Issue also has "Youngblood" with script by John Ostrander & Kim Yale and art by Steve Pugh. Cover price $2.25."

 'Battle Rock' is an old favorite of mine going back well into the 90's because its filled with that quirky & spot on savage satire of John Ostrander & Kim Yale. So why is it important?! Because it marks the appearance of yet another aspect of the Eternal Champion. Grimjack in his Twilly incarnation goes to a back water dimension to fufill a debt to his old band mates. In this dimension time runs weird & the heart of Rock & Roll is about to be over run by the Philistine zombies. His old band mates don't recognize him & so Grimjack ends up having to audition for the band that he founded. 
On this plane musical instruments are the literal weapons of war. Guitars at as lasers, basses act as small arms fire, etc. 

 

The guy that we're concerned about is Johnny Melniboné whose the holder of the giant rune encrusted stratocaster 'Soulsinger'. Johnny Melniboné speaks with a West Texas drawl in my mind & in AD&D first edition terms is a 12th level bard. 'Soulsinger' is an aspect of the Stormbringer entity oriented towards Law in Stormbringer rpg terms. Why?! Because Grimjack would not be hanging out let alone playing with someone whose got a demon weapon. Grimjack is a veteran of the 'Demon Wars' and Johnny Melniboné is a friend. The abilities of rune encrusted stratocaster 'Soulsinger' include soul eating just as 'Stormbringer', creating nasty scortching blasts of music in D&D terms 1d8 points of damage per chorus, a bit of magic, & the ability to use the song of the spheres to visit other planes. But there's a problem with this last ability. 

Its been two hundred years between incarnations of GrimJack and that means its been two hundred years that Johnny Melniboné has been guarding the heart of rock & roll. Johnny & the band have been battling the Philistines & entertaining folks. He can't leave this backwater plane because he'll begin to age. Then he'll die.. Sure the Melnibonéans are long lived but 'Soulsinger' comes at a price. So he's a totally useless NPC  other then in this dimension or plane. 
Well no not at all, essentially  Johnny Melniboné has been a patron & teacher to various bards, rockers, & musicians in my campaigns for decades. This includes the Stormbringer rpg. 

We played Stormbringer right up into 2011 or so until one of our number took his own life. That's another blog entry for another time folks. During that time we took our PC's to another very obscure rpg game called Nexus The Infinite City. We had aquired our own Scaling Ship and we were getting into all kinds of trouble in Nexus. And this included helping out Johnny Melniboné & his band with reenforcements. 

Johnny Melniboné the holder of the giant rune encrusted stratocaster 'Soulsinger' is still out there in the wastelands of 2020 fighting against the Philistines. When it comes to the OSR. Johnny & company would make excellent mentors for a group young PC's in the world of the Metallic Tome. 

Because   Johnny Melniboné & his band are defending the heart of rock & roll a party is going to have to seek him out. And they would have to try out to make sure their worthy of his attention. 

Now in Stormbringer rpg terms  Johnny Melniboné is troubling. He's an aspect of the Eternal Champion whose survived most likely an
 version of the Elric saga. He's lost everything except soul singer & his war against the Philistines of the music industry. Johnny is a moody & dangerous character possibly a 'force of nature' on his own back water plane that he calls home. Ages ago he walked away from his home plane & found the heart of rock & roll. This war is the only thing keeping him going. He's extremely loyal to his friends but the heart needs him. The heart itself is sentient & an artifact of Law because of its ties to Earth's pop culture & music scene. The Fillalamo the fortress club & temple that houses the heart sits in its backwater plane some place out in the 'Wastelands' an area of desert that surrounds Cynosure erm Nexus. 

Because this is a section of the desert where both Law & Chaos have been scrubbed clean making finding the interface very dangerous. Anyone spending time here must be very careful as the elements of life are leeched out of them. The heart of rock & roll is still beating.. 

From Epic To Urban - The Uses of Lankhmar City of Adventure (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition : Official Game Accessory) by Anthony Pryor For Your Old School Campaign

"LANKHMAR...city of thieves, city of the night, city of adventure. Home of Fritz Leiber's famous heroes, FAFHRD™ and the GRAY MOUSER™; greatest adventurers in the world of Nehwon. The city of Lankhmar springs to life as an exciting Setting for the AD&D® game.
Visit the fabled Rainbow Palace, stroll the surly streets of the old town, haggle at the market place or risk the winding maze of the Tenderloin, From the wharves and shipyards to the dark sewers of this mighty metropolis,. LANKHMAR takes you on a full tour.
Also included are many encounters in LANKHMAR and adaptations of the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Its unique approach makes LANKHMAR a living, changing city.
Leave the dungeons and wilderness and step into a new world of intrigue and adventure. Enter the city of LANKHMAR; if you're lucky, you'll get out alive."

Lankhmar City of Adventure (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition : Official Game Accessory) Paperback – November 1, 1993 by Anthony Pryor (Author), Fred Fields (Editor)

Way back in the 90's I was running a complete Grimjack comic book from First comics  rpg campaign. I learned a lot back then. one of the things is never listen to the 'community' & that's because often over looks the good stuff. Manos review on Amazon  from 2011 encapsulates my feeling about Lankhmar: City of Adventure (2nd edition); "Now this is THE city supplement to buy.The streets are named, the map is very well setup for modding or using as-is, and just so much more.The only thing I didn't care for was in the very center on each district, the GM had to use a geomorph from the book. (The idea was to make each city unique, which was not really needed.)Having said that, it's still a 5+ item. In the second edition they added the sewer maps which just pushed it over the top for great that much more. (And all the Skaven, err... "Ratkin" scraps.)

(IMO) The best part? Most younger gamers have no experience with the old stuff, so you can just mangle it as you wish without breaking any of their sacred cows.

Lord knows this city had multiple names in multiple systems for me: D&D, RoleMaster, Palladium Fantasy... the game might have changed, but same city remained. The players actually dug it."

Here's the thing original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition's Dieties & Demigods could be scaled back to fit the player's PC's as needed. So could Lankhmar: City of Adventure (2nd edition) a lesson I learned from Grimjack's Mortal Gods story.  Its not about killing gods but bringing in the lessons of mythology. 



 Homer's The Iliad and the Odyssey, killed more gods & demigods then I've personally ever seen in a D&D campaign. The fact was & is that  Fritz Leiber's famous heroes, FAFHRD and the GRAY MOUSER, the greatest adventurers in the world of Nehwon showed that gods were alien, flawed,highly dangerous & profitable from time to time. Trust me I heard about using a second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons book back then as well from the old timers & from the then 2nd edition crowd of DM's as well. If you've got the players sometimes its best to turn your back & play at your table. Just because its a popular consensus doesn't make it right. Its only an opinion. At the end of the day its about what the players want.


Grimjack is the copyright & trade mark of Tim Truman & its writer John Ostrander. They went through Hell & back to secure the rights to their characters. This is a blog post for educational & entertainment purposes only. Not a copy right or trade mark violation on my part.

I never used the character of Grimjack only the idea of the city setting of Cynosure. What I used instead was Jeff Grub's Manual of the Planes from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  This allowed me the AD&D's planes without the cannon baggage of the upcoming Planscape setting.



The real turning point for me was using The Best of the Dragon volume II's article by Ed Greenwood Theory and use of gates: From the city of Brass... to dead Orc Pass. There's a solid love of the hobby in these early issues of The Dragon for me. Its something I return to again & again.


I got really super tired of hearing all of the grumbling of the gamers & dungeon masters at my local hobby shops & what not. So I started doing things with the enthusiasm of the originators of the games that we loved.
Even gods could be scaled up or down for encounters with party members as needed there has never been a fear of not doing things 'right' for encounters. Next time another game takes me in a new direction. Keep em rolling.. 

Cosmic OSR Hi Jinks - Commentary On Nexus's The Infinite City rpg & First Comics Series Warp With Even More OSR Overtones

 

My working/playing  copy of Nexus The Infinite City so used with the cover worn off.

So I spent the last couple of days in the presence of the royal family of Cynosure, yeah that's right we're in for more Nexus The Infinite City & First Comics commentary. So the Wikipedia entry on the pan dimensional city of Cynosure reads;"

Cynosure is a fictional pan-dimensional city that exists within the First Comics multiverse.^[1][2][3] It is described as floating in a "bubble" in the "pan-dimensional vortex." Because of its unique situation, Cynosure is an important center of multi-versal commerce and much of the city's government is geared toward maintaining favorable trading conditions.

Different zones of the city operate under different physical laws because of the proximity of other dimensions. Guns and other technology work in some parts of the city and not others. Similarly, magic is operable some places and not others. Swords generally work everywhere. Different dimensions variously move in and out of phase with Cynosure, regularly in some instances and randomly in others. Occasionally dimensions will seemingly exist entirely within the confines of Cynosure, as for example the so-called "snowball dimensions" which roam throughout the city, or at "Infinity Lanes," a bowling alley in which each lane is a separate dimension.

Perhaps the most noted resident of Cynosure is John Gaunt, also known as Grimjack. His fate is uniquely tied to that of the city, as he is doomed to be reincarnated for as long as the city exists. This doom came about when Gaunt voluntarily walked out of Heaven to save the life of a friend who, if he were to die, would have been condemned forever to Hell. It is through Grimjack's experiences during two of his incarnations (Gaunt and James Twilley) that much of what is known about Cynosure was revealed."  Its also completely wrong & our favorite pan dimensional city predates Grimjack by an entire comic book series and setting. Going all of the way back to 1983 when Warp issue #1 premiered with 'The Coming of  Lord Cumulus'  a cover by the classic Frank Brunner graced the cover .

Wait, what the heck is Warp? "Wasn't that a comic book style super hero broad way play way back in the 1970's & early 80's? " , the hard core comic book fans reading this  are saying this  right now. Yes it was.

"Warp!, also spelled Warp, was an American science-fiction play created at Chicago, Illinois' Organic Theatre Company in 1971 by co-authors Stuart Gordon and Lenny Kleinfeld, the latter under the pseudonym Bury St. Edmund"

Issue one follows the 1973 broad way production of Warp!  pretty closely except with a few minor but points.

"David Carson, an everyday bank teller, learns that he is Lord Cumulus, "avenger of the universe & protector of Cynosure ". Suddenly transported from an annual employee-awards dinner to the mystical realm Fen-Ra, he finds himself battling for the destiny of the multi universe  against his brother &  antagonist  Prince Chaos. In this world, he encounters the sage & wizard Lugulbanda who sends him on his quest aided by the leather-clad Amazon warrior Sargon Mistress of War. They battle Valaria the insect sorceress and Chaos' henchman, the purple ape Symax"

Here's where things get interesting the citizens of Fen Ra are essentially gods not unlike DC comics New Gods or The Externals. God like cosmic beings who have all of the foibles of humanity with all of that power eternal. Lord Cumulus is one of the biggest jerks I've encountered in science fantasy, he's like this over the top Prince Charming on steroids with the power cosmic who messes things up. In fact the entire line of citizens are flawed & many are betrayers throughout the series. The families & citizens of Fen Ra have a lot in common with the Roman gods of mythology & more modern incarnations of  flawed demi gods such as featured in the work of Roger Zelazny's  Amber and the Courts of Chaos.

These holy royal bloodlines all back reference P.J. Farmer's World of Tiers series of novels which also uses and exploits many of the Golden & pulp age setting ideas & world building. That series also back references one of my all time favorite myth makers  William Blake's mythology.
"The Jadawin family (or at least their names) are taken from William Blake's mythology.^[2] This mythology is referred to by the characters in the stories (mainly in The Gates of Creation, Red Orc's Rage, and More than Fire)." "
This series was later homaged (ripped off) for the classic & some what infamous rpg system  Lords of Creation by Tom Moldvey for  Avalon Hill. The World of Tiers was also talked about in the classic From the City of Brass to Dead Orc Pass in One Easy Step

Alts: Theory and use of gates: From the city of Brass... to dead Orc Pass in a Dragon magazine article in issue #37 & The Best of Dragon #2.

 
This all ties back into the roll of Lord Protector of Cynosure really. How? Well way back in Warp issue #7 we learn about Cynosure and that earlier incarnations of Lord Cumulus was the Lord Protector of the pan dimensional city

"The Lord Protector of Cynosure is an artificial being constructed from cells and energies representing all of the various dimensions. As a result, The Lord Protector is charged with vast reality warping powers to be used in the preservation of the city. During Gaunt's time, the Lord Protector was Phaeton. He was killed and possessed during Dancer's second rebellion and Gaunt and his allies created a new Lord Protector from a cloned being infused with the essence of a sorceress called Sphinx. It is unknown if there continues to be a Lord Protector in Twilley's time. Lord Cumulus also spent much time on Cynosure and was idolized by the citizens. After his untimely death, many others including Phaeton tried to replace him. "

This in fact was the set up for the Demon Wars for when the last issue of Warp wrapped up there were a lot of loose ends that were picked up in later issues of  Grimjack. Personally I was always a Prince Chaos fan (the brother to our 'hero') & a 10th level super scientist in his own right with the ego to match. He's so over the top that he deserves his own blog entry on his own but that's another time.


So what's all of this have to do with Nexus The Infinite City & Gamma World First & Second Edition? There is a lot of water under the bridge with this one so excuse me if I take my time with Warp. There were a lot of realities that were left broken & time lines screwed up in the wake of the disappearance of both Lord Cumulus & Prince Chaos. These also included several dimensional realities where the Ancient's touch off the apocalypse because of their absence. In fact the ending of this series paved the way for Starslayer & Grimjack.


Warp exploited a lot of comic book pardon the pun here comic book tropes & with the disappearance of Lord Cumulus at its end set in motion a series of cosmic events that I turned into full blown campaign cycles that the PC's had to wrap up. They never even encountered Fen Ra but they sure did encounter a number of trade house NPC's & several PC's that traced their watered down royal  blood back to Fen Ra, The Courts of Amber, William Blake's various mythological family members. Later I would use Warp as a sort of blue print to create my own arching families of flawed demi gods for deeper Nexus The Infinite City play.


So here's where two OSR comes through is the Godbound rpg & the Troll Lord Games's Siege engine books which both ideally suited for a Nexus The Infinite City rpg & Warp comic books especially the royal family's escapades! Godbound Deluxe edition has the reality bending weirdness of Warp & Grimjack in spades!
 

Godbound deluxe rpg characters  has the abilities displayed by the royals of Fen Ra have :

• Mortal player character creation, whether as desperate dirt farmers-turned-adventurers or as budding mortal heroes who dare the perils of this dark world. Can your PCs survive and prosper in a world blighted by the past?
• Cybernetics and clockwork prostheses, for those GMs that want to add in a high-tech or steampunk-flavored note to their worlds.
• Divine Supremacy and Paradises, citadels and divine strongholds to shelter the souls of the Godbound's faithful.
• Godwalkers, titanic engines of ruin built by the Former Empires to face divine foes. Salvage them from forgotten ruins or build your own with the creation system here.
• The Martial Strifes, divine martial arts that channel the natural conflicts of the mundane world into fearsome feats of destructive prowess.

Within the Warp comics there are several realities that have the qualities of a cosmic dungeon material. The demons & devils of Castles & Crusades displayed in the Tome of the Unclean is exactly the sort infernal infection that the Lord Cumulus & Grimjack.




Keep em rolling folks!
This blog post is for educational & entertainment purposes only and is not a challenge to the trade marks or copyrights of any to first comics or the holders of the Grimjack  or Warp copy rights or trade marks. Nor Nexus The Infinite City. None of the role playing games mentioned in this blog entry are responsible for it. This blog post is for entertainment & educational purposes only

Using Classic TSR Era D&D B/X Adventures For An Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Campaign Path Plus Free OSR Adventure Resources

So I've been thinking about running PC's through some basic adventures for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea but I need some old school options to get the player's juices going. Fortunately I've got several real world friends who have run several player groups through classic TSR era adventures and modules.

I've been talking with some folks in the real world about Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea; customizing the sword & sorcery setting to fit into a more pulp 'on the edge' of the dangerous wilderness & wanton ruins sort of mode. So I started to dig back through old notes & blog posts of adapting 1st edition AD&D & B/X D&D modules for an adventure path that emulates the sort of a feel that I'm going for. This adventure path might include the following classic TSR era ones& beyond :
B2 Keep on the Borderlands but then I'd take a left at Judge's Guild & use Frontier Forts of Kelnor create more ruined forts along the borders of Hyperborea left vacate by the Green Death.
Then I'd run the PC's through  the free OSR adventures of RC Pinnel aka Thorkhammer's XS1: Luln &

XS1A: The Ward of Wereskalot  both of which contain OD&D &  adventure elements that echo the Keep On The Bordlerlands ethos. So some assembly is required for AS&SH. This is going to get players ready for
X1 Isle of Dread which could include a lot of the Free Threshold Issue 3: The Sea of Dread & Issue 4: The Sea of Dread material but a lot of adaption is required here. 

 

Some of the material found in those two issues could lead the PC's across the face of Hyperborea into the desert regions which takes them into the classic  B4 The Lost City. The Lost City is vast & could be used as another Hyperborean lost colony deep within the desert interior of  Hyperborea itself. It could contain vast dangers to the outside world that if not dealt with could be very dangerous to the continued existence of mankind on the face of Hyperborea.

There's more then enough room to include the Iron Ring of B10 as a subfraction of the weird remains of the Elemental Evil cult of The Lost City. The humanoid races of the Lost City are actually degenerate Hyperboreans warped by the presence of the evils of the cult of the demon god  Zargon. Finally the Lost City adventure location leads deeper into the Hyperborean countryside which resembles the a weird Russian interior ala B10. Why B10? 

There is a lot that can be done with 'The Lost City' module especially by taking Hyperborean adventurers deeper into the Lower Catacomb's dungeons and mysteries. This could raise AS&SH adventurers beyond the limits of the game's PC's levels.

B10 Night's Dark Terror is a good module to expand the PC's horizon's deep into AS&SH's adventure domains & possibly into extensions of Hyperborean politics and domain play.

"B10 Nights Dark Terror - The module begins in a beleaguered farmstead. The PCs then explore more than 20,000 square miles (52,000 km²) of wilderness, with eighteen locations, including a number of mini-dungeons, a ruined city, a riverside village, a frontier town, and a lost valley, with the minions of the Iron Ring waiting for the PCs at every step."

By dropping out the usual D&D races & trappings then just concentrating on the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea PC gaming & setting elements B10 goes into a pulpy adventure module with tons of campaign play.


I've been thinking of the usual humanoid and goblinoid races which could be all that remains of the Hyperboreans, degenerate and dangerous beastly things mixed with traces of alien demonic blooded horrors from beyond the pale of Hyperborea.

Because these modules are now available on Drivethrurpg & Rpgnow with a print option its not hard to figure that they'd make excellent fodder for a sword & sorcery campaign. Especially B10 would can easily be customized as the dungeon master needs or wants.

Cosmic Hi Jinks - Commentary On Nexus's The Infinite City rpg & First Comics Series Warp With Even More OSR Overtones

 

My working/playing  copy of Nexus The Infinite City so used with the cover worn off.

So I spent the last couple of days in the presence of the royal family of Cynosure, yeah that's right we're in for more Nexus The Infinite City & First Comics commentary. So the Wikipedia entry on the pan dimensional city of Cynosure reads;"

Cynosure is a fictional pan-dimensional city that exists within the First Comics multiverse.^[1][2][3] It is described as floating in a "bubble" in the "pan-dimensional vortex." Because of its unique situation, Cynosure is an important center of multi-versal commerce and much of the city's government is geared toward maintaining favorable trading conditions.

Different zones of the city operate under different physical laws because of the proximity of other dimensions. Guns and other technology work in some parts of the city and not others. Similarly, magic is operable some places and not others. Swords generally work everywhere. Different dimensions variously move in and out of phase with Cynosure, regularly in some instances and randomly in others. Occasionally dimensions will seemingly exist entirely within the confines of Cynosure, as for example the so-called "snowball dimensions" which roam throughout the city, or at "Infinity Lanes," a bowling alley in which each lane is a separate dimension.

Perhaps the most noted resident of Cynosure is John Gaunt, also known as Grimjack. His fate is uniquely tied to that of the city, as he is doomed to be reincarnated for as long as the city exists. This doom came about when Gaunt voluntarily walked out of Heaven to save the life of a friend who, if he were to die, would have been condemned forever to Hell. It is through Grimjack's experiences during two of his incarnations (Gaunt and James Twilley) that much of what is known about Cynosure was revealed."  Its also completely wrong & our favorite pan dimensional city predates Grimjack by an entire comic book series and setting. Going all of the way back to 1983 when Warp issue #1 premiered with 'The Coming of  Lord Cumulus'  a cover by the classic Frank Brunner graced the cover .

Wait, what the heck is Warp? "Wasn't that a comic book style super hero broad way play way back in the 1970's & early 80's? " , the hard core comic book fans reading this  are saying this  right now. Yes it was.

"Warp!, also spelled Warp, was an American science-fiction play created at Chicago, Illinois' Organic Theatre Company in 1971 by co-authors Stuart Gordon and Lenny Kleinfeld, the latter under the pseudonym Bury St. Edmund"

Issue one follows the 1973 broad way production of Warp!  pretty closely except with a few minor but points.

"David Carson, an everyday bank teller, learns that he is Lord Cumulus, "avenger of the universe & protector of Cynosure ". Suddenly transported from an annual employee-awards dinner to the mystical realm Fen-Ra, he finds himself battling for the destiny of the multi universe  against his brother &  antagonist  Prince Chaos. In this world, he encounters the sage & wizard Lugulbanda who sends him on his quest aided by the leather-clad Amazon warrior Sargon Mistress of War. They battle Valaria the insect sorceress and Chaos' henchman, the purple ape Symax"

Here's where things get interesting the citizens of Fen Ra are essentially gods not unlike DC comics New Gods or The Externals. God like cosmic beings who have all of the foibles of humanity with all of that power eternal. Lord Cumulus is one of the biggest jerks I've encountered in science fantasy, he's like this over the top Prince Charming on steroids with the power cosmic who messes things up. In fact the entire line of citizens are flawed & many are betrayers throughout the series. The families & citizens of Fen Ra have a lot in common with the Roman gods of mythology & more modern incarnations of  flawed demi gods such as featured in the work of Roger Zelazny's  Amber and the Courts of Chaos.

These holy royal bloodlines all back reference P.J. Farmer's World of Tiers series of novels which also uses and exploits many of the Golden & pulp age setting ideas & world building. That series also back references one of my all time favorite myth makers  William Blake's mythology.
"The Jadawin family (or at least their names) are taken from William Blake's mythology.^[2] This mythology is referred to by the characters in the stories (mainly in The Gates of Creation, Red Orc's Rage, and More than Fire)." "
This series was later homaged (ripped off) for the classic & some what infamous rpg system  Lords of Creation by Tom Moldvey for  Avalon Hill. The World of Tiers was also talked about in the classic From the City of Brass to Dead Orc Pass in One Easy Step

Alts: Theory and use of gates: From the city of Brass... to dead Orc Pass in a Dragon magazine article in issue #37 & The Best of Dragon #2.

 
This all ties back into the roll of Lord Protector of Cynosure really. How? Well way back in Warp issue #7 we learn about Cynosure and that earlier incarnations of Lord Cumulus was the Lord Protector of the pan dimensional city

"The Lord Protector of Cynosure is an artificial being constructed from cells and energies representing all of the various dimensions. As a result, The Lord Protector is charged with vast reality warping powers to be used in the preservation of the city. During Gaunt's time, the Lord Protector was Phaeton. He was killed and possessed during Dancer's second rebellion and Gaunt and his allies created a new Lord Protector from a cloned being infused with the essence of a sorceress called Sphinx. It is unknown if there continues to be a Lord Protector in Twilley's time. Lord Cumulus also spent much time on Cynosure and was idolized by the citizens. After his untimely death, many others including Phaeton tried to replace him. "

This in fact was the set up for the Demon Wars for when the last issue of Warp wrapped up there were a lot of loose ends that were picked up in later issues of  Grimjack. Personally I was always a Prince Chaos fan (the brother to our 'hero') & a 10th level super scientist in his own right with the ego to match. He's so over the top that he deserves his own blog entry on his own but that's another time.


So what's all of this have to do with Nexus The Infinite City & Gamma World First & Second Edition? There is a lot of water under the bridge with this one so excuse me if I take my time with Warp. There were a lot of realities that were left broken & time lines screwed up in the wake of the disappearance of both Lord Cumulus & Prince Chaos. These also included several dimensional realities where the Ancient's touch off the apocalypse because of their absence. In fact the ending of this series paved the way for Starslayer & Grimjack.


Warp exploited a lot of comic book pardon the pun here comic book tropes & with the disappearance of Lord Cumulus at its end set in motion a series of cosmic events that I turned into full blown campaign cycles that the PC's had to wrap up. They never even encountered Fen Ra but they sure did encounter a number of trade house NPC's & several PC's that traced their watered down royal  blood back to Fen Ra, The Courts of Amber, William Blake's various mythological family members. Later I would use Warp as a sort of blue print to create my own arching families of flawed demi gods for deeper Nexus The Infinite City play.

Warp by First comics is so over the top that it's a great resource for not only Nexus but Dungeon Crawl Classics and other OSR systems! May you never get fleas from the fur of the purple ape Symax!

Keep em rolling folks!
This blog post is for educational & entertainment purposes only and is not a challenge to the trade marks or copyrights of any to first comics or the holders of the Grimjack  or Warp copy rights or trade marks. Nor Nexus The Infinite City. None of the role playing games mentioned in this blog entry are responsible for it. This blog post is for entertainment & educational purposes only

Cosmic Hi Jinks - Commentary On Nexus's The Infinite City rpg & First Comics Series Warp With Even More OSR Overtones

 

My working/playing  copy of Nexus The Infinite City so used with the cover worn off.

So I spent the last couple of days in the presence of the royal family of Cynosure, yeah that's right we're in for more Nexus The Infinite City & First Comics commentary. So the Wikipedia entry on the pan dimensional city of Cynosure reads;"

Cynosure is a fictional pan-dimensional city that exists within the First Comics multiverse.^[1][2][3] It is described as floating in a "bubble" in the "pan-dimensional vortex." Because of its unique situation, Cynosure is an important center of multi-versal commerce and much of the city's government is geared toward maintaining favorable trading conditions.

Different zones of the city operate under different physical laws because of the proximity of other dimensions. Guns and other technology work in some parts of the city and not others. Similarly, magic is operable some places and not others. Swords generally work everywhere. Different dimensions variously move in and out of phase with Cynosure, regularly in some instances and randomly in others. Occasionally dimensions will seemingly exist entirely within the confines of Cynosure, as for example the so-called "snowball dimensions" which roam throughout the city, or at "Infinity Lanes," a bowling alley in which each lane is a separate dimension.

Perhaps the most noted resident of Cynosure is John Gaunt, also known as Grimjack. His fate is uniquely tied to that of the city, as he is doomed to be reincarnated for as long as the city exists. This doom came about when Gaunt voluntarily walked out of Heaven to save the life of a friend who, if he were to die, would have been condemned forever to Hell. It is through Grimjack's experiences during two of his incarnations (Gaunt and James Twilley) that much of what is known about Cynosure was revealed."  Its also completely wrong & our favorite pan dimensional city predates Grimjack by an entire comic book series and setting. Going all of the way back to 1983 when Warp issue #1 premiered with 'The Coming of  Lord Cumulus'  a cover by the classic Frank Brunner graced the cover .

Wait, what the heck is Warp? "Wasn't that a comic book style super hero broad way play way back in the 1970's & early 80's? " , the hard core comic book fans reading this  are saying this  right now. Yes it was.

"Warp!, also spelled Warp, was an American science-fiction play created at Chicago, Illinois' Organic Theatre Company in 1971 by co-authors Stuart Gordon and Lenny Kleinfeld, the latter under the pseudonym Bury St. Edmund"

Issue one follows the 1973 broad way production of Warp!  pretty closely except with a few minor but points.

"David Carson, an everyday bank teller, learns that he is Lord Cumulus, "avenger of the universe & protector of Cynosure ". Suddenly transported from an annual employee-awards dinner to the mystical realm Fen-Ra, he finds himself battling for the destiny of the multi universe  against his brother &  antagonist  Prince Chaos. In this world, he encounters the sage & wizard Lugulbanda who sends him on his quest aided by the leather-clad Amazon warrior Sargon Mistress of War. They battle Valaria the insect sorceress and Chaos' henchman, the purple ape Symax"

Here's where things get interesting the citizens of Fen Ra are essentially gods not unlike DC comics New Gods or The Externals. God like cosmic beings who have all of the foibles of humanity with all of that power eternal. Lord Cumulus is one of the biggest jerks I've encountered in science fantasy, he's like this over the top Prince Charming on steroids with the power cosmic who messes things up. In fact the entire line of citizens are flawed & many are betrayers throughout the series. The families & citizens of Fen Ra have a lot in common with the Roman gods of mythology & more modern incarnations of  flawed demi gods such as featured in the work of Roger Zelazny's  Amber and the Courts of Chaos.

These holy royal bloodlines all back reference P.J. Farmer's World of Tiers series of novels which also uses and exploits many of the Golden & pulp age setting ideas & world building. That series also back references one of my all time favorite myth makers  William Blake's mythology.
"The Jadawin family (or at least their names) are taken from William Blake's mythology.^[2] This mythology is referred to by the characters in the stories (mainly in The Gates of Creation, Red Orc's Rage, and More than Fire)." "
This series was later homaged (ripped off) for the classic & some what infamous rpg system  Lords of Creation by Tom Moldvey for  Avalon Hill. The World of Tiers was also talked about in the classic From the City of Brass to Dead Orc Pass in One Easy Step

Alts: Theory and use of gates: From the city of Brass... to dead Orc Pass in a Dragon magazine article in issue #37 & The Best of Dragon #2.

 
This all ties back into the roll of Lord Protector of Cynosure really. How? Well way back in Warp issue #7 we learn about Cynosure and that earlier incarnations of Lord Cumulus was the Lord Protector of the pan dimensional city

"The Lord Protector of Cynosure is an artificial being constructed from cells and energies representing all of the various dimensions. As a result, The Lord Protector is charged with vast reality warping powers to be used in the preservation of the city. During Gaunt's time, the Lord Protector was Phaeton. He was killed and possessed during Dancer's second rebellion and Gaunt and his allies created a new Lord Protector from a cloned being infused with the essence of a sorceress called Sphinx. It is unknown if there continues to be a Lord Protector in Twilley's time. Lord Cumulus also spent much time on Cynosure and was idolized by the citizens. After his untimely death, many others including Phaeton tried to replace him. "

This in fact was the set up for the Demon Wars for when the last issue of Warp wrapped up there were a lot of loose ends that were picked up in later issues of  Grimjack. Personally I was always a Prince Chaos fan (the brother to our 'hero') & a 10th level super scientist in his own right with the ego to match. He's so over the top that he deserves his own blog entry on his own but that's another time.


So what's all of this have to do with Nexus The Infinite City & Gamma World First & Second Edition? There is a lot of water under the bridge with this one so excuse me if I take my time with Warp. There were a lot of realities that were left broken & time lines screwed up in the wake of the disappearance of both Lord Cumulus & Prince Chaos. These also included several dimensional realities where the Ancient's touch off the apocalypse because of their absence. In fact the ending of this series paved the way for Starslayer & Grimjack.


Warp exploited a lot of comic book pardon the pun here comic book tropes & with the disappearance of Lord Cumulus at its end set in motion a series of cosmic events that I turned into full blown campaign cycles that the PC's had to wrap up. They never even encountered Fen Ra but they sure did encounter a number of trade house NPC's & several PC's that traced their watered down royal  blood back to Fen Ra, The Courts of Amber, William Blake's various mythological family members. Later I would use Warp as a sort of blue print to create my own arching families of flawed demi gods for deeper Nexus The Infinite City play.

Warp by First comics is so over the top that it's a great resource for not only Nexus but Dungeon Crawl Classics and other OSR systems! May you never get fleas from the fur of the purple ape Symax!

Keep em rolling folks!
This blog post is for educational & entertainment purposes only and is not a challenge to the trade marks or copyrights of any to first comics or the holders of the Grimjack  or Warp copy rights or trade marks. Nor Nexus The Infinite City. None of the role playing games mentioned in this blog entry are responsible for it. This blog post is for entertainment & educational purposes only