Memories & Commentary On The Classic Shogun Warriors Toy line & Seventies Marvel Comic Book For Your Old School Campaign

Its been a long while since the Shogun Warriors crossed my desk. But speaking with various friends over the weekend let me to redress some of the elements of the campaign elements of my Lamentations of the Flame Princess Carcosa/Marvel Super Heroes rpg game campaign. 
First a quick bit of background on the Marvel comics Seventies comic book series from the wiki entry;"The Shogun Warriors series (composed of 20 issues) was published from February 1979 to September 1980.^[2] In the comic book series, the Shogun Warriors were created by a mysterious group called the Followers of the Light^[3] and human operators were chosen from all around the world to operate the massive robots in order to battle evil."


Many of the resources for this campaign came straight from the Palaid Stallions website after asking those wonderful folks for permission to use some of their material for this blog. The toyline was incredible! They remain very high on the list of many toy collectors. 
 

In fact its the comic book series that really has the in for using the Shogun Warriors in an old school campaign;"The series took a dramatic turn with Shogun Warriors #16 (May 1980), as the Shogun Warriors' mentors were destroyed by the Primal One and his followers.^[8] This alien force decided that Earth's technology had outpaced its morality, making it their duty to destroy the Shogun Warriors as well as other powerful humans. Declining sales, as well as Moench's commitment to writing the Moon Knight comic book series that had just been started, led Marvel to cancel the Shogun Warriors comic book series" 

And here's where things get really interesting looking back over the Shogun Warriors comic series today it becomes apparent that Earth's Shoguns might not have been the only Warriors in existence. The Shogun Warriors have been hinted at being build on other planets & planes of existence by Followers of Light in their never ending struggle in the Chaos war. Godzilla & Rodan were hinted at existing right along side Red Ronin in the Seventies Marvel universe; "Between February 1979 and July 1979, Marvel had the comic book rights to both Godzilla and the Shogun Warriors. While the characters never crossed paths in their respective comics, Trimpe (who did the artwork for both series) drew a variation of Godzilla and Rodan alongside Daimos, Great Mazinger, Raydeen and Gaiking on the top page of a comic book advertisement soliciting the Shogun Warrior toys.^[5] Mattel simultaneously had a license to produce Shogun Warriors toys (at the time) and a license to produce toys based on Godzilla^[6] and Rodan.^[7] Though never appearing in the comic series, Red Ronin of Marvel's Godzilla, King of the Monsters comic book series was mentioned occasionally and was frequently written about in the letters pages. Shogun Warriors #15 (April 1980) was a fill-in written by Steven Grant with art by Mike Vosburg."

The alignments of Chaos,Law, & Neutrality on Carcosa & Cha'alt for that matter make it very possible for the Chaos War depicted being carried out by the 'Followers of Light' to continue on this Lovecraftian planet. Alien gladiatorial battles with Megabug Gladiators Mecha  are events that I eluded to taking place within this campaign. 

These battles could be taking place for the amusement of the royals of Venger Satanis's Torth who come to this campaign to observe the spectacle of semi religious gladiatorial mecha combat. 

In point of fact a quest for hidden giant mecha could well be the point of a weird old school campaign! Giant Tarrasque guardians protecting  the dungeon temples of the 'Followers of Light' where one or two of these semi sacred mecha are hidden  could be the focus of a campaign. Cha'alt is rife with giant dinosaurs & mutants the perfect fodder for Shogun Warrior battles. 

Artisan Guild Tarasque - Legendary Devourer miniature available here on Etsy. 

• Each 'Shogun Warrior' mecha has several weapon systems for your favorite OSR system. 
• These warrior units are powered by a drive system that enables the mecha to be active & in stasis for thousands or millions of years. 
• Some units can regenerate as trolls 
• Shogun warriors are often equipped with a unique weapon system similar to an artifact or other relic. 
• Many of the suggestions that various friends have proposed is that a version of the City of the Gods might exist on this Carcosa hybrid campaign. 

Dave Arneson (Author), David Richie (Author)'s DA3 setting might be the perfect location for this forbidden technology of the gods to exist. 

Commentary On the Up Coming Agents of Shield Episode 'Yes Men' For Your Old School Super Hero Campaign

So on the upcoming episode of Agents of Shield,
 Lady Sif is dropping in and I'm curious. I never get curious about Agents of Shield but this might an episode is making me curious.
Lady Sif has been a favorite character of mine ever since I was a kid. Maybe its the suffering romantic in me or the fact that she was so well played in the last Thor movie.



We've got her in full armor with agents tagging along on a lone bounty hunting mission from Odin.

"While the men of "Agents of SHIELD" will be enraptured with sorceress Lorelei, it's Lady Sif who catches Melinda May's eye. "She is a woman warrior and she's godlike and she has to wear these kicka** boots and I was so happy I wasn't the only one who had to walk around this awful floor and fight in high heel boots," Ming-Na Wen told Zap2it with a laugh while on set. "It was just nice to have someone else on set to empathize with."

Though Sif is on Earth for business, she's not without her (unintentional) comedic relief. "The language barriers, it was really fun to write," Whedon told Zap2it of conversations between the SHIELD team and Lady Sif. Fellow showrunner Maurissa Tancharoen added, "And seeing how she will take something literally. If Coulson will throw a line at her, she actually does the literal version of that physically."
 From what I've seen the fans are going to eat this episode up with a spoon. There are a ton of Marvel references in it and some really interesting interactions. It features Lorelei whose perhaps one of my all time favorite Asgardain characters. If they bring in the Executor then that's all right with me. 

We start throwing around Asgardian Super Science and 'gods' then we're entering the deep end of the Marvel Super Heroes universe. Here even the minor characters can wield power cosmic level problems. Then there's the fall out that is still echoing in from the 'Thor Dark World' Affair. Seriously, Shield cleaned all that debacle up and sent it off into space?

Could some of the Dark Elf technology land in your OD&D campaign only to cause even more problems and issues for those who handle it?
Short answer 'yes'. 


Umm sure it did and there's no room for your PC's to help deal with the blow back from it still going on. I'd say its time to download a copy of the Avenger's source book from HERE 
Get back into the super hero game figuring out why one of the most dangerous wizards of Asgard is on Earth and what she's hidden upon planet. There are a metric ton of ideas still waiting around from the 60's and Cold War let alone this Episode!
All in all it wasn't a bad episode and I enjoyed it but this series needs to be 'great'! With a capital 'G' and this episode is a step in the right direction folks.

1d10 Random Finds From Dark Elf Invasions

1. 1d6 dark elf pieces of armor filled with weird circuitry and still functioning with minimum power. 
2. A burnt out shuttle craft and power source is gone. One wing cracked and energy weapons gone. 
3. A fungus spawn of dark elf technology nanites spreads out from a crashed vehicle.
4. 1d4 Dark Elf jewel pieces with strange technology just looking for a living host. 
5. A Dark Elf energy weapon waiting for a warrior to wield it. The thing is partially alive and has a horrid intelligence. 20% chance of this thing blowing up in your face for 1d6 damage. 
6.  1d8 broken masks with living flesh inside of them just waiting for someone to put them on. This thing will do 1d4 points of damage anyone putting this thing on. 
7. A broken energy source is just waiting for a  fool to touch it and it will explode for 1d8 points of damage. 
8. There is a broken dimensional gate and its charged. This thing will send anyone who touches it to the Dark Elf home plane. 
9. A group of 1d20 Dark Elf warriors is just waiting for a group of adventurers to stumble upon them. 
10. An Asgardian Strike team in suspension is waiting to be activated! 

Review and Commentary On The Agents of Shield Episode 'Tracks' For Your Old School Super Hero Campaign

Finally an enjoyable Agents of Shield episode! 'Tracks' was everything that we've been seen building up for months and months on the show. We finally get a 'Stan 'the man' Lee' cameo on top it.
Basically we ended up with a mission going very wrong in some respects for Coulson's team last night with all kinds of tangles with Cybertek and one of the minor villains that the team has been dealing with for several episodes.
 Oh and Skye was shot, she's in a medical induced coma and there's a mission involved in next week's episode. Coulson is upset. But back to Cybertek.
 Cyebertek has been stalking the halls of  the Agents of Shield comic and Marvel dating all the way back to the late 70's and into the 90's.
You can find more out right over HERE

Much of the implications in last night's episode is that we're only beginning to see the journey that the team is going to be taking. Why the hell weren't the other episodes done with this much action, plot, and ideas. 

Did I mention a Deathlok appearance?

Deathlok has always had a bit of a schizo appearance in the Marvel universes. This version has been odd in many ways. From weird technology to an origin involving a villain called the Clairvoyant . This one's journey seems like its only starting to begin. Deathlok has deep connections to Roxxon Oil and the Brand Corporation.
When we get into Deathlok , we begin to open a Pandora's box of alternative Earth strangeness, the strange Illuminati style technology of the 70's Deathlok the Demolisher, and the high weirdness of the Deathlok character going all the way back to the 70's & 90's. Will there be an appearance by Luther Manning?
I honestly don't know but Roxxon always gets my juices going.


 Deathlok is one of my favorite characters and you can find a bunch of his history HERE 



If you really want to see some of the 70's weirdness from Deathlok's alternative go right over HERE



When we talk about Deathlok, we're starting to talk about one of the most malevolent, dangerous, and dirty organizations in the Marvel universe.
Hydra? A.I.M.? Rexxon Oil?  Baron Strucker's other outfit? Nope.
I'm speaking of the grand daddy of all of the above.
The Brand Corporation! The money, power, nastiness, evil, etc. of all of the above and with connections to all of the above as well. Brand is possibly one of the most advanced technology corporations on the planet and with ties running deep into the Marvel universe and some of its alternates.



These guys have been running a ton of material through the Marvel universe going all the way back to the days of the original Iron Man. They've had their hand in cybernetic operations since the Korean conflict or at least their predecessors have.
They've had a hand in the creation of the following:
Mad Dog, The Serpent Society, The Grapplers, Orca The Killer Whale, Deathlok The Demolisher, Manticore, etc.
They've had a hand with heroes as well - Hellcat, Captain America, The Falcon, etc. have all had dealings with em.



You can find a ton more on em right over HERE
 All in all I enjoyed the episode but this episode has me thinking about my Marvel ODD&D cross over I did close to two years ago.
More next week as it develops.
 You can find a ton of information on Deathlok, Luther Manning, Cybertek for the Marvel Super Heroes Rpg right over here in the Marvel Handbooks for the game for free download.
Right over
HERE

Quick Review and Commentary On Agents of Shield Episode Six F.Z.Z.T.

 Its 12:30 am  and I've just gotten home from watching Agents of Shield.
The episode really was interesting and had some solid twists. We got more alien tech tie ins and vivid deaths via electro static shock and a solid tie in with the Chitari invasion of New York with Avengers. 

The show had kinda of a comdedic edge until the first of the deaths from the Chitari helmet and the weird alien virus that killed off a bunch of  First Responder ( The echoes of Nine Eleven were a bit eerie ). And we also see another side to Coulson in this one.
We got to see another side of him and I'm not sure if tonight's episode was a red herring or he was brought back after Avengers using some Asgardian gizmo but there were some interesting moments as he realizes that some thing is seriously off. 

Things turn deadly serious when one of the team is exposed to a very deadly alien pathogen. The show headed down some dark turf when one of the resident scientists of the team becomes infected.



 The show had kinda of an Andromeda Strain lite in the last fifteen minutes and could have ended seriously dark.
The show has danced around these two characters and I'm not sure if they were romantically linked or not.
Tonight we do know that feelings run very deep between the two.



Tonight it was all about Fitz and Simmons
.There were lots of implications and hints here tonight.

The Coulson Agenda 

Playing in the background of tonight's episode was Coulson's agenda with Shield. Something is going on here. He and Agent May certainly had a moment where they discuss his death and such. Then there was Shield's agenda with the alien technology and its effects on his team. Coulson genuinely cares about his team and Heaven help anyone who dicks with him or them.
 Are we being set up for a future show down between Coulson and the 'Old Guard' of Shield? I believe its very possible. With next week's episode called Level Seven and directed by Commander Riker himself for a cross over with Thor The Dark World I'll keep watching for now. 

Vintage Marvel Star Wars Comics Tag Sale Find - More Resources On The Cheap For Your Old School Science Fiction Campaigns

So today's tag sale find in town today consisted of seven Marvel Star Wars Comics at the bottom of a box labeled 'sewing machine parts' from a tag sale!
Considered by many hard core Star Wars fans to be apocryphal at best these are in my humble opinion some of the very best sources of vintage Star Wars information for running an OD&D based Star Wars Game the way it was meant to be played.
These comics left the back door open for DM's to add or subtract much of the material that Marvel added between movies and it was pretty weird stuff. The comics treated lightly on the canon of the movies and was easily reconned when a new movie came out.
That didn't stop millions of OD&D players from using these comics as the basis for weird and wholly adventures in the past or West End Game fans from using these as canon for their campaigns as well.
These days Dark Horse has collected many of these into single volumes but to find these was a plus for my Saturday considering I only paid a dollar for the box!

 The other resources for Star Wars!

Want to go even further out in a galaxy far, far, away? How about a whole different take on Luke Star Killer? A whole different era of the Empire and when the “Princess of Ondos“needed help! 
Check out http://starwarz.com/starkiller/

A bit of some of my favorite West End Marvel Goodness can be found right
HERE!

 Leigh Brackett's
Empire Strikes back script
HERE

And of course the OD&D 1977 Star Wars forum right over
HERE

Some great stuff for your science fantasy adventures in other apocryphal universes of your own.
May the Bendu be with you always! 

Review & Commentary On The Agents of Shield Trailer

So Agents of Shield is premiering tonight.
I'm getting together with friends and we're going to be dealing with going through the new show that there's been hints teasing and flirting with the public for months now. 

I've got to admit there is a part of me that is more then a bit reluctant for this to hit ABC.

Yeah, Yeah, Joss Wheadon and his track record. But I've grown up with Shield from the 70's with Nick Fury and beyond into the 'Ultimates' series where the movies actually have their roots. So this being a prime time show might actually have some interesting twists and turns.

Shield has always been more then a bit bit dicey in terms of how it operates in the Marvel universe. From LMD to the helicarrier, this is an organization that's been conned, reconned, and rereconned again.
 But this is Marvel and so I remain hopeful especially with stuff  like this trailer. So we'll, wait, watch, and see. 

Agent Coulson is just a great character! 

Here's wiki's break down on everything Shield related
Right over
 HERE
Spoilers AHEAD! You've been warned!