Retro OSR Review & Commentary On MA1 Children of the Atom (Marvel Super Heroes RPG) By Kim Eastland For The Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Rpg

"Children of the Atom is a supplement for the Advanced Set describing all of Marvel Comics's mutant heroes and villains.^[1] Children of the Atom is an encyclopedia of mutant-kind, detailing their friends, enemies, homes and equipment.^[2] It includes a miniscenario, "Dreamchild."<sup>[1]"

Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Childen of The Atom Wiki entry</sup> 

 

 This retro review is going to pick right up from here on the blog  MA1 Children of the Atom (Marvel Super Heroes RPG) By Kim Eastland came out in 1986 right at the height of 'mutant fever' in Marvel comics. This book was the one that everyone in our group of players wanted! There are lot of mutants crammed into MA1! This is an incredibly useful book for Marvel Super Heroes Advanced. 
MA1 Children of the Atom (Marvel Super Heroes RPG) is also way, way, outta of date! That's alright because I view these Marvel Super Heroes Advanced rpg supplements as mini time capsules of the Eighties. This is a fascinating supplement that goes over the Xmen & the various other mutant teams members, NPC's, villains, equipment, locations and more. Other reviewers have also felt the same way Kevin Derby on Amazon from June 2016 sums up MA1 quite nicely in his review; "Kim Eastland's "Children of the Atom" was written for TSR's classic Marvel Super Heroes RPG some three decades ago but fans of the X-Men will enjoy this book as well, even if they don't play the game. This book offers a great overview of the leading characters on the X-Men, New Mutants, X-Factor and their adversaries and supporting casts. Be warned--this book is a product of its time, somewhere between XMen 200 when Magneto took over the team from Prof. X and before the Mutant Massacre storyline. As such, it's pretty dated. But despite that, it remains a great resource for old school comic fans as well as anyone playing the RPG after 30 years. Highly recommended." I most assuredly don't agree with Pete Tamlyn reviewed Children of the Atom for White Dwarf #84;"Pete Tamlyn reviewed Children of the Atom for White Dwarf #84.^[2] He described the product as, in essence, "Project Wideawake re-done for MSH Advanced, though it is vastly more comprehensive. Nevertheless, as is the way with such things, it is already way out of date, Chris Claremont having sabotaged it by introducing wholesale changes in the X-Men comic whilst the book was in production. Nor is it fully comprehensive, no Power Pack, for example. There is an adventure at the end but it's not very impressive. If you look at it as an MSH Monster Manual you'll get the basic idea. X-Men fans and students of the Marvel Universe will love it, others may find it a complete waste of time, especially as original statistics have already been published for most of the characters listed."" 
This review is incredibly harsh considering those buying it would mostly be playing Marvel Super Heroes or other super hero rpg's. 

Photo stolen from Wayne's books who has an excellent Marvels Super Heroes section here. 

Our own heroes had deep connections to the Xmen as a reserve 'X' team that was cut loose due to budget concerns. This has to do with the formentioned 'Mutant Masscre' that cut a swath through the 'X' titles of comic books. We'd have a rather nasty encounter with 'X Factor' and there was bad blood between our two groups. 

Our own group of heroes were a mercenary outfit that mopped up asignments from the Avengers and even the Xmen. So this book was very handy! We'd later on go on to work for Damage Control and come face to face with the Maruaders. We barely survived that encounter.  In the early 90's we'd run square into a Mr.Sinister lair beneath the streets of Manhatten. But he was revealed in a much later supplement. So is MA1 Children of the Atom worth getting?!  Oh yes and it's available through the Classic Marvel Forver website under downloads advanced tab. 

Retro OSR Review Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Set By Author Jeff Grubb

 "This set consists of a 96-page Player's Book, a 64-page Judge 's Book, a 22-1/2 by 33-inch full color, two-sided map, over 40 Character Cards, 80 Stand-Up Adventure Counters and two 10-sided dice. The MARVEL SUPER HEROES ADVANCED SET may be played by itself, but is designed to expand the existing MARVEL SUPER HEROES Game. The MARVEL SUPER HEROES Game is for two or more players, ages 12 and up."

Rear view vision is a fun thing & when it comes too FASRIP, I've got a very special place in my heart for it especially the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set! The Advanced Marvel Super Heroes set came out in 1986 & for our group it was the breath of fresh air we needed. According to the MSH Advanced Wiki page there were several changes; "It contains a more elaborate "Universal Table" which enables a wider variety of results to happen. Character creation involves detailed superhuman powers now in 10 categories (such as Movement, Mental Powers, or Energy Control), and combat is more complex as well and has rules for magic. This set presents statistics for many weapons and vehicles, more information on campaigns, game statistics for 45 heroes, 28 villains, and 9 special entities, as well as character cards and cardstock miniatures" This set was no joke and was very much responsible for an ongoing Marvel Super Hereoes campaign that lasted deeply into '91! This set was designed for sustained campaign play & even Andrew Pearson of the Space Gamer fame agreed:"
 Andrew Pearson reviewed Marvel Super Heroes: Advanced in Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer No. 78.^[2] He rated the complexity as low, and the rules clarity and graphics quality as excellent.^[2] Pearson commented that "As other reviewers have said of the original, the advanced set has realism. The realism of this set is of the intensity one would have if he or she were actually living out a Marvel Comic. A more comprehensive listing of powers and talents is given in the new Player's Book. More exacting explanations of these features are given that can be compared to the realistic spell explanations in TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook. Contacts are now the replacement of Neighbors, Friends, etc. Of course this does not mean you cannot have neighbors or friends, it just means that you can have a larger amount of each. Contacts are those who can aid you in a gainful way during a campaign (i.e. support, information, equipment)."

This was no joke of an Advanced set, we played the Hell out of it and wound up buying two more Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Set By Author Jeff Grubb. 
Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Set By Author Jeff Grubb came with a map of New York City and to this day it's where we continue to set game campaigns. 
Our own '87 game was set up with our own mercenary super heroes doing 'mop up' for most of the other super heroes groups such as the Fantastic Four, the Avengers,and even the Xmen. Man, did we get ourselves into some major scraps back then. 
Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Set has pretty much everything one needs to start and drop a MSH's game from the ground up. The character generation is simple, easy to get into and perfect for campaign play. Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Set By Author Jeff Grubb is  available through the Classic Marvel Forver website under downloads advanced tab. 

Photo stolen from Wayne's books who has an excellent Marvels Super Heroes section here. 

Retro OSR Review & Commentary On The Fantastic Four Compendium (Marvel Super Heroes, Ma4) By David Martin (Author) For The Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Rpg system

 " In this book, you'll meet all the heroes who have at one time or another been members of the Fantastic Four, the group's extended family, their friends, and their allies. You'll also find stats for the Fantastic Four's most hated and feared DR. DOOM (both of them!), the PUPPET MASTER, the members of the FRIGHTFUL FOUR, and many others. Details are provided for the old Baxter Building and the new Four Freedoms Plaza, for such locales as PEGASUS, ILIAKANDA, and HANDAR. From the Fantastic Four's first battles with GORMUU and the MOLE MAN to their latest adventures, you can find everything you need to play the Greatest Superhero Team Ever between these covers."

So last night I got out this old beauty because of the fact that I'm planning on introducing some of the classic The Fantastic Four Compendium (Marvel Super Heroes, Ma4) adventure elements to our campaigns. 
The first thing that jumps out to me is just how much classic Marvel Fantastic Four elements that the TSR crew crammed into this classic! Ma4 is for the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Rpg system even though it's incredibly useful for other super hero rpg systems. 

 The Fantastic Four Compendium (Marvel Super Heroes, Ma4) By David Martin (Author) is way, way, out of date from the Fantastic Four comics. However, Ma4 does cover all of the Sixties through early Eighties classic era Fantastic Four adventure elements.  There's a great Amazon review of MA4 from Kevin M.Derby from June 27,2016; "David Martin hit a home run with the “Fantastic Four Compendium.” While this is a supplement for TSR’s classic Marvel RP from the 1980s, Martin also offers an interesting resource for fans of the team though, after more than a quarter of a century, this is a dated look at the team (so dated that the team included Crystal and Ms. Marvel--not She Thing--instead of Reed and Sue Richards). Besides looking at the main characters and their supporting cast and opponents, Martin shines a light on the team’s various headquarters and other locales, vehicles, and equipment. It’s a fascinating look at the Fantastic Four after John Byrne’s run and the inconsistencies which have mostly plagued that team since then. Highly recommended to Fantastic Four fans." 
So what's so great about Ma4?! Well besides giving us the lowdown on Namor, Atlantis, the Moleman, and more. Is the fact that The Fantastic Four Compendium (Marvel Super Heroes, Ma4)  gives out the prime adventure locations like the Negative Zone, and it's inhabitants such as Blasstar and many others. 
Plus we get a wide range of equipment, gimmicks, devices, etc all used by the FF. And these are just waiting to get your PC's into trouble. 
Because Ma4 was designed with this in mind it slots right into the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced book. These design choices go right along with Pete Tamlyn opinion who  reviewed Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set for White Dwarf #84; "Regarding the rules, Tamlyn states: "Jeff Grubb has done a pretty slick job, both in expanding the system without over-complicating it [...] and in explaining it all in an entertaining manner."^[3] He was critical of the set's complexity, "TSR seem to believe in simple, improvisational games for kids and complex, rule-heavy ones for adults."^[3] He continued, "Whether you need MSH Advanced depends on how you like to run your games. If you're starting out, provided it is not your first roleplaying game, I'd go for the Advanced game but be prepared to treat a lot of what it says as guidelines only." All of this can be found within the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced wiki entry here. 

Photo stolen from Wayne's books who has an excellent Marvels Super Heroes section here. 

Our own super heroes were known as the 'mop up's' back in the Eighties because that's exactly what we did with The Fantastic Four Compendium (Marvel Super Heroes, Ma4) By David Martin (Author). We'd often mop up after the Fantastic Four had moved on and taken out more negative zone or Mole Man monsters after the FF had moved on to other things. Often this was direct result of working for Damage Control. We got paid on a mission by mission basis and were super mercenaries way before it became fashionable. 
Is The Fantastic Four Compendium (Marvel Super Heroes, Ma4) By David Martin (Author) worth the download?! In a word, oh yes and it's available through the Classic Marvel Forver website under downloads advanced tab.