Commentary On The Ascendant Super Powered Kickstarter From Autarch Games

SUPPORT THE KICKSTARTER HERE! 

"The world of Ascendant  doesn't begin to diverge from that of our real world until 2012, and the first superheroes don't go public until the Battle of Atlanta in 2018, meaning your player characters will be among the first superhumans to ever don tights and fight crime.  The setting is presented as an epistolary novel made up of leaked documents, transcripts, newspaper clippings, and emails that you can print out"

The world of 2020 Ascendant rpg is not that far removed from ours but with some very dangerous additions. The advent of super heroes & villains has led to a total imbalance in the world of Western & Eastern society. The setting of the Ascendant rpg is not simply on the razor's edge it is the razor's edge & its working its way to cut across the throat of the Earth. 
Ascendant takes the rabid mathmatics of D.C. Heroes & combines it with the mathematics TSR classic Marvel Super Heroes by taking it one step beyond. This game takes the material & mathematical system  echos &  algorithms of these classic rpg's & then brings them into focus for 2020. 



What do I mean by this?! Well look at the hero example presented in the Kickstarter ;

"Up at the top you can see Aurora's Character Points, Power Limit, and Challenge Rating. Character Points (CP) are used to construct characters. An average human has 200 CP. A trained soldier has 240 CP. An exceptionally impressive, formidable and renowned human in the real world has 400 CP.  Every 80 CP represents an approximate doubling of the character’s competency across all capabilities. With 940 Character Points, Aurora is one of the 20 most powerful superhumans in the world. Power Limit constrains how  characters can allocate their CP and is analogous to class level in a D20 RPG. Challenge Rating shows how powerful a character is relative to a trained soldier. Aurora can defeat 500 US infantry simultaneously - she's a tough woman.  

Over on the right, below her image, you'll see Aurora's Primary Attributes: Might (MIG), Agility (AGI), Valor (VAL), Resolve (RES), Insight (INS), and Charisma (CHA). Each of these Primary Attributes are rated in Supermetric Points (SP). SP are logarithmic; each additional one SP has a value equal to double the amount of the previous SP.  Ordinary people have 3 SPs in each of their Primary Attributes, and the most impressive humans typically have no more than 5 SP in any Primary Attribute. With 7 SPs of Agility, Aurora is four times more agile than an Olympic athlete. With 12 SPs of Charisma, Aurora is 500 times more magnetic and alluring than any ordinary person.

To the left of the Primary Attributes are Aurora's Secondary Attributes, which rate factors like Initiative, Passive Spotting Range, Height, Income, and more. With a Flight Speed of 14 SPs, Aurora can fly at Mach 24!

Below the Variable Attributes we list Aurora's Powers. Her most important Power is Agile Light Control. Light Control is a pre-defined Power Set that allows her to emulate many other powers.  (The rules let you build your own power sets if you want, yes!) "

The word Agile in front of Light Control is a modifier that changes how the power works. In this case, it means that Aurora uses her Light Control in conjunction with her Agility rather than her Insight. Between Powers, Power Sets, and Modifiers, there are infinite possibilities available to make virtually any character you can imagine.

Below Powers we've listed Aurora's Skills. Skills can be substituted for Primary Attributes for specific purposes. For instance, Aurora has 14 SPs of Aerial Combat. If she's the target of a ranged attack while she's flying, she can substitute her Aerial Combat score for her Agility score, making her much harder to hit. 

Below the Primary Attributes, you can see Aurora's Perks and Drawbacks. Perks function similarly to Feats in a D20 RPG. Some of the most important Perks are the Combat Maneuvers, which allow you to trade damage for accuracy and vice versa. Aurora's got two Combat Maneuvers as well as a host of other Perks related to her status as a celebrity member of the elite Star-Spangled Squadron.

Aurora has a number of minor Drawbacks such as her Code of Honor ("always be fabulous") as well as one very serious Drawback called a Vulnerable State. A Vulnerable State models all the situations that can result in heroes becoming weaker or losing their powers. Exposed to meteorites from your homeworld? Caught out of your powered armor? Forgot to recharge your power ring? Not angry enough to turn green? All modeled with Vulnerable State. Aurora's Vulnerable State is that all of her powers are based on her egoistic desire to be a star; if she's ever reduced to 0 Determination, she gets depressed, loses her superpowers, and acquires a host of flaws. 

Speaking of Determination, that's one of the game's Variable Attributes. The other one is Health, and both are listed near the top of the sheet. These are like Hit Points in a D20 Game. Unlike the other Attributes, Variable Attributes aren't rated in SP, just in raw numbers, so that when you deal and take damage it's all scaled correctly.

As for how the game itself works, it's so easy even a 200-CP ordinary human can play it! Anytime you want to make an Action, you choose your Action Value (AV) and then subtract the Difficulty Value (DV) to yield a Resolution Value (RV). You then roll 1d100 on the Challenge Action Resolution Table, or CHART, to see your Color Result. The CHART is carefully structured so that the expected values for any AV versus any RV are exactly what they ought to be, given the logarithmic nature of the Attributes.  (It's pretty slick if you like math and we'll update on this in more detail later.) 

Let's simulate Aurora shooting a Thermal Blast at the blindsighted assassin Helen Killer. Down at the bottom of her sheet, we've listed Aurora's Attacks. Each Attack has an Action Value and a Base Damage. If Aurora fires a Thermal Blast at Helen Killer, her AV for the Attack is 14 SPs and her Base Damage is 256. Her DV for the Attack is Helen's Combat Sense, which happens to be 13 SPs. That gives Aurora an RV of 14 - 13 = +1 on the CHART. Let's say her player rolls a 32. Scanning across the "1" row of the RV (Attack) column, we see that 32 falls into the Yellow range, so Aurora has scored a Yellow result on her Attack. 

When you score a Green result when making an Attack, you deal Base Damage, while Yellow, Orange, and Red results increase damage by a factor of 2, 4, or 8. Since Aurora scored a Yellow result she deals 512 points of Damage to Helen Killer. Helen now gets to  apply Protection like Forcefield or Invulnerability, then Roll With the Attack to reduce Damage in exchange for taking on various Conditions like "Dazed" or "Staggered"."

So basically what the Ascendant Rpg is doing is bringing the solid adventure background of Bronze Age & Silver Age comics through the extreme lens of today's headlines but warped by the production values of Pulp & solid comic book ideals. Do I think its good?! Yes I do because it takes Ascendant into a level of comic book super heroics that I think that has been missing from the rpg market place for awhile now! Would I actually play this & support it? Yes! Wanna read more on this exciting development in super hero rpging? Go right over to the link below
SUPPORT THE KICKSTARTER HERE! 

Marvel's Dare Devil Television Show On Showtime Trailer And Commentary

 Well, well, it actually looks like they've given the Dark Devil property to some folks who know what and how to do the Neo Noir aspect of the character up in a big way. This does bode well in my book if the trailer lives up to the potential of the show. Fingers crossed

Dare Devil has a storied and interesting history behind the scenes as well, according to wiki: 

Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby,^[1] and first appeared in Daredevil #1 (April 1964).

While Daredevil had been home to the work of comic-book artists such as Everett, Kirby, Wally Wood, John Romita, Sr., and Gene Colan, among others, Frank Miller's influential tenure on the title in the early 1980s cemented the character as a popular and influential part of the Marvel Universe. Daredevil has since appeared in many various forms of media including several animated series, video games and merchandise, and the 2003 feature-length filmDaredevil, where he was portrayed by Ben Affleck. Charlie Cox will play Daredevil in Marvel's upcoming Daredevillive-action television series set to premier April 2015.

A ton more on this character over HERE 

Is this going to be the definitive take on the classic comic book Marvel character or another flash in the pan series? Only time will tell with this one. There's a ton going on in this trailer including the inclusion right out the gate of the Kingpin. So the series already stacking and hedging its bet. So we here at Sword and Stitchery will watch and wait. It sure is going to be an interesting ride that's for sure down in Hell's Kitchen. 

Mark Ellis's Justice Machine Objects of Power Graphic Novel Released!

s
Grab It Right Over
HERE

Mark Ellis has finally released the latest incarnation of the Machine for those of us who know who the 'Justice Machine is. This is the latest incarnation of one of the more interesting supers groups that came out back when comic books took risks back in the early 80's.
Who are the Justice Machine? Well, Wiki has a nice break down: 

In the first two versions of the team, the Justice Machine is an elite law enforcement agency from the planet Georwell, aparallel world with advanced technology that the Machine members believe is a utopia. Arriving on Earth in pursuit of Maxinor, a criminal and accused terrorist from their world, the team members soon discover that Georwell is much morefascist and dystopian than they had previously believed. Meanwhile the Georwellian authorities have activated a second team, called 'the Guardians' in the Noble series, or the New Justice Machine in the Comico series.

Zarren, their superior, has the Machine indicted as traitors and they have no choice but to remain on Earth. Zarren recognizes that Georwell's government is corrupt, but he has no desire to change the system; he merely wants to advance to a position of more power. The Machine's idealism might interfere with his own personal goals. Later, Zarren falls victim to his own schemes and must flee to Earth, where he sets himself up as the president of small South American island, the Arriba Atoll.

"Georwell" is a play on George Orwell, the author of 1984, and the society of Georwell is based on the society of 1984, though much more technically advanced.

Object of Power, an original Justice Machine graphic novel by Ellis and artists David Enebral and Ivan Barriga is scheduled to be published by Bluewater Productions in 2014.

More right over
HERE
According to Mark Ellis's Ink blog: 

The Justice Machine: Object of Power is not just a new adventure of the team. The over-arching plot explains, expands and rectifies long-standing  mysteries of the convoluted backstory.

In the third issue of The Justice Machine produced by Noble Comics, the team joined New Haven, an Earth organization operated by a mystery man named Hammet Dash. The intention was for the Machine to learn that New Haven was as totalitarian as the Georwell government had been, but those stories were never told. In 1983, after publishing five issues of The Justice Machine, Noble comics folded.

Texas Comics published the Justice Machine Annual #1, which continued the Noble continuity. Another issue was completed, but printed several years later by Innovation as a “Summer Spectacular”.

In 1985, when the Justice Machine was picked up by Comico, it underwent a reboot, partly to accommodate the inclusion of Bill Willingham’s popular super-team, The Elementals but also because of the two-year publication gap between The Justice Machine Annual and issue #1 of The Justice Machine Featuring The Elementals.

In the Comico version, the team joined New Atlantis, a utopian society located on an artificial island created by Dash Hamilton. Despite the similarities to the Noble comics backstory, the continuity established in the Comico series is the one considered official. It’s the one I followed when I wrote the Machine for Innovation and Millennium.

I always had a germ of an idea about blending the two continuities, but I never gave it too much thought.

When Dynamite Comics approached me about either licensing or purchasing the Justice Machine property but with the caveat they had the right to reboot the series, I turned down the offers–twice. Although there were other  issues affecting my refusal, I didn’t care for the proposal of rebooting The Justice Machine yet again.

As far as I was concerned, it wasn’t necessary– the original concept of Georwell had never been adequately explored…or its weird connection to George Orwell’s 1984 ever explained.

Granted, it would have been easier just to start over—and maybe do away with that whole exiles-from-a-totalitarian-world origin—but I felt those underpinnings were integral to making the Justice Machine unique among countless other super-hero teams…not to mention making them so fondly remembered after 30-plus years.

However, I did want to make some changes—first and foremost with the Justice Machine’s costumes. Always in the past, the members of the Machine wore individualized outfits but this time around I wanted more a uniform look.

To that end, I wanted them to wear a unifying insignia, a scales of justice within a gear wheel, first designed by Darryl Banks and refined by Melissa Martin-Ellis. The insignia is functional, serving a variety of purposes.

Artist Roberto Castro came up with several renditions of new uniforms for the team, but I preferred the final designs by Preston Asevedo, although he had gone in the direction of individualized costumes first as well. When the new design was finalized, Preston and color artist Deirdre DeLay-Pierpoint stayed as close to the original color schemes of the characters as possible.

While the visuals were being  worked on, I crafted the basic storyline, knowing all along the prologue would pick up a year after the last issue of the Millennium series.  From there, we would move forward to create a new continuity without violating anything that had come before—including the five issues published by Noble so long ago.

Object of Power introduces a retooled Justice Machine and basically returns the team to square one.

So, where does The Justice Machine go from there?

Anywhere, actually…but when and where is something I can’t predict.
 More information right over
HERE
And the official Machine Website right over
HERE
New Machine interview by Ellis right over
HERE

Seven Jack Kirby Maps As Rpg Inspiration For Your OSR Campaigns

Just some of the wonderful works of comics master Jack Kirby as inspiration for your old school super hero rpging. I don't own these images and I'm posting them with the links to the blogs where I originally found them. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

A map of Asgard. Map of Asgard Journey Into Mystery Annual #1. July 1965
Visit The Original Image
HERE

Original Image Right Over
HERE

These were part of the movie concept art from a movie called Argo that Mr.Kirby was hired for.
According to the article right over HERE
"journalist Joshua Bearman, who wrote the original article that was the basis for Affleck's film, explained the story behind the real Argo, which was titled Lord of Light at first: "Argo was the name Tony [Mendez] gave to a script that was in turnaround and sitting in a pile at [makeup artist John] Chambers' house," he said. "That script was... adapted from a successful Roger Zelazny science-fantasy novel of the same name."

From Fantastic Four #6 (September 1962), art by Jack Kirby

From Fantastic Four #3 (March 1962), art by Jack Kirby

For even more Baxter Building Inspired Madness go right over HERE

Commentary On The Agents Of Shield Episode 'Repairs' and The Dark Side Of The Marvel Movie Universe In Your Old School Super Hero Campaigna

After three weeks ago Asgardian fest the 'Well' we're now blasted into the dark side of the Marvel movie universe with last week's episode 'Repairs'. There is a definite vibe of 'Anti mutant' style hysteria with a rogue telekinetic if that's what she was in last week's episode? The various alien invasions have probably played merry havoc with the world and Shield for that matter.
 This is certainly not our world nor was it ever. There are cosmic events here in this Earth's history and they keep leaking their consequences down through the ages.

We know that five to ten thousand years ago, a war happened  on Earth and that the Asgardians were involved. The Dark Elves intrusion onto the Marvel movie universe was a direct result of this and the reappearance of Thor here. It also shows that the alien nature of these beings isn't always a good thing to us mere mortals. 'Repairs' got into the darker side of the movie Marvel universe. The idea of transformation as the gate way to death and not as simply the gate way to great power. 

There are aspects here of the darkness that seems to be a part of the undercurrent of the Marvel movie universe.
Rewatch 'Repairs' here and see what I mean.
Right over HERE

I think that we're seeing a bit of a dark under current  or could one say almost fascist sort of leans of Shield and its operatives? Or perhaps there are other organizations working behind the scenes and in the ranks that have very different agendas. I think that the movie going public are being set up for something. That something is Captain America Winter Soldier. 

There is probably a ton of Dark Elves artifacts lying around that Shield isn't going to get around to cleaning up. An organization like Damage Control is doing the rebuild but who takes care of the clean up of alien artifacts? Could there be another shadow organization that we've not seen handling this sort of thing or it is possible that a high level out side government contractor goes in?
   I saw Iron Man III over the Thanks Giving holiday and while I did like aspects of it. I've always been a fan of the Mandarin( you know one of those villains you love to hate) and the movie simply pissed me off. As a friend said, "I appreciate the movie for its Agents of Shield connections but otherwise. UMMM no to some of the other stuff portrayed."
      One aspect of the movie that sort of rings true is even if the hero wrecks AIM and its projects. Someone someplace is going to pickup the pieces and start right back up on the materials and its super soldier applications or if they where smart the organization would have used the cell structure and simply relocated and moved on. I think that there are a number of such organizations operating all over the world and that AIM, Hydra, and various other incarnations are going strong at this moment in the Marvel universe. Yet we've seen none of them in the Agents of Shield show. But we did get a look into some of how they operate in another Marvel movie property. I'm speaking of the new Wolverine movie. 

So whose behind the various powerhouses of the Marvel movie universe? I think that there are a number of so called 'super villains' that simply set up organizations,  advance capital, and see that the fruits of their labor are released onto the world as the chaos ensues. Remember in the Marvel 616 comic book official incarnation there have always been super villains working together. The problem with any of this stuff is the time scale. Some folks don't grow old and die, others seem to be immortal, others are gods, etc. Death is never permanent in the Marvel universe and never has been. Could it be that the lines of reality only apply to lesser beings. That there is a giant chess game going on that only a madman can see? Are the chess pieces put into play by the so called Illuminati of the movie Marvel universe?
Using The Marvel  Illuminati In Your Old School Super Hero Campaigns

According To Wiki : 

The Illuminati are a group of comic book superheroes who joined forces and secretly work behind the scenes in Marvel Comics' main shared universe.

They each represent a certain something that is very special to the Marvel Universe:

• Namor is a ruler of the oceans and represents the antihero mindset.
• Tony Stark represents the Avenger type of hero, one who understands and appreciates that a hero can work with the government, rather than outside of it. He also represents the common man, as he possesses no natural superhuman abilities.
• Reed Richards represents the science-based part of the superhero community.
• Black Bolt represents the Inhumans, who are an important part of Marvel history and play an important part in events that have not yet come to pass. He also represents a ruler/king archetype, one that has also been filled by Namor.
• Doctor Stephen Strange speaks for the mystical/non-scientific side of the Marvel universe.
• Professor Charles Xavier is there on behalf of the mutant community.
  They all bring with them a unique viewpoint and perspective that isn’t shared by the others.
   I think that behind the scenes these folks have been manipulating the entire battle field to their advantage for centuries.
  You can get more right over HERE
  As for gaming materials you've already got them if you've got the Marvel Super Heroes game or simply go HERE 
  I've been watching the Black List from NBC starring James Spader and over the course of the Thanks Giving Holiday certain facts dawn on me. 

• The super spy game is still on going and Wall Street has been added to the mix. 
• The days of the Super Spies are still on going but we need to understand that these folks are now free lance operatives. 
• The gadgets and characters are not so much the focus as the storyline as well as surroundings are. 
• The Black List is Marvel Super Heroes grown up.
   This isn't the first time that the lines between super agents and balls to the walls action have been around. Believe it or not I've run a very successful Marvel Supers game using a very different director Nick Fury then the one we've seen back in the 90's. 
  
  
  
  You see Charlton Heston  in " True Lies " was my go to Nick Fury back in 1994 when the emergence of the Super Humans began when Marvel did one of their famous reboots. 

Omega Sector has been a division of Shield since '95 in my Marvel Super Heroes games and handles many of the so called "Omega Level Threats."

You can find out more about Omega Sector right over HERE

 Repairs basically showed the blow back logic of the various invasions and snfus of the recent events of Thor Black World and The Avengers movies. Yet the loss of life and resulting weirdness are only now beginning to manifest (I hope).