A blog about sewing machine repairs,but mainly my hobbies which include old school role playing games, science fiction,films, horror, and general geekery. Sit down and stay a spell.
Showing posts with label the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project. Show all posts
MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set found it's way into my hands tonight because I want to run this supplement through the Ascendant Rpg. Because of the recent news of the upcoming release of Solomon Kane into comic form. Marvel's version of Conan within the box set is straight out of Seventies & Eighties Savage Sword of Conan. You can read my review of this box set right over here.
Many of the themes of the Ascendent Rpg hint that there is an ancient Ascendant connection. That is to say that in past ages there were Ascendant supers running around in ancient eras. I'm probably going to end up bringing in the Hyborian Sorcerer Supreme Kulan Gath to our current game.
Kulan Gath has in the past with the backing of a Marvel Elder God transformed the whole of New York City into a Hyboria setting with little issue. In the past he's terrorized Red Sonja. For our own party of Marvel Super Heroes Rpg PC's we were stalked, harrassed, & murdered after aquirring a couple of Hyborian artifact & magic items. We treated the Hyborian Age as another dimension to visit for the Ascendant Rpg.
The Ascendant Rpg has the edge with the weird factor to allow our own party to journey into the Hyboria Age. The box set of Conan has enough material and adventure locations to keep a campaign going for many years to come!
TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters is another Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project creation. TU1 is an expansive book numbering about two hundred & thirty four pages of Kaiju & attendant lore surrounding almost the entire run of the Toho characters. And there's more thrown into the deeper Kaiju background.
From Anguirus to Zone Fighter TU1 covers it all in great details. The sheer amound of details in this version of the Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe is damn staggering. Even as I pour over the various Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project creations the sheer amount of work in these fan creations is staggering. The various eras & creations of Taho and their attendant companies IP's are given their due. And these creations are more like natural disasters rather then monsters. And this book makes an excellent counterpoint to the recent MA12 the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Monsters Unleashed Pdf!
TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters really shifts the focus over to the Japanese side of these universe within Kaiju circles.While MA12's focuses on the classic Marvel side especially the Sixties & Seventies Bronze age comicbook titles. TU1's pdf is available in the 'Other' Documents section of the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project's Google Drive.
An this focus is evident within the pages of TU-1 with it's centering on the Seventies Shogun Warriors robots & organization. The background of classic era title character's profiles with powers, FASRIP attributes, and more.
This no nonsense look at the Kaiju and their bacground elements insures that they will be taken seriouly as a threat by the players of your Marvel Super Heroes Rpg campaign
What TU1 does right is the fact that it presents the factions, aliens, even the creations from the Godzilla anime such as Mecha Godzilla City. And there's more such as the various incarnations of the big guy himself.
And what makes TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters work is the Godzilla central focus. This approach makes TU1 indespensible for the hardcore Marvel Godzilla fans! Why? Because of the fact that there's a ton of adventure potential in the realms of classic & modern Kaiju. Seriously there isn't a red blooded super hero in Marvel lore that couldn't benefit from the appearance of a Kaiju within a campaign. Not to mention the horrors that are associated with some of the Kaiju that are associated with the monsters chronicled within TU1. Monsters that are living within & on Godzilla, Rodan, etc. that are imicial to mankind. This makes the passing of Godzilla & Co a major problem for groups such as the Avengers or Xmen. These movements of the Kaiju were tracked by S.H.I.E.L.D. back in the Eighties & Nineties in our Marvel Super Heroes rpg campaigns. Between all of the adventure elements, factions, aliens, etc presented with the pages of TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters pages there's years & years worth of encounters, plots, and hooks more to keep your TSR Marvel Super Heroes Rpg satisfied!
My own history with Marvel's Conan The Barbarian comic book & The Savage Sword of Conan black & white Seventies & Eighties magazine is well known to readers of this blog. And this brings me to a curiousity that I down loaded under the Others Google drive of Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project. This of course is MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set & it's paramount interest to a time traveling horror campaign such as mine. You can get MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set by joining the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project group on Facebook
MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set consists of the The Conan The Barbian Watcher's Chronicle, the Grand Master's Log, & the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book by Necromancer. Let's tackle 'The Conan The Barbian Watcher's Chronicle' first. 'The Watcher's Chronicle' covers all of the lands of the Marvel comics Hyboria world. And unlike the original Robert E. Howard Conan story. The Watcher's Chronicle goes over all of the lands of Hyboria with some spactacular artwork taken from the original Marvel & other comic book sources. For a fan publication The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project does an excellent job of handling layout,fonts, and the whole package.
We get history, we get massive info dumps on all of the major & minor heroes,villains, and more throughout the Watcher's chronicle. The staff of The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project does a bang up job on this box set giving both the DM & the fans what they want & what they came for Conan's world & his characters in spades. Something that mainstream game companies should keep in mind.
MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set is a big sprawling fan affair that encompasses the totally of the barbarian's deep rooted connections to the Marvel comic books & magazines. This is even more evident within the The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Conan The Barbarian Grand Master's Log. Here we get the broader picture of the NPC's, gods, monsters, and madmen that plagued the barbarian hero throughout his career.
The Grandmaster's Log is a lavish affair clocking in at over forty nine pages. And it tips the scales with dense profiles of both fan favorites & even minor horrors. We profiles on Elric of Melnibone, Red Sonja, Conan, & many more. For the dungeon master whose looking to run a time traveling campaign the fact that the Projet has included an index is a God sent. With so many NPC's it's easy to forget that running a campaign may mean flipping back & forth with physical copies. And the index makes this even easier. The Grandmaster's log is one of the essential cornerstones of this box set. And this fact alone makes it essential for a MSH's campaign. Even more lesser known magical items to modern Marvel fans such as the Cobra Crown get their due. And this is one of the places in which The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project excels. Even if the fan group's organizational skills need a lot to be desired. We are getting all of these wonderful supplements for free.
On the right is one of my most hated Conan foes Kulan Gath. Even though he has appeared in numerous other supplemets of The Unofficial Canon Project. This smug sorcerer supreme of the Hyborian age killed not one but three of my heroes during the Eighties. My uncle was particularly fond of using this rather nasty piece of work. Each & everytime we seemed to defeat him he'd pop up again like an Eighties horror icon. The fact that he's so prominantly listed speaks volumes to the fact that MHR6 is well done. Kulan Gath is a major villain on par with Thoth Amon for his nastiness. He's gone toe to toe with the Avengers, the Xmen, and even several alternative Earth variant versions of Iron Man. And as recent as two years ago murdered off most of the 616 Marvel Super Heroes line up. Kulan Gath's connection to Red Sonja is deep & could easily be exploited by a DM looking to milk the Marvel/Dynamite comic book adventure arcs for a campaign.
Finally we get deeply into the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book by Necromancer. And its a glorious little adventure that really highlights all of the Conan The Barbarian friends & foes. The Adventure book is like a Savage Sword of Conan magazine come to life with the strengths of the FASRIP system on display!
Necromancer does an excellent job with layout & bringing all of the singular Sword & Sorcery details to life. Here all of the Conan NPC's get their due first. The stats are easy to digest & brings home the sheer scope of Marvel Conan's world. The Eyes of the Serpent finds Conan & his allies partying & painting the town red. This is soon interrupted by Sword & Sorcery mayhem & violence. The PC's find themselves up too their eyeballs in the worst that Marvel Hyboria has to offer. And things go from bad to worst as the major players of Conan's world get involved within the plot. Players are going to have their hands full with the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book. And the fact is the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is actually a mini campaign unto itself.
The Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is well laid out, easy, on the eyes, and the adventure itself is epic. And the MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set is really set off by the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book.
The Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is slightly different in it's pacing & feel as it plugs into the Sword & Sorcery asthetic the Marvel way. The Marvel way from back in the Bronze age with modern The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project FASRIP fan rpg system senibilities. MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set By The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project is in my mind one of the best things I've seen from this fan group. Make sure that you down load the MHR6 box set.
So our crew of heroes has teleported into a situation with a recent zombie horde & I was asked what's next Godzilla & co?! Actually well yes! Recently the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project released MA12 the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Monsters Unleashed Pdf!
Monsters Unleashed covers the gamit of Marvel monsters over the years. Now many of these were hitting the stands in the post World War II years. And these creatures were later on explored deeply in the Fantastic Four in the 60's with the classic Mole Man. And later on during the Shogun Warriors title during the Seventies. And for those of us that grew up with those toys, the comic book series & the monsters this book is a gold mine. Fing Fan Foom is on the cover and if your a long time Iron Man fan then you know about this monster in the trunks. And the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project covers the whole cloth pantheon of monsters from Abominable Snowman to Zzutak their all here under the covers. And these monsters are also the remains of Deviant experiments that evolved into Monster Island discovered by the Fantastic Four back in the 60's. MA12 the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Monsters Unleashed Pdf is available under the MA folder on the group's Google Drive.
These monsters are the upper level challenges that your heroes can take on within your campaigns. There's a bit of everything & it's well organized & easy to drag & drop into your campaign. Need a giant monster to drop into Bankok or Canada?! Their all here & well done including the king of the monsters Godzilla & the Red Ronin robot! Waiting & willing to bash the skulls in of your giant robot or here the old school Marvel Superheroes way! There's a solid index, the layout is well done, and there's even a growth chart! And it's free! Solidly done & an excellent download from the folks at the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project here!
Come with us now back down a rabbit hole of the Bronze age of comicbooks into Marvel Phile issue #9 which is available when you join the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project here under the New Marvel Philes issues. Issue #9 of the New Marvel Philes covers one of my all time favorite Defender's members Eric Payne aka The Devil Slayer. The wiki entry on The Devil Slayer goes into the publication history of the character;"Devil-Slayer was created by David Anthony Kraft and Rich Buckler. According to Kraft, Devil-Slayer was a tweaked version of a character he and Buckler had created in Demon Hunter (1975) for Atlas/Seaboard Comics.[2] On his first day back in the Marvel Comics offices after the collapse of Atlas/Seaboard, Kraft bumped into Buckler in the hall and the two discussed bringing back Demon Hunter. Kraft recounted: "I changed his costume colors, Rich changed his costume design a little bit, we changed his name, of course - but if you look at his backstory it's a direct continuation from the Atlas issue".[3] The character first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #33 (April 1977). Plans for Devil-Slayer to star in additional issues of Marvel Spotlight were halted by the series's cancellation, with Devil-Slayer's debut being the final [3] Shortly after he was added to the lineup of the Defenders."
Back in 1975 there was the Atlas/Seaboard comicbook line which had 'The Demon Hunter' character; "The Demon Hunter, created by David Anthony Kraft and Rich Buckler,[1] is a fictional character, a superhero first featured in The Demon Hunter #1 (September 1975) from Atlas/Seaboard Comics. The series lasted only one issue due to Atlas Comics going out of business"
The Devil Hunter is a variant of the Demon Hunter character whose origins are incredibly similar to Eric Payne's; "The story begins with the sight of a sniper, who has a man named Damian Severs in his sights. The Demon Hunter (Gideon Cross) while masking his presence, sneaks up on the sniper. Gideon recognizes the sniper and recalls serving with him in the armed forces. Before he fires a shot, Gideon materializes and gives the sniper a choice to either face him or throw himself from the cliff. Frightful of his choice, the sniper jumps from the cliff to his death. The reader is then shown that Gideon Cross is a member of the Harvester of Night Cult in a flashback." If the cult of the Harvester of Night & the cult of the Harvester of Eyes sounds familiar you might be a fan of the band Blue Oyster Cult because they were taken from the lyrics the band by David Anthony Kraft & Rich Buckler. Other characters taken from BOC lyrics are Vera Gemini, the agents of Fortune, and more in the Defenders run. In point of fact Fizzpop1 did a really deep dive video on the two characters. If you get the chance give the gentleman a subscribe because he does excellent videos on public domain comic book characters, Bronze Age comics, & really obscure comic book characters.
The New Marvel Phile Issue #9 goes into the major NPC players of Eric Payne run of Defenders including The Defenders #59–60. Marvel Comics, The Defenders #97. Marvel Comics, & The Defenders #98. Marvel Comics. These NPC's include Chrous, Devil Slayer, Null The Living Darkness, & Vera Gemini.
The cult of the Harvester of Eyes could theorectically appear in any era until the early 80's when it was shut down. The dimensional cloaks used by the cult's operatives were used extensively by the Wild Cat & other Marvel super heroes over the years. They can be a source of much pain for any hero or villian facing down an operative of the cult. Or in contrast the heroes could meet up with the Devil Slayer or his Atlas/Seaboard Earth's equivalant. Rich Buckler would later on go on to use the character again for "Bloodwing" for his own magazine Galaxia in 1980. On a personal note Rich Buckler was a Facebook friend & his talent is missed.
