Sunday, April 8, 2018

An Amazing Adventures Campaign Pitch & OSR Commentary

Earlier today  wasn't around on the inter webs instead I got a chance to steal away to a nearby town & speak with some friends about classic pulp magazines & comic books. We spoke at length over beers & game of Old Hammer Romans vs Saxons on the coast of Britain. My buddy Steve & I commanded the Roman scum against the Saxon dogs who were being run by Paul & his buddy Trevor. We were using a six thousand point army each with the games divided into three stages. Both the Romans & Saxons were Foundry product respectively on the  sand table.
We routed the Saxons in bloody victory and sent them packing to their ships for Rome's glory! We held the line for Hadrian's Wall for a bit long.

Then it was time for beer along with  the serious talk of pulp novels & golden age comic books. We settled in with the usual round robin of OSR gossip in the scene. The guys brought something to my attention in the OSR blog sphere Superheroes vs Death Frost Doom!

Didn't you do something like this back in '09  or so? Yes & back in 2016 I wanted to do something with Amazing Adventures by Jason Vey since I got both Amazing Adventures &
The Book Of Powers sitting on my hard drive. The problem is the fact that I had a campaign ready to go for a long time now. But  the Amazing Adventures Companion is essential for porting over old school systems & PC classes to the game. Its the one book I'm missing! Eventually it will be mine.


Then the questions started when the guys learned that I had a campaign written up. What's with the history of the campaign? Well it follows the timeline of H.G. Wells works starting with the events changing with The War of the Worlds. The Martians add weird alien energies to the world & its the beginning of the Heroic Pulp era in 1896. These strange energies kick started the powers & abilities of many extraordinary beings across planet Earth & were like a signal flare to those lurking in the shadows for eons.


But the Heroic era goes back much further with the introduction of Adam to the world by Victor Von Frankenstein & the numerous mad scientists & the alchemists that proceeded him. 'The Spawn of Frankenstein' have been a constant source of both good & malignancy in the world. 


Even today we have seen the Spawn of Frankenstein among the modern world & felt the terrible wrath of these creatures. There are rumors of them being among the Allied forces against the onslaught of Hitler's war machine. Generations of masked & costume adventurers as well as wizards have been seen through out the world.

Dick Briefer Scary Frankenstein



Nor are they alone for the strange monsters of Maple White Land's Plateau echo with the distant drums that speak of the name long-deceased archmage Iggwilv. I would use a combination of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World & S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth set up upon the prehistoric plateau complete with a connection to The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun.


The PC's  investigate rumors of a lost treasure that scores of adventurers have perished attempting to find over the centuries & find the bodies of numerous treasure hunters dating back to the late Roman period. This module connects up with the vampire cults operating throughout the Gulf of Mexico & into Texan basin all the way through the deserts of California. The  cult of Drelzna, the vampiric daughter of long-deceased archmage Iggwilv has spread deeply into the hills of Hollywood among many of the film stars & Hollywood elite.



All in all this was a great afternoon with friends & we came up with some great hooks for an Amazing Adventures campaign.
  1. Al Capone is a lich of incredible power & has been smuggling not only booze but has taken the Mafia under wing of the Hells. 
  2. The Tomb of Horrors is out in the deserts of Mongolia where every once in while a priceless artifact or treasure will surface on the black market tempting adventurers. 
  3. The Ark of the Covenant is a powerful artifact of incredible potential while the spear of Destiny creates its own order of supernaturally powerful paladins and modern knights. 
  4. Several immortal families of werewolves battle in the shadows while the Axis vampires move like a plague across Europe. 
  5. Atlantis & the United States have had several minor incursions while the Axis has caused a shaky peace among the highest levels of U.S. government 
  6. Alien fallout & waste from the 1896 War of the Worlds event has been causing massive mutations among miners, desert residents, and many others for many generations. 
  7. Giant monsters have ravaged parts of the US and Europe leading only adventurers to handle these events. 
  8. The shadowy cult of Vecna has been heard of in certain forbidden desert halls of power. Its powers are rumored to grow by days. 
  9. Weird strangers from alternative versions of Earth from places named Aerth & Blackmoor have been seen making a name for themselves with the costumed adventurers ranks. 
  10. There have been strange alignments of stars and weird portents in the sky.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.