Saturday, October 4, 2014

Review & Commentary On The Free Download of Warren Presents #3 Star Quest Comixs For Your Old School Campaigns

Grab It Right 
A couple of days ago I was talking about Bandits and Battle Cruisers on this blog. A very well presented cap system space opera or science fictional resource book for OD&D style games and retroclones. Today I'm looking into an old favorite, Star Quest Comix from Warren Presents #3, this was a format that basically allowed Warren Publishing to do a reprint magazine of their comics from older magazines, slip in some new topical material in this case Star Wars and sell the hell out of it.
But don't let that fool you, there are some very interesting and solid stories here to umm borrow for your old school science fictional campaigns. This comic magazine is interesting because of the dichotomy of the stories here. We've got the wary hard science fictional/horror vibe here of the 1970's contrasted with the science fantasy of Star Wars all in one magazine. This was the same dysfunctional era that gave us Alien as well as Flash Gordon all at the same time. But that was a part of the streak of science fiction entertainment at the time and its well reflected in the great b/w art of Star Quest.
We get a weird overview of the end of the universe and space time as we know it in the Last Light Of the Universe. This story has a very Doc Who vibe in places that makes me wonder if there are other mega dungeon locations such as the ones shown in the story ripe for exploration and investigation by intrepid adventurers. Nice art and a very interesting premise. 
Hero is another story with potential if the adventurers stumble upon any of the plot elements of this one. I keep thinking here that any planar travelers to any of these stories are going to be sticking their oars into on going plots with some very sticky results. This is one of the elements that we see in 1970's science fiction and horror, endings with a very down beat premise. Something that was often reflected in Heavy Metal and Warren comics of the time including their 'super heroes' like the Rook, Vamperilla ,and others. 
'Unproven Attack On A Hilton Hotel' is a send up of WWII and I've seen this one used as fodder for a few interstellar war games in the past. Believe it or not I've used the location as a dungeon in space with some pretty interesting results. PC's weren't sure what had happened but looted the place none the less. I've thrown in a few robots and androids to spice this one up as a dungeon. 
'Judas' is another story that could be used as a potential 'Doc Who' style situation in which the plot elements of the adventure are already in motion and the PC come in stage left, this allows the DM to let elements unfold as they will sometimes with a very different send off then the story's endings. 
'War' is a great post apocalyptic adventure that I've lifted a few times, this is one where the PC's stumble into it the situation and are left with some truly weird and dire situations but that hasn't ever stopped the space explorers from simply looting the location and dealing with the megadungeon of a world the story leaves in its wake. Something that was quickly shown to me as a DM more then a few times with this one.
 All in all not a bad little gem from Warren and a nice one to mine for ideas. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

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