Review: Cobra/Con Fusion by Renegade Game Studios (SPOILERS!)

 I wanted to discuss the 2023 Free RPG Day adventure "Cobra/Con Fusion" released by Renegade Game Studios. There will be SPOILERS AHEAD!


This adventure was written by Ryan Costello and developed by Jason Keeley.

It is no surprise to most people who grew up during the 1980s that the majority of cartoons during that period were basically long advertisements for their associated toy lines. Both Transformers and GIJoe were especially prevalent, as they had massive character casts for both the heroes and villains. As new toys were released, new character were added to the shows, and often had to be given their own individual episodes just to show how they stood out from the rest of the already established cast.

This adventure takes that concept of being a toy advertisement and just runs with it in the most delightful way!

The basic idea is that Cobra has started to get access to alien technology recovered from Cybertronian Transformers and adapted to their existing weapons to make them more powerful. Of course, to power this new technology, they also need to adapt the hidden Energon reserves that earth seems to possess.

So, the main enemies of this adventure are the Cobra agent Chameleon, who is the identical half-sister of the Baroness and the new Fusion drone. And here is where the toy-adaptation come in for all the fun...



Fusion is THIS GUY!

A couple of years ago, Hasbro released a couple of Transformers/GIJoe crossover toys. The first of which was this Megatron/HISS Tank that was boxed with the Baroness.

Now, in the adventure, they mention that Fusion is NOT Megatron, but he was based on the Megatron chassis. He has several cool Perks in his Threat build to reflect this (such as for those who are familiar with Megatron, he gets an Edge to Intimidation checks against them, solely based on his appearance!).

But Ryan did not stop there, oh no he didn't!

In the adventure is a QR code to scan and download six pregen PCs to run through the adventure: 3 Autobots and 3 GIJoe agents.

And here is where it gets fun!

One of the pregens is Bumblebee. But it is NOT the classic Bumblebee, for whom RGS already produced a pregen character build in a PDF. This is a completely rebuilt, redesigned Bumblebee PC. He's not an Outrider Scout, oh no! He's now a Rainmaker War Veteran Scout, because he's been rebuilt to be like THIS:



Bumblebee is also the recent Transformer/GIJoe toy from just the other year! The only thing that might have made this adventure better was if his toy partner Stalker was one of the included GIJoe pregen PCs... alas!

Ryan Costello, I salute you and your sense of fun!

The Cobra/Con Fusion PDF will be available to download on the RGS website on July 24th.

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