Five Cult Classic Old School Science Fiction Movies For Your New Years Day

Here are five old school science fiction classics for your New Years day! These are old favorites which still haunt my VCR even in 2014! 

Don't for get to be kind and rewind!

Battle Beyond the Stars 1980 

Star Crash 1979 

Buck Rogers In the 25th Century Movie Pilot Trailer (Fan Made) 1980

 Flash Gordon 1980 Trailer 

Message From Space 1979 

New Years Free Sword and Sorcery Download ~ The Solomon Kane Stories By Robert Howard On The Dark Corner Blog

Yonder in the unknown vastness"—his long finger stabbed at the black silent jungle which brooded beyond the firelight—"yonder lies mystery and adventure and nameless terror. Once I dared the jungle—once she nearly claimed my bones. Something entered into my blood, something stole into my soul like a whisper of unnamed sin. The jungle! Dark and brooding—over leagues of the blue salt sea she has drawn me and with the dawn I go to seek the heart of her. Mayhap I shall find curious adventure—mayhap my doom awaits me. But better death than the ceaseless and everlasting urge, the fire that has burned my veins with bitter longing."

Robert Howard
The Stories of Solomon Kane 

Find Adventure 

 Right over
HERE

Five More Cult Classic Sword and Sorcery Films For Your Old School Campaigns On the Dark Corner Blog

 I bare no responsibility for the following Barbarians, Cavemen, Cut Throats, Thieves, Fighters, and Dimensional Raiders invading your campaigns from The Dark Corner Blog!
They are all waiting right over
HERE
With the following warning! 

Review and Commentary On 100 Things To Scavenge Out Of Abandoned Vehicles In The Apocalypse From Fishwife Games For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign

Get It Right Over
HERE

This is a two page list that does exactly what it says. Cars and vehicles are like little piggy banks of death and destruction just waiting for party's to stumble upon them.
 For my own games of post apocalyptic goodness I've used nuclear powered cars that explode like mini balls of radioactive fun when hit by bullets or as lairs for all sorts of mutant beasties.
 Fish wife games rounds out the first in an on going set of interesting stuff to find, scavenge, and encounter inside the wasteland.
100 Things To Scavenge Out Of Abandoned Vehicles In The Apocalypse
This 100 list provides a wide array of items that a group of post apocalyptic survivors might be able to recover from the assorted abandoned vehicles found along the highways and roads, in parking lots, garages, and driveways, etc. Some items are fairly normal for goods to be found, others hint of an attempt to load up and evacuate from a hostile situation. Roll the percentile dice 1d4 times for each vehicle explored and read off what the characters have found.

Using the '100 Things To Scavenge Out Of Abandoned Vehicles In The Apocalypse' List 
In Your Old School Campaigns 

I remember back in the 80's when 'The Day After' and 'Threads' hit the airwaves. They scared the crap out of me in grammar school.
It was the scenes of abandoned cars and this scene that really stuck with me. 

This list let's a DM basically randomly stock any car, jeep or wheeled vehicle with 'stuff to find'. Good solid stuff with all kinds of weirdness waiting to happen. Drop a 'Buick' on your favorite party and let them go to town in any OD&D style game. 

Have a bunch of characters encounter a classic '57 Chevy out in a dinosaur infested swamp and then watch their faces as the occupants come to life!
In my Mutant Future games this has been a regular occurrence with a rough couple of encounters at least once a every turn.
 Upon Carcosa there have been various flying saucers with cars and skeletal occupants. Many of these haven gone well. 

Then there's the random car floating through space in a science fiction, space opera, or science fantasy game. 

For the money these are solid, easily adaptable, and reliably surprising products.
All in all I was pretty pleased with 100 Things To Scavenge Out Of Abandoned Vehicles In The Apocalypse.
I've still got more fiendsish uses for this product right down the line. 

Review and Commentary on 'Sinbad and The Eye Of The Tiger' For Your Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea Campaign

The Evil of Zenobia is unleashed upon Sinbad and his crew upon the Dark Corner Blog
For Your Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaigns!
Right over
HERE

Free Old School Science Fiction Public Domain Download - The Analog Science Fiction Collections !

Ever since I've been on planet Earth Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine has been a part of my household in some form. My dad was a huge science fiction hound and his tastes run in the family.
Here's the deal according to Wiki : 

Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2013, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre. Initially published in 1930 in the United States as Astounding Stories as a pulp magazine, it has undergone several name changes, primarily to Astounding Science-Fiction in 1938, and Analog Science Fact & Fiction in 1960. In November 1992, its logo changed to use the term "Fiction and Fact" rather than "Fact & Fiction". It is in the library of the International Space Station. Spanning three incarnations since 1930, this is perhaps the most influential magazine in the history of the genre. It remains a fixture of the genre today. As Astounding Science-Fiction, a new direction for both the magazine and the genre under editor John W. Campbell was established. His editorship influenced the careers of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, and also introduced theDianetics theories of L. Ron Hubbard in May 1950.^[1]

Analog frequently publishes new authors, including then-newcomers such as Orson Scott Card and Joe Haldeman in the 1970s, Harry Turtledove, Timothy Zahn, Greg Bear, and Joseph H. Delaney in the 1980s, and Paul Levinson, Michael A. Burstein, and Rajnar Vajra in the 1990s.

One of the major publications of what fans and historians call the Golden Age of Science Fiction and afterward, it has published much-reprinted work by such major SF authors as E.E. Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, A. E. van Vogt, Lester del Rey, HP Lovecraft and many others.
You can read more over HERE

The official links for Analog 

• Analog Science Fiction and Fact official web site
• Index (1930-1960)
• Index (1960-Present)
• Frederik Pohl on Astounding: Part One, Clayton Magazines, Part Two, Street & Smith, Part Three, The Campbell Years

Public domain texts[edit]

• First year (1930) of Astounding at the Internet Archive.
• Second year (1931) of Astounding at the Internet Archive.
• Third year (1932) of Astounding at the Internet Archive.
• First two issues of 1933 of Astounding at the Internet Archive.
• Astounding Stories Bookshelf at Project Gutenberg
• 
  

The Swords and Stitchery Blog would like to thank Analog Magazine for making these collections available for all of us to enjoy.

Assault On The Armory Of The Winter Lords - OSR OD&D/Post Apocalyse Hybrid Actual Play

Last Night found me doing a OD&D style post Apocalyptic crossover game over my buddy Peter's place for the holidays. We had six players  very motivated and ready to kick ass and take treasure.
Our Party for this evening's adventure consisted of :
Wide Eyed Wilson ~ Hobbit Private Detective and small time thief 3rd level 

Acbar The Marvelous  Fighter of Renown -2rd level fighter 

The Harley Twins - Barbarians 3rd level played with cunning and nastiness by Harriet Wheeler
Dr. Temson Cumberpatch - Wizard 4th level and expert on artifacts from across the verse (or at least in his mind PC' stay well back) 

Gron - Grim Fighter 3rd level from the Dark Wastes of Beta Centuri (Human Mutant)
And Ethel The Wise (3rd level Cleric of Nodens ) Played by Peter. This cleric searches the lonely and desolate places across the multi planes for wisdom and artifacts for her order. She more then willing to leave PC's in tight spots to make them prove their wisdom and good sense.
She heals only when necessary and don't ask about the 'night gaunts' their a sore spot with her. 

The PC's were hyper space raiders from across space and time gathered to retrieve the sphere of  Destiny an object held some place within a New York City caught within the grip of a nuclear winter/ice age. 

Think 'Escape From New York' in winter with cults of  Wendigo Worshipers, shaggy Morlocks, dire were wolves, winter gangs, ice trolls,  hairy cannibal hobbits, demented ice wizards, and undead zombie Rockettes.

Photo by Ivailo Dochkov from Lennoxille, Canada

The PC's were dimensional doored into the location out on the ice. 

The party started off across the ice of the harbor and ran into trouble. After dealing with a giant mutant  sea lion thing that erupted from the ice. The six hit point beast put their teeth on edge and really had them checking the ice around them before they got to the city proper. 

 The PC's were able to obtain some horses from a city park after an encounter with a bunch of cannibal hobbits and began the block by block journey into Radio City Music hall. The hobbits didn't fare so well. Even using pack tactics and a bad attitude.
They nearly fell into a trap set by a group of Morlocks living in the storm drains and tunnels of  New York. One of the PC's had to double up on the horses after one became Morlock meat. The PC's did obtain a six shooter gun(with ammo) from the Morlocks and a radiation grenade.

 An early Christmas present from Fish Wife games provided me with some fodder for our next encounter! The PC's ran into a cult of SUV using Wendigo worshipers who played cat and mouse gladiatorial combat with their victims before offering up the road pizza to their great Old One Master!


Grab that right over
HERE

The three block encounter lead the PC's into some real sticky problems but that gun they obtained from the Morlocks solved a couple of problems but it wasn't enough. 

'Wendigo's Wasters' claimed our  Hobbit Thief 'Wide Eyed Wilson' on Dec.28th 2013. Heroic efforts weren't enough to save the road pizza errm hobbit thief from a fate worse then death.
 The PC's were taken in by a seemly kindly couple who tended their needs and gave them help with directions until they were eaten by a pack of mutant dire were wolves after ten rounds!
The PC's were able to scavenge some materials from the couple and managed to escape as the dire were wolves finished the last bit of their meal!
 The PC's found themselves in a desperate battle between a rival gang of human were wolf killers and the dire were wolves. 

We ended the game on a cliff hanger for that evening! 

Review and Commentary On 'The Pay What You Like ' Issue of Brave the Labyrinth - Issue #2 (PDF) From Small Niche Games

This is a pay what you want download
HERE!

I'm always looking for new and interesting OSR source material to use with science fantasy and space based games. The fill in what you like attitude of the folks over at small niche games is just right for my DYI gaming needs. The latest pay what you want issue #2 of Brave The Labyrinth continues with this creed and expands on it with some awesome material.
This issue features the following : 

Brave the Labyrinth is a quarterly fanzine published by Small Niche Games for the Labyrinth Lord™ roleplaying game community. It consists of fan-created material designed to cover all types of Labyrinth Lord™ and Advanced Edition Companion™ gaming.

In this Issue you get: 

-Five (5) New Magic Spells

-Six (6) New Monsters

-Two (2) Unstocked Village Maps

-One (1) Elite Orc War Party

-Nine (9) New Magic Items

-One (1) New Pantheon

-One (1) "Drop In" Locale (Carnival of the Setting Sun)

-Articles on designing 0-level humans, being a better gamer, a review of the adventure GT2 Come Hell or High Water, and submission guidelines for Issue #3!

Download Brave the Labyrinth - Issue #2 for FREE!

Uses for Space Based or Science Fantasy Gaming

Most of this material is Labyrinth Lord based and easily converted into many of the retroclone systems including 99% of the retroclones on the market. This also further expands its range into Mutant Future with little adjustment on the DM's part. 
The five new spells are very easily adaptable into a wide variety of science fantasy situations. 

The six new monsters are very useful and could be used to stock an alien space wreck or some some nasty corner of an alien world just waiting for adventurers to blunder into them. 

The two unstocked villages are perfect for any science fantasy game where you might need a 'spooky town' set of ruins to throw your PC's in the deep end of things. 
The elite orc party is a down right nasty encounter and simply give them some phaser rifles or blasters & your ready to go! 
The nine new magic items are completely ready for stocking your latest space citiadel or ruin. They might also be the goal of a mini adventure as well. 

The New Pantheon is a nice set of gods for a human or near human society.
The carnval of the setting sun is twisted and dangerous for any retroclone gaming system. 

Free Old School Download From Dragon's Foot ~ Issue 20 of Footprints Magazine

 Get it right over
HERE

This is the November Issue of Dragon's foot own magazine 'Foot Prints' crammed with lots of Old School goodness.
Including :
Contents
The Witch(class)
Create Food & Drink (recipes)
The Secret of the Wood of Dark Boughs (adventure)
The Thieves' Guild of Ravenar (article)
The Printing Press of Glarck (article)
The Goliath (race)
The Rat's Meow (adventure)
Weapon Type vs Armor Class (article)

The Witch class is a pretty solid variation of the wonderful class. The many different OSR witches are always welcome NPC classes that add just another twist to adventures.
The Create Food and Drink article is handy, informative, and has a wide variety of uses. The Secret of the Wood of Dark Boughs (adventure) is a nice old school romp with a few twists and turns. 
The Thieves' Guild of Ravenar (article) is very well done and ready to be dropped straight into campaign. 
The Printing Press of Glarck (article) this one has a mulplicity of uses for an old school campaign and is quite nasty. 
The Goliath (race) and interesting and quite different race. This one might have some very interesting uses with a long term campaign or as an interesting addition to your OSR world. 
The Rat's Meow (adventure) -I enjoyed the hell out of this adventure and its a solid old school romp. Very nice to torture your players with. 
Weapon Type vs Armor Class (article) Solid and interesting article that has some very useful ideas with some interesting rules and arguments.
All in all another fine issue of this wonder free old school resource.
 Love the cover as well! 

Another Free Download -The Seed from the Sepulchre by Clark Ashton Smith For Your Old School Sword and Sorcery Campaign On The Dark Corner Blog

 A short story by the master of terror as well as sword and sorcery. 

We have a little tale of a plant on the Dark Corner Blog today to be devil your
PC's with!
Beware the ruins and watch your step.
Right Over HERE

A 'Deeper Look' Into Darkness Visible: Espionage Campaigns for Stars Without Number From Sine Nomine Publishing

Get It Right Over 

HERE

 Visible Darkness is the espionage book for Stars Without Number and it contains a lots of in formation lots of factions and terrorist cells that can make life very hellish for your players. 

What this book actually does is act as bridge gap for your PC's to weave the cults, science fictional weirdness in the background of the game , and lots of interstellar action into one place.

With this book, GMs and players are equipped with everything they need to run campaigns of interstellar intrigue and covert action. New backgrounds, training packages and equipment options will kit out your starfaring spies, and the history and context of interstellar espionage will help you plan your adventures in a cosmos in dire need of your help.

GMs are given special help in assembling an espionage campaign, with tools for the cooperative creation of enigmatic intelligence agencies and long-hidden Perimeter outposts. You'll also find concrete, step-by-step techniques for building complex spy adventures and sinister plots, complete with detailed support material to keep your focus on the fun.

Look inside to find...

• The history of interstellar spying in the Stars Without Number universe.
• Details of the hideous maltech cults that threaten the very future of humanity.
• A system for cooperatively creating intelligence agencies for your campaign and handling exploits against their nefarious rivals.
• 36 new tags for flavoring your cults, all of which can be used as world tags as well.
• Over 200 new adventure seeds, each one keyed to a different aspect of an espionage agency.
  
• NPC, scheme, and method tables for fleshing out conspiracies and dark plots.
• 
  

Rise of the Maltech Cults

One of the groups that's detailed in this book are the "Maltech cults. These folks are nasty with a capital 'N'.  They're sort of like a group that would make a really creepy foe for an 'interstellar NCIS' style campaign. They've got their prints throughout several different books starting with the rule book, this one, and the Relics book on their hardware. 
The Darkness Visible book gives some background, tactics, and ideals of the Maltech cults. But the Relics book acts upon their technology. Your really going to need both books though to use the material effectively in a long range campaign. 
I've used Maltech cults twice in simple one shot games to see how effectively they are against a group of determined agents. And the results were rather surprising. While the PC's were able to hold their own against the Maltech cell. They did give them a rough time. 

 The long-hidden Perimeter outposts were a welcome source of support, recruitment potential for PC's, and a nice addition to the interstellar back drop of the SWN universe. Once again this book seems to flesh out more of the post Scream SWN universe in one very sort of underscored way. 
The Skyward Steel book has some nice tie ins with this book and actually does allow one to run a weird 'JAG' style campaign against the background of the stars. The material feels some place between Robert Heinlein and several 70's space opera and navy science fictional books.
All in all this feels like another dire  the universe hangs by a thread in the SWN universe puzzle piece and that's a good thing in my opinion. The book makes a DM think and fit things together quite well with a dark but hopeful background.  

Free Sword & Sorcery Classic Download - Robert Howard's King Kull Stories On The Dark Corner

Now strides King Kull from the darkness upon who brow the troubled crown of Atlantis lay.
Read of his fate
HERE

Cat And Mouse In The Martian Underworld - A Post Apcoalyptic Mars Campaign - Stars Without Number Actual Play

The PC's in tonight's game played cat and mouse games with some Martian nuclear drilling machines and finally ended up on the surface amid some Tharkian Green Martians.
 

Even with a light mech and their ATV explorer they weren't about to tangle with a robot crewed  nuclear powered Martian drill machine armed with  two anti vehicle lasers and mini missiles. After some fancy maneuvering the PC's managed to lose the nightmare machine.

 They opted to go top side and play amid the ruins of some nameless lowland Martian city state. There a party of  Green Martian Tharks were dealing with a raiding party of  red men mutant scavengers! This party in a ground car was assisted by 2nd level fighters on hover bikes.
 The mutant red men were armed with mag rifles, light lasers, and a Thunder Gun mounted in the ground car. It took the PC more then half an hour of dealing with the forces even assisted by the Tharks.



 The PC's finally routed the mutant bastards and found out that this tribe of renegade red men were hunting for Tharks because of a bounty on Thark skulls for 200 credits each. These tattooed rogues are a tribe of nothing more then skull hunters without honor and so the party finished them to a man.
The Tharks were pretty secretive to the party but took them to a semi underground bunker that had been converted into a secret Green Martian trade city.
There were several close calls with entropy fall out created mutated Martian horrors especially the White Carnivore Apes. These bad boys can give a medium sized mecha a hard time and use both telepathy and pack tactics to deal with prey.

1d10 Random Martian Post Apocalyptic Encounters  Table Amid The Ruins 

1. A pack of mad Ghoul plague infected Cadlots # 1d8  Hit Dice 1-1 Dam 1d4 bite 
2. A high Martian priest of Issus looking for artifacts to inspire his followers with. Guarded by two ghouls  Max hit points 
3. A pair of red men scouts armed with spears, short swords, and looking for trouble. Dressed in kilts and clan tattoos. 2nd level fighters, traveling on foot but with two mutant throats near by. 
4. A party 1d8  of red men mutant cave men from a nearby clan looking for sacrifices to their alien god. These guys fight as 1st level fighters and are armed with metal clubs as well as knives. 
5. A small proto plastic flesh blob hunting for victims amid the ruins. This 2 hit dice monster has an armor class of 8 but its touch causes 1d4 points of damage as it dissolves flesh. 
6. A small clutch of green men warriors armed with traditional Martian weapons( short sword, long sword, dagger, rifle, and pistol) looking for an escaped slave and some artifacts amid the ruins. Fight as 2nd level fighters. 
7. A mad earth element lurking amid the ruins and driven mad by the fall out. 6 hit dice monster with an armor class of 3 and capable of doing 1d8 points of damage. Completely and utterly insane! 
8. A small remote for some an ancient mechanical horror that lurks below the shifting sands. This small very cute thing will lure anyone it can to its master for murder. Capable of projecting holograms and sensory illusions. 
9. Ancient martian ghosts haunting the remains of their city. These horrors will try to drive any they meet insane! 
10. An HG Wells Martian slaver probe saucer looking for choice slave stock. The thing will try to escape detection while transmitting back to its hellish masters! A raiding party will arrive within 1d6 rounds! 

AFS Magazine #4 For The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers Of Hyperborea Rpg Ordered On The Dark Corner Blog

So I finally broke down and ordered my copy of AFS Magazine for AS&SH! I put a whole bunch of quick thoughts together over on the Dark Corner Blog.
 If you haven't ordered your copy then why not? 

More of my thought on AFS 

Right over
HERE

Free Vintage Science Fiction Download The Beast-Jewel of Mars From Spring 1955 issue of Planet Stories Magazine For Your Old School Space Opera

You can download it
right over
HERE

Blurb :
 "The city was strange, fantastic, beautiful. He'd never been there before, yet already he was a fabulous legend ... a dire, hateful legend."
 A great tale from the heyday of 'Planet Stories' and a good solid resource for a vintage Mars campaign. I've used it as part of a 'lost city of the past' on Mars as part of my Post Apocalyptic Stars Without Numbers campaign. So far as I can see it's one of this author's only efforts for the magazine.

 


Planet Stories is one pulp magazine with a rich and checkered past. You can read more right HERE
 According to Wiki : 

Planet Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. Malcolm Reiss was editor or editor-in-chief for all of its 71 issues. Planet Stories was launched at the same time as Planet Comics, the success of which probably helped to fund the early issues of Planet Stories. Planet did not pay well enough to regularly attract the leading science fiction writers of the day, but did manage to obtain work from well-known names on occasion, including Isaac Asimov and Clifford Simak. In 1952 Planet published Philip K. Dick's first sale, and went on to print four more of his stories over the next three years.

 The reason why I think that the magazine is still important to OSR rpg's is the following from Wiki:

"The two writers most identified with Planet Stories are Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury, both of whom set many of their stories on a romanticized version of Mars that owed much to the depiction of Barsoom in the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Bradbury's work for Planet included an early story in his Martian Chronicles sequence. Brackett's best-known work for the magazine was a series of adventures featuring Eric John Stark, which began in the summer of 1949. Brackett and Bradbury collaborated on one story, "Lorelei of the Red Mist", which appeared in 1946; it was generally well-received, although one letter to the magazine complained that the story's treatment of sex, though mild by modern standards, was too explicit." The artwork also emphasized attractive women, with scantily clad damsels in distress or alien princesses on almost every cover.
You've got two of the most important science fiction and science fantasy writers in one magazine and under one roof writing about their own versions of  Bar errm ' A Romanticized version of Mars' Is it any wonder that it's stories are still beloved by science fiction fans even today
 According to wiki
A derivative anthology, The Best of Planet Stories #1, appeared in 1975 from Ballantine Books, edited by Leigh Brackett, containing seven stories reprinted from between 1942 and 1952.   It was intended to be the first of a series, but no further volumes appeared
Too bad it would have been nice to have gotten my hands on more of these tales. If it seems that many of these Martian tales seem to be deriative of each other starting in the 1920's and working their way all the way through the late 60's. Mars has been and still remains ingrained in the public's imagination. Folks want the planet to be exactly what they always thought it was one the canals were first seen through telescopes at , the dawn of the age of rockets. Heck, ever since HG Well's published War Of The   World.
Stars Without Numbers lends itself easily to a tale such as this and adapting to a group of PC's is quite easy. The city of legend lost in the desert is a trope that has been around since the 'Arabian Nights' and even further back. Believe it or not each and every time I've used it players still fall for it hook, line, and sinker. The old tricks are still some of the best. This tale has some pretty large blank fill in the map areas to it and that makes it pretty desirable for use in adventure and campaign design. This is pretty much a drop in and go Mars tale like so many at the time. That's not a bad thing at all.
 While Paizo can claim 'Planet Stories' as an exclusive. The real 'Planet Stories' ran between 1939 and 1952 with an unforgettable inheritance that has never been equaled only copied to some extent over the decades.
Grab the the tales HERE but just remember who the original trail blazers were. Folks like Isaac Asimov, Clifford Simak,Leigh Brackett,Ray Bradbury, and V. E. Thiessen.
As for me I've got a date on Mars, A Post Apocalyptic hellhole waiting to devour some players!
Happy Adventuring and don't forget your ray gun! 

Free Christmas Download : The HP Lovecraft Collection For Your Old School Sword and Sorcery Campaign On The Dark Corner Blog

 Strange Christmas rites, a lovely HP Lovecraft Christmas Gift download and a look deeper into
one of HP Lovecraft's Christmas tales from long ago

 to plague your players of old school games right over 
HERE

Free OSR Download From Emporor's Choice Games The Country of Chorynth For Your Sword and Sorcery Campaigns On The Dark Corner Blog

Grab a Free copy over on the  Dark Corner Blog
 and cross swords on the pirate main of Bloody, Bloody Arduin
For Free
Right Over
HERE

Christmas Rewind - The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad For Your Old School Sword And Sorcery Campaign On The Dark Corner Blog

I've recently required one of my all time favorites that my other half always says that every Christmas that this is on 'Telly'. Today we take a long deep slice into 'The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad' on
Dark Corner Blog
HERE