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.
Hailing from an alternative 1950's post apocalyptic Earth, 'The Bee'is a compact two passenger air car which retains the classic lines of it's 1959 world's release. The Air car only does Fifty Six M.P.H. with its 300 horse power. Its a vehicle is a tank and very reliable. In its home reality it was very popular and made until the 1961 Atomic War took out the entire Eastern sea board including the Curtiss- Wright corporation and manufacturing plant.
'The Bee's is a perfect adventurer's vehicle able to fit four wasteland warriors in comfort and style with plenty of trunk room for weapons, gear, and a bit of camping equipment. The Air car was originally a gas engine affair but towards the end of its production run it was refitted out with an atomic battery cell. These cells while virtually able to last a hundred years or more with a good charge none the less will explode for 6d6 points of damage plus a radiation check as well. The Air car then becomes a minor radiation hazard to those around it within 400 yards. These cars then have to be taken up on a lift with a radiation suit and clean area to have the atomic battery changed out. A four hour job at minimum requiring some specialized equipment that most major garages from this world were equipped with.
Many adventures and gangs have taken to collecting the 'Bees' that fall through time holes from AH^69 the alternative Earth's from which these craft hail. They are often given over to super science artificers/mechanics who run lines and install ammo drums within ample body's of the Air Cars fitting them with twin mounted machine guns capable of doing 2d8 points of damage. Many times these weapons can retract under the head lights allowing for a fully functioning headlight and machine gun combination.
The Curtiss- Wright Bee 2 Passenger Air Car are now sought out by certain Air Car collectors who admire the car's ability to go over water, mud, rough ground, and more with little penalties in handling. Some artifact collectors pay handsomely for these rare trans world wasteland finds. Many times adventurers seek out the atomically optioned powered Air Cars for their reliability, space, and power options.
Today on the blog we follow Zak Smith down the rabbit hole with his vicious and dangerously beautiful take on Alice In Wonderland with A Red and Pleasant Land on The Dark Corner Blog. A vampiric and wonderfully wicked setting called Voivodja. Right Over HERE
There are times when your space crew runs into an unknown factor, that ship or crew whom your adventurers are not quite sure about. Here's a handy table to make those 'first contacts' far more interesting.
1d10 Random Deep Space Star Ship Encounter Table
A crew of alien pilgrims on their way to make a sizable donation to their local temple 500 light years from their home world. The design of their ship is advanced but ancient and there are several innovations with its design. They're open to trade though.
A group of human mutant raiders coming back from a raid on one of the Outer Rim colony world and laden for bare. They wouldn't mind picking up extra slaves and some fluff to sell at the slave markets back home. Your group looks pretty damn fine to make a quick buck on.
An ancient space wreck mostly wreckage with 1d8 zombies on board and a valuable A.I. core. The wreck is interdimensionally unstable and will phase out within 1d10 hours anyone caught on board will be lost forever.
An ancient weapon of mass destruction packed with nuclear explosives, anyone caught on board will be subject to the mono molecular traps set long ago.
A crew of 1d10 intergalactic 'Lotus Eaters' who are spreading their mission of peace, love, and space brotherhood among the stars. They have 1d100 tons of space lotus drug that they will freely share with any world.
A race of shape shifting politicians in their faster then light space craft who help to organize and coordinate worlds regardless if they want these life form's help or not.
A flying ruined temple on a chunk of world with one billion year old ancient priest still tending his duties. He is looking for the 'one' but the one what isn't clear. There are 1d6 ancient artifacts in this temple.
An ancient space craft packed with colonists from a dead world on their way to a better life who have mutated into dangerous and horrid monsters that will try to eat anyone they come across. They're bodies regenerate and adapt to most combat quickly and efficiently. These monsters are worth a fortune to the right weapons sellers.
This bio electronic space craft is one giant brain organ belonging to an ancient cosmic god being whose parts are slowly drifting back in. The thing contains incredible amounts valuable bio liquid which can be 'mined' but there are already 1d100 alien mercs on board who have figured out the same thing.
A space going cult of chaos worshiping cultist mercs who sell their blasters to the highest bidders. These bastards are masquerading as traders and trying to press gang any spacers they come across. There are 1d30 of the mad bastards and they will kill without exception.
Glittering among the stars are billions of asteroids that provide adventurers and space scum alike with plenty of opportunity for profit or moments to lose both life and limb easily. Who knows what might be found or encountered in the black depths of space upon these silent wanderers among the stars. Here then is a handy table of random asteroid space finds for your old school campaigns. Here then is a handy table of treasures, weirdness, and loot just waiting to be discovered by your band of spacers! 1d10 Random Space Finds From An Asteroid Table
A single silver floating moonlet sphere made of solid silver flying around the asteroid in perfect orbit. Created from the heart of a damned sun and worth a fortune. The thing brings very bad luck to those who find it though This artifact is actually the petrified heart of some ancient elemental demon who still bellows his rage chained in some nameless black hell at the center of an event horizon.
A scattering of alien nano lifeforms glittering like jewels upon the surface of the rock. The complex patterns that they make is indicative of their function as ancient alien mining micro life forms.
This isn't an asteroid but complex fossilized ancient terraforming equipment. The technology is worth a fortune.
Its a rock surrounded by thousands of micrometeors, each one contains micro nugget of gold. All together their worth a fortune but they'll crack any space helmet that they smack into! Very dangerous and precious rocks.
A single two foot long brick of solid green jade from ancient China on Earth, the artifact is 12,000 years old. Who knows how it got here.
A strange glowing box that might be a 'slaver box'! The box emits a tachyon pulse every twelve hours like clock work
A wreck alien space capsule with its dead occupant still inside. There is a 20% chance of the thing being an ancient space mummy and trying to slay anyone examining the wreckage. The capsule is of a very advanced design.
The fossilized remains of an ancient alien dinosaur like creature worth millions to a super science center. There's a 4% chance of a human skull fossilized with the piece.
A deposit of space worthy iron ore worth a cool 200 credits to a ship yard smelting plant because of its purity.
A human astronaut's remains smashed into the rock by a giant claw like hand's impression! His identification packet is still with him even though its fifty years old.
1d10 Random Space Encounters Table on An Asteroid Table
1d10 ancient space crickets used for harvesting rock and such are in hibernation on the asteroid. Any movement will awaken the clutch. They are capable of chewing through wires, hoses, and other metal pieces. They will be hungry after their nap.
A double hit point Earth Elemental free willed but unable to return to its home plane after being set free. A very dangerous and surly creature.
A sleeping asteroid worm whose mouth might be mistaken for a cave. The internal gut of this creature contains many valuable resources for a space craft and some spacers might pay valuable money for worm left overs.
1d10 Minnock swarm! Will try to attach themselves onto any space going vessel and drain 1d10 charges from any electrical or power cells.
1d6 flash frozen spacer zombies looking to hitch a ride and FEED!
Subspace wraith swarm, these energy lifeforms are looking to hitch a ride off of this rock and can be followed to a valuable cornea of a nearby star for a quick recharge for a ship.
Space slime elemental parasite capable of dissolving a star ship hull and feeding on a star ship core. Only a very strong energy signarture will distract it from a ship to feed on! The thing did uncover a valuable load of ore it was feeding on though.
An asteroid walking stick blends in with the back drop of the rock. The thing has extracted several rare ores from the asteroid which it is using for food at the moment. The thing has mono molecular claws and can cut the first layer of a star ship if threatened.
An ancient idol containing the essence of an alien demon. The thing has a 40% chance of trying to possess anyone coming to close to it.
This isn't an asteroid at all but the enclosed nest of a swarm of space borne genetically modified space craft destroying giant insects! Who will attack anyone they find upon awakening!
An artifact has been uncovered among the dusty shelves of a New England museum and has been spreading a blood curse of terrifying power causing blood shed and supernatural horror wherever it goes but this is just the beginning. The terrible power it represents will cause all who come in contact with it to have their lives altered forever. A horror adventure encounter for the BASH or Call of Cthulhu system based upon the creations of Clint Staples the author of the Mythos Guide To New England!
The Battle Star Lemuria exploded with a planar artifact on board and not even the Cylons could save the 'cursed ship' in time. The Battle Star caused a cascading planar eddy around the subspace of the local space time continuum causing the local star system implode in upon itself. The ship was sucked into a black hole and the space around the ship was damaged severely. The PC's exited just in time as almost all six levels of sub space were affected! A series of successful piloting rolls saved their arses as the whole system went down the drain. Their ship raced through the debris field and made its way into the Spike zone at the edge of the system and jumped into the planar spread of a couple of near by universes. The the dimensional fields shook with universe wrecking violence as our heroes raced to safety! The time dilatation effect shaving moments off of their lives as the local time space was awash in horror and sanity shattering weird energies.
The debris formed into a sub-planar ripple that caused massive disruptions. The system will not be viable for hundreds of years to come! Is the Lemuria gone forever? Who knows with a cursed and damned ship crewed by ghosts forever haunting the space ways! Who knows what will be the repercussions of the dumping of this massive event's effects will be across the multiverse? The destruction of the Lemuria has caused a strange signal to echo across the nearby planes. What does this bode for the future of our party and why does this signal resemble their own Spike drive signature? Could this be a new salvage opportunity? A new call for fortune and glory for our intrepid crew of adventurers and interstellar action? Tune in next week to find out in another exciting old school science fictional interplanar adventure at the edge of existence!
Comix International was a short-lived magazine comprised entirely of reprinted material (in color) from other Warren publications that hit the shelves in 1975. There were a wide range of reprinted stories and this issue was no different.
It featured some of Warren's top artistic talents for these tales including : Richard Corben, Esteban Maroto, Jeff Jones, Jose Bea, Doug Moench, and others.
Stories in this issue to mine for old school games include: Child: Mind of the Mass! by Greg Potter and Richard Corben; Child: Childhood's End by Budd Lewis and Richard Corben. Child was a weird creation & one with a tragic history. He's a great example of a flesh golem and the first tale is one that high lights some of the more tragic and interesting angles from the Frankenstein legend. The second tells one of the weird ends that the Child character came to under the pen of Budd Lewis and Corben. I say one possible end because Child later popped up in the pages of Creepy and Errie. He was a strange and more then twisted character. Very strange stuff that could be easily adapted to a horror game such as Chill or a D&D style clone with easy.
Wizard Wagstaff by Jack Butterworth and Richard Corben is another Corben effort with darkly comedic undertones that might be shaped into a Weird Adventures style tale with several possible links into a fully fleshed out adventure encounter possibilities.
Hard John Apple: An Angel Shy of Hell by Jim Stenstrum and Richard Corben, this is a dark and very unPC take on the post apocalpytic wasteland tale. This is a very edgy and darkly saterical tale of a character firmly in the role of anti hero. Just the sort of NPC who would make a great villain in Mutant Future or other classic post apocalyptic wasteland adventure.
Harry by Jeff Jones; Dead Run by Jeff Jones, need a nasty magical artifact for a horror game? Here's the perfect low level one with a very nasty background. Nice art but dark tale.
A Wonderful Morning by Fernando Fernandez, ever wonder how those skeletons with all that nifty gear get to be in those caves, grottoes, etc. Here's the tale with the back story to mine for an adventure? This is one of those tales perfect for the post apocalytic wasteland.
Puppet-Player by Jose Bea, need a tale to get that Lamentations of The Flame Princess game going with a weird death connected with a supernatural backdrop to it? This is just the tale to kick things off with! Dax the Damned: Chess by Esteban Maroto, by Doug Moench and Esteban Maroto This is the perfect sword and sorcery one shot to mine for a one shot adventure for a D&D retroclone. Finally Vampirella: Return Trip by Joseph Toutain and Jose Gonzalez is a perfect over the top adventure encounter for a Carcosa or Mutant Future over arch with a weird NPC death to really throw NPC's into the deep end of things!
Rounding out this issue is a group of artist profiles of Richard Corben, Jose Bea, Jeff Jones, and others. Cover depicts a montage of interior panels in the Seventies old school style I love so much!
I'm extremely surprised that no one's yet put up a review of this product on Drivethrurpg, The Star Ship From Hell is everything that I needed over three years ago as a science fiction or science fantasy DM. Simply put this is a random tool box of tables that the author/designer has cleverly arranged and created to allow a DM to create a system agnonistic star ship with a clear cut and concise back ground, setting, cargo, back drop and even NPC right along with it.
This is done through a series of random tables that lists everything needed to gauge, install, and twist into a system antagonistic space ship and adventure generator all in one package because its done with wit as well as style.
Rafeael Chandler is a clever bastard and he's balanced his material against the criteria of the science fictional elements for his creation. The book does live up to the hype and I noticed the product while looking at 'Obscene Serpent Religion' and decided to look into it. If we look at the Drivethru blurb we get an example of what Star Ship From Hell provides.
From the Drivethrurpg blurb:
The Starship From Hell is a system-agnostic toolkit to be used at the table during sci-fi RPG sessions. With a handful of dice, generate a starship's type, category, name, nearby phenomena, reason for distress signal, dangerous cargo, and passengers or crew members with horrific secrets.
The end result looks like this:
The colonial barge Obsidian Mistress, carrying religious pilgrims (en route to a horrifying ritual involving mass murder and handmade altars), has encountered a 2000 km/s Moreton wave. Worse, all trace connection to the brain-frame has been lost, and the captain no longer has control of the ship. Something else is trying to establish a remote connection to the brain-frame; the crew doesn't recognize the cortical pattern, and they're terrified.
Dr. Beata Lorel of the Hallowed Chirocracy (planet Alecto) is aboard. Imperious and arrogant, Dr. Lorel is an expert in surveillance. She's in the weaponry cockpit. In her attache case, she has a finger in a small crystal tube. It's been sliced from the hand with a surgical laser, and the stump has been cauterized. It belongs to someone well-known to one of the PCs (a friend, lover, ally, or bitter enemy).
Now grab a liter of Araxan bile-wine, a writing stick, and a square decimeter of tanned human skin. It's time to build a starship and crew!
Yes the pdf can give the DM this level of detail if desired and do it with a twist. The Star Ship From Hell is a must for a Stars Without Number or old school science fiction DM. This book can literally create from the ground up any number of ships on the fly with a fantastic level of detail with a series of random rolls. As I said,clever bastard and the encounter will be balanced enough to allow the PC's to survive. This isn't a Slaughter Grid level product or an old school adventure generator where each encounter is a suicide mission. In point of fact a DM can dial up or down the level of deadliness as they like it. This isn't simply a star ship generator. There are plenty of other random tables to fill in the system around the ship. The inner cargo workings and items to run into. Motives for NPC's are also available as these are filled in. The level is solid as the detail is relative to the inner workings of the DM's campaign. The work here is actually making a decision to add or subtract to your ship encounter and adventure setting as necessary. I can totally see using this product for anything from a Traveler game to OD&D with little problem. Hell I can see using this product with Call of Cthulhu or even Chill for that matter. The fact that its system agnostic is a plus in my book and one of the product's strengths. The fact is that I wish I had this book when I was running Gamma World and Star Frontiers. Because it can be used to do a 'fast fill' for a game sector a blank space on a map. This isn't a product for those who don't like the OSR axis of random charts which I for one happen to love. The Star Ship From Hell By Rafael Chandler is a great product and not a one trick pony. This book can allow a DM to come up with and branch off of these charts to create their own setting and circumstances if used properly. More on that coming up.
Using The Star Ship From Hell By Rafael Chandler
For Your Old School Science Fiction or Science Fantasy Campaign
The first film that I thought of when going over the Star Ship From Hell pdf was Event Horizon. Unknown ship appears at the edge of a system and God only knows what's happening on board.
Right so the book is divided out in such a way that with a few tosses of dice you've got a ship hull and each little detail of the star ship. You can simply add this set of circumstances to your favorite fantasy world & you've altered the course of your campaign world forever. Add such a ship into Star Frontiers and you've got an instant extension of the existing campaign structure in Night Hawks. Add in a star ship into Stars Without Number and you've got another mystery to the SWN background universe with very broad strokes for complete campaign development. As a DM we're always searching for a way to keep players engaged with something new, original, and organically created. The Star Ship From Hell pdf can allow a DM to create from the ground up a ship with a real mystery as the PC's wake up from Cryo sleep and randomly create the unfolding mystery around them as play goes on. Add this product to something like Metamorphosis Alpha and you've got a complete old school campaign with potential for years to come! There's so many interesting variations with this product that a clever DM could slip this product in week after week and generate everything from salvage missions, to bug hunts, or randomly create some of their own brand of mayhem. Is this an old school product? Yes and no. Yes it can be if applied to your old school games but no it doesn't have to be one. Do I think its worth money to pay for this one? Yes I do! Now go grab it and play the hell out of it!
Comic Tales The Planet Eaters Book One was release on Christmas Eve and unlike the Interview actually delivers a dose of cosmic awesomeness in the form of a dimensional and plane traveling cosmic level space opera comicbook wrapped up with enough ideas to mine for four campaigns! The artwork is right on par with the awesomeness of the Metal Earth blog which I dig and so this is right up the same alley! This comic packs more ideas per panel then you can shake a stick at. The plot concerns a group of cosmic adventurers who, never mind just go and read the damn thing. Its the sort of thing that draws heavily from Jack Kirby's gee wiz comic thinking with Metal Earth's tone put into a blender set to awesome! Its original, really nicely done and it's evocatively interesting enough to have me looking it over again to get into the back drop and setting. The tone here is some place between Seventies Sci Fi mixed with comic book space mayhem. Look go over to Metal Earth. Take a look and get into its vibe, you won't be disappointed! Thanks for the gift from the artist of the Metal Earth Blog!
Does it get any better for holiday cheese then Santa Claus Conquers The Martians? A cult classic even back in the days of VHS, this is one very weird film and one that seems get a ton of air play due to its cult status as one of the worst movies ever. Yet its got a cult status rivaling 'Gone With The Wind' to some folks, alright I made that up but's a holiday classic none the less. Here's a few pieces of fun from the film according to wiki: It also includes an 8-year-old Pia Zadora playing the role of one of the Martian children and also marks the first documented appearance of Mrs. Claus in a motion picture (Doris Rich plays the role), coming three weeks before the TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer also featured the character.
The plot according to Wiki :
The story involves the people of Mars, including Momar ("Mom Martian") and Kimar ("King Martian"). They're worried that their children Girmar ("Girl Martian") and Bomar ("Boy Martian") are watching too much Earth television, most notably station KID-TV's interview with Santa Claus in his workshop at the North Pole. Consulting the ancient 800-year-old Martian sage Chochem (a Yiddish word meaning "genius"), they are advised that the children of Mars are growing distracted due to the society's overly rigid structure; from infancy, all their education is fed into their brains through machines and they are not allowed individuality or freedom of thought.
Chochem notes that he had seen this coming "for centuries", and says the only way to help the children is to allow them their freedom and be allowed to have fun. To do this, they need a Santa Claus figure, like on Earth. Leaving the Chochem's cave, the Martian leaders decide to abduct Santa Claus from Earth and bring him to Mars. As the Martians could not distinguish between all the fake Santas, they kidnapped two children to find the real one. Once this is accomplished, one Martian, Voldar, who strongly disagrees with the idea, repeatedly tries to kill Santa Claus along with the two kidnapped Earth children. He believes that Santa is corrupting the children of Mars and turning them away from the race's original glory.
When they arrive on Mars, Santa and the children build a factory to make toys for the children. However, Voldar and his assistants, Stobo and Shim, sabotage the factory and change the programming so that it makes the toys incorrectly. Meanwhile, Dropo, Kimar's assistant, has taken a great liking to Santa Claus and Christmas, puts on one of Santa's spare suits and starts acting like Santa Claus. He goes to the toy factory to make toys, but Voldar mistakes him for Santa and kidnaps him.
When Santa and the children come back to the factory to make more toys, they discover the machines have been tampered with. Voldar and Stobo come back to the factory to make a deal with Kimar, but when they see the real Santa Claus they realize that their plan has been foiled. Dropo, held hostage in a cave, tricks his guard Shim and escapes. Kimar then arrests Voldar, Stobo and Shim. Santa notices Dropo acts like him, and says that Dropo would make a good Martian Santa. Kimar agrees to let Dropo be the Martian Santa Claus and sends Santa and the children back to Earth.
A very well produced fan film of one of my favorite 80's cult movies series . I really love the way that this was done, it retains the charm of the original Critters movies without ripping them off. A nicely done little homage to one of the best of the grade 'B' science fiction films that had some very awesome entertainment value in the video rental place I worked in Boston way back in the 90's.
According to the Youtube entry:
Warner Bros. recently announced plans to revive "Critters" as a web series for their digital unit, Blue Ribbon Content. I've been a die-hard fan of the series since I was a kid and wanted to show that I would be the right director for the project. This short film is my pitch..
MAKING OF:
Critters Bounty Hunter was completed from start to finish in under two months with a small budget and an even smaller crew. All in, a total of six people worked on the movie: Myself, Kevin Stewart, Ricky Fosheim, Nick Soole, Troy Smith and Gina Luciani. We shot for two nights at a house in Mammoth Lakes, California. The Critter puppet was built by Troy Smith who worked with us on both ThanksKilling movies. Our crew handled everything from building the bounty hunter costume, learning the VFX required to pull off the glowing head, scoring, title cards, sound design, etc. We're proud of what we pulled off with limited resources and can't wait to share this with everyone. Turn up the volume and hit HD - We hope you enjoy our fun little take on Critters!
The party in tonight's game explored the Battle Star Lemuria which has had a very checkered and haunted history in my games over the past couple of years. You can find more background right over HERE & HERE
Tonight's game found the party penitrating deep into the bowels of the Lemuria and finding the haunted ship inhabited by Upgraded Cylon warriors deep in sleep mode. The party passed dozens of these warriors lining the passages of the ship. There was plenty of salvage from these tables HERE
Some of this material goes all the way back to Mega Dungeons of Kobol HERE After finding two Colonial Vipers on board in the hangers and salvaging those for the collector's market. The party dealt with a force field surrounding some sleep pods deep in engineering attached to a main power conduit and surrounded by an elaborate series of force screens with plenty of dead old school Cylon warriors piled up high next to them.
The party used a series of drones and hacked their way into the systems of the ship after carefully making their way through a series of double blind systems not attached to the primitive systems of the Lumeria itself. The ship phases in and out of its planar run of destinations each weirder then the last. They dropped drones at each destination from their own craft as the haunted ship keep skipping universes every couple of hours.
At last they were able to hack into the nine sleep pods and that's when they're pilot spotted a clutch of three Cylon ships closing in to the Lumeria's position. A careful game of cat and mouse with the Cylon ships and the dropping of drones from their ship and the key activation of their ship's stealth field finally lost the Cylon fighters but their A.I.'s are devilishly clever and the party knows that this is a temporary solution at best. The party finally woke what they assumed to be Colonial survivors only to find out the Colonials were taken away by another party of mercs! The folks in the sleep pods were Riccians mercenaries from my High Tech Mysticism & High Caliber Adventure campaign all the way back in 2012. Details right over HERE The Riccians had been betrayed by their former allies and shoved into the sleep pods as the Upgraded Cylons closed in to keep the ship from self destructing tonight's group thinks that the Lemuria will destroy itself now that Riccians have been saved. They don't know that the Cylons are awakening across the ship as you read this. More coming up after Christmas!
Creepy Issue #43 is a perfect echo of yesteryear taking us all the way back to 1971 with cover art by Ken Kelly and the usual gallery of high caliber Creepy and Warren artists. This issue starts out with some of that good old fashioned Uncle Creepy's Loathsome Lore and kicks it into high gear with a look into 1971's comic book fandom. A real contrast to the community now. Gaming fuel wise is Three Way Split to star things off a very interesting look into the alternative Earth style of corporate in fighting and backstabbing, a lovely little tale of brain, heart, and organ bank hi-jinks that can be adapted to an old school cyberpunk or even a post apocalyptic campaign. The Mark of Satan's Claw is a story done in the old school Hammer tradition, a tale that concerns a very nasty little cult operating out of the English countryside proving that not all deals are cut and dry with cults. A very useful little gem of a tale perfect for those old school investigations into the occult where a switch is needed. The perfect plot hook is for the PC's to pick up when the action of the tale ends and your party is brought into the affair! The Men Who Called Him Monster is my favorite of the tales and spins a web of supernatural terror and werewolf inspired weirdness. Alexander Richards the main character of the story is African American and could have appeared in any number of other Marvel tales such as Curse of Dracula. He's everything an investigator of the occult needs to be. He's confident, sure of himself, interesting, brave, and open to circumstance. If your going to bring in a PC into the swinging Seventies filled with occult horror. This is really the guy your going to want at your party's side.
One thing this guy makes a perfect NPC foil for a party of adventurers to interact with. He's got a history with the supernatural, there's dark deeds in his past, and he's a pro. A good solid mix to add into a game as a patron.
This story also features one of the first interracial kisses that I came across as a kid and the main protagonist of the story looks like the movie star Sidney Poitier.
This issue's story also feature's some great werewolf artwork inspired by Werewolf of London one of my all time favorites. Is there a connection between the monsters? Possibly but you'll have to link them yourself as a DM. More information right over HERE on the classic 1935 film.
Need a serpent cult for your old school games? A nasty group of side winder style cultists for your Call of Cthhulu style horror game or perhaps a group of really dangerous serpent themed assassins for a guild? Well Obscene Serpent Religion From Neoplastic Press has you covered and today we're taking a look at this 'pay what you want' title? Right Over HERE
Your PC's land on a red desert Texas like planet, all seems normal until the robotic guardians pop up out of the dust and sand to rain destruction down on your party of intrepid space explorers! Who are they? What do they want?
Completely tireless and armed with pop out machine guns cannons these four tireless guardians of some ancient star barbarian's or astronaut's treasure will appear. Legends say that these robotic monsters sometimes have used laser eye cannons each doing 2d6 points of damage per shot with a range of 4 klicks. The claw machine guns use armor piercing rounds and do a tremendous amount of damage to anything not protected by a force field. Speculation is that the Robot Thunder Guardians are held within special super science cells that maintain these robotic guardians. All AD&D construct guidelines apply. Can not be surprised due to superior sensor systems, immune to sleep, charm, and all mental domination
Robot Thunder Guardians Number Appearing: 4 (Unique) Armor Class: 6
Special Defenses: Never Surprised,All Construct Defenses Apply Regeneration & Repair Cycles Within Super Science Cells
Magic Resistance: 40%
Intelligence: Genius
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Size: L (18')
Psionic Ability : Nil
Attack and Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: X/22,600
What Are The Thunder Robots Guarding Random 1d10 Loot Table
A vault of valuable super science artifacts and the former lair of a pirate warlord now long gone. 1d10 minor artifacts left.
An intact tomb of a former great star barbarian with many dazzling treasures aboard his relic star ship
A evil robot war lord entombed with dozens of other robotic horrors who spring to life right about now. 1d30 of the robotic bastards!
A time vault of alien wonders locked behind a force field of incredible power!
1d100 super science enhanced warriors of incredible aspect whose robotic handlers were keeping them in hypersleep for the decades to come. Very dangerous!
A giant alien child who is over joyed at finding new play mates after his parents put him down for a million year old nap to be watched over by his robotic guardians.
An alien construction crew with equipment looking to be awoken for their next assignment. The robots were security.
A Lovecraftian horror god in deep sleep, the robots belonged to the Krell and were put in place to keep it from destroying the planet. Run like hell as it awakens from its tomb!
A super science villian sorcerer of 10th level or higher that will wreck havoc upon those fools who awaken him!
The treasure is long gone, looted by bastard adventurers like you long dead. HA HA.
Religions in OD&D and AD&D 1st edition have been something I've specialized in since I was a kid. Clerics have always fascinated me and this is a solid way of coming up with some very fast and on the fly adversaries and allies for use with your old school game campaign.
An innovative and interesting take on creating new and quick religions on the fly for your NPC cults and enemy needs. A very well thought out solution to the old deer caught in the headlights problem of coming up with a cult or group during play with details right then & there. Here's the Drivethrurpg:
Phonomicon ex Cultis is an aid for any, primarily fantasy, roleplaying game; a glorified random table of 100 gods and cults for your PCs or NPCs to follow.
The premise behind Phonomicon ex Cultis is simple. At its heart, it’s a table of 100 gods, goddesses and powers to provide a pan-system source of small religions as a springboard for use in your roleplaying game. The concept underpinning this was to take the most common phonemes (or word sounds) in the English language and use them as a basis for generating powers that NPCs worship. If words have power, then do sounds have power too? And if similar sounding words can be grouped by similar meaning, do they take on further strength?
Take AIN as an example – you’ll find it in slain, sprain, strain, pain… all words concerning damage and discomfort – and all of a sudden you have AIN, Patron Deity of Injuries. Perhaps the civilised folk known him as Bain, and appeal to him for a quick recovery from wounds; perhaps the barbaric humanoid tribes know him as Tarrainain, and revel in his name as they butcher villages in their path; further still, perhaps the snake-headed Inquisitors of Koth whisper their prayers to Ains’sain as they prepare the torture implements for the next victim.
The ideas for this system are well thought out, for a free system this one is a solid hit for a DM who needs or wants religions during play for adversaries, enemies, allies and more. I can see using this system for everything from a Call of Cthulhu style horror game to a D&D style adventure with a slant towards cults and deities. My advice here is to grab this resource yesterday and let fly with the dice to develop some nice setting backdrop details for your PC's.
With a bit of work about 90% of this material could be applied to your favorite old school science fantasy or post apocalyptic campaign with little to no issue at all. I love the way the system here can easily be mated into any old school system. With science fantasy planet religions,cults, and more this is nice tool to have. This is perfect for a generation ship full of mutants where cults have sprung up or the post apocalyptic wastes where religions have taken a weird turn. This system makes coming up with cults for the wastelands a snap.
All in all this is a great resource for an old school DM to add into his tool box. For adventure generation this is a solid resource for adding in enemies into the mix for both short and long range adventure NPC's. By allowing a random selection of the 100 deities, each with a sound associated with a name, portfolio of influence, types of worshipers, granted powers, symbols, descriptions the DM can pick and choose his favorites for certain regions or territories within a campaign. Duncan Young deserves a ton of credit for this pdf and its a really nice resource for the asking price. Once again my advice is to grab this one while you can and get cracking on creating your own take on that cult you've been wanting to send against your PC's in that up coming at adventure. Four out of five stars.
When it comes to Holiday Lovecraftian horror Clint Staples provides a cornucopia of bonus material all related to his Mythos Guide To New England. This stuff is the perfect spring board for a holiday game of Call of Cthlhu or any other old school horror rpg really because much of the material is easily convertible. The monsters are clearly New England heavy but that's really part of the charm of using them. A DM can easily take and adapt as needed & work it into the background of a drop dead quick set of adventures that will have his favorite investigators dealing with the everything from the likes of His Majesty to the nastiness of Woden-Lithi Draugr. A word of caution these are the sorts of monsters and creatures that are often the center of a horror movie or CoC adventure and the power level here reflects this in spades with these legends. Yes I said legends here because these monsters are as much a part of the New England myth cycle as any of the monsters of Lovecraftian horrors of HPL's writing.
The Rune Quest Angle
With some quick pieces of design and fast thinking a DM could use these monsters with a bit of old school Rune Quest or even better these monsters could be added in as a New World angle for a game of Cthlhu Dark Ages. These monsters have potential to be used for a holiday or evening one shot with little use. Did I mention that these horrors were free? Part of what makes the Mythos Guide to New England such a nice product has been part of its flexibility a trait seen in these free monsters. Go check them out!
We're taking a look at a great little product from Fish Wife Games Today. 100 Customer Types for Spaceport Bars is a nicely little list of space bar patrons, nasties, and scum suitible for any little space port dive, space station watering hole, or any Exo planet water tap where adventurers can get themselves into the deep end of a bar fight, interlude encounter or general point of mayhem.
According to the Rpgnow blurb:
100 Customer Types for Spaceport Bars
What sort of characters lurk about in that crowded, noisy spaceport bar? Roll the percentile dice and find out!
Sample rolls from the list:
01- Agritech farmer
25- Drug addict
50- Media personality
75- Science officer
99- Xeno-slaver
Author: Dave Woodrum
100 Customer Types for Spaceport Bars sets out to do one thing and ends up being three products in one. This is another download from Fish Wife Games and again the quality is spot on here. Dave Woodrum provides a varied and interesting list of patrons for that wretch hive of scum and villainy in your local space port or Outer Rim space station. This list can also be used as a quick D100 encounter table as well to really spice games up. The other use for this little list is as a jump point for a group of NPC's right in the middle of an adventure. A few tosses of the dice and wham you've got everything you need to keep your PC's busy for a game dealing with some scum in the center of a bar.
This list is short, sweet, concise, and doesn't spend a ton of time dealing out details. Here the descriptions are brief and varied. The DM can add this list to his or her favorite space opera or science fictional game there's no rule hang ups to get in the way of really going to town with this list. Everything here is geared to get the PC's into interaction with minimum fuss. This is going to happen for under a dollar and this list can be dropped into a game mid stream of an adventure and no one is going to notice at all. The players can deal with the NPC's as they see fit and the same list will give a dozen results per toss to really allow the DM a rapid fire round robin of encounters. This allows an adventure to seem almost like an old school detective novel where the encounters give the skeleton of an urban interstellar Noir back drop adventure. As quick as you please this same formula can whip the PC's into the middle of a planetary tavern with steamy alien political intrigue is the order of the day. The key here is the DM['s imagination and his or her willingness to commit the time and imagination to the backgrounds of those listed here. A clever and well done product which a DM can get a hell of a lot of utility out of for the price of less then a hamburger. Highly recommended.
Using 100 Customer Types For A Spaceport Bar For Your Old School Campaigns
While there are a myriad of uses for this product the fact is that because this is a niche product, there's a few other things that can be done with this one.
For example I've used this list to populate a very quick drop into an interstellar bar by some fantasy adventurers traveling across dimensional lines. The way to work this one is to have it not be detected by the players until their adventurers are right in the middle of the encounter. Then its really a matter of placing them in the deep end of the pond. Because the descriptions are some what vague and a bit loose. There's plenty of wiggle room for design and execution of the NPC's. This same list could easily be used in a post apocalyptic wasteland with little to no modification and that's one of the beauties of lists such as this. The flexibility of the utility of the product and how you place it during play.
Use it somewhat sparingly because as soon as players catch on with this one. Give it a rest, the secret to using these sorts of random lists as D100 encounter tables is the variety of the encounters and spacing the bravo of the encounters. All in all I like this one as you might have guessed. This is a perfect coupling with a product like Spungo's Space Bar also from Fish Wife that I took a look at a couple of days ago. Right over HERE
Between November 12th and December 30th, the gates of Zebulara burst open as monsters, lunatic Fey creatures, and the souls of a million dead explode upon to the 'Byways' and 'Outskirts'. These realms of the dead border the astral and the Plane Prime of a billion alternate worlds. They hunger for the living and no force can deny them. Or so they think. The holiday of Christmas originally marked a feast day of the dead for myriad of alien and alternative civilizations, but the dead far out numbered the living and were never given their 'Final Rewards'. 'The Christmas' was simply another seal against the coming darkness and forces of beyond backed up by a plethora of divinities but even gods die. And with loosing of the seals. The 'dark forces' let loose across time and space.
Those who tread the dimensional barriers often use the shortcuts of the Byways and Outskirts across the planes but not when the Twisted Christmas holidays draw near. For dead souls, gods, Fey, and worse are let loose to feed for a while but as with all things. The forces of light and bright blessings burst forth to enact the ages old cycle of Law and Chaos. Once again the forces of darkness are brought to heel but often not before they cause untold harm upon a myriad of worlds. Often space travelers, dimensional trackers, and plethora of innocents get caught in the crossfire between these parties of forces. Here's a quick list of encounters that can point to far greater dangers out on the 'Byways' and 'Outskirts' that can be used to spice up an encounter with these 'dark forces'.
Twisted Christmas Encounter Table 'The Ourskirts' & 'Byways'
1d8 Lemures hell bent on claiming a victim for their dark masters being driven on by a Barbed Devil handler with a whip and chains
1d8 skeleton warriors and dark fairy hunter with enchanted bow and arrows looking for fresh victims. Armed with swords and shields
A wall of rot grubs bursts from a nearby tunnel or wall.
A gaggle of night hags looking for fresh victims to drag back with them to the under world. They ride in a sled driven by unholy things that might be demonic or undead.
A 3rd level necomancer followed by two clouds of unholy fey looking for souls to drag back for his dark masters.
A spawn of 1d8 gargoyles looking for fresh prey and souls to feast upon and perhaps a tasty morsel to toss to their nest mates.
A gaggle of Ghasts chasing down a group of 1d10 clerics of a god running like mad men who will promise help in return for add. They are carrying some minor temple treasures.
1d10 Soul lights (count as Will o'whisps) that are the souls of the dark looking for prey and they are followed by a Dark Fey handler who will direct them for hunting of the souls of the unjust or anyone else they come across.
A soul spawn of 1d100 ghosts escaping from bounds of the damned. There is a 30% chance of one of these damned souls attaching itself to a PC's shadow and following them until a vulnerable moment them attacking.
1d100 pounds of soul slime that oozes out looking for victims to add to itself. The stuff is nauseating and there is a 40% chance of retching from the smell of the rotted guts, bile,and gore. Unless a save is made fighting the undead horror from beyond.
Notes
Monsters take double damage from energy weapons and if 'destroyed' simply dis corporate for a year and a day only to return next year.
Clerics may call upon their powers to rebuke or banish these horrors at any time if they remember to in the terror.
Anyone killed by these horrific horrors can not be raised as their souls join with the damned.
Weapons of 'Law' do double damage to these horrors & count as one extra +1 against these forces.
Symbols of the gods of law and justice will hold these things at bay.
Turning works as normal but double the rolls on the chart after a successful turning. Representing the anger and frustration of the Damned of Misrule.
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