Lusus Naturae is not work safe, adult themed graphic horror driven gore fest of a monster fest fueled by the terrifyingly terrific artwork of Gennifer Bone and the brutal prose of
Rafael Chandler. Its not for the children or the timid of heart and its for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg system.
So for the last couple of days I've been planning on using the monsters of Lusus Naturae by Rafael Chandler & the artwork of Gennifer Bone to bring these to life at a table top soon ASAP. But I'd like to take a few moments to look into the back bones of this title for a moment now that I've had this title for a day or so. Now I'm friends with a bunch of folks who share my same passion for 80's gore fueled body horror films, old school rpg campaigns, and now some of the monsters of this title have been swimming through my mind for a day or so. Each monster here is almost the star of his or its own horror film into itself but all of these monster's histories are interwoven and given complex histories as well as relationships. So much so that another fellow blogger has charted out exactly how these horrors interact. Keith Davies has woven the ins and outs of each of these horrors in a handy graph right over HERE
Grab It Right
Each of the monsters in Lusus Nature is unique in the fact that they are not only adult themed gore and horror driven characters but like the stars of some brutal 80's metal spatterpunk movie these things are to be used center stage as the focus for adventures. Your PC's are not only the heroes but the survivors of these films and should they kill them then the PC's will be changed. And there are a number of horrors that happen to have a science fantasy element to them that made Lusus Naturae such a hit with me. Now given this fact I've been quietly planning my Warlords Of The Outer Worlds campaign for the Fantastic Heroes and Witchery rpg system. I find myself increasingly drawn to the Lamentations of The Flame Princess rpg aesthetic of mythology. Namely that encountering gods, goddesses, or any higher world supernatural entities is a problem. It effects reality on a base level and adventurers being the flesh puppets that they are sometimes feel the full effects of this. Gennifer Bone's artwork reflects this in spades. She has a nice feel for both the gore laden and biomechanical messiness in equal spades.
There's also a Lusus Naturae random monster generator towards end of the book that enables you to generate millions of your own LoFP monsters. Now given the pulptastic horror movie driven gore fest that is Lusus Naturae. It suddenly hit me, converting between retroclone systems despite product identity is a snap and all of these horrors are open game content and yes I personally checked with Mr.Chandler. This is one of the things that makes Retroclones so exciting, the cross compatibility. An issue that others have spoken of right over HERE.
Which brings me to the Fantastic Heroes and Witchery Rpg system itself one of the most interesting retroclone systems that I've been tinkering with for weeks for a Planet Comics inspired campaign. Planet Comics was run by Fiction House and had a ton of fantastic characters and heroes in its stables. For more then twenty years I've used this title as a resource to pull from. According to Wiki:
There's also a Lusus Naturae random monster generator towards end of the book that enables you to generate millions of your own LoFP monsters. Now given the pulptastic horror movie driven gore fest that is Lusus Naturae. It suddenly hit me, converting between retroclone systems despite product identity is a snap and all of these horrors are open game content and yes I personally checked with Mr.Chandler. This is one of the things that makes Retroclones so exciting, the cross compatibility. An issue that others have spoken of right over HERE.
Which brings me to the Fantastic Heroes and Witchery Rpg system itself one of the most interesting retroclone systems that I've been tinkering with for weeks for a Planet Comics inspired campaign. Planet Comics was run by Fiction House and had a ton of fantastic characters and heroes in its stables. For more then twenty years I've used this title as a resource to pull from. According to Wiki:
Planet Comics was a science fiction comic book title produced by Fiction House and ran for 73 issues from January 1940 to Winter 1953. Like many of Fiction House's early comics titles, Planet Comics was a spinoff of a pulp magazine, in this case Planet Stories, which featured space operatic tales of muscular, heroic space adventurers who were quick with their "ray pistols" and always running into gorgeous females who needed rescuing from bug-eyed space aliens or fiendish interstellar bad guys.
Now I've been reading and rereading No Salvation For Witches by Mr. Chandler as well. Another LoFP product and in that particular product a visit from an ancient Greek goddess who conforms more to the mind set of Dario Argento then mythology. Unless of course you look up the various gods and goddess of mythology in witchcraft and demonology lore. They were all demons to one extent or another.
Which brings me to one particular comic book feature of Planet Comics, Mars God of War. This regular feature figured some poor sad in a science fantasy planet would get possessed by Mars The God of War and then all hell would break loose. There were rules as well, the fool in question had to have an element of evil about them which enabled the god to possess them. Often times this caused those possessed to raise a cult, start a revolution, or cause all out hell for the community or interstellar society. The forces of good often times interstellar adventurers or outlaws would come in and put those possessed to the torch or some other punishment.
According to wiki : Mars, God of War – Named by Miller as "one of the most famous" strips, the adventures of the ancient Roman God causing violent mischief on other planets appeared between issues #15 and #35.[1][2] They were credited to writer Ross Gallen, and all drawn by Doolin. The embodiment of evil, the spirit of Mars would "single out a man or woman who had evil in them," possess them, and run rampant until "the end of each story [when] good always triumphed.
The heroes of Planet stories often faced down the consequences of these clashes with Mars. And those who dallied with such demonic horrors were forever changed by them. Mars was in Planet Comics the embodiment of evil. Given the line of science fantasy of products of LoFP like Carcosa and now Lusus Naturae its quite easy to see where my Warlord of The Outer Worlds campaign is headed. Mars even had a hand in the creation of one of the leaders of the city states of Mars in my campaign. Mystra of the Moon rules one of the colony city states on the planet Mars but the god tried to murder her right off. According to Wiki : Mysta of the Moon – In the "Mars" feature in Planet Comics #35, the god discovers "a young boy and girl" taken to the moon by one Dr. Kort, who has "placed all the culture and knowledge known to man into their brains." In the events that follow, Mars possesses the boy's robot, and is ultimately defeated by the girl, although the boy and his robot are killed. The girl was Mysta, a gorgeous female version of Captain Future with a robot sidekick, and she took over from "Mars" in title as well as spirit in issue #36.[1] Appearing in issues #36-52 and #55-62, after Doolin, the strip was most notably illustrated by Fran Hopper (#37-42, #48-49).
Now I've been reading and rereading No Salvation For Witches by Mr. Chandler as well. Another LoFP product and in that particular product a visit from an ancient Greek goddess who conforms more to the mind set of Dario Argento then mythology. Unless of course you look up the various gods and goddess of mythology in witchcraft and demonology lore. They were all demons to one extent or another.
Which brings me to one particular comic book feature of Planet Comics, Mars God of War. This regular feature figured some poor sad in a science fantasy planet would get possessed by Mars The God of War and then all hell would break loose. There were rules as well, the fool in question had to have an element of evil about them which enabled the god to possess them. Often times this caused those possessed to raise a cult, start a revolution, or cause all out hell for the community or interstellar society. The forces of good often times interstellar adventurers or outlaws would come in and put those possessed to the torch or some other punishment.
According to wiki : Mars, God of War – Named by Miller as "one of the most famous" strips, the adventures of the ancient Roman God causing violent mischief on other planets appeared between issues #15 and #35.[1][2] They were credited to writer Ross Gallen, and all drawn by Doolin. The embodiment of evil, the spirit of Mars would "single out a man or woman who had evil in them," possess them, and run rampant until "the end of each story [when] good always triumphed.
The heroes of Planet stories often faced down the consequences of these clashes with Mars. And those who dallied with such demonic horrors were forever changed by them. Mars was in Planet Comics the embodiment of evil. Given the line of science fantasy of products of LoFP like Carcosa and now Lusus Naturae its quite easy to see where my Warlord of The Outer Worlds campaign is headed. Mars even had a hand in the creation of one of the leaders of the city states of Mars in my campaign. Mystra of the Moon rules one of the colony city states on the planet Mars but the god tried to murder her right off. According to Wiki : Mysta of the Moon – In the "Mars" feature in Planet Comics #35, the god discovers "a young boy and girl" taken to the moon by one Dr. Kort, who has "placed all the culture and knowledge known to man into their brains." In the events that follow, Mars possesses the boy's robot, and is ultimately defeated by the girl, although the boy and his robot are killed. The girl was Mysta, a gorgeous female version of Captain Future with a robot sidekick, and she took over from "Mars" in title as well as spirit in issue #36.[1] Appearing in issues #36-52 and #55-62, after Doolin, the strip was most notably illustrated by Fran Hopper (#37-42, #48-49).
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