Carcosa/Gamma World Actual Cross Game Event - Barrens Of Carcosa & Five Classic Science Fiction Films That Inspired Last Night's Events

So my friends & I didn't make GaryCon again this year, we all have other commitments for me its my familial obligations. For others the schedules with work & whatnot but that hasn't stopped me from playing the hell out of some scheduled & unscheduled old school con style events. Take last night when I was settled in for the evening, a quick call from my friend Steven & I'm off to an unscheduled Gamma World/Carcosa game via the Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence. I've got nothing worked out ahead for a city location on my version of Gamma Terra  but I've already got that covered. So we get over to Steven's place & already the Golden Age 50's Atomic films are playing.

When had last left the PC's they had mostly escaped the Islands's influence or so they had though. Making it back through the scillicating dimensional gate pylon back to the wizard Shem'eli's tower the PC's were greeted by their employer & a stranger. They could rest & make use of the facilities but their employer had another job for them. The stranger in question was a masked patron of the Fruse'ru family from Torth ala Revelry in Torth [O5R adventure].

The players groaned they've faced this family & been employed by them many times before & died in their employ. They're relic & artifact sellers throughout the multiverse & their wizards of the lowest order.



The wizard Shem'eli's tower is located on the edge of the Wreckside District: A Post Apocalypse Setting  From Fish Wife Games. Yeah I used a product that my buddy Dave Woodrum had given me a day or so ago with just this sort of a thing in mind. What happens next is all on  the Fruse'ru family representative, the masked priest Kelop'ru. While everyone is sleeping, healing, & recovering the tower's alarm goes off!


This is when all hell breaks loose for our heroes! Mutant alien mercs from Torth are swarming the tower! They're lead by a masked Fruse'ru family wizard riding on the back of a giant mutant preying mantis! Yup that's right kids The Deadly Mantis inspired madness for your PC's doom!

So back through the gateway our PC's go as the wizard's tower endures an all out assault! Lasers firing, and weapons blazing the PC's make their way to strange gateway to make their escape!

Back to the purple inspired madness of the other dimensional gateway system to the dark gods know where?! Well after a few rounds, some saving throws, a dice toss or two they wake up on a strange other world that seems oddly familiar! They haven't had time to pack, grab food or water but they sure as hell grabbed their weapons!  They wake up just in time to see a strangely familiar thing about to munch on them, a horrid wormlike spawn of some elder eon inspired by The Monster That Challenged The World!

What hellish landscape of phantasmagorical nightmare & weirdness have they found themselves? What fiendish devilry have I cooked up for our heroes? The answer comes in the form of  the Rhedosaurus which takes out the wormlike god thing in one bite! All the PC's can do is look on in fear and then run! Run for their very lives!

So after about what seems like an eternity they come across a village of red men in the strange wasteland like landscape that seems achingly familiar to them. That's when one of the players spots an evil purple book sticking out from the very edge of my backpack! A strange warped book of horrid forbidden evil, The BARRENS OF CARCOSA adventure By Geoffrey McKinney. 

Groan not Carcosa?! Why in all of the universe did it have to be that lost & insane backwater world of ancient & terrible evil?! Well because they picked me up at nine at night & caffeinated beer made with hot sauce is the Devil's own creation but back to the game!  The redmen take in our mutant heroes & they are allowed to rest for the village needs champions against an evil that has taken down their best warriors. Some giant vegtible like human Thing From Another World (1951) has been terrorizing the village. The PC's immediately set off to destroy it and loot the downed saucer it came in.

So this took up the better part of the night & the PC's Pure Strain Human Restorationist technical advisor was almost killed by the Thing. It took some quick thinking on the parts of the players to take this boss monster out. Then they were exploring the rest of the saucer & came across a robot that sent shock waves of disbelief through the party. A deadly silver robot was escorting his prisoner to captivity when it escaped and began to wreck havoc. They looted what they could & quickly left! They made sure not to disturb that silver behemoth in the saucer!

Alright so our heroes are still trapped on Carcosa but they've got food, water, and shelter for the moment. The fact was that I again had to mix a good deal of first and second edition Gamma World in together to even things out for play. The modules weren't too bad at all. For last night's game the film inspirations were in no particular order The Deadly Mantis 1957, The Monster That Challenged The World, The Thing From Another World 1951, The Day The Earth Stood Still 1951. So 1951 & '57 respectively which were classic years for the Golden Age of atomic monster movies and alien invader flicks.
The mixing and matching of old school games,AD&D first edition and retroclone material went very well because of the fact that I was playing with very experienced players. Will I do this again? Only time will tell my friends but caffinted beer is the Devil's own. Keep em rolling. All films are trade marked and copyrighted to their respective owners this blog post is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Oh and don't forget Venger's latest KS is Trinity of Awesome Returns! For as little as 7 bucks, you get three adventures in PDF format - "one eldritch science-fantasy scenario (Crimson Dragon Slayer), one retro sleazy sci-fi scenario (Alpha Blue), and one pulp / investigative horror scenario (The Outer Presence)."