OSR Campaign Commentary - The Cha'alt Kickstarter By Venger As'Nas Satanis

Venger Satanis has learned a painful lesson in publishing sometimes, 'Listen to your audience or else.'. Day after day of blogging I've had my ass handed to me with the up & down of OSR & game blogging over the years. The best approach is to sometimes say the Hell with an idea or adventure concept in gaming. But now Venger's latest Kickstarter has the author/designer going back to his science fantasy roots. Now  the Cha'alt kickstarter which only has a few days left to go!




Glynn Seal's Monkey Blood Design latest adventure map from the lower dungeon adventure location are really nice & solidly done. The world of is a very interesting mix of traditional high fantasy & science fantasy goodness with Venger's usual Lovecraftian mix throw into a blender;

"The world of Cha'alt started as a fairly typical medieval land with elves, dwarves, snake-men, clerics, and magic-users; steeped in superstition along with antediluvian traditions, before the Old Gods went mad.  

Three-thousand years passed. The surface dwellers split from the malevolent creatures who slithered below. Those who remained on the surface lost the understanding of magic, but their civilization became a highly developed, technological empire of domed cities welcoming interstellar travelers, their massive starships hovering high above in blue skies.

But in the deep crevasses of the world, a power older than time stirred from its deathless slumber. The Ancient Gods, long forgot, had not died but continued to dream... growing chaotic and full of darkness.  And those living underground hastened the Old Ones' rising because they yearned to reclaim Cha'alt for themselves.

When the Great Old Ones awakened, they were angered by the lack of worship, sacrifices, or even casual acknowledgement that they had fashioned the world and all life upon it. 

Soon enough, Cha'alt was all but destroyed by those vengeful Gods, jealous of their creations' achievements and bitter that they had been forgotten.  Civilization in ruins, the surface-dwellers of Cha'alt turned to barbarism as sorcery reappeared, dragons appeared in the now-magenta sky, and demons took hold once more.

Cha'alt is a mysterious world where you're likely to encounter mutant bikers with laser rifles, tentacled sandworms in the deep desert, tribal warfare as blood-splotched shamans ululate at the crimson rock, and alien pirates on anti-grav skiffs looking to steal relics of a bygone age.

My job is making Cha'alt stand out from all the other weird post-apocalyptic campaign settings.  It's going to have a unique flavor, yet containing many of the ingredients we all know and love."
To me it certainly looks like Venger has gone back to his formula for success that he used in the mega dungeon & adventure locations of The Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence. For me this is a welcome change from the usual Alpha Blue rpg fare. 

"Over half the book will focus on the Great Pyramid of Cha'alt, a massive, sunken tomb full of humanoids, monsters, traps, puzzles, treasure, and artifacts (both technological and magical)."

The pyramid itself is semi-translucent and shiny black, tiny green veins glow within its extra-terrestrial structure... a substance impervious to magic, yet conducive to inter-dimensional travel.  This pyramid has been places, man!  It's not from here.  

The things inside will confound, confuse, delight, and destroy foolhardy adventurers who think they can waltz right in and start plundering its ultra-telluric treasures!

It's a 5-level megadungeon (with lots of room for growth if funding goes well).  There will be a lot more to do than simply attack the monsters in the room and take their stuff.  Virtually every potential antagonist has some kind of angle - their own desires, agendas, allegiances, and secrets.  Explore and interact with the Great Pyramid... it's not meant to be merely a convenient latrine for XP thirsty murder-hobos!"
So adventure location is the perfect set up for a mega dungeon mini campaign with five levels down being a perfect number for old school style play. The adventure  setting  material in Cha'alt is a good add on possibly for the world of Revelry in Torth making a mega campaign!



To me  the world Cha'alt is straight out of the old school post apocalyptic table top genre & might be perfect to run with a  OSR adventure/sandbox gaming system such as Gamma World 1st or  2nd edition. 
 What you need to know is magic and technology flourished in previous ages, humanoid kind's servants sought to rise up, and to stop the revolt powerful wizards magically nuked the world perfect into the Great Pyramid of Cha'alt setting. 

The material here is hooked into the hex crawl adventure mindset something that we've seen in old school post apocalyptic gaming before. But that's not an issue with a setting with the Cha'alt setting. Do I think you support  the Cha'alt kickstarter which only has a few days left to go? Yes this is a perfect adventure & campaign set up for Venger's return to his OSR roots. I think that the results of this kickstarter will be another hit for Mr. Satanis. For now keep em rolling.