'Monsters in the Underbelly' - ~ OSR Commentary With Rpg Pundit's The Invisible College & Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars By Jason Vey & Timothy Brannan.

 

 































"This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers.
"The War Universe", taped conversation, first published in Grand Street, No. 37 "
William S. Burroughs 

The fact of the matter is that magus are going to be the low man on the totem pole. Magus & monsters in  Rpg Pundit's The Invisible College & Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars were talked about the other day here on the blog.  Magus are going to be outsiders at the best of times & part of the machinery of society at other times.   The factions of the Invisible College are going to be moving their unseen hands across the table top of the world. The B/X nature of the occult of both games goes excellent with the   darkly surreal Tech-Noir game setting and adventure of Postcards From Avalidad.   'Postcards from Avalidad' By Miguel Ribeiro  & Manuel Souza goes into some of the folks who are on the control end of 2021 reality through the lens of the Sixties & Seventies. And yet reading through the 112 page pdf, I'm reminded of my college days of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius & William S. Burroughs. Seen through the Cornelius & Burroughs lens at the end of the world. The question become what world through   the strange lives of Avalidad's celebrities, fiscal royalty and seedy underbelly of Postcards. 

 Ben Laurence's Through Ultan's Door series of adventures is perfect for these sort's of surreal dungeon crawls. There's more then enough room for the monsters & magus here. Each of the factions of the Invisible Collge rpg would love to have a backdoor into the dreamlands. But those blundering into this world might end up in the lower viberational setting of 'Postcards from Avalidad'. Firearms & all of the modern high tech toys of 2021 are not going to be enough to deal with the harsh & unforgiving underbelly of these adventures. The dreamlands reality plays for keeps. And it devours those that try to defy its long embrace.  The PC's could flip back & forth between realities only to try to find out which one is the true reality. Monster or supernatural PC's  in 'Postcards from Avalidad' are going to find themselves in a very dangerous world. A world used to dealing with them. 
And this bring ups the point that could PC's like B/X powered Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Companion classes such as  the Divine Warrior, the Mystic Martial Artist, the Psychic Gunslinger, and the Spirit Rider even remotely make a difference in a weird & surreal setting such 'Postcards from Avalidad'?! 
This is the question that I'm pondering even now as we're planning campaign into this high weirdness & surreal jam. More coming up.