Red Death - Worlds Without Number Session One

 Note that this is DM Peter's Worlds Without Number rpg has been in play for the past two years. So my character the wizard Anteres is a part of a party of explorers who are adventuring to find out what is doing the extinction of the lands surrounding the campaign world.  

Tonight's World's Without Number rpg session saw me in DM Peter's game & us fighting a swarm Xiticix!  Tonight's game adventure saw us going to toe to toe with these insectal horrors. They fought with freakish violence and abandoned. Our Ranger PC Rann Alriddge identified the Xiticix warriors and three young queens! 
We then took a six day journey across the sea to the Xiticix lands and found abandoned hives! Thousands upon thousands of abandoned hives! Why?! 

We knew something was radically wrong with the Xiticix Lands! We sent scouts to the edge of the lands which were three days ride and received telepathic assurances that the insect ravagers were gone. And that's when the scouts saw the rising wall of Red Tide! That's right the Red Tide of  Labyrinth Lord fame has come to call. This is a call back to our Red Tide campaign two years ago. The tide is a manifestation of Chaos that exists between the planes. It's also the debris from the engines of Creation 

Our scouts came face to face with 'tide corrupt' and two of our player's PC's died rather badly. We broke rank and began running. Thus made our way to our ship and the tide corrupt come out of the sea. The party fireballs the tide warriors. We made it but this is where we ended. 

OSR Review & Commentary On WAR of the WORLDS (Pay What You Want) By Paul Elliot From Zozer Games For The Cepheus Universal Rpg

 "WAR of the WORLDS (Pay What You Want) 30 pages

"With the release of Cepheus Universal in January 2024, Zozer Games wanted to illustrate its versatility in recreating many different styles of science fiction roleplaying. Why not start at the beginning, in the 19th century, with H.G. Wells’ influential science fiction novel The War of the Worlds?"

"This short book provides Cepheus Universal resources with which a Game Master could easily set-up a War of the Worlds scenario or even a sequel. Included is a timeline of the invasion, the Martian tactics, and the British military response. We discuss the Martian technology, and include PDF forms of all of the tech, including the HMS Thunderchild. Includes maps!"

There are times when Paul Elliot from Zozer Games doesn't play fair!I'm a huge fan of H.G. Wells  War of the Worlds novel. WAR of the WORLDS (Pay What You Want) By Paul Elliot  is a thirty page reference for Cepheus Universal that hits all of the high notes of the novel. This supplement is basically a total recreation of the War of the Worlds novel timeline as 2d6 rpg setting.  This review is going too pick right up on the back of the Cepheus Universal rpg review here. 
And it's glorious because War of the Worlds is so darn compact and distilled down to it's essence. It's all here from the Martians, the tripods, the black smoke, the English forces, etc. and you can drop your player's PC's as the Brits of Wells novel trying to deal with the Martians. 
The fact is that while War of the Worlds is pay what you want, the actual book is completely compatible Modern War by Zozer games and also the Hostile rpg. Because of this supplement also works extremely well for Cepheus Universal. 

WAR of the WORLDS (Pay What You Want) By Paul Elliot picks right up from when the cylinders land in the mid 1890's when all Hell breaks loose. You get all of the edges of the empire of Britiana at it's height and breath of power. And they are completely helpless against the power of the Martians! 
2d6 rpging brings home the power and deviltry of the Martians in thirty pages. And it's very well done! 

Is War of the Worlds well done?! In a word, oh yes there's all of the usual suspects from H.G. Wells novel including lots of the details. The layout, fonts, etc are all clearly done and up too Zozer Games standards. If you really want a solid supplement for Cepheus Univeral that hits the high notes then this is it! 

OSR Application of Wretched Verses Issue 23: Gangs of Avalidad For The Wretched New Flesh 1st or 2nd Edition Rpg

 "Gangs of Avalidad is your guide to the underbelly of a city caught between the dazzling heights of technological advancement and the depths of ancient vices. This Wretched Verse presents a glimpse into the urban fauna that operates in the crevices of Wretched New Flesh’s society. Avalidad is more than just a city; it’s a living entity, a melting pot of cultures, ideologies, and, most notably, conflicts. In this short sourcebook you will find the most prominent street gangs of Avalidad, detailing their territories, sizes, leadership structures, motivations, criminal activities, aesthetics, reputations, and unique traits. Dive into the descriptions of each gang to understand their place in Avalidad’s ecosystem."

One of the things that I  love to do is to dig deeply into an OSR game's setting and Wretched New Flesh Post Cards from Aviliadad 2nd edition is thick with background & setting material. 
Wretched Verses Issue 23: Gangs of Avalidad dives deeply into the underbelly of the future city's underworld. 
And when I'm starting a new Summer campaign in the Neo Biopunk future of Aviliadad this issue is going to come in quite handy. Not only do we get an overview of the gangs, tactics, markets, etc. but we also get a microcosm of the underworld of Avilidad. 

And make no mistake Aviladad is a city of vice and markets. Everything is for sale and all is permited. And the gangs in issue number 23 of Wretched Verses ties directly into Wretched New Flesh 2nd edition. 

Wretched New Flesh 2nd edition is twice the size of first edition  & it highlights the changing events surrounding Avilidad. The time table for all Hell to literally break loose in the city of Avilidad has moved up. First edition Wretched New Flesh Post Cards from Aviladad is a complete rpg unto itself. While second edition is different offering a landscape setting that has at it's heart the beating heart of supernatural corruption and futuristic high strangeness. One part David Lynch, Bladerunner, and at it's heart the weirdness of William S. Burrough's writing. Make no mistake that you've got two of Wretched New Flesh's corporatations about to go to supernatural war. Then you've got fertile ground for deadly adventure. And this supernatural war kicks off the events of the free web comic from The Red Room.  For our campaign what kicks it into high gear is the incident at  the Nakatomi Towers complex. And this of course happens in the Tainted Conception adventure.

The blowback is so nasty that it hits all levels of Avilidad and this is especially true of the street gangs of Aviliadad detailed in Wretched Verses Issue 23: Gangs of Avalidad. Because this fall out throws events within Avilidad into high gear! This set's the stage for the opening salvo of the Shadow or Occult War.

Pirate Attack In The Black -- The Clement Sector & The Starguard Class System Defence Boat

 "The Starguard Class System Defence Boat is a 400ton multi-purpose starship. It is not a true “System Defence Boat” as it has limited Jump-1 capability, but is popular with smaller systems who wish to have a reasonably capable ship able to be deployed in a variety of roles including system defence, customs inspection, police actions as well as being able to operate in a ground support role. It is also common with Mercenary Companies operating in a system defence role." 

The Starguard Class System Defence Boat is a ship that was manufactured by Principal Industries in the Clement Sector. Tonight's Clement Sector game session the mission was simple. We were playing delivery boys and bringing this new Starguard to it's planetary defense position. We collector our fee and we're on our way to our next assignment. This of course is the Clement sector and nothing is ever really that easy. 

Well we just get her out of port and towards our jump point. Then all Hell breaks loose. We've got pirates! Not just any pirates mind you, oh no we've got the renagade androids that have been making our party's lives sheer Hell for the past two months. 
This all started when one of our intrepid lot found a renagade A.I. in an old abandoned wreck. From here it jumped aboard a miner's ship after we restranded it! Then it managed to get a ride on a robot and then put itself into an android batch of combat units. 
Since then this crew of androids has been quietly raiding other ships for profit and fun. But also for parts as it wants to keep replicating itself! We've shut the horror down several times blowing up several ships in the process. And then there was that slaughtered colony. Tonight's game was a real cat and mouse affair as three of our number were following the Star Guard in our party's Rax from last session. We knew something was wrong the second we saw the other ship. We tried to engage in communication but to no avail. 

We hung back and had full weapons but the Starguard did but it did have full shields. And so it was a game of playing possum until we got close enough to blast them from the sky. How?! We had our two cybersneaks disable thier weapons and defenses. Knowing that these were the Andies and they wanted aboard the Starguard. We didn't heistate when it came to blasting them! We went to jump and off to deliver the Starguard to her new owners. 

We got paid and delivered the Starguard. The Providence system government wanted a word with us and claimed that they were having trouble with rustlers as they put it. What freaked us out is that these rustlers asked them to turn us over by name! The Providence system government wants to hire us to put an end to the raids on merchant ships specializing in robotic and cybernetic systems including androids. We have an idea who might be involved! 

Deep In The Bandit Army Camp - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Eight

 This session picks right up from last week's & it picks right up with the party dealing with the underground air car. The party hasn't figured out how it operates and the underground aircar cruised to stop at a preprogrammed stop and the party found themselves hip deep in a fungal garden. No one got out and pressed the glowing button. 

The next stop found the party right in a old engineering parts area and lots of construction that appeared to be in ruins. The whole place was covered in strange fleshy veins and weird skin like flowers as metallic  wicked thorns glinted off the pipes, circuits, and other pipes. 
The glowing button and display beckoned and then the party was whooshed into the next tunnel. Then it was several game hours (few minutes) until the party was lifted into a side tunnel after almost crashing into another underground air car. And then they were lifted up into a weird tunnel and started racing to the surface! 
Here the party found it's aircar erupting onto the surface straight under a tent belonging to some 1st level Green warriors! There were about ten of them and the party found itself face to face in a strange sea bottom town! The Green men's tent was totally ruined! And they began attacking the party! The party also came face to face with the Green's mercenary red men Beserkers! So I took the AD&D Monster Manual Beserker entry and then adapted it for our game. 

Berserker by David Sutherland, from the AD&D Monster Manual, TSR, 1977 

I changed the weaponry to hand ax & Martian straight sword minus the armor. These Martian Beserkers are considered legendary and almost exclusively found in the Bandit Nations of  Mars. And I dropped enough hints for this game session and the player's PC's have found themselves 2,000 miles away from thier original destination. Did I happen to mention the fact that the air car slid back underground during the comotation! 
So they are effectively trapped behind enemy lines. And then escaped into the Martian night with a pack of Green Men Catlots on thier tails. 

Between a Rock & A Cloud - The Oort Cloud, mini Planet Eris & The Hostile Rpg - Campaign Setting Update Part II

 Beyond the Oort Cloud is Eris and it's promise of riches and more. The Trans Plutonian corridor is highly important inthe campaign world of Hostile. And the Dwarf Planet Eris is incredibly important. But where is Eris?!  The Dwarf planet Eris, "Eris (minor-planet designation 136199 Eris) is the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System.^[22] It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in the scattered disk and has a high-eccentricity orbit." A long range colony was established on Eris back during the Age of Exploration befor the second Recession kicked in. See the Hostile rpg timeline. 

Eris and it's moon are important jump point fuel station & hyperspacial corridor. And given the corporate 'gold rush' that was happening with the Oort Cloud. And it's natural resources. China,the United States and European conerns were rushing to establish colonies on Eris. 
Science stations, and exploration bases were established. And slowly but surely the areas around Eris along with it's moon Dysnomia were being exploited. 
Then everything came to a crashing halt and there were several reasons for this.. Reason one was the Second Recession and then radio silence from the Eris colonies! 
There were rumors of interstellar warfare but no one country or corporate entity took up responsibility for the supposed warfare. 
When a mission was launched two years later into the Recession not a trace of any of the colonies were found! 

There may be far less dramatic reasons for the colony losses and that's the planetary wide methane storms that happen on Eris. Eris also has an abundance of nitrogen in a very chemically volitile state perfectly suited as an ingrediant within interstellar fuel. Eris is little explored and only the habital zones where colonies have been established have been exploited by the corporations of Hostile. Eris supports two interstellar  processing & refinery plants and roughnecks have only recently begun to exploit Eris  moon Dysnomia.

Eris's moon's orbit is also hooks into a rare hyperspacial shunt that allows almost instant access into the TransPlutonian Hyperspacial Corridor. This is a region of hyperspace that allows that allows one to cut 10% off of travel time in hyperspace. Why is not fully known nor understood. 
Eris is also the gateway into the Orrt Cloud with many leaving Neptune station and it's colonies for the Cloud. Even the space around Neptune is not as explored as the corporations would have the Earthsiders to believe. There is a 30,000 credit bonus for those willing to do a three year stint on Eris & it's colonies. The close proxcimity to the fledling comets of the Orrt cloud have allowed the corporations to exploit them for commerical mining ventures. 
The liquid methane storms of Eris have proven to be troublesome however. These roiling planetary wide weather events happen in the 'wet season'. And the planet's weather patterns kick up giant roiling clouds of liquid methane that blow across one hemisphere of the planet. These storms last for months at a clip and can destroy even interstellarly created metals and the like. Nothing survives these storms. Newer colonies on Eris have become like sunken vaults deep into the ground going down almost a mile into the mini planet. Space madness and insanity are common and those who serve on the planets are all a bit touched. Still there are fortunes to be made among the Cloud and the TransNeptunian Corridor. 

Shake,Rattle, & Roll - Cities Without Number, Stars Without Number, & Trey Causey's Strange Stars Rpg - Session Report- The Star Mart By Joseph Mohr

 "The largest big box retailer is coming to the Sonora sector! But they need a little help from some travelers just like yours. They are having a few logistical issues that they need some assistance with and your travelers have just the right skills. Star Mart is the largest retailer in the known universe. They have stores in over one thousand systems and multiple stores in most of these locations. They are known for their extremely low prices. They are also known for selling a lot of cheap knock off merchandise from the Neoh’Ohm systems that make them with slave labor. But low prices are low prices. This draws huge crowds at every new opening. Star Marts sell everything from pots and pans to Star Freighters and everything in between. While most retail establishments are local Star Marts have the reputation and advertising power to bring people from across an entire sector to shop." 

" Their newest store is right on the edge of the Sonora sector and the old sectors. This new opening has thrilled the locals of the sector as a whole. But there are a few disgruntled people who are not so pleased at the prospect. 

They have a reputation for low pay but they seem to be offering quite a bit of money for this specialist work. The advertisement at the Starport says CR 350,000 - apply immediately."

 

So the other night I didn't have a ton of time to deal with my players & saw that Joseph Mohr had put up a new Cepheus Engine adventure Star Mart. And because Cepheus Engine uses the same 2d6 skill system as old school Traveller and Cepheus Engine. I decided as a DM to steal erm borrow it. Last time we were playing we'd left the party in a Burger Chef fast food joint on Circus. And this session picks right up from here on the blog. 

Commericials and adds from the Sixties from Earth are only now reaching the hub of the sector of Trey Causey's Strange Stars. Most of the popculture adds and programs are treated as literal digital trash. However some alien civilizations have taken to recreating some popcultural institustions with some very weird results. Hence why there's a Burger Chef a defunt 1960's through 80's fast food establishment on almost every galatic hub space station. 

The PC's were hanging out since last adventure when they were approached by a Star Mart manager. That right there is trouble with a capital 'T' because of the fact that like other 'Marts'. As the intergalatic community's largest big box retailer of materials Star Mart takes care of it's own. 
In this case that wasn't happening, let me take a moment to speak about Joseph Mohr's Star Mart adventure. Mohr writes in a style that gives the DM several options to hook in his player's PC's. In this case it was a rival alien big box chain who were constructing their own box store across the street from Star Mart. This won't do especially within the cut throat world of retail that is Circus. 

The big no no of this situation is the fact that the aliens want to help unionize the workers of Star Mart. Star Mart's competition is off limits because they've hired merccnaries & operators to keep the PC's away from thier construction site. The credits are good from Star Mart and will pay off a big chunk of thier stat hauler repairs. 
Before all out mini corporate war can break out the PC's have had another meeting with Star Mart's manager and minor corporate heads. They've had to dodge mercenary forces. 

So now it's an on going fire fight through the nano zones of thier zones of Circus. The mercenaries are going after the PC's with gusto. The mercenaries were in the prcocess of locking the PC's bank accounts when the party's operators got into a protracted Cyberspace battle over Circus's grid. 

The player's PC's made a few valuable contacts that they stole from the mercenaries databanks. And they also managed to track down a lucritive dream jaunt combat contracts  to the  Phantasists. And then there's a job that the Slavers need done. Right now thier trying to convince the Star Mart's executives that there is more lucrative retail space in a developing nanohub of Circus. 

Review & Commentary On Souless Children By Kirt A. Dankmyer From Ivanhoe Unbound For The Liminaal Horror Rpg

 "Content Warning for This Game: harm to children"

"The world is a creepy place, if you scratch the surface.  Luckily, you're one of the things that go bump in the night yourself. 

If only other monsters would leave you alone.

"In Soulless Children, you play immortal dark-eyed children, escaped from Neverland and damaged by the ritual that took their soul and granted immortality. Take that, Peter Pan!"

So I came into Souless Children with zero preconcieved notions, Ivanhoe Unbound sent me the adventure or supplement. And Souless Children is  done in the style of  a continuation of Neverland & Peter Pan with some really nasty undertones. You are not playing the 'good guy' and in point of fact playing the Souless Children of the title. And these are monsters no doubt about it. This is really a bare bones supplement giving the player's just enough to bring these horrors to life. While Souless Children is rules lite, because of the nature of the supplement I'd personally run this with Silent Legions. The PC's are playing the devouring monsters and they play the investigators tracking down and possibly destroying thier old PC's. 
Souless Children only tracks in at twenty one distrubing pages but it brings home these monsters. And there's a paragraph on rpg 'safety tools' & you can easily ignore those. And yes I'm using this product outside of the the acclaimed rules-light horror game Liminal Horror. 
Be warned the material is disturbing but not mature in nature. I do think that Souless Children is well done. And with the right group this could be an excellent supplement/adventure. 
Souless Children brings options and tightness to the character generation. The idea that you are working on an incredibly dangerous monster who wants to eat the souls of it's victims. 
This is a well written supplement and it provides a very interesting take on the Black  Eyed Children urban legend. One could take a completely different approach and take the Souless Children supplement for a bit of a joy ride with the 2d6 Quantum Dark rpg. And here's where things go a bit sideways because of the fact that you as the DM & players are going  be using Quantum Dark for the PC's abilities, and actual play systems. PC generation uses a combination of Souless Children and Quantum Dark for backgrounds, histories, etc. One group of player's PC's could be the Souless Children and the other could be thier hunters. This is a situation that we've done with Game Designer's Workshop's Dark Conspiracy ages ago. 

And with a bit of work Souless Children could be the cornerstone of a horror campaign. Here the PC's might be trying to recover the sliver of innocence that thier denied all while hunting for 'food' and undead 'survival'. All of this could be against the background of retaking Neverland. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Cepheus Universal Rpg By Paul Elliot From Zozer Games

 "Cepheus Universal is a 442-page stand-alone game packed with tools that enable you to emulate all kinds of sci-fi, from cyberpunk to space opera, time travel to rogue moons or wandering star fleets. Build star systems, robots, vehicles of all types, capital ships, rockets, alien races, and much, much more. All levels of technology, including the highest and the lowest, are represented! It comes with 12 fillable PDF forms, and a chapter on building your own setting or adapting your favourite from a science fiction movie, TV show or novel." 

"If you prefer a colour softback or hardback, then one will be available at the start of March (check the Zozer Games website)" 

Cepheus Universal Rpg By Paul Elliot From Zozer Games is a massive four hundred & forty two page 2d6 supplement. And it contains a plethora of well organized material from Zozer Games and fits it into a highly useable. Some of this 2d6 material has appeared in other Zozer products but Cepheus Universal reoganizes it and presents it as  highly structured tool kit and package. Step by step Cepheus Universal brings to the table PC creation, low tech PC's, Psionics, complete game system, equipment sections that go into a ton of material and more. 
Cepheus Univeral also includes rules & guidelines for designing starships, planets, star systems, sectors, etc. including guidelines for doing timetravel. Cepheus Universal  is a well layed out, very easy to read font, and possibly run 2d6 Cepheus Engine powered rpg. 
What really stands out is the Setting chapters 399-415. These chapters talk about taking an existing campaign setting from your favorite Sci Fi Tv show, movie,etc and adapting into a Cepheus Univeral rpg campaign. This was wayback in the 1970's something that attracted me into classic original Traveller. Cepheus Universal has everything including a ton of form fillable sheets that come with it for designing starships, planets, star systems, sectors, etc.  
And this is one of the things that I noticed with Cepheus Universal is that it's designed for actual table top play. 
Cepheus Univeral is a solid tool kit to bring Zozer Games version of the Cepheus Engine rpg rules into 2024 and beyond. Is it perfect?! No, there's a mix of A.I. and previously used artwork and that's fine for the type of product that Cepheus Univesal is. 
What Cepheus Universal actual is and this is my personal opinion is a completely independant version of the Cepheus Engine rpg. This whole cloth rpg is OGL open and waiting for others to present thier own material. And it harkens back to the three original Traveller rpg rule books. Cepheus Univeral presents an attempt complete rpg system that emulates and draws from the Cepheus Engine rpg for under the Zozer Games banner. Is it solid and good for the DM & player? Most definitely. And will I be using it? Most assuredly. Full disclosure, I bought the Cepheus Univeral Rpg rules myself with my own money! 

Review & Commentary On The Unofficial Canon Project Marvel Super Heroes Marverlous Myths & Monsters Volume 6 - Otherworld

 "Welcome to Otherworld!!! The UCP is excited to present another book in the Marvelous Myths and Monsters series of books, this one covering Otherworld, Celtic mythology, Avalon, the Captain Britain Corps, all the Black Knights, and more... all by the prolific Andrew Goldstein!"

Oh, and did we mention this is the biggest book we've done yet!? This tome weighs in at a hefty 677 pages in total of Marvel RPG goodness!"

The Unofficial Canon Project Marvel Super Heroes Marverlous Myths & Monsters Volume 6 - Otherworld just came out by Andrew Goldstein. The Unofficial Canon Project is on Facebook 7 they do some incredible supplements for the Marvel Super Heroes rpg produced by TSR. We're going to reference the Unofficial Canon Project Marvel Super Heroes Marverlous Myths & Monsters Volume 6 - Otherworld as Otherworld for the remainder of this review. The Otherworld supplement is centered on Marvel Comics take on the Celtic mythology that was depicted in Mavel comicbooks. These depictions go all the way back to before the Bronze Age & these are referenced, cataloged, and depicted within the Otherworld supplement. Within this supplement we get the gods,hero,fairies,monsters, monster races, etc. and more within the Otherworld supplement. This is a massive six hundred and seventy seven pages worth of Marvel Celtic mythology has an actual break down of the material with an actual table of contents: Chapter 1 – Otherworld......................................................6
 Chapter 2 – Avalon ........................................................... 29 

Chapter 3 – Fairyland & the Fairy Courts........................ 342
 Chapter 4 – Celtic Mythology ......................................... 411
Chapter 5 – Other Great Britain and Celtic Mythology .. 587
Chapter 6 – Parallel Worlds............................................ 641
Chapter 7 – Afterward & References.............................. 672 

Otherworld covers Camelot and the Arthurian mythos in the Marvel universe. And this is especially the Arthurian mythos and how they relate to th Black Knight. These center around persons, fairy, places, monsters, foes, and friends. All of these subjects weaves in and out of Otherworld, Avalon,Marvel's Camelot, and the Fairy Courts. And all of these dance around the chapters on Celtic Mythology with the heroes, gods, monsters and more. These chapters focus on the Marvel mythological perspective. Layout, fonts, etc. all harken back to the heady days of TSR's Marvel Super Heroes rpg. And Captain Britain get's his due within the Otherworld supplement because his & the Black Knight are some of the key pillars of this Marvel supplement along with the Xmen.
But is it worth the download from  The Unofficial Canon Project Marvel Super Heroes Facebook group's free G drive folder under Marvelous Myths & Monsters?! In a word, yes. Because this supplement goes into Celtic mythological, Arthurian, Black Knight, Irish, and more material with gusto. Want to know whose who within the Formarian patheon in the Marvel universe? Do you need the magic items of the days of Marvel's Camelot?! The The Unofficial Canon Project Marvel Super Heroes Marverlous Myths & Monsters Volume 6 - Otherworld has you covered. Want to know about Robin Hood and his Merry Men in the the Marvel universe?! This book has you covered! 

Otherworld is a well written, very well conceived, and solid Marvel Super Heroes Rpg resource and campaign setting book. Otherworld is extremely useful for any Celtic themed DM & Marvel Super Heroes rpg player. I think that this is a five outta of five book. 

Down, Down, Into The Martian Underground - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Seven

 
This session picks right up from here with the player's party having thier fighter Helm now in a medical tank. So to off set some of the cost of healing they headed to a nearby forrest near the dead sea bottom to scout out some ruins for ingredants for the healer/scientist Raz. Things went off the rails from there!  And the Shiekers call when the player's PCs encountered them attracting 3 large Martian White Apes who came with 3 carnivous apes in toe. The PC's quickly slaughtered one of the Throats that they brought with them. And then they hid. 

 As the PC's hid the violent fungus attracted by the Shrieker's moved in slowly on the PC's! There were six violet fungus and the party was in between a rock and a hard place. Thier backs literally against the wall. 
The party's rogue Alara a disgraced Martian princess now mercenary rogue was a able to find a tunnel down deep into the ruined tunnels beneath the floor of the ruins. 

The party dived deep beneath the ruins and came face to face with the main colony of violet fungus. They quickly dispatched two of the colony guardian fungus. And then quickly collected the parts that they needed. 
Greed got the better of them and they found a tunnel! Going deep into the underground space they were able to find an ancient air car garage. The party found one of the fabled round cars that rode on the underground  magnetic tunnels that crisscross parts of Mars. 

And they came face to face with a swarm of Ulsio and decided to climb into the air car. The air car was inactive and the Ulsio swarmed around the vehicle. The party actived the car! And then they raced off down the underground tunnels. Thier destination unknown! We ended the session here! 

During today's game I leaned heavily into the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Violent Fungus, Shriekers, and Carnivorous apes are all straight out of the Monster Manual. 

 The party ran away from several encounters and it was interesting to see. The party did accomplish thier goal and then took what was essentially a dungeon set piece in this case the air car. And turned it into campaign fodder with the party now going deeply into the Martian underground. 

Dancing Among The Clouds - The Oort Cloud & The Hostile Rpg - Campaign Setting Update

Our Hostile Rpg campaign has been on hold for a few weeks because of work scheduling issues. So I've been reading & doing campaign notes. And I've been focusing on the Oort cloud just outside of Neptune. The cloud is just  a collection of mountain sized asteroids & space debris that's hardly been mapped even by the time of Hostile. 

Who cares about the Oort Cloud?! Besides it's a local pheneoma and location to the solar system. The cloud hasn't even been explored and written off by the time of the Hostile timeline's Second Recession? However the fact that it has all of the material that makes up Jupiter within it makes the Cloud perfect for space mining & fuel production. The fact that you've got millions of object the size of mountains tumbling through space very challening to mapping. And this makes the Oort Cloud the perfect location to send corporate sponsored explorers. This also makes the cloud the perfect location for alien and space going lifeforms. 

 

The Oort Cloud is perfect ground for the Pioneer Station series of fuel stations are suited for the myriad of mining and fuel processsing station refineries. The Pioneer stations have the numerious configurations needed for the cloud; "The 600-ton Leyland-Okuda Pioneer is a general purpose industrial operations platform, a five-man space station designed to serve as an operations center, drone control, fuel store or supply dump."
The Pioneer stations have be setup in carefully A.I. computer calculated orbits so as not be smashed to little pieces by the mountain sized space debris of the cloud. Those roughnecks who serve to mine the Oort Cloud are some of the roughest and toughest miners to put on a space suit. The cloud is weird, awe inspiring, and very lonely. Because of the hazardous conditions at the Oort Cloud there is a 20,000 bonus for those who sign up. Because of the casul loss of life only a few get to spend it! 

Space madness is among the most common insanities that infects Oort Cloud miners and no one knows why. The most common metals in the cloud are the huge deposits of nickel and the building blocks of comets. These materials are essential to the space industries back on Earth. Two giant refineries and smelters have been built within  the Kuiper belt, for faster processing of materials. 
There are always rumors of alien artifacts, lifeforms, etc. most of which turn out to be bunk. The standing 2 million reward for information is still safe along with claims of the giant bonuses put out by corporations. 

There have been several corporate skirmishes among the Oort Cloud but sustained battles are absolute suicide because of collosions & debris chain accidents. There have also be UIO reports among the cloud. Unidentified Intersystem Objects have become quite common just before industrial accidents. The rumors among the miners are that the aliens are laughing at them. They also think that there might be a hidden colony among the rocks.
The Oort Cloud has provided the corporations a rich bounty of materials for manufacturing and space industries. The  Oort Cloud is only beginning to be exploited by the corporations and there are several unique trademark and copyrights that have come about because of the close procimity to several comets that have been explored, cataloged, and mined by roughnecks. 
Now the corporate gold rush is on for the hidden sections of the Oort cloud. 

Review & Commentary On Careers of The Old West By John Watts For The Rider Rpg or Cepheus Engine Powered 2d6 Rpg's

 "Independence Games is proud to present Careers of the Old West, our career catalog for Rider. This book presents 20 career tracks for use in building the background of your Rider characters. What did you do before you became an adventurer? These include careers things as varied as Barbers, Barkeeps, and Shopkeepers to Rustlers, Sharpshooters, Actors, and Wild West Show Performers!"

"This book contains new skills and a new background for those who wish to pursue the law!

Who will you choose to be?"

 Careers of the Old West is the latest installment from Independence Games and written by John Watt. Why this is important will become evident as we go. Careers of the Old West brings the wide variety of occuptations that we see in history and Hollywood Old Western movies & television shows. 

John Watts manages to pack into ninety pages everything that a DM needs to run the Old West for his players while add in a ton of options for the players. 
With a skill based system such as Cepheus Engine or old school Traveller this book is essential. 

Careers of The Old West adds huge number of careers that could be used for different points of a campaign. Places  where the DM really needs to add in a flare of NPC's who are both memorable and different. 

This supplement provides the player or the DM a plethora of options at the table top. Careers Of The Old West is a well layed out, easily read font, and solidly done book. 
There are all of the tools here to add an outrageous amount of options for the DM allowing everyone from entertainers or miners to thier campaigns. These become very well developed NPC's in 2d6 campaigns because we know who they are and where they have been in thier lives. 
In ninety pages we get a fantastic 2d6 Old West career option paths and fully developed occuptations! The writing of John Watts is on point. He adds in everything the DM needs to add these occuptations into thier campaigns minus the fuss. 

For the Rider Rpg,  Careers of the Old West is in my mind an essential book for both the DM & player. This book adds a ton of great occuptations to the table top and brings a whole new twist to the Rider rpg. This is a book that the DM can slip into his campaign & add a ton of good material for the game!  

The Red Room's Orbital Decay & The Cha'alt Triliogy - Gates & Keys Session Report and Campaign Update

 I find myself being roped into dealing with my Wretched New Flesh Post Cards from Avilidad players and Orbital Decay! The reason being is that one of our player's PC's mentioned and elaborated Cha'alt. And since our campaign takes place in the distant future of Avilidad. 

The gateway to Cha'alt is actually in the Oort cloud and that place is literally brimming with objects the size of mountains tumbling through space. It's also the domain of the MiGo that originally had thier colonies on Pluto. 
Mi Go also inheritted the gateway to Cha'alt and the PC's have in the the past had interactions with the Mi Go. 
The Cha'alt gate represents a modern day gold rush for Avilidad. Zonetec remains skeptical. Because of the fact that in the past demon clown worms have almost created issues with reality in the past! 
So now all cargos coming into Earth have to go through Zonetec inspectors. Why isn't known. The Mi Go haven't been spotted as thier enter and exiting the Beyond. Alien races have made contact with humanity but it's a relationship still in it's infancy. Indivduals however may have close friend

There's two deep Oort Cloud mining science facilities near the center of the cloud. And there's twenty personel on board. There used to be another but it went dark for unknown reasons.  Orbital Decay is it's own OSR animal. And a deadly one at that with new races, monsters, themes, random tables and more.  an offworlder high-tech facility called Elysium.is now extending it's tenticles deep into Cha'alt.

The human race has no idea of the danger that thier in from Cha'alt!  There's already a demon worm cult within Avilidad  and the PC's have tangled with it but not destoryed it! Little do they realize the fact that the cult are regular visitors to Cha'alt.