OSR Commentary - The Insidious Nature of The Blades Stormbringer & Mournblade In Original Dungeons & Dragons

 “Elric knew that everything that existed had its opposite. In danger he might find peace. And yet, of course, in peace there was danger. Being an imperfect creature in an imperfect world he would always know paradox. And that was why in paradox there was always a kind of truth. That was why philosophers and soothsayers flourished. In a perfect world there would be no place for them. In an imperfect world the mysteries were always without solution and that was why there was always a great choice of solutions.”

― Michael Moorcock, The Elric Saga Part I

When it comes to Stormbringer & Mournblade from Michael Moorcock's Elric saga no two enchanted blades have come close to matching the modern impact of these two blades on Sword & Sorcery. In Robert  Kuntz & James Ward's Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes Stormbringer appears and it's a beast; "Chaotic in nature, this sword has an intelligence of 12 and an ego of 12, is plus 5 when hitting, in the presence of Mournblade is as a Dancing Sword, and drains energy levels.On a roll of 11-20 it will drain all the energy levels from a being if it hits, with a roll of 7-10 allowing it to drain onehalf of the energy levels if it hits. The energy levels gained from the battle are transferred to Elric giving him an 18 strength, and a 100% on his exceptional strength. It also adds to his hit points by the method of rolling the proper die for the type of being hit. If a magic user is hit roll a 4 sided die and multiply the number gotten by the levels the magic user has. The same is done for all other classes and creatures. The sword becomes sated after draining off 300 energy levels, in which case after 10 melee turns Elric reverts back to his former strength and hit points. This sated state lasts for 50 full turns, at the end of which the sword will take another 300 levels." 
What makes the Black Swords so damn dangerous?! According to the Stormbringer fandom wiki entry on Stormbringer's history; "Before the Melnibonéans' ancestors, the Mernii, arrived on Elric's World, the Nihrain were a prosperous society who served the Cosmic Balance. To combat the Dead Gods and other powers of Law and Chaos that threatened to tip the scales of the Balance, the Nihrain forged the pieces of the Dragon Sword into the twin Black Swords, Stormbringer and Mournblade, and perhaps also forged their many brothers as well. Out of fear for the blades' power to slay them, the Dead Gods killed themselves (removed their physical forms and joined Eternity). But while both blades had the power to absorb vitality as did all Black Swords, Stormbringer was different from the others, because a mysterious power entered the blade at the time it was forged"  
And one of the most dangerous magical quality that both Stormbringer & Mournblade have is the fact that they can slay divinities & gods; "Godslaying- Stormbringer is fully capable of killing gods, even Chaos Lords and Lords of Law, and is greatly feared because of this. Though it is said that this does not truly destroy the Lords of the Higher Worlds, it just consumes their current manifestations in that world and ensures they cannot return there." 

This brings a whole other level of dangerous to both manifestations of the Black Blade or Sword; "Stormbringer is a manifestation of the Black Sword, a cosmic archetype that can exist in any world of the Multiverse. In some universes, it manifests in other ways. It has been seen as a black jewel, and even a large humanoid demon. It is even suggested that Stormbringer and perhaps any Black Sword's true form is that of the humanoid demon"

This maybe one of the most dangerous aspects of these blades because not even the gods themselves are safe from having thier divinity absorbed by the Black Swords. This means that the wielders of the Black Swords are the heralds for the 'End Times.' 

The second that the two swords are snatched from thier place in the Pulsing Cavern the world of the Young Kingdoms is doomed. Way back in the early Eighties we had a chance to run across Elric's cousin  Yyrkoon. And our PC's were adventuring in the Young Kingdom during one of my uncle's games. We were too get several sorcerous herbs & spell components for our employer. Ultimately, we got the items and completed the task. We figured out what he was going to do which was open the dimensional door into the Pulsing Cavern. Our party left the world of the Young Kingdoms for Greyhawk shortly there after withour us getting paid. Mournblade is the twin of Stormbringer and as such they are merely two parts of the same evil or malevolent entity. We wanted no truck with either of the demon swords and this policy continued into our years playing Stormbringer. 

Blood & Suffering - Into The SuperMax - Wretched Darkness Session Report

 During this morning's Wretched Darkness/Wretched Vigilantes game session the players wanted some insight into a cult calling themselves  the Acolytes of Pain. They got permission from thier government contact to visit one of the Supermax prison's on the campaign world. We reviewed Supermax over here on the blog.  

The trip in with the military escorts and the security checks went well. No one was stupid enough to attempt to egg the soldiers on. Down into solid bed rock the party went until they crossed into the international boundry. They were led past row after row of cryo sleep chambers and cells. The hiss of escaping gasses spooked the party. They felt as if eyes were watching them.. They were led to a glass room.  Inside dressed in strange fetish style robes and an orange prison jump suit a weird figure stood. There was a sharp intake of breath as the figure looked at them with strangely lidded eyes with alien eyes. 'You have thirty minutes for an interview. But no flash photography, please'.  

The PC's were investigating the 'Mansfield Masscare' which was actually the site of Wretched's Sexual Holocaust adventure which we ran at the beginning of the campaign. This marked the first entry into our world of one of the Disciplines of Pain. This bastard committed horrid crimes to come into the role of 'super villain' after his summoner was killed. 

The PC's are trying to stop another series of ritual murders by  a cult calling themselves  the Acolytes of Pain. They've taken on several ritualistic mutations from the Discplines of Pain. They must be taken to the Beyond for thier final conversion into demonhood. This is going to involve a lot of suffering, pain, and death that the PC's are trying to prevent. 
And the player's PC's want answers before the next new moon. Next week the interview! 

The Next Frontier By Joseph Mohr & The Clement Sector Rpg Session Report - Wolf Slaughter - Session Report

 We scrambled into fighters that were provided by the  Ginuk & blasted one of the pirate ships that had been attacking the Science station on Tormazonia. We were able to block the transmission from the planet side to the pirate's base ship deeper in system. This session report comes on the heels of the last session report.   And of course it's Wolf time thanks to Ian Stead's artwork. 

The uplifted pirates were only part of the issue because of the fact that they've been pushed deeper into the blackness because of the Clement Frontier Scout Service. This is because the Clement sector navies have been taking such a toll on the syndicate pirate fleets. Our guys in tonight's game didn't let the pirates make planet side at all. 
There are medical advances and planetary resources that make the Science station on Tormazonia far too valuable to advancing pioneers & the Clement sector's worlds. The players wanted to make sure that the pirate ships weren't leaving the planet alive at all. The player's PC's made sure that  the Scout Service and the Cascadia Colonization Authority which keeps close tabs on the Scouts were informed of the events on Tormazonia. The PC's had one pirate ship land on the planet and they engaged in a prolonged fire fight that took up the rest of the night. The party killed any pirates that they managed to take down except one who was then psionically probed and vital information was taken. 

Tonight's adventure picks up from the internal affairs described by  The Next Frontier By Jospeh Mohr which  is well done & well written. The Next Frontier can easily be adapted to any 2d6 Rpg Science Fiction.

Deeper & Deeper Into The Station From Hell - The Red Room's Orbital Decay & Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers - Session Report

 Tonight's  DM Paul's Colonial Troopers/Orbital Decay campaign and tonight's game picks right up where we were in last week's session. Our scientist Pu ar aj created a device that can disrupt the phasing ability of the alien monsters we were dealing with. 

The catch was that the device could only work from room to room. My Colonial Trooper PC and the rest of our mercs went from room to room putting Matt our engineer and psychic to work. We left two of our alien friends partially phased into a bulkhead. That was one down and more to go. Just as Matt threw up a field saving my character from two acid edged claws. 
Our PC's are looking for the artifact that the scientists took on board which seems to be holding open the dimensional gate the alien monsters are using. The aliens took one of psychics a healer named DEV by phasing her through the wall of the Science section! 

The monsters seem to be attacking in a directed pattern and our PC's laser rifles are set not to blow holds in the station's walls or floors. So it's been partially a 'cat & mouse' game with these horrors.  Our next objective is the station's engineering & reactor room. 

Read Through & First Impressions of Cepheus Universal: Player's Book By Paul Elliott For The Cepheus Universal Rpg

 So awhile back I picked up the massive Cepheus Universal Rpg rules which clock in at four hundred & forty three pages of the newest incarnation of the Zozer version of the Cepheus Engine. And then I discovered the  Cepheus Universal: Player's Book which gives even more player oprions for PC creation. 

We get term-by-term character creation, 
designed character creation,
random character creation, & 
what skill levels and characteristics really mean. Then we there's even more PC options such as: 

• Secret agendas for characters
• Career load outs
• Random name lists
• Combat and game rules
• Full equipment lists
• Point buy psionics, cybernetics and retrogenics
• Group creation suggestion
• Gadgeteering rules
  And this adds a far more nuianced feeling to the ten minute PC creation. But is this the same rpg system as Zozer Games Hostile Rpg?! 
  Well yes and no, there are definitely Hostile rpg system bones within Cepheus Universal but the system is far more designed & written for expanded 2d6 Science Fictional rpg campaigning. And the Player's Book adds to this by do a very decent job of boiling down some of the Cepheus Universal systems into a more player oriented book. This supplement makes the game more player based and easier to use in my opinion. Is it necessary?! For me as a DM? Oh yes! 
  
  
  
  Because the Player's Book adds in both optional PC systems & makes the existing material so much easier to digest for PC creation. There are more PC system  options making PC creation a breeze. And Cepheus Universal is easily used with other Cepheus Engine rpg systems so existing 2d6 campaign setting are a snap to use with this book
  As a companion supplement the  Cepheus Universal: Player's Book works very solidly to serve as both bridge point & player's guide to this incarnation of the Cepheus Engine. All in all very satified with my newest 2d6 supplement addition. 

The Next Frontier By Joseph Mohr & The Clement Sector Rpg Session Report - Wolf Attack - Session Report

 "After a long and grueling mission the travelers are relaxing at a star port tavern when they are approached by a grizzled old veteran of the Sonoran Frontier Scout Service. He is looking for crews for scouting duties beyond the borders of the Sonora sector. These areas beyond the borders are dangerous and unexplored by humans. Humans have certainly visited the edges of these sectors but none have fully been explored. In fact...most of these sectors have barely been touched by human visitors. As the human race expands outward into the stars the need for knowledge of these frontiers places becomes more imperative." 

"The Frontier Scout Service has scouted many such places. But in recent years the strain on the service’s resources has become apparent. Too many of their scouts have perished in this outer rim of the galaxy. Many scouts have gone into the wildest places of the adjacent sectors and have not returned. No trace has been recovered of most of these expeditions.

The Frontier Scout Service needs a brave team to make a survey of the nearby sub-sector which the Frontier Scout Service has designated Galakodana" 

I had a spur of the moment Clement Sector rpg session & we had already completed our first leg of the campaign already. The PC's were swept away by the money that the grizzled old veteran of the Clement  Frontier Scout Service. The Next Frontier By Jospeh Mohr is well done & well written. The Next Frontier can easily be adapted to any 2d6 Rpg Science Fiction. Note that 'aliens' in our Clement sector games are actually uplifted or modified humans who were sent on exploritory missions during the days of wormhole. The Clement sector has lost communication with this region of space. 
The PC's signed onto the patronage of Scout Charles Anderson whose service to the Clement Frontier Scout Service has been done with solid references. Those references were checked & they began in earnest. The party began to note the number of dangerous hyperspacial and subspace anomolies which played merry havoc with some of thier drives. The party made for a ball of ice & it was a pock marked Hellscape called Tormazonia. We made contact with the lizard like humanoid  Ginuk who had a small Science resarch outpost on this icy world. 

The biggest question was why?! The PC's began looking at everything about Tormazonia. And found out that the little world has naturally occuring cold fusion & this got the PC's excited. 
Everything was going well until some uplifted pirates showed up! And of course it's Wolf time thanks to Ian Stead's artwork. 

The edges of the Clement Sector map are slowly being reclaimed from the Blackness in our campaign. These areas are being claimed back by the Scout Service and the Cascadia Colonization Authority which keeps close tabs on the Scouts.. 

Violent Mechanisms of the Second American Civil War - Cities Without Number & Zozer Games Earth Sourcebook for The Hostile Rpg

 What if the newest face of the American Civil War wasn't what everyone thinks it's about?! This is the question that I asked myself when I was reading through Cities Without Number and Zozer Games Earth setting book by Paul Elliot for the Hostile Rpg 

Earth's setting book has written into her timeline the American Civil War II which is not about North Vs South American forces. Instead, it's about the erroiding of individual rights in the face of the mega corporations of Earth. 
One of the flash points for this new American Civil War is the front of Texas which is pretty much in the cross hairs of the mega corporations over stepping thier bounds onto states rights. 
Cities Without Number has something similar with the mega corporations overstepping thier bounds much earlier and then things kick off. 
This isn't the start of the new Civil War but instead merely a series of brushfire wars that leads into the situation becoming much worse later on. 
Texas becomes the Casablanca of the West where agents, corporate forces, state armies, the American Police forces, and the operators all meet. 
Because of the fact that Cities Without Numbers uses the Cepheus Engine skill system as it's base. We've got a readily available campaign setting that we can port over. 

What would a cyberpunk style second American Civil War look like? The Civil War  would be a series of brush fire conflicts, terrororist actions, and pitched battles set together with operator parties, brutal Cold War style esponisage, high tech gadgets, and more. 

 What if I told you that the actual cause of the conflict was something far different?! Suppose that Earth actually harbors sinister alien intelligences. And these alien intelligences are totally unseen. Far fetched?! Not really in a world where evil clones & androids are hunted down there's plenty of room for rogue A.I.'s . The Kosmo's 60's blog has an entry on 'Violent Mechanisms,' which are exactly as they sound rogue murderous retrofuturistic A.I.'s. Russia and America of the Earth sourcebook used to be partners in space exploration. That partnership dissolved under unknown circumstances. What if the A.I.'s sewed the seeds of distrust?! An accident here, an untraceable murder there, and the break down of an international partnership. 
Now imagine if a few of those rogue A.I.'s wanted to set the mega corporations & the pesky humans of the United States at each other's throats. A few well timed disasters and infrastructure breakdowns with the mega corporation's finger prints on them?! The perfect cover for an A.I. implied American Civil War II & a bleeding ground for violent experimentation under the fog of war. 

Tides In The Void - The Red Room's Orbital Decay & Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers - Session Report

 Over the weeekend, I got a chance to play in DM Paul's Colonial Troopers/Orbital Decay . This is a pick up on a gam that we played back in Febuary. Here's the session report from that on game!  Here we find ourselves back in the Orrt Cloud investigating Science station that's gone off line. 

We had a mixed party of adventurers who had been in the service. I however was playing a pure colonial trooper mercenary with a wealthy patron who was bank rolling my armor. We had a mixed party of mercenaries, explorers, and spacers. We dived closer to the Eclipse station D.E.E.P. asteroid monitoring & Science station. 
 The station was a complete mess when we got there. Solar arrays and power was fragmented across the top of the station. Not good. 

We were working for the American Federation and things were going from bad to worse. Power was completely off in the station. So we had to connect power from our ship. We did the manual locks and our fourth level psionic psionic and engineer scanned the place. 
The impressions weren't good at all. And as we entered we found body parts floating in the void of the station. We got the computer back on line and found out that the Science station had taken on an artifact of unknown origin. And then all Hell broke loose. 

Karl my character came in and started scanning the outer interior of the of the Science station. Immediately, I was attacked by two nasty alien things. Thier claws were acid edged. And I quickly brought my laser pistol to bare. The thing had been programmed so that I didn't blow a hole in the station. 
Packing deeper into the station I found two of the scientists partially phased into the wall. This was bad news. 
Matt our engineer joined me and threw up a psychic shield just as one of the monsters launched himself at our party. Scott our spacer threw two multi dimensional foam grenades!  And really screwed with the phasing abilities of the aliens. The aliens were stuck for the moment. 
Communication seemed to be off the table. And we really wanted to save the station if possible. More to come. 

OSR Commentary - The Original Dungeons & Dragons Threat of The Warriors of Pan Tang

 “. Now he asked: “And who is this mighty sorcerer, Master Pilarmo?” “His name is Theleb K’aarna,” Pilarmo answered nervously. Elric’s scarlet eyes narrowed. “The sorcerer of Pan Tang?” “Aye—he comes from that island.” Elric put his cup down upon the table and rose, fingering his blade of black iron, the runesword Stormbringer. He said with conviction: “I will help you, gentlemen.” He had made up his mind not to rob them, after all. A new and more important plan was forming in his brain. Theleb K’aarna, he thought. So you have made Bakshaan your bolt-hole, eh?”
― Michael Moorcock, Elric: The Stealer of Souls

I've covered my interactions with the Stormbringer rpg's version of the Pan Tangians on this blog back in 2020  here. In the 80's I had a Games Workshop Pan Tangian Chaos army including tigers and more. My love of the Pan Tangians stretches back too original Dungeons & Dragons Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demigods, and Heroes's Michael Moorcock Elric Mythos. The Pan Tangian warriors of OD&D are deadly; "PAN TANG WARRIORS Move etc. as men An army of fighters all able to fight with the ability of a 10th level fighter. These humans never check moral and ride a 6 legged reptile which stands 15 feet tall and moves 20" per turn." What made them deadly was two fold, one is that these warriors could show up anywhere and they were deadly tenth level fighters! 

During the Eighties in my uncle's original Dungeons & Dragons game campaigns we crossed swords with the Pan Tangians numerous times. And died at least three or more times. 

And one of the things that made the Pan Tangian armies so deadly was thier trained and Chaos tainted tigers. These tigers were always accompanying the warriors of Pan Tang; " FIGHTING TIGERS OF TANG Armor Class — 4 Fighter Ability: As Tigers Move: 19" Psionic Ability: Class 6 Hit Points These are 10 feet tall tigers able to bite for 4 (8-sided) dice of damage and claw for 3 (8-sided). They always appear beside the Pan Tang warriors, one to a mount."  My uncle's own 15 MM Pan Tangian army was our adventurer's bane through out or campaign and beyond. It wasn't until the 90's that we learnt that it was actually a Pan Tangian agent with his own private army of mercenaries who dogged our heels. In fact, in part three of   'The Madcap Laughs' were introduced to a hunch backed Pan Tangian sorcerer Ylastraraa Taar who has an agenda all of his own for the PC's. This NPC managed to survive the events of 'The Madcap Laughs' & then plague the PC's for more then a year of play.

That twisted little S.O.B. followed us from the Young Kingdoms to Greyhawk then across the Million Spheres! That slight could be traced back to our original Dungeons & Dragons Greyhawk folio campaign when we were doing guard duty for a trade caravan to Pan Tang.. That's right one NPC dogged our party for a whole two  year span from '89 through '91.  

OSR Commentary - Further Readings Into Raiders of The Lost Artifacts Rpg By Night Owl Workshop

 Over the last two days, I've been incredibly busy with work and familial stuff. However, I did manage to pull in a discussion with another friend of mine about Raiders of the Lost Artifacts rpg by Night Owl Workshop. I've used RoA as a game and campaign fller for Wretched Interbellum in the past especially with the Scientist class being able to be used a stand in for a mage. 

 And using Raiders for filling in PC classes is especially handy. The OSR library site has a ton of new classes for RoA  that David Baymiller did.    These are perfect to add into a party going on exploring jaunts. This means that the party is far more or less modernly handled. 
So whose actually maintaining the traps and ancient ruins?! The short answer is cults are and this is because these dungeons & ruins are psychic batteries of occult power and misery that the optional occultist class channels into thier machinations. Cults using thier sacred ruins & dungeons gain the ability to charm & influence once every new moon. 
The occultist when casting ritual magic within the dungeon or ruin casts at one level higher. Traps and tricks within a dungeon or ruin are there to further the pot of supernatural power. This power allows the occultists to have access to more dangerous rituals that might seem outta of reach. Magick and the supernatural is all about power and domination. 
For our own game campaigns, dungeons & ruins allow occultists to have access to the Beyond. The Beyond comes from the Wretched Rpg and allows the occultist to have access to the power hungry entities. Entities who want to cut deals and further thier own agendas. 
The Beyond comes with it's own agenda however and the supernatural energies of that universe are terryifying unto themselves. Those exposed to & channeling the occult energies are subject to horrific mutations. 
And at higher levels within our games occultists can become quisi demonic lords immune to many mundane & physical hazards. The price for these immunies is high as the occultist becomes more and more a creature of the Beyond. They slip further and further away from our own dimensions. 

Between The Cracks Of Reality Campaign Set Up - Wretched Interbellum & The RPG Pundit Files The Invisible College: 1930's Campaign

 So over the last couple of months I've gotten to play in a friend's Wretched Interbellum rpg game and he's thrown in some bits and pieces of  RPG Pundit's Invisible College. Because the Red Room is having a special promotion on The Rpg Pundit Files: The Invisible College, there's a huge discount on the Wretched Interbellum campaign setting; "This is the largest Pundit Files yet at 24 pages. And the cost is still $3.50! Also, when you buy this issue, you can use the promo code invisiblecollege for a 50% discount on the purchase of Wretched Interbellum, the Wretched setting that covers the 1930s. That’s a $6.50 discount on a 390 page setting book for a $3.50 purchase!"

The 1930's were marked by an increase in occult activity & Wretched Interbellum reflects this. The psychic fall out from WWI has put millions of restless dead into the supernatural ether.  hits on the fact that the Invisible CollleThe RPG Pundit Files The Invisible College: 1930's Campaign's occult and supernatural secret societies are struggling to keep up with the demands of the 1930's. We as DM's and players get a plethora of snap shots and details on how these occult and supernatural sects react as the years go by. 
These details can be worked into a Wretched Interbellum campaign easily. The factions of the Invisible College are going to butt heads and clash with the factions of the Wretched Interbellum even if they are fronts for other Invisible College factions. A war would be happening on two fronts the battles of Pre WWII and the occult clashes behind the scenes. In our Wretched campaign, Wretched Interbellum's Europe has been invaded by the Greys. And the Invisible College is aware of the invasion! 
The first tenative steps to this happened in 1917  because of Aliester Crowley's the "Amalantrah Workings," According to the Grey's Wiki entry; "As early as 1917, the occultist Aleister Crowley described a meeting with a "preternatural entity" named Lam that was similar in appearance to a modern Grey. Crowley believed he had contacted the entity through a process that he called the "Amalantrah Workings," which he thought allowed humans to contact beings from outer space and across dimensions. Other occultists and ufologists, many of whom have retroactively linked Lam to later Grey encounters, have since described their own visitations from him, with one describing the being as a "cold, computer-like intelligence," and utterly beyond human comprehension"  This contact allowed the Lam to punch holes into our reality from the Beyond. 
 The Greys are on the expansion train again and using cults to build gateways that allow them appear in New York and Europe. New York is on a 'slow kill breeding & expansion'  program. LAM are opening gateways into apartments and buildings then snatching people. The LAM are using a black liquid evolutionary accelerant virus that rewrites the victims genetic material. This process hollows out the victim's body allowing a 'feral LAM' to be born. Feral LAM are monsters of pure instinct and hunger with sharp claws and teeth. Any meat or protein is used to fuel the evolutionary change into the far more logical LAM form. The LAM have been expanding operations in major cities in America and Europe because almost no one has noticed. Anyone exposed to the accelerant virus must make a disease save or contract the LAM genetic material that will overwrite thier own material allowing the hatching of feral monster killing the host. 

Only by using a variation of the Banishing rite page 106 can one banish and close the psychic door of the LAM. This will force the entities back to the Beyond and they as well as thier works will evaporate. There is a breeding hive in Midtown Manhatten that has become ground zero for the LAM. 
Cults actively capture any 'feral Lam' that they come across and then secret them into facilities in the wilds of New York state and New England. A process repeated across Europe. 
The Machitore are monitoring the situation and watching with cold logical detactment.  Thier agents have been getting a bit close to the action and two or three have already been killed. 

The Invisible College's agents approach the PC's or are actively are part of the party. This means that the PC's are going to be stretched thin. 
The Adventurer's Club is being pushed to get involved The AC's occultist are pulling back and making adjustments with thier own adventurers. Note that the AC is very active during the Wretched Interbellum period. They work with the Invisible College from time to time. The AC knows that something is up with the Black Lodge but not what?! 
The Black Lodge lost a ton of ground & resources during World War I and have been acively canvasing to get back ground. 
The Black Lodge is trying to push further support to the German Nazi party. The Black Lodge believes that Hitler & co. are going to be easily controlled. The Thule society and the Vril oganization have contacted the LAM. They believe that they can make covenants with the LAM not knowing the true danger of these creatures. The LAM continue to fuel the German's Vril and Thule laced dreams. The rest of the Earth has no idea of the true danger that they are in. 

Colonies On A Needle's Head Among The Clouds - - The Oort Cloud & The Hostile Rpg - Campaign Setting Update

 A while back, I talked about using the Oort Cloud section of our outer solar system as an exploitable resource for the Hostile rpg. A place of ship sized asteriods & comet points just outside of Neptune on the blog here. 

The Orrt Cloud would be the perfect point for a starship building yard and it could potentially be the point to drop off some alien ruins onto it. And it this place would be a dynamic zone for both explorers and miners in the Hostile universe. And while the majority of the 2 million dollar bonus for any concrete information leading to any evidence for alien life forms would be bunk from the corportations.The drive for getting that bonus would be the continued expansion into the the Kuiper belt, for the establishment of facilities for faster processing of materials and starship manufacturing. 
The very nature of the beltways are going to be a source of frustration and expansion of mankind into the belt. The lure of the belt would be a 'moth to flame' for the corporations. Easily accessible resources and the potential for exploitable employment of those resources. The bonus for explorers stands at thirty thousand credits for new claims on resources. Gettting to spend it is another matter entirely. 

Would the combination though turn out to be deadly for those exploring and cataloging the mountain sized spinning points of death? 
To a certain extent the answer is yes. The very nature of the Rpg Hostile makes this a certainity. And this also would drive forward the point of establishing colonies among the worlds of the Oort Cloud. 

The gold rush of the Oort Cloud is the fact that comets and the like are readily exploitable for fuel materials for interstellar craft. And given the proxcimity of the cloud to major hyperspace points the potential is there for serious expansion. 
There are rumors of a possible colony or two that has been lost among the cloud during the beginning of the Second Recession according to the Hostile timeline but these remain rumors. These rumors also tell about huge strikes of nickel and other resources supporting such a colony. They remain the floss of roughnecks and spacers. 
The truth is much more darker and mundane, colonies among the Oort Cloud are established as both exploitable and temperory affairs. Minining colonies that can be packed up and moved where needed. Permenant settlements come with the striking of usuable material. Many of the mining colonies are moved as needed moving miners and families all. The corporations are exploiting the people as much as the resources. 
There have been several combinations of metals and materials that have not been found anywhere else in space given the unique nature of the Oort Cloud and it's tumbling resources. Add to this exotic nature of such materials and the value of the Cloud becomes quite clear. 

Stick Em In Isolation - SuperMax By Michael Allen Straus & Warriors of the Red Planet

 Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg has some of my favorite monsters and my players over the years have come to really hate them. A few of them have through various adventures ended up on other realities due to the machinations of the player's PC's actions. One of these NPC monsters was the Egg of Crepsys and this particular Egg was known as the Horror of the  Blackmoor Plains.  

'The Horrors of The Blackmoor Planes' was whisked away to another reality by a magical artifact and that was the end of the Horror. Except it wasn't quite, the 'Horror' appeared in a recent Wretched Vigilante rpg session being the brains and power behind a powerful gang of mercenaries. The Egg escaped only to be captured by authorities and taken away. These WoR Rpg exist on a Martian heavy alternative timeline. 
And that was the last that player's heard except it wasn't. The Horror was taken away to Area 23 which is the deepest hole you can find for evil and nasty cosmic entities. A few other NPC monsters there include an Anthipode named Princess Zonn who almost killed three of our player's PC's. And Dark Eyes named Sarah Anderson who assumed the persona of a woman that it killed from a human colony. Ms. Anderson believes she is the colonist even though the Dark Eyes controls anyone she meets. All of these ended up in Area 23 along with some of the other 'special guests' that have been making their way into the campaign's Supermaxes. 

SuperMax By Michael Allen Straus has all of the guidelines needed to make a Supermax of your own. And since I've got NPC monsters and aliens these are going to get a work out in our current campaign. Supermax is very well done. 

Supermax has everything you as the DM needs to create their own prison for 'special cases' and these prisons are great for introducing powerful or dangerous NPC's. I'm also going to be sticking a bunch of Cha'alt NPC's into the mix as well. 

Outlaw Hunt - Cities Without Number, Stars Without Number, & Trey Causey's Strange Stars Rpg - Session Report- Mirrors By Joseph Mohr

 "While in star port, between missions, the travelers hear the news about a spectacular crime that too place recently in the Sonora sector. Daring thieves robbed a hover train and got away with more than MCR 3 worth of gold bullion. The thieves were masked and got away according the news reports."

"While in port the travelers are contacted by Major Bartholomew Rodríguez of the Sonoran Interstellar Police. He is interested in hiring the travelers for a little freelance job. The Sonoran Police have determined that the robbers fled the world to a system on the edge of the Sonora sector called Guirion. He needs someone to visit the planet Guirion and find the thieves."

"Apparently there was an eye witness to the event who saw one of the thieves unmasked. He gave a detailed description which was used to make a composite drawing of the thief."

"This world is technically not within Sonoran space but is in the nearby unexplored sector. As such the Sonoran Police have no authority on that world. What he needs is someone who is not employed, directly, by the Sonoran Interstellar Police to find the thieves and bring them to justice in the Sonora sector"
The PC's find themselves in the middle of an operation of the interstellar police! The events of the Starmart affair puts the players into the sights of the interstellar police. The PC's find themselves face to face with an undercover  Major Bartholomew Rodríguez of the Interstellar Police. We played Mirrors By Joseph Mohr like a Noir Strange Stars adventures. 

We sat down with Major Bartholomew Rodriguez  and he gave us the skinny on Guiron. And it wasn't what we were expecting but a major world outside of the sector main hyperspace gateways. Our party crunched the numbers and something didn't add up. We called in a Ibglibdishpan Humanoid biocomputers councillor to take a look into the population. We've used this guy in the past. 
Guiron is far more advanced technologically then the time of the world would allow. The PC's began uncovering the fact that there have been alien intervention on the genetics and adjustment of the population of Guiron. 

We met with the local authorities and they highly cooperative but a bit evasive. There was something off about the robbery?! It was highly profession and very well excacuted. And our group thinks it might have been a very well orcastrated governmental operation. This came about from a recreation that we did in private VR space after feeding in all of the operations. 
We back tracked several Suns of Gold style trade ships that came to Guiron in the past several months. We're going to talk with the captains of these ships coming up next week. 

OSR Commentary On Gunboats and Shuttles By Paul Elliot For the Hostile Rpg

 We had a very low key Easter with my folks & over the holiday I've been thinking about the Hostile Rpg. Specifically the Gunboats & Shuttles supplement which includes a pasiche of smaller ships that make up the universe of Hostile. 

Who cares? Well, these are the ships that PC's are going to see day to day working on a corporate colony world. And these are also the ships that are going to be saving the behinds of the PC's. This is especially true of the mercenaries and adventurers. Because these ships are the backbone of any army or force within the Hostile universe. And they are vital on so many fronts from transporation to resupply these ships make up the vital points of the infrastructure chain within a colony or fighting force. 
These ships might also be the only vital link that a colony has to it's resupply ships. 
To say that this is a vital Hostile book is an understatement. Ian Stead one of the artists and illuminataries behind Hostile posted one of my favorite ships from Gunboats & Shuttles on Twitter erm 'X'. 

The Starlifter remains a party favorite and if it looks like it came out of Space 1999. There are reasons for that and that's because this is a boat with mission specific capable cargo inserts. Need a Science mission specific profile cargo insert with a laboratory built in?! The Starlifter has you covered. Right after that your colony needs cargo lifted to the next outreach colony on another world?! The Starlifter has you covered. 
And this goes on and on with this starship/shuttle which is a workhorse and ongoing round about of a craft. 
And I've dropped these seemlessly into our Clement/Earth sector campaigns as well. These ships and gunboats hit the spot to drop into a campaign. For Hostile the high tech level colonies manufacture thier own Starlifters with tonnes of variations available to them. 
The Starlifter is beloved by our players in Hostile rpg because these ships are used by our Russian mercenaries the September Group. And they've saved our guys countless times with shuttles being named after the Russian mythological gods. Our mercenaries have several variatants of the Starlifter that are manufatured exclusively for them. 
Why is the Starlifer beloved?! Because the ship is reliable, tough, and has so many verstile profiles and roles.