A Deep Dive Into Nightshift: VTSW (Veterans of the Supernatural Wars) Rpg By Jason Vey & Timothy Brannan

 

Nightshift: VTSW (Veterans of the Supernatural Wars) is a love letter to the gritty, urban fantasy horror of the 80s and 90s. If you grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, or Supernatural, or if you spent your nights playing the classic World of Darkness, this game is aimed squarely at your nostalgia.

It’s designed by Jason Vey and published by Elf Lair Games. Here is the breakdown of what makes it tick.

---

1. The Vibe: "Blue Collar" Horror

Unlike some games where you play as demi-gods, Nightshift focuses on the Chosen, the Tainted, or just the brave and unlucky. You are the people who see the things that go bump in the night and decide to bump back—usually with a silver-loaded shotgun or an ancient incantation.

The setting is modular. It can be:

• Grim and Gritty: Street-level monster hunting.

• Cinematic: High-action, "Big Bad of the week" style.

• Splatter: Over-the-top gore and horror.

2. The Mechanics: OSR Meets Modern

The game is built on an OSR (Old School Renaissance) skeleton, specifically the SIEGE Engine (similar to Castles & Crusades). It feels familiar if you've played older versions of D&D, but it’s heavily modified for a modern setting.

• Classes: You have archetypes like the Veteran (combat specialist), the Survivor (tough and resourceful), the Occultist (magic users), and the Supernatural (vampires, werewolves, or ghosts who fight for the good guys).

• The Check System: Most things are resolved with a d20 roll against a target number, modified by your attributes.

• Compatibility: Because it’s OSR-adjacent, it is incredibly easy to kitbash. You can pull monsters or spells from almost any 1e/2e or BX-style game and drop them in with minimal math.

3. Character Roles (Archetypes)

The game uses a "Class and Level" system, but the classes represent your role in the hidden war:

Archetype	Description
The Chosen	Destined heroes with supernatural luck or divine backing.
The Inquisitor	Experts at finding the truth and exposing the dark.
The Teche	Modern wizards who use gadgets and hacking to fight spirits.
The Witch	Traditional spellcasters dealing with spirits and rituals.
The Warlock	Those who have made "deals" for their power.

---

4. Why People Like It

• Ease of Use: You can teach the core mechanics in about 15 minutes.

• Versatility: The rulebook includes "Nightmare Levels," which allow the GM to scale the power of the world from "Slightly Spooky" to "Apocalyptic."

• No "Meta-Plot": Unlike World of Darkness, there isn't 30 years of dense lore you have to memorize. You build your own secret world.

A Note on Tone: While the game is "Rules Light," it is "Flavor Heavy." It assumes the players are the underdogs. You aren't the predators; you're the ones keeping the predators at bay.

Character creation in Nightshift: VTSW is designed to be snappy. Since it’s an OSR-style game, it focuses on getting you a functional "Veteran" in about 20 minutes so you can get straight to the monster hunting.

Here is the step-by-step process for building your defender of the night.

---

1. Roll Your Attributes

The game uses the classic six ability scores. You generate these by rolling 3d6 for each (though many GMs allow for a "4d6 drop the lowest" or a point buy if they want the characters to be slightly more "heroic").

• Strength (STR): Physical power and melee.

• Dexterity (DEX): Agility, reflexes, and ranged combat.

• Constitution (CON): Health and stamina.

• Intelligence (INT): Knowledge and logic.

• Wisdom (WIS): Perception, willpower, and intuition.

• Charisma (CHA): Leadership and social influence.

2. Choose Your Archetype (Class)

This is the most important decision. Your Archetype determines your Hit Die, your Combat bonuses, and your Special Abilities.

• The Combatant: The soldier or street brawler. High HP and best hit bonuses.

• The Survivor: The "Final Girl/Guy." They have incredible luck and are hard to kill.

• The Occultist: The scholar of the dark arts. Good at research and rituals.

• The Teche: The modern-day hacker or gadgeteer who uses science against ghosts.

• The Theosophist: The holy warrior or priest (think Father Karras from The Exorcist).

• The Witch/Warlock: Powerful spellcasters who tap into raw, often dangerous, magic.

• The Supernatural: If you want to play a "reformed" Vampire, Werewolf, or Ghost.

3. Select a Life Path (Background)

While your Archetype is what you do now, your Life Path is what you did before the "Supernatural Wars" found you. This provides you with starting skills and flavor.

• Example: A "Law Enforcement" Life Path might give you bonuses to tracking and firearms, regardless of whether you are now a Combatant or a Witch.

4. Calculate Secondary Statistics

Based on your rolls and Archetype, you'll fill in the "crunchy" bits:

• Hit Points (HP): Roll your Archetype’s Hit Die and add your CON modifier.

• Armor Class (AC): Usually starts at 10, modified by DEX and any armor (like a Kevlar vest).

• Saving Throws: These are based on your Archetype’s primary attributes.

5. Skills and Masteries

Nightshift uses a Check system. You have a "Primary Attribute" (based on your class) which makes certain rolls easier. You’ll choose a few areas of expertise—like Occult Lore, Streetwise, or First Aid—that give you a bonus when you're trying to investigate a haunting or patch up a teammate.

6. Gear and "The Van"

You don't start with much, but you start with what's "logical."

• The Veteran's Kit: Usually involves a signature weapon (a silver-plated 9mm, a blessed crowbar, etc.), a flashlight, and a cell phone.

• The Group Resource: Often, the GM will have the group decide on their "Base of Operations" or vehicle during this stage.

---

The "Secret Sauce": The Fate Point

Every character starts with at least one Fate Point. These are your "get out of jail free" cards. You can spend them to:

1. Automatically succeed on a check.

2. Reduce incoming damage.

3. Cheat death for one more round.

Pro-Tip: In Nightshift, your attributes aren't just numbers; they define your Check Target. If you have a Strength of 15, you usually need to roll a 15 or higher on a d20 to succeed at a Strength-based task (modified by the difficulty the GM sets).

Playing For Keeps - 'A Shadowed House' By Paul W. Ehrlich A Pay What You Want Adventure & Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Game - Session Two

"The thing's breath overwhelms your senses as you run blindly through the forest. Suddenly, a house appears out of the rain, its door open like a gaping maw. Gratefully, you enter and the door slams shut behind you.""You may have survived the forest. But can you survive A Shadowed House? "


Tonight's session picks up with the action right from here and this adventure came into DM Steve's possession after a recommendation by me to watch RPG Overview's Review of A Shadowed House.  

 Charging back up from the basement we ended up coming face to face with some of the other ghostly horrors of  A Shadowed House. Our other resident vampire ended up getting impaled with knives, forks, etc. in the kitchen as the haunted house and it's undead residents made mincemeat out of our vampire. A quick turning to mist and some regenerating made our other vampire Vincent Velcro good as new. 
The house had other plans however as one room became a literal whirlwind of terror slicing up my werewolf character Marco like meatloaf. The house did not like our group there and wanted us out. It literally told us so with debris forming the words out!
We were in no mood to put up with the house and it's ghostly inhabitants and were there to save the neighborhood kids who had gone missing. That's when our psychic Claire (Marty our psychic play is playing clones of Claire Voyant an obscure 1940's comic book character of various types in all of our OSR game campaigns). Focused in on the kids in the back bed room. 

So putting up with a bunch of bleeding walls and the house itself trying to make psychic attacks on us. We made our way to bed room and then had to face down one of the houses other inhabitants. She made our life a bit a living Hell but our 'Chosen One' Mickey got into it hot and heavy with the ghost. And managed to banish her for a bit. This allowed us to get the kids out and we ran from the house. We're not done with the house. Just before we left the house attacked our other psychic! The Wickham house was playing for keeps as our psychic was once again attacked. Maggie The All Seeing managed to make her save and really did not like this place one bit. 
We got out of the Wickham house and are regrouping but going back tomorrow night. We've got a vendetta with this place to settle. 

'A Shadowed House' By Paul W. Ehrlich A Pay What You Want Adventure & Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Game - Session Report One

""The thing's breath overwhelms your senses as you run blindly through the forest. Suddenly, a house appears out of the rain, its door open like a gaping maw. Gratefully, you enter and the door slams shut behind you.""You may have survived the forest. But can you survive A Shadowed House? "

So I got a chance to step around the screen and dip my toe into DM Steve's Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars  mini campaign. And we had to carry out a haunted house investigation after the appearance of the legendary Wickham house on October 29th. This adventure came into DM Steve's possession after a recommendation by me to watch RPG Overview's Review of A Shadowed House.  Normally I don't recommend fifth edition but since Nighshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars uses the O.R.G.E. system it's close enough that we can easily run A Shadowed House. 

We forgoed the Fear check rules within A Shadowed House instead using Nighshift rules here. Each of our PC's was a supernatural and able to weather the physical damage. The mental damage was another story as the house tried to take it's toll on on our party. 
The house appeared in the old New York City neighborhood that it originally inhabited & children have disappeared on thier way to a local Halloween party. We were brought in because the police are stretched thin. I'm playing Jim Callahan immortal orginally killed in the war of 1812. The house itself is from the 1900's and looking deeply into it's past we came face to face with a series of murders. Our psychic passed out from the revelations and the house's past victims. Outside of the house we came across three shallow graves recently dug. And the soil was shot through with alien looking maggots. A strange green glow outlined the front door of the house. We decided to investigate. 
 We were able to get passed the front door before the house decided to turn on it's charm. 

The ghosts began to manifest the second we got deep into the living room. And the well organized and lovely atmosphere of the place vanished soon replaced with dangerous cobwebbed interiors. The floor was rotten in several places as our resident werewolf  Adolf found out taking a fall down to the basement. 
The Wickham house was playing for keeps as our psychic was once again attacked. Maggie The All Seeing managed to make her save and really did not like this place one bit. 
And that's when a giant ghostly bear with incredibly deadly glowing eyes reared up out of the gloom of the front hallway. “The thing stalking you finally reveals itself. The creature is a gigantic bear, one of the largest you have ever seen. That in itself is cause for concern. Even worse, your attention is drawn to the thing’s hideous green glowing eyes which stare unblinkingly at you. In the odd, unnatural illumination, maggots worm out of the bear’s skull and fall, writhing, to the earth.” Dick Franklin our supernatural investigator and vampire got clawed and knocked into a side wall. The thing tried to behead my PC with little effort but I made my Dex check easily. 
We dived into the basement hole and escaped the ghostly bears wraith. And saw the glowing skull's half rotten ectoplasmic muzzle lear into the hole we just fellow down. Scrambling we hid around the basement as the ghostly horror faded away. We ended here as we started to take stock of ourselves and the party. 

The Trap Is Sprung The Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Rpg With the Red Room's Seven Sisters of Sin Session Report & Items on Order - Night Shift: VSW GM Toolkit and Basic Rules By Jason Vey For The Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg

 So over the weekend including today there was a lot of talk about Nightshift The Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg. After slaying  several of Count Orlock's spawn the players have decided to close in on the American lair in New York City. And that didn't go well as they found a false lair & several really nasty vampire wild spawn. And things went from bad to worse because of the fact that these things used mist forms and tactics to block any avenues of escape for the party. This is session picks right up from here. 

For this group of nasties in tonight's game I grabbed a copy of Bradley K. McDevitt's 

Clipart Critters 300- Vampire Blonde for tonight's game. 

The creep factor came in when the party realized that the vampire's hair & flesh was morphing to that classic Nosforeau rat look as they kept up the melee. And then the party kept hairing the walls filled with plague infected  vicious rodents of unusual size. 
The party had been set up by their street informant today. And was only able to get out of the dockside warehouse with a demon  teleportation scroll. 

And that scroll's demon demanded two pints of blood & a story from the PC's. The little demonic twit wasn't something the players were expecting. They were expecting the usual D&D  teleportation spell. 
Well, buying a teleport spell at the orge market from a back alley vendor in Brooklyn had unintended consquences. They now have a mouthy demonic tag along who might help them. 

They'd love to find the orge street mage who sold it too them. For that guy I used 

Clipart Critters 110 - Pierced Thug again by Brad McDevitt. The pierced thug is actually Mesopatamian summoner whose now tailing the party for his own reasons. 

The party is now looking to hook up with a member of the order of nuns from the Red Room's Seven Sisters of Sin. The party is completely unaware of the order's tangled reputation among certain occult circles. And let's not mention the fact that the party still has to deal with Mr.Hyde. 
And this doesn't even start the fact that the party burnt down the dockside warehouse before teleporting out of there. Now since Nightshift seems to be one of our working campaigns. I've opted to ordering the 

Night Shift: VSW GM Toolkit and Basic Rules as a physcal tome. 

There are several reasons for this, at the table top level we have to have a good DM screen. The various  tables are perfect for when I need a quick fix for an NPC. And finally I need a good  place to roll some dice behind said screen. 

What we want to do is expand into the rest of New England  coming up for the Winter campaign season! 

Is Doctor Mabuse In -- The Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Rpg With The Orpheum Lofts By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchexploitation & The Wretched Époque rpg Session Two

 "Countess Dusy Told: I have learned of something that until recently I didn't believe, that there still apparently exists in this world something more valuable and more deeply moving than the strongest thrill. Love , , ,

"Dr. Mabuse: There is no love. There is only desire! There is no happiness. There is only the will to power!"
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler 1922

Dr. Mabuse is an arch criminal of the highest order and the party ran across him in last night's game. 1970's New York City is the perfect atmosphere for the good doctor ecomomic instability, poverty, a fuel shortage, and a rolocking criminal underworld. 

The PC's have been stumbling about New York City's underworld & heard about the 'Club 17+4' an underground gambling den run by a criminal syndicate. The 'Club 17+4' is actually the haven for a particularly nasty supernatural entity known as Doctor Mabuse the Gambler an arch fiend & criminal underworld mastermind. 

The party is trying gain information on an underground artifact & relic black market that happens every Fall in New York. Things went from bad to worse as they began losing money at the table top due to baddice  rolls. 

Mabuse is a 6th level immortal (he lost his original body ages ago), 7th level gadgeteer,  & a 3rd level demonic entity out of the Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Companion.  Marbuse is sizing up the party through one of his human suits. Mabuse worked with Mr.Hyde during the end of WWII in Germany destorying the last parts of the Nazi machine. 

Mabuse gave the party an assignment to settle the gambling debt instead of having his vampire bodyguards take it out of thier hides or so he believes. The party thinks they can take the good Doctor but are going along. The Von Lang the witch that Mabuse has working for him is actually a member of the covens of The Orpheum Lofts By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs. 

Mabuse has an assignment for them, he wants them to recover an artifact from a medical center across town a rundown old hospital,The Ernest Spencer Memorial. Which is where Hyde is operating out of with help from his witch coven allies. There have been a series of ritual murders of home  which have attracted the attention of the police.  Hyde & Mabuse are  going to pin these murders on the party. 

Mabuse came straight out of the 1922 silent film by Fritz Lang Dr. Mabuse and according to the Wiki entry here; "Dr. Mabuse is a master of disguise and telepathic hypnosis known to employ body transference, most often through demonic possession, but sometimes utilizing object technologies such as television or phonograph machines, to build a "society of crime". Mabuse rarely commits his crimes in person, instead operating primarily through a network of agents enacting his schemes. Mabuse's agents range from career criminals working for him, to innocents blackmailed or hypnotized into cooperation, to dupes manipulated so successfully that they do not realize that they are doing exactly what Mabuse planned for them to do.

"Mabuse's identity often changes; one "Dr. Mabuse" may be defeated and sent to an asylum, jail or the grave, only for a new "Dr. Mabuse" to later appear, as depicted in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse."

The party has faced down Mabuse before going back about three years ago when they ran across another Dr.Mabuse who was in league with a necromancer stealing the secrets of the of dead. And these events go back to the first Victorious rpg game we played.

They destroyed that one but never learned the arch criminal behind the black magick goings on. Here we have a much more hands on approach. But will the PC's survive the wilderness of the New York City underworld?! 

Blood of Count Orlok - The Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Rpg With The Orpheum Lofts By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchexploitation & The Wretched Époque rpg Session Report Two

' Wait, young man. You can't escape destiny by running away ..'

This blog entry will pick right up from here. One of our players very much undecided about what he wanted to play in our current  Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars campaign. Paul's PC Jacob Hutter  awoke from a nightmare covered in rats with two small puncture marks on his neck. Jacob Hutter has no memory of how he got in the abandoned apartment in Brooklyn at 9:00 PM at night. What he does know is that his throat is so incredibly thirsty. 

He knows that his friends are looking for him after he was kidnapped by the strange carriage in the middle of Central Park by the driver with the fiery eyes back in '73. Jacob Hutter looks at himself in a nearby puddle no charming, suave seducer is he. With his bald head, bushy eyebrows, rat-like teeth, pointed ears, nails as long as the fingers they are attached to, emaciated build, and stare that seems to come from the bottom of Hell itself. What happened to the 20 year old college student?! 

Jacob remembers signing a contract with a creature straight from nightmare itself but the rest of the following months have been a blurr. He remembers so many terrible deeds and violent fights with so many monsters. Before being found by his current crew. 

But it was when Jacob tackled that supposed business woman from Harlem that was trying to drain Chrissie that thing had gone sideways. Her head detached itself from her body and fed off of Jacob instead. And Jacob had fled into the night and he was now dreaming of his former master Count Orlok. Orlock who offered to help Jacob fight the supernatural by becoming one of them. Orlok who was trying to establish a foot hold in New York city by unleashing an undead  plague & a horde of rats upon the city to cover his activities. Orlok who sent Jacob to take on his rival. 

Jacob has deep connections to a woman with whom he dated in his mortal life a student at The Orpheum Lofts. He has no idea that she sold him out to her coven nor that Jacob was a bargaining chip between Orlok & the Orpheum Lofts sinister powers. 

Jacob Hutter has gone from being a helpless college student to an instrument of vengence against a clan particularly nasty clan of Penanggalan. When Jacob's crew found him in '74 he was more animal then man or monster. It took lots of time get him back to something resmembling even a normal vampire. 

So what the Hell's going on here?! Going back to our Victorious rpg game 5 years we needed a rival for the NPC Dracula within our campaign and who better then Count Orlok?! Orlok is a force of nature within the silent film Nosferatu. In Seventies New York City Orlok is  a disease vector. And so he fits right in with the Wretchploitation rpg ideals. Orlok is a major NPC player & faction leader within our Nightshift campaign. And the players hate him with a passion. Everytime some minor threat pops up that involves a vampire their quick to blame him. 

The fact is that Jacob is Paul's PC and Orlok manupulates him from the sidelines from time to time giving him assignments and tasks which Jacob has little to no memory of. He does this through his hordes of rats that run rampant throughout New York City. 

Is Jacob Hutter a weapon, a supernatural errand boy, toy, a hero, or something much,much, worse?! Time will tell 

The Hyde Caper - The Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Rpg With The Orpheum Lofts By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchexploitation & The Wretched Époque rpg Session Report One

 “All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.”

― Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

We pick right up from our last Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural War Wars rpg blog post.  The party was called in by the United Supernatural States organization as a highly dangerous  inmate in the US government's  ultra security wing of Rikers island has escaped. He or they escaped over a year ago & there have been a wide variety of murders all over New York City. 
 Mr. Hyde has escaped confinement and has gone to ground in New York city. The year is Nineteen Seventy Six & a young doctor Dr.Jekyll is making his way through both the New York City  club scene & the New York college medical scene. Mr.Hyde has assumed his disguise of a young dashing twenty something Dr.Jekyll. Jekyll is  making a name for himself among the rich & famous as a top  upcoming doctor. 

The party picked up Hyde's trail on the dock when a band of cat creatures attacked them. Hyde had made in roads over the last year dealing with the city's supernatural underworld. Mr.Hyde has deep ties from his service in WWII in the criminal occult & supernatural circles. And that's when the party came face to face with a Troll Cat - a hulking combination of semi demonic lycanthrope cat creature & troll. These supernaturals are often employed as muscle by packs of smaller demonic werecats. 
No. Appearing: 1-4 AC: 5 Move: 40 ft. Hit Dice: 8 Special: Immune to mundane weapons Camouflage, Regenerate 1d6 points of damage per round , hurl rocks (50/80 ft range), 2 attacks (claws), bear hug XP Value: 960

The party is now in combat  thick & heavy out on the docks with this pack of 1d20 demonic werecats.

The demonic werecats were made using Night Companion: a Sourcebook for Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Meanwhile Mr.Hyde watches with glee from afar after contacting one of his old cronies from the  Orpheum Lofts

Hyde has taken to Seventies New York City nightlife & the underworld like a fish to water. He's been consolidating his power using some of the random tables found in the Wretchploitation rpg. And basically taking out the criminal competition through murder, extoration, strong arm tactics extra. 

So what the Hell is going on here?! Well there's a lot to unpack frankly, but let's get right to it. Back a couple of years ago my players played in the Victorious rpg's first adventure with Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. And they absolutely hated him as an NPC. So over the years he's appeared again & again as an anti hero, villain, etc. leading up to his uses as a loose cannon asset  in World War Two. 

Back in our WWII mini campaign Mr.Hyde proved to be way too dangerous and the PC's had to hunt him down and he was imprisoned. Over the years he's escaped again & again proving himself all of the more evil &  dangerous. 
And now in Sevenity Six he's after becoming a major player in the New York City underworld. 

The party is destined to meet Mr.Hyde once again in an alternative 2022 but who will survive to meet our heroes then?! Stay tuned kids. 

Using The Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Rpg With The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchexploitation & The Wretched Époque rpg

 

So three weeks ago I dusted off Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg after thumbing through the Red Room's Resort of the Dead after running this adventure with Bloat Games system. Why?! Bloat Games systems should be good enough and it is. But we've had a Veteran's chronicle running in the background for months with the 'Lost In The Eighties! LoFP Carcosa & OSR Actual Play Session - Extension'. Now DM Steve has been rattling his dice about going back to 'the Lost in The Eighties' chronicle because of our game of   The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs today. 

The key part of  running The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs is going to be three fold. One is the fact that 'The Sisters of the Seven Sins 'the Wretched version' is going be jumped up into the early Eighties. And next is to use the Night Companion: a Sourcebook for Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars which has stats for the The N'gathau or the Displines of Pain in the Wretchploitation rpg. These demonic creatures have many names in their cold Hells. The Sisters of the Seven Sins is perfectly suited for running an extended demonic  chronicle in Portugal right at the tail end of 1979 and into the early 80's. And even with PC's with supernatural powers are not going to mean a whole lot against  the Displines of Pain. Even the PC levels are not that far off of a Veteran's game. The Sisters of Seven Sin is a Giallo game adventure & there will be blood, adult themes, and lots more. Does Wretchploitation have anything to offer to the Veterans DM?! 

And in answer to this question?! Yes absolutely it does and this because both Wrechploitation & Veterans OSR rpg systems  are modular in nature. And this allows the DM to use some of the 13 deadly sins PC generation can to be back fitted into the Veterans of the Supernatural rpg PC generation. This  allows  the PC's to be a bit more well round and frankly evil. How is this all going to play out?! I'm not sure as our supernatural PC's are going to have their hands full of the Sisters and their horrors. 

Now I'm no stranger to running controversial rpg campaigns and this one could end in disaster or be a very long running one. The The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs has the potential to last years. And this is only the latest savlo in a campaign that could last years. 

'Menace of From X1 The Isle of Dread ' - Lost In The Eighties! LoFP Carcosa & OSR Actual Play Session - Extension

 Expert  Dungeons & Dragons X1 The Isle of Dread by Dave Cook & Tom Moldvay is a module that we keep coming back to and its been playing on my mind for a long while now. And after watching through Seth Skorkowsky's Isle of Dread review  last night I came upon his idea with the Kopru eggs. This blog entry ties into the Lost In The Eighties! LoFP Carcosa & OSR Actual Play Session - Extension. 

Here we tie X1 onto Carcosa with the isle there. Go and watch the review. But the idea of the last two Kopru are guarding millions of eggs is very compelling & very Lovecraftian. Now let's take the idea that the Kopru empire having once held thousands of worlds within their slimy tentacled grasp. Evolve this idea further & extend it into the modern nights and the Kopru become a major threat to the Earth. 

The Kopru ruins from the TSR archive originally from Darrin Drader for 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons works very well for illutstrating the dangers that these ancient Lovecraftian horrors are to any humanoid life around them. Would the Kopru get along with other Lovecraftian life forms such as the Deep Ones?! No not all in my mind for several reasons. 1. The human population is a major resource for these Lovecraftian races. 2. Both Lovecraftian races are majorly Xenophobic & very terroritial. 3nd These two Lovecraftian races serve completely gods and masters! 

All of this leads into the fact that the Kopru would love to begin spreading their alien influece across the modern world quite easily through enchanted statues, artwork, and artifacts. The Kopru are a huge menace just waiting to hatch upon the modern nights easily. 

The Kopru may have access to planar gateways that extend among the planes & this could easily explain their presence in the modern nights. According to the Greyhawkonline.com wiki in the Kopru history; "Most kopru cities were founded over 3,000 years ago during a period in which their basic food source, a clam mollusk known as the kopura, thrived beneath the southern oceans. The kopru shamans of Demogorgon used their demonic magic to transform the largest kopura into fiendish creatures that produced black pearls the shamans used to work terrible magic. The kopru enslaved sahuagin, locathah, and aquatic elves, occasionally allying with the kuo-toas but warring with the ixitxachitls.

About 2,000 years ago, when the kopru civilization was at its peak, a mysterious disease decimated the kopura, marking the beginning of the koprus' decline. They began to kill and eat their slaves, and in some cases their nobles began to prey on lower-ranking members of their own kind. The kopru city-states went to war with each other.

Around 1,500 years ago a great rebellion of the kopru slaves caused the destruction of most kopru cities. Their leaders were hunted down and killed, and kopru society has been a savage shadow of its former self ever since." 
Could this in point of fact be a part of their alien life cycles where only the fittest survive to guard the next cycle of the Kopru race. And given the fact that perhaps millions of Kopru could  be just about ready to hatch these new menaces could be poised to invade Freisberg! 

And this ties into the fact that Friesberg's supernatural races & PC's serve as a kind of supernatural Earthly immune system. The space craft the PC's faced last session is going to drop them into the Kopru ruins and things about to get interesting.