Review & Commentary On The Clement Sector Core Setting Book For Cepheus Engine & Old School 2d6 Science Fiction rpg's

 John Watt's just sent me the Clement Sector third edition book & its huge as in six hundred & seventy five pages huge of material. And so let's dive right into the back end of the Clement Sector Third Edition. 

Clement Sector just got a huge upgrade & its a beast of a pdf at six hundred & seventy five pages of extended Clement Sector goodness but why?! According to John Watt's info dump its more then a fancy new paint job; "Clement Sector Third Edition will be available at DTRPG and the Independence Games webstore on December 16. If you have purchased the second edition, be on the lookout for a special offer in your email that will allow you to get the new version at very substantial discount.

Folks have been asking me what changes will be in the third edition of Clement Sector and what will be added to it. Along with a lot of clarifications, there are a few changes.

There's no intention to invalidate the existing books and force people to buy new ones. Indeed, we're not trying to pressure you into buying this version. However, if you already own the Clement Sector PDF, we're going to provide you with a rather substantial discount to get this PDF.

Third edition is 673 pages. The second edition was 270 pages.

This is the section from the book on what many of those changes are.

"While we consider this to be the third edition of Clement Sector, there are few changes between the rules of second edition and this one. Here, we will cover those changes.

This volume exists so that all the pertinent information concerning Clement Sector could be found in one volume and would save newcomers to the system and setting from having to purchase multiple books to have an understanding of the setting. Therefore, the first change from the second edition of Clement Sector is that this book contains the entirety of The Clement Sector Core Setting Book, Clement Sector: The Rules, and Ensemble Cast. The advanced space combat rules from Clement Sector: The Rules will now be found in the upcoming third edition of The Anderson and Felix Guide to Naval Architecture.

In addition, this book contains excerpts from several books that we felt would be relevant to the new player. These include the inclusion of two subsectors from Ariel Sector and two subsectors from Tranquility Sector which have appeared in Subsector Sourcebook 5: The Colonies, The Slide, and Unmerciful Frontier: The CCA Sourcebook. This book also contains the Achilles altrant from Tree of Life: Altrants in Clement Sector, uplifted Lions from Wondrous Menagerie: Uplifts in Clement Sector, and the Prisoner career from Diverse Roles. Three vehicles appear here (the American Dreams RetroWheels Grav Cycle, the Croselly Meteor Cruiser, and the FV(G)107 Stoat IFV from 21 Vehicles. The Starlight-class Merchant Vessel is included in this volume which originally appeared in Ships of Clement Sector 4-6: Traders, Scouts, and Small Craft. Information concerning smuggling appears here from Outlaw: Crime in Clement Sector as well as information concerning piracy from Skull and Crossbones: Piracy in Clement Sector. Information concerning visas and the political situation in Clement Sector is taken from Balancing Act: Interstellar Relations in Clement Sector. Information on the history of corporations is taken from Almighty Credit: Corporations in Clement Sector. While we felt it was important to add some of the pertinent information from those books into this one, we think you will still find these books entertaining and useful as well.

The major change in this edition from the second edition of this book is the change from the Characteristic of Social or Social Standing to Charisma. This is something which I have long championed and wanted to do and here, in this version, we have. If you’re using older volumes which use SOC, simply change that reference to CHA. It should be a one-to-one switch in most cases. However, if you have a character that you feel is more charismatic than their SOC would indicate, feel free to modify it to better reflect the character’s charisma. After all, the main reason we’re changing this is because I have always felt that Social Standing really had no place in Clement Sector.

The other change is within the skill listing. First, we have added Draw. This is to continue to lean into the “space Western” feel of Clement Sector that we are hoping to evoke as well as because it is a fun addition. Feel free to add the skill to characters that you and your Referee feel need to have it.

We have removed the skill “Steward” and replaced it with “Chef” and “Etiquette”. Chef, as you might imagine, handles the parts of Steward that once covered cooking and Etiquette handles the parts of Steward which once covered dealing with people and being polite. Adjust your characters accordingly and, if you come across a career track which offers Steward, you are free to pick either Chef or Etiquette.

We have also removed Zero-G and melded this into Survival (Freefall). In a similar vein, we have also moved Vacc Suit and Battle Suit into the overall skill “Suit” with specialties which cover these. Simply convert these skills one-to-one as needed."" 

But is a third edition of the Clement Sector neeeded!!? Well in a word yes! The Clement Sector is a series of rpg products that has evolved over time with their writer & designer's vision. They are indictative of a greater trend in the Cepheus Engine rpg's community. Unlike the normal OSR, the Cepheus Engine community is quite vigious & highly active. Not in a controversal way or a reactionary way but a creative way. The Clement Sector campaign setting has literally evolved over time & consolidated its contents into a usable campaign setting. This is because its writer is highly active in molding it to be complete open & playable as a campaign for 2d6 old school science fiction play. 
Overlooking the third edition of the Clement sector  & reading through the pdf since last night brings a sense of smoothing out a few of the rougher patches. This isn't to say that the book doesn't have room for the DM to drop their own star system or sub sectors into the Clement Sector quite the opposite. The Clement Sector seems to read a bit better as fully realized  & written campaign setting. But there's a wrinkle with the Clement sector; "In 2210, scientists discovered a wormhole allowing travel to the opposite side of the Milky Way galaxy.  Once across, exploration teams discovered worlds far more suited to human habitation than those in star systems nearer to Earth.  Were they terraformed by some unknown race?  Are they just a coincidence in the vast diversity of the universe?

Over the ensuing years humans left Earth and began to colonize these worlds.  Nation-backed colonies.  Corporate colonies.  People who simply no longer felt compelled to remain on Earth.  The best and brightest.

In 2331, the unthinkable happened.  The wormhole collapsed leaving those in Clement Sector cut off from Earth.  Now these new worlds and new civilizations must stand on their own.

The year is 2342.  Adventure awaits!" 

You've got two sectors for the price of one! You've got the Earth sector & you've got the Clement Sector both of which have gone along their mary way as the bloody worm hole collapsed. Both of which have their own campaign setting 'bug a boos'. And this isn't a bad thing. The DM needs to choose where, when, & how they want their campaign to run. 
And third edition of the Clement Sector goes a long way towards making that happen. It smooths out the details, clarifies the rules, brings in new material, & expands upon the possibilities of adding in your own spin on the Clement sector. 

I'm not sure that the Clement Sector oozes a 'Space Western' feel but it certainly oozes a 'last frontier' feel to it. This is a sector that isn't going to be tamed easily and its gonna result in a lot of PC's deaths! So its handy to have a Clement Sector PC sheet.But is Clement Sector worth the money?! Thirty dollars for a soft cover six hundred & seventy five page monster of a book is well worth it in today's rpg market. More over there's enough to run the Clement Sector for years just with the material in this book. 

You Can Grab The Clement Sector third edition book right here. 

OSR Commentary - Defining parameters of Dave Hargrave's Arduin'a Play

 Its been a very busy day today & there hasn't been a ton of time for hobby related stuff until late this afternoon. But talking over Arduin rpg this afternoon with some friends has been interesting to say the least. There's three things that have always appealed to some folks about Arduin. The scope of Arduin as a setting isn't actually all that big. So DM's can scale the adventures to the player's PC's. The fact that power attracts power means that your character is gonna be at the center of the action. Consider the fact that monsters are going to try to eat your face but because of Nexus Gates you could potentially encounter anything. 
  The fact that much of Hargrave's material could be plugged into many of the Seventies &  Eighties Judge's Guild adventures was or is  a huge plus. 

Was the choice to dive into the Dave Hargrave world Arduin worth the price of admission?! To a certain extent the answer is yes. Why?! Because the fact is that any band of adventurers if they survived the uncertainties of life & limb on Arduin can & will come into their own. 
Using a combination of Judges Guild & Arduin material with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition a group of players could potentially end up as royals after a few years of play. This goes back to something that a bunch of us with my uncle's gaming group had noticed. 

Arduin is built to have stuff happening to the player's PC's  with all of its random tables, races, and what not so that campaign play happens. No we're  not talking about 'wild & crazy' events here. We're talking about the type of play that promotes organized domain play of the Arduin variety. As has been said elsewhere on this blog. Dave Hargrave was ahead of the curve of 'fashion' of rpg's by decades. And even with say out saying it. Arduin was created by Dave for the players to make it their own. Even more so then say Greyhawk or other canned world campaign settings. Its this customization through play that's a part of the Arduin legacy. Each DM's Arduin is going to more then slightly different then the others across planet Earth. That's all well & good. Campaign worlds need to be defined not through books of campaign setting lore but through actual table top action & decisions. 

'Its In The DNA' Secrets of the Mutants - Using Cepheus Atom By Omer Golan-Joel From Stellagama Publishing & The Mutant Epoch Rpg In An Epic Interstellar Campaign

 "The bombs fell. Nations wielded varied and monstrous weapons against one another. Fires, clouds of poison, and worse have swept the world. Now only the savage Wastes remain: haunted by mutants, deranged robots, and genegineered monstrosities. But from the fire, heroes and villains rise: tribals, survivors, mutants, all the warped remnants of Humanity. Armed with primitive weapons, pre-Collapse artifacts, and afflicted by strange mutations, they set forth to conquer the wastes, or at least to survive them. By spear and laser, they shall prevail – or die a horrible death."






So lets do a thought excercise tonight with Cepheus Atom By Omer Golan-Joel & William McAusland's Mutant Epoch rpg..  This isn't the first time that I've used the Mutant Epoch rpg as a source book for a post apocalyptic game but this is specific post apocalpytic game campaign setting. This whole thing began with Mr.McAusland posted the following artwork on social media;"

"System Gunboat

So this was painted with acrylics, although I changed the exhaust output in photoshop.

How is this mutant Epoch related?
Well, if you played through ‘Beyond Red Crater’ you’ll know why. There are inhabited orbital, off world and moon colonies in operation in the year 2364 AD and so ‘spacer’ involvement in the lives of your muties on earth is possible."

So what happens if the spacers in question are actually on an exoplanet Earth style world but are not aware of the fall of mankind ala some of the scenarios that we've seen in various classic Traveller rpg modules?! That's where Cepheus Atom By Omer Golan-Joel  comes in.

The PC's are actually young cadets from the moon who awaken from a cash in 'The Ascent' from Mutant Epoch's rpg pay what you want 'one day digs' adventures. 
The cadets are on this exo planet that may or may not be Earth. This adventure situation is something that we've seen in a couple of Star Trek Next Generation episodes. 

If the cadets decide to stay in the wasteland to access the situation in the wasteland then pick up the action with Lilac Towers. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

This adventure location could reveal that this exoplanet might actually be a replica of Earth build for some alien purpose by the mighty Reticulan Empire from TSAO: These Stars Are Ours! by Omer Golan-Joel, Richard Hazlewood, Josh Peters. But now with the empire fallen & the mutants just starting to recover from the Fall of the Empire there is lots of opportunities for the humans to exploit this Earth. The Star Law might have plenty to say when the events of Mutant Epoch's Beyond The Red Crater are revealed.. 

The events that created this might have been lost in the Fall & the humans of the former Rictulan Empire are in the dark as much as the mutants & humies of the wastelands. Cepheus Atom By Omer Golan-Joel  has almost everything eluded to in the Mutant Epoch rpg. But its really These Stars Are Ours  setting that has the deep campaign setting material. 'The Secrets of the Liberty' might be something that the mutants stumble upon within the wastes. This means that mutant PC's might be valuable resources for the humans of Terran Borderlands. 

Mutants might be an exploitable trade commodity within themselves, their genetic data & their abilities are perfect templates for all kinds of products, military applications, & much more. 

Remember your only limited by the universe that you choose to exploit as the dungeon master with the Cepheus Engine rpg . This exoplanet may have a very different destiny in the interstellar scene.. There are literally thousands of worlds that may have been affected by the Fall of the Reticulan masters.

Retrocommentary On The Free Skywald Comics Download - 'The Saga Of The Victims' Your Old School Alternative 1970's Rpg Campaigns

 

Grab It Right Over

HERE

• 

 "The Saga of the Victims" originally appeared Scream 6-9 & 11 
from the 1970's Skywald publishing company. Skywald never really played it 'safe' skirting
 the lines of good taste, horror, and pure grind house awesomeness.  According to wiki - 

Skywald Publications was a 1970s publisher of black-and-white comics magazines, primarily the horror anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. It also published a small line of comic books and other magazines. Skywald's first publication was Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted through the end of 1974 or early 1975, with Psycho #24 (March 1975) being its final publication. Nightmare published 23 issues and Scream put out 11 issues." Saga of the Victims is a pulpy, weird trippy, over the top beyond gonzo horror comic from the folks at Skywald publications.  Scream issue number 6 featured the introduction to the Saga of the victims, tells  the story of two young girls from the Scollard Manse School for Girls in Manhattan, where they are kidnapped by horrific mutants  in the Manse and dragged deep down into the depths of the school right into the underworld of alternative Earth. This is only the beginning for the ladies of Saga. But there are several very unusual characteristics about our heroines. First of all the ladies are very,very, slick and skilled. They don't just overcome their circumstances they kick ass and survive. There was also cheesecake, bondage/fetish overtones, sci-fi and horror trappings and lots and lots of crazy 1960s-style cosmic weirdness. The ladies  look to be based on actress Teresa Graves and actress  Britt Ekland who both very popular at the time.

But they could have both been based on Pam Grier and Margaret Markov, then starring in a bunch of low-budget exploitation sword and sandal films  like The Arena. Which for my purposes is closer to the grindhouse feel that I'd be going for with this sort of a campaign. Today I might do this campaign with either Castles & Crusades Siege engine  or as an Adventurer,Conqueror, King rpg domain campaign. 

The heroines were very unusual, Josey our African  heroine is rich, smart, confident and a skilled combatant. Ann from Washington, DC is smart, crafty, good with her hands, and capable of murder when the situation calls for it. The adventuresses go from one troubling scene to another with wonderful artwork by  Jesus Manuel (Suso) Rego was one of the premier comic illustrators of the time. Not only were these heroines capable of out thinking their tormentors they did it with style and murderous wit  that I've only seen matched a few times.  The ladies faced everything from  skinless businessmen, robots, pterodactyls, midget Nazis, zombie pirates, mutants, and worse. The problem is that there was never any resolution that I've seen, Skywald went belly up before the ending could be revealed.

As other comic blogs have described the series as 'the strip was quite simply a wild ride of exploitation glee with each episode the girls getting put through increasingly more terrifying scenarios with little no rhyme or reason as to why what was happening or where it all was heading (leaving the reader to think creator Hewetson must have been thinking 'what misery can I put the girls through this episode? The material seems quite tame by today's standards.  But I don't really think that this is one for the kids.

Skywald always had much more of a 'the weird just happens' attitude towards its comic and horror material. Elements were warped in, completely exploited for the sake of the series and they just were. This makes it perfect for exploitation by a DM for adventure design. Crazy over the top pulpy weird settings, a ton of monsters to throw at players, and lots of non PC action.

Deconstructing the Saga of The Victims

For Your Old School Campaigns

Saga of the Victims has several reasons for use; the comic series isn't that well known today. The disappearance of the two main characters is sure to be noticed by several organization that can be brought into play. The Saga's characters make excellent NPC's and could possibly be  run into during the course of play. The modern guns, 1970's style equipment and vehicles stats could be downloaded from the OSR library blog.

The Saga's characters both have United Nations connections and are both skilled fighters in their own right. There could well be conspiracy or occult connections linking the PC's to the adventure events of the Saga.

There are several reasons I can think off the top of my head for using Saga; 

1. The Saga's heroines are confident, skilled, fighter class heroines right out of the gate.
2. The conspiracy theory, the 'Insearch of' 1970's occult revival exploitation angle is ripe for fleshing out for an old school LoFP game campaign or even a Dungeon Cult Classics game. 
3. Very quick scene and setting switches between adventure and worlds in the comic series just let's the world happen around the action. 
4. The weird elements of the Saga doesn't care, it just is and it happens in that trippy grind house sort of pulp way. 
5. Mature themes in the saga while troubling seem almost tame today. They're prime to be exploited for pulpy adventure by a DM with a bit of slight of hand two step DMing. 
6. The world settings of saga could be linked to form a planar or dimensional mega dungeon structure. 
7. The character's of the Saga's background are ripe for pulp or weird campaign histories. 
8. The weird 1970's psychedelic horror and sci fi themes of Saga are perfect LoFP grist for the mill. 
9. The open ended nature of Saga means that anything can and might happen. 
10. There are plenty of loot, open ended relics, factions, etc. for a DM to have old school expansion. 
    
    

Here's what might work for a modern 'Saga of The Victims''s style campaign. The PC's are bounty hunters, soldiers, etc. all working for the United Nations to try & track down the girls. This means that they have to travel from one domain 'dungeon' or 'adventure location' to another. The party can claim these planar domains & exploit them as needed within the campaign. This is where the Menace From The Inner Earth - 'Big Jim's P.A.C.K.' Campaign Hook & Lost World Challenge blog entry comes into play. 

Review & Commentary on Trey Causey's 'Strange Stars' campaign setting & 'The Strange Stars OSR rule book'

 "It's the far future, Old Earth is lost and shrouded in legend, and the children of paleo-humanity have long ago populated the stars, branching into new forms and strange cultures. Adventure is measured in light-years!"

Today was another day I was strolling through my Drivethrurpg library & I came across Trey Causey's 'Strange Stars' campaign  setting & 'The Strange Stars OSR rule book'. So let's make that distinct right off according to the author 'You need the setting book to maximally utilize the OSR rulebook.'



Strange Stars is like a smoke ring from the 70's or 80's from the fevered mind of its author, and its a graphic as well as artistic slight of hand trick of a laser sword of retro science fantasy gaming goodness. The author presents a great overview of his space opera setting with great artwork and a wary eye towards the material being used in your games. This book is wall to wall system neutral artwork as good as your going to find. The races are really nicely designed and can fit into a wide variety of science fiction or fantasy settings. Strange Stars is a wily and some what lean beast, its part setting book, part alien races, and a whole lot of details designed around the fact that this beast wants to be your go to space opera campaign. The OSR rule book gives all of the back up rules for these taken as a whole it works & works very well. 

The Strange Stars Game Setting book really dives into the universe of Strange Stars. The galactic politics is there, the factions, alien races, and all of this with an eye towards the retro Seventies & Eighties that we all grew up in. 

There's a definite, 'This is not 'Star Wars' but it might be Seventies Space opera' feel to these books. The author takes this and ratchet's up several notches in the setting book;  

"STRANGE STARS is a setting for any game where modern transhuman science fiction meets classic 70s space opera. Join a salvage mission to steal ancient tech from the wreck of a deranged sophont warship. Become a skiptracer in the lawless orbital megapolis of Interzone. Plan an elaborate data-vault heist on a diamond planet. Cross ceramic blades with a Zao Pirate in hard vacuum. Score sweet dreams or nightmare fuel from the oneirochemists of Eidolon. It's all somewhere in the STRANGE STARS!" 

Everything from the beginning possible PC's races to full adventure hooks are right there at your fingers. You can think of this book as a candy sampler of retro science fiction goodness that never existed until now. This starts with the cover which pays a nice nod to the original Star Frontiers game to the layout and graphics which references everything from Marvel style sci fi comic series to things like Star Wars. This is a style choice and a very well done idea in what it does. 

Nine ninety nine might seem a bit steep for a simple but its not because this is wall to wall well done artwork. If you grew up thumbing through Barlowe's Guide To Extraterrestrials, reading Micronauts under the covers with a flash light your going to want this book. 

Because this setting book taps into the nostalgia buttons but there's more. This is a very workable space opera setting with all of the trimmings to get you started in the universe of Strange Stars. Trust me, this is a world where one week your adventurers will be battling PHARESMID SYNDICATE and then taking down the machinations of the THE VOKUN EMPIRE. Its all right there at your finger tips and best of all its system neutral. 

Use it with your favorite OSR sci fi retroclone or Traveller or Fate or whatever system you want. I see how and why the author has done what he's done. This is a solid impact of a book into the sci fi market. Very cool and I highly recommend this book.

Using The Strange Stars Campaign Setting 

Jason Sholtis homage artwork  to Marvel's Fin Fang Foom in Strange Stars remains one of my favorite pieces of his artwork. 

A lot of OSR retroclones, sci fi settings & more have come & gone from the marketplace since I wrote this review for the Strange Stars OSR rule & setting book. But the majority of my points still stand. There's a lot of science fantasy material here that could used with many of the OSR games on the market. The White Star Rpg comes to mind here but there's plenty more. And while the  Stars Without Number rpg has now gone into its second edition & I haven't had the time to truly investigate it. The Strange Stars books were perfectly suited for the SWN first edition game in spades. 

Strange Stars has its points for independent intergalactic role playing in spades this makes it perfect fodder for Venger Satanis's Cha'alt series especially Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise campaign book which fits the politic of Strange Stars as both setting & rule book! In point of fact it could be used easily with Castles & Crusades Siege Engine books. 

There's plenty of setting & brightness within the Trey Causey's 'Strange Stars' campaign  setting & 'The Strange Stars OSR rule book' to allow a DM to set up a campaign via a simple space dungeon & keep things going for years! The material is very well done & fits its OSR aesthetic very nicely. 

1d10 Random Prehistoric Swamp Encounters On Retro Pulp Venus Table For Your Old School Campaigns

The swamp world of Venus is a world of vast oceans and prehistoric swamps. A place of dangerous and deadly monsters as well as mutated dinosaurs and other creatures of bygone ages. This is an old world which has evolved mega predators and weird giant monsters. Some have speculated that this world has been used as a dumping ground for giant monsters or Kaijū by aliens over the eons. 

There have been thousands of civilizations and tribes which have evolved across the face of this world despite or perhaps because of the presence of these monsters. 
There is speculation among super scientists and adventurers that the humanoid tribes of this world might have been cast off experiments and that this planet may be nothing more then a biological dumping ground for various races and several temples found in the low lying swamp regions suggest that this might be true. But this is world teeming with possibilities for adventurers or those looking to start over. 
A world of countless ruins, weird humanoid races, dinosaur like monsters, and even mutated monsters from a thousand worlds across the universe. Just the sort of place for adventurers to wind up who seek opportunity and fortune. 

The most dangerous areas are the deep inner Venusian swamps which team with primitive life forms and dangerous predators and scavengers of all types. Here then is a random encounter table for some of the more dangerous Venusian life forms. 

Art work by Dinoguy2 (Corrected Miglewis) - Dinoguy2

The swamps often expand and contract with tidal movements bring with them quick growing giant fungus and deadly slimes and oozes. These are fed on by some of the larger insect things and other predators. Amazingly these swamps are where the largest and richest concentrations of ruins and dungeon complexes are, once the home of incredible lost and forgotten port city states some time in the past. Artifacts, relics, and strange technologies are often forced to the surface by tidal actions. There is evidence of incredibly violent and lethal conflict sometime in the planet's past.

1d10 Random Prehistoric Swamp Encounters On Retro Pulp Venus Table

1. A giant squid shrimp horror that is hungry capable of making a meal of a man quite easily. The deadly claws and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. This predator actually hunts and stalks prey as well as rests easy in the stagnant swamp waters. 
2. A giant crab trilobite capable of eating a man's hand quite easily, forges upon the bottom of the muck and mire. Blends into the background of the swamp like environment. 
3. Swarm of 1d8 giant dragon flies that are telepathically linked to each other, hungry and very dangerous. The size of a small child and very clever creatures. 
4. 1d8 giant muck snails that are armed with bony flails will stalk and slowly close on prey much larger then they are. Heavily armed. Use Flail snail stats. 
5. Monstrous giant swamp scorpion thing capable of bringing down two fully armed men. 
6. Killer swamp scorpion and scavenger swarm, 1d10 of these horrors will stalk and kill a fully grown man easily. 
7. Giant swamp squid quietly lays in wait for its prey, over thirty feet in length and capable of ripping a man or mount in half. 
8. Giant poisonous centipedes! 1d4 of these lethal and deadly swamp predators
9. Giant hunter centipede that is over thirty feet in length feeds on the 'chattering slugs' of the undergrowth. Equipped with razor sharp jaws and a lethal sting. 
10. 1d40 chittering slugs, these giant armored slugs are immune to energy weapons but are herbivores feeding on the dense undergrowth. They make a rasping sound similar to the sound of armor of larger alien prehistoric creatures. 

From Hyperborea I Can See Oerth - Sword & Sorcery Greyhawk Being Run With The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers Of Hyperborea Rpg System - Thoughts on The Free City Of Greyhawk Box Set

"Greyhawk -- City of High Culture and Low Life! From the high towers of its grand universities to the rancid alleys of its darkest slums, the City of Greyhawk awaits you. Center of magic and learning in the Flanaess, Greyhawk is also the home of powerful thieves, mighty warriors, traitorous ambassadors, and honest craftsmen."

1989 ... Douglas Niles & Carl Sargent ... TSR 1043 ... ISBN 0880387319"



So what are the ramifications of the Free City of Greyhawk in a solar system where Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea floats near Saturn & Greyhawk sits next to the star Jupiter? I began to think about this far future solar system of mine millions of years in the future  where Jupiter is a small star. Greyhawk orbits around it & Hyperborea is near one of the sixty two (sixty three?) moons of Saturn. Greyhawk's golden age might have been in fact much more marked by the passage of Ragnarok. Humanity was led to the safety of Greyhawk because of the sacrifice of the deities of Old Earth. This has been a part of an irregular series of blog posts that started here.



Passage between the two worlds is highly parlous & extremely dangerous fraught with all kinds of soul draining horror.  Maybe the occasional party in the capital city but not likely. It would be extremely rare. I'm talking 'The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad' film rare. The Free City of Greyhawk is the focus of a place of incredible Sword & Sorcery ancient learning like the Library of Alexandria. 
This is the setting where the  Xian wizards would sell their black hearted souls to go. The Free City of Greyhawk still boasts pieces of learning from before the Great Rain of Colorless fire & the Green Death.



The Scarlet Brotherhood is focused much more along the lines of  "the Dreaming Isle of Melnibone, its Suloise monks and wizards the modern descendants of the twisted demon-sworn conquerors of a dead age" but they have their tendrils throughout the Free City. Few release the horrors that the Elemental Evil cult brought to Greyhawk but its not dead only dreaming at the moment;

"The Wizards of the Coast provided the following introduction to Elemental Evil:

“

Four apocalyptic cults of Elemental Evil are building secret sanctuaries and outposts throughout the North, bringing terror and destruction to the Forgotten Realms. Each cult is devoted to one of the Princes of Elemental Evil (godlike entities embodying air, earth, fire, and water) and is led by a nihilistic prophet, corrupted by power. The cruel elf princess Aerisi Kalinoth speaks for the air Cult of the Howling Hatred, while Marlos Urnrayle, a fierce male medusa, leads the Cult of the Black Earth. The Cult of the Eternal Flame scars its followers at the behest of the beautiful and deadly tiefling Vanifer, and the mutilated sailor Gar Shatterkeel plots to drown the world with his Cult of the Crushing Wave. The cults use devastation orbs, forged of raw elemental power, to ravage Faerûn with horrifying earthquakes, typhoons, tornados, and other disasters. Independently, the cults are terrible adversaries, but now they have secretly begun transforming a long-lost dungeon into a huge subterranean temple dedicated to an alien entity known as the Elder Elemental Eye. To prevent this union of the Elemental Evils into one catastrophic force, heroes must expose the prophets' true agenda. The cults' agents are everywhere and their power is immense. When you don’t know whom to trust, knowledge is your only weapon. Unearth the Deception." There are mages & wizards on the wizard's council in the Free City of Greyhawk who know the danger & connection of the T1 -4 Temple of Elemental Evil with the Ashen Worm. Here's where a Greyhawk or Hyperborean party of adventurers comes in. The occult horrors presented by the Elemental Evil cult comes into focus on both Hyperborea & Greyhawk through the Free City of Greyhawk rulers & councils. These are not going to sit idly by as these cults begin rising across Greyhawk. These events are gonna start with S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax ;" In the Yatil Mountains south of Perrenland there is rumored to be a magical hoard of unsurpassed value, a treasure of such fame that scores f adventurers have perished in search of it. Find the perilous Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and you may gain the hidden wealth of the long-dead arch-mage -- if you live! " Why?! Because of the fact that  Bodaks, derros, marlgoyles, xag-ya/xeg-yi, and more. Also various demons, minor, major, and demon princes like Graz'zt are also tied right into the events surrounding T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil. The village of Homlet becomes the home base for the PC's and then everything rolves around the Free City of Greyhawk. Think of this as almost a film like campaign where the PC's are the heroes if they survive the experience.

From Hyperborea I Can See Oerth - Sword & Sorcery Greyhawk Being Run With The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers Of Hyperborea Rpg System Part II - B2 In Search of the Unknown By Mike Carr

"Many years ago two wealthy adventurers, Roghan the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, built a hidden complex known as the Caverns of Quasqueton. From this base, they conducted their affairs away from the prying eyes of civilization. While of questionable ethical standing, the two drove back a barbarian invasion and gained the support of locals. Eventually, they gathered their own army and went on an expedition against said enemies, where they met their demise."

If you've been following this latest incarnation of blog entries I'm playing a thought experiment for working on a Sword & Sorcery version of Greyhawk here's the other day's blog entry. 


So Jeff Talanian got a chance to go on (Mathew Finch) uncle Matt's Youtube channel last night after some minor difficulties. After cyber... erm fanboying out with these two I got one last question in the mix. 'Whose your favorite author/designer besides Gary Gygax? The answer was Mike Carr whose work in the game design field is right within the classic period from 1968 through 1983.

To be quite frank the answer surprised me. But B1 In Search of the Unknown is one of my all time favorite modules. So I grabbed my copy & began to really dig into the module once again. Nearby my handy copy of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.



There's something about the Caverns of Quasqueton that draws me back down the misty corridors of time once again. At about three am I was mucking about on the internet and came across a whole host of OSR links on Dragon's foot and a source book for one of  my favorite module from TSR for D&D. I'm speaking of course of the classic B1  In Search of The Unknown by Mike Carr. The sourcebook is a free jammed packed piece of OSR goodness with all kinds of old school awesomeness. Its available for download in the fifth paragraph down with the words," Demos Sachlas (paleologos of Dragonsfoot) has assembled a mighty B1 Campaign Sourcebook (link is for pdf download; linked here with permission), which is subtitled "a collection of original work and material gathered from the pages of Dragonsfoot and elsewhere on the internet". Since I don't have permission to host the link, go to the Zenopus Archives & you won't be sorry.

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE 
But something happens when I started staring at the Charles Lang cover for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Sure up in the corner is the homage of the castle from B2 Keep of the Borderlands by Gary Gygax. But there's something that echoes the Caverns of Quasqueton there in the artwork but very Weird Tales and alien in its own right. But what's this got to do with Greyhawk? Well, everything really.

What does B2 In Search of the Unknown have to do with Greyhawk? Originally in the first run of the module it was clearly set in Greyhawk. But what does this have to do with AS&SH? Well, as we look upon the red bloated sun baked alien world of Hyperborea its not that much of a stretch to imagine that a very different Sword & Sorcery soaked version of Greyhawk might be right around the corner.  Take a look at the cover for the latest version of The Sea-Wolf's Daughter  with that art by Del Teigeler & its not hard to see that Gary Gygax Greyhawk influence there. Also if you haven't backed the Hyperborea Otherworldy Tales  kickstarter then by all means do so.  I say this with confidence. 

What if there was more to this thought experiment then simply whistful thinking. What if Greyhawk's Oerth was actually in orbit around not another sun across some scattered plane prime but near Hyperborea on the same plane. In fact let's go one better and place it within our solar system.


Are you mad there's no way that could happen. Well yes I'm mad but no it could happen in the wiki entry on Oerth; 

"It takes exactly 24 hours for Oerth to make one revolution on its axis. Oerth lies at the center of Greyspace. Unlike most planets, Oerth does not orbit its sun, Liga. Instead, the Sun, and all other planets in the crystal sphere, orbit Oerth. Thus, Greyspace houses a geosystem, rather than a solar system. Oerth's "moons", Celene (Kule) and Luna (Raenei), are in fact the first and second planets in the geosystem, with Liga being the third. From Oerth, planets beyond Liga appear to the naked eye as wandering stars.

Liga orbits the Oerth once every 364 days, thus the Oerthly year is slightly shorter than that on Earth. Luna has a 28-day lunar cycle, while Celene's cycle is 91 days."

But it was this further revelation in the same wiki entry that it was revealed that there were other alternative versions of Oerth; "In a 1984 interview for Polyhedron Newszine, Gary Gygax revealed several "alternate Oerths" while explaining the setting for his HEROES CHALLENGE game books, co-written with author Flint Dille and published under the aegis of the Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corporation by the Wanderer Book division of Simon & Schuster.

"By the way, action takes place on Yarth, a place somewhat similar to Oerth, the setting of Greyhawk, et al. It has fewer magical properties than Oerth but more than Earth. It is not impossible that additional works will be contracted for in months to come, action being set on Yarth or perhaps another alternate world, Aerth. On Earth, magic is virtually non-existent. On Uerth, dweomers are weak, chancy things. Yarth has a sprinkling of things magical, and Oerth is pure magic."

This implies that the planets differ in both their geographies as well as the relative presence of magic; but also that they operate in divergent realities.

Other references to these alternate Oerths appear in the Gord the Rogue short story anthology Night Arrant as well as in Gygax's Epic of Aerth campaign setting for the Dangerous Journeys roleplaying game. The five parallel worlds of Oerth, Aerth, Uerth, Yarth and Earth were mentioned in the 3rd Edition adventure Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk and thus found their way into 3rd edition canon."

So if we go with the explanation that during the far future  events of Ragnarok the gods of Greyhawk evacuated humanity to the world of Greyhawk's Oerth then where's the planet? Well its in orbit around its own sun near what was once Jupiter. Now a separate sun whilst Hyperborea is in orbit around Saturn.
Artist's impression of the Voyager 2 space probe (1977—) on approach to Saturn. Artist's description: "Voyager 2 at the moment of its closest approach to Saturn. The ring divisions were drawn on the board with a rapidograph pen before the paint coats were applied! Earth is the blue 'star' to the right of the Sun, below the Sun is crescent lit Titan. Oil on illustration board for JPL.

B1 In Search of the Unknown By Mike Car takes on a whole new meaning as the hordes of humanity settle onto their new home of Oerth. And they begin to prey upon each other as warlords seek to carve out empires. This is a time when might makes right & Roghan the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown are the type of heroes of questionable ethical standard that are needed. The world of Oerth as a Sword & Sorcery setting isn't for the faint of heart. Add to this some Lovecraftian horrors of AS&SH and you've got a mix forces beyond the pale of most men. Roghan the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown's slide into legend & fate takes on a much broader stroke of the pen of mythology in this expansion of the Mike Carr legendary introductory module as we shall see in the next installment.