Lamentations of the Cosmic Enforcers - Home Brew OSR Superheroes Campaign Report

 Anyhow work has had me in fits today. And I'm going to be taking a vacation from behind the screen to once again playing in front of it. I'm going to be playing a supernatural investigator slash sorcerous hero in DM Steve's Vigilante City campaign. What does this have to do with Lamentations of the Flame Princess  rpg?! Well quite a bit actually. 

In the burnt out ruins of a rebuild New York under human control after an alien invasion. Some sixteen year old has gotten a hold of a summoning scroll that was going to be aucutioned off for charity. Needless to say the thackless sixteen year old summoned something that ate not only him & the entire block. 
Now it's up to our group of contract heroes to go in & access the situation. The Regulators has been an ongoing campaign with Steve's group for months using an old super hero rpg propped up using Bloat Games Vigilante City  rpg books. 
The campaign has been based partially on Cosmic Enforcer rpg campaign world. Cosmic Enforcers was a 1995 super-hero tabletop role-playing game. It had an interesting mix of superhumans and gritty sci-fi.Various Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg adventures have bled through as background with several of the major NPC villains being demons & refugees from LoFP's Carcosa. The thing that ate this particular block of New York City real estate isn't something my magician hero has ever encountered! 

This game has been playing out like 'The Boys' meets Lovecraft in a back alleyway. I'm coming into this as a contract hero whose back up from Florida on a bounty to recover the relic. That relic was the summon spell scroll in a jeweled case worth about 50,000. mega dollars. Apparently DM Steve 'borrowed' the idea of doing this mix from my facebook from David Okum from wayback when Bloat Games Vigilante City  rpg books. The other thing that he borrowed from James Raggi III is the idea that anyone can die at anytime. Monsters in this campaign have come straight outta of the Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Rpgs & Their Modern Simulacra.

From what I understand this has been a brutal campaign. 

CE's version of New York is controlled by mega corporations & criminal gangs. The streets have been rife with otherworldly drugs & crime. And there's a thriving occult underground based on many of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess  rpg adventures such as 'Better Then Any Man' and many others. Several of the alien races, criminals, etc all come straight outta  of Bloat Games Scorched. 

Wish me luck my time with the regulators might be very short indeed! 

Review & Commentary On Summoning 'Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit' By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler From Mishler Games For Your Old School Campaigns

"Have you ever wanted to go out into the wilds and capture and train Magical Beasts as companions, friends, and your helpful bodyguards/prize fighters?

Have you ever wanted to show up that snarky friend of yours who said you just didn’t have what it takes?

Have you ever wanted to be the Very Best, Like No One Ever Was?"

 So today has been a hot, blistery, and coma inducing heat wave here in the Northwestern corner of Connecticut. But last night James Mishler contacted me with a new product to review & now I've got a certain animated children's show from the 90's humming through my head. Anyhow, Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit By James Mishler,  & Jodi Moran-Mishler clocks in at sixty four pages of OSR goodness. 
This must have been a labor of love for the Mishlers because he covers everything from the PC summoner class to every aspect of magical beast ownership, training, and overlap.  Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit hits literally all of the aspects of the class & running a magical beast campaign. Here's what's behind the PC class itself: 
Starting Magical Beasts
Binding Magical Beasts
Healing Magical Beasts
Summoning Magical Beasts
Training Magical Beasts
Companion Magical Beasts
Bonus Special Abilities
Summoner Specialties
Beast Master
Beast Lord
Building a Summoner Organization

Mishler has been running a full on OSR style campaign using his  Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit & the crazy thing is that it could well work as a full on add in to your own OSR campaigns. And here's exactly which old school book I would use  Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit for and that's the AD&D first edition Fiend Folio.

The idea of a pack of trainers joining adventurers in the campaign wilds and then trying to cope with the murder rage of something like a devil dog or some of the other nasties in the Fiend Folio is great. 
 Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit gives all of the guidelines as well as the weirdness factor in spades for a full on expedition into say Greyhawk to go and collect em all. 

Sorry please forgive me but in sixty four pages  'Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit' is both frightening and awesome to think of this supplement's applications. Imagine heading into the dungeon to collect your magical beasts and things go either very wrong or very right depending upon your perspective. On the one hand there's more then enough information to integrate this supplement into your old school campaigns. And on the other hand  'Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit'. 

Sky is the limit when it comes to using  'Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit' because there are several OSR campaign settings where this supplement could easily be dragged and dropped. First of all  'Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit' could easily be dropped into a LoFP Carcosa campaign where the guidelines provided for 'magical beast or monster' creation could have entirely different blend. A more insane Lovecraftian bent to be exact.   'Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit' could also be used for a down right crazy Castles & Crusades rpg campaign. The foucs turns on itself & now the player's PC's  are running for their lives! They're  trying to deal with the consquences of screwing up in a dungeon whist running for their lives from a dragon after waking it! 

And the third option is to use  'Summoning Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit' for a Mutant Future or Gamma World style post apocalyptic game campaign & man would absolutely insane. 

This could easily work with either Mutant Future or Gamma World as the mutant animals are taken through the Magical Beast Ability Scores,  mutated through the 14 Energy Types. 
Magical Beast Experience vaule is calculated and then  Magical Beast Experience Value is worked through. And then  Magical Beast Loyalty & Morale comes into play with 
Breeding the Magical Beasts. 
And there's going to be a lot of mayhem & death with a campaign like this making it all the more fun. And deadly among the irriated ruins of  your favorite post apocalyptic landscape. 

And further given how much work the Mishler's put into  'Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit'  it's easy to see further campaign options. But is it worth the eight dollar price tag?! Well yes because there's even a 'magical beast PC class as well. And yes I know what your thinking but the Mishlers have created a whole book load of options for the class & it works! The levels, experience charts, campaign options and more are well done and easily droppable into your favorite OSR game system. Get this if your into a quirky off beat and easily playable OSR option. 

Summoning 'Magical Beasts for Fun & Profit' By James Mishler,  & Jodi Moran-Mishler From Mishler Game For Your Old School Campaigns Is Available Right Here! 

Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastelands Actual Play Session one! Carcosa Landfall!

 So we've been quietly playing through a bit of Carcosa using Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastelands rpg. Its been interesting to say the least or at least it has been from my perspective. We've got Arnold Kazram Holy Smiter of Judus Death. He's a war orphan who survived the Holy Wars and went on to become a holy smiter of Judas Death. Sorta of a combination of Megadeath & Judas Priest if these bands were actually a heavy metal god. 

The player wants to swap out his clerical spells for some from Neoplastic Press's Metallic Tome and the metal clerical spells within. Because, Jason's character isn't a healer but an ass kicking paladin of  Eighties metal we can let this pass! Arnold is a third level holy smiter usually dresss in a combination of denim and chainmail. And one of his favorite spells is Abyssal Winter; "Abyssal Winter Duration: 5 rounds plus 1 round per caster level Range: 100’ plus 20’ per caster level Ice forms on the floor and grips the victim’s feet. The cold saps strength and speed, freezing the enemy in place. The victim’s move rate drops to 20’ [2] for the duration of the spell. The victim’s attacks with melee weapons receive a -2 to damage, and missile weapon attacks are -2 to hit. This spell can affect 1 target per caster level, but all targets must be within 50’ of each other" 

Arnold is on a mission to avenge his family taken out by the 'Lost Boys' vampire biker gang and he's on a mission to send the vampires to Hell! Even if he's got to Hell and   follow them himself! And this is how are gang goes from Neon Traxx to Carcosa. A miscast by the biker gang's necromancer puts the group in serious danger when they were teleported right in front of a spawn of Shub Niggurath. And the party runs like Hell while fires blinding running like a pack of wild dogs! 

daviblight dark-young-of-shub-niggurath artwork used without permission 

The party is on an alien world and with few options! They made camp on high ground & began to take in their situation. 

'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. 

E.D.D.I.E. Cybernetic Units For Your Old School Campaigns

 The E.D.D.I.E. Units were created by the Ministry of The Iron Maiden in 6891 to police through time & space. Each E.D.D.I.E. unit is equipped with a 'side slip' time teleportation device after the 'Somewhere In Time' affair on the shores of Carcosa.E.D.D.I.E. stands for Eradication, Destruction, Diliation, Investigation, and End cybernetic unit. 

Chris Shy Artwork used without permission no copyright nor trademark infringement against the artist is implied. The artwork inspired the 

Each E.D.D.I.E unit is made from the cloned necrotissue of history's worst criminials & psychopaths give over to the 'Iron Maiden' ministries patiented RUR  universal matrix brain. Equipped with a necrophasic targetting system & an internal nuclear powered  percision laser pistol (half life 2000 years) 2d6+2 damage. No one knows why the E.D.D.I.E. cybernetic units are on Carcosa but they seem to be searching for something but no ones what. 

E.D.D.I.E. Unit 

Armor Class: 3

Frame: Humanoid 

Locmotion: Legs

Manipulators: Hands 1d6 per punch 

Armor: Necro metallic flesh AC:3 

Sensors: necrophasic targetting system (full sensors) 

Accessories: psychic link with Iron Maiden Minstries 

Weapons: internal nuclear powered  percision laser pistol (half life 2000 years) 2d6+2 damage.

Defense: Force Field capable of absorbing 100 points of damage.Each E.D.D.I.E. unit is equipped with a Side Slip Time Teleportation device capable of seven time jumps before having to return to 'Iron Maiden' Ministries for a full recharge. 

 Note that each E.D.D.I.E. Unit is capable of creating its own  unique A.I. personality over its 20,000 year life span. E.D.D.I.E. units are capable of appearing throughout time & space. 

 To The Max 
On a roll of 1-10 The E.D.D.I.E. unit adds +2 to all hand to hand attacks 

On a roll of 11 -20 the E.D.D.I.E. unit rips the targets head off with a sickening ripping sound! 

Lost In The Eighties! LoFP Carcosa & OSR Actual Play Session - Extension

 

So we've been picking up on an old OSR campaign game I ran awhile back 'Lost in the Eighties' wayback in 2018.  And we decided to revisit the game with our current Veterans of the Supernatural Wars PC's. And this all begins with the PC's crossing paths with Iram Vep and Les Vampires in America about 1985. Les Vampires are band of asssasins & thieves who are actually vampires! They broke into the home of a retired adventurer & stole the Ring of Ravago. The ring is literally a ring of gold brass material & the vampires had killed the adventurer when the PC's broke into the three story house. A fire fight ensued and the ring was activated when a stray bullet hit the right after the PC rolled a one. 

Artwork used without permission

Iram Vep and Les Vampires were not caught in the magick back blast but the PC's were! They found thenmselves within another fire fight on Carcosa between a group of blue men & green! The PC's kept their heads down until three fast moving & highly dangerous alien space craft chased off both groups! 

The PC's remained hidden behind a ruined wall & the space craft zipped off in quick sucession. The whole affair lasted a few moments. A few moments later the PC's heard a strangled scream from an old man. They rushed to his aid just as one of the space craft was beaming an ancient purple man aboard. The PC's Mystic martial artist Quan Linn dived into the ray and grabbed him. And just before they had a lock on him & they rolled out of the way. The ships left in a flash. 
Wi Granna a purple sorcerer of Law was grateful to the martial artist and took the PC's to his stone hut nearby. And Wi Granna was able to activate the ring using blood from each of the player characters. But is it ever a good idea to give a sorcerer your blood!? 
The PC's found themselves back in the middle of Friesburg Pine Court Mall surrounded by shocked shoppers?! 
The PC's were wondering why Friesburg Pine Court Mall ?! And they were missing over 24 hours that had vanished! And as they left the mall to call a cab things started to get weird. The sky turned an odd colour and the party heard the familar whine of the space craft they had just seen! And this is where we closed our session on! 

So we're using the Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg Companion which adds a ton of options for the B/X D&D driven given. The mix of Lovecraftian & occult horror movie PC options are some of my favorites. 

Where Void Knights Fear To Tread - Carcosa, Cha'alt, & White Star - Campaign Session Report

 So I'm taking a break behind the screen to play in someone's else's campaign specifically an adult game of White Star Galaxy edition. 

So let's talk White Star Galaxy Edition & the fact that DM Steve has been running a White Star game campaign for some time now. And he's been using it with LoFP's Carcosa for many years now. The beleaguered adventurers & the  Star Knights have been trying to keep the peace in a post interstellar war ravaged galaxy. 

Take one part Babylon Five with Carcosa taking the place of Z'ha'dum & we go deep into part of this campaign. The evil empire is beyond in tatters & the whole galaxy has become an outlaw zone with formally stable planets up for grabs by criminals & pirates. But in the background something ancient & Lovecraftian is out maneuvering undermine both the Void Knights & the Star Knights. 
Carcosa holds part of the answer to this & events have been moving along at pace. I'm not been playing in this campaign because of the fact that my work schedule interferes with my ability to play. 

And then DM Steve introduced Cha'alt as a sort of short cut setting for Cha'alt's own brand of Lovecraftian void knights. There isn't many details at the moment but will know more tonight. 

The Gerry Anderson OSR Campaign Options - More Campaign Workshop Thoughts Part Four - Deep Ones & Odd Fellows

 With some 'help' from DM Steve I've been delving into the depths of Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons Expert rules. At the moment there are two OSR campaigns going on, one involving Castles & Crusades. The second is within the planning stages at the moment using Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg. 

The real issue going through & over Mentzer Expert Dungeons & Dragons especially with other people such as DM Steve.  The fact that Expert seems to elect such a strong reaction from the players so I decided to scale back the 'White Star' part of this Gerry Anderson 'U.F.O.' & 'Space 1999' campaign . I began to concentrate a bit more on the Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg bit. 



Talking with DM Steve it became evident that many of the tools that I wanted to use for this campaign series were already within the rpg collection. Secrets of the Nether City has a whole cloth Roman style fantasy city build right into it. There's also the fact that the PC's have crossed into Cha'alt a few times. I was looking forward to using AX2: Secrets of the Nethercity from ACK's as a stand in for some of the locations of Cha'alt. The Mixed DM blog's Cha'alt review here had suggested this .  Many of the locations depicted in Cha'alt fit nicely the cities depicted in the campaign sections of Cha'alt.

We get all kinds of Adventurer,Conqueror,King style Conan/A Princess of Mars goodness mixed into the fantasy world of this campaign.  This is where ACK's 'The Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu' is playing a healthy part. 

The real issue isn't the Greys but the U.F.O. aliens who are actually far more of a threat.
This goes all the way back to something that DM Steve reminded me of. I want  take a step back here & talk about the fact that many of the Grey artifacts, relics, technologies, etc. are in my games considered Chaos tainted. Here's where I fall back to my Lion & Dragon, Dark Albion, & especially Cults of Chaos notes.  PC's fooling around with these items is a really good way of earning a chaos mutation or two. Now the reason for this is despite Pundit's review of Cha'alt there are some really good rules for using chaos or dangerous occult items or artifacts in your games. I turn to Gary Gygax's S3 Expediation to The Barrier Peaks module. I'm going to use the mind flayer that's one of the encounters within S3 as the basis for an 'unexpected guest'. There's a three sided war between the Greys, the Flayers, & the U.F.O. aliens. Is there a four species that the players are not aware of at this time?! Umm yes. 


There have been a few 'PC death''s over the years that have actually been abductions. The PC's are dead but their bodies have been taken over by the third alien outsiders. The poor victims  are refitted with cybernetic implants & then used as living vehicles by the alien energy beings. The outsider aliens  use human bodies as vehicles for interacting with the local space time continuum. The players were really pissed at me when this came to light recently. 

The Flayers are going to play a larger part coming up. But the PC's are already in over their head here. They may have to go back to see some very old enemies to get the low down on all of the parties involved here. 

This is going to mean a trip back to Cha'alt! But as we've seen  Venger Satanis's Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise. Eighteen months have passed & the black pryamid is on the move with the political forces of Cha'alt exploiting the demon worms & the alien natives! 

This is going to mean dealing with an old 'friend' of the player's PC's in order to learn the secrets of the sides of this war. The question is can they escape the 'old mother' once they do?! 

So yeah this isn't the first time that the PC's have had to deal with several of the groups here including the Aboloth who are within the ACK's rules. 

The Gerry Anderson OSR Campaign Options - More Campaign Workshop Thoughts Part III - When A 'White Star' shines

 

A big problem with the OSR is the noise factor, the 'buzz' for new products & books has become a bit of a scree in the ether. Take for example the fact that putting a Gerry Anderson inspired Pulp campaign has been very challenging. Taking a look back at Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons has been a bit of an eye opening experience. You can read part II here. 

Lately a player of mine has been asking me if the campaign will have 'real' warefare rules,  about 'space ship' construction, & so forth. It got me thinking about using more resources from Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg. This brings me to the cross over between Mentzer & Labyrinth Lord or more specifically the Goblinoid Games rpg Apes Victorious rpg.  There's a tremendous nostalgia between late Sixties & early Seventies Sci fi that driven by the 'Planet of the Apes' films. 

There has to be a meet point between the star spanning alternative Earth of U.F.O. & the Lovecraftian rest of this campaign. The problem with cosmicism ; "the literary philosophy developed and used by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft in his weird fiction.^[1][2] Lovecraft was a writer of philosophically intense horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien miscegenation, and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.^[3]

The philosophy of cosmicism states "that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence."^[4] The most prominent theme is humanity's fear of their insignificance in the face of an incomprehensibly large universe:^[5][6][7] a fear of the cosmic void" That void in ACK's world is the 'realms of chaos '

Is that getting players to open up & say,'ahh' for it is the incredibly difficult aspect of mixing gritty heroics & Lovecraftian bleakness. PC's should struggle to be heroic even in the fact of cosmic indifference. We get all kinds of Adventurer,Conqueror,King style Conan/A Princess of Mars goodness this is where ACK's 'The Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu' is playing a healthy part within this campaign. 

But what about 'the greater implied' universe of this campaign?! Hmm if only there was a Pulpy science fantasy alternative that could work with all of this & still retain the flavor of the whole affair?! 

The answer has been sitting on my hard drive since 2015, Between Star & Void From DYS Games is for The White Star rpg system now in the White Star Galaxy edition and its completely backwards compatible with all previously-written third-party White Star content.

But,but, its not Pulpy enough were the cries heard the other night. Fortunately Charles Thorin did me a solid by producing a whole bunch of Pulp inspired classes & whatnot through his Magic Pig Media imprint .  So we've got Space Amazons coming up! 

This contrasts really solidly with the darkness of a Carcosa/Cha'alt setting especially given the changes that we've seen in Venger Satanis's Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise. Eighteen months have passed & the black pryamid is on the move with the political forces of Cha'alt exploiting the demon worms & the alien  natives. 




The do gooders of such a campaign are in for more then a passing 'bitch slapping' by the forces of Cha'alt including the Great Old Ones. But I've got more thoughts on that coming up. 

The Influence of Yragael: Urm By Philippe Druillet For Your Old School Campaigns

Imagine a world where humanity is on its last legs, a doomed warrior deals & dallies with the forces of demons as well as gods. This is the universe of Yragael and his child Urm who are dealing with a wounded far future Earth and given full birth by the creative mind of Philippe Druillet (French: [dʁɥijɛ]; born June 28, 1944) is a French comics artist and creator, and an innovator in visual design. It tells the story of the mystic warrior Yragael and his child Urm who are best on all sides by petty gods, demons, and the horrors of a far future Earth as humanity does a slow death around the rim of entropy.  The  WIN WIACEK blog Now Read This has a very nice break down of the graphic novel

The tale is a nasty bit of sword & sorcery business equal parts Jack Vance, HP Lovecraft, & with a sustained air of the Michael Moorcock's absurd style of mythology. At times monstrous, tragic, and with air of the doomed that seems to echo throughout the piece.  This graphic novel is the first thing I thought of when I read Carcosa. way back in '07 or '08. Everyone sites The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane but for me its YRAGAEL : URM which has all of the weirdness & awesomeness that make Druillet's artwork a visual feast. Murder, horror, and all of the sins are still with humanity even in this far flung era of extinction.


Comic panel to comic panel in this doom laden saga of operatic proportions that has many of the same elements of Carcosa. The weirdness almost seeps through the whole affair winds its way almost like a hex crawl as one event of the lives of these characters wind their way through to the next. Yragael: Urm is a masterpiece of the absurd and cosmic surreal as Druillet the 'space architect is in full force with weird temples, outrageous terrain, space gods of the most dangerous kind and a landscape peppered with characters whom Jack Kirby would have loved. When I picked up Carcosa from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess imprint I knew what the landscape looked like Philippe Druillet had created the visual landscape for me.



If you haven't read Yragael: Urm its not for the faint of heart but its real doomed cosmic opera of the type that Elric by Michael Moorcock echoes with the same refrains. Philippe Druillet style is dark, dangerous, and at its best here and this is a cosmic beast of a story.  I'm glad to have dusted this one off last night and started rereading it, its a brilliant ride!



© 1974 Philippe Druillet/Dargaud Editeur. © 1975 Philippe Druillet/Dargaud Editeur. All rights reserved.
Carcosa and Lamentations of the Flame Princess are copyrighted & trade marked to their owners this blog post is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Reskinning DDA1 Arena of Thyatis By John Nephew For Old School 'Sorcery & Planetary' Campaigns.

"And simply everyone is going to the magnificent Villa Osteroplus, home of the wealthy old senator, Helenites. Raucous fun, exotic food, and even advanced betting on the upcoming Arena games are expected. Even adventurers just in from the outlands may meet the powerful here. So don your festive togas, for in Thyatis City there are important connections to be made and deeds to be done, duels to be fought and fame to be won."




'Welcome adventurers! You who are about to take your first steps on to the blood sands!  Adventurers! Do you want to become gladiators and fight in arena? You have no choice! We will teach you to fight, to bleed, & to entertain the crowd!'

I've stated it before if I was going to run a new 'Sorcery & Planet 'campaign coming up I'd do a gladiatorial combat themed one. And the perfect module doesn't exist to do such a campaign?!? Oh wait it does in the form of DDA1 Arena of Thyatis By John Nephew. So not only did I use this module with a Sword & Planet theme but I used it with a both a Mars & an old school Dark Sun module in the past. 
At present the fact that this module series can easily be reskinned hasn't been lost on me as a dungeon master. The Adventurer,Conqueror, King System's Barbarians of Kanahu is perfectly for all barbarian/gladiator  campaign.



Add in Carcosa & we've got the beginnings of a nasty little mutant gladiatorial campaign. In fact I printed out the arena from the Forgotten Realms wiki entry to great effect. 

In fact this goes back into the campaign harmony that I've done with Venger's Cha'alt by taking many of the adventure locations from Adventurer,Conqueoror, King's adventures & using them as stand in for Cha'alt's various locations. 

One of the aspects of this arena combat that's come up again & again has been the idea of various giant monsters vs mecha. This goes back into my memory of comic books of the late 70's that sported ads for the Shogun Warriors toy line. Check this ad out. 

And before I have all of the D&D diehards on my back I'd like to remind you that Hanna Barbera's Herculoids was doing this in Sixty Six before Dungeon & Dragon's was a thought in Arneson & Gygax's heads. The Herculoids AD&D files has it all for adding in many Hanna Barbera bits of alien goodness into your games! 

Let's say you want a completely  different OSR rpg system to handle all of the setting details?! The Castles & Crusades rpg could & will easily handle this campaign setting! The whole cloth details are already embedded in the Castle Keeper's Guide with blasters, space craft, etc. all there for the converting. 

So let's say that you've been using DDA1 Arena of Thyatis  & some of the gladiators have slipped their bonds or worse have been sold across planar borders into say into the Victorious rpg?! Could the heroes of a steampunk New York stand it to not slip their dimensional bonds & travel across the gates of reality to free an alien world from under thrall of such heinous villains?!

Could any right minded gadget loving hero resist the temptation of a mini humanoid Dragun armor which would be armor class 3, damage 1d8 per buzz saw swipe, 2d6 fire attack from mouth once per 2 rounds,  atomic power cell good for 100 years, +2 strength, & constitution. Special thanks Plaid Stallions 


But we all know that the hard core agents of Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise's city of A'agrybah are going to be scouting for local talent within the DDA1 Arena of Thyatis. So its only a matter of time before PC's might wind up within the grip of some gladiatorial traders! 

The Sweet Spot - The Campaign Mid point between the Lovecraftian, The Sacred & the Profane

"What weird ceremonies occur in that squat stone village beneath twisted and bloated trees? What incomprehensible customs do the men practice, and in what sort of alien architecture do they lurk? All such questions can be easily answered with the aid of the treasures in your hands."
' The Carcosan Grimoire'

'Is there a mid point between the Lovecraftian, The Sacred &  the Profane?' This is the question that I've been sorta forced to confront with old campaign setting material. Events surrounding the Lamentations of the Flame Princess product lines & brands have rattled other OSR bloggers. Even my circle of local dungeon masters has mentioned it. Why!? Lamentations was/is a pillar of the OSR. Mentioned in the same breath as OSRIC & Goblinoid Games Labyrinth Lord..

So the spine on my well worn copy of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition's Lovecraft's Mythos  section. Again & again I find myself drawn back into the whirl pool of nostalgia,game play, & dangerous thoughts. 
Talking with friends & former players something has come up again & again, 'There's no difference between demons & Lovecraftian minions! Their both worth the experience points even if thematically their completely different monsters!' But are they!? Both the entities of the Abyss & the Chaotic monsters of the Mythos seem to almost spring from some primal place deep within the lizard brain! Last night I found myself going over an art book of Keith Parkinson that sits on a lone table & gazing at this particular piece of his. Mr. Parkinson did a number of iconic pieces of artwork for the Rifts game & while this piece isn't from that game line it does spark the imagination.
Its actually from here.  Its a great piece of wall artwork but can an rpg  setting actually be the both the alien source & the central fantasy adventure  spoke at the same time?! I believe the answer to this is yes! 

Time & again my campaign notes find their way into my hands. The original free 

'Carcosan Grimoire' book firmly in my mind & in my hand points the way. This book by a community of contributors &  Cameron DuBeers, marks a bunch of unwelcome additions to the setting of  Carcosa.

 

CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask.
STRANGER: Indeed?
CASSILDA: Indeed it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
STRANGER: I wear no mask.
CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!

The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.

Each & every single time my version of Cha'alt/Carcosa interdimensionally merges with & enters the planar eclipse of a setting madness, raiders, demon worms,etc. descend!  A campaign setting such as sections of Greyhawk know that madness & destruction follows  these periods. These  being woven into the very mythology of a campaign. 

And its this sweet spot of fantasy & the Lovecraftian where the lost come in. On Greyhawk desert raider armies came out & wait for the 'scared merging'!  The demon worms rally their troops near the borders of reality in the shadow of the black pyramid on Cha'alt! 

This is one of the reasons why demon hunters, paladins, & knights are so important! Not only do these raiders take hundreds of captives & slaves. But they leave behind cults, techno occult relics, monsters,etc. All at the command of Carcosa sorcerers, black wizards, intergalactic gangsters, & far worse! 

While Cha'alt & Carcosa are both gonzo in the extreme both in completely different directions. Something I learned from Rpg Pundit's Dark Albion & Cults of Chaos that the gonzo if twisted a little bit works very well for the very dark occult. 

This was something that I found after merging Dark Albion, Cults of Chaos, the Lion & Dragon rpg with Castles & Crusades. Not because the  Lion & Dragon rpg  sucks quite the opposite but because it works very well as tool kit along with the Dark Albion campaign setting. 

There are several reasons why all of this works for a Dark Europe alternative Earth campaign:

1.  All of the above OSR & old school material works very well together. 
2. The players have many options to take a party of adventurers in directions that standard campaigns don't usually go. 
3. The European pseudo historical setting takes its cues from real world history & the DM can twist these in interesting & unexpected Lovecraftian directions. 
4. Pulling from real world history makes things very exciting I've found its not that well known among certain circles of gamers. But it can cut the quick of Call of Cthulhu players because alternative Earth material makes them flustered. 
5. While the mythos is well known lesser aspects of it can make events very unexpected especially if the DM draws from other Lovecraft circle authors such as Robert Bloch. 
6. There are tons of variation monsters the at DM can insert or subtract as needed. 
7. Alternative NPC classes & means take the players out of their D&D hide bound comfort zones 
8. Demon Hunters make excellent antagonists for parties! 
9. War & conflict are fantastic campaign motivators! 
10. Dark Europe is rife as a pseudo historical setting.