OSR Commentary On Demon Magic: The Second Stormbringer Companion By Larry DiTillio (Author) For The Stormbringer rpg

 "DEMON MAGIC is the second companion for Stormbringer, the roleplaying game of action and adventure in the Young Kingdoms. Authorized by fantasy author Michael Moorcock, DEMON MAGIC includes all necessary statistics, maps, and plans, and contains many original illustrations. Among its contents are: * The Velvet Circle: a scenario in seven chapters, which takes many sessions of play to conclude. The adventure includes a complete red-light district, with business notes and a plan of the Circle. * Sorcerer's Isle: a shorter, more intense scenario to fill one or two evenings. * Runes of Rathdor: analyzes and describes the properties of six magical runes discovered during the reign of the 42nd Emperor of Melnibone. * Sanity for Stormbringer: introduces the optional characteristic of SAN into Young Kingdoms play. * Six new creatures, six nationalities, seven new Demon abilities, and five new magic items."

Demon Magic: The Second Stormbringer Companion By Larry DiTillio  is in my humble  one of the better supplements for the first edition Stormbringer rpg. Why?! Well according to the 2018 Amazon review by Erik Brickman; "I have since discovered, through endless hours of reading and re-reading it (plus other books made for this RPG) and also playing it with my friends, is that it has a wildly unbalanced and over-the-top ritual magic system, but in spite of it (or because of it) - it works!" ""Why?" you ask? Well, that is a little hard to describe. But I believe it has to do with the overall style that Chaosium's writers put into this and other material at the time. You hear a lot of praise for AD&D/D&D for the hobby these days, even to the degree that they put it in successful TV-series like Stranger Things. But what company have made it through all these years, and still is here to talk about it? Chaosium! Back in the day when these kind of supplements were produced, they implemented a certain sort of composition that made the Gamemaster who wanted to run them feel that the material was made in the style of the atmosphere of the source books (Elric-books by Moorcock). And still make it blend with the BRP system, or Basic Roleplaying." See this is a completely different feel then say Advanced Dungeons & Dragons where the DM is trying to blend the rpg material to their own campaigns. The DM is blending their campaigns to the Stormbringer universe and material. This was especially true for us and the Hawkmoon rpg supplement. 

Which was accurately described Hawkmoon  by Rpg Geek user pestigor as; 'Gamma World with with Law and Chaos...in the universe of the Eternal Champion using the tried and true Chaosium system...AWESOME!"  And this supplement tied back into Demon Magic through it's use of realms of Law & Chaos having detrimental effects on technology, & magic as these forces play marry havoc with the PC's magic items. This played a key point in visiting both the planes of the mini campaign 'The Velvet Circle' which was a key point of adventure within the Demon Magic supplement. Was Demon Magic balanced?! Hell no! But it did work when it came to setting the Stormbringer mythic feel into the rpg.

OSR Commentary On The Sorcerers of Pan Tang For The Stormbringer rpg

 

"Pan Tang is a grim island of lurking evil. Wild jungles to the north resound to the roar of a thousand tigers - the animal sacred to Chardhros the Reaper. The Plain of Glass divides the island, a shining wasteland of ancient volcanic catastrophe The farmland to the south is a living hell to the slaves who worl the great plantations."

"The capital of Pan Tang is Hwamgaarl, the City of Screaming Statues. Tigers walk among men and feed when they please Sorcerers study dark knowledge and summon awesome horrors from other planes to do their bidding. The citizens of Hwamgaarl take their pleasure in the Gardens of Pain, gather their knowledge at the University of Lucid Perversity, and propitiate the Lords of Chaos at the Palace-Temple of the Theocrat."

"Jagreen Lern is the Theocrat of Pan Tang, presiding over this nightmare land. A new age is coming, and his armies are ready. Other nations of the Young Kingdoms already plot against Melnibone, and soon those plots bring war. Pan Tang hovers, vulture-like, awaiting the results of the first violent clash of Young Kingdom armies against the remaining might of Melnibone. Though Melnibone has ruled the world for 10,00( years, in only a small fraction of that time will it be destroyed".

  Sorcerers of Pan Tang for the Stormbringer rpg came out in 1991. Sorcerers of Pan Tang made me a 'fan' of the Pan Tangians and this supplement details the island of Pan Tang. According to the Sorcerers of Pan Tang wiki entry;"Shannon Appelcline noted how after the fourth edition of Stormbringer was published, "the best books to date for the line were produced first by Keith Herber, then by Mark Morrison. They consisted of thick, well-written books of background, such as Sorcerers of Pan Tang (1991) and colourful adventures, such as Rogue Mistress (1991)." This book delivers the Pan Tang island in colourful and dangerous detail. This supplement fits right into the Games Workshop 1991 edition of the  Stormbringer Rpg. Games Workshop also did Eternal Champion line of figures. 

Part of the Eternal Champion line of figures by Games Workshop that appealed to me was Pan Tangian army. They were my go to & still are if I can get my figures out of store 'go to' chaos army. There was something very oddly satisfying about playing & fielding the bad guys. 

  Sorcerers of Pan Tang supplement hits all of the Pan Tangian high points with thier Pan Tangian culture, thier twisted society, adventures & this fits the Stormbringer rpg  so well. I'm not the only one thinks this according to the wiki entry; "Matthew Gabbert reviewed Sorcerers of Pan Tang in White Wolf #31 (May/June, 1992), rating it a 5 out of 5 and stated that "Sorcerers of Pan Tang is well-organized and well-illustrated (thankfully, some of the more graphic descriptions of Pan Tangian recreation are left to the reader's imagination). It successfully presents an atmospheric descrption of Pan Tang and I strongly recommend it for any Stormbringer campaign."" The Pan Tangians could and did appear almost anywhere within the Million Spheres. There were stats for the Pan Tangians within various original Dungeons & Dragons games from Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demigods, & Heroes. We used the Sorcerers of Pan Tang for original Dungeons & Dragons. 

 Within Stormbringer we crossed  the Theocrat Jagreen Lern having raided a Pan Tangian trade ship. This brought us to the Theocrat's attention and we had to flee the plane just to live to adventure another day. 

Coursing & Crawling - More Commentary On - Runequest Cities A Generic Role Playing Supplement

Now let's pick it up right back here on the blog with Runequest Cities.  But what makes Runequest Cities so damn useful for Sword & Sorcery OSR and BRP games?! When it comes to Stombringer Rpg cities, the Runequest fourth edition's Runequest Cities is an excellent resource and one that is especially useful when round out the Sword & Sorcery's Young Kingdom. Why?! Because between adventures there's a catch up system that allows Stormbringer & Elric adventurers to have events outside of the dungeon. Even in the description says so;" The Fourth Edition of the Cities supplement from Midkemia Press was brought into the Avalon Hill/Chaosium Runequest series as a generic sourcebook. This served as one of a number of AH Runequest supplements in their "Gateway" series, intended to broaden the RQ system beyond the Glorantha setting." 

"From the publisher:
RUNEQUEST CITIES: the natural arenas for fantasy roleplaying adventures, city events are the most interesting, city dungeons the deepest, city biways the darkest, city dangers the most invidious, city activities the most tempting, and city rewards the most fabulous.
A unique guide to urban possibility, RQ CITIES includes clear instructions, more than 60 tables, additional dozens of sub-tables, and many illustrations and silhouettes.

RUNEQUEST CITIES: Entertaining, systematic, indispensible.

• Challenging Encounters
• City Populating Procedures
• Character Catch-Up System" 

As I stated my own recent experience with Runequest Cities has been Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg. Where the PC's are between adventures and need to have experiences on thier own terms many of which have gotten rewoven through back play and the like into the Borderlands campaign that we've been doing on and off for years now. The Borderlands is rich with several Bronze Age civilizations and societies. And because of the very nature of Runequest Cities we were able to bring to life many of the lesser areas around the Borderlands to life as minor cities and the like. 
And the same was true with the Young Kingdoms there were minor kingdoms and road  side towns that needed to be fleshed out. And Runequest Cities was a God sent of a product. Many of the plethora of random tables allowed us to flesh out Sword & Sorcery cities without the need for other 'official D20' style supplements. This went hand and glove with many of the ideals that echoed in the aftermath of the D20 implosion.  

Because of it's very nature Runequest Cities is perfect for the Young Kingdoms allowing minor areas of The Sea Kings of the Purple Towns  & Perils of the Young Kingdoms to be filled in with living and thriving areas of vice and trouble across the board. 

Exeperiences In The Care & Handling of A Stormbringer first edition Campaign

 One of the advantages that Rogue Mistress allows a DM to do is to take an 'across the board' approach to thier campaigns. Want to bring in a PC from Hawkmoon's world? No problem. Want a barbarian from the lands north of Elric's Kingdom? No problem at all. 

I've seen comments describing Rogue Mistress as 'rail roadie incarnate' and to a certain extent that's true. Chad Bowser on Rpg Geek from '09 described it as thus; "A genre and 'verse spanning campaign. If your players are into it, this can be a lot of fun. The group really has to be up for anything, though."
And this is absolutely true. Why?! Because Stormbringer is designed for epic and mythological play. And that's no lie. 
The fact is that we thought that the game was better without Elric & Moonglum there to muck things up for our PC's. 
My biggest complaint has been the fact that many Americans have lumped the rpg in with the  Santanic panic'. I've run across people & player who think that the various demons and creatures of the game are 'real'. And during our gaming I got into two very real and dragged out fight with religious players who swore the 'demons' of Runequest and Stormbringer are real. Needless to say that we quickly ejected these two morons out of our campaigns. 
So let's go back to the fact that if we interlock the Rogue Mistress into the events of  Perils of the Young Kingdom. Then we've got an epic cycle that can circle into Sea Kings of the Purple Towns. 

What we did was to take the Stormbringer Companion #1 and the  fact that the companion actually had the Melnibonéan slaver & war ships within. These ships are capable of making even the most hardened adventurer quake within thier boots. 
And that's no joke none of our PC's wanted to end up in a drugged stupor serving on the Dreaming Isle or worse shackled to the end of a Pan Tangian chain. 

When the events of Rogue Mistress come around we were penniless and jumped at the chance to gain entry onboard the Mistress. Much later on we gained our own scale ship the Entropy Climber. That was much later on. All of these events looped back around after all of our PC's had died multiple times within Roge Trader. We had a couple of barbarian tribes men from Glorantha and Avalon Hill's Runequest third edition among our party. 
This was after a lucky break after we had been captured by a the Melnibonéan slaver ship. Only a lucky storm allowed us to escape. We had added two new players which would have been right around '04 just before meeting my wife from the U.K.. 
At it's heart is the fact that Rogue Mistress takes place around to key events one is the fact that the PC's are placed in dire circumstances and must complete the events. We didn't do that but were instead picked up by the Rogue Mistress and had a debt to Captain Maria De Pistola. And the second is the fact that the Mistress is a part of the world ending plot that drives Rogue Mistress. We didn't see the need to derail this plot and we were the group up for anything. And this was one of the secrets I think to running a solid Stormbringer rpg campaign. 
And Rogue Mistress events opened up our party for journeying to Corum's five realms. 

OSR Commentary - Rune Quest Cities A Generic Role Playing Supplement

 Let's pick it up from the other day here on the blog.  And now I mentioned yesterday to one of my players how I was shaping a Stormbringer campaign and we started talking about the game. He mentioned having a collection of early Chaosium material and mentioned that there was a book that I was going to need from 3rd edition Runequest. That book is Runequest Cities from 1988 is one of the best generic universal urban supplements ever. 

Rune Quest Cities is a solid sixty six pages of urban encounters and random tables that isn't simply useful for Runequest but game after game of Sword & Sorcery as well as fantasy. 
And it's all keyed with dice matrixes across the board. Rune Quest Cities is even useful for Cepheus Engine or old school Traveller where you need primitive or other Bronze age world encounters. And so it's incredibly useful for a game of Stormbringer or even another OSR game. 

And my most recent use with  Rune Quest Cities has been with Adventurer, Conqeuror, King.  Yes that's right Rune Quest Cities works very well with a late Roman Empire Style campaign. 
And this was around the time when I had quit D&D completely for about two years. D20 had taken over the entire spectrum of the market. And older players wanted something or anything besides 3.5 or even 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Our Stormbringer campaign had seven or at one point as many as ten players who rotated in and out of the game. 

The Care & Handling of A Stormbringer first edition Campaign

 "A thousand years ago a great war between the Dharzi and Melnibone eliminated the ancient race of sorcerers from the Young Kingdoms, and established the Dragon lords as masters of the world. Far to the north of Melnibone, the family of a lesser lord took the caverns of a tall, black island as their home, transforming the former laboratory of a Dharzi sorcerer into a magnificent abode."

"Then, the Bright Empire began its inexorable decline, and the caverns were abandoned. Four hundred and fifty years have past, and something dark and vile now inhabits this isle, warping the natural order of living things and twisting their very beings into hideous monsters."

"Lord Straasha summons the adventurers to the coast of Tarkesh, bordering the frigid Pale Sea and the unholy domain of forbidden Pan Tang. Visions of bloody waves ceaselessly haunt their dreams, presaging a doom to come should the heroes fail to heed Straasha's urgent call."
One of my all time adventures that I love to use to introduce the Stormbringer PC's into the world of Michael Moorcock's Corum has been 'The Man Who Sold Gods' By Geoff Gallian. The adventure centers around a prince from the realm of Corum; "RORN FELDUN HARAI is a Prince of the Vadagh, a fugitive from the World of the Fifteen Planes. He has come to the Young Kingdoms seeking military aid for his people. Centuries ago they left their native plane in their Sky City. Now they are unable to return, and are besieged by the forces of Xiombarg, Queen of the Swords. Prince Rorn’s quest has been in vain. The Melniboneans declined to assist him in any way. Now he only wishes to return home, but cannot find a way to." 
Eventually the PC's have to summon the 'infinite cathedral' & here's where we recently changed the adventure. And this element was the planar engine  within the cathedral over into an Entropy Configuration ala the Rogue Mistress. 
We did this after a Facebook comment and then to keep internal consistancy with the Stormbringer Rogue Mistress &  Corum book. Our own party had to face the machinations of many Chaos packs and thier handlers.  And this all takes place right after or before the events depicted in Sea Kings of the Purple Town. 

Yes I took this photo from Wayne's Elric/Stormbringer entry here. 

And this allows the campaign to maintain internal consistency. And this is something that we're looking to do coming up with our Stormbringer rpg campaign. The Corum sourcebook has such good material that it can be back drafted into 'The Man Who Sold Gods'. And this allows the DM to pick & choose what adventure elements wants. 

This all feeds into the internal campaign aspect something highlighted within the Rogue Mistress campaign. 

But why?! Well get into that coming up! 

Recollections of The Sea Kings of the Purple Town & Perils of the Young Kingdoms For The Stormbringer rpg

 "Between the Oldest Ocean and the Eastern Ocean lies the Isle of Purple Towns, the center of commerce and trade in the Young Kingdoms."

"Sailing into port, visitors are impressed with the magnificent buildings, the splendid markets, and friendly people. Few see the undercurrents, the dirty deals, and the politics which threaten to rip apart the apparent serenity of the island."


"The Isle of Purple Towns is a haven for adventurers, a safe port to count money and plan future deeds of daring. It lies literally in the middle of the world, and ships sail from Purple Towns ports to every other nation"

Way before Elric took the ruby throne there were other adventurers who strode the Young Kingdoms. Who were they?! They were your adventurers! So goes the premise for the Sea Kings of the Purple Town & Perils of the Young Kingdoms. 

 The Sea Kings of the Purple Town & Perils of the Young Kingdoms both had adventures that put the adventurers right in the heart of the Young Kingdom without Elric & Stormbringer. And this was an adventure element that allowed the PC's to shine. The other thing that these two book allowed the DM to do was too make the Young Kingdoms their own. 

And the divine regularly interacts with the mortal realms. There wasn't a day of the week when Law,Chaos or the elemental lords wasn't sticking thier noses into the collective business of  the adventurers. 
In 'Perils of the Young Kingdom the player's PC's are literally investigating an artifact left behind by the previous incarnation of the Young Kingdom's empire. And then in the same adventure book your solving mysteries for one of the most powerful elemental lords; "A thousand years ago a great war between the Dharzi and Melnibone eliminated the ancient race of sorcerers from the Young Kingdoms, and established the Dragon lords as masters of the world. Far to the north of Melnibone, the family of a lesser lord took the caverns of a tall, black island as their home, transforming the former laboratory of a Dharzi sorcerer into a magnificent abode."

"Then, the Bright Empire began its inexorable decline, and the caverns were abandoned. Four hundred and fifty years have past, and something dark and vile now inhabits this isle, warping the natural order of living things and twisting their very beings into hideous monsters".

"Lord Straasha summons the adventurers to the coast of Tarkesh, bordering the frigid Pale Sea and the unholy domain of forbidden Pan Tang. Visions of bloody waves ceaselessly haunt their dreams, presaging a doom to come should the heroes fail to heed Straasha's urgent call."

Sea Kings of the Purple Town literally gave the PC's one of the best base towns & kingdoms  in all of the fantasy rpg's. I've literally taken the Purple Towns and molded the Young Kingdoms around them. 

Even though none of the adventures in the Sea Kings of the Purple Town & Perils of the Young Kingdoms were balanced these were Chaosium's proving grounds for a ton of options that would later come to be incorporated into other editions of the Stormbringer rpg. Law, Chaos, and The Elemental Lords were always playing havoc with mortal's loves and lives in the Young Kingdom.  And the thing that I really miss about running Stormbringer was the way the game gave and took from player's PC's so readily. There's something to be said for the way that Stormbringer really handled itself. Man this was a game where Chaos almost always had the upperhand. And the PC's were almost always a hair's breath away from being Chaos spawn. 

Pan Tangian Memories - Deeper Reflections into the Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign

 

 

The nation of Pan Tang is by far one of the biggest threats within the Young Kingdoms in the Stormbringer rpg. But those glorious Games Workshop Eternal Champions figures were awesome. For someone in America staring at these figures from the works of Michael Moorcock made them more then a bit exotic. 

As some of my comtemporaries have said Games Workshop's Stormbringer rpg was both a Chaos god sent & a royal pain in the behind. The reason why it was a pain in the behind is because of the infamous spine issues with the book & it falling apart, repeatedly. But that glorious content folks is what really makes the game. The chance to play PC's within the Young Kingdoms was part of the lure of the Sword & Sorcery game itself. 

The part of the Eternal Champion line of figures by Games Workshop that appealed to me was Pan Tangian army. They were my go to & still are if I can get my figures out of store 'go to' chaos army. There was something very oddly satisfying about playing & fielding the bad guys. 

The figures had many of the aspects of the Pan Tangians that I'd come to expect from their portrait in both the Stormbringer rpg & the 'Sorcerers of Pan Tang' book. The Theocrat Jagreen Lern having sent his military forces to the ends of the Young Kingdom & beyond. 

The Pan Tangian military were my go to bad guys across a huge number of planes of the Million Spheres even appearing in various original Dungeons & Dragons games as well. The Pan Tangian tigers claimed many a PC.  The Pan Tangians were far more dangerous in my mind as a DM then any demon. 

The Pan Tangians could appear anywhere in the Million Spheres looking to further their unholy master's twisted Chaotic agenda. And there's been more then few times that the Pan Tangians have appeared in various original Dungeons & Dragons games from Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demigods, & Heroes. 

For  White Dwarf 095 UK's Stormbringer adventure 'The Madcap Laughs' the Pan Tangian military were a constant threat. A random factor that could show up to take down the adventurers at every turn. Thi is part of their very nature a nature of corruption, insanity, & Chaos itself. 

In fact in part three of   'The Madcap Laughs' were introduced to a hunch backed Pan Tangian sorcerer Ylastraraa Taar who has an agenda all of his own for the PC's. This NPC managed to survive the events of 'The Madcap Laughs' & then plague the PC's for more then a year of play.

OSR Thoughts On Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms written by Charles Green- with large contributions from Richard Watts For Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Elric! Rpg

 "This second volume of Cults of the Young Kingdoms shows an approach to life in the Multiverse very different from that found in the Cults of Chaos. Where the Church of Chaos is composed of several mostly independent cults, the Church of Law sees itself as a single, monolithic structure that exists to protect the Young Kingdoms and its people from the ravages of the Dukes of Disorder. This book explores this structure. The Player’s section details how the Cult of Law understands the cosmology of the Multiverse, how individual cultists behave, and how they approach their tasks of cleansing the world of the taint of Chaos. "



"We also see the Barrier of Law-a mystical wall of energy that prevents the Young Kingdoms from dissolving into pure Chaos. Magic is discussed as a by-product of this energy, and how both the cults of Law and Chaos use it. The Gamemaster’s section is a series of discussions about using the information in this book in your Stormbringer campaign. There are details about working with gods-appropriate themes, the cultists of Law as antagonists, and campaign seeds for further adventures. The Barrier of Law-a mystical wall of energy that prevents the Young Kingdoms from dissolving into pure Chaos is discussed here, along with magic, seen as a by-product of this energy, and how both the cults of Law and Chaos use it."

Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms written by Charles Green- with large contributions from Richard Watts is a free monograph for Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Elric!  Rpg respectively. This monograph dives deeply into the background, make up, and monolithic nature of the Cult of Law in Moorcock's Elric series of novels. Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms goes far deeper into the cheap & cheerful nature of Law then one would expect in a free supplement. 

Gods of Law In The Young Kingdoms is also a good resource for an OSR game as well because it has a solid exploitation of the existing information on the church & cults of Law in the Young Kingdoms. This isn't a monster book per say but instead is a solid addition to the Stormbringer rpg.  Gods of Law In The Young Kingdoms could be used for other planes of existence where the cults & church of Law has influence. 

The cultists of Law could well be some of the most fanatical and dangerous NPC's that adventurers of the Chaosium’s Stormbringer rpg. The fact is that cultists & followers of Law's religions have a nasty & very dangerous hatred of all things Chaos. The cracks in the barrier of Law has allowed the cancer of magick as Law looks at it to creep into the Young Kingdoms. The church of chaos of Pan Tang has been actively destroying the ancient safety valves that the Young Kingdom has in place. This is  one of the main reasons why the cults of Law & churches of Law are right in a way. But the fact is that the forces of chaos fueled by Pan Tang & the Young Kingdom's human chaos cults have become such a problem. 
Elric himself as a champion of Arioch is a walking disaster area wherever he goes in the Young Kingdoms & beyond. 

 Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms takes this knowledge of the twilight of Law & adds to it a sense of the cult & church's desparate fight against Chaos. Looking at Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms with a both a player's & DM's eyes is interesting because it puts the view point of the Law into focus. 
Is Gods of Law in the Young Kingdom worth the download? Yes in my humble opinion because of the fact that you've got the magicks of Law, the layout & background, and much more about the dieties, cults, the church, & more of Law! 

Download Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms written by Charles Green- with large contributions from Richard Watts For Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Elric!  Rpg Here 

Back in The Saddle AgainOSR Commentary - DM Steve's Down Darker Trails Campaign

 So for the past three years there's been a copy of Down Darker Trails by Chaosium sitting on my shelves. But my childhood friend DM Steve & his ilk of roudy rustlers borrowed a copy of the pdf some months ago. And I've not heard from them for a while. That is until last night when I got an email with his group having an opening for a sawbones or country doctor. The fact is unlike other CoC systems you as  player pick you career and then build the PC around that. 

There are a lot of new CoC  material that's been added into Darker Trails including over 30 monsters & two new realms. And now its a matter of getting caught up on what's been happening within DM Steve's campaign. 
Now the truth is that for the past couple of months we've been using Independence Games Rider rpg for most of our Clement & Earth sector rpg's. We'll get into that in another blog entry. But there are vast differences between Down Darker Trails & Rider. Rider is far more oriented towards a more historical & cinematic feel. While Down Darker Trails certainly has this but goes for the full on Lovecraftian Western feel! However I'm far more inclined to the Cepheus Engine itself because of the past two years of playing & DMing it. 

That being said, this isn't my rpg rodeo! Instead I'm in the player's seat for a change and rolling dice as as a player. Rider is in some respects more beefy system wise and Down Darker Trails can be run very slimmed down if the DM & players wants. 

Chaosium's Thieves World or Not?! Thieves World & The Hyperborea rpg Campaign Update

 Merry Christmas everyone & happy holidays to my readers. So early this week backers of the Hyperborea rpg got copies of the Hyperborea rpg formerly the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg. But DM Steve brought up an important point from last year's AS&SH games and that was visiting Sancuatary from the Chaosium Thieves World campaign box set. If you are not familar with the box set's history then I strongly suggest  captcorajus excellent review & break down of the Thieves World box set. 

The problem?! Sancutary became the preferred campaign venue when the player's PC's wanted to escape the Winter weather of Hyperborea. The Rakin empire has ties with the human Hyperborea royal houses. The PC's sold mamoth ivory, salted meats, etc along with primeval walrus tusks between adventures on Hyperborea.  The PC's acted as escorts & bodyguards  for a Sancutary wizard to the shores of Ixian for negoations. And there were several expediations from Sanctuary to Hyperborea within our campaign with the player's PC's being guides & experts. 

Now the question becomes do we continue this line of the campaign with the Thieves World adventure elements within our current Hyperborea rpg line of play coming up?! Only time will tell!? 

Review & Commentary On 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' By Leopoldo Rueda For The Seventh Edition Call of Cthulhu rpg

"Horror at the Westmore Motel. It’s the year 1983, and a disturbing coincidence
sends the protagonists of this story to investigate the Westmore Motel. What they will find there... is something out of this world!"


 Leopoldo Rueda sent me over a copy of  'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' which is a Call of Cthlhu rpg adventure. This is an Eighties specific adventure which reads like a cross between an H.P Lovecraft story & Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' had a love child. That adventure would be 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'. And that doesn't take away from the adventure in the slightest. And it only adds to the quirky late night creature feature of the adventure. 
 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' is a great late night movie style adventure to the 7th edition of Call of Cthulhu rpg. Because in twenty eight pages you get a full blown approachable adventure within the confines of a really no so nice road side motel set in 1983. You've got 3 pregenerated '83 investigators who have reasons to be there. You've got a solid adventure location with some of the more iconic & dangerous CoC monsters. And you've got an adventure location that can have other secrets within its walls. 

The writing is very tight within 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' & the adventure is perfectly attuned to run in a about 4-5 hours of play sessions.  Leopoldo Rueda knows his CoC rpg system & uses it to full on advantage within the 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'. But be forwarned that 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' could well be a deadly adventure. There are powers within the walls of the Eighty Three hotel that will bump off adventurers or investigators who play this adventure for stupid. This is a full on investigation module for CoC with all of the traps, pitfalls, & sanity blasting adventure hooks that go with that. Even though this is a beginning adventure for CoC 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  doesn't take prisoners. 
There is horror within  these walls & for beginning adventure 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  takes it horror in stride & plays quite dangerously. How does 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  rate? Well the adventure has a solid cast of NPC's., there is ton of background on  The Westmore Hotel itself & some opportunity for play in a modern adventure for CoC. The horror here is one of opportunity & the mythos isn't quite what a beginning crew of Call of Cthlhu rpg players are going to expect. But this is a good thing as 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' changes adventure events up a bit. I can honestly see running 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' with the Delta Green rpg setting easily. The players would not be expecting the mystery surrounding the Westmore hotel. And the 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' may actually make an excellent middle tier scenario for a beginning CoC group of players. Would I actually run 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'? Honestly?! Yes I really would 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  has the potential to really take the PC's & throw them into the deep end of the Mythos & that's a good thing in my book for a Call of Cthulhu rpg adventure! For a three dollar adventure for Call of Cthulhu I was pleasantly surprised at how well written & conceived 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' is. 

You Can Grab 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' By Leopoldo Rueda For The  Seventh Edition Call of Cthulhu rpg Here.