Using The Free Gamma World Adventure GW5 Rapture Of The Deep As Post Apocalyptic Dungeon Crawl Classic's Wasteland Adventurer Funnel

So I'm speaking with friends last night about the last travesty of my using Legion of Gold as a funnel for a post apocalyptic Dungeon Crawling Classics game using the Crawling Under A Broken Moon rules. So the big complaint that I heard from my friends and players was that they couldn't afford Legion of Gold but loved the ideas of such a funnel. Too bad there isn't a free Gamma World module that could be used in much the same way? Well actually there is! In fact this module has a straight up dangerous high level and very lethal faction from Gamma World introduced way back in an early issue of Dragon magazine. It really doesn't matter which one because everything you need is actually in GW5 and its free. It happens to be for second edition Gamma World and that's really not going to be a problem.

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE 

So what exactly is GW Five Rapture of The Deep and why is it free?
It's a fan made module created to fill the gap in the TSR GW sequence, GW5. For intermediate to advanced players. Here's where the funnel takes place your PC's are some of the victims caught within the attacks happening along the former Florida panhandle.

"A terrible menace from the sea is threatening villages all along the coast. Whole shoreline communities have been disappearing without a trace.
After going through the usual DCC funnel style experience using a bunch of aquatic mutants and their gear, the PC's should have a small side adventure in the ruins of Florida.  Then this bit get's them straight into the action;
"The remaining area inhabitants have banded together and sent for a group of experienced heroes to help. They want to know what could be causing these horrible events, and more importantly, what can be done to put a stop to them. Is it some new terrifying monster from the depths? Or is there something more sinister at work? "
The biggest hurltle the dungeon master and players might have is the use of the underwater rules for DCC but they are out there in the wilds of the internet if you do a bit of research. Here's some that might be of use. 
"The adventurers will travel deep beneath the waves to discover the answer. Can they survive the strange and dangerous ocean depths of Gamma World? Can they solve the mystery before it's too late? " This adventure is an extended campaign for underwater post apocalyptic adventure and there is a ton to encounter and deal with in Rapture of the Deep. This is an underwater sandbox that I've seen several side adventures worked into the background of play over the years and even with DCC it shouldn't be any different.
So that's really the set up for the post apocalyptic DM and his players. The adventure contains a whole plethora of Gamma World underwater madness including: " game master notes, background information, maps, rules for underwater adventuring, new equipment, and over 30 new aquatic creatures."

Rereading through Rapture of the Deep it brought home the opportunities for expansion of several set pieces I've seen used in Gamma World, Mutant Future and other PA games that other DM have used one of which has been floating space ship launch sites controlled by A.I.'s and machine intelligence gods. Many of these ideas were perfect for off of the coast or Florida and Gulf of Mexico, this fits in perfectly with the Merica of Crawling Under A Broken Moon. There are some free resources to that end right over HERE 


Rapture of the Deep features an extensive style of underwater campaigning and this adventure could take months for a group of experienced players to go through. Have several PC's ready and make extensive use of this time to establish an underwater domain or base for PC's because by the time they're done your going to have very high level adventurers at least three or forth level in DCC. If they survive the experience. For myself I used the pattern of the movie Leviathan from 1988 as the pattern for the domain that the players had. A roving under sea mining and scavenging  platform that the PC's managed to free from its A.I. god became they're domain. This same formula could easily work for a DCC game.

GW 5 has its own set of challenges but also an extensive set of rewards and ideas for a range of extended post apocalyptic play. The module remains a favorite of mine. For issues of Crawling Under A Broken Moon that would help I suggest issue #11, 10, 7, UX01: High Caliber Hijinks, and more. Hell just buy the whole damn run and you won't be sorry. More Gamma World and DCC goodness coming up.  

Commentary On Inhumanoid Episode Eight Cult of Darkness (aired November 2, 1986) As A Quick Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign Adventure Point

 

So last night I grabbed my copy of the Inhumanoids VHS tape and threw it into the VCR, fired up the old beast and randomly came into episode #8 Cult of Darkness. Suddenly I was blasted back in time to another era of awesome! Even though the Inhumanoids cartoon followed a very specific timeline, this was one that I've been wanting to rewatch for a long while and the awesome can't be contained within this cartoon!
You've got the Soviets double crossing the Earth Core & branding their new buddy Tank a traitor after having cut a deal with local Granite tribe. Tank meanwhile goes off to kill Metlar himself and complete his mission. But where this episode really ramps up is when investigative reporter Hector Ramirez of Twenty Questions. goes to  expose a local cult of  Brother Druid whose recruiting local San Franciso Bay teens faster then you can say disposable army. Brother druid is inciting the kids into acts of vandalism, running wild in the streets, and general mayhem. All of these kids are being recruited in an abandoned sky scraper and then the final revelation is made when D'Compose bursts through a wall.  There's a mind control gas that's been affecting the kids and of course  Blackthorne Shore is behind the whole scheme.
Herc and Auger are d'composed and its up to Earth Core to save their team mates as well as the zombified teens. There's also a subplot of a chemical formula that will allow D'compose and his zombie minions to survive in sunlight.



There is a lot here to mine for an old school post apocalyptic campaign from the ground up. You've got the Inhumanoids who are essentially post apocalpytic mutant god things recruiting the local flesh slugs(humans) into a scheme of an undead army. You've got a vast array of dungeon locations with the underground cathedral being used as a recruiting point for a wasteland location not to mention Skellweb, D'Compose's dead city. The zombies here would be close to giant Ju Ju zombies from AD&D and they're free willed almost akin to the Deadites from Army of Darkness. Skellweb, D'Compose's dead city is a whole underground adventure campaign location unto itself. Especially given that you've got these things running around it.




Does the episode make a whole lot of sense? Not in the least but its got some great ideas in it to mine for an old school campaign :

1. Modern cults straight out of a post apocalyptic wasteland with potential as a cross over point for both Goblinoid Games Labyrinth Lord & Mutant Future. These mutant god things are perfect stand in for demons or other boss monsters. 
2. These cults & groups are perfect DCC fodder especially Crawling Under A Broken Moon 
3. The super science relics of the Inhumanoid series are perfect examples of artifacts bolstered by hi tech junk yard finds. They even use a ton of 80's stuff to form Tank's armor. 
4. There is a quick random encounter with giant bats! 
5. This episode has some amazing connections between the front organizations & the god things showing how such an organization reaches down into the streets and urban locations of the cartoon. 
6.  Cult of Darkness presents a good plot to use with any old school post apocalypse game as a quick jump point to get your favorite demon or undead horror to present to your players.

This blog post is not a challenge to the copyright & trademark of the Inhumanoids cartoon holders or Hasbro properties.

The Inhumanoids 1986 Kids Cartoon As A Quick Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign Jump Start

So what happens when you take the over excess of the Eighties add in power armor & over the top gigantic pre historic  monsters? You get the Inhumanoids cartoon an inner Earth weirdness fest that was air along side Jem and the Holograms back in '86. Even back then these things were gonzo bat crap craziness all of it owned by Hasbro;"Inhumanoids is an animated series and Hasbro toy property in 1986. In the tradition of other Hasbro properties such as Transformers and G.I. Joe, the show was produced by Sunbow and Marvel Productions and animated in Japan by Toei Animation. Inhumanoids tells the story of the scientist-hero group, Earth Corps, as they battle a trio of subterranean monsters called the Inhumanoids with the aid of elemental beings, the Mutores."

As you can read the whole wiki entry here about the series  and its pretty detailed but then there's this gentleman's video which goes into some pretty good detail about most of the plot points, cast, and lots of The Inhumanoid's weirdness.

There is so much to mine here that I can't do this Eighties gonzo giant monster  show justice. Inhumanoids was packed to the brim with so much goodness that in sixty five episodes there was lot of epic ground to cover. The plot of the Evil That Lies Within movie goes something like this;"The story begins with the discovery of a monstrous creature encased in an amber monolith buried in Big Sur national park, which is recovered by the government-funded Earth Corps, a geological sciences research team. The finding spurs corrupt industrialist Blackthorne Shore to clandestinely uncover a second monster buried elsewhere — a giant vine-like creature called Tendril, who attacks the amber block's public unveiling in San Francisco to release the macabre colossus trapped within, D'Compose. They rampage through city streets before fleeing into the watery darkness of the bay.
Earth Corps member Liquidator returns to Big Sur in search of further clues to the origin of these monsters, whereupon he discovers a race of sentient trees, the Redwoods, who explain that they are members of a subterranean population known as Mutores, and that their kind sealed the evil Inhumanoids Tendril and D'Compose beneath the Earth ages ago. The malevolent Inhumanoid leader, Metlar, remains imprisoned below the surface, paralyzed by the magnetic field of a Mutore duo named Magnokor.
A nocturnal assault by Tendril demolishes the Earth Corps base, prompting a chase into the depths of the Earth, but even with the help of another Mutore species, the rock-bodied Granites, they are forced to retreat back to the surface. When their budget is summarily cut by Senator Masterson — a crooked politician in Blackthorne Shore's shady pocket — they are approached by Sandra Shore, Blackthorne's sister, who has learned of her brother's sinister plot to liberate Metlar. Funded by Sandra, the team constructs new vehicles and embarks back below the Earth's surface, tracking D'Compose and Tendril to the city of the Granites, where an ensuing battle frees Metlar from Magnokor's hold. Having pilfered Earth Corps' engineering schematics via his ties to Masterson, Blackthorne joins the fray, now equipped with his own battle-suit whose magnetic powers he wields against Metlar, only to be derailed by Tendril's interference while Sandra falls victim to the mutative touch of D'Compose.
Earth Corps manages to escape and forms an alliance with the Granites. Herc accompanies them to D'Compose's domain of Skellweb while Auger and Liquidator venture into Metlar's kingdom of Infernac, and Bright convinces the Redwoods to help defend the surface world against attempts by the Inhumanoids to acquire sources of power. Herc and the Granites are able to defeat D'Compose's reanimated soldiers and restore Sandra to normal. Blackthorne pursues Auger and Liquidator to Infernac and tries to use his magnetic powers on Metlar once again but is foiled by Magnokor and taken captive by Metlar.
Acting on information forced from Blackthorne, the Inhumanoids raid a Soviet air base, stealing a handful of nuclear missiles. A seemingly repentant Blackthorne warns Earth Corps that the missiles are intended to shatter the divide between the Earth's crust and mantle, but upon travelling into the Earth to preclude this catastrophe, the team discovers that Blackthorne has set them up and that the missiles are actually meant to detonate the planet's core. Earth Corps is able to convince D'Compose to allow them access to Infernac — a deal made easier by the fact that the Inhumanoid already fears for his own survival in the face of Metlar's insane plan — and they manage to defuse enough of the missiles to thwart the explosive scheme.
Following a climactic battle, D'Compose is re-sealed in amber casing and Tendril is imprisoned by the Granites. Finally, Magnokor succeeds in neutralizing Metlar even as Blackthorne is arrested by Earth Corps. Senator Masterson provides the Earth Corps team with a new headquarters facility, but a tissue sample secured from Tendril during their first encounter with the monster has mysteriously gone missing...:" To this day this show still has some of the most devoted fans outside of Transformers I've ever encountered. What is there for the old school dungeon master to mine & borrow? Lots and lots of stuff as we're about to get into.


Now here's where I head South from the fiery depths of the Earth folks, Inhumanoids is the Eighties version of an adventure opera. This is seriously one show with so much ground to borrow from it isn't even funny. You've got scientists in power armor running around facing some of the weirdest monsters to burst forth from the depths of the Earth. Let's start with the fact that if you want to get into gonzo epic weirdness this is a show to emulate in spades. Inhumanoids is the perfect adventure cartoon to use as a template or plan to use for an old school gonzo game. And when it hit in Eighty Six we grabbed our copy of second edition Gamma World (no we didn't fall for that third edition Action Control Table stuff) & set an Inhumanoids style giant monster game right up after school during the Shadow Years! But when it comes to using a power armor party going against giant monsters I can only think of the Mutant Crawl Classics game being able to sort of handle a funnel style with an Inhumanoids giant monster bent. Did that after school game back in sixth grade make a whole lot of sense? Give me a break we were kids. But the sheer scale of the game was really one of the fun parts.

While Mutant Crawl Classics isn't out yet I can also see using the Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine for my own Eighties power armored VS giant monster fueled fun. Given the fact that the collected fanzine has all of the elements a DM would need for giant monster bashing fun. Yeah this style of campaign is a perfect marriage of gonzo retroclone weirdness. But there's a lot more going on below the surface here in Inhumanoids.



There was one thing that made Inhumanoids such a hit with the kids back in Eighty six & that was the sheer variety of monsters and races in the cartoon. There was an internal consistency to the background,history, plot points, and internal mythology of the cartoon. Yes it was completely over the top Eighties cartoon crazy but it was so in an internal universe way. This was something really important that as a DM I learned from Inhumanoids, the idea of world building with an internal setting with layers of back history, etc. that the players uncover the deeper into the adventures they go. Marvel had a Sunbow crossover series of comics and it kept this aspect of the show but it came out in '87 and was canceled. "Marvel Comics produced a short-lived Inhumanoids comic book under its Star Comics imprint in 1987, adapting the storyline of "The Evil That Lies Within". The series ended after only 4 issues and left readers with the cliffhanger of Metlar's escape from captivity and Sandra Shore's transformation into an undead minion of D'Compose." Boo, hiss.
Could the giant monster vs power armor work for other retroclone systems or post apocalyptic  games? Short answer yes on a number of levels. The Inhumanoid's inner Earth ecology is very applicable to a point crawl game with lots of potential for underworld mutant monster races & forgotten adventure locations. I used this idea as a part of my Warlords of the Outer Worlds game recently.

A  couple of years ago an ex friend of mine DMed a Lamentations of the Flame Princess/ Mutant Future crossover game which used giant mutant god monsters straight out of after school Eighties goodness. This far more generic game used a group of scientists who are transported lock, stock, and university onto an alien planet ala Carcosa and they had to fight giant god things to survive. The play sessions were interesting, challenging, and very well done. And that same formula also had a brother/sister rivalry of patrons as well but that's where things went in very different directions then Inhumanoids as the sister was killed as a sacrifice for one of the god things. The brother ended up as the patron of the party of adventurers after suddenly seeing the light. The whole thing  works well with games such as Mutant Future or Gamma World 1st & second edition where the technology of inner Earth travel was implied and was never used. Now adventure locations with Shadow Years flavor are easily within reach of PC's.

So why use this style of game campaign? Because its Eighties gonzo epic adventure opera at its best. The stakes are ridiculously high, the weirdness is up to Eleven, and its got giant mutant monsters to boot! I've had several of the Earth Core pop up from time to time as high level retired adventurers in various campaigns making NPC cameos. Even after all of these years there are still thousands of devoted Inhumanoid fans out there (myself being one of them). The basis for the cartoon series could be used for an epic gonzo campaign of incredible old school proportions. The series is out on Blu ray and DVD so its easily accessed for someone with the time to grab it. I love to see a big screen revamp of it, given the fact that so many Eighties cartoon properties are being given new life. This is one to take a look at. Obviously I'm not trying to violate the trademark or copyright of Inhumanoids and this blog entry is for educational & entertainment purposes only. None of the table top rpg's mentioned in this article are responsible for its content its all down to me and my warped DM's mind and opinions.

Review & Commentary On UX02: Mind Games By Reid San Filippo From Shield of Faith Studios For Crawling Under A Broken Moon & Dungeon Crawl Classics

UX02: Mind Games By Reid San Filippo is going to be one of those titles that I think is an essential book for Crawling Under A Broken Moon & Dungeon Crawl Classics. Psionics has always been a tricky business in D&D regardless of edition and with post apocalyptic games its even more so even though there have been several good psionic systems out there over the years. Which brings me to UX02: Mind Games By Reid San Filippo From Shield of Faith Studios For Crawling Under A Broken Moon & Dungeon Crawl Classics.
Basically UX02: Mind Games - All the psionic rules you need for any genre of DCC. Includes a full psionic system, powers, the new psion PC class, items and monsters.But does it live up to its hyperconscious reputation?
GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

So does this sixty nine page psionics add on bring anything new to the table for DCC and Crawling Under A Broken Moon? Yes in some fashion it does; what Mind Games does is brings to the table the no nonsense and no bull psionics and stripes it down to its bare essentials and into a playable DCC format. The book states right out front what it does:

1. The book sets out to capture the 1st and 2nd edition psionics system in an easy to use format. 
2. It brings psionics to the table in a way that is completely different then Clerics or Wizards 
3. A psionic system that is set firmly within the DCC system for current and future DCC projects or settings. 
4. A balanced psionic system that will not unbalance the play of DCC and yet still be awesome!
   

So right off the bat we get introduced to the Psion class for DCC which is a re working of the D20 psionic class into the arena of DCC now this may sound like a bad thing but it isn't. First of all its reworking of the class from the ground up & brings it far closer to the DCC aesthetic then the 3.5 class. This is a careful balancing act here and the Shield of Faith crew does a nice job. It doesn't feel rushed or shoehorned into the Crawling setting, it actually fits the 'Merica setting.
We get a revamped psionic system and once again its been streamlined into the DCC system and that's a good thing. We get a stripped down and well thought out psionic system including dueling and all kinds of nifty little bits and pieces.


Psionics here is compartmentalized and works well for what the designers were trying to do. Take a workable psionic system and fit it into the world of Crawling Under A Broken Moon. I think they've succeeded on that end. The work here is far leaner and meaner then I've seen it before. This is a book that is begging to be used. The production here is very well done and the psionics are solidly done. There are thus the usual DCC random psionic effects and backlashes and all kinds of weird bits for PC's that dungeon masters are going to love!  This piece of artwork cracked me up because just last week this happened! There are ton of psionic systems and stuff here that work in equal measure of good, weird, and why didn't I think of that.


Anyhow rounding out this book we start to get into psionic items & monsters. These are some vicious DCC game elements let me tell you. First of there is living crystal weapons for the game these are 'intelligent swords & items' for psions with all of the DCC goodness and complications that go with them. They can be really nasty & dangerous.
Next up is Psy- Baubles which are floating and weird psionic items that are sort of like Ioun stones but are for psions. They have some really interesting properties but can crack & break! Because of the rarity of these items its a bit of trade off. Brow Jewels are another psionic crystal item that lowers the DC for PC and adhere to the foreheads of their owners. They have all kinds of nifty little effects & tricks. 
Memory tomes are psionic virtual reality devices that allow the psion to experience pre holocaust memories and enhancements. They function like Jedi Holocrons for psions and allow all kinds of mayhem to be added into an adventure especially with psions.
Finally we get into a whole bunch of nasty psionic monsters straight out of a 'B' science fantasy movie director's day dreams. Things like the Braingineer a brain in jar robot but from another timeline and world, they're completely alien and very Lovecraftian.


Cerebears are incredibly dangerous monsters with an exposed brain and lots of flying eyeballs around them. They're intelligent and very dangerous psionic monsters capable of wiping out an entire party of adventurers on their own.
There also the Edacious Encephalons which are hungry brain devils, life forms in search of tasty emotions and capable of torturing psions and all kinds of possibilities for adventure game mayhem with this monster. An emotional psion parasite with stalker overtones and a vindictive streak a mile wide. Fun monster to torture PC's with.
The Hive Mind is an alien psionic into itself weird, strange,and pissed off. Made up of swarms of spiders or insect  serpents or other wasteland creatures this being is a weird combination of psion and a swarm of monsters. They are true sociopathic personalities with all of the failings and advantages of them and they're completely dangerous to PC's. A perfect urban or rural monster to throw into the mix.  Finally we get the Lobstrosityrant which is the central tier leader of a hive of Lobstrosity and are one of the more colorful and weird potential NPC monsters of the book. They've got personalities, hold conversations with waste landers and are generally easily offended. So bring them treated lumber as an offering in their hives. These guys have the potential to be some bad ass NPC's or perhaps friends to PC's. And then finally we get a table of psi beast complications and attacks and that brings Mind Games to a close. This is a solid system built upon the OGL D20 psionics system but adapted and spun for DCC and the Crawling Under A Broken Moon setting. Does this mean that this is a rehash of material that we've seen a million times back in the D20 days? Umm no its a brand new systems  with new monsters, weird items, and plenty of back beat systems material that can  be used with any DCC setting or game. This is a four out of five book and easily worth your time, energy, and coin folks.