Forbidden Secrets Of The Lamp - OSR Campaign Commentary On Ray Harryhausen's 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad' 1958

 Top notch adventure as our hero Sinbad must rescue a princess who has been miniaturized and held captive by a ruthless magician. All sorts of obstacles are thrown in Sinbad's way, including the famous swordfighting skeleton. © 1958,

"Sokurah the Magician: From the land beyond beyond... from the world past hope and fear... I bid you Genie, now appear. "


I'm trying to remember the first time I saw 'The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad' but as it plays in the Blu Ray & that damn sound track plays again. I'm transported back to the world of Sinbad on a Saturday afternoon as channel Eleven showed endless Ray Harryhausen sword & sorcery flicks after cartoons. Here's the specifics according to Wiki;
"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a 1958 Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Nathan H. Juran, that stars Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, and Alec Mango."

So what the hell does this have to do with Dungeons & Dragons or the OSR for that matter? Well there have been countless writers, artists, etc. including Gary Gygax & David Lance "Dave" Arneson who took a bit from this picture. But for a dungeon master this film is a god sent for creating & expanding upon for a home campaign. There is almost nothing written about or referenced  about the island of Collossa or its lost people. Sokurah the magician  played expertly by Torin Thatcher has been plundering their secrets, relics, treasures, & life forms for years. He reminds me on a certain level of Forbidden Planet's Dr.Edward Morbius both men are plundering the ancient knowledge of people's long gone. They're secrets are shaping them not the other way around. Sokurah has been messing with the black magick secrets of Collosa & they've been messing with him. He knows each and every detail of the island and its secrets but fails to see the bigger picture.What other secrets await in the dungeons & ruins of Collosa.

[about to land on Collosa]
Sinbad: May Allah grant we find food and water.
Harufa: And may Allah grant we find nothing else.

The peoples of Collosa mastered the transformations of flesh & the creation of chimera. The transformation of the Princess's lady into the serpent woman is both classic & telling.Telling because the magick is both smooth but very dangerous. The great thing about Harryhausen's stop-motion is the dream-like quality that sweeps over the audience. We would later on get another sample of the level of mastery of the wizardry of the people of Colossa.

There's something very unnerving about the skeleton from the Seventh Voyage. The magician transfers a bit of his mind into the skeleton to animate it but its aggressiveness is turned to murdering Sinbad. A friend of mine thought that the skeleton might have been a controlled Deadite ala Army of Darkness. This was something connected to the 'children of the Hydra' skeletons in Harryhausen's Jason & The Argonauts.

Sure by the end of the picture Sinbad & co. sail away from  Collosa & live happily ever after. But what happened to all the ruins & other materials left behind? Its all still there along with other cyclopes & who knows what else. The island is a perfect adventure point for a mid level party of adventurers. Was Toro the only dragon on the island? No, I doubt it. Toro was a very dinosaur like dragon of an almost singular lower tier intelligence that acted as magician Sokura's watch dog & bodyguard.


So what's the story of the island of Collosa ? In my mind there are a few hypothesis that come to mind. One its another R&D facility of the gods like 'the Isle of Bronze'. I'm not the first to put forward that theory or speculation. But there's something much more interesting about the island of Collosa. If you watch the journey that Sinbad's crew take across the island there are different variations of ecosystems that they go through. Some are very similar to Skull Island from King Kong from '33. The  dead island nation is very artificial and perhaps was there long before the people of  Collosa got to it.

Elder Thing by  Віщун - http://vixis24m.deviantart.com/art/The-Elder-Thing-395769042

The island might have been a hold over from the time of the Elder Things of H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. "The beings first appeared in H. P. Lovecraft's novella, "At the Mountains of Madness" (published in 1936, but written in 1931), and later appeared, although not named, in the short story "The Dreams in the Witch-House" (1933). Additional references to the Elder Things appear in Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Out of Time" (1936)." The people of Collosa came later after the oceans drank Atlantis, Hyperborea, etc. Possibly foretold before the disaster that took the ancient world during one of its extinction cycles. So what was the black wizard after? Power & recognition  on the global stage pure and simple, he manipulated events from the first meeting with Sinbad right from the get go. He wanted the secrets of the lamp, he had the secrets of the island dead island nation but that wasn't enough. It never is. He wanted the lamp's protection  because there were deeper levels to the ruins where even greater secrets and horrors awaited him. We know that volcanic vents power the island's facilities.


If we go back to the original source material from Sinbad the Sailor from One Thousand and One Nights. Then the picture becomes much clearer in the magician's actual agenda ripe with his quest for forbidden knowledge and power. In fact the comic book adaptation Four Color #944 - The 7th Voyage of Sinbad released by Dell on September 1, 1958.  bares this very fact out!



So what the hell is down blow in the vaults below Collosa? My guess is that there are incredibly ancient secrets of the Elder Things. Perhaps proto shoggoth material, relics, ancient secrets, & knowledge beyond the pale of mankind. Just the sort of thing to interest the black wizard of  Collosa. We have very little on the black wizard's background but given the make shift state of his workshop's he's been plumbing the secrets of the island for ten to twenty years. He's adapted, modified, uses the artifacts & relics of
Collosa as he see's fit.

Sinbad: What weird power restrains that monster?
Sokurah the Magician: The man that holds this treasure is safe from even greater danger.
Sinbad: Why didn't you destroy the monster?

Sokurah the Magician: The genie of the lamp cannot be used to work harm. But in protection, his powers are invincible.

So how could Collosa be used for OSR retro clone system? Well given the artifacts and relics of the dead island nation. I can see using
Collosa as an adventure location for Dark Albion. The island and its ruins make a perfect location to look for relics to help the War of The Roses brewing in Albion. The island could also fit into a Labyrinth Lord game as a destination for travelers and adventurers where the cyclops are deadly beyond measure. The island could also be used as a possible adventure location for Mutant Future as its already very dreamlike and could drift along the planar winds to wind up in the post apocalyptic world. The place would also make an excellent adventure location for Lamentations of the Flame Princess where adventurers have to locate one or more items while facing down the horrors of the island's cyclops guardians. Its also a ready made location to use with B/X Dungeons & Dragon's Isle of Dread which I've done many times!

Dungeons & Sheens - A Stars Without Number Revised Campaign Idea Using Dragon Magazine issue #258

"Once the Glaive was a powerful weapon. In the right hands, it can be so again." "Don't worry, I'll come back with it." "If you don't come back with it, Colwyn, you'll not come back at all!" -- Ynyr to Colywn, Krull, Marvel Comic Adaptation



So the year is Nineteen Ninety Nine,  Dragon magazine is a force to be reckoned with, Alternity is the new sci fi game from TSR  & White Wolf rules the wilds of the hobby shop shelves. At the ready on the table from that is Dragon issue #248 with a great cover by Todd Lockwood but its the article by Bruce R.Cordell called Mage vs Machine that has my interest tonight.



The entire campaign is tailor made to be run with Stars Without Number Revised.  Your typical D&D style fantasy world is completely overrun with cybernetic A.I organisms called Sheens. The wizards, and certain magic wielding types adapt to the onslaught & begin to salvage & re purpose some of the Sheens technologies. This is a well thought out campaign setting by Cordell & he's got a plethora of new classes, lots & lots of magic items, robotic occult goodies, & more.
But how would I adapt 'Man vs Machine' for Stars Without Numbers revised? I'd subvert the ideas of the setting completely by going back to the Eighties. Take Stars Without Numbers rules entirely & gut what you need from the setting.

I would go back to the Eighties & take the Dragon magazine article 'Man vs Machine' then dig out my blu ray of the cult classic film Krull from 1983. Set the events depicted in the article as happening in the same timeline as Krull down the line in the future. 

Now we've got every excuse to land a space craft on your fantasy planet tracking the latest wave of 'Sheen' technology & they recruit some local hot shot talent adventurers. The adventurers find out that their a part of a much broader interstellar sector!



The royal line established by   Colwyn &  Princess Lyssa are in grave danger from the Sheen as they have comeback to claim their long forgotten home world. The horrors of  the Beast's kind are the real threat lurking beyond the claim & placid reality of the home world of Krull. Our heroes are recruited into a much more dangerous universe & sector of space then they understand. There are several reasons why this work & work very well: 

1. My friend Michael Tresca did a D2o Krull book that can be down loaded for free & its easily converted over to Stars Without Number. 
2. The sheen have a huge number of variations of troop types these are easily used with SWN's space magic rules. 
3. There were more threats indicated in the cult film of Krull & these can be fleshed out using Stars Without Number. 
4. Many  new players are not even familiar with Krull or its deadliness. 
5. Who knows what ruins & space dungeons might be lurking in the space around Krull. Its the perfect opportunity to create something quite unexpected in orbit! 
6. What happened to the Glaive after the events of the film? Is a new champion of Krull needed?! 
7. Are the descendants of  King Colwyn &  Queen Lyssa in deep trouble from the sheen or something quite worse? 
8. Time to break out the copies of B2 Keep on the Borderlands. This is the perfect opportunity to use an old classic module & give the players an unexpected jolt of D&D action on Krull. 
9. Is Krull the backward that it really appears to be or could there much more that was implied in the script lurking below the surface. 
10. Could the elemental courts of AD&D have designs on Krull & the royal family that not even the PC's can guess? 

Forbidden Secrets Of The Lamp - OSR Campaign Commentary On Ray Harryhausen's 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad' 1958

Top notch adventure as our hero Sinbad must rescue a princess who has been miniaturized and held captive by a ruthless magician. All sorts of obstacles are thrown in Sinbad's way, including the famous swordfighting skeleton. © 1958,

"Sokurah the Magician: From the land beyond beyond... from the world past hope and fear... I bid you Genie, now appear. "


I'm trying to remember the first time I saw 'The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad' but as it plays in the Blu Ray & that damn sound track plays again. I'm transported back to the world of Sinbad on a Saturday afternoon as channel Eleven showed endless Ray Harryhausen sword & sorcery flicks after cartoons. Here's the specifics according to Wiki;
"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a 1958 Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Nathan H. Juran, that stars Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, and Alec Mango."

So what the hell does this have to do with Dungeons & Dragons or the OSR for that matter? Well there have been countless writers, artists, etc. including Gary Gygax & David Lance "Dave" Arneson who took a bit from this picture. But for a dungeon master this film is a god sent for creating & expanding upon for a home campaign. There is almost nothing written about or referenced  about the island of Collossa or its lost people. Sokurah the magician  played expertly by Torin Thatcher has been plundering their secrets, relics, treasures, & life forms for years. He reminds me on a certain level of Forbidden Planet's Dr.Edward Morbius both men are plundering the ancient knowledge of people's long gone. They're secrets are shaping them not the other way around. Sokurah has been messing with the black magick secrets of Collosa & they've been messing with him. He knows each and every detail of the island and its secrets but fails to see the bigger picture.What other secrets await in the dungeons & ruins of Collosa.

[about to land on Collosa]
Sinbad: May Allah grant we find food and water.
Harufa: And may Allah grant we find nothing else.

The peoples of Collosa mastered the transformations of flesh & the creation of chimera. The transformation of the Princess's lady into the serpent woman is both classic & telling.Telling because the magick is both smooth but very dangerous. The great thing about Harryhausen's stop-motion is the dream-like quality that sweeps over the audience. We would later on get another sample of the level of mastery of the wizardry of the people of Colossa.

There's something very unnerving about the skeleton from the Seventh Voyage. The magician transfers a bit of his mind into the skeleton to animate it but its aggressiveness is turned to murdering Sinbad. A friend of mine thought that the skeleton might have been a controlled Deadite ala Army of Darkness. This was something connected to the 'children of the Hydra' skeletons in Harryhausen's Jason & The Argonauts.

Sure by the end of the picture Sinbad & co. sail away from  Collosa & live happily ever after. But what happened to all the ruins & other materials left behind? Its all still there along with other cyclopes & who knows what else. The island is a perfect adventure point for a mid level party of adventurers. Was Toro the only dragon on the island? No, I doubt it. Toro was a very dinosaur like dragon of an almost singular lower tier intelligence that acted as magician Sokura's watch dog & bodyguard.


So what's the story of the island of Collosa ? In my mind there are a few hypothesis that come to mind. One its another R&D facility of the gods like 'the Isle of Bronze'. I'm not the first to put forward that theory or speculation. But there's something much more interesting about the island of Collosa. If you watch the journey that Sinbad's crew take across the island there are different variations of ecosystems that they go through. Some are very similar to Skull Island from King Kong from '33. The  dead island nation is very artificial and perhaps was there long before the people of  Collosa got to it.

Elder Thing by  Віщун - http://vixis24m.deviantart.com/art/The-Elder-Thing-395769042

The island might have been a hold over from the time of the Elder Things of H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. "The beings first appeared in H. P. Lovecraft's novella, "At the Mountains of Madness" (published in 1936, but written in 1931), and later appeared, although not named, in the short story "The Dreams in the Witch-House" (1933). Additional references to the Elder Things appear in Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Out of Time" (1936)." The people of Collosa came later after the oceans drank Atlantis, Hyperborea, etc. Possibly foretold before the disaster that took the ancient world during one of its extinction cycles. So what was the black wizard after? Power & recognition  on the global stage pure and simple, he manipulated events from the first meeting with Sinbad right from the get go. He wanted the secrets of the lamp, he had the secrets of the island dead island nation but that wasn't enough. It never is. He wanted the lamp's protection  because there were deeper levels to the ruins where even greater secrets and horrors awaited him. We know that volcanic vents power the island's facilities.


If we go back to the original source material from Sinbad the Sailor from One Thousand and One Nights. Then the picture becomes much clearer in the magician's actual agenda ripe with his quest for forbidden knowledge and power. In fact the comic book adaptation Four Color #944 - The 7th Voyage of Sinbad released by Dell on September 1, 1958.  bares this very fact out!



So what the hell is down blow in the vaults below Collosa? My guess is that there are incredibly ancient secrets of the Elder Things. Perhaps proto shoggoth material, relics, ancient secrets, & knowledge beyond the pale of mankind. Just the sort of thing to interest the black wizard of  Collosa. We have very little on the black wizard's background but given the make shift state of his workshop's he's been plumbing the secrets of the island for ten to twenty years. He's adapted, modified, uses the artifacts & relics of
Collosa as he see's fit.

Sinbad: What weird power restrains that monster?
Sokurah the Magician: The man that holds this treasure is safe from even greater danger.
Sinbad: Why didn't you destroy the monster?

Sokurah the Magician: The genie of the lamp cannot be used to work harm. But in protection, his powers are invincible.

So how could Collosa be used for OSR retro clone system? Well given the artifacts and relics of the dead island nation. I can see using
Collosa as an adventure location for Dark Albion. The island and its ruins make a perfect location to look for relics to help the War of The Roses brewing in Albion. The island could also fit into a Labyrinth Lord game as a destination for travelers and adventurers where the cyclops are deadly beyond measure. The island could also be used as a possible adventure location for Mutant Future as its already very dreamlike and could drift along the planar winds to wind up in the post apocalyptic world. The place would also make an excellent adventure location for Lamentations of the Flame Princess where adventurers have to locate one or more items while facing down the horrors of the island's cyclops guardians. Its also a ready made location to use with B/X Dungeons & Dragon's Isle of Dread which I've done many times!

Commentary On Adapting House Two The Second Story As Old School Campaign Jump Off Point

So I've been down all this last week with a wicked head cold, all of the while my fiancee has been home. While all of the horrid terrorist stuff happening in London she wanted an upbeat comedy adventure film.After making sure family on both of sides was safe & sound, I introduced her to House II The Second Story. This is a film with a pretty heavy set of cult classic credentials. 

Nothing like a bit of alternative dimension travel via crystal skull powered zombie cowboy action flick to get blood pumping. House II features one of my all time favorite part time adventurers Bill Towner (John Ratzenberger) whose always locating alternate universes, fighting evil cultists with his sabre he keeps in his tool box  or just fixing the wiring in your house. Bill has appeared in various OSR games including Mutant Future, Raiders! of the Lost Artifacts most recently as a fourth level mercenary with a favorite weapon of saber. Bill is simply an awesome NPC to use. He's a guy used to finding "one of those time-portal things...you see these all the time in these old houses."

Pound for cheesy laden pound of overly fantastic Eighties heavy film, House Two the Second Story still packs in the meta adventure fodder ideas. Savaged by critics when it came out this film has at its center a relic that ties the entire affair together. The Wiley Crystal Skull sits in the center of the house right on the mantle display of the impressive faux Mayan fire place. The entire place is time/space portal to several alternative Earth time periods. "Gramps explains that the house was built using stones from the Mayan temple, and that its rooms act as a hidden doorway across space and time, with the skull acting as a key."

The Stimson house which bears a striking resemblance to the home 

at the center of events in House Two The Second Story.


Entire campaigns can be built around the recovery of the Wiley Crystal that was last seen someplace down around Arizonian border in 1870 or so. This is after the Slim Reeser massacre & shoot out. The skull is worth a cool 100,000 gold pieces and will open 1d4 random dimensional gateways. The skull is immune to many of the effects of magical spells with a forty five percent chance of spell resistance

Crystal Skull by Rafał Chałgasiewicz

When the skull is within the temple it has a chance of attracting the notice of any minor powers or gods who may send emissaries for the artifact. There are those who believe that the skull may not be Mayan in origin at all but an artifact of K’nyan. Still others believe the skull is connected with Vulthoom.

There are several passages in the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis for binding rituals for the powers of the skull but these will simply make adventurers targets for the demonic powers of the skull itself.  You can find out more about this connection between the Wiley Crystal skull & Necromonicon of Evil Dead Fame here.

 There is a small cult of dedicated modern Mayan style priests & Eagle warriors who control a small alternative dimension who seek the Wiley Crystal Skull. They will stop at nothing to obtain it from the current owners. There are rumors of dimensional doorways leading from Hyperborea or Greyhawk that the skull opens. There are rumors of the skull having its own twisted and dangerous agenda for those under the influence of the artifact. Each day there is a 60% chance of another other worldly gateways opening within a twenty foot radius from the skull. The Wiley skull will extend the owner's life by 1d100 years if so chooses, even handling the damn thing has a 40% chance of turning the owner into a juju zombie like undead being.

The skull is still out there someplace possibly passing between owners out in the Old West of 1873. There are rumors of it turning up among various adventurer's belongings and reports of it having been seen at odd times in pawn shops, flop houses,etc. The skull could be trying to find a new familial guardian line and pop up in a Boot Hill/AD&D crossover adventure.

Slim Reeser didn't act alone & his gang operated along with the 'Wild Bunch' deep into the 1900's operating a profitable black market trade in ancient artifacts & relics. Indiana Jones & other adventurers are said to have crossed their path a number of times. Slim supposedly had a number of encounters with adventurers besides his hobby of murdering the McLachlan family line.
1d6 Random Encounters With Those Looking For Wiley Crystal Skull  Encounter Table 

1. A group of 1d4 black magick cultists on a quest for sacrifices & the skull. They're more then willing to murder anyone in their way. 
2. 3rd level mercenary treasure hunter who was a part of the old Reeser gang 
3.  1d4 secret government agents hot on the trail of the skull armed with super science artifacts to handle the dimensional warping magicks. 
4. A  Necronomicon occultist is searching for the skull & any of the McLachlan line. 
5. 1d6 Deadites who are on a quest for the skull and likely to murder anyone where they stand. 
6. A warped 6th level black priestess of some Lovecraftian goddess on a quest for the skull.

Please note that this blog post is not an attempt to violate the trademark or copyright of the film House Two The Second Story. This blog post is for entertainment,  informational, & educational purposes only.  All other ideas are  copyrighted to the original writer.

Commentary On Dark Albion + Eighties Cult Classic Movie Krull For An Old School Campaign Jump Off Point

Alright fine, I've been challenged tonight to come up with a way of combining three of my favorite things into a viable campaign. So here goes Dark Albion The Rose War & Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos  plus 1983's Krull film combined with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea equals out to a fully formed interstellar swords & sorcery campaign setting.

At first it doesn't seem as through a cheesy Eighties cult film has anything to do with the historical backdrop of  Dark Albion but as we shall see there's more here then simply nostalgia.  A prophecy regarding "a girl of ancient name that shall become queen", which says "that she shall choose a king, and that together they shall rule their world, and that their son shall rule the galaxy".
Down comes the Black Fortress on to Krull or should I say the world of Albion. The kingdoms have been a mess since the Hundred Years War.  The House of Lancaster (associated with a red rose), and the House of York (whose symbol was a white rose) have gone to war after the coming of the Beast's Black Fortress. Both Prince Colwyn &  Princess Lyssa are but minor players in this grand stage of interstellar battle.

The slayers are the least of the problems as the Frogmen are about to invade Albion & wreck everything. There has been on and off conflict with them but the weakness of the Hundred Years war has left them an opening. Here the Beast is a chaos infested demonic power once disposed member of Albion's royal linage. He's gone out into the stars to create a demonic army & has returned to wreck havoc on the houses of the Lancastrian kings. This is a time of change as the interstellar map is rapidly changing.


The planet of Albion was once the playground of the Elves whose cults have infiltrated every level of society & whose alliance with the Beast has caused great concern among the mystics, rulers, & the inquisition of Albion. There are rumors of Prince Colwyn seeking the Elven infernal device among the wastelands with a rag tag group of mercenaries but this may be House of York propaganda. There is also evidence of the Prince consorting the former head of a shadowy chaos cult known as the "Widow of the Web". These claims have yet to be substantiated but there are dark rumors circling about since the First Battle of St Albans.


Even as the Beast's Black Fortress moves across the face of Albion the houses are at each other's throats. There are rumors that  Henry VI's queen, Margaret of Anjou is stirring the pot & bringing events to a boil behind the scenes with her spies and net work of Frog cults. She is a dark and sinister power behind the throne & PC's must be vary careful to avoid her at all costs.



Other rumors & innuendo put forth in certain circles are that the Elves are using the civil war to make a grab for power from the humans, the old god's worship has returned to certain Albion control areas. These claims can't be substantiated because the empire's resources  have  been stretched to the breaking point. A fact well known by the forces of Chaos and their cults. The war's future is uncertain, the interstellar picture in the Albion system is very dangerous, & the events between  The House of Lancaster &  The House of York 

have erupted into full blown civil war. The presence of the Beast only complicates these events all of the more.


So how does this sort of a campaign work? Well this campaign set up still follows the real world history of the War of the Roses of Dark Albion but we add in the material from Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos for good measure & then use Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea for a rules set to add in that dynamic sword and sorcery adventure elements as needed. Because there's the odd science fictional bit in AS&SH this should make the transference of old school and retroclone elements a snap. This campaign plays out as one part Game of Thrones, two part Frank Herbert's Dune, mixed with elements of Krull all set into a blender on the high setting. This is a campaign setting where the PC's have the chance to carve themselves out a domain of their own amidst the chaos of the civil war itself.
I've only barely scratched the surface of this campaign but things could have a much darker turn if events follow  history of the War of the Roses


This is a campaign with the potential for years of adventure where the forces of the Beast & its cults of chaos have been on Albion for years sewing the seeds of death & destruction only waiting to cause havoc on all levels of society.


Note that this is not an attempt to violate the copyright nor trade mark of the film Krull nor Dark Albion or Cults of Chaos or Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboorea. Neither of these OSR games is responsible for any of the content of this blog. This is merely the product of a deranged Krull fan's mind. All other ideas are copyrighted to Dark Corner productions.

Four Sixties Cult Films As Fodder For Your Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaigns

There are four movies that have influenced me as a kid, these are classics that seldom get mentioned today. Yeah these were shown to me as a kid & they foreshadowed many of the later Eighties sword & sorcery films . First up is the 'Long Ships' from 1964. The Long Ships is a movie starring Sydney Poitier as a Moorish king named Aly Mansuh. Based on the Swedish novel, "The Long Ships" by Frans G. Bengtsson. Released in the United Kingdom, in 1964. Excellent film with a great cast and now mostly forgotten except by some of the real film fans. Yeah there's going to be a bit of a Viking theme here but forgive an old war gaming fan.

Next up is one that I saw in a theater in my home town of Torrington Ct back when the Warner theater ran back to back two dollar films. This film had a plot straight out of a Saturday matinee (which for me it was!) and a superb cast!

Einar and Eric are two Viking half-brothers. The former is a great warrior whilst the other is an ex-slave, but neither knows the true identity of the other. When the throne of Northumbria in Britain becomes free for the taking, the two brothers compete against one another for the prize, but they have very different motives - both involving the princess Morgana,

There lots to mine here for an old school sword & sorcery film especially the torture and death scene of Tony Curtis's character by flesh eating crabs. You've also got to love Einar whose pure lawful evil awesomeness.

Well I was only going to do three but when you've got Kirk Douglas senior then you've got to mention the movie that put him over the top. Yeah I'm speaking of Spartacus which is a Sixties film that has it all.  Arguably the best of the 60's "blood and sandals"  epics.  Some fantastic acting from an all-star cast and hordes of extras for the big scenes. There's tons to grab for a sword & sorcery campaign.
Even though the ending was made up this is the real deal and a classic.

One thing I love about games such as Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, you can play 'What if' with it & never have to say a word to those amateur history buffs at the table. Which brings me to my next film. This is classic Sixties Hollywood historical weirdness with Mayans vs American Indians, yes I'm speaking of Yul Brynner's Kings of The Sun.
"In order to flee from powerful enemies, young Mayan king Balam leads his people north across the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of what will become the United States. They build a home in the new land but come into conflict with a tribe of Native Americans led by their chief, Black Eagle, while both Balam and Black Eagle fall in love the beautiful Mayan princess Ixchel. "
This film is filled with pulpy goodness to mine from & its so relatively unknown today that I'd swear not one of my players had even heard of this one.

So why use these films? Well, with Hyperborea being the far future of Earth its easy to slip in the occasional and isolated city state of Old Earth cultures and not even break a sweat. Plus its easy to have all kinds of weird groups pop up with dangerous factions, strange ways, & never even apologize for the efforts. Each of these films represents a different group of humans who might be separated by miles of mountains, weird weather, etc. But are perfect micro cosm cultures rife for clashing warfare against the alien backdrop of Hyperborea.

Commentary On Cult Classic Movies, Gamma World 1st Edition Legion of Gold, & The Android Conspiracy

I've been thinking about & mediating on Gamma World first edition's Legion of Gold, why? Because last night I settled down with a favorite Curt Russell film with my dad, Soldier from 1998. The film was a commercial flop but its been fodder for gaming for my group for years.When I got back to Connecticut & worked in a Block Buster for awhile, Soldier was on the rotation for a Saturday night rental.



The basic plot is classic 90's action movie sci fi fodder here's the break down according to wiki;

"In 1996, as part of a new military training program, a group of orphaned infants are selected at birth and raised as highly disciplined soldiers with no understanding of anything but military routine. They are trained to be ruthless obedient killers, and all those considered to be physically or mentally unworthy are executed. The survivors are turned into impassive dedicated fighting machines with no exposure to or understanding of the outside world.
In 2035, at the age of 39, Sgt. Todd 3465 is a hardened veteran and the best soldier of the original 1996 infants, but his unit is challenged for replacement by a superior unit. Colonel Mekum, leader of the original project, introduces a new group of genetically engineered soldiers, designed with superior physical attributes and a complete lack of emotion, except complete aggression.
Captain Church, the commander of Todd's unit, insists on testing the new soldiers' abilities against his proven older ones. A new soldier, Caine 607, easily defeats three of the original soldiers, but Todd gouges out Caine's eye before he seemingly dies when he falls from a great height; the body of a dead soldier actually cushioned his fall, and he is simply stunned and knocked unconscious. Mekum orders their bodies disposed of like garbage, declaring them obsolete, while the remaining older soldiers are demoted to menial unarmed support roles.
Dumped on Arcadia 234, a waste disposal planet."
Seems like a straight up balls to the walls action film doesn't it? Not so quick, Todd & co. are just the sort of faction one might see in classic Gamma World in Dragon magazine. In fact, the film is deeply connected with Blade Runner;"Soldier was written by David Peoples, who co-wrote the script for Blade Runner. Peoples considers Soldier to be a "spin-off sidequel"-spiritual successor to Blade Runner, seeing both films as existing in a shared fictional universe.^[4] The film obliquely refers to various elements of stories written by Philip K. Dick (who wrote the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, on which Blade Runner is based), or film adaptations thereof. A Spinner from Blade Runner can be seen in the wreckage on a junk planet in the film" 

Is Arcadia 234 actually Earth? In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Earth is one huge junk pile of stuff & mankind has moved off the planet. The androids lack empathy & almost but not quite seem sympathetic within the novel.  Within Gamma World first & second edition the androids are a major faction of villains implied in the game's timelines.  So are the androids actually behind keeping Gamm erm 'Old Earth' in a continuing technological dark age?



Larry Elmore II Gamma World

The cybernetic entities of  Gary Gygax's Legion of Gold are the main villains & motivators for many of the adventure's plot elements. Its an interesting old school Gamma World romp and a classic.
"There is much to worry about in the mutated world of the future, but Baron Jemmas, Warder of Horn, has more on his mind than most. In recent weeks several of the outlying towns of his Barony have been wiped out by a band of mysterious golden marauders.

These creatures struck from nowhere and vanished without a trace when their deeds were done. The Warder has decided that they must be stopped before the entire Barony of Horn falls beneath their onslaught, and so he is offering a great reward to anyone who can defeat the Legion of Gold."
Thanks to Wayne's Books for the Gamma World reference.





But could the android conspiracy also be behind the events of Thundarr The Barbarian's world as well? Let's see some of the evidence. According to Mind Menace Mindok episode a full conversion cybernetic body was built in less then twenty four hours by a group of Nasa super scientists; this leads to the conclusion that cybernetics was very common two thousand years ago before the world was cast into ruins. John Kenneth Muir's Reflections On Cult Movies & Classic TV notes;"In terms of 1970s allusions, the giant robot that Mindok utilizes to capture the scientists n this episode also has a more-than-passing resemblance to the police robots of George Lucas’s work of art, THX-1138 (1971)." That's a fantastic comment that stirs a dungeon master's imagination.


What were these cybernetic entities doing opening gate ways into space time? Summoning 'the Old Ones', opening a dimensional route for conquest, looking for alternative dimensional energy sources or all of the above. I'd say all of the above. They've turned the Earth into one vast junk world perfect for dungeon crawling & exploring  the ruins. Thunddar's world always reminded me of A. E. van Vogt 's  Empire of the Atom & The Wizard of Linn.Where a royal mutant child is given the education of a cleric of the Gods of The Atom. Here the technology borders right on magic & these novels are way ahead of their time. The Earth as junk yard dungeon planet sounds like a place that just might be a step away from the Boreas winds. More as this develops.

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