Empire of the Petal Throne rpg & Metamorphosis Alpha rpg - From Ares Section Dragon issue #101 'The Man Machines of Gamma World' By James Ward & Rudy Raupp

" I have never written an MA adventure like this one before. In the fourth version of the MA rules I presented a storyline where the ship runs into an invisible asteroid filled with mushroom and crystal life forms. That storyline has always needed a transition piece that ties the starship Warden into the asteroid. This is that adventure. Take any of your characters from pure strain humans to androids or robots and introduce them to the little valley where the new hole in the ship is presented. One of the unusual features of this product is that this game can be run solo. All you have to do is use a strong character and pay attention to the numbers and you can test out the adventure all by yourself. You can then turn around and run it for any number of friends."
So originally Gamma World 1st edition  was supposed to be the follow up game to  Metamorphosis Alpha rpg 1st edition. But what if it was the other way around?! What if the Starship Warden is actually all that's left of the Human Space Empire?! We've been reading through Goodman Games version of the 'Long Hard Mile'  And this picks up from this blog entry here 

If the Human Space Empires fell during the Social Wars of Gamma World. And there were only bit & pieces of interstellar technological bastions left out in the universe. Did Gamma Terra actually get sucked into its own planar miniverse?! This might explain quite a bit of the fact that there's no one actually looking for the Starship Warden from Gamma World. 
And it could also help to explain the continuing bits & pieces of alien life aboard the Warden. For my own money the Warden has passed through other dimensions & universes. 
Some of this is reflective of the fact  Goodman Games version of the 'Long Hard Mile' adventure's monsters remind me of many of the alien things in the classic Empire of the Petal Throne rpg. 
There's a lot more boiling below the surface here. The godlike feats of engineering of the Warden are reflective of the feats of 'science' of Empire of the Petal Throne's Human Space Empires. Brett Slocum's 'Warriors of the Lost Planet' rpg supplement a 'pay what you want title' has its own advanced version of the classic android;"Yéleth are androids, built to be the artificial servants and companions of the rich and powerful. They are limited to 6th Level in the Mentalist Class, but are unlimited in other Classes. Ability Scores DEX +1, WIS -1, CHA +1 HD: 3 AC: 12 Move: 9” Abilities Not Biological: Immune to poison, disease, and mind control. Hypno-Ray: Range 100’, d6 targets with 30” diameter, Mentalism save or puppet/paralysis, permanent until psychic or magical healing or death of Yéleth. Usable (Level) times a day. Android Healing: If damaged in combat, Androids can rest afterwards to gain +1 Hit Points, but cannot heal from daily rest without parts from another Yéleth, Ru’ún, or other similar construct. A Scientist can cure their Level in Hit Points of a Yéleth once per day. Each cannibalized android body can supply 1d12 points of healing. This design is for the security model of Yéleth. Other models of android are possible, such as the fully-functional concubine model. Replace the Hypno-Ray with social and performance skills. Maybe an Orgasmo-Ray for pulpy goodness." These things are creepy as hell?! A android assassin using the  Warriors of the Red Planet rules is not something that you'd want to encounter. And there may be thousands or millions of these things hidden behind some door of the planar locations & colonies. Could these be only the beginning?! There are small hidden armies of interstellar empires scattered across hyperspace?! Here's where Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers comes in handy. 

 
Reading through the PDF it got me thinking about what really happened during Gamma World's Social Wars. You've got personal armor across the board in Colonial Troopers. But as the years rolled on during the Social Wars experimental technologies were being trotted out. And this included the so called Man machines. In Dragon magazine issue #101  released in September of 1985 we got in the Ares section, 'Out of the Sun The Man Machines of Gamma World by James M. Ward & Roger Raupp. We got the 'Empire of the Sun' who pilots what are some of the mecha of Gamma World essentially Gamma World Japan & the Asian block. And in this same article we got the AATAAV (Airborne All-Terrain Armored Attack Vehicle) which according to the article, "AATAAV (Airborne All-Terrain Armored Attack Vehicle). Manned war machines of incredible destructive power, they had only been in the testing stage when the Social Wars and the Apocalypse brought an end to all civilization." 

What the Hell does any of this have to do with the  Empire of the Petal Throne rpg & traditional Metamorphosis Alpha game?! Quite a bit actually. The Human Space Empires had pissed off just about every alien race across the multiverse. The who affair was beset by aliens wanting a piece of humanity. Very similar infact to the Gamma World timeline presented in Dragon magazine's Ares section. And  Colonial Troopers. Many of the miracle technologies talked about in Empire of the Petal Throne are born out in Gamma World & Metamorphosis Alpha. So is there hidden someplace upon the Warden manmachines just waiting for some adventurers to stumble across them?! These are very powerful & highly dangerous mecha though. They can give a death machine a bloody nose & should be used sparing to the point of being the point of a mini campaign or quest. Just some food for thought folks. 

Empire of the Petal Throne rpg & Metamorphosis Alpha rpg - Slow Boat Generational Ships

 When the Human Empires collapsed unto the micro planes and was cut off from the rest of  TEKUMEL along with the rest of its universe. There were literally thousands of star ships in hyperspace along with  worlds cut off from the Human Empires. 

This basically means that both Gamma World first edition or Metamorphis Alpha 1st edition  rpg might be places where the planar gateways were cut off all together. There's going to be a lot of finger pointing & that being said there's any number of worlds were the EMP's oganization & infrastructure have failed. This leaves the locals to deal with the incredible logistical nightmare. So what happens to the spaceways during the shut down during the dawn of the disappearanc of the Human Empire?! World after world is cut off & the local governers are going to handle the local food ritions,the shutting down of local hyperspace gates, etc. 
And once again this puts me in mind of Warriors of the Red Planet & Brett Slocum's 'Warriors of the Lost Planet' rpg supplement a pay what you want title. 

Personally I've wondered about the grand Human Star Empire generation ships. The slow boats between colonies & planets  of the Human Empire. Fortunely Kevin Crawford back in 2015 did a set of Beta rules for Swords of the Petal Throne available here. These rules are cross compatible with Revised Stars Without Numbers rpg. Which means that they should in theory be usable with original Metamophis Alpha Rpg rules. And its this very fact that makes things interesting. Why?! Because of the fact that the Goodman Games Metamorphis Alpha material can be pulled from. 
This means that MA resources such as the MA first edition rules & tables could in theory be used for generating some of those Petal Throne generational space craft. Space craft that have been lost to the microplanes of hyperspace. 

Several of the adventures of the Goodman Games from James Ward's Metamorphosis Alpha: Warden Adventures could be used as stand in adventure  for a Human Empire generation ship. 

Using 'Death Ziggurat in Zero-G (2015)' by Jobe Bittman With Troll Lord Games Starship Warden rpg

"This is the only home you've ever known. They call it the Silver Waste-a desert sea of silvery dunes blasted by endless sandstorms during the day and freezing temperatures at night. For generations, your tribe has clung to life in a concrete building subsisting on the trickle of edible goo spewing from a broken replicator. You and the other hunters vie against rival mutant tribes and hungry scorplions in the scant hours between storms searching for fresh game and wondrous devices from a bygone age of technology. Is this all there is to life? No one that treks more than a couple miles from home ever returns. Everyone says they are dead, but that can't be true. Not all of them. What if there is a way through the giant impassable wall to the south? What if there is an easier way of life beyond the dunes? You've hoarded water and rations for weeks waiting for the right moment to set your plan into motion..."

My job often requires quite a bit of reading, research, & roping in many different resources. Often times my roleplaying requires the same. Same thing with the Starship Warden rpg & its attendant supplements. I like so many others had missed the Kickstarter.  But grabbed the Starship Warden rpg book as soon as it came out. But I could have sworn that there was an adventure that ages ago I saw for the original Metamorphis Alpha first edition where a lone band of adventurers finds a ziggurat in the silver deserts of the Warden. Turns out that it's a part of the Goodman Games run of the Metamorphis Alpha rpg by James Ward. This is a part of the MA Rpg Bundle of Holding that's got five days to go ! 

Death Ziggurat in Zero-G (2015) by Jobe Bittman  be adapted for the the Starship Warden rpg?! Short answer? Yes 
 As a starting adventure its very interesting & clocks in at only sixteen pages. The village is a pretty in depth village location as a start point for an adventure considering that this is a Goodman Game product. Yes this is a rather deadly little adventure but it hits the high points for MA. 
The artwork is very typical of 2015 Goodman games but hits the high marks for MA. The stats should be easy enough to convert to Starship Warden stats easily enough. And the adventure doesn't overstay its welcome. 
For new PC's in the Starship Warden this a good introductory adventure. There's a bit of growth potential if the DM want's to spend a bit of time adapting some of the stats to Starship Warden rules. 
Is this an overly impressive adventure?! Yes & no, yes its a solid adventure but if your trying to run the Starship Warden or MA as a 'Castles & Crusades' switch up or Dungeon Crawl Classics switch up then Death Ziggurat in Zero-G (2015) by Jobe Bittman isn't going to work. 

But using 'Death Ziggurat in Zero-G (2015)' by Jobe Bittman as an intro for The Starship Warden where the PC's are a part of the community of 'Supershop Mart' cut off from the rest of the Warden?! This just might work as a real kick ass intro. The monsters are deadly & the locations dangerous. But from the perspective of a starting player this 'Death Ziggurat in Zero-G (2015)' by Jobe Bittman  this one might hit all of the high points. 
So why does 'Death Ziggurat in Zero-G (2015)' by Jobe Bittman  hit the high marks in my humble opinion?! There are several reasons: 

1. Kick ass introductory adventure, 'Death Ziggurat in Zero-G  doesn't hold the new DM's hand. You as the DM are expected to know what your doing. 
2. This adventure throws the PC's into the deep end of the Warden. 
3. The adventure has the Goodman Games weirdness factor to it. 
4. There's enough of the original MA feel here to work into your own version of the Warden or other starship 
5. scorplions

Got to say that I really enjoyed reading 'Death Ziggurat in Zero-G (2015)' by Jobe Bittman and its a stand out adventure in my humble opinion. Will I be using it?! 
Hard to say really. I'd have to reveal the secret of the players PC's being trapped on the Warden or do I?! 

The Metamorphis Alpha rpg Bundle of Holding  Is Available Right Over Here 

Review & Commentary on JG3: Dark Tower D20 & Hacking The Adventure With Castles & Crusades

"An ancient evil has overtaken a once holy shrine. Thus, a sleepy mountain hamlet becomes a focal point for mysterious disappearances and even stranger legends of what lurks beneath the village. Vile enemies and strange allies, knowing neither sleep nor age, seek to involve the unwary in a titanic battle of good vs. evil. Do you dare discover the secrets behind the myths, or attempt to exterminate the ancient evil that lies within? Riches, power, glory and death! All are in: Dark Tower." 

Wayback in two thousand seven there was a reissue & complete redo of the classic Judges Guild Dark Tower into the D20 format by Goodman Games written by Jennell Jaquays & Greg Geilman. This is a complete redo of the classic Dark Tower  module from the Judges Guild ground up. 

Clocking in sixty four pages this book has quite a bit to offer the Wilderlands of High Fantasy dungeon master who happens to be using Castles & Crusades as his base for his upcoming campaign. Not only is there some killer artwork by William McAusland,such as Sinstar the Sly-wererat and many others. 

But it has a complete mini campaign setting built right in that slides into the D20 Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting itself. And the cartography & the maps  is fantasic if I do say so myself. Everything in the Judges Guild Dark Tower D20 book is geared for adventurers to die. But there's more then enough campaign info to slip the Dark Tower into the Egyptian Wilderlands desert backdrop easily. 

Otherworld miniatures has a Judge's Guild line that looks very well done and hits the NPC high marks. 

And its this attention to the details of the Wilderlands desert setting that set JG3: Dark Tower apart & straight  into the realm of Sword & Sorcery. This is a high level adventure for PC's levels 8-10 which puts this one on the high side of Castles & Crusades rpg. This is where Codex Egyptium by Brian Young comes in real handy. The PC's are literally messing in the realm of the gods in this module and the DM is going to be dealing with some very nasty business in Dark Tower. You can expect PC causaulities.  

There's just enough background in Dark Tower D20 to really wet the appetites of the players for the up coming weirdness & pitched dungeon battles. While everything with the Dark Tower D20 screams to use me! But with the current kick
starter in full swing the magics of Adventurers Spellbook become more current with perhaps the opportunity for the PC's to learn those magics from the wizards of a desert tribe. 

What makes the Dark Tower D20 book nice is the fact that parts of it are open to actual expansion. The materials here are top draw & the DM can & should take the adventures for all that their worth. 

Is there room enough to expand the module into more?! Oh yes, the DM can & should take several of the adventure elements to blow them into a complete desert campaign. JG3: Dark Tower D20 might be the tip of the desert ruin, the PC's may have indeed stumbled into a whole cloth cult situation without knowing about it. This adventure could be the ancient remains of dead & dusty empire that once ruled a good chunk of the desert regions of the Wilderlands perhaps. This ancient empire might have controlled vast dark magical & the means to inflict itself on its enemies. Perhaps the mummies of this dark empire have infact reached the other second hald of the Wilderlands. One of my last blog entries I mentioned 'the House on Hang Man's Hill. Now this reminds me of Fight on Issue #3 & of County of Haghill and Environs by James Mishler. 

So is JG3: Dark Tower D20 worth getting?! In my mind yes for the simple fact that its a perfect module to use with Castles & Crusade. There's a lot happening in it, the writing adds a fair bit to the Wilderlands & there's plent of potential for an extended campaign. 

Using The Complete Book of Beholders from Goodman Games For Dungeon Crawl Classics or Any Old School Campaign

Yesterday I wrote about Castles & Crusades along with one of the better fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books that I've bought Ghosts of Saltmarh. Today I wanted to go back in time to another era & speak about one of the better regarded 3.0 edition era books that can be used with Castles & Crusades. Another book that I think shouldn't be confined to the dustbin of the 3.0 era is The Complete Book of Beholders from Goodman Games. 




This book presents the Beholder as it needs to be a nasty & rather dangerous horror waiting to take on parties of adventurers in its own environment & its own terms. This is a dungeon master book right from the get go & incorporates  both the dreaded beholder & the beholder kin into a rather nasty package. There are tons of ideas here including beholder cults & all kinds of nastiness for the DM to inflict on his or her players. The eyekin are humans corrupted by beholders & are sort of available as a playable race.



Bradley K. McDevitt's artwork is among some great artwork in
The Complete Book of Beholders from Goodman Games

The Complete Book of Beholders from Goodman Games came out right in the middle of the D20 boom & its still a great game book to use to add beholders into a game campaign. Here's where the dice hit the table. The Complete Guide to Beholders could be easily used as a launch point for a full scale beholder invasion of a campaign.



The Eyekin warriors planarly gate into the campaign world & begin to fry everything. Those that survive are going to be the party of adventurers. The PC funnel is now complete. Step two is to introduce the various beholder generals & warlords leading the army. The PC's find out about the plans of the beholders through a dungeon or adventure location & then begin to incorporate their own resistance. And the campaign continues with the DM trotting out various beholder types & horrors featured in the book.  This same plan could be used with Mutant Crawl Classics as well to really change events up in a Mutant Crawl Classics game.

In terms of the Castles & Crusades rpg retroclone the switch over with the The Complete Book of Beholders from Goodman Games isn't all that of a power stat struggle. The book is very low key when it comes to working up the stats over to a campaign. The Complete Book of Beholders from Goodman Games is also a perfect add over for a game of the Amazing Adventures rpg. 

There's a great article on using eyekin as PC's on Geek Native right over here.  

Using The Demon Hunter's Handbook From Goodman Games For Old School Campaign Construction

"No campaign theme is more gripping than a battle against the minions of hell! This jam-packed sourcebook brings to the table everything you'll need to run a fantasy campaign centered around demon hunters. From puritanical holy men fighting for their gods to crazed warriors only one step away from damnation themselves"

Demon hunters are always one problem that I've had with the traditional Sword & Sorcery game. Sure there are killer examples of it in the works of Robert E.Howard in the form of Solomon Kane but.. I needed something well different. And yes I could use Role Aids Demons books for this . But I needed a bit less Grimdark & more super heroic.

The Demon Hunter's Handbook  From Goodman Games is a D&D 3.0 book that I've had for years. Amazing Adventures! rpg has a free demon hunter class that does an excellent job for the Amazing Adventures! rpg engine.  But I've had a player whose asked specifically for the The Demon Hunter's Handbook .
There are several reasons for using this book one is that its very well done & even Tim Brannan gives it a good review. 
Several of the background,  factions, spells, equipment, etc. will fit into a fantasy Gilded Age. The fact is that the world of the occult & supernatural in my games has a very close & dangerous underlying underpinnings of my home campaigns when it comes to characters like Neulow Games Madam Satan. I don't consider anything in  The Demon Hunter's Handbook to be unbalancing nor are the player's resources that far of field. 
The Rpg stack exchange site has an excellent overview of the differences between 3.0 & 3.5 D&D as well as the OSR right here.  This is especially helpful using Castles & Crusades as the prime engine for such a conversion


With the amount of demonic & supernatural activity within my campaigns especially given the turmoil surrounding my alternative  WWI, its not hard to imagine that there might be fantasy adventurers crossing over into a modern world. We've seen various incarnations of  Greyhawk parties's of adventurers cross over from Greyhawk in Gary Gygax's various Dragon Magazine articles into Gamma World & Boot Hill. The Demon Hunter's Handbook  is a solid book from the 3.0 era & I find it foolish that the D&D  3.0 & 3.5 OGL that gives birth to so many retroclones & various OSR products is so much maligned. To me it seems rather stupid to be buying material which has been published in game supplements & books I already own. I've been vilified before for mixing OSR & various editions of  OD&D, AD&D, D&D, etc.,etc. with OSR systems. I like so many of my readers am not made of money. I suspect that like me many of you have any number of favorite 3.0, 3.5, & even fifth edition books that you use in your home campaigns. This is a practice that I shall be continuing & telling you my readers my results.

 Stay tuned

Raid On The Baikonur Cosmodrome - Black Market Inc. & Islands In The Stream Campaign Prequel Adventure - A DCC Rpg Actual Play Event Part III

Last night I got called in last minute to run game after the dungeon master for a D&D game got called in on an emergency EM call. I ended up with nine players many of whom were regulars at my Black Market Inc game. A quick funnel and it was time to wrap up one of the lingering adventures from back at the end of August. So I finally got together with Steven and his brothers after a few months between Black Market Inc Dungeon Crawl Classic adventures. Last night's game saw the loss of two PC's in vaults and tunnels under the Baikonur Cosmodrome. 

The party had to contend with some of Kronos's spawn and they had to retreat more then a few times into side tunnels and they lost their cleric.To say that the players weren't happy is an understatement. The death of the cleric resembled something from anime. The less said about that the better. Kronos follows the rules laid down in Crawling Under A Broken Moon issue four, the object as patron rules. The PC's also ran into mutants & other horrors in a genetics lab and trashed the place with a handy flame thrower they found Alien Resurrection style. This whole event on level 6 attracted the attention of one of the Discarded under Krono's control and it was the rat bastard A.I. who controlled this entire level of the dungeon like ruins.


The party also spotted a really nice set of light mech armor still sealed in its plastic enclosure bubble, untouched and it wasn't corrupted by this level's boss monster. The party wanted that armor. And they had a fight on their hands with that Discarded A.I. whose stats looked something like this :
The Discarded, large: Init +1;Atk flailing appendage +4 melee(1d7+1); AC 17; HD 8d8; MV 20’;Act (2d3)d20; SP +4 to sneak,consume tech, play dead; SV Fort+5, Ref +1, Will +0; AL C.
The power armor and discarded came straight out of issue number seven of Crawling Under A Broken Moon  Which if you haven't picked it up then I strongly suggest you do. It's damn useful for DM's looking to add in options to their post apocalyptic DCC style game. This party of adventurers succeeded in defeating the boss monster but everything actually hinged on another party of adventurers!


Grab This Issue of CUABM

Meanwhile Out In The Wasteland
Surrounding The  Baikonur Cosmodrome

Meanwhile another group of freebooters were trying to avoid getting killed by a very, very, pissed off pack of invisible monsters thanks to Venger Satanis. The party of adventurers had a cyborg in their midst and various mutant adventurers along with a barbarian from the wilds of Canada. They had an ace up their sleeve as well in the form of a set of force fields that the other party had recovered and teleported to the surface before their wizard was taken over by Kronos. These were Great Race of Yith artifacts recovered by the Soviets before the Great Atomic Wars.



The party was able to set the force field in place but their barbarian was torn limb from limb by one of the invisible monsters. The wizard Crowley St. Germain sacrificed himself to distract Kronos as the inversion bomb was set and the timer counted down to give the party time to escape.  The invisible monsters sensed something was up and closed in on the party's location. Then it was 10.. 9.. 8.. 7.. Cafuush  and the  Baikonur Cosmodrome has a new set of step pits. Nothing could live through a Great Race Inversion bomb. Nothing. Well Crowley did give the adventurers time to escape.
So not only did the party escape but they made it out with some artifacts and goodies for their employers and that means they get issued new toys for the next adventure. All in all not a bad run at all. A few more deaths then I was expecting but not a bad game at all.
Notes On Running Black Market Inc.




One of the essential books in my experience of running this game was issue five of Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Not only do the players have their choice of a He Man or Thundarr The Barbarian style of PC adventurer to play with. The DM has lots and lots of toys to play with from this issue.  If your into 80's cartoon post apocalyptic action then this is definitely the issue to have in your tool box. There's lots of goodness to add in to the background. More action coming up as the parties expand into space and we've got more 80's action coming up and now we return you to your regularly scheduled games.

Review & Commentary On Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue #5 for the DCC rpg System and Your Old School Campaigns, 'Because I have the Pooowwwer!'

GRAB IT RIGHT
HERE

Everyday at three o'clock when school let out I raced home to watch He Man and the Masters Of The Universe. Alright not really, He-man was awesome but I was too busy dodging bullies and playing in graveyards and besides I was more of a Thundarr The Barbarian kinda guy. But He-Man was later added into the roster of characters when I began to really understand the old school cartoon movement and the He-Man/Conan connection. Which brings me to issue five of Crawling Under A Broken Moon issue #5 for the Dungeon Crawl Classics rpg. Basically issue number five of CUBM is a big fat post apocalypitic love letter to Eighties He Man. Serious this issue is one huge passing OSR right hook to the get after school sword and sorcery barbarian cartoons. But is it good? Yes it is if A, Your into the material that this issue is featuring and B. The ideas here are fully developed with an eye toward giving the dungeon master everything they need to get this sort of campaign off the ground with little issue.

Far in the northern reaches of Umerica lay the lands of Aetheria where the Masters of Castle Oldskull do fierce battle with the lich Skull-Or and his mighty minions!

• Articles on both the lands of Aethera and the neighbouring Darklands
  
• The Aetherian Hero character class
  
• The Ancient tech of the Un Men! The secret to the power of Aetheria.
  
• And, the Wizard hating Warrior Patron, Castle Oldskull

The awesome here is turned up to eleven with all of the material in this issue directly related to getting your parties playing in the lands of Oldskull and doing in a bit of a state of style. This material isn't going to be to everyone's liking but if your into having your gonzo action notched up and the ideas here are fresh, well done retreads but done in such a cleaver way as to actually make this very playable.
But is it worth your time? Well yes, yes it is. The ideas here are to take the tropes of He-Man twist them on their ears and then make them as a playable PC class with the the Aetherian Hero.The campaign setting of Aethera and the neighboring Darklands is not only playable but fits the DCC game and adventure setting very well. There was a huge chunk of He - Man was the background material and peoples. Here we get to dive behind the curtain and gets a feeling for the Ancient tech of the Un Men! The secret to the power of Aetheria in the wasteland and for your campaigns. We get the full damn sword and post apocalyptic treatment in issue five and it tears deeply into the pop culture myth and mythology of this very issue. We have everything from major players in the storyline to half forgotten PC's. All of this is done with style and wit this includes the Wizard hating Warrior Patron, Castle Oldskull. Should you grab Issue five of Crawling Under A Broken Moon? Yes and in point of fact if your into He Man or any of the 80'd cartoon universes then this is issue for you.

Raid On The Baikonur Cosmodrome - Black Market Inc. & Islands In The Stream Campaign Prequel Adventure - A DCC Rpg Actual Play Event Part II

  So I got call in last minute again last night at nine PM for my Islands In The Stream campaign prequel last night. It was well interesting and thank God for Crawling Under A Broken Moon #4 

& Issue #7

  So last night my band of hearty 80's style mercenaries from Black Market Inc. 

were exploring the lower levels of the  The Baikonur Cosmodrome under vaults. They had escaped the invisible alien horrors of the Kazakhstan wastelands by running away and screaming like little girls then locking the doors behind them into the vaults below the complex.Where certain death awaited them, just kidding actually I'm not. The PC's made it down to level 2 after a series of running fire fights and issues with one of the Discarded 'large' cybernetic horrors  from Crawling Under A Broken Moon issue seven.
The party recovered a number of minor relics and artifacts from the two upper levels but the lack of monsters made them very nervous.They know my dungeons and how I like to place the horrors.


One one of the wizards cast a fire ball and missed his roll nearly frying the rest of the party and immolating himself and his relics that his patron Kizz was laughing his behind off as his injury. The rest of the party took an elevator down to the next level and encountered 'Fatties' Mutant horrors from the cult classic 'Space Hunter Adventures In The Forbidden Zone'
And this is where we left our adventurers for today stuck up to their necks in 'Fatties'! These guys are actually some of the original Baikonur Cosmodrome crew mutated into over stuffed rolling horrors of deadly aspect.

What the adventurers don't know is that below them awaits a nasty piece of Benefactor technology. Here's where the crawling under a Broken Moon Issue #4 comes in very handy. This issue contains the object as patron article and highlights the fact that certain artifacts and A.I.'s can become a patron to a wizard. In this case the half baked wizard whose been rejected by his own patron.


The Benefactor technology artifact  of incredible aspect of Order awaits to drain and suck the energy as well as life force of all who venture down into the depths of the ruins!  There are the mini Kronos units running around in on level four. More to come as it develops!

Raid On The Baikonur Cosmodrome - Black Market Inc. & Islands In The Stream Campaign Prequel Adventure - A DCC Rpg Actual Play Event

 In the future two multi international corporations the American multinational corporation NTI & the rival German multinational Richter Dynamics control exploration of not only space but have branched into the realm of inter dimensional exploration and time travel. Outfits of adventurers and freebooters like Black Market Inc. are brought in, these are teams of mercenaries and dimensional travelers who risk all to explore and deal with high risk artifacts and relics. Risking anything and all to bring back alien cargoes, high tech relics, and occult treasures of incredible potential!

They are Black Market Inc.. This is their story.
Cue cheesy 80's theme music.
A single black helicopter over the Kazakhstan post apocalyptic wasteland on an alternative Earth.

Last night's game was a prequel adventure involving a contract to raid an underground facility within the Russian post apocalyptic wastelands. From the wiki page Baikonur Cosmodrome (Russian: Космодро́м «Байкону́р» Kosmodrom Baykonur; Kazakh: Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы Bayqoñır ğarış aylağı) is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility.^[1] It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level. It is leased by the Kazakh government to Russia (until 2050) and is managed jointly by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.
 Something dark and dangerous stalks the wastelands surrounding the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The facility has on one of its underground levels alien technologies that when the Cybernetic Wars started got out. There are several flying saucers below ground in underground facilities as well.

For last night's game I used Black Market Inc.'s usual party line up, We also had a few jail house riots and lost world inter dimensional horror funnels for generation.
 Cain who was a a retriever and expert at scavenging ie thief 

'Draft' hit man and expert fighter - fighter
Gonz - Hitman/ mercenary/pilot/ river rat - assassin /pilot 

Corey The Amazing occultist & former pusher of illicit substances who was the psi scout of the party - wizard

Goz The Brutal - last survivor of the land bridge clan and prince - cleric (patron savage bear)
Shana Jungle Princess - last Elven princess of the Hand of Zegula/expert in jungle survival - Elf
The PC's were brought into the Kazakhstan wasteland for a raid on one of the most dangerous facilities in the wastelands. Entire teams of adventurers have disappeared in these wastes without a trace. Messages of terror of alien presences and images of incredible destruction are all that are found. 

In the early summer of 1953, the last of the Supernatural Wars were cooling down as the defeat of the Nazi Thule forces had insured that the some of the occult technologies recovered during the war could finally be exploited and researched at . One of these was a time/space/dimensional machine was used to travel to the alternative future of 2390; this enabled several key pieces of technology from Altar IV to be brought back to 1957. Many of these discoveries included advanced A.I. applications and the science of molecular energy.

This knowledge was given to top men and women among people in the know, people like Dr. Norman, Dr. Benton Quest, and Dr. Reed Richards among others.

Dr. Isaiah Norman: You know of my experiments in attempting to harness energy and my theory of controlling it?
Dr. Benton C. Quest: Yes, I do.
Dr. Isaiah Norman: Well, I'm afraid my efforts have resulted in the creation of something too terrible to contemplate.
Dr. Benton C. Quest: But, Isaiah...
Dr. Isaiah Norman: No, believe me, Benton. It is monstrous beyond imagination and, what is worse, uncontrollable.

Molecular energy life forms often resulted from the misapplication of the race known by many names including the Krell or the Benefactors. Guarding the facility is a very dangerous proto molecular life form, invisible, highly dangerous and pissed off.

Dr. Benton C. Quest: Dr. Norman was experimenting with energy and mass. To make it brief, it got away from him. He found he had made a mass of energy that somehow came alive. It feeds on more energy, and it lives only to feed. I'm afraid it consumed Dr. Norman before he could stop it.
Jonny Quest: It eats people?
Dr. Benton C. Quest: No, Jonny. It consumes them. It eats energy - sunlight, electricity, the energy in a living body - anything it can get.

But the real secret is the fact that a Benefactor living weapon system has been housed for centuries in a state of suspended animation, starved for energy and seething with the potential for destruction! But they must recover one of the Hyperdrive saucers for their employers

Well after a protracted fire fight with some Richter Dynamics mutant troops and a cyborg that brought the attention of one of the invisible monsters the PC ran like hell and sealed them selves into the base proper.
To be continued..

Black Market Inc. & Islands In The Stream Campaign Mini Adventure - A DCC Rpg Actual Play Event

What happens when a dungeon  master gets called in last minute for a game of Dungeon Crawl Classics? You dust off some old notes and dive right into the deep end of the game! So here's the episode with lots of new material coming out!

So after yesterday's entry on The Gong Farmer's Almanac2015, I got a phone call from my friend Steve whose been coming back to the Litchfield Hills with his brothers to take care of their mom whose had a bad turn. They come in on a bi weekly schedule due to their jobs and such. So I've got a built in set of players for infrequent games. That's the problem actually the scheduling for gaming but not too big of a deal. So I've got three or maybe four hours to throw something together. They want a DCC rpg game and want it along the means of a psychotronic 80's cheese fest. Crawling Under A Broken Moon offers me something along the lines I was looking for. But I turned the post apocalyptic vibe way down and up the 80's video rental Beta Max vibe up to eleven. So I was dusting off some notes about 'High Tech Mysticism and High Caliber Adventures' this is a mix of pulpy post apocalyptic goodness and 80's video rental Beta Max/VHS adventures. In the future two multi international corporations the American multinational corporation NTI & the rival German multinational Richter Dynamics control exploration of not only space but have branched into the realm of inter dimensional exploration and time travel. Outfits of adventurers and freebooters like Black Market Inc. are brought in, these are teams of mercenaries and dimensional travelers who risk all to explore and deal with high risk artifacts and relics. Risking anything and all to bring back alien cargoes, high tech relics, and occult treasures of incredible potential! A team was dispatched in a small prop plane and the games began.


Note that the funnel was a hell funnel which begins with 0 level characters from across time and space being put through a time warp meat grinder of minor encounters to test the mettle of the PC's.

Because this is low murmuring post apocalyptic style of pulpy game many of the usual types of  DCC PC's are reversed and dealt with. We also had a few jail house riots and lost world inter dimensional horror funnels.
 Cain who was a a retriever and expert at scavenging ie thief 

'Draft' hit man and expert fighter - fighter
Gonz - Hitman/ mercenary/pilot/ river rat - assassin /pilot 

Corey The Amazing occultist & former pusher of illicit substances who was the psi scout of the party - wizard

Goz The Brutal - last survivor of the land bridge clan and prince - cleric (patron savage bear)
Shana Jungle Princess - last Elven princess of the Hand of Zegula/expert in jungle survival - Elf
For black powder and modern fire arms I used the Crawling Under A Broken Moon zine and some house rules.
The Mission
All of time and space splits across itself as a bubble of pure energy rips across the blackness of the night and other lands enter our world. Brave men and women from across the bounds of the universe risk all to plunder a world of the lost for its greatest treasures.
Recently a time space bubble opened up in the Pacific Ocean and a team was dispatched to take care of it. Who knows what adventures await on the lost world series of islands? Oddly there was a weird  purple sheen to a series of rather large islands further out and this caused much concern among these players. But those are going to be explored another day. The ride in was bumpy and dangerous, the party had its first encounter with a mutated  dinosaur or two straight out of the gate and almost got their heads handed to them by the laser blasting horror.


Then as quick series of encounters with Sulu Sea pirates really give the players a turn, they weren't expecting these time lost pirates to be as dangerous and horrid as they were. Now with the encounter over their ready to plum more of the mysteries of these hellish islands.