Hyperborean Bait & Switch With Expediation to The Barrier Peaks (sort of ) & The Free OSR Resource Adventure From Faster Monkey Games 'Realm Of The Technomancer'

So what do you do if your dungeon mastering for a bunch of experienced D&D players who have seen all of the classic modules.But they expect you as the DM to pull out S3 Expedition to The Barrier Peaks to introduce that old school science fantasy sweetness into your campaign? This is especially true if your using pulp magazine weird fiction for your Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea hybrid game.

In fact I wouldn't use S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks just yet.  I'd save that adventure until the PC's  were in the levels of six or seventh  in AS&SH. The PC's are called in by the Duchy of Geoff to investigate a series of weird disappearances, so their going to be expecting S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.


Instead I'd go for Realm of The Technomancer a double bill rpg adventure that has that sweet dark fantasy aspect mixed with the post apocalyptic wasteland vibe. It combines them very well and it short, sweet, and plants the post apocalyptic seeds into the players minds. This isn't a bait & switch adventure, its a dimensional crossover with some pretty epic results.
"Something new has invaded an important underground complex... Will you be wizards and warriors gearing up to save the gnomes from strange humanoids, or mighty freaks of post-apocalyptic nature hired to drive out the alien troops of the mysterious Technomancer? REALM OF THE TECHNOMANCER offers dangers, rewards, new gear, and new monsters for post-apoc games like Mutant Future™ and old-school fantasy like Labyrinth Lord™ alike. Plus, the TECHNOMANCY appendix gives simple, vivid rules for what happens when technology and magic try to mix, and the results are often not pretty..."
The Realm of the Technomancer is free and has some great encounters in it, a nicely balanced adventure that adds a bit of that wasteland wildness with a bit of that old fashioned pulpy goodness.



But how do you bait & switch these two adventures, the answer is very simple;"The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird and terrible disappearance  of an unknown sort." So this set's up the Grand Duchy of Geoff as the perfect spot for the down space craft in S3 much later on in the PC's adventuring careers.
The key to getting this to work is situate the Grand Duchy of Geoff as some out of the way shabby, backwater province of Hyperborea near some of the mountains without making it too important to the rest of  the royal life of the Hyperborean capital cities.  Realm of the Technomancer does three things and does them really well. It allows the DM to connect the world of Underborea to a Thundarr style Earth. It offers a dangerous threat of an unknown humanoid race (one of my all time favorites) & it makes the underworld very weird, very unpredictable, & all in one neat package of an adventure.


Jeff Sparks does a great job with this adventure and it can be used with a wide variety of retroclone & classic old Dungeons & Dragons systems. Even though its meant for Labyrinth Lord, Realm of the Technomancer can be used with lots of old school and modern clones. Did I happen to mention its free? The down side is that its not in print at the moment folks.


Realm of the Technomancer
Is Available Right Over Here

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.

This post is not an attempt to violate the copyrights or trademarks of any 
of the films nor properties named in this post. All ideas are for a 
private table top rpg campaign. None of the ideas or opinions expressed 
in this post are meant to violate the trademarks nor copy rights of any 
of the table top rpgs discussed nor are they in away responsible for the
 thoughts or opinions of the author. The writing, ideas, and opinions 
are copyrighted and trade marked to the author and Dark Corner 
productions. This post is for entertainment & educational purposes 
only. 

Using The Gamma World Adventure GW1 Legion of Gold By Gary Gygax & Luke Gygax & Paul Reiche III As Post Apocalpytic Dungeon Crawl Classic's Wasteland Adventurer Funnel

The post the other day about Dark Outpost  had me thinking about another of my favorite post apocalyptic sand box modules for first  edition Gamma World, The Legion of Gold. This module features a number of mini encounters and throws the PC's into the deep end of the 'terrors' this science fantasy game.
The PC's are introduced to the Barony of Horn and some of the monsters, hazards, and dangers of the Gamma World system. This sounds very familiar to Dungeon Crawl Classics players who have to deal with having to be thrown into the deep end of the pond with a funnel.
Here's the blurb from the back cover of Legion of Gold; "
"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."



So given the whole cloth feel of Gary Gygax & Luke Gygax & Paul Reiche III's creation I could see putting through a bunch of zero level mutants, fighters and more through the first half of Legion of Gold.  There are several encounters and monsters that would make this a very epic post apocalyptic sand box capable of wrecking an adventuring party where only the strong and able survive. Which is exactly how a funnel functions in the first place.  Given some of the post apocalyptic elements of the Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine its easy to see this coming together.
In fact issue number three of Crawling Under A Broken Moon has a complete mall adventure location that could be used as a side trek in Legion of Gold and slipped into the background of the campaign with little notice as a rumor or a quick encounter.



The main heart and soul of Legion of Gold is the weird wrap around way that the underwater complex sort of snakes its way through the encounters within GW1. The hyper intelligent A.I. and the events of the underwater complex add a certain deadliness to this adventure that I think translates well into the over the top essence of Dungeon Crawl Classics. In fact the events of The  Albuquerque Spaceport mini adventure could lead into a Crawljammer campaign with very little effort but a bit of modification on the DM's part. The real fly in the oinitment is the system overlay but is isn't as much of a problem as it first appears. The DM should use the DCC and Crawling Under A Broken fanzine systems for smooth and quick transition. Even though Legion of Gold is only thirty two pages long DM's are going to have to several optional systems from Crawling Under A Broken Moon's Hi Caliber Hijink's issue to simulate the new creatures, new robots, and new weapons. The transition is going to rely on the slight of hand by the DM. The Buggems have monster analogs already within the various issue of Crawling and the DM can vary the strength of the enemy mutant monsters  depending upon the the strengths of your adventurers.


The real star of this module is the underwater complex and many of the environs are going to be challenged with some of the deadly and dangerous encounters.This is match made in the depths of a mutated hell and since this module is already a sand box its not much of a leap to see that many of the elements of Legion of Gold and DCC are going to easily mixed and matched for a maximum result.


For even more deadly effects on the PC's effort that can pad this adventure out a bit more just add in a small Deep One's nest and watch to chaos ensue. These Lovecraftian bastards can easily war with the forces of the underwater complex allowing PC's to have even more of a slice of the old school pie. 

All in all I think that Crawling Under a Broken Moon and the Legion of Gold have the potential to work really well as an entire mini campaign unto themselves. The Baron Jemmas, Warder of Horn could become a post apocalyptic patron kicking even more adventures into high gear within the Barony of Horn.