Stranger Hyperspace Tides - Empire of the Petal Throne rpg, The Cepheus Engine rpg & Human Space Empires Rpg As One Possible OSR Campaign

 This is an update of an article that was written 2011, at the time there wasn't as much going on at the table top level as there is now. The OSR was a vastly different place then  & my own leanings were far more padestrian.  If the original Empire of the Petal Throne rpg was based on original Dungeons & Dragons then it stands to reason that it could easily be usable with the three little black books of the original Traveller rpg system. 

Now if this is the case it builds out the case that Empire of the Petal Throne's Human Space Empire acro clone system.  Might well have many Cepheus Engine Rpg incarnations & possibilities at the table top level. Hmm 

So wrecks from The Human Space Empire could well be drifting into Cepheus Engine rpg space through worm holes & causing all kinds of hazards, adventure opportunities & more.
 

The problem right now is the time factor to investigate further into the mathmatics of this whole cloth idea of a campaign. Right now this is a wisp of an idea at the back of my head.. 

How could this work?! There are a few ideas that I've got brewing in the back of my head?! 

1. Use the Cepheus Engine rpg with its psionics as the basis. 
2. Two take out some of the monsters & ideas from Human Space Empires 
3. Do an Issiac Asomiv Foundation style zero level adventure on a wreck for starters. 
4. Ditch Tékumel entirely in favor of a Space 1999 style search for the planet. 
5. Follow in the wake of taking of the planet of Tékumel during the collapse of the Human Space Empire. 
6. Pull from campaign notes going back to 2011 & pull out the book of Ebon Bindings. Ditch the mathematics of the game systems in question entirely. 
7. Gather interest in players  first before brain storming. 
8. Use a totally different approach to this campaign setting. 
9. Pull from the Traveller universe for a possible connection and there are several floating around. 
10. Wing a campaign setting and go from there! 

Wars of the Red Planet - Brett Slocum's Warrior's of the Lost Planets & A Post Apocalyptic Mars

'The distant red sands blow across the works of a reign of red kings who have turned to dust. Warriors of many tribes fight in the hollow remains of pyramids & stalk among the streets of a long dead empire fighting among themselves with sword & radium pistols!'

My family is fine & all but work has had me on the ropes for the last three days or so. Last night after getting back from the work shop I had an opportunity to take a look into an old friend in this case my Empire of the Petal Throne box set. M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel is one of those box sets that I look on with a fondness bordering obsession. Maybe it was peaking through Wayne's books site on Tekumel or skimming the Tekumel foundation's website?
Over the course of weeks I've been re looking into the Sword & Planet end of the OSR  gaming spectrum especially with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg system. 


Now I've been following Tim Brannan's Otherside of the Blog Zothique & his Mars posts. None of his Green Martians are even close to ERB's or even Warriors  of the Red Planet Rpg for that matter. That's fine because this simply my opinion for my own Mars game campaigns. Personally I'd go in a completely different direction. Instead over the years I find myself turning back to another OSR free product inspired by the  Warriors  of the Red Planet Rpg system & some of M.A.R. Barker's  Tekumel. I'm speaking of  Brett Slocum's Warrior's of the Lost Planets  Warriors of the Red Planet rpg add on book.
Its free its easy to use & very open to customization at the table top level.


Now me being the dungeon master that I'm I'd take it further then this & then bring the alien sands into focus more by using Warrior's of the Lost Planets with Adventurer,Conqueror,King's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu for an overarching complete campaign. Why? Because Brett Slocum has got all of the familiar races, notes on playing them, the technologies of the Tekumel & their Warriors equivalents. This pairs very well with  Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu & even Warriors of the Red Planet.



This mix would be far closer to Leigh Brackett's Eric John Stark then say Edgar Rice Burroughs  John Carter. A tribal & dangerous Mars where the glory of Empire has long faded & the Human Space Empires are only a distant memory. 


Its here that I would pull in Venger Satanis's Cha'alt for an added bit of weirdness. This Mars would be a post interstellar mess & relic of empire. A place where the space craft & mecha of a million worlds were once constructed but its relapsed into barbarianism. Only now are some of the Jeddak gaining the secrets once again to mecha & beyond. Wizards are offering their master's the secrets of a forgotten universe.