Old Mars Campaign Setting , The White Star Rpg, & The Cities Without Number Kickstarter

 Over the years there was a ton of writing that I've done on our Old Mars campaign. And actually quite a few notebooks filled with crossover points with various Public Domain Pulp writers & other resources. Echohawk (fuck you buddy & your thieving blog) decided to take my session reports, random tables, ecologies, campaign notes, & whatnot then convert everything over to the Numenera rpg ?!  WTH? While I don't have a problem with Numenera per say. 

The Numenera rpg doesn't fit the Sword & Planet or more appropriately the Sword & Sorcery asthetic of the 'Old Mars' campaign. So we were using a three part OSR  combination Warrriors of the Red Planet, AS&SH (now the Hyperborea rpg), & the White Star Rpg. We'd switch out to Stars Without Numbers rpg later on or a combination of the two Rpg's as we needed. Magic Pig Media gave us the Space Amazons the precursor race to our Hyperborea rpg Amazon tribes. I've been friends with Charles Thorin for years. 

The Amazons were a major source of contenion among our player's PC's. As the two Amazon PC we had in our party were often having to act as go between between NPC's & the Sisters of the Aquarian Order.
Mars was a major hotspot for Lovecraftian horrors and the point where the Order had gotten into heated battles with serpent men. The serpent men tribes felt that they were the rightful inheritors of our campaign's Mars. 
And these pitched battles became an issue when the PC's ran across thousands of red Martian warriors that had been entombed in the unworld thousands of years ago. This campaign plot point comes from Edgar Rice Burroughs Llana of Gathol. 
The  Sisters of the Aquarian Order found the warriors in statis & took over the monestary where the warriors were stored in the tunnels beneath.
This became a major plot point when hordes of Green Martians took over their old haunts. As they had returned from space to their "homeland' after serving in the Stellar Legions for over a thousand years as per their compact with the Galactic empire. 
This isn't Mars ala ERB's Barsoom ( copyrighted & trademarked to the Edgar Rice Burroughs inc. estate) nope this a Mars out around the Tau Ceti system. This Mars had originally been settled by the Serpent People who used one of their 'collapsing wormhole gate systems' to colonize it. This Mars is dying because the air & atmosphere processing stations & systems are breaking down after thousands of years. The Atlantians had found the gateways & transported their genemodified 'red martians' to the Tau Ceti system. Then they brought in their Green Martian warriors and with the destruction of Atlantis. The Green Martians revolted & overran the whole of Old Mars. 
Flash forward a 100,000 years & Old Earth gets buggered. The Hyperboreans begin migrating to Hyperborea bringing their own slave races with them. The Green Plague takes them out. The Lovecraftian races been resettling Old Mars from Hyperborea. 
The Terrans & the Earthmen discover the wormhole gateways then begin mass migrating as refugees trying to escape the 'bugs'. They bring with them both 'dark magick' & Sorcery as the gods of Mars begin to return after the death of the Martian goddess Issus. 
This ushers in the 'infinite Mars' where the old gateways of probability & time begin to reappear across Mars. The Terrans & the Earthmen from these gateways are dimensional pirates. They sport strange alien cybernetics & speak differently. These are the raiders from Kevin Crawford's Cities Without Number Kickstarter. Which I backed! The cybernetic raiders from one universe are ready to take on the colonists of another while a greater threat looms in the background. 

Deeper Then a Red Shadow - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 So in last night's second game the party got in way deep over their heads as we pick from last session here.  The party ran across a Green martian mother & child that was about to be bug food & had to make a snap decision. 

Shadow wasn't playing and released a very nasty combat bot & things got heated from there with the party's necromancer grudging saving the party & the mother and child with the last charge on the teleport spell scroll. 
They ended up about four miles away from the bug hive and deeper still into Red Shadow turf. The party however was shown a way out by the Green martian mother through a snaking mount pass around the Red Shadow base. This went right by a mine field around one of the most deadly fields where the Red Shaow's Skeletron ships were sent out on raids. And the party didn't linger marking the trail and getting outta of there as quickly. 
And just as they were leaving?! They ran into a Red Shadow cyborg soldier! 

 Red Shadow cyborg soldier

AC: 7 

Hit Dice 3 

HDE/XP: 3/76

Total Hitpoints:+3

Movement:12  

Special: See Below 
Attack: Weapon Laser pistol 1d6+2 or Laser Rifle 2d6+3 

Special Abilities - Hive Link with the Shadow A.I., Immune to charm, telepathy, and any mind influencing abilities. The Red Shadows are in constant cybertelepathic contact with the Shadow A.I. 

The Red Shadows are the dregs of humanity, recruited from the mercenary and criminal underworlds all around the world. Initially drawn by promises of riches, these men are subjected to extreme brainwashing techniques and a punishing training schedule intended to transform them into unthinking minions 

The party had to take him out fast and the party peppered the Red Shadow Cyborg trooper with arrows, spells, & finally burnt the body with oil just to be sure. They would be noticed in less then a half an hour and the party would be noticed! The party quickly got outta of there. But did they manage to get away?! 

Spectre Of A Red Shadow - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 During tonight's game the PC's were 'saved' by strange warplane that came outta of no place and strafed the tanker spider destroying it. The bright red warplane bore a black background with a white skull dropping bombs on the remains of the tanker killing the spy along with any hidden spiders. This blog post will pick right up from here. 

The PC's met some old nemesis on Mars in the form of the Red Shadows, the shadows organization are a cryptic alliance from the bowels of an underground base clones of the original members of the Red Shadow organization. An A.I. entity called Shadow unfroze the clones during the war & they've been acting as a maurading mercenary army ever since. 
Red Shadows 

Tech Level: IV 

TYPES: PSH (35%); H (45%); MA (40%); P (15%); A (10%) NUMBER: 1d10 BASE: A (5d10; along the dead sea bottoms ); B (2d10 + 50; along dead sea bottoms ); H (10d10+100; usually near the ancient enterances to the main sea bottoms) SECRET SIGN: Among human settlements a skull drawn in the red sands. 
A couple of years ago the party ran into the Red Shadows during a raid on an ancient Martian city to recover some super science items and devices. The Shadows pinned them down inside the dungeon & the party only escaped through the Martian underground. 

The only survived by engaging in a deep running fire fight with the Red Shadows and the Shadows released one of their fearsome combat droids. 

The party's necromancer used a scroll to summon an air elemental blowing the warplane off course. The necromancer's summoning sends a signal to the local hives and suddenly the air is filled with a swarm of scout bugs. 
Scout Bug AC: 4 [16] HD: 3 Atk: bite and tail whip Dmg: 1d6, and 1d6 Save: F3 Move: 180’/360’ These remarkable creatures are incredibly fast moving, sensitive to everything around them, and can move underground, in the air, and even into space. Their sole purpose is to scout the area around a hive, maintain surveillance in case of intruders, and report back to their Brain bug. They have +3 to initiative. +2 bonus to any rolls requiring detection.
These scout bugs are straight outta of Colonial Troopers: Knight Hawks and the party needed a radical plan to get outta of this slot. They figured that they were between the front line of the Red Shadows and  the bugs. 
The party's rune graver wanted to do something radical but the necromancer still had a teleportation scroll on him. But then the party had got the radical ideal to find the Red Shadow base nearby ie within 2000 mile radius as the party figures. 
But they still have to deal with this hive?! Tune in coming up! 

Night of the Norni Affair - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 The party made it's way back to citadel of the White Hand & the more senior's reaction was priceless. What is a Gamma World Cryptic alliance doing on a colonized Mars?! Well they didn't have long to contemplate the thought as the citadel was surrounded by landed pirate raiders belonging to Magic Pig Media's Outer Space Raiders: The Norni. The Norni were a client race of the Hyperboreans who were resettled upon some of Jupiter's moons during the war. They're mid level NPC thugs driven by a rather nasty void knight for a leader. This session report picks right up from this blog entry here. 

The party were out gunned, out weaponed, and had little reason to go against the Norni in a straight up fight. So they decided to wait until the pirates had left before seeing if any of the monks were alive. Their Hyperborean patron had confirmed their suspicions about the White Hand that they were holding a supply of the Plutonian drug. This goes wayback to 2017's campaign here.  The party found the monks alive after the pirates had left. And though the pirates hadn't gotten the Plutonian drug they had taken several valuable pieces of high super science artifacts used for healing. 
And that's when one of the monks attacked dropping his Aihais illusion. The Norni chaos monk was more then a match for two of the party until Ricky's Zeta assassin stepped in and finished him with a poisoned dagger to the back. The monks swarmed in to heal the pirate/monk but the poison was very fast acting. But Rick's black circle neromancer had a trick up his sleeve with a 'speak with dead' scroll at the ready. To say that the White Hand monks were pissed about this is putting it mildly. The adventurers don't care as their actually agents working for the Stellar Legion who will take on just about any misfits as long as their loyal to the legion. 

The party isn't in the mood for caring about the monks at this point. But then the monks informed the party that citadel was being watched by more alien spiders. The party geared up weapons with the White Hand informing the party that wasn't necessary as their own ranks boasted some high ranking psionists. The party didn't want any of this business and called in an air strike on the spiders. 

After the airstrike the party went out in the desert surrounding the citadel looking for any signs of surviving spiders. And that's when they found a Norni pirate signer one specifically calibrated to call in the spiders. And that's when the party's scouts rolled in and began tracking the bastard spy across the wastes. The rest of the party said their good byes to the White Hand swearing to recover the super science devices and they went after the spy. 
Things didn't go as planned when they ran smack into a rather large & dangeorus tanker spider. Will they survive?! 

OSR Review & Commentary on 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' By Chuck Thorin From Magic Pig Media For The White Star Rpg

 "The year is 1999 and a new millennium is on the horizon. Mankind has colonized outer space. Lunar City is a bustling metropolis. Earth has found new allies with the Martians and Venusians.  The Solar System is filled with mysteries, danger, and adventure!" 

"Have Death Ray, Will Travel is a retro-future setting inspired by  old pulpy serials, Sword & Planet adventures, the Wild West, and film noir.   Want exploration? Want political intrigue?  Like the Wild West with ray guns?  Want a little gritty film noir?  Bounty hunters? Space pirates? Gangsters? Alien emperors out to conquer the universe? It's all there."

Includes two new classes (Scientist and Gunfighter), ten new ships and over 30 monsters and foes, and an introductory adventure: Lost Mines of the Brain Masters.

'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' is by Chuck Thorin and it presents a retro futurish solar system for the White Star rpg . This is a very solid local solar system campaign and works very at what it does. And Have Death Ray, Will Travel works with the White Star rpg & the retro future campaign aspect pulls the White Star game into a solar system centric. You get enemies, monsters, pirates, and much more. 

Everything in 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' is geared into getting your PC's into the adventure & campaign elements of the retro future solar system campaign setting. The brain masters are the nasties in 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' and these alien nasties are perfect for over arching vile aliens with connections with the brain lashers of Mutant Future rpg from Goblinoid Games. ''Have Death Ray, Will Travel' is by Chuck Thorin takes the PC's across the solar system while presenting two new character classes. The new classes (Scientist and Gunfighter), within 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' are perfect for both PC's & NPC's. These PC classes have been woven into the solar system & the adventure presented within  'Lost Mines of the Brain Masters.' 

 'Lost Mines of the Brain Masters' does present an excellent skeleton of a complete adventure that allows the DM to flesh out & customize said adventure to their own retro future rpg campaign. And this is one of the advantages to 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' it's customization aspect that allows the DM to take full advantage without breaking the campaign setting.Want to throw in the Space Amazons?! No problem wish to add in psionics from Stars Without Numbers or Warriors of the Red Planet? Not an issue at all.  

The fact is that Chuck Thorin did an excellent job with 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel'. And is well worth the three dollar price point. 

'Have Death Ray, Will Travel'  By Chuck Thorin From Magic Pig Media For The White Star Rpg Is Available Here 

OSR Space Opera Blues & Night Owl Workshop's Warriors of the Red Planet rpg

 

Today's been the sort of running on rpg table dialogue with a couple of friends & on discussion is that infamous Clark Aston Smith solar system campaign that seemed to run me ages ago. There's been talk about the fact that we brought several of our Warriors of the Red Planet rpg characters into interstellar conflict with several of Magic Pig Media's interstellar races. The reason that this has come up is Chenault & Gray Publishing's latest kickstarter Robert E. Howard Art Chronology.  
Why?! Because for a very long time I've been yammering about Chenault & Gray Publishing's The Edgar Rice Burroughs 100 Year Art Chronology

Bare in mind that two of my players passed on. And the entire group of players that we were running with turned to manure. Death affects groups in different ways & things often take turns in unexpected directions. The fact of the matter is that no one expects the rug to be pulled out from under them. 
These days we're far better equipped to deal with these things because when your fellow DM's & players are your friends things can be easier to digest. 

Now this brings up two very important points. Fact one our Mars was & is a post apocalyptic  campaign landscape. The second thing is that many of Clark Aston Smith's Martians & HP Lovecraft's Martians have returned. But this wasn't your typical campaign setting because the players had invested so much into the background with their PC's. 
There was a lot of plane jumping & several of the PC's died while exploring a realm locked within its own hidden mini plane from Brett Slocum's Warriors of the Lost Planet.  Then two of our regular DM's & player's died. This tore up our home game for almost a couple of months now. 

So what happening now?! There's been talk among to our other players & DM's that they'd like me to return to DMing this campaign. I'm not really sure that I can. There's been a bit of movement on my part with the recent review of Night Owl Workshop's Space Nobles on the blog.  But to be honest I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. There's a lot of baggage under this bridge. Besides which I've been getting involved with DM Steve's own Stars Without Number/Cepheus Engine rpg hybrid campaign. 
Ultimately we were starting to cross into White Star: Galaxy edition rpg turf back in our own Clark Ashton Smith Campaign. Several of the players were/are huge Star Wars fans & there were several references to the ancient Martian psionic clans that kept cropping up. 
Ultimately this leads me back to thinking about Gary Gygax's passing in a way & original Dungeons & Dragons. Really need to let this whole thing rest for the night folks. 

The Gerry Anderson OSR Campaign Options - More Campaign Workshop Thoughts Part III - When A 'White Star' shines

 

A big problem with the OSR is the noise factor, the 'buzz' for new products & books has become a bit of a scree in the ether. Take for example the fact that putting a Gerry Anderson inspired Pulp campaign has been very challenging. Taking a look back at Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons has been a bit of an eye opening experience. You can read part II here. 

Lately a player of mine has been asking me if the campaign will have 'real' warefare rules,  about 'space ship' construction, & so forth. It got me thinking about using more resources from Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg. This brings me to the cross over between Mentzer & Labyrinth Lord or more specifically the Goblinoid Games rpg Apes Victorious rpg.  There's a tremendous nostalgia between late Sixties & early Seventies Sci fi that driven by the 'Planet of the Apes' films. 

There has to be a meet point between the star spanning alternative Earth of U.F.O. & the Lovecraftian rest of this campaign. The problem with cosmicism ; "the literary philosophy developed and used by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft in his weird fiction.^[1][2] Lovecraft was a writer of philosophically intense horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien miscegenation, and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.^[3]

The philosophy of cosmicism states "that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence."^[4] The most prominent theme is humanity's fear of their insignificance in the face of an incomprehensibly large universe:^[5][6][7] a fear of the cosmic void" That void in ACK's world is the 'realms of chaos '

Is that getting players to open up & say,'ahh' for it is the incredibly difficult aspect of mixing gritty heroics & Lovecraftian bleakness. PC's should struggle to be heroic even in the fact of cosmic indifference. We get all kinds of Adventurer,Conqueror,King style Conan/A Princess of Mars goodness this is where ACK's 'The Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu' is playing a healthy part within this campaign. 

But what about 'the greater implied' universe of this campaign?! Hmm if only there was a Pulpy science fantasy alternative that could work with all of this & still retain the flavor of the whole affair?! 

The answer has been sitting on my hard drive since 2015, Between Star & Void From DYS Games is for The White Star rpg system now in the White Star Galaxy edition and its completely backwards compatible with all previously-written third-party White Star content.

But,but, its not Pulpy enough were the cries heard the other night. Fortunately Charles Thorin did me a solid by producing a whole bunch of Pulp inspired classes & whatnot through his Magic Pig Media imprint .  So we've got Space Amazons coming up! 

This contrasts really solidly with the darkness of a Carcosa/Cha'alt setting especially given the changes that we've seen in Venger Satanis's Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise. Eighteen months have passed & the black pryamid is on the move with the political forces of Cha'alt exploiting the demon worms & the alien  natives. 




The do gooders of such a campaign are in for more then a passing 'bitch slapping' by the forces of Cha'alt including the Great Old Ones. But I've got more thoughts on that coming up. 

Review & Commentary On 'Gary Vs The Monsters' An OSR Swords and Wizardry Horror Retroclone System For Your Old School Horror Campaigns

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

Alright so apparently I can't get away with a taking two steps and then Magic Pig Media has something new and cool to take a look at. Here's the low down on Gary Vs The Monsters this is a role playing game based off the Swords & Wizardry retroclone brand label. It features the premise that many VHS series horror films that came out in the Eighties featured namely the idea that some nasty undead or supernatural horror is going to try to your PC's face off. You and your party are all that holds back the night. I know the author and have gotten used to his awesomely warped sense of humor. The lowdown for this game goes something like this:

"This ain't about brooding vampires, misunderstood werewolves, or repentant demons.  This is about monsters that want to drink your blood, rip off your face, and eat your soul. The only thing that stands between the world and the Armies of Hell is you and your vast experience in the fast food industry. That plus a chainsaw, a shotgun, a six pack of brews, and some duct tape.Includes four classes: The Survivor, The Normal, The Mystic, and the Psychic. Random Starting Equipment Tables.  Plus classic campy horror movie monsters and more."Gary vs The Monsters is an old school campy cinematic horror RPG based around the White Box rules of that most popular fantasy roleplaying game."

This book manages to in sixty four pages add in a whole bunch of content and it is very well put together but I have reservations about the game. This retroclone game touches on some very specific areas of horror for me, I worked in a video rental shop and continue to enjoy the particular eras of horror that the Gary vs The Monsters  uses for source material namely the Seventies,  Eighties and Nineties horror films and literature. And this retroclone doesn't feel like a complete game to me; there are certain conceals that the DM is supposed to make with the system straight out of the gate. GvM uses several weird system conventions straight out the gate; GvM uses Saving Throws as Skill Checks, experienced players will notice that the classes do not have any Attack Bonus listed. "There are no weapon and armor proficiencies. All player characters may use any weapon or armor." "Speaking of armor. It doesn't make that much of a difference. Any armor gives -2[+2] bonus. It doesn’t matter if it's a Kevlar vest, something picked up at the Renaissance Faire, or a cookie sheet duct taped to your chest. But characters do get better at avoiding monsters as they progress in levels."  Basically these rules are in play to help augment the 'anyone can die at anytime' style of horror play that one finds in  horror films. The system seems to be another effort to streamline the OD&D system and mainline it into a schlocky horror system which works for this game, this is a beer and pretzel comedic horror rpg  game. This game is a fine effort to create a workable system for use with Swords and Wizardry but you really are going to need that system to get the most out of this retroclone. There is more then enough to get a convention style for a night's entertainment with a group of players but this game lacks a bit in the PC support area. You've got the survivor class Survivor: "A rough and tumble character who managed to survive messing it up against the forces of darkness. Survivors are tough and they learn quickly how to avoid getting killed" Basically a fighter variate whose survived their brush with horror and now wants to kick ass and take names. The normal guy or gal who wants a life but ends up in the middle of horror situation;"A character with no special abilities other than luck but sometimes that's enough. Most Normals want to go to a regular 9-to-5 life but fate has other plans. They always seem to end up in the middle of some supernatural dust up."

Then we've got a wizard under guise of mystic; "Mystic: Mystics know a few supernatural tricks to help even up the fight against evil. Mystics aren't the toughest nor the luckiest characters of the bunch but their knowledge and magical skills prove to be invaluable when facing the forces of darkness." Basically your regular Sword and Wizardry mage or wizard whose been ported over to this comedy/supernatural retroclone. A better choice for this character and this system might have been a spell point system for Gary Vs The Monsters. A friend pointed this out earlier today as I was reading this pdf. I was expecting a bit better from this pdf  but the psychic looks to be PC class  ported over from a D20 OGL site.
Alright with all of that said there's a lot that can be used here the use of saving throw as skill system is interesting and has a variety of uses in many instances;"Saving Throws are what your character uses to resist all sorts of bad things. Be it poison, disease, mind control, and various other types effects that aren't exactly an attack but still can do damage or otherwise hinder a character. To make a Saving Throw simply roll 1d20. A character's class may provide a modifier as well as the Attribute Modifiers of the character. If the total of the roll is greater than the character’s Saving Throw number (on the Class Charts) then it was successful.
GvM uses the Saving Throws as a Skill mechanic. Or to put it another way, if the player wants his character to attempt something so the player rolls a Saving Throw. The GM may allow the roll to be modified by one of the character's Ability Score Modifiers, Class, and/or Day Job. It's that simple."  This works as a fast and quick remedy for the spur of the moment decisions and skill situations that one finds in horror films.  The brush with the supernatural table is cool to add a bit more background to your PC's. The insanity rules are particularly interesting but look to have been ported over from other Swords and Wizardry products. Choosing equipment is supposed to emulate the horror movie theme of grab whatever is on hand and use the Chinese menu of choose from column A and column B approach; "Rolling Random Starting Equipment: Instead spending time shopping, starting characters begin
with some random equipment. •Table A (Roll 3 times): These are items that could be very useful with a little creativity and
imagination.•Table B (Roll 2 times):
These are obviously useful in some way.•Table C (Roll Once):
Weapons.•Table D:
Really good weapons. Only roll if you get the result on Table C."

The tables are alright but really need to expanded some and there is a ton of material that could have been added into this section. This is one area that needs a bit more expansion.  The ritual section takes the conceits and random rolls to create magical spells that anyone can use. There isn't a single ritual example in this section only a bunch of random tables to create your own and to me this is one of the weakest areas of this retroclone. Here's the perfect place to create a band new marketing statement and OSR new material for Gary Vs The Monsters. I'm sure we'll be seeing a new resource book soon. 
This is followed by relics and you get a total of nine magical relics including Magic Pig Media's version of Necronomicon Ex Dementia. Here's another section that should have been expanded upon with something like fifteen or so relics. The Dungeons and Dragons OGL is peppered with a myriad of magic items and relics these are easily modified for a  horror game such as Gary Vs The Monsters. The author should have gone back to these. Sorry but this section needed work. The insanity rules are something that works very well in Gary Vs the Monsters though. The monster section is one of the strongest places in the game you get a total of twenty seven of the most popular horror monster types available. These are strong and very well thought out and its really the horror movie monsters that this game is really about.
That leads straight into the six page adventure called Night of the Living Shoppers, a nasty little affair that takes place in a mall ala Dawn of the Dead and there are even several pre generated PC's to play here. They even include Gary in there. This brings me to the character sheet which should have been a bit well better graphically. The artwork in Gary Vs the Monsters is by some of my favorite fantasy and OSR  artists including:
Tamas Baranya
Peter Szabo Gabor
Jeshields
HermaDolph
Bradley K McDevitt
Widodo Pangarso
Nolan Segrest
Sade
So with all of those areas of what seem like problems and issues do I think this is a bad or usable game nope not at all. Gary Vs The Monsters does exactly what it says on the tin and proves a comedic horror rpg done in the old school tradition. This is a game for a quick weekend pick up adventure done with friends and horror fans. I think that for six dollars you get a complete and workable system that with a bit of work could be a great alternative Swords and Wizardry system. Four out of five stars for Gary Vs The Monsters.

Review & Commentary on Stark Space By Magic Pig Media For The White Star Retroclone Rpg System and Your Old School Space Campaigns

 White Star has a dizzying array of products out for that stand alone retro clone rpg system. Magic Pig Media comes out with a solid amount of products from pulp era titles to fully realized enemies. And now they've created another thirty nine page interstellar  humancentric, dystopian universe for your PC's. Stark Space basically gives the DM all of the cyberpunk style options and tools  for an interstellar back water world or sector for the  sort of dangerous and sleazy adventure locations, NPC's, new PC options, races, a cyber add on system for White Star and other dangerous adventure ideas all boiled down to their cyberpunk gritty foundations and it does it with a  style all of its own. In many ways Stark Space reminds me of West End Game's other Star Wars titles the ones that showed what was happening in the other not so nice parts of the 'Expanded Star Wars' universe map. That's not a bad thing as we shall see.

GRAB IT HERE


Stark Space boils down the PC's into the template like menu of PC class types that White Star uses; here we get : The Brains, The Face, and The Muscle which are then customized as the player sees fit and then assembled into PC's. We have genetically modified combatants called  Max-Gene's, Simulants who are androids so close to human it hurts, and finally the  Psi are humans with powers who have been main streamed into  society and whom the corporations have main lined into interstellar  society.
   This is the setting  of hundreds of late night latterial Nineties  and early two Thousands cyberpunk movies and television shows and White Star is in bad need of this type of setting. Sure your PC's can play 'Star Knights' and 'Smugglers' at will, but in Stark Space these folks are out on the edge of intergalactic society struggling with the high octane of real down and dirty adventure life. This is straight mainline Adrenalin material and quite frankly lately White Star is starting to bore me. Stark Space is just what the cybernetic doctor ordered! For three dollars you get everything you need to plunk PC's right down into a failed colony or feral cyberpunk dungeon world. There are more then a couple of new  optional combat rules, equipment, and antagonists all waiting to tear into your PC's. Stark Space contains everything you need to bring your PC's right over into a high end intergalactic world of adventure without the BS of having another twenty books to nickel and dime you to death.
Stark Space  is a a fully developed set of tools straight out of the gate to create a high tension and dangerous world of cyberpunk dystopian adventure against the backdrop of the interstellar setting of White Star. I highly recommend this product and actively encourage Magic Pig Media to continue this title line  with other product adds on's for Stark Space.

Commentary On Drivethrurpg's Sale and A Ready Made White Star Rpg Campaign Set up

If your unaware of Drivethrurpg's big sale that's happening right now then you might miss it. Magic Pig Media is one of those OSR style outfits that got onto the bandwagon of turning out some very well done material for the White Star game. I did a whole range of reviews for Magic Pig a while back including one of my favorites Outer Space Raiders: Zeloxians From Magic Pig Media For Your White Star Rpg Adventures & Your Old School Campaigns  & I also took a look at the Norni too from Magic Pig Media

 You can find a ton of good solidly done White Star materials from Magic Pig here

Another author whom I like for one stop shopping for White Star is Mark Hunt. His Ships of Shade Space and Drongo (Planet of Peril) From  Leviathan Publishing both dovetail right back into White Star with a bit of work and can be evened out with Magic Pig Media's Have Death Ray Will Travel campaign setting for a cross between Edgar Rice Burroughs and Babylon Five with touch of Flash Gordon's vibe to even things out. I've been doing an OSR sci fi  campaign similar but with a completely different vibe for many years otherwise I might be taking advantage of this sale myself.  If I were you my friends I'd take full advantage of this sale right now.

Review & Commentary On 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' From Magic Pig Media For the White Star Rpg System

I received the pdf of Have Death Ray, Will Travel  From Magic Pig Media for the White Star Rpg retroclone system as a pulp crossover point product three days ago. There's a whole campaigns feel here turned into forty five pages of material with some public domain sci fi comic book material used as the artwork for the book.
Because White Star takes a lot of its P's & Q's from Star Wars and basically Star Wars derivatives much of its material from pulp magazines, properties, and comic books Magic Pig Media has tapped into that vein with 'Have Death Ray Will Travel'. The material here really taps into a specific form of pulp namely the post war WWII years from 1949 and onward. It describes itself as, 'The year is 1999 and a new millennium is on the horizon. Mankind has colonized outer space. Lunar City is a bustling metropolis. Earth has found new allies with the Martians and Venusians.  The Solar System is filled with mysteries, danger, and adventure!'



The setting material here is fine but dials back the interstellar action into a localized pulp solar system and Earth has expanded into the local Sol system. There's a great retro future feel to 'Have Death Ray, Will Travel' lends itself to any number of options but comes with its own built in campaign setting. Includes two new classes (Scientist and Gunfighter), ten new ships and over 30 monsters and foes, and an introductory adventure: Lost Mines of the Brain Masters. And it all seems to work very well for what it does which is emulates a very specific period in pulp history. Your party is going to be  adventurers who roam the solar system solving problems, righting wrongs, and vanquishing futuristic supervillains and monsters. All of the planets of the solar system, and many of the moons and asteroids, are suitable for life, and most are already occupied by humanoid extraterrestrial races.
Magic Pig Media has tapped into the pulpy setting and weird aspects of the science fantasy space western in a way and it works on many levels. Here's where Have Death Ray, Will Travel shines:

•  Have Death Ray, Will Travel is great for designing out a pick up game of White Star in a pulpy  Earth based solar system. There's lots of potential for campaign play in the limited sphere of Earth's solar system. 
• The retro future sci fi elements have plenty of material built right into the back end of this so that a clever DM could incorporate the pulp elements of this product into an existing White Star campaign ie alternative Earth solar system slotted into existing White Star Campaigns. 
•  File off all of the campaign and setting elements of the two new classes (Scientist and Gunfighter), ten new ships and over 30 monsters and foes, and an introductory adventure: Lost Mines of the Brain Masters to make them your own. This is exactly what I'm going to do.
  
  Is Have Death Ray Will Travel worth getting? In a word yes but wait till Drivethrurpg has a sale. For me the 'Have Death Ray Will, Will Travel 'campaign setting and options means customization and lots of it. Because White Star is Swords and Wizardry based it makes this retro future setting a good solid contender to shoe horn into existing campaigns. This makes customizing the PC classes a snap because using the game elements of the product could show up in the most unlikely places say a dungeon or post apocalyptic ruin.  The governmental agencies of Have Death Ray will Travel could have agents operating across the planes.
  For example the inter system monsters and aliens   could with little effort be used in a Mutant Future Mazes and Mutants campaign providing the claw,  muscle and high tech alien assistance to mutant armed forces in the wastelands. For a Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry campaign the Mad Scientists or Brain Masters could be the power behind the throne of your favorite despotic rulers. For Hulks and Horrors these guys make a great opposition  for adventurers combing through the space hulks for treasure, artifacts, or more. For White Star or other OD&D retroclone style rpgs Have Death Ray, Will Travel has lots of potential such as filling in a middle management campaign product role.  My recommendation is to grab this one and use it to create some exciting pulp adventures for your White Star games.

Outer Space Raiders: The Norni From Magic Pig Media For Your White Star Rpg Adventures & Your Old School Campaigns

Its amazing to me how much time has passed since I did anything with the White Star Retroclone Rpg system. The material for White Star comes out every single week or day it seems. Someone comes up with a new science fiction or science fantasy title for the game. This is not a bad thing in my humble opinion, it keeps the community vibrant and live with fresh ideas and new prospective toward the game. There's one area that always seems lacking to me and that's the middle management vile villains. You know those guys who are challenges and the type that are always dogging your  White Star  adventurers but don't quite have the TPK potential of the void knights. Well the Outer Space Raiders: The Norni from Magic Pig Media are not quite as cut and dry as they might appear. The Norni are an alien race example of what happens in those old Marvel Star Wars comics when the Rebels high tale it out of dodge and the Empire moves in for the conquest. We know that White Star drives its inspiration from old school Star Wars and Magic Pig Media has tapped that well with the Norni but in a good way. There's a lot going on here. According to the Rpgnow blurb: The Norni supported the fledgling rebellion. When the Imperial Armada arrived, the Rebels fled and the Empire bombed the planet making it an example to any who would oppose their power. Civilized worlds turned their backs on the refugees out of fear of imperial reprisals. The Norni are a people without a home, fated to wander the stars.' Sure it might sound a bit like the old Marvel Star Wars comics from the 80's but its not. There are several factors that those comics would never have tapped into.

• The Norni themselves are basically a good people caught in the cross fire of forces beyond their control and the Rebellion is no better then the Imperials in their eyes. There's a racial history to this and the product has this built right into its history. 
• There are lots of opportunity for violence and deadly conflict with this race and they've got a reputation for space piracy and dark forces at their call. They also have access to technologies that generally seem to involve some heavy duty but kicking and its likely that your PC's are going be caught in the cross fire of it. This is not a race of NPC's that's made to sit on the side lines.
• There are plenty of fleshed out details in nine pages and this isn't a pdf that leaves you with cliff hanger questions unlike Marvel's Star Wars where we got alien races and zippo background until later issues.
  
  
  As I've said this is not a slow and steady pdf at all you get lots of tools for your dollar, yeah that's right a dollar buys you the following :
  Included is information on the Norni and their culture, the Norni Star Wanderer Racial Class, and twenty adventure hooks.
  
  Also included is Lady Iliza, Mistress of the Void, a powerful Void Knight villain  for use in your campaigns. So why do I like this pdf? Because you get a group of middle management vile villains with a reason to hate everyone and yet their not actually really bad guys more like victims with regrets who have issues with the universe of White Star. And their coming to get your adventurers in spades. Their is a new PC class right out of the gate that presents the Norni Star Wanderers which has a bit of the Star Trek Orions in their gamer racial PC DNA and a whole package of trouble for PC's ships. Here's the introduction blurb: The stars are your home. You wander the space ways in search of fame, fortune, and just a little bit of revenge.
  Not the type of PC that you want on the bad side of your adventuring party or their ship, instead I can see actually using this class to fill out the ranks of a smuggler or pirate ship on the side of the Rebels with a whole package of reasons to get into and out of trouble. We get broad strokes on culture, signature weapon, homeworld, timeline, Norni technology and solild looks into the race's home world, timeline, events, and more. This presents the Norni as a well rounded and fleshed out race with plenty of room for DM DYI campaign hook ins. There's also plenty of room to squeeze out even more play with the twenty Norni adventure hooks. There's enough here to be introducing the Norni into your campaigns and for using them for other applications.
  They don't make that kinda fun anymore. Because the author has included the little twist that the head of this race is a Void knight in her own right and there's a whole subplot involving the fact that she's got here own dark agenda going right in the back of the plot. She so evil that even her own race has exiled her. So there's a ton that can be done with her.
  This makes customizing the Norni a snap because using them anywhere means that they can pop up in the least likely places. For example the Norni could with little effort be used in a Mutant Future Mazes and Mutants campaign providing the muscle and high tech alien assistance to mutant armed forces in the wastelands. For a Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry campaign the Norni could be the power behind the throne of your favorite despotic rulers. For Hulks and Horrors these guys make a opposition  for adventurers combing through the space hulks for treasure, artifacts, or more. For White Star or other OD&D retroclone style rpgs this race has lots of potential such as filling in a  middle management enemy role, they could be bounty hunters  or even gasp as a possible PC alien PC race. My recommendation is to grab the PDF and customize the Norni as you see fit for your old school campaigns.

Outer Space Raiders: Zeloxians From Magic Pig Media For Your White Star Rpg Adventures & Your Old School Campaigns

The White Star rpg retroclone system community is one of the most dynamic communities on G+, Facebook, and within the OSR. Everyday another supplement, monster book, alien race book, etc. hits the airwaves. But then comes along  the Zeloxians. Described as a' small, fearless alien race that's out to conquer the galaxy as soon as they fill out the right paperwork and get their equipment to work.'they played for yucks but let me explain there is nothing funny about these aliens. They're possibly one of the most nightmarish bastards that you can run across. You see these guys are alien bureaucrats, possibly the equivalent of alien accountants, tax collectors, bean counters,pencil necked geeks, or any other nightmarish nebbish fool behind a desk that you've ever run across. And they've got energy weapons and their not afraid to use them. If these guys don't make your White Star or old school adventurers break out in a cold sweat then your not using these bastards right. I really don't think that the author even knows what he's created personally. He describes them as,"

The Zeloxians are a darkly humorous, tongue-in-cheek alien race for your space opera campaigns. Included are a racial class and the most common pieces of Zeloxian equipment such as the Doom Fighter, Radium Atomizer Magnum Blaster Obliteration Gun, Power Gauntlets, Trooper Armor and Powered Assault Armor."

This is a tightly put together four page pdf that sells for around one dollar and what do you get for your dollar investment? An entire race and array of tools that you can torture your adventurers for hours and hours with. They don't make that kinda fun anymore. See these guys are the bill collectors, phone sanitizers, tax collectors,etc. of the space ways and their waiting to suck the fun and treasure right out of your PC's hands. Its all here in black and white, signed sealed, and printed out in triplicate waiting in a nice tightly sealed official looking envelop in the standard Zeloxian Empire stationary. And these little bastards have the weaponry and fire power to enforce their will on your adventurers. Think that your Swords and Wizardry retroclone dungeons are safe? Think again, rumors that Zeloxians parties of bureaucrats & treasure enforcer units are even now are dimension hopping to take away your hard earned gold. After all hyper space bypasses, and empires across the stars don't run themselves.
Grab It Right Over
HERE


Everything about these guys reeks of smarmy pencil headed alien bureaucratic menace in spades, these little bastards will drown your PC's in red tape while blasting the Hell out of em with a spade of weapons that are scattered throughout the pdf. There are rumors of Zeloxian agents infiltrating across the stars and into governments,bars, gambling establishments,intergalactic brothels, and every black market operation they can get their four fingers into! All the better to report to their masters and tax your PC's to death. Everything you need to run these little alien horror shows is included in the pdf. Personally I think that this pdf is merely another piece of  Zeloxian empire propaganda. These alien penny pinchers  are rumored to split ten percent with local intergalactic governments any taxes they collect. And these bastards have been known to show up in dungeons, post apocalyptic ruins, and a wide variety of retroclone OD&D style systems. They have a tendency to spoil any fun that they can for adventurers. Even though this is a well written pdf, the fact is that there are some adventurers who have been know to shoot these guys on sight! The fact is that the  Zeloxians make a great mid level alien menace that  can be easily dropped into a wide variety of old school adventure settings and can cause adventurers all kinds of mayhem. DM's should pick this pdf up for the sheer horror that these alien bastards can wreck in an old school or retroclone system.
There are a wide variety of applications where the Zeloxians could be used. For a Basic Fantasy rpg campaign these little nasties could be used as tax collectors, enemies, conquerors, or used as part menace or comedy relief. For Hulks and Horrors these guys make a perfect foil for adventurers combing through the space hulks for treasure, artifacts, or more. For White Star or other OD&D retroclone style rpgs this race has lots of potential such as filling in a foil role, comedy relief or even gasp as a possible PC alien PC race.
My recommendation is to grab the PDF and customize the Zeloxians as you see fit for your old school campaigns. These little bastards are flexible enough to have a vary large variety of uses.

Free And Pay What You Want OSR Rpg Resources For Free Rpg Day

First up there's this wonderful little adventure location from the Hobby Shop folks.

Featured over At Tenkar's Tavern  is this wonderful adventure  & campaign setting
And he's got more resources over there as well.

Magic Pig Media has Outer Space Raiders Volume One On Pay What You Want too. For the next twenty four hours.

Then there's this wonderful critter from the Frugal DM

Review and Commentary on Outer Space Raiders Volume 2: Aliens, Creatures & Foes From Magic Pig Media For The White Star rpg

The White Star rpg community has to be one of the most active rpg communities I've ever seen, and there's been fan based  & professional  product after product for the game coming out daily it seems.. Which brings me to Outer Space Raiders Volume 2: Aliens, Creatures & Foes by Magic Pig Media. This book covers over twenty monsters drawn from the public domain, the author's warped imagination, and generally every conceivable source that's known to man. But is it good? Well, this is done with an eye towards tongue planted firmly in cheek here. There are over twenty monsters from the Pulsarites to Warp Beasts with at least one fully developed race called the Radioactive Lust Vampires. I love the artwork for this monster by Bradley McDermott.You've even got some star ship sized monsters in the form of Cosmic Behemoth or the Star Kraken along with some others. Finally to round out the whole affair you get  a random Bug-Eyed Monster generator and three new starships in the appendixes or add ons.

For the most part I enjoyed the book which you get eight pages for a dollar fifty and over twenty monsters as well.

Everything seems well put together here, the font is easy to read and the monsters are pretty damn useful but the tongue & cheek tone of the book bothers me a bit. White Star while it is a Swords and Wizardry variation seems to have as many science fiction and fantasy settings. Magic Pig is taking full advantage of this situation to bring DM's a good selection of monsters. But the fact is that this collection takes the overview approach to its monsters not quite seriously enough but there are some damn useful foes in this book.
With a bit of imagination these monsters could easily be used in any Swords and Wizardry or OD&D style campaign adventure. Because there are traditional, funny, and pulp material mixed in. I have a feeling that a DM is for a bit of a headache with the monsters in here. These monsters work quite perfectly for a sci fi action comedy series such as one that draws from the Ice Pirates or the Star Wars knock off school of space fantasy.
There is a ton of utility and bang for your buck here for a dollar fifty, with a bit of fore thought there's plenty here to get in on the ground floor of  Outer Space Raiders Volume 2: Aliens, Creatures & Foes. Would I recommend this for the right DM to take his game into a comedy style science fiction or space adventure? Absolutely this is a very well done little solid game book. Four out of four for this one. My advise is to grab this one and get the ball rolling.