Tentacles In My Mail Box - Alpha Blue Rpg Drop Off - Alpha Blue Campaign Update

 

So for Christmas my wife decided to grab a couple of Venger Satanis's Alpha Blue titles from Amazon. And we've been waiting for  Alien Ass, Hydrogen Gas, or Cosmic Grass... No One Warps For Free. This book is a collection of new Alpha Blue rpg articles including new character classes ( these seem very familiar for those who play the world's most popular fantasy role playing game), more Alpha Blue campaign setting material, and adventure hooks. 

Right so the advantage that Amazon's printing has over Drivethrurpg and Lulu is that the quality is slightly better. And when it comes to Alpha Blue besides Alien Ass, Hydrogen Gas, or Cosmic Grass... No One Warps For Free the other book that is really Alpha Blue essential is Universal Exports. Universal Exports is Star Wars meets Flesh Gordon,  more rules, more setting, more tables, more artwork, more scenario fragments/ seeds, cool maps of starships and Grabba the Butt's pleasure palace, new customized character sheets... it's got everything

Now linking Alpha Blue and Cha'alt is pretty easy and the adventure path that I'd use for such an endeavour is for us is Dead God Evcavation and Girls Gone Rogue. These two supplements are easily blended into a faux Lovecraftian sleazy space opera with Wretched Space Second edition. 

 Alien Ass, Hydrogen Gas, or Cosmic Grass... No One Warps For Free fits nice and snuggly into the warped world of Alpha Blue with the Federation neatly controlling one side of the galaxy. And the Outer Rim powers running the otherside. The Federation is in a state of decline but they're doing anything to maintain control. And we can see this in various Venger Satanis Alpha Blue books. And this is easily blended into the world of Cha'alt. 

And this get's into Venger Satanis's latest Kickstarter 'The Cha'alt Experience Designing Worlds Like a F*cking Bosss'.  Venger takes the reader step by step through his creative process (God help us) when designing  his sleazy world of Sci Fi goodness Cha'alt. 

And this backspaces into  Alien Ass, Hydrogen Gas, or Cosmic Grass... No One Warps For Free 's book from Amazon. The quality of the paper is superior to Lulu and Drivethrurpg, the book is full colour, and it looks great next to the Cha'alt books themselves. 

It an't over till Orcus Sings -- Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise & Wretched Space Rpg Campaign Session Report

This is going to pick right up where were left off last week for our Cha'alt/ Wretched Space 2nd edition campaign. Tonight the player's PC's were racing along Fury Road after taking bets against themselves through a third party mutant hireling.

  I dragged my copy of Venger's Death Race Fury Road.  And the party isn't happy at all. And so the party decided to talk smack to another racer whose pit crew were a group of white suited nuns. This was a big mistake because said racer was actually a cleric of Orcus with a lesser version of a skull crested wand of the undead demon lord. The party was then bodily thrown out by a pack of zombies made up of the last adventurers who'd trifled with Brad The Anti Cleric of Orcus. Brad is a nasilly voiced cleric whose daddy paid for him to go to the finest necromanic colleges in the big city. Big Daddy also happens to be the head of the cult of Orcus on Cha'alt. He's competing to bring greater glory & attention to Orcus in his very expensive purple floater called the Purple Cyclops. 

And there's the small matter of one of the PC's having a secondary head on his back after pissing off the black wizard/necromancer whose got money invested in the party. Rul' The Undying has given the party one of his fastest warmachines. And he wants the party to humililate Brad The Anti Cleric by beating him on Fury road. Wizard may or may not return the party's space craft to them if they win. Notice I said may. If they win they'll go and spend their winnings on drugs, prostitutes, & booze. Let's also not metion the fact that the rest of the party has been working on their own warmachine non stop to get chance to win the race. 

And then there's the little matter of the drug agents that are after the party for selling an illegal interstellar drug to groups of fruities who were actually weapons runners. The party hates & I do mean hates Brad The Anti Cleric for turning them in with the empire of Humanity. There is after all a bounty on the party. And the party is still looking for a loop hole to get them out of the 4000 parking tickets that the party wracked up searching for college aged replacements or stand ins for themselves. Just incase the displinces of pain come looking for them again! 

If It Ain't Nailed Down Steal It! - Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise & Wretched Space Rpg Campaign Session Report

 
So once again Venger backed his purple van up to my backdoor & things got wrecked this weekend! Litterally! Back a couple of weeks one of the players mentioned that he'd cut a deal for a used space craft with his share of the treasure. It was an off handed remark?! Right?! Wrong! This week the PC's gang pressed their shaman into using his 'scroll of teleportation' into getting the PC's back to the Gamma Turquoise: Santa Fe Starport & the Fruities (humanoid fruit) that they had cut a deal for a used  space craft. Blaster fire errupted after the Fruities wanted to go back on the deal. They were getting ready to take off from Cha'alt. The PC's loaded everything the Fruities had stolen onto the ship & then proceeded to go into Starport itself. And this is where they got into deep trouble. 

The Gamma Turquoise: Santa Fe Starport area of Cha'alt is run by some pretty heavy mutants & aliens as a part of criminal gangs of the area. They didn't take too kindly to random blaster fire being thrown around their end of Cha'alt. And things went from bad to worse when the PC's decided to piss off the local necromancer whose a servant of The God With Many Faces. 

The PC's had to fight their way back to their starship & then get the Hell outta of there! They were later lured into a trap at a local brothel by said black wizard using a Cha'alt siren. She ate one of the PC's as payment from the wizard. She wants to sleep with Sir Gala' hard (Zedi Knight) another party member. The party wants to pay off the wizard in drugs but he wants to put the party into the local Fury Road games! He'll gonna mint it off their backsides! So I dragged my copy of Venger's Death Race Fury Road.  And the party isn't happy at all. 

Meanwhile, the player's PC's have stashed the spacecraft & are taking bets on themselves while paying an assassin to take out the other death racers. They paid off the Fruities families in fertilizer. Again don't ask. Things got really complicated when the cult of the Karens got wind of the PC's working the death race. They have a rather large score to settle for defective enchanted sex toys the PC's sold them. Again don't ask. Next week we're going down Fury Road! 

The PC's also found out about some of the local ruins that contain the fabled  Candy Crypts but they think that this might be a set up by the Fruity families to get some pay back. All of the PC's want to do is get off of Cha'alt (they don't but that what they keep saying) & yet they want to buy more drugs, do more crimes, and get to the local alien & mutant brothels?! 

Mail Call From From Kortthalis Publishing - Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows Hardback

 So a couple of days ago, a pinkish package arrived on my doorstep and riled it's tentacles at the mailman.After wrestling it back down we made sure it could be opened. Say what you want but Venger does know how to package his rpg books. 

We've got a bit of a sorted history with Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows. Not because of any controversies. But because of the number of TPK's we've had when it comes to the PC's in our campaigns stumbling into traps, NPC's maws, the sexual organs of demon worms (don't ask), the botched summonings of various horrors, and the interactions with NPC's. 
And then there's the dungeons which have a reputation among our players as great places to score really dangerous magic items. And the demons that seem to snag the ocassional adventurer. 

Venger does package his materials right & then insulates his book's packaging. The  Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows Hardback has pretty much everything you need to start adventuring on Cha'alt right away.  Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows Hardback is the last in the trilogy & we're planning on using this with the White Star Rpg coming up. Why?! Because of the fact that many of the hard core Science Fantasy influences that we've been using are back door Star Trek & Star Wars parodies.  Cha'alt handles this quite nicely across the board. However know that  Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows follows in the Cha'alt & OSR shadows as done by Venger's fevered imagination. 

 Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows takes full advantage of Venger's passion for random tables, dangerous horrors, and non linear point crawls that can make or break a campaign depending upon the player's decisions. And often times it's best to go with the flow of the campaign. The players want to start with  the Cremza’amirikza’am megadungeon & this goes back to our first brushes with the campaign setting. 

The dungeon sleaze factor is here but it's far less pronounced then Alpha Blue. But my players won't let go the brushes we've had with that setting going back when ran  Gamma Turquoise: Santa Fe Starport which has a version it on our version of Cha'alt. 

Yes lots & lots of random table goodness for the players to deal with and then there's the fact that on our version of Cha'alt there's a portal back  The S'rulyan Vault II. The deeper levels of the Vault lead into the underbelly of another dungeon on Cha'alt. These are used by several of the cults of the Old Ones and this includes the one for this mad bastard. 

In several of our games we've managed to slip in the Cyclops PC race. The cyclops were promised the ability to see the future by a demonic worm of Cha'alt. That didn't come to pass as the demon worm only allows them to see the death of others and their own sometime in the future. They slew the worm & turned their backs upon their own esoteric past becoming instead a proud warrior race. Their dealings on Cha'alt have made them a fatalistic and dangerous race to cross. 

Cyclopian Mutant Race  

+1 on Strength, +2 on Constitution, -1 on Wisdom, +1 on Dexterity, 

Mutations - Anti Life Leech, Death Sight, Immunity to Radiation, 

Richard Moll as the Cyclopean mutant leader from Metalstorm The Destruction of Jared Syn August 19, 1983 an obvious influence on Venger's Cha'alt trilogy. 

Mail Call - Ascendant Rpg By Alexander Marcis From Autarch

 So over the past couple of days the mail has been a bit well weird because of the Nor Easter that we've been hit with. So checking on Drivethrurpg on two orders, something appeared and that was the Ascendant rpg by Alexander Marcus. And that the package was being delivered today by UPS. And yes I spent the extra money for fast delivery.  And so the box that this came in was delivered this morning and this bad boy is thick! 

The Ascendant rpg is one of those crunch heavy super heroes rpgs that I love. Did a ton of DC Heroes rpg & TSR Marvel Super Heroes rpg back in the day. So the Ascendant rpg speaks to me as a DM & as a player. The fact is that Ascendant rpg is a super hero rpg can of math in a book form. And that's fine with me. D.C. Heroes taught me higher math so this is game after my own heart.

So let's just take a second to bask in the superhero awesomeness! This game book might be able to stop a small caliber bullet & within are characters who are bullet proof! The Ascendant rpg has the meat & bones of a system that will bring tools & parts that you need as a player to run an entire world & campaign. 

 Ascendant Rpg By Alexander Marcis does a fine job of doing a ton of set up for their comic book world setting. But reading through this I find myself wanting to create my own campaign setting. That being said I'm speaking with several players now to see about getting a campaign off the ground. 

Ascendant rpg by Alexander Marcus is availabe here! 

A Hostile Mail Call - Nuking The Rpg's From Orbit

 For several months now there's been a hole in out gaming shelf where my Hostile setting book has been & today it got filled by Paul Elliot's Hostile Rules  hardback. Because of the shipping crisis the book has been taking longer to get here. But its a thing of beauty & ruin for our Hostile rpg players. 

When it comes to 2d6 Eighties Science Fiction Horror, Hostile hits all of the right switches for the gaming groups that we've played with. The horrors of Hostile are both alien & utterly familar. The 2d6 aspects of the system hit the right buttons with life events, career paths, and more doing the Cepheus Engine rpg right. 

The Seventies & Eighties Science Fiction blockbuster & B movie magick   rpg vibe  that Hostile brings to the  table is something different & yet, oh so familar. Getting folks to play this game if you mention a certain 1979 film about the perfect organasm. 

The fact is that beneath the veneer of a Sci Fi horror 2d6 rpg is a game of exploration & much more. Because combat runs on the Modern War rpg engine things are much more deadly then the players are expecting. Combat is a real affair with your PC's lives hanging in the balance. So players have to consider their every move when just about everything is trying to kill your PC. Space is deadly, the corporations don't have your best interests at heart. The android in the corner may have more principles then its makers or it could be a killer. The latest updates from the Corporation could cost so much more of your life. And let's not mention how deadly space actual is. 

Mail Call! Emperor's Choice Arduin Grimoire Bundle (Arduin Grimoire volumes 1-9!) Unboxing

Hoping that your Thanksgiving preparpation has gone smashingly! I'm very appreciative of having a roof over my head, four squares a day, a job, and a hobby that has given me some amazing friends & opportunities. And this little beauty came today. so excited to have this package! 

Lo do I see the Arduin Grimoire Bundle (Arduin Grimoire volumes 1-9 in my mail box today! Excellent turkey day reading material kids! 



 As soon as Emperor's Choice reared its head, I yanked out a kickstarter pledge and ordered  Arduin Grimoire Bundle (Arduin Grimoire volumes 1-9!) from their new website. Man, I've been waiting for this watching the mail box for some weeks while others have gotten their orders from Emperor's Choice ( good for them may they enjoy bloody, bloody, Arduin!). But looking over opening this beauty she packed really well. Emperor's Choice did an amazing job packing my books nicely! 

And there's the Bloody, Bloody, Arduin goodness right there all Arduin Grimoire volumes 1-9! And since I paid for these out of pocket their all mine for unleashing mayhem on the players PC's coming up! New monsters, magic items, adventure twists, and much more

This has everything that a DM could ever want for running a complete Arduin campaign for years & years to come! The main rule book lone 'The Complete Arduin Grimoire volumes 1-3' is worth the price of admission. But then add to that the rest of the package & things get really interesting. The first three volumes of the Arduin Grimoire really showcase optional material to add to the 'grand game' for the players. Dave Hagrave's additional grimoire volumes add even more depth to the Arduin setting & campaign world. And its this second avenue that I've been vying for now for a long time. 

There's something uniquely dangerous about using the additional grimoires that seems to fly in the face of the traditional classic era of TSR Dungeons & Dragons. The home brewed aspect of Hargrave's creation & his willingness to say to the DM, 'Here just try this and see if it helps or hinders your home campaign'. 

There are so many little details & bits of Arduin weirdness that seem to reveal themselves as you read these grimoires. And thank you Emperor's Choice for the editing of the Grimoires along with the larger type fonts. The truth is that this collection is going to make creating & running adventures much easier for me coming up. 

Friday Mail Call - Troll Lords & Frog God Games In The House!

 Jason Vey's Amazing Adventures fifth edition has been on my brain now for some days going into a Lovecraftian campaign coming up. Got to say that  its very different then let's say Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. 

Amazing Adventures handles the Pulp & Modern elements better then 5 edition. 

Horror has consequences in this game. 

AA can do D&D adventures without the bad issues of the fifth edition system. 

Thanks to the Frog God Games Humble bundle some months ago there's additional Lovecraftian material available to run with. 

 

And now onwards with the Frog God Games adventures! The gentleman who had to part with these was really upset after his wife approached me about buying them on the cheap! There's months & months of goodness here but its gonna be a question of working this stuff into the on going campaign! 

Mythos Mail Call - Campaigns, Cthulhu, & Ancient Rome?!

Now we've talked about grabbing some of the rarer rpg books that have come out since 2018. And since our group is now going to focus on running an Amazing Adventures Fifth edition campaign for a change up. 


 So we decided to get down & dirty with a bit of that old Call of Cthulhu goodness. But with an OSR twist or two. Cthulhu Invictus by Golden Goblin Press  is for Seventh edition Call of Cthulhu & it is glorious! But but you've already got 43 AD  from Zozer Games by Paul Elloit?! Yes, we do & its the superior game in almost all ways. Because its focus is on both historical & cinematic Celtic & Roman period historical influences. 

Cthulhu Invictus by Golden Goblin Press is focused solely on fighting the Cthulhu mythos within the Roman Empire. The game adapts quite nicely all of the focus within this unto itself. And the book is printed in the United States not China like Chaosium books are. And in good conscious can not condone the multiple human rights violations of China. Nor ignore the stance of CCP's stance on Hong Kong where family of ours  resides. So while we  own several Chaosium CoC books our group's  stance is firm. This is about as political as this blog entry gets. Anyhow frequently DM Paul & co. have been bothering me about running Jason Vey's Amazing Adventures rpg. Now this isn't fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons at all. So shelve half of the preconceptions of that game. 
This is going to be an out and out supernatural or occult ho down with both New England & Mythos overtones. This is something that we started with Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg by Elf Lord Games. But the focus within that Mythos campaign  is in a completely different direction. Then this campaign. The second book we grabbed is pure OSR And that's The  Worlds Without Number rpg.  That's a whole separate blog entry unto itself coming up. 

Mail Call - Arduin Rpg & Deodanth Blood Feuds

 So there's been a huge amount back & forth on social media about Emperor's Choice Games putting Arduin rpg titles back up on Drivethrurpg  As for myself some combing through Amazon's seller's listings got me three original books for a reasonable price. 

This is very important for two reasons besides the obvious. Which is that Arduin has some very deep roots in causing all kinds of havoc for my player's PC's over the years. And the fact that Dave Hargrave continues to cast a long shadow over my gaming. 

The 'Soul Claw' deodanth clan has had a blood feud in my campaigns with various PC groups connected with any number of patrons. The most recent has been the 'clean up crew' of my Cha'alt/Godbound  games. The OSR version of the Deodanth's that we've used going back ages is from the Underworld cleaning service blog here. 

Deodaths are chaos incarnate in all of its most bloodiest form. They may or may not have been created to murder gods but that's the use we've put them too for ages now. On Arduin they are simply another race of travelers whose blundered into the Nexus gates. Part & parcel of Dave Hargrave's genius was his ability to sift through the grains of his imagination to create reams of old school goodness that you could add or subtract. Mr. Hargrave's eidos was to at least give these pearls of his a try & he was good at what he did. My crew & myself don't have a tenth of  his talent. He was taken far too early from us. 
But now the deodanths are back on the radar for our campaigns & they are out for blood! 

Mail Box Blues - Troll Lord Games Castles & Crusades 'Of Gods & Monsters' By James M. Ward

So recently over a week ago I hopped onto Ebay which is something that over the past couple of years has been an impulse that has been resisted on my part. And you're  about to see why?!
Over the years only Amazon, Troll Lord Games, and several independent rpg sellers have been the only online or mail ordering that have come my way.  Not only would I have been willing to pay extra for two pieces of cardboard or bubble wrap. But it would have been on my too do list if I  had been the ebay seller.
 Jason Vey when he sent me Veterans of the Supernatural War rpg just about bubble wrapped the book like a Christmas present to his kids. Believe me I appreciate that packaging folks because you really do get what you pay for. Say what you want to about Venger Satanis but the man packs the crap outta of Cha'alt orders. 

 And this is one of my all time pet peeves as anyone who reads this blog knows. This is especially true of wanting to get that one book that you might need for a collection. Two pieces of cardboard or a bit of bubble wrap would have solved any problems. But you get what you pay for. And like so many other gamers out there who have these sorts of stories, I was more then willing to pay for the extra packing material & post office care. 

But instead my mailman decided to smash the ever living  crap outta of the envelop. Well we'll chalk it up experience & I'll get on with saving the book. The ebay seller has been contacted but no more Ebay for me at this point. 

Trust me, in a post Covid world I totally get running a business its beyond not easy. But  time & again though I see this type of thing happen to other gamers. And with a bit of care on both the seller & the buyer's part this doesn't happen. One of the things I love about the OSR is the fact that its gamers selling to other gamers so there's a different perspective there. There's no way that I'm letting this book go. 

Sunday Mail call - The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus & OSR Commentary

 "When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel in the 1970s, scores of amazing concepts would spring forth from his limitless imagination - and THE ETERNALS was his mind-blowing masterpiece! Kirby unveiled a secret history of humanity, races known as Eternals and Deviants, and a host of towering Celestials come to bear judgment on the Earth! It was a jaw-dropping saga that could have only come from the King of comics. And after Kirby's tenure ended, creators including Peter B. Gillis, Sal Buscema, Walter Simonson, Roy Thomas and Mark Texeira continued to weave stories within the epic mythology that he created! Now, thrill to the complete classic saga of the Eternals!"

Thank God for an understanding & wonderful wife that graces my side. She's been on the look out on Amazon for The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus. And it came today! Which I wasn't expecting this book.  So this was a complete surprise! And The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus is a beast!  So what's in this omnibus well everything I've been looking for for years folks; "ETERNALS (1976) #1-19, ETERNALS ANNUAL (1977) #1; ETERNALS (1985) #1-12; ETERNALS: THE HEROD FACTOR (1991) #1; NEW ETERNALS: APOCALYPSE NOW (2000) #1; IRON MAN ANNUAL (1971) #6; AVENGERS (1963) #246-248; material from WHAT IF? (1977) #23-30". And Amazon packed it in a box! A God damn box folks! Why is this important?! Because of the number of horror stories of books & graphic novels ruined by Amazon & its sellers packing books in bags, sleeves, etc.. You can't imagine how happy I was when I saw the box. 

Since Nineties I've waited for an Eternals Omibus to come along like this. Ages ago I was privaliged enough to own almost the entire run of ETERNALS (1976) #1-19. And then almost all of the follow up issues. An apartment fire in Boston turned those Jack Kirby King of Comics of Eternals run into. Now gaze upon the Alex Ross cover goodness. 

By the omni mind I've been lusting after this collection for years now. But who are the Eternals?! Well according to their Wiki entry; "The Eternals are a fictional race of humanoids appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are described as an offshoot of the evolutionary process that created sentient life on Earth. The original instigators of this process, the alien Celestials, intended the Eternals to be the defenders of Earth, which leads to the inevitability of war against their destructive counterparts, the Deviants. The Eternals were created by Jack Kirby, and made their first appearance in The Eternals #1 (July 1976)."
And before Disney releases the new Eternals Marvel Cinematic universe film soon. Disney is already screwing with the cinematic counterparts because the Celestials created the Eternals from early man. In the film the Eternals were created thousands of years ago & sent to the primitive world of Earth by the Celestials. A minor point but.. I wanted to dive in & grab this run. But my lovely wife beat me too the punch! And this beast is the result! The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus is a full two inches thick! 

This sucker has all of the Eternals vs Deviant Marvel mayhem to be had! I can't wait to dive into this sucker! The entire run covered is listed in the back of the The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus. And this is a huge lot of Eternals Marvel goodness. 

  My own childhood connection was Ikaris whose the Eternals guardian of the  Pyramid of the Winds – a mysterious structure that Valkin and Phastos had built deep below the ice of the Arctic for storage of deadly weapons. Jack Kirby's redition of his creation is the definite version of the character. 

Write up.org has a really good indepth look into Irakis but the important point is how the Eternals are often woven into Marvel's human mythology. And in Irakis case it extents to his mythological namesake; "But Ikaris used his powers to do much more than simply guard the Pyramid. When the Celestials destroyed the Deviant city of Lemuria and devastated the planet with a flood, he led a number of humans to safety in a giant ark."

"Years later, Ikaris defended Crete from the Deviant hordes. He married a human woman there, who bore him a child. Because the young boy loved to fly in his father’s arms, Ikaris constructed a flying harness for him. Unfortunately, the Eternal was called away before he could instruct his son on the use of the device." You can read more about Ikaris within the character study on Write up. There are several OSR connections between The Eternals & several OSR games including Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 
There is a hard core connection between Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & the Celestials is  woven throughout several  North Wind Adventures modules as a sort of gaming Easter Egg . Within the old school Judges Guilds  'The Wilderlands of High Fantasy' has eluded to several Marvel ties in with the Eternals having been mentioned in passing in several modules. For Lamentations of the Flame Princess Carcosa of course is the venue where the Celestials are most likely to be encountered. And Jack Kirby's creations were a major influence on the LoFP's most infamous Lovecraftian world according to Carcosa's author leading to even more OSR goodness. 

I'm really looking forward to diving into the The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus folks! Thanks honey for a fantastic & unexpected present! We will continue with Eternals commentary coming up on this blog!