Review & Commentary on Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop For your Old School Campaigns

 "Three unique character classes designed to fill the role between Clerics and Paladins in your favorite OSR roleplaying game campaign.

The monastic knights come in three general types:

Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are balanced between being warriors and healers.
Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are compassionate healers and only fight as necessary.
Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) are formidable warriors with a few spells.

Monastic Knights are designed to work with any OSR style RPG that is based on the original fantasy roleplaying game.

This PDF includes:

• 3 Monastic Knight Character Classes
• A "White Box" addendum
• Fully illustrated Character Sheets
• Sample maps of Monasteries "
  
  Right so this isn't so much a review as a sorta of article on why  Monastic Knights exist. As is the fact that the Monastic Knights does exist! These knightly orders exist to provide the DM a character class that bridges the gap between the cleric & the fighter class asthetic. And they do it very well! The  Monastic Knights are only written within nineteen pages of very tight descriptions & classes. These knightly orders are up to Night Owl Workshop's usual standards. 
  Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are good balance between the healer roles that we see in clerics & the kick ass for good types that we've seen before. The difference here is the fact that the Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) bring a bit more of the martial to the table top. Yes they are servants of good but no the will murder you in the name of said good in the blink of an eye. 
  Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are the next up and here is more healer then martial warrior but that doesn't mean that they won't fight. It seemly means that they're reluctant too. They remind me of many army veterans that I've played with. 
  When you need martial & millitary knightly orders the Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) is the route to go. These guys go into dungeons & root out evil. They put the monsters to the torch & don't look back untill the gods sort it out. 
  
   Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop isn't going to put your nose out of joint instead it's going to act as breidge gap between clerics & paladins. Knights act as hand of both the royals & gods with the common folks. All in All I believe that  Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop is a good buy! 
  
  
   Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop Is Available Right Here 
  

Tegel Manor - Worlds Without Number & Cities Without Number Rpg - Green Horde Attack! Session Two Report

 I haven't had time to blink wrong over the last couple of days let alone do a session update. But let's get deep  into it. This blog entry picks up from here. 
The player's PC's got into a fire fight with some Green Martian hordes at the outter edges of the Tegel Manor valley. And one of the PC's got a taste for exactly what the radium rifle ammo can do. Now there are two different Worlds Without Number & Cities Without Number groups of players exploring the manor. And no I'm not explaining why there are two different versions of the manor at this time. 

The players made it too the dead sea bottom & managed to snag some weapons, ammo, and more from the dead Green Martians. They didn't have long as the Green martians about five of them had formed a 'blood squad'. And then closed in for the kill. They picked off two our operators quickly. They weren't dead but in rough shape. 
And then the Greens broke off! The group limped back to the manor house and ran straight into a party of Martian low landers who were preparing to trade with one of the villagers. 

There was a very heated series of rolls for languages and then telepathy. The player's PC's were able to get to a local Martian scientist  who worked under  Ras Thavas. 
There was discussion about the bad reputation of the Tegel Valley and how the locals think it's haunted. Anything coming out of the valley is attacked by the Green Martians. 

Ninety Nine percent of all of our Mars info is coming straight outta of  Warriors of The Red Planet. 
Thrivu Burr the low lander Martian village the PC's met up with a pair of  displaced Martian nobles.   Hemaza Dee our princess turned thief & Nazaa the space noble who is masquerading as a warrior. These two will be taking the place of our two operators who are on the mend for about 4 months. 

These two come straight out of last May's Warriors of the Red Planet rpg mini campaign. Two of our players don't want to be out of the action so they pulled out two older characters. 
These two older characters have cybernetics and not Martian parts so they are pariah among Martian society. 

The party of operators is considered  a party of panthans. A panthan is a Martian soldier of fortune. The low lander villages consider them as a vital resource but among places like Helium and other royal cities there could be trouble. The party exchanged thier Green weaponry for low lander weapons. 
What the players don't know is that  Hemaza Dee our princess turned thief & Nazaa the space noble both have a 'blood debt' on thier heads from a clan of Deodanths. 

Royals, Hordes, and The Alien Nature of Mars - The Hyperborea rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet Hybrid Campaign Commentary

Tonight as we prepare for yet another round of snowstorms, I got together with my players via a Zoom call. And we discussed the upcoming Warriors of the Red Planet/Hyperborea rpg campaign leg. During tonight's call we spoke at length about the various aspects of the fact that that the ancient White Martians had a war with the serpent men of our campaign's Mars. And this made me dig out Night Owl Workshop's  Space Noble PC class. 

Why?! Because this class highlights something that we find in the writings of both Edgar Rice Burroughs & Leigh Brackett. The fact that social class plays such a tight role in the separation of the Martian races hierchary that is implied within the writings of both authors. 

And this has been a key playing point within our campaigns. There are two of our player's PC's who are of noble blood. Ironically Hemaza Dee our princess turned thief & Nazaa the space noble who is masquerading as a warrior. 
These two know & hate the ancient White nobles whose behind the resurrection of the serpentmen. The White Martians & thier counterparts among the Reds have woven immortality within thier unlives after death to continue the racial feuds millions of years later. 
And this is something we see within the writings of Leigh Brackett time and again. 

White Box: Unearthed Trove By Jonathan Rowe was also discussed but I'm unsure about allowing too many resources at the table top at this time. There are already enough classes with the Hyperborea rpg that allow many of the tandum PC classes to be done within our campaign. 

The Pyromancer,cryomancer, druid, and shaman PC classes  may in point of fact be perfect for the revivalization efforts of Mars as a dying world. And may be behind the atmosphere processing plans of the planet created by the ancient Martians. The ancient Martians also had thier own monsters to contend with in the form of the Green Martians. According to the Encyclopedia Barsoomia Wiki Green Martian entry;"The complete origin of the Green Martians is mostly unknown. They first rose to prominence in the waning days of Barsoom, when the oceans began to recede, and began raiding the cities of the various races (such as the Orovar), driving these once-great civilizations into increasingly remote regions. When the peoples abandoned the cities, the Green hordes took over. Though they appear to have lacked the intelligence to make use of most of the ancient technology left behind, their size, brute strength, and abundance of limbs for many years prevented them from being driven out."

And the next part of the entry is telling; "As time grew on, the Green hordes ran out of enemies and began to fight among themselves. They began to split into different hordes based on the kingdoms they occupied - the horde that occupied the ancient city of Thark began to call themselves Tharks, the horde that controlled Warhoon began to call themselves Warhoon, etc. The bitter rivalry between the the hordes ensured that there would never be any alliance between them, while they fought among themselves and didn't advance, the Red peoples thrived."

There are many Green hordes scattered across Mars and thousands of minor hordes as well. Here are some of the most common & infamous hordes that appear in the ERB books: 

• Thark
• Thurd
• Torquas
• Warhoon

The Green hordes had to have supported by hordes of Red Martian barbarian tribes as well. These are the tribes we see within Leigh Brackett's stories. Not beneath the notice of John Carter but relatively unknown possibly in his part of the world. The fact that's been forgotten by many DM's and players is the size of Mars. 

Geen Martians play a huge part in many of the various campaigns of Warriors of the Red Planet that we've played over the years. The fact is that Mars is a very alien planet. And post Colonial Mars is a rather unsavory and dangerous place. And it's this nature of unrest that within our games has allowed the Sorcerers of the Black Gate & the serpent men to take hold of certain underworld & criminal aspects of the planet. 
The royals & tribal rulers of Mars are the go betweens when it comes to the Earthmen vs the barbarian hordes. These hordes are mobile moving across the face of Mars exploiting what & if they can find resources across the face of the red planet. And here's where the PC's come in. These caravans are more then simply traveling hordes. The Green & Red Martian caravans are a fact of life supplying goods, information, and more across the face of the planet. The dead cities are the way points & stations on Mars. And these are also where and when the player's PC's may be from! 

Tribal Matters, Ancient Rivalries, and PC classes - The Hyperborea rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet Hybrid Campaign Commentary

 Freak snow storm last night cancelled last night's games & that's fine. But it also meant that we could take a break and start planning out the next leg of the Hyperborea/ Warriors of The Red Planet  campaign. And I'd love to take a bit of a break so to breath a bit of life into our dead sea bottem Red Martian tribes. And here's where Hyperborea & Leigh Brackett's “The Treasure of Ptakuth” • (1940) comes in really handy. “The Treasure of Ptakuth” by Leigh Brackett is available from Astounding v25n02 (1940 04) here.

Brackett doesn't fill in details in her stories but implies them long hand. We've got an Indiana Jones/Rene Belloq dynamic, between the protagonist & the Venusian nemisis of the story. We almost see a 'Raiders of the Lost Artifacts' Rpg  vibe going on here. Let's take the long view here through the lens of the Hyperborea rpg. We've got our main protagonist 'hero' because Leigh Brackett characters all have thier all too human fumbles & sins about them. And the White Martians within this story. The Martian goddess is very much drawn in the vein of Clark Aston Smith's scientists & sorcerers. A pragmatic character willing to achieve immortality regardless of the consquences. And dare I say more then a little desparate. 

The fact is we also get a bit of an insight into the Red Martian tribes of Mars through this story indirectly. The Red Martians are both barbarians & savages in Leigh Brackett's stories. Forget John Carter here. Brackett's Martians are rough & ready barbarians who have thousands & thousands of years backing them up. And this means that the average Red Martian barbarian is going to be a sophiscated & dangerous customer. Barbarian & fighting man is going to be a very common occupation set among the bottom seas of Mars. 

So this where the Hyperborea rpg enters the picture. The White Martians are very akin to the Atlanteans of Hyperborea. Within the Hyperborea rpg almost 90 % of the occult technological items were made by the people of Atlantis. And my logic follows that this might be for the higher level technological items on our Mars. 

And another observation about the Hyperborea rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet is how specialized classes could become for both PC's & NPC's given the age of Mars. 
One of the themes that runs through Leigh Brackett's solar systems stories is ​“you might manage to become immortal, but if you do you will regret it,”.Again this is something that we also see in the works of Clark Aston Smith. And it also help to explain the pragmatic view point of the Red Martians.  

The idea running through the early Pulp writers seems to be that death has it's place within the human and non human scheme of things. Magick is incredibly rare among the solar system because of the alien science of psionics & psychics. Almost every races & creature on Mars is psionic. 

So magick still exists is incredibly rare leading into all kinds of avenues of throw backs & wizards as atavisitic throwbacks. And this also sets up wizards & clerics being the heads of cults quite nicely. 
And what about Hyperborea's rune graver class?! Hell yes it could easily be found among some of the more isolated & rarely seen Martian tribes. And this also goes for other Hyperborea rpg classes. The fact that so many of the Martian tribes are isolated makes them have access to other forbidden & not well known rites and rituals. 

And what would keep these tribes isolated?! Two things the hordes of Green Martians & mankind. Leigh Brackett's stories are super critical of the Colonial Martian state or humanity's colonial leanings. However not even death can stop the wars between the ancient Martian states. No other place is this illustrated more then in the The Sorcerer of Rhiannon • (1942)  novelette. 
Time & again we see these forces of culture vs the person caught within the greater solar system affairs of the Ancients. And its up to the protagonist to think thier way out. 

Review & Commentary on Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop For your Old School Campaigns

 "Three unique character classes designed to fill the role between Clerics and Paladins in your favorite OSR roleplaying game campaign.

The monastic knights come in three general types:

Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are balanced between being warriors and healers.
Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are compassionate healers and only fight as necessary.
Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) are formidable warriors with a few spells.

Monastic Knights are designed to work with any OSR style RPG that is based on the original fantasy roleplaying game.

This PDF includes:

• 3 Monastic Knight Character Classes
• A "White Box" addendum
• Fully illustrated Character Sheets
• Sample maps of Monasteries "
  
  Right so this isn't so much a review as a sorta of article on why  Monastic Knights exist. As is the fact that the Monastic Knights does exist! These knightly orders exist to provide the DM a character class that bridges the gap between the cleric & the fighter class asthetic. And they do it very well! The  Monastic Knights are only written within nineteen pages of very tight descriptions & classes. These knightly orders are up to Night Owl Workshop's usual standards. 
  Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are good balance between the healer roles that we see in clerics & the kick ass for good types that we've seen before. The difference here is the fact that the Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) bring a bit more of the martial to the table top. Yes they are servants of good but no the will murder you in the name of said good in the blink of an eye. 
  Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are the next up and here is more healer then martial warrior but that doesn't mean that they won't fight. It seemly means that they're reluctant too. They remind me of many army veterans that I've played with. 
  When you need martial & millitary knightly orders the Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) is the route to go. These guys go into dungeons & root out evil. They put the monsters to the torch & don't look back untill the gods sort it out. 
  
   Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop isn't going to put your nose out of joint instead it's going to act as breidge gap between clerics & paladins. Knights act as hand of both the royals & gods with the common folks. All in All I believe that  Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop is a good buy! 
  
  
   Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop Is Available Right Here 
  
  

Underworld & Underclass Issues - Commentary 'House of the Rising Sun' (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By Dave Hargrave From Emperor's Choice

 House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By Dave Hargrave has been one of those missing pieces of my Arduin Grimoire collection. Well, no more thanks to Emperor's Choice Miniatures & Gamers. 
And this goes back to October when I found a copy of the contents of House of Rising Sun on The Ruins of Murkhill forums here. 

According to the poster oldskolgmr who posted a break down of the contents of the Dragon Tree Press version of the book; 
"Arduin Grimoire Vol. VI; House of the Rising Sun  [Note all writing and spellings in the original except bracketed, italicized material, by the poster].
By David A. Hargrave
Copyright 1986
Illustrated by Roland Brown
Published by Dragon Tree Press
Second Edition 1988 
Pg. 2           Foreward, Dedication, Undedication, and Special Thanks to Dragon Tree Press [Ben & Mary]

Pgs. 3 - 7    The Adventurer Class (A new character class)

Pgs. 8 - 11  The Street Urchins of Arduin 
Pgs. 12 - 14 The Beggars Guild (And New Character Class?)
Pg. 15         The Assassins of Arduin [general]
Pg. 16         Arduin Law and Redress by Assassination 
Pgs. 17 - 20 Unique Weapons of Arduin Assassins
Pgs. 21 - 23 Poisons of Arduinian Assassins
Pgs. 24 - 25 Commercial Medicines of Arduin
Pgs. 26 - 28 Arduin Food
Pgs. 28 - 29 And Beverages
Pgs. 30 - 31 The Natural Denizens [animals/fauna] of Arduin
Pgs. 32 - 37 Arduinian Avians 
Pgs. 38 - 39 The Special Pets of Arduin
Pgs. 40 - 44 More Monsters of Arduin
Pgs. 45 - 46 New Magiks [mages]
Pgs. 46 - 47 New Druidical Magik
Pgs. 47 - 48 New Priestly Magik
Pgs. 49 - 50 New Runesinger Magik
Pgs. 51 - 54 Dragon Magik
Pgs. 55 - 59 More Arduinian Alchemical Goodies
Pgs. 59 - 60 Special Alchemist's Note, Alchemists Character Individualization Chart
Pgs. 61 - 65 More Orcish Alchemical Mayhem
Pgs. 66 - 68 New Mystick Artifacts and Treasures 
Pgs. 69 - 70 Bardic Oddities of Arduin
Pgs. 71 - 73 Rare and Legendary Gems and Jewels
Pgs. 74 - 75 Old Legends of Arduin
Pgs. 76 - 83 The Old Gods [of continents five and three]
Pgs. 84 - 88 The Noble Families of Arduin
Pg. 89         Super Heroes and Sword Swingers
Pg. 90         Final Note [from David A. Hargrave] and Abbreviations [used]      
From the World of Arduin [advertisement for Arduin Grimoires published by Dragon Tree Press]

More Arduin books by Grimoire Games [advertisement]

From the World of Delos [advertisement, Dragon Tree Press publications not related to Arduin]"
 There are two PC classes that have me intrigued,  'The Adventurer Class (A new character class)' & 'The Beggars Guild (And New Character Class?)'. Both of these classes are mostly two classes that form a hodgepodge of abilities for the player's PC . The adventurer class goes all of the way to level 100 and the beggar does as well.  The adventurer is a highly trained & dangerous profession with the PC starting training at age ten to fifteen years of age. The training is very serious. And the PC is something akin to a D&D rogue but far more of a tomb breaker. They have elements of assassins, courtesans, and alchemists. The adventurer class is a child of the urban environment and they compliment the beggar quite nicely. This is a rough & tumble class and its by invite only. Mostly human & Elven types go for the adventurer class. Proto  Adventurers  are taken away for training a minimum of seven years. 

Beggars can be of any race, color, creed, etc. with any physical deformity and they go through a training course of three years. And they are one of the most respected guilds on Arduin because they are information brokers par excellence. And they have incredibly close ties to the Arduin Thieves Guilds. A beggar gets three thieves skills They are not real thieves per say. And gain levels as traders & they often have rats or creatures of the rodent variety as trained pets. Beggars eyes are everywhere on Arduin. 

So what do these PC classes say about Arduin?! Well to me it says volumes about Arduin's urban underworld & how its cityscape is interconnected in with the criminal element.  'House of the Rising Sun' also contains 'The Street Urchins of Arduin' which has incredibly strong ties the beggar's guild within the cities. The PC's are incredibly wise to keep on the good side of these social & adventure element. 

Adventurers are whole different level with life being an adventure as a part of their credo. And its very possible that there are any number of abandoned ruins, cities, & even urban  dungeons where & when their particular skills are needed. The adventurer's class strikes me as 'Laura Croft' years before a proper 'Laura Croft' game ever debuted and far less of an 'Indiana Jones' style adventurer. The adventurer speaks volumes of treasure seeker and far less of deadly thief of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fame. That being said I can see these three PC & NPC  classes working very well together to form another pillar of the underworld that crosses over into certain circles of academia on Arduin. 

'House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire Volume 6) Is Available Right Here... 

Rifts: Crazy PC class adapted for Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

 

The crazy receives a nano cybernetic enhancement that completely rewires the human mind down to the neuralogical level. They gain several abilites right off the bat, the crazy can or may the character  take two Significant Actions and two Minor Actions (or five Minor Actions) in each combat round, though this does not allow a character to move further than 12 meters in a single round. They also have enhanced senses gaining a +2 DMR to all tracking, physical actions involving thier senses. The Crazy can hear a conversation over a hundred yards away with their enhanced senses. 
The crazy also gains the equivelant enhancements or mutations  of robust & permanently gain 2D additional endurance.And once per day the crazy  can also        enter a trance that gives the abilities of the fast healing mutations heal minor Wounds immediately after combat &  heal severe wounds in 2D days.

The crazy will gain 1d4 minor mental mutations see Cepheus Atom for details.The crazy will develop mental problems associated with their enhancements within 2d6 months & their intelligent scores will go down by 1d4 points reflecting their slide into insanity. The crazy also gains the mutation of biazzare appearance. The crazies as a whole are percieved as powerful but very dangerous. Many communities of the wasteland want nothing to do with crazies as they sometimes cause as much destruction as they prevent. The slide into utter insanity makes these enhanced beings both a tragic thing to watch & simply another legacy of the ancients. 

Rifts Cyber Knight for Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

 Heroes of living the on one knows where or when the cyber knights came from but these cybernetically enhanced warriors scour the wilderness & wasteland in a never ending search for peace, justice, & the right to be free. This makes the cyber knight perfect for  Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

The cyber knight is able to sense what any weapon is used against them. They may also telepathically talk with any creature within line of sight. With a thought the cyber knight  can create a psi sword capable of doing 2d6+1 damage to any creature if they fail their knowledge of 8+ throw. The cyberknight also often has relic armor & weaponry this may include a cyber steed as well. 
It is rumored that some cyber knights are able to conceal themselves from photographic & other security devices with a knowledge throw of 6+ for  1d6 minutes. There are cyberknight chapter houses all over the wastelands across uncounted worlds. 

Rifts: Techno Wizard for Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

 Techno-Wizard is somewhat of an amalgamation of an alchemist, a spell caster, and an operator.  They are magic users who have learned to combine technology and magic. Techno Wizard PC classes are perfect for  Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

Techno Wizards can sense sense magical potential within twenty feet of relics & artifacts. These wizard inventers have an innate need create magical devices. Techno wizard  can use scrolls and cast spells, they focus on the creation of magical devices. With a Techno Wizardry  throw of +8 the techno wizard can create a technological device that uses magic as its basis & energy source. 

Review & Commentary On Castles & Crusades Expanding Classes By Mark Sandy

"Most everyone wants an edge, an angle that allows them to take that extra step, achieve that extra goal, to surprise the enemy. This angle, in hard fought battles with certain loss, can turn and snatch victory from the jaws of disaster.

Expanding Classes is just that angle. Herein we delve into the 13 standard C&C classes, and the Rune Mark, and unleash the power of multiclassing, enhanced classes and switching classes."

Alright so let's talk Castles & Crusades rpg down home OSR crunch with Expanding Character Classes. This is an older 2016 release but its a vital book for several reasons first of which is the multi classing rules for C&C which are almost but not quite the same as the old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition rules. The second of which is expansion of the multi class rules for Castles & Crusades as well as expansion of the levels of the game. This where the enhanced PC classes come into play. Then there's zero classing or 'class plus' where you get a zero level in one class while switching over to your regular PC class. This costs a five percent tithe of experience points & its sort of a weak option for saying that your PC is a failed mage or monk.
Finally we get dual classing which is a bit different then the usual AD&D first edition fare.Here the player's PC has switched classes in mid flow & found another class to their liking or livelihood. Once second class is chosen the XP is divided between the two classes & it can hurt a bit. But its a viable option for certain types of circumstances.
The final area of  Expanding Character Classes is the familiar reclassing   rules straight from original Dungeons & Dragons where the player abandons one class for another completely. John D from the Castles & Crusade forums nails the 'Enhanced Class';
Can someone provide clarification to Enhanced Class?

Take the case of a new character, a Fighter supported by Assassin.

At the start the character has all Fighter abilities plus the Skills & Abilities listed on Table 2.3A on page 6. Instead of a d10 for HP the character uses a d8 as per Table 2.1.

As the character adventures, 2nd level will be reached at 2001 + 876 = 2877 XP at which point he/she gains the usual Fighter abilities as well as Death Attack and Sneak Attack as per Table 2.3A."
But is Expanding Character Classes worth the money?! Well in two words I think so! There's a lot of newer players to Castles & Crusades who have no idea that these types of optional rules were available to players in classic 70's & even 90's Dragon magazines. There's another factor to consider here the fact that this is 2016 product but the options presented are in line with the best of C&C's slick system & over all gaming system themes. This makes the book a must have for me a completest. These optional PC systems would later on be incorporated into other C&C books but having all the material in one book is a solid option. I'm going to be looking into Castles & Crusades Adventurer's Backpack coming up as well. I paid for this out of pocket & I'm very happy with the purchase. 

Troll Lords Castles & Crusades Unboxing & OSR Commentary

A week or so ago there were several issues in my personal neck of the OSR. I went to look around for some books that I've been missing in my personal Castles & Crusades collection Expanding Classes, Classic Monsters & Treasure 2nd Printing, & Castles & Crusades Character Classes.  These  books were holes in the C&C collection especially the two PC books for expanding the player's options. The delivery was very fast for a package arriving from Arkansas. 



These books were properly packed & the transaction was smooth. A few emails shot back & forth with the Troll Lords led to some ideas for my current OSR campaign. The PC selection options are fantastic with these two books. 



Expanding Classes written by Mark Sandy has some interesting variant PC options; "Expanding Classes is just that angle. Herein we delve into the 13 standard C&C classes, and the Rune Mark, and unleash the power of multiclassing, enhanced classes and switching classes."Readers can expect an upcoming review for Expanding Classes on this blog.

The next book is " Character Classes, you’ll find just that, with all the classes presented in the C&C Players Handbook and C&C Adventurers Backpack in one convenient book. The entries in Character Classes are alphabetized for quick and easy reference."Though slim this volume seems to really pack in the PC  information & looks like its got some great C&C system crossover. The last book is  Castles & Crusades Classic Monsters & Treasure  book in the mix. This book is a combination of monsters from the Monster Manual II, Fiend Folio, & several Dragon magazine articles. 


The monster content in the Castles & Crusades Classic Monsters & Treasure  book is as follows:
algoid, ascomoid, aurumvorax, babbler, behir, berbalang, boggart, carbuncle, catoblepas, crypt thing, dark creeper, demilich, derro, disenchanter, firbolg, flumph, grue, huecuva, keck, korred, mephit, mudman, nilbog, ogrillon, peryton, phoenix, revenant, russet mold, selkie, tarrasque, thoqqua, vargouille, volt, xsayarsa, yeti. Here's where Castles & Crusades gets the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio treatment. This works as a way of flogging these classic monsters into my campaign adventures.

Super Scientists, Sorcerers, & Synthetics - The Curious & Winding History Of The Android on 'Old Mars' & 'Old Venus'

Androids as we know them came about as early as Nineteen Twenty from Czech writer Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. which stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum’s Universal Robots);"The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people, called roboti (robots), from synthetic organic matter. They are not exactly robots by the current definition of the term; they are living flesh and blood creatures rather than machinery and are closer to the modern idea of clones, they may be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans at first but a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race. Čapek later took a different approach to the same theme in War with the Newts, in which non-humans become a servant class in human society"
These are quite literally vat grown androids but R.U.R was hugely influential in Science Romance circles. And yes Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was the catyslist for all of the automatons to follow including R.U.R. but what does all of this have to do with 'Old Mars' & 'Old Venus'? As we shall see everything. In Clark Aston Smith's Zothique, Hyperborea, and Atlantis cycles respectively there is evidence of his wizards & sorcerers dipping their quills into the vat bred automaton issue. So much so that the Golems of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea are called automatons. In Warriors of The Red Planet that we get a PC race that are vat grown androids as a viable option for play.

But its once again Edgar Rice Burroughs who puts these flesh & blood creations in the lime light with his Einstein of Martian medicine Ras_Thavas. From organ transplants to full body conversion this gentlemen does it all in the mad scientist gig. He takes on Ulysses Paxton, as his apprentice because of his distrust of fellow Barsoomians.



You can download & read The Master Mind of Mars here.  from Amazing Stories Annual v01n01 (1927) (d Vaughn), this one is one of my favorite versions. Ras Thavas later on reforms and then pops up in the Synthetic Men of Mars when John Carter needs his help after his wife is gravely injured.  
Its really here that we see the true scope of the android or hormad races on 'Old Mars'.
" Synthetic Men of Mars (1939), by which time he has transferred his base to the dead city of Morbus in the Toonolian Marshes. There he has been experimenting in growing monstrous synthetic human beings called hormads. The most intelligent of these turn on him and force him to grow an army of hormads with which to conquer Barsoom. They also force their captive to transplant their brains into the bodies of imprisoned normal Martians. Ras's chance to turn the tables comes when the earthman John Carter, Warlord of Mars and prince of Helium, seeks his surgical aid for his wife Dejah Thoris, injured in an accident. Imprisoned with Ras, Carter and his companion Vor Daj plot with him against the hormads. Vor Daj is given the body of a hormad to spy on their captors; meanwhile, Carter and Ras escape, returning with a great fleet of airships from Helium. Vor Daj is recovered and Morbus, which has been overrun by a huge mass of cancerously growing hormad flesh, is destroyed with incendiary bombs. Ras then restores Vor Daj to his original body.

One hormad, Ras's pupil Pew Mogel, is later revealed in "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" (1940) to have escaped from Morbus and established a new base in the dead city of Korvas, from which he continues to plot world conquest using the scientific skills he gleaned from his mentor. His scheme is defeated by John Carter."
So there's a good chance that if your playing an android on Mars their an escaped homad, no wonder they might be screwed up. They've been hunted at every turn, and nearly killed by their own creator. But all of this goes back to an earlier work of ERB's called The Monster Men. "Cornell University professor Arthur Maxon, who has been experimenting in the creation of artificial life, travels with his daughter Virginia to one of the remote Pamarung Islands in the East Indies to pursue his project." One of his creations gets a hold of Virginia & runs amuck but how exactly did professor Arthur Maxon get a hold of either Ras_Thavasresearch or Rossum’s Universal Robots's materials for his experiments? In an interesting side note American naval vessel arrives; it turns out to be seeking von Horn a minor character & a deserter, to arrest him. An American navel vessel to arrest one deserter? No, I don't think so. Despite the 'happy ending' of the Monster Men I think your looking at two homad style androids Virginia & the protagonist Townsend J. Harper, Jr. whom are both prototype androids created by the good doctor whist he was in the employ of the US Navy. Barsoom has been in communication with Earth for decades using the Barsoomian version of Gridley wave FTL devices. Its a very simple matter to connect the plot points between ERB's various creations.

Dust-jacket illustration of The Monster Men
by J. Allen St. John

When we get into Leigh Brackett's Old Solar System then things get really interesting, I mentioned Ras_Thavas's brain transfers? Well in 1946 Brackett wrote; "Lorelei of the Red Mist, in which the protagonist is a thief called Hugh Starke. Brackett finished the first half before turning it over to Ray Bradbury, so that she could leave to work on The Big Sleep." Hugh Starke has his brain transferred into the body of a warrior called Conan to be used as the cat's paw for a blue breasted sorceress. Yeah, that didn't work out the way she was expecting it. The interesting sword & sorcery bits are the giant Himalayan like mountains in the story, the super science aspects, & the hints of deeper android style technology laying just out of sight of the protagonist.  The novella is still very popular and remains one of the mainstays of Brackett's work. But there's a lot of OSR ground to cover here, for one thing the androids of WoRP are perfect additions as owners of lost kingdoms, guarders of hordes, & guardians of forbidden knowledge. This means that for Adventurer, Conqueror, King they're a nice addition to the roaster possible planetary NPC dangers & they make excellent opponents. 


But there's more here then simply guardians of forbidden secrets angle. Dealing with vat grown or even mechanical monster PC's are not the only player options. There are lots of angles that can be used. One of the other odd little corners of the cybernetic that came out in 1931 is the Jameson Satellite series about a human Professor Jameson whose body is cryopreserved & resurrected by the Zoromes  benevolent full conversion cybernetic aliens. So why mention this series? Because these entities are truly alien & yet fully capable of having all kinds of adventures across the cosmos. These are the type of alien being who would confront the horrors of the Mythos head on. These are not Mythos related stories but they are some old favorites of mine.
You can download the "The Jameson Satellite' here

But what about using androids and sythetics within OSR games is there a readily available PC class that can be used in other OSR games such as OSRIC or Advanced Labyrinth Lord? Well actually yes there is! PC6 - The OSR Android From  Jeremy Reaban 

is perfect for adding an android PC class to your old school games, its designed with other retroclone D&D  versions: original edition, basic and expert edition, and the cyclopedia edition. Its pay what you want and its perfect for adding in a bit of that old ultra cybernetic to your old school games!

But where are the vat grown Andies originate? There are two very Lovecraftian possibilities, one is the Great Race of Yith whose hi jinks with time & space might have them building androids as time probes. The second Lovecrafian race is the Elder Things, think about it. If they can create shoggoths & other bio organic organisms this might be the origin point for all of the vat grown android technology we've discussed so far. 

"Formless protoplasm able to mock and reflect all forms and organs and processes - viscous agglutinations of bubbling cells - rubbery fifteen-foot spheroids infinitely plastic and ductile - slaves of suggestion, builders of cities - more and more sullen, more and more intelligent, more and more amphibious, more and more imitative! Great God! What madness made even those blasphemous Old Ones willing to use and carve such things?"

-H.P. Lovecraft, "At the Mountains of Madness"

So once again this begs the question, are there hidden caches of lost Lovecraftian technology just waiting for PC's in the high mountains of  Old Mars & Venus? I think so & now suddenly the Star Trek Episode, What Little Girls Are Made of makes a bit more sense. There are reasons for this; "Given that the episode in which they appeared was written by horror author Robert Bloch, a fan of horror author H. P. Lovecraft (and wrote frequently for the Cthulhu Mythos), the Old Ones here were based on the Old Ones of Lovecraft's writings. (The Star Trek Compendium, 4th ed., pp. 40-41) Bloch also wrote "Catspaw", which makes reference to another "Old Ones"."  So there could be a number of androids running around your Star Ships & Space Men Second edition games with some very Lovecraftian origin points. 


But who are these 'Old Ones'? Well I think that the Great Race of Yith is a good contender for these folks.
Could androids be found in other venues such as Hyperborea or even Earth? The quick & easy answer is yes. Given the isolated communities, the lone adventurers, & wizard's passion for relic technology. Such a relic as an independent technician android would be invaluable. The Logan's Run television show's Rem was a good example of this sort of an NPC.

Playing an android can be one of the most rewarding but challenging things that a player can do. But there is far more to the synthetics of classic science fantasy then many players realize & that's your in dungeon masters! Happy Rpging! More to come! 

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