Fire Under The Sand - A Post Apocalyptic Mars Actual Play For The Stars Without Numbers Rpg System

During to tonight's game I decided to give the PC's something really nasty to deal with they've been taking quite a bit of time with some of the ruins that they've been exploring near the 'Robot's Graveyard' a massive pit of ancient ruins and mecha as well as combat robot remains along with lots and lots of unidentifiable technology.  While exploring a few side tunnels in tonight's game a the sensors on ATV explorer started giving off a warning. They'd just discovered the remains of an Orion style atomic rocket( want to know more about the Orion project? Go right over HERE ) with its pile still intact. They were going to tag it when something huge and nasty started to roll in. 

That's when the Flame tanks from Apex Heavy Division rolled in. These massive treaded monsters are a simple, and cost effective mechanism for dealing with abnormal threats upon the Martian landscape. These tanks were followed by masses of 1d30 android post tech troopers.
 The PC's mecha weren't going to be a match for the mutant life form cleansing flame tanks and their white clad android troopers. The PC's quickly worked their way down tunnel dropping a radio beacon upon their Nuclear rocket find. They left the troopers to their cleansing.

The Apex Heavy Industry Flame Tank 
The Flame Tanks is a perfect answer to your genocidal mutant cleansing projects. Built of light space age materials and armor, this android drive and controlled tank is the perfect economical and cost effectiveness way of dealing with mutant populations,zombie infestations,and rebel tribal martian nests of resistance.
Each tank boasts six space age flame throwers which have an effective range of over 500/2000 . They can quickly and easily solve any problem of mutant Martian madness in a timely fashion. 

Original Source Right Over HERE
Flame Tank 
Cost: 40,000 
Speed: 4 
Armor: 7 
Hit Points: 25 
Crew :6 
TL: 3/4 with space age materials 
Weapons: 6 Rapid Deploying Flame Throwers 3d6 damage per round Range 500/2000
Magazine 20 Cost 8,000 

Android Flame Trooper Crewmen/Soldiers  

Number 1d6 

Armor Class: 4 

Hit Dice: 2 

Attack Bonus +2 

Damage 2d8 mag rifle, flame thrower 1d4 per shot followed by same damage each round. 

Saving Throw 15+ 

Move:30 

Morale: 9 

Skill bonus:+1
Another Scott Hover aka Kellri Free Download
The Weird Science PDF 

 There are times when you need a random high tech artifact and your players know ever single technological artifact in your favorite post apocalyptic old school rpg and science fiction retro clone. 
We've got you covered! Simply go over to Scott Hover's old blog and download the Weird Science pdf.  Grab it Right Over HERE 

 The PDF is nice because it works well with just about any science fiction retro clone and has that old school DYI vibe built in. The pdf has come in handy time and again especially with SWN. All in all a very handy download. We use the same pick from column A. and column B method of old school game design.

Because of the retrofuture vibe of my post apocalyptic Mars game and the fact that I've got to sometimes come up with techno babble artifacts on the fly. This is a plus.Work into this equation with background of the SWN game and you can see why this one is a handy thing to have at the table when your players are rolling dice to figure out what the shiny, black,metal and plastic box from an alien lost city is. 

Slicing Deeper Into The Post Apocalyptic Mars Campaign For Your Old School Stars Without Number Campaign And A Free Sci Fi Download Resource Kellri's Random City Blocks For Tech Tuesday

 Imagine an Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars that is in the grip of a post apocalyptic era, a world of Leigh Brackett Mutant Red Martians tribes, ancient A.I driven death machines, and a landscape littered with a the ruins of a once thriving post colonial Mars.
This whole world as well as the solar system have been shunted into a pocket dimension by powers from beyond the scope of mankind. It is only now beginning to be explored and exploited after centuries of isolation 

This Tuesday I'm diving back into my post apocalyptic Mars campaign once again. Looking around I discover or should I say rediscovered Arthur C. Clark's book Exploration in Space. The book postulates about exploring our solar system and beyond. It looks pretty instrumental in his later books and ideas put forth in 2001 and its sequels. Explorations is from 1951 and this is one of the color plates based on a drawing by R.A. Smith which was turned into a painting by Leslie Carr. The original post is from  HERE
  

So these domed outposts would make great megadungeons in my Stars Without Numbers game. The retrofuture look goes right along with the post colonial period Mars history which then extends into a post apocalyptic Mars. This is a Mars that has only been 88 to 90 % percent terraformed. The whole planet is part Edgar Rice Burroughs and part high weirdness. The players have been exploring the Martian underworld which has its own challenges.
The surface is a mess of 'death machines' such as this super tank from the 1939 issue of Amazing Stories. Then there are the warring city states,the plagues, and much more. 

Meanwhile below the surface of Mars the whole planet is riddled with tunnels, megalev road ways, crazed A.I.'s, weird abandoned Earth Colony geo fronts, robots, ghuls, and much more. 


There are hundred of small ruins and a planet crisscrossed and riddled with thousands of tunnels. There are still working sub cars that routinely work and power still connects to certain A.I. controlled facilities. 

Its only now that explorers from Earth and beyond are starting to land on Mars in atomic powered rockets and beginning to explore the layout of what's left behind. They're not the only ones. Already there are those who are funneling out resources, slaves, and mutant species for export and worse to other universes.
 They're also running into mutant red men neanderthals, vicious lowlander and out lander tribes of what remains of some of the most viciously hit entropic city state survivors. Mutant degenerates who have been shaped by the fallout from horrid entropic bombs.
Tuesday night's adventure picks up with our heroes trying to piece together the lay of the land and find out who or what has been wiping out some of the Apex Adventurer parties down below in the bleak tunnels of Mars. 
The Tech Tuesday  Free Download
Scott Hover's Kellri's Random Cityblocks

 Grab it Right Over HERE
Grab it under the heading 'SciFi City Blocks' 
 So how do I fill out my Martian underground fast and with weird random stuff that goes right along with the proto Fifties and Sixties sci fi vibe that I'm using for this material? Well there's a great little nine page free download that randomly allows a DM to create from whole cloth all of the lost post Colonial Martian or old school sci fi buildings at the drop of a hat. This of course is Kellri's Random City Blocks pdf from way back in the ancient days of 2008.

This is done as a 'Chinese Restaurant' method of creating city blocks. One thing from column A.and another from table B, the funny thing is that it works very well. Block by block an entire city comes together rather quickly and for old school DYI this is a solid as well as easy method for creation.  

Much of the material can be used to fill entire space ports, colonies, and much more. Oddly because of the generic nature of the pdf it works rather well with Stars Without Number and for that game its a nice addition to the DM's old school arsenal. The fact is that because of the OD&D nature of the SWN game this one gets a ton of use in my games. Originally I downloaded it to fill out the backgrounds of Gamma World and Mutant Future. But its simply too darn useful to simply sit on a shelf. So it gets a lot of air play in my old school campaigns. I'm dusting it off for Tuesday's game. I hope you find it as useful as I do. 

MegaStructures As Megadungeon Fodder For Your Old School Science Fiction or Fantasy Campaign

Science Fiction artwork from the nineteen hundreds through now has been filled with Mega Structures. Incredibly breathtaking and inspiring locations that seem to echo throughout old school rpg campaigns. These can make or break a game setting by simply being there.
They make great opportunities for exploration and looting potential.

One concept for the space elevator has it tethered to a mobile seagoing platform. This concept has appeared in Gamma World campaigns and recently a Mutant Future campaign 

 What is a Mega Structure? 
Well wiki has a pretty clear definition of the Megastructure:
 A megastructure is a very large manmade object, though the limits of precisely how large this is vary considerably. Some apply the term to any especially large or tall building.^[1][2]

Some sources define a megastructure as an enormous self-supporting artificial construct. Other criteria such as rigidity or contiguousness are sometimes also applied,^{[citation needed]} so large clusters of associated smaller structures may or may not qualify. The products of megascale engineering orastroengineering are megastructures.

Most megastructure designs could not be constructed with today's level of industrial technology. This makes their design examples of speculative (or exploratory) engineering. Those that could be constructed easily qualify as megaprojects.
More right over HERE


 A couple of proposed Megastructures that I've used in my games: 

• Atlantropa, a hydroelectric dam to be built across the Strait of Gibraltar, and the lowering of the surface of the Mediterranean Seaby as much as 200 metres.

• Trans-Global Highway, highway systems that would link all six of the inhabited continents on Earth. The highway would network new and existing bridges and tunnels, improving not only ground transportation but also potentially offering a conduit for utility pipelines.

                                                      Appendix N For Megastructures 
Here are a couple of titles to get the DM started on Mega structure design for their old school games. Often times measurements, mapping, diagrams and more have been done making incorporating these elements in your campaigns easy and simple.

1. Urban Structures For The Future 
2. Megastructure By Reyner Banham 
3. Urban Futures Of The Recent Past 

Dark Roasted Blend is another great site for a boat load of potential 

megastructures. They have at least three articles that will provide hours of inspiration for the DM looking to use megastructures as potential for their games!
Recently I was reading the Mega Structure Update from Avi Abrams on Dark Roasted Blend. The writer captured proposed Megastructures going all the way back to the thirties and more recent ones as well.
These would make incredible set pieces for many games but they especially brought to mind games like Carcosa, and many of the post apocalyptic games like Mutant Future. The ones below are only a sample and you can find the complete article right over HERE
Its really worth taking a look at. These maga structures below are perfect to be 
turned into Meg dungeons with their own Gygaxian ecology.
Heck even the 'Warden' could be considered a space going mega dungeon
And many of these might be ripe to put into various planets or alternative Earths
as locations of danger and darkness!
These are only a sample of some of the awesomeness found in the Dark Roasted Blend article. 

(image via) This design by UK architect Yheu-Shen Chua has been awarded Third Place in eVolo's 2011 Skyscraper Competition: "One of the main purposes of the project is to allow the water from the upstream river to engage directly with the visitors through a series of containers. A hanging tower above the 700-foot drop into the Black Canyon would be used as gallery and a vertical aquarium." Belgian Architect Vincent Callebaut dreamed up a combination of skyscraper and airship, where the skyscraper itself floats in the air, feeding on a green "algae" energy: the "Hydrogenase" project is as eco-sustainable, as it is beautiful - more info: (images credit: Vincent Callebaut) Vincent Callebaut uses organic shapes in his designs and and dreams BIG - see all of his fantastic projects here. Floating Observatories: Unreal Tower Proposed for Taiwan Strange combination of a tree-like skyscraper and huge Zeppelin airship-inspired floating observation decks is a radical vision by RomanianDorin Stefan Birou Arhitectura - more info and images here (image via) The flowing shapes of this skyscraper remind us of the work of late Jan Kaplicky: on the left is the new national library in Prague, on the right is the Selfridge building, part of the Bullring complex in Birmingham, England: (image via) The Taipei City Museum of Art concept by OODA is based on two hypercubes and looks like an alien artifact: Another alien creature-like Taipei concept is proposed for the Performing Arts Center, by B+U design: (image via)

'The Deathmobile' From Animal House For Your Old School Mutant Future Campaign

Engine: Atomic 'Otter mobile' automobile engine 
Power/Fuel Source: Atomic Engine (300 year lifespan)
Body Style: Super Car, Paved Surfaces
Handling: Excellent, Dex +2 
Frame: Basic, 30 HP
Structure: Sturdy, 5 AC
Modification Allotment: 2 Hardpoints

Since the Holocaust back in the late 90's these custom made automobiles have become quite popular among the various mutant gangs or frats. These creations of chaos were first constructed by the artifact smith Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day over twenty years ago. Since then they have been used in the so called 

Delta Tau Chi (ΔΤΧ) vs Delta Tau Chi (ΔΤΧ) Conflicts. Another was used in the 'Police action against Dean Wormer. This assault against a nasty lich was enacted by
Senator John "Bluto" Blutarsky. The 

These hand made creations have been seen up and down the 'Destroyed Coast' of the Eastern United States. It is known that at least one or more of the designs have been smuggled out of the Shattered States and into Europe. 

Each Deathmobile is custom made and hand built with loving care and attention to chaos causing detail. These bad boys are riddled with secret compartments and access hatches. They are capable of mounting some sort of weapon or two as well as  a weird mayhem causing device. 

Post Apocalyptic Rpg Horse Trade - Dead Lands Hell on Earth Rpg

I had a friend stop by whose wife is a seamstress and wanted to do a bit of horse trading. I fix a couple of his machines and he'd throw a couple of post apocalyptic rpgs my way. Well it took a bit more in parts but the books have been in my possession for few days and here's where it gets pretty interesting.
According to Wiki:
It was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and originally published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. As part of the original marketing campaign in August 1998, the game had a green leatherbound hardcover edition run, limited to about 750 copies. I don't have one of the leather bound copies.
Back in the early '00's I played a fair bit of 'Dead Lands Hell on Earth' and here's where I know a fair bit about the game and how it works.
A bit of the background on the game according to Wiki:
As the name implies, Deadlands: Hell on Earth is set in the same exact place as the original Deadlands roleplaying game. Specifically, it is set in a post-apocalyptic future of the original "Weird West" setting of Deadlands, also known as the "Wasted West."

And that's really my big problem with the game. The fact is that this is set in the Wasted West of Deadlands and allows PC's to go from Deadlands to this PA setting without blinking an eye.
That's fine but the game fills in every single last detail of the Deadlands Wasted West setting.  This is coming from a fan of the game. I love the sandbox and I'm a big fan of the world but its really the author's and the game company's world.
Period.
Every single square inch of 'Hell on Earth' has a reason for being there and a connection to their earlier game. Its also trade marked to heck and everything is copyrighted. I have no problems with  Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
They've put out some fantastic games and the Savage World system is great but this game helps to really define why I love the 'OSR'.
The DYI factor and kitchen sink is what really drove me back into the waiting arms of the retroclones.
Make no mistake at all I think I got a great trade but this helps to remind me of the early 00's in gaming.
 I also got Colony and the last 'Hell on Earth Book'.
 So all in all a great trade. 

Review and Commentary Irwin Allen's 'The Man From The 25th Century' For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign

You can find it HERE

This was the pilot for 'The Man From The 25th Century'. This pilot is like something from a combination of Star Trek's Assignment Earth and a preparation for an alien invasion.
The film basically concerns James Darren's character who has been raised by the Planet Andros as the advanced scout for a alien invasion.
Robert Prentice has been trained by these large cranium aliens to be their advanced scout upon Earth except he has the sins of Pride and arrogance. He's been accepted into the ranks of 'Project Delphi'
and given a civilian identity.
This film pilot follows the usual tropes of an Irwin Allen production and I'm quite fond of his work.
You can read more about Allen right over HERE

This great little site goes into quite a bit more detail HERE

 Utilizing the Man From The 25th Century For Your Old School Games 

There is a ton of material that can be borrowed from the 'Man From 25th century'. There are the bald headed aliens who might be be another type of Metaluna refugees. Or they might be from the Mutant Future race known as the Master Minds via their  diabolical creator Tim Snider  HERE

The Mega dungeons of 'Project Dephi' looks pretty awesome and would make a great addition to the Mutant Future as a possible set of Lovecraftian style ruins.
Which Mega Corporation has a hand in the construction and maintenance of such a facility as 'Project Delphi'? Whomever they are and I do have theories would have to almost be the military someone whose got their hands on their own alien technology.
The Delphi Project might actually be its own mega corporation waiting to happen upon an unsuspecting post apocalyptic world. A vault into the future and the source of unspeakable evil waiting to unleash itself upon the world.
Perhaps this is might be an arm of the Pax organization I've talked about before. More on that in a future blog entry.


The set up looks very similar to Project Tick Tock and these massive alien looking ruins are perfect mockups for Krell style laboratories and weird technology abounding as the Earth fights to deal with the menace from Planet Andros. 


Level after level of hidden and sheer dangerous alien and government paranoia as well artifacts await the PC's as they being to deal with this strange and utterly bizarre mega dungeon. Perfect stuff for Mutant Future.
Vaults, levels, and weird 60's style colourful wonders await the PC's. This is a perfect environment to discover and encounter another great mutant menace or survivor issue waiting for the characters!
Could Project Delphi be somehow or some where connected with 'Project Tick Tock'?
You bet they could! 


There are a lot of unknowns connected with Project Delphi and Robert Prentice. A clever DM could exploit those holes to fill in what, who, and what they need to have waiting down in this creeptastic hole in the ground.


This is meant as a fan based piece of entertainment and in no way shape or form as a challenge to the holders of the copy right or trade marks of these properties. This is for entertainment purposes and the opinions expressed here are my fan based attitudes only. 

Commentary On The New Robocop Trailer For Your Post Apocalyptic Campaigns Part II

The new omni corp looks like another generation of OCP from the original Robocop from 1987. Omni Comsumer Products has been the backbone of the RoboCop franchise. So could there be different generations of the Megacorp running around? 

Well in my games there certainly was! From Gamma World to the TSR Buck Rogers Game Omni Consumer products was always quietly in the background.
Let's not mention Cyberpunk 2020, The Bubblegum Crisis Rpg, or the numerous Post Apocalpytic games this Mega Corp made appearances in.
Why?
Well Dick Jones says it best according to Wiki:

"They also serve as part of the military–industrial complex; according to OCP executive Richard "Dick" Jones, "We practically are the military." Jones observes in RoboCop that OCP has "gambled in markets traditionally regarded as non-profit: hospitals, prisons, space exploration. I say good business is where you find it"They've got their hands in everything! They're practices are well more then shady to say the least and let's not mention their connection to Sky Net canical or not. 

Now we get the newest incarnation of  Robocop. 

The Making of the 2014 Robocop 

One thing I'm liking with the new RoboCop is the number of actual practical effects in the movie. That's a plus in my book with the number of craptastic CGI effects we've seen in both horror and science fiction.
Let's face it the original RoboCop is a classic and hell Dark Horse comics practically built their company on the franchise along with the incredible crossovers back in the 90's. 

 The basic plot outline went something like this according to Wiki: 

" To address the city's crime, OCP tests several projects to engineer robotic law enforcement. During a presentation of a project spearheaded by the senior president, Dick Jones (Ronny Cox), the ED-209 enforcement droid malfunctions and kills a junior executive. With Delta City's construction scheduled to begin within months, the OCP Chairman (Dan O'Herlihy) immediately advances an alternative put forth by an ambitious, middle-ranking executive named Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer). Morton calls his cyborg project "RoboCop."

So one of the things that the original movie had going for it was Alex Murphy. He was a family man, every guy, and pretty much cyborg fodder. Peter Well's performance really made the role work and its one of the reasons why the original is still considered a classic. Not a 'holy grail' but a classic 

Can the new guy perform up to expectation?
We'll see. The original had its attitude, slogans, grit, and more going for it. 

The 2014 RoboCop Remake Official Site
HERE

Business The OCP Way In Mutant Future 

Omni Consumer Products

Type	corporation and laboratory
Founder(s)	The "Old Man"
Headquarters	Detroit and Delta City, Michigan
Products	Consumer products Space exploration Urban Pacification Tools Military grade weaponry Food products Private government

The above display shows only some of the areas that OCP has their hands into. Basically if their is a need in society then OCP has its hands into it.
Once more wiki says it quite nicely:

OCP is depicted as a megacorporation with divisions affecting nearly every level of consumer need, society, and government. Their products range from consumer products to military weaponry and private space travel. Their projects included RoboCop, the ED-209, and the RoboCop 2 cyborg. OCP owns and operates a privatized Detroit Police Department and have been known to employ criminals to achieve their goals

The Mega corporation is going to look for profit where and when it can seemly in markets that don't readily have a profit margin. OCP plans for the long haul .

Another wiki qoute here:  

" It creates products for virtually every consumer need, has entered into endeavors normally deemed non-profit, and even manufactured an entire city to be maintained exclusively by the corporation." 

For the 2014 remake, the corporation is called "OmniCorp", with the slogan "We've Got the Future Under Control. Which brings us to the latest incarnation of Omni products.

 Across the planes and through alternative Earth's there's going to be an Omni Products division right there. 

The XT- 908 Drone 

 

Hit Dice : 10

Frame: Drone 

Locomotion: Flight  Class B For Osric 

Manupalators: None 

Armor: Class 6 Duralloy composite frame 

Sensors: 4 

Mental Programming: Programming 

Accessories: AI uplink 

Infrared tracking

Facial recogniation 

Active Stability 

Votl capable 

Weapons :
Guass Small arms platform 2d6 400 foot/ 800 foot 

Micromachine cannons

 3d6 300/600 foot or 900/1,800 depending upon configuration 

The XT series is a fast, light, highly maneuverable drone capable of extreme deployment out in the fields. These monsters were deployed with multiple configurations and A. I. assisted up links enabling these drones to be used in a number of theaters during the Apocalypse and beyond.
Omni corp a division of OCP used these monsters extensively throughout their operations in both civilian and military campaigns.
Now fodder for many A.I. controlled installations and city states the XT series is a proven, reliable, and very dangerous enemy  for PCs. 

The RoboCop film and its copyright as well as trade marks belong to their holders. This is a fan write up for entertainment purposes. Ideas, words and opinions belong to this fan and don't reflect the ideals of the copyright owners. 

Commentary On The New Robocop Trailer For Your Post Apocalyptic Campaigns

 The new trailer looks amazing or does it? The thing here is that this is an all star cast and it does have some pretty interesting and cool CGI stuff. Will it have the satire that made the old one an icon though. The path of this movie is kinda of interesting and the inclusion of Michael Keaton is a pretty bold choice. 

Just in case you might need a refresher on the 1987 movie.

Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on police officer Alex Murphy (Weller) who is brutally murdered and subsequently revived by the malevolent mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as "RoboCop".

Alright here are my concerns about this remake :

• The movie isn't going to have the satire  of the original 
• No Peter Weller and that goes without saying. 
•  The ideals of the original are passay and so the movie is going to become another sci fi remake on a pile of sci fi remakes that don't make bank at the box off.
  
  These concerns have nothing to do with what I've seen in the trailer so far. But how does the remake stack up to the original?
  Judge for yourself my friends. 

As for me I'm going to have a Robocop marathon over the weekend.

The OCP Legacy 

Omni Consumer products got quite the workout in my Gamma World and Cyberpunk 2020 games. The whole evil corporation vibe was going pretty strong and my players seemed to run into a every single product made by them from bots to space craft OCP had their hands in it. 

According to wiki:

Omni Consumer Products (OCP) is a fictional corporatocratic megacorporation in the RoboCop franchise. It creates products for virtually every consumer need, has entered into endeavors normally deemed non-profit, and even manufactured an entire city to be maintained exclusively by the corporation.^[13][14] OCP is a modern example of the longstanding trope of the evil megacorporation in science fiction.^[15][16]

OCP is depicted as a megacorporation with divisions affecting nearly every level of consumer need, society, and government. Their products range from consumer products to military weaponry and private space travel. Their projects included RoboCop, the ED-209, and the RoboCop 2 cyborg. OCP owns and operates a privatized Detroit Police Department and have been known to employ criminals to achieve their goals.^[13]

OCP, throughout its depictions in the RoboCop films, has sought to fully privatize a dystopian Detroit, Michigan, into "Delta City", a manufactured municipality governed by a corporatocracy, with fully privatized services — such as police — and with residents exercising their representative citizenship through the purchase of shares of OCP stock. They also serve as part of the military–industrial complex; according to OCP executive Richard "Dick" Jones, "We practically are the military." Jones observes in RoboCopthat OCP has "gambled in markets traditionally regarded as non-profit: hospitals, prisons, space exploration. I say good business is where you find it."

In Gamma World every single robot, cybernetic organism, and android had some OCP part or neural network. OCP had a hand in the Exterminator series of robotic units that plagued players of the game. And with the remake maybe its time to dust off a few campaign notes. 
Here's the official movie website
HERE