S3 'Expediation to The Barrier Peaks' by Gary Gygax With The Castles & Crusades Rpg Aligned With The Star Ship Warden Rpg book

 

So let's pick up where we last left off on this campaign built we've been talking about the Amazing Adventures version of Starship Warden. Ernie Gygax threw his hat into the ring with the following comment; "Ernest Gary Gygax Jr.

The opportunities offered with moving characters to either or both the Empire of the Petal Throne or the Starship Warden. Both have been done with early Greyhawk characters. Jim Ward's own Elf flunky Bombadil is with the Vigilists group in Jim's own game. A crse scroll from a game my father was running for Jim James M. Ward. We have fought EPT creatures in the Dungeon but yet to have a character transfer to the realm.." 
First of all I love Jim Ward's Elven PC Flunky Bombadil, that's awesome right there.  Its gotten me thinking about S3 'Expediation To The Barrier Peaks' by Gary Gygax. The Starship Warden of S3 isn't the same ship as first edition Metamorphis Alpha rpg according to the S3  Drivethrurpg entry; ""Barrier Peaks" is about a spaceship crashing into the world of Greyhawk. Gygax was very clear is saying that the ship was not the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha: "The size and the technology in this vehicle should make such speculation quite misplaced, in fact. The downed space ship is far too small, and its science quite different from that of the famed starship Warden." The connection between "Barrier Peaks" and Metamorphosis Alpha is thus more of a thematic one." 

Is this simply a thematic connection or is this simply another space craft that's a part of the Warden's sciencitific expediation fleet?! 

The 'Warden' is actually a biological collection ship. Monster after monster is let go on Greyhawk. The ship is long since abandoned by its occupants.  This brings home the fact that many monsters of AD&D are invasive species from other worlds. The  world of Greyhawk is a part of one of the crossroads of the planes. This module is also one of the possible origins of the mindflayer species. 

This module seems to be an almost homage to Robert Kuntz's famous 'machine level'. The module has many of the same sorts of technologies that we find in Metamorphis Alpha rpg first edition. 

S3 feels like a precursor to Metamorphis Alpha rpg first edition.There's so many points where you can marry the two games through S3. 

With the Starship Warden there's some more options on the table. S3 'Expediation To The Barrier Peaks' by Gary Gygax has no origin point for the 'Warden'.

Could the micro planar technologies that caused  the Human Space Empires collapse also be responsible for the Warden fleet to plunge out of hyperspace. The Empire of the Petal Throne rpg makes it very clear that when M.A.R. Barker's world was cut off from the rest of the planes that many people, alien races, etc. were trapped on Tekumel as well. 
Now its interesting that Ernie states that we fought E.P.T creatures in his dad's dungeon on Greyhawk. This means that not all of the planar gates were cut off from the planes. The door always swings both ways, could E.P.T. PC's find themselves aboard the Starship Warden?! 

In a word, yes! The fact is that some poor party of players might find themselves aboard the Starship Warden. Given the crazy situation that the PC's might find themselves in this might not be that far out of their wheelhouse.  But this begs the question. How many other dimensional gateways lead to planes cut off completely from the Human Space Empires?! Are there literally hundreds of derelict space craft hanging in hyperspace with undead crews waiting for some poor adventurers to stumble upon them. Let's talk about the fact that the 'Solar Burn'setting & timeline lines up quite nicely with the Starship Warden timeline. What happens if the powers in charge of Solar Burn mount an expediation to actually find the Warden & stumble upon Greyhawk's Warden instead?! 

Things can go from bad to worse as the expediation isn't prepared for the horrors waiting for them inside S3's Warden starship. And this might actually be a warm up for what's about to come! 
And this brings home another point, the ancient gatesways used by the Human Space Empire might in point of fact still be operational way at the back of beyond especially in a setting like 'The Wilderlands of High Fantasy' where the wilderness is so vast that just about anything can & does exist in the back end of beyond. 

There may also be various planar versions of the crash site of the Warden such as in the Wilderlands, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, etc. 
The hyperspace shunt of the planar collapse of the Human Space Empire echoed across the multiverse caused many consquences throughout time & space. This is something we see time & again in Science Fantasy & Sword & Sorcery game settings. 

Judges Guild has several adventures that make this sort of a campaign very easy. Classic JG was easy to insert into whatever campaign you need. The Wilderlands 'wilderness' is rife with adventure hooks that can be exploited to fit your home campaign  narrative. And this is where classic gaming succeeds on so many levels. Easy to adapt, fully modular, and even easy to fit, these are some of the characteristics of classic gaming supplements. 

OSR Keys & Gates - The Castles & Crusades Rpg Aligned With The Star Ship Warden Rpg book

 Back in Nineteen Eighty, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy was growing & changing with each & every expansion. Spies of Light Elf is another wilderness expansion for the Wilderlands from Judges Guild. 

 Spies of Lightelf: Wilderness Book Two By Bryan Hinnen- Wilderlands project, histories, 25 maps, tables, three villages  Fantastic wilderness detail. Spies of Lightelf: Wilderness Book Two fills in a lot of the details on the side of the campaign setting for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. And surprisingly it does this very well. The question in my mind is there far more going on out in the wilderness of the Wilderlands then anyone suspects. Yesterday we spoke about Portals of Torsh. And the opinion not fact that could there be a definitive connection between the occult technologies of the brass rings of  Castles & Crusades Stains Upon The Green and the portals of JG's portal series?! 

The portal technologies of  the module series Portals of Torsh, Portals of Irontooth, and Portals of Twilight concern a series of planar locations & dungeons which the characters can stumble into or explore. But these portals may lead to ancient locations in dungeons & other ruins that few survive from exploring. Such trips maybe one way. But these portals are reminding me of the microdimensional planar technologies of the Empire of the Petal Throne rpg. 

Given the collapse of the dimensional gates from the Human Empire. Are we actually looking at old gateway technologies that other races stumbled upon and started using?! Anything is possible but the number of campaign setting worlds that might have been cut off by the collapse of the gates of the Human Empire?! 
How many planets continued as local interstellar  governments struggled with keeping up with the local sector demands?! 
Could this partially responsible for the full on cut off situation that we see in original Traveller?! 
Might this same style of hyperspecial gate collapse & hyperspacial shunt  be responsible for some of what has  happened to the Starship Warden?!? 

The brave starship flies through & hyperspecial gateway which messes with the unreality of the ship. Throughout space & time the events of the the microdimensional planar technologies of the Empire of the Petal Throne rpg echo. These events even blast a number of psychics causing the 'Scream' in Stars Without Number Revised. Star faring empires suddenly caught in the wake of events without their control. 

Now imagine that one of these worlds cut off from the rest of the interstellar community might be called Blackmoor & that a treacherous interstellar spacer sees an opportunity to land during the chaos. This is merely idle speculation but it begs the question. Does the wilderness hold far more then the adventurers suspect?! 

Secrets of Judges Guilds "City State of the Invincible Overlord" By Bill Owen and Bob Bledsaw - The Castles & Crusades Rpg Aligned With The Star Ship Warden Rpg book

 Its been ages since we've talked about Judge's Guilds "City State of the Invincible Overlord" By Bill Owen and Bob Bledsaw. There's some very interesting little tidbits worked into the background of the grand ol'e fantasy city state. I went over the some of the ins & outs of Judge's Guilds "City State of the Invincible Overlord" By Bill Owen and Bob Bledsaw here. 

Yesterday's OSR Nexus The Infinite City rpg session got me thinking again about Troll Lord's The Starship Warden & its possible relationship to 'The Wilderlands of High Fantasy'. More specifically ideas about  the planar rings of  the Rings of Brass, magical portals that lead to dwarven roads carved through the planes from Castles & Crusades Stains Upon The Green.

These Brass Ring portals  might in fact be portals created by the same occult technologies that appear in Judges Guild's Portals of Torsh?! Portals of Torsh was by Rudy Craft from 1980. And the module series Portals of Torsh, Portals of Irontooth, and Portals of Twilight concern a series of planar locations & dungeons which the characters can stumble into or explore. These were early planar travel modules. They are very underrated today & most players wouldn't have a clue about them. 

Portions of the Starship Warden that are stabilized & civilized in a sorta of pseudo European setting might have planar traders come in from the 'Wilderlands of High Fantasy' to trade with them. This leads into many possibilities including the fact that the wily invincible overlord or his court may have maps to the starship Warden. Then the question becomes what other destinations & secrets does the court of the overlord have?! Could they be making a packet selling information about other dungeons & adventure locations from aboard the Warden?!