Some Random Thoughts on Vampires, Salem's Lot (1979),The Fiend Folio & Old School Campaigns

This morning in Connecticut is gray & nasty, I was thumbing through the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's Fiend Folio this morning especially the undead. So touring through internet I came across the break down of the Fiend Folio undead on Dragon's Foot in a thread. 

Here's the quick break down that Geoffrey McKinney did of the eleven monsters that are of the undead species  in the Fiend Folio:

apparition
coffer corpse
death knight
huecuva
penanggalan
poltergeist
revenant
sheet ghoul
sheet phantom
skeleton warrior
son of Kyuss

If there was one film that brought home & burned in the evil infection nature of the undead on my nine year old brain then it was the Steven King 'Salem's Lot' made for television mini series that premiered on CBS. That artifact of television history burned its way into my brain like not too many other television mini series.Well, maybe The Thorn Birds or JR's Shooting on Dallas. But I digress.

So what does this have to do with the Fiend Folio? Well, besides the themes of small town corruption, evil, the complete stripping of every vestige of Americana from the town, loss of innocence, the mini series working as a homage to the classic monster movies of a bygone era & it being one of Tobe Hooper's best films?
"Directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul and James Mason, the plot revolves around a writer returning to his hometown and discovers the citizens are turning into vampires. It combines elements of both the vampire film and haunted house subgenres."
Its the way that the evil of the Marston house attracts houses the vampire nest. There is a sense that evil attracts evil theme in the film that pervades throughout. Salem's Lot presented vampires as an evil to be vanquished, with no gray areas given. These undead monsters are mockeries of their living selves. This is one of the ways that I've always seen undead monsters from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. An infection rotting away towns, city states, & even isolated communities often working with other undead creatures to further some alien agenda.

The nature of the undead is attracted to the sink of evil that is presented by each urban, village or countryside haunted house. These locations seem to draw & reign in these types of horrors.This approach works well with death knights, apparitions, huecuva,etc.  This might also  be especially true of the vampires of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Of course all of this would be soon replaced by the Ravenloft setting. This took the sink of evil idea to new heights.

I've always used vampires in conjunction with many of the top undead from the Fiend Folio. Vampires make excellent co rulers or domain level threats because their abilities especially from the Monster Manual :

• Vampires live in two planes at once - the material and the negative material.
• Vampires have an 18/76 strength.
• If it hits an enemy, the enemy loses two levels.

That purple, rat-like faced bastard from Salem's Lot made quite the impression on my nine year old brain making monsters working in adventure & dungeon locations a theme I've used for years. James Mishler's Vampires of the Olden Lands plugs right into this very OSR setting trope.


Jack Shear's Tales of the Grotesque & Dungeonsque series is a great addition to a DM's arsenal looking to beef up and pull out all of the stops to taking their games into the realms of the Gothic that Salem's Lot draws so heavily from. In fact I'd say that Mr.Shear's material is some of the best out there to add in set dressing, additional powers and abilities and breath new life into undead horrors and add in new life to a Gothic D&D setting. The beauty of the Fiend Folio in my humble opinion is the flexiblity & weirdness of the book. How it easily adapts to all different styles of play & how with a bit of creativity it can be molded to what the DM wants it to do.

Remember folks keep it weird!

'Another Fine Mess In The Haunted Wasteland' - A Gothic - Post Apocalyptic OD&D Game - Actual Play

This is an original cover from the Fiction House's series Ghost comics and thanks to cartoonist Terry Beatty the inspiration for last night's game. You can find more of these fantastic forties good girl covers clean up right over HERE

I was using Jack Shear's Tales of Grotesque and Dungeonsque HERE  as well as Trey's Weird Adventures HERE  as kit to design a weird pulp inspired Gothic one shot OD&D style game. Fish Wife games also lend a hand in this.
Jack Shears Adventures on Gothic Earth and Tales of The Grotesque and Dungeonsque III : The Final Chapter are perfectly suited for use as Gothic gaming material for early Eighteen Hundreds to Nineteen Thirties Gothic Pulp Campaign Adventures. Easily mixed in with Weird Adventures.
 So last night I got together with friends and had seven players. The game was set on a variant of my Ancient And Accursed Terra world. There are a multiplicity of these worlds floating out in the plane prime, many are post apocalyptic hell holes that are each tied in with one another as a string of demi planes of doom all in mirco pocket bubbles. Many touch the negative material plane in one form or another and the lands of the dead under the control of a variety of gods of death.
This also happens to include Orcus whose got an interest in the party. The adventurers have raided a number of his worlds and properties as well as upset his creations a number of times. 

Last night's group consisted of the following PC's party after an extended character creation workshop. 

1. Sir Arthur Crompton - Adventurer, fighter, big game hunter and monster killer. Fighter fourth level. From wealthy upper class background in the U.K. whose had some rather unsavory dealings with the Fey. 
2. Ms. Victory Falsroy - Half human and vampire adventuress/ cleric as well as the best selling author of A Young Lady's Primer On Other Worlds.  Cleric 4th level 
3. Strayon The Mystic - A warlock of some renown whose got a radio program from 3 A.M. to 5 A. M. on WW5 called Beyond The Shroud. Warlock fifth level 
4. The Fitz Roy Twin - Spiritualists of the Infamous, mercenary warriors of the spirit world and some of the most dangerous ghost hunters. 6th level spiritualists. 
5. The Azur Green warrior - Mysterious mercenary fighter from some Orient but which one is a bit of a mystery. Carries an Oni blade and a very bad attitude. 5th level fighter 
6. The Brimestone Boys -  Two Gangsters dedicated to one of the lower powers and out to make a name for themselves on this plane or the abyss. 5th level thieves and toughs. 
7. Sister Anne - Cleric, healer, and gun wielding psychopath with multiple personalities Discipline of Janus and wielder of a pair of blessed Dragoon guns. 4th level cleric and 2 level fighter.  Healer of the group.

The PC's met with their patron at his castle. A renowned and incredibly feared necromancer Sir Carl Rupert Sinclair.  The host of the incredibly popular radio show 'Speaking With The Dead' and retired acclaimed stage actor. Sir Rupert Sinclair is now investigating most a troubling matter and looking into the latest scandal to come his way (one of many by the way). His lovely daughter has disappeared after having joined a group of adventurers herself. Sir Carl does not think she is on Earth at all. He has reason to believe that she has gone looking for a relic sacred to the Sinclair family. 
Sinclair Castle sits on a series of  powerful ley lines that allow one to open doors into other worlds and even the realms of the dead. Sinclair thinks that his own daughter may have used such a door way to go looking for the so called Star of Sinclair. An artifact lost to the family going all the way back to the Revolution of Freedom. 

More information about the real life inspiration for Sinclair Castle right over HERE

It Opens Doors 

 The PC's were lead down a series of stairs into the bowels of the castle. Cut stone passages and weird rooms used for summoning, spells, and dire enchantments greeted them. 
The adventurers bargained for exclusive story rights, treasure, artifacts, and movie rights. The doors were opened and the adventurers stepped into a strange haunted world filled with ruins. Here's where 100 Things To See In The Devastated City came in handy. 

Available right over HERE

The PC were greeted by sights in an alternative haunted New York city from the depths of a Lovecraftian horror show. Some of the sites they saw were the following : 

100 Things To See In The Devastated City

Want a little decadent flavor to add to those still settled parts of the post apocalypse metro area? Need a few encounters for the wandering party of adventurers to run into? Just roll the percentile dice and consult the two page chart!

Note: Some of these random rolls contain notes about mutants. Modify or remove as needed for personal campaign. Many of these listings could also be used for modern slum areas as well.

Care for some samples?

01- A bored young thug bashing in the front of a soda vending machine with a crowbar.

15- A filthy looking man with a scarred face and mutated eye tugs a wagon of junk.

25- A handcuffed mutant is being forcefully led down the street by two men in tattered police uniforms.

30- A man in a dirty brown suit selling packs of cigarettes from the trunk of an old luxury car.

45- A small group of hedonists shooting up drugs while they sit on the steps of an old law office.

50- A trio of adolescent street artists spray paint grafitti on the side of an old building.

60- A young couple and their three kids are cleaning out an old storefront in hopes of starting a business.

75- Five women dressed in hospital scrubs tend to a couple of wounded citizens lying on the sidewalk.

90- Three old men are gathered around a fire built in an old barrel.

100- Two young punks threaten an old woman clutching a purse.

More coming up soon! 

'Dead Stop With A Twist of Arduin ' A Gothic - Post Apocalyptic OD&D Game - Actual Play Part III

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

Edgar Allan Poe The PC's were climbing for their lives and dealing with hordes of undead as they went. Steel, pistol shot, and blood as they battled up the stairs towards the necomancer's lair. 

Dice were rolling, things were getting interesting and the players took a break by going down a slide hall way. Only to be confronted by hordes of skeleton warriors! 

Part II
Right over
HERE

Every age, every era of mankind's dead were represented in the horde! They broke out their powder and started to blast the unholy things apart!  Then it was close in fighting and the party backed into a bottle neck where numbers didn't matter and they could take em apart piece by bony piece!

The party is fighting their way to the top of a skyscraper floor by floor confronting skeleton warriors as they go! Basically its like something out of Army of Darkness! So everyone is having fun and result! Opps the cleric just bought it. Ochie

The players have succeed in reaching level eleven after dealing with a weird reanimated blob of corpse skin! 

The PC's also managed to gain treasure, black powder, and deal with some horrofyingly nasty undead kobold warriors as well! They also freed more prisoners who were going to be turned into zombies by the minor priests of the necromancer!
Among the freed prisoners was a deodanth warrior PC! 

One of the players in tonight's game asked me if it was alright to bring in his Deodanth PC fighter 4th level. After looking over his character sheet. I didn't have a problem at all. What's a Deodanth? Figure available right over HERE
The Deodanth, undead, part cat, part elf?, part who knows...the proverb in Arduin is there is nothing crueler in the multiverse than a merciful deodanth...Not someone to cross paths with! They have the innate ability to time slip 

The other NPC  personalities were generated on the fly using this product from Fish Wife Games!

Get it right
HERE

100 ICONIC NPCS OF THE APOCALYPTIC ERA

From the crumbling urban sprawls to polluted coastal settlements to a nuclear wild west comes a variety of colorful, self styled encounters. This list consists of 100 character names along with a descriptive role for each.

Samples from the list include:

01- Archie Haggar (Shady arms and military technology dealer)

15- Chevy Hollywood (Thrill seeking contraband smuggler)

25- Devon Night (Voodoo fortune teller)

30- Ethan Cruel (Sadistic punk with a penchant for knives)

45- Iris Catterton (Nervous streetwalker)

50- Jesse Blazer (Bloodthirsty wasteland outlaw)

60- Lars Black (Coastal settlement tug boat owner)

75- Presley Wayne (Smooth talking con man)

90- Stun Boy (Flamboyant, cattle prod armed criminal lackey)

100- Yoko Honda (Wild eyed, sword wielding headhunter)

 Finally the really nasty automaton was generated on the fly using this product from Jack Shear available right over  HERE

'Dead Stop' A Gothic - Post Apocalyptic OD&D Game - Actual Play Part II

Part I
HERE

I had a full house with the PC's being a full crew of nine cut throats, thieves, adventurers, and scalawags all caught in a cross fire war between the powers of two Death gods.
Most of tonight's action included a ton of sword play and some gun battles. We lost two of our group to the forces of darkness tonight! This inter-dimensional undead brush fire included the following:
These included the infamous Zatch Brothers ( two dandy assassins, these two are not brothers but a  pair of homosexual partners who pose as brothers while robbing and killing. They have a taste for jewels, adventure, and the finer things in life. They are played by the husband and wife team of Paul and Nancy. The Zatch brothers were taken directly out of Jack's Gothic Earth dandy class and have appeared in several other games I've run).  The Zatch brothers are murderous SOB's with hearts of gold, really.  

Sir Halrux Lector - A down on his luck royal and spiritualist with  a knight ancestor as his ghostly familiar. Armed with two pistols Halrux is out to recoup the family fortune. Played by Peter Sir Lector was jailed for quite some time after a near fatal run in with the authorities over a matter of honor. The victim of this duel still haunts him. 

Doc. Ho Sing - This seemly oriental wizard from some unidentifiable far East country is actually, Paul Riley. An actor who stumbled into a treasure trove of occult books and knowledge one night by mistake. Paul became a warlock after almost becoming the vessel for an ancient guardian demon. He adopted the Doc Ho Sing persona for both stage and professional reasons. Paul has effected this persona for so many years there are those who are beginning to believe he is becoming the good doctor. 

Major Lothar - Adventurer, big game hunter, explorer, and man of action, Lothar is a very driven paladin traveling in disguise as he deals with the forces of darkness. Lothar however has some dark secrets of his own. Lothar is played by Brian. 

Chief Red Smoke - Scout and Ranger extraordinaire, Red Smoke is traveling with this party of cut throats as a performer and second story man while pursuing the lycanthrope mercenary who murdered his family. He knows the bastard has served several masters across the planes but always seems one step ahead of Red Smoke.  Played by Tom. 

Little Kelly Tomlin - Little Kelly Tomlin is as cute as a button and the second you turn your back on her she might stick you with a hat pin, knife, or other sharp implement. Kelly is actually a little person of age twenty two. She's a thief, con artist, pick pocket, second story woman, who happens to be an adventuress in her own right. She passes herself off as a little girl, sally wag pick pocket, wizened old man, or other disarming disguise as needed. She's hooked up with the crew after the horrid murder of her estranged brother.
 Dr.James Kimbal - The good doctor is a servant of the 'Lady in White' and a surgeon of the highest order who happens to have a gambling problem. A very, very, bad gambling problem that causes him to throw in with this lot many, many, times. He has served with this group to many times. May the Lady in White have mercy on his soul. The good doctor hates undead almost as much as he like cards. Played by Mary. 

Jacvk The Slayer - The Fey blooded hood from the dark reaches of the Dolemite mountains in Italy. This Italian seducer of both men and women is making his way across the world and those who cross him cross his silver stilettos and pistols better beware. He has a taste for jewels and danger. He also has crossed steel with several vampires in his time. Fighter/thief played by Ryan. 

 We lost Little Kelly Tomlin to a gang of skeleton warriors in one of the cemeteries after a long fight with over twenty skeleton warriors. 
Kelly sacrificed herself so that the group could escape by locking a gate behind her so her comrades could flee. 
The skeletons took great delight in finishing the little thief off.

The group managed to break into the high rise lair of a necomancer who had managed to secure the chalice that the group was looking for. The bastard's minions managed to poison Jacvk The Slayer with a cursed arrow. Despite the best efforts of Doc. Ho Sing and Dr. Kimbal. Jacvk died. 
The group moved into the building throw the service entrance and managed to take down a very nasty lycanthrope mercenary who Chief Red Cloud had been hunting for.
It took the combined efforts of Red Cloud and Major Lothar to bring the beast down.

The party made it past multiple undead horrors including the former occupants of the building who were turned into zombies, wights, and shadows. The shrine of Orcus proved to be quite troublesome.

 
 They've also switched from fire arms to swords now. Ammo is running low, black powder is starting to look thin, and everyone is resting on the fifth floor of the building. 
 The PCs managed to free a bunch of prisoners from the clutches of the necromancer and his cult. Had to wrack my brains to figure out who these folks were until I remembered this.

 
You can get that right
HERE

100 Individuals To Run Into In The Post Apocalypse, Set 2
So the players are wandering through the wastes of the post apocalypse and a random encounter roll has determined that they have stumbled upon the presence of another traveler/group of travelers. So just who are these people anyways? With a handful (1d8 perhaps?) of rolls of the percentile dice and a bit of consultation of the chart below, the GM will always be prepared. Notes provided on the chart include the character’s first name, gender (M for males, F for females), age (listed as a number), and descriptive “role” of the random character.

Sample Rolls Include:

08- Blake (M, 19, Young biker punk)

30- Elizabeth (F, 36, Goth blade master/sharpshooter)

44- Janet (F, 41, Wasteland scientist and teacher of the young)

50- Jessica (F, 31, Botanist)

64- Mandi (F, 23, Scout with keen senses but poor memory)

75- Naomi (F, 48, Toothless settlement bar wench)

88- Stacy (F, 38, Solar technology specialist)

Author: Dave Woodrum

Page Count: 1 page.
 Its a nice little list of material for just such an occasion. 

With this handy little list and a prayer the party is still in the thick of it. They've got twelve more floors to get through and hordes of undead things to get through. 
Its not going to be easy at all. 
They've got a hell of a climb. Those who are left went up a level tonight after some extensive role playing over dealing with the death and dismemberment of their comrades. They'll be a replacement next week as well. 
May I highly recommend Jack Shear's Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonsque III : The Final Chapter. The damn book is indispensable for creating some horrific situations and  really cool items as well.The steam driven undead horrors were a welcome addition to tonight's game.  There's a bit of Carcosa nastiness in there as well.
Available Right HERE

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part Four - In The Steps of The Vampyr On The Dark Corner Blog

 Ring The Bell, Walk Into The Night, and come along the trail into the Carpathians!
Right over
HERE

Review And Commentary on Spinechillers and Silent Killers From Thistle Games For Your Old School Horror Campaign!

Spinechillers ~ Traps ~ Omens ~ Dark Secrets ~ Jailbreaks ~ Runaway Wagons ~ Unpleasant Places
 All on the Dark Corner right over
HERE

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part III On The Dark Corner Blog!

The PC's deal with the fall out from the 'Man from Lavanti' and are forced deep into the underworld once again of the Transylvanian city state. Are they pawns of Dark Forces or Heroes or something in between!
Right over
HERE

Free OSR PDF The Old-School Gazette #2 From Expeditious Retreat Press For Your Old School Horror Campaign On The Dark Corner Blog

Right over HERE !

Sometimes a DM needs a solid horror monster and treasure to go with it for quick encounter in the old mega dungeon. Here are  a few surprises with 'the statistics you need to pit black skeletons, bone sovereigns, dark voyeurs, and inscribers against your players.' This issue also includes the treasures to go with this monsters!
Grab your holy symbol, your stake, and keep your powder dry!
 

Free Old School Gothic Horror Adventure - The Manse on Murder Hill From Taskboy Games Over At The Dark Corner Blog

 

There are several children that have gone missing in Little Flanders! The townsfolk are begging for help and there's fame and glory that await!
All this for free right over
HERE

Meditations On The Gibbering Mouther Character Class On the Dark Corner

 Have you ever wanted to play a powerful sanity bending character whose capable of  lobbing a glob of glowing death at his foes? Ever wanted to turn the ground to quicksand while dealing sanity bending death to your foes?
Alright me neither!
 But have you ever wanted to throw a Gibbering Mouther at your party without wrecking your whole campaign?
 How about a Mouther as part of a party of PCs?
All these questions and more are answered right over
HERE

Review And Commentary on The Free OSR Resource - Oriental Classes And Oriental Monsters Written and Edited By Ed Martell On The Dark Corner Blog

Grab your sword,your gear, and journey now into the darkness where monsters stalk . A samurai's best friend is his honor and the honor of his clan as we take a long look into the world of two Free OSR Oriental Supplements 
Right over
HERE

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part II On The Dark Corner Blog

The PCs are in very deep waters with weird gods, strange urban encounters, animal headed guardian spirits, and a level drained merchant prince in 'Tales of Gothic Transylvania" right over HERE! 

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part I On The Dark Corner Blog

Where in two first level PC's tangle with some assassins, deal with a wounded patron, and get thrown into the deep end of the
Pulp Gothic World!
Right over
HERE! 

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Further Meditations On Tales Of The Grotesque And Dungeonesque Volume One On The Dark Corner Blog

                                                      

The shadows are growing longer and thoughts turn to the winter campaign! We take a bite out of  Tales of the Grotesque And Dungeonesque  along with a quick glimpse of  'The City'  in the Transylvania countryside! 
Right Over HERE!