The Inhumanly Alien Side of Mars - Clark Ashton Smith, Warriors of the Red Planet, Hyperborea and The OSR Martian Campaign

 Ages ago I had a Warriors of the Red Planet/Hyperborea rpg campaign that took place after the apparent destruction of Old Earth. The Green Martians & the colored races of Mars with the Aihai being part of the ruling cycle of royals on Mars. Unlike their ancestors, the Yorhi, the Aihai are not proficient in the use of advanced machinery, although occasionally one can be found operating ancient technology beyond the capabilities of human science, such as disintegrator rays.


 Eons ago the whole of Mars erupted in a civil war with the coming of the Great Old One  Vulthoom and his followers. The  ruling Aihais who eradicated most of the cult. Vulthoom was defeated and it and its followers fled underground, where they slumbered in suspended animation for centuries. Another radical cult of Aihai worships the Dweller in the Gulf. 

Richard Coban artwork from the Vaults of Yoh Yombis by Clark Ashton Smith. 

  These races exist along side the Red & Green Martians having retreated after the marauding of the Green Martian tribes started thousands of years ago along the dead sea bottoms. The Aihai have little to do with the warlike imposters who came from beyond the stars. Human colonists came and established themselves on Mars but things have been quite dangerous as Old Earth has been destroyed. Here's where we mix in Warriors of the Red Planet. 

There is rocket service and trade between the eight planets colonies but it's a very delicate balance in terms of resources and the human states of Mars. Into this mix comes the low lander races of Red men tribes of Leigh Brackett. And then you've got the far higher caste of Red men from Edgar Rice Burroughs royals who never mix. Well this isn't true because of certain norms and byways that gets  used quite often in the ERB stories. Now add to this mix the fact that the Green Death has wiped out centuries ago the alien Hyperboreans. Mars and Hyperborea align when the Boreas forces allow which is less frequently then one might imagine. So while a party might crossover onto Mars on the starwinds. They may find themselves stranded on Mars. 
Humanity cleaves to a few minor citystates where there are pro human and Martian factions abound. There are however a few minor 'Thieves cities' where humans, aliens, and others mix. 

Asssassin's War On Mars - Serpents Crossover - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet - Session Report Five

This session report is going to pick right up from here.  In which the player's PC's made it into the wizard's tower after covering themselves in monster dung to make it past the tower's guardians. However the PC's have been really getting themselves into trouble! However let's talk Swords & Wizardry kickstarter here for a moment.

So I've been following the updates & progress on Matt Finch's Swords & Wizardry Kickstarter's updates. However the other night the player's party made progress after thier thief got a chance to disarm a deadly trap within the tower. This all comes from Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters that we pulled out several weeks ago. 

The party found a working teleporter in one of the wizard's rooms and found the mechnism was still in operation. Someone had just teleported out of there. 

The party almost bought it coming face to face with a group of rogue serpent men & thier Red Martian cavemen thralls. Things got very heated as the party saw the loss of thier warrior princess and a fighter! More cavemen pressed through the laboratories door and the party took the teleporter as a way out! 
Who knows where the party will end up?! Well I do and here's where things about to get very interesting. 

Over the past two months I've been working with the Hyperborea rpg and several campaign notes from the past especially in regards too Flying Buffalo's Butcher, Baker, Candlestick maker series. So these are going to form the basis for a 'fantasy city' on another plane. 'Pun-anth' is a fantasy city that is controlled by the Serpent Men! The entire city seems like a traditional fantasy city with quite a few Pulpy Warriors of the Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg twists. 'Pun-anth' is actually a trade partner with certain Hyperborean & Martian kingdoms.

Asssassin's War On Mars - Crossed Swords of Blood - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet - Session Report Four

 So we're looking deeper into the Swords & Wizardry new Kickstarter with thier new version of thier version of the OGL; "Licensing. Later today we will also put up a PDF of the draft version of what we're calling the Mythmere Games Open License. This license does the expected task of allowing a third-party publisher to use the Swords & Wizardry rules and text. It also creates a category of content called MGL Open Content (the MGL is short for Mythmere Games License) which will allow a third-party publisher to make content available to other third-party publishers as open game content, regardless of whether any Swords & Wizardry content is included. The license is modeled on the OGL, since that's the model most people are familiar with, and learning a new license is difficult, but it contains fixes for various things that have been problems with the actual OGL. Most notable is of course the clear inclusion of the word "irrevocable," but there are several other changes. After we put the draft license up for people to download it and take a look, Matt will do a livestream -- probably on Sunday -- to describe licensing issues in the OSR in general, how this particular license works, and answer questions. We'll do another update to give specifics about the time and place for the livestream." During last night's Warriors of the Red Planet game the party of adventurers got attacked by loyalist serpentmen mercs! 

This pay session repor picks up from here & here on the blog
They almost made it across the valley in thier flyer but they ended up attacking the mercs & just managed to make it out with several lucky rolls. Adventurers made made it into the next valley bypassed several fuel stations until they made through unto the next series of villages. One of these villages is one of the player's PC's origins. 
And it was time for the party to stop into Avoluo and tracked down the village elder. This was a barbarian tribe with deep ties with the local assassin's guild. 

And the player's PC's came face to face with one of the mid level NPC villains! This is where things went from bad to worse as they had to deal with him. Rus Ashu the Blood Handed  our lower tier assassin has a blood debt against this guy. And it was crossed swords & the party couldn't interfere! Things got very tense as swords crossed and the NPC was badly wounded as well as losing a limb! 

The PC's wanted to get out before things got worse as they now know that'  abandoned ' wizard's tower from a few sessions ago isn't! They heard from various villagers that the place has been restocked and anyone venturing there disappears! This all ties in with the Black Circle faction gaining in power in the valley of Lothar and pre Ancients technologies being used to shore up thier power base in the area. 

This all comes from Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters that we pulled out several weeks ago. The Wizard's Tower in this book has some really nasty twists that I've managed to snag into our Mars game quite easily. 
We've also been talking about running a Rifts Rpg campaign but the players can't make it due to work commitments and scheduling. 
However I might have a plan after looking into my buddy Raven Wolfgar's stream today on Youtube. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs 'The Master Mind of Mars', Original Dungeons & Dragons, and Our Warriors of the Red Planet/Hyperborea rpg

 Last night we stepped back from gaming because of conflicts with work schedules and whatnot. So instead we DM's got together for a beer. We got a chance to take a breather & discuss Edgar Rice Burroughs, Barsoom, and one of my favorite of the ERB's Mars books The Mastermind of Mars. And my all time favorite is the 1927 publication in Amazing Stories Annual of 'The Mastermind of Mars'. 

The Mastermind of  Mars concerns  Ulysses Paxton, & elderly mad scientist Ras Thavas, the "Master Mind" of the title, as Paxton comes into the household of the mad scienctist. Ras trains Paxton in a few levels of the mad science of Mars. 
And these operations were ground breaking for the 1920's as organ transplants and mind transplants were the stuff of Science Fiction. And this plays the central theme of the novels plot as the mad scientist transplants the brain of an evil queen into the body of a Martian princess. He does this for a fantastic fee of course.. 
There are more then a few things that are interesting about Mastermind of Mars. One is how Ulysses Paxton assembles his team of Martian adventurers. 
Ras Thavas has a wide selection of Martians on the slabs of his science center 'mostly dead' whom Paxton then selects to be his crew. And we get a really interesting White Ape who has the partial brain of a Red Martian. And we also get a swordsmen plus one of the first depictions of a Martian assassin. 

The second half of the book is the really interesting part because of the fact that we get a real deep dive into a Martian city. And  Ulysses Paxton as well as his crew go into the Martian city of an enemy city state. And we see full on the Martian life of the Red Martians from the bottom up so to speak. 

Yes lots of adventure & excitement including a look at the bogus religion of the Martians of  the city-state of Phundahl. One of the neglected areas that almost everyone seems to forget is the wilderness of  the city-state of Toonol. The swamps surrounding  the city-state of Toonol, are completely infested with every horror known to Martian including the four armed White Apes. And this goes straight back into the ideas for monster placement within original Dungeons & Dragons The Underworld & Dungeon Adventures book. 

Everyone seems to forget the scope of ERB's Mars and just how big of a planet that Mars is. Within our Hyperborea/ Warriors of the Red Planet rpg. This is something that we as both DM's and players have come across time and again. 

Not only is there more then enough room for all of the various classes of Hyperborea. There's plenty of room in society that many of the classes of characters that we find within Leigh Brackett's Mars could easily fit into one of Mars citystates without issue. 
What really plays the part here has been Night Owl Workshop's OSR Social Systems. These have allowed our heroes to go about thier business on Mars quite nicely. 

I believe that Paxton & crew are a part of an untouchable caste on Mars. This allows many of the Martians to go about thier business quite nicely. And it fits the strata of the huge number of examples of adventurers going about thier business in ERB. Why?! Because the Green, the barbarians, and other hordes are a part of the uncivilized caste on the sands of Mars. I'm not saying that you can go through the social strata of Mars far from it. There is however an ancient reminder that every Martian has in society of thier place think of fuedal Japan and the samurai as a possible example. 

Martians racially remember the fall of the society of the Ancients & they instinctively have the social strata system in place. This allows assassins & swordsmen to move freely and along with adventurers are looked at with quiet distain by polite society.. Even while the citystates go to war there is still quite a bit of day to day society going on. And within the shadows of society the adventurers skulk and change the course of destiny of a civilization. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Mercs Rising - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet - Session Report Three

 This week's Warriors of the Red Planet/Hyperborea rpg campaign came into hard focus after picking up straight from this blog entry here.  The party of adventurers encountered the first of a party of assassins after they re equipped at the village of Great Old one worshipers. The assassins sent in a scout to lure the party into a trap with some dead sea barbarians waiting in the wings. These were 2nd level but the party's thief had a few tricks of her own. She and the party's other thief circled around them and dispatched them with extreme prejuidice. 

And they came face to face with the asssasins leader a barbaric red alien psionic. And it was a huge fight with the party of seven against eight red martian warriors and the alien leader. 
They lost one of thier PC's in the fight against the alien leader. They buried thier fallen panth & then looted the alien leader's body. 

They found a flier which is how the party was found in the first place. And the party took off. 
They found a camp of yet another bandit caravan with a ton of alien uplifted animal mercenaries getting ready for a raid on a nearby kingdom. 
The players were wondering where the Hell were the mercenaries getting all of this logistical support?!
The answer came from Buffalo Games Wilderness Encounters 'abandoned' wizard's tower. The tower belongs to a 'former' black circle' wizard who hasn't been seen in centuries. 

The party came up with the idea of using the harnesses and metals belonging to the assassin/raiders they killed before. Using this and some clever rolls the party got into the mercenaries camp and really got an idea of just how big this operation is. And their suspisions about the wizard's tower being the base of operations for the mercenaries proved to be true. 

The party wants to sabotage the mercenaries camp because of all of the heavy weapons & artifact weapon systems they found there. 
There's also talk about how the Black Circle faction of wizards is gaining in power and this also means an increase of Great Old One cults springing up! The party noticed two of these cults supplying the mercenaries with supplies and ammo. There was also the feeling that the mercenaries had some deeper connection to the cult through the wizard's tower. The party went along with the mercenaries for the moment using thier flyer to keep pace with other scout flyers. However they also grabbed extra ammo and bombs during thier stay with the mercs. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Bandit Turn Around - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet -Session Report Two

 This session report picks right on from where we left off here last time.
The interior of the palace was wall to wall vines & the party had the serpent men on thier behinds. They made thier way into the interior of the ruined palace keeping an eye on the lit doorway that they had come through. 

The players had gotten their copies of Warriors of the Red Planet from Big Geek Emporium over here. 
The interior of the ruined palace was a weed choked mess. The party got ambushed by a couple of poisoned serpents. The fighters made short work with some lucky rolls. And then the party wanted to see if they could find harnesses and equipment. 

What they found instead were bandits! 

They got another surprise on the ruined palace's interior as they came face to face with a party of bandits led by a psionic. 

Our party's own psionic didn't led on what he was and played dumb. The party found out that the bandits were working for the serpent men. 
They wanted to sell the party into slavery back to the serpent men for both slavery & sacrifice. Needless to say that didn't happen. The party freed themselves with knives hidden in belts. And throats were slit. 

The bandits are also part of the rogue assassin's guild and not a part of the network of 'honorable' asssassins. The party didn't leave a single bandit alive and took thier metal harnasses undecorating them as they went. 

The party took any monies that the bandits had and took thier mounts as well! Now the adventurers are still on the run from the serpent men & moving fast as they can back to civilization with the ruined palace as market for exploration later on. These serpentmen are mobile, humanoid, and highly dangerous. The majority of the nest that the PC's escaped from are 2nd level fighters led by a  seventh level Sorcerer of the Black Circle.
The party came across a village 20 miles away after a two day hard ride. They were expecting treachery & they got it. The village welcomed them but it turned out to be the bandit's base of operations. What happens now?! Tune in next week to find out! Alright so the village already felt off & going with the Lovecraftian theme I 'borrowed' the  Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters 100 pg Bonus book with the Lamia encounter. This time the village is actually the projeney of the lamia living outside of the village & using it as a base. The village are actually 'Great Old One' worshippers near the polar ice cap of Mars. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Seprent's Lair - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet -Session Report One

 So it looks like Night Owl Workshop has 'defected' to Big Geek Emporium along with a number of other vendors. How does this affect our Assassins War game?! It doesn't and instead our PC's woke up within the lair of a race of Serpent Men's cell. This all takes place within the polar swamps of Mars. The Ancient Worm's worship is still powerful here & the PC's are to be sacrificed as Phobos races across the sky at first light. 
These serpent men are the polar variation & have arms & legs. The PC's were paralyzed with light venom in their veins. The players bonded over thier escape and learnt first hand about the plot to stir the pot of the Assasin War on Old Mars. 
After Meka the red martian mind master got full control of one of the serpent warriors the party was able to escape into the swamps. 

And events went from bad to worse as the serpent men became aware of thier escape from their lair. then gave chase but the party had  a few hours start. The party were able to find some small amount of gear within the serpent men's lair. And for a few hours game time the party wandered the swamp encountering a giant serpent that was an agent of said serpent men. However they shot the serpent and found it's lair within an abandoned palace. They were able to find weapons, ammo, & 'new gear' within. Including an echanted sword belonging to an ancient Martian lord of order. 
Today is a day that I didn't have a lot of time to design or develop the serpent men's lair. So I fudged it a bit with Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters 100 pg Bonus. Here was a ready to go Serpent Men's lair with all of the trimmings ready to go! 

These serpentmen are mobile, humanoid, and highly dangerous. The majority of the nest that the PC's escaped from are 2nd level fighters with a seventh level Sorcerer of the Black Circle. What terrors does the abandoned palace hold? Tune in next time for more action. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet

 The Assassins War is about to heat up on 'Old Mars' as a copy of the infamous the Vulth' russ or its translated title 'the black tongue of knowledge'. One of the branches of the Jrosu'rau has a death contract to get it for one of the serpent men temples deep in the jungles of the Drooth swamp lands near the ice poles. 

The PC's have been contacted by one of the Morlock priests about the where abouts of the book. Old Earth transported thousands of Morlock & Eloi engineers, workers, etc to Mars to help with the underworks on the planet. The Morlocks have an underground nation with an above pleasure city where the colonists can blow off steam with the Eloi pleasure slaves. 
However the Morlocks use their Eloi as spies, and their eyes across 'Old Mars'. 
However the reappearance of the  the Vulth' russ may signal the end of one Martian cycle & the beginning of the reappearance of the 'children of the Old Ones'. The Morlocks fear this will upset the delicate balance of 'Old Mars'. 
And already hundreds of Eloi workers & pleasure slaves have gone missing. They fear that these events are related. And in the shadows of Mars guild assassins have started a Shadow War with  the Jrosu'rau. 

Ancient Ghosts & Demons - Hyperborea rpg & Zothique Campaign Commentary Update

 The moon declines in lonely gold
Among the stars of ashen-grey—
Veiling the pallors of decay
With clouds and glories, fold on fold.

Now, in a crystal interlude,
Stillness and twilight briefly rest,
Ere sudden gules illume the crest
Of peaks where solemn purples brood;

And from the low Favonian bourn
A sweet wind blows so lightly by
It seems the futile silver sigh
Breathed by the lingering moon forlorn.
At Sunrise  (1922) 
by Clark Ashton Smith

Slowly ever so slowly we've been making our way through the Hyperborea rpg third edition books & looking at it as possible expansion for our Old Solar System campaign. So poking around the AS&SH forums this thread popped up here. And it was the ghost hunter class that kinda grabbed our attention. 

We're convinced that Hyperborea third edition may be the way to go to deal with a full on Zothique rpg  campaign. And yes the Eldritch Dark site has the Zothique D20 guide here.  But the more Zothique that we've read the more it feels like the setting was a part of something greater. We know that Hyperborea third edition will work well with Night Owl Workshop's Warriors of the Red Planet rpg. 

And this brings up Swords and Super-Science of Xuhlan From Svartkonst which works particuarlly well with Warriors of the Red Planet giving even greater options for the DM to play with. Thoughts floating around are that PC's from one setting get employment in some of the others. And this might help relieve some of the food import problems that players have been having with the Hyperborea rpg at my table lately. Zothique is a pretty much open rpg setting and its one that will be exploited coming up. 
And do yourselves a favor & download Ben Balls Waif's of Hyperborea a one hundred and twenty five page kit for PCs Ben Ball continues to impress with some of the innovative tools he comes up with for this Sword & Sorcery retroclone. 

The ancient streets of Zothique are home to all kinds of adventurers who make a good living looting the tombs & dungeons of ancient sorcerers, countless kings, and putting down the horrid ghosts of the past of this dying world. But its only one of many.. 

Commentary On Mechanized Men of Mars By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop For the Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg & Other OSR Science Fantasy Rpg's

 'Helium is in peril! An army of mechanized men have assembled near Helium. The brave warriors of Helium have already faced off against them, but lost badly! '

 'It is said they are controlled by a mad man, a genius who is half-machine named K’Ral Diss. He seeks to enslave the red men of Barsoom, and then move on to conquer the rest of the planet.' 

Mechanized Men of Mars By Thomas Denmark is a 'pay what you want' adventure for the Warriors of the Red Planet rpg that's been on my radar for sometime. The adventure is both dungeon crawl & city run. And it concerns the kidnapping of a princess of Helium. Those familar with Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books already know this routine. The PC's are called into the Jaddack of Helium to save the princess from the mad scientist villain. And its a pretty open ended adventure. And yes, it can be used with other OSR Science Fantasy Rpg's. 
Since its only clocks in at thirty two pages Mechanized Men of Mars doesn't over stay its OSR welcome. And its very open ended so the DM can adapt it to their own campaign world's but it really belongs on Barsoom or a Barsoom type of world. 
So to challange my current players I've decided to make the princess a well rounded NPC unto herself and I'm doing this by using the OSR  space noble to help define her traits. 

Mars or Barsoom in Mechanized Men of Mars By Thomas Denmark is a violent, dangerous, and even a brooding when we find ourselves in the middle of on going civil upheavel. This period of Martain history is full of intrique, danger, and complex plots involving multiple Martian houses. Mechanized Men of Mars By Thomas Denmark does use this approach but could if the DM was so enclined. Mechanized Men of Mars isn't a complex adventure, but its one that requires a certain combination of players willing to get into the deep end of Martian danger, dungeon crawling, and Pulpy danger. 

I could easily see using Mechanized Men of Mars By Thomas Denmark  with Stars Without Number, or the White Star rpg. The fact is that its open endedness makes it particularly easy to adapt as the DM sees fit. 
Is there anything new here?!No, it uses the Pulp Science Fantasy conciets easily and quite readily. There's a feeling of confidence with Mechanized Men of Mars By Thomas Denmark because this adventure uses many of the usual tropes, Pulpy adventure elements, and familar adventure set pieces. This isn't a bad thing, because Mechanized Men of Mars By Thomas Denmark  is an adventure I could see using more then once. 

The Moorcock Sword Caper - A Cha'alt/White Star rpg Mash Up Pick Up Game - Session Report

 Today's snow storm put a real crimp in our usual game as two of our players had to do snow storm plowing today & so it was a pick up game. DM Greg couldn't make it for 'A White Ship Has Come' his AS&SH game. So it was a very fast pick up game within a two hour period to write & throw together. Fortunately our notes from our last two Stormbringer/OSR hybrid games were within easy reach. The player's PC's are down & out adventurers in a dead end Cha'alt cantina. Their scale ship is busted up pretty badly & in need of repair work.  Fortunely this gave us an opportunity to move the time scale of Cha'alt up to the  Fuschia Malaise timeline. Using the Cha'alt/White Star rules to generate PC's gave them an interesting OSR  back take. The lovely Cha'alt hard cover &  Fuschia Malaise books had their three ring counterparts at the table top. No way was these lovely hard backs going to get the soda treatment that other books have. These below were used for generating the mini adventure campaign. We've got a DM Steve' star knight his bromling companion played by DM Steve's wife, Jack's Alien Brute with Cha'alt mutations from standing too close to a desert toxic waste dump ( don't ask), his wife Tracy's gun slinger Tata 4' Days, Henry's Cleric of the Varta Walter N' Four (a clone of the other three Walters), Robert the Elf played by Robert, Kenny the Combat Medic ( their gonna need him), Vern Von Dwarvenhovn ( Dwarf mecha pilot & combat engineer), & finally Tracy their A.I. star pilot. Yeah, yeah, I'm upping the timeline because of Venger Satanis's new Kickstarter as well. 

The adventure picks up with the PC's accepting a mission to recover a very dangerous sword of chaos from a temple in the desert north of A'agrybah. And here's where things started to go South right away. One of the players made an off handed remark about Cha'alt being a knock off of Dark Sun & Barsoom. That was rather not a good idea because I had a mixed bag of NPC's from Warriors of the Red Planet & our back roster of Ruins of Arduin NPC's especially a group of rather blood thirsty Deodanth bounty hunters. 

The PC's got the job from a rather unsavory Choam representive(clown demon in disguise). It was to recover the chaos sword Blue Swallow. Blue Swallow's personality & powers were generated using the D20 Dragon Lords of Melibone  magic item rules. 

Blue Swallow the Chaos sword has a historythat  goes back to the  Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence. The sword became sentient on the shores of the island. The PC who wielded it was cut down & it was brought to Cha'alt by another. Then it was dropped in a temple of the 'Old Ones'. Now the lords of Chaos want it back for strange reasons. 

The PC's managed to get to the temple on a rented sand skimmer & then it was a total surprise running into the NPC El Kazeem The Terrible. El Kazeem is a 12th level wizard dedicated to the gods of Chaos. He's absolutely one of the most corrupt wizards that the players have run into. He goes back to 2013 when using the rules from the  Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha. El Kazeem was created as a force of terror for the players. 

It was he who hired the party to lure them into the desert for a sacrifice to the demon worms of the desert. The game became a running series of combat scenes for part of the afternoon. More tomorrow as this continues. 

The Free OSR Adventure Resource - Tales from the Laughing Dragon: A Dragonclaw Adventure As Adventure Fodder For Your Old School Science Fiction Campaign

 So with OD&D being the basis for several games out there surely there isn't a free low level adventure that could be used introduce your old school space scum to some back water planet?  Well there actually is a very well done one for the Basic Fantasy Rpg and its free.

   A desperate bit to save a kingdom upon a remote colony world in a backwater providence as the forces of evil threaten the planet. Only a brand of brave outer world adventurers can save us all. Are you those brave souls? Sound like the latest in the Star Wars saga or Battle Star Galactica? Or perhaps an old pulp sci fi novel? Nope. Instead its simply an old twist and trick that any DM has done in the past. Take an existing fantasy adventure and add in your favorite science fantasy crew. In this case the easily ported, DC1 Tales From The Laughing Dragon. There are several reasons why this works, one this is a low level series of adventures and have the same feel as a space opera, the events place the PC's into the deep end of Dragon Claw system errm barony. And their  presented as three sequential adventures set in the back end of the campaign enabling the DM to fill in the science fantasy issues as needed. 

Grab It For Free Right Over 

HERE 

The humanoid races become alien races, there are number of giant monsters that don't need to be explained this after all an alien planet. Add in a star port near the town of Dale minimal facilities and well your pretty much ready to go.  The ruins stay as is and simply need to be fleshed out with a few more exotic failed colony bits and your pretty much ready to go.

The goblins and orc forces are a very easy fit for this adventure and can easily be ported over with little to no problems. Everything in the adventure can easily be ported over to a slightly better then average primitive backwater planet. All three of these adventures start in a cantina ermm bar. Yet these are not hack & slash adventures some thinking is required on the part of the adventurers. Hence why your psychic warriors and space knight types might be required. Sure there's plenty of action but some serious thought is going to have to be put in.

Add in some space teddy bear rangers, and your ready to go! But don't forget the giant spiders as well. There's a secondary & possibly much better OSR option in the form of Jason Vey's Free OD&D Star Wars Supplement. Here's where the rubber hits the X wings! All of usual Star Wars suspects are here & its cross compatible with everything already within this blog post! 

With the Mandolorian hitting hard on the nostalgia buttons its not hard to see where & when this style of high space adventure could hit an OSR campaign note! All of this campaign formula is completely compatible with Warriors of the Red Planet or Dungeons & Dragons Warriors of Mars


Boil all of this in hot simmering pot of White Star & your ready to go with only players needed to be added into the kitchen soup of a mix. Giving the DM a complete run of everything they need for OSR interstellar adventure! 

All images are from the Ewok Adventure franchise and used for reference no trade mark or copyright infringement is intended. This blog post is for entertainment purposes only and the Basic Fantasy Rpg the copyright and trademark of its owners. This blog post is for entertainment purposes only. Happy gaming folks!

Classic Dungeons & Dragons Edition Sword & Planet - Post Apocalyptic Mars & Beyond Campaign Start

The classic TSR era has some incredible modules & its these modules adaptability that makes them such classics. If Tom Moldvay's 'B1 The Lost City' was set on Mars or another science fantasy  planetary campaign.   'B1 The Lost City' could used as the basis for an entire Sword & Planet  campaign beginning. The PC's awaken from a desert  caravan in the middle of an alien desert with no memory of how they got there. Adventure events heat up as B4 usual encounters kick in. This gives the PC's an experience path for levels one to three right outta of the gate. But this is only the beginning of a Sword & Planet OD&D or B/X path. 

You know there are times when I really should be checking out the Mutant Future Wiki & their entry on Warriors of the Red Planet rpg. Tonight I was listening to the Old Man Grognard podcast about the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg. 
Now back in the past I've written about using these two sources together in the past. This is kinda of a bit different. 

I'm really thinking of returning to a post apocalyptic Mars but one set within a vastly different universe. This is one of those periods where its the reading & research phase of a campaign setting. Now I've been talking about this Cha'alt/Carcosa hybrid campaign. But the PC's are going to need to cut their teeth someplace before I set them down within the back end of nowhere squared with the star spawn of  Cthulhu breathing down their necks. So why Warriors of the Red Planet? The Mutant Future wiki breakdown has the following; "The rules used an Night Owl Workshop products are similar to the popular Swords & Wizardly rule-set, in that it is based on a more streamlined version of the original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons rules, AKA "OD&D", with a number of modern improvements like listing Armor Class with both "assenting" and "Descending" scores and using a "BAB"-like To-Hit Bonus (THB) instead of large THAC0-based to-hit roll charts.

The game presents a new attribute called Social Standings, which represents reputation, social-status and cultural relevance. Unfortunately, there is a lack of information on how it effects game-play.

Saving throws are listed as: Explosions, Mentalism, Energy, Poison, Falls and General.

There are five Races:

• The Ancients represent the type of once dominant, but now near-extinct race found in many classic pulp sci-fi, like the Lotharians from Barsoom or the Martians from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. They are represent as being mentally stronger, but physically weaker to most humans. In MF, they could be humans form before the great war or cataclysm.
• The Elevated represent "uplifted" animals and plants, or animal-/plant-like alien creatures with human or near-human intelligence. The Coeurl is a prime example of the latter. In MF, they are basically Mutant Animals and Plants.
• Exotics represent more unusual types of humanoid aliens, like the green-skin Thark and Warloon tribes on Barsoom. In MF, they are basically Mutant Humans.
• Humans represent common human and human-like people, even if they are not earth humans, like the red-skin people on Barsoom, who look human, but live a long lifespan and are oviparous (lays eggs). In MF, they are Pure Humans.
• Unliving represent people created through artificial means, like Frankenstein's creation and the Synthetic Men from Barsoom. They are noted for having a distorted would view that can make them troublesome or unhinged. In MF, they are Androids.

There are four Classes:

• The Fighting-man is your standard warrior type, found in nearly all fiction.
• The Scoundrel is your rogue, thief, swashbuckler and scruffy-looking nerf-hearder.
• The Mentalist possesses psychic abilities.
• The Scientist is your classic "Mad Scientist" type.

Scientists are able to "invent" gadgets, who's effects are similar to D&D spells, with daily limits based on having to keep them powered or maintained. Than is, an irradium torch works like a D&D light spell, but gives off a green hue and can maintain power for one hour per level of inventor. (Or for 10gp, you can buy an irradium lantern from the Basic Gear list that shines brighter and lasts longer.) Mental powers also work like D&D spells.

Mentalists, Scientists and Sorcerers are good if one wants to play Mutant Future with the Mutants & Mazes conversion rules.

The book contains a large list of monsters and people to fight, as well as a great ideas on campaign and adventure design." 

I'm thinking of reviving the Clark Ashton Smith Solar System campaign that my players were in about two years ago. At its heart there was a nasty Atomic War that the humans were responsible for! This world was a post Fifties or Sixties alternative Earth with advanced technologies that had bombed itself back to the Stone Age. 

This campaign was a sort of cross between 'Thundarr The Barbarian' & Hanna Barbera 'The Herculoids' meets the video game Fallout in a dark alley. Here's the Hanna Berbera 'Herculoids' free AD&D files. 

The real problem with this campaign is the fact that the players wanted to concentrate on Mars especially after downloading B/X Mars by Michael Gibbons. 

Add in Grey Elf (Jason Vey)'s reformat of Warriors of Mars - Barsoom by "Doc" along with Jason's Conan Original Dungeons & Dragons Conan supplements & you've got literal Conan on Mars; 

The Age of Conan, a "hack" for using OD&D in the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard. Note: Includes the entirety of Forbidden Lore, below. Age of Conan II: Secrets of Acheron, a sourcebook for sorcerers and sorcery in the Hyborian Age. Age of Conan III: Secrets of the Black Circle, a further sourcebook for Hyborian Age campaigns 4-panel DM Screen for the Age of Conan Not only does this whole cloth original Dungeons & Dragons or B/X Dungeons & Dragons material give the players a real & legit Mars campaign but the tool kit to bring everything into focus for may years to come with a solid Sword & Sorcery base.  Using the Grey Elf free resources the DM can literally take the 'wizards  of the black circle' from Warriors of the Red Planet & entirely flesh them out from the ground up! I can already here much gnashing & tearing of garments! Why haven't you mentioned the  Planet Algol blog?! Because I consider much of the Algol stuff advanced in concept. This is a set up from levels 1-3 & a campaign foundation.  Clyde Caldwell's 'Virgin Planet' hits this campaign's high notes. Used without permission. But its a great piece of Caldwell artwork.