A 70's Sci fi Inspired Beta Max Black Stars Without Number Revised & Red Room's Decaying Orbit Campaign Notes - Matters of Magick & Loathsome Horrors

 We're just getting back from grocery shopping and at the grocery store I ran into one of my players of our regular games. And she and her husband wanted to know how the Stars Without Number/Decaying Orbit game campaign  was going. 

Anyone whose been paying  attention to this blog knows that when your 'the forever DM' there are only so many hours in the day. 
And the last time we talked we were bringing back the post apocalytic Mars campaign.
What I didn't realize was the fact that Night Owl Workshop has created “Beasties Loathsome Horrors,”.
And I wasn't even aware that this monster book even  was out! 
And “Beasties Loathsome Horrors,” fits  the Stars Without Number/Decaying Orbit vibe so damn well! 
Horrors, weird creatures, etc could easily be found in the Beyond or on a post apocalyptic Mars.What does it mean though?! 
For those who have Warriors of the Red Planet this book gives new teeth to the wizards of the Black Gate some brand new teeth. 

And for the Stars Without Number rpg crowd it means that we have a huge number of horrors that can be added into the mix for  The Codex of the Black Sun: Sorcery for Stars Without Number's wizards and magic wielders even more options or problems. For a post apocalpytic Mars game this really does turn the tied a bit. The NPC races and wizards now have even more horrors to add to the PC's fortunes or is it misfortunes?! 
There are certain nation states  of Mars who supposedly practiced the blackest of magicks. And this lines up right with some of what Clark Ashton Smith wrote in his Mars cycle. It also lines up with some of what the PC's have been doing in Aviladad. 

Empire of the Petal Throne rpg & Metamorphosis Alpha rpg - Slow Boat Generational Ships

 When the Human Empires collapsed unto the micro planes and was cut off from the rest of  TEKUMEL along with the rest of its universe. There were literally thousands of star ships in hyperspace along with  worlds cut off from the Human Empires. 

This basically means that both Gamma World first edition or Metamorphis Alpha 1st edition  rpg might be places where the planar gateways were cut off all together. There's going to be a lot of finger pointing & that being said there's any number of worlds were the EMP's oganization & infrastructure have failed. This leaves the locals to deal with the incredible logistical nightmare. So what happens to the spaceways during the shut down during the dawn of the disappearanc of the Human Empire?! World after world is cut off & the local governers are going to handle the local food ritions,the shutting down of local hyperspace gates, etc. 
And once again this puts me in mind of Warriors of the Red Planet & Brett Slocum's 'Warriors of the Lost Planet' rpg supplement a pay what you want title. 

Personally I've wondered about the grand Human Star Empire generation ships. The slow boats between colonies & planets  of the Human Empire. Fortunely Kevin Crawford back in 2015 did a set of Beta rules for Swords of the Petal Throne available here. These rules are cross compatible with Revised Stars Without Numbers rpg. Which means that they should in theory be usable with original Metamophis Alpha Rpg rules. And its this very fact that makes things interesting. Why?! Because of the fact that the Goodman Games Metamorphis Alpha material can be pulled from. 
This means that MA resources such as the MA first edition rules & tables could in theory be used for generating some of those Petal Throne generational space craft. Space craft that have been lost to the microplanes of hyperspace. 

Several of the adventures of the Goodman Games from James Ward's Metamorphosis Alpha: Warden Adventures could be used as stand in adventure  for a Human Empire generation ship. 

OSR Commentary - Actually DMing A Cha'alt Campaign

 

Now the Carocsa & the 'Cha'alt 'After Dark' blog posts generated some controversy on my table top with folks talking about how both settings are extremely dangerous to PC's. They actually very much are! Would I run either Science Fantasy setting as is?! Oh Hell no! In point of fact if I was going to run Cha'alt ( I will coming up but its a scheduling issue at the moment folks) then I would actually start with Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise. Why?! Because Cha'alt needs to be your OSR setting & not Venger Satanis's! Yup, I absolutely said that & Venger will agree with me here. You need to customize your OSR settings & make them your own. 

How?! Add or subtract what you want in the setting. This is one of the absolute strengths of Carocsa as a sand box setting. You have no idea what's around the corner as a player. Want to run Carcosa as 'Masters of the Universe then go for it. Next time as a primitive Lovecraftian horror fest. Sure, why not?! 
Cha'alt is very different in some respects & that's because its 'Brand Venger' setting & universe to some extent. And I believe it was Rpg Pundit who said, 'A little Venger goes a long way.' And while this is true don't let it intimidate you as a player or DM. The thing about it is that Cha'alt needs to be used and the players are going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for the setting through play. And this goes back to something else that needs to be said. Run the setting with whatever OSR rules system you want or the players want. Personally for this combo I'd pick Warriors of the Red Planet rpg & bring a healthy brew of Swords and Super-Science of Xuhlan to boil. These two together could help really make either OSR Sword & Saucer setting shine. 

If you want this campaign setting to actually work? Then Jason Vey's Age of Conan OD&D hack could smooth out the edges of the campaign. Don't write a damn script. Some simple adventure notes, some ideas, a few encounters, & set the game in the city of A'agrybah, let things go from there! 

1. Let adventure & campaign elements be completely alien and let the players find their own level of play. 
2. Add or subtract adventure elements as needed. 
3. Don't go overboard with OSR books let the hexcrawl work its magic especially with Carcosa. 
4. Its OK sometimes to have 2 dimensional NPC's just go with it. 
5. Sorcerers can be incredibly alien NPC & can be very dangerous let the players find this out. 
6. Run what you want with Cha'alt don't be constrained by the opinions of any author or game designer. 
7. Have fun! None of this is supposed to be super serious business let the play happen. 
8. Carcosa is very dangerous and death is frequent warn players to have back up PC's. 
9. House rule the crap outta of your campaign the way you want. 
10. Its only a game.