The Weta-rex Swarm Adapted From King Kong ( 2006) For Cepheus Atom & Those Old School 2d6 Science Fantasy Role Playing Campaigns

 Deinacrida rex or Weta-rex, are a major mutated specialist predator & scavenger of the highest order. These prehistoric like highly specially evolved crickets are capable of ripping off limbs & major appendages of animals & men easily. The over evolved crickets grow to over meter long with large meat slicing jaws & operate in large pack tactic using swarms. These swarms use clicking,scent trails, and pack tactics to take down even small dinosaurs or even the odd Kaiju. Even armed parties of men are little issue for the weta-rex swarms. 

Weta-Rex are the terror of many a ship wrecked or starship crewmen. These pests travel on oversized kaiju & have hitched rides across the cosmos. The serpent men also used these highly dangerous predators to protect their temple fortresses for ages. 
Weta rex usually prefer damp & wet environs to lay their eggs which hatch within 1d6 days. The Weta Rex is able to after two hours of drying it's carpace go on the hunt & will be attracted to it's own individual swarm. Swarms of weta rex can & do easily evolve to their indevidual evironments. These horrors have been found on desert planets, exo Earths, and even the occassional abandoned starship's hold. 

Weta rex are considered vermin by ninety percent of alien races. Big Ass Reptiles are the exception and often feed on these horrors eating entire swarms in one sitting. 
Weta rex are excellent hunters & operate with both dark vision & highly sensitive anntenna in total darkness easily. Swarms often send out scouts to hunt down potential prey targets. These scouts sent out scent trails & are able to summon the swarm with a series of high pitched clicks in code. The swarm will arrive within 1d6 turns easily overcoming targets many times their size. 

Weta-rex shade carpaces every 30 days or so depending upon prey availabilty. If prey is unavailable the swarm may turn on it's weakest members. And this process will continue until only a fertilized female remains. She will lay eggs for the next swarm which will hatch within 1d6 months or if in a desert enviroment may be 2d6 years.Swarms of Weta-rex often hitch rides on kaiju to find new hunting grounds. They often entire hiberation cycles when finding new hunting ground. 
Weta rex are most dangerous when they come out of a hibernation cycle. The swarm will seek out any fresh meta or prey after emerging from such a cycle under cover of darkness. Weta-rex will then go on a feeding frenzy overwhelming prey and stripping anyone they come across down to the bone. 

'The Weta-rex Swarm

#appearing 3d6

5/10, Move 13m, Armor 2, Claw (melee 1d damage) Bite (melee 2D damage), , Survival 1,  Combat 3, Melee 2 . Dark Vision, Pack Tactics, Nasty Bite the monster gains +1 on bite damage, Summon Swarm - Can summon the Swarm in 1d6 rounds if they find prey, Hiberation Cycle, Voracious Hunger - Weta-Rex become incredibly hungry & must stop to eat any prey+2 to all damage. Drawbacks -Hunger Over Survival-  Weta-Rex are not smart at all and can be lured into situations to be killed by promises of fresh prey & meat. 

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. 

Adapting I7 Baltron's Beacon by Philip Meyers For Swords & Wizardry & The White Star Rpg

""A strangely delivered advertisement has led you to a sage named Demetrios. He needs a rare component to complete a desperately needed potion. The journey to retrieve it will take you through a large, unexplored swamp to a ruined keep, the former headquarters of a vile cult that once claimed the lives of many innocent youths."

"You cautiously accept the mission. But who knows what monsters lurk in the vast marsh? Are the old ruins occupied, perhaps by things even more dangerous than the previous residents? Beware, for the eerie green light shining upward from the central tower, the beacon that guides your way, may attract others as well. To succeed, you must penetrate the keep and find a unique Black Flame worshipped by the old cult. Could those evil ones be lurking about still? You will know soon..."
So I7 Baltron's Beacon by Philip Meyers came out in '85 or so, but we didn't get a hold of it until '86 or so. I7 is one of those modules that could be set anywhere but most often it either happens to be situatated in Mystara or Greyhawk. For us Batlron Beacon was situated & set within Greyhawk. 
That being said a few years ago we set Baltron's Beacon within an isolated & backwater world for the White Star Rpg. We kept Baltron being from Greyhawk with his history from the Greyhawk wiki's entry on I7 here; "Baltron (Baltronus Zemnus of Linth^[2])- a 16th level magic user, who inhabited the keep a year before the module starts, and was destroyed in an attempt to summon the spirit of the swamp,Nakimas. This created the beacon^(p.2). Dragon Magazine #304 states that Baltron first entered the keep 20 years ago (about 571CY) and was seeking the lost magic of the Suel House of Malhel in the Dreadwood^[2](p.90), while Living Greyhawk Journal #01 states that Baltron was banished only a few years prior to 591cy" We changed up the history of Nakimas to being a spirit of the Void & the keep being an old Void Knight fortress. I7 is a mid tier module and doublely so for a Swords & Wizardry or White Star party. This is because everything within I7 was expanded; "The keep and it's history was expanded further into Greyhawk lore in Dragon Magazine #304, Places of Mystery, 'The Hool Beacon'

I7 needs to take place directly after the events of  I2: Tomb of the Lizard King. The reason for this is the fact that I7 Baltron's Beacon by Philip Meyers is a classic Wilderness adventure. Everything about I7 centers around the whole of the Wilderness as foe & NPC. When we used this classic module for White Star we also had a gateway leading back to Greyhawk. This enabled the PC's to have a real connection with the events of the module. And also a perfect excuse if we want to transport the PC's over to Greyhawk. Once again we see the classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition tourament style rear it's head within I7. This can be used by the DM looking to exploit the black flame & it's connections to Demetrios- quest giver and eccentric sage. We kept certain aspects of Nakimas when using the spirit with White Star;"Nakimas^(p.6,21)- a spirit of the marsh, which Baltron believed was not an individual, but the composite lifeforce of the swamp. Dragon Magazine #304 states that Nakimas (Suel), or Bwimb (Oeridian), is a Mud Lord from the Paraelemental Plane of Ooze" The paraelemental planes have connections to the void because of their connection to elemental destruction and return to natural entropy. This ties directly back into DYS Games Between Star & Void within it's philosphy of the Star Knights & the Void Knights. With the Seekers party of adventurers becoming a possible rival party of adventurers after the events of I7. 

The cult of the black flame became a real thorn in the sides of our White Star party because they could & would crop up anyplace on any colony world or even on Greyhawk multiple times.

The OSR Legacy Of S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth By Gary Gygax & The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (1976)

 There are the rare of the absolute rare of the collectables & tonight I came across Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (1976) – The Original Edition of AD&D Module S4 on Wayne's Books blog. This is the original tourament module from WinterCon V, a gaming convention sponsored by the Metro Detroit Gamers (MDG) in 1976. According to the S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth By Gary Gygax wiki entry there are balantantly obvious differences between the '76 convention module & the expanded version. 

The original convention module took full advantage of the tourament style of the convention presentation. According to the wiki entry's publication history the '76 version was critical in the formation the Greyhawk campaign as we know it today; "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is a revised and expanded version of The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth, a tournament adventure that Gygax wrote for WinterCon V, a gaming convention sponsored by the Metro Detroit Gamers (MDG) in 1976.^[4] It is based in part on one of Rob Kuntz's dungeon levels, as Kuntz helped Gygax revise the tournament version.^[5] This original version consisted of eight loose sheets, an outer folder, and a zip-locked bag; only several hundred copies were printed.^[4] In the May 1980 issue of Dragon, Gygax said "Rob Kuntz has the reworked Lost Caverns module which must be finalized" and that "We want to get it into print as soon as possible."^[6] Lawrence Schick later suggested that "there's evidence that Gary considered Tsojcanth part of a longer Greyhawk campaign, placing the adventure between T1–T4 The Temple of Elemental Evil and WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. (By this reckoning, The Village of Hommlet, The Temple of Elemental Evil, and Tsojcanth are thus the "lost" WG1 through WG3 modules.) So, Tsojcanth was published in the S series because it got completed out of order, but was too good to delay." The interesting part of this is how deeply the Pulp genre is embedded within the DNA of both the tourament & the revised module of S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth By Gary Gygax. The expanded version has been a part of so many gamers lives. 

Wht makes S4 so memoriable is the way the Wilderness is as much of an NPC unto itself as the rest of the adventure plot. We can see this within the adventure plot & the way the Pulpy Sword & Sorcery wilderness play with the PC's; "The introduction, with instructions that the Dungeon Master read it aloud to the players, outlines that there is a treasure in the Yatil Mountains south of the Greyhawk realm of Perrenland. The player characters must investigate rumors of a lost treasure that scores of adventurers have perished attempting to find.^[2] The treasure is a remnant of the wealth amassed by the archmage Iggwilv,^[2] former ruler of Perrenland, prior to her presumed death at the hands of the demon Graz'zt, whom she had "imprisoned and forced into servitude."^[3]: 2 The players must first traverse a wilderness area with 20 numbered encounters before arriving at the caverns. The encounters have names such as "Border Patrol" (encounter 1) and "Hill Giants" (encounter 10). After the wilderness are two lettered encounters: the "Gnome Vale", which includes a map for their lair, and "The Craggy Dells", where humans and orcs are capturing hippogriffs to sell."  Here the adventure plot & thencounters fit together like an action adventure film to move the PC's from one deadly encounter to another. And S4 is so very much wrapped up with Gygax's "official" version of Greyhawk especially some of the major NPC's ; "Next, the player characters reach the caverns. They consist of the "Lesser Caverns" with 22 encounters, and the "Greater Caverns" with 20 encounters, each with its own map. The lesser caverns include encounters such as "Stinking Cave" (encounter 5) which contains four trolls and "Underground Lake" (encounter 14). The greater caverns include encounters such as "Uneven-Floored Cavern" (encounter 5) where the player characters face an umber hulk and "Canyon of Centaurs" (encounter 9). The 20th and final encounter is titled "The Inner Sphere". Here, a "woman sleeps on an alabaster slab." She is "armored from toe to neck in gold chased plate mail."^[3]: 29 The woman is actually Drelnza, a fighter/vampire and the daughter of Iggwilv. After defeating Drelnza, the players are rewarded with treasure, and the adventure ends." 
Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (1976) reveals several rather obvious & interesting things about this classic module: 

1. The revisions of the Lost Caverns 1976 were to put the original manuscript into the classic module status.
2. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition's tourament style of play was going to be the way forward. Consumer tastes & marketing trends changed the direction of the Grand Game. 
3. S4 had so much in common with the Pulp literature that inspired it. 
4. Even though this convention module was so rough & ready it looks like a Hell of a lot of deadly fun. 
5. There a lot coolness about the convention manuscript map! This thing reeks of old school AD&D to me. 
6. '76 version of Tsojconth just looks absolutely deadly. 
7. Encounters within Tsojconth don't look balanced at all! 
8. Looking over the maps  bring extra characters for this one! 
9. The Gygax classic looks to be the superior product but the original looks like a blast. 
10. This Con 76 version of the classic module is such a part of gaming history.

Old Mars Campaign Setting , The White Star Rpg, & The Cities Without Number Kickstarter

 Over the years there was a ton of writing that I've done on our Old Mars campaign. And actually quite a few notebooks filled with crossover points with various Public Domain Pulp writers & other resources. Echohawk (fuck you buddy & your thieving blog) decided to take my session reports, random tables, ecologies, campaign notes, & whatnot then convert everything over to the Numenera rpg ?!  WTH? While I don't have a problem with Numenera per say. 

The Numenera rpg doesn't fit the Sword & Planet or more appropriately the Sword & Sorcery asthetic of the 'Old Mars' campaign. So we were using a three part OSR  combination Warrriors of the Red Planet, AS&SH (now the Hyperborea rpg), & the White Star Rpg. We'd switch out to Stars Without Numbers rpg later on or a combination of the two Rpg's as we needed. Magic Pig Media gave us the Space Amazons the precursor race to our Hyperborea rpg Amazon tribes. I've been friends with Charles Thorin for years. 

The Amazons were a major source of contenion among our player's PC's. As the two Amazon PC we had in our party were often having to act as go between between NPC's & the Sisters of the Aquarian Order.
Mars was a major hotspot for Lovecraftian horrors and the point where the Order had gotten into heated battles with serpent men. The serpent men tribes felt that they were the rightful inheritors of our campaign's Mars. 
And these pitched battles became an issue when the PC's ran across thousands of red Martian warriors that had been entombed in the unworld thousands of years ago. This campaign plot point comes from Edgar Rice Burroughs Llana of Gathol. 
The  Sisters of the Aquarian Order found the warriors in statis & took over the monestary where the warriors were stored in the tunnels beneath.
This became a major plot point when hordes of Green Martians took over their old haunts. As they had returned from space to their "homeland' after serving in the Stellar Legions for over a thousand years as per their compact with the Galactic empire. 
This isn't Mars ala ERB's Barsoom ( copyrighted & trademarked to the Edgar Rice Burroughs inc. estate) nope this a Mars out around the Tau Ceti system. This Mars had originally been settled by the Serpent People who used one of their 'collapsing wormhole gate systems' to colonize it. This Mars is dying because the air & atmosphere processing stations & systems are breaking down after thousands of years. The Atlantians had found the gateways & transported their genemodified 'red martians' to the Tau Ceti system. Then they brought in their Green Martian warriors and with the destruction of Atlantis. The Green Martians revolted & overran the whole of Old Mars. 
Flash forward a 100,000 years & Old Earth gets buggered. The Hyperboreans begin migrating to Hyperborea bringing their own slave races with them. The Green Plague takes them out. The Lovecraftian races been resettling Old Mars from Hyperborea. 
The Terrans & the Earthmen discover the wormhole gateways then begin mass migrating as refugees trying to escape the 'bugs'. They bring with them both 'dark magick' & Sorcery as the gods of Mars begin to return after the death of the Martian goddess Issus. 
This ushers in the 'infinite Mars' where the old gateways of probability & time begin to reappear across Mars. The Terrans & the Earthmen from these gateways are dimensional pirates. They sport strange alien cybernetics & speak differently. These are the raiders from Kevin Crawford's Cities Without Number Kickstarter. Which I backed! The cybernetic raiders from one universe are ready to take on the colonists of another while a greater threat looms in the background. 

Ghosts From The Abyss - Hostile Rpg Session Report

 Abyss is one of those worlds that cries out for far more attention from our group of players. So tonight I got the guys involved in a bit of pirate action. A minor mining concern had the Blackguard doing a bit of guard duty out on the deep mining activity they were performing. 

The Blackguard were not expecting much action. What they got was piracy of the highest order as a rival pirate gang's sub pulled up to a spot about ten miles away. The group's hacker if you'll recall is on the mend after taking a shot gun blast to the chest in body armor. She's had cybernetic replacement surgery last game. 
The submarine war on Abyss has been heating up. And now the minor clans are getting beaten down by the larger corporations. Big fish eating little fish as it was. 

That changed tonight as the group came face to face with a number of divers on underwater sleds armed with spear guns and mini subs. 
The party wasn't expecting to meet this kinda of force and when underwater drones were deployed things got even hairier. The party took some blows but they were able to eltricify the hulls of one of the rigs to shock their invaders. 
Underwater drones came straight outta DC-1 DarkTek from the Dark Conspiracy rpg. The book has been with me since the 90's. The serious retro technological vibe of Dark Tek easily fits Hostile in spades. 
Was the party expecting the drones no. Were they preparred Hell no! 

The wildlife of Abyss is another factor as the party dispurted some really nasty alien dinosaurs that ruined both the party's day & the pirates. We ended here tonight where the pirates & the party are having to contend with the local wild life

Review & Commentary On EPIC! By Silvia Clemente For Wretched Space & The Cha'alt Rpg - Bonus 1d20 Space Brothel Finds Table For Your Old School Games

 "EPIC! is Silvia Clemente 's entry to Darrick Dishaw's Cha'alt Game Jam:

"In the Adityan homeworld, The Cronos, an ancient power source, has awakened and disrupted from its slumber by events taking place far away on the remote desert planet Cha'alt. The Cronos will drag its Adityan Guards all the way across the galaxy and into the path of a group of scoundrels forcefully recruited to police the ass of the Galaxy - also known as the Outer Rim - as part of the Wretched Legion. Neither Adityans nor Legionaries are interested or prepared to save the Galaxy. First and foremost, they must survive the threats and treachery of Theta Blue, the most infamous space station in the system.

" This Wretched Space scenario was written for the Cha'alt Game Jam and it is the first episode for Wretched Cha'alt, a series of adventures mixing the two universes. EPIC! is inspired by Alpha Blue, and takes place mainly in Theta Blue, a wretched knock-off of the famous space brothel."
So Epic is a  Silvia Clemente adventure & her introduction to the Cha'alt universe. And it has all of the hallmarks of one of the Red Room's supplements or adventures. Tough as nails editing & content. Solid presentation and an attention to plot details. There are some twists & turns that can easily be added into an ongoing  Chartreuse Shadows game easily.  Silvia Clemente once again shows her hand at adventure design defly handling Cha'alt with her own spin on the Wretched Legion, and the factions that crop up in Epic. Epic clocks in at a hundred pages of intergalactic sleaze. Man this out Venger's Venger in places. 

EPIC! brings several things to the table top an adventure with that wretchverse interstellar action & the traditional Satanis weirdness that we've come to expect out  the Red Room. Are the encounters balanced?! Nope, EPIC! offers no safe harbor for PCs in this universe of sleaze. Instead we get factions at each other's throats capable of ripping apart your PC's. The quality is there in EPIC! & for an experienced group of Cha'alt or Wretchedverse adventurers this would be an excellent mid level adventure. 

Random 1d20 Space Brothel
Finds Table For Your School Games 

1. Tweleve weird stockings, made of multi nylonlike materials for a tentacled appendaged alien. Actually offers 1/2 damage protection because of space age materials. 
2. A strange appliance like device of smooth weird design, this is actually a stunner capable of knocking down a full bull ronator for 1d6 point of stunning damage at a range of 29 meters
3. Random boots, clothing, and other sundries including 40 credits worth of change. The whole outfit is actually the remains of someone whose now powdered after being level drained completely & utterly. 
4. Two tickets to the robo & mech battle arena unused. 
5. A fine slick slime on the floor, this stuff is actually Intergalactic Slick & Smooth able to cause -3 to all Dexterity checks. The stuff will flow into any open container that is presented. Is it alive?! Who knows. 
6. Cool looking  blaster belt & holster but where's the owner?! 
7. Holographic photo actually telepathic pornography capable of becoming a mematic plague if shown to another telepathic sentience -3 to all Wisdom checks until healed with a 'Remove Curse' ritual 
8. Intergalatic ticket to the Blue Haze brothel, this ticket will interdimensionally teleport the first sentient handling the document to said brothel. 
9. Red Lighter with the words 'Blaze' on the side. This lighter actually houses a fire elemental within who will serve it's  owner for 1d6 days and then disappear in a blaze of elemental power. 
10. Strange gloves of inhuman design that actually don't fit any known humanoid or alien design. These aren't actually gloves but instead they are the arms of an unknown alien from The Beyond. 
11. Here's a lump of some unknown purple flesh that will try to eat any human or humanoid species that it comes across. The thing will begin to grow into a larger 1d6 meter purple blob after every meal. 
12. A twelve meter plastoid disk that actually acts as a sonic attack against any humanoid that hears it. The disk will spin in the air and begin wailing heavily & damage ear organs for 1d4 points of damage. 
13. A strange looking metallic plug like device with a crystal on one end. This is actually an alien language translator that will translate any language the owner hears. 
14. Random alien clothing that will attack & try to eat the finder. Counts as a blob like monster
15. 1d6 random vials of liquid that are scattered around these are actually potions of agony & pleasure. But for alien metabolisms there is a 20% chance of a character exploding after drinking these. Save vs wands or potions to avoid. 
16. Staff of orge summoning that will call 1d6 sex starved orges. 1d3 charges left when found. 
17. Body sized condom filled with weird fluids tied shut. 
18. Pleasure bot damaged & begging for repair work. Worth 20oo credits if fixed and with a reward of an additional 1000 credits if returned to the rightful owner. 
19. Alien wallet belonging to a Federation senator that contains top secret clearance codes. 
20. Node containing a space herpes alien lifeform will hatch within 1d6 rounds of handling. 

This whole review & table is copyrighted to Dark Corner Productions. Fuck you Echohawk! 

Continuing OSR blogging & The Post Apocalpytic Mars Campaign

 First of all, fuck Echohawk & his thieving blog. I'm going to be moving forward with this blog for the moment until I can find another blog page  too support Swords & Stitchery blog. For the moment, the Echohawk situation is put to rest. And over the day I got together with various friends & cohorts. We spoke at length about the situation. The general consesus was to keep blogging. 
However the take away was the fact that some of my blog's deep commentary was on my Mars campaign. The Mars campaign was post apocalyptic game that used Night Owl Workshop Warriors of the Red Planet.  & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers rpg. And reading through the old blog posts the question came up in my mind.


Could Warriors of the Red Planet.  & the new Hyperborea rpg support a new post apocalpytic Mar campaign?! Short answer is that I believe so. Our Mars wasn't the Mars of our solar system instead it was a dying alien world around Alpha Centuri. The planet was originally colonized by a race of Lovecraftian serpent men. We crossed our campaign over with Adventurer,Conqueror, King 's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu™ (BCK) & this was the step up for the PC's to confront the Terrans from BCK. The Terrans were actually running from the Bugs from Colonial Troopers rpg. 

And the bugs kept getting really dangerous to the player's PC's interests. And eventually we brought in Colonial Troopers Knight Hawks.  Our players eventually encountered some of the more dangerous bugs & the alien insectoid masters who were behind the scenes. These masters were directly from the ACK's product line. Eventually we brought our group over into Cha'alt & things progressed fairly quickly. But there are several threads within this campaign that were left unresolved. Such as did the Terrans know about the on coming interstellar bug swarm?
Did the Terrans fleeing before the Swarm drop bread crumbs to the PC's to get the alien & human race deeply involved in the interstellar war?! 
The players never trusted the Terrans & thought there might be time & planar travel plots involved. 
This campaign eventually led me into the Cepheus Engine rpg along with a  rediscovery of both the 2d6 system & the Swords & Wizardry system. 

                                                                                  

I'm Thinking of Quiting OSR Blogging - Echohawk's RPG Musings ,Esoteries,OSR,and Homebrew Blog Is Made From Writing Stolen From Sword & Stitchery

 My writing is what makes me who I'm as Eric Fabiaschi as  OSR blogger, dungeon master, reviewer, commentator, and even friend to the community or at least I try to be. So when I found huge swaths  of this blog Swords & Stitchery's content copy & pasted onto Echohawk's RPG Musings ,Esoteries,OSR,and Homebrew Blog. I more then a little angry & in fact I'm down right pissed. This echohawk guy's entire blog is my writing across the board. And it's been going on for years! Since 2017 as a matter of fact! Since 2017 this Echohawk asshole has been passing my writing off as his by copying & pasting whole swaths of my blog then passing it off as his own.
This guy's entire blog is my work & my content from this blog! Over & Over again this Echohawk guy has been posting my blog's content! I feel violated & horrible tonight! If you were going to fuck me over Echohawk at least you could have taken me out to dinner! Pick a month any month on this blog folks & it's my content that this prick has copy & pasted! 
Now the offending blog has been removed. Now Echohawk I will be watching you prick! 

https://rpgmusingsandesoteries.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-cosmic-struggle-in-old-school.html?sc=1675458521785#c1370692813685976547

White Box Gothic, Adventurer, Conqueror, King & White Star Rpg In The Making of An Interstellar Campaign Setting

 Somehow lately it feels like part of me has lost it's way with the OSR & perhaps its the near constant drum of diversity in games & rpg sales. Everyone seems to be trying to make a buck as fast as they can before the next hammer comes down from Cowards of the Coast. Once again I went back to Swords & Wizardry. Specifically the James M. Spahn's White Box Gothic set which comes in at about fifty pages of OSR Gothic goodness. 

Why?! You've covered White Box Gothic before. So what gives?! I'm looking to use White Box Gothic For the White Star Galaxy edition rpg. There are lot of good stuff between these pages for White Star specially if your leaning towards the void knights side of the spectrum. Between magic items that reek corruption. Several classes that would fit right into a dedicated crew of champions of light or interstellar mercs. There's a nice array of monsters that could serve as void monster stand ins. 
And this get's into an idea that's been floating in the back of my mind for a long while now. This is using ACK's Kanahu as a back water world of the Washington Sector. And how does this relate to White Star?! Simply put Kanahu is a lawless back water Sword & Sorcery world where corruption & Pulpy Eldritch evil has run amok! The Star Knights haven't gotten around to taming this world because of the fact that it was an ancient Grey protectorate world. And the reason for this conversion is simple & that's DYS Games Between Star & Void which has conversions for Adventurer,Conqeuror, King. Making it easy to have your star knights go up against the evils of the warlords of Kanahu.

Review & Commentary On TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG) & The 'On the Plane of Magma' (A Fantasy Scenario for TSRPG)

 "TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG)! This improv storytelling game designed for a storyteller and one or more players can easily be played anywhere, from the airport waiting area you are stuck in, to the overnight in some hotel where there is nothing to do (and also, of course, in your own home). "
I don't normally handle storyteller games but there are two reasons why I'm looking at this. One is the situation with the OGL & Cowards of the Coast. And two Skirmisher Publishing are good friends of mine. TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG) is a dollar & the rules fit on one page of the pdf. The task resolution system is simple,quick, & reliable. 

And TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG includes the rules, sample PC's, & enough to get a group of four or five players started a mini one shot. And the system for this?! The TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG  reminds me in many ways of the Storyteller system but in a completely different direction;"
Characters are the players’ in-story representatives and have individual names and concepts associated with them. Each has two stats, Physical and Mental, and has 5 points to distribute between them. Physical, or “hard stuff,” is anything that uses the character’s body. Mental, or “soft stuff,” is anything that uses the character’s mind. Each character is also given at least one piece of equipment that can conditionally grant a +1 to either stat if it narratively fits the Challenge (and Storytellers can opt to allow them to start with two or more pieces if they think their scenario is sufficiently challenging to warrant it). Equipment can be consumable (e.g., a potion, a bandage) or permanent (e.g., a multitool, a cattle prod). Characters can also acquire additional equipment during adventures, particularly in appropriate areas (e.g., a shovel might be found in a garden shed). Challenges Challenges are any situations a character has to respond to in which the outcome is not guaranteed. These Challenges are based either on a character’s Physical prowess or their Mental faculties. Conflict with opponents (i.e., combat) is resolved as a challenge, or a series of challenges, that characters must overcome. Breathing or walking, for example, are generally not considered to be a Challenge, while weightlifting or taking the SATs generally are. Challenges are also contextual (e.g., breathing suddenly becomes a Challenge when the character is sick or under water). Challenges are what stand between the player characters and their goals. How Challenges Work To adjudicate a Challenge, the storyteller picks a random number within a difficulty range and communicates it to the players. The size of this range determines how difficult the Challenge is (e.g., 1-5 is very easy, 1-15 is average, 1-30 is extremely hard). These may be easily described as a “5-point Challenge,” etc. The player whose character is trying to overcome a Challenge must attempt to guess the Storyteller’s number, and if they guess it +/- the stat picked by the storyteller, they succeed (e.g., a Physical stat of 2 would mean that guessing anything from 3 to 7 with a target number of 5 would be a success). Otherwise they fail." 
And that's really it & as an alternative to dealing with the chit chat of 5th edition D&D 's BS TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG is an alternative storyteller style rpg. And from here if I were the DM then I'd pivot into  “On the Plane of Magma” . This is a twelve page adventure that pits the PC's against the forces of the plane of magma. 
There's a solid adventure on the plane of magma that can be played in one session & Skirmisher has even done an expensive video here On The Plane of Magma .  “On the Plane of Magma”  has solid maps, really solid encounters, and some really solid twists & turns. 

Is TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG a replacement for the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy rpg?! No but is it a fun rpg storytelling system? Yes it is but this isn't the game for me as an OSR player & DM. “On the Plane of Magma” is a great little one shot for the DM to run with the TSRPG. However that being said this isn't a game I'll be running anytime soon.