'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

1d10 Random Table of Broken and Cursed Weapons For The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg

 A broken sword isn't simply a broken pile of rusted iron, magic never sleeps and some broken weapons carry terrible and insane histories that can still affect those who find them.
Learn more right over
HERE

Review and Commentary On 100 Scavenged Food Sources From Fishwife Games For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaigns

Available Right Over
HERE

Blurb : 

100 Scavenged Food Sources

(A Game Supplment For Post Apocalypse Settings)

100 Scavenged food sources

This simple list provides 100 different varieties of possible food that can be scavenged off of the fallen bodies of foes in a post apocalyptic setting. Some food sources are of the canned, processed variety while others are gathered/hunted in the surrounding wild.

The age old question during post apocalyptic adventures has been,'What the hell do the mutants and adventurers eat?'. Besides each other this two page well written little supplement randomly adds in a wide variety of food borne weirdness to your games. 
Food actually presents a huge opportunity to introduce a motivate to adventure. Remember Gamma World's 'Rite of Passage'. 

Gamma World's 'Famine in Far Go' comes to mind as well as various scenes from 'A Boy and His Dog'.

 
 Well in this two page random listing of food, stock,canned, and other weirdness your questions can be randomly answered. There's a list of stuff that can be incorporated almost instantly into your game. I'll be using this material this weekend in my upcoming Gothic Post Apocalyptic Mash up later this evening.
The material is well written, concise, and has a variety of applications. You could use this material as part of a space game for analysis a native culture that has undergone a nuclear war and is now suffering a plague from a food based pathogen. Your answer are a roll away. 
For a dollar this is a fun little tool to add to your post apocalyptic DM's tool box. Fish Wife games has been consistently providing some great stuff for the old school Post Apocalyptic DM and player at an affordable price. 

Free Download "The Avon Fantasy Reader" issue 10. Published by Avon Novels For Your Old School Sword and Sorcery Campaign

Another free download from the treasure chest of the public domain, grit your loins, grab your sword, and gather the party.
Adventure awaits right over
Here

1d10 Random Encounter Table Of 'Those Who Have Bared Witness To The Summonings' For The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg System On The Dark Corner Blog

A very Lovecraftian encounter table to those who have had
congress and encounters with powers beyond human understanding!
Right Over 

HERE

Rumble At The Graveyard of Robots - A Post Apocalyptic Mars Stars Without Number Actual Play Adventure

The party narrowly escaped being eaten by a shoggoth the size of a small bus and a bunch of mutant cannibal red men. The party detonated small atomics to escape the ancient Lovecraftian horrors.
The salvagers they were with made a brand new tunnel into the Mar rock with atomic drilling machines to escape the horrors of ancient Mars past.
The party was led deeper into a very alien set of ruins that sat square below the teeming serpent's lair. This ancient hate filled tomb of old was the sight of many ancient battles where an entire alien city had been laid waste by entropic weaponry. The whole place was a mass of buildings that looked grown rather then build.
There were layer after layer of ancient bio mechanical buildings built by the fabled Mountain Kings of old Mars. These ancient aliens used both cybernetic horrors and slaves of red men to do their bidding.
They were hundreds of years extinct but their creations were still there silently guarding the hoard of ancient relics and technology.
The PC's accidentally activated a war bot and had to fight the thing till complete deactivation.Around them were the hulks and shells of a billion robots and robotoids surrounded by fields of skeletons of red men.
They are still exploring this tomb of cybernetic horror.
Some of the nasty encounters still waiting for them are as follows.

Random Weird Encounters In The Graveyard of Robots

1. 1d6 ancient robots all sharing a group mind that don't act or attack they simply watch and scan any movement around them. They are actually locked in a cycle of dreaming pasotronic nightmares and they think that anyone they encounter are merely delusions of such dreams. 
2. A group of 1d8 random robots all with different parts and pieces all looking for more such parts every 1d4 turns they will silently exchange parts with each other while engaged in weird conversations. They may 30% chance begin taking any parts or pieces from any vehicles present or try to grab the PC's biological parts. They speak in weird high pitched squeaky voices. 
3. A lone android without a head seeks a head to use and will try to bargain with anyone for their head to use. 
4. A long dead trap activates and silently a hoard of 1d4 robotic skeletons rise silently and grab weapons. They will fight as first level fighters and attack anyone present or each other. After 1d6 days they fall to pieces once again. 
5. A mad alien A.I. awakens screaming and begins singing and broadcasting about being hell and will spout off a wailing broadcast of strange mathematics. Then go suddenly silent. 
6. A gaggle of 1d10 robotic monks in robes will appear and begin to intone the rites of cybernetic death. They have come here to die and be with their ancestors. They have a wide range of knowledge of many hidden caches of ancient wisdom and artifacts but will want to die none the less. 
7. An ancient war machine actives and attacks the nearest target as if engaged in horrific battle! It will not stop until you are destroyed. 
8. An ancient android follows the PC's and engages them in conversation. The thing is actually an ancient alien assassin of 4th level and will lovingly slay anyone present with hidden energy weapons from all over its person. 
9. An ancient war bot awakens and begins to follow the PC's and plots their downfall. The thing will activate hidden lairs of weaponry and such to follow them across the face of Mars. It will be programmed to kill them. 
10. An ancient war craft build by the Mountain Kings activates and is crewed by undead cybernetic horrors from beyond the grave. The craft is powered by an ancient alien A.I. and will destroy the PC's and attack the nearest city state. 

Tunnel Fighting Under The Martian Surface - A Post Apocalyptic Mars - Stars Without Number Actual Play Adventure

The PC's have encountered a group of red men martian underground salvagers aboard a giant underground nuclear drilling machine. The players have elected to ride with these folks for a little while. Thing are about to get wild and wholly in the ancient Martian tunnel systems. They've entered Serpent men turf and are very near the edge of the Dark Martian territory.
These areas are the richest artifact fields and relic technology zones on the planet. There are also a boat load of serpent men underground temple structures, extensive military bases, and lots of weird technology below ground. The PC's are about to learn this as they are going to get embroiled in an all out war between two rival factions of red men underground cannibals and hybrid serpent people! 

There is a good chance that a Shoggoth might be released. Did mention that some shoggoths have psychic abilities in my campaigns? 

1d10 Random Weird Martian Underground Encounters 

1. A group of 1d6 heavily armed cannibal red men armed with heavy weapons including a bazooka or two along with small nuclear war heads 
2. A small mutant amoeba thing on its way to sleep after devouring a small village of mutant dwarf red men. Arms and hands can still be seen through the gelatin material. 4 hit points 1d4 damage, AC8 
3. An escaped Martian scientist whose quite insane but babbles in a strange mathematical language. Armed and will attack the nearest person murderously. 60% chance of having a very minor artifact on his person. 
4. A human serpent man slave dressed in nineteenth century rags and screaming his head off as he runs down the tunnels. 
5. A group of 1d6 serpent men 2nd level fighters armed with spears, short swords, and long poles tending a shoggoth and moving it to another temple. 
6. A gaggle of red men with brain in a jar leading them to a strange underground car that mysteriously just appeared. 50% chance the thing in the jar is a powerful wizard. 
7. An ancient robot that has recently awakened the poor thing is armed with a ray pistol and a bad attitude. It is looking for its owner and has no idea what has happened! 70% chance of knowing how any pre War relic technology works 
8. An escaped princess who claims to have escaped the serpent men's clutches but actually an assassin/psychic who is down in the tunnels hunting an escaped Martian royal. 
9. A gaggle of Serpentmen worshipers who are leading themselves to be sacrificed. They seem mind controlled but are actually high on Martian Lotus and may die at any moment. They're skin is discoloured and poisonous to touch. Save vs die or pass out from the drugs. 
10. A star spawn of Cthulhu recently summoned by the serpent men. Pissed off and very hungry. 

1d10 Random Bits And Pieces of Potent Magic Artifacts Table For The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg System On The Dark Corner Blog

You have found a small but potent magical part or bit from some great work of the ancient Hyperboreans but what is it? 

This table will help you find out!
 Right Over
HERE

Quick Shout Out and Happy Birthday Free Download to Robert Howard On The Dark Corner Blog

  Happy Birthday Robert E. Howard! 

 Strap on your sword, gather the men, and come to celebrate the life of one of my favorite authors! 
Here are a few of this wonderful author's works right over 

HERE

Sword and Sorcery Fantasy Classic Download -The Tale of Satampra Zeiros Clark Ashton Smith

 Right over 
HERE

A classic from the poisoned pen of Clark Aston Smith and further inspiration from Lord Dunsany himself. So you get two Sword and Sorcery classics to bedevil your adventurers with! 

Review and Commentary On The Free OSR Download - Frontier Explorer Magazine for Star Frontiers and The Stars Without Number rpg system

Download it For Free
HERE

Star Frontiers is one of the original classic old school  TSR science fiction rpg games that has been release to the wilds of its fans. The game has thrived in the last couple of years. There are a few OSR style support magazines out there from the beloved Star Frontiersmen to this beauty.
Frontier Explorer is a bit different in that not only does it cover the majority of its content with Star Frontiers but it also once in a while throws a bone to other science fiction classic games. This issues covers one of my all time favorites Stars Without Number and notes for converting from Star Frontiers to SWN with easy.
The magazine is well laidout, well edited, and best of all free!
The contents include the following: 

Hello explorers!

The Sathar are coming!  Issue 6 of the Frontier Explorer is now available for download. This issue focuses on the Sathar and provides a wealth of information on how to integrate the sathar into your campaign.  Most of the content is rules agnostic and would allow the inclusion of the sathar regardless of the game system.

Articles include information on sathar society and military organization, an adventure introducing a possible sathar defector, a look at possible interactions with the sathar and the megacorps, and a look at hypnotism.  We also introduce the first of a series of articles looking at converting Star Frontiers material to the Stars Without Number game system.  In this issue we look at converting the sathar attack monsters. 

We also had a complete set of deck plans for a sathar destroyer but it just wouldn't fit.  Look for it coming out as a special "Frontier Explorer Presents" issue in the next month or so.

The issue content (articles) are:

• A Player's Guide to the Star Frontiers Setting
• Yazirian Parajumper
• Truane's Star System Brief
• Sathar Summit II
• Consipracy Theories
• Sathar and the Megacorps
• A Thin Sharp Line
• Extending the Line
• Sathar Military Organization
• Sathar Monsters Without Number
• Exploring Hypnotism in the Frontier
• Cybernuk of New Pale
• A Can of Worms
• Living Expenses
• Got Techno-Babble?
• The Gray Wave
• Grymz Guide Comic #6

Confession time, I love the Sathar! These worm like rat bastard aliens have shown up in many of my games and its only fitting that they get ported over to Stars Without Number. Frontier players hate these guys with good reason. Many players are still sore at them for stranding them on Volturnus!
Many of these same players are now playing Stars Without Number so it only stands to reason that you as a DM should spread the Sathar expansion into your SWN campaigns. These monsters are the perfect way include some of the classic horrors of the Sathar. These things are known to be master manipulators, genetic and cybernetic mad scientists of the highest order, and megalomaniacs of the first degree.
The fact that these classic old school alien happens to be ported over into an old school science fiction classic retroclone based on OD&D is just sauce for the goose. Much of the material in this magazine is fluff but the introduction to the Frontier is worth the down load alone. Now back to the Sathar.
These guys are the perfect foils for the adventurers, rogues, and scoundrels of Stars Without Number. Best of all this issue has a ton of resources to throw at your players. From Weapons systems to the Sathar Military machine its all here and ready to go.
All in all I really enjoyed this issue and will look forward to having my players run into these classic Star Frontier baddies! 

Slicing Deeper Into The Free Download of Issue One Of Underworld Lore From Gorgon Milk and Co.

Get It Right Over
HERE

 During last night's  'Dead Stop' Gothic Post Apocalyptic OD&D game, I had at least two very jaded gamers who said that there wasn't anything new under the dead sun as far as dungeons.
I suddenly remembered some of the tables from this issue of Underworld lore.  Between these and issue two they're PC's are in for a very bad time.
 The material here can be applied to a boat load of settings, adventures, and dungeons. I wax a bit on how it can be applied to sword and sorcery but this is very well done stuff. 

Classic Science Fiction Pulp Thursday- Free Download - Space Science Fiction, Volume 1, Number 5, March 1953. For Your Old School Space Opera Campaign

Download It Right
HERE 
Space Science Fiction, Volume 1, Number 5, March 1953. contains some solid stories that can serve as fodder for your old school space based campaigns. In particular there's a story about 'Space Madness' that really has some great artwork and images going for it. There's also the H.Beam Piper classic "The Uller Rising" arch part two. All in all a very cool solid retro future read for those of us stuck in the house cause of the snow. 


A bit of Background on Space Science Fiction
Magazine 
 According To Wiki: 
Space Science Fiction was a science fiction magazine published by Space Publications, Inc. of New York and The Archer Press Ltd. of London that ran for eight issues from May 1952 to September 1953. Space was edited by Lester del Rey and featured a monthly book review column by George O. Smith. Del Rey's conflicts with the publishers ensured that the magazine would have a short run, in spite of the superior quality of the stories. Illustrator Alex Ebel has contributed to this magazine over the course of his career.

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

Original artwork done by bacoo pix and be sure to visit his Facebook page for more fantastic artwork
right over Here
Tonight's  one shot game was a mash up of several Fish Wife Game post apocalyptic products  and Jack Shear's Gothic Earth and Tales of The Grotesque and Dungeonsque III - The Final Chapter (all material available HERE ).
  I had nine different players tonight.
I had a real crew of cut throats, thieves, adventurers, thrill seekers, and magus all looking for trouble.
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. 

The party is summoned to the Castle of Count Alessandro Balsamo (actually this gentleman HERE) after being released from a far East prison. The Count has a proposal for the party. Recover an item from a plane which has become a battle ground of two gods of Death or rot in back in prison. The place has become a chess board of entropy and undeath after the forces of Chaos and Law have done with it. The Cup of the Lords rests within a museum and is guarded by hoards of undead as well as a cult of mutant zombie scum.
 Orcus holds sway over one half of this modern city while Morgoth holds the other half. Their creations are everywhere.
A few rolls on Fish Wife Games Games '100 Waste Land Dungeon Crawls' and I've got the main encounters, opposition, and fodder for the urban hell landscape for tonight's game. 


 Available right
HERE
Drive thru blurb: 

100 Wasteland "Dungeon Crawl" Spots

(A Game Supplment For Post Apocalypse Settings)

Post apocalyptic gaming shares a common thread with fantasy rpg settings in the nature of having the hopes of finding treasure and powerful 

relics, plenty of dangerous encounters, and an endless assortment of hazard filled ruins to crawl through. This 100 list provides 100 possible location types for the perfect post apocalyptic “dungeon crawl”. A bonus side list provides 50 different possible primary encounters that could be used to inhabit most, if not all, of these locations.

The first 10 locations on the list:

1    Aircraft Hangar

2    Airport

3    Ammunition Factory 

4    Amusement Park 

5    Apartment Building

6    Art Gallery

7    Bank

8    Beach side Hotel

9    Bottling Plant

10  Bowling Alley

The first 10 possible encounter types on the side list:

1 to 2    1 Gene Vat Created Dinosaur and 1d8+5 Handlers

3 to 4    1 Grizzled Old Man and His 1d4+2 Lovely Daughters

5 to 6    1 Master Scientist and 1d8+6 Techies

7 to 8    1 Mutated Beast and 1d12+5 Deranged Worshippers

9 to 10    1 Pimp and 1d8+5 Loyal Hookers

11 to 12    1 Savvy Trader and 1d6+4 Scavengers

13 to 14    1 Self Declared Sheriff and 1d8+5 Deputies

15 to 16    1 Taskmaster and 1d12+5 Hired Laborers

17 to 18    1 Wasteland Politician and 1d12+10 Loyal Followers

19 to 20    1d12+10 Neo-Government Foot Soldiers

This two page list gave me everything I needed for a couple of hair raising encounters with some nastiness. I added in a few special undead from Tales of The Grotesque and Dungeonsque volume one and the PC's were conserving ammo, and really going into the urban post apocalypse landscape rather carefully.  They had just gotten to the alternative Earth when they were almost made by a group of Orcus cultists. A small fire fight erupted and the party fled into the ruins. 
To be continued! 

1d10 Unholy Sacrificial Knives For Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea On The Dark Corner

A fine selection of cutlery that does more then simply cut to the quick. These blades have stories and some are downright deadly interesting.
For your AS&SH game or any old school sword & sorcery campaign.
HERE

Blog Shout Out - Realm of Chaos 80s and Some 'Small But Vicious Dog' Rpg Action

 Find The Blog Right Over
HERE
This isn't a blog post about rpg stuff or maybe it is actually. This post is about a new blog that speaks about perhaps one of the best periods in Games Workshop's history. The blog was only recently introduced to me this afternoon. The blog is more then merely a Warhammer Realms of Chaos and Slaves to Darkness rehash. You get new interviews, figure tips, overviews, and a metric ton of material there. Its good stuff by fans for fans with folks like Mick Leach, and the whole Eastern Front Crew. 


 I go a long, long, way back with this material and its influence upon me is deep and goes into parts of my gaming brain that touches OD&D, AD&D, the Stormbringer rpg, and then into Warhammer Rpg. To day that I'm glad to another blog covering the Slaves To Darkness and the Lost & the Damned material is an understatement. 

Realms of Chaos And Slaves To Darkness 

I'm not going to tell you about the time that I drove a hundred miles to grab a copy of this book or that I still consider it one of the most interesting rpg books that I own.
Wiki pretty much sums it up: 

It consists of the 1988 book Slaves to Darkness and the 1990 follow-up The Lost and the Damned. Each of the two volumes describe the background and associated rules for a pair of antagonistic Chaos gods but each also had material that was germane to Chaos in general in the game settings. Both were written by Rick Priestley, Bryan Ansell, Mike Brunton and Simon Forrest although many more people contributed material, both writings and illustrations. The cover art of Slaves to Darkness was painted by John Sibbick and The Lost and the Damned by Les Edwards. The process in sketching and designing the cover for The Lost and the Damned was investigated within the volume. This was not the case for Slaves to Darkness.

Slaves to Darkness features extensive descriptions of the gods Khorne and Slaanesh, complete with a pantheon of their Daemons and rules for including these in tabletop battles as demonic armies.

It also features rules on the creation of Chaos Champions and their warbands, Daemon weapons, demonic possession and the Horus Heresy of WH40K. To give flavour for the background and attributes of followers of Chaos it contained material such as a list of over 120 "Chaos Attributes" - mutations that the followers of Chaos were often afflicted by. This included some mutations that were advantageous, such as those that made the mutant extra strong or taller, and those that confer a disadvantage, such as ones that made the mutant small, weak or stupid. Other mutations were purely cosmetic, such as giving the mutant brightly coloured skin or eyes on stalks, whilst some mutations were clearly comical, such as one that gave the mutant a silly walk (possibly inspired by the Monty Python sketch The Ministry of Silly Walks) and even a mutation that bestowed the "gift" of uncontrollable flatulence.

It introduced the Imperium's Daemonhunters of the Ordo Malleus and their associated Space Marine chapter - the Grey Knights.

The volume is also notable for having provided the first complete and coherent narrative of the Horus Heresy, an event which, albeit mentioned as the background justification of the internecine battles featured in the 1/300 scale boxed wargames Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine, lacked a proper explanation in the WH40K milieu at large.

The Horus Heresy firmly locked the concept of chaos and demon influence in the SF universe of WH40K for good, establishing, as a consequence, that the "Realm of Chaos" was actually the Warpspace that intergalactic farers had to traverse in order to defeat the relativistic distances involved in space voyage.

The link between the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 worlds is explicitly stated in the first pages of the book.

The Lost and the Damned covers the background material and Daemons for the other two major Chaos gods Tzeentch and Nurgle. In addition, it contains rules that allow players and game masters to create their own gods and appropriate Daemons. The additional section introduced important elements for Warhammer 40,000, giving background on the early life of The Emperor as well as rules for the Sensei, immortal children the Emperor fathered during his thousands of years of life before he ascended the Golden Throne, who are champions of the cause of "good". The Sensei have since been written out of the Warhammer 40,000 background, although an explanation for their extermination was given as an Easter egg of sorts in the third edition of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Both volumes also have army lists for Chaos armies and painting guides for miniature figures. They also introduce the idea of daemonic battles, which consist of armies formed primarily from daemons and other immortal followers of Chaos and fought within the realms of Chaos itself.

Each was heavily illustrated and interspersed with many short stories related to Chaos. The Lost and the Damned featured the tale of the Horus Heresy's climax and an illustration of the Emperor's climactic battle with Horus. [1]

The two books contained a significant amount of violence and sex (although the latter was implied rather than explicit), particularlySlaves to Darkness, which featured Khorne, the god of violence and killing, and Slaanesh, god of pleasure and sensation. Though in the UK Slaves to Darkness carried the note "suggested for mature readers" on its cover, The Lost and the Damned did not. Labelling it as "mature content" was a guide for vendors as sales to minors was not legally restricted.

Slaves to Darkness features grotesque illustrations by artists such as Ian Miller, Adrian Smith, John Blanche, Tony Ackland and Tony Hough. As the subject matter of the book focused on the gods of violence and pleasure, the illustrations were likewise violent or perverse. The Lost and the Damned featured much more toned down artwork, although some was reused from Slaves to Darkness.

Games Workshop stopped publishing the books within a few years. It has been suggested that this was because, in the mid-1990s, Games Workshop began to try to appeal to younger gamers (hence diluting the mature content), rather than only to adults, and the explicit violence of the Realm of Chaos books was seemingly inappropriate for the younger market. Another suggestion is a more prosaic explanation: the Warhammer Fantasy game was revised and re-released in its fourth edition in 1992, an edition which rendered the rules in all the third edition supplements, including Realm of Chaos, obsolete. Warhammer 40,000 was revised along similar lines in 1993. The books are consequently quite rare, with The Lost and the Damned being much the rarer of the two. The reason for this is that a copy of Slaves to Darkness was required to use much of the material in The Lost and the Damned, whereas the former book could be used on its own, and was also released two years earlier than its companion volume. Hence Slaves to Darkness was reprinted twice after its initial release whereas The Lost and the Damned received only a single print run. For more extended and deeper reference lore material on the nature of the Hordes of Chaos, the Realm of Chaos books have been replaced by the newer volume The Liber Chaotica, published by Black Library Publishing.

I own both of these books and I still use them to this day for old school gaming. I know that more then a couple of you do as well. I was reading a bit of Chris Hogan's Small and Vicious Dog rpg today.
What is Chris Hogan's Small but Vicious Dog rpg?

Get It right Over HERE In the side bar along with all the suppliments

Well in the author's words : 

Small But Vicious Dog is a mashup of Moldvay/Cook B/X D&D and WFRP 1e.

From the Introduction:

"Welcome to a fantasy world where the men are Baldrick, the dwarves are punk, and the dogs are small but vicious. Welcome to a world of bawds, grave robbers, excisemen and witch hunters; a place where “Blather”, “Flee!” and “Mime” are legitimate skill choices; and where all material on the insidious threat of Chaos is officially interchangeable between settings.

Welcome (back) to the Grim World of Perilous Adventure.

Whisper it (that fanboys may not hear and descend a squealing), but for all the charm of its skewed familiar 16th century milieu and the lurking horror of Chaos, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play was little more than a modcop of classic Dungeons & Dragons. Yes, our beloved WFRP was yet another ‘fix D&D’ fantasy heartbreaker, albeit one which had the clout of the biggest name in British gaming behind it. Whole chunks of the system were lightly disguised D&D mechanics adapted to a roll under d% system1, and many setting

elements not gleefully ripped off from Tolkien, Leiber or Moorcock were already established D&D tropes by the time WFRP was published.

But that's ok. Indeed, that's part of why all right thinking people – Brits, Italians and Poles especially – love WFRP. To paraphrase a better man than I: we took an American invention, soaked it in a witches' brew of Bosch, Durer and Doré, Mervyn Peake and Tom Sharpe, Blackadder, The Young Ones, pints of bitter, cheap weed, Iron Maiden and The Damned, and then we played the hell out of it."
Now personally I think that the author did a hell of a good job with the material. Its concise, quick, and brings the GW flavor home in a compact as well as vicious form. 

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to the 'Traveling Man' to throw some dice with some mates and then for a pint.