Review & Commentary On TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters For TSR Marvel Super Heroes Rpg

 TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters is another Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project creation. TU1 is an expansive book numbering about two hundred & thirty four pages of Kaiju & attendant lore surrounding almost the entire run of the Toho characters. And there's more thrown into the deeper Kaiju background. 

From Anguirus to Zone Fighter TU1 covers it all in great details. The sheer amound of details in this version of the Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe is damn staggering. Even as I pour over the various  Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project creations the sheer amount of work in these fan creations is staggering. 

The various eras & creations of Taho and their attendant companies IP's are given their due. And these creations are more like natural disasters rather then monsters. And this book makes an excellent counterpoint to the recent MA12 the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Monsters Unleashed Pdf!

TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters really shifts the focus over to the Japanese side of these universe within Kaiju circles.While MA12's focuses on the classic Marvel side especially the Sixties & Seventies Bronze age comicbook titles. TU1's pdf is available in the 'Other' Documents section of the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project's Google Drive. 

An this focus is evident within the pages of TU-1 with it's centering on the Seventies Shogun Warriors robots & organization. The background of classic era title character's profiles with powers, FASRIP attributes, and more. 

This no nonsense look at the Kaiju and their bacground elements insures that they will be taken seriouly as a threat by the players of your Marvel Super Heroes Rpg campaign 

What TU1 does right is the fact that it presents the factions, aliens, even the creations from the Godzilla anime such as Mecha Godzilla City. And there's more such as the various incarnations of the big guy himself. 

And what makes TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters  work is the Godzilla central focus. This approach makes TU1 indespensible for the hardcore Marvel Godzilla fans! Why? Because of the fact that there's a ton of adventure potential in the realms of classic & modern Kaiju. Seriously there isn't a red blooded super hero in Marvel lore that couldn't benefit from the appearance of a Kaiju within a campaign. Not to mention the horrors that are associated with some of the Kaiju that are associated with the monsters chronicled within  TU1. Monsters that are living within & on Godzilla, Rodan, etc. that are imicial to mankind. This makes the passing of Godzilla & Co a major problem for groups such as the Avengers or Xmen. These movements of the Kaiju were tracked by S.H.I.E.L.D. back in the Eighties & Nineties in our Marvel Super Heroes rpg campaigns. 
Between all of the adventure elements, factions, aliens, etc presented with the pages of TU1 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe Godzilla King Of The Monsters pages there's years & years worth of encounters, plots, and hooks more to keep your  TSR Marvel Super Heroes Rpg satisfied! 

Review & Commentary On Simple Modernity By The Scrying Dutchman Basic Rules For Modern Day Themed Play For Favorite Retroclone rpg

 Now I make no secret that firearms are something that comes up all of the time in modern OSR rpg's all of the time. The Scrying Dutchman has been someone that's been on my radar for a long time now. And Simple Modernity is an OSR optional add on B/X firearms suppliment that's been a long time coming. 

Simple Modernity is a fast reading, quick paced OSR system for firearms & those who use them. These rules can be used with your favorite OSR game. As a rules set  Simple Modernity kicks ass. You've got an excellent selection of modern themed OSR PC classes who use & twist firearms within thier professions. Soldiers, assassins, snipers, medics, etc are all here ready to be dragged & dropped into your favorite OSR system. Need a new class for your Wretchedverse game?! These are perfect canadiates. Want shotgun or other automatic military firearm for your OSR style game? Again it's right here! 
How about grenades!? Or  selection of  armor for your latest warzone?! The Scrying Dutchman  is your man with wide selection of firearms to peek your adventurer's intest or ruin their day! 
Need a main battle tank to take out that powersuited player?! Again  Simple Modernity has you covered! Need equipment for your secret agents or soldiers?!  Simple Modernity  has you covered! 
What can you actually do with  Simple Modernity!? How about run your favorite classic modules from the world's most popular fantasy rpg with a group of OSR soldiers or soldiers of fortune?! And while this isn't a new idea it could run like clock work! 
How about stranding a group of soldiers on LoFP's Carcosa?! You can do that with  Simple Modernity. Clocking in at forty one pages of firearms action pounding goodness  Simple Modernity has good layout, solid easy to read charts, & runs less then a modern news print magazine!  Simple Modernity  is a low cost, viable, reliable set of firearms rules that you can add onto your favorite retroclone! 

Return To Abyss - Anchors Away & A Shot Gun To The Torso! - Session Report Two

 For the last twenty four hours I've been quitly trying to wrap my mind around the particulars of Zozer Games Abyss for the Hostile rpg. The Blackguard has been deeply involved in sabatoge on Abyss in several areas around claims to spark a gang war between two minor clans. 

Own our little band of Hostile marry makers has been employed by the head of a crime syndicate to sew discord among these two clans to come in claim jump. 
That being said we're working both sides of the aisles. After our party almost got taken out by a drone bomb in one of Abyss's major city hubs. 

The drone killed a hundred people but because of a missed roll it was the wrong skyscraper. Next time the party will be toast & not even a missed roll will save em. 
To really bring home the Cyberpunk like atmosphere of the cities of Abyss I used Fishwife games 

Cyber City Block 001 for the encounter. For the gang itself we dipped into Michael Brown's New World: 2D6 Adventure in a Cyberpunk America for the outside talent. Think of the gunslingers who are brought in to takeout the marshal in the Eighties film Outland. Shotguns & auto fire in their neighborhood brought out the corporate cops. It was too late! 

 The PC's survived the encounter but one of them Zoey Crugger their jacker ended up in the hospital & had to receive cybernetic add ons. So she's going to be out for the next two sessions! 
And the rest of the party swore revenge! Excellent! 
They calculated that the 'Outside Talent' Gang were using a sub anchored off shore as a base. The Blackguard called in two favors with their own corporate masters & had them bring in a sub of their own! We ended here & we're picking it up next week. 

A Claw Full of Wretchedness - Mail Call, The Wretched Epoque Rpg , & A Review Of Tears of Belphegor Adventure

 So for many months now we've been running the Red Room's Wretchedverse over the last couple of months as mini campaigns.  Wretched Époque has really been one of the Red Room's best rpg's that the players have responded too. With that being said the players have also responded Wretched Darkness. So it was high time to grab a copy of Wretched Époque.

So during one of the hundreds of sales that drivethrurpg does I grabbed a copy. And it came very fast. And over the past three or four nights Wretched Époque has been in my hands. And it's about letting the alternative history of Wretched Époque flow. So this is kind of fitting given that it's Edgar Allan Poe's birthday today. Can I honestly say that I'm a huge EAP fan going back to my childhood.  Mostly because of the classic Roger Corman Poe films of Vincent Price. 

I wanted to grab this before the OGl hammer came down by Cowards of the Coasts. Wretched Époque has everything a DM & his players need under one cover. With the added on history of Wretched Époque & it's uniqueness of the historical Paris setting. Paris unto itself in the Wretchedverse is a character as well as a setting. The Red Room does a fantastic job with Wretched Époque by bringing the underworld of Paris to life. 

But we're not done yet! The latest version of Wretched Darkness Rpg came my way. And this is a big book of a horror rpg system! And like every other Wretchedverse rpg is the fact that Wretched Darkness is very much interwoven in universe with lore & fluff that relates to the Wretchedverse! So my local print shop hit me with an offer that I couldn't refuse. 

 So the Wretched Darkness Rpg is a fun & terrible modern horror rpg. I say this in the best way because the  Wretched Darkness Rpg channels Giallo & Eighties or Nineties horror films in the best way. It does this by taking all of the Wretched rpg systems & then channeling them into a very nasty system! 
Here's the thing I'd absolutely do three or four PC's before attempting to interplay in a mini campaign. 
While the Wretched Darkness Rpg is OSR all of the way. It's a far deadlier affair then say even Ravenloft or other 2nd edition world's most favorite fantasy Rpg's. 

And here's where things get interesting. Not only is Wretched Darkness Rpg the Red Room's big Rpg but it's the big rpg with the most connections back to Wretched Époque. I don't wanna spoilt it but there's ways of bringing PC's from Wretched Époque into a Wretched Darkness campaign. And this get's into the trickier aspects of both the supernatural realms & the backdrop of Wretched Époque's Paris! 

And this brings us Tears of Belphegor which is a short scenario & adventure for Wretched Époque's Paris during the closing days of the Commune. You play the scum of the Parisian underworld & it definitely crosses into the world of both horror & the supernatural. It's well written & brings home the Paris of Wretched Époque in spades. And it could potentially be connected into the world of Wretched Darkness quite easily. 

The fact is that the Parisan underworld during the time of the Commune is rife with potential for the DM to exploit. That being said there's lots of potential for the PC's to screw up royally in Tears of Belphegor. Is Tears of Belphegor good without a doubt. And it's an adventure that's going into Saturday's Wretched Darkness rpg session! 

Review & Commentary On MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set By The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project For the Marvel Super Heroes Rpg

 My own history with Marvel's Conan The Barbarian comic book & The Savage Sword of Conan black & white Seventies & Eighties magazine is well known to readers of this blog. And this brings me to a curiousity that I down loaded under the Others Google drive of Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project. This of course is MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set & it's paramount interest to a time traveling horror campaign such as mine. You can get MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set by joining the Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project group on Facebook 

MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set consists of the The Conan The Barbian Watcher's Chronicle, the Grand Master's Log, & the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book by Necromancer. Let's tackle 'The Conan The Barbian Watcher's Chronicle' first. 'The Watcher's Chronicle' covers all of the lands of the Marvel comics Hyboria world. And unlike the original Robert E. Howard Conan story. The Watcher's Chronicle goes over all of the lands of Hyboria with some spactacular artwork taken from the original Marvel & other comic book sources. For a fan publication The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project does an excellent job of handling layout,fonts, and the whole package. 

We get history, we get massive info dumps on all of the major & minor heroes,villains, and more throughout the Watcher's chronicle. 
The staff of The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project does a bang up job on this box set giving both the DM & the fans what they want & what they came for Conan's world & his characters in spades. Something that mainstream game companies should keep in mind. 

MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set is a big sprawling fan affair that encompasses the totally of the barbarian's deep rooted connections to the Marvel comic books & magazines. This is even more evident within the The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Conan The Barbarian Grand Master's Log. Here we get the broader picture of the NPC's, gods, monsters, and madmen that plagued the barbarian hero throughout his career. 

The Grandmaster's Log is a lavish affair clocking in at over forty nine pages. And it tips the scales with dense profiles of both fan favorites & even minor horrors. We profiles on Elric of Melnibone, Red Sonja, Conan, & many more. For the dungeon master whose looking to run a time traveling campaign the fact that the Projet has included an index is a God sent. 
With so many NPC's it's easy to forget that running a campaign may mean flipping back & forth with physical copies. And the index makes this even easier. The Grandmaster's log is one of the essential cornerstones of this box set. And this fact alone makes it essential for a MSH's campaign. 
Even more lesser known magical items to modern Marvel fans such as the Cobra Crown get their due. 
And this is one of the places in which  The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project excels. Even if the fan group's organizational skills need a lot to be desired. We are getting all of these wonderful supplements for free. 

 On the right is one of my most hated Conan foes Kulan Gath. Even though he has appeared in numerous other supplemets of The Unofficial Canon Project. This smug sorcerer supreme of the Hyborian age killed not one but three of my heroes during the Eighties. My uncle was particularly fond of using this rather nasty piece of work. Each & everytime we seemed to defeat him he'd pop up again like an Eighties horror icon. 
The fact that he's so prominantly listed speaks volumes to the fact that MHR6 is well done. Kulan Gath is a major villain on par with Thoth Amon for his nastiness. He's gone toe to toe with the Avengers, the Xmen, and even several alternative Earth variant versions of Iron Man. And as recent as two years ago murdered off most of the 616 Marvel Super Heroes line up. Kulan Gath's connection to Red Sonja is deep & could easily be exploited by a DM looking to milk the Marvel/Dynamite comic book adventure arcs for a campaign. 

Finally we get deeply into the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book by Necromancer. And its a glorious little adventure that really highlights all of the Conan The Barbarian friends & foes. The Adventure book is like a Savage Sword of Conan magazine come to life with the strengths of the FASRIP system on display!

Necromancer does an excellent job with layout & bringing all of the singular Sword & Sorcery  details to life. Here all of the Conan NPC's get their due first. The stats are easy to digest & brings home the sheer scope of  Marvel Conan's world. The Eyes of the Serpent finds Conan & his allies partying & painting the town red. This is soon interrupted by Sword & Sorcery mayhem & violence. 
The PC's find themselves up too their eyeballs in the worst that Marvel Hyboria has to offer. And things go from bad to worst as the major players of Conan's world get involved within the plot. Players are going to have their hands full with  the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book. And the fact is the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is actually a mini campaign unto itself. 

 The Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is well laid out, easy, on the eyes, and the adventure itself is epic.  And the MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set is really set off by the Conan The Barbarian Adventure book. 

The Conan The Barbarian Adventure book is slightly different in it's pacing & feel as it plugs into the Sword & Sorcery asthetic the Marvel way. The Marvel way from back in the Bronze age with modern The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project FASRIP fan rpg system senibilities.
  MHR6 Conan The Barbarian Box Set By The Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project is in my mind one of the best things I've seen from this fan group. Make sure that you down load the MHR6 box set. 

OSR Commentary - Monsters, Law, Chaos, & B/X Dungeons & Dragons.

 Last night was a night of soul searching about several things when it comes to the recent Cowards of the Coast 1.01 debacle. It's got me remembering the Satanic Panic era & the evils of B/X Dungeons & Dragons.There were something about the monsters of Basic & Expert Dungeons & Dragons that everyone seems to forget. The monsters of B/X were Chaos & Law incarnate. 

According to a recent Wayne's Books article here the two rule books really do bounce off one another; "The Rulebooks echo each other strongly inside, differing only when their focus calls for it: Beginning characters in Dungeons vs. Higher-level characters exploring Wilderness. Basic is levels 1-3, Expert goes up though character level 14."
The B/X's rule books monsters have a raw feel about them. No unfinished mind you but the feel of creatures that with any opportunity would & will rip your PC's apart! And nowhere is this more reflected within B2 Keep on The Borderlands By Gary Gygax.

I've said this before a ton of times that 
B2 Keep on The Borderlands By Gary Gygax is ground zero for the war between Chaos & Law in B/X Dungeons & Dragons. This leads into the T1 The Village of Hommlet & all of the window dressing there. 
The keep is key to defining & defending the borderlands. The borderlands themselves were our campaign setting. Events may have happened in the wildernesses of Greyhawk & the Wilderlands. But it was the Borderlands that were our primary concern time & again.What defines this are the facts that B/X's rule books lent themselves so readily to these facets. And this is because of the nature of the monsters within the B/X D&D rules. Everything works like a well oiled machine to facilitate PC advancement. 
The wilderness that D&D Expert set talks about is all about the PC's. The Keep on the Borderlands is the literal base of operations & Hommlet is point of protection. The humaniod armies of B/X Dungeons & Dragons can & will take full advantage of the party the second that they can. 

There are more then a few reasons why the struggle of Law Vs Chaos is central to a good OSR campaign. 

1. B/X Dungeons & Dragons can be seen as a bit of a road map when it comes to laying down a convincing Chaos vs Law struggle campaign 
2. T1 & B2 are excellent wilderness outposts and can easily be worked into a Gamma World Rpg campaign. We've done this in the past with no one the wiser. 
3. Moving ahead with the events of the village Hommlet let's the DM ramp up the tension
4. Humanoid monsters as servants of Chaos makes PC's take notice really quickly. 
5. ACK's is a perfect transition rules set for a group of B/X players into the OSR. The Borderlands campaign fits easily into the background. 
6. B/X can give years of play before it's neccessary to move the PC's along. 
7. The wilderness is a great stand in for the 'lands of chaos' 
8. The Wilderness is also excellent as a bridge into a Gamma World 1st edition game. 
9. Struggling with a classic B/X game teaches the fundamentals of classic Dungeons & Dragons 
10. Hommlet is such a great counterpoint to the Keep from B2 

OSR Thoughts on ' A Princess of Mars' By Edgar Rice Burroughs

 Edgar Rice Burroughs is a writer whose been with me as a kid since the day I was born. There wasn't a day that went by when his books weren't in my room. So I have no real idea when I read  'A Princess of Mars'. To say that Barsoom is an important fictional place within my younger years goes without saying. What is it that draws me back into Burroughs Mars?! The love story of John Carter, the alien vistas, the violence or the sword play, ERB's writing style or is something more?! 

What is it that draws me back across the dead sea bottoms or the mist haunted ruined palaces of the former rulers & kings. The fierce multi limbed Green Martains capableof violence that rivals their Red men counterparts. The Green Martians remain a favorite alien race; "The Green Martians are 15 feet tall, Burroughs wrote, adding from John Carter's observation of newly hatched children,

They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed either forward or back and also independently of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.

The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.

There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light yellowish-green color....

They are nomadic, warlike, and barbaric; do not form families; have discarded concepts of friendship and affection (presumably in the name of survival); and enjoy torture. Their social structure is communal and rigidly hierarchical, with various levels of chiefs. The highest rank is the all-powerful Jeddak, who reaches this position through combat. They are tribal, and war among one another."

So what is it that makes me once again fall back to the works of ERB?! The fact that even though I know each & every chapter of 'A Princess of Mars', the ancient world of Barsoom is like coming home to a corner of my imagination that I know so well. ERB wrote for the common man & his works are entertainment for the common folks. And it's this point where I think that like Gary Gygax & David Lance Arneson's rpg creation that there's originality within Edgar Rice Burroughs's works &   creations. Originality that draws me back again to Burroughs Mars again & again. 

Commentary On The Ruins of Pitzburke For Gamma World Second Edition and Your Old School Campaigns - Updated

 Let's talk Gamma World & Gamma Terra for a moment. Gamma World can take ordinary Dungeons & Dragons characters into a world of primitive saverage & sorcery. And my preferred poison for this rpg is the vaulted second edition of Gamma World with the Larry Elmore artwork. And while Mutant Future & Mutant Crawl Classics both have excellent emulations of the classic game. So last night I spent  on Gamma Terra thanks to a friend of mine out West with a Guinness and I've got some thoughts on these venerable tomes of post apocalyptic adventure. 

I did a bit of horse trading with a friend out West for some tables and campaign help for a bit of Gamma World stuff he wasn't using. What I got surprised me was the fact that I got a first and second edition Gamma World rule book and the Ruins of Pitzburke


The Ruins of Pitzburke is one of the most iconic and dangerous places you can send a group of PC's in Gamma World. This place is a mix of  ruins, death lands, mutants, madness, robotic horror, and more meant that your little party of adventures could be swallowed up by the ruins without even a second thought.



And if you think that your Mutant Future PC's would fair any better in Pitzburke, I took a party of Mutant Future rpg players through the ruins and the whole affair was a total party kill. The ruins were designed to keep the Gamma World game campaign going for a long time to come. I've taken Boot Hill PC's and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition parties through those ruins and the though the results varied there were some interesting adventure campaigns.


What makes this such an iconic adventure is the fact that the Ruins of Pitzburke essentially teaches the dungeon master both the fine art of stocking the ruins, NPC encounters, NPC factions, and Cryptic Alliances. Not to mention the numerous natural and radiation hazards of the Pitzburke setting. But still this was for me an essential setting for post apocalyptic campaigning almost as much as Keep on the Borderlands and In Search of the Unknown is for B/X Dungeons and Dragons. In the past I've run this adventure and placed the whole thing in a valley on Carcosa just to mess with player's minds. They weren't amused by that turn of events especially when they realized just what this meant for their community in the long run. But that's another blog post.
There are several pieces of free gaming goodness that have made running the ruins easier and can spice things up for an experienced group of players:

• One is Kellri's 100 Gamma World Events available down the right hand side of his blog under downloads 
• The second is a break down of the various editions of Gamma World and conversion to Mutant Future available on the Mutant Future Wiki 
• A nice version of the Pitzburke map so if you already own this map it makes things very nice for a tablet or lap top. 
• This topic on Dragon's foot has some damn righteous 1/2 Edition Gamma World ideas and material 

I might also suggest downloading Mutant Future unless you've got collector's cash because Gamma World is going for one hundred and fifty dollars on Flea bay. Catch you all in the ruins until next time.

Review & Commentary On Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris For Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg

 "Axioms is Autarch's quarterly supplement for the Adventurer Conqueror King System. Each issue of Axioms offers a mix of short content updates for ACKS, such as new classes, new sub-mechanical systems, explorations of specific themes within the game, short adventure scenarios, and more.  "

"In this issue, Cohorts & Dynasties, we offer:

• New rules for dynasties, including birth, succession, blood rights, and more
• New mechanics for adventurer-scale battles with large formations of troops

"While designed for use with ACKS, the systems are compatible with any d20-based fantasy RPG. They add a new level of flavor to the fall and rise of heroes in every campaign"

Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris For Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg is one of the latest Axiom issue to come across my desk. And what it does is add in rules on Cohorts & Dynasties. These are incredibly important because they plug directly into the King end game of ACK's. And PC's are able to pass along thier own hard work & sweat with adventuring onto their heirs & breathern (lackeys) now in ACK's. Axioms Issue 19 clocks in at fourteen page with some easily read articles & solid ACK's content. We've got rules here for adventurer-scale battles with large formations of troops & why this is important.  Is because it puts the military power of ACK's within the PC's hands. 
Within the ACK's bounds this is incredibly important because of the fact that rulership is partially dependant upon military might. And in ACK's this equals push back power with larger troop formations. 

Militaries & armies are dependant upon monies & some of these monies are partially from taxes as well as dungeon delving troves. This all cycles around too dynastic rule which is now a more dynamic part of ACK's. Is  Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris a crucial issue?! Yes in a way because it presents a new & different dynamic to the ACK's rpg system. Get  Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties if you want to add in the idea of empire & dynastic rulership as a part of your Adventurer, Conqeuror, King rpg campaign. 
Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris For Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg  Is Available Here! 

Review & Commentary On Angry Golem Game's The Stars Without Number The Starship Database For Stars Without Numbers Revised & Other Science Fiction OSR Systems

 What leads one around the bend & back again?! In these uncertain times one thing is certain everything falls apart. And the center can not hold. What led me to Cepheus Engine & eventually back to classic Traveller. What led to this rabbit hole?! The death of a dear friend who was in our Stars without Numbers Revised campaign sent our first group of players into a death spiral. Our group of players picked up the pieces and started back with Cepheus Engine. But after the recent events with Cowards of the Coast, we've been talking back up plan. Which led us back to Stars Without Number again & then I started looking at Angry Golem Games again. This led to The Stars Without Number The Starship Database

The Stars Without Number The Starship Database is well layed out, has a nice smattering of starships & works very well at only thirty pages of starships & supplemental material for SWN revised. And the starships are actually well done & they do fit the era as well as the asthetic that Angry Golem Games is going for here. 

Confession time,I really love the SWN revised  backstory and fluff. But the space combat bothers me on a number of levels. After going through Cepheus Engine rpg combat & running campaigns. We switched out the SWN revised  space combat system over to Cepheus Engine rpg. And it still works quite nicely. Where we would use the The Stars Without Number The Starship Database? After looking it over the various types here such as the:
AVISPA - Tactical Boarding Shuttle

BASILISK - Tactical Bomber

HESTIA - Farm Ship

HORIZONTE - Fuel Station

HORUS - Science Vessel

IRON KNIGHT - Space Truck

RUDRA - Strategic Orbital Bomber

SOBOLAN - Smuggler Corvette

STIRGE - Tactical Interceptor

YAN-SHU - Mining Barge

These starships are perfectly suited to use in the high frontier of either the Clement Sector or the Earth Sector of Independence games.

While I do realize that The Stars Without Number The Starship Database fits a particular set of parameters within the SWN revised rpg. The beauty of these ships is that they would not look out of place within a Michael Johnson Earth sector or Clement sector starport. The Stars without Number The Starship Database is a solid entry into the Angry Golem games catalog of products. 

Original Castles & Crusades Revolution - Skeleton Attack- Session Report Two

 This post picks right up from where we last left off here during our last session here. Our Sunday morning Castles & Crusades game came roaring in with our Dwarf exploring the outer edges of a forgotten temple on the Great Desert. The rest of the party wasn't up.. yet. But Felth Irontooth none the less came face to face with ten skeletons of unknown Zothique origin. They were just randomly rolled up! Honest! 
SKELETON NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1–10 SAVES: P SIZE: Medium INT: None HD: 1 (d12) ALIGNMENT: Neutral MOVE: 30 ft. TYPE: Undead (Common) AC: 13 TREASURE: 1 ATTACKS: Weapon XP: 10+1 SPECIAL: Undead
And that's when a alien desert trader happened upon our lone Dwarven warrior and that's when the rest of the party awoke! And rushed in getting thier rears handed to them by the skeletons! 

Rodney Mathews Into The Flame Lands artwork used without permission 

The party were freaked out because these skeletons spoke, were highly intelligent, and wanted the party as well as the trader very dead. It took a good hour of game play to dispatch all ten skeletons. After the trader used a fire ball scroll! And he wanted to be repaid for the scroll. And there was a good amount of back & forth until the Dwarf's player remembered the enterance to the temple! 
Writ inside the temple enterance was the following- The world itself, in the end, shall be turned to a round cipher. -Old prophecy of Zothique. The temple ruin was vast & seemed to strech for what seemed like miles & there were shelf after shelf scrolls moldering & turning to dust. Suddenly the party were confronted with a spectre of a temple libararian. He wanted to know what subject they were looking for within the temple of Yululun is a minor deity in Zothique. He is the "Keeper of the Tombs" (The Weaver in the Vault).
SPECTRE NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1–6 SIZE: Medium HD: 7 (d12) MOVE: 30 ft. AC: 15 ATTACKS: Incorporeal Touch (1d8) SPECIAL: Energy Drain, Create Spawn, Darkvision 60 ft., Incorporeal, Sunlight Powerlessness, Unnatural Aura SAVES: M INT: High ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil TYPE: ExtraordinaryUndead TREASURE: 7 XP: 660+7
The party of adventurers began to tread very carefully now & asked about the section on the occult & sorcererous knowledge. The spectre led them down a series of dark halls & echoing chambers until they came to a vast shelf of moldering scrolls. The cleric of Geol from last adventure, harry's PC thanked the spectre & asked about borrowing policies. There was 20 silver piece fee for joining the library & the cleric dropped the coins into a nearby slotted box on the nearest wall. The rest of the party soon realized they had stumbled upon an opportunity here. 
But the spectre warned them about the giant rats  that were about them! RAT, GIANT NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1–100 SIZE: Small HD: 1 (d4) MOVE: 30 ft., 15 ft. (climb) AC: 13 ATTACKS: Bite (1d2) SPECIAL: Disease, Twilight Vision SAVES: P INT: Animal ALIGNMENT: Neutral TYPE: Animal TREASURE: 1 XP: 1+1

These 10 rats took a bit longer then they were expecting & the party finally was able to claim a huge & dangerous looking spell scroll that was sitting on a nearby shelf. The libarian mentioned that spell scroll had been left behind by a rather obnoxious wizard who was seen fleeing for his life some centuries ago. That book wasn't a part of the temple libarary & the spectre was more then happy to let the party have it for a small donation. About two hours latter the party climbed out of the hole & gave the alien trader the scroll spell book and he was more then happy  with this. 

The party has very potent resource in the form of the temple libarary. And six of the player's PC's moved a rather formible rock over the enterance to the ruin. The party is now inquiring about nearby rooms.
The party's barbarian Thog had a better idea & went over to the nearest ruin & checked it out. Other then desert runners & a few giant rats the place was secure. The party disatched the rats & moved in. They went cleaning up the place & fortified it. They bought several beds & furnature from the alien trader & looted several other ruined appartments. End of session two!