Loathsome Beasts by Night Owl Workshop and Serpent Men on Mars

 This post is going to pick right up from here on the blog with old foes stirring as ancient lands rise from the depths of legend on Mars! 

I've been re reading the Leigh Brackett Mars stories again and going through Night Owl Workshop's Beasties: Loathsome Horrors. And Thomas Denmark also included four NPC's and two of these guys are humanoid serpent priests. Now in the past I've used Serpent Men on Mars as being one of the forbidden races that exist near the poles. Thier pyramids and zigguarats dotted the landscape around their minor empires and kingdom's holdings.

As the serpent men declined the Red Martian priests took over. Thier culture being a mix of Babylonian and Aztec like mixed deeply with the Conan like serpent men motif. Night Owl Workshop's Beasties: Loathsome Horrors has these two priests who are mutating into serpent like servants of thier gods. So the jungles and fens around this part of Mars are teeming with the serpent men's snake god cults. 

Wtih the emergence of Hyperborea on the horizon near Saturn the ancient gateways have opened between worlds again. 

And the jungles around the poles of Mars teem with serpent like warriors that hunt anyone in thier terrority for sacrifice to ancient serpent gods! And these ancient gateways lead deep into the ancient cities of the gods in the Grand Canyon. And there have been reports of these ancient kingdoms stirring & slithering. 

King of Rats Serpentman on Deviant art.. Used without permission. 

The Valley of Stone & Fire - Thundarr and Fantastic Heroes and Witchery - Campaign Set up #2

 The valley of Stone & Fire was a post apocalpytic game that I had ran ages ago using Fantastic Heroes & Witchery as a one shot back in 2015. You can find that here on the blog. And lately I've been having a hankering for doing a post apocalpytic Western style game. 
This morning I met with my players at our usual diner for breakfast. I needed to do this fast for the weekend. 
And the over all feeling among the players was positive. They wanted a Thundarr The Barbarian style post apocalyptic game. Since we already had a campaign ready to go that wasn't a problem. We were using Tim Snider's Thundarr The Barbarian sourcebook (see below). 

The reason for using Fantastic Heroes and Witchery is the fact that the base damage is at a lower weapon and dice threshold. This is closer to B/X and original Dungeons & Dragons. 

That damage threshold is exceeded in Mutant Future (not that Mutant Future is a bad game). The fact is that the B/X and OD&D damage system are easier for some players to deal with. 

Tim Snider's excellent free Thundarr Sourcebook for Mutant Future

Available right over
HERE 
Free 

The Petrified Forrest contains the remains of a former US Military base that's still being run by androids. The whole affair is where the former PC's disappeared. And here's the hook that gets the ball rolling. The former base is known far & wide for churning out monsterous cyborg horrors. What no one knows is that the base is a former Cryo prison. The androids have been converting the prisoners into bio weapons.. The cryogenic facility's inmates in the section that the PC's were in was drawn from Fishwife Game's 100 Male Inmates available right HERE

Review & Commentary On One Thousand Items of Salvage For the Frontiers of Space By Joseph Mohr For The Cepheus Engine rpg

 "This is a supplement for use with Cepheus Engine.

"During your player’s travels they are likely to encounter derelict space ships, floating wrecks and space debris. Wreckage may float in space forever unless someone comes and claims it. Such treasures are surely out there for the brave and daring space explorer who is willing to risk life and limb to go and find it."

"This supplement is an attempt to give the Game Master ideas. It is a random list of a thousand potential pieces of salvage. It is a list of potential treasures floating in space. Some of the items have great value. Others have little value at all. Some items the traveler might prefer not to find at all." 

Once again Joseph Mohr comes through with another really useful suppliment for the Cepheus Engine or any OSR Science Fiction rpg with  One Thousand Items of Salvage For the Frontiers of Space. One Thousand Items of Salvage is thirty nine pages of random tables for space salvage and these are some damn useful tables. This supplement has a bit of everything and there's a real niche for salvage especially in Cepheus Engine. And there's some really nice salvage mixed in with some straight up dross and space junk. And this supplement is especially useful with hyperspacial gates and the like that appear in the Cepheus Engine rpg. 

And there's good reason for this with Cepheus Engine campaign settings like the Clement Sector. Space slavage rings become a solid alternative to getting your head blown off by the local police or space miliary. And with the Clement sector One Thousand Items of Salvage For the Frontiers of Space. really comes into it's own allowing player's PC's to make a living just from the salvage on the frontier blackness of space. 

Why?! Because with the collapse of the Earth hyperspacial gate there are going to be a Hell of a lot of salvage and this salvage is scattered in huge debris fields out in the blackness of the new frontier. 
There are some excellent salvage opportunities take for example the following: 
"234 Jump Drive Variable 235 Power Plant Variable 236 Reaction Drive (lower tech ships) Variable 237 Solar Sail (lower tech ships or alternative drive system) Variable 238 Graviitc Drive (higher tech ships) Variable 239 Solar Panels MCR .05 per ton 240 Chemical Power Plant (low tech ships) Variable 241 Fission Power Plant (low tech ships) Variable 242 Emergency Power Plant (backup system) Variable"
And there's forty pages of this this style of salvage & this style of salavage also means opportunities for adventure! Does the salavage lead back to the wreck of a ship and the lost treasures of another age!? 

The Clement sector coupled with  One Thousand Items of Salvage For the Frontiers of Space is prime adventure opportunity and this is one of the reasons why One Thousand Items of Salvage  is worth the download and inclusion into your Cepheus Engine rpg.

Review & Commentary on Wretched Verses Issue 18 – Wretched Minions: Cryptids By The Red Room For The Wretchedverse Rpg System

 "Uncover the mysterious creatures lurking in the shadows. This new bestiary entry reveals over 50 legendary cryptids from folklore and myth across the United States and around the world. Learn about infamous cryptids like Bigfoot, Nessie, and the Chupacabra. Discover bizarre regional oddities like the Fresno Nightcrawler, the Beast of Bray Road, and the Ojai Char Man. Dig into lesser-known global cryptids from the Almas of Central Asia to the Dobhar Chu of Ireland. This bestiary entry provides everything you need to incorporate these elusive creatures into your games. Just beware, some cryptids are benign curiosities, but others are truly Wretched."

Wretched Verses Issue 18 – Wretched Minions: Cryptids is the latest offering by The Red Room. And this issue is packed," Let's start with Wretched Minions: Cryptids by@oggm_adventures. This new bestiary entry reveals over 50 legendary cryptids from folklore and myth across the United States and around the world. And it's available through @GiantSlayerRPGs. So Wretched Verses is the online PDF support for the Wretchedverse rpg system. And if you've ever wanted your PC to have a pet Bigfoot or other Cryptid monster as a minion this is the issue for you. Seriously Wretched Minions Cryptids has a bit of everything and it's perfect for giving that wizard or shaman PC a mysterious monster pal. 
Or for equipping the vile villain with a minion that came from the outer edges of the Beyond. And there are almost thirty pages of Crpytid minion fun here with all of the usual suspects such as Nessie, Bigfoot, etc. But there also some rarer ones such as the Winsted Wildman and others. We get stats and more here including where in the world they were spotted. And many of the fifty monsterous minions are perfect for Wretched Interbellum, Wretched Country, etc. The layout is easy on the eyes, the fonts simple to read, and the spacing is solid. 
And I have to say that Wretched Verses Issue 18-- Wretched Minions: Cryptids makes an excellent companion piece for Wretched Folklore. 

Wretched Verses Issue 18 – Wretched Minions: Cryptids  puts some very unsual monstersous minions at the DM's fingers. These monsters would make excellent encounters for a party of adventurers or as the hench monsters for a would be villian. The creatures here are interesting and solidly done which means that they can easily be included in other OSR games. Already Raiders of the Lost Artifacts comes to mind. Or even better is the Night Owl Workshop games Gunslinger rpg. Which Wretched Minions Cryptids would be perfect for. 

Mirages & The Crown of Herod - A Campaign For The Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting By The Red Room For The Wretched Rpg System

 

In the New England town of Hudsonville New York state in 1923 Gravus Hudson last of the Hudson family line passes on. Gravus was a seeker after forbidden and weird collector's items. Gravus has collected the Crown of Herod a piece dating back to the time of Christ. The crown was supposedly worn by King Herod himself & allows the owner to return a person to life via Wretched Folklore page 15 three times per week. The crown also has has several other minor powers but counts as a minor relic ala Raiders of the Lost rpg relic.  Night Owl Workshop's Raiders of the Lost Artifacts rpg has a ton on the background of relics for OSR games. 

Gravus recovered the crown from the remains of a death cult in the Middle East. And while he has out run the curse of the cult, the Crown of Herod has attracted the attention of the Mortican. The Mortican is a vastly powerful entity of the Beyond a literal lord of Death. The Mortican wants the crown because it has the ability to disrupt his hold over Hudsonville. Hudsonville has had an incredible loss of life during World War I. The Mortican wants all of the dead for interdimensional slaves and conqueror all of Hudsonville. 

Characters using any psychic or psionic abilities will have visions of mounds and piles of corpses with the oncoming World War II looming in the background. The dead's reflection in the Beyond have called the Mortican and his attachment to the crown. 

Add in the fact that German agents have been tracking the crown ever since it was sold on the Berlin black market. These are 3rd level PC's who will stop at nothing to recover the crown. At night the murder balls of the Mortican will stop at nothing to track down the crown. 

AC: 18 (natural armor + dexterity)

HP: 24 (8d4+8)

Speed: 60’ fly

STR: 4 (-3), DEX: 20 (+5), CON: 12 (+1), INT: 6 (-2), WIS: 16 (+3), CHA: 6 (-2)

Saves: Dexterity +7

Skills: Perception +5, Stealth +7

Damage Resistances: Bludgeoning, Slashing, Piercing from non-magical non-adamantine weapons

Damage Immunities: Cold, Lightning, Fire, Poison

Condition Immunities: Charm, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned

Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception: 15

Languages: Understands Deep Speech, cannot speak

Challenge: 2 (450xp) Spike 1d6+3

Laser blast 1d8

Drill. While attached to a target, the Murder Orb can use its action to drill into its victim’s flesh. This causes an automatic 2d6 damage. Murder Orb Stats by Bernie The Flumph's blog entry here.

The PC's can recover the Crown of Herod and send the Mortican back his realm in the Beyond. But it is doubtful that they can learn the full exent of the crown's powers. The Mortican can summon 1d6 zombies or other undead five times per day. He is more like a force of nature then an actual supernatural entity bending time and space to his will. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report - Two

So we pick up right where we left off on the blog here. We're playing in a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk. And we've been forced to flee the skeleton forces of the Vampire Queen & go deeper into the wilderness whilst circling around back to the track where the vampire queen's lair & castle are. 

During session two we've encountered packs of wolves and had been forced to flee toward a trapper's cabin to restock and supply. Even with higher level PC's this has proven to be a bit on the daunting side with lots of dodging and weaving. Our two cleric have been put upon for both martial and first aid while we found the trapper's cabin with no one home. We've left appropriate gold coin as recompense as we've gathered new arrows, torches, etc. 

We left the cabin as soon as possible and fled into the woods at daybreak at break neck pace with the wolf packs on our tail. The night found us in a cave back on the trail we needed and our backs against the cavern wall. We're counting torches and conserving arrows. We heard pig faced orcs down in the valley below and saw that they had a shaman. This is bad news. This means that the vampire queen is using mercenary forces to shore up her own. We ended here for now. 
 This is beginning to feel like a horror movie instead of a Castles & Crusades game given that we're using James Ward's Tainted Lands as a sorta of a background element for Greyhawk this isn't a bad thing. 

Drawing the Old School Weird and Wondrous Wild West Campaign Together With Night Owl Workshop's Gunslinger Roleplaying Game Core Rules BETA EDITION By Thomas Denmark - Little Girl Lost?!

Today's blog entry draws from the otherday's blog post of Night Owl Workshop's Gunslinger rpg. Today's entry is the skeleton of a campaign using some bits of Night Owl's Warriors of the Red Planet rpg. 

 It the 1860's the modern era and Mars has swung closest to it's Earth window. Back on Mars a royal sky fleet is escorting the royal personage of the royal princess of the city state of Werg.This minor citystate was up and coming. Suddenly without warning a hyperspacial gate opens. The royal fleet is thrown into Earth's gravity and the nineth ray tanks can not compensate for the higher gravity. Instantly the fleet  crashes on a strange barren world! And only a small form crawls from the wreckage. She instantly hears the thunderous clatter of hoff beats and sees six men with long and mean faces. Daxus Paluci princess of the mighty citystate of Werg has fallen into the hands of the Hole in The Rock gang. 

 Daxus Paluci princess of the citystate of Werg is a 5th level space noble and a 7th level soundrel. The princess within 5 months blends into the background of Promises Made Gultch as a bar maid. Actually she's the head of the Hole in The Rock Gang. 
Blending into the gang at first as a prisoner it was only a small matter for her to off Bud Cranson the head of the gang. She then roped in his young second in command as her lover/mouthpiece. Daxus has been loving the freedom away from her family's stifling royal promises. 
Unfortunately for her, her father has sent a team of four royal bounty hunters too Jansoom to look for her. 

Daxus has used her position within the small town to scope out payrolls, stage shipments, and has made the Hole in The Rock gang quite profitable. The player's PC's are brought in too find out what happened with the incredible explosion and why the Hole in The Rock gang has suddenly become a major threat in the area. 
And then the curve ball, The Hole in the Rock gang has an outlaw engineer name Red Skelton. Red has been salvaging the energy cannons and power sources from the Martian fleet.  He's going to use these to fortify the lair of the Hole in Rock gang into a fortress. 

For quick NPC stats and ready to go NPC's I'm using  the Red Room's Wretched Country. And this also includes the campaign setting itself with Hellstone the town included with Wretched Country being the primary campaign setting. 

Blood On The Streets - A Zaibatsu/Hostile Mini Campaign On Colony World - Earth - Hostile Situation Report #010 Street Scum -- The Company Town Session Report

 In tonight's game the player's PC's ran across Universal Corporation's Challenge Downs company town. The USS Challenge went down and has a malfunctioning hyperdrive just outside of the mining town. The Victory changed the local uranium depoisit to Zeta B a high yield drive fuel. The problem is that the town is bombarded by the strange radiations of the Victory's reactor system. 

The PC's were wondering why the Blood Eagles were leaving this corporate town alone. They decided to spend time in Victory Downs but began noticing odd things such as the stores selling cans labelled meat, food, etc. After a while one or more of the party began to feel sick. And then looked around for reasons why. And found out the whole town was being bathed in radiation. Further searches of Victory Downs found that there was a synthetic processing and manufacturing plant under the town! Universal Corporation has populated the town with the perfect Synethic workers immune to the radiation of the malfunctioning hyperdrive system. 
Everything was going well until the Blood Eagles showed up and 'killed' the mayor. They couldn't stay at Victory Downs so instead they want to install a combat android from the Nexus 16 batch. The September group backed off outta of town. And we're working on a way to get back into town now. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report -

 

Over the years I've been obessed with my buddy Mark Taormino's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. There's less then twenty four hours left for the Kickstarter. So when I got invited to bring in one of my high level PC's into DM Steve's Tainted Lands game. I was jumping at the chance to get out from behind the screen. Lazlo The Amazing my 10th level wizard was finally getting a work out.  This blog post picks right up from this commentary  here on the blog. 

Our party met mid point between Hommlet and serveral other classic Greyhawk locations. Yes this is a Tainted lands version of Greyhawk. We encountered skeleton riders part way down the road as a random encounter.  This was tough fight as these bastard undead were taking human prisoners to the vampire for tonight's feast. Two of our number bought it with cross bolts to the chest.
We retreated with the skeletons giving chase. And then sounding a horn for reenforcements. Needless to say that things were not going as planned. We retreated deep into the woodlands and hastely buried our dead. 
The sounds of horns awakened us! The undead were on our trail! This was not supposed to go like this. We stumbled into an ideallic looking cabin in the woods and a full array of skeletons camped out by it! Our party had to get back on the offensive and attacked immediately. This time we were able to defeat the skeleton warriors. 

 So we're using a combination of Castles & Crusades with higher level PC's. And it's going pretty solidly with the players having to think on thier feet when it comes to dealing with deadlier intelligent undead. These undead are organized, intelligent, and going to town on the local populace with these being the norm for James Ward's Tainted Lands

First Impressions Of Night Owl Workshop's Gunslinger Roleplaying Game Core Rules BETA EDITION By Thomas Denmark For Your Old School Weird and Wondrous Wild West

 "Gunslinger Roleplaying Game Core Rules BETA EDITION

Welcome to the Weird and Wondrous Wild West!

Saddle up, partner, and prepare to embark on an unbridled journey through a science-fantasy adventure, inspired by the yarns of classic western lore and the pulp fiction sagas of the early 20th-century. Gunslinger, the thrilling roleplaying game, is here to send you on a white-knuckle escapade, galloping through the untamed frontiers of the Arizona territory in the era of the Wild West.

Features you won't want to miss:

• Dish out frontier justice and tame the lawless lands
• Explore enigmatic ancient ruins and unearth hidden treasures
• Unveil mind-bending horrors that defy human comprehension
• Expose sinister conspiracies that lurk in the shadows
  
  
  
  
  
  

"A unique blend of the old and the new, Gunslinger combines elements from various editions of the Original Fantasy Roleplaying game and related systems, delivering a refreshing and exhilarating gaming experience that remains true to its roots while offering a wealth of options.

10 Character Classes

• Brave
• Doctor
• Engineer
• Gunslinger
• Huckster
• Muckraker
• Arizona Ranger
• Scout
• Cavalryman
• Greenhorn (0 Level)

Unleash fantastic powers with hundreds of gadgets and highly advanced Strange Science items.

Encounter over 70 heinous critters that will challenge your wits and courage.

Embark on an exhilarating introductory adventure, and navigate through dozens of lavishly illustrated maps.

And there's so much more to discover!

Gunslinger is a stand-alone game, but it's also designed to be a companion and expansion to the Warriors of the Red Planet roleplaying game.

Please note, this is the BETA EDITION with placeholder art being offered at a discount price. We want to make sure to stomp out typos before offering the print version (let us know if you find any!), then you will get the full upgraded edition upon completion. After which this game will be made available at regular price.

Grab your six-shooter and saddle up for the ride of your life with Gunslinger"

Usually Ninety percent of the time I don't bother with Beta versions of  OSR games. However I missed the Kickstarter for Night Owl Workshop's  Gunslinger Roleplaying Game Core Rules BETA EDITION. Now tonight I went searching for this little Rpg & I was not disappointed. One thing I'm a huge Wild West rpg fan & there hasn't been a version of a Wild West game that I haven't played. So after downloading this Gunslinger I wasn't disappointed. It's a complete role playing game but it's missing pieces of it's artwork. Well alright because Night Owl has done this before with Warriors of the Red Planet. 
And Gunslinger is a dense game for one hundred and thirty two pages. Seriously Thomas Denmark packs a lot of game in here. This is a Weird West game with a difference & you can see this in the PC choices;"The basic classes are Brave (or Scout), Doctor, Engineer, Gunslinger (either Lawman, Drifter, or Outlaw), Huckster, Muckraker, Ranger, and Soldier. An optional class, the Medicine Man, is described in Appendix A: the Mystic West; use it if you want to add the supernatural into your campaign." All of this is done with the grand game of a style of Original Dungeons & Dragons. Denmark designed these classes with levels 1-10 and Gunslinger is meant to be playable along with Warriors of the Red Planet rpg. Classic ERB or Brackett Mars crossing over with Gunslinger leads to Weird Science adventures proliferating into campaigns. And the Weird Science device generation systems Denmark does are incredible. 
Character creation is both incredibly familar and yet more then a bit different then classic OD&D. Here we can see this with the the Brave class. 

For those familar with classic original Dungeons & Dragons this style of character will be familar. And this was done on purpose according to the introduction;"Gunslinger is a roleplaying game set in the Arizona territory in the late 1800’s. This game is semi-historical, but it takes a larger-than-life legendary approach to the Old West. Men are braver, outlaws more ruthless, whiskey pours freely, dollars are won and just as easily lost. It is also rooted in the real stories and our knowledge of the time to lend it some authenticity and weight. One other thing, don't tell the other players this, let it be a surprise; strange technology from other worlds has found its way here." 

Gunslinger looks really well done and I can't help think of the Red Room's Wretched Country being the perfect campaign setting powered & played with the Gunslinger system.