Star Without Number Revised Campaign - Mixing Trey Causey's Strange Stars & Terra Arisen rpg - Synthborg Capture Session Two

 This session picks right up from here on the blog.  We made our way to the Human Empire's fleet. 

  We popped into the Human Empire's fleet and dropped our cargo. They paid us and we moved on. 
Our truckers moved through the hyper spacial gateway. And then our navigator flubbed up on the navigational rolls. 
Things went from bad to worse! 
The truck flipped into a hyperspacial shunt. We almost slammed into a number of hyperspace bound asteroids and planetoids. 
Our party managed to instantly get deeper into the hyper spacial shunt. And then a series of piloting rolls got them into a hyperspacial shunt tunnel. We placed our passengers from the Alliance into cryo. 

We took a hyperspacial shunt tunnel into a new area of space and this was my opportunity. We introduced the Synthborg campaign as our truckers were captured by Synthborg forces and had our truck taken away after being captured by Caliban bounty hunters 

 The players seemed to think it was the Zeta Reticulan royals  that set them up somehow. The PC found themselves aboard a Synthborg prison ship and on their way too a planet side mine! The Synthborg guards were amused by the party arguing themselves. The party's cyberdeckers started getting the party loose from their cells as fast as possible. They then made their way down to the prison ship's ship's holding area to grab their space hauler. As soon as the party left the hauler came under fire. We lost FTL drives, the sensors were on line, but we lost primary controls. Our hauler made for the nearest habitual planetoid. And lots of piloting rolls were made. The hauler made planetside but it's in bad shape and systems are very damaged. 

Stormbringer rpg Session Report Three - Guests of The Dark Empire of Granbretan! The Appearance of Kane.

  Our party was herded into two cages drawn by mutant horses and our weapons were taken away. Devices were also searched for and then it was a long trip to the capital of Londra. All of the while it was a miserable trip with animal headed guards watching our every move and our party was in mostly silence. This session picks right up where we left off here on the blog. 

We were briefly paraded through the streets on our way to the capital buildings & then it was our time to brought before King Huon. King Huon, also called Huon the Immortal and the  King-Emperor, The freak of a king emperor floated in a strange 25 foot bubble of biogenetic liquid who awaited us. 

'A strange melodious voice said, 'Adventurers, mercenaries, and villains a man of royal linage awaits you. Mr. Kane wants a word with you and then we'll have our way with you ourselves' 

Waiting for us was a warrior whose face was cragged over with tons of wrinkles and two very icy blue eyes surrounded by a wreath of red hair. 'Warriors, I have need of your skills and it's a deadly quest we've got line up for you!' 

'The staff of the demon stone is an artifact of Chaos that lies outside of the purview of Runestaff. We want it! ' the voice was horse and dire of purpose. 
'The Mantis sorcerers of the  Empire of Granbretan have opened a doorway deep into the Million spheres as a part of the holdings of a powerful wizard of the empire. We want you to grab this bauble for the emperor'  

'We will richly reward you warriors' , the voice was smooth as velvet but artificially weird in it's echoes & held an icy undercurrent of menace to it. 'Gold, slaves, lands, and titles could be yours if you bring us the artifact' the speaker barked in response. 
Given our current condition within the walled cage of steel and wood we were in position to refuse. We held out a bit and asked to discuss it among ourselves! And we did. We asked for further warrior retainers of mutant stock & two wizards who were on the execution rolls of the Great Empire. Actually two other players we'd added too our motley crew of scum! 
'Granted!' What else!?' 

So what's going on here is that we're sorta of connecting this Stormbringer campaign with my uncle's old campaign from the early 90's. The retainers and prisoners are actually PC's who'd been locked up by the dark empire back in the 90's.  And one of our players had the old sheets! So we connected the two campaigns through the PC's. One of which is Abe Sentient a mutant and psionic PC whose been locked up since the end of the old campaign. 

Victorious Rpg & Wretched Epoque rpg campaign Session Report Two - The Munitions Affair

  

We got together and our game picks right up where we dealt with the last session. Our party picked up in London with the missing English munitions that were stolen last game. These munitions & weapons were used during the Franco Prussian war and were actually mecha that were tested on the front lines.  

 The war was the first appearance of Supermankind, and the Prussians trotted out personal armor and mecha.  We followed the munitions and weapons to Paris & this Paris is the campaign world of Wretched Eqoque 2nd edition. Our adventurers settled in Paris after the war. We met with several criminal bosses and gang leaders who were dealing with the 'Brotherhood of Freedom'. The "Brotherhood of Freedom" is  a revolutionary organization of anarchists, nihilists, and socialists bent on ending the society of oppression and misery.

  When the party met with the Duke of Paris things went South fast. They came face to face with the Albino menace Prince Robor Zon Bek wielder of the trifecta Black Pistol again! He was waiting for the party with his minions! The party blew up the building that they were in for revenge against the prince for his attack against our party member Marrowind. The Lawful Order of Justice and Temperance group  showed up when the building came down. We got into a tussle with them! This is when the  Brotherhood of Freedom's airship showed up! Prince Zon Bek had his airship rain destruction down on the two groups! 

Review & OSR Commentary AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye By Courtney Campbell For Adventurer, Conqueror, King Rpg & ACKS II rpg

" From the imagination of Courtney Campbell, creator of the popular OSR blog  Hack & Slash, comes a terrifying new adventure for characters level 6 to 8.

The Eye Is Opening.

Thousands of years ago, living gods named Khepri wielded powers beyond understanding. Their  bizarre magics rived a rent in reality itself. This portal  the Oculus  led to the deepest realms of Chthonic Darkness, but it was not yet fully open. Malign forces, opposed to all life, infested the Oculus, and waited. The Khepri kept vigil over the Oculus till time moved her hand. When the Khepri vanished in the Day Without Night, their Elven epigones took up the watch. In time, the Elves were conquered by the diabolic Thrassian race, and they in turn were subjugated by the Zaharans. Through the millennia, the caretakers of the Oculus studied, waited, and watched."

 AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye By Courtney Canpbell is one of those adventures that made me reconsider ACK's in the past. Now I recognize that AX5 is a homage to Il Dwellers of the Forbidden City. The encounters here, traps, tricks and what not within Eyrie of the Dread Eye is deep in the dye adventure that tests PC's to their limits. The reason that it does this is by making this adventure a homage to all things Lovecraftian and old school TSR. 
AX5 takes all of the dungeon and adventure elements then distills the essence down into the rpg adventure itself. And what about ACKsII? Does the adventure material & rpg systems  within AX5 differ significantly from this newest incarnation of ACKs? Not really. 
ACKs II has sigificant changes within it's wording after the entire OGL debacle. Something that other OSR companies such as Troll Lord Games for example also dealt with. 

AX5 is a location and encounter driven adventure that adds to the ACK's campaign setting. The action centers around the oculus and it's minions. This is a god within an adventure location that could potentially TPK a party of player's PC's. ACKs II plugs into that epic feel that we get from the best of the ACK's adventures. The history of the Ahuran setting proves this out. Take for example the Zaharan empire. 
The Zaharan empire was a font of corruption that spread a huge swath of Chaos across the face of the campaign setting. They also spread out the humanoid races a bringers of Chaos across the face of it.  AX5 does the job of plugging into this history and bringing it into the present of the adventurers. 
ACKs II blows the foreknowledge of this history into the present to the PC in very vivid ways. Chaos becoming a rising force within  the campaign setting is a very strong possibility especially since AX5 makes it clear that this is a reality. The PC's can stem this tide somewhat but Chaos will pop up in other places especially through the humanoid armies. Orcs and other humanoids are the tools of the Lovecraftian lords of Chaos within ACKs I & II. 

Events within AX5 bares this out & then bring home the ancient danger of the ancient gods! ACKs II brings the epicness & heroic nature of the rpg system. I don't say this lightly at all. 

Amazing Adventures Rpg Session - Yellow Musk Terror & The Jungle Dragon Encounter - Sleepy Time At The Garage Session Four

  Our party decided to check in at the garage where we were getting our vehicles worked on after the last session. Hanging around the garage were mutant mercenaries and they were armed waiting for us. We didn't want to deal with combat right after the encounters in the wastelands last session.  These mutants were looking for trouble and had two heavily muscled lizard men mutants among their ranks. 

 We think that these lizard men mutants might be with the local demon lord's army. And since we didn't want trouble we tossed in a bunch of sleep gas grenades that we found in the ruins. 

And then we contacted the local sheriff and these cretins locked up. Turns out that there was a reward for the capture of the three mutant outlaws! They were not happy at all that they'd been captured! They wanted violence and murder! What they got was a jail cell. 
And this is when we ran into Sir Amico The Brave a paladin who had crossed over into the wilds of post apocalyptic 1989 Earth from Greyhawk! We picked him up at the sheriff's office where he'd been helping out with little problem with 'night demons' around the town. The night demons are  from the Amazing Adventures Manual of Monsters.

 We then got reminded that our party had three of our number committed to taking on the mutant wrestlers in town at a no holds barred match! Battle Arena of Mr. Millennium adventure is back on the table top! 

Review & OSR Commentary On Talismundia Region 01: The Cold Steppes Map, Talismundia Region 02: The Dread Empire Map, & Talismundia Region 03: The Howling Wilds Map From James Mishler Games For Your Old School Campaigns,

" The Talismundia Campaign is a series of nine maps each detailing a portion of the world of Talismundia, a classic fantasy role-playing game campaign setting.

The world of Talismundia is eternally stuck in the midst of a Late Medieval-Early Renaissance-Old West cultural, political, and technological phase.

Ancient civilizations and their histories go back tens of thousands of years, and that's merely what the sages know, not counting what has been lost.

Modern civilizations are built upon the ruins of an unknown and perhaps unknowable number of previous civilizations, the ruins of which are now buried beneath the feet of modern settlements and strongholds, either occupied by the descendants of those lost civilizations or monstrous creatures who have moved in since."

"The treasures of those long-lost civilizations are there for the taking  whether lifted from dusty, empty ruins; looted from the vaults of the (often decadent and degenerate) descendants of the original inhabitants; or won through wit or blade from the monsters that reside therein."

The world above and below is a patchwork of petty states  here a kingdom, there a republic, hither a theocracy, thither a tribal confederation. Now and again, for a few decades or centuries, an empire might arise, but such is rare, as magic  the great equalizer of the fantasy realm is ubiquitous, though never grossly common."

 Talismundia Region 01: The Cold Steppes Map From James Mishler Games is essentially band new campaign section and setting that Mishler has been developing for his own campaign for years now. This is a series of fallen empires and petty states; "The series of nine Talismundia maps detail an entire continent – Magnaregia, of late center of the fallen Majestatis Imperium (simply known to most as “The Empire”), and the northern portion of the southern continent, Meridiarcanum, the “Mysterious South,” so called by the Empire as the two previous empires that had fallen ere its own rise rose and fell on the southern continent." This means that Talismundia is a wide open OSR campaign setting for the DM to customize the way they want to. Talismundia Region 02: The Dread Empire Map is the whole cloth dark setting of this campaign. 

The lands of Talismundia is filled with the worlds of popular rpg races and monsters. This land is filled with city states and war is common as these fantasy races brush up against each other.  
There's plenty here for the DM to customize the setting without upsetting the campaign setting. Here's the thing there's plenty of city states  & the history of the setting gives the feeling of a lot of depth in the campaign setting itself. And the maps are very well done. The cartography gives the feeling of the depth of the campaign the more I look at it. Talismundia Region 03: The Howling Wilds Map brings everything full circle with a wilderness that feels open and yawning. Not boring but deep and highly dangerous where the PC's can deeply into trouble here. 

 The PC's do not have the advantage in any of these realms or citystates within the lands of Talismundia. These are citystates on the edge if you carefully look at the monsters, the areas and monsters that are concentrated within these lands. This is a world that has been under constant conflict and minor strife throughout it's history. And it's waiting to be popped into and customized into your world. It's a perfect little setting for Adventurer, Conqueror, King second edition or Castles & Crusades rpg. 
And in point of fact it's perfect for the DM to pull it into an existing campaign world as the older and other side of the globe of such a world setting. Everything here within the Talismundia world is perfect for mining, campaign conquest, conflict or even all out war! I really like what James Mishler has done with these campaign maps and settings. 

OSR Commentary - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg

 "Orbital Decay is a stark, hard sci-fi roleplaying game, reborn as a standalone MicroRed edition from its origins as a Wretched RPG supplement. Initially released as an expansion for Wretched New Flesh, set in its bleak, surreal future, this version stands on its own. The setting, while keeping its ties to New Flesh, is fully optional. Game Masters can introduce it into their campaigns or create their own, adapting the game to any sci-fi universe they envision."

"In this game, player characters live in a cosmos of ruthless ambition, gnawing desperation, and moral decay, where humanity claws its way beyond Earth to build orbital stations and colonies across the solar system."

Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room is out and it's flown under the radar of many of the OSR & rpg community. More of the pity them. This is a narrowing of the focus of The New Flesh universe. Because optionally it takes the New Flesh universe and jumps it 102 years later. Orbital Decay does this with all aspects of the New Flesh Rpg & the rules reflect this. These rules show a slimmed down and nasty solar system of colonies, fuel depots, and other industrial places that mankind is just getting a grip on to jump out into the interstellar scene.  But this is the Red Room's MicroRed version. 

Everything that was talked about and adventure in in New Flesh has gotten worse. Much worse with the alien influences, creatures, monsters, drugs, etc. all tightening their collective grip around mankind's throat. 

And it doesn't matter that mankind has expanded out into the Orrt Cloud's asteroids,planetoids, and other solar system's moons. The situation has gotten worse with warfare, mankind's pettiness, and violence following him. 
'From Flesh to Void' chapter adds in the bits and pieces the DM needs to hook this supplement up with the  New Flesh rpg. 
The alien forces barely understood in New Flesh have only gotten weirder and worse in a way. 
This lines up to make the stellar frontier of Orbital Decay even bleaker then it's other edition or incarnation. This timeline sets out everything the DM needs to bring his players into Orbital Decay's scene that could potentially slide into Wretched Space second edition. If the DM wants it too. 
And this means that adventuring in Orbital Decay is all about recovering alien technologies from the edge of the solar system, dealing with the corporations, and making sure that the PC's can survive. This isn't so much a problem as it's a form and function of the campaign setting itself.