OSR Campaign Slab - Amazing Adventures Rpg - Weird War II Campaign

One of the OSR campaigns that I've been tossing around is a Weird War II Amazing Adventures campaign setting. 

Amazing Adventures is having  Codex Monstorum Kickstarter style campaign & to get ahead of the curve I decided to kick up a Weird War II campaign. Here's what I've got so far in my notes and such. 

 Troll Lord Games’ Amazing Adventures (built on the SIEGE Engine) is ideal for a Weird War II campaign, blending gritty 1940s military action with occult horror, superscience, and dieselpunk elements.

Campaign Overview: Operation: Götterdämmerung

• Tone: Gritty survival horror meets high-pulp action (Wolfenstein meets Where Eagles Dare).

• Core Conflict: As the axis forces face conventional collapse, their clandestine occult wing—the Ahnenerbe—and their military science division—the Waffen-SS Wunderwaffe Directorate—unearth ancient horrors and alien technology to rewrite the war's outcome.

• Player Character Roles: An elite joint-allied unit (OSS agents, British SOE operatives, resistance fighters, defector scientists, and occult investigators) tasked with sabotage, asset retrieval, and neutralizing paranormal threats.

Key Campaign Mechanics (SIEGE Engine Adjustments)

• Sanity / Stress System: Exposure to eldritch horrors or resurrected legions requires a Wisdom Check (Challenge Base 12/18). Failure incurs temporary insanity, phobias, or cumulative Willpower penalties.

• Guns & Steel: Firearms follow standard Amazing Adventures modern weapon rules, but Wunderwaffe weapons (Vril-blast rifles, tesla cannons) add dynamic energy damage types and hazard risks on critical fails.

Timeline of Events (1939–1946)

Year	Event Name	Campaign Lore & Mission Hooks
1939	The Thule Excavations	The Ahnenerbe begins massive archaeological digs in Antarctica, Tibet, and Norway, recovering hyperborean artifacts, precursor metals, and black-earth rituals.
1940	The Black Sun Rises	Heinrich Himmler consecrates Wewelsburg Castle as an occult nexus. Axis occultists summon the first batch of bound entities to serve as night-guards and infiltrators.
1941	Operation: Necromancer	During the invasion of the USSR, specialized SS units use dark rituals to reanimate fallen soldiers on the Eastern Front, creating the first Nacht-Grenadiers (undead shock troops).
1942	The Vril Breakthrough	Nazi scientists successfully harness Vril energy from precursor artifacts, powering jet prototypes, early walker-tanks (Panzer-Mechs), and directed-energy weaponry.
1943	The Oslo Incident	Campaign Mission 1: Allied intelligence learns of a heavy-water facility in Norway that isn't making atomic weapons, but opening a rift to a dark dimension. PCs infiltrate to sabotage the gate.
1944	D-Day & The Blood Moon	Normandy landing forces encounter not just pillboxes, but chemical-beast hybrids and mechanized exosuits. Allies establish the Special Occult Taskforce (SOT-8).
1945	The Berlin Eclipse	As Soviet and Allied forces close in on Berlin, Hitler retreats to an underground bunker complex housing an ancient subterranean temple. The Nazi leadership attempts a ritual to pull Berlin out of linear time.
1946	The Weird War (Alternate Continuity)	Berlin is encased in an impenetrable black barrier. The war drags on as Allied forces battle mutant-plagued battlefields, V2 rockets bearing occult payloads, and rogue warlords wielding alien technology.

Major Factions

• The Special Occult Taskforce (SOT-8): The PCs' sponsor organization, combining OSS field agents, British decipherers, and esoteric scholars.

• The SS-Ahnenerbe & Order of the Black Sun: The primary antagonists, led by high-ranking occultists seeking divine ascension and demonic bargains.

• The Iron Legion (Eisen-Legion): Mechanized infantry units utilizing Vril-powered armor and cybernetic augmentations.

• The Underground Resistance: European partisans who have adapted to fighting both conventional occupiers and unnatural monstrosities.

OSR Dangerous Adventure Location -The Iron Rust Exchange - Black Market - Warriors of the Red Planet Combined With ACKS II

 Merging the high-science fantasy sword-and-planet flavor of Warriors of the Red Planet (WotRP) with the rigorous domain economics, supply chains, and law enforcement mechanics of Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) creates a compelling, highly volatile black market. This blog post picks right up from OSR Dangerous Adventure Location - Port Skagg: The Sunken Docks & Upper Moorings - Warriors of the Red Planet Combined With ACKS II

Below is a detailed framework for The Iron-Rust Exchange—an illegal bazaar operating within the canal-cities or subterranean ruins of Mars.

The Iron-Rust Exchange

Operating clandestinely beneath the crimson silt of the Dead Sea Basin.

1. Structural Mechanics & Domain Integration (ACKS II)

In ACKS II economic terms, the Exchange operates as a Class IV Outlaw Market embedded within a larger legal Settlement (Class I or II City).

• Market Class & Dynamic Cap: Standard legal Class IV market cap is 15,000 gp/month. However, contraband transactions ignore local tariff laws and demand a +50% to +200% markup on forbidden retro-tech or illegal biomatter.

• Law & Order / Smuggling Risk: Operating or buying in the Exchange increases the local domain’s Crime Level (+1 per month). Every purchase requires a Market Scrutiny Check ($1d20 + \text{Domain Security}$) against the party’s Hijinking / Criminal Proficiency.

  • Failure: Triggers a Red Martian City-Guard raid or assassin ambush.

2. Contraband Inventory & Exchange Goods

Goods combine pulp Sword-and-Planet science (WotRP) with gold-piece valuation (ACKS II).

Item / Commodity	Classification	Price (gp)	Black Market Impact & Availability
Rad-Rifle Energy Cells	High-Tech Ammo	150 gp / cell	Restricted by High-Martian Oligarchs. Restores 20 charges to ancient ray-weapons.
Life-Siphon Elixir	illegal Alchemy / Bio-tech	500 gp / dose	Synthesized from harvested Silt-Beast glands. Restores $2d6$ HP instantly, but causes $1d4$ permanent System Strain / Taint.
Ancient Ray-Pistol (Defective)	Retro-Tech Weapon	1,200 gp	Functions as a WotRP Blaster ($3d6$ damage), but rolls a $1$ on $1d20$ to explode ($2d6$ Fire damage in 10ft radius).
Thark Blood-Silks	Smuggled Luxury	80 gp / bolt	Forbidden textiles dyed with four-armed apex-predator pigment. High demand among corrupt patricians (+2 to Reaction Rolls in elite courts).
Bred Warmount (Sceleris-Beast)	Illegal Mount	2,500 gp	Genetically engineered, razor-clawed mount. Requires a Beast Taming / Riding proficiency check to control in battle.
Vril-Graft Cybernetics	Forbidden Surgery	3,000+ gp	Biomodification (e.g., night-vision lenses, reinforced carapace). Grants +1 Armor Class or special senses, but costs -2 Charisma due to visible ghastly mutations.

3. Key Factions & Market Brokers

The Crimson Syndicate (Outlaw Gang / Guild)

• Leader: Vael-Khor, the Blind Scavenger (Level 7 WotRP Scientist / Rogue hybrid).

• Role: Controls access to the Vaults. They take a 10% "protection tax" on all transactions conducted inside the Exchange.

• ACKS II Domain Action: Uses criminal revenues to fund Smuggling Runs and Hijinking Operations against the ruling Red Martian Merchant Prince.

The Guild of Oxygen Thieves

• Leader: Korr-Zal (Four-Armed Green Martian Warlord Exile).

• Role: Specializes in illegal water rights, air-scrubber canisters, and slaving operations along the Martian canal zones.

• Conflict: Deeply hostile to any adventurers attempting to disrupt the regional water monopolies.

4. Encounter & Complication Table ($1d6$)

When PCs shop, negotiate, or sell stolen tech in the Iron-Rust Exchange, roll $1d6$:

1. City Guard Shakedown: A corrupt High-Martian Sentinel officer demands a 200 gp bribe or threatens to report the PCs to the City Inquisition.

2. Ray-Pistol Misfire: A botched transaction results in an unstable energy cell overheating. $2d6$ seconds before detonation!

3. Black-Market Auction: An intact Ancient Martian Automaton is being auctioned off. Bidding starts at 5,000 gp.

4. Vril-Disease Outbreak: A buyer collapses; mutated retro-virus releases into the crowded bazaar (Requires a Save vs. Poison or take $1d6$ Con damage).

5. Infiltrator Spy: A PC notices a cloaked spy taking notes on everyone purchasing illegal energy cells.

6. Bounty Hunter Strike: $1d4+1$ Red Martian Mercenaries attempt to capture a syndicate broker mid-deal, causing a chaotic shootout.

5. Campaign Hooks

• The Stolen Power Core: A local Merchant Lord hires the party to recover a stolen Vril Engine stolen from a canal lock. Tracking it leads directly to the subterranean vaults of the Exchange.

• The Black Market Monopoly: To establish their own Domain (ACKS II high-level play), the PCs must clear out the Crimson Syndicate and seize control of the subterranean trade routes, balancing criminal revenue against public unrest.

OSR Classic B Movie Monster - The Killer Klowns From Outer Space & Random Encounters Table for Cepheus Engine Rpg

 

Alien Threat Profile: Klowns (Killer Klowns from Outer Space)

Klown (Standard Outer Space Klown)

• Attributes: STR 11 (+1), DEX 09 (+0), END 12 (+2), INT 07 (-1), EDU 02 (-2), SOC 01 (-2)

• Skills: Athletics 1, Deception 2, Gun Combat (Slug/Energy) 2, Melee (Unarmed) 2, Science (Bio-Technology) 1, Stealth 1

• Armor: 4 (Padded Carnival Costume/Gag Padding)

• Traits: Absurd Resilience, Nose Vulnerability

• Weapons:

  • Cotton Candy Ray: Range 20m, Damage (Special: Trapped in Cotton Candy Cocoon on hit)

  • Popcorn Gun: Range 15m, Damage 2d6 (Fires mutated, growing larvae popcorn)

  • Mallet / Oversized Boxing Gloves: Melee, Damage 3d6

• Inventory: Shadow Puppet Kit, Balloon Tracking Dog, Acid Pies

Special Rules & Traits

• Nose Vulnerability (Critical Weakness): Klowns are virtually immune to standard body/head trauma. All hits to their torso or extremities reduce damage by half after armor. However, any targeted strike to the Klown's bright red, bulbous nose (Requires a Targeted Attack penalty of -2 to hit) ignores all Armor. If the nose suffers 3 or more points of damage in a single attack, the nose bursts, causing the Klown to violently spin out, pop, and instantly die in a burst of harmless confetti and sparks.

• Absurd Resilience: Klowns automatically succeed on physical checks to resist knockback, stunned states, or environmental hazards (vacuum, extreme cold/heat). They do not breathe standard atmospheric gases.

• Cotton Candy Cocooning: Targets hit by the Cotton Candy Ray suffer no direct physical damage. Instead, they are encased in a hardened, sugar-spun cocoon. A cocooned character is paralyzed and begins taking 1 point of END damage per hour as their body is converted into liquid nutrition for the Klowns. Breaking free requires a Formidable (DM -2) STR Check or outside cutting/burning.

Alien Equipment & Gadgetry

• Cotton Candy Ray Gun: Powered by an internal bio-battery. Fires a sticky, quickly solidifying pink beam. Targets caught inside must roll DEX or STR at DM -2 to avoid immediate entrapment.

• Acid Pies: Thrown splash weapon (Range 5m). Direct hit deals 4d6 Acid Damage; adjacent targets take 1d6 splash damage. Dissolves hull plating, starship bulkheads, and organic matter rapidly.

• Shadow Puppet Projector: Klowns can manipulate light sources using hand gestures. Any crew member viewing the shadow puppet must succeed on an Average (+0) INT or EDU check. On a failure, the puppet manifests as a physical entity (e.g., a giant shadow monster) capable of devouring targets before disappearing.

• Balloon Tracking Dog: A living animal sculpted from an indestructible, rubber-like bio-material. It tracks target scents with a DM +3 DM to Recon/Survival checks.

Starship: The Big Top Mothership

• Hull/Type: 2,000-ton Circus Tent Lander (Subsector/Interstellar Capable)

• Drive Systems: Gravity-Manipulating Warp Drive (Disguised as a festive tent pole center spire)

• ,Armament: Mega-Scale Cotton Candy Cannons (Ship-to-ship cocooning)

• Internal Layout: Non-Euclidean geometry. The exterior measures 30 meters across, but the interior functions as a 10,000-square-meter maze of neon corridors,funhouses, gelatinous harvesting vats, and giant popcorn siloes.

Campaign & Encounter Hooks

1. The Carnival in Sector 4: A distress signal leads the crew to a backwater agricultural colony. The starport is completely deserted, save for giant pink cocoons hanging from the rafters and footprints shaped like oversized clown shoes.

2. Space-Junk Surprise: The crew salvages an unregistered, brightly colored escape pod floating near an asteroid belt. Upon forcing the airlock, they find a giant pie and a jack-in-the-box that begins counting down.

3. Infiltration & Rescue: A high-ranking patron or crew member has been captured and brought aboard the Mothership. The party must sneak through the non-Euclidean funhouse interior to disrupt the main sugar-harvesting engine before their ally is liquefied.

d100 Killer Klowns Encounter & Event Generator

d100	Encounter / Event
01-03	A pair of Klowns silhouetted against a neon-lit alley are making shadow puppets on a brick wall. The shadow of a massive T-Rex detached from the wall and is lumbering toward the party.
04-06	A brightly colored ice cream truck drives down a quiet street playing a warped, slowed-down carousel tune. The driver is a Klown tossing ice cream cones filled with carnivorous popcorn larvae to oblivious children.
07-09	A pink, translucent cocoon hangs suspended from a streetlamp. Inside, a localized civilian's face is pressed against the sugar-shell, mouthing for help as a long candy-striped straw drops in from above.
10-12	A Klown sitting on a park bench squeaks together a red balloon tracking dog. Once finished, it sniffing the air, turns to face the characters, and begins barking violently.
13-15	Two Klowns are engaged in an absurd boxing match in the middle of an intersection. One knock the other’s head clean off—revealing it to be a jack-in-the-box mechanism that begins spraying acid pie filling at onlookers.
16-18	A giant, 50-foot Big Top circus tent has materialized overnight, crushing a suburban block. Trapped inside, faint screams and circus music echo through the neon-glowing entrance flaps.
19-21	A patrol car sits idling at the side of the road. Inside, two police officers are completely encased in hard cotton candy, their faces frozen in silent terror.
22-24	A Klown wielding an oversized invisible rope pantomimes pulling something heavy. Suddenly, an invisible physical wall or barricade snaps into existence, blocking the characters' escape vehicle.
25-27	A vending machine on the corner blinks with strange alien glyphs. Dispensing a bag of popcorn causes tiny, mutated Klown-headed worms to burst forth and attack the buyer's face.
28-30	A parade of giant inflatable balloon floats drifts down the main street. The floats are sentient, actively reaching down to grab pedestrians and stuff them into candy vats embedded in their bellies.
31-33	A Klown dressed as a magician offers a character a trick deck of cards. Picking a card causes the entire deck to fly out, wrapping around the character like razor-sharp flying blades.
34-36	The crew discovers an abandoned diner where every surface—tables, jukebox, floor—is covered in a thick layer of sticky, glowing pink cotton candy residue.
37-39	A Klown riding a tiny, ridiculously small unicycle pursues the party's vehicle. Despite the tiny wheel, it maintains a speed of 80 mph and is preparing to toss an Acid Pie through the rear window.
40-42	A local survivor is seen frantically shooting a Klown in the chest with a shotgun. The Klown merely giggles, dusts off its polka-dot jumpsuit, and pulls out a giant mallet.
43-45	A Klown holds a giant pie and motions to a character to take a bite. The pie smells irresistibly like warm apple pie, but a closer look reveals steaming green industrial acid bubbling in the crust.
46-48	A carnival funhouse mirror maze has popped up in a shopping mall. Reflection copies of the party members step out of the glass, armed with gag weapons and oversized squeaky hammers.
49-51	A Klown shoots a harmless-looking water pistol at a party member. The spray is actually a powerful bio-solvent that instantly dissolves body armor and clothing.
52-54	The sky flashes bright neon purple as a cluster of glowing comet-like pods land in a nearby park. When they open, tiny Klown spores rain down onto the vegetation.
55-57	A Klown sitting on a unicycle stops to do a "living statuary" act. Anyone who looks directly away for even a second finds the Klown teleported 10 feet closer, grinning wider each time.
58-60	A swarm of carnivorous popcorn larvae bursts out of an overturned movie theater concessions stand, crawling over everything and mutating into miniature Klowns in real-time.
61-63	A siren wails, but it isn't an air-raid siren—it's a kazoo played through a 10,000-watt PA system mounted to a floating Klown saucer hovering over the downtown square.
64-66	A Klown pulls a endless colorful handkerchief chain out of its mouth. The handkerchief chain coils around a character’s legs like a boa constrictor, dragging them toward a cocoon gun.
67-69	A local radio station begins broadcasting a high-pitched clown laughter loop. Anyone who fails an INT check feels an overwhelming urge to walk toward the Big Top spaceship.
70-72	A group of panicked civilians is trapped inside a transparent clown-car that seems physically impossible—over forty people are packed into a vehicle the size of a VW Beetle.
73-75	A Klown stands atop a building holding an armful of cream pies. It begins launching them like artillery shells, leaving smoking, acid-etched craters in the asphalt below.
76-78	The party finds a trail of discarded giant red noses on the ground. Touching one causes it to honk loudly, alerting every Klown within 500 meters to the party's location.
79-81	A Klown offers a flower lapel pin as a token of peace. Spraying it releases a cloud of knocking-out gas (paralytic) that smells faintly of bubblegum.
82-84	A Klown-controlled seltzer bottle sprays a stream of liquid nitrogen-cold soda, freezing a character’s limb solid on contact.
85-87	The crew stumbles into a harvesting room inside the Big Top: thousands of cotton candy cocoons hooked up to complex neon bendy-straws feeding a central reservoir tank.
88-90	A massive Klown hand drops from the clouds, picking up a civilian car like a toy and dropping it into a giant, striped popcorn bucket.
91-93	A group of Klowns are playing a game of ring-toss using glowing neon hula hoops. Anyone caught in a hoop is instantly paralyzed and levitated toward a pickup vessel.
94-96	A Klown wielding a pair of giant clippers attempts to snip off a character’s shadow. If successful, the character loses the ability to cast a shadow and suffers a permanent penalty to DEX checks.
97-98	Klownzilla Appears: A gargantuan, 100-foot-tall Klown emperor steps over buildings, crushing tanks beneath giant red shoes and laughing hysterically as it searches for a giant pie pan.
99-00	Mothership Liftoff: The Big Top spaceship initiates launch prep. The sky turns deep magenta, gravity grows unstable within a 2-mile radius, and sugar-dust storms sweep the area.

OSR Commentary - Exploring The Arduin Trilogy Boxed Set – Harbinger Edition Rpg By Emperor's Choice Games

 

Published by Emperor’s Choice Games (the long-time stewards of Dave Hargrave’s legendary Arduin multiverse), the Arduin Trilogy Boxed Set – Harbinger Edition is a modern retro-clone/restoration release designed to preserve and expand upon the classic 1970s Arduin Grimoires.

It serves as both a pristine reprint collection of Hargrave’s foundational books and a treasure-trove package loaded with unreleased collector’s material, expanded card sets, and vintage game aids.

Core Contents of the Harbinger Box

The Harbinger Edition collects the foundational texts that gave birth to the Arduin Grimoire series in their original $6 \times 9$-inch saddle-stitched digest formats:

• Volume I: The Arduin Grimoire (Variant Double Pack)

  • Includes two separate printings of the legendary 96-page first volume:

    1. The iconic Erol Otus cover edition.

    2. The Greg Espinoza cover edition.

  • Content: Introduces original custom classes (Phraint, Rune Weaver, Star-Powered Mage), critical hit/fumble tables, and cross-genre sci-fi/fantasy spells.

• Volume II: Welcome to Skull Tower (100 pages)

  • Expands on monster stats, hive-mind creatures, additional spell levels, and rules for tech-magic integration (plasma weapons, power armor) within classic fantasy d20 frameworks.

• Volume III: The Runes of Doom (100 pages)

  • Features high-level planar travel, demonology charts, exotic magical items, and Hargrave's gonzo worldbuilding details.

• The Arduin Primer (16 pages)

  • A rare, reprinted classic collector's booklet outlining the foundations of the Arduin rule set and campaign philosophy.

Boxed Goods & Physical Extras

Beyond the core books, the Harbinger Box includes physical accessories designed to evoke late-70s/early-80s boxed sets:

• Custom Packaging: A sturdy storage box designed with side finger-slots for easy shelf retrieval.

• Unpublished Magik Item Cards: Two artifact reference cards pulled directly from Dave Hargrave’s personal, previously unreleased archival notes.

• Cardstock Critical Hit Table: A durable, standalone reference card for Arduin’s famous, brutal critical hit and amputation charts.

• Character Sheet Pack: Four printed blank vintage-style Arduin character sheets.

• Polyhedral Dice: A full set of black polyhedral gaming dice.

Harbinger Edition Bonus Card Bundles

Emperor's Choice bundled the Harbinger Boxed Set with two supplemental card expansions that convert classic Arduin lore into modular gaming aids:

Add-On Bundle	Description / Contents
Arduin Fantasy Card Collection	A 72-card cut-out sheet set featuring monster stats, exotic treasures, and classic Arduin encounters.
Arduin Character Pack & Pocket Rules	A 40-card character option deck alongside the Pocket Rules ABA (Arduin Battle System) quick-reference guide.

Why It Matters for OSR & Classic Gaming

1. Preservation of Early Sci-Fantasy: Before official campaign settings unified fantasy styles, Hargrave’s work bridged raw, high-lethal d20 dungeon crawls with lasers, psionics, and cosmic horrors.

2. Modular Utility: The material in the Harbinger Edition functions both as a standalone retro-clone system or as a plug-and-play "weird fantasy" supplement for traditional OSR engines (like Worlds Without Number, ACKS II, or Barrows & Borderlands).

3. Historical Value: By including both the Otus and Espinoza versions of Volume I, it preserves the visual evolution of one of tabletop RPG history's earliest independent publications