Gaming From The Fringes - 'Fantasy Gamer's Compendium, Revised and Expanded By Game Science' - Cha'alt/Godbound Campaign Commentary

I'm looking for a stop gap organization that's been observing the 'goings on' of the Cha'alt warp in my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign. The  'Order of the Lords of Mystery' fills the gap nicely & comes from a very prolific & unexpected source namely Game Science. The year is Nineteen Ninety & a new edition of 'The  Fantasy Gamer's Compendium, Revised and Expanded' comes into my hands. Phil Edgren, Dan Bress,  Ed Konstant, &  Ed Lipsett all  Game Science regulars get a compendium of old school goodness published  in one collected source. 

There's a really solid review of the 'The  Fantasy Gamer's Compendium, Revised and Expanded'  on the original Dungeons & Dragons pro board site here.  Now I've talked about using this book in the past but its time to really go to material. According to the Game Science website the book is still available for eleven dollars US & here's what's in it; "THE FANTASY GAMER'S COMPENDIUM

This fantasy gaming reference is actually 7 books in one.

The BOOK OF MYSTERY tells how to find the academy which your character attends between gaming sessions. He learns other languages, how to heal with herbs becomes a kung fu expert, and learns how to complete quests more successfully.

#2 The BOOK OF MONSTERS provides combat states and details of legendary creatures from Aztec, Eskimo and 40 other cultures. Many of these will not be found in the T.S.R. monster manual.

#3 The BOOK OF DEMONS describes 85 demons listed in the Kabala and Bible.

#4 The BOOK OF SORCERY provides 90 4 line incantations which magic users must flawlessly recite to make their magic effective. It also covers miscast spells, and many magic items.

#5 The BOOK OF SHAMANS introduces a whole new cast of characters. They can summon rain clouds, cause mana to fall from the heavens, change themselves into animals and they have 9 levels of skill through which to progress.

#6 The BOOK OF TREASURES describes treasures of legend and antiquity, like Exalibur the magic sword.

#7 The second part of this treasure book, tells of futuristic treasures, like zero gravity lifting device which players can use to haul unlimited treasure, or a stun wand, or time travel machine.

Separately, each of these books cost $5 or $8, and totaled $40+, but now its all in one work for $11."

Now my main concern is  The  'Order of the Lords of Mystery' which is a mysterious & secretive organization that has been observing the Cha'alt warp in California, Nevada, & Arizona. Now in past campaigns I've used them as a mysterious & secret order of monks & librarians who are obsessed with preserving the history & past of certain Prime Material planes & Earths. Who they work for isn't clear but many leaders bow to them. 
Actually the  'Order of the Lords of Mystery' is a 'duck blind' secret organization that works for & is a part of one of the  many facets of a 'space federation of planets'. This organization in my campaigns comes straight from the pages of Goblinoid Games Star Ships & Spacemen second edition. 


This being the Goblinoid Games rpg system fits right into the Adventurer,Conqeuror,King rpg system  paradigm that I've been using for my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign. The idea that the  'Order of the Lords of Mystery' abbots & monks have been helping with relief efforts from deep within my campaign's dragon NPC kingdoms makes a certain ironic sense. What no really knows is that the  'Order of the Lords of Mystery' is trying to ascertain how deeply the dangerous influence of xanthium-183 upon this plane. The brothers & sisters of the  'Order of the Lords of Mystery'  are spread across California. They are accompanied by blade dancer bodyguards straight out of the  Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg.


This fits some of the byline that I've established in the past using two sources one is Goblinoid Games Apes Victorious rpg because of its astronaut class. But there's also conversion rules for Labyrinth Lord & Mutant Future.  This makes it useful for ACK's because of the fact that ACK's uses Labyrinth Lord as its base system. 


 Goblinoid Games Apes Victorious rpg is very interesting to me because it back slides into 'The Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu' by Omer Joel, &  Alexander Macris. The   'Order of the Lords of Mystery'  may know far more then they are letting on to anyone! 


The dangers of the black pyramid & the Cha'alt wave across Earth gives rise to both minor cults of Chaos & the dangerous influence of the 'master' out in the desert wastelands as I explained in The Armies of Chaos From X4: "Master of the Desert Nomads" (1983), by David "Zeb" Cook - Cha'alt/Godbound Campaign Commentary over the weekend on this very blog. 

I'm designing may of these cults using Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos because I like the arrangement & solid rules grounding that the Dark Albion setting has. Are there solid rules here that can have a table top level impact! 



The real question is does   'Order of the Lords of Mystery' know far more then its letting on to about Cha'alt. Where does the 'Master' fit into this & what other weird horrors are waiting to be discovered by the player's PC's!?!