Deeper & Deeper Into The Station From Hell - The Red Room's Orbital Decay & Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers - Session Report

 Tonight's  DM Paul's Colonial Troopers/Orbital Decay campaign and tonight's game picks right up where we were in last week's session. Our scientist Pu ar aj created a device that can disrupt the phasing ability of the alien monsters we were dealing with. 

The catch was that the device could only work from room to room. My Colonial Trooper PC and the rest of our mercs went from room to room putting Matt our engineer and psychic to work. We left two of our alien friends partially phased into a bulkhead. That was one down and more to go. Just as Matt threw up a field saving my character from two acid edged claws. 
Our PC's are looking for the artifact that the scientists took on board which seems to be holding open the dimensional gate the alien monsters are using. The aliens took one of psychics a healer named DEV by phasing her through the wall of the Science section! 

The monsters seem to be attacking in a directed pattern and our PC's laser rifles are set not to blow holds in the station's walls or floors. So it's been partially a 'cat & mouse' game with these horrors.  Our next objective is the station's engineering & reactor room. 

Read Through & First Impressions of Cepheus Universal: Player's Book By Paul Elliott For The Cepheus Universal Rpg

 So awhile back I picked up the massive Cepheus Universal Rpg rules which clock in at four hundred & forty three pages of the newest incarnation of the Zozer version of the Cepheus Engine. And then I discovered the  Cepheus Universal: Player's Book which gives even more player oprions for PC creation. 

We get term-by-term character creation, 
designed character creation,
random character creation, & 
what skill levels and characteristics really mean. Then we there's even more PC options such as: 

• Secret agendas for characters
• Career load outs
• Random name lists
• Combat and game rules
• Full equipment lists
• Point buy psionics, cybernetics and retrogenics
• Group creation suggestion
• Gadgeteering rules
  And this adds a far more nuianced feeling to the ten minute PC creation. But is this the same rpg system as Zozer Games Hostile Rpg?! 
  Well yes and no, there are definitely Hostile rpg system bones within Cepheus Universal but the system is far more designed & written for expanded 2d6 Science Fictional rpg campaigning. And the Player's Book adds to this by do a very decent job of boiling down some of the Cepheus Universal systems into a more player oriented book. This supplement makes the game more player based and easier to use in my opinion. Is it necessary?! For me as a DM? Oh yes! 
  
  
  
  Because the Player's Book adds in both optional PC systems & makes the existing material so much easier to digest for PC creation. There are more PC system  options making PC creation a breeze. And Cepheus Universal is easily used with other Cepheus Engine rpg systems so existing 2d6 campaign setting are a snap to use with this book
  As a companion supplement the  Cepheus Universal: Player's Book works very solidly to serve as both bridge point & player's guide to this incarnation of the Cepheus Engine. All in all very satified with my newest 2d6 supplement addition. 

The Next Frontier By Joseph Mohr & The Clement Sector Rpg Session Report - Wolf Attack - Session Report

 "After a long and grueling mission the travelers are relaxing at a star port tavern when they are approached by a grizzled old veteran of the Sonoran Frontier Scout Service. He is looking for crews for scouting duties beyond the borders of the Sonora sector. These areas beyond the borders are dangerous and unexplored by humans. Humans have certainly visited the edges of these sectors but none have fully been explored. In fact...most of these sectors have barely been touched by human visitors. As the human race expands outward into the stars the need for knowledge of these frontiers places becomes more imperative." 

"The Frontier Scout Service has scouted many such places. But in recent years the strain on the service’s resources has become apparent. Too many of their scouts have perished in this outer rim of the galaxy. Many scouts have gone into the wildest places of the adjacent sectors and have not returned. No trace has been recovered of most of these expeditions.

The Frontier Scout Service needs a brave team to make a survey of the nearby sub-sector which the Frontier Scout Service has designated Galakodana" 

I had a spur of the moment Clement Sector rpg session & we had already completed our first leg of the campaign already. The PC's were swept away by the money that the grizzled old veteran of the Clement  Frontier Scout Service. The Next Frontier By Jospeh Mohr is well done & well written. The Next Frontier can easily be adapted to any 2d6 Rpg Science Fiction. Note that 'aliens' in our Clement sector games are actually uplifted or modified humans who were sent on exploritory missions during the days of wormhole. The Clement sector has lost communication with this region of space. 
The PC's signed onto the patronage of Scout Charles Anderson whose service to the Clement Frontier Scout Service has been done with solid references. Those references were checked & they began in earnest. The party began to note the number of dangerous hyperspacial and subspace anomolies which played merry havoc with some of thier drives. The party made for a ball of ice & it was a pock marked Hellscape called Tormazonia. We made contact with the lizard like humanoid  Ginuk who had a small Science resarch outpost on this icy world. 

The biggest question was why?! The PC's began looking at everything about Tormazonia. And found out that the little world has naturally occuring cold fusion & this got the PC's excited. 
Everything was going well until some uplifted pirates showed up! And of course it's Wolf time thanks to Ian Stead's artwork. 

The edges of the Clement Sector map are slowly being reclaimed from the Blackness in our campaign. These areas are being claimed back by the Scout Service and the Cascadia Colonization Authority which keeps close tabs on the Scouts.. 

Violent Mechanisms of the Second American Civil War - Cities Without Number & Zozer Games Earth Sourcebook for The Hostile Rpg

 What if the newest face of the American Civil War wasn't what everyone thinks it's about?! This is the question that I asked myself when I was reading through Cities Without Number and Zozer Games Earth setting book by Paul Elliot for the Hostile Rpg 

Earth's setting book has written into her timeline the American Civil War II which is not about North Vs South American forces. Instead, it's about the erroiding of individual rights in the face of the mega corporations of Earth. 
One of the flash points for this new American Civil War is the front of Texas which is pretty much in the cross hairs of the mega corporations over stepping thier bounds onto states rights. 
Cities Without Number has something similar with the mega corporations overstepping thier bounds much earlier and then things kick off. 
This isn't the start of the new Civil War but instead merely a series of brushfire wars that leads into the situation becoming much worse later on. 
Texas becomes the Casablanca of the West where agents, corporate forces, state armies, the American Police forces, and the operators all meet. 
Because of the fact that Cities Without Numbers uses the Cepheus Engine skill system as it's base. We've got a readily available campaign setting that we can port over. 

What would a cyberpunk style second American Civil War look like? The Civil War  would be a series of brush fire conflicts, terrororist actions, and pitched battles set together with operator parties, brutal Cold War style esponisage, high tech gadgets, and more. 

 What if I told you that the actual cause of the conflict was something far different?! Suppose that Earth actually harbors sinister alien intelligences. And these alien intelligences are totally unseen. Far fetched?! Not really in a world where evil clones & androids are hunted down there's plenty of room for rogue A.I.'s . The Kosmo's 60's blog has an entry on 'Violent Mechanisms,' which are exactly as they sound rogue murderous retrofuturistic A.I.'s. Russia and America of the Earth sourcebook used to be partners in space exploration. That partnership dissolved under unknown circumstances. What if the A.I.'s sewed the seeds of distrust?! An accident here, an untraceable murder there, and the break down of an international partnership. 
Now imagine if a few of those rogue A.I.'s wanted to set the mega corporations & the pesky humans of the United States at each other's throats. A few well timed disasters and infrastructure breakdowns with the mega corporation's finger prints on them?! The perfect cover for an A.I. implied American Civil War II & a bleeding ground for violent experimentation under the fog of war. 

Tides In The Void - The Red Room's Orbital Decay & Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers - Session Report

 Over the weeekend, I got a chance to play in DM Paul's Colonial Troopers/Orbital Decay . This is a pick up on a gam that we played back in Febuary. Here's the session report from that on game!  Here we find ourselves back in the Orrt Cloud investigating Science station that's gone off line. 

We had a mixed party of adventurers who had been in the service. I however was playing a pure colonial trooper mercenary with a wealthy patron who was bank rolling my armor. We had a mixed party of mercenaries, explorers, and spacers. We dived closer to the Eclipse station D.E.E.P. asteroid monitoring & Science station. 
 The station was a complete mess when we got there. Solar arrays and power was fragmented across the top of the station. Not good. 

We were working for the American Federation and things were going from bad to worse. Power was completely off in the station. So we had to connect power from our ship. We did the manual locks and our fourth level psionic psionic and engineer scanned the place. 
The impressions weren't good at all. And as we entered we found body parts floating in the void of the station. We got the computer back on line and found out that the Science station had taken on an artifact of unknown origin. And then all Hell broke loose. 

Karl my character came in and started scanning the outer interior of the of the Science station. Immediately, I was attacked by two nasty alien things. Thier claws were acid edged. And I quickly brought my laser pistol to bare. The thing had been programmed so that I didn't blow a hole in the station. 
Packing deeper into the station I found two of the scientists partially phased into the wall. This was bad news. 
Matt our engineer joined me and threw up a psychic shield just as one of the monsters launched himself at our party. Scott our spacer threw two multi dimensional foam grenades!  And really screwed with the phasing abilities of the aliens. The aliens were stuck for the moment. 
Communication seemed to be off the table. And we really wanted to save the station if possible. More to come. 

OSR Commentary - The Original Dungeons & Dragons Threat of The Warriors of Pan Tang

 “. Now he asked: “And who is this mighty sorcerer, Master Pilarmo?” “His name is Theleb K’aarna,” Pilarmo answered nervously. Elric’s scarlet eyes narrowed. “The sorcerer of Pan Tang?” “Aye—he comes from that island.” Elric put his cup down upon the table and rose, fingering his blade of black iron, the runesword Stormbringer. He said with conviction: “I will help you, gentlemen.” He had made up his mind not to rob them, after all. A new and more important plan was forming in his brain. Theleb K’aarna, he thought. So you have made Bakshaan your bolt-hole, eh?”
― Michael Moorcock, Elric: The Stealer of Souls

I've covered my interactions with the Stormbringer rpg's version of the Pan Tangians on this blog back in 2020  here. In the 80's I had a Games Workshop Pan Tangian Chaos army including tigers and more. My love of the Pan Tangians stretches back too original Dungeons & Dragons Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demigods, and Heroes's Michael Moorcock Elric Mythos. The Pan Tangian warriors of OD&D are deadly; "PAN TANG WARRIORS Move etc. as men An army of fighters all able to fight with the ability of a 10th level fighter. These humans never check moral and ride a 6 legged reptile which stands 15 feet tall and moves 20" per turn." What made them deadly was two fold, one is that these warriors could show up anywhere and they were deadly tenth level fighters! 

During the Eighties in my uncle's original Dungeons & Dragons game campaigns we crossed swords with the Pan Tangians numerous times. And died at least three or more times. 

And one of the things that made the Pan Tangian armies so deadly was thier trained and Chaos tainted tigers. These tigers were always accompanying the warriors of Pan Tang; " FIGHTING TIGERS OF TANG Armor Class — 4 Fighter Ability: As Tigers Move: 19" Psionic Ability: Class 6 Hit Points These are 10 feet tall tigers able to bite for 4 (8-sided) dice of damage and claw for 3 (8-sided). They always appear beside the Pan Tang warriors, one to a mount."  My uncle's own 15 MM Pan Tangian army was our adventurer's bane through out or campaign and beyond. It wasn't until the 90's that we learnt that it was actually a Pan Tangian agent with his own private army of mercenaries who dogged our heels. In fact, in part three of   'The Madcap Laughs' were introduced to a hunch backed Pan Tangian sorcerer Ylastraraa Taar who has an agenda all of his own for the PC's. This NPC managed to survive the events of 'The Madcap Laughs' & then plague the PC's for more then a year of play.

That twisted little S.O.B. followed us from the Young Kingdoms to Greyhawk then across the Million Spheres! That slight could be traced back to our original Dungeons & Dragons Greyhawk folio campaign when we were doing guard duty for a trade caravan to Pan Tang.. That's right one NPC dogged our party for a whole two  year span from '89 through '91.  

OSR Commentary - Further Readings Into Raiders of The Lost Artifacts Rpg By Night Owl Workshop

 Over the last two days, I've been incredibly busy with work and familial stuff. However, I did manage to pull in a discussion with another friend of mine about Raiders of the Lost Artifacts rpg by Night Owl Workshop. I've used RoA as a game and campaign fller for Wretched Interbellum in the past especially with the Scientist class being able to be used a stand in for a mage. 

 And using Raiders for filling in PC classes is especially handy. The OSR library site has a ton of new classes for RoA  that David Baymiller did.    These are perfect to add into a party going on exploring jaunts. This means that the party is far more or less modernly handled. 
So whose actually maintaining the traps and ancient ruins?! The short answer is cults are and this is because these dungeons & ruins are psychic batteries of occult power and misery that the optional occultist class channels into thier machinations. Cults using thier sacred ruins & dungeons gain the ability to charm & influence once every new moon. 
The occultist when casting ritual magic within the dungeon or ruin casts at one level higher. Traps and tricks within a dungeon or ruin are there to further the pot of supernatural power. This power allows the occultists to have access to more dangerous rituals that might seem outta of reach. Magick and the supernatural is all about power and domination. 
For our own game campaigns, dungeons & ruins allow occultists to have access to the Beyond. The Beyond comes from the Wretched Rpg and allows the occultist to have access to the power hungry entities. Entities who want to cut deals and further thier own agendas. 
The Beyond comes with it's own agenda however and the supernatural energies of that universe are terryifying unto themselves. Those exposed to & channeling the occult energies are subject to horrific mutations. 
And at higher levels within our games occultists can become quisi demonic lords immune to many mundane & physical hazards. The price for these immunies is high as the occultist becomes more and more a creature of the Beyond. They slip further and further away from our own dimensions. 

Between The Cracks Of Reality Campaign Set Up - Wretched Interbellum & The RPG Pundit Files The Invisible College: 1930's Campaign

 So over the last couple of months I've gotten to play in a friend's Wretched Interbellum rpg game and he's thrown in some bits and pieces of  RPG Pundit's Invisible College. Because the Red Room is having a special promotion on The Rpg Pundit Files: The Invisible College, there's a huge discount on the Wretched Interbellum campaign setting; "This is the largest Pundit Files yet at 24 pages. And the cost is still $3.50! Also, when you buy this issue, you can use the promo code invisiblecollege for a 50% discount on the purchase of Wretched Interbellum, the Wretched setting that covers the 1930s. That’s a $6.50 discount on a 390 page setting book for a $3.50 purchase!"

The 1930's were marked by an increase in occult activity & Wretched Interbellum reflects this. The psychic fall out from WWI has put millions of restless dead into the supernatural ether.  hits on the fact that the Invisible CollleThe RPG Pundit Files The Invisible College: 1930's Campaign's occult and supernatural secret societies are struggling to keep up with the demands of the 1930's. We as DM's and players get a plethora of snap shots and details on how these occult and supernatural sects react as the years go by. 
These details can be worked into a Wretched Interbellum campaign easily. The factions of the Invisible College are going to butt heads and clash with the factions of the Wretched Interbellum even if they are fronts for other Invisible College factions. A war would be happening on two fronts the battles of Pre WWII and the occult clashes behind the scenes. In our Wretched campaign, Wretched Interbellum's Europe has been invaded by the Greys. And the Invisible College is aware of the invasion! 
The first tenative steps to this happened in 1917  because of Aliester Crowley's the "Amalantrah Workings," According to the Grey's Wiki entry; "As early as 1917, the occultist Aleister Crowley described a meeting with a "preternatural entity" named Lam that was similar in appearance to a modern Grey. Crowley believed he had contacted the entity through a process that he called the "Amalantrah Workings," which he thought allowed humans to contact beings from outer space and across dimensions. Other occultists and ufologists, many of whom have retroactively linked Lam to later Grey encounters, have since described their own visitations from him, with one describing the being as a "cold, computer-like intelligence," and utterly beyond human comprehension"  This contact allowed the Lam to punch holes into our reality from the Beyond. 
 The Greys are on the expansion train again and using cults to build gateways that allow them appear in New York and Europe. New York is on a 'slow kill breeding & expansion'  program. LAM are opening gateways into apartments and buildings then snatching people. The LAM are using a black liquid evolutionary accelerant virus that rewrites the victims genetic material. This process hollows out the victim's body allowing a 'feral LAM' to be born. Feral LAM are monsters of pure instinct and hunger with sharp claws and teeth. Any meat or protein is used to fuel the evolutionary change into the far more logical LAM form. The LAM have been expanding operations in major cities in America and Europe because almost no one has noticed. Anyone exposed to the accelerant virus must make a disease save or contract the LAM genetic material that will overwrite thier own material allowing the hatching of feral monster killing the host. 

Only by using a variation of the Banishing rite page 106 can one banish and close the psychic door of the LAM. This will force the entities back to the Beyond and they as well as thier works will evaporate. There is a breeding hive in Midtown Manhatten that has become ground zero for the LAM. 
Cults actively capture any 'feral Lam' that they come across and then secret them into facilities in the wilds of New York state and New England. A process repeated across Europe. 
The Machitore are monitoring the situation and watching with cold logical detactment.  Thier agents have been getting a bit close to the action and two or three have already been killed. 

The Invisible College's agents approach the PC's or are actively are part of the party. This means that the PC's are going to be stretched thin. 
The Adventurer's Club is being pushed to get involved The AC's occultist are pulling back and making adjustments with thier own adventurers. Note that the AC is very active during the Wretched Interbellum period. They work with the Invisible College from time to time. The AC knows that something is up with the Black Lodge but not what?! 
The Black Lodge lost a ton of ground & resources during World War I and have been acively canvasing to get back ground. 
The Black Lodge is trying to push further support to the German Nazi party. The Black Lodge believes that Hitler & co. are going to be easily controlled. The Thule society and the Vril oganization have contacted the LAM. They believe that they can make covenants with the LAM not knowing the true danger of these creatures. The LAM continue to fuel the German's Vril and Thule laced dreams. The rest of the Earth has no idea of the true danger that they are in. 

Colonies On A Needle's Head Among The Clouds - - The Oort Cloud & The Hostile Rpg - Campaign Setting Update

 A while back, I talked about using the Oort Cloud section of our outer solar system as an exploitable resource for the Hostile rpg. A place of ship sized asteriods & comet points just outside of Neptune on the blog here. 

The Orrt Cloud would be the perfect point for a starship building yard and it could potentially be the point to drop off some alien ruins onto it. And it this place would be a dynamic zone for both explorers and miners in the Hostile universe. And while the majority of the 2 million dollar bonus for any concrete information leading to any evidence for alien life forms would be bunk from the corportations.The drive for getting that bonus would be the continued expansion into the the Kuiper belt, for the establishment of facilities for faster processing of materials and starship manufacturing. 
The very nature of the beltways are going to be a source of frustration and expansion of mankind into the belt. The lure of the belt would be a 'moth to flame' for the corporations. Easily accessible resources and the potential for exploitable employment of those resources. The bonus for explorers stands at thirty thousand credits for new claims on resources. Gettting to spend it is another matter entirely. 

Would the combination though turn out to be deadly for those exploring and cataloging the mountain sized spinning points of death? 
To a certain extent the answer is yes. The very nature of the Rpg Hostile makes this a certainity. And this also would drive forward the point of establishing colonies among the worlds of the Oort Cloud. 

The gold rush of the Oort Cloud is the fact that comets and the like are readily exploitable for fuel materials for interstellar craft. And given the proxcimity of the cloud to major hyperspace points the potential is there for serious expansion. 
There are rumors of a possible colony or two that has been lost among the cloud during the beginning of the Second Recession according to the Hostile timeline but these remain rumors. These rumors also tell about huge strikes of nickel and other resources supporting such a colony. They remain the floss of roughnecks and spacers. 
The truth is much more darker and mundane, colonies among the Oort Cloud are established as both exploitable and temperory affairs. Minining colonies that can be packed up and moved where needed. Permenant settlements come with the striking of usuable material. Many of the mining colonies are moved as needed moving miners and families all. The corporations are exploiting the people as much as the resources. 
There have been several combinations of metals and materials that have not been found anywhere else in space given the unique nature of the Oort Cloud and it's tumbling resources. Add to this exotic nature of such materials and the value of the Cloud becomes quite clear. 

Stick Em In Isolation - SuperMax By Michael Allen Straus & Warriors of the Red Planet

 Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg has some of my favorite monsters and my players over the years have come to really hate them. A few of them have through various adventures ended up on other realities due to the machinations of the player's PC's actions. One of these NPC monsters was the Egg of Crepsys and this particular Egg was known as the Horror of the  Blackmoor Plains.  

'The Horrors of The Blackmoor Planes' was whisked away to another reality by a magical artifact and that was the end of the Horror. Except it wasn't quite, the 'Horror' appeared in a recent Wretched Vigilante rpg session being the brains and power behind a powerful gang of mercenaries. The Egg escaped only to be captured by authorities and taken away. These WoR Rpg exist on a Martian heavy alternative timeline. 
And that was the last that player's heard except it wasn't. The Horror was taken away to Area 23 which is the deepest hole you can find for evil and nasty cosmic entities. A few other NPC monsters there include an Anthipode named Princess Zonn who almost killed three of our player's PC's. And Dark Eyes named Sarah Anderson who assumed the persona of a woman that it killed from a human colony. Ms. Anderson believes she is the colonist even though the Dark Eyes controls anyone she meets. All of these ended up in Area 23 along with some of the other 'special guests' that have been making their way into the campaign's Supermaxes. 

SuperMax By Michael Allen Straus has all of the guidelines needed to make a Supermax of your own. And since I've got NPC monsters and aliens these are going to get a work out in our current campaign. Supermax is very well done. 

Supermax has everything you as the DM needs to create their own prison for 'special cases' and these prisons are great for introducing powerful or dangerous NPC's. I'm also going to be sticking a bunch of Cha'alt NPC's into the mix as well. 

Outlaw Hunt - Cities Without Number, Stars Without Number, & Trey Causey's Strange Stars Rpg - Session Report- Mirrors By Joseph Mohr

 "While in star port, between missions, the travelers hear the news about a spectacular crime that too place recently in the Sonora sector. Daring thieves robbed a hover train and got away with more than MCR 3 worth of gold bullion. The thieves were masked and got away according the news reports."

"While in port the travelers are contacted by Major Bartholomew Rodríguez of the Sonoran Interstellar Police. He is interested in hiring the travelers for a little freelance job. The Sonoran Police have determined that the robbers fled the world to a system on the edge of the Sonora sector called Guirion. He needs someone to visit the planet Guirion and find the thieves."

"Apparently there was an eye witness to the event who saw one of the thieves unmasked. He gave a detailed description which was used to make a composite drawing of the thief."

"This world is technically not within Sonoran space but is in the nearby unexplored sector. As such the Sonoran Police have no authority on that world. What he needs is someone who is not employed, directly, by the Sonoran Interstellar Police to find the thieves and bring them to justice in the Sonora sector"
The PC's find themselves in the middle of an operation of the interstellar police! The events of the Starmart affair puts the players into the sights of the interstellar police. The PC's find themselves face to face with an undercover  Major Bartholomew Rodríguez of the Interstellar Police. We played Mirrors By Joseph Mohr like a Noir Strange Stars adventures. 

We sat down with Major Bartholomew Rodriguez  and he gave us the skinny on Guiron. And it wasn't what we were expecting but a major world outside of the sector main hyperspace gateways. Our party crunched the numbers and something didn't add up. We called in a Ibglibdishpan Humanoid biocomputers councillor to take a look into the population. We've used this guy in the past. 
Guiron is far more advanced technologically then the time of the world would allow. The PC's began uncovering the fact that there have been alien intervention on the genetics and adjustment of the population of Guiron. 

We met with the local authorities and they highly cooperative but a bit evasive. There was something off about the robbery?! It was highly profession and very well excacuted. And our group thinks it might have been a very well orcastrated governmental operation. This came about from a recreation that we did in private VR space after feeding in all of the operations. 
We back tracked several Suns of Gold style trade ships that came to Guiron in the past several months. We're going to talk with the captains of these ships coming up next week. 

OSR Commentary On Gunboats and Shuttles By Paul Elliot For the Hostile Rpg

 We had a very low key Easter with my folks & over the holiday I've been thinking about the Hostile Rpg. Specifically the Gunboats & Shuttles supplement which includes a pasiche of smaller ships that make up the universe of Hostile. 

Who cares? Well, these are the ships that PC's are going to see day to day working on a corporate colony world. And these are also the ships that are going to be saving the behinds of the PC's. This is especially true of the mercenaries and adventurers. Because these ships are the backbone of any army or force within the Hostile universe. And they are vital on so many fronts from transporation to resupply these ships make up the vital points of the infrastructure chain within a colony or fighting force. 
These ships might also be the only vital link that a colony has to it's resupply ships. 
To say that this is a vital Hostile book is an understatement. Ian Stead one of the artists and illuminataries behind Hostile posted one of my favorite ships from Gunboats & Shuttles on Twitter erm 'X'. 

The Starlifter remains a party favorite and if it looks like it came out of Space 1999. There are reasons for that and that's because this is a boat with mission specific capable cargo inserts. Need a Science mission specific profile cargo insert with a laboratory built in?! The Starlifter has you covered. Right after that your colony needs cargo lifted to the next outreach colony on another world?! The Starlifter has you covered. 
And this goes on and on with this starship/shuttle which is a workhorse and ongoing round about of a craft. 
And I've dropped these seemlessly into our Clement/Earth sector campaigns as well. These ships and gunboats hit the spot to drop into a campaign. For Hostile the high tech level colonies manufacture thier own Starlifters with tonnes of variations available to them. 
The Starlifter is beloved by our players in Hostile rpg because these ships are used by our Russian mercenaries the September Group. And they've saved our guys countless times with shuttles being named after the Russian mythological gods. Our mercenaries have several variatants of the Starlifter that are manufatured exclusively for them. 
Why is the Starlifer beloved?! Because the ship is reliable, tough, and has so many verstile profiles and roles. 

Enter The Unseated One - - A Wretched Country By the Red Room & NightOwl Workshop's Gunslinger - Session Report 3

 Cuttting a bloody path in tonight's game, a new PC joined the action in Scorpion Canyon & in town in tonight's game. A lone samurai cut a bloody path through  pig  faced Orc assassins & scouts in tonight's game. This session picks right up from here on the blog. 

 We quickly went to help the lone warrior when two more Orc assassins armed with short bows and poisoned arrows  appeared on the nearby roof tops to take out the samurai. The lone warrior dodged the two scout's arrows and then we shot them. The samurai followed us after some very quick hand signs and the promise of drink. After a few hours we found out the name of the Samurai was 不安定なもの meaning 'Unseated One' and it seems that Doc speaks Japanese having worked with rail road workers before coming to town. 

不安定なもの is a degenerate and gambler who happens to be a 'sword for hire' whom it seems might be supernaturally cursed. One moment he was fighting Orc assassins on his world and he swore he was cut down and next he was on our world. Bill Tenison Arizona Ranger  & his companions  don't trust this guy. They sight the fact that he must have come from the Scorpion Canyon dimensional gate. Our adventurers wonder if he might be in league with the Bloody Hand tribe of Orcs. 
Our own two Indian shamans consulted the spirits who said that the samurai is surrounded by a path of blood but sensed no connection to the Orcs. Several of the Shaman's abilities have been adapted from suggestions out of the Gunslinger rpg.

While the Shamans didn't get any evil connection per say from the samurai they did sense strong magics from his sword. And there were unspoken spirits surround it. There was a silence in the bar where everyone was drinking. 
While everyone was distracted with 不安定なもの, two Orc assassins crawled under the bar and ambushed the party. They used mini crossbows to take out Doc and injure one of the Arizona rangers who is now poisoned! 
Our shamans summoned two desert spirits to help heal the Arizona ranger and then guard him until they can get the right herbs to counteract the poison. 

We ended with the party's indian scouts going out to get the herbs nearby in the desert.  不安定なもの is actually a PC who died in DM Steve's Wretched Chanbara! game but is cursed to appear again and again wherever there is conflict. He's actually a pychoitic and hightly dangerous degenerate with a passion for violence and murder.

OSR Commentary Adventures on Mars By ODD74 & Warriors of The Red Planet By NightOwl Workshop

 We've had a semi permanent Warriors of the Red Planet game on going for a long while. The PC's have been skirting  the Dark Martian lands of H.G. Well's War of the Worlds books. Now the Invasion of Earth happened a long while ago. DM Steve has trotted out the OD&D forum's Adventures on Mars ODD74 book from  thread.   Scroll down to the last entry by Bastet1002's CLICK HERE!: Adventures on Mars (UPDATED WITH COVER!). And grab this one! 
Adventures on Mars By ODD74 adds a ton of  Lovecraftian monsters, Dark Martians, Orks, and more. Even though the supplement is meant for original Dungeons & Dragons, it can easily be adapted for Warriors of the Red Planet rpg. For a really good overview of Warriors of the Red Planet check out the Mutant Wiki entry. 

Back to the Aventures on Mars By ODD74 and the 'abandoned' Dark Martian cities which have caches of Dark Martians still living and maintaining them in DM Steve's games. The Dark Martians also have deep ties to the Kaldanines within the implied Adventures campaign setting. There are at least seven Dark Martian  cities that we've had to deal with. These are protected by walkers sunking in the sands of Mars. 
Let's not mention the fact that we've got two mega dungeons in the area. And this goes back to some commentary again from the Barsoom entry on the Mutant Future wiki enty; "Barsoom is a world of high adventure and intrigue! The world is dying, made somewhat livable by artificial means. Civilization is technologically advanced, but is suffering form social and technological stagnation. The red martian sands hide the ruins of untold civilizations. The many city-states dotting the red landscape are always at war, be it on ground or by great flees of airships, with fragile alliances and betrayals around every corner. The cites are suspended technological marvels from a bygone age" 
What Adventures on Mars does is expand the scope of that adventure & campaign setting to deal with things hinted in the Edgar Rice Burroughs books and dealt with in the Leigh Brackett novels. 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Kasaragod Class Liner By Moon Toad Publishing For The Cepheus Engine, Old School Traveller & 2d6 Rpg Powdered Games

 "The Kasaragod Class Liner is a small scale passenger liner, based on the hull of the Kambala Class Freighter. It is intended for providing medium to high value passengers a safe and secure environment to travel between systems. The 800dton ship is capable of Jump-2, sustained 2-G Manoeuvre and extended duration. It has fuel scoops and processors, and is streamlined for wilderness refuelling and planetary landing."

"It is fully equipped with 8 x remote double laser turrets capable of central fire control, independent power plant, Launch, and manoeuvre bays, and five x 19 person lifepods for emergency evacuation."

If there was ever a time when  The Kasaragod Class Liner By Moon Toad Publishing could come in handy for our games. That time is now! We've got three different campaigns going from Hostile, Clement Sector, and a Stars Without Numbers rpg campaign running. The fact is that we could use a mid sized starliner and the The Kasaragod Class Liner is a perfect addition. Let me explain. 
Space and interstellar tourism is big business and the larger starliners are well taken. These allow for a mid level space line like " The Kasaragod Class Liner " to literally act as an economic stop gap. 
The The Kasaragod Class Liner has literally everything we're looking for in a starliner. It's mid sized range allowing it to be affordable to both the rich and ultra rich. Moon Toad has created differet configurations and the details that they bring to the table on this ship are well done. 
You could easily and effectively insert this class of ship right into your Clement Sector or Earth sector games with little fuss. However it's not outrageously high tech to the point that it couldn't be shoe horned into a Hostile campaign with little issue. The design and layout are well done with lots of interesting bits to hook your PC's with. The layout and artwork holds the reader while the font isn't too hard on the eyes. The whole ship is pleasing to eye and wallet. 
You've got everything one needs without too much to overwhelm the dungeon master employing it. The Kasaragod Class Liner By Moon Toad Publishing is well done and could easily give a bunch of pirates a well deserved bloody nose. 
This starship fills an economic role for the space tourism and holiday venues. But it does it well. 
Would I recommend  The Kasaragod Class Liner By Moon Toad Publishing?! In a word, yes. The starship has a ton of applications and adventure potential within this starships. 

Manufactured Mutants - Adding in The 2d6 Details into Hostile's Colony Earth Using Other 2d6 Resources

 Mutation in Cepheus Engine & Hostile has been on my mind lately because of rereading Dragon magazine issue 109 May 1986 which contains in the Ares section  'The Double Helix Connection  Mutants In Traveller Gaming  " By Michael Brown. We've got artificial mutant breeds that have been produced on Earth to help with the ecological collapse. These are self sustaining breeds of mankind. And yes, we're revisiting these themes from here on the blog.

Earth's mega corporations are primed to create artificial mutant strains, copyright & trademark such breeds, and then bring these breeds to term. These are completely different then the proles that are produced for extra solar colonies. 
These strains are produced to work in, clean up, and live in the Hellish conditions of post ecological collapse America and Europe. They are mutations designed to withstand the harshest enviroments that Earth has to offer. 
Why? Why would megacorporations produce such entities?! Simple really and that is that they get to over the long term see the experimentation of such mutants live in thier own laboratories of toxic enviroments. 
Imagine if you will that over the long haul these breeds of mutated mankind allow the mega corporations to set up long haul colonies. These colonies allow the mega corporations to literally own thier own workers right down to the skin on thier backs. Dragon magazine issue 109 May 1986 which contains in the Ares section  'The Double Helix Connection  Mutants In Traveller Gaming  " By Michael Brown has the perfect collection of guidelines and rules for introducing such mutated humanity to Hostile's Earth. 

Copyrighted mutated humanity could be excellent for long term colony worlds for the megacorporations. The ground work for this is being laided on by the megacorporations. These allow the corporations to claim whole worlds. And given the propensity for the worlds of Hostile to be incredibly varied. 
Designing mutations and colony compatibility is a science unto itself. But the crapshoot comes with the genetic defects that come with tempering with genes. 

Some of these genes could be crippling to the mutant strain. However because we're talking about generational mutaions. When we're dealing with generational gene mutation designed to deal with other worldly conditions. Then we're talking about long term designs that can play across generations. And dealing with high speed computer mathmatical models of these species of humanity. What about animal kind?! Afterday has a great 2d6 blend into itself to help to blow out some of Hostile Earth's colonial details. 

Why because of the fact that Afterday represents the colonies that were first put into space during the events of the early part of the Second Recession. 
And this goes right along with Hostile's timeline. Reading through it reveals levels of danger and reckless corporate ventures of exploration. Afterday represents those ventures in spades as failed colonies and even Earthside ecological collapse. 
The events surrounding such collapse extend to technology and even artifacts. Artifacts that link to a higher level of technology that is invaluable to the corporations. 

OSR Review & Commentary The Wretched Bestiary by ML Straus For The Expended Wretched Rpg

 " The Wretched Bestiary, by ML Straus is now available at The Red Room store, Giant Slayer Games and Big Geek Emporium. In spite of the Wretched prefix this 314-page book was designed to be used in any OSR game. " 

"Sure, it has a fair amount of Wretched supernatural and alien monstrosities, but you will also find in it dragons, orcs, goblins, undead, giants, trolls (and slime, of course). With a stunning (perhaps even brave) cover by Jae Tanaka complemented by the interior illustrations of Jeremy Hart, bringing to life both the wretched and the classic denizens of fantasy realms." 

https://moordereht.com/product/wretched-bestiary

The Wretched Bestiary by ML Straus is a huge collection of monsters that serves as a great overview of the Wretchedverse rpg monsters. Wretched Bestery codifies and classifies all of the monsters in the Wretched family of rpg's. 
What makes the Wretched Bestery so good is the fact that horror games lives and die on thier monsters. And this supplement is packed with animals & monsters including those from the Beyond. 
And the Wretched Bestery contains creatures everywhere from urban legends as well as Crytids to mythological monsters. This puts the Wretchedverse rpg on another level because it sets up the entire game with potential NPC's and enemies with literally unlimited game potential. According to 

The Red Room (Miguel Ribeiro

 The Revised & Expanded Wretched Rules will; "

More than 600 pages, containg the revised core rules and a selection of optional rules from all the Wretched settings."

 And what does this have to with the Wretched Bestery?! Everything the book expands on many sections from mundane animals to full on dragons then dives into creatures from the Beyond. The Wretched Bestery does the job of really grabbing the DM and applying great creatures for thier imagination. The artwork &  illustration headers by  @jeremyhartillos the artwork in the Wretched Bestery is a step up from other Wretched products in many ways.

Artwork in the Wretched Bestery really sets up the imagination for exactly the sort of horrors that we're going to be facing in a Wretched adventure. The Wretched Bestery works well because of competant layout, solid writing, good writing & easily readable fonts. The Wretche Bestery does an excellent job of not only settting up the monsters. But also has solid adventure hooks, ideas, & more for incorporating the Wretched horrors into your games. And the Wretched Bestery has a solid grasp of using these monsters within your own Wretched Rpg fueled campaign games. Grab this one!