More OSR Commentary On The Baptism By Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit

 The Baptism By Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit is one of those games that bares a closer inspection when it comes to Medieval culture. The player's PC's have the chance to change the course of history in the Poland & Europe of the Eleventh century. This commentary picks up from our review of Baptism of Fire on the blog here. 

Baptism By Fire has all of the classic adventure elements we've come to expect in an OSR product. This game takes them into a completely different direction with it's European setting. The monsters and creatures are highly dangerous and the player's PC's are able to take them down. There's plenty of social and politic intrigue baked into this game. All of these elements plug right into the Silk Road campaign settting. The Silk Road campaign setting is filled with tons of NPC's that can help or hinder your PC's from trade to full on warefare in China or the near East. Tons of these NPC's are available within the Heroes & Villains of the Silk Road  supplement. 

These NPC's are deeply connected into the Silk Road setting as a whole. From patrons to playing or generating Ismaili Nazari Assassins. These NPC's are fully realized with histories, background, and even adventure hooks. 
The Silk Road is almost an NPC unto itself and this campaign setting loops back into The Baptism By Fire rpg. There plenty of opportunities for dungeon crawling all the way to full on trading on the road. Eleventh century Poland and Eastern Europe is an area rife with comflict, combat, and warfare. The dynasties that PC's can set up is staggering. Remember that there's also social rank that plays heavy within this setting. Baptism By Fire works in two ways for OSR play one it takes the PC's as center stage. Thier actions are literally making history. The second way is that this rpg takes it's setting as being the center stage for the PC's. Your PC's are the instruments of God and country. This is an Epic rpg and it expects your PC's to do deeds of high adventure. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God By Jason Vey For The Amazing Adventures Rpg

 "A Shadow Rises from the Distant Past...

During an extravagant gala in New York City attended by luminaries of the metropolis, all was going as planned. But whose plan? Mysterious forces are unleashed during the ceremony creating undead horrors that terrorize everyone in attendance. 

Shadows of the Red God presents three adventures that take the player characters on a world-spanning adventure against a dark cult, lost for millions of years, and stunningly tied to another world, a world once known as Aihrde. "

"An unusual request to track down a missing scholar takes the heroes from the Louisiana Bayou to long abandoned ruins in the deserts of Saudi Arabia crossing paths with Voodoo Queens and Nazi cultists along the way. "

"After becoming entangled in an Allied spy operation, the characters discover a plot to unearth horrific technologies from the dawn of time and plans for an invasion of some alien species. 

When their enemy escapes under mysterious circumstances, the heroes uncover a scheme to summon a strange deity from another world, another dimension, from the shadows of a distant past. It is a race against time as our heroes dash across the world, tracking a would-be prophet of the dark being known only as The Red God. "

Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God By Jason Vey is a great introductory adventure for Amazing Adventures rpg. This adventure is pure Pulp adventure goodness that starts in New York City and sends the PC's down into the Louisiana Bayou & into the  deserts of Saudi Arabia.  Or it can be set within  your own campaign's remote Earth's location. 

Inbetween is this the fact that your PC's go up against Vodoo Queen & finally  Nazi army officiers & soldiers. Shadows of the Red God thrusts our heroes deep into the machinations of an Allied spy operation and finally the deep horrors of the summoning of the  Red God. 

The party needs to react to the circumstances that they are brought into in Shadows of the Red God. The machinations of the Red God are chaotic, evil, and highly dangerous to Earth. 
The Red God is a god of Evil that has deep ties to  another world, a world once known as Aihrde.
Aihrde is the house campaign world of the Castles & Crusades rpg from Troll Lord Games. This ties the two games together. Amazing Adventures rpg default setting is Earth in my opinion. This isn't a bad thing because it allows the DM to pull from hundreds of years of real world history. Or at least seen through the imaginative lens of Amazing Adventures rpg. 

Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God By Jason Vey takes this approach and builds upon it. This is right in line with the fact that this adventure is written for PC levels ones through five. If the players are stupid thier PC's will die without a second thought. Shadow of the Red God is going to last probably maximum about 5 or 6 sessions. This is the perfect length of play without having this adventure over stay it's welcome. 

Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God is a revised adventure which means that perfectly aligns with the revised  Amazing Adventure rpg. And I think it's a great introductionary adventure for AA and will be a great spring board for an AA campaign. 

Review & Commentary On Knuckles of Steel By The Red Room Crew For The Wretched or Red Rpg

 "A role-playing game module set in the fictional city of Hammettville during the 1970s. The scenario is inspired by blaxploitation movies and revolves around Lois St. John, a Black model and aspiring actress whose sister Jacqueline has been kidnapped by Heung Wei, a Chinese triad boss and Lois’s former boyfriend. Wei is using the kidnapping to force Lois into marriage. Knuckles of Steel includes many adventure seeds and an adventure generator that can expand the basic rescue mission into a larger plot. It provides statistics to both Wretched and Red (56 pages)."

Knuckles of Steel By The Red Room Crew is an adventure for the Red or Wretched Rpg. Lois St. John a model is kidnapped by her former boyfriend Heung Wei,  the top  Chinese triad boss in the city of Hammettville Texas. This adventure comes straight outta of the Exploitation films of the Sevenities. 
The PC's are called in to save Lois St John from a forced marriage and kidnapping. There's also a ton of subplots to Knuckles of Steel. 
This is an adventure that can be used as an action packed spring board into a Red & Wretched rpg campaign! 
The cast of NPC's is fully fleshed out with lots of hooks to get the PC's involved including crime, drugs, turf, Nazi and worse. 

Knuckles of Steel is made to emulate the late Sixties and Seventies exploitative films from Blacksploitation to full on horror. Everything here in Hammetville is over the top and well done. There's enough to do a classic Warriors film style campaign as well. Knuckles of Steel really taps into the Blackspoiltation film vein. However this adventure takes place in the world of Sexual Holocaust. This means that it's easy to do a horror campaign along with an exploitation adventure element. 

Hammetville is a happening place and 'Crime City' section is point where there's tons of stuff happening. This plugs into the random adventure generators that are great for continuing the Knuckles of Steel campaign vibe. This is neccessary to keep the players interested in continuing to play. 
This utility aspect of Knuckles of Steel is one of the best options available within the Red Room's games and adventures. 
Knuckles of Steel is a fifty seven page solid adventure that takes full advantage of it's roots, elements, and feel. This is a great adventure with well done fonts, layout and easy to read layout. 
Knuckles of Steel is moderately priced and easy to incorporate into your existing Red or Wretched Rpg campaigns. 

Review & Commentary On Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack For The Castles & Crusades rpg

 "Adventurers Backpack is a book designed for the player, introducing a wealth of content to expand your player experience, but also your character’s survivability! Within you’ll find:

• 13 new classes
• mountains of spells for all classes
• counter spells and spell duels
• bandages and healing
• a fresh easy-to-use approach to unarmed combat
• war mounts
• rune magic
• a new look at pole arms."

"Backpacks for Every Campaign

But more than that, Adventurers Backpack delivers a new, innovative approach to equipment and equipping your character. There are 34 unique backpacks complete with all the equipment your character will need! Each backpack comes with cost, weight and encumbrance value. The backpacks cover it all. There are class-based backpacks for all character classes, general purpose backpacks for dungeons and overland, and special purpose packs such as the medic or dungeon mappers pack. Equipping your character was never so easy."

Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack is one of those C&C rpg titles that I've been hemming & hawing about for years. Do I need another supplement with tons of player PC options. Do I need another equipment book and another book with the planes in it plus new spell and magic items. The Adventurer's Backpack covers this all and a bit more. 
The first part of the Adventurer's Backpack is the 13 new character classes which have been featured elsewhere in the past. What this supplement does is update them and put them into one place. We get an overview and placement of these classes. Easy to use or discard depending upon the needs of your players or your campaign. 

From here we slide into the equipment & backpack section which is customized for backpacks and equipment for every character & campaign types. This allows a DM or a play to drop equipped characters into a campaign right away! 

There's a literaly ton of spells and counter spells for many of the spell using PC classes. These are all optional and that should be used with care for your campaign. Then we dive into pole arms and thier uses. This is an article that hits all of the right Gary Gygax buttons. Then there's tools for DM's to customize thier own campaign from planar travels and adventuring. On the whole Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack is a highly optional but highly useful supplement. While the rules & articles that appear within this supplement have appeared elsewhere. The Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack brings everything into one useful tool box for both dungeon master and players. 

Review & Commentary on Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop For your Old School Campaigns

 "Three unique character classes designed to fill the role between Clerics and Paladins in your favorite OSR roleplaying game campaign.

The monastic knights come in three general types:

Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are balanced between being warriors and healers.
Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are compassionate healers and only fight as necessary.
Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) are formidable warriors with a few spells.

Monastic Knights are designed to work with any OSR style RPG that is based on the original fantasy roleplaying game.

This PDF includes:

• 3 Monastic Knight Character Classes
• A "White Box" addendum
• Fully illustrated Character Sheets
• Sample maps of Monasteries "
  
  Right so this isn't so much a review as a sorta of article on why  Monastic Knights exist. As is the fact that the Monastic Knights does exist! These knightly orders exist to provide the DM a character class that bridges the gap between the cleric & the fighter class asthetic. And they do it very well! The  Monastic Knights are only written within nineteen pages of very tight descriptions & classes. These knightly orders are up to Night Owl Workshop's usual standards. 
  Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are good balance between the healer roles that we see in clerics & the kick ass for good types that we've seen before. The difference here is the fact that the Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) bring a bit more of the martial to the table top. Yes they are servants of good but no the will murder you in the name of said good in the blink of an eye. 
  Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are the next up and here is more healer then martial warrior but that doesn't mean that they won't fight. It seemly means that they're reluctant too. They remind me of many army veterans that I've played with. 
  When you need martial & millitary knightly orders the Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) is the route to go. These guys go into dungeons & root out evil. They put the monsters to the torch & don't look back untill the gods sort it out. 
  
   Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop isn't going to put your nose out of joint instead it's going to act as breidge gap between clerics & paladins. Knights act as hand of both the royals & gods with the common folks. All in All I believe that  Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop is a good buy! 
  
  
   Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop Is Available Right Here 
  

The Cube By Joseph Mohr & Trey Causey's Strange Stars - Stars Without Number & Cities Without Number Session Report Part 5 - Jericho Station

 We picked up our normal Trey Causey's Strange Stars/ Stars Without Numbers campaign. right from last session here.  Our party ended up deep within the Cube and our time aboard was coming to and end because the Cube was leaving the local planetary system. 

Our party communicated with the A.I. & it seemed to get very difficult very quickly when we wanted to leave. 
Then the security bots got very handy with us. This was our singal to engage in communication with our cybersneaks who disengaged the locks on the trading room which suddenly became our prison! 
Our party fought our way back to our ship wih a few cleverly disguised grenades and side arms. 
Things were going from bad to worse as we came across more alien remains of past alien traders and travellers. 
We made it to our ship and had the cybersneaks open the Cube star ship bay doors. With a few successful rolls and some role playing we got the doors open and our ship off of the Cube. We got some scrapping laser fire from the Cube. 
We were in the middle of unexplored space as the Cube took off at high speed outta of the solar system. We were at the edge of unihabited space. This morning I picked Joseph Mohr's Jericho Station & this afternoon it got an excercise as the station is one of the last places along one of the last hyperspace gates in that sector. We entered cryo sleep for two years and made our way to the nearest hyperspace gateway to get back Jericho station. Several rolls and two short jumps we entered cryosleep 

Everything came off without a hitch and we made it to the gate & ran straight into a party of Star Folk Nomadic hedonists in living ships.
They were curious about our experience with the Cube. We warned them from pursuing the Cube. And engaged in three days of trade and refueling with thier  living ship. 

Then we made Jericho station that lawless den of inquity that we were very glad to see. Our spacehauler is in bad shape but we've got  tons of intel to trade about the Cube and it's A.I. cybernetic organism inhabitants! 
So we're trading the info for repair work. Our party ran into the 3 Moravecs Robo-sophont poet missionaries. They were looking for Jas 7 who went missing over three centuries ago. Jas 7's fragmented A. I. personality was found aboard the Cube. We gave the personlity remains to them and started to get medical attention for our party. We'd experienced genetic degeneration from radiation aboard the Cube. 

Amazing Adventures Rpg & Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar as An OSR Campaign Setting

 Edgar Rice Burrough's At The Earth's Core is one of my favorite books because of the setting of the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar. The prehistoric lost world of Pellucidar is perfectly suited to use with Troll Lord's Amazing Adventures rpg is a great campaign setting. 

"At the Earth's Core is a 1914 fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first in his series about the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar." from the wiki entry on the ERB book At The Earth's  Core. 
The Pellucidar setting has a huge number of prehistoric tribal nations from cavemen to fully Neanderthal tribal peoples. There's no real day or night in the world of Pellucidar except from a sort of star that hangs in the sky and has an erratic orbit. .
The biggest problem is the inclusion of magic and it's attendants into an ERB inspired world. Although this did not stop DC Comics back in the Seventies with Mike Grell's Warlord which drew quite a bit of inspiration from the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Pellucidar also may have baked in psionics. While a controversal in the world's most popular fantasy role playing game's circles. Psionic powers  look to be essential in  Pellucidar especially in ERBzine's article  Telepathy in Pellucidar. But how does a DM incorporate the fantasy element of Castles & Crusades into such a prehistoric setting??! Use another dimension (yes this is one option) but another is too simply make another continent within Pellucidar.

If Seventeenth century pirates can exist along side of prehistoric dinosaurs. Then it's an easy link to add magic and C&C style fantasy into a Lost World campaign. 
Page Eighty seven of Amazing Adventures Players Handbook goes into using C&C character classes in Amazing Adventures campaigns. 
So it's really easy to get into using your own version of Pellucidar.This is exactly what I'm going to be doing. 
Going forward my player's have been on my back to get back into a prehistoric version of an Amazing Adventures campaign. Over the years I've used Lovecraftian rpg elements into ERB style campaign worlds. 

Review & Commentary On The Castles & Crusades: Winters Bite By Stephen Chenault For The Castles & Crusades rpg

 "Something haunts the river folk…

It steals into homes and snatches the unwary, the weak, and the gentile. For those whom the horror does not abduct, death comes swiftly. Those slain by the monster are found strangely maimed, with bloody gums, devoid of teeth."

"An apparition? Some fiend of the old world? A black hearted fey? Few can tell for few have seen it, and those who have speak only of its pock-marked skin and crown of teeth."

"The river people hide now. They seal their doors with wax every night, stamped with magical runes, in hope of keeping the haunt at bay. The long winter is made longer still, and more evil given over to the Winter’s Bite."

 The Castles & Crusades: Winters Bite By Stephen Chenault  is an adventure designed for 3-5, 3rd level characters. This is a great adventure that hits the PC's right in the middle of mid stride for an adventuring party. This is an excellent joining adventure that can be dropped into a existing Castles & Crusades rpg campaign. The artwork is a very well done adventure and it only comes into twenty pages. The editing and fonts are easily readable and Winter's Bite hits the high notes for bringing a Winter adventure for the player's PC's.

As an OSR adventure the texture of this adventure feels like a small scale and highly dangerous adventure. This is not a stepping stone adventure. Instead this is an adventure that acts as a bridge adventure across a campaign.

This Castles & Crusades adventure fits the feel of the game. There's nothing however stopping a DM from dropping Winter's Bite into thier own campaign. The writing on this adventure is tight. 
Winter's Bite is very much at a minimum for PC's of third level and that's no lie. There's some dangerous stuff happening within this adventure.  Winter's Bite has all of this going on and takes full advantage of the Castles & Crusades rpg system in spades. 
Winter's Bite could very easily be set within Greyhawk or your own old school rpg campaign. This adventure easily fits a wide variety of campaign styles. But it is  a highly dangerous adventure consider yourselves warned. 

Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #4

 Tonight's game sees the player's PC's finding the lizardmen tribesmen in dire straits because of the smugglers. This puts the PC's square in the middle of the Saltmarsh situation. This picks right up from the last week's game session. 

The situation is very dire because of the rise in the number of Deep One warriors who have been harrying the lizardmen's people. They were imported into New York City as workers for the harvesting of some of the underwater crops that are used in high end resturant food. They have also been employed for many of the high risk underwater & ship's repair  around the city's docks. These lizardmen have been managed from Plum Island's government facility. 
Deep One tribesmen and warriors have been raiding not only the docks but some of the local non humans. Waverider in last week's game got some of the lowdown. 
We've started exploring the house from the bottom sea caves up through the house itself. We've been exploring the upper part of the house when last week we heard noise from upstairs on the second floor. 
We the  heard noise from upstairs and ran straight into two pirate captains! They had short swords drawn and there was a fight in the stairs as well as the hallway. 

We retreated as guns came out our archer Red Arrow was able to disarm them. A close look showed that these two were Deep One hybrids! Now we had two captives and proceeded to question them about what they were smuggling. They have captives upstairs and if we didn't let them go they'd be murdered! We ended here! 

Review & Commentary On Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games

 'Baptism of Fire is an OSR RPG set in the dawn of the Polish monarchy in the early medieval period. It is a complete rulebook and setting. As a setting, it is “medieval authentic,” meaning that it is set in our own historical Earth rather than a fantasy world, but this is the world as the people living in the setting imagined and envisioned it. That is to say, religion, magic, and monsters all exist and function as the paradigm of the early medieval world imagined.'

'The default setting of Baptism of Fire is a society that is transforming from a Dark Age culture to an early Medieval culture. Poland, in the early 11th Century, was moving from a sedentary tribal system of “barbarians” to the beginnings of a feudal society united under a monarchy. As part of the process of successfully making this shift, the Piast rulers had introduced the unifying force of Christianity to the land.'

 Baptism of Fire  Rpg By Rpg Pundit has been on my radar for a little over a year now & I'm picking it up right from here on the blog. So right off the bat this Rpg is a bit different in several aspects. Christianity is an adventure element within this setting. Because this game is set within the boiling pot of 11th century Poland. And this is a wild time for Europe within the early Medieval period. Tribalism is falling out of fashion and the beginnings of feudal society is taking shape. 
The Baptism of Fire rpg system is going to be familar to any old school or OSR player. There are twists such as social rank being very important & there are some real twists on the usual classic classes in old school gaming. Because this game is set within 11th century Poland. Europe during this time period is highly violatile and chaotic. War is on the horizon and yet, Christianity is unifying people together. 

Baptism of Fire is a foundation rpg in my opinion. This game goes a long way towards pushing adventure & a crazy historical campaign play. The OSR rpg system fills the bulk of the game towards solid Polish European adventuring. 

But Baptism of Fire works excellent towards expanding it's potential campaign setting with the Sword & Caravan campaign setting. Because Baptism of Fire is the OSR rpg system jump off point. A Polish adventuring party is perfect to bring onto the Silk Road adventure.  
Baptism of Fire Rpg is a complete OSR system from the ground up. I think it's one of Rpg Pundit's best efforts and in my humble opinion it works on so many levels as an rpg. 
This is because this rpg has all of the makings of letting the player's PC's make thier mark on Poland and Europe of the 11th century for that matter. Baptism of Fire is a solid OSR rpg and it's an easy game for both the novice and the hobbyist to pick up. 

The OSR rpg system is easy to pick up, has reliable classes, and works on several levels. The PC generation system is fast, convientant and works for the game. As a great OSR rpg this game is a five outta of five in my humble opinion.

OSR Commentary - The Long Shadow of The Zaibatsu rpg by Paul Elliot From Zozer Games Session One

 The PC's are called into the 'Free Enterprise' zones on the Texas/Mexico border on Earth. The PC's have been placed within the sphere of the snake heads and the cartels of this disputed regiion. The PC's are agents acting for the corporation. 

The PC's are positioned to look over any contraband that comes through   the 'Free Enterprise' zones on the Texas/Mexico border. This session picks right up from here on the blog.
I had the PC's mix it up with some cartel soldiers and thugs from rival houses. They earned the ire of the rival houses after making life difficult for the PC's. 
Corporate assets swooped in and cleaned up after the PC's. The party started back traking the rival house's warehouses and assets. 
The party had 20 years knocked off of thier sentences and had to check in with thier robotic parol officier.  
Then it was back into the grind as a local snake head rival met with the PC's about a new shipment of contraband coming into the local space center. We secured a meeting for that night. 

The warehouse shuttles came in. And we were meeting with a local representive to secure a buying position. 
We wanted to examine the merchandise before we put down any money into this. 
This wasn't our cash but the nano bombs in our brains were itching. 
We got to  the warehouse sector and things looked normal. We had weapons stowed in our ride. We had sidearms on us and began the meeting with two vat grown clone warriors. They were grown muscle for the cartels.. 
We were escorted through two strange and alien drug factories. Inside two longer warehouse spaces we found eighteen rows of strange egglike plants.  
The last time our player's PC's saw something like this was wayout on the Outer void. These egg like plants give off a strange blue white liquid drug. We had our cybersneaks trailing our every move and building up a profile of this smuggling operation. We ended here. 
 

Review & Commentary On Double Feature This Old House & Sweet Sernade For The Wretched Rpg or The Red Rpg

 "This Double Feature includes two horror adventures easily used without any preparation if you mean to run them in Wretched Darkness, Darker RPG or any other contemporary horror game. With some adaptation you can run them in Wretched Époque, Gothic or other games set in the not-so-distant past (49 pages)"

Double Feature is a very exploitable beast of a set of horror adventures! What the Hell I'm I talking about here?! Well right out of the gate 'The Old House' is both an adventure and a tool kit for creating haunted house horror adventures. The adventure begs player's PC's to explore this haunted manor or mansion. Why? Because you're trapped there. 
There's got to be a way out right?! Yes and no, right out of the gate this adventure is more and less then it seems because through a series of random tables, encounters, etc. the DM builts a random haunted location. And this place wants to eat the PC's souls if it can! There are tons of tools to get the players on board. 
And it goes down hill from there. For the PC's of a Wretched rpg or Darker this isn't anything new because your folks are anti heroes at the best of times. Add in a family treasure or rumor of treasure and your ready to go! 
The Old House is well written and provides a good solid layout, easy to read fonts, and serveral keyed in adventure locations with 'The Old House'. This bleeds into the next adventure 'A Sweet Sernade' is a full on vampire centric adventure. According to the introduction; "This scenario plunges player characters into a blood-drinking, mystery, and intrigue set against the backdrop of a modern metropolis. While vampiric society plays a central role, the material adapts easily to any modern horror setting or system." A Sweet Sernade is begging for an intrigue and mystery element which then shifts into a full blown action adventure. The gang aspect and factional elements within this adventure are fully embraced for OSR play. 
And these two adventures are exploitative for two reasons, one they both pull the PC's into them. And these adventure can turn on a dime on the player's PC's. If the player's are stupid then they die end of story. 
Here's the skinny, Double Feature This Old House & Sweet Sernade are perfectly suited for modern OSR campaign play especially for The Wretched Darkness second edition setting. 

These two adventures plug deeply into themes that the Wretched Darkness second edition campaign setting established. Could Double Feature work for the Darker rpg?! Absolutely it could with little modification. 
These adventures scream Wretched Darkness second edition to me in spades. They plug into the Beyond easily and hit the factional high notes established within the vampiric world of the Wretched rpg. 

Could Double Feature work for the Gothic rpg?! Yes easily and then some because these two rpg adventure plug into the undercoat of the Gothic rpg games themes. 
And they could easily plug into  Wretched Époque but it might take some modification on the DM's part. 
The first thing I would do is get rid of the cell phone and internet capabilities of the modern era. Drop in the fact that the party is in for a rough ride with Double Feature and then exploit the Hell outta of the player's PC's. Double Feature is a well done set of book ends of an experienced or novice group of  Red Room players. 

The Cube By Joseph Mohr & Trey Causey's Strange Stars - Stars Without Number & Cities Without Number Session Report Part 4

 The party aboard the ' The Cube'  by Joseph Mohr has been trying to cope with the alien nature of the structure. The whole cube is filled with lots and lots aliens and strange automatons. This session picks up right from here on the blog.  The party also has found the wreckage from past merchant party expeditions aboard the cube! 
 

The party has spoken with the cube's A.I. in cyberspace and it's been very elusive about the fate of other merchants who have contacted the cube in the past. 

The massive interior of the cube is oppresive and alien with strange coloured lights that are the alien's language.We used our android A.I. to communicate with the aliens. The area that we are in is wall to wall Jack Kirby style machinery. We traded technologies with the cube's bots and odd alien cybernetic biological  organisms. We're not sure if these are the actual aliens!? 
The deeper we get into the cube the more biological cybernetic giant insect like aliens we run into. They seem too fit niche roles aboard the cube. There's thick haze alien atmosphere aboard the cube. We've only got a limited time until the cube exits the system we're in. Once we trade and get our information from the cube then we've got to leave. Or we're going to be stuck aboard as it hits hyperspace for it's next stop. 

We had to take trips back to the trade room to refill our heavy space suit's air supply. The cube's interior atmosphere is highly poisonous & we found several areas where the atmosphere was acidic or immical to our PC's. 

We copied every shred of alien data we could get our hands on from other alien traders. And we found the remains of an alien trade ship that the cube's inhabitants had stripped and used for repairs in this area. 

We took holographic scans of the ship and made a copy of it's insane A.I.. The ship was stuck there about three hundred years. We're keeping an eye on our own space rig. 

Then the security bots were watching us and this made us nervous and in sense like we were trespassing around this ship. But we got deely into the craft. 

Review & Commentary On 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit

 "The Polish ruling class has several mythologies of their origins. These myths have created a subculture of their own that serves to distinguish the internal culture, codes of honor, and perception of the duties of the Szlachta. This mythology would come to be called “Sarmatism.”"

"Sarmatism, in short, is the theory that the aristocracy of Poland was descended not just from the western Slavs but also from a fearsome Iranian race of warrior-horsemen known as the “Sarmatians.”

Sarmatians gained a reputation in ancient times as very powerful warriors and horsemen, their epicenter was located around the Black Sea, but they expanded in waves of tribal invasions to many areas of Eastern and Central Europe."

101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit  is a great supplement for any OSR rpg or old school fantasy rpg. However, this book is fantastic for the Baptism By Fire Rpg as a sourcebook. I confess that the Baptism By Fire rpg is new to me. 

101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit details each of the major & some minor Polish royal houses. Each noble house has a set of detailed NPC's with adventure hooks built in. All of this is concentrated within a 100 pages with a fresh and solid layout, easy to read font, & it has everything you need to begin to add in these noble houses to your OSR campaign.Equally  there's a solid mythic &  legenday background with the Polish royal houses with the additional adventure element; "Sarmatism, in short, is the theory that the aristocracy of Poland was descended not just from the western Slavs but also from a fearsome Iranian race of warrior-horsemen known as the “Sarmatians." This adds a mythological and historic element to your OSR campaign. 

Take for example House Ciolek, "Ciolek This house is based in the area around Sandomierz, with some holdings of family branches in Greater Poland. Its symbol is a red bull. The members of this house have a reputation for violence and godlessness. The founder of this House was said to have been a German mercenary-knight named Henricus of Wizenburg, who married into a Polish family"

The NPC's are well drawn out & have actual personality about them. The NPC's seem like real & living peoplefor example; "8. Kasimierz Ciolek (Fighter Lv2): A second cousin of the current Magnate, Kasimierz is in his early 30s. He was a second son, and rather than live under the shadow of his brother on his lands, he chose to seek his fortune with the Crown. He quickly ingratiated himself into the Piast court, where his family’s reputation for warfare got him a position in the Piast army under Boleslaw. Still, he didn’t prove to be a particularly skilled warrior (he performed acceptably, but got no great honors). However, he was quickly known as a master carouser, a genius at debauchery, and generally a great guy to have at a party. His social skills quickly gained him the admiration of Mieszko II, who made him one of his own attendants, and also granted him a position of honor when Mieszko II ascended to the throne. However, as time went by and Mieszko sought to be seen as more serious, his old party-friend has become more and more of a liability for him. What no one knows is that Kasimierz has been contacted by agents of Conrad II (Holy Roman Emperor) with the offer to act as a spy."
These NPC's are exactly the folks that you want to have on a Silk Road campaign! And this is exactly what 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons has been written for. 

The Polish noble houses would be excellent as patrons for a Sword & Caravan campaign adventuring party. 
There's plenty of opportunities for adventurers to make thier marks on the Silk  Road as traders, merchant princes, etc. 
This means that this supplement is going to get a work out. These Medieval authentic adventures work on many levels. For OSR play and at the table top level these are excellent pieces to use for OSR or old school gaming. 

These books by RPG Pundit are ones that I immediately buy. And this includes 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons  becase these books are actually usable and highly functional for old school and OSR play. Note that Rpg Pundit didn't send me this book to review but that I bought it on my own.