A 70's Sci fi Inspired Beta Max Black Stars Without Number Revised & Red Room's Decaying Orbit Campaign Notes - Saints, Gods, and Relics & Clerical Matters

 When it comes to clerics, it's easy to quickly dismiss the classic PC class. If the original Heavy Metal magazine had shown me anything it was the fact that clerics are warrior priests first and foremost. The role of the cleric is given a complete overhaul within Saints, Gods, and Relics from Night Owl Workshop

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The role of cleric here is on point with the militant warrior priest of the Original Dungeons and Dragons rules. Here were given an OSR twist and this supplement  takes this PC class in a direction where and when that can be used with Stars Without Numbers and other Science Fantasy  games. Why?! Because Saints, Gods, and Relics revamps the cleric as follows:"

 if a character remains a believer in good standing, their faith means that the following changes apply when a cleric of the same god casts spells upon them: • Cure spells cast on them heal an extra +1 HP per die. However, cure spells cast by any other cleric heal at -1 per die. Reversed effects are unchanged. • The benefits of Bless and Prayer spells are doubled. • They have no saving throw to resist Quest spells cast by a cleric of the same god, but +3 to save against Quest spells cast by any other cleric. • Raise Dead, Restoration and Resurrection cast by a cleric of other than their patron god do not help you at all. • Reversed effects (Curse, Cause Light Wounds, Slay Living, etc.) are unaffected. • Also, if a character has the same patron god as an NPC cleric, the latter will typically offer a 50% discount on any normal charges imposed for cures, raising dead, commune, or similar divine favors, but may also occasionally be sent by their god to get you to do them favors in the interest of their faith. Players may wish to offer a similar discount. If a character reaches 9th or higher level whilst having a patron god, he or she may be assumed to have attracted the personal interest of that deity, who will be likely to try and use them in schemes to support the god’s interests..." 

  Let's say for a moment that Stars Without Number takes place in the same universe as Wretched New Flesh Post Cards From Aviladad. Mankind is just starting to crawl out from under the effects of the Scream. And it is open to all kinds of religions and cults taking it back to the masses. The role of the cleric becomes clearer. Now we're probably thinking that the role of clerics has been talked about to death before. What if the cleric's order is also the provider of culture for many of these interstellar colonies. The cleric is trained to be warrior, counsel, and giver of both religion as well as culture. This of course is in addition to fighting against the blackness of the vile darkness thier rolls become that much clearer. Again this goes right back to the warrior cleric of original Dungeons and Dragons. 
And these styles of cleric's roles would not be out of character for Warriors of the Red Planet. 

The cleric becomes the plug and play warrior missionary on the post apocalpytic  red  planet. Why? Because the colonist on Mars need all of the help they can rebuilding. And the whole planet is ripe for exploitation by the forces of darkness. 
And that alieness of the Outer Darkness is something we see play out again and again the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Clark Ashton Smith, H.G. Wells and many others. 
The roles of warrior priest should never be underestimated and the resolve of such characters is something that will and should come into play during old school or OSR campaigns. 
Clerics are also the arm of darkness as well as those as light. And this means that clerics of the gods of darkness  can cause all kinds of havoc. 
The forces of light must always be on guard and Saints, Gods, and Relics can be augmented with the spells of Trails and Tails Games Faith is My Weapon. 

Tonight my mind was on the cultclassic film Krull. The idea that the 'backward' world of Krull might in point of fact have been a failed interstellar colony in the ancient past. And that it might have been destined to rejoin the interstellar scene once the hero and heroine's son grew to manhood. Makes me think about the idea of the cleric trail blazer leading worlds back from the darkness of technological de- evolution into the light of interstellar FTL flight. 

A 70's Sci fi Inspired Beta Max Black Stars Without Number Revised & Red Room's Decaying Orbit Campaign Notes - Matters of Magick & Loathsome Horrors

 We're just getting back from grocery shopping and at the grocery store I ran into one of my players of our regular games. And she and her husband wanted to know how the Stars Without Number/Decaying Orbit game campaign  was going. 

Anyone whose been paying  attention to this blog knows that when your 'the forever DM' there are only so many hours in the day. 
And the last time we talked we were bringing back the post apocalytic Mars campaign.
What I didn't realize was the fact that Night Owl Workshop has created “Beasties Loathsome Horrors,”.
And I wasn't even aware that this monster book even  was out! 
And “Beasties Loathsome Horrors,” fits  the Stars Without Number/Decaying Orbit vibe so damn well! 
Horrors, weird creatures, etc could easily be found in the Beyond or on a post apocalyptic Mars.What does it mean though?! 
For those who have Warriors of the Red Planet this book gives new teeth to the wizards of the Black Gate some brand new teeth. 

And for the Stars Without Number rpg crowd it means that we have a huge number of horrors that can be added into the mix for  The Codex of the Black Sun: Sorcery for Stars Without Number's wizards and magic wielders even more options or problems. For a post apocalpytic Mars game this really does turn the tied a bit. The NPC races and wizards now have even more horrors to add to the PC's fortunes or is it misfortunes?! 
There are certain nation states  of Mars who supposedly practiced the blackest of magicks. And this lines up right with some of what Clark Ashton Smith wrote in his Mars cycle. It also lines up with some of what the PC's have been doing in Aviladad. 

A 70's Sci fi Inspired Beta Max Black Stars Without Number Revised & Red Room's Decaying Orbit Campaign Notes- The Solar Sagas Option

 So the otherday we were screwing around with Stars Without Number & Orbital Decay from the Red Room. And it got me thinking about an old mini came that we ran using Worlds without Number & this blog entry is going to pick right up from here. 

Imagine if you will that there's a far future Earth and it's inhabitants are a hivemind actively trying to prevent thier timeline from being destroyed. Now imagine that this is a classic 1950's saucer style set of Grey invaders. And this alien hive mind is desparate to do anything to prevent itself from being earsed from history. And this lines up with ATTACK SQUADRON: ROSWELL from Zozer Games which  uses the Mongoose Traveller RPG engine. Now imagine that there's a whole urban Hellscape that our party has been fighting across for decades as a rebel unit of adventurers. They've been fighting the forces of darkness across various alternative Earth timelines and the Beyond.

And one of the things that I love about Kevin Crawford's design and writing work is how adaptable the rpg systems are. And last night I was reading through the rpg pub's forums when I came across this thread and it was something that member Stable Wyvern had written that made me pursue this;"I picked up SWN because Kevin Crawford, plus I was running a Traveller game at the time and thought I might find something useful in it. I didn't end up using anything then, but I did recently convert the SWN psionics system to Mythras as part of my Dark Sun Mythras conversion."

"I picked up WWN because Kevin Crawford, plus I am running an ACKS game at the moment, and tend to run fantasy in general, and was sure I'd find something useful in it. So far, I have used some of the generation tools for fleshing out some of the regional politics in my ACKS world, as well as using some of the ideas from the magic items to inform my own items."

If I wasn't planning to run Dark Sun with Mythras, I'd almost certainly do a conversion to WWN instead."

Also, yes, prima facie, SWN is OSR D&D + Traveller."

So basically you've got adventurers on alien worlds who have been fighting balls deep against Greys and other monsters while grabbing artifacts and ruined technologies from a million worlds. 

And if you think that this can't be a long term sustainable campaign then your dead wrong. Zonetec from Avilidad is not only aware of this timeline but has advisors in the mix.

And this comes down to the fact that the 'Invaders' are a cancer across the planes. And yes we've run a varaiton of this campaign years ago with Stella Gemma publishing's These Stars Are Ours campaign setting. The Reticulans of that setting's royals and rulers are 'the invaders' those infected with the parasitic entities that enslaved the Terrans within that timeline. 
There's a lot more going on below the surface then most folks know. 
We're going to be sticking with Stars Without Number if possible.  Why Stars Without Number? There's an excellent series of videos Legion of Myth did  on the  Stars Without Number.rpg  

We don't want to add to many rpg irons in the fire but Solar Sagas is another excellent rpg resource for this campaign. 

A 70's Sci fi Inspired Beta Max Black Stars Without Number Revised & Red Room's Decaying Orbit Campaign Notes - The Center Cannot Hold

Tonight it poured as thunder and lightning played outside meanwhile the Stars Without Number rpg found it's way into my hands again. And over the course of reading I started thinking about revamping our 'Post Apocalpytic Mars' game. The one we did used a combination of Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu, Worlds Without Number, Warriors of the Red Planet, and a healthy dose of public domain Barsoom. 

Our version of Mars wasn't a peaceful place at all but instead a burnt up ruin of a planet where the player's PC's were on a mission to get off planet. We had PC's literally crawling across radioactive Sarmak walkers & mecha ruins to grab any power and psi crystals they could. 
Eventually the player's PC's made it off planet and then the real fun began with the PC's dealing with the crawls across the galaxy. Mars was thier home base and they returned back it time and again. 
But why Stars Without Number? There's an excellent series of videos Legion of Myth did  on the  Stars Without Number.rpg  
Angry Golem Games also did an excellent series of supplemental books for Revised Stars Without Number here. 
And it's this alien dungeon asthetic that suits the mood here. And this plugs back into the dungeons of yore. Exploring the bowels of weird planar craft and ancient alien ruins. 

It's this 70's Science Fantasy  spirit that flows into our game campaigns. The Red Room's Decaying Orbit  fits deeply into this OSR combination by being another part of this OSR puzzle campaign. 

Decaying Orbit fits the asthetic of this campaign idea and it's been one I've been working on for the last two months. What Decaying Obrit brings to the table top is that 70's Science Fiction vibe with the usual Red Room twist! And in this case it's Wretched New Flesh Post Cards From Avilidad 
And it's the horror factor that twists it back to B/X Dungeons & Dragons. 
The idea of exploring ancient ruins and point crawls into the bowels of the ancient alien dungeons. And given some of the history that we see in Stars Without Number Revised there's reasons why Lovecraftian horrors and the like are oozing through the cracks of reality. 

Goblinoid Games Blues - Creating the Wretched Elsewhere campaignscape

So let's pick this right up from yesterday's blog entry here. So with Goblinoid Games almost completely ceasing operations, it was inevitable that we started talking about Goblinoid Games OSR titles. And about 90% of those titles are actually open game content. My mind drifts back to Apes Victorious. 



And the fact Avalidad makes reference to mutants as criminals & weird outcast citizens. And my mind keeps returning to the underdweller PC class. The underdwellers in Apes Victorious have it going on. They have high levels of dimensional gate technologies, energy weapons, and know how the Ancients technology functions. Underdwellers in the Mutant Future rpg according to Rpg Pub forum member Klibbix! appear as folllows:

UNDERDWELLER

Class: Mutant Human

Mutations: Albinism, Telepathy, Mental Phantasm

But what happens if we take the underdwellers out of their Apes Victorious & Planet of the Apes setting. And bring them over into Avalidad. They become another mutant faction in a world where mutantkind are a reality. But why are they so reviled?!  Because of the fact that many of the mutantkind running around the world of 2088 or so are artificially created. And this is also true of Mutant Future where over the years I've run a soft post apocalptyic landscape which feels more like Cyberpunk or Bio punk then anything else. 

The post apocalpytic world of my campaigns is called Elsewhere a place that exists as dimensional anomoly. Elsewhere is the Thundarr the Barbarian world that seems to be a wasteland of mankind's future but isn't. Instead Elsewhere is a nightmare fueled hellscape where mankind is sliding to extinction, mutantkind is on the rise, and this dimension crossover to future Earth. And the fact is that no one notices this. Elsewhere is actually one of the prisons of the Great Old Ones & the Outer Gods but it's also the source for many artifacts from Realms of Crawling Chaos. Elsewhere is also the home of wizards, warlocks, & sorcerers who make bargains with the Lovecraftian entities for occult power & ulitmately themselves mutate. 
And Elsewhere is also the home of Orcs, Elfs, etc. who cross over into the world to become gangsters, thieves, etc. all in an effort to carve out their place on Earth. Needless to say that for that we've used  Labyrinth Lord: Revised Edition & the Advanced Companion . And these two Goblinoid Games titles are easy as pie to use with Mark Hunt's B/X Gangbusters edition to create the gangs to really screw with player's PC's. 

Now for the record Elsewhere has apekind as well but it's not clear who or what created them. They frequently appear within gangs, as criminal king pins, honest business men, etc. 

Unboxing of 'All Bets Are Off' - An Alternative Setting for Postcards from Avalidad

 "All Bets are Off is a mini-setting for Postcards from Avalidad. It adds the city of Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, to the Avalidad game world. Lisbon of the near-future is a new entry in the infamous list of gambling and vice cities of the world, such as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Macao, Monaco and Singapore."

Today I got an unexpected package from my friend Miguel Ribeiro From Postmortem Studios for the Postcards from Avalidad rpg. 'All Bets Are Off' is  high end Neo Noir Cyberpunk rpg setting that is  a highly polished & very well done. The whole thing is perfectly suited to the 'shadow wars' & back room dealings of  the 'Postcards from Avalidad' rpg.  And this post will pick up from here on the blog. 

' Postcards from Avalidad' is partially based upon the work of William S. Burroughs & a lot of the author's interesting take on the fake indo Middle Eastern campaign setting. This rpg is  fused with cyberpunk leanings & quite a bit of body horror bubbling under the campaign setting surface. 'All Bets Are Off ' picks up the action in Lisbon, Portugal and targets the usual Las Vegas style campaign issues. Lisbon in 'All Bets Bets Are Off' is a viberant & living cyberpunk city with all of its own glitz, glamour, and an undercurrent of corruption. Adventures within Lisbon are going to be a combination of grift, grief, loss, and gain all in equal measure. 

And here's where the players could get into deep trouble especially if the DM uses  Zozer Games Zaibatsu rpg. Then Lisbon becomes the center of space deals, & corporate gambling and much more. This city is the unofficial center of corporate politics of the setting. Interstellar deals are done over drinks & black jack.

And this is the center of the cyberpunk corporate  situation that we find ourselves within. This of course is going to breed more shadow wars, violence, and more. I highly recommend 'All Bets Are Off' - An Alternative Setting for Postcards from Avalidad. But I might do something completely different with this rpg setting coming up! 

'All Bets Are Off' - An Alternative Setting for Postcards from Avalidad Is Available Here. 

OSR Review & Commentary 'All Bets Are Off' - An Alternative Setting for Postcards from Avalidad Rpg By Miguel Ribeiro

 "All Bets are Off is a mini-setting for Postcards from Avalidad. It adds the city of Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, to the Avalidad game world. Lisbon of the near-future is a new entry in the infamous list of gambling and vice cities of the world, such as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Macao, Monaco and Singapore. There are several tie-ins to the original storyline through factions in the core book and plot hooks which demand the characters to travel to the Iberian city. There’s also enough information to make Lisbon an alternative location for an Avalidad on-going plot."

'All bets are off ' is a faction & setting book for the Postcards from Avalidad rpg set in Lisbon in Portugal. A city I'm very familiar with having been there several times in the 90's. And this isn't that city or at least the version I'm familiar with.

And that's the point here folks. The Lisbon of 'All bets are off ' is a world of spies, dilettantes, grifters, cyberpunks, & every low life of the jet set that you can imagine. And this book clocks in a massive Eighty Nine pages of crammed in setting & NPC book.

'All Bets Are Off' is Lisbon through the rabbit hole of Cyberpunk on steriods, and everyone here has an angle including the house. The setting wears its Neo noir roots on its gold cuff linked sleeves. And this is just as its getting out the brass knuckles to finish off your PC's. Lisbon isn't built with factions in mind its built out of factions! And every one of em has an angle all of the while international & corporate spies move through the campaign sea like sharks. There's more then enough in 'All Bets Are Off' to keep the PC's on their toes for an entire campaign and they may never leave Lisbon... alive. 

Lisbon in 'All Bets Bets Are Off' is a viberant & living cyberpunk city with all of its own glitz, glamour, and an undercurrent of corruption. Adventures within Lisbon are going to be a combination of grift, grief, loss, and gain all in equal measure. 

Miguel Ribeiro writing is tight, the whole cloth of the setting is rich with adventure possibilities. And that's a solid six dollar investiment for the PDF. And it's a good solid start for a Neo Noir campaign.

All Bets Are Off' - An Alternative Setting for Postcards from Avalidad Rpg By Miguel Ribeiro Is Available Here

Now, how would I use 'All Bets Are Off ' personally?! Well, there's few thoughts swimming around in this diseased brain of mine. And that's to take 'All Bets Are Off' and grab Zozer Games Zaibatsu rpg then run Lisbon fast & loose as a campaign starting city. The glitz & glamour with its otherworldly qualities contrasts quite nicely to the underbelly of the factions driven world Lisbon.

Why?! Because the Neo Noir setting of Lisbon with its cyberpunk world contrasts nastily with the bio punk PC's elements of Zaibatsu. The PC's are purposely going to be fishes out of water in Lisbon exploited & exposed by the NPC factions of the city. And this trend will continue as the campaign continues.

Review & Commentary On 'As Above So Below' Adventure By Miguel Ribeiro For the 'Post Cards From Avalidad' rpg or Any Science Fiction or Horror Rpg

 "In Avalidad there are urban legends about Agartha, an underground town inhabited by mutants and other outcasts.

It is not a myth."

“This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers.” William S. Burroughs

'As Above So Below' clocks in at fifty one pages & is by Miguel Ribeiro &  includes statistics for AFM and *Punk, but usable with any system. Sometimes adventures are not simply adventures because their supplements as well. Miguel Ribeiro sent me a copy of 'As Above So Below' & thought that it would add into the mix of my 'Post Cards From Avalidad' & Zozer Games Zaibatsu campaign coming up. Avalidad is a bit of a monster for a DM to tackle in the sense that there are a ton of moving parts & pieces. This isn't a bad thing at all. 

Miguel Ribeiro  brings the seedy underbelly of Avalidad to the fore front of the campaign setting in spades. 'As Above So Below' punches the players in the face with the setting's factions, underbelly, criminal elements, alien forces, & more. According to Miguel Ribeiro this has been done on purpose; 

"AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

Though I used the same "formula" as before, As Above, so Below is slightly different from previous releases: it's both a micro-setting, Agartha, and a scenario (that's the similar part), but plays a bit like a "dungeon", taking place in an underground shantytown and being encounter-based.

Player characters can choose from several factions – mostly criminals, but also law-enforcement – who storm Agartha searching for a stolen future tech item."

Because of the way that the factions, powers, etc. of how 'As Above So Below'  this adventure can be played with a number of Rpg's. That being said it easily translates over to Zozer Games Zaibatsu. The PC's find themselves up to their ears in some definitively dangerous circumstances. But is 'As Above So Below' good?! Yes on a number of levels. The first level is as an adventure & you can think of 'As Above So below' as a mix of both a high budget action tale & a deeper pitched thriller with science fictional elements. 
As a sourcebook for the  'Post Cards From Avalidad' rpg, 'As Above So Below' works as both a sourcebook & excellent expansion for the game. It does this by plugging into the idea of adventure as campaign setting expansion in spades. The encounters, NPC's, etc. are all pitched for Avalidad as a breathing & living adventure location. 
Third 'As Above So Below' works as a deeper cut into the underbelly 'Post Cards From Avalidad' rpg game & setting. Make no mistake 'As Above So Below' is pure & clean making it unique for the rpg, campaign, and game as a whole. 
Can 'As Above So Below' be used with other rpg's?! And the answer to that is yes as a whole it could work as an introduction to the Post Cards From Avalidad' rpg setting. 
And this is what swings us back around to Zozer Games Zaibatsu. Where the low lift characters become embroiled in the world of 'Post Cards From Avalidad' rpg setting from the events of 'As Above So Below' 

'As Above So Below ' works because it places the PC's within the line of sight of several factions at once. The crooks, the law, and forces from beyond. And it does this while moving through its internal timeline. And 'As Above So Below' is a solid addition to the   'Post Cards From Avalidad' rpg! 

 'As Above So Below' Adventure By Miguel Ribeiro  For the 'Post Cards From Avalidad' rpg Is Available Rpg