Observations Of The Hyperborea rpg and It's Uses With OSR Campaigns

 Reading through the Hyperborea rpg third edition one may think it's simply an updated & nuananced 'B/X with bits of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons thrown in Sword & Sorcery' retro clone. And while this is easy to do. It's a big mistake because of the fact that 'The Hyperborea Player's Manual' is so closely plugged into the Hyperborea campaign setting. 

Hyperborea rpg third edition is one of the best incarnations & refinements to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition along with B/X Dungeons & Dragons. There are a ton of reviews of the 3rd edition of Hyperborea. Tonight I wanted to focus on the several adjustments and differences that have come into play at the table top level of play: 

1. The monk class refinement is actually workable and completely redefined. This allows the monk to be playable. 
2. In Hyperborea the main classes are highly effective and well suited to actual play. 
3. The PC's actually work very well together as a highly effective unit or party. 
4. Adventurers are in high demand because of the setting and crucial to survival of a community. 
5. The Sword & Sorcery aspect of Hyperborea is turned up to eleven. 
6. Actual working refined alchemy rules! 

What makes Hyperborea really nice is the fact that you can actually run classic adventures and turn them into an actual working OSR campaign. And this is something that we've done time and again at Casa De Fabiaschi. 
And one of the things that I love about the play of Hyperborea is the PC's testing thier mettle through the fires of adventure. 
If they survive the experience of course. 

What makes the Hyperborea rpg different is the range of survival options that it brings to the table for PC's and this is baked right into the game. Leveling means going out into the greater world and surviving it as an adventurer. Time & again this has been a theme in our OSR Sword & Sorcery table top games. 

OSR Commentary - Setting Up a Wretched Country second edition Campaign & Beyond

 Got together with a friend yesterday and we started talking about one of our Wretched Country mini games from last year. And it reminded me of a fact. Let's get into it. 

So tonight I'm looking through Wretched Country second edition after visiting with a friend of mine today. And we started talking about one of his old PC's whose currently one of the main NPC's in our game campaigns. And this brought back home that I was working on a Wretched Country second edition campaign for our players. What were some of the elements that I was looking for within such a Dark Fantasy & Western horror campaign?! 

Some of the elements for a Dark Fantasy & Western horror campaign: 

1. The Western campaign needs to be episodic with in internal consistency from session to session. Adventure elements need to have consquences just like 50's & 60's classic TV Western series. 
2. PC's should be interesting and engaging. We find this out through actual play sessions. 
3. PC's don't have to be the good guys but with a bit of smattering of grey across the board. 
4. Horror elements need to come from the 'Old West' 
5. There should be ties between the PCs such as they were such and such gang or fought in the same regiment during the American Civil War. 

So for this campaign I'd probably end up using  Wretched Époque rpg first edition for the rules set and Wretched Epoque second edition for some of the setting elements. This is along with  Wretched Country second edition 

The real key to creating a Wretched Country campaign is to a. get the mythology for the area that it's set in concistant and b. to get the PC's involved with a stake in the situation of the adventure so that during play they have a reason to be there. And if there's a key book for Wretched Country that never get's mentioned it's Wretched Folklore. 

Wretched Folklore isn't just a 'monster manual' sorta of book but actually has entries on 'Praire madness' pheonoma, the spiritualist class, pychic events, and more. Then it goes into the monsters and legends of the 'old West'. So why I'm I using the material of Wretched Époque rpg second edition as well?! Because of the fact that it brings so much for the 1900's urban rpg setting landscape. 
So you've got the big cities covered and western towns. This rpg forum thread here has some awesome Old Western resources as well. 
And of course all of this ties into what we've been doing recently with 

Something Wretched This Way Comes.  The key with any of the Wretchedverse rpg's is consistency of play between game sessions and mini campaigns. And this is where Wretched Country second edition leads straight into Wretched Apocalypse events & setting. Time space gates, praire storms and other supernatural weather are a great campaign mover. 

In the past mini games I've run with PC's crossing over into Wretched Apocalpyse the biggest problem has been the mutants and wastelands trying to eat the PC's horses. And the PC's shooting scads of NPC's and potential allies. 

The biggest event is the PC's having to explain to the 1900's inhabitants that thier taking supplies to the less fortunate with those being the wastelanders. 
Also establishing a route between the two time periods is frought with all kinds of supernatural issues. And these led to the events of Cold Heart Canyon. 
And also we had random encounters with wastelanders showing up in Texas in the 1900's. Not that anyone noticed. 
And that get's back into the fact that Texas reallly is another state of mind entirely. 

Of Chicken Legged Horrors & The Haunting of Mystara - Castles & Crusades Codex Slavorum & Baba Yaga’s Miraculous Transformation By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler.

 So let's pick up with an excellent Eastern Slavic Mythological random encounter that fits right into the Chaotic lands that we were speaking about yesterday for Castles & Crusades from B10 on the blog here. And then in the middle of the wilderness the PC's run across a chicken legged hut & it's highly dangerous hag queen owner! All around the chicken legged cabin trolls feed on human and humanoid bones. What is this place out in the middle of the wilderness!? 

What the PC's have stumbled upon is witch crone's home straight out of the tradition of Baba Yaga. And this might well be one of her evil followers, cultists, or even a vacation spot for the evil queen herself. James Mishler Games provides us with  Baba Yaga’s Miraculous Transformation

By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler. 

And this is perfect to add into the Slavic lands of your own home campaign. The Mishlers state you get the following to add into your game:
Baba Yaga’s Miraculous Transformation
Stage I Miraculous Hut: Dangerous Chicken
Stage II Miraculous Hut: Vicious Chicken
Stage III Miraculous Hut: Tiny Hut
Stage IV Miraculous Hut: Grand Hut
Extra-Dimensional Rooms, Connections, & Hallways
Stage V+ Miraculous Hut: Palatial Hut
The Heart of the Hut
Embedding Magical Features Through Spells
Magnificent Manor Variant
Stone Tower Variant

Baba Yaga’s Miraculous Transformation is not designed for PC's! So a PC wanting to construct one is straight up an evil act! And the author even states it;" The creation and improvement of a Miraculous Hut is a Chaotic and Evil Act! Not suitable for most player characters!" And encountering one of these along with it's evil owner is a major mid boss point for an adventure. And this ties directly in with Castles & Crusades Codex Slavorum & Mystara where hags are a major four alarm issue for adventurers. 

Castles & Crusades Codex Slavorum has several major PC  classes  that tie directly into slaying the makers of one of these chicken legged manors. 
These are often used by hags as lairs and since they are mobile they can range across a land allowing the hag to slaugher and murder where and when she or it wants too. 
These chicken legged manors are often the focus for cults and other foul evil cult's lairs where the hag holds court in a region. 
The appearance of a single hut is cause for great concern in the wilderness of Mystara. The settling of a new one may signal the appearance of a hag headed cult within an area. 
The appearance of one of these might be the signal of a new cult starting to settle into an area marked by new disappearances of children and adults, the sightings of hags and other monsters, and other odd occurances signaling the use of foul magicks in an area. 

OSR Commentary On Expanded Dragons By James Mishler Games For Shadow Dark rpg But With Castles & Crusades Leanings

 "Expanded Dragons is a new system for generating dragons for the Shadowdark RPG.

The Expanded Dragons system enables the easy creation of six types of dragons of 1st to 20th level of power."

"The following subsystems are included:

• Core system, including determining Age Category, Level, Type, and Alignment.
• Determining Base Dragon Stats.
• Determining and applying Random Modifiers to Stats.
• Determining Base Statistics.
• Determining Dragon Talents, applying modifiers, and noting any special abilities.
• Determining Dragon Magic spells, if possessed.
• Determining Dragon Treasure.
• A sample dragon, complete with a breakdown of the use of the system, is included.

"This version of Expanded Dragons is designed specifically for use with the Shadowdark RPG, and is unrelated to and completely different from my earlier Expanded Dragons book, which was designed for use with Labyrinth Lord."

Expanded Dragons By James Mishler Games couldn't have come at a better time because this is perfectly suited for Castles and Crusades as an alternative to the dragons of the C&C system. Not only do you have a whole sale revamp of the dragons of the worlds most popular rpg but you got a great resource to bring new twists on the dragon myth in other OSR systems. And this is where Expanded Dragons takes a few unexpected twists. This includes full looks into Dragonic magic and treasures. These are easily applable to Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasures. 

Expanded Dragons By James Mishler Games magic, artifacts, and background could easily make a marked appearance in a C&C campaign where you've got the PC's seeking enchanted weaponry such as those that are going to be found within The Adventurer's Armory. We already know what's going to be in the book so dragons are going to need all of the help that they can get. Mishler games brings that advantage. 

  Dragons should be in my mind be highly unpredictable as suits monsters of legend and myth. These are monsters of legend and lore, Mishler Games does an excellent job of bringing more options for the dragons to take far more leadership positions. And this is something that we've also seen in other OSR products such as Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Heroic Fantasy Handbook. However Expanded Dragons let's dragons be dragons within a C&C campaign or other OSR campaign. The dragon here is a force of nature and magick a creature of both creation, destruction and even horror. Dragons as thier presented by Expanded Dragons are creatures worthy of being called Dragons. 

OSR Combination Mini Campaign - Bloat Games Scorched rpg & Wretched Space Combined

 So after getting a bunch of side long glances, several phone calls, and a physical meeting with one of my fellow DM's we began to formula a plan for this upcoming campaign. And the focus of that meeting was Lazarus 3. Haven't heard of Lazarus 3 then your not alone because Lazarus three comes from Bloat Games Scorched rpg; "THE WORLD OF LAZARUS-3 Lazarus-3 is a rare, habitable planet in a distant solar system that was conquered by a powerful confederation of planets known as The Black Brace. The peoples of Lazarus-3 had a pre-Space Age, Industrial Revolution era technology and had some usage of magic, but they were no match for the seasoned soldiers & the centuries-in-advanced technology of the Black Brace. The Black Brace quickly enslaved the population of the planet and started them to mining and building advanced weaponry. Outside of the major Black Brace bases, cities, trading posts & slaving raids, the conquerors paid little mind to the citizens in the wilds of Lazarus-3. Those areas became wild zones of outlaws, smugglers, raiders and chaos."

Lazarus 3 sounds exactly like the sorta of a place where aliens, smugglers, roughs, outlaws, and Wretched spacers live. And that's because we've set it within the Wretched universe. And there's a reason for that. Lazarus 3 has all of the hallmarks that are talked about in the Wretched Space rpg. 

This is going to be a totally different rpg campaign then our own Post Apocalpytic solar system campaign on a number of levels. Let's start with the fact that we've got a fully fleshed out interstellar world. And then add in the fact that Lazrarus 3 is a long, long, way from Earth. 

Well be using the Scorched rpg with a twist or two or more from Wretched Space. And magic is already baked into the Scorched rpg system. As is psionics and all of this will be added into the basics of the campaign. 

Wretched Space has enough flavor for two games but these games are going to back lit into our own Vigilante City supers rpg. Not even going to try to explain this aspect of the campaign to the players because they've taken it for red that this is a part of every day life. 

This is our first radeo with Bloat Games & the Wretchedverse. The biggest & baddest concern lately is the fact that work schedules, personal issues, etc. in other words real life has been chipping away into our campaign lately. On a personal level there needs to be a Giallo cinematic quality to this campaign. And this is going to hinge on the politics of the factions of Wretched Space. We've already set up one set of murders and ninjas. There are definitely going to more supernatural elements involved here as well. 
This OSR Combination Mini Campaign needs to be completely different then our ongoing Hostile rpg. And already our of the gate I feel that it is. Gated communities, weird corporate overlords, the occult, and more are already playing into the mix here. The Black guard an essential adventure element within our campaigns as both allies & antagonists for our player's PC's. We'll see how this pans out coming up. 

OSR Commentary On The Hercules-class Heavy Freighter By Michael Johnson From Independence Games For the Clement Sector rpg

 "Along with James Lancaster’s ubiquitous Atlas-class freighter design, the Hercules-class heavy freighter is considered to be a second generation gravitic drive design with the first generation being simple conversions of existing reaction drive vessels without internal gravity fields and inertial compensators. Designed from onset to be a pure gravitic drive design, the Hercules completed its first round of trials at the same time the Atlas-class was entering commercial service with Lancaster Shipping."

The Hercules is a huge freighter, as big as a navy cruiser and bigger by far than every other interstellar capable commercial vessel. With over half the ship dedicated to cargo carrying capacity, the class is a “must own” for mercantile companies regardless of their fleet size. Now having been in service for over a century it is still an attractive option as a used purchase for more successful ship owners looking to increase profits on a lucrative cargo run. 

Within these pages, you will find the standard Hercules as well as these popular variants:

Tanker - Used by mining corporations, shipping corporations, and other private fleets as a refueling vessel.

Transport - Used by some governments as a troop transport, the Hercules can transport a light battalion into battle."

The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter By Michael Johnson is one of those iconic ships that seems to fade into the background when we begin talking about the Clement Sector. And that's too bad because these starships are the pack mules of the black! Seriously the   Hercules-class Heavy Freighter moves whole battalions into battle. And these starships represent the very best in cargo moving that the Frontier of the Clement sector has to offer. 
The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter tankers are the fuel points that many corporations rely on to get the job done in the blackness between the points of civilization. These tankers can mean the life line to the remote colonies between stars in a sector. The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter represents the real time arm of investiment that a corporation has in a planet, sector, or fleet. And this means that the mining corporations know their value. The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter forms a fixed point of fuel and hope to those who need their services, fuel, & utility to colonies across the Clement sector. 
And don't think that every two bit pirate outfit isn't gunning for  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter or its variants. 

The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter's crew represents a significiant part of a possible ransom for a party of space pirates. And this doesn't take into account the The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter's cargo which could fetch on the open market! And skilled crews operating in the black are prime targets for space pirates.The  black market thrives on the Hercules-class Heavy Freighter & thier cargoes. The real weigh  of the black market is rife with politic                                                                                   corruption on both sides of the Clement sector. And this makes The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter a hot star or diamond in the rough depending on which side of the law the owners find themselves on.Power comes from being able to move cargo when & where you as a corporate entity want too. Making you as the owner the  ultimate entity   to place cargo in the hands of the colonies or other  corporations.  Only the biggest corporate outfits can operate a Hercules-class Heavy Freighter. Something made obvious by Michael Johnson's writing and reading between the lines of the starship guide. 

The  Hercules-class Heavy Freighter By Michael Johnson From Independence Games For the Clement Sector rpg Is Available Here 

Adventurer, Conqueror, King Along The Moonbeam Roads - The Grail & Beyond

 So today I had a get together with some of my fellow DM's for the next leg of the Winter campaign & we've been talking about Adventurer, Conqueror, King. Or more to the point the ACK's Heroic Fantasy Handbook. And there's been some hemming & hawing about doing an ACK's Stormbringer campaign. Now today's blog entry is going to pick up right from our last one. 

In the past it hasn't been Stormbringer that's been the focus of our Stormbringer rpg campaigns. But instead Arthurian legend & the Holy Grail have taken centerstage. And according to the Stormbringer Wiki there's a Moorcock explanation that underpins quite a few of the author's series; "The Holy Grail is a cosmic archetype that manifests most often as a jeweled, golden chalice. The Holy Grail could be anything. It could be a cup, a helmet, or an entire universe. The truth of the holy grail is that it is a manifestation of the Moonbeam Roads, the Runestaff and the Spammer Gain. It is the key to the Multiverse, and is therefore also called the cure for the World's Pain, for it unlocks ultimate freedom. The Von Bek family is bound to the Grail and they are its keepers and its seekers."
All of this is a part of the Warhound & the World's Pain 

We've had agents of both Law & Chaos work with Von Bek's in the past & now the fact is that Chaos has been stirring in the wastelands again. If your not familiar with the wastelands of Arthurian legend here's the wiki entry on it; "The Wasteland is a Celtic motif that ties the barrenness of a land with a curse that must be lifted by a hero. It occurs in Irish mythology and French Grail romances, and hints of it may be found in the Welsh Mabinogion.

An example from Irish literature occurs in the Echtrae Airt meic Cuinn (Echtra, or adventure in the Otherworld, of Art mac Cuinn). Recorded in the 14th century but likely taken from an older oral tradition, Echtrae Airt meic Cuinn is nominally about Art, though the adventures of his father Conn of the Hundred Battles take up the first part of the narrative. Conn is High King of Ireland, but his land turns to waste when he marries the wicked Bé Chuma, an unacceptable action for the king. He searches for a way to restore his country by sailing towards the mystical western lands, and eventually washes up on an island inhabited by the niece of the sea god Manannan and her husband. He attends an otherworldly banquet, and when he returns his wife is banished, presumably lifting the curse.

In the Arthurian Grail material, the Wasteland's condition is usually tied to the impotence of its leader. Often the infirmity is preceded by some form of the Dolorous Stroke, in which the king is injured tragically for his sins but kept alive by the Grail. In Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail, the Fisher King has been wounded in a misfortune that is not revealed in the incomplete text, and his land suffers with him. He can be healed only if the hero Perceval asks the appropriate question about whom the Grail serves, but warned against talking too much, Perceval remains silent. In the First Continuation of Chrétien's work, the anonymous author recounts how Gawain partially heals the land, but is not destined to complete the restoration. Over the course of time romances place less emphasis on the Wasteland and more on the king's wound. In the Lancelot-Grail Cycle the link between the devastated land and the wounded king is not absolute, and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle much more emphasis is placed on King Pellehan's injury by Sir Balin than on the devastation this causes to his kingdom." 

The Grail itself is quite safe but the other items associated with it have been missing for a long time. The Shroud of Turin, the spear of Longinus, & the swords of the Fisher Kings.  The swords are powerful artifacts of Law lost in the land of legend?! They've floated in & out of our campaigns for years beyond the reach of the player's PC's. Several of our high level ACK's PC's over the years have retired to Fairyland to rule over kingdoms of dreams. But now there's been rumbles among the players that they should be questing for the Fisher King's Swords. Such powerful items along with the Grail regalia should not fall into the hands of one of the lords of Chaos.

And this brings things back to the Wasteland of Arthurian legend being equivalent to the wilderness of original Dungeons & Dragons. Within original Dungeons & Dragons Volume Three Underworld & Wilderness Adventures page 14 -15; "THE WILDERNESS: The so-called Wilderness really consists of unexplored land, cities and castles, not to mention the area immediately surrounding the castle (ruined or otherwise) which housed the dungeons. The referee must do several things in order to conduct wilderness adventure games. First, he must have a ground level map of his dungeons, a map of the terrain immediately surrounding this, and finally a map of the town or village closest to the dungeons (where adventruers will be most likely to base themselves). 14 "Blackmoor" is a village of small size (a one-horse town), while "Grayhawk" is a large city. Both have maps with streets and buildings indicated, and players can have town adventures roaming around the bazaars, inns, taverns, shops, temples, and so on. Venture into the Thieves' Quarter only at your own risk! The terrain beyond the immediate surroundings of the dungeon area should be unknown to all but the referee. Off-hand adventures in the wilderness are made on the OUTDOOR SURVIVAL playing board (explained below). Exploratory journies, such as expeditions to find land suitable for a castle or in search of some legendary treasure are handled in an entirely different manner." 
And this unexplored wilderness becomes a part of the multiverse as PC's trip along the moonbeam roads. 

What are the moonbeam roads?! Well according to the Multiversal wiki; "

The Moonbeam Roads are the ethereal pathways through the Multiverse, leading between universes, from world to world.

The roads pass through the Higher Worlds, and run between the universes. A traveler upon the Moonbeams can percieve the entire Multiverse around them.

The Moonbeam Roads are a manifestation of the Holy Grail and therefore also a manifestation of the Runestaff and the Spammer Gain." Time & again we've used to carve out pieces & universe  for our player's PC's to take over across the multiverse.