Some Notes On Running Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #2 Secret Machines of the Star Spawn By Mark Taormino For Use With Your Old School Campaigns

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Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #2 Secret Machines of the Star Spawn By Mark Taormino is one of those modules that takes several gonzo themes and then twists them into some dangerously brilliant for old school play. This is the type of adventure that you can take a party of adventurers from the depths of the plot and into the depths of space. It's just become available on Drivethrurpg and its got some solid material going for it. I've run this adventure as a mini campaign numerous times now and folks really seem to love it.


The plot line goes something alike this; "Locals have been hearing whispers of strange happenings around the Ancient Volcano. Rumors over the last few months of an unspeakable evil that has risen up inside. An evil that “fell from the stars.” They say there is something wicked and devilish going on inside. Highwaymen report of strange creatures, mechanical monsters, and "Little Green Men" that are roaming the land causing chaos and mayhem!



The townsfolk are at their wits end. They put out a call for the bravest, the strongest, the smartest group of adventurers they could find... and unfortunately for them, your group has "answered the call." You and your stalwart band of adventurers know exactly what to do...  plunder the mountain for the treasure within! And maybe figure out what those pesky locals are bitching about!"



So here are some notes that I've found when running this adventure, be sure to have a large party with several PC character sheets in reserve. Many of the encounters and treasures of limited use and may need to a adjusted for extended campaign play. The monsters and situations can quickly develop into their own mini encounters so leave yourself as the dungeon master enough time to do a 'continued next game' option.  There are more then a couple of things to remember when dealing with MMD#2, the game environment might seem pretty amusing and gonzo but there are several parts that can mess up a party very well. The presentation here is very old school and through it works on old school setting principles the focus here is a compete setting crawl through a pulpy science fantasy setting.

Another strength of the Secret Machines is the OSRIC gaming material's stat spread and encounter curve, the adventure puts the adventurers center stage for about 90% of the action and it means that while deaths will occur, the PC's here are the focus of all of the adventure events. This also makes the Secret Machines good value for the money because the internal system can easily be converted over to other retroclone gaming systems. This is especially useful for Lamentations of the Flame Princess or other pseudo historical settings. "This product uses the OSRIC™ System (Old-school System Reference and Index Compilation™). This module can be played with any fantasy role playing system you may want to use it with under the Open Gaming License v1.0a and can easily be adapted to most campaign settings as well." For that style of retro clone campaign I would suggest either the Russian interior or Romania around the early Fourteen to Fifteen Hundreds when UFO activity according to historical records was at an all time high.


Recently I've run Secret Machines of the Star Spawn with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea & the adventure was a nice success. Several points can lead and dove tail into other Hyperborean adventure location hooks and threads including those featured in  Beneath the Comet and the  Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess. This is a part of the strength of MMD#2 in that it plays very nicely with other OSR style adventures.Personally I would set the adventure toward one of the out lying Hyperborean country side locations allowing the party to blunder into the adventure's set up situation.

Several things I've recently done with Secret Machines is to dump the party off on Carcosa and also as a way of introducing several new monsters into campaigns of White Star. The game adventure has and does make an excellent adventure bridge point to play around with a campaigns setting once the

Reconsidering The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn Adventure By Mark Taormino For Your Old School Campaigns

Sunday I spent with friends and went over the sword & sorcery options for the Fall and Mark Taormino's name came up. He's send out the last of  his backer copies of The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn  when it comes to this module you've got to love the way it handles all of its old school gonzo sci fi and fantasy elements with gusto.  Straight up this isn't a module for the kiddies. This is an adult themed mini campaign adventure.


Mark goes over the basic plot of Secret Machines in his Kickstarter Video and it pretty much hits the high points in spades.  The adventure is made for the OSRIC system with lots of sword and sorcery opportunities coupled with a science fantasy back bone. The plot is something straight out of an old school early Eighties module.  Here's the basic plot outline from the module :
Locals have been hearing whispers of strange happenings around the Ancient Volcano. Rumors over the last few months of an unspeakable evil that has risen up inside. An evil that “fell from the stars.” They say there is something wicked and devilish going on inside. Highwaymen report of strange creatures, mechanical monsters, and "Little Green Men" that are roaming the land causing chaos and mayhem!

The locals are at their wits end. They put out a call for the bravest, the strongest, the smartest group of adventurers they could find... and unfortunately for them, your group has "answered the call." You and your stalwart band of adventurers know exactly what to do...  plunder the mountain for the treasure within! And maybe figure out what those pesky locals are bitching about!

Half of the adventure takes place in the Volcano Dungeon Lair and the other half on a huge, Futuristic Spaceship which the Star Spawn has had "parked" above the planet unknown to anyone for the last 1000 years! If we can hit enough stretch goals we'll "unlock" more encounters, dungeon levels and ship levels etc!
As I've said this adventure offers lots of fun and mayhem in a weird setting with lots of neat bits thrown into the mix. This is a very lethal adventure but there's a lot going right in this adventure. The plot will work with anything from a gonzo Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg  game, to Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, to a Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics style mini campaign. But my question becomes why limit yourself to simply another set of standard fantasy and science fantasy tropes. Friends have suggested to take a science fiction or fantasy game such as White Star and bring your PC's in as agents so that a mixed game of adventurers will result.

But I'm looking into using this adventure as a bridge gap for a group of mid range PC's and I think this one is going to cut it. The elements here are weird enough to keep the players on their toes at the same time challenging them to really play with some of the elements. Believe it or not there are some highly challenging and dangerous obstacles in the mix in Secret Machines.

This adventure has everything from dungeon crawling to sheer nastiness in the form of some of the technologies and artifacts that will be encountered in this adventure but the DM really has the final say so on how and where the elements of the Secret Machines of the Star Spawn appear in their campaigns. But could this adventure fit into a world such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess or even Hyperborea? Well many of the gonzo and weird elements have been made to be self contained within the adventure settings of the Star Spawn adventure location. They will and do function within their own internal logical. This is in my book an other plus in the favor of the adventure itself. Mark is an excellent author and this adventure is a complete departure then say the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. But this is one of Mark's best efforts in my humble opinion and its a strictly a plug and play adventure. Plug it in where and when you want it in your campaign world. My advice is to grab this one and start getting in on the Star Spawns nefarious machinations before it gets your PC's! 

 

Unpacking The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn Adventure By Mark Taormino

Mark Tarmino knows how to pack a class A module & get it safely across country! My copy of The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn adventure arrived safely and soundly without bends, breaks, or problems plus some extras that the author included!
What can I say, I couldn't be more pleased with the module. The art work kisses all of the right old school buttons and gonzo adult fun I was expecting for me.

The plot will work with anything from a gonzo Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg  game, to Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, to a Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics style mini campaign. But my question becomes why limit yourself to simply another set of standard fantasy and science fantasy tropes. Friends have suggested to take a science fiction or fantasy game such as White Star and bring your PC's in as agents so that a mixed game of adventurers will result.

 The packing was well done and I wasn't expecting the extras that were packed into the envelops and the first thing that I saw brought a smile to my face. The three dee glasses were a nice touch.

 Half of the adventure takes place in the Volcano Dungeon Lair and the other half on a huge, Futuristic Spaceship which the Star Spawn has had "parked" above the planet unknown to anyone for the last 1000 years! That basically means that a DM could back draft the science fantasy action right into the back end of their own campaigns if they wanted to.

 And zing what's the first thing that pops up from the envelop? A drone that looks like it roared straight out of a certain American classic horror franchise of epic proportions! The Ball is back alright not really but I'm a die hard Phan of the Phantasm films!

 Speeder bike racing straight out of the Emp errmm adventure! With the roars of the alien crowd in the background! Love the art on these!

 Chocolate Thunder and her barbarian pal sticking it to the alien Star Spawn! And the quality of the module is top notch in my humble opinion! I'm I pleased? Hell yes I'm pleased as punch! I did a review of adventure right over Here 

  The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn adventure never takes itself too seriously but that doesn't mean that its any less deadly to your party. There's lots of back written pulpy action with rayguns, alien menace lurking around every corner, lots of treasure some it down right deadly. The setting is flexible, fast, and well thought out with plenty of room for DYI antics. 

 The colors on the artwork pops and shines through and I couldn't be happier!  The bulk of the action is one part adventure, one part dungeon crawl, and lots of thinking on the party's part or they will die badly. Mark has a style all of his own when it comes to these adventures the same as Venger Satanis, or any other old school author or designer. Something that develops from a certain DM mind set that reels back in the years.

 Reading and thumbing through Secret Machines of the Star Spawn I'm reminded in part of the classic series of modules where the party is put into situations of adventure they'll have to deal with because the adventure setting event was already in motion when your party stumbled upon it. This makes dealing with the mid tier bosses in the adventure both challenging and very dangerous.

 There is a sense of depth to the fun in Secret Machines that makes survival both a target and a part of reeling in the adventurers into several of the subplots flowing through the adventure. Much of this style of play hearkens back to the Gamma World classic adventure Legion of Gold where the trail of bread crumbs leads into several smaller side adventures within the context of the great whole. A style I happen to be quite fond of. My final opinion is man I'm so glad I got this and can't wait to unleash it on my players in the Winter!

I strongly recommend that you pick this module up when it becomes available to the public, the pdf is right now available on Drivethrurpg, note that certain themes in
The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn of an adult nature and that this isn't really work or kid safe. Fun yes but not safe for the kids.  But perfect for an old school group of players who want some solid play time in the dungeons of the Star Spawn!

Meditations On The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn Adventure By Mark Taormino

Tonight I got together with friends and went to a nice quiet establishment for a drink and to play catch up with other friends gaming habits tonight.  The talk turned to the OSR as its prone to do when old school gamers get together for dinner. Mark Taormino was the topic of conversation especially The Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn adventure.

Tonight I got together to talk, design, and chew the fat about gaming as I do some Saturday nights. This evening Mark Taormino's name came up and his module Secret Machines Of The Star Spawn. Mark had a pretty successful Kickstarter earlier this year with Machines and the backer copies of the module are going out. The plot was fun and it hits all of my old school gonzo buttons with its plot, I've run Secret Machines twice and its a blast. The adventure's plot goes something like this :
Locals have been hearing whispers of strange happenings around the Ancient Volcano. Rumors over the last few months of an unspeakable evil that has risen up inside. An evil that “fell from the stars.” They say there is something wicked and devilish going on inside. Highwaymen report of strange creatures, mechanical monsters, and "Little Green Men" that are roaming the land causing chaos and mayhem!

The locals are at their wits end. They put out a call for the bravest, the strongest, the smartest group of adventurers they could find... and unfortunately for them, your group has "answered the call." You and your stalwart band of adventurers know exactly what to do...  plunder the mountain for the treasure within! And maybe figure out what those pesky locals are bitching about!


Half of the adventure takes place in the Volcano Dungeon Lair and the other half on a huge, Futuristic Spaceship which the Star Spawn has had "parked" above the planet unknown to anyone for the last 1000 years!
I did a review of adventure right over Here  Because of the nature of the module the gonzo action is fast and furious with plenty of pulpy science fantasy and ray gun blasting action taking place throughout the module.
There are plenty of weird and dangerous monsters, alien life forms, and a ton of stuff happening. You got ray gun blasting action, a mix of elements of fantasy, science fiction, dashes of Lovecraft, rude bits of fun and high weirdness.


So Mark has shipped out the backer copies and friends of mine will be receiving theirs. Now a couple of thoughts occur to me regarding Secret Machines. The White Star rpg science fantasy system might make a perfect cross over point with Secret Machines with Swords and Wizardry. Granted that this module is designed for OSRIC and AD&D 1st edition style games or retroclone systems but porting it over might be a snap. It was pointed out that many of the elements of this adventure even though gonzo adult in nature cross over with lots of retroclone systems and that this module makes a nice spring board for taking your D&D parties into SPPPPPPAAACE. The fact is that this isn't a new tactic at all and when we're looking at everything from Retroclone systems to original may of the themes in Secret Machines crosses right over into the realm of science fantasy in spades. I can see using Secret Machines again for this coming winter with everything from OSRIC to Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea to Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Especially given some of the tongue and cheek elements of Carcosa and other LoFP titles. Before you ask I'm not entirely sure when Secret Machines of the Star Spawn's pdf will be hitting Drivethrurpg.  A safe guess might be after all of the backers get their physical copies. I can't wait to see what else Mark has up his sleeves in the coming months.

Review and Commentary On the Free OSR Horror Rpg Adventure - Come to Daddy For Your Old School Campaigns On The Dark Corner Blog

Today we take a look at the dark and completely twisted Free OSR Horror Rpg Adventure - Come to Daddy on the Dark Corner Blog! Right Over HERE

Note that this is a free adventure with adult themes, content, and some heavy duty horror themes of blood, guts, gore, cannibalism, and dark forces! 

Review and Commentary On Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn By Mark Taormino For Your Old School Campaigns

Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn By Mark Taormino just completed a successful run of a Kickstarter this morning. I've been following the progress of this module quite closely and could not wait to get my hands on this module. First things first, don't buy this module if you take your gaming too seriously. Because this is a module that is written for a DM and players who are looking for a good time in a science fantasy adventure with some very interesting damn dangerous challenges for their PC's. Make no mistake this adventure is clever and quite deadly and loaded with homages to 80's horror movies, science fiction films, and lots of ass kicking fun. I received my review copy along with the backers and so this copy of the adventure is in the raw, there's mistakes, errors,etc. which will be edited out within the final PDF that hits Drivethrurpg. The pdf clocks in at forty pages of packed adventure with a separate four page map booklet with maps and cartography by Alyssa Faden. 

There is a lot going in fory pages of module, the encounters here are tight and downright demented. Seriously the author has an open ended and yet event laden approach that takes a party through the adventure logically but open ended. But what's really happening? 

If you missed this Kickstarter you can still find out more info on how to order this product and others from our website at www.maximummayhemdungeons.com

The set up for this adventure goes something like this : 

Locals have been hearing whispers of strange happenings around the Ancient Volcano. Rumors over the last few months of an unspeakable evil that has risen up inside. An evil that “fell from the stars.” They say there is something wicked and devilish going on inside. Highwaymen report of strange creatures, mechanical monsters, and "Little Green Men" that are roaming the land causing chaos and mayhem! 

The locals are at their wits end. They put out a call for the bravest, the strongest, the smartest group of adventurers they could find... and unfortunately for them, your group has "answered the call." You and your stalwart band of adventurers know exactly what to do...  plunder the mountain for the treasure within! And maybe figure out what those pesky locals are bitching about!

Half of the adventure takes place in the Volcano Dungeon Lair and the other half on a huge, Futuristic Spaceship which the Star Spawn has had "parked" above the planet unknown to anyone for the last 1000 years!

And I'm happy to report that it does exactly what it says on the cover and then some. There are plenty of weird and dangerous monsters, alien life forms, and a ton of stuff happening. You got ray gun blasting action, a mix of elements of fantasy, science fiction, dashes of Lovecraft, rude bits of fun and high weirdness. And its all laid out in such a way that this adventure will fit right into your favorite retroclone system. In fact the Secret Machines is designed to work with your favorite retroclone system. According to the Kickstarter: 

This module can be played with the OSRIC(tm) system or easily adapted to Pathfinder, D20 System, Labyrinth Lord, BFRPG, Swords & Wizardry, Warrior & Wizards, etc or any fantasy role playing system you may want to use it with under the Open Gaming License v1.0a!

Because this adventure is designed in such an almost system neutral fashion, I personally think that with a little bit of conversion this module would make an excellent cross over point with the White Star rpg system and Swords and Wizardry. 

But I can also see this module working very easily with Dungeon Crawl Classics or for that matter with some adjustment Lamentations of the Flame Princess or the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. But due to the science fantasy elements of The Secret Machines of The Star Spawn this may be more of making adjustments for the relics and technologies found in the module. There are some nifty treasures and relics in the encounters that really bring the science fiction elements to life.
But is it good? I do believe with the right group that this is a perfect balance between Barrier Peaks style weirdness and a solid adventure grounded in pulp with lots of weirdness happening with its pages.
There are some very mature elements in this module so it might not be for the kiddies. Seriously there is some really deranged stuff happening in this one.



 There are six new pre-generated characters but given the nature and tightness of some of the encounters in this adventure after looking em over, I'd use these guys as hirelings for the party or as NPC adventurers who have preceeded the current party of adventurers. 
So bottomline do I think that this is a module worth your attention? Yes I believe so if your looking for a tight, well written, dangerous and completely deranged science fantasy adventure! There's lots here to recommend this one. And once the Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn By Mark Taormino hits the stands its going to bring some amazing elements of weird science fantasy to your tables. 

And don't forget that  Maximum Mayhem Dungeons has another Kickstarter happening right now, go and check it out you won't be sorry. Right over Here

Review and Commentary On The Lamentations Rpg System 'Death Love Doom' 'Pay What You Want' Adventure For Your Old School Campaigns On the Dark Corner Blog

There are some adventures that have elements  of the supernatural, madness, depravity, and gore within them. And there there are some where these elements descend upon a party in full force. This is one of those. Today we take a look and review The Pay What You Want adventure for Lamentations of The Flame Princess just in time for Halloween

                                       
                                       Right Over On The Dark Corner Blog HERE

Free Comic Book Download And Commentary On Skywald Comics: Scream Issue 01 (1973) For Your Old School Campaigns

Grab It Right Over 

HERE

The other day I was looking through Venger Santanis's various OSR and Fifth edition creations, we're getting back into the mode of Autumn, very quickly here in Connecticut and I'm getting very antsy to run a Halloween themed OSR game coming up.
The changing weather has my mind drifting to Skywald publishing and their brand of mayhem from back in the 70's. I discovered Skywald's 70's creations at the bottom of a box of comics in a friend's garage once upon a time. They pretty much jumped into my hands.
The lurid covers, the horror themes, the stories which drew on HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, and Kafka among others made an impact along with the the titles like  Psycho, Scream, & Nightmare. All of the comics were over the top and completely melodramatic, they came out right around the time that the soap opera Dark Shadows was winding down.The blood, guts, and more in some of the stories was completely out of place but these were Seventies horror comics.
Scream Issue 01 (1973) has most of the major Skywald horror themes right out of the gate - Their take on classic public domain horror characters, a sense of continuing dread, kickass 70's comic artwork,and some minor sexual material usually in the background.  Its a great issue to draw from and kinda what I was hoping that Ravenloft was going to pull from. That's a whole other blog entry and I do love Ravenloft though.
 That box of Skywald stuff came to me right around the time of my first exposure to D&D so horror comics and D&D are very closely linked for me.
 I remember reading  a few of the Heap issues. Their take on the 'Heap' was vastly different from the original 40's version which was proto swamp thing while Skywald's echoed more of a horror movie plot in its scope.
 A while back I ran Transylvania post apocalyptic mashup campaign using OD&D style rules with a touch of Jack Shear's material. It was a pretty solid success last year during the Autumn months and the Winter.
But because of the on and off medical issues of a player & friend I put it on hiatus. I didn't have the benefit of the Skywald magazines at the time to draw from. Now its back on and I'm starting to draw in my resources & ideas once again for this one. I might be running this campaign using Lamentations of the Flame Princess Grind House rules and some AS&SH for good measure.
The Skywald comic magazines would be perfect fodder to draw from for a Planet Mother $%^%$er adventure or one shot but personally I'd use the Mutant Future rules to run it.
So I thought I'd share the first issue of Scream with you, just in time for the coming of Halloween. 
Here's a brief history of Skywald publishing according to wiki and a few other sources : 

'Skywald Publications was a 1970s publisher of black-and-white comics magazines, primarily the horror anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. It also published a small line of comic books and other magazines.

Skywald's first publication was Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted through the end of 1974 or early 1975, with Psycho #24 (March 1975) its final publication. Nightmare published 23 issues and Scream put out 11 issues.

The company name is a combination of those of its founders, former Marvel Comics production manager Sol Brodsky ("Sky") and low-budget entrepreneur Israel Waldman ("wald"), whose I. W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published comic book reprints for sale through grocery and discount stores. Skywald was based in New York City.

Brodsky, who also served as editor, brought in Al Hewetson — briefly an assistant to Marvel chief Stan Lee and a freelancer for the Warren Publishing horror magazines and others — as a freelance writer. "Archaic Al", as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Under Hewetson, the horror magazines attempted a somewhat more literary bent than the twist-ending shockers of early Warren Publishing, the field's leader with such popular titles as Creepy and Eerie. Hewetson called this "the Horror-Mood", and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as Poe, H. P. Lovecraft and Kafka.

Comics professionals who produced work for the Skywald magazines include writers T. Casey Brennan, Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Gardner Fox, Doug Moench, Dave Sim, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman, and artists Rich Buckler, Gene Day, Vince Colletta, Bill Everett, Bruce Jones, Pablo Marcos, Syd Shores, Chic Stone, and Tom Sutton. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed pseudonyms. Future industry star John Byrne published his first professional story, a two-pager written by editor Hewetson, in Skywald's Nightmare #20 (August 1974).

Skywald also produced two issues of the magazine Hell-Rider (Aug. & Oct. 1971), featuring a vigilante motorcyclist with a flamethrower-equipped bike. The character was created by Gary Friedrich (who would go on to co-create the Marvel motorcyclist Ghost Rider) with artists Ross Andru (penciler) and Mike Esposito (inker). Backup features were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich, with art credits disputed by different sources for issue #1; the second-issue "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler Syd Shores and inker Esposito, the second "Wild Bunch" to penciler-inker Rich Buckler.

Another two-issue title, The Crime Machine, consisted solely of comic-book crime fiction reprints from the 1950s.[6] A remaining title, Science Fiction Odyssey, was planned for September 1971 publication, but withdrawn; some of its stories eventually appeared in the horror magazines.

The company also published a small number of magazines unrelated to horror or comics. Among these was Judy Garland (1970), a "special tribute issue".[7]

The short-lived color comic-book line, edited by Brodsky, comprised the Western titles Blazing Six-Guns, The Bravados, Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, and Wild Western Action; the romance title Tender Love Stories; the horror series The Heap; and Jungle Adventures. These each were combinations of new material and reprints. Contributors, in addition to some of those noted above, include Dick Ayers, Mike Friedrich, Jack Katz, John Severin, and John Tartaglione. Notably, The Sundance Kid #1-2 (June-July 1971) contained Jack Kirby Western reprints from Bullseye #2-3 (Oct. & Dec. 1954). None of the comics lasted more than three issues.

Skywald's End: Editor Al Hewetson, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on Jan. 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by "...Marvel's distributor. Our issues were selling well, and some sold out. Such returns as we received were shipped overseas, mainly to England, where they sold out completely. ... When Marvel entered the game with countless [black-and-white horror] titles gutting [sic] the newsstand, their distributor was so powerful they denied Skywald access to all but the very largest newsstands, so our presence was minimal and fans and readers simply couldn't find us. ... The Waldmans [Israel and business manager Hershel Waldman] and I had a business lunch with our distributor in the fall of '74 and we were given very specific information about the state of affairs on the newsstands — which had nothing to do with Warren's or Skywald’s solid readership base."' 

Un Boxing And Review Of The Hanging Coffins Of The Vampire Queen By Mark Taormino Over On The Dark Corner Blog

I received a package in the mail yesterday and suddenly I was transported to a world of Vampire Queens, The undead, hellish old school encounters and more! What was in the package from Freakshow Games?
Why the 'Hanging Coffins Of The Vampire Queen!'
 Gather the party, sober the cleric, and sharpen your stakes as we take a look right over
HERE

The Latest Word On The Kick Starter For On Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn by Mark Taormino

More details right
HERE
 The Kickstarter for the old school science fantasy adventure Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn  adventure by Mark Taormino has been heating up.  He's already unlocked the second series of stretch goals and we've got a while to till this Kickstarter is over.
So basically this is another of the twisted creations of Mark Taormino whose frequently creating some really nicely twisted adventures that work with Osric or AD&D first edition. The first one of these adventures had a whole different sort of twist on the usual D&D vampire tropes and then took the whole adventure in a completely other direction with his Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. That one is out now and I highly recommend it for your old school table.

You can order that one right over on the Freakshow Games home page right
HERE

 So it looks like Chocolate Thunder and her adventurer pals are going to see the light of day and might become a thorn in the side of the Star Spawn and co. 
This module contains 'adult content' and yeah they pretty much had me at the Robo Viking warriors. To be honest because I love the look and feel of  what I've seen with this Kickstarter.  Mark and co. did a terrific job with the Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen.  Secret Machines looks to be even more awesome! 

 The plot according to the Kickstarter page :
 Locals have been hearing whispers of strange happenings around the Ancient Volcano. Rumors over the last few months of an unspeakable evil that has risen up inside. An evil that “fell from the stars.” They say there is something wicked and devilish going on inside. Highwaymen report of strange creatures, mechanical monsters, and "Little Green Men" that are roaming the land causing chaos and mayhem! 

The locals are at their wits end. They put out a call for the bravest, the strongest, the smartest group of adventurers they could find... and unfortunately for them, your group has "answered the call." You and your stalwart band of adventurers know exactly what to do...  plunder the mountain for the treasure within! And maybe figure out what those pesky locals are bitching about!

Half of the adventure takes place in the Volcano Dungeon Lair and the other half on a huge, Futuristic Spaceship which the Star Spawn has had "parked" above the planet unknown to anyone for the last 1000 years! If we can hit enough stretch goals we'll "unlock" more encounters, dungeon levels and ship levels etc!

The first two stretch goals have been unlocked and I'm really looking forward to this one! One of the nice things about these modules is the fact that they're actually edition neutral in the true sense of the word. "This module can also be used with any OSR, OGL system, e.g. Pathfinder, DCC RPG, etc!"

Back In Print and Pdf Dungeon Module: The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen by Mark Taormino For Your Old School Campaigns

Grab It Through
Drivethrurpg :
HERE

Or through their website right over
HERE

Back in print and now available in PDF the nasty and dangerous Vampire Queen module is back in print!


Mark Tarmino does a great job with this adventure, grab your copy before they vanish like the Vampire Queen in the sunlight. The basic plot goes something like this :
Death or freedom? The Vampire Queen has challenged a small band of her worst prisoners to escape from her wicked dungeon lair. With all of your original magic items, weapons and possessions, it is up to you to outwit and fight your way through the terrible traps, beastly monsters, and horrific surprises she has arranged for you.

This adventure has that classic look and feel both inside and out, including blue maps and old-school fantasy art from some of the best artists in the business! Filled with irreverent characters, diabolical villains, over-the-top monster encounters, outrageous magic, mischievous NPCs, traps, puzzles, and more blood and gore than you can shake a +5 staff at! This adventure will entertain and challenge everyone who dares to play it!
The physical copy has some great quality old features. While l love pdf, the physical book is what I'm really looking forward to this one. 

• 36 Pages saddle stiched
• Removeable Cover with two blue maps
• 52 Encounters
• 5 New Monsters: (Dungeon Breaker; Vampire Lich; Wood Morph; Death Guard; Casket Creeps)

Coming Soon From Kickstarter : Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn by Mark Taormino On The Dark Corner Blog

 Join Chocolate Thunder and her band of brave souls as they take on the Star Spawn on the Dark Corner Blog today!
Coming soon from the twisted mind of Mark Taormnio another hit from Freak Show
Details Right
HERE *

*With Freak Show Games expect plenty of rude behavior, weird encounters, violence and danger, nudity, and lots of blood loss for adventurers. 

A Dark Corner Blog Exclusive : The OSR Module For OSRIC 'The Hanging Coffins Of The Vampire Queen' By Mark Taormino

Today on the Dark Corner Blog I take an exclusive look at the OSRIC module, 'The Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen' and talk a bit with the adventure's author Mark Taormino.
Grab some stakes, some holy water, and your party because its time to enter the dungeons of the Vampire Queen right over
HERE