A Claw Full of Wretchedness - Mail Call, The Wretched Epoque Rpg , & A Review Of Tears of Belphegor Adventure

 So for many months now we've been running the Red Room's Wretchedverse over the last couple of months as mini campaigns.  Wretched Époque has really been one of the Red Room's best rpg's that the players have responded too. With that being said the players have also responded Wretched Darkness. So it was high time to grab a copy of Wretched Époque.

So during one of the hundreds of sales that drivethrurpg does I grabbed a copy. And it came very fast. And over the past three or four nights Wretched Époque has been in my hands. And it's about letting the alternative history of Wretched Époque flow. So this is kind of fitting given that it's Edgar Allan Poe's birthday today. Can I honestly say that I'm a huge EAP fan going back to my childhood.  Mostly because of the classic Roger Corman Poe films of Vincent Price. 

I wanted to grab this before the OGl hammer came down by Cowards of the Coasts. Wretched Époque has everything a DM & his players need under one cover. With the added on history of Wretched Époque & it's uniqueness of the historical Paris setting. Paris unto itself in the Wretchedverse is a character as well as a setting. The Red Room does a fantastic job with Wretched Époque by bringing the underworld of Paris to life. 

But we're not done yet! The latest version of Wretched Darkness Rpg came my way. And this is a big book of a horror rpg system! And like every other Wretchedverse rpg is the fact that Wretched Darkness is very much interwoven in universe with lore & fluff that relates to the Wretchedverse! So my local print shop hit me with an offer that I couldn't refuse. 

 So the Wretched Darkness Rpg is a fun & terrible modern horror rpg. I say this in the best way because the  Wretched Darkness Rpg channels Giallo & Eighties or Nineties horror films in the best way. It does this by taking all of the Wretched rpg systems & then channeling them into a very nasty system! 
Here's the thing I'd absolutely do three or four PC's before attempting to interplay in a mini campaign. 
While the Wretched Darkness Rpg is OSR all of the way. It's a far deadlier affair then say even Ravenloft or other 2nd edition world's most favorite fantasy Rpg's. 

And here's where things get interesting. Not only is Wretched Darkness Rpg the Red Room's big Rpg but it's the big rpg with the most connections back to Wretched Époque. I don't wanna spoilt it but there's ways of bringing PC's from Wretched Époque into a Wretched Darkness campaign. And this get's into the trickier aspects of both the supernatural realms & the backdrop of Wretched Époque's Paris! 

And this brings us Tears of Belphegor which is a short scenario & adventure for Wretched Époque's Paris during the closing days of the Commune. You play the scum of the Parisian underworld & it definitely crosses into the world of both horror & the supernatural. It's well written & brings home the Paris of Wretched Époque in spades. And it could potentially be connected into the world of Wretched Darkness quite easily. 

The fact is that the Parisan underworld during the time of the Commune is rife with potential for the DM to exploit. That being said there's lots of potential for the PC's to screw up royally in Tears of Belphegor. Is Tears of Belphegor good without a doubt. And it's an adventure that's going into Saturday's Wretched Darkness rpg session! 

OSR Review & Commentary On Hell Night Hijinks By Super Savage Systems For The Neon Lords of The Toxic Wastelands Rpg

"For one night a year the veil between terra-realm and the terror-realm is so thin that all hell breaks loose. When tricks and treats fill the streets of all the humanoid sectors and all the unspeakable horrors wreak havoc. Within this unholy tome you will find all the stuff needed to run the most spookiest night on neo-terraxx."




"From all the treats to scarf down to the baddies from terror-realm that will scare your socks off!! Included is:

• The adventure “Detroit-Prime Up All Night”

• Rules on how to Trick and Treat

• Hell Night fantastical items and treats as well as mundane treats

• Hell Night Masks to wear while Trick and Treating!

• A few additional monsters to add to the holiday fun!"

Hell Night Hijinks By Super Savage Systems For The Neon Lords of The Toxic Wastelands  Rpg is a twenty page Halloween themed Eighties Romp of an OSR adventure in which your PC's come face to face with some of the worst horrors that Neo Traxx has to offer. And its all right in the adventure's opening; "During the time of the Flesh-Gods in the time of the Neon Wars a scientist unearthed a very unholy tome in an archaeological dig. The magic thought to be lost in the sands of time was re-awoken giving the scientist power beyond his wildest imagination. On a day they called Hollow-weens the mad scientist opened a portal to the Terror-Realm causing a rip in the space time fabric causing the portal to open on the same day every year until the end of time itself. Some think the mad scientist survived the portal opening and thrived in the Terror-realm ultimately becoming the scourge of Neo-Terraxx himself. The techno-lich TerrorRex, but that is a story for another time. Now as means to appease the monsters that come through the veil, the humanoid sectors partake in customs and practices they think the Flesh-Gods used to keep the nightmares at bay. This includes Trick and Treating, where humanoids dress up go door to door looking for trouble and get fed massive amounts of sugar and energy drinks. Chronosages do their best to figure out what they see with the sacred smoke, but a lot of times they have no clue what the Flesh-Gods were up to"

Hell Night Hijinks takes place in Detroit Prime & the adventure reads like one part 90's Judge Dread mixed with Nuke Em High swirled in with a heaping helping of Eighties horror films. The Pc's are going to get thrown into the deep end of  Hell Night Hijinks.  The real question is will they survive? And Hell Night Hijinks takes a deep whiff of the systems that were laid down in Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastelands. And Hell Night Hijinks as a beginning adventure for Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastelands rpg! 
We get some really nasty pop culture themed encounters & then double down on those. And while Hell Night Hijinks takes its ques from Neon Lords then enough to keep the players coming back for more!
If your going run Hell Night Hijinks then you going to need equip your party with a Neon Lords Holy Smiter & a cosmic barbarian to help handle the Halloween load of critters. Hell Night Hijinks is part adventure event & dungeon crawl. And it take full advantage of the Neon Lords of The Toxic Wastelands rpg. 
Hell Night Hijinks is a great adventure to throw your player's PC's into the fray! 

Hell Night Hijinks By Super Savage Systems For The Neon Lords of The Toxic Wastelands  Rpg Is Available Here For Free 

Review & Commentary On 20 Minor Magic Items by James & Jodi Moran Mishler For The Fifth Edition of the Worlds Most Popular Fantasy Rpg

"20 Minor Magic Items contains 20 items of lesser or least magical sort, designed to be given to lower-level characters. Most of the Minor Magic Items listed herein are common or very common items of minor, lesser, or petty sort."




"One common or two very common items from this booklet can be substituted for any one common item from the standard treasure lists.

The 20 items are:

Adamantine-Chased Armor
Ammunition of Ready Recovery
Belt Pouch of Plenty
Crown of the Goblin King
Grenade of Wonder
Healing Salve
Holy Crackers
Instant Armor
Locket of Memory
Pastries of Provisioning
Phantasmal Pipe
Ring of Invisibility, Lesser
Ring of Truth
Ring of Warding
Rune Weapon, Lesser
Shielding Shield
Talisman of Resistance
Talisman of Protection
Thieves Tools Nonpareil
Tome of the Master" 

 There are two things dungeon masters can never have enough of & that's monsters or magic items. Now over the last couple of months I've been playing an on & off reoccurring PC in DM Steve's Amazing Adventures 5th edition game. And here's where 20 Minor Magic Items by James & Jodi Moran Mishler  comes in very handy! 

This has been a campaign based around 70's & 80's classic horror & fantasy movies. As a DM in rotation that hasn't happened due to work conflicting schedules with several of our players so I've had to sit on my hands for the moment. So over the last couple of months I've been quietly learning the 5th edition AA. And getting into the back drop adapting certain fantasy world NPC's. Among the things that I keep encountering is having interesting occult items that can be useful but not campaign wrecking. 20 Minor Magic Items by James & Jodi Moran Mishler clocks in at six pages of items with several wrinkles or hooks that could be exploited by the DM. 
A good example of this is the Crown of the Goblin King which plugs directly into today's Jim Henson inspired blog entry; "CROWN OF THE GOBLIN KING Wonderous item, common (requires attunement) This splendiferous, ostentatious device is a headpiece patched together from various flashy, gaudy, and tacky bits and bobs, none of which have any actual value. When you wear this crown you have advantage on all Charisma checks when dealing with goblins; unfortunately, you also suffer disadvantage on all Charisma checks with dwarves." This item could be a major plot hook while being a very minor magic item as the goblins of Fey will not recognize a new goblin king without it. And with a bit of hand waving these magic items could easily be dropped into a Castles & Crusades game with little or no modification at all. 

And  20 Minor Magic Items by James & Jodi Moran Mishler  is filled with exactly these sorts of  minor magic items. While they won't break the campaign they can & will make it memorable. For a dollar 20 Minor Magic Items is a wise investment that will give far more in the long run of a campaign.

20 Minor Magic Items by James & Jodi Moran Mishler Is Available Here

Review & Commentary On 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' By Leopoldo Rueda For The Seventh Edition Call of Cthulhu rpg

"Horror at the Westmore Motel. It’s the year 1983, and a disturbing coincidence
sends the protagonists of this story to investigate the Westmore Motel. What they will find there... is something out of this world!"


 Leopoldo Rueda sent me over a copy of  'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' which is a Call of Cthlhu rpg adventure. This is an Eighties specific adventure which reads like a cross between an H.P Lovecraft story & Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' had a love child. That adventure would be 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'. And that doesn't take away from the adventure in the slightest. And it only adds to the quirky late night creature feature of the adventure. 
 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' is a great late night movie style adventure to the 7th edition of Call of Cthulhu rpg. Because in twenty eight pages you get a full blown approachable adventure within the confines of a really no so nice road side motel set in 1983. You've got 3 pregenerated '83 investigators who have reasons to be there. You've got a solid adventure location with some of the more iconic & dangerous CoC monsters. And you've got an adventure location that can have other secrets within its walls. 

The writing is very tight within 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' & the adventure is perfectly attuned to run in a about 4-5 hours of play sessions.  Leopoldo Rueda knows his CoC rpg system & uses it to full on advantage within the 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'. But be forwarned that 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' could well be a deadly adventure. There are powers within the walls of the Eighty Three hotel that will bump off adventurers or investigators who play this adventure for stupid. This is a full on investigation module for CoC with all of the traps, pitfalls, & sanity blasting adventure hooks that go with that. Even though this is a beginning adventure for CoC 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  doesn't take prisoners. 
There is horror within  these walls & for beginning adventure 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  takes it horror in stride & plays quite dangerously. How does 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  rate? Well the adventure has a solid cast of NPC's., there is ton of background on  The Westmore Hotel itself & some opportunity for play in a modern adventure for CoC. The horror here is one of opportunity & the mythos isn't quite what a beginning crew of Call of Cthlhu rpg players are going to expect. But this is a good thing as 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' changes adventure events up a bit. I can honestly see running 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' with the Delta Green rpg setting easily. The players would not be expecting the mystery surrounding the Westmore hotel. And the 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' may actually make an excellent middle tier scenario for a beginning CoC group of players. Would I actually run 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'? Honestly?! Yes I really would 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel'  has the potential to really take the PC's & throw them into the deep end of the Mythos & that's a good thing in my book for a Call of Cthulhu rpg adventure! For a three dollar adventure for Call of Cthulhu I was pleasantly surprised at how well written & conceived 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' is. 

You Can Grab 'The Horror At The Westmore Hotel' By Leopoldo Rueda For The  Seventh Edition Call of Cthulhu rpg Here.