OSR Campaign Expansion With 'Castles & Crusades: Brimstone & The Borderhounds RPG Quick Start' & The Book of Powers

For most folks they would be satisfied with simply telling you about a The Castles & Crusades: Brimstone & The Borderhounds RPG Quick Start  yesterday. Brimstone is a bounty hunter in Hell & he his cohorts go gunning for the souls of the damned on Earth. There's a really solid comicbook series that was done on the character of Brimstone.   I compared the concepts to the old Brimstone television show from '98 through '99.  Yes I realize that  Castles & Crusades: Brimstone & The Borderhounds RPG Quick Start  has absolutely nothing to do with the Brimstone television show except for the damned souls bounty hunting aspect.
Then Brim the wrestler whose inside ring persona Brimstone all of this is based contacted me yesterday via email. He's a super nice guy. But this got me thinking long & hard about Castles & Crusades especially some of the notions about demi gods in these games. After speaking at length with Jason Vey about this. I began to read through The Book of Powers for the Amazing Adventures! rpg.  Now what the Hell does any of this have to do with Dungeons & Dragons?! A lot actually, Amazing Adventures is a game of Pulp era adventure that starts in the 1600's buts right up to the 1950's.  Yes,  this includes the Golden age of 1930's Pulps. This gives a whole range of worlds & eras that Brimstone & co. can appear in.



If we dig deeper into Brimstone's origins then it becomes apparent that there's a lot more adventure fodder below the surface then meets the eye;

"Born and raised in Hell, Brimstone is the son of a Janitor of Demonic Forces and a Saxon Warrior Queen. As a child Brimstone knew that he was destined for great things but never seemed to find his niche. He and his Father were abandoned by his mother at the tender age of 20 minutes. Growing up for Brim was hard, being a half-demon/half-human son of a Janitor, Brim had to learn to defend himself from the most vile creatures that reside in the darkest and most evil place in Hell, high school. From High School, Brim went on to join his father in the custodial arts. One day while moving a dumpster from a Infernal Transfer Station (ITS), Brim found a lowly "weeper" (Usually a human soul that cries all the time and proclaims "Why me! I don't deserve this". 9 out of 10 times they deserve it). In a rare moment of tenderness, Brim hid the Weeper and released him past the first gate and let him run into the barren wastelands in search of redemption and salvation away from Hell. Brim let him get at least 100 yards before sniping him through the a calf with his trusty crossbow. He did think twice about sending the Oolog Monster in to rip the rest apart and eat the remains, he sent it anyway. He was bored. A passing Centurion noticed Brimstone's aptitude for dealing with Weepers and offered him a position as a Border Patrol Errant, keeping the population in Hell and preventing souls from getting into the Wastelands. His father did not approve and a large rift formed in their relationship, especially since his father had now become the head honcho of all Hell and began taking his job way too seriously.

In spite of Dad, Brim took to his job like a Hell prawn to a lava pool. In the first month alone, Brim tripled the his quota and even informed on a few of his fellow Errants that were smuggling weepers out into the wastelands and even back into our reality. Praised by his superior, the corporate demon-ass kissing pencil neck geeks, and loathed by his coworkers for basically screwing up the soul curve, Brimstone began making a name for himself in the Border community. Soon Brim shifted into the retrieval department, Autonomous tactical units mandated to retrieve "weepers" that have escaped into the deep wastelands. These units also go by the more common designation, Borderhounds. He was given a small budget and staff and gets to sit around some of the outer borders in his truck looking out for Weepers and other squatters and drinking beer. One day, he caught two Weepers ( A guy and a girl ) trying to get to a transit station. After Brim caught up with them, the girl quickly turned on her male friend and aided Brim in the capture. It seemed she never really wanted to leave and actually was more at home in Hell than she ever was in Delaware, her name was DANIELLE. Brim liked her immediately. They got married and before you know it, they had a couple of kids, DOOM BRINGING YOUNGLING LAMENTOR OF ALL NETHER WORLDS a.k.a. DYLAN and SAMANTHA ( After Danielle's Aunt ). Life seemed to settle down and become routine after a couple centuries.

Around our equivalent of 1977, Brim was patrolling the outskirts of XZA'KIRATA'KI'NOLA'ZI'XQUI'LO'BAI, a big piece of nothing, when he came across an encampment. There he met two big Mexicans, DAWG and LUSCIOUS (had aspirations of being a male stripper at 6' and 300 pounds), just chilling out and drinking beer. Seemed they had arrived in Hell a couple of months earlier and just walked away from the receiving station and into the wasteland to find a place to get drunk and sleep. In their stay in the wasteland they got really friendly with the place, exploring (for chicken and beer), and got to know the local clans and life-forms. Brim took them on as his sidekicks, he pays them usually in imported Country FriedChicken buckets, Beer and Cd's (usually show tunes... don't ask). Brim and his new found buddies quickly garnered a reputation as being one of Hell's best retrieval squads and were given the unit designation XIBALBA. Brim soon had earned enough credits to get himself and his family a nice plot of Hell in a gated wasteland, usually reserved for Serial Killers and Dictators. For Brim, life is a daily routine. He deals with the weepers of the universe and just longs every day to get home to his wife and kids, sit down in front of the idiot box ( a.k.a. TV ), watch reruns of every Wrestlemania, drink beer, and get some from his wife occasionally. "

But this has very little to do with a world & campaign setting such as Dungeons & Dragons Greyhawk. Oh really?! I hate to bring up the Gord The Rogue books by Gary Gygax  but their perfectly attuned Law vs Chaos plot; "Saga of Old City was the first novel in TSR's Greyhawk Adventures series. It starts in Gord's childhood, and ends with his triumphant return to Greyhawk City as a young man and master thief. He learns his trade in the "beggars' guild", and gets involved in the gang war touched off by the beggars encroaching on the official thieves' guild's territory. He travels and has a variety of swashbuckling adventures, ranging from participating in a war to liberating a young noblewoman held hostage.

Artifact of Evil is a continuation of Saga of Old City. This was the final novel under TSR's Greyhawk Adventures banner that was written by Gygax. An ancient artifact is uncovered, whose power could destroy their world. It is up to Gord and his companions to try to stop this artifact of evil from falling into the wrong hands.

Sea of Death, the first of the series published by New Infinities Productions, Inc., has Gord traveling far afield to the Sea of Dust, on a quest for a "Theorpart", hidden in a lost city. He must face rivals sent by demon lords: the psychopathic dwarf Obmi, who serves Zuggtmoy, and the drow priestess Eclavdra, serving Graz'zt. He meets and falls in love with Leda, a clone of Eclavdra. Leda and Gord part at the end of the book as she returns to the Abyss, impersonating Eclavdra in Graz'zt's service for the sake of higher ideals.

Night Arrant is a collection of nine short stories about Gord's adventures, in his early twenties, in the City of Greyhawk.

City of Hawks is a retelling of the events that occurred in Saga of Old City. Gord's rise from simple beggar to master thief are detailed, as is his search for his true heritage.

Come Endless Darkness continues where Sea of Death left off and has Gord continue his quest to stop Tharizdun and Lord Entropy from taking over the Multiverse.

Dance of Demons is the finale, in which Gord and Gellor enter the Abyss on a mission from the world's most powerful forces of Balance, to retrieve the remaining Theorparts. The goal is nothing less than to free Tharizdun, the long-imprisoned god of ultimate evil and entropy, and to finally destroy him. The novel ends with the complete destruction of Oerth, and the unveiling of a new and better world."
After the Gord novels end he gets involved with the war between Chaos & Law; ""At Moonset Blackcat Comes" is an early tale of Gord and his friend Chert the barbarian, in which Gord accepts a mission for the Catlord.

"Evening Odds" appears as story 14 in Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion, an anthology of fiction inspired by Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion mythos. The story takes place some time after the events of Dance of Demons. Gord has apparently been deposed from his position as the new Catlord and is traveling the alternate realities as a Champion of Balance. In the course of the story he upsets a plot by the archfiend Baphomet on modern Earth."

This is the perfect opportunity to involve  Brimstone & The Borderhounds as  Baphomet minions escape Hell & begin ravaging Earth on some alternative plane Prime Earth. The gods call in the PC's as things spiral outta of control. 

I can already hear the players out there gnashing their teeth about how the player''s PC's need an edge. That's where  The Book of Powers for the Amazing Adventures! rpg. comes in & it allows the player's to play their own demi god half angel or demonic PC's. These are not the over powered engines of destruction that we've seen in other systems. Some of this material was inspired by Nuelow Games Awakened PC material on their blogs. I'm going to be incorporating & boiling this stuff down coming up. All of this gets into the back end of the war between Chaos & Order that we've seen played out in Michael Moorcock's novels, stories, etc. again & again. This whole cloth campaign idea was put into the Deities & Demigods Advanced Dungeons & Dragons book. 

In fact if you want to add in another era or wrinkle I highly suggest Mike Stewart's Victorious rpg for a Victorian era 'supers's setting that can handle the PC's abilities with style as well. Great game & I'm a fan of Mike's design & setting. Now let's say that you want a really good twist on the demigod aspect of this style of campaign & something really different?! 



James Mishler did a solid take on the Demi God race as a PC class for Labyrinth Lord but there's no reason not to use it to make out some real  jerks & criminals of the underworld. Add in the The Book of Powers for the Amazing Adventures! rpg & your gonna have a unique & highly dangerous NPC. 



A very different & terrifying war of Chaos & Order calls perhaps its time that I answer it. The campaign setting is coming together quickly & dangerously. 

Some OSR Halloween Thoughts On 'Castles & Crusades: Brimstone & The Borderhounds RPG Quick Start' By Jason Vey

"Hell is an unkind place. A sprawling megalopolis of twisted streets and ramshackle buildings piled one on top of the other, clawing their way to height’s unseen where the Lords of Hell rule. Here the harvested souls of evil labor as slaves, doomed to eternal torment. Bound to a world of suffering, always yearning for a world beyond their own. Those wicked, and who are able, seek to flee this city of the damned and do so with whatever tool they can: greed, violence, avarice. Fleeing Hell is the only goal.

But to do so, these souls must pass the Borderhounds. They are Bounty Hunters set on the edge of forever who hunt down wayward souls and throw them in, or out, of Hell. Led by grim faced Brimstone, these Borderhounds are the bane of the damned.

Now you can join the Borderhounds!!

Brimstone and the Borderhounds is a complete, standalone Role Playing Game using the tried and tested Siege Engine, crafted by veteran game designer Jason Vey. Fight devils, demons and more in your hunt to capture Hell’s wayward souls!"

Way back in 2016, The Castles & Crusades: Brimstone & The Borderhounds RPG Quick Start  was kickstarted then it didn't go anywhere.But there's a lot here to unpack & some really interesting ideas for a Castles & Crusades game. Yes I said Castles & Crusades. Forget the metal dude on the cover, forget the whole concept except to 'bounty hunt souls for Hell'. 



Forget the 'edge lord' stuff for a moment & then focus on a 1950's over the top Golden age horror comics & then let's look at a very obscure '98 through '99 television show called Brimstone now let's take a quick look at the plot according to the wiki entry; "In 1983, Ezekiel "Zeke" Stone (Peter Horton) was a New York City Police detective whose wife, Rosalyn, was raped. He tracked down and arrested the offender, Gilbert Jax, who was cleared of the charges. Furious, Stone then murdered Jax. Two months later, Stone was killed and went to Hell for murdering Jax. Later in the show it was revealed that it was not the killing itself that condemned Stone to Hell, but the fact he took pleasure in it. Stone died the most decorated cop in NYC history.

Fifteen years later, a breakout from Hell occurs, led by a 4000-year-old Canaanite priestess named Ashur Badaktu (Teri Polo). The Devil explains that, over the centuries, a few souls have escaped (and presumably been returned) to Hell, but nothing of this magnitude, which includes 113 souls. Because the Devil is largely powerless on Earth, he makes a deal with Stone: Stone will be returned to Earth to track down these 113 escapees, and if he can return all of them to Hell (before one of them kills him), he will earn a second chance at life on Earth (and thus, possibly, Heaven). The Devil seems to hinder Stone's work almost as much as he helps it, however, divulging some information but withholding crucial facts or giving only cryptic clues to where Stone will find an escapee, apparently delighting in watching him become more irritable with his interference. It was suggested by an angel (in the episode "It's a Helluva Life", played by John Glover in a dual role) that Stone served God's purpose as well as the Devil's in his former life when he killed his wife's rapist"

Could Heaven & Hell be supplementing its ranks with non union players in the cosmic game? Could D&D fantasy adventurers be helping to make a bit of extra coin on the side?! The idea of Brimstone isn't new at all but the idea of adding in other players to chess board sounds interesting. 

Now Amazing Adventures! Rpg is basically the Seige Engine for Pulp role playing but with a bit of Castles & Crusades perhaps Hell is recruiting adventurers to help filled the ranks. This was suggested by DM Carl over the long holiday weekend. This is something I've been toying with for a long while now.  Coming up for Halloween a mixed band of adventurers hunting down the souls of damned sounds like fun.
But I can already hear the howling saying that this isn't Dungeons & Dragons?  No?! Well the war between Chaos & Law has been on going for years. Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer mythology & his lords of Chaos have certainly been implied to be the lords of Hell as their titles suggest.


The balance of the universe can pivot on one single soul of the living, the damned, & the Heavenly. And the lords of Chaos would be quite willing to go to war over them.  Forget Marvel's Ghost Rider here because he's the latest in a long line of Hell's bounty hunters. No think The Golden Age of Horror comics.


Love this cover & perhaps this is what the PC's are staving off.
Painted cover of Strange Stories From Another World, number 5, February 1953, artwork by Norman Saunders. Another World was published by Fawcett from August 1952 to February 1953. Saunders' richly painted cover recalls the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 40s. Think the AD&D Role Aids adventure  'The Keep', different eras are open to the PC's as they solve the problems that others can't. The problems not big enough for the gods & yet too small for normal villagers & modern humans can handle.



This might be a one shot short adventure that's in the planning stages at the moment. I've got a few ideas in the back of my mind for even more coming up. But I'd love to go with a quick and dirty play session for this one.