Wretched Space Empires -Space Gamer issue#71(1984), Empire of the Petal Throne, & The Wretched Space rpg

  So let's pick it up where we left off the otherday with a bit more Wretched Space & Empire of the Petal Throne. Back in the day we were lucky to even find some EPT throne information. And that's where Space Gamer issue#71 comes into play. They had a nice little introduction to EPT, an interview with Professor Barker, and an overview for the  Swords & Glory rpg. And this was when Game Science was at it's height of power in the hobby. 

So why is Space Gamer issue#71 important?! Because it reveals three facts the enemies of mankind for the Human Space Empire all converged on Tekumel. Why?! Sure the Human Space Empire were terraforming the planet & displacing the native Ssu and others. 
What if the Vancian system of magick is actually breaking the universe?! We know that ritual magick doesn't cause issues. But in Empire of the Petal Throne the artifacts, devices, & eyes are all take on very dangerous aspects of the planes. What if the Human Space Empire has been dipping it's toes into areas it shouldn't have?! And the aliens are trying to stop this segment of mankind from 'breaking ' the multiverse?!  In the Wretchedverse we know that things lurk outside of time & space of our normal space time continuum. 

Items, artifacts, & black technologies have been filtering into the Earth Sector now for more then a hundred years. Eyes & other technological innovations have allowed the 'things from  outside' to gain a foot hold. 
And let's take this back to Space Gamer issue#71(1984), the first signs of the cracks in the foundation of reality have started to appear.And from here things are only going to get worse allowing pirates & other space scum to gain some advantages. 

Wretched Space Empires - Dragon (Issue 31 - Nov 1979), Empire of the Petal Throne, & The Wretched Space rpg -Giving The Wretched Space Shaman Some Space Age Sorcery

 So let's pick up from yesterday's Wretched Space Empires blog entry here.  The Human Space Empires have spread throughout the universe possibly except old Earth. Mankind's technologies have made quantum leaps through Synapse & Synapse technological leaps after encountering alien species. These are the main races within Empire of the Petal Throne rpg. And this puts Dragon (Issue 31 - Nov 1979) into the cross hairs. Why because of the 'A New Profession for EPT: The Adventurer By Glenn Rahman - A new profession combining Warrior, Priest, and Magic User for Empire of the Petal Throne. The following is the article intro from The Dragon issue #31; "Those of us who enjoy EPT occasionally chafe at its scheme of society, which restricts player-characters to only three professions. A player may portray either a Warrior, a Priest or a Magic User. This is irrespective of the fact that the typical adventurer of heroic fantasy is not precisely any of these three professions. Michael Moorcock’s Elric combines the attributes of Warrior, Magic User and Priest in a fascinating mixture. Richard Tiemey’s Simon of Gitta is simultaneously a Priest and Warrior. Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane is a Warrior with access to magic. All these heroes differ widely in philosophy, motivation and personality. What they have in common is their personal independence and ability to master many disciplines for their own ends. These mavericks, for want of a better term, we shall call “Adventurers.” The Adventurer lives by his wits and owes allegiance to no professional caste. His objectives are easy riches, reputation and excitement. The Adventurer is multi-talented, but lacks the self-discipline to master any one of the other three player-professions. Drinking deeply of life and experience, he “picks up” things that will be useful to his escapades." 

Adventurers are the backbone of the Human Space Empire & the Old Empire of Humanity. They allow trade between the two interstellar powers because of the fact that in Wretched Space rpg the psi & magical powers are part of the same branches on the same tree. But the fact is that as a friend of mine & fellow DM  pointed out the Shaman & Conjurer don't have the teeth to take on some of the threats that we see in Empire of the Petal Throne.  Myself & James Garrison did a free  OSR supplement called Space Age Sorcery available here. 

Does this material fit the Wretched Space rpg?! Absolutely it does especially if these spells are actually rituals. And these rituals could theoritically be stacked into a conjurer or shaman's staff or wand or ritual tool. Say six spells that could be 'loaded' into a magickal tool. This allows the conjurer or wizard to compete with the horrors from beyond without breaking the Wretchedverse asthetic. 

And the adventurer from The  Dragon magazine  not fitting the Wretched asthetic here's a bit on the guile of such an adventurer; "The successful character is a clever fellow. To an Adventurer, wits on both hit and damage dice. are his most prized possession. Fritz Leiber’s Gray Mouser and Jack 96-100 Devilish. As above, but greater. 20% chance to detect Vance’s Cugel the Clever are past masters in cunning.
If Intelligence represents the conscious intellect and logical process, Guile is the subconscious, the “survival instinct.” The two are only tenuously connected. An intelligent scholar might be helpless when faced with survival in the woods. On the other hand, the fox is unintelligent, but his slyness is proverbial. Sometimes Intelligence and Guile achieve the same ends, but differently. A smart warrior learns how to fight well; one who is instinctively cunning gets in the effective, “dirty” blows without even thinking. A man with Guile is a slippery fellow, a natural confidence man. One without it is the type who lets out secrets unknowingly, one who buys too many bogus magic weapons and faulty Eyes. He will be hard put to prosper in the rat race of Jakalla." 

So we combined the Adventurer class from Dragon (Issue 31 - Nov 1979) with the one from Wretched Space to get the adventurer that we're looking for. 

DIY Grind House Torg Setting Take Four - Empire of The Petal Throne Cosmology On the Dark Corner Blog

Thrills,Chills, and Empire of the Petal Throne seen through a mirror darkly post apocalyptic style! Along with a new product from Fish Wife games and my incorporating it!
 Also Warriors of The Wastelands
HERE

Jeff Dee's The Inimical Races of Tekumel Kickstarter

So I'm a huge fan of Empire of the Petal Throne and I've got a good chunk of the setting material and Jeff Dee has been illustrating the hell out of the setting. I've been following this kickstarter project of his for awhile now and its interesting to say the least. Its had some impact on my own Talon sector writing for a couple of months now. I'll be watching this one with some interest. What is  the Tékumel Foundation, going to do with this artwork. 

Its interesting to see a side by side comparison of Professor Barker's work and what Mr.Dee has done for example. 

  

So to me this is going to bare watching to see where this is all going to end up. The artwork is fantastic but another Empire of The Petal Throne game would be fun to see. That being said I've got my original set and a new one sitting near by and  those get used for reference all of the time. So if you'd to know more or better yet support this kickstarter then please go over Here

Jeff Dee's Empire Of Petal Throne Artwork Recreation Kickstarter

 Jeff Dee is recreating his artwork Dragon magazine with a Empire of the Petal Throne twist! To quote the kickstarter. 

" From This time, I'm going all the way back to my roots. The illustrations I did in Professor M.A.R. Barker's article, "Legions of the Petal Throne Painting Guide" in Dragon Magazine Issue 6 were my first professionally published work - ever! This happened way back in 1977, before I'd even started art school."

He would actually deal with the artwork but as he would do them today! Here's an example 

In his words That's a soldier of the Legion of Sérqu, Sword of the Empire, based on Professor Barker's own drawing from page 74 of the original Empire of the Petal Throne (EPT) rulebook. 

There's a huge selection of Dee's artwork from Empire right over Here
I'm very excited to see this part of the kickstarter  

"One might ask how I propose to create accurate drawings of these creatures. Good question! The Tékumel Foundation has graciously offered to make some of Professor Barker's previously unpublished drawings available to me for reference. Which is freakin' awesome.

Where possible, I've included links to renditions of these creatures by later artists. Brett Slocum's GURPS Tékumel Conversion site also provides short text descriptions of all of these creatures and more."

This kickstarter bares watching! I can't wait to see where this is going to go.  I'll keep everyone posted! You can read more right over Here

Talousian Brain Scavenger - A Monster For Your Retro Future Space Opera

Talousian Brain ScavengerNo. Enc.: 1 (1d6)
Alignment: Alien (Chaotic tendencies)
Movement: 60' 
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 4+
Attacks: 2
Damage: 1d6/1d4 tentacle (or parry)
Save: MU4
Morale: 9 

 The Talousian Brain Scavenger is hold over from the Psychic Wars, these attack animals were artificially bred from the Talosusian stock themselves. These creatures are cloned gut cells spliced with the cerebral material of this ancient race. The scavenger has no real fixed shape & creates for itself a predatory shape based on 3 billion stored templates. The creature can sense sentient thought from over 25 miles away & homes in those thought patterns. The monster will then seek out the mind & try to absorb its prey. 

The monster is immune to all mind influencing attacks because it has no mind at all. This is a single celled organism grown to 10 foot long proportions. The creature has a very advanced nervous system but no central brain to control it until it acquires one from its prey.  The creature in the meantime uses a very advanced form of photosynthesis to feed itself between meals. The creature will gain sentient after feeding for 1d20 days. This self awareness will fade & its overriding animal tendencies will take over once again. These creatures will use any spells or psychic powers the victims had. They will have access to surface thoughts & use these to form more solid means of dispatching prey. They will also use pack tactics when hunting larger groups of prey. Such as human & near human colonies.

These monsters reproduce by fission & will have 1d10 young which will be ready for hunting within 1d6 hours from time of budding. The Brain Scavenger is on Ward's List of Dangerous Weapons but these creatures still bring a profit of 300 credits each for each creature. There are rumors of pirates hunting these monsters down only to become prey themselves.  

 They can be found practically anywhere & are often used in a large variety of theaters & climates as they are weapons of war. 

The Forgotten Lovecraftian Monsters - The Venusian Reptile Men - For Any Old School Space Opera

"I doubt if they even have a real language—all the talk about psychological communication through those tentacles down their chests strikes me as bunk. What misleads people is their upright posture; just an accidental physical resemblance to terrestrial man."

"When they drew nearer they seemed less truly reptilian—only the flat head and the green, slimy, frog-like skin carrying out the idea. They walked erect on their odd, thick stumps, and their suction-discs made curious noises in the mud."

H.P. Lovecraft & Kenneth J. Sterling, In the Walls Of Eryx
 

On the lush sub tropical planes of Venus are the,Eryx, or the Erycinian Highland. This  is a vast plateau on Venus. Unlike the actual planet, Lovecraft's Venus has a tropical climate and is filled with lush, swampy jungles, though its atmosphere is poisonous to humans, while at the same time not so dangerous as to require hermetically sealed space suits.
 Here prospectors have discovered vast energy sources sacred to the Eryxian Reptile men. The reptile men have the ability to create invisible structures with the abilities of a Hallucinatory Terrain (pg.23) & Invisibility II (pg.24). These structures are placed on the normal pathways & traffic areas of humans. A large energy crystal is placed as bait & the reptile men wait. Those who fall into the trap die a slow death offered up as  a sacrifice for the forbidden gods of the the reptiles. The Venusians are -2 on all saves involving flame attacks as it dries out the porous membranes of their breathing shoots.
These peoples are found on other planets & are quite adapt at using so called "light envelops"  to sail between the stars.  

They are quite well adapted to swamp like worlds & found on the light side of many terra- formed Venus like planets. 

They have a form of very limited telepathy that works through the chest tentacles they have. These are actually very sensitive telepathic receptor organs & attached via sub ganglia to their 9 lobed minds. They are at a +3 against all mind influencing spells or powers.  They're minds are far more alien then the average lizard man.

Alignment: Alien(With Choatic Tendencies) 
Armor Class: 5(14)

Hit dice: 2+1 

Attacks: claws,spell, sword(1d6)

                  Special: Undermurk (may spend 12 hours in swamp waters of Venus like worlds)

Move: 6(12 when swimming) 

HDE/XP:2/30
 For the best illustrations of this beasty please visit this blog Here. I didn't want to copy the artist's hard work but this is my definitive impression of the creature. Its a pretty cool version of  them.