OSR Campaign Update - Godbound A Game of Diving Heroes & The Classic Greyhawk Boxset

 So over the last twenty four hours I've been rereading Kevin Crawford's Godbound: A Game of Divine Heroes. Because let's face it, the game is cool as Hell and it's got me thinking about rerunning a mini campaign. 

Recently GrimJim did a video & page through review of the Godbound rpg and that review made me fall in love with the game again. What is it that made me fall in love with Godbound in the first place?! Hard to say really but the fact that it did an OSR Exalted campaign better then White Wolf's efforts may have had something to do with it. 
And while there are two other books for Godbound, the fact that there is enough material within the main rule book to simply take off and run helps to sell this game. I'm very tempted to run a modern 2024 Godbound campaign set within the modern era. 
The idea is that the celestial clock is beginning to tick down and the PC's have to get the engines of creation running again for thier reality. Meanwhile, the unreality of the Unconquered Night is lapping against thier world. And things are starting to emerge on thier world. The PC's must get thier engine restarted and working again. The problem is that they have only recently come into thier divine powers.
And I'd love to include some of the classic AD&D first or second edition elements from Greyhawk. 

In the past we've used Greyhawk as a type of alternative Oerth from the 'real reality' of the campaign Earth. We've also kept the AD&D first edition's wheel planar cosmology. Still keeping a bit of the AD&D adventure elements while not sacrificing some of the ideas that we find in Godbound. 
The classic Greyhawk boxset is so expansive and easily adaptable over the years there hasn't been a campaign that we haven't used the setting in. Why?
There are several reasons, one is the fact that the setting is iconic and easily recognizable by veteran players. Two it's a beloved setting and it's easy to get player's deeply emotionally invested in the game. And three the cosmology of Greyhawk is rife with intrigue and conflict. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report 7 - The Christmas Slaughter

 So tonight's Castles & Crusades Vampire Queen session hits hard because DM Steve did an entire sub fortress before the main castle. This is a small manor and fortress that was tucked away on the far side of the map. This session report picks right up from here on the blog. And this brooding small stone walled fortress surrounded a central manor house. And we snuck into during the day good plan right?! 

Wrong, we got our asses handed to us by two tribes of orcs and thier hobgoblin overlords. And these things were nasty! The hobgoblins were slightly stronger then normal doing an extra +2 to all hand to hand damge due to vampire blood. The things guarded a manor house and we made it over the wall into the lower tunnels under the place. That's when we ran straight into the orc shaman and his horde of zombies!?! 

And then there was another stone coffin that we only caught a glimpse of before our cleric got nailed by a poison blow gun dart! Fortunately it was only sleep toxin other wise we'd be in in deep spit. We fought past two orc skeletons to retreat back into the woods. Fortunately we didn't alert the whole place to our presence. 

Now we're in the woods and licking our wounds from the damn orcs and the shamans. But we want to know whose in that manor house?! Our fighter got a nasty cut above his head and the cleric was down so it's retreat time for the moment. But we've got a map sketched out of the manor, the fortress, and tunnels under the place which is in the side of a small mountainous area. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report 6

 So as you know from the last session last week I'm deeply engrained with DM Steve's Tainted Greyhawk campaign where we're treading on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain. We finished off the last of the zombie bandits from last game. This wasn't an easy fight to say the least. But then we came across the bandit king's lair during the daylight hours. And the bastard was a vampire and that lair was guarded by giant rats and giant bats. 

We're playing a variation of Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen. Which  is fantastic module  available from Dark Wizard Games here.  Back to the band king vampire, there was no way that we were going to let this thing keep existing but it was going to be a slog to get to him. We were conserving our mages and so forth. So it was down to dirty tricks and two caskets of burning oil down the enterance of the cavern lair. 
The free willed intelligent zombies are part of the vampire queen's mercenary forces and have been one of the hazards that we've run into twice now. This part time we were ready. There were passive dangers from the bandit king's lair including dart traps, pit traps, green slime (always a crowd pleaser), and rot grub pits. All passive defenses. And then there were the numerous giant rats, and bats to contend with not to mention the unintelligent zombies and two intelligent ghoul body guards. We had to think our way past everything. And we had to do it by sunset with all of the traps designed to slow us down. And finally we got to the stone coffin and it was a false set up with an intellgent slime monster. And here's where the wizard's fire ball spell came in truly handy. 

This is so DM Steve, slow us down and let the NPC rise to finish us off. Not this time, we have two thieves and they found the secret door to the bandit king's tomb behind a false mozaic of the undead bastard who was apparently some minor knoble in life. We staked hime, cut off the head, stuffed the head with garlic, and then staked the body out for sunrise while we waited in the bushes for his forces to come! This is where we ended the session. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report 5

 During tonight's game we ran straight into the arms of undead bandits. And it wasn't pretty but a fortunate fireball from one of our wizards saved our hides. We're geting close to the Vampire queen's castle and the undead are getting worse. Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen is available from Dark Wizard Games here.  

And all of this kicked off from a week or so ago's Castles & Crusade's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen session right here on the blog!  DM Steve is using a variation on James Ward Tainted Lands and the undead mixed with the Hanging Coffins. And these things have been tough but the real headache was running into a party of pig faced Orc adventurers! These things were mercenaries working for the vampire queen. And scattered throughout out the vampire queen's lands have been her mercenaries and forces. We've recovered some treasure but it's mostly been supplies and such! We're on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain. 

We were going to hook up with the local resistence to the vampire queen and instead walked right into an ambush by undesd bandits. And these things are free willed and intelligent zombies with passion for violence and an appetite for flesh or brains. We were ready for them this time however! 
This is a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk where the lands have been subverted by the presence of dark lord like rulers. And the Tainted Lands has extended its reach across Greyhawk. Castles & Crusades is ideally suited to this style of campaign. But it has been tough going to say the least! 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report - Two

So we pick up right where we left off on the blog here. We're playing in a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk. And we've been forced to flee the skeleton forces of the Vampire Queen & go deeper into the wilderness whilst circling around back to the track where the vampire queen's lair & castle are. 

During session two we've encountered packs of wolves and had been forced to flee toward a trapper's cabin to restock and supply. Even with higher level PC's this has proven to be a bit on the daunting side with lots of dodging and weaving. Our two cleric have been put upon for both martial and first aid while we found the trapper's cabin with no one home. We've left appropriate gold coin as recompense as we've gathered new arrows, torches, etc. 

We left the cabin as soon as possible and fled into the woods at daybreak at break neck pace with the wolf packs on our tail. The night found us in a cave back on the trail we needed and our backs against the cavern wall. We're counting torches and conserving arrows. We heard pig faced orcs down in the valley below and saw that they had a shaman. This is bad news. This means that the vampire queen is using mercenary forces to shore up her own. We ended here for now. 
 This is beginning to feel like a horror movie instead of a Castles & Crusades game given that we're using James Ward's Tainted Lands as a sorta of a background element for Greyhawk this isn't a bad thing. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report -

 

Over the years I've been obessed with my buddy Mark Taormino's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. There's less then twenty four hours left for the Kickstarter. So when I got invited to bring in one of my high level PC's into DM Steve's Tainted Lands game. I was jumping at the chance to get out from behind the screen. Lazlo The Amazing my 10th level wizard was finally getting a work out.  This blog post picks right up from this commentary  here on the blog. 

Our party met mid point between Hommlet and serveral other classic Greyhawk locations. Yes this is a Tainted lands version of Greyhawk. We encountered skeleton riders part way down the road as a random encounter.  This was tough fight as these bastard undead were taking human prisoners to the vampire for tonight's feast. Two of our number bought it with cross bolts to the chest.
We retreated with the skeletons giving chase. And then sounding a horn for reenforcements. Needless to say that things were not going as planned. We retreated deep into the woodlands and hastely buried our dead. 
The sounds of horns awakened us! The undead were on our trail! This was not supposed to go like this. We stumbled into an ideallic looking cabin in the woods and a full array of skeletons camped out by it! Our party had to get back on the offensive and attacked immediately. This time we were able to defeat the skeleton warriors. 

 So we're using a combination of Castles & Crusades with higher level PC's. And it's going pretty solidly with the players having to think on thier feet when it comes to dealing with deadlier intelligent undead. These undead are organized, intelligent, and going to town on the local populace with these being the norm for James Ward's Tainted Lands

OSR Commentary - Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting

 "Hope everyone is well! If you're a fan of "Funhouse Dungeons" then be sure to check out the new Dark Wizard Games Kickstarter Project NOW LIVE! It is for the brand new FIRST PRINTING softcover of Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen for 5TH EDITION! The FIFTH EDITION module has a FULL COLOR map on the inside of the cover as well as some new black and white artwork in the booklet! You can also pick up the new 10 Year ANNIVERSARY EDITION softcover of the ORIGINAL 1E module which is only available via KICKSTARTER grab a copy NOW because you don't want to miss out if you a collector or major fan of that module! One last treasure you can acquire in the KS is the softcover of the Recipes from the Inn of the Whistling Pig which contains 16 rustic, real world items you can cook with for you family and friends! https://www.kickstarter.com/.../vampire-queen-5e-and-10..."

So my buddy Mark Taormino's Dark Wizard Games has a brand new Kickstarter for the 10th Anniversary of  'The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Princess'. And My player's Castles & Crusades PC's were wiped out during the events of #1. Hanging Coffins has the PC's in peril right out of the gate; "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 weapons, magic items and possessions, it is up to you to outwit and fight your way through terrible traps, beastly monsters, and all the horrific surprises she has arranged for you! The Module that started it all is sure to delight and challenge the most skilled players!"'
We set 'Hanging Coffins' in Greyhawk just outside of the city of Greyhawk ruins. The vampire princess recently woken up by the movements of the humanoid tribes just outside of her hidden valley. And this lines up with material described in James Ward's Greyhawk Aventures. 

The vampire princess is trying to reassert her power base around her hidden valley. She's been capturing adventurers to shore up her knowledge of modern politic of Greyhawk. And there's plenty of evidence of this in  'The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Princess'
'Hanging coffins' isn't for the faint of heart clocking in at levels 10-14 which is going to be the middle 7th and above in Castles & Crusades. The vampire princess's dungeons and ruins are definitely build to test the adventurers. What makes 'Hangings Coffins' solid is really good maps, encounters, cartography, etc. and it made it a formula that Dark Wizard Games has followed. 
And this is something that allows a DM to really take advantage of the Greyhawk campaign setting. A fact that  could be used to simply drop 'Hanging Coffins' into Greyhawk ad hoc.  
'Hanging Coffin' is solid as a high level mid level adventure & is perfect to introduce the vampire princess as a reoccuring  NPC villainess. An NPC that can return again and again as a villain who can't seem too be put into her coffin. 'Hanging Coffins' has  demons and other vampires in the wander monster table. Liches, demons, succubi, greater devils, nearly 50 vampires in total. These can end a party of adventurers without any problems. 
The Greyhawk angle plays well with the vampire princess as a minor evil influence manuplating several minor humanoid army. The demons, liches, vampires listed in the random encounters could easily be the vampire princess's royals and former family. These minor royals could play a larger part to the party as the vampire princess gains more of a foothold within her former kingdom. While the vampire princess might be a minor royal in the grand scheme of Greyhawk. She could become a major pain for the PC's. 

Aihrde Horror - The Slavers & The Remains of Empire - Castles & Crusades Greyhawk

 So we spoke at length about the Dwarves and thier placement within a Mythic Earth and Castles & Crusades Greyhawk.. And how this all relates back into the Slavers series of modules. And how does any of this affect Castles & Crusades world of Aihrde?! It has everything to do with the C&C official setting believe me. Amd all of this relates back into A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity. The Slavers are are raiding on Greyhawk for slaves and pillaging what as well as whatever they can. This makes Aihrde ripe for the raiding;"Aihrde is large world, nearly 24,000 miles in circumference. The world possesses vast oceans and seas, one primary continent and five smaller continents. Her south and north poles are covered in thick sheets of ice year-round. It is a land of wild adventure, peopled by the fierce Aenochians and their mortal enemies the Ehtrum, Elves of the Lands of Seven Rivers, Halfings, and the Earagoth, the First Born, the Dwarves." And here's the Dwarves right in the center of the creation myth,again. 

 

If the Slavers organization and network are using the Dwarven writing as the source of thier knowlege for thier raids across worlds. Then it stands to reason that Aihrde would be a perfect target. We've got lightning fast raids, quick hits on coast line villages, and pillaging of villagers wherever they can be found. But are these the same Slavers that we've seen in the past. And the answer to this lays in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's first Edition Rogues Gallery. We pick a few high level evil NPC's and these become the Slavers for Aihrde. 

 So why not use the Castles & Crusades NPC Almanac Sketches? Because of the fact that we're looking for NPC's that modern C&C players won't be familar with. And then there the fact that the the Castles & Crusades NPC Almanac Sketches NPC's are actually going to be our Slaver's resistence fighters network against the Slavers. And this is especially true with our focus on Aihrde. Even if Greyhawk is saved from the Slavers Aihrde isn't. 

 Remember we're dealing with an organization or network of slavers who are operating across the planes. So we've got Mythic Earth, Greyhawk, and now Aihrde.
Is there really anyone at the center of the web?! At this point the slavers network may have been going on for eons. They may be tied into the Thieves guilds across the planes. They smuggle items of rare power and danger to the campaign world in exchange for certain criteria of slaves. Favor and corruption go hand in hand so there may be deeper ties into  Aihrde's rulers and rogues with the local Thieves guilds getting kickbacks and slaves on the side.Finally after centuries of scandal & corruption. Local lords, finally tired of the situation, hire a band of adventurers to attack the slavers in their home.

Dwarves, Barbarians, Slavers, & The Remains of Empire - Castles & Crusades Greyhawk

If we look at Autarch's By This Axe as the basis for a campaign set on a Mythical Earth then we've got the Dwarves builting a Dwarven empire's infrastructure and basis. 

These Dwarves were created to guide mankind and by the time the adventurers are ready to explore. The Dwarves are on the decline and on thier way out. The Chaos races however are on the upswing. And this leads the Dwarves back into the spot light. This might be because of the fact that the Slavers organization has been pushing the world into full war! 
And this could well be happening at the end of the late Roman Empire. Tribes of human barbarian and forgien warriors are picking at the bones of the Empire. 
The humanoid races are subcombing to the powers of Chaos which are on the rise. 
The Slavers have been stoking the fires of war by doing raids and the constant taking of slaves. These raids have been fueling the collapse  of the remains of the Roman empire. 

According to the original Scourage of the Slave Lords wiki entry; "The original series consisted of four modules:

• A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity
• A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade
• A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
• A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords

"Each module is a self-contained adventure that leads into the next in the series. The series is intended for use in the World of Greyhawk, but can be imported to any campaign setting."
This means that Greyhawk's Highport and Drachensgrabs regions are going to be at high risk and the PC's are going to have to destablize the Slavers organization from the inside out. And on Greyhawk A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity take place right around the same time as the collapse of the Roman empire so this puts events at 
 580 CY;"The events of the adventure are set in 580 CY, following four years of raids by slavers on the coastal population along the Sea of Gearnat from Onnwal to the Wild Coast. Local lords, finally tired of the situation, hire a band of adventurers to attack the slavers in their home. The adventure begins in the Pomarj city of Highport at a ruined temple which serves as a headquarters for the slavers.^[1] The module takes the group through the temple and into the sewers below where giant insect-like creatures make their lair along with the slave lords." 
And there are deep ties between the barbarian tribes of Greyhawk and the Germanic tribes of Earth. Even though the human tribes can not abide the humanoids of Greyhawk. 
And this goes back to the fact that we're taking full advantage of the Castles & Crusades Codex Germania. 

So what does this mean for PC's?! It means that we're going to have a mix of both Greyhawk and Mythic Earth PC's thrown into a party who are going to be working to escape the slavers. And all of this ties back into A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity. And the simple hook of looking for stolen family members ties events back into 

A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade.

The Mechanisms of Evil - Behind the Slavers on Castles & Crusades Greyhawk

 "Enter the WORLD OF GREYHAWK..." 

...A world where bandit kings raid from their remote stronghold;
...A world where noble elves fight savage invaders and where bold knights wage war on the terror of Iuz;
...A world scarred by a vast Sea of Dust, across which drift lost memories from the awful forgotten past.
Enter a World of Wonder & Intrigue...
Fantasy Game Setting for a panoramic view of this fantastic place."

Greyhawk is a world in peril and filled to the brim with a post apocalyptic fantasy setting. Make no mistake that Greyhawk is a world of knights, gritty fantasy, monsters, political intrigue on both international and tribal levels, and rammed with fantasy races who want to rip your PC's face off. Greyhawk is also a word that evokes both long forgotten memories in old school players and an instant feeling of a campaign from long ago. 
And for this reason Greyhawk is a perfect world for Castles & Crusades games to be set upon it. This isn't old memories talking here it's the fact that Greyhawk was a world created by Gary Gygax ;"World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting (1983), by Gary Gygax, is the core sourcebook for Oerth, the world of Greyhawk. It was published in October 1983." There are very strong emotions connected with many with the Greyhawk campaign setting. The campaign world of Oerth evokes a certain something in players. 
And it's these memories that make Greyhawk a perfect setting to adventure in and target for enemies who would do well to turn the post apocalytic fantasy world to ash. And if you think I'm kidding read through the description of the Slave Lords in A3 Assault on the Slave Lords. This organization is evil and we've used them as far reaching villains. 

Given what know about thier power and reach, it's quite easy to dismiss them out of hand. But before the 'A' series of modules is played they should be a major force within a campaign. Over the years on Greyhawk they've been the finiancial power and NPC behind behind several major villains. For Oerth they would be major players in seeing the world burn. Why?
Because of the fact that thier operations are far reaching and over the years we've had several batches of the organization taken out. For Greyhawk the Slavers are major instigators. And once the current crop has worn out thier welcome or been destroyed. Back in the early Eighties my uncle used the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Rogue's Gallery to pad out other NPC members of the Slavers. And to see what had happened on Greyhawk and seek revenge on the PC's. 

What makes Castles & Crusades Greyhawk so dangerous? There are several reasons one is the instability of the humanoid tribes. Two the fact that there are several nasty and dangerous secret organizations or conspiracies on Greyhawk such as the 'horned brotherhood' and worse. Three is the fact that there are so many willing to sell out thier brothers and sisters for a gold piece. 
And all of this is readily exploitable by the slavers who while raiding and biding thier time have been sewing the seeds of corruption across Greyhawk. So we've been doing a slow burn set of conspiracies when it comes to Greyhawk. Could the slavers organization be behind the Greyhawk wars?! They are within our campaign. 

Review & Commentary On The Free 'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' Sourcebook for The Greyhawk Box Set & It's Uses With Castles & Crusades

 "Dave Arneson decided to begin a medieval fantasy campaign game for his active Twin Cities club. From the map of the "land" of the "Great Kingdom" and environs -- the territory of the C & C Society -- Dave located a nice bog wherein to nest the weird enclave of "Blackmoor", a spot between the '''Great Kingdom" and the fearsome "Egg of Coot". Gary Gygax, Introduction to D&D, 1 November 1973 

 So it seems that after countless hours of writing & back breaking fan work 'The Hidden in the Shadows' blog is done with their fan project of 'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor'. This is a fan project of placing & fleshing out of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor within the realm of Greyhawk according to the one hundred & two page project's introduction ; "This book presents an overview of Blackmoor for Greyhawk players; it's major places, people, and events. The goal of this book is to provide just enough detail for the Game Master to build adventure, while avoiding the mind-numbing text dumps too often found in sourcebooks. The information is not intended to be thorough or highly detailed, but sufficient to provide a Game Master with just what is needed to run a Blackmoor campaign grounded in tradition but allowing for creative freedom and imagination. It is a framework upon which many different styles of dress may be hung. It is system neutral, so it may be used with any ruleset, and it is adapted to the Greyhawk setting so that Greyhawk referees will have access to the wealth of Blackmoor material in a familiar and readily useable way." 

Boy I wish, that 'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' was available a couple of years ago when I was running ACK's players through a Sword & Sorcery version of Greyhawk?! The sourcebook does exactly what it says on the cover. It delivers a history of the Braunstein game, Arneson's Blackmoor history, Gary Gygax's part with Greyhawk, then delivers the goods with a full overview of the region that eventually was covered over in the Black Ice. This work is both a what if & what the Hell giving us a region steeped in conflict & chaos. 
'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' takes the veil back on the region of Black Ice & then doubles down by giving a solid overview of the region, its NPC's, areas, major powers, and even how the technological devices of the 'City of the Gods' fits into the Greyhawk area. 

But is it good?! 

In a word?! Yes I believe it fits the bill nicely for a fan sourcebook that brings the Greyhawk region alive with a viable Blackmoor setting that could be added into or used as a viable campaign setting. The ideas here are fleshed out with history, hooks, NPC's & with places described. Take for example the classic Castle Blackmoor itself; "Castle Blackmoor Rising over fifty feet above the town, the black rock upon which Blackmoor Castle is built is an impressive geological edifice. On the lake side it is a sheer cliff, but on the town side it is a mix of steep rises and low cliffs with a single narrow road winding up the hill to the castle gatehouse on the eastern wall. In places here and there, cracks and fissures in the rock ooze an oily black tar. The rock has a dull sheen and will glisten in bright light, but curiously seems to drink light in at the same time - perhaps due to a high lead content. It is magical in nature, but drawing on that power requires years of study. Many a magic-user has found the rock to be more of a hindrance than help to divination spells being unable to penetrate the stuff." You get the idea that 'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' was both love letter & source book for its author. 
But the fact that 'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor'  ties directly into The Greyhawk box set & campaign setting is the icing on the OSR cake. 

Now with a bit of hand waving & a bit of using the Castles & Crusades Revised Castle Keeper's Guide the DM could use The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' a viable campaign setting as a viable C&C campaign region. The DM brings to life the regions, peoples, etc. that the sourcebook talks about and then sets all of this within the Greyhawk that we all know and love. All of the rules and reference within the Castles & Crusades Castle Keeper's Guide make this process pretty easy. 

But is the 'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' a viable campaign setting?! Yes I believe it is with all of the work that's been put into it. There's definitely more then a bit of a utilitarian feel about the sourcebook. This feels like an actual product instead of a fan production. A lot of time went into the 'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' and it shows. Five stars in my book & its worth your time as an old school or OSR gamer. 

'The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor' Is Available Right Over Here.