OSR Commentary On GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand by Michael Price & Garry Spiegle For Gamma World 2nd Edition.

 "The fearsome Scarlet Knights of Genetic Purity have declared a campaign of terror against all mutants — humanoids and mutated animals!! Your bitter enemies, the Gray Rock tribe, have accused your tribe, the White Feathers, of murder and treachery. Your tribe is now under sentence of death — you and your party have been declared outlaws and traitors. The fate of your tribe lies in your hands. Pursued by an enraged mob of mutants, you must flee across the frozen Parklands of the Ancients to find proof of your innocence." 

It's been a lot of years since the spine of GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand  by Michael Price & Garry Spiegle. The wiki entry on GW3 has some of the low down on this module; "The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand (also known by its catalogue number, GW3) is an adventure published by TSR in 1983 for the second edition of the science fiction role-playing game Gamma World."  GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand  by Michael Price & Garry Spiegle is one of the more important modules in my opinion for Gamma World 2nd edition.  GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand  brings into play the dreaded Knights of Genetic Purity & has some the real details about this group. GW3 has it's action take place on & around the former Yellow Stone National park. There's an American Indian feel to the PC's tribes & NPC's within GW3. This translates to making the Knights of Genetic Purity almost the American government during the 1800's attitude. And  GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand  has a mini campaign feel to it. And this is one of the things that makes GW3 one of the key modules for Gamma World 2nd edition. GW3 has the potential for a lot of action & conflict if played right. GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand  is one of those modules that can easily pick up right after GW2 Famine in Fargo.The PC's have grown up & now moved on too another GW community. And now the PC's are up too their eyeballs in the machinations of the Knights of Genetic Purity. 

GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand has several key encounters & ranges from minor to out death by mutant or robotic horror. This is a solid module to continue the adventure in the lands of Merica on Gamma Terra. This could be because the PC's mutant tribe the White Feathers has moved into it's Winter home in Yellow Stone. And the knights have regarded the PC's tribe as interlopers. The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand features nine linked scenarios, as well new creatures and artifacts. So the DM is going to have to do a bit of research & deal with all of the interconnected adventure elements. The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand works quite nicely at introducing new mutants & horrors to the PC's lives. 

. 

The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand is perfect for introducing or slipping in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons PC's into Gamma Terra. There is plenty of room to add another tribe or set of ruins of the Ancients with a portal to another fantasy world. The are adventure elements of The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand that act as both campaign anchor & action lever. The one cavet is that the module is a bit all over the place. According to the module's Wiki entry; Chris Baylis reviewed The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand for Imagine magazine, and warned potential buyers that "All modules need some work of the GM, and GW3 is certainly no exception. The sketchy background and the uncovered contingencies must be thought over with care." And it's these adventure elements that need to be handled so deftly by the DM. Is The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand worth getting?! In a word, oh yes! There's plenty of room within this module for DM customization. And this very DM pivot point allows  the DM to make Yellow Stone National Park  a perfect campaign setting for Gamma World. Because for me & my players our version of Greyhawk's Flan resemble American Indians. The Flan: The generic all-purpose native race, filling in for Celts, hill people, horse nomads, Native Americans or whoever needs to be primitive in the continental Flanaess this time. And these Flan are the cross point into Gamma Terra for our games. The White Feathers & several Flan tribes had compacts & trade agreements. 

This allows the DM to scatter planar portals across the Flan's region of Greyhawk. According to the Greyhawk wiki entry on the Flan;"Pre-migrations Flan are described in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting's Guide to the World of Greyhawk as "hardy and capable hunters but not particularly warlike, and their small and scattered groups made no appreciable civilizing efforts." This is a simplification, for the Flan boast several pre-Migrations cultures, including those found at Sulm in the Bright Desert, Veralos on the edge of Rift Canyon, Tostenhca in the Griff Mountains, and several others." 
And it allows one group of adventurers to cross over to the other setting to adventure on either Gamma Terra's Yellow Stone or the Flan's regions of Greyhawk. 

Back in the Eighties within my Uncle's home campaign of Gamma World the events of GW3 The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand saw a group of 5 Flan adventurers cross over the dimensional divide to help their White Feather friends. 

Gamma World 1st Edition "Famine In Far Go" By Michael Price As Well As Gamma World Memories.

Far-Go is dying... the people are afraid... the animals are wasting away... the crops are withering the fields. No one, even Arx Skystone, the high priest, knows what has caused Far-Go's misfortune."



"YOU are part of a group of young adventurers about to begin the sacred Rite of Adulthood. The last hope of survival for Far-Go rests with your party. On your journey to the Forest of Knowledge, you must search for clues to the origin of the mysterious plague. This quest may led you into great danger... and great knowledge. As you travel through the savage wilderness, all you have are your companions, your wits, your strength... and your dreams!!"
 "Famine In Far-Go" by Michael Price remains a favorite Gamma World module from Eighty Two. And it still hits all of the high marks including referee notes, background information, maps, new creatures, mutations, robotic units and new rules for Pure Strain Humans. But what marks this module as different is the nature of the coming of age of the youth of Far-Go adventure. This module hits all of the high lights of a big numbers post apocalpytic adventure, "This module is designed as an introductory adventure series for 2-1 0 players, but a group of 5-7 players is best."
Did I happen to mention that its in print on Drivethrurpg?!! What makes  "Famine In Far-Go" is the coming of age aspect of the module & its vivid imagery from Gamma World. Walker P on the Rpg Geek site says it best in the comments on Famine in Far-Go; "An absolute classic and my all-time favorite module. Sure, it seems a bit railroady, but you can just strip that wrapper right off and let the players go wild in a crazy part of the world. The whole chicken processing plant gone wild is exactly the kind of thing you want to do in a Gamma World game. And what an awesome cover!" 
From the Tim Truman interior to the exterior artwork  "Famine In Far-Go"  works!  "Famine In Far-Go"  works as both a sand box or as a rail roady style adventure. The whole cloth adventure has far more potential as both module & as campaign jump off point for Gamma World. 

If   "Famine In Far-Go"  has any unresolved adventure plots then these can be solved by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition rpg adventurers later on. This was major campaign point within my uncle's AD&D & Gamma World campaign crossover.  "Famine In Far-Go"  hits all of the classic Gamma World points from wandering monsters to mutant chicken warriors to artifacts from before the fall of man. When we think Gamma World's  "Famine In Far-Go"  we think badders! Mutant badgers are still loathed in this house folks. 

Anyone whose played "Famine In Far-Go"  knows the ins & outs of badders. And personally I've lost at least three or four PC's to the badders & Gallus Gallus 5/13! These cyclops chicken mutants were the worst! 

Gallus Gallus 5/13, gun-toting mutant chicken cyclopes, the hideous – yet in retrospect inevitable – result of running an experimental radiation laboratory inside a poultry breeding house  (Tim Truman and Jeff Easley, Gamma World module GW2: Famine in Far-Go, TSR, 1982). These things were horrid to face down in the post apocalytic wastes especially with a DM who knew you'd be dealing with a chicken factory full em! Make no mistake these are evil poultry & I can believe in gun toting mutant chickens! 

So does "Famine In Far-Go"  still stand up in 2021?! Yes no only is this classic a classic for a reason but the adventure plot points about, ""The Rite consists of traveling far from the community to find the Forest of Knowledge, where they must eat from berries growing around a certain tree." work. But this aspect of a party's quest is something lacking in many modern OSR modules today. "Famine In Far-Go"  is everything I expect in classic 1st edtion Gamma World adventures & Gamma World done right. 

You Can Pick Up A Print Copy of Famine In Far Go Right Here 

Gamma World/Crawling Under A Broken Moon DCC Rpg Mash Up Actual Play Event - Using The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand (Gamma World Adventure GW3) Written By Michael Price and Garry Spiegle

This is a crucial time in the wastelands as a peace accord between two tribes of mutants is almost at hand. Tribal warfare is just about at an end until the foul specter of an ancient enemy rears its head. The PC's in tonight's eight man game have just been dropped deep into the The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand (Gamma World Adventure GW3).

"The fearsome Scarlet Knights of Genetic Purity have declared a campaign of terror against all mutants -- humanoids and mutated animals!! Your bitter enemies, the Gray Rock tribe, have accused your tribe, the White Feathers, of murder and treachery. Your tribe is now under sentence of death -- you and your party have been declared outlaws and traitors. The fate of your tribe lies in your hands. Pursued by an enraged mob of mutants, you must flee across the frozen Parklands of the Ancients [Yellowstone] to find proof of your innocence.

In tonight's adventure our party of intrepid 'Crawling Under A Broken Moon' mutant and otherwise  adventurers has run afoul of  old adversaries when their tribe the White Feathers has been accused of foul deeds by the Gray Rock tribe. The PC's have been chased and pursued by a mob of angry mutants into the frozen lands of the Yel'Stone Park area. They know that a faction of the Knights of Genetic Purity led by the  infamous leader Garik Blackhand is behind the Gray Rock's accusations. Yes that's right we're playing The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand (Gamma World Adventure GW3).
This module has everything that Gamma World DM actually needs to straight up use as a campaign touch stone. Nasty vile villains, mutant NPC's, lots of relic and treasure opportunities, and a boat load of mini scenarios to launch the PC's into a fully realized campaign. This isn't an easy module to deal with there are lots of ins and outs of it. Complicating matters is the fact that two of the PC's in tonight's game are straight up DCC warriors and they have a wizard among them.

So far they party of heroes has managed to get into the Yel'Stone Park area after nearly getting their rears handed to them with a few random encounters and dying at the hands of the mutant riot squad that the Gray Rock Tribe has turned into. These guys loath this particular faction of the Scarlet Knights of Genetic Purity and during various other DCC/Crawling Under A Broken Moon games that they've played I've dropped in a vile NPC here or there as well as having them heard the name Garik Blackhand around the camp fire. Stories of this bastard have surfaced from time to time. As well the occasional burnt up mutant village and genocide purge by the Knights that they've come across. This is a whole different matter when they've been run out of town on a rail and the situation has gone from bad to worse.


See the knight on the on the big walker? Well that bastard is what the players thought of when they encountered their first knight. Instead of facing the bastard down they did the smart thing and ran tonight. They ran deep into the park and we had to call it a night a bit early because one of our players has to work in the morning.
More to come next week we meet again.



Notes On Running The Cleansing War of
Garik Blackhand (Gamma World Adventure GW3) With DCC And The  Crawling Under A  Broken Moon Fanzine

The very first thing I'm going to tell you is to make sure that you have your DCC rule book and Crawling Issue#1 handy for PC development. The next thing is that The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand (Gamma World Adventure GW3) is only nine dollars on Amazon for a used copy. UX01: High Caliber Hijinks is a must straight up, the combination of black powder and energy weapons along with guns is crucial to making this conversion work. All of the issues related to vehicles and transportation is probably essential reading as well especially issue #6 and #7 respectively. Issues #2, #3, #4, #5 are also solid because of the backgrounds for religions and wasteland patrons but issue #10 and #11 also come in handy for the clerical and priest material in the wastes.
Dungeon masters should be prepared for lots of magical, mutational, and arcane action from their players with a bit of spell burning and high stakes encounters. DM's should handle the mini scenarios in this adventure on a one to one basis with regards to how the players handle the plot lines. This isn't an adventure that's played for yucks and instead its quite deadly and full of NPC machinations on a whole different set up and play level. Players could throw the DM for a loop if he's not paying attention and this adventure is very unforgiving when it comes to TPK in certain encounters. If the party plays it stupid then they're going to pay and pay hard. Make sure the players have a few spare character sheets. A further thought is to create a funnel from the beginning appearances and legends of the raids of the Knights of Genetic Purity. This creates an overall sense of unity among a party as the PC's villages and settlements are raided by the Knights. As for certain plot points in this adventure they can be changed to suit as need with all commercial adventures. The play is the thing with any of these adventures and DM's should be ready on the fly as necessary.