OSR Thoughts on The Gamma World Rpg, Thundarr The Barbarian Cartoon & The Hyperborea Rpg?! Mindok The Mind Menace Comes To Call

 Let's pick up the Thundarr thread from here & let's bring on of the most dangerous villains of The Thundarr The Barbarian cartoon. 

Mindok The Mind Menace: "I am supreme among wizards. I have taught this to Zoa; now, Thundarr must learn it as well." Mindok is the primary antagonist of the season 1 episode 3 Mindok the Mind Menace. He was one of the more formidable opponents faced by Thundarr and his allies.

Mindok is one of the most powerful wizards that Thundarr & co have faced. And he get's transplanted into a brand new cybernetic body. Mindok then goes into large outer ring Earth orbit around Old Earth in one of the most formiable war machines he has ever constructed. And according to Ariel he shall remain there forever. 
Or so it would appear?! What if Mindok doesn't remain in orbit but instead rides the Boreas winds until his warmachine is knocked off course?! 
And then travels to another world or asteriod. Then our insane evil wizard begins building his powerbase from the ground up again. 
Mindok has survived the Great Cataclysm, developing both magic & mental mutations. Let's assume that he is around the eighth or nineth wizard mark.And he's capable of using variations on the phantasmal force school of spells as well as telepathy. And also capable of using other mental based spells ala the Hyperborea rpg. 
Even with variations of several minor mental mutations add onto Mindok's NPC profile. The fact is that he's more then a match for almost any experianced party. The key to this is the robotic body with it's hill giant style strength. The cybernetic body is at best clumsy & at worst more of a utility unit. 

And while Mindok has been in deep orbit he's bound to have repaired his cybernetic body. And that warmachine seen at the end of the episode is likely to house other robotic servants or minions. That warmachine is not to be underesitmated either. These robotic units could have an engineering bot on board with time & energy repaired the control board on the warmachine.

If we're using Hyperborea, Mindok might have found his way to the Cracked Moon of Old Earth. And we know absolutely nothing about this moon. However we know that it is a been subject to the same cosmic forces of the Earth that created Thundarr's world.  

If Mindok did reach Old Earth's cracked moon then it's possible that he made serious repairs to his war machine with the relics & technologies that were found on the Cracked Moon. And from here Mindok sets out to look for new worlds to conquer. 
And the Boreas winds take Mindok's warsmachine into deep orbit around the outer edges of Hyperborea. And here's where events get tricky. Mindok uses the ancient Atlantian space locks to dock after he encountered relics of Atlantis on the Cracked Moon. The Gamma World fourth edition rpg hints that there's been crossovers with the world's most popular fantasy rpg. Gamma World fourth edition has a ton of space colonies, intersellar generation ships, all of which could theoricially link up with the fact that  the Great Cataclysm could have a mythological explaination. Meaning that Mindok could easily see Hyperborea as a another opportunity for conquest. 

Mindok starts going about as business as usual for a deadly black wizard with access to a full blown operational warmachine. Can a party of adveturers stop a wizard of Mindok's power?! Yes I believe they can and we'll get into how & why next time! 

OSR Thoughts on The Gamma World Rpg, Thundarr The Barbarian Cartoon & The Hyperborea Rpg?! Lords of Old Earth Campaign Idea

 So back on December 14th there was a post on this blog about Thundarr The Barbarian available right here. And there's something bothering me about dropping the subject so let's get back to it. 

Thundarr The Barbarian for my young brain pretty much was the underpinning for everything that was to come with Sword & Sorcery. But let's get into a 2011 OSR frame of mine for a moment. . The World of Thundarr Barbarian sourcebook is still available on the right hand side of the Savage Afterworld blog here. 

The World of Thundarr Barbarian sourcebook has been an essential part of many a Gamma World 1st & 2nd edition campaign.
And yes, obviously we've used Mutant Future as both a supplement & system to run 'The World of Thundarr The Barbarian with the sourcebook as campaign from N'york to the ruins of Disn'y. We've covered & crisscrossed the Wasted Lands of Merica.  Let's talk about the 400 pound mutant gorilla in the room here that no one wants to mention. And that's the  the Hyperborea Rpg All of the treasures, classes, etc within the Hyperborea are direct or indirect call backs & homages to the 'Thundarr The Barbarian' cartoon. 

Now recently (as in this morning) my clutch of gamers were talking about the gem of Thundarr The Barbarian as a possible future campaign location. Yeah,yeah, I know add it to the pile of ideas that gets thrown around this blog. This idea has merit however on several fronts. Front one is the fact that in the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition Dungeon Master's Guide there are conversion guidelines. Then again Gamma World fourth edition is far closer to the damage guidelines of the Hyperborea rpg. 
How could such a campaign be done?! Quite easily actually. The 'Old Earth' setting is already baked into the background of Hyperborea. Switch around some of the details & that comet hurtling between the Earth & the Moon might be a piece of moon when Hyperborea was taken into space 

So could Gamma Terra actually be Old Earth!? Anything is possible but given our gaming schedule as of late. There's lots of ideas that would have to be ironed out first! 

OSR Commentary On Skirmisher Publishing's The Living Building By Derek Holland, & The Skirmisher Group For the Mutant Future Retroclone & Gamma World Rpg

 “Just after dawn, a village scout dashed from the forest carrying a wondrous, and perhaps even terrifying, story of a huge, circular shell with a door, a massive coiled building that sprang up during the night. And it is still growing … ”

"Whether from forgetfulness, mental blockage, or intrusions of the dread “real life,” every storyteller has probably experienced that sinking, not-so-prepared feeling before a game. This sourcebook provides a remedy for the next time that happens, and includes an adventure location that is both a little pre-generated and a little homemade, is immediately expandable and adaptable, and can be replayed without seeming like a re-run, because the building changes even as the characters explore it."

“The Living Building” includes background and physical description for the title structure; a floorplan for a particular living building; problems with living buildings that can make them interesting and dangerous places to explore; tips on using living buildings in game sessions; tables for determining the contents of rooms; hazards that characters might face in living buildings; and a section on monsters particularly likely to be encountered in living buildings that includes four new creatures and three new mutations. "

So I'm going be needed an adventure location for our upcoming OSR Science Fiction or Science Fantasy rpg campaign over the weekend. And it's gotta be weird, dangerous, etc. Here's where the classic Skirmisher Publishing's The Living Building By Derek Holland & the Skirmisher Group comes in.  The Living Building is a great stand in for a near human alien building especially for a B/X inspired OSR game. And that's exactly where the sweet spot is for our weekend games. But why?! Because Skirmisher has put in some time & effort for OSR  games such as Mutant Future. 

And these conversions is where this Dragonfoot thread comes in really handy according to  Finarvyn back in July 2011 he says, " The answer to this is totally based on how well you take adventures from one game and use them in another. Can you take OSRIC or B/X D&D or S&W and use them interchangibly? If so, then you're in good shape for the editions of GW that you mentioned.

I think that in general 1E/2E and 4E are all extremely interchangible philosophically. All are very similar to old school D&D. (B/X perhaps.) Mutant Future is based on Labyrinth Lords, which is also similar to B/X D&D. All of these use quite similar mechanics, etc, and adventures for one can be used for another with minimal effort, in my opinion.

As long as you steer away from the oddball versions of GW (3E was based on the MSH colored chart, I think 5E was the one created for Alternity, the newest GW is written for D&D 4E) you'd be fine." 

And to bring this back to the Living Building there's the entire building & it's contents all in one. This means that the DM has everything as it also includes the monsters as well. This makes the Living Building a snap to drop into your own OSR games. 
And this is one of the best reasons to use 'The Living Building' by Derek Holland for alien adventure locations & according to Drivethrurpg reviewer Jason A.; "I was not expecting to get as much as I did from this book, buying it just for the novelty. But there is so much material in this book, each room giving detail and source for new items to be brought into my Gamma game, and room by room an easy way to organize the info. Imagine a structure growing from the ground, encroaching on a location, but with such wonders for your post apoc group, except something is wrong, it keeps growing and there are dangers the original builders never thought would be a worry to the original owners, but as a post apoc group, the things inside are strange and deadly. Good tables too, new mutations, and interesting monsters." 

I'm going to adjust the mutant monster encounters, and the artifacts table for our humanoid near human alien colony that the players are going to be encountering. And  ' The Living Building' has everything that I need going into DMing this weekend. And this makes   The Living Building  perfect for Stars Without Number, Hulks & Horrors, and other OSR Science Fiction  games that use a B/X base. 

Or   The Living Building  could be used with Siege Engine rpg games as well especially James Ward excellent Starship Warden rpg.  Still available through Amazon even though Troll Lords has moved on. 

 The Living Building  is a self contained encounter & works well as an unexpected adventure location that the player's PC's run into. All in all I'm glad to dig out this classic Skirmisher Publishing resource. 

Skirmisher Publishing's The Living Building By  Derek Holland, & The Skirmisher Group For the Mutant Future Retroclone &  Gamma World Rpg Is Available Here