Gamma World: Legion of Gold GW1 Exploration Module 1981 - Actual Play Event For Gary Gygax Day

"There is much to worry about in the mutated world of the future, but Baron Jemmas, Warder of Horn, has more on his mind than most. In recent weeks several of the outlying towns of his Barony have been wiped out by a band of mysterious golden marauders.

These creatures struck from nowhere and vanished without a trace when their deeds were done. The Warder has decided that they must be stopped before the entire Barony of Horn falls beneath their onslaught, and so he is offering a great reward to anyone who can defeat the Legion of Gold.

'

So to celebrate Gary Gygax day I wanted to do something a bit different so I ran an old favorite of mine with one of the side quests from the Gamma World: Legion of Gold GW1 Exploration Module 1981. Things went off rather smoothly on my side of the screen.
Legion of Gold is a mini sandbox of Gamma World goodness, written by Gary Gygax with the help of his son Luke and Paul Reiche III. It remains one of my all time favorite Gamma World modules because its as much Gamma World tool kit as it is adventure.


Legion of Gold has a bit of everything that I love in my Gamma World adventures & sets the tone of how I play and DM my Gamma World adventures post-apocalyptic pulp science fantasy with fictional trappings & settings. The tone in tonight's game was deadly earnest as the 'Bug ems' claimed the lives of two mutant adventurers deep in the bowels of their nests. Wanyne's Books has a good break down of everything included in Legion of Gold;'Legion of Gold presented the Gamma World Referee with the first official campaign area (The Barony of Horn) near Lake Michigan. A buggem nest and an underwater ancient complex await the players. New creatures, new robots, and new weapons. '
-Wayne

There's something really creepy about the whole affair of Legion of Gold, its nonlinear structure presents a setting that is part post apocalyptic fantasy and half classic 50's drive in movie on steroids. The Bug Em lair reminds me of the 1954 film 'Them' especially the end of the giant ant terror inside of the nest.

The pace of the adventure went smoothly with the PC's wandering across the landscape of the post-apocalyptic version of southern Wisconsin setting. The players were worried having played in other Gamma World adventures such as Famine in Fargo which links up and dovetails in with the events of Famine in Fargo. Both adventures are a credit to their authors and designers. Legion of Gold is one of the greatest sci-fi gems of the 70's.A classic adventure that has all of the right elements in all of the right places. Its easy to run & can be used as a one night stand or as a part of an on going Gamma World campaign.
The lethal mutant menace under the Earth claimed the lives of more fool hardy adventurers and mutants tonight.


There are enough loose threads from tonight's Legion of Gold adventure romp that at some future date I might pick back up on this classic adventure for more mutant menace action! Happy birthday and Gary Gygax day from Connecticut!

Review & Commentary On Three Toadstools Publishing's Troubling Events: A Free Crimhuck Adventure For Labyrinth Lord & Your Old School Campaigns

Its Christmas time & its been a long time since I wanted or cared about the crass commercialism of the holidays at all. The older I'm getting the more it becomes evident to me that my family is the most important center of the holiday. Now that being said one of my best friends stopped by to see my family and my dad we were shooting the breezy about Adventurer, Conqueror, King, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, & generally just BSing as gamers do.
So what do I find when I sit down at my lap top? A brand new adventure called Troubling Events: A Free Crimhuck Adventure

What the hell is Crimhuck? Well its Shane Ward's sword & sorcery world that he's been slowly building up over the last couple of years or so. Bits and pieces of it have appeared on the Three Toadstools blog & in his various old school adventures. Since this is a Labryth Lord adventure its easy to adapt and modify to your own worlds. I can see using this adventure with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea quite easily. Even in the intro the writer presents his sword & sorcery setting in the firs paragraph,"It’s a semi unknown continent that has just been discovered in recent years; however it hasn’t been fully mapped. Well that isn’t exactly correct, it was previously discovered by other races, however there’s a whole new group of explorers that have just found the continent and they live in the “frozen” in a village known as Tilla. Crimhuck contains tons of dangers! Dinosaurs, Barbarians, Viking-esq raiders, Middle Eastern/Egyptian influenced
cities, wrapped up in (well maybe warped up in) the S&S aesthetic."
"Set in the city of Yahleui, the heroes have only recently come to the continent of Crimhuck, seeking adventure. The heroes are met by a large comely woman in a tavern called the “Winding Trail”, her name is Hilde. She tells them that if they can safely get a magical ring to her employer deep in the sewers under the city they will be rewarded with precious gemstones. She will resort to goading and betting that heroes can’t do it if she has to. The sewers beneath the city are a very dangerous place. Her employer is a sage who lives underground and does strange experiments far from prying eyes. The city is very big and he lives in a section of the sewers that has been cleaned out, and re-routed.
The sage is part of a secret order called “The Followers of Sabyl”. They are tasked with subverting the rule of the Shah. The order is not evil, it is however in hiding. Rumours exist of the order, but none of have been proven. The sage and the rest of the order have been working towards the goal of replacing the Shah with a better more religious ruler. They follow the tenants of a long dead demi god called “Sabyl” who is neutral in alignment.
Unbeknown to the heroes there is a gang of thieves hot on the trail of the ring. Turns out the ring was stolen from the thieves, who had previously stolen it from someone else. During the conversation in the tavern, a local soldier overhears everything and quickly sends word to his superior that the heroes have a powerful ring that may have once belonged to a king, but hasn't been seen in years. It is a race against time to find the sage in the underground. Hot on the trail of the players are two groups, a gang of thieves and a group of soldiers from the city. Every time the players get into a new room in the sewers roll 1d8. If a roll of 1 comes up the thieves have tracked them down. If a roll of 2 comes up the soldiers have tracked them down. The acolytes of Sabyl are unaware of the sages plans, and depending on reaction check will either hinder or help the PCs."
So its pretty easy to simply drop this unknown setting right down into the middle of Hyperborea or even your own home setting. Stat blocks 6 Thieves AC 7, HD 1, MV 120’(40’), #AT 1, D 1D6 Short Bow/Short Sword, Save T1, ML 6, AL Chaotic, XP 10 are set up quite nicely and on the whole it should be an easily adapted adventure to your home games. The whole thing flows quite nicely. It makes a great introductory or side quest adventure especially over the holidays.
On the whole for a free adventure the author's done a good job of setting up and introducing his world with little issue and another thing that can be gleaned is the fact that this is humancentric world which I'm a fan of in some respects according to the author," As time goes on I will continue to write more about the continent of Crimhuck & the city of Yahleui in particular. A few things to keep in mind regarding the world, it is low magic and a very brutal place. For the most part Crimhuck is populated with humans. Typical fantasy races like Elves & Dwarves do not exist within the world."

On the whole this is a four out of five because it sets out and hits its old school sword & sorcery goals. Its free, its fast, and can be played out in a night or two of game play. 

GRAB 'TROUBLING EVENTS'
FREE RIGHT OVER HERE

Review Of Kort'thalis Publishing's 'Slippery When Wet' Adventure by Venger Satanis For The Alpha Blue Rpg

There are dark times in the galaxy when a bunch of outlaws & sleazoids are needed to take on the worst scum in the universe. This is the set up for Slippery When Wet an Alpha Blue rpg adventure which has a bit of everything from space battles to dungeon crawling. Here's the thing about Alpha Blue despite the silly/sleazy names in the adventure this is one that's tightly designed & well written. But I think that unless your ready for what Venger Satanis is trying to pull off this one isn't going to make a lot of sense unless your into the Eighties sci fi vibe of the  Alpha Blue universe.

This is the result of the highly successful kick starter for the Trinity of Awesomeness that Venger did back in October
Here's the low down on Slippery When Wet;"This is a 4- 5 page adventure of sleazy space opera action in the 23rd century.  After a large-scale assault, the PCs hitch a ride on an underwater vessel named the bearded clam.  Their destination is the undersea citadel Aqua Vulva. "

It's made for the Alpha Blue RPG, but will be usable with almost any sci-fi RPG of your choice.  Ever wanted to play in a universe akin to Ice Pirates, Flash Gordon, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, Space Balls, Heavy Metal, or some porn parody of Star Wars or Star Trek? "
So what's the party of adventurers in Slippery When Wet? Well a bit of gun running, double crosses, lots of space sex, and plenty of death if your players take some very dumb risks. Slippy When Wet clocks in at about fourteen pages & there's some great cartography by Glynn Seal of Monkey Blood design.
There is balance in the design work of the adventure & I don't really think that this is a beginning adventure for Alpha Blue rather this would actually be a good middle or connecting adventure for a party of experienced Alpha Blue players. Some of the menaces here are clearly very dangerous and could be retro fitted into some of the back adventures from the Alpha Blue product line. If you want to see what the Alpha Blue rpg is all about there's a clean version of the game with free quick start rules right here
 
Slippery When Wet adds in underwater elements to the Alpha Blue game and several minor factions to play as well. Some of these could be expanded upon to give even more nasty surprises to players as their time in the Alpha Blue universe gets underway. Several of the major Alpha Blue interstellar power blocks come on stage for the weirdness of this adventure. Remember this is an adult title so its not one for the kids!



Slippery When Wet could be used with Universal Exploits to be expanded into a full blown campaign with almost but not quite Italian Star Wars rip style weirdness throughout. This sort of an adventure is one of my favorites and my preferred way of running Alpha Blue has been with Crawljammer in the past.


These two game system really work well together & Alpha Blue's Slippery When Wet fits right into the background of Crawljammer. Given the free range of the material in Alpha Blue it fits into the Dungeon Crawl Classics fanzine ethos quite nicely. There are more then enough ways of exploiting this vibe to create fully detailed DCC funnels within the Alpha Blue universe but that's a blog entry for another time.


Do I think that Slippery When Wet is worth the price of admission? In a word yes because of the fact that so many of the Alpha Blue elements are on parade & its done with the bravado and sleazy weirdness that I've come to love from the game! Grab this one and get some friends together to play in the interstellar strangeness of Alpha Blue

You Can Down 
Load Slippery When Wet Right Over Here

Commentary On The Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter For Your Old School Campaigns!

There is something immensely appealing about the weird,primal transcend, and utterly strange setting of the Operation Unfathomable adventure.

Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter is still on going & so far its been pretty successful.  Writer and artist Jason (The Dungeon Dozen) Sholtis is someone whose work, ideas, and dungeon ecology has always appealed to me as a DM. The kickstarter is starting to wind down over the next six days & its been one of a handful I was really following closely.From mere dungeon crawling adventure  to fully realized campaign setting this is one of those weird settings that really appeals to a lot of OSR & DCC  style gamers.

"I wrote OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE originally to be a one-off adventure and for utility as a convention scenario. As such, the gloves were off both in terms of danger level for player characters and the campaign-changing potency of the enchanted treasures they might run off with. Going against my own advice, I used it to start a campaign. Four years and hundreds of game-hours later, the campaign continues (and is still fun). As every DM knows, there is no substitute for play when it comes to breathing life into a setting. I believe the Underworld of OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE has that lived-in feel precisely because it has been explored extensively at the table and its secrets probed by a number of minds sharper than my own (I have awesome players). I hope you enjoy it as much as I have."
 - Jason Sholtis  "

What I personally like is the wide variety of weirdos that the author and his crew have brought to the adventure setting:"Enter a crossroads of Underworld civilization where combat is only one of the options (and often not always the wisest!) for dealing with its denizens. The PCs can make a temporary truce with Blind Antler Men or forge an unlikely alliance with the minions of Nul the Mindless God!"
I also like Jez Gordon's artwork & the attention to the dangerThous and deadly strange of the world of Operation Unfathomable. This is going to be one of those mega dungeons that the players are going to be talking about for years to come;"Near-Endless Adventure: Enough NPCs, encounters, and areas to explore to keep a campaign going well beyond the initial scenario" That too me says lots of ultity beyond the sale price of the adventure. Plus it looks like a bit of work has gone into Operation Unfathomable

But from all accounts time is starting to run out to get on board & that means that your not going to get time to climb on board the weirdo train of Operation Unfathomable after it leaves the station.

So far I've really enjoyed the Hydra Collective's works and this does look like its going to be any different in my humble opinion. Given the number of OSR talents they've got on this one I think that they've got te makings of an OSR classic. So now is the time to get on board and start taking a journey down the primal laden pathways of Operation Unfathomable! CHECK IT OUT AND BACK THE KICKSTARTER RIGHT OVER HERE

Commentary On Signature Characters, Campaign Setting Buy In & The Power of The Players!

A new piece of  Sword & Sorcery artwork has been released by Jeff Talanian & it has me thinking about campaign world building. Along with the artwork are the signature characters of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Those intrepid souls who grace the OSR covers & setting bookings of countless rpg's.  Signature characters help to create the mood,  cement the brand for an rpg product, & to hopefully want to make the consumer want to create adventures in the game's world. They're as old as the Basic/ Expert D&D Rogues Gallery & even commercial advertising mascots. For Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea this is a homage move & throwback to the Rogues Gallery and sword & sorcery comic books of yore.



"New art has rolled in for the Second Edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (Kickstarter live now: http://kck.st/2erUCmz). This piece, originally pencilled and inked by Val Semeiks (Conan the Barbarian, Lobo, Wolverine), has now been colored by Daisey Bingham. This picture will serve as a frontispiece for Volume III: Adventure & Combat. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!"

 

We're even given a glimpse into who these adventurers are in the world of AS&SH.
" Those are part of our cast of iconic characters that will be part of the ROGUES GALLERY in the appendix of the book. There you have a Kimmerian barbarian, a Keltic fighter, and a Hyperborean warlock. Their stats will be presented for 1st, 5th, and 9th levels."
I understand that this is a very old form of advertising & what I'm about to say has absolutely nothing to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd edition's writer/designer's choices in artwork & the use of signature characters. These adventurers have been appearing since the Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess adventure.  They're a great concept & marketing move on the part of North Wind Adventures.


As an old school dungeon master I could careless who the signature character is any old school or new school gaming system. Because my focus & lens when it comes to an rpg system campaign's signature characters are on my player's PC's. Why is this a problem because its another way that a dungeon master can become ham strung by a game designer's writing & campaign world buy in.  I understand the high world campaign history & background but many times my players don't want to encounter or play around what are essentially for them silver plated NPC's. This is one of the reasons why I love James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess, the world is essentially our real world history with a weird fictional twist where signature characters die by the score!


True story I had a friend of mine Bob who loves West End Games Star Wars system, however he had players who were incredibly familiar with Nineties Star Wars trivia, minutia, & setting material. I mean these guys & gals could name off star systems, characters by the score, signature characters of Star Wars, and more. What did Bob who wasn't at the time as proficient in Star Wars minutia do? He flung the whole lot of players into a hyperspace corridor and created his own world, systems, NPC characters, alien races etc. His players are still talking about his campaign to this day as one of the most memorable & enjoyable games they've had.

Way back in the early Two Thousands I was running White Wolf's  Exalted system which is rife with a cast of thousands of signature characters, signature places, signature NPC's, and more. One of my players kept bringing each and every new book or gaming comic to the table wanting to have his PC have many of the same powers and abilities as signature characters. This used to piss not me as the DM off but the players who became bounty hunters of a pretty good level who then proceeded to hunt down each & every NPC they could from the worlds of Exalted. It was actually a very good game campaign a blast of fun but man that system gives me headaches. The point is that the players felt very hemmed in by the world and so took it upon themselves to open it up. I don't think that this is going to be a problem for AS&SH second edition.


AS&SH art by Val Semeiks don't forget to to support the AS&SH 2nd edition kickstarter.

One of the reasons why I returned to original Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as well as the OSR retroclones is the lack of companion worlds or settings. Let me bring this back to Astonshing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. My take on AS&SH Hyperborea is going to be very different from any other dungeon master's because the fact is that I've got a totally different take on Hyperborea. But that's alright because the most important signature characters are already at the table, that's the player's characters. They're the stars of the adventure that your already running! My point here is that the DYI attitude that comes with the creation of adventure and campaign worlds is inherit in the joy of gaming, when every single hex, temple, ruin, dungeon is filled in then the players & the DM are going to take it upon themselves to create the world setting that they want. I've seen this happen in war games, old school table top, and other systems of gaming.

OSR Cosmic Destruction Sunday With More Commentary For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign Set Up

We're unleashing OSR cosmic destruction with mid tier wizards, alien cities, & the ruins of Boston & N'Yark today!

 

The blighted sun has arisen on Thundarr's world & last night I got a chance to take a look at season two episode fifteen City of Evil. Why is this episode that important to kitchen sink campaign? Well because first of all it happens almost in my backyard in & around the ruins of Boston Massachusetts in Thundarr's world. It also happens to feature Sarott, a lower tier trash wizard who demonstrates that not all wizards have to have war machines & citadels to become fantastic threats.

Thundarr and company put the hurt on Sarott, he's basically stopped cold & hurled into a portion of the ruins that seem to pepper this version of Boston. The gauntlet in the meantime returns to Gorn the leader of Reporta; a note about Gorn he knows the secrets of the gauntlet & I have a feeling that in the past a wizard owned the relic perhaps even controlling Logan Airport ruins.
Sarott stumbles onto the miniaturized 'City of Thieves' an alien city that survived the apocalypse with Logan's Run levels of Eighties technology. I say alien because nothing about this city matches the remains of cars, planes, buildings,etc. My guess is that when the two worlds merged things were stable for a bit say about ten years or so. Everyone is getting along & many of the day to day world's technology levels went up. A faster then light drive system is employed, genetic engineering becomes more common place & everything appears alright. Then the ugly head of technological magic rears it head & suddenly you've got factions, terrorism, industrial applications of primal chaos, & paranoia as the first of the wizards begins to appear. Magick in Thundarr's world warps both mind & body. Given this fact you can see the lines in the sand as the first wizards begin to appear as the heads of terrorist organizations, factions of armies, alien warlords as allies, and finally the runaway planet. Want a good example of a wizard who survived the Great Cataclysm? Mindok The Mind Menace is a good example of a wizard whose survived the events of the apocalyptic events. Why mention this? Because the City Of Thieves is a bunch of alien mercenaries straight out of the gate who have survived for generations in their miniaturized state.


Want to know why the United States military was working feverishly before that planet hurled between the Earth and the moon? Take a look at the techology level of the City of Thieves! This is straight up Mutant Future/ Gamma World's Ancient's alien technology! The shifty 1970's technology of the underdwellers of Apes Victorious might be a good stand in for these bastards. I mean these folks are straight up evil cutting a deal with Sarrott.


How much of a threat are these folks to the world of Thundarr The Barbarian? Well for two thousand years they've been producing their own food, energy, waiting for a wizard or the like to happen across them. I don't think that Sarott is the first wizard to cross their path but I do think he's the first fool to take them seriously enough to unshrink them. He might have wanted to look carefully around the area for carbon outlines of other wizards. In point of fact the gauntlet is used to unshrink the city, change poor Gorn into a mutated minion of Sarott, & handle the vast magical energies of the primal chaos of Thundarr's world. There has got to be a vast underground mega dungeon under Boston that  probably belonged to Sarott's unseen wizard boss. Don't worry all of this was solved in the twenty minutes by Thundarr except for two facts one the City of  Thieves's inhabitants have escaped into the world of Thundarr which could give rise to a whole new crop of wizards (everyone one of those city dwellers knows how to use the technological magical relics of Thundarr's world) & Sarott is still out there!!?
Why was the City of Thieves there in the first place? Well it was probably a spoil of war & far too valuable to destroy or it had been preserved by a wizard before the world of man was cast into ruins.


So what does all of this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & Adventurer Conqueror King? Quite a bit! The fact is that given the way that Sarott acts it seems to me he's got a bit of a reputation problem and there are some free optional rules for covering that for ACK's! Download the Supplemental optional reputation rules here  Sarott is the perfect lower tier base wizard to throw into a kitchen sink Thundarr style campaign. He's cagey doesn't have much ability, and he's a bully of the first order. He's the perfect type of jerk to find wandering the halls and dungeons of Operation Unfathomable.



A gallery of production sheets from the show (Attention: two of the pictures show a topless, and a fully naked Ariel) gives the potential for more wizards & creatures to stick into your games. Now given Sarott's demeanor and candor he's an opportunist of the first order. There are possibly hundreds of potential Sarott's wandering the dungeons, fields, & ruins of Hyperborea. The fact is that petty wizards with delusions of grandeur are perfect foils for parties of adventurers and outlaws. I've always had Thundarr's Earth a step away through the borea winds from Hyperborea in my campaigns universe.

Map of HYPERBOREA by Glynn Seal

The Kickstarter for the second edition of Hyperborea is moving along at a juggernaut's pace & given the reception that the incredible looking book has had its no wonder. Now that being said there are still some awesome resources for AS&SH that you can download and plot out your own kitchen sink game. Such as the incredibly useful free maps by Ben Ball. You can grab those right here

This basically means that you can plot out everything you need for ruins, dungeons, & whatnot without ruining or disturbing your own books. Plus you can use it on tablets or other devices as needed and while your there you might want to grab  All Too Familiar by Colin Chapman which has a boat load of familiars for your petty or mid tier wizards.  So what are you going to do if your players are way too familiar with Thundarr The Barbarian's world to use it as a setting and you don't have the time to come up with a setting of your own but you really need a nearby post apocalyptic world for one step beyond the borea winds? Not to worry  The Mutant Future Wiki has us covered! The Mighty Samson comic book from Dell has an excellent N'Yark setting  which the overgrowth-covered ruins of New York where the ruins of Manhat might fit!

This is the perfect venue for your mid tier wizards or even Sarott to show up next. Mutants, aliens, etc. its all been sketched out for you and your players!


Sure its the end for the City of Thieves but what treasures and relics were left behind when it went down? Who out of the alien city will become a wizard or the latest menace to the wasteland?
Only you can decide!

Under The Influence Of A Cracked Moon OSR Sorcery As Commentary For A Post Apocalyptic Campaign

"The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!
Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...
A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil.
He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!"

Last night I shut down social media & threw in Thundarr The Barbarian on to the blu ray. The episode in question was Secret of the Black Pearl. Now this episode was in fact very pivtol to the entire run of Thundarr & features one of my all time favorite vile villains Gemini the wizard. Gemini is a real power behind the wasteland in this episode, he's cagey, smart, & one of the true wizards with access to relics but he's also a whiny little bitch. He eventually reappears twice but there are some very interesting things about this episode. Especially how they relate to domain play, relics, & Adventurer, Conqueror, King & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers.



Gemini has access to a lot of relic weaponry, vehicles and all kinds of old Earth style technology & throughout the series most of the wizards do. There's also something really off about Thundarr's world from the on set. Relics, technologies, magic & weirdness don't match anything in our world at all. That's because its not our world or even Thundarr's world for that matter. At some point in the past of Thundarr's world the United States military was messing around with time space gate technologies and contacted a parallel Earth. Relations between the two worlds were alright for a time but there was a magical pollution between the worlds. Mutation, sorcery, the rise of the wizards, and even the Empire of the Petal Throne like artifact the 'black pearl' are from this other Earth. What is the black pearl? Well its concentrated magical energy that is capable of nullifying any magic it comes in contact with. Personally I think that the Unite States military were messing around with the magic & gate technology of this other world, they brought down the 'runaway planet' upon themselves and the inhabitants of this other world merging the two dimensions into one.



So what does all of this have to do with Adventurer, Conqueror, King & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Quite a bit actually, I think that just like in ACK's your looking at wizards who have ascended levels of cosmic ability and established domains as well as magical relics. They're actually survivors of the holocaust who have been growing in power and mutating for two thousand years. Gemini aka Janus the cyborg wizard  is a prime example of the sort of mutations and outright evil we're talking about. He's got his minions in the form of the groundlings (aka his rat men), a full domain of degenerated humans ala Apes Victorious.   and a wasteland full of mutant tribes, trackless wilderness, NPC henchmen & assorted mutated monsters. 

Yet when it comes to  the power of magick where is it coming from? Well, Thundarr's world is full on full primal chaos. Yes the same primal chaos of the underworld that we see in The Operation Unfathomable campaign setting. Wiki defines it as;"Chaos (Greek χάος, khaos) refers to the formless or void state preceding the creation of the universe or cosmos in the Greek creation myths, or to the initial "gap" created by the original separation of heaven and earth"

It whispers and suggests things to those who use it & is often used to create technological magic relics. We see a ton of these in Thundarr's cartoons. 

In fact why is the nuclear missiles in Beneath the Planet of the Apes as powerful as they are? Well because they were also messing around with retro 70's alternative dimensional gate way time travel & faster then light technologies. The very presence of these technologies mutates those around it warping both mind and body. Some of the technological  creations of Kamandi's world also seemed to follow these lines.

But another aspect that we see is the return of the old gods of chaos & law but law is far more subtle in a Thundarr kitchen sink approach campaign. As I said yesterday over the past two years I've made careful purchases of OSR products that work well together such as OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, ACK's, AS&SH, Dark Albion, and many others. This was done in order to have a palette of OSR goodness that would work well with original Dungeons & Dragons as well as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. Which beings up the Kickstarter juggernaut that is the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition. 
Thundarr's world always seemed to me to an Old Earth not a step away from the Borea Winds. A place where PC's might start as cavemen & end up as barbarian adventurers.



Hyperborea lends itself to being that campaign alien element that uses the familiar tropes of D&D with a very hard sword & sorcery taste. The fact that some of the Lovecraftian gods transcend the setting is a plus & AS&SH features one of my all time favorites Xathoqqua/Tsathoggua whose worship would fit right in with the wasteland wizards of Thundarr. In fact I've used his religion many times in such campaigns this is one of the strengths of the kicksink approach that I happen to favor. That being said the Mutants and Magic blog has a whole mapped out Xathoqqua/Tsathoggua religion with PC classes that I've used several times.

Tsathoggua by Ruud Dirven

" Tsathoggua (the Sleeper of N'kai, also known as Zhothaqquah) is a supernatural entity in the Cthulhu Mythos shared fictional universe. He is the creation of Clark Ashton Smith and is part of his Hyperborean cycle.

Tsathoggua/Zhothaqquah is described as an Old One, a godlike being from the pantheon. He was invented in Smith's short story "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", written in 1929 and published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales.^[1] His first appearance in print, however, was in H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Whisperer in Darkness", written in 1930 and published in the August 1931 Weird Tales."

Xathoqqua/Tsathoggua presence in the wasteland or adventure location in question in fiction seems to break the local laws of time & space. There are several monsters in both Marvel comic's Planet of the Apes & other 70's publications that would be perfect avatars or of Xathoqqua/Tsathoggua's kind that fit into the paradigm of Thundarr The Barbarian. The toad god fits easily into other games and Realms of Crawling Chaos has some stats for use with Labyrinth Lord style adventures.  He also appears in Petty Gods which meant that he was easily adaptable as the big bad for a Dark Albion adventure and corresponds to several characteristics for Cults of Chaos for the French Frogmen.

As I said I happen to take the Thundarr kitchen sink approach to my gaming. What does all of this have to do with the technologies, mutants, and horrors of Thundarr don't worry we'll get to that tomorrow.

Savage Super Science & OSR Sorcery As Old School Wasteland Campaign.

I've been reading through Adventurer, Conqueror, King over the last two weeks on and off. The book is really well laid out & do like many of the ideas that the game lays down. There isn't a whole lot of stuff not to like really. I like the level limits because quite frankly I don't have a huge amount of time lately to run on going campaigns where PC's hit twentieth level. This can take years of game play. Because ACK's is dedicated to domain play this isn't that much of a problem. Now what does this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Well one of the gonzo Linus tests I've got is if a system can handle a Thundarr The Barbarian style campaign? This shouldn't be too much of a problem give the laser swords relic in AS&SH but there's more to it then that.


I was poking around the Autarch's website about three or four weeks ago and noticed a nice little download under the Supplemental Rules section called Laserguns & Lightswords Optional Rule by beastman. Not only does this give laser gun relics, light saber style weapons, optional races like Tharks and more it has rules for varying the weapon damage,etc. YOU CAN FIND IT HERE UNDER THE SUPPLEMENTAL RULES SECTION UNDER LASERGUNS & LIGHTSWORDS

Now I'm not taking anything away from the awesome work of Mutant Future & Tim Snider's Thundarr The Barbarian free sourcebook So instead this is more of a bench mark & way of dealing with OSR system values that I enjoy as well as a mental exercise. Sounds like a ton of hard work & effort doesn't it. Over the past two years I've made careful purchases of OSR products that work well together such as OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, ACK's, AS&SH, Dark Albion, and many others. This was done in order to have a palette of OSR goodness that would work well with original Dungeons & Dragons as well as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. Mega dungeon settings like Operation Unfathomable make things very interesting and dicey where DM can mix and match elements of science fantasy and old school as needed.



Now with the newest edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea's kickstarter coming on line it does seem like a good time to talk about the post apocalyptic sword & sorcery goodness. Especially when Jeff Talanian reveals the cover for the second edition of AS&SH. The Kickstarter is coming up tomorrow.



Actually another awesome blog has done a ton of the heavy lifting for me already. K-Slacker does a most excellent job of putting all of the the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (AS&SH)  Adventurer, Conqueror, King System (ACKS) ruleset together in an OSR mashup he calls Astonishing ACKS on the Mutants & Magic blog.

I've been following that blog for years and it convince me to buy AS&SH & ACKS. He's done and excellent job of blending the two systems together along with a fair degree of  Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. He's just done a spot on post on the Apes Victorious rpg and a blending of the scientist class.
One of my next purchases is going to be the ACK's Player's Companion but its going to be a long while before I can afford that little luxury. Taking care of a sick parent kinda takes up all of my cash at the moment. Fortunately my father is on the mend. This has been more of a mental exercise then anything else but these are some of the bend marks I use.
The wonderful little piece of artwork below is really what I'm after for my campaigns of savergy and super science.

Thundarr redesign by RedHeretic

Commentary For The Great Race of Yith, Free OSR Lovecraftian Resource, Second Edition Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd Edition & The Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter

Swords & Sorcery table top rpg's are often defined by their players & dungeon masters as well the action of the world campaign setting around the game itself. This is very true of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & many old school campaigns. With the new edition of AS&SH coming out and much of the great artwork that's been released by Jeff Talanian of North Wind Adventures it was this piece by" +Jason Sholtis is a man who really enjoys exploring the "weird fantasy" aspect of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, so it was with little hesitation that I assigned to him a series of monster illustrations inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. Here is Jason's rendition of the Great Race of Yith -- weird, alien beings that were featured in HPL's novella, "The Shadow Out of Time"."
This piece of a member of the Great Race of Yith has me very excited, these time traveling bastards are one of the most devious and technologically advanced races of Lovecraft.

[T]he Great Race ... waxed well-nigh omniscient, and turned to the task of setting up exchanges with the minds of other planets, and of exploring their pasts and futures. It sought likewise to fathom the past years and origin of that black, aeon-dead orb in far space whence its own mental heritage had come – for the mind of the Great Race was older than its bodily form. . . The beings of a dying elder world, wise with the ultimate secrets, had looked ahead for a new world and species wherein they might have long life; and had sent their minds en masse into that future race best adapted to house them – the cone-shaped beings that peopled our earth a billion years ago.

— H. P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow Out of Time"

These guys are one of my favorite antagonists & monsters of old school campaigns because they're masters of time & space. If you think that the  coned things are their actual form think again. That's one of the forms of these time jumping bastards. They are summed up really well by Wiki;"The Great Race of Yith are a fictional race of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Introduced in Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Out of Time," the Great Race was a prehistoric civilization that populated much of the Earth until their demise in the late Cretaceous era. Their great power derived from their mastery of precognition via time travel." These cone beings simply their latest victims but don't worry they're are lots of other guises that these bastards wear & what do they have to do with Hyperborea? Well they were once masters of an empire upon that world as well as countless others. But they weren't the only masters of time & space travel there was another race; "In the short story "The Challenge From Beyond", H. P. Lovecraft describes a race of grey worm/centipede-like, creatures (Yekubians) which have similar abilities to the Great Race of Yith, but without the power of time travel by mind transfer. They use an odd hieroglyph-engraved cube, sent out into the cosmos, and; once landed on a planet, it is activated by biological interaction and light. This then engages the life form in a similar process to the Yithian's mind transfer. One of these cubes is what apparently landed on the earth during the reign of the Great Race and transferred some of their minds. It was therefore stored away so it could not affect them again, but not destroyed as the technology was new to them; the Great Race being great compilers. This was later "translated" by Reverend Arthur Brooke Winters-Hall, a clergyman with occult tendencies, and resulted in an account of the exploits of the Yekubians."  That's available right here as The Challenge from Beyond By C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft,Robert E.Howard, and Frank Belknap LongOr you can download it from Gutenberg Autsrailia but check your local laws before doing so in your home country.

So throughout the Hyperborean countryside there are pockets of ruins & various dungeons belonging to the Lovecraftian races. Do the humans of Hyperborea even begin to stand a chance?

The new edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea adds a brand new twist with subclasses such as the RUNEGRAVER;" Del Teigeler did an amazing job illustrating the RUNEGRAVER for the forthcoming second edition of AS&SH. Want to play a character like Egill Skallagrímsson, straight out of The Sagas? The runegraver, a subclass of the cleric, is described as "a mystic warrior who carves rune spells on bone, metal, stone, and wood". The runegraver possesses many interesting abilities, such as the "ale rune", turning water to a healing ale; "casting lots" which allows the runegraver to make predictions; and "nithing pole" which allows the rungraver to create a special device that lays a curse."


Is this going to be the only new subclass of the usual classic AS&SH twist on PC classes? Not at all according to Jeff Talanian we are going to see a bunch of new and interesting wrinkles to the family of AS&SH adventurers.

The new subclasses are:

- Cryomancer: a sorcerer who commands the elemental power of ice
- Huntsman: a wilderness warrior who glories in the hunt
- Runegraver: a mystic warrior who carves runic spells on bone, metal, stone, and wood
- Purloiner: a religious thief who also practices the esoteric mysticism of a cleric
Here's a piece of artwork for the Huntsmen by Del Teigeler, its got a He Man meets Dore in a back alley quality interwoven with a sword & sorcery vibe to it.


Many of the dungeons & underworlds of Underborea remind me of "The Operation Unfathomable" which from what I've been reading on the Kickstarter could actually be used as an ad junction to the Underborea underworld.


I can totally see some Great Race alien dimensional doorway opening into the underworld of Operation Unfathomable with some hapless bunch of Hyperborean adventurers totally unaware of danger that they're in. The sheer volume of weirdness & primal chaos from what I've heard could easily overwhelm a lesser party. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about check out the Kickstarter video for Operation Unfathomable. I can totally see AS&SH adventurers hanging on for dear life against the hordes of weirdness from this campaign adventure source book.
If you haven't checked out the Jason Sholtis video for Operation Unfathomble you really should. They've already unlocked one of the stretch goals and there are more to come.

The beauty about the latest batch of neo OSR products is the fact that they work well together & could be used to create all kinds of under world adventure havoc in you home campaigns. AS&SH 2E Kickstarter to Launch this Friday, October 21 & I can't wait!

Commentary & Review Of A Green Jewel They Must Possess From Kort'thalis Publishing For The Outer Presence Rpg System & Your Old School Campaigns

Did you ever look at an adventure & think yeah there's something slightly off with that one. Yeah it makes you want to run it all the more.  This is one of those adventures, A Green Jewel They Must Possess is from the prolific mind of Venger Satanis.

Now is that time of year when you really need an adventure for a Saturday or Sunday night with the holidays coming up. Very few folks have the time to put something together on the spot, that's where our next adventure comes in."A Green Jewel They Must Possess" From  Kort'thalis Publishing   clocks in at about ten pages taking place in the Early Eighties and its mostly a back handed homage to the animated film Heavy Metal. I say mostly because its actually its own beast & really wallows in its own Eighties slime filled juices more on that in a moment.
"A Green Jewel They Must Possess" is about a compact an investigative adventure that a DM can get it clocks in at eleven pages and gets out of its own way in the first page establishing you relationship with the main protagonist in the first two minutes with a random table.
"It's Chicago in autumn, nineteen seventy-something. Ezra Jackson calls one of the investigators, asking to meet at a nearby restaurant in order to talk business. He sets the meeting for 5:00pm on a Tuesday. Ezra is about 30, medium height with a medium build, long brown hair, glasses, and wears a tan corduroy jacket with brown suede patches at the elbows. He's usually quiet unless he has something to say. Ezra is ambitious, but not at the expense of his friends. He became fascinated with the occult at a young age, but never went too far down the rabbit hole. Determine which of the following suggestions explain Ezra Jackson's relationship to each investigator."
 The investigators or adventures meet at a local restaurant and things get weird as he sketches out the origins of the green artifact.
"Ezra Jackson has a little proposition for the investigators. Ezra heard about excavation in what is now Syria - a new temple was discovered by a team of Americans, buried underneath what was considered the oldest temple discovered - until now, that is. Within this temple, the archaeologists found a sphere made of an unknown material. After touching it, the sphere began to glow green.
After one of the archaeologists died under mysterious circumstances, the sphere was shipped back to America for study and eventual display. "Nothing like this has ever been seen or recorded, not  only in the Middle East but any ancient civilization on earth... this is truly a unique artifact!""

Yeah that's right this is actually an occult heist adventure rather then a standard occult investigation and that marks it as both different and well executed. The black market underbelly of artifact, archaeological, smuggling, theft,murder & crime isn't something that nice rpg's like to talk about but not this adventure. Your PC's are put smack into the cross hairs of the Lovecraftian rifle scope. This adventure takes place some very nefarious & dangerous NPC characters. Something that the Outer Presence rpg adventure also takes full advantage of.

Photo by Colin Brown from Silver Lake, CA, U.S.A

So basically this puts "A Green Jewel They Must Possess" right into the rpg camp of Call of Cthulhu's Delta Green or Call of Cthulhu 's Eighties territory this isn't a bad thing at all. This adventure could serve as an introduction to a black market Delta Green or Call of Cthulhu campaign quite easily. The material is there to full advantage of any weird moves on the PC's part in this 'job' adventure but there is a heavy Lovecraftian or occult object here buts its not a red herring in this case. Don't forget this is a homage to the Eighty One Heavy Metal film, the green glowing artifact isn't a dead end, its a major plot element in this adventure & a very deadly one.


 

So now the big question that everyone was recently asking me about 'A Green Jewel they must Possess" can it be connected to Alpha Blue or Crimson Dragon Slayer? The answer is a very easy yes! In fact with very little work, the back drop of the story could be changed to another world and the same characters could be used as sleazy and dangerous space smugglers whom the PC's have to do a job for. That's the beauty of "A Jewel They Must Possess " its easily adaptable for all kinds of mayhem with the PC's. The background of the Heavy Metal film gives an easy in for the PC's.
What about the "Crimson Dragon Slayer" rpg system? Well, in point of fact given the post apocalyptic nature of the "Crimson Dragon Slayer" game and the fact that "No Escape From New York " came out last year. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to take that book & adapt in the events from "A Jewel They Must Possess" into that world quite easily. New York  after a short but calamitous global thermal nuclear war, the urban landscape became a burned-out wasteland of ruin and mutation. Survivors congregate in the city that never sleeps, making it their nightmarish playground… a shi*hole of degeneracy and wickedness. This sounds right for the events of the adventure. A combination of the two systems would be a thing of beauty using the events of "A Jewel They Must Possess" as the glue for a mini campaign. Taking it a step further because the world of Torth is always night  there will be a few minutes of dawn or dusk at odd intervals, but mostly it's constantly nocturnal - just the way they like it. If any of the players ask, tell them it's because of The Torth Effect'. And this is only the start of it, given the gonzo background of CDS. This is the sort of an adventure setting that PC's from Mutant Future, Labyrinth Lord, etc. or your favorite retroclone would be at home in. In point of fact "No Escape From New York City" could be used to act as a bridge gap into the world of Thule for your favorite OD&D or retroclone PC's. This means that an entire campaign could center around the "Earth of No Escape From New York" with "A Jewel They Must Possess" as the beginning  adventure. "The  Slaves of Tsathoggua" might possibly be the middle & finally "Slippy When Wet" could get them into the deep end of "Alpha Blue".


One of the nice things that the "Jewel They Must Possess" has is a table for continuing the events after the adventure is over with. This makes continued place not only possible but campaign events can be linked into the adventure's backdrop for extended play. Seems like a simple thing to do but many adventures miss doing this. On the whole I really really enjoyed this adventure, it does what it says on the tin and creates a really nice set up for a mini campaign in the world of the "Outer Presence". Not too shabby at all for a three dollar adventure. Five out of five stars in my opinion.

You Can Purchase A Jewel They Must Possess Right Over Here