Warriors of The Red Planet Rpg & Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation by English writer Edwin Lester Arnold For An Old Mars Campaign

Mars is a massively dangerous place to dungeon crawl & adventuring down in the ruins. This blog post picks up from this blog post. 

So we've been working with Warriors of the Red Planet and taking advantage of the multi WoRP races and PC classes. This is a great system to run full on post apocalyptic rpg campaigns. 

To this end I've been rereading Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation by English writer Edwin Lester Arnold, & this book has numerous elements that perhaps inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs 'A Princess of Mars'. 

Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation was published in 1905 & 'A Princess of Mars' was published in 1917. 

Is there a way of including both Gullivar Jones's Mars  & John Carter's Barsoom together in one campaign setting. According GULLIVER JONES ON BARSOOM?  by Den Valdron in ERBzine issue 1403 there's a ton of reasons why Gulliver Jones adventures took place in the Arctic region of Barsoom. 

The Mars of Gullivar Jones is highly dangerous place because it's essentially a prehistoric micro cosm of 'the Mars of yesteryear'. Sure you've got the Hither & Thither peoples with a relatively stable culture comparable to the Eloi & the Morlocks of HG Wells Time Machine novel. But there are other peoples, creatures, etc. which the author doesn't get deeply into. I have to admit that it was a bit slow going at times with the Edwin Lester Arnold going into far more detail about the alien plants then the creatures and monsters. Does this actually line up with evolutionary traits of ancient Mars?! What I'am I talking about?! 

Does Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation's fixation on the plant life point up a truth that we've found within Clark Aston Smith's Mars cycle. The simple evolutionary truth that the animal life on Mars is highly aggressive and multi limbed  for a reason. That reason is the fact that the plant life is highly evolved to kill animal life in a wide variety of creative ways. 
Think about it. Mars even when it was green is a very 'plant eats animal' based world. This Mars belongs to the first cycle of the planet when it was dominated by plant based life, gods, and even horrors.  We know this because Clark Ashton Smith goes hard into this with his Mars Cycle: 

• Dweller in the Gulf, The  (1933)
• Mnemoka (1955) Fragment
• Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, The  (1931)
• Vulthoom  (1935)
• Seedling of Mars or The Planet Entity  [plot by - E M Johnson] (1931)[An alternative background to the proceeding 4 stories]

What does this mean for Edgar Rice Burroughs material?! Quite a bit for the DM whose linking all of these stories together for their Warriors of the Red Planet campaign. Edgar Rice Burroughs's Plant Men from The Gods of  Mars by  Edgar  Rice Burroughs are hold overs from this time period gardened and tended by the Therns and their religion of manipulation. This ecological manipulation goes deeply into the lands of the Hither & Thither peoples. Extending deeply into the dungeons & ruins of the Martian underworld. We'll go down into the Martian underworld, the Therns, and the dungeon ecology of Mars next time. 

Warriors of The Red Planet & Clark Aston Smith's The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis (1931) - For An Old Mars Campaign

'There were eight of us, professional archaeologists with more or less terrene and interplanetary experience, who set forth with native guides from Ignarh, the commercial metropolis of Mars, to inspect that ancient, aeon-deserted city. Allan Octave, our official leader, held his primacy by virtue of knowing more about Martian archaeology than any other Terrestrial on the planet; and others of the party, such as William Harper and Jonas Halgren, had been associated with him in many of his previous researches. I, Rodney Severn, was more of a newcomer, having spent but a few months on Mars; and the greater part of my own ultra-terrene delvings had been confined to Venus.'

'I had often heard of Yoh-Vombis, in a vague and legendary sort of manner, and never at first hand. Even the ubiquitous Octave had never seen it. Builded by an extinct people whose history has been lost in the latter, decadent eras of the planet, it remains a dim and fascinating riddle whose solution has never been approached . . . and which, I trust, may endure forevermore unsolved by man. Certainly I hope that no one will ever follow in our steps . . . .'

• Clark Aston Smith's Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, The (1931)

 There's something right outta of the gate of the Clark Aston Smith's Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, The (1931)that reeks of the alieness of Mars. A certain morbidness  air that hangs right in the opening paragraphs. These are a crew of adventurers under the guise of archaeologists who are plumbing the depths of a Mars that humanity barely understands.  This is an old and very dangerous world hoary with age, horror, and alien Lovecraftian gods dwelling in its underworld.

This Mars belongs to the first cycle of the planet when it was dominated by plant based life, gods, and even horrors. This is related in the 1933 story by Clark Aston Smith in which  these stories are set on the same Mars - that of the Aihais and their predecessors the Yorhis. These two peoples belong to the next cycle when Mars crests into the Barsoomian cycle. This makes it easy to move this campaign into a Warriors of the Red Planet rpg campaign. 

But the alien plant cycle won't be denied because the Aihais and their predecessors the Yorhis are hoarders of ancient forbidden secrets sequestered away in lost valleys of a grim and highly dangerous Mars. For Warriors of the Red Planet campaign 'This is a world where mankind has made his mark & then stumbled into the fires of his own nuclear fall from grace. There are space ports here and there, a few human city states but the Martian races have re emerged on Mars from hidden valleys & scattered colonies across the face of Mars. There are ancient Lovecraftian horrors & gods that rule as they have for billions of years scattered in certain countries across the face of this world. This is world where the sword is king & you need to keep your radium side arm handy. Mutants, ancient evils, and worse await you in the red night.' The Blackgate blog covers this with The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Aston Smith Part IV with the following; "  The current inhabitants of Smith's Mars call themselves Aihais and have barrel chests, multi-articulated arms, high flaring ears, and pit-like nostrils. The best remembered of the dead civilizations, the Yorhi, have physical similarities to the Aihai but left behind sinister ruins and legends of their passing." 

Humans are only now starting to unearth and explore these forbidden ruins. And for the sake of the human race we'd better hope they don't uncover the wrong dungeon. 

Clark Aston Smith's Mars in his Martian cycle is a dark and forbidding place where the human race is trespassing on a world that humanity barely understands at all. Could Barsoom fit into this?! Why not we've got planet men who are highly dangerous and one of the last things that some poor 2000 year old Red Martian is likely too see. 

Asssassin's War On Mars - Serpents Crossover - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet - Session Report Five

This session report is going to pick right up from here.  In which the player's PC's made it into the wizard's tower after covering themselves in monster dung to make it past the tower's guardians. However the PC's have been really getting themselves into trouble! However let's talk Swords & Wizardry kickstarter here for a moment.

So I've been following the updates & progress on Matt Finch's Swords & Wizardry Kickstarter's updates. However the other night the player's party made progress after thier thief got a chance to disarm a deadly trap within the tower. This all comes from Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters that we pulled out several weeks ago. 

The party found a working teleporter in one of the wizard's rooms and found the mechnism was still in operation. Someone had just teleported out of there. 

The party almost bought it coming face to face with a group of rogue serpent men & thier Red Martian cavemen thralls. Things got very heated as the party saw the loss of thier warrior princess and a fighter! More cavemen pressed through the laboratories door and the party took the teleporter as a way out! 
Who knows where the party will end up?! Well I do and here's where things about to get very interesting. 

Over the past two months I've been working with the Hyperborea rpg and several campaign notes from the past especially in regards too Flying Buffalo's Butcher, Baker, Candlestick maker series. So these are going to form the basis for a 'fantasy city' on another plane. 'Pun-anth' is a fantasy city that is controlled by the Serpent Men! The entire city seems like a traditional fantasy city with quite a few Pulpy Warriors of the Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg twists. 'Pun-anth' is actually a trade partner with certain Hyperborean & Martian kingdoms.

Asssassin's War On Mars - Crossed Swords of Blood - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet - Session Report Four

 So we're looking deeper into the Swords & Wizardry new Kickstarter with thier new version of thier version of the OGL; "Licensing. Later today we will also put up a PDF of the draft version of what we're calling the Mythmere Games Open License. This license does the expected task of allowing a third-party publisher to use the Swords & Wizardry rules and text. It also creates a category of content called MGL Open Content (the MGL is short for Mythmere Games License) which will allow a third-party publisher to make content available to other third-party publishers as open game content, regardless of whether any Swords & Wizardry content is included. The license is modeled on the OGL, since that's the model most people are familiar with, and learning a new license is difficult, but it contains fixes for various things that have been problems with the actual OGL. Most notable is of course the clear inclusion of the word "irrevocable," but there are several other changes. After we put the draft license up for people to download it and take a look, Matt will do a livestream -- probably on Sunday -- to describe licensing issues in the OSR in general, how this particular license works, and answer questions. We'll do another update to give specifics about the time and place for the livestream." During last night's Warriors of the Red Planet game the party of adventurers got attacked by loyalist serpentmen mercs! 

This pay session repor picks up from here & here on the blog
They almost made it across the valley in thier flyer but they ended up attacking the mercs & just managed to make it out with several lucky rolls. Adventurers made made it into the next valley bypassed several fuel stations until they made through unto the next series of villages. One of these villages is one of the player's PC's origins. 
And it was time for the party to stop into Avoluo and tracked down the village elder. This was a barbarian tribe with deep ties with the local assassin's guild. 

And the player's PC's came face to face with one of the mid level NPC villains! This is where things went from bad to worse as they had to deal with him. Rus Ashu the Blood Handed  our lower tier assassin has a blood debt against this guy. And it was crossed swords & the party couldn't interfere! Things got very tense as swords crossed and the NPC was badly wounded as well as losing a limb! 

The PC's wanted to get out before things got worse as they now know that'  abandoned ' wizard's tower from a few sessions ago isn't! They heard from various villagers that the place has been restocked and anyone venturing there disappears! This all ties in with the Black Circle faction gaining in power in the valley of Lothar and pre Ancients technologies being used to shore up thier power base in the area. 

This all comes from Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters that we pulled out several weeks ago. The Wizard's Tower in this book has some really nasty twists that I've managed to snag into our Mars game quite easily. 
We've also been talking about running a Rifts Rpg campaign but the players can't make it due to work commitments and scheduling. 
However I might have a plan after looking into my buddy Raven Wolfgar's stream today on Youtube. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Mercs Rising - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet - Session Report Three

 This week's Warriors of the Red Planet/Hyperborea rpg campaign came into hard focus after picking up straight from this blog entry here.  The party of adventurers encountered the first of a party of assassins after they re equipped at the village of Great Old one worshipers. The assassins sent in a scout to lure the party into a trap with some dead sea barbarians waiting in the wings. These were 2nd level but the party's thief had a few tricks of her own. She and the party's other thief circled around them and dispatched them with extreme prejuidice. 

And they came face to face with the asssasins leader a barbaric red alien psionic. And it was a huge fight with the party of seven against eight red martian warriors and the alien leader. 
They lost one of thier PC's in the fight against the alien leader. They buried thier fallen panth & then looted the alien leader's body. 

They found a flier which is how the party was found in the first place. And the party took off. 
They found a camp of yet another bandit caravan with a ton of alien uplifted animal mercenaries getting ready for a raid on a nearby kingdom. 
The players were wondering where the Hell were the mercenaries getting all of this logistical support?!
The answer came from Buffalo Games Wilderness Encounters 'abandoned' wizard's tower. The tower belongs to a 'former' black circle' wizard who hasn't been seen in centuries. 

The party came up with the idea of using the harnesses and metals belonging to the assassin/raiders they killed before. Using this and some clever rolls the party got into the mercenaries camp and really got an idea of just how big this operation is. And their suspisions about the wizard's tower being the base of operations for the mercenaries proved to be true. 

The party wants to sabotage the mercenaries camp because of all of the heavy weapons & artifact weapon systems they found there. 
There's also talk about how the Black Circle faction of wizards is gaining in power and this also means an increase of Great Old One cults springing up! The party noticed two of these cults supplying the mercenaries with supplies and ammo. There was also the feeling that the mercenaries had some deeper connection to the cult through the wizard's tower. The party went along with the mercenaries for the moment using thier flyer to keep pace with other scout flyers. However they also grabbed extra ammo and bombs during thier stay with the mercs. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Bandit Turn Around - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet -Session Report Two

 This session report picks right on from where we left off here last time.
The interior of the palace was wall to wall vines & the party had the serpent men on thier behinds. They made thier way into the interior of the ruined palace keeping an eye on the lit doorway that they had come through. 

The players had gotten their copies of Warriors of the Red Planet from Big Geek Emporium over here. 
The interior of the ruined palace was a weed choked mess. The party got ambushed by a couple of poisoned serpents. The fighters made short work with some lucky rolls. And then the party wanted to see if they could find harnesses and equipment. 

What they found instead were bandits! 

They got another surprise on the ruined palace's interior as they came face to face with a party of bandits led by a psionic. 

Our party's own psionic didn't led on what he was and played dumb. The party found out that the bandits were working for the serpent men. 
They wanted to sell the party into slavery back to the serpent men for both slavery & sacrifice. Needless to say that didn't happen. The party freed themselves with knives hidden in belts. And throats were slit. 

The bandits are also part of the rogue assassin's guild and not a part of the network of 'honorable' asssassins. The party didn't leave a single bandit alive and took thier metal harnasses undecorating them as they went. 

The party took any monies that the bandits had and took thier mounts as well! Now the adventurers are still on the run from the serpent men & moving fast as they can back to civilization with the ruined palace as market for exploration later on. These serpentmen are mobile, humanoid, and highly dangerous. The majority of the nest that the PC's escaped from are 2nd level fighters led by a  seventh level Sorcerer of the Black Circle.
The party came across a village 20 miles away after a two day hard ride. They were expecting treachery & they got it. The village welcomed them but it turned out to be the bandit's base of operations. What happens now?! Tune in next week to find out! Alright so the village already felt off & going with the Lovecraftian theme I 'borrowed' the  Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters 100 pg Bonus book with the Lamia encounter. This time the village is actually the projeney of the lamia living outside of the village & using it as a base. The village are actually 'Great Old One' worshippers near the polar ice cap of Mars. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Seprent's Lair - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet -Session Report One

 So it looks like Night Owl Workshop has 'defected' to Big Geek Emporium along with a number of other vendors. How does this affect our Assassins War game?! It doesn't and instead our PC's woke up within the lair of a race of Serpent Men's cell. This all takes place within the polar swamps of Mars. The Ancient Worm's worship is still powerful here & the PC's are to be sacrificed as Phobos races across the sky at first light. 
These serpent men are the polar variation & have arms & legs. The PC's were paralyzed with light venom in their veins. The players bonded over thier escape and learnt first hand about the plot to stir the pot of the Assasin War on Old Mars. 
After Meka the red martian mind master got full control of one of the serpent warriors the party was able to escape into the swamps. 

And events went from bad to worse as the serpent men became aware of thier escape from their lair. then gave chase but the party had  a few hours start. The party were able to find some small amount of gear within the serpent men's lair. And for a few hours game time the party wandered the swamp encountering a giant serpent that was an agent of said serpent men. However they shot the serpent and found it's lair within an abandoned palace. They were able to find weapons, ammo, & 'new gear' within. Including an echanted sword belonging to an ancient Martian lord of order. 
Today is a day that I didn't have a lot of time to design or develop the serpent men's lair. So I fudged it a bit with Flying Buffalo's Wilderness Encounters 100 pg Bonus. Here was a ready to go Serpent Men's lair with all of the trimmings ready to go! 

These serpentmen are mobile, humanoid, and highly dangerous. The majority of the nest that the PC's escaped from are 2nd level fighters with a seventh level Sorcerer of the Black Circle. What terrors does the abandoned palace hold? Tune in next time for more action. 

Assassin War On Old Mars - Old Mars Mini Campaign Set Up - Hyperborea Rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet

 The Assassins War is about to heat up on 'Old Mars' as a copy of the infamous the Vulth' russ or its translated title 'the black tongue of knowledge'. One of the branches of the Jrosu'rau has a death contract to get it for one of the serpent men temples deep in the jungles of the Drooth swamp lands near the ice poles. 

The PC's have been contacted by one of the Morlock priests about the where abouts of the book. Old Earth transported thousands of Morlock & Eloi engineers, workers, etc to Mars to help with the underworks on the planet. The Morlocks have an underground nation with an above pleasure city where the colonists can blow off steam with the Eloi pleasure slaves. 
However the Morlocks use their Eloi as spies, and their eyes across 'Old Mars'. 
However the reappearance of the  the Vulth' russ may signal the end of one Martian cycle & the beginning of the reappearance of the 'children of the Old Ones'. The Morlocks fear this will upset the delicate balance of 'Old Mars'. 
And already hundreds of Eloi workers & pleasure slaves have gone missing. They fear that these events are related. And in the shadows of Mars guild assassins have started a Shadow War with  the Jrosu'rau. 

Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign Commentary - Dragon Issue #113 Sept 1986 - Hunter Class Robots vs Aliens, Creatures, & Mutants

 Looking through the classic Dragon magazine issue#113 Sept 1986  for an NPC idea for our  post apocalytic White Star & Warriors of the Red  rpg powered campaign last night. I came across an old classic article for Gamma World 2nd edition. 

 The classic second edition  Gamma World rpg article 'Cold Steel' by Scott A Hutcheon  details the Hunter class of robots. These cybernetic organisms have appeared in my campaign time & again.  Since we're almost done with the Red Shadow faction. Perhaps it's time to introduce the players to another rather nasty NPC. 

Hunter-class robots for Gamma World (Bruce Mackley, Dragon 113, September 1986)
via the old school tumbler here. 

We've used these cybernetic organisms before to call them simple robots is a disservice to these entities. In our games over the years we've given them personalities, motives, and goals because these things are equipped to take on full blown mecha and survive. Sure their no match for a Gamma World second edition death machine. But these things can & will take out mutant demi gods with little issue. And when your dealing with experienced players there should be entities way above your party's paygrade. The Cybohunter is a beast ;'TYPE: Cybernetic Hunter/Tracker NUMBER: 1 ARMOR: 1 HIT DICE: 30d10 CONTROL: D/G SENSORS: A/B/D/E/F (Scent) POWER: A/D200 MS: 1d4 + 12 IN: 1d10 + 11 DX: 1d10 + 11 PS: 5d10 + 30 SPEED: FEET = 24/1800/72 STATUS: Rank' 
Monsters like Magic Pig Media's Star Kraken or the Cosmic Behemoth are capable of ruining a party's day from  Outer Space Raiders Volume 2: Aliens, Creatures & Foes. So entities like the Cybohunter are not that far off base when it comes to higher level encounters. 

A post apocapytic solar system is one that will be frought with perils and the Hunter series takes this into account. According to 'Cold Steel's author; "Take, for example, the Hunter series of combat robots, which was founded on one basic concept: The bigger they are, the harder they hit. Although not as powerful overall as Death Machines or Warbots, these devices provide much more challenge to an overconfident adventuring group than Security Robots. Note that some specimens of these devices have been modified in the postholocaust years to take into account mutational powers possessed by animals, plants, and humans. Numerous variations on these basic designs may also exist." 
Surely I'm being unfair with such a powerhouse of a series of cybernetic entities?! Well yes & no, let's turn the clock back to 2015 when Ivanhoe Unbound was publishing material. And Aliens, Androids, & Aberrations slid across my desk. 

As you can see it doesn't take a genius to combined these various resources and AAA gives yet another perspective rpg resource to this campaign. Combined with the mecha rules from White Star Galaxy Edition then the threat of the Hunter class doesn't seem so far fetched 

Next time forbidden technologies, The Mutant Future connection, and more coming up. 

Enter The Desert Muton - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 So if you've been following the progress of the current campaign then you know that things are about to get very messy the player's PC's think that they've escaped the Red Shadows. But nothing could be further from the truth! 
The Red Shadows have seen this as an opportunity to test our their new Desert Muton cybernetic trooper! 

Now I've got to give credit where credit is due. This is a custom Red Shadow Muton figure from Histank.com forum's member 46 Zone here. The figure hails from 2018 but it's very topical with the players never even having heard of a Muton. 

Red Shadows Desert Muton Trooper 

AC: 6 

Hit Dice 4

HDE/XP: 3/77

Total Hitpoints:+4 

Movement:13   

Special: See Below 
Attack: By Weapon 

13 Weapon Mini missile anti personal load 1d6+2, or 7 Homer Anti Personel Mini missiles  2d6+3 able to follow targets for 40 yards around corners & obstacles,6 Cracker Mini missile Loads 3d6+1, Laser pistol side arm  1d6+2

Special Abilities - Hive Link with the Shadow A.I., Immune to charm, telepathy, and any mind influencing abilities. The Red Shadows are in constant cybertelepathic contact with the Shadow A.I. 

See All System - The Muton is equiped with incredible sensor systems having darkvision, infravision, & other more esoteric sensors built into it's cybernetic systems. So the Muton gains a +3 to all rolls related to finding & tracking targets 

Charlie Desert Cybernetic Systems - the Muton is immune to all overheating & desert conditions. The Desert Muton can stay submerged in the sands of Mars for years  at a clip before being activated. It's systems are sealed against the harsh sand conditions 

Programmed Tracking - The Muton is able to track targets through even the harshed conditions easily. +4 on all Tracking rolls 

The Mutons are cybernetically convert Red Shadow troopers who have been completely cybernetically converted into the ultimate loyal cyber soldier. They are able to operate in a wide variety of planetary conditions and including outer space. Their mini missiles have a range of 120 feet and can explode under the Muton's control. The Shadow A.I. can see through any of it's Muton able to take control at a moment's notice to be in the middle of the action. 

So the PC's find themselves in the middle of a weapons test with a deadly advesary will they survive?! 

Deeper Then a Red Shadow - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 So in last night's second game the party got in way deep over their heads as we pick from last session here.  The party ran across a Green martian mother & child that was about to be bug food & had to make a snap decision. 

Shadow wasn't playing and released a very nasty combat bot & things got heated from there with the party's necromancer grudging saving the party & the mother and child with the last charge on the teleport spell scroll. 
They ended up about four miles away from the bug hive and deeper still into Red Shadow turf. The party however was shown a way out by the Green martian mother through a snaking mount pass around the Red Shadow base. This went right by a mine field around one of the most deadly fields where the Red Shaow's Skeletron ships were sent out on raids. And the party didn't linger marking the trail and getting outta of there as quickly. 
And just as they were leaving?! They ran into a Red Shadow cyborg soldier! 

 Red Shadow cyborg soldier

AC: 7 

Hit Dice 3 

HDE/XP: 3/76

Total Hitpoints:+3

Movement:12  

Special: See Below 
Attack: Weapon Laser pistol 1d6+2 or Laser Rifle 2d6+3 

Special Abilities - Hive Link with the Shadow A.I., Immune to charm, telepathy, and any mind influencing abilities. The Red Shadows are in constant cybertelepathic contact with the Shadow A.I. 

The Red Shadows are the dregs of humanity, recruited from the mercenary and criminal underworlds all around the world. Initially drawn by promises of riches, these men are subjected to extreme brainwashing techniques and a punishing training schedule intended to transform them into unthinking minions 

The party had to take him out fast and the party peppered the Red Shadow Cyborg trooper with arrows, spells, & finally burnt the body with oil just to be sure. They would be noticed in less then a half an hour and the party would be noticed! The party quickly got outta of there. But did they manage to get away?! 

Spectre Of A Red Shadow - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 During tonight's game the PC's were 'saved' by strange warplane that came outta of no place and strafed the tanker spider destroying it. The bright red warplane bore a black background with a white skull dropping bombs on the remains of the tanker killing the spy along with any hidden spiders. This blog post will pick right up from here. 

The PC's met some old nemesis on Mars in the form of the Red Shadows, the shadows organization are a cryptic alliance from the bowels of an underground base clones of the original members of the Red Shadow organization. An A.I. entity called Shadow unfroze the clones during the war & they've been acting as a maurading mercenary army ever since. 
Red Shadows 

Tech Level: IV 

TYPES: PSH (35%); H (45%); MA (40%); P (15%); A (10%) NUMBER: 1d10 BASE: A (5d10; along the dead sea bottoms ); B (2d10 + 50; along dead sea bottoms ); H (10d10+100; usually near the ancient enterances to the main sea bottoms) SECRET SIGN: Among human settlements a skull drawn in the red sands. 
A couple of years ago the party ran into the Red Shadows during a raid on an ancient Martian city to recover some super science items and devices. The Shadows pinned them down inside the dungeon & the party only escaped through the Martian underground. 

The only survived by engaging in a deep running fire fight with the Red Shadows and the Shadows released one of their fearsome combat droids. 

The party's necromancer used a scroll to summon an air elemental blowing the warplane off course. The necromancer's summoning sends a signal to the local hives and suddenly the air is filled with a swarm of scout bugs. 
Scout Bug AC: 4 [16] HD: 3 Atk: bite and tail whip Dmg: 1d6, and 1d6 Save: F3 Move: 180’/360’ These remarkable creatures are incredibly fast moving, sensitive to everything around them, and can move underground, in the air, and even into space. Their sole purpose is to scout the area around a hive, maintain surveillance in case of intruders, and report back to their Brain bug. They have +3 to initiative. +2 bonus to any rolls requiring detection.
These scout bugs are straight outta of Colonial Troopers: Knight Hawks and the party needed a radical plan to get outta of this slot. They figured that they were between the front line of the Red Shadows and  the bugs. 
The party's rune graver wanted to do something radical but the necromancer still had a teleportation scroll on him. But then the party had got the radical ideal to find the Red Shadow base nearby ie within 2000 mile radius as the party figures. 
But they still have to deal with this hive?! Tune in coming up! 

Night of the Norni Affair - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 The party made it's way back to citadel of the White Hand & the more senior's reaction was priceless. What is a Gamma World Cryptic alliance doing on a colonized Mars?! Well they didn't have long to contemplate the thought as the citadel was surrounded by landed pirate raiders belonging to Magic Pig Media's Outer Space Raiders: The Norni. The Norni were a client race of the Hyperboreans who were resettled upon some of Jupiter's moons during the war. They're mid level NPC thugs driven by a rather nasty void knight for a leader. This session report picks right up from this blog entry here. 

The party were out gunned, out weaponed, and had little reason to go against the Norni in a straight up fight. So they decided to wait until the pirates had left before seeing if any of the monks were alive. Their Hyperborean patron had confirmed their suspicions about the White Hand that they were holding a supply of the Plutonian drug. This goes wayback to 2017's campaign here.  The party found the monks alive after the pirates had left. And though the pirates hadn't gotten the Plutonian drug they had taken several valuable pieces of high super science artifacts used for healing. 
And that's when one of the monks attacked dropping his Aihais illusion. The Norni chaos monk was more then a match for two of the party until Ricky's Zeta assassin stepped in and finished him with a poisoned dagger to the back. The monks swarmed in to heal the pirate/monk but the poison was very fast acting. But Rick's black circle neromancer had a trick up his sleeve with a 'speak with dead' scroll at the ready. To say that the White Hand monks were pissed about this is putting it mildly. The adventurers don't care as their actually agents working for the Stellar Legion who will take on just about any misfits as long as their loyal to the legion. 

The party isn't in the mood for caring about the monks at this point. But then the monks informed the party that citadel was being watched by more alien spiders. The party geared up weapons with the White Hand informing the party that wasn't necessary as their own ranks boasted some high ranking psionists. The party didn't want any of this business and called in an air strike on the spiders. 

After the airstrike the party went out in the desert surrounding the citadel looking for any signs of surviving spiders. And that's when they found a Norni pirate signer one specifically calibrated to call in the spiders. And that's when the party's scouts rolled in and began tracking the bastard spy across the wastes. The rest of the party said their good byes to the White Hand swearing to recover the super science devices and they went after the spy. 
Things didn't go as planned when they ran smack into a rather large & dangeorus tanker spider. Will they survive?! 

Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign Commentary - A Sister's Touch - Dragon magazine #119 & The Sisters of the Aquarian Order

 Classic Dragon magazine issue # 119 March 1987 has some really remarkable ideas within it for minor  Cryptic Alliances & these have implications for  our solar system White Star campaign.
 Besides having a killer cover by artist Daniel Horne; "Daniel Horne, our cover artist this month, was in the mood to do a historical

subject. His painting, entitled The Real Reason the Romans left Britain, depicts a

little-known episode in British history, in which two Roman foot soldiers have

bumped into Kostchtchie, the surly fellow from page 40 of the Monster Manual II.

Of the unsquashed legionnaire, Daniel writes, Boy, is he going to get it!"  Sorry got distracted by that awesome Dragon magazine cover. God I miss the real Dragon magazines. Right, so let's pick this up from this blog post here & talk about doing a solar system centric White Star game with the Starship Warden thrown in. Going over some of the huge swath of White Star titles that I own one in particular came to the fore. And perhaps it was talking with the author Timothy Brannan the other day ( hope your feeling better Timothy). The Sisters of the Aquarian Order (Aquarian Sister) dragged themselves kicking & screaming to my attention last night. Who are the Sisters of the Aquarian Order?! 

Well, according to this May 2015 blog entry by Timothy; "The Sisters of the Aquarian Order (Aquarian Sister) have their geneses not only from my witch class (they can be considered to be the evolution of the Aquarian Tradtition) but also from such sources in Sci-Fi like the Bene Gesserit (Dune), the Sisterhood of Karn (Doctor Who) and the Night Sisters, the Witches of Dathomir (Star Wars)." What does this have to do with Dragon 119? Well, there's the Gamma World article, 'Politics Among The Rubble' by Lent and it happens to feature 'The Sisterhood of the Sword' aka 'The Sisterhood'. The Sisterhood breaks down as follows; " Tech Level II TYPES (females only): PSH (50%); H (45%); MA (15%) NUMBER: 1d10 

BASE: B (2d6+3); C (3d10+25); D (3d100 + 50)

SECRET SIGN: Ancient symbol for womanhood, with a dagger and crosspiece as the

tail, emblazoned on shields, banners,

armor, and clothing.

LOCATION: East coast of America.

DESCRIPTION: The Sisterhood of the

Sword believes that the Shadow Years and

the fall of mankind were brought about by

violent, male-dominated governments, and

only females are suited to lead the way

back to civilization by assuming all defensive and leadership positions. Despite

these views, the followers of the Sisterhood do not, with the exception of a few

splinter groups, force their views upon

others, preferring to gain converts from

example and other, gentler means of persuasion. Their bases are test sites for their

doctrine, with regular reports to the Sisterhoods main base. The Sisterhood is on

good terms with the Brotherhood of

Thought, the Healers, the Friends of Justice, and the Knights of Avalon. Their own

beliefs, however, often put them at crosspurposes with the Followers of the Voice,

Restorationists, the Created, the Iron

Society, the Ranks of Fit, and Zoopremists.

The Sisterhood is well equipped to Tech

II standards but is always eager to gain

functioning Ancient technology. The Sisters are most often armed with swords,

spears, and crossbows. They prefer chain

mail armor and usually have some sort of

riding mount. There is a 30% chance that

each will have some sort of minor artifact.

The warrior elite are usually known as

Amazons, Valkyries, Black Widows, or

similar terms." 

What if the 'Sisterhood' is the militant arm of the The Sisters of the Aquarian Order ?! An organization hiding in plain sight with their upper edges of the orgnization's military arm actually being run by Magic Pig Media's Outerspace Raiders Amazons?! 

So why would these three organizations actually be one in the same?! Well there's one cause for that and it's war! The tenets of  The Sisters of the Aquarian Order  are well established when mankind get's cut off by the intergalatic war with the Hyperboreans. But the order suddenly finds itself facing a foe with access to technologies, magicks, and weaponry greater then it's own. And they turn inward creating cults, hidden cells of the sisters and stoking the fires of warriors in backwater colonies and other places. The sisters earn the grudging respect of the star knight but there is great distrust between these two. The war is over 200 or so years later but the sisterhood endures in pockets on Mars, Venus, Earth's colonies, and even aboard the Warden. The sisters will endure. 

Slumming on Mars - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg Actual Play Event

 So on a Monday night there was a bit of a dust up as our normal group of players here in New Hartford. People love drama but this really wasn't drama per say. Nick one of our regular players brought a copy of an old White Star PC to our game. So out came a Randi Orr a 4th level rogue from Scum and Villainy by Omer Golan-Joel.  And this game picks up right from this blog entry here. 

And so Randy Orr got drafted into the Stellar Legion & we moved on deeper into the Martian city of Ignarh. The players wanted to know why there were a lot more alien races scattered across the city and what was the deal with varying tech levels within the old Martian city? So a bit of fast thinking on my part related that two hundred years ago mankind had FTL and had made great strides across the galaxy. And then the Hyperborean wars came devestated the galaxy but something happened to the Hyperboreans. The Hyperborean empire collapsed & only today has the galaxy began to recover. And most of this comes from the Hyperborea rpg & the recent review of the campaign setting  'Have Deathray Will Travel'.  The PC's are actually agents of the Stellar Legion. And they've been following up on the recent activity of the alien 'spiders' on Mars from Colonial Troopers. 

Sketching out our own version of Mars then things become a bit more murky as practicers of the 'Way' begin to appear in several Martian ruined temples, shrines, etc. with the Martian psionics taking full presidence over 'The Way'. So yes there are Red & Green Martian 'Way' practicers but thier rare. And then this gets into the Hyperborean ghettos where half Hyperboreans and their human followers are. A party's patron is actually here guarded by his bevy of Space Amazon nurses and bodyguards. Char rad Ro is a Hyperborean veteran kept alive by ancient technological secrets straight outta of Cheating Death. 

The player's PC's at the moment are asking around the main starport for the crew of the Goya's expediation. And things have been interesting because of the fact that the Goya was using a highly experimental FTL hyperspace drive. This drive would burn itself out after a few jumps and the Warden has aboard it the secrets of sustainable FTL. 
This is all being woven together on during play and the players are really into it. Into one bar they go where there's a crowd of Zeta assassins disguised as drovers looking for business while a group of green Martian warriors is gambling. Their black circle necromancer goes to talk with the Zeta assassins to hire one as a hireling. The PC's see their Aihais guides in the corner & they give a bit of a shudder because of the other Aihais are members of the Dweller cult. The Green Martians don't even give them a second glance. To them the Aihais are beneath contempt but there have been genocidal conflicts been the two Martian races. Zill the party's guide makes little small talk but gambles with Vody our party's soldier & leader. A price is arranged for the guide to take our party to the Green  psionic lamastry near the dead sea city of Korr. 
The party figures the monks may have insight into the location & fate of the Warden. But they also want to go back to their Hyperborean patron for more insight.