Hawkmoon Comes Calling - The Ruins of Pitzburke For Gamma World Second Edition Session Report

 Two weeks ago I was DMing a friend's second edition Gamma World game & we were playing in the ruins of Pitzburke! My preferred poison for this rpg is the vaulted second edition of Gamma World with the Larry Elmore artwork. There's something very primorial about the savagery and super science of Gamma World second edition. We went over the ruins of Pitzburke back here on the blog.

A random encounter came up in our game and that's when the PC's came across a recovery team from the  foul Granbretan empire! That's right the party ran across a group of animal masked warriors from  Hawkmoon’s Tragic Millennium Europe. There were a group of Mantis masked scientist priests & a group of boar warriors guarding them.  

The party was a mix of mutants and AD&D first edition characters about seven players total. They decided that the digression is the better part of valour after getting a look at the boar warriors sporting some sort of long spear like weapons topped with odd looking crystals on them. The boar warriors were engaged with slaves who were lifting some sort of odd relic out of a hole in the street that appeared to lead into a tunnel.

The boars had the remains of an automaton that they were hauling out of the hole with a winch and pulley system. Each of the boar masked warriors was a 3rd level fighter and there were six of them total while there were three Mantis warriors. Two were 4th level cleric leader and the third is a scientist armed with a Gamma World style laser pistol. There are three boar warriors armed with laser lances guarding the site. 

The party is hiding and seeing what's happening. I simply pulled Hawkmoon elements from an old dragon  magazine  add for the 198o's Stormbringer rpg Hawkmoon boxset. I also came across a fantastic article on the Hawkmoon  set on Wayne's Books site here. 

Commentary On The Ruins of Pitzburke For Gamma World Second Edition and Your Old School Campaigns - Updated

 Let's talk Gamma World & Gamma Terra for a moment. Gamma World can take ordinary Dungeons & Dragons characters into a world of primitive saverage & sorcery. And my preferred poison for this rpg is the vaulted second edition of Gamma World with the Larry Elmore artwork. And while Mutant Future & Mutant Crawl Classics both have excellent emulations of the classic game. So last night I spent  on Gamma Terra thanks to a friend of mine out West with a Guinness and I've got some thoughts on these venerable tomes of post apocalyptic adventure. 

I did a bit of horse trading with a friend out West for some tables and campaign help for a bit of Gamma World stuff he wasn't using. What I got surprised me was the fact that I got a first and second edition Gamma World rule book and the Ruins of Pitzburke


The Ruins of Pitzburke is one of the most iconic and dangerous places you can send a group of PC's in Gamma World. This place is a mix of  ruins, death lands, mutants, madness, robotic horror, and more meant that your little party of adventures could be swallowed up by the ruins without even a second thought.



And if you think that your Mutant Future PC's would fair any better in Pitzburke, I took a party of Mutant Future rpg players through the ruins and the whole affair was a total party kill. The ruins were designed to keep the Gamma World game campaign going for a long time to come. I've taken Boot Hill PC's and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition parties through those ruins and the though the results varied there were some interesting adventure campaigns.


What makes this such an iconic adventure is the fact that the Ruins of Pitzburke essentially teaches the dungeon master both the fine art of stocking the ruins, NPC encounters, NPC factions, and Cryptic Alliances. Not to mention the numerous natural and radiation hazards of the Pitzburke setting. But still this was for me an essential setting for post apocalyptic campaigning almost as much as Keep on the Borderlands and In Search of the Unknown is for B/X Dungeons and Dragons. In the past I've run this adventure and placed the whole thing in a valley on Carcosa just to mess with player's minds. They weren't amused by that turn of events especially when they realized just what this meant for their community in the long run. But that's another blog post.
There are several pieces of free gaming goodness that have made running the ruins easier and can spice things up for an experienced group of players:

• One is Kellri's 100 Gamma World Events available down the right hand side of his blog under downloads 
• The second is a break down of the various editions of Gamma World and conversion to Mutant Future available on the Mutant Future Wiki 
• A nice version of the Pitzburke map so if you already own this map it makes things very nice for a tablet or lap top. 
• This topic on Dragon's foot has some damn righteous 1/2 Edition Gamma World ideas and material 

I might also suggest downloading Mutant Future unless you've got collector's cash because Gamma World is going for one hundred and fifty dollars on Flea bay. Catch you all in the ruins until next time.

Commentary On The Ruins of Pitzburke For Gamma World Second Edition and Your Old School Campaigns

 So last night I spent my Saint Patrick's day on Gamma Terra thanks to a friend of mine out West with a Guinness and I've got some thoughts on these venerable tomes of post apocalyptic adventure. 

I did a bit of horse trading with a friend out West for some tables and campaign help for a bit of Gamma World stuff he wasn't using. What I got surprised me was the fact that I got a first and second edition Gamma World rule book and the Ruins of Pitzburke


The Ruins of Pitzburke is one of the most iconic and dangerous places you can send a group of PC's in Gamma World. This place is a mix of  ruins, death lands, mutants, madness, robotic horror, and more meant that your little party of adventures could be swallowed up by the ruins without even a second thought.



And if you think that your Mutant Future PC's would fair any better in Pitzburke, I took a party of Mutant Future rpg players through the ruins and the whole affair was a total party kill. The ruins were designed to keep the Gamma World game campaign going for a long time to come. I've taken Boot Hill PC's and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition parties through those ruins and the though the results varied there were some interesting adventure campaigns.


What makes this such an iconic adventure is the fact that the Ruins of Pitzburke essentially teaches the dungeon master both the fine art of stocking the ruins, NPC encounters, NPC factions, and Cryptic Alliances. Not to mention the numerous natural and radiation hazards of the Pitzburke setting. But still this was for me an essential setting for post apocalyptic campaigning almost as much as Keep on the Borderlands and In Search of the Unknown is for B/X Dungeons and Dragons. In the past I've run this adventure and placed the whole thing in a valley on Carcosa just to mess with player's minds. They weren't amused by that turn of events especially when they realized just what this meant for their community in the long run. But that's another blog post.
There are several pieces of free gaming goodness that have made running the ruins easier and can spice things up for an experienced group of players:

• One is Kellri's 100 Gamma World Events available down the right hand side of his blog under downloads 
• The second is a break down of the various editions of Gamma World and conversion to Mutant Future available on the Mutant Future Wiki 
• A nice version of the Pitzburke map so if you already own this map it makes things very nice for a tablet or lap top. 
• This topic on Dragon's foot has some damn righteous 1/2 Edition Gamma World ideas and material 

I might also suggest downloading Mutant Future unless you've got collector's cash because Gamma World is going for one hundred and fifty dollars on Flea bay. Catch you all in the ruins until next time.