Designing Martian Adventures In The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg - Edgar Rice Burroughs The Mastermind of Mars

 So I've been reviewing my notes on Edgar Rice Burrough's The Mastermind of Mars & you can read about my experiences using this ERB classic with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons resources on the blog here. 

The Mastermind of Mars does several interesting things one of which is describing in some detail the country of Thool & deep details on the city-state of Phundahl. Which is interesting because we almost but not quite get a deeper look into some of the underside of this city state. While there isn't anything unseemly about it the citystate is a bit sleazy. Which makes a perfect location for adventurers on Barsoom or Mars. Ras Thavas is an incredible resource or super science for a party of adventurers. 
 Martian royalty are dynastic jerks because of the very system that Barsoom employs. Because of royal commitments, treaties, and dwidling resources warfare and cloak and dagger operations are only a prelude to war. And as we've seen with a Mastermind of Mars assassins are the norm not the exception to the rule of removing royal or mundane problems. The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg also plugs into this sanctioned assassination and duelist culture that infects Mars. Behind the scenes murders,poisoning, etc have to be rampant throughout Mars. And this probably leads to social instability. Could some of the abandoned cities on Mars actually be a result of cultural madness as citystate resources and issues dry up?! This is something we've seen throughout the series and there are illusions to it throughout the Barsoom books.  
Could there be a more desparate and edgy reason for the dungeon crawling on Barsoom to stop the decline of the planet?! And is the decline artificial in nature. Hear me out here. Are the Therns  responsible for the planetary decline?! If they can keep the races of Mars dependent upon them then their continued control is assured. Or is it? Adventurers are definitely a destabilizing element in the plans of the Therns or at least they are within our games. 

Using More Old School Resources For Designing Martian Adventures In The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg

So I've been looking at some of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom literature especially the Amazon entry on the Master Mind of Mars which has a great summery of the book; "In The Master Mind of Mars, Ulysses Paxton (late of the U.S. Army and long an admirer of John Carter) finds himself in the hands of that extraordinary scientist-surgeon Ras Thavas of Barsoorn. Renamed Vad Varo, the former U.S Army Captain is trained by Ras Thavas as an assistant in the 'transfer of life' operations for which the master mind is famous. Vad Varo witnesses one such transfer-the wicked old mind Xaxa, Jeddara of Phuundahl, into the young and lovely body of a nameless victim, while the mind of victim number 4296-E-263-H is now housed in the body of an ancient crone. When Vad Varo brings 4296-E-263-H to life he discovers she is Valla Dia and falls in love with the spirit and mind of the girl imprisoned in the 1000-year-old body that had been Xaxa's Incredible dangers and adventures follow as Vad Varo, determined to restore Val la Dia to her proper form, battles his way through weird countries and savage peoples until at last he meets with John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and brings Valla Dia safely to her home in Duhor." 

 When it comes too the Mastermind of Mars we have a real grab back of locations from the swamps of Duhar to the streets of Lower Helium. This all ties into what I've said before on this blog.  It was actually Curst Saden 2010 review that could my attention;"In the sixth installment of the Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it focusses on a new man from Earth named Ulysses Paxton, who after dying in World War One finds himself in a strange facility on Barsoom run by a crazy old man that is master of modifying bodies. There Ulysses is apprenticed by this old man and he assists him in various surgeries. He meets the love of his life, a beautiful woman, only to discover the man he works for has stolen her body and now houses the brain of the wicked Jeddara (queen) Xaxa. Thus Ulysses goes on a quest to find Xaxa and recover the body of the woman he loves. To accomplish this he recruits a religious zealot, an atheist and a Great White Ape that has had it's brain spliced with that of a man's and thus can talk.

This story is a little slow at first but it's very interesting. It contains action and suspense. For once this is not a tale about rescuing the damsel in distress, which is a nice break (unless you count the quest for the body Xaxa stole, so it's like the body in distress.....)

It's weird but it's fun. I recommend it." Jeddara  Xaxa is in my opinion only the start of the wicked Barsoomian royalty. Stay with me for a moment, there's a huge hierachry of royals each vying to out do each other to get ahead to the thrones of Barsoom. Backstabbing, asassination, and worse are the operating rules for Barsoomian royalty. How do I know any of this?! Because of the fact that assassins are legally employed & used throughout Mars.  This ties directly into the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition Assassin rules found in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeonmaster's Guide. 

Again totally stealing this photo from Wayne's Books. 

The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg also plugs into this sancitioned asssassination and duelist culture that infects Mars. Behind the scenes murders,poisoning, etc have to be rampant throughout Mars. Only this style of murder is going to be ritualized and prettied up with warrrior codes. This ties into many of the tribal elements that Leigh Brackett wrote about. So in other words the alignment of Lawful Evil certainly fits the assassins of Mars. 
This brings up Dragon magazine issue #64 with it's Assassins Guild article which goes into traditional assasins guilds. These secretive organizations could easily be applied to Mars. 

Using Old School Resources For Designing Martian Adventures In The Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg & Beyond

  Tonight has seen me working on a Warriors of the Red Planet Rpg Martian urban campaign leg. This has led me down some twisted old school paths. This includes Edgar Rice Burroughs literature. 

One of the first books that I busted out was my 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. This includes some additional urban encounter tables & a city generator. Also the random dungeon generator helps a ton for sketching out the underworld especially if your players are familar with the Warriors of the Red Planet rpg rule book.
Again totally stealing this photo from Wayne's Books. 

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 There's something very primal about designing your own urban encounters imagining in your mind's eye strolling down city streets while against the radium glow of a street light bandits await in a nearby alleyway. The thing about Martian cities is the fact that these are melting pots for many different tribes of Red Men ala Lee Brackett's Martian literature. 

This brings up the treasure which is going to be a 'special hoard' this is going to be designed using James Ward's article in Dragon magazine issue #9 'Tombs & Crypts'. Because Martian cities are built one on top of another as the centuries roll on. 

This aspect of Martian cities can be seen in Burroughs 'A Fighting Man of Mars' in which we get our only example of Martian dungeon crawling. Speaking of 'The Dragon' magazine there's also Dragon Magazine issue #31 which has two articles on jungles. Mars has extensive jungle environments that everyone seems to forget about. These are essential to the design of old school Martian adventures. There's also 'the Anatomy of The Lich' By Len Lakofka from The Dragon issue #26 because we can see an ancient Martian wishing to preserve themselves as an immortal one way or another. 
The idea of an urban lich operating behind the shadows of some Martian city has lots of appeal too me as a dungeon master. I've been reaching deeply into my bag of old school tricks on this one. 

Michael Whelan artwork used without permission. 

Tombs & Crypts - The Dungeon Alternative or Grave Robbing For Fun & Profit

 Today was one of those days where reaching back into the stacks & archives looking across the early Dragon magazines especially issue The Dragon Magazine, Issue 9 Single Issue Magazine - January 1, 1977. 
And the reason for this quick run through is 'Tombs & Crypts' by James M. Ward; " The mystery, challenge and pleasure of any wargamer in discovering and opening a tomb of some unknown being is well known to those that have done it. The creation of these tombs can be a very drawn out, head scratching process for the judge"

'Tombs & Crypts' presents a random generator for creating your own random tombs & crypts. And theres are several reasons that these are important. 'Tombs & Crypts' are not dungeons they present a rather interesting dungeon alternative to the larger dungeons. They can be easily trapped, they could have guardians, & could belong to an older order of beings then the PC's. Tombs & Crypts are also offer an interesting alternative to the ususal dungeons. And even the crypt's wiki definition offers even more insight into crypt itself; "A crypt (from Latin crypta "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics.

Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a church, such as at the Abbey of Saint-Germain en Auxerre, but were later located beneath chancel, naves and transepts as well. Occasionally churches were raised high to accommodate a crypt at the ground level, such as St Michael's Church in Hildesheim, Germany." 

Visigothic crypt of Saint Antoninus Palencia Cathedral (Spain) 
Photo by Valdavia 

Tombs & Crypts were once the old school alternative to dungeons for several reasons: 

1. These adventure locations can be played in a few sesssions
2. There are logical reasons for treasures & artifacts connected with the dead 
3. Monster guardians can easily be connected with modern or ancient religions allowing the PC's to get themselves in scads of trouble. 
4. Cults & religions are going to mantain these tombs & crypts allowing many NPC's to be on the PC's trail. 
5. Tombs & crypts could pop up just about anywhere from country grave yards to full on urban cityscapes. 
6. Tombs & crypts are the bread & butter of grave robbers. And they present a new opportunity for PC's. 

The grand daddy of all old school tombs is of course Gary Gygax's s1 'Tomb of Horrors '.  This adventure module is the exception & not the rule. The design goal here being the death of any high level PC that runs across it. But the village of Hommlet itself is equally important as it presents an adventure frame work & support for S1's tomb. 

 The tomb itself is a grand grave or it can be according to the tomb wiki entry; "A tomb (Greek: τύμβος tumbos^[1]) is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called immurement, and is a method of final disposition, as an alternative to cremation or burial." 
So there are all kinds of places of burial that can be used by the dungeon master to screw with their player's minds. 

Even primitive tombs can be the remains of far more then the players bargained for as ancient sorceries & magicks remain able to create all manner of havoc on the PC's. And if we look back into 'Tombs & Crypts' by James M. Ward then the DM can present all manner of randomly generated tombs & crypts in ancient grave yards, or even mantained graveyards where the tomb of a rich wizard presents a very tempting target for PC's on the look out for loot. 

OSR Review & Commentary On “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” From Skirmisher Publishing For Your School Game Campaign

 "Welcome to “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” the seventeenth entry in Skirmisher Publishing’s popular and bestselling series of system-free sourcebooks dedicated to inspiring rich stories and spicing up encounter areas with exciting curiosities! 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair” draws on the long spanning multicultural tradition of Vampire myth-telling across the world and, of course, the plentiful body of literature and films that feature them. This supplement is dedicated to the places where Vampires lurk and focuses on the horrors that accompany the denizens of their lairs and provides enough detail on each to bring them to life (so to speak). "

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” is a system agonistic tool kit from Skirmisher Publishing for dressing up your adventures or old school encounters. Vampires are the focus & one thing to remember is that vampires can be some of the most dangerous thinking NPC monsters in old school games. These undead can come in many varieties. The  Ravenloft campaign setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragon 1st & 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons have weaponized the vampire. 
Here we have “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” which helps to dress up a vampire's lair within 18 pages with a handful of dice. “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  is a great addition for a DM's tool box for creating a vampric NPC villain's base of operation. And for a classic dungeon master there's the Dragon magazine article from The Dragon October 1979 #30 'Good Evening' By Lenard Lakofka .

Reference photo taken from Wayne's Books. 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” works really well with  the Dragon magazine article from The Dragon October 1979 #30 'Good Evening' By Lenard Lakofka  for creating base or lair, contents, and even perhaps secondary options for adventures & encounters.  So not only can “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” be remote lairs & adventure locations but also lairs in modern cities or fantasy city locations.  “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” goes fast & loose enough to be used with a wide variety of rpg products.  So if we want to take the route of  the Call of Cthulhu rpg  with “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” then there's another Skirmisher Publishing product we can use their classic 'Mythos Society Guide to New England'.  Which goes into the history of vampires in Rhode Island. 

Is there another OSR use for “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” to use this book to generate vampire lairs with Elf Lair Publishing Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars. 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  From Skirmisher Publishing is agonistic set of tables & reference pieces that brings  that brings home the idea that home & lair are easily the central point of an old school & modern encounter. You can use “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  From Skirmisher Publishing to dress your dungeons or modern encounters. Its easily worth the down load 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  From Skirmisher Publishing Is Available Right Here 

Commentary on Using The Dragon Magazine isssue #32 For Your Old School Space Opera!

 'Imagine if you will that you as the leader of a colony millions of light years from Old Earth are responisble for the well being of a hundred or three thousand souls in an interstellar colony! Now when everything goes to crap the colonists look to you to lead & organize them!'

This is the disaster facing the Traveller politican by Rick Stuart. Now this sounds like a boring article but remember the Traveller politican is walking a tight rope of razor wire. He or she is in the eye of the storm; "During each two-year term, players must first roll a saving throw against political opposition. Unsuccessful attempts require players to immediately consult the Political Opposition Table (IV) and apply the results as rolled. If an assassination attempt is called for, the player must immediately make a two-dice roll greater that the gamemaster’s to survive the action" 
So as the climb the ropes of the politic of the empire the PC is stuck between the bowels of influences. In a two page article the Traveller game lays out a mini game of political intrigue. The Dragon issue #32 of December of '79 was a very different animal. Games such as Traveller were still evolving the fandom was spread out. And there was lots of room to still find your way as a DM. 

What this really means is that there's a mini game in The Dragon issue #32 that can easily be applied to your own game of Cepheus Engine rpg. 

Poltics creates the opportunty for adventure! The beucrat is often the unknown source of adventure opportunity. So much the better if it happens to be your PC! As player's PC's get better in skill & want to risk life & limb less. Politics means that PC's can & will become the future space privateer investor or the Cyperpunk Mr. Johnson. The PC's can & often are the unwitting hit squard or blunt insturment for the agenda's of local governmentrs & politicans. 
And this often leads to the party acting within  the interests of such patrons as local politicans. Why? Because politican have many benefits at their disposal according to the article; "Politics, naturally enough, offers certain material benefits and ad24 December, 1979 vantages which those in the military must of necessity do without The Power Base Table III below notes various benefits or advantages that can be accrued while in office. " And this is just the tip of the ice berg because in the  Traveller rpg the politicans can have a lot going on to back them up.  Because the wraith of a politican can be a very ugly thing. Getting in the good books of a minor politican can mean the difference betwen a safe work mission & your PC's have half the Imperium after them. 

Using The Dragon Magazine, Issue 27 - January 1, 1979 For The Cepheus Engine Rpg

 Classic Traveller rpg was right on the border of January 1, 1979. The Dragon magazine issue & this classic issue had a bit of the good stuff in it. And this issue was perfect campaign creation fodder. 

The Dragon Magazine, Issue 27  - January 1, 1979 has three articles that works for the Traveller rpg  that includes the following: 'Tesseracts in Traveller', 'Star System Generation in Traveller' & the 'Expanding Imperium'. Ages ago the Seventies are still echoing ahead of the future into 2021.The  fact is Traveller more of a tool kit in its three little black books. But what a wide open interstellar  tool kit it is!

The fact is that Cepheus Engine rpg brings into focus the fact that its roots are completely classic Traveller. Over the years we've run campaigns but these articles are perfect fodder creating encounters & the 'Tesseracts in Traveller'. The tesseracts are ancient artifacts & relics  that have spread out among the interstellar empires from millions of years ago. 'Star System Generation in Traveller' is perfect for creating campaigns in Cepheus Engine rpg even with some of the random tables in the rule book. 
'The Expanding Imperium' brings into the focus the fact during the Seventies the setting for Traveller wasn't as well defined as it is now. There was lots of room to continue to advance the interstellar setting. Hell, you could even  include AD&D first edition's Greyhawk within the Imperium if you as DM wanted to. This also means that 'The Expanding Imperium' could be applied even today in Cepheus Engine rpg 

Some Commentary On 'A New View on Dwarves' by Larry Smith From The Dragon Magazine, Issue 3 Single Issue Magazine - January 1, 1976 For Original Dungeons & Dragons

 

Last night The Dragon Magazine, Issue 3 Single Issue Magazine - January 1, 1976 leapt into my hands. And its because of the article 'A New View on Dwarves' by Larry Smith. It was something that Old School Rules had posted on MeWe that stuck with me, 'I love the storybook quality of the Rankin/Bass dwarves. We've allowed them to become miniature vikings with Scottish accents for too long...' 

 'A New View on Dwarves' by Larry Smith gives back in '76 a whole host of options with Dwarves as fighting men & other classes  in original Dungeons & Dragons; "Contrary to public opinion, Dwarves are not the poor fighters that many claim they are. In reading from Tolkein’s LotR, Gimli proved the fact that he was just as good a fighter as anyone else. In playing Dungeons and Dragons, Dwarves are given the role of keeping an eye out for traps and slanting passages. Fighting is placed into the secondary role. But what of the other things that dwarves could do? In D&D, little or no guideline is given for the dwarves ‘other’ uses. This article is here as an attempt to bring the dwarves once more into the proper perspective that they deserve" And  'A New View on Dwarves' by Larry Smith does a good job of bringing the Dwarves as PC's into their own especially as thieves. Yeah I can hear the moans now from the D&D cyclopedia crowd. 

 'A New View on Dwarves' by Larry Smith gives an interesting take on the Dwarves of original D&D with the following; Dwarves range in size from around four and a half to five feet  on height. They are broad shouldered, quite strong and deemed very hardy. loyalty and may never have a rating higher than 15. They reach maturity around the age of 50 and live to be about 250 years  There is nothing more a Dwarf likes than gold, jewels, and treasure. Except, of course, a cavern of great beauty.  . They have a great hate for Orcs and Goblins and dislike Elves to a great extent. Insulting Elves is a hobby to them, as is chopping the heads off of Orcs and Goblins. They have their own rough system of  honor and when an oath is given, it is never broken"

So not only do we get variations on traditional Original Dungeons & Dragons Dwarven PC's but an establishment of the traditional D&D mythological position of this demi human race. This is important because it establishes the Dwarven race in the niche that D&D players have seen for decades now.

Dwarven artwork by Rotox
 
In closing  'A New View on Dwarves' by Larry Smith is a great article to create variations of the original Dungeons & Dragons at the table top level. 

Drums of War In The Desert - Cha'alt & Breaking The House Campaign Plus The Dragon Magazine

"The Black Pyramid is like nothing you've ever seen before.  Unique design, purpose, feel, magic items, NPCs, monsters, factions, motives, agendas, strangeness, the works!

There's a decent amount of setting detail besides dungeoncrawling - space opera bar, domed city, mutants, weird ass elves, desert pirates, a city ruled by a gargantuan purple demon-worm, and much more!"

There's been few nights that I've had an opportunity to take a look through some of the more obscure The Dragon magazine articles for my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign that I've been working on. I'd love a deeper Dungeons & Dragons hold on the adventure setting. So out came two early Dragon magazine issues, specifically issue #37 & issue #47 respectively.
Why?! Because of the contents on other planes & gates! 




Well according to Wayne's Books site The Dragon issue #37 contains the folllowing; 

"ARTICLES: The Pit of The Oracle (AD&D centerfold module); From The City of Brass to Dead Orc Pass — Ed Greenwood; Step-by-step urban encounters; Cities help make characters "real"; Sorcerer's Scroll — Gary Gygax on Greyhawk; The History of Elfland — G. Arthur Rahman; Giants in The Earth; Squad Leader scenario #2; Spell research, the hard way; Libraries; Lankhmar: Combat in the compromise game; Armies of the Renaissance; more.

May 1980 ... 50 pages" 



'From The City of Brass to Dead Orc Pass' by Ed Greenwood is one of my seminal introductions to the planes & gates specifically the fact that this article contains one of the best break downs of Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers gate systems. The other article in it on the 'The History of Elf Land' by G.Arthur Rahman but we'll get back to the Rahman article in a moment.  Basically in the Farmer novels  a bunch of technological demi gods got together & created their own private play ground universes. This whole cloth concept would be lifted for the rpg Lords of Creations you can read about that here at the 'A Paladin In The Cidadel' blog. 

I've used PJF's work hundreds of times before & mostly he seems forgotten except by certain older corners of sci fi fandom. Too bad his stuff was entertaining, fun, & with some solid concepts way ahead of his time.   'The History of Elf Land' by G.Arthur Rahman gives me a solid footing for an alterative home of the Elves for this campaign & helps to explain some of the weirder inhabitants of Cha'alt.
The second thing I'm working on is the deeper background of some of the aliens refugees of some other planes. For that I've grabbed The Dragon isssue #47 & the articles Astral & ethereal searches; Creatures from elsewhere — Seven out-of-this-world monsters; Bazaar of the Bizarre — Magic involving other planes. All of these are perfect for adding a strange twist on the already kitch & bazzar setting of Los Vegas.


Coming straight out of the 'Creatures from Elsewhere' by Patrick Amory are the Mapmakers; "A Mapmaker looks like an overgrown weasel at distances of 20 feet or more; however, up close it is obviously quite different. It has scaled skin like a lizard; it has a long tail, a humpback and it stands on two legs. It has an Elizabethan-type ruff about its neck, multi-faceted flashing eyes, a strange protruding “sucker mouth,” rubbery arms and a webbed hollow in its back. Mapmakers come from the plane of Pandemonium, and are quite common there. They have a passion for maps, and are never encountered without one. The maps are not necessarily accurate, and often they are totally false, describing non-existent places. They are very detailed and beautiful, however, Mapmakers value their maps more than they do gold." A local cult has been using a map maker's abilities to chart some of the dimensional instabilities & cause all kinds of problems. The inhabitants of Los Vegas have hardly noticed but the gods of Earth are getting ready for war!



Vegas Sign artwork by Anasofiapaixao

Using The Dragon Magazine Issue #10 To Get Your Sword & Sorcery Adventurers Into Brand New Trouble erm A Campaign

The Dragon magazine by its very nature from the early days has more of a tool box feel to it. That makes it relevant to even today's OSR scene & from there we're going to dive into one of my favorite issues. The Dragon Magazine, Issue 10 from 1977 has so much good stuff in it from Tom Wham's Snit Smashing to some of the more interesting angles for getting rid of loot.  I always wanted to take this cover & turn the butterfly winged fire elemental into a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure.


Let's get this bit right outta the way, Wayne's Books has the excellent reference site for both the early The Dragon magazine & the latter Dragon magazine issues. But issue ten is both infamous & special in a variety of ways but let's look at the contents; " GenCon X Report; Snit Smashing; The Diplomatic Stellar Conquest Player; Final Exam (Wargame Design 202); Fantasy Forge (phigure photos); Orgies, Inc. (burning up excess loot); Random Monsters (defeating the encyclopedic PC's); Weights, Measures, Physical Appearance, etc; Gaining a New Experience Level; Unique Wilderness Encounters; Rational Dungeon Design; Finieous Fingers, Wormy; more." Anyhow its actually the contents that I want to extensively talk about today & particularly "Too much loot in your campaign? D&D OPTION: ORGIES, INC. by Jon Pickens". Wait a minute before you leave the blog entirely I'm not talking about getting into details a bout orgies but what sort of black screen antics that PC's can get themselves into. You don't have to dwell on the details at all. Even though the article is meant for original Dungeons & Dragons, it has baring for many Sword & Sorcery OSR games according to the author ; "(Author’s Note: To avoid confusion later, in this article Lawful equals Good and Chaotic equals Evil and you can make your own extrapolations from there.) This article suggests one answer to a vexing problem that appeared in local play: too much treasure in the scenario. After the players amassed a few thousand GP equipment costs became irrelevant, though the players had nowhere near enough money for luxuries like private towers or galleys. But there was far too much cash for the players to simply leave in their rooms at the local inn. This couldn’t be right; Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser never had it so good! And the poor harried ref had to continually devise sneaky ways to divest his players of their ill-gotten gains. The best solution would have been a simple method for removing large quantities of treasure from the game; releasing the referee to spend more time developing and managing the scenario. The solution is simple: “Instead of receiving experience for gaining treasure, players would receive experience only as the treasure is spent.” The expenditure in GP is divided by the level of the character to determine experience. The divisor is limited to the number of hit dice allowed for the character class. The divisor is used only for experience from treasure and has nothing to do with experience for monster kills or miscellaneous experience awarded by the referee." In other words you the dungeon master isn't screwing the players outta of experience points only separating them from their gold.
But I can already hear the eyes rolling in the back of many dungeon master's heads. Wait one little second if your running a game such as Astonishing Swordmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & really want to to get your players in real hot water then grab your handy copy of Drunken Debauchery! by Colin Chapman.  Then "Too much loot in your campaign? D&D OPTION: ORGIES, INC. by Jon Pickens" & suddenly the player's PC's wake up with more then a hang over. They may be neck deep in debt to a loan shark or worse a wizard. 


And this brings us to the errand that the wizard has planned for some party of idiots ermm adventurers. What the PC's don't realize is that the master or madame of the brothel in question is actually the front for the largest assassin's guild/spy network in the employ of the country's royals. They've got a massive problem just outside the city. There's a large container of leaking magical toxic waste left over from after the days of the Green Death. This brings us to the horror that you rolled up using RANDOM MONSTERS by Paul Montgomery Crabaugh article. Now I can hear the OSR dungeon masters going but I own James Edward Reggie IV's "Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing Games and their Modern Simulacra". Well guess what sunshine your gonna need that book too because your party of adventurers have just become abomination & monster hunters. 

This whole train wreck of a thought process can easily be applied to say Dungeon Crawl Classics, Lamentations of the Flame Princess or even Basic or Original Dungeons & Dragons perhaps even Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with very little preparation.