A Gathering Storm - Frank Mentzer's IM1 Immortals Storm, Immortals Set, & Moorcockian Mythology

""The storm-stuff is not matter as we know it, and beyond Immortal control," the Hierarch sighs, "I fear we are doomed."

It appeared only a few weeks ago — a swirling gray mass of incalculable size. And in its center, an eye. A humanoid eye. Now the storm threatens the very era of Immortal rule.

The growing maelstrom emits a message to the Hierarchs. But what does it mean? Can it help save this realm of existence? Is there time to save this realm?

This first Immortal adventure pits your party against the multiverse in a desperate struggle to find the essence of life. This adventure is nothing like you've ever played before."



 So since the beginning of the year sale is on at Drivethrurpg again. DM Steve decided to get me an early 'New Year' present, brand new copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. And of course the players wanted in on the action?! But thumbing through it has brought up immortals again?! 

Never let it be said that we don't have a wicked sense of humor, & recently when DM Steve decided to get me Christmas gift of D&D Rules Cyclopedia (Basic) then things came around for us. Now one of the things to know about D&D Rules Cyclopedia (Basic)  is the fact that it has a very basic introduction to the immortal's path from  BECMI Dungeons & Dragons.  But if you know about Frank Mentzer's Immortals Box set then you know exactly what the immortals are actually capable of. 

See unlike other folks I believe that the Mystara & other planes immortals are the biggest 'cosmic pain's in the arse' in the entire multiverse & planes. The reason that I say this is reading through Frank Mentzer's IM1 Immortals Storm & Tim Brannan's Immortals set commentary here.  IM1 Immortals Storm uses an alternative Earth  New York & Chicago respectively as part of the adventure plot. And as a DM I had a group of young & inexperienced immortals show up on this Earth to 'fix' the storm. The PC's at the time were 'gods of Earth' & high level adventurers turned gods ala Primal Order rpg book. We can see immortals barging into the local time space continuum to solve an ongoing problem. And this is after we get the immortals having a 'grand tour' of  the elemental plane of fire, the home plane of the tonals, the home plane of the notions, and the elemental plane of earth. 
This was prior to the fact that the PC's had encountered the young upstart immortals before & within DM Steve's campaign. And they were thrown out of that region of the edges of Mystara's planes. The PC's returned the favor by banishing the immortals from their Earth. But what happened to the campaign events of IM1?! Now two years  before starting my Cha'alt Godbound game DM Steve left me up to my neck in it here. Recently there's been a bit of a Strombringer rpg boom  that's been on going at our collective table top. And last night DM Steve brought up this unresolved game?! And another question that's been bothering me. If evil cosmic artifacts such as the Black Sword exist within both BECMI & AD&D first edition are any immortals or gods ever safe?! Why is this question immortant?! Because of the nature of the Black Sword entity or is it entities according to the Michael Moorcock Multiverse Wiki; "The Black Sword is a cosmic archetype, able to exist in any universe in almost any form. It is the weapon of the Eternal Champion, but it is not always borne by him or her. As the name suggests, it most often takes the form of a massive black runesword. The Black Sword is alive, fully sentient and malevolent. It has a will of its own and will often disobey the wishes of its wielder.

The Black Sword devours the souls of its victims, and can even kill gods. It exists in the Higher Realms as creatures of Chaos, and can partially manifest as black-bladed swords or other weapons (such as Jerry Cornelius' Needle Gun or the Banning Gun) on the material plane.

The Black Sword has been called by many names in its different manifestations across the Multiverse, including Stormbringer, Mournblade/Ravenbrand, Kanajana, the Cold Sword, the Dragon Sword, and Murakamo-No-Tsurugi (Japanese for Sword of the Gathering Clouds).

Though the Black Sword is a being of Chaos, it seems to be an instrument of the Balance, akin to the Runestaff and the Horn of Fate. This is likely because in some cryptic way, the Black Sword and the Eternal Champion are one.

Lucifer has also claimed to be one with the Black Sword."

So is any god or immortal really safe?! Somehow I don't think so because we have various magic swords & artifacts floating around the multiverse not to mention the fact that Elric himself appears in AD&D 1st edition of Dieties & Demigods. 

It means that there are assasins out on the planes with the equilvent of loaded guns capable of killing gods. Let that sink in for a moment, & at any moment the entire works of a universe could comedown around the ears of the immortals or gods. Allowing both the lords of Entropy & Chaos to take on far more terrority then they originally were allowed. And yes I know that Frank Mentzer is going to contact me & give me a tongue lashing about the fact that he had specifically had separated BECMI, B/X, & OD&D from his immortals. But even the all powerful can fall to the minions & agents of evil. But what happens when even they need help?! And is that the sound of distant thunder?!  

Campaign Matters Planar & Primal - OSR & Old School Resources for Planes & Planar Campaigning

So over the course of the last twenty four hours I've been working my way through The Primal Order by  Peter Adkison. Its been years since I cracked the spine on my copy & delved into  the premiere resource for using religions & deities in my game campaigns. I've used the Primal Order with Gamma World fourth edition & Mutant Future rpg a couple of years ago.


At the moment I'm thinking of cannibalizing my Gamma World fourth edition & Mutant Future rpg campaign notes with dealing with planes especially dusting off my 

The Primal Order: Chess Boards: The Planes of Possibility. Why?! Because this book has a load of planar information;"Chessboards: Planes of Possibility provides gamemasters with the first organized, flexible system for designing and evolving game environments. This fun-to-read book covers such topics as the various types of planes and their relationships, planar growth cycles, ways to planes, and several varieties of interplanar travel For those using The Primal Order, it also includes expanded guidelines on planar use primal energy, planar artifacts, and advanced interactions between planes and deities" The mathematics & information ties in with the older editions of Chessboards: Planes of Possibility which has conversions for Original Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. 


Looking into my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign means that I started looking into Skirmisher Publishing's Quantum Flux; "Quantum Flux contains 86 unique superscience artifacts suitable for use in any modern, sci-fi, or post-apocalyptic setting, and range from amulets to buildings."  Quantum Flux was meant for Goblinoid Games Mutant Future rpg & works well with Gamma World fourth edition. I used this book and other Mutant Future resources for a planar breech New York City campaign location.  That breech is going to be coming over to my Cha'alt campaign.



All of these resources work with Jeff Grubb's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of The Planes. And thus first edition AD&D becomes a vital resource for planar campaign. These resources are vital part of a campaign chain.


As I continue writing the Lovecraftian campaign Realms of Crawling from Goblinoid Game the relics & artifacts in this book are going to start popping up in the treasure piles and ruins. Many of these are going to be from else where & dropping into the hands of various cults across the United States. 

Gaming Memories Meeting Nigel D.Finley & GenCon's Past

There was once upon a time when I used to follow role playing game writers like some folks follow veteran sports players. The guy I followed went by the name Nigel D. Findley. He was one of the most excellent science fiction & fantasy writers I got the privilage of meeting back at a GenCon back in the early Nineties. The night  I met Mr.Finley was blur of beer, bravo, & memory at this point. Let me give you a bit of background on Mr.Finley from the wiki entry;"Nigel Findley was born in Venezuela, in 1959.^[1] Findley was raised in Spain, Nigeria, the United States, and England before his family settled in Vancouver in 1969.^[1]

He got his start as a role-playing game author in the mid 1980s during his business career. By 1990 he had become a full-time writer, and had authored or coauthored over one hundred books, including twelve novels, before his death.^[1] He wrote for most game companies in the industry, including TSR, but is perhaps best known for his game products and fiction for FASA's Shadowrun game.^[1] Findley's adventure The Universal Brotherhood (1990) for Shadowrun was well received.^[2] He got his start writing for Dungeons & Dragons, and won a 1992 Origins Award for GURPS Illuminati.^[3] In 1994 he was inducted into the Origins Awards Hall of Fame."  

But we spoke about a few things that night, his design contributions in Greyhawk Adventures & his upcoming plans for Greyspace.  By the time I had met Mr.Finley he was well established  & entrenched in the rpg industry. Nigel D.Finley was a brilliant, creative, & excentric genius in many respects. I only got to speak with the man for fifteen minutes total but I got a pretty good grasp of him.  He was beyond literate in every sense of the word. There are some folks that you meet who have a light about them.  Nigel D. Findley was that guy. 


He told me to buy something called the Primal Order 'Pawns The Opening Move' after he had helped with working on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Tome of Magic. So this would have been about 1991 GenCon? About ten minutes of throbbing music & lights a crowd of designers & writers had taken him off of my hands.


Had I known what I know now I would have tagged along with those folks to the bar instead of going on to my next late night event. He died of a heart attack in '95 of a heart attack. He was thirty five years old. Had he lived I know he probably would have changed the face of table top role playing & science fiction.  Most of my rpg collection including the signed Tome of Magic for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition burnt in an apartment fire in the 90's.
The first two books that I required were The Tome of Magic & The Primal Order:Pawns The Opening Move by Nigel D. Finley.



This blog post is for Grodog who wanted some background on my meeting with Mr. Finley. He was taken from us way too soon & has never been forgotten. I still love that Primal Order: Pawns The Opening Move cover. 

Matters of Cosmic Power! Monsters, Minions, Pawns, Or The Management of Evil On The Table Top

I'm a bit late to the table with this blog entry but the last twenty four hours have been interesting to say the least. The fall out from Steve's phone call is still echoing across the table here. I've been on the phone with two of my players who may be co opted into becoming co dungeon masters for this new campaign. The problem remains with the scheduling on my end. Work has had me on the ropes.
That being said I've taken advantage of my time both on line & within my stacks to take a deeper look into demi gods.
Sometimes as much play happens off the table as on. The players get into & excited about a campaign. They begin talking about what's happening within the game at home, on the phone, etc. As a dungeon master that gets the creative juices flowing! So I've been working with the Primal Order rpg cap system  & reading through an old interview of  Peter Adkison by  Christopher Helton.
The idea here is that Primal equals cosmic or god power & within the mathematics of the Primal Order system it makes gods.



 Sounds simple & to a certain degree it is. The Adkinson interview really breaks down the ins & outs of a very simple summery of the set up of the Primal Order; "Where The Primal Order really sings is in how it makes clerical characters stand out as something interesting and unique, rather than being a magic-user with a different set of special effects. At the core of this is what the book calls Primal Energy. If you have ever read a Jim Starlin comic where Adam Warlock and/or Thanos monologued about using their cosmic powers, you have an idea of what Primal Energy is supposed to be. It is a fundamental energy in the universe that makes gods into gods. It gives gods their immortality, their godlike powers and it is what allows them to do things like cast mortal magic. It is also the Primal Energy of the gods that empowers clerics, letting them heal and do things like cast spells."Primal energy is used by deities as a "wrath of god" style of energy attack that no mortal protection can stop. Primal energy can also create shields that no mortal magics can penetrate. The idea behind primal energy is to come up with a mechanic that can make fantasy game gods into something more than just high powered characters. No matter how much they try, mortals can never take on primal energy to use as their own. The very nature of primal energy is what defines the divine in The Primal Order. Sort of like how Doctor Doom always failed in the end when he would steal the power of The Silver Surfer or Galactus or The Beyonder. There are energies that are just not meant to be contained by a mortal body. The primal energy mechanic is point-based, new gods start with a base primal energy of 100 points with which to empower their abilities, and to imbue their followers with powers and abilities. Primal energy is regenerated by deities, but it can also be replenished by worship of the deity or sacrifices to them. As gods become more "powerful" and do their equivalent of leveling up, they also can access more primal energy."

This same princples can also be applied to monsters, tomb guardians, etc. This brings me to Monsters of Myth & Legend which came out in 1984. According to the Wiki entry; "Monsters of Myth & Legend was written by Greg Gorden and Neil Randall, with a cover by Boris Vallejo, and was published by Mayfair Games in 1984 as a 96-page book". Add in primal characteristics & your ready to rock & roll for a Troll Lords Castles & Crusades game!


So just add in some primal energy to your favorite menace or monster & your ready to run! Well not exactly. The Monsters of Myth series had a really nice range of cultures that it drew from; "Monsters of Myth & Legend is a sourcebook play aid containing encyclopedic listings of dozens of creatures and deities to add to an existing fantasy campaign or to help designers in coming up with their own adventures. Norse and Greek mythologies are covered, along with the legends of Ireland, China, the Australian Aborigines, and the American Indians. Each entry includes physical descriptions, backgrounds, game statistics and hints on play. Also included as a thorough index, four pages of GM tables, and a bibliography of sources." And in '84 it was & to a certain extent is the bee's knees but old school gamers can rattle off stats & numbers of monsters right before a DM's eyes. The good ones know their mythologies & some even have copies of Chaosium's All of the World's Monsters series. 


Don't worry I've got a cure for this! The fact is that its easy to handle those knowledgable players! Troll Lord Games Amazing Adventures! Rpg has the Book of Powers  now take your favorite old school monster book & individualize the dungeon guardian monster with your own special characteristics.  No god in their right mind is going to use an off the shelf monster & neither should you.

Primal Order's Pawns The Opening Move contains some solidly done guidelines for creating up divine monsters! Combined the two books & good luck to even god level heroes & heroines!



Now I spoke yesterday about the 'mess' that DM Steve has left me in. Well, we've already got an artifact of Luz in play. Its going to be gathering minions for its 'god' from the Earth  that its been brought to & beyond. Already a demon hit squad is gathering to take out this world's heroes! Will they be up to the challenge or will this Earth fall to the clutches of Luz?!


Stay tuned we've got more coming up including when, what,  & where the invasions begin! Who will save this Earth from the clutches of evil! 

The Darkest Magic Play Session Report - The Use & Abuse of Mayfair Games Role Aids Arch Magic Box Set

We've gone from doing campaign notes to a quick update on Steve's AD&D/BX/OSR game latest play session report! So I've been getting it right in the neck. Steve's game ended with Apocalypse right now because of yesterday's blog entry.

Mostly  because I've been using a variety of old school sources & combining them with OSR resources to create the type of super hero & pulp campaign that my players have wanted.   Now my original campaign notes are a B/X & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons hybrid which had its roots in deep mythology with some classic modules as backdrop. I've been using Mayfair games Role Aids to help with some of the heavy DM lifting & lets continue to look at the Archmagic box set which delves into some of the blackest of magics.Going all the way back into Ninety Three the Archmagic box by

Daniel Gelon, Julian Jackson, Mike Nystul, & Doug Tabb

set didn't seem like it was going to set the AD&D world on fire & it wasn't supposed to. The box set was supposed to fill in a very specialized niche of the fantasy gaming hobby. And it did; "Adds high-powered spells and items to any fantasy campaign, but is "presented for use with ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS".

Rules for Archmages, Artifacts, Grimoires and Archmagics are presented.

Includes an adventure utilizing the rules within. Also includes maps of various mystic places and props depicting various powerful items.

Contains:

64 page rulebook
32 page adventure
48 page map book
12 loose single-sided sheets of props"

Now the thing about this box set is that it ports right into the Demons line of Mayfair products in a reverse screw sort of campaign adventure way. Now I've already heard the teeth gnashing from Steve my friend about there being no conversions for Archmagic into the Original Dungeons & Dragons rules set. The Vaults of Pandius site came through an Archmagic to  OD&D  conversion by Scott Moore. 

This means that about 90 percent of the box set of materials will work with the Godbound rpg by Kevin Crawford. For Troll Lord Games Castles & Crusades or Amazing Adventures! Rpg we'll be using the system straight on!
One of the reasons is for their to be Arch magicians guarding reality & dealing with the problem of necromancers & black wizards from beyond. Another is that arch mages are often the fulcrum in comics between the 'gods' & various super heroes as well as adventurers. They recruit local talent & parties of adventurers  to take on Herculean tasks. This is the whole cloth premise of Marvel's Seventies comic book group  the Defenders! Who often seem to act more like adventurers at the table top then some of the polished fantasy novels I've read.




Now I've already talked about the rise of the Primordial dragons yesterday but one of the things that Arch magic box set brought to the table was the ability of very high level magicians to create planes themselves. As my buddy Steve said this is a show of  'local talent' on the part of the arch mages & directly under the purview of the gods. This is sort of like  when Marvel's High Evolutionary went mad; after the Beyonders looked at his version of  Earth  & put it on display in one of their museums.  This was an example of local talent for Marvel's 616 universe.
This brings me to Chessboards By Dave Howell for the Primal Order cap system which is their book on planes. That's a bit simplified. The Planes book covers ;"covers such topics as the various types of planes and their relationships, planar growth cycles, ways to planes, and several varieties of interplanar travel.For those using The Primal Order, it also includes expanded guidelines on planar use primal energy, planar artifacts, and advanced interactions between planes and deities. Five samples metaplanes provide inspiration and illustrate important concepts. Usable with any roleplaying system, this reference work will give GMs the tools they need to create exciting new planes, run multiple settings in one campaign, or link several campaigns into one logically organized multiverse."


Much of what's in Planes bares a striking resemblance to some of the material in the Godbound rpg fannon & rpg resources. So its very interesting seeing the parallel design work across the table on this material. 
This all ties into me inheriting my co dungeon master Steve's game where the PC's have just taken an artifact of Luz back to their Earth! Things are quickly going to Hell quite literally. The dragons have awoken. The party has now got a major succubus from the Amazing Adventures! rpg Manual of Monsters on their behinds! Steve read yesterdays notes & played out the ideas there as an actual game.
Now I've got to pull two of my best friends in to help me co dungeon master my way outta this! So stay tuned! 


Its all pretty glorious! Thanks for reading & we've got more coming up! 

OSR Campaign Preparation Dragons & Divinities - The Rise of The Primordial Dragons

"A collection of powerful minions, monsters, and other entities. Divine servants to intercede between your PCs and their distant deities, mighty beasts to defy even your strongest party, or just a few fascinating creatures for your adventurers to glimpse and wonder about."

Once upon a time I traveled fifty miles to one of my best friend's house to buy a copy of The Primal Order's book Pawns. These creatures are the ones that I pull out when I want to shake up a campaign. But its been a long time since I've cracked open The Primal Order's Pawns book but then again its been a long time since players have challenged me this much. The biggest bugaboo has been trying to get players on board with a Thursday or Friday evening game.
The fact of the matter is that when your taking a variety of player personality types things can get very interesting very fast. I've been thinking about doing something very different for a long time now. Role Aids product line  from Mayfair games has been sitting on my shelves & now these books need to be used right along with The Primal Order Pawns book  by Nigel Findley. 



I've been toying with the ideas of using the Primorial dragons mythology & background for my campaign world. This mythology fits in with some of the draconic ideas presented in  the Teratic Tome by Rafael Chandler .
These are campaign leveling dragons and not your run of the mill wyrms but monsters capable of burning down Heaven itself. Many of these monsters are world enders  one of the reasons that you'll see the Teratic Tome mentioned in conjunction with high level divine campaigns.
So why do this?! I've been toying with using Luz for a while as an actual force of evil on the planes organizing chaos & sewing strife across the universe. His back alley cults have been hatching plans to awaken the dragon's nests across the Earth. He has knowledge of these through his maternal (by adoption)  grandmother  Baba Yaga,



These are not times to simply back down on heroes. The world really needs demi god heroes to step out of the shadows! But can it happen? That's going to depend upon if and when I can arrange for my players schedules to jive. Meanwhile I continue to pull out my campaign notes & the rise of certain mummy led cults of Orcus deep in the wastelands of the Empty Quarter. And what is it about those black eyed children who keep muttering the ram headed lord's praises on the fringes of society?




All of this comes from the Amazing Adventures Manual of Monsters & what  the effects that the rise of the Primordial dragons are having on the rest of the Earth's dragons?! What does the stirring of ancient evil have on Earth's heroes? Are they even noticing the increasing horrors around them?

Next I'm dusting off the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition  Fiend Folio for some of more dangerous & aggressive monsters to throw into the mix coming up! We'll get into those coming up! 

More OSR Drama, Compromise, & Commentary - The Apocalypse Agenda & The Dungeon Master's Hidden Campaign Agenda

I've been gone for the day with sewing machine repair work & I've had to put the upcoming campaign on hold. I've been talking with my Steve's players via email & things have been moving along with an upcoming Castles & Crusades rpg campaign. Things are moving but I've slowed down because I started going over my old AD&D/B/X campaign notes. I want to use those notes for my C&C campaign.

So everyone with me? Let's jump right back into the deep end of the world of the table top hobby of role playing. I've been dusting off my campaign notes from back in the 90's when I used to use  Peter Adkins & Wizards of The Coast's The Primal Order  rpg supplements.  Now two things happened today that proved very interesting. The first of these was the fact that whist I was strolling down memory lane I kept running into references to Mayfair Games Role Aids throughout the note book. The reason is fairly obvious because of the fact that I used a lot of their products back in the 90's to throw off a variety of D&D players who had vast sections of the Greyhawk & Forgotten Realms books memorized. I'd like to extend my condolences to the family Darwin P Bromley the co founder of Mayfair Games whose recently passed. Mr.Bromley was partially responsible for the marketing & production of the Role Aids line of products for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition; "Attorney Darwin Bromley was a railroad game fan, so in 1980 he founded the company Mayfair Games to publish a railroad game of his own; the company was named for the Chicago neighborhood where it was founded.^[3]:166 Bromley soon brought Bill Fawcett on as a partner in Mayfair Games, and together they designed the game Empire Builder (1980).^[3]:166 Bromley was involved with the Chicago Wargaming Association's convention, CWAcon, where Mayfair's first fantasy adventures in their new Role Aids game line were run: Beastmaker Mountain (1982), Nanorien Stones (1982) and Fez I (1982).^[3]:166 With Bromley's legal expertise, he felt that Mayfair could legally use TSR's trademarks as long as they were careful, so beginning with their Dwarves (1982) supplement Mayfair made it clear that they were not the trademark holders by printing on the cover: "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Use of the trademark NOT sanctioned by the holder."" So Mayfair Games's Role Aids  filled a need back in the 90's & even into the latter 00's. There is still a lot of rancor in D&D & OSR fandom & that's fine. For me as a dungeon master the Demon product lines filled a need at the time but will they come to help me fill a need in this campaign? That brings up the second thing that happened which is that one of my other players said, 'Do you know what's wrong with your blog?'. No I don't because you shouldn't be reading this blog. Here's why. Players shouldn't actually be reading this blog at all or unless I as the dungeon master specifically direct them to a game specific entry on this blog. This blog is for the blog subscribers & readers not the players of my game campaigns.
Now there are a wide variety of resources for converting Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition to the Castles & Crusades rpg system. Which brings me to The Primal Order which seemed to generate lots of interest in readers in the other day's blog entry. 

Because  I love math, gods, planes, etc. as well as combining them with super heroes & pulp elements years back I started a D&D  campaign at the end of a world! The player's PC's were the gods & demi gods who were escorting the survivors of the former world into the next Eden! This was an adventure campaign  hook I had hijacked straight from Norse mythology & DC's Crisis On Infinite Earths. See even today D&D & comic book fans remember this series. I started by killing on of the PC's favorite NPC patrons & things went way down hill from there. A Norse god acted to get the PC's into their godhood & for a very good reason Ragnarök was in full swing! That included the end of the Earth! 


I started with the Role Aids Apocalypse box set from Mayfair games & then kicked things into high gear! I've written before about my adopted uncle running a Norse Ring of Nibelung campaign AD&D/BX cycle before. So I've had plenty of experience on both sides of the screen using mythology. How did the  Role Aids Apocalypse box set come into play? 

"From cover:

The sky turns red as blood...
Fire rains down from the heavens...
The dead walk the land...

Don't let your tired gaming world just fall by the wayside. Bring it to a world-shattering climax! Apocalypse is a complete gaming source designed to help you bring your campaign world to a conclusion or move it into a new era.

The Apocalypse Sourcebox includes:
...the Apocalypse Game Master's Book, containing extensive details on all manner of apocalypses and how to incorporate them into your campaign, from the simple ending of an era to the complete and utter destruction of the world.
...Tumult and Tribulation, a massive adventure describing all the details of an apocalypse which you can end your campaign world with or run as a seperate, apocalyptic campaign.
...dozens of detailed maps, pre-generated characters and NPCs for your characters to encounter in their cataclysmic adventure.

...THE END IS NEAR!"

The demons who responsible for the destruction of Earth weren't going to stop with the world. They were going to prevent the cycle of life from continuing across the planes! So Deities & Demigods for first edition AD&D came in very handy as well. But now I've got the Castles & Crusades Codex Nordica by Brian N. Young which has some very nicely done C&C mythology in it. Not only is it useful but very hands on for campaign design. 

Will I be using Mayfair Games product with this upcoming campaign?! More then likely but which ones will have to wait till I get deeper into it. But this campaign will involve other aspects of both the Ring Cycle & the mythic Ragnarok that we haven't covered in the past! Yes Sine Nomine Pubblishing's game Godbound rpg  will be a part of this! Yes the players won't be expecting & yes I have plans to screw with their PC's majorly! 

OSR Drama, Compromise, & Commentary - Gods, Monsters, & The Dungeon Master

This morning I got a phone call I was dreading. Over the last twenty four hours there's been some descent in Steve's group of players over if they want to continue on Clark Ashton Smith's  Zothique using the Siege Engine system by Troll Lord Games or try Sine Nomine Pubblishing's game Godbound rpg. Over the last twenty four hours I've been reading Godbound & it reads like an epic & sweeping vision of its creator like Stars Without Numbers for mythology & demi godhood. I like what I'm reading. The problem is that the ball is in play already & the players don't realize it.
Over Christmas time my wife made a great investment in the form of grabbing me the whole Troll Lord Games  product catalog. The first thing as a dungeon master I needed to do was take care of all of this from the ground up & with boots on the ground. I made a call to everyone involved under the pretense of 'the player's schedule' & began feeling out the situation. Everyone really enjoyed the game but didn't want to stray too far away from the tradition 'Pulp Dungeons & Dragons' feel of our mini holiday game. Even with 'modern elements' there was was a cohesive whole to the mini campaign. 


Some folks also didn't like the idea of straying into a brand new gaming systems & the learning curve that it put on me as a dungeon master. Thanks for the concern guys but I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons style games for forty years. The biggest thing I've learned is the art of compromise when it comes to dungeon mastering.  Sine Nomine Pubblishing's game Godbound rpg isn't simply a game based on gods & demi gods. I've been reading Kevin Crawford's games for a very long time.  I've learned that his games are whole cloth tool boxes for designing & playing around in the sand boxes of the man's imagination. So even if your playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition or even Castles & Crusades there's a lot that you can get out of his games. Case & point are fantasy religions & cults.



So with that in mind I'm compromising using Steve's forty pages of  Zothique notes & looking at Godbound. Maybe even using some of it with Castles & Crusades. But further investigation has me dusting off  Peter Adkins The Primal Order as well. I love math, gods, planes, etc. as well as combining them with super heroes & pulp elements. Its been a long & many moons since I really sunk my teeth into a good & solid campaign like this.

I surprised the players who were expecting arguments & drama. Nope that's not what this is all about. The fact is that with a little elbow DM grease this has some real potential. Back in the 90's & early 00's when players got sick of the 'angst' of White Wolf, we always fell back into an AD&D/BX game campaign with the Primal Order backing it. Time to dust off the campaign notes & see where the Hell we are. God I do so love this hobby! 2019 is shaping up to be a great year!