Five Old School Cult Classic Post Apocalyptic Movies As Inspiration For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaigns

HERE's a quick look at five of my favorite post apocalyptic films from yesteryear that continue to get the old PA brain box in the right frame of mind for Mutant Epoch and the Mutant Future encounter I've got coming up folks.

Escape From New York 1981 

Mad Max 1979 

The Road Warrior 1982 

Wizards 1977

A Boy And His Dog 1975

So I'm cranking up the old Beta Max player once again to take a look at a few of the old school classics. Tomorrow I've got my Mutant Epoch rpg campaign game and I decided to look into some of these classics for inspiration for tomorrow evening's game.
Of special note are Escape From New York and The Mad Max films, since most of tomorrow's game is taking place right around the Global Highway setting. The high octane mutant madness continues as our outlaw adventurers run afoul of a group of super scientists in tomorrow night's adventure. 

 More To come! 

Lives Of Kos From Skirmisher For Your Old School Campaign

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This is a great resource for NPC's for an old school campaign with ancient Greek world flavor. This book is huge and its wall to wall NPC's of every description. These happen to be some of the flag ship characters that have appeared in their campaign setting Kos fiction, backgrounds, settings, adventures, etc. They're all here and more. Because of its system agnostic nature I've decided to do a review on the Swords blog.
There are over one hundred and fifteen personalities described in the pdf and they're various backgrounds dovetail into each other and the whole makes a very detailed net of campaign and adventure setting material.
It's really hard to put my finger on this product but its a great way to introduce the Swords of Kos setting to your campaign world and that's really what the aim of the product is. This book is a stepping stone into Skirmisher's home campaign and its a very well done product in that regard.
I love the mix of high fantasy and adventure background in this one. The NPC's are all folks that you might have passed in a market place and backdrop of Kos. There's lots happening and each character is given plenty of adventure hooks to reel PC's into the action of the product. I liked the story elements from Lives of Kos. There's another aspect to this product the use of the NPC as dungeon introduction. Scattered throughout the book are folks who can act as a spring board into several dungeons and ancient locations that can serve as fodder for your own old school adventures. This seems to be one of the fundaments that Skirmisher  Publishing likes to put into their products. This book and others are long range tool sets to get your own imaginations fired into creating your own adventures. There are plenty of companies creating adventures out there and NPC books but are they doing it to get you to play your games or simply creating material for you to buy? Here the answer is simply that this book is a well done and will serve to spark your imagination. Lives of Kos isn't a shelf book that is going to be another sit on the shelf or your hard drive this is a book that will get used if your interested in Skirmisher Publishing's take on ancient Kos.
To me this looks like a nice edition to the background of the world that they've established.

Using Lives of Kos For Your
Old School Campaign 

Lives of Kos could be used as introduction into the Kos campaign or as a spring board into an adventure location. Because the NPC's in this book dovetail so easily as a community of characters, the easiest way to introduce these NPC's is to have the PC's stumble into a series of events already happening. The PC's suddenly will become enmeshed into the background setting of Kos without realizing it.

One of the reasons that the Kos campaign setting works is that there are actual reasons for the dungeons, ruins,ancient places, etc. that litter the landscape and here the NPC's add to the 'voice' or chorus for that world bringing its flavor to life. There are several NPC traders and merchants that could easily be deposited on to the shores of your own games. With a bit of work they might easily show up in even in a Spell Jammer setting or some far, far, flung port of call. This begs the question of the use of Kos? Does it become your campaign or as merely a key commerical element of your own world? For myself its the former. The amount of customization with Lives allows a DM to weave the backgrounds and settings around an existing campaign easily. This is both a strength and weakness of Kos as a setting. The strength is how seamlessly the setting material melts into the background and using the NPC's this way brings Kos's flavor into your campaigns. The weakness comes from the fact that NPC backgrounds beg using Kos as an adventure location, this means using the world of Kos as a gate way campaign world which is how I plan to use this product. A way of conveying the flavor and elements of the Kos campaign setting through the use of the NPC's who will pop up from time to time in my campaigns as 'guest stars' and arranging several adventures around the personalities features in the Lives of Kos.

There are also a number of ways of using Lives of Kos as a jump off point into a 'science fantasy' campaign. The world of Kos might be a failed colony world whose slid back into the mire of a dark ages of Greek mythology. This option allows a DM to really get the maximum out of  Lives of Kos by conveying a mix of the mythological and science fictional elements. Here also is a prefect excuse to break out a Spell Jammer of other old school science fictional/fantasy retroclone. Because of the system neutrality this allows the DM to pick their favorite system to run this one.
Another option that I've toyed with is a post apocalyptic world something akin to Ralph Bakshi's Wizards where the myths of Greek mythology have returned. This migh also include the various old school fantasy races as well. Lives of Kos has me thinking about this idea once again. Several of the adventurer types in the book echo this idea. Once again visions of a Spell Jammer style campaign sprung to my mind.

I had a lot of fun reading through Lives Of  Kos. And I will soon be returning to the world of Kos.
There are too many good NPC's not to use this one and allow Lives to sit on my hard drive. Lives is on sale on both Drivethrurpg and Rpgnow with their sale in July. 

Observations And First Impressions Of The Warriors Of The Red Planet Rpg Retroclone System

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HERE

 Warriors of the Red Planet arrived today via the post office after I had gotten back from a repair job today and I unpacked and took photos. Well colour me impressed, the book and system are a reimagining of OD&D through the lens of a Barsoomian slant. There are lots of options here and add ons but its all pretty simply and nicely laid out. 

 The book clocks in at one hundred and thirty four pages of black and white beauty. This is a homage to the various science fantasy writers who immortalized  Mars but Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson as well. I see bits of Robert Ervin Howard, HP Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fritz Leiber, Abraham Merritt, Micheal Moorcock, C.L. Moore, Leigh Beckett, and others here. 

 There are four basic character classes including Fighting Man, Scoundrels, Mentalists, And Scientists. These replace the Fighter, Theif, Cleric and Magic User From OD&D. Then there are the races Human, Exotic, Unliving, and Ancient. These Four are all a DM needs to flesh out many of the races and creatures from science fiction, science fantasy, pulp, or science romance novels 

 The lay out of the mentalist and scientists powers are easy to digest and well done. They roll very well into the background of the setting and are very useful for play. These were a pleasure to read. On Mars, 'Science!'  rules the day and its very pulpy and cool. The artwork is easy on the eye and a nice break from the Pathfindery stuff I've seen a ton of lately. 

 The layout and printing is nice on the eye and I was a bit worried as my older eyes can't always put up with the typed out fonts that we see in many old school products of yesteryear. While this game evokes the spirit of the products of the imagination this one is really nice to read as well. The system is a slimmed and trimmed OD&D varient that works. I like the combat and the saves, there are also a ton of tables for adventure design from wilderness to urban. That scores points with me right there. Great so far. 

 Love the scientists, every party is going to need one of these guys. And they're powers actually work and they can make stuff right off the bat as well. Nice and the mentalists are very polished and their powers match the design as well. Very cool stuff. 

 The more I read the more I'm convinced that this rpg could be used to run a Martian Dune style campaign or a Barsoomian Game of Thrones series of adventures, the system is streamlined and runs very well from what I'm seeing. 

 Combat is as lethal as any of the OD&D variants I've seen and this system makes the Barsoomian duels which grace the ERB novels actually doable in long haul games. Nicely done there. 

 Campaign design has lots and lots of add ons, details, tables, subsystems, and advise for handling a whole load of tools for making Mars your own. There's also lots of familiar faces in the monsters from the Banth, to the Green Men all of the usual suspects are here with a ton more who  might not be familiar to the casual science fantasy fan. 

 The monsters are laid out in a very familiar way to any OD&D DM and there is enough variety to keep a campaign going for quite a long time. These monsters are quite clever in places and adventures seem to write themselves as your imagination starts going into overdrive. 

We've got a ton of random tables for Martian adventure design, weird science generation tables  and an optional wizard class known as a Sorcerer of the Black Gate. An optional PC or  villain class that has bits of Moorcock and Howard as its base. Then we get a whole section on Martian air naval combat as well to round things out!
So this is a set of Beta rules? Really!?  Because this whole game makes me want to sit down, grab some players, some dice, give out a few rule books as gifts, and play the hell out of this game as complete campaign. This book can be used as an addition too or as a stand alone game. My bottom line on Warriors of The Red Planet? Why haven't you purchased this book and are not playing on your Mars. This book gives you the tool kit to get your own OSR Martian campaign going today! Was it worth the wait! Yes! 

Free Mars Resource For Your Old School Science Fantasy Campaign - Barsoom! From Heavy Metal Magazine By Richard A Lupoff

  This is not the article's artwork but its a favorite classic Amazing stories cover featuring one of my
favorite Burroughs stories

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HERE

With the Warriors of the Red Planet retroclone due any day now I need a fast way to reintroduce Barsoom to a few jaded old school friends. Some of these folks had never read the Edgar Rice Burroughs classics of Barsoom!  I didn't want to get into a whole lot of hassle but how to give the highlights and put my players in the spirit of the books?
Heavy Metal Magazine had exactly what I needed with this article about Edgar Rice Burroughs and Barsoom. All of the highlights are touched on and there's some excellent old school artwork by Clyde Caldwell in the article as well.
According to the Internet Archive :
Article about author Edgar Rice Burroughs, published in September 1982 issue of Heavy Metal magazine. Illustrated by Clyde Caldwell.
 All of the quick highlights of Barsoom are touched on and the artwork covers most of the major characters, creatures, and Martian races. All in all its not a bad introduction to ERB's Barsoomian adventures and it's a quick read as well. So I thought I'd share with you folks. 
This post is for entertainment and educational  purposes only and no violation of the author nor the artist's trade marks or copy rights is being implied here.
Thank you. 

Review and Commentary On the Pay What You'd Like Lamentations Of The Flame Princess Adventure - The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children On The Dark Corner Blog

 Strap on your sword, your pistol, and grab your armor we're off to look deep into the Doom  Cave Of  The Crystal Children for the Lamentations of The Flame Princess Retroclone
 Right Over
HERE

The adventure is on 'Pay What You'd Like' at the moment. So we take a quick view into it on the Dark Corner Blog. 

Review and Commentary On Beneath the Ruins (Psychedelic Fantasies #1) From Geoffrey McKinney For Your Old School Science Fantasy Campaigns

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This is the first in the line of Psychadellic Fantasies adventures and its sort of like Robert Howard's Red Nails on crack in a good old school sort of way. The ten page adventure really shows the direction that Geoffrey McKinney  wanted to take with this line of adventures. There's a single level and two sub levels to this one. The encounters are very old school and might work well with an Arduin style of OD&D game play but any retroclone rules set should work well with this one. The play here is balanced but very much in a science fantasy vein. I loved the no frills take on these adventures so far. They hearken back to a time of shag carpeting, lava lamps, and crayons for your basic D&D games.
This is the first in a series of location based adventures and with a bit of imagination, I can see dropping this set right into any place from the post apocalptytic wasteland to Carcosa outback . Everything about this adventure has quick insert into the mid part of a campaign to really liven the action up.  

The Blurb From DrivethruRpg : 

Beneath the Ruins is for low-level adventurers. It is a single level (with two sub-levels) of the author's larger dungeon of Kihago. Never fear! This level is 100% complete as-is, but I hope we can convince Alex to submit further levels of Kihago. This particular level is dominated by two factions. Dull players will try to wipe them all out, and will find themselves on the short end of the stick. Smart players will befriend one or both factions, and then play one against the other.

The dungeon is weird. It has a lot of, dare I say it, psychedelic environments to explore. That is pretty much what the module is: A bizarre, site-based adventure that the players can explore simply because it is there.

Using Beneath The Ruins For Your Old School Campaigns

This is a pure site based adventure and there for can easily be stuck into the wastes of any old school game but because of the nature of the rooms, encounters, monsters, etc. most of this adventure comes under the science fantasy banner. This isn't a bad thing in my humble opinion. I can easily see using this adventure in the vein of Lamentations of the Flame Princess or the Carcosa setting. Blend it into the Unknown Island for a expansion of that book seamlessly for more thrills.
The fact is that this adventure  is really right along the lines of some of the more gonzo aspects of Mutant Future and could be used as part of a more adult Heavy Metal style of Thundarr adventures. This adventure could be used as part of a series of psychedelic mini campaign games.
There are several hooks and lures throughout the adventure for added play and more fun if the party wishes to go further afield and that's a nice plus in my book.
This location could also be used as part of a failed colony on some other forgotten world for X plorers or one of the other science fiction retroclones but the science fantasy would have to be turned up.
All in all this isn't a bad little adventure and its on sale for 2.00 and something with Drivethrurpg's sale. I liked the no frills element of this adventure and the ideas within. 

1d10 Weird Commercial Finds In The Deep Wasteland Ruins Table For Mutant Future Or Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaigns

Out in the Wastes your PC's stumble into the middle  of a commercial warehouse and find some thing very odd. Here's a table to help up the level of high weirdness.


1d10 Weird Commercial Finds
Deep in the Wasteland Ruins Table 

1. A three  meter box containing a giant clown android used for kids parties before the apocalypse that has been reprogrammed with an unknown A.I. module. There is also a brand new power cell and all it needs is to be switched on. 
2. Half assembled untra light plane with weapons but there is no way to get it out of the space and there is a corpse nearby with a full aviator's suit on. Nearby a deactivated android sits in a chair with a machete. 
3. Two hundred and sixty two mini toy dolls sits on a work bench. They each carry small weapons, toy replicas of working torture devices, and there are a number of them that resemble the party members in your group. 
4. Twenty four different cybernetic limbs all the limbs are different and a torso of an android eyes you menacingly from a nearby work bench its vocal apparatus and mouth deactivated. There is a look of vile hatred and horror from its eyes as well but is merely a head and torso. 
5. A sleep pod containing a flash frozen teenager from some pizza joint whose not supposed to wake up for another seventy years.. A sort of stupid looking red head human. 
6. A hairy humanoid monkey like claw perfectly preserved with the last three fingers open and the thumb and first finger touching. 
7. A nuclear powered arch wielder looks like it was just dropped and nearby is the carbon shadow of a very large humanoid. The thing is humming and active, the shadow is warm. There is the psychic imprint of some one who just vanished and nothing more. 
8. Twenty seven androids each built to resemble famous pre holocaust serial killers, each with the weapons their famous for. Did that one just move? Each one is built with max hit points and is powered by nuclear pellet cells. 
9. A blob of glowing mutagen compound has been spilled on the floor. The stuff glows with an evil purple and green glow. Make a mutation check here! 
10. A strange three dimension printing device which is active and is pouring out living humanoid flesh by the gallon. If not deactivated the stuff will fill the room with hungry hair humanoid flesh with nasty teeth capable of doing 1d8 points of damage to anyone within reach. 

Spider Bait - A Mutant Future Encounter Or An Encounter For Any Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign

This encounter takes place around the wastes of New Jersey, the PC's are called in by the Mutant Underground to help escort a very special cargo. They'll be meeting an armored currier/guardsmen transporting a much needed plague serum to the main Jersey city state. Where it will be used by several up lifted mutant species to control a bio plague that has been released on to the general populace by a Black Knight operative working within the city state.
At least that's the story that John the mutant rat humanoid  MU contact that speaks with the characters. He's offering the PC's one major artifact, a map with scavenging rights to a rich set of ruins just outside the former city of  Atlantic City. In addition to 300 gold pieces in cash.
The players are to meet the courier knight in power armor Mercy and her climate controlled serum vault. Mercy is wearing standard old army power armor and armed with an assault rifle, heavy stunner, and several other weapons systems. She's friendly outgoing and completely professsional. She makes some small chitchat but is every inch the 4th level fighter in her armor.
  
The route to the city state through the wasteland will be frought with some heavy encounters and Mercy will save the PC's to try and prevent damage to them.
1d10 Random Jersey Wasteland Encounters Table 

1. A band 1d8  of 3rd level fighter ratoid mutant bikers on armored bikes and wielding assault rifles.
2. A flock of 1d6 mutant raptor dinosaurs  hell bent on eating the PC's 
3. A group of 1d10 cultists on a hover speeder armed with twin mounted laser cannons. 
4. A band of  1d20 mutant raiders in scrap automobiles armed with laser carbines looking for easy pickings. 
5. A flock 1d8  heavy carnivorous mutant flying monkeys looking for artifacts and their next meal 
6. Six giant mutant slugs blocking a section of the road. These bastards regenerate as trolls and there's a twenty percent chance of some large chunk of one of these things developing into a whole within a couple of rounds. 
7. A robotic drone armed with hell fire mini missiles working for a local A.I. warlord. They'll try to take your PC's out. 
8. A giant protoplasmic blob blocks half of the road and will dissolve tires and flesh in equal measure if one of these can get a hold of a PC's vehicle\
9. A band of 1d10 organ leggers on motor bikes armed with heavy stunners and laser swords so they can get your PC's as after market parts. 
10. A star spawn of Cthulhu bursts from a nearby temple/ruin complex and there is a 40% chance of this horror attacking the PC's and causing major disaster to the nearby mutant population.
    
    What's really going on is hat there is a corpse within the serum vault box and the eggs are about to burst open. Mercy will try to open up the cell  on the PC's. The PC's are actually to be he little ones first meal and are to be kept alive as the PC's are going to used to hide several egg sacs within the party's remaining still living corpses . They will serve Eros far better this way and will have a purpose that few in the wasteland can experience.
    Mercy is actually one of the Ero, mutant spiders who know use others to spread the corruption of their species. Mercy has chosen the PC's carefully because of their  success with other mutant menaces in the wasteland. 

The ERO 

 Find Out More On The Ero Over At Chris Van Deelen's Blog 

HERE 

No. Enc: 1

Alignment:  Chaotic

Movement: 90” (30’)

AC: 4 (0 in armored form)

HD: 10

Attacks: 2 stingers or 4 stingers or by weapon

Damage: 1d4 / 1d4 + poison or 1d4 / 1d4 / 1d4 / 1d4+ poison or by weapon

Save: L10

Morale: 7

Hoard Class: I, II, III, VIII, and 1d4 various weapons (high tech, melee, primitive left up to the Mutant Lord)

Mutations: Aberrant form (natural weapons, xenomorphism), clinging, dietary requirement change (blood) (d), increased physical attribute (strength), metamorph (modified), toxic weapon (class 11 or class 17 poison), web

Source: Miss Arrow from the Spider-Man comics.

Free Swords and Wizard Setting - Doug Eastley's Swords Of Mars Setting From The Savage Swords of Anathor Blog

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 The setting is a google doc. on the right hand side of the blog
under archives

This is an eleven page mini Mars setting that works with the Swords and Wizardry retroclone. While I await my Warriors of Mars book from LuLu. This micro campaign outline contains a wealth of little add ins that the author has included 

• A full Martian sand box with plenty of room for expansion and a few old school adventure lurers for PCs 
• Tribes and variants to play with with and add as the DM sees fit  
• Details and add ins on culture, religion, technology, and more old school style tropes to get the adventures rolling. 
• Beginning city state location with just enough of an  outline to get the PC's motivated 
• Fully customizable sand box  setting
  All of this material is free to use and done completely in the old school tradition and its perfect for an OD&D campaign set or a Swords and Wizardry game. I got a chance to take a look at the Warriors of Mars game on Friday and while the material will work with that book. There is going to have to be some work on the DM's part to modify and adapt certain features. Mars is a huge planet and this shouldn't pose a problem to any old school DM at all. This setting like all of the Savage Swords of Athanor material is well done and of a very nice old school quality. All in all this is a really nice free old school sand box of Barsoomian goodness just waiting to be used.
  The Savage Swords of Anathor blog also has a ton of support material for the Swords of Mars setting as well waiting to be utilized. This is really nicely done free OD&D setting. 

Review and Commentary On The Free Charlton Comic book Classic Outer Space Issue #18 For Your Old School Space Opera Campaigns

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Way back in the late Fifties and early Sixties, space exploration was a very trick thing in the public imagination and television such as the Twilight Zone and comics reflected this. Same as this cover with a test pilot getting his cock pit widow punched in by a sky ogre something related to that gremlin thing that terrifies William Shatner's character on that famous plane right through the skies of the Twilight Zone.  And a much slicker version later tortures John Lithgow's  character in the Twilight Zone movie which brings us to this issue of Outer Space issue #18 by Charlton Comics.
Outer Space was a comic that was chalk full of science fantasy anthology goodness in the Charlton comics tradition. Now free in the public domain this issue can be used as fodder for any number of  mini adventures or quick encounters for your old school campaigns. This issue starts off with 'First On Mercury'. the story starts out with some vintage comic book rocket sci fi porn. Love the design of the rocket ship, it looks like an atomic drive or an ion drive for inter system planetary exploration. We get a look at a pretty nice little Mercurian life form that could be used for any number of encounters but this story makes an excellent 'quick encounter' for Xplorers.
'The Old Robot" introduces an obsolete robot and his upstart replacement, things don't go well for the upstart as the original unit Robbo gets a new body by story's end. If you need an experienced robotic NPC unit then Robbo just might be your unit. According to the story he served a variety of masters and might come into your party's hands. He might also be out in the wasteland of some lost post apocalyptic wasteland. Not bad NPC style characters but the story is a bit insipid.
" For  Amusement Only" introduces a quick mutant plant apocalyptic world wide event, this might make an excellent alternative Earth encounter point or as another Prime Material plane infested with a variety of mutant plant menaces. The story also introduces a nice generic planet of super science villains in the form of Zoba in the sixth magnitude. A whole planet that a DM could easily write in the background of his choice.
 Space Dictionary gives a whole cloth background of science terms and such from the comic book's astronomical background. Vintage but of little use to me except as a curiosity.
 'Assignment Treason' is perfect old school pulp sci fi fodder for an adventure encounter with a twist. The villain is vile if minor in this one and a party could make short work of the plot. This a good one for either a vintage Stars Without Number or an X plorers interlude mid game encounter.
 'Repair Stop' is an amusing little story with a nice little cross over potential with an old school D&D style adventure but it might mean breaking the story's actual premise. Shrugs. The other bit here is a nice design for a technological race in the form of the wooden faced humanoids. They might actually be a cool NPC race for players to encounter.
 All in all Outer Space issue #18 is a pretty good little download, the stories are not going to spark a science fantasy revolution.But they  make some clever and interesting mid level gaming encounters and minor adventure events between major action points in a science fantasy campaign. All in all not a bad download for a free comic book from Charlton. 

Review And Commentary On The Jester Dragon's Random Tavern Generator From Skirmisher Publishing For Your Old School Campaigns

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For Pay What You'd Like 

Taverns are the life blood of every single adventure in every edition in D&D! I have a love/hate relationship with taverns in OD&D style games. For me they've become the end point of an adventure and not the beginning unless they're actually the focal point of an adventure.
I've been in plenty of taverns in my time having a pint and no one really wants to be disturbed while trying to quietly concentrating on their drinking. This has in the past been grounds for murder. Look to the American Old West for plenty of examples.
 That being said because of the trope of every single adventure beginning in a tavern, a DM can use this to his advantage. This is where The Jester Dragon's Random Tavern Generator comes in very handy. With this 'little pay what you'd like' set of tables a DM can whip up with a few percentile dice 'the establishment' of their dreams.
The term tavern here can mean anything from modern bar to post apocalyptic still cell and distrillery. This set of tables can handle it all. With a toss of a few percentile dice the DM can easily add in a place where adventurers can spend their hard earned coin and get a room for the evening as well. Here's where you can add in a game of chance or two in some of the back rooms for added colour.
With a bit more imagination this product could generate an 'Old Earth' tavern aboard your favorite space station or FTL station and refueling point. A few more tosses and there might be a connection to the local space pirate guild. Because of the system neutral nature of the Jester Dragon product you can use or break the player expectations as you want or need to as a DM.
The system neutral nature of this generator makes this a great tool to play with. Regardless of edition or style of game , you'll have the drinking and social center you need, right when you need it.
For sword and planet games, taverns and bars are more then a passing fancy, water bars in desert planet games are one of the most over looked elements in game campaigns sporting a Frank Herbert Dune or Barsoomian aspect. These establishments offer the weary traveler food, water, drink, and more. A few tosses and you get some solidly otherworldly offerings that will actually fit the local back drop.
The whole eight page product is more of a tavern tool kit then simply a set of tables if you need or want another set of tables to play with. Personally a DM can't have too many monsters or old school tables. Grab this one, some dice, and a bit of paper for some notes and instantly you've got the making of someplace different for your old school games.
 All in all this was a great little  product to play with. 

Blood On The Pavement - Mutant Epoch Rpg Post Apocalyptic Campaign Adventure Encounter- An Actual Play Interlude Part III

Tonight's game saw the PC's running into the underworld right off the Global Highway and facing down all sorts of vermin while shadowing some rather nasty half Skullock road pirates and performing a snatch and grab on one of their prisoners. They dealt with the road pirate strike force and retreated as quick as they could out of the underworld while making not of the location for future exploration of this close by megadungeon. It took some solid sneaking around and quiet killing to not get nailed by a family  of mutant ogres living near the exit to
They found out that the skullock victim was a member of the nomad pack that they had done trading with two games ago and was the cause of a whole pack of trouble in the first place with the Skullock Nation between Boston and New York.

The party met up with the Neo Caravan that they'd be traveling with since the first game and dealt with a whole pack of trouble as they got caught in the cross fire between the Road Pirates and nomad pack of fifteen vehicles. By the time it was over the nomads were in bad repair and the party managed to explode a good portion of the scrap motorcycles the road pirates were using on their raid.
There's been an on going series of battles,revenges, and minor blood feuds with the cannibalistic mutant bastards since this campaign started and while the party were trading, repairing, and sharing notes with the nomads they found out why. The nomads had stumbled upon the road pirates raiding the ruins of an old National Guard armory and did a 'smash and grab' on the booty of the pirates.
It seems that road pirates were looting old military hardware and one of the PC's detected a minor radioactive signature coming from an atomic energy cell the nomads had that had been hit by a stray bullet. The energy cell would run the laser cannon that the nomads had back at their base but it seemed that it would also power a nasty laser weapon the road pirates have. So began the running battle with the road pirates. The PC's were given the location of the armory ruins as payment which takes them deep into the Skullock Nation territory and more deep wasteland exploration but first they've got to do some repair work on their own megatruck.

So now its a matter of repair, plan, and move along back down the road.

 

Fish Wife Games Waste Land Nomads Set One
The NPC from last night's game are actually from Dave Woodrum's Fish Wife Games Wasteland Nomad's set one. This group of adventurers was chosen because they're  a party of adventurers living on the edge.
 That's available right over
HERE 


This group of NPC's has crisscrossed paths with my PC's multiple times and helped the PC's out of several minor jams as well as been a source of trade to help the PC's spend their cash, trade items, and more.
There have also been several minor trade bazaars and markets where the PC's have had a few dust ups with these NPC's. Here's the Rpgnow blurb:

Set 1: An Unnamed Group Of Survivors

The first set of nomads in this series is an unnamed group of 15 different post apocalyptic survivors. Originally compromised of a handful of folks merely seeking out a peaceful, resource rich location to settle down in and call home, the group has grown to include a number of unsavory characters with greedy, lustful, and/or bloodthirsty intentions. Led by a man named Jonas, the nomadic pack wanders the major highways as they seek out resources and hopefully a permanent location to settle down into.

Pages: 8

I've done some major overhauls and customization to this group including making some members mutants, adding cybernetics, and killing off some minor NPC's to really get the players involved with the storyline. My modifications fit the style of this post apocalyptic campaign. As always your mileage may vary. 

Blood on the Pavement - Mutant Epoch Rpg Post Apocalyptic Campaign Adventure Encounter- An Actual Play Interlude Part II

In tonight's game my players are going to be going through an underworld hell, in an huge underground parking garage that has been hollowed out and into three other buildings as a huge underground mega-dungeon setting of interconnected ruins below the ground just outside of Boston And New York city.
They'll also  have deal with a road pirate strike team that's looking for a relic in this Skullock infested hole in the ground as well. There's a museum, several high end stores, and perhaps a mini mall here as well. What could the road pirates be looking for and have they called in back up?

Of course! There are several smaller groups of muties living inside this mega dungeon not to mention vermin and worse living six feet below the wasteland surface along the Global Highway! There's bound to be road combat as well as a 'fortress mega truck brings in much needed numbers of vile scum and barbarian warriors to wreck our heroes day!
 What the PC's don't know about is an ambush from the road pirates down the road from their present loot spot!