Out From Under The Thumb Of The Dungeon Master - More OSR Thoughts On 'The Realm' of The Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon

The older I'm getting the more I'm  beginning to understand the common sense that Eric The Caliver in the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon had. Understand I'm not taking apart Gary Gygax or Ernie Gygax's legacy with the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.No I'm talking about the fact that there's a ton of skeletons hiding in Dungeon Master's little lawful good closet.



Run Eric, Run as fast as you can but you can't escape 'The Realm'

 Within 'the realm' the Dungeon Master is the smallest god on the block but he's also the caretaker of the setting of 'the realm'. He isn't all powerful but rather his hands are tied if something happens within the bounds of nature. This means that he needs to act through agents or pupils, & there have been lots of em over the centuries. All of this thought experiment kicked off with me stumbling across this set of mini's from Antediluvian miniatures called the dungeon explorers. A set of adult miniature homages to the dungeon master's 'young pupils' from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. But what's the dungeon master's end game or agenda? That's simple its the protection of the realm & there's a reason why he's using kids.

The kids have decades to help the little maniac protect 'the realm' from all kinds of threats from Tiamat to the crimson stained hands of Venger himself. But the little mad man is bound by rules & rules that can not be broken. So the dungeon master subverts the rules  in a rather clever fashion. He uses agents he trains as his pupils & he's done this many,many, times.

Our familiar six kids who took that faithful ride on the amusment park are only the latest in a long line of suck erm 'pupils' who took the dungeon master's ride. This has been happening for centuries upon centuries throughout Earth's history.



Do I have evidence of this? Sure just take a look at Strongheart the Good Cleric & the fact that during the D&D cartoon 'Servant of Evil' we're introduced to Strongheart The Paladin. He states that he once had a magic hammer similiar to the kids magic weapons.



There's a reason for this & that's because the all of the magic items come from the Dragon's Graveyard the ancestral lair of Tiamat. She's not just hanging out on the first plane of Hell in her lair & seeding the planes with her spawn but Tiamat is a godess. She's the key goddess  too the creation of 'the realms' at least one of them. She guards the 'magic weapons' for the next group of adventurers who come into 'the realms'. Originally I think she might have been worshipped by the dragons of the realm & later on the lizardmen who were some of the original inhabitants of the mini plane.



 But what of all of the other heroes & adventurers who have come to 'the realm'? Did they vanish or die at the hands of Venger? Some might have but mostly they were buried in the 'Hall of Bones' where their spirits awaited the call by 'Dungeon Master' to defend 'the realm'.
The hall is later destroyed as the spirits attack Venger but my guess is that there are many such halls scattered throughtout 'the realm'.


But 'the realm' shares many characteristics of  Peter Pan's Neverland, no not the Disney spoon fed version but;"the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them." 'The realms' share many characteristics of Neverland & are in fact a fairyland; "Barrie explains that the Neverlands are found in the minds of children, and that although each is "always more or less an island", and they have a family resemblance, they are not the same from one child to the next. For example, John Darling's had "a lagoon with flamingos flying over it", while his little brother Michael's had "a flamingo with lagoons flying over it". The novel says the Neverlands are compact enough that adventures are never far between. It says that a map of a child's mind would resemble a map of Neverland, with no boundaries at all.^[1]

The exact situation of Neverland is ambiguous and vague. In Barrie's original tale, the name for the real world is the Mainland, which suggests Neverland is a small island, reached by flight. Peter tells Wendy the way to Neverland is "second to the right, and straight on till morning", but he is described as saying "anything that came into his head". In the novel, the children are said to have found the island only because it was "out looking for them". Barrie also writes that Neverland is near the "stars of the milky way" and it is reached "always at the time of sunrise"." 


Illustration of Peter Pan playing the pipes, with Neverland in the background, by F. D. Bedford, from the novel Peter and Wendy published in 1911.

Not unlike Neverland murder,bloodshed, & evil are all too real. Not only are the threats to 'the realm' real but so is the murder & its evil has a name. 'The Nameless One' is the corruption of the evil & chaos that flows just outside the plane. From time to time its essence flows into 'the realm' & orcs, trolls, & other monsterous humanoids prosper. Venger was corrupted by this force & served it for ages but his original purpose of 'testing the pupils' was never forgotten. Even though Venger served 'The nameless one' his true purpose of testing the pupils turned to destorying them ( he never did) & coveting the rulership of 'the realm'. This conquest almost happened but Venger had a warped sense of honor & even some goodness. But 'the nameless one' warped him into insanity & with a heightened sense of paranoia that fueled his martial conquest of  most of 'the realm'. 



Jeff Easily & Tim Truman illustrations from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon line.

But now with the coming of the Cha'alt planar tear well Earth is serious trouble. The former kids now royals of 'the realm' might have their attention deverted. The heroes are watching a version of their former world fall to relatives of 'the nameless one' & its become too much to bear. 

We'll find out coming up as I talk about sketching out the 'dungeon explorers' in upcoming blog entries. 

Trapped Beyond The Pale - Some OSR Thoughts on The Realm of the Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon

"Shiela: We're trapped in another world.

Eric: What else is new."

Now this post started right after last night's game session when I started thinking about This set of mini's from Antediluvian miniatures called the dungeon explorers. A homage by the mini company to the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. But its got me thinking about the 'Realms' the location setting for the cartoon. The figure set shows a grown up set of the kids now as adult adventurers. I've been thinking of using them as NPC's in my Godbound/Cha'alt game.
The Dungeon Explorers are available here

But what the Hell happened to make the kids stay in the 'Realm' of the cartoon? I think I've got some answers & it ties directly back into last night's game. I think everything about the 'Realms' ties directly back into Dungeon Master & Venger two demi god figures in the cartoon. The Dungeon Master is one of the last caretakers of a 'Fairyland' that the 'Realms' are a part of. The Elven gods originally built this universe as a sort of bolt hole off of Greyhawk but it occasionally intersects with the Forgotten Realms. I'd say its more Greyhawk though but the 'Forgotten Realms' afficinados are gonnna argue with me.

Fairyland may be referred to simply as "Fairy" or "Faerie," though that usage is an archaism. It is often the land ruled by the "Queen of Fairy," and thus anything from fairyland is also sometimes described as being from the "Court of the Queen of Elfame" or from Seelie court in Scottish folklore. The Scots word elfame or elphyne "fairyland"^[3] has other variant forms, attested in Scottish witch trials, but Elf-hame or Elphame with the -hame stem (meaning "home" in Scots) were conjectural readings by Pitcairn."  But there's a lot more here to it then simply just this in the same entry we get;"Records of the Scottish witch trials reveal that many initiates claimed to have had congress with the "Queen of Elfame" and her retinue. On 8 November 1576 midwife Bessie Dunlop, a resident of Dalry, Scotland, was accused of sorcery and witchcraft. She answered her accusers that she had received tuition from Thomas Reid, a former barony officer who had died at the Battle of Pinkie 30 years earlier, and from the Queen of "Court of Elfame" that lay nearby.^[4] It resulted in a conviction and she was burned at the stake^[5] in 1576.

None the less this is complete generic D&D setting built to the specifications of a madman several life times ago. But my thoughts are that there's a lot more to the 'Realms' than it seems. The wiki entry on Fairylands reveals some interesting details;"

Allison Peirson was burned as a witch in 1588 for conversing with the Queen of Elfame, and for prescribing magic charms and potions (Byre Hills, Fife, Scotland).^[6] This same woman (styled "Alison Pearson") is also featured in Robert Sempill's ballad (1583) where she is said to have been in a fairy-ride.^[7][8][9] Sempill's piece mentions "Elphyne" glossed as "Elfland"^[10] or "Fairyland".^[3]

In the medieval verse romance and the Scottish ballad of Thomas the Rhymer the title character is spirited away by a female supernatural being. Although identified by commentators as the Queen of Fairies, the texts refrain from specifically naming her or her domain except in ballad version A, in which she is referred to as the Queen of Elfland. Poet and novelist Robert Graves published his own alteration of the ballad, replacing her name with "Queen of Elphame":

I'm not the Queen of Heaven, Thomas,
That name does not belong to me;
I am but the Queen of fair Elphame
Come out to hunt in my follie.

Elfhame or Elfland, is portrayed in a variety of ways in these ballads and stories, most commonly as mystical and benevolent, but also at times as sinister and wicked. The mysteriousness of the land, and its otherworldly powers are a source of scepticism and distrust in many tales. Additional journeys to the realm include the fairy tale "Childe Rowland", which presents a particularly negative view of the land."

We know that there's far more going on below the surface of the 'Realms' then meets the eye. The 'Realms' have lots of time lost visitors from Earth, Venger often snatches anyone who catches his fancy, & there's dozens of alien species in the 'Realms' from across the planes & the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition  Monster Manual I & II.




So the kids have been trapped there since the Eighties & have been battling various menaces to the 'Realms'. Or have they? I think that more likely they've stayed because of some menace to the 'Realms' compelled them too. Tiamat comes to mind. She's always been far more involved then it seems in the cartoon. Because of the Hellish ties of the 'Realms' it seems this private cosmos might have her intimately tied in this mini plane's creation & background.
As for the kids?
 They've settled down, had families,sired princes & princesses  & found kingdoms for themselves. They still maintain close ties with each other. Venger is no longer the threat he was but he's still causing trouble but there may be other demonic wizards causing issues. But what does any of this have to do with Godbound?! Well if there were never any Elves we'd create them? And in Ancalia: The Broken Towers this is exactly what happens. We eventually took the power of the gods & created ourselves in the image of Fairies. Things did not go well. 

These fairy courts began to use the powers of the gods to create their own private cosmos to play with & that's how 'The Realms' came about. Time is a funny thing & when one starts looking at it in Quantum Physics one can't time travel but we can possibly create alternative Earths & worlds theoretically.
The poor bastard they left behind to take care of the whole mess is this guy. The last of em. 


The kids & those who find themselves in the 'Realm' are the maintence crew who take care of the 'ride' & the threats to the setting.  This isn't the first time that we've seen kids being used this way. Take a look sometime at Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie's creation Peter Pan. There's some strange parrells between the original Peter Pan & 'Neverland' & the 'Realm'. 




1907 illustration of Peter Pan by Oliver Herford


With the coming of the Cha'alt dimensional tear the Realm may have bled into certain areas of California grabbing the attention of the Dungeon Master & the not so young adventurers. Venger's got quite a bit to say about running such things in his new free PDF 'Old School Renessiance Like Fucking Boss' title. Some common sense guidelines for dealing with adventures & campaigns. 

Fire Giants Sighted - A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords & OSR Deep Dive Session Report Seven

The party of adventurers tonight had to deal with a night goblin scouting party that was trying to sneak into camp in my  Cha'alt/Godbound  campaign. Our party's portal mage & his blink dog pack made short work of the three goblins. 

The party of adventurers had to deal with a bevy of murderous hopped up Cha'alt red caps who were hopped up on the Cha'alt drug  xanthium-183. These murderous bastards were armed with  war scythe & they were murdering anyone they came across in the ruins of San Barndo California.
There were a good ten to fifteen of the alien bastard fey that the party had to deal with. Saving people & trying to deal with the flickering fiends took up a good chunk of the night.


Red Cap 3.0 Dungeons & Dragons edition artwork that I happen to like.

Finally the party survived the horrific events of the night & heard rumors of fire giants in plate mail loading two hundred towns people onto cattle car like wooden crate/cages for shipping off to other worlds. The people of San Barndo California were being packed up  by the slavers & sent off world to be sold at auction on the block.



Along with the rumors of fire giants the party, also had to content with a boggle or two. This kinda threw them off a bit but these blood hound  bogeymen  were hunting a family of sun elves that had escaped from the Cha'alt rift out in Las  Vegas.The handlers of such monsters are utterly danranged bastards.


Finally the party confronted the family of sun elves who had escaped through the Cha'alt rift in Vegas through the dimensional breech. They also accepted healing from the wife of one of the refugees from Cha'alt.  The party of adventurers also confirmed the fact that the fire giants have been operating the whole time that the dimension breech was opened.

A Touch of Amber - Tom Moldvay's X2 Castle Amber & OSR Round About Session Report Six

Its been a relentless kind of couple of days. We've been buried under with work but there hasn't been a moment when my campaign hasn't been on my mind. I've been thinking about Tom Moldvay's X2 Castle Amber. X2: ""Castle Amber (Chateau d' Amberville)" (1981), by Tom Moldvay, is the second Expert level Basic D&D adventure. It was published in 1981 " this is the official history of the module. My own experiences with it over the years have been very dramatic.


The reason for this is the royal wizard mover & shaker the wizard-noble Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville). He's apparent in numerous campaigns & adventures as the 'hand that moves' villain whose influence can be seen & felt in the campaign  background. A couple of campaigns ago my player's PC party was involved on a series of misadventures on  my version of CAS's Zothique.
But Stephen Amber is the noble wizard  ruler of Averoigne & one of the wizard guardians of France in the Dark Europe of my games. He's the equivalant of CAS god wizard Maal Dweb & the two frequently play chess with the lives of adventurers.
Both of these wizards would be the match for a group of Godbound & are they themselves Godbound with the sorcery word. But even the children of gods are limited by the filter of other plane's Prime Earth's laws & rules of magic as well as the supernatural.
This brings me to the fact that over the years I've used  Averoigne  as a providence of the Dark Albion setting. And the supplement Cults of Chaos as the basis for various cults of Great Old Ones & Outer Gods in a wide variety of old school & OSR venues. Both books remain favorites of mine & are easily used in a wide variety of old school & OSR venues. 


So what does any of this have to do with Venger Satanis's Cha'alt & my California campaign? Well there's still the nagging problem of a group of bounty hunters & adventurer trackers who are after my current party of adventurers. The wizard-noble Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville) doesn't forgive or forget & his vengence reaches across space & time. 
But with the influence of the religions of  Cha'alt the threat of chaos is always present. There can be no quarter given. Make no mistake that this is war.  The alien control known as Elysium continues to make sure of this. The slavers of the Scourge of the Slave Lords series   are taking full advantage of this & snatching some of the population. But the demon worms of Cha'alt have this Earth within their sights. They aim for conquest & war! The alters will run purple if they have their way!



You may have noticed that I mix gonzo & serious titles with abandoned. This is a trend that I notice that Dungeon Crawl Classics rpg adventures & many other OSR titles do with no problem. So why shouldn't I? So I've been taking full advantage of this & going back to the source material. Not only Zothique but my notes for my Castles & Crusades romp in Zothique some months ago. If Zothique is the Earth after the Old Ones have long left where does that leave Cha'alt?! Hmm I began to dig through the ruins of notes & ideas from long ago. The thing about Venger is that he makes no mistake about his influences. That led me back to one of my treasures from the stacks namely 'The Dune Encyclopedia'.  The book sells these days for stupid prices but its one of my favorite sources of all things 'Dune'. The fact is that Frank Herbet's Dune books draw on a considerable amount of real world history for their fictional background. The Dark Albion books taught me that history is a very dark & rich tapestry of blood shed indeed for dungeon masters to draw on. It certainly keeps the players entertained. But 'The Dune Encyclopedia' takes the material from Dune in very weird directions. 
The Dune Encyclopedia By Willis E. McNelly is one of those books that Dune Fanatics love; "The Dune Encyclopedia is a 1984 collection of essays written by Willis E. McNelly and multiple other contributors as a companion to Frank Herbert's Dune series of science fiction novels. Though approved by Herbert, his own introduction rendered the Encyclopedia non-canon."


If I want to fill in Cha'alt & its desert environs quickly & make them your own then this is the book that I'd use. Its a treasure I've had for decades now & like Hypeborea my own version of Cha'alt will have decades of play. Now the question is with the wizard-noble Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville) aware of California what will he do now?! 

Sly & Flourish - 'You never see the hand that moves' From Monsters To NPC's

'You never see the hand that moves' this was a common saying with my uncle from dungeon mastering way back in the Eighties. I've been very busy at work so much so that this is the first blog entry in two day. But I've been rereading D1-2 Descent Into The Depths of the Earth by Gary Gygax which are more of a series of supplements as well as follow up modules to Gary Gygax's Against the Giants series. The thought that monsters use other monsters to do their bidding isn't something new & actually has been a part of the hobby since before the beginning of the hobby.


But originally when the Drow were introduced they were mysterious,deadly, & a lot of fun for the dungeon master to reveal as the power behind the threat of the giants. But on twitter I've been thinking about wererats & Mi Go for my Cha'alt/Godbound game.  Now at first these two monsters might not seem like their remotely connected. But they are. In the Godbound rpg there are 'worthy foes' basically monsters that are mythologically worthy of the heroes of legend. Wererat assassins, thieves, etc. are monsters that have followed humanity to the stars in my games.
I've been using the veneer of Dungeons & Dragons for years that is the themes,monsters, campaign settings of Dungeons & Dragons. But not necessarily the complete adventure package for old school or OSR game campaigns. Venger calling my game campaigns simple Dungeons & Dragons is a bit, well simplistic.

The Mi Go are a faction in my campaigns & have had a continuing revolving hatred with the PC's over the years. They have hired wererat assassins to take out the party! The royals have been in the background of the campaign since it started signs & symbols have been around. A plague victim here & a human murder with the face half eaten off there.



The Mi Go ultimately serve & service one of the demon worms from Cha'alt & they've got an on going agenda. But the PC's facing the Mi Go head on? That's sheer suicide at the moment. So a game of sly & flourish random encounters has been on going. This has allowed me to build the campaign setting of California. 



Ultimately there's gonna be an upcoming conflict coming of the Slavers forces & those of the producers of xanthium-183. The PC's are gonna have to decide who & what they want to save. The Hyperborean or United States forces are gonna move to claim the remains afterward. What the PC's won't see (yet) is the final factions in the background quietly moving against each other. Even the gods are getting caught off guard. 

Monsters are not static at all & have their own goals, agendas, & wants. They will find a way & that turns random monsters into deadly NPC's for a party of players. That sort of conflict brings the players back to the table again & again.



Ultimately the Jotan are going to play a major part coming up in California but not in the way that you might think. They move according to their Hyperborean masters & man its not gonna be pretty.. Next time I'm gonna expand upon Gary Gygax's G1,G2,G3, Against The Giants. 

Red Cap Nightmare - A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords & OSR Deep Dive Session Report Five

'The night seems to bring peace & a break from the insanity of combat. Not so! The slavers have released a terrible vengence down upon the head of our heroes! Cha'alt red caps & night goblin forces swarm from the very fabric of the local space time continuum.. ' The party in last night's game were harried by night goblins from the desert world of Cha'alt. These are goblin tribes that have specifically been bred by the forces of the Old Ones for night time warfare. They have pitch black skin, 130 foot dark vision, enlarged fangs, jaws, & claws for crawling through the desert sands.The goblins get a +2 on all of their hand to hand attacks.
And they are capable of forming a planar psionic link with their wizard masters. Anytime that a wizard wants to look through the eyes of a night goblin scout he or she can easily. But the Cha'alt night goblin's weakness is sunlight. Their skin pops & blisters from sunlight causing 1d6 points of damage until the monsters are nothing more then piles of burning pus on the battle field. They wear light alien dinosaur armor that doesn't impede them in anyway. They are often armed with servicable but make shift short swords & cudgels with shields  made from sacavengered hulls of space craft.



DAT goblin from the AD&D Monster Manual first edition

One of the alien wizards in the service of the Slavers in last night's game unleashed a mob of Cha'alt red caps armed with war scythes! The Cha'alt red caps are summoned to the wastelands of Cha'alt by the rage & anger of the alien worms of the wasteland. Warriors & adventurering tribes on the desert world use them in lightning raids on downed star ships to take out castaways. They are semi demonic creatures on Ch'alt as well having the nature of Fey.


Red Cap 3.0 Dungeons & Dragons edition artwork that I happen to like.

They wear boots made from the hull remains of downed space craft & use war scythe forged from the cores of wrecked star ships. Their red caps are soaked in the blood of their victims along with the Cha'alt drug  xanthium-183. They are not entirely a part of the local space time continuum due to the occult effects of the mystical drug. The Cha'alt red caps flicker just outside of reality making attacks on them at -2 to hit. They have adapted well to the wastelands of California.



All of the blood that Cha'alt red caps collect is kept liquid due to the mystical effects of their caps. This is then put into a pot by the familial groups of Cha'alt red caps & brewed up into a potent form of Fey Red Zoth. Fey Red Zoth will keep a red cap high & in a state of semi mystical eufforia for 1d6 weeks. Fey Red Zoth will kill an ordinary man who takes a drink. The victim must save vs death or have his spirit forced from his body only to be devoured by the alien Fey gods of the red caps. Elves & other Fey of Cha'alt can consume Fey Red Zoth with no ill physical effects but their minds & souls will be open to the Fey abomination gods of the red caps!

The warlords of Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise often use Cha'alt red caps summoned by rengade tribes of wasteland warriors as psychological murder weapons. The souls of their enemies are reaped for the alien gods of the red caps in bizzzare drug fueled rites of abomination & horror.

Will the player characters survive against such bizarre & horrific Fey creatures?! Only time & play will tell!

Alright so the idea for the night goblins & the Cha'alt red caps comes straight from  A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords which is being used  as both guide & inspiration. I've also been inserting encounters, monsters, etc. into this campaign its worked out quite well. 


The wizards of the slaver organization not only know of other planes & worlds but they exploit such forces as disposable. They use then discard them easily all of the while using their own firces as the main raiding force.
Cha'alt red caps are worthy foes & capable of wrecking the day for a group of godbound. I wanted to make my red caps just a bit more weird & dangerous.. They also weild proper war scythes which is a big deal for me & a direct call back to the pole arm obsession of  Gary Gygax.

While all of this is going on the Hyperboreans are on the move pushing, & pull in the darkness of war in California. Using the faction rules from both Cha'alt/Godbound things happen regardless of the PC's actions. And what's happened to the gods of Earth? I recently broke out my copies of Role Aids Fantastic Treasures & started plotting that part out.

So the time table for these Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg Hyperboreans is continuing to move forward. The PC's haven't encountered this world's US military but its a matter of time. Their gonna be in for a major surprise or two! If they survive!

OSR Front Line - X1 Isle of Dread By David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay & OSR Deep Dive Session III Report

The battlefield rages across California, Nevada, & parts of Arizona while bands of heroes struggle with influx of alien monsters, weird creatures, & bands of raiders. alien arbarian warlors  are taking over parts of the prime material plane at will or so it looks like?! 
Bands of divine inspired adventurers are pushing back but can they save Earth without battling themselves?! And what of the mysterious prehistoric island just off the California coast?!



The mysterious island just off the California coast is of course X1 The Isle of Dread. So let's get the module history out of the way; "The Isle of Dread is an adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventure, module code X1 , was originally published in 1981. Written by David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay" What does the appearance of the Isle of Dread as an adventure location mean to a campaign?! Short answer is a lot.. There's an excellent thread/article on the history of the Isle of Dread on the Board Game Geeks website. Now even though this thread is over five years old the information is still relevant & yes Goodman games has published Original Adventures Reincarnated #2: The Isle of Dread .
But instead I wanted to go back to the original module & the source material now according to the history of X1 The Isle of Dread; "The adventure itself owes a great deal of inspiration to story of King Kong (less the giant gorilla) and the Isle of Dread is based therefore on Skull Island. Note the villagers behind their huge wooden palisade, protecting against a savage landscape of dinosaurs. The central plateau is further reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World (and was itself the inspiration for King Kong). And of course I should also mention Jules Verne's 1864 novel Voyage au centre de la Terre which started the whole lost-world-with-dinosaurs genre."
I cracked open my copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World & began to draw a bit of inspiration. 


So what's this got to do with my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign? Quite a bit, you see what no seems to realize is that just because there are prehistoric creatures on the isle doesn't mean that their gonna stay on the isle.. Now we know that the drug Red Zoth has been blazing its way through the California underworld. And things have really been heating up with the raiders from Scourge of the Slave Lords (A1–4) showing up & start taking full advantage of the planar chaos.
This campaign is basically the end times when the Hyperboreans from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea come from the inner Earth to retake the surface.Did the Isle of Dread appear by design or merely interdimensional circumstance?! Only play & time will tell.



I was looking around for a monster that could crush a mecha easily. And then I came across Antediluvian miniatures megalosaurus. This is a misidentified Victorian dinosaur that was according to the wiki entry over forty foot long; The first reconstruction was given by Buckland himself. He considered Megalosaurus to be a quadruped. He thought it was an "amphibian", i.e. an animal capable of both swimming in the sea and walking on land. Generally, in his mind Megalosaurus resembled a gigantic lizard, but Buckland already understood from the form of the thighbone head that the legs were not so much sprawling as held rather upright. In the original description of 1824, Buckland repeated Cuvier's size estimate that Megalosaurus would have been forty feet long with the weight of a seven foot tall elephant. However, this had been based on the remains present at Oxford. Buckland had also been hurried into naming his new reptile by a visit he had made to the fossil collection of Mantell, who during the lecture announced to have acquired a fossil thighbone of enormous magnitude, twice as long as that just described."

The Antediluvian miniatures megalosaurus is based on the Crystal Palace reconstruction & is perfectly suited to take on many of the alien fauna of Cha'alt. And their being occultly summoned into the harbors of California from the Isle of Dread. 

 Antediluvian miniatures megalosaurus 
Basically these are an alien dinosaur that is being summoned by some unknown faction or alien wizards. Could these be connected with the alien Lumerian wizards that were fighting with Hypborean forces last week?


Warlord and Guardians of Lemuria from Antediluvian miniatures 
The player's PC's have run into the Lemurian forces before & there is a lot of bad blood between them. Party members have died at the hands of these bastards. It is known that wizards from Lumeria have been using the drug xanthium-183 for years to keep their slaves in line & productive. They had clear dealings with the alien overseers of Cha'alt & Fuchsia Malaise. 
They use Grimlock terror troops straight outta the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First edition Fiend Folio.



Russ Nicholson Grimlocks from the
Fiend Folio 

The Lumerian forces have run amok against the slavers several times & there's been several on going battles between Slaver Giants & Grimlocks right at the evening around the docklands. But will the characters survive? 

The Starship Warden Kickstarter Deep Dive & Twenty Questions Interview With James M. Ward

"Your ship, the Goya, has just found the massive Starship Warden. Clattering around the junk and debris of your bridge, you manage to hail the beast of a ship, but receive no answer. You do however, manage to open the starboard forward bay doors. It's time to see who or what controls this massive ship..."

"Near the beginning of the 24th century, humans began the largest construction ever undertaken by their species. Larger than most cities, the project was forty-nine miles long, twenty-four miles wide, and more than six miles in height. The manufacture of this colossus required decades of labor by thousands of skilled craftsmen. It was a feat unequaled in human history at that time. Too large to be manipulated in planetary atmosphere and gravity, this behemoth was built in earth's orbit. It was developed to provide safety for more than a million souls and was to be filled with myriad forms of life.

Packed with the latest technology available at the time, the starship was capable of 90% of the speed of light. A trip to Alpha Centauri was but a mere 6 years. A host of other systems were well within reach, and this vessel was to take humanity to the stars. The planning for this mission was meticulous, the courage of her crew unquestionable, and the hopes of mankind ever present. She was named the Warden after her designer, and she set off for the stars in the late 24th century.

Less than two decades into her mission, she simply disappeared. There has now been no word from the Warden for more than 300 years...."

The big story today out of Troll Lord Games is the Star Ship Warden Kickstarter which has hit over 27, 292 dollars. I have a feeling that this kickstarter is gonna keep growing for this massive book. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a fan of the original James Ward  Metamorphis Alpha rpg. James Ward & Chris Clark have  been expanding the star ship Warden history, setting, &  into other gaming systems such as a Goodman Games version. And now the the latest incarnation the Star Seige Star Ship Warden rpg system! But for the long time fans who want to run this latest Metamorphis Alpha with the original system fear not;"The Starship Warden is a world contained within the massive Warden...itself about 49 miles long. It is designed for use with StarSiege, a Siege Engine RPG fully compatible with Amazing Adventures and Castles & Crusades. For those who would rather use the original Metamorphosis Alpha rules as published in 1977, you can so do with only slight modifications. "
Go Check Out  The Starship Warden Kickstarter Here 

James M.  Ward is a gaming legend in my book. The father of the science fantasy rpg with games like  Metamorphosis Alpha (the first science fiction rpg), Gamma World( one of the first post apocalyptic rpgs) , & many other game supplements.Jim Ward is also the author & or co-author of  Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons along with Robert Kuntz.


 He's worked for, written for, & was at the center of  TSR during their gold age, founded his own gaming companies, been an editor in the table top rpg industry for many years. He also took time out of his busy schedule to talk with Swords & Stitchery for the first of a two part interview. Thanks for taking time &  agreeing to be interviewed James about the Star Ship Warden Kickstarter campaign. 

1. How did you get involved with the Stephen Chault and the Troll Lords? 

JMW: Steve Chenault approached me with an idea to do a hardbound like the Deities & Demigods TSR book. I turned it over ahead of schedule and with lots of added features and he loved it. I have been writing product for him ever since. 

2. What makes the Star Ship Warden a great fit with the Seige Engine system & do you think it fits the overall theme of the legacy of your wonderful creation? 

The Warden reallyl works with any science fiction role playing game. For all of the creatures and tech items we fitted them with Siege Engine stats. 

3. What do you think the enduering popularity of the story & setting of the Warden? 

JMW: That's a great question. It's a change of pace for the fantasy role--players. The idea of saving a lots starship strikes a cord with the adventure loving gamers. 

4. Do you see other Star Siege products in the future of the Star Ship Warden? 

JMW Probably not. I would like to keep expanding the MA product line. 

5. There are so many adventures that can be run with the Star Ship Warden where should brand new dungeon master start? 

JMW: Goodman Games has a large number of MA products. 

6. Are we going to see new levels in this version of the Star Ship Warden that we haven't seen before? 

JMW: We designed a new Dome level as well as 16 totally new levels between the decks. 

7. New mutants means new monsters do you have a favorite in this version of the Star Ship Warden? 

JMW: I'm torn between loving Wolfoids and broken security robots. 

8. The Star Ship Warden kickstarter just went beyond the 21 thousand mark. How does this make you feel as the father & author of the whole enduring legacy of the Warden phenemona?

JMW: I'm over the world with happiness. I'm told by Steve that it has broken all records for the first day. It's so wonderful. 

9. Where do you see the Warden in terms of Star Seige in a year from now? 

JMW: I'm fairly sure a club will grow out of thise product where people want to talk about the decks and their adventures. 

10. How has it been having such an enduring relationship with Trolllords who have published such quality products of your such as the Storyteller's Dictionary, Castles & Crusades Of Gods & Monsters, Tainted Lands & the Storyteller's Thesaurus

JMW: Those people and I think a lot alike and love our fans. I will happily do anything for them. 

Thanks for the questions. 

James M. Ward


We're gonna have more questions coming up for Mr. Ward & Chris Clark coming up over the next week or so as we watch the progress of  The Starship Warden Kickstarter Here