The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition Fiend Folio As Post Apocalpytic Undead Campaign Fodder

 So after the weekend's zombie  superhero  fiasco game which went rather well for being last minute four dollar pick up. OSR thoughts  have been swirling around my head after one of the players said something about claiming the hotel as their domain for the party. The fact that we haven't done Sword & Caravan yet is because of the fact that it's a huge sprawling campaign & we're still toying with the setting. There are a lot of moving parts & pieces to the campaign setting. That's a good thing. But post apocalpytic domain play is another matter entirely. It  was very interesting because of the fact that the hotel was mostly a zombie wasteland. There are several OSR thoughts that are rattling around my head and this has to do with the zombies in our game. Zombies are one thing but when a zombie apocalypse happens the undead index of that world is going to go through the roof. And in classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons this points to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio. Why the Fiend Folio?! Because many of the monsters within it are easily popped right into a post apocalpytic old school or OSR game. There are a ton of undead that would fit right into an apocalpytic world especially the undead. 

Now according to this Dragon foot thread by Geoffrey from 2007; "Here are the eleven monsters that are undead in the Fiend Folio:

apparition
coffer corpse
death knight
huecuva
penanggalan
poltergeist
revenant
sheet ghoul
sheet phantom
skeleton warrior
son of Kyuss

Here is a note from Don Turnbull, the editor of the Fiend Folio:

"The Eye of Fear and Flame is not undead. If it were, it would be on the undead table (page 115). Nor is the Crypt Thing an undead monster. In neither case does the text leave any doubt--and even if it did, the undead table would resolve the matter." (from p. 10 of Dragon #55, Nov. 1981)"
The fact that there high level unead that are completely unturnable is one of those things that should exist in the Grand Game; "Death Knights and Skeleton warriors should turn as liches. As they are basically antipaladin lich and fighter lich respectively." 
Death Knights & Skeleton warriors could be the generals of a horde of undead that have come to take out the living. These horrors along with their abilities from the Fiend Folio intact could scare even hardened veteran players. 

Thinking of other OSR supplements James Mishler Games Ghosts might also be an excellent addition with lots of varied ghostly undead to add into the mix. But we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. 

According to our players the zombies might only be the start of the undead plague and they've been talking among themselves as to how to prepare. Bare in mind that none of this has been planned but the players extraploated these conclusions on their own. 

Dimesional Travel Using Classic Arduin rpg & Dragon Magazine For OSR Campaigns

 Last night's zombie game sessions got my copy of the three Arduin rpg books back in my hands again. The nexus gates of Arduin brought back this quote from the classic Retro Rpg blog; "“These ‘gates’ provide a supernatural exchange where all possibilities meld and merge, allowing anything to happen. Opening into temporal, spatial, and dimensional locations, the gates lead to places in dreams, uncharted jungle worlds, or steams of time not yet seen…”  From What Is The Nexus? an Arduin World Of Khaas web supplement by Emperor’s Choice Games & Miniatures

This puts one back into the mindset of Gamma Terra and the classic crossover of Gamma World & Dungeons & Dragons back in the Eighties. When player's PC's gated in & out of many of the classic old school campaign settings. This was especially true of Gamma World. Where a campaign of AD&D or D&D players PC's might begin on Greyhawk & then gate into Gamma Terra. Dragon magazine issue #108 has the classic Mutant Manual II.  

And this goes back into some of the dungeon design issues that we've covered long before on this blog especially back in November of last year here.  Gamma Terra's pocket populations of mutants could guard far more then what the PC's are expecting. Vaults, ruins, etc. could actually be controls for a Nexus gate system that leads to other points of the multiverse. In other words these gates might have been added into by dimensional alien empires have discovered these ancient gate systems in eons past. 

Review & OSR Commentary On Resort of the Dead By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchploitation Rpg

 "All around, there are pristine beaches, crystal clear waters, lovely cafes and restaurants, drunken Brits, sunburnt,(nearly overcooked, Germans, and obnoxious American tourists complaining, in broken Spanish, to the lazy-ass Portuguese manager about some minor issue, such as the room's TV set not working properly during the Armageddon. We do understand Spanish, by the way, but it's not our native language. Just to make that clear!"

The free Torralba Resort Brochure (Resort of the Dead handout)
 came in very handy in tonight's game. 

"Anyway, we are here to provide you with the perfect spot to be killed by zombies. Well, not that perfect; the Torralba resort has seen much better days. But at least it's cheap. However, we'll screw you over the restaurant bill, and watch out for those cab drivers, too; they'll rip you off. Welcome to sunny Portugal, have fun being devoured by the undead hordes.
You'll have the time of your (u)nlife!"

Resort of the Dead By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs  is a zombie apocalypse waiting to happen or to be sprung on your OSR campaigns as needed. Resort of the Dead is actually laid out for The Wretchploitation Rpg. but it works very hard as a decent OSR zombie adventure. And its vicious little OSR horror romp. And dropping the PC's into the horror mix waiting to happen  was interesting from a DM perspective. As the play was interesting as the player's PC's were figuring out the rumors about the cocaine, & the gold within the hotel's vaults ( this is my invention but it moved things along quick). 

 Resort of the Dead takes the zombie end of the world adventure into a beach front adventure with lots of other undead besides the hordes of the undead. Mutated hell spawn can be randomly encountered by the PC's in this fifty three page adventure. Resort of the Dead is a mid level adventure because of three factors:1. The amount of NPC's that the players can interact with or who will fall victim to the zombification later on,2. The expansive mini campaign setting that is Resort of the Dead, & 3. the amount & variety of undead that the PC's will be facing. 
Resort of the Dead has a high recycle factor for OSR adventuring & this is born out by the fact that this adventure could also be used to introduce new NPC's from 

The Wretchploitation Rpg into other OSR games. A fact that was sprung on me in  the middle of Resort of the Dead when a replacement PC was simply inserted as another guest quite easily.  Something else that occurred to me tonight running Resort of the Dead tonight is the fact it would be quite easy to use the module in other OSR setting such as Goblinoid Games Mutant Future rpg. Why?! Because right after the zombie apocalpyse starts mutations could easily start happening by whatever triggered the undead state of the world. Even if the campaign setting  in Resort of the Dead happened to the world and we move ten years down the road. The set up could work with zombies & mutants on the same world. Personally after running Resort of the Dead I think it's well worth the four dollar download. 

Resort of the Dead By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchploitation Rpg Is Available Here 
 

The Blackguards Mini Campaign & The Resort of the Dead By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs Powered By The SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Core Rules by Bloat Games

 So at the last minute I've had to come up with a full on OSR adventure for this evening to DM. The session report of the Blackguard that the other day appeared on this blog has caught on with our players. They talked it over with DM Steve & wanted a more comicbook approach to the affair. And so we started using the SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Core Rules by Bloat Games.  The cavet here is that I get to choose the adventure for our dimension hopping mercs. 


 And since I don't have a lot of time to prepare, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone tonight. So with a quick purchase the Red Room's Resort of the Dead appeared in my cart. That's right this isn't a comp copy but an adventure that clocks in at about fifty three pages of undead goodness. The Blackguard teleport in & have only a vague idea of uneasiness that their psychic reads. And since the undead are not alive she'll be complete unaware of the impending zombie apocalpyse. Why when they do become aware would they stay?! Never underestimate the power of player greed. Gold & cocaine found within the hotel's vaults is motive enough a plenty. 

So why SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City?! Because of the fact that the game itself has its roots within a zombie infestation background. And fun in the sun zombie apocalpyse sounds perfect for a Summertime mini campaign. The players will have limited ammo, devices, etc. and after a couple of days gametime the encounters are going to get dicey really quick! 
Got the entire The Resort of the Dead By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs all printed out and ready to go for tonight! 
Reading through their are a ton of NPC's to interact with or get tripped up by or  in  Resort of the Dead. Even super powers are not going to make any real difference to hordes of undead stumbling along the beach. At four dollars  Resort of the Dead was a steal. 

Review & Commentary On The Eldritch Inquirer #1 By Joseph D. Salvador From Raven God Games For The Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing game

 "The Eldritch Inquirer is the Official Magazine for the Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing game! The pages of the Inquirer hold the secrets of Mythos Earth, history, inspiration, new game mechanisms, world-building material, and a full-length Mythos scenario!"

In this inaugural issue, you will find:

• An historical chronology of the year of 1920. (10 pages)
• Manias to expand the Insanity tables in the core Eldritch Tales rules. (3 pages)
• Interesting and inspiring news articles & advertisements culled from the pages of the Arkham Advertiser, meant to be used as scenario seeds and world-building inspiration. (3 pages)
• A list of "American" names that offer 80,000 name combinations, all suitable for Eldritch Tales characters of the 1920s. (6 pages)
• The highlight of the issue, Return of the Windwalker, a full-length scenario that takes the player characters to the remote mountains of New Hampshire to investigate a new archaeological site, but they are soon embroiled in a tale of Mythos madness and mystery! Can they stop the return of the Windwalker? (31 pages)"
  
  

The Eldritch Inquirer #1 By Joseph D. Salvador  From Raven God Games found its way into my box as a gift from a friend yesterday. The the Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing game has been on our group's radar over the past couple of days again. And that's when the The Eldritch Inquirer #1 By Joseph D. Salvador dropped into our laps. 
So the The Eldritch Inquirer #1 clocks in at sixty pages of actual usefully applicable material for  The Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing game. The 1920's material alone is excellent offering a timeline of actual solid material that can be applied across the board to an on going 1920's OSR horror campaign. And this follows with the articles & advertisments that are in point of fact adventure seeds & hooks. And then there's the fact that many of these can be branched into their own spun off mini encounters & adventures. 
The adventure within the  Return of the Windwalker, is excellently done with quite a few twists & turns that actually takes place in the mountains of  New England in New Hampshire. This adventure actually will put the the PC's through their paces quite nicely. But there could be some really nasty PC deaths as well. Not to mention the sanity loss. And those new sanity rules look very nice to apply across the board. 


The Eldritch Inquirer #1 By Joseph D. Salvador  From Raven God Games For The Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing game Is Available Here 

First Impressions of Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector By John Watts, Michael Johnson, and Tony Hicks for The Clement Sector Rpg From Independence Games

 So via our email came 'Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector' From Independence Games. Sweet mother of God this is a huge 200 page pdf of a book.  'Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector' is a key book & tool kit for the Clement Sector rpg as the introduction states;
"As the introductory quote states, starports are an integral part of the make-up of Clement Sector. Starports are the places where imports arrive, exports leave, people come and go, and communications arrive and are sent. Almost all the settled worlds in Clement Sector have ports and this includes the restrictive governments and worlds which try to have minimal contact with other planets. Starports come in many different types and can be a massive orbital structure or a flat piece of land cleared of obstacles. In this section, we will cover the different types of starports as a form of introduction."

 Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector is a key book clocking in at over 200 pages of 2d6 Clement Sector rpg goodness. There's extensive rules here for generating, creating, and maintaining every type of star port, station, and trade zone within the blackness of the Clement sector. And by God if this book doesn't remind me of the early 19th century fur trading forts & outposts of North America. Extensive nodes of civilization scattered against the blackness of the wilds of the frontiers of the Clement Sector. Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector by John Watts, Michael Johnson, and Tony Hicks writing is dialed in with everything dialed into the generation of these oasises amid the blackness of the Clement sector. The artwork by Ian Stead is on point as usual and the rest of the book is certainly up to Independence Games standards. 
The rules here are swift, well done, and have that new Cepheus Engine rpg smell about them plugging into the Space Western motif very well. Every aspect of starport & station design is covered extensively in vivid detail. 
Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector reads like both a general supplement for the Clement Sector rpg but also a very straight forward set of rules for designing your own star ports for your 2d6 campaigns! The real shine of Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector is within the design,selection, and refinement of tradition statport design. Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector feels like a solid set of rules for bring home the idea of star ports being home to adventure at every turn. Or the fact that the PC's starport may indeed be their extensive home away from home ports. 
Every aspect of the starport as adventure point is explored within the pages of Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector. And many of these rules would also work very well with the Earth sector rpg system. The rules make generating your own star ports fun, random, and very acessible for the average DM to get running threir own star port based adventures! This makes Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector a must have for those who want to run any adventure centered around their own campaign's starports! 
 Port of Entry Starports In The Clement Sector By John Watts, Michael Johnson, and Tony Hicks for The Clement Sector Rpg Is Available Here 

Blackguard One Shot Game Adventure Session Report - Hostile Setting & Stars Without Number Rpg Revised One Shot

So over on the fourth of July holiday we got a chance to play in a ton of games as well as DM some solid entries in our annual mini Con. Mini Con is a private convention  when a ton of us get together for a private Con up here in the Northwestern corner of Connecicut. It was a pretty good turnout for four days of gaming & socializing over the Fourth of July long weekend.  Wayback on Monday Feb 7th I wrote about doing a Hostile Setting & Stars Without Number Rpg Revised One Shot on this blog. You can read about the set up here on the blog.  The Blackguard are the public domain version of the warheads who are mercenaries who work for the evil Blackguard corporation front  retrieving technologies, magic, etc . 

The set up goes like this;"  the Blackguard  PC's are created using SWN Revised and the Hostile rpg setting book. Complications come from the Hostile setting book. And your pretty much ready to rock & roll. Planar Holes are holes within hyperspace linking between two points naturally. These planar holes occur naturally linking locations within time, space, and even different dimensions'. 

Using the Hostile setting book the PC's ported onto a rock in the middle of noplace squared space or so they though . In actuality it was a very different sorta of a rock and one that sported the ruins of a strange giant black ship?! This alien asteriod held a lot more then the PC's were bargaining for as they came face to face with several slippery toad like things who tried to manhandle the PC's & capture them! What the PC's had come face to face with were the alien Moonbeasts from H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath based on  Gregorius21778's blog. entry here. Two of the PC's lost their lives as the hold person spells from the Moonbeasts took them! They didn't make their saves and were taken into the wreck for a fate worse then death! 

There was a nasty fire fight & the PC's were able to recover several ruby bracelets but they have no idea of what value they are nor their enchantment. These are for the corporate mages to divine! 

OSR Commentary On SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook By Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer For The SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Core Rules' Rpg

 

It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude.

H. P. Lovecraft

SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook is the Lovecraftian supplemental book for the  SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide rpg. We went over the Survive This What Shadows Hide Rpg here on the blog  The  SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook adds & fills in the cracks of the world of What Shadows Hide. Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play.  However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experiences.
What  SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook does is add in a completely Lovecraftian aspect starting with the Cosmos Cats PC race. These are dimensional visitors from another reality who are actually companions to mankind even if we are not aware of it. We then get a pethora of new PC classes including the following: 

    Archeologist  8

          Priest of the Darkness 10

          Priest of the Light 12

          Priest of the Mother 14

          Priest of the Old Ones 16

          Priest of the Protean Path 18

          Priest of the Void 20

          Psion 24

          Warlock 28

          Witch 32

 All of which fit the Lovecraftian bill for a full on 'What Shadows Hide' campaign.The Psychic Abilities  fit into the Lovecraftian bill with little issue aligning with the Mythos angles within the  Mythos Cults & the Old Gods section.All of the chapters within   SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook By Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer fit the Lovecraft circle of writers canon ideals. The book is informative, perfect for an extended Lovecraft or Mythos campaign. And everything within the SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook fits snugly into the  SURVIVE THIS!! We Die Young RPG Core Rules a sort of 90's homage horror rpg. 

The SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook  is the adversary and Lovecraftian horror, cult, and enemy book all rolled into one for the Survive This line of Rpg's. Cults are some of the most dangerous rpg enemies a party of PC's can face. And the book does an excellent job of bringing this home. 
Cults and other occult oganizations are enemies that can be defeated the forces of the Lovecraftian mythos are another story entirely. 
SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook By Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer Is Available Here 

Review & Commentary On #1 Shadow of the Necromancer By Mark Taormino From Dark Wizard Games For Your Old School Campaigns

 "Fear stalks through the darkness of night in the form of the walking dead! They attack innocent travelers and merchant caravans inthe moonlight! Animated skeletons have also been seen digging up the recently dead and carrying them into the nearby ruins of an old abandoned keep!"

" Rumor spreads fast from lip to ear amongst the locals, whispering that a sinister hooded figure has been seen
directing the undead and is taking up residence in that foul dungeon! Your stalwart group of adventurers has decided to take on this
challenge, get the treasure you know is in there and defeat this evil menace known only as the Shadow of the Necromancer!"

 

 #1 Shadow of the Necromancer By Mark Taormino is a perfectly suited  is designed for using 4-8 characters of levels 1 to 3. The party should consist of Fighters, Clerics, Magic Users, &  Thieves when tackling the  #1 Shadow of The Necromancers adventure. #1 Shadow of The Necromancers is fifteen pages long which makes this a mini adventure. 
Is #1 Shadow of The Necromancers worth your time?! Malicous Dreadmore is the type of necromancer whom the old school D&D adventurers were made from. He's a practicing necromancer of an evil disposition who wants to control, master, and use the forces of the undead for his benefit. And he's targetting the local populations with the intent of creating even more of the undead. Malicous Dreadmore however was killed by the locals to the lay with the dead. 
But over the last year or so he's come back into the lives of the locals making #1 Shadow of the Necromancer part adventure & part dungeon crawl. In point of fact, #1 Shadow of the Necromancer By Mark Taormino  could be used as a prelude to establishing Malicous Dreadmore as a minion to the dread vampire queen of the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. Thus looping every event back into a campaign timeline. 

This is an adventure that can be played over several sessions. The layout is solid, the artwork very well done, the cartography well exacuted and the encounters within #1 Shadow of the Necromancer deadly. #1 Shadow of the Necromancer is perfect for a one or two session Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition mini campaign jump off point. 

#1 Shadow of the Necromancer By Mark Taormino has all of the hallmarks for an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition jump off point. Easy to use, deadly, with dynamic well written encounters, nasty monsters, fablous treasures and an easy to use hook to lure in unspecting players! 

#1 Shadow of the Necromancer By Mark Taormino From Dark Wizard Games Is Available Right Here 

OSR Thoughts on Sword & Caravan By Rpg Pundit As Well As The Lion & Dragon Rpg

 We've been discussing Sword & Caravan over coffee & tea at a local 'greasy spoon' this morning. And one of the things that has come across in the discussion is the fact that land is so damn valuable to the setting. Trade goods & land make Sword & Caravan unique in this regard. PC's can aquire gold and 'treasure' but power or land are the coin of the realm in Sword & Caravan. 

And this is born out in both the 'Silk Road's mythology & it's backdrop even according to the Silk Road wiki entry; "By the early first century CE, Chinese silk was widely sought-after in Rome, Egypt, and Greece.^[2] Other lucrative commodities from the East included tea, dyes, perfumes, and porcelain; among Western exports were horses, camels, honey, wine, and gold." 

The real coin of the realm is the fact that social status can be made fluid by exploring, exploiting, and taking on new business ventures within  China, Korea,^[8] Japan,^[4] India, Iran, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia. And it's these instances where the PC's have many opportunities for adventure within Sword & Caravan. These areas where the remains of the legends & mythology of Lion & Dragon may still exist before the last vestige of the magic of the 'Old World' is gone. We're not talking about the 'Orientalism' of the Pulp magazines here but the down & dirty aspects of history. A history which is littered with half forgotten kingdoms, legends, the incursion of the Jinn into our world & far worse! 

One thing about the setting of Sword & Caravan is the fact that the current events or  histories of the regions of China, Korea,^[8] Japan,^[4] India, Iran, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia are so fluid. The time that Sword & Caravan are set are violent, dynamic, & utterly dangerous to PC's. Are there dungeons within Sword & Caravan? Absolutely there are! And the world of the unseen is in evidence in spades! From evil hyena spirits to full on Jinn. And it's the Jinn that have me questioning their interactions with humanity. From Sword & Caravan; "The Jinn are a class of Neutral nature spirits, hailing no doubt from the same twilight-world as what Europeans call the ‘elves’ and ‘fairy.’ The Jinn can be found throughout virtually all of the Silk Road, though they are very rarely even noticed. In their natural state, Jinn are invisible. However, they can also manifest themselves as a whirl of dust/ sand or as a kind of mist in the wind when they wish for humans to see them. They can additionally take the form of animals, their favorites being snakes, scorpions, dogs, and lizards. They can also take the form of humans or that of humans with animal heads. However, it is uncommon for them to take animal or humanoid forms because they are more vulnerable in that state. When non-corporeal, they can be harmed only by magic, and attack causing madness, disease, or misfortune. When they assume a humanoid or animal form, they can be injured by metallic weapons as well as magic' 

Could the Jinn account for at least partially the eventual destruction of the 'Silk Road' itself?! Hear me out here. Humanity has inserted itself dangerously across the planet in these past centuries like never before and could it actually be interferring with the natural portals of the Jinn into our realm?! 

Could this lead back to the point that the Jinn see that humanity has rebelled against it's former Elven masters!? And certain factions or courts within the Jinn want to move into that forsaken slot of rulership?! Weakening the 'Silk Road' from behind the scenes is one way of doing that. 

OSR Review & Commentary On ' We Hunted the Promethean' "The Pay What You Want " lair encounter From Oswald For Your Old School Games

 "A level 2-4 lair encounter written for generic OSR d&d. 

A minor deity lives in the ruins. Inside are clues to humanities origins and a confrontation with a degraded and insane creature.

Tonight's the night you fight your father!"

 'We Hunted the Promethean' 'pay what you want lair encounter From Oswald that clocks in at nine pages. 'We Hunted the Promethean' is a low level very primeval lair encounter for old school Dungeons & Dragons style games. We got a chance to play this on the Fourth as a part of our mini Con &  'We Hunted the Promethean'  isn't a half bad little adventure.  'We Hunted the Promethean' has a very simple lower tier adventure for a Sword & Sorcery campaign. And the adventure starts with a rumor table then dives right into the lair encounter itself. 
Our thieves had a nasty time of  'We Hunted the Promethean'  because this is a straight up non pretenious adventure that focuses on the brutal aspects of it's old school roots right out of the gate. 
 'We Hunted the Promethean' does exactly what it says on the tin providing the DM with everything they need to dive the players right into the mix. And we found this rumor carved into the side of the mountain nearby it's prison; "Grandfather fought it for 10 hours. The sky smiled upon him but the creature stole from him the favor of the sun. O’ with that favor, its wounds did heal before my fathers fathers eyes. For 20 years we held its severed arm, a trophy of hope, before its minions came to steal it back again. The creature can be killed. It can be wounded. " 
From here ' We Hunted the Promethean' went down hill for us. I don't wanna spoil the surprises but needless to say that ' We Hunted the Promethean' could easily be a Lamentations of the Flame Princess Carcosa adventure encounter. There's enough variety within the mix where ' We Hunted the Promethean' could be added into a Adventurer,Conqueror, King desert or wasteland adventure setting as a type of lair encounter without little issue. ' We Hunted the Promethean' could also work as a one shot encounter for a Stars Without Numbers rpg mid level encounter. This could open the doors for more questions then answers. 

' We Hunted the Promethean' "The Pay What You Want " lair encounter From Oswald

OSR Commentary Thieves' Guild VI By Kerry Lloyd, & Richard Meyer & U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh by Dave J. Browne with Don Turnbull For Your Old School Campaigns

 Avast, ye swabs!

Now here's yer chance fer a rollickin' good time out on the rolling waves of the high seas! Don yer bandanna and tie on the old eyepatch ... fifteen men on a dead man's chest! Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Make 'em walk the plank, me hearties!

At last, Theives' Guild has gone to sea! Here are complete rules for designing and sailing ships, for sea chases and bloody boarding actions, and what's in the holds of the wallowing merchantman you just overhauled and captured."

"And ... lots of encounters at sea!! Ships by the score! Broad-beamed merchantmen loaded with luxury merchandise bound for exotic ports in faraway lands, or wondrous treasures to enrich the coffers of powerful empires! Slim deadly warships, to guard these golden argosies, or to seek freebooters out in their own lairs and put an end to their larcenous careers! Even fellow pirate vessels, to sail with at sea or to sail on!!"

Merpeople, herds of whales, world-lashing storms, exotic uncharted lands, omens of disaster and great good fortune, even sea-serpents will be met in the pages of Thieves' Guild's latest trimph.

Error Flynn never had it so good!!!"

High seas adventures at their very best!!!

 Thieves' Guild VI By Kerry Lloyd, & Richard Meyer is another one of those titles from 1982 that tackles the choice subject of pirates & sea dogs.  And Thieves' Guild VI does it's job quite nicely with gusto & old school sea borne weirdness. If your looking to add in a bit of old school piracy & sea dog borne adventure to your campaign then  Thieves' Guild VI might be a good option. Remember in Thieves' Guild VI it's still all about the thieves! 
Here's what we've recently done this past weekend. Used Thieves' Guild VI to add in details on the operations of the Alchemist ( the undead power behind) the events of U1 The Sinster Secret of Saltmarsh. 

 Thieves' Guild VI By Kerry Lloyd, & Richard Meyer contains everything from random sea borne encounters to named ships as well as everything inbetween to get a piracy fueled campaign off the ground. So do you need old school stats for an sea monster? Covered! Need a polar bear' stats? Covered! Need random rival pirate gang ships to try and destroy your party's PC's?! We've got those as well as an entire ocean as well as ports?! We've got you covered! 
And all this makes  Thieves' Guild VI an excellent book to do a Castles & Crusades pirate campaign straight off! This is perfect to add in background to the fresh water cargo smuggling sugggested by U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh! 

And all of this set's our PC's up for the adventures of the 'U' series where in human eyes have been watching them from the deep oceans & nearby saltmarshes. Is this is perfect set up?! No but it lends weight to the smuggling operations of the 'Sea Ghost' & it's attendant secret organizations. 

OSR Commentary & Reviews - 'SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Core Rules' By Josh Palmer & Eric Bloat For The 'SURVIVE THIS!! Rpg System

"STWSH is a modern horror and investigation game in the same vein as the X-files, Supernatural and Hellboy. In the game you will go head to head with evil secret organizations, the occult, supernatural and cosmic horrors."

"Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experience"
'SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Core Rules' By Josh Palmer & Eric Bloat is an OSR dark horse of a horror rpg. And if I hadn't been on the ball looking around then I would never have even known about it. That's a real shame because of the fact that Josh Palmer does a really decent supernatural & occult Lovecraftian OSR game. The SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Cthulhu Sourcebook came at me with the 'Survive This!! What Shadows Hide' rpg  book as a part of a one two punch offer last month.
What  'Survive This!! What Shadows Hide' rpg is offers a 'Survive This rpg' system horror  & occult  alternative to many other horror OSR rpg systems on the market. And it works quite well with other OSR systems. What Shadows Hide actually does is allow the DM to bring the pain of Eighties & Nineties classic horror into an OSR campaign centered around the classic horror races:

• Dimensional Forsaken
• Doppelgangers
• Fairies
• Ghosts
• Ghouls
• Greys
• Half Mer-men
• Humans
• Jari-Ka
• Negator
• Reptilians
• Vampires
•   Were-beasts

These are perfect for constructing both PC's & NPC creatures within your own horror or supernatural campaigns.  What SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide'. 'What Shadows Hide' has a decent array of PC classes as well; Academic,Arcane Thief, C.A.R.E. Field Agent, Exorcist, Medium, Monster Hunter, Mystic,Necromancer,Occultist, Paranormal Investigator, & Void Master. And this is all in the main book which also features a very simple & easy to understand alignment system.  A really solid dice mechanic, layout, and much more. Best of all  'SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Core Rules' are fully compatible with the other  'SURVIVE THIS!!  Core Rules' systems. Allowing one to run both  'SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide' & 'Vigilante CIty Core Rules - SURVIVE THIS!!' together. 
So a dark OSR  supernatural superhero campaign is easily done. And that's one of my goals with this..  'SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Core Rules' By Josh Palmer & Eric Bloat is a solid addition to an OSR DM's tool box. 

'SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide - Core Rules' By Josh Palmer & Eric Bloat Is Available Here 

OSR Review & Commentary of The Sexual Holocaust Adventure By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchploitation role-playing game From The Red Room

 "The scenario takes place in a fictional town, Hammettville, located in the surrounding area of a large metropolis - such as New York -, known among its inhabitants as Crime City, and it should be set from the early 1970s to mid-1980s, as those decades are more in line with the kind of horror movie being emulated."

As with every other Red Room scenario, this is a sandbox-style adventure with enough information and plot seeds to last from a one-shoot to a small campaign. Sexual Holocaust includes pregens and player handouts, so it can be run without much preparation."

The Sexual Holocaust Adventure By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs is basically a love letter to the Eighties European horror films and this includes the early Clive Barker Hellraiser films. And in point of fact The Sexual Holocaust adventure could be viewed as a love letter to Clive Barker's literature & films  across the board. There's also a sub genre of European horror  films known as Giallo. Reading through 'Sexual Holocaust' there's a different vibe as a part of the undercurrent here.  And in point of fact adventure feels like if  a combination of the film 'Seven' & 'Hellraiser' had a child then 'The Sexual Holocaust' would be the wretched child.
And that's the fact that The Sexual Holocaust adventure wears it Pulp roots on it's sleeve. This is especially true of the 'Spicy Pulps' of the 1920's & 1930's even though 'The Sexual Holocaust' takes place in the early Eighties or even today. 

And even though 'The Sexual Holocaust' adventure takes place during the Eighties it could with a bit of work be transported to the 1930's.  The lay out for 'The Sexual Holocaust'  is solid, the fonts are readable, etc. 

'The Sexual Holocaust' is a rather nasty adventure that draws its party into a sexual horror  adventure that has happened but is still on going which is going to draw your party into it. The NPC's are well drawn & very 3 dimensional. And these are not people that you really want to invite to Sunday dinner. Instead these are folks who are at the center of demonic activity and debauchery. 
'The Sexual Holocaust' is one of those modern adventures that I'd say lends itself to an urban setting more then any other. So we're looking at London, New York City, Los Angeles, etc. Basically anywhere with an unhealthy amount of a demonic worshiping subcultures & cults. Where the knowledge of the supernatural is a part of the modern landscape. Now I haven't run this adventure.. yet but for the  Wretchploitation role-playing game 'The Sexual Holocaust fits the bill in spades. This isn't an adventure for the kiddies at all! And not for some adults to say the least. 'The Sexual Holocaust' is an adventure that will have ramifications for a horror campaign for years to come. 'The Sexual Holocaust' is going to take more then a few sessions & for a DM who knows how to spin the adventure it could be used as a mini mid level campaign. Expect a high body count with this one! 

The Sexual Holocaust Adventure By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchploitation role-playing game Is Available Here. 

OSR Campaign & Adventure Commentary - B1 In Search of the Unknown By Mike Carr Remix With SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City & WWII: Operation WhiteBox By Peter C. Spahn Session Report II

 

This blog entry is going to pick right up from yesterday's right here. So the player's PCs last night in the first part of the mini Con got far more then they were expecting in B1 In Search of the Unknown By Mike Carr Remix 1939 pre WWII game. They came upon the mangled remains of a G.I. Robot & then the magic mouth's kicked in;" The east mouth speaks first, in a booming voice: "WHO DARES ENTER THIS PLACE AND INTRUDE UPON THE SANCTUARY OF ITS INHABITANTS?" After but a moment, and drowning out any attempted reply by the party, comes the reply from the west mouth: "ONLY A GROUP OF FOOLHARDY EXPLORERS DOOMED TO CERTAIN DEATH!" Then both mouths will shout in unison, "WOE TO ANY WHO PASS THIS PLACE-THE WRATH OF ZELLIGAR AND ROGAHN WILL BE UPON THEM!" " 

Our party's gadgeteer started to repair the  G.I. Robot which was actually Jason's replacement PC. And for balance most of his weapon's systems were out of ammo. But Jason rolled to adapt his systems and could use any ammo his PC's ran across. And that's when the PC's ran into the bodies of fellow adventurers who then came to life. These are zombies under the control of the nine kings buried in the lowest levels of the dungeon. Some machine gun fire made short work of the zombies but PC's were convinced that there were Nazi alive deeper in the dungeons of  Quasqueton. we're  using a lot of gear & options from  OWB001: WWII: Operation WhiteBox By Peter C. Spahn

But so are the bad guys & the PC's took machine gun fire as they entered deeper into the first level of the complex ! And the players called time out as there should not have been any Nazi alive?! So how did the Nazi get deeper into the complex of Quasqueton?! That's when the PC's heard the familar laughter of  Sturmbannführer Hoffrichter and  his vampiric  SS Troopers!  And that's when the players put it together. They left Sturmbannführer Hoffrichter staked out for the sun. That's when the players met Steven Hoffrichter (brother to Sturmbannführer Hoffrichter0   the necromancer & cultist along with his rat like familiar Herr Colin. Cue Reanimator theme music here! One of the players remarked that he hates the Hoffrichter family! 
Steven Hoffrichter has some very distinct advantages with his bevey of mutant animal troops both living & dead waiting for the PC's! This is all thanks to the weird science of  SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Into The Sewers!. This title goes deeply into adding in a huge variety of Anthropomorph options. 
There also a surprise villain coming up in tomorrow's game! Stay tuned!