Queen Of Outer Space For Star Ships and Space Men Second Edition Actual Play

Under the So completely bad that's its good category is Queen Of Outer Space. The movie has achieved a cult like status among sci fi fans and was one of the top contenders in this afternoon's most horrible movie that we've subject ourselves to while we played Star ships and Spacemen Second edition. 

Basically I took the very basic plot of "Queen of Outer Space" and filled it in with some S&S second edition pulpy ideas. The reused props from "Forbidden Planet" gave me the idea that the United Planets expedition to Venus stumbled upon a colony of Atlan survivors ruled over by a counsel of lich queens.

 

The party was investigating the earlier disappearance of an Atomic Rocket Ship expedition from twenty years earlier. I used the fact that the planet was ruled by clones of the original Atlan women. 

The "plot" according to Wiki: 
Capt. Patterson (Eric Fleming) and his space crew (Dave Willock, Patrick Waltz, andPaul Birch) crash land on Venus and are captured. They learn the planet is under the dictatorship of cruel Queen Yllana (Laurie Mitchell), a masked woman who has banished men from the planet. In the palace, the astronauts are aided by a beautiful courtier named Talleah (Zsa Zsa Gabor) and her friends (Lisa Davis, Barbara Darrow, and Marilyn Buferd). The women long for the love of men again and plot to overthrow the evil Queen. When Patterson has the opportunity to remove the Queen's mask, he discovers she has been horribly disfigured by radiation burns caused by men and their wars. In a fury, the Queen decides to destroy Earth and its warlike peoples but she dies in the attempt. The Venusians are free again to enjoy the love of men.

The film recycled many ideas such as a planet ruled by women from other science fiction films of the era as Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Cat-Women of the Moon (both 1953) and the British Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1955). Queen of Outer Space also recycled many props and costumes, most prominently the C-57D crewmen's uniforms and Altaira's wardrobe from Forbidden Planet (1956),^[2]models, sets, and special effects from Bernds's World Without End (1956), the usual stock footage of an Atlas and a rocketship model used by The Bowery Boys in Paris Playboys (1954) that was co-written by Bernds and Ullman. The facial makeup of the deformed Queen strongly resembles the effect of being hit by a pie thrown by The Three Stooges.

Unmasking The Queen


The PCs thought that this was going to be a cake walk with the "ladies" being fairly easy pushovers. Couple of the PCs got themselves in trouble with the native "Clone Spiders" 

The swift application of blasters rendered the creatures null and void thankfully for the crew. They began to wonder who was providing some of the mental powers that allowed the "ladies" to use the spiders as guards. Even while the ladies remained friendly the party was on constant alert.

Those United Planet training skill packages sure come in handy. 



Party ran afoul pf the troops of  Queen Yllana. The Venusians count as "Space Men" page 73 of the S&S second edition rules. The troops gave the PCs quite the hard time and chased them into the Atlan underworld of Venus.

The PCs were not quite taken with the mega dungeon that ran under the Atlan colony. There were miles of tunnels and they finally made their way to an underground car that took them to the domed city of the ladies. 

THe PCs were aided by a beautiful courtier named Talleah (Zsa Zsa Gabor) and her friends (Lisa Davis, Barbara Darrow, and Marilyn Buferd).

Only to be betrayed to the evil queen by a spy among their ranks. 


The party was brought before the council of lich queens and the charisma rolls started. One of the party was going to curry the favor of cruel Queen Yllana

The party learned that the earlier expediation had been rendered down to bio material and filed away in the clone banks of  Yllana 

The party was to be executed in the morning and the Earth destroyed by these harpy women from hell. 

With several of the Atlan women's help the PCs managed to escape deep into the Venusian underworld.
There they found some of the forbidden secrets of the cruel lich queen. A Krell laboratory left behind thousands of years ago was still in operation. 
 With some clever blaster fire and a bit of luck the PCs managed to escape in time and grabbed several lady companions. They were able to cripple the Venusian warrior women's empire and grab some cool Krell artifacts.

 

Encountered: 2d4 (5d10)
Movement: 120' (40') 
Intelligence: Average
Psionic Potential: 3d4, inactive
Hits: 1d8+1
Armor: -2
Combat Skill: 12
Save: L1
Attacks: 1
Damage: By weapon
Morale: 10
XP: 15
The remains of the once great colonies of Atlantis and the inner Earth have existed upon the face of Venus for thousands of years. Ruled by their immortal lich queen council this once mighty race of warrior women is now a mere shadow of itself. They have tread upon the relics of the Krell that have allowed them to maintain a strangle hold on their citizens. The race has continued to exist by using cloning and test tube births to foster their numbers 


They are known throughout the solar system as a race of desperate peoples with terrible fashion sense and a hair trigger with a blaster. With the introduction of Earth genes the race may have a chance to maintain any decent level of civilization and technology. 


The Venusian Clone Women For Swords and Wizardry 


Because of their genetic manipulated heritage the average Venusian gains +1 to their intelligence, +2 To charisma and a +1 to Dexterity. They have a natural immunity to disease but take an extra die of damage from radiation and other strange energies. They gain a +1 when identifying any artifact of an alien technological nature due to their advanced minds.
 

Short Trailer Robotech Valkyrie Project (English Subs)

If you love Robotech then check this out! 

 Here is pompous grandiosity that actually totally works for militaristic giant mecha battles and the  super-giant mecha (SDF-1) would be perfect for this . The frenetic, almost-too-much-chaos action is a perfect fit for the all-out-space-battles/missile-­swarm dodges/urban-combat in this trailer. It needs to be remembered that the Robotech action sequences were very dynamic, which is what made it different from Voltron and other giant mecha anime of the day. Much love for the Argentinian folks  that did this.
 Not to worry I've got more 1950s science fiction space/post apocalyptic action coming up. 

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls Kick Starter

Perhaps one of my all time favorites by a fantastic team of old schoolers who know quality! Another great kickstarter of this infamous game of dungeon delving\! Please take a look at this great old school game.
According to the Kick starter page : 

When it was first published in 1975, Tunnels & Trolls opened up the role-playing game genre, showing that these games could encompass a multiplicity of ways to make this segment of the game hobby exciting. Today hundreds of diverse RPGs explore every genre, every play style, and serve every player. T&T led the way first.

In the 37 years since then, T&T has seen eight major editions with many accessory adventures and supplements. The game has been published worldwide, including translations into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and even Finnish. It had two computer games created for it, and it has influenced other games time and again. A lively fan community shares their love of the game in blogs and forums. Fan publications abound, licensed and approved by the original designer and publisher. Tunnels & Trolls is a solid substantive game that has weathered the years, worldwide, and thrived.
You can read more about this great Kickstarter right over Here

Black Sabbath Appendix N For My Space Opera Campaign

Here are a quick selection of Black Sabbath Tunes that draw me into the mood for my Stars Without Number games and the various space style old school retroclones. These were playing on the record player back in the day. 

Revisiting The Last Man On Earth 1964 For Your Old School Horror Campaign On The Dark Corner Blog

 This is one of my favorite Vincent Price's movies. The great Last Man On Earth and its applications for horror gaming. Right Over Here

Highway Men Stars Without Number Game & Cat Women Of The Moon - Actual Play

We had our Stars Without Number this afternoon instead of last evening.The players made it to the "Dynasty of worlds". We had this movie playing this afternoon in the background. 

The PCs have acquired a Phoebus Transport D63 Demeter Star Freighter ala Rifts Manhunter page. 177
The players were confronted with a small patrol group as they entered into Dynastic turf. A battle cruiser and several patrol ships appeared off of their port and demanded to see one of the NPCs aboard the ship. The players panicked and put a few ion cannon shots across the protagonists bow and then jumped to hyperspace activating their spike drive 

Exploration of  The Ruins 

 The PCs stumbled upon a weak signal in hyperspace coming from a small planetoid in an obsucre body not far from their current position in hyperspace. Exploration revealed a set of ruins from a civilization some two million years old and Altan level technologies. 

The PCs found a few canisters of nuclear fuel and a couple of giant spiders. The PCs left the place rather quickly though. They made note of the world for later exploration and exploitation. 

The crew make their way into hyperspace once again for a system controlled by Allard Technologies and Electronics. The twelve world system is a couple of days travel and they pass numerous white holes in hyperspace spewing out debris. Many systems have been destroyed by planet killer nukes.
 The PCs finally reach the system and it jammed with ships. They're given a vector and told to orbit a nearby world and await instructions.
 The PCs were asked about several items that they might have for sale. Terraforming equipment was on the list. Nuclear fuel, weapons, medical supplies, etc. All items that one would find in short supply during a war.
The PCs docked in a nearby space station and that's when they ran into a party of these beauties.
 

A group of six green faced feline beauties. Dressed in antique space suits and armed with a variety of shang guns. The group teleported in front and behind the party aboard the station. The catwomen demanded the return of the fuel which had been stolen by the party. The cat women went on to explain that the PCs were wanted space pirates and that as rightful bounty hunters the party was "prey" 

Before the melee got to be too much a representive of Allard showed up and explained to the Cat women that the PCs were under the protection of the "Brotherhood of Space" a group of like minded space brethren(ie space pirates). The bounty was paid but several members of the Cat women didn't seem impressed.   

 
Vast fleet of pirate vessels showed up in the system allowing the PCs to leave before things got ugly. The fleet gave them ultimatum comply or be blown from the sky. 
Using The Catwomen For Your Retroclone Space Opera 

This ancient race of catwomen have seen it all from their vantage point on Earth's moon. They are the product of a two million year old Greek style civilization. They are at least four level psychics with the ability to teleport without error five times per day. They gain telepathic abilities as well of at least the second level in Stars Without Number. For Mutant Future they have the telepathy mutation and gain +1 on all stats in addition to +2 on Charisma. The tribes of the catwomen have a green copper based complexion to their skin that does nothing to take away from the beauty of these savage creatures.
 The race has the lens power obsessed and conquering. The tribes of Catwomen have spread throughout the galaxy and a number of them serve within the Xplorers corps as well. They are not a well trusted race however and serve a deathless 12 level psychic lich queen. The various tribes also serve with distinction aboard pirate vessels throughout known space.
 Once per day the feline like cat women may command fire as per the ability. They may also  find the "weak points" and cast a charmlike psychic spell over a victim. The victim must make a saving throw to avoid become a thrall of these feline beauties. The racial weapon of the tribes of catwomen is a +1 dagger made from lunar steel. 

Wiki reveals the intimate details of plot of the Cat Women From The Moon Movie 

An expedition to the moon encounters a race of "Cat-Women", the last eight survivors of a 2-million-year-old civilization, deep within a cave where they have managed to maintain the remnants of a breathable atmosphere that once covered the moon. The remaining air will soon be gone and they must escape if they are to survive. They plan to steal the expedition's spaceship and return to Earth.

Through the use of their telepathic ability the Cat-Women have been subliminally controlling Helen Salinger (Marie Windsor) so she can win the navigator slot on the expedition and lead the crew to their location. Once Helen and the male members of the crew arrive on the moon the Cat-Women take complete control of her mind. They are unable to control the men's minds, but they work around this obstacle with Helen's help and the use of their superior abilities and feminine wiles. "Show us their weak points," one says to Helen. "We'll take care of the rest."

Along with telepathy, the Cat-Women have the ability to transport themselves unseen from place to place within the cave. They use this ability to steal the crew's spacesuits from the mouth of the cave, where they were left.

Using Helen to smooth things over after an earlier failed attack on the crew, the Cat-Women approach the men openly. Food and drink are brought out and a party ensues. Kip (Victor Jory) is suspicious after discovering the spacesuits are missing and confronts the Cat-Women's leader Alpha (Carol Brewster), who promises to return the suits in the morning. Kip sits alone, unable to intervene while the Cat-Women exploit the "weak points" of expedition commander Laird (Sonny Tufts) and the other men.

Soon the Cat-Women have learned how to operate the spaceship and are well on their way to success. But Lambda (Susan Morrow) falls in love with crew member Doug (William Phipps) and tells him of the plot. Carrying three spacesuits, Alpha, Beta and Helen make a break for the ship. Lambda teleports ahead to delay them and is killed by Beta (Suzanne Alexander). Kip catches up and fires several shots; Alpha and Beta are killed; Helen is uninjured. The expedition escapes and begins their return to Earth.

You can watch the lunacy of the Catwomen right over here 

The Atomic Rocket Program

The Atomic Rocket program was brought into effect  right after the Atomic Wars that devastated the Earth. These were very early attempts to explore the solar system and beyond. Many of these United Nations missions were lost. Only now have the details of some of these missions been revealed. Pax and many of the Precursor missions scouted beyond the solar system.
These lost space craft might find their way into the turf of games like Terminal Space, Star Ships and Spacemen and beyond. 

Atomic Rocket Craft
Each of the Atomic rocket craft are stripped down for propulsion, and outfitted with only the barest of necessities. These craft may have only 4 sleep pods if at all. Operating with a nuclear rocket/ion system the craft were hardy but very spartan but many of the crew do swear by them.

Crew : 5 

Hit Points :20

Armor Class: 6

Drive System -
Ion  Pulse Drive \Nuclear Fuel Drive
Combination
Many of the Atomic Rocket ships came from the plant in White Sands. It is rumored that the factories that produced these ships were lost in one night by a terrible sand storm that buried the entire factory and that it is still out in the atomic wastelands still buried. Just waiting. Meanwhile the design is still used for short planetary hops even today. 

Journey To The Seventh Planet For Your Old School Space Opera

Making its appearance in 1961 Journey To the Seventh Planet isn't widely known and its a perfect little film to pull from for a science fantasy based game..

The United Nations expediation to Uranus is a great jump off point for the exploration of the Outer planets of our solar system. There's an odd horror element to this film. The film takes place in 2001 during the Explorers program of exploration of our solar system. This is a great jump off point for an X plorers game or a dip into the past of Stars Ships and Space men second edition. 

The Plot according to Wiki - 

During their journey to the planet an alien presence briefly assumes control of the crew's minds. They awaken safely but notice that an unexplained long period of time has passed by.

Upon landing on Uranus, they find a forested land oddly like our own (rather than the cold, bleak world they were expecting.) This forest is surrounded by a mysterious barrier. One of the crew pushes his arm through the barrier, only to have it frozen.

New features and forms begin to appear each time they are imagined by the crew.A village appears,with girls the crews past.None of the crew really question,how these got there. Soon, however, the crew discover that they have been the victims of mind control by a one-eyed brain living in a cave.There, they are confronted by the "Being," whose mysterious brain cuts to the inner thoughts of the explorers and causes their thoughts to appear as mirages.Uranus is soon filled with a bevy of beautiful girls thought up by the spacemen,to go along with some quicksand, a one-eyed rodent and a really mean giant centipede. The brain plans to possess the astronauts' bodies and have them take it back to Earth where it will implement a plan for global domination.Eric does a little research on the suspected adversary. Okay, he asks Ingrid and she tells him all about the space brain (convenient). Then the explorers turned warriors don their Alaitoc uniforms and make an abortive attempt to kill the lurking monster. You have to understand, the evil presence dwells in a lair outside the forcefield. It is protected by a forest of razor sharp crystals and nightmares dragged directly from the men's subconscious. After deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, Eric and the others flee back to the artificial paradise. Unfortunately, the clumsy commander rips his suit open on a crystal and nearly dies. Now they must find a way to destroy the being before he can carry out his plan The crew finally outwits the supposedly mind-reading creature.

Using Journey To The Seventh Planet For Your Old School Space Games 

This version of Uranus has razor sharp crystal forests and ancient ruins perfect for a mega dungeon of the Dm's choose. Basically your looking at a Uranian Outpost with two separate sets of ruins. 

The Brain Creature of Uranus  For Mutant Future 

No. Enc.: 1 (1d4)

Alignment: Chaotic

Movement: None

Armor Class: 8

Hit Dice: 6

Attacks: Special

Damage: Special

Save: F3

Morale: 12

Hoard Class: VII

Mutations 
Mental Phantasm 
Possession
Phantasmal Force Warping Illusions
Pychic Force Bubble
 The Brain from Uranus seems to be a classic Cortella with a higher degree of mastery of psychics. The monster psychologically experiments on the astronauts it finds upon its world. It builds from the memories and dreams of adventurers a safe zone where it can preform its diabolical psychological experiments while feeding on the mental energies of the victim. More information on the monsters can be found on the Savage Afterworld right over Here

United Nations Explorer 12
 
 The United Nations Explore 12
Crew : 5 

Hit Points :30 

Armor Class: 7 

Drive System -Ion Sublight Pulse Drive 

Nuclear Fuel Drive sub system 

This vessel was part of the United Nations program of exploration right after the introduction of pre warp technology in 2001. The Explorers class ships were used and still are with a dual drive system for exploring the outer edges of both our solar system and beyond. The ships are still being used today as robot ships tasked with the most basic errands. 
The ships feature a two tier deck system and elevators that go between decks. The ship is a model of efficiency and design able to deploy particle collectors for additional fuel consumption and collection during extended FTL journeys. Ships of the explorer class are equipped with modern sleep pods, and limited jump engines. This allows the ship to make four to six jumps before parts must be replaced 

 Ten Reasons To Use Journey To The Seventh Planet For Your Old School Space Opera 

1. The Urain Outpost has two sets of ruins that would make excellent locations for megadungeons especially for both Terminal Space and Stars Without Numbers 
2. The whole movie has a "Ten Little Indians" mystery/horror feel to it 
3. Because of the fear monster encounters in the movie there are opportunities for a DM to introduce new monsters that might never appear in his campaign 
4. The Psychic force field surrounding the Uranus location makes a great dead man trap for unwary PCs 
5. Explorer 12 style ships make an excellent class of ship to link Mutant Future and Star Ships and Space men Second edition appearing right before and after a nuclear apocalypse 
6. Perfect PC film because its not widely known at all. 
7. The film makes a great mid level Xplorers adventure with plenty to keep the PCs on their toes 
8. Perfect opportunity to link this adventure with PCs past adventurers ala Q style encounters with past NPCs and others
9. This adventure can really enable a DM to build upon the past relationships that the PCs have so that they can be explored or exploited later
10. It has a Brain from Uranus! 

Revisiting Horror Express For Your Old School Horror Gaming Campaign On the Dark Corner

Up for consideration is Horror Express! A great Chris Lee And Peter Cushing movie! Climb aboard!
All Aboard! Right over Here

Book 1 of "Legends of an Honorable Mage" Jennell Jaquays Cover Art Kick Starter

This looks like an excellent kickstarter for a fascinating book and the excellent art of Jennell Jaquays 

For those of us who aren't in the table top fantasy rpg know the name of Jennell Jaquays is one of the legends in the business. From her work on a wide variety of TSR to the iconic Judges Guild products Ms. Jaquay's work speaks for itself. Now we've got an incredible kickstarter featuring her work.

The premise looks very interesting,from the Kickstarter page: 

Lectricis® Publishing is getting ready to publish the first book of Rachel Oranger's new trilogy, Legends of an Honorable Mage.  (Rachel Oranger is a pseudonym used by the author.)  We're here to create the cover art, and we would like to work with Jennell Jaquays.  Some of her work is shown in the video.

Jennell Jaquays is an illustrator with 15 years of experience with computer games.  She has also done covers for Dragonlance anthologies, among other game cover work.

Our goal is $3,400, which would yield approximately $3,060 after Kickstarter-related fees. Jennell's initial quote was $2,500, depending upon complexity. This leaves a margin of roughly $560 for the cost of backer rewards and shipping. This is a slim margin when one considers the shipping costs for poster tubes and heavy books.  We are hoping to exceed the goal and add physical books to lower reward tiers.  (This paragraph was updated 12/29/12 in recognition of the update posted the same day.)

 The rewards go from there. Please take a moment to take a look at the author and artist kickstarter page. If you'd like to see this a reality then please pledge.  They've only got fifteen days to go. So please go take a look right over Here.
 

Update on the backing incentives: if you back the project at $9.00 or higher, you'll get an ebook of the finished novel! $24 or more gets you that, the wall poster of the cover art and also a desktop wallpaper version of the image. Go get 'em, people! 

New Years Evil - Storm Bringer Rpg New Year's Actual Play

Every holiday I run a Stormbringer one shot. I kept converting everything over to Swords and Wizardry in my head.Jesus I've got six players for this event and the only thing that came to mind is BOC - Fire of Unknown Origin.Once again Lawrence Schick saves my bacon. The Quest for Tyring has begun in the middle marches! So far there are six players. I'm stone cold sober with a cup of tea sitting by me running this for the guys. The PCs are running their asses off from a chaos pack at the moment.

Information on the Sword can be found right  Here And Tyrfing has a nasty history

The planar ship "All My Sins" dropped them.Basically the PCs are going to recover the remains of the sword from the tomb of Angantyr before the Chaos Pack of the Sword Maiden herself. The sword is the last relic of power needed for the grand cycle of life to continue with the creation of a new cosm. Order has an agent trying to also recover the weapon and the PCs aren't sure who or what that agent is

Two PCs dead! Got eaten by a horde of zombie Goth warriors! The other PCs used flaming oil to burn up the horde and send their comrades to the next life.

The PCs made it back to the planar ship "All my Sins". They've battled with The Hell-Horde of Chaos and just managed to flee back to the ship when the treacherous hireling struck. Actually an agent of Goldar The  Lawful whose death at the hands of Hell-Horde of Chaos bought the group time. They're raising a toast to their fallen comrade at the Four Winds bar. The Hell Horde came from Here
 

This song ties the whole campaign that I run every year together. The planar ship "All My Sins" sails both time and space touching the cycle of violence from all of the wars throughout history and all of its alternatives. Warriors are taken from the various eras by the maimed captain who telepathically speaks to the PCs. These men are promised peace in Tanelorn should they complete their assignments. The ship marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. 

Warriors move throughout the multiverse where and when they are needed. The ship is drawn to violence and points of crisis like a moth to a flame. The ship  may or may not be the body of forgotten goddess of Chaos who has been woven into this ship. All about the ship remains mysterious and lost to the mists of time. 

Will the Sins sail again? A small ivory chess piece sits by a multi tiered board in the Time Center right now. A small maimed figurine of jade sits by the board. So should she sail again? Is anyone interested in a hearing about the occasional Stormbringer campaign that sails the planes? 
My thanks to Eric Gross for all of the inspiration for this one!