Gamma Runner Blues - Old School Commentary On The Blade Runner 2049 Film Trailer & More S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Adventure Connections

" I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."
Roy Batty Blade Runner '82

So the new Blade Runner 2049 trailer broke from Twentieth Century Fox or whomever is call themselves that name these days. Like so many other folks I was sort of excited about it, but these days nostalgia is so thick you can cut it with a spinner. So why is the Eighties nostalgia so in vogue? Personally I think its because folks are so scared about humanity's future that they're looking to the past of their youth for solace and perspective. One of my teachers in college would have said that this was the perspective of an empire on its last legs. But that perspective brings up another bitter sweet memory of old school gaming. Turn your way back machines to Nineteen Ninety Four &  the director's cut of Blade Runner was hitting Block Buster's shelves. Old school gaming was full swing, errm no it wasn't because there had a blow out with friends over Cyberpunk 2020 vs Gamma World second edition. See our little gaming community was in the middle of a heated Gamma World 2nd edition campaign. And then this other DM wanted to come in & start talking trash about our campaign in college. Nerd rage has always been with the hobby folks and its not pretty. This hobby attracts some very strong personalities. Words were said & our 'friend' got what he came for other players. At least for a bit because the players drifted back to our table after about a month or so.

So why were we using Gamma World Second edition for a Blade Runner style campaign? Well there are several reasons why it works. The technologies are all there from flying e cars to androids. Especially those androids which were in full use in the Gamma World timeline. We used that timeline that appeared in Dragon magazine to play in the Shadow Years.

Tyrell was the new upstart company producing far more life like android workers while mutations were appearing all over the place.  A.I. had come into its own and the interstellar community was quite used to dealing with the many aspects of both androids & robots helping them in the blackness of outer space. You get in on some of the updated versions of this campaign that I did for Stars Without Numbers based partially on the film Silent Running here, part II here  & finally part III here  
We were also using Metamorphosis Alpha first edition for the ship board action as well for this game.  In our game campaign the Delos corporation was the older and standard model. The debacle at the Delos resort had pushed things in a direction that caused a world wide panic reaction to the androids. This being one of the factors that forced the android cryptic alliance faction's hand to help start WW III.  Delos also manufactured the androids for a little star ship called the Warden, no not that one the other one!

But not only is it possible to use Gamma World second edition to fill this sort of a campaign out but Mutant Future can also be used to expand or possibly run this sort of a campaign completely these days.  There are more Blade Runner/Gamma World Advanced Dungeons & Dragons connections.
The other factor that no one ever talks about it is the planar & dimensional gate experiments that were built into the old Dragon magazine Gamma World timeline. This is where the old school AD&D connection comes into S3 Expedition To The Barrier Peaks. Way back in the Nineties we had seen an interview with Gary Gygax where he talked about the fact that the space craft in S3 Expedition To The Barrier Peaks  isn't the Warden of James Ward's Metamorphosis Alpha first edition fame.  In fact this was written up in the Drivethrurpg add for the module;"
A Ship Called Warden. The story of "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks", begins with Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), a science-fantasy game that James Ward was designing in early 1976. When Gary Gygax saw some of Ward's "rough notes", he decided to "introduce the concept" through a tournament scenario: "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks".

"Barrier Peaks" is about a spaceship crashing into the world of Greyhawk. Gygax was very clear is saying that the ship was not the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha: "The size and the technology in this vehicle should make such speculation quite misplaced, in fact. The downed space ship is far too small, and its science quite different from that of the famed starship Warden." The connection between "Barrier Peaks" and Metamorphosis Alpha is thus more of a thematic one."
So what's the deal with this Warden? Yes it was on a mission of exploration but could there have been far more going on below the surface? The answer is yes! There was experimental time & space research happening on board this version of the Warden. Notice I said this version which for our games would come into far more focus deeper into the campaign in '98. But that's another blog entry.

So what we did was to have a gateway through time and space tying this Warden back to our campaign someplace aboard the ship. The A.I.'s were experimenting with planar & time travel to alternative worlds and it was a great way for us to bridge the AD&D 1st edition game with our Gamma World second edition game. It was also a great way to slip in some android NPC's into Greyhawk working their own nefarious agendas. Plus there was an alien presence on board working its own agenda behind the scenes that caused problems for the android NPC's and the adventurers themselves! And it wanted through the gateway to Earth!


The PC's couldn't let the alien bastard get back through the gate! There had to be a way to seal the gateway? They eventually used one of the atomic batteries they found and blew themselves, the Warden, and the aliens to kingdom come! It was a great way to end a campaign run like tears in the rain!


Keep em rolling folks &
  there's more to come!

Guns, Gunpowder, & Pulpy Sword & Sorcery In Old School Campaigns & Retroclone Systems.

Guns, Swords & Sorcery, & old school gaming! The mind boggles as we tackle one of the most controversal topics in the OSR & Dungeons & Dragons style campaigns. Black powder and the application of technology!

First of happy birthday to Jeffrey Talanian of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea fame. Which begins my entry for today & the on going battle that I've had with friends over that most controversial subject Gun powder in OD&D,AD&D 1st edition, and its attendant clones. So I'm all for this sort of thing because I've played as well as DM'ed lots & lots of Lamentations of the Flame Princess & Dark Albion. Both of which have some very nice black powder fire arms rules all of which go back to the foundations of D&D.
So I spent my Sunday going over black powder rules with my systems guy Ed again for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

There are a few systems things that we've found, first of all the laser crossbow is the highest damage threshold weapon in the game right next to the radium pistol. Now the black powder rules in both Lamentations of the Flame Princess & Dark Albion. Will not break the game system  in at all. Now by the same token the conversion rules for six shooters and the Boot Hill rpg weapons from the Dungeon Master Guide for first edition are also perfectly tuned for AS&SH style of game pulp adventures.

By the same token Warriors of the Red Planet & indeed the whole gambit of  Night Owl Workshop's products   will also work but care must be taken with some of the heavier weapons such as dynamite,grenades, etc. this also goes for Boot Hill as well.


But I can just hear the gnashing of teeth and rending of vestments out in the OSR about this subject to which I would love to direct your attention to two of the Appendix N authors Robert Howard & Clark Ashton Smith. This is especially true of the Robert Howard's Cthulhu mythos stories which are modern pulp stories and considered classics of their time. Some of these cross back & forth with other alternative time periods & I've seen them used time and again for cross over adventures with D&D. This is something that would work very nicely with Raiders! of The Lost Artifacts.

Now this also dovetails nicely into the Clark Aston Smith Poseidonis stories for which there are elements of higher or advanced technologies. Well there's an easy way of handling that which goes right back to Lamentations of the Flame Princess's Carcosa or World of the Lost From Lamentations of the Flame Princess

But what use is all of this to the Arthurian/Boot Hill style Stephen King Dark Tower stuff you posted yesterday? Well, there was another variation on this theme that demonstrates the power of technology on a Dark Ages society & its not any of the classic Star Trek episodes. In fact it predates them by a century or so. I'm from Connecticut & we New Englanders have a claim or two one of which is that we're smack in the middle of Lovecraft country. The second notion that we have is that we've got a stake in the classic American author Mark Twain. His classic A Connecitcut Yankee In King Arthur's Court while a satire & somewhat comedic demonstrates the follies of using black powder & technologies in a Early Middle Ages

setting.


But there's more too it then that, here's a condensed version of the plot ala Wiki;"

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Some early editions are titled A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.
In the book, a Yankee engineer from Connecticut is accidentally transported back in time to the court of King Arthur, where he fools the inhabitants of that time into thinking that he is a magician, and soon uses his knowledge of modern technology to become a "magician" in earnest, stunning the English of the Early Middle Ages with such feats as demolitions, fireworks, and the shoring up of a holy well. He attempts to modernize the past, but in the end he is unable to prevent the death of Arthur and an interdict against him by the Catholic Church of the time, which grows fearful of his power.
Twain wrote the book as a burlesque of Romantic notions of chivalry after being inspired by a dream in which he was a knight himself, severely inconvenienced by the weight and cumbersome nature of his armor."
You can read the whole Wikipedia entry here

There are three reasons why this book is really important to the discussion, the fact that the Church takes it upon themselves to make the protagonist a target. The use of black powder in both applications in a civilian setting, and the use of black powder weapons in warfare with knights more specifically an alternative Arthurian court (sorry folks but its Twain's version of the Knights of the Round Table so its considered by the fans as an alternative court). Comedic or not it demonstrates the dangers and advantages of not only guns but advanced technologies in an Early Middle Ages style of setting.
More to come and keep em rolling!

Gunslingers, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyprborea, & More Commentary On Steve C.'s 'Arthurian Twist' Campaign & Actual Play Events

So last night about four A.M. after I got back from my regular game of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea I got an email from Steve C. and he wanted to talk about Arthurian mythology and Celtic legends. Sometimes that how these things begin small & work themselves into a bit of an OSR  frenzy. Steve had  seen the Steven King Dark Tower movie trailer that came out last week.I'm surprised that it didn't get more attention in the OSR but there you go.

You see way back in 1987 or so it wasn't that easy to get a hold of any H.P. Lovecraft or some of the other Appendix N fiction from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide. But everyone's mom, grandma, dad,etc. had a copy of Stephen King's The Stand. And since I was both the Arthurian guy & the Stephen King fanatic I knew that the Dark Tower: Gun Slinger stories were connected with 'The Stand'. My adopted uncle had made damn sure that I had copies of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction sent from New York State after he finished with them. There are five stories that constitute the original novel heres' the Wiki breakdown:

The five stories that constitute the novel were originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction:

• "The Gunslinger" (October 1978)
• "The Way Station" (April 1980)
• "The Oracle and the Mountains" (February 1981)
• "The Slow Mutants" (July 1981)
• "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" (November 1981)

All of this would come in handy for the 1987 Stephen King games. My uncle also sent me the first edition of The Dark Tower :The Gunslinger by Stephen King. The Dark Tower first edition novel with the great Michael Whelan cover that I had for many years in Boston. Now gone the way of so many treasures as ash in an apartment fire. 


The blurb from Wiki contains a bit of information on the first edition cover.
This is the front cover art for the book The Dark Tower - The Gunslinger written by Stephen King. The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., or the cover artist, Michael Whelan.

So what's this got to do with old school gaming? Everything because even back in middle school we knew that there was a connection between the Arthurian legends & the Gunslinger stories. So if it was good enough for Stephen King & Gary Gygax then it was good enough for us. You see way back when after reading Dragon magazine we knew that Gary Gygax & his players were mixing in cowboys from first edition Boot Hill into Greyhawk. So we took it to the next step & mixed in Book Hill with the Arthurian NPC's in Deities & Demigods turning King Arthur & his knights into gunslingers. There was also a healthy mix of Gamma World second edition thrown into the mix as well. So what does all of this have to do with Steve C. and his recent Arthurian Twist?


Well, Steve C. had questions about an NPC from that old game at the library way back in Torrington. It seems the players have run afoul of a certain time traveling gunslinger villain from our old days. Now they need to find a very special shooting iron from an abandoned ghost town that time sort of moved on from.

Now 'Merlin' has sent this party of of Roman cataphracts , Hyperborean thieves, Amazon warriors, outlaws, wizards,Keltic necromancers,warlocks, & cut throats after that shooting iron that we left in that abandoned ghost town so many years ago.
But that place is a half world location under the direct control of the 'Fey' forces of evil and the deserts around the ghost town are the playground of demons, specters, & worse. All of these under the control of  a very nasty version of Morgan Le Fey drawn directly out of Deities & Demigods.

Its been her group of mercenary trolls and their captain troll giant captain  that the party has endless trouble for. This has led directly to several PC deaths at the hands of this evil bastard and the backs of several Hyperborean warriors being broken. Will the PC's ever return to Hyperborea & England? Only the wily Merlin & the fiendish DM Steven C. knows the answers to that. If the recent Dark Tower movie trailer had this kind of inspiration on Steve then I can only imagine the types of horrors the players are in for.

Giant troll (Russ Nicholson, AD&D Fiend Folio, TSR, 1981)
Keep em rolling folks.

This blog entry is for entertainment & educational  purposes only. This is not an attempt to violate any of the copyrights or trademarks of the properties written about. This is for a table top role playing campaign & none of the game systems or publishers there in are responsible for the content. Artwork is used without permission and comes under the terms of fair use. Concepts and ideas are copyrighted to the author.

Review & Commentary & Review Of The Free O5R Adventure 'Guarding Galaxy XXX 'From Kort'thalis Publishing For The Alpha Blue Rpg System Or Your Old School Science Fiction Campaigns

Venger has been working hard to make the Alpha Blue his brand of sleazy mature(ie Adult) science fantasy and fiction rpg visible in the wilds of the rpg market. You've got numerous resources & source books, etc. including a set of free rules under the dubious title Alpha Blue Quickie. I've used Alpha Blue numerous times to help fill in the gap in science fiction or fantasy campaign or when I needed a location for a 70's style science fiction adventure or even a rest stop. Yeah its good & original for just that sort of thing as well as fully functional system.

Now Venger Satanis is a guy to ride the trends & with Guardians of the Galaxy Volume II riding high on the coat tails of the first Marvel block Venger would be putting out his own version for Alpha Blue. Except its not!?!
Nope its a free adventure for Alpha Blue that takes some elements from a Guardians style school of sci fi comedy but puts a whole different spin on it.
"You wake up out of cyro sleep to find your party up to its ears in trouble and adventure;"The soldier tells the leading man type that the galaxy is in grave danger - Thargons have pissed off the Romulyns who had a truce with the foul Myrmidons who never really saw the point in befriending the
Zandarians and had just recently pinky-swore to uphold the freedom of the Azhanti Cresh. In a nutshell, this small corner of the universe is about to blink out of existence unless someone takes out the
team who's supposed to defend it - the guardians of the galaxy!
Rory blinks a few times at the impatient sergeant waiting for an answer to the question - will you help us
- and proceeds to lay back down in the cryo-pod. The sleep shield slowly lowers over his body and back
he goes to snooze town.
At that point, sergeant Kaufman realizes the PCs are also awake and that they've been at least sort of listening to his spiel. "Well, what about you ..... want to come with me and save the galaxy or go
back to bed?"
If the PCs need any more convincing, the sergeant  informs them they've racked up quite a debt in back
taxes and freezer fees since entering hibernation. 1,843 credits… each, and that's in addition to what
the PCs owed before entering their cryo-pods (1d6 x 1,000 credits in the red). Saving everyone's bacon
would go a long way towards erasing those debts. Before leaving the cryogenic facilities, there's a ringing sound. The ringing is coming from inside one of the opened pods. One of the PCs is getting a phone call. Lifting the red phone from the receiver is enough to answer the call.

Yes that's right the Guardians of the Alpha Blue universe weren't available so your going to have to do! Things go sideways for the PC's from there. The ride is weird and quite wild, all of this in only about ten pages. Venger's writing is up to its usual standards and the adventure plot moves along for a free adventure its well done and easy to incorporate into your favorite science fantasy system.
Make no mistake this is a Venger Satanis production so the adult and mature themes are front & center in that Eighty One 'Ice Pirates' sort of way!
But its very well done for what it does and what it does is serve as a beginning grab by the scrotum introduction to the Alpha Blues system. Its not pretending to be another gaming system or parodying or copying Marvel, this straight to the vein Alpha Blue.
Its quick, its dirty, funny, and a straight up beginning adventure. Its not dancing around its adventure plot or anything. It takes the players straight into the sleazy weirdness that is the Alpha Blue rpg system. So in that it succeeds in spades.  Guarding Galaxy XXX could be & should be used with other gaming systems especially West End's Star Wars or even gasp Traveler or one of its retroclones. Why because they're several adventure hooks that are scattered throughout the adventure that can really bring home the sleazy of 'Guarding Galaxy XXX'

So for a free introductory adventure you could do worse then grab a copy of 'Guarding Galaxy XXX' some friends with a warped sense of humor and bring the sleazy mature party of Alpha Blue's seedy galaxy to them! Adults only!
GRAB THE FREE ADVENTURE GUARDING GALAXY XXX RIGHT HERE

Commentary On The Road To S3 Expediation To The Barrier Peaks As Campaign Fodder For Your Old School Campaigns

Happy Saturday morning to everyone! Hope your Saturday is going good & you've got an old school game or two going on. So last night I was on the phone with my old school systems guy & friend for over thirty years Ed. Ed & I have been friends for a long time, we game together, fight, make up,  we went to middle school together,etc. you know the drill right if you've seen Stranger Things. If your lucky enough to have an Ed in your life then you know that they're a pain in the ass but worth it for the friendship. We're still friends after all this time minus the alien slugs and all that rot. Anyhow we were talking about S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. There's more here going on then simply the adventure module itself & that's the hook for the placing of this module.


"The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird and terrible monsters of an unknown sort. This western area, particularly the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes, has long been renowned for the generation of the most fearsome beasts, and it has been shunned accordingly -- save a handful of hardy souls with exceptional abilities. Within the last few months, however, a walled town not far distant from the area, and four small fortresses as well, have been destroyed by mysterious attacks!"
So the last few months the Grand Duchy of Geoff has experienced a rash of attacks and its been concentrated on a walled town & four small fortresses along the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes. Wait a minute there's an entire campaign's worth of mini adventures right there. No seriously here folks there is a an entire prequel of sword & sorcery action with alien beasties happening in either Greyhawk or if I was doing this in Hyperborea. Specifically this would be happening along the edges of the mountain  possibly near the edges of Keltic/Pict holdings. The  Grand Duchy of Geoff would be some little back water court with a mix of Picts & Kelts who have been hit by invasive invaders from beyond the stars.  There are a few reasons to go this route and one of these is the foreshadowing of S3 and the fact that the PC levels for the adventure are high because this was a competition module for  the 1976 Origins II gaming convention in Baltimore, Maryland. This situation would introduce science fantasy concepts to D&D players. Eventually this whole hot mess of a stew would become Metamorphosis Alpha first edition  after James M. Ward had shown TSR his notes & gamers would be dying by the score forever after. But back to the campaign idea here.


The PC's might be adventurers who are drafted or warriors who have had their villages burned & families destroyed. This 'invasive mysterious invaders' situation could take PC's from first level all of the way to seventh or eighth depending upon how its played. The PC's might be encountering  veggie pygmies way before making it to the crash site of the Warden. So are there various tribes & monsters running around the campaign setting causing all kinds of havoc? I not only think so but this could well be the situation leading up to the module. So are there tribes of monsters who have settled in the area that need to be cleaned up??!

I was reading the Drivethrurpg story about S3's origins & something from the past jumped out at me;"Origins (III): A City of the Gods. There may have been one other inspiration for "Barrier Peaks". In 1976, Rob Kuntz and Gary Gygax explored Blackmoor's "City of the Gods" when Dave Arneson ran a session for them at TSR's Dungeon Hobby Shop. Gygax's Mordenkainen and Kuntz's Robilar rather famously wreaked havoc on the City, got in way over the heads, and barely escaped with their lives.
As it happens, that City of the Gods was actually a crashed spaceship!"  Right how many times has this happened to dungeon masters where players have crashed into areas and caused all kinds of weirdness but this also inspired a question. Who else has reached the Warden before the PC's & have they managed to recover artifacts & technology? In fact S3 could be used as the centerpiece for an entire campaign build in either Greyhawk or Hyperborea.


Photo by  Gun Powder Ma

Getting back to the prequel idea here, PC's might have to deal with several of the events leading up to S3 & this could present seers, scribes, druids, shamans, etc. with dire prophetic dreams & more. In fact all of this could be taken in a completely different direction. Take the entire above plot and drop it into Dark Albion or Lamentations of the Flame Princess!? Now S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks entire adventure's plot  becomes the center lynch pin for Dark Albion's Rose War! If we add in Dark Albion Cults of Chaos then suddenly those star gazer cults make a whole lot of sense. There might be far more sinister factions at work here exploiting the downing of the Warden. But where to place the Warden in Dark Albion?


After some careful thought, I'd actually go with the jungles of Dark Albion's Africa where it can have all kinds of influence and perhaps become the basis for a campaign setting expansion. This could also be an opportunity to use World of the Lost  by  Rafael Chandler.
But tread very carefully with the Warden in Dark Albion because it could potentially completely unbalance the campaign unless the DM decides to destroy it after the PC's explore and exploit it. This might not be a bad option at all. Because once its gone then the star gazer cults might be the only source of knowledge that the PC's have for certain trinkets and artifacts leading to all kinds of DM exploitable situations. There's also the cargo cult aspect of the Warden as well in which rulers, kings, etc. might be depending upon the star gazers for 'another bringer of treasure from the sky'.



Ten Ways To Exploit S3 Expedition To The Barrier Peaks

1. Monsters everywhere?! Where are all these horrors coming from its the end of the world. Sprinkle monsters from the Fiend Folio or Monster Manual that are not normally seen in the region! 
2. A pack of Land Sharks destroys an entire village and the PC's have to destroy them. 
3. Cults of chaos have gotten a hold of a Warden artifact or two and wrecking violence on the countryside. 
4. The fortresses have been destroyed by the Elemental Evil cult who is taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Wardens appearance. 
5. Several minor nobles are using artifacts from the Warden to take advantage and make war on their neighbors 
6. Some very dark and dangerous has awoken from the Warden and has been attacking the fortresses along the borderlands. Could it be the dreaded brain lashers? 
7. Your party isn't the only ones to have seen the monsters? Several bandit gangs have some of the artifacts and need to be taken down. 
8. Orcs have never been seen in this part of the country why are they hear now. 
9. A minor escape pod is actually a mini dungeon location and must be dealt with. 
10. Several nobles from far lands are actually crewmen from the ship who have begun to cause local trouble and might challenge the PC's rulers. They could have access to dangerous artifacts and magicks and its up to the PC's to stop them.

Review & Commentary On 'Pay What You Want' OSR Adventure 'The Monkey Business' From Disoriented Ranger Publishing For Labyrinth Lord & Your Old School Campaigns

"Something steers deep in the jungle. Rumors of a strange drug start making the rounds … and then things start getting really hairy. Even the cannibals are upset. Monkey Business is a wild ride for Labryth Lord or other OSR retroclone compatible games."
So in the last twenty four hours I've had the patience of Job dealing with a few things at work and the very nice author/designer Jens Durke. This is a viciously fun old school adventure with lots of added on extras including random generators, a whole boat load of bananas dungeon location setting material, and some apetastic drug dealers, smugglers, and more. Monkey Business is available through Drivethrurpg as a pay what you want OSR title for Labyrinth Lord.




This module is packed with lots of neo OSR weirdness and right off bat your lead down the ape hole;"an OS compatible mostly setting agnostic sandbox module about ape organized drug traffic and flying feces. It
got way bigger than I thought it would and I hope it’ll bring you some joy. I’ll use Labyrinth Lord TM as the goto system here and it’s more like an adventure location instead of an adventure.
There will be some hooks to get the players involved, too. I’d like to thank Mark van Vlack for giving me the inspiration, an ear or two and his pen (plus his Random Monkey Table, check
out his monkey table in Appendix 5!).
This is not a work of science but a work of pulp. Don’t expect biological accuracy or anything. Indian, Amazon or African jungle? I don’t care, it’s all one hot mess. Easy enough changed
if you know better (and care), easy enough ignored by the rest. But, you know, this also has drug dealing apes and mushroom pygmies that want to get eaten and some magic. There is even a dinosaur somewhere in there, so going with “pulp fantasy” on this one is a safe bet anyway." "
And that's exactly what it is part adventure location setting book/part adventure with a wild ride of strangeness that has far more in common with "The Juggle Book" on acid then it does with Planet Of The Apes even though it does remind me of that classic film in some respects. This is balls to the walls gonzo done with an even old school lethality & a dangerous balance. The material here is Labyrinth Lord or  B/X Dungeons & Dragons style oriented towards a mature audience as the author sometimes uses the 'f' word with some regularity and lots of drug culture references. The adventure design is tight and centers around the effects of one drug as it filters its way (sort of) through out the adventure, its locations, its environs, and its NPC's. The artwork is public domain throughout most of Monkey Business but not all. There are a few pieces that really bring home the gonzo over the top nature of the adventure but not in a bad way. This makes Monkey Business a perfect add on for both Mutant Future and Apes Victorious but there will be a bit of adjustment needed for some of the encounters because of the possible inclusion of modern weapons and technologies from those Goblinoid retroclones systems.


Because Monkey Business has been created for Labyrinth Lord its easy to adapt and twist in many ways for your favorite old school or retroclone systems. The plot is part adventure tool kit & part setting book with a healthy dose of adventure thrown in. There is lots of uses for this one. For value this is one of the best 'pay what you want' titles to come down the pike in a while. I'd give this one a healthy five out of five. Its that good and that nice.

Sword, Sorcery, & Low Level Holmes Dungeons & Dragons - Dungeon Locations For Your Old School Campaigns

'Can your PC's survive the deadly horrors of the ruins and dungeons of a demon haunted world where anything can happen?' Well, they can if we delve into the past for some help with Holmes Dungeons & Dragons.

So I've way behind on my blog entries because ultimately work has been busy as sin & has me running across the countryside. The whole time  my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea has been on going with the characters shipwrecked onVenger Satanis's The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence . The black demon haunted sands, purple & strangely hued jungles, & tentacled terror filled environs have landed them in the temple of Nodens just shy of their ultimate goal. The problem is that I don't have the time to flesh out the temple of Nodens the way I want. Well fortunately I've got a bunch of experienced dungeon masters and old school friends to point me the way.  Not only can Holmes point the way on scaling the encounters for first level PC's. But its got a sample dungeon or two that can really help fill in those old school weird pulpy gaps. This includes being a stand in for a certain temple that was originally a wizards tower that was converted into a temple during the time of the Green Death plague.  There are other lower level ruins & dungeons scattered around my version of the islands.

 The Sample Dungeon in Holmes ala The Tower of Zenopus was incredibly important to a certain generation of gamers. Its iconic, incredibly easy to run and has great potential to really set the tone for first level PC's.Its easy for them  to get a handle on that pulpy sword & sorcery vibe that seems to really echo through Holmes. Another dungeon that I want to have the PC's explore is  "The Sample Level in Underworld & Wilderness Adventures" by Gary Gygax there's just something incredibly iconic about it that begs it to be run with low level PC's.

When I was around my preteen years I taught a group of much younger gamers who had a book called What is Dungeons & Dragons by John Butterfield, Philip Parker, and David Honigmann. It is was published in the U.S. in 1984 & before that the UK in 1982. Well within that book was a little dungeon called The Shrine of Kollchap. 

I ran my uncle's kids through this dungeon several times. They went on to be dungeon masters in their own right.  The shrine has a bit of everything for a dungeon master looking to really sprinkle on bits & pieces of the old school D&D feel without the completely lethal edge that comes with the turf. What's really nice is how easily it is to modify out for games like AS&SH. These dungeons can keyed so that Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea will provide all of the necessary stats and monster profiles to set up & spawn any of the horrors for this campaign to succeed.
Finally there's the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album By Gary Gygax which has for many years had a love affair among old school players & fans alike. Included as a part of the coloring book is a dungeon that is ultimately a part of the background of the coloring book itself. All of the monsters, creatures, adventurers are all keyed into the book's setting. Now here's the bit about this dungeon, its actually pretty deadly & lethal! It also follows the Holmes edition dungeon very closely. There's a great break down from the OD&D boards by Zenopus & even more details on it. 

 This dungeon could be used as a mid point island location with a multi planar twist enabling PC's from AS&SH to experience some of the more iconic & pulpy D&D elements without polluting Hyperborea's unique setting. This means that the dungeon might be a nexus dimensional point or gateway for Hyperborea into a sword & sorcery Greyhawk. But this is going to be for a much higher level point in the campaign.

Down & Out In Ignarh - A Warriors of The Red Planet & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Hybrid - Actual Play Event

"Deep in the Thoolian marshes something ancient & valuable stirs! Can a group of rag tag outlaw adventurers from across the solar system and beyond  survive the machination of an evil that may not only consume their world but their very souls?!" But first they've got to make it out of the city alive!

So for the last couple of months I've been really quiet about my Warriors of the Red Planet & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea for a Mars Campaign Setting. I used
a post Colonial Mars of Burroughs, the Northwest Smith stories (1933–1936) by C. L. Moore & the Mars stories  published between 1940 and 1964 by Leigh Brackett. And using this in conjunction with Clark Ashton Smith's Lovecraftian Mars along with a healthy dose of Edgar Rice Burroughs just to stir the pot further. The real backbone of last night's game was developed back Feb around the second which you can read here.

The influences for this one including some of the political & religious elements can be found in this blog entry.

So the 'Har's ha'(roughly translated this is the laughter a green man makes after a kill) or the English version of the name is The Hard Timers. They are a gang  of   Stellar Legion Hyperborean, Venusian,  Martian outlaws, adventurers, & veterans who have been looking for the at big score on Mars. They robbed a couple of banks, scoured some of the ancient cities, & generally have gotten themselves into deep debt. A few things about the 'Har's ha' is that they use traditional Hyperborean & Martian weaponry ie laser cross bows, void swords and the like. They been hiding out in one of the polar cities until some of the heat blows over. So last night they hear about a lone survivor whose come out of the Thoolian swamps mumbling something about a lost city & an ancient treasure.  So they decide to head to the hospital in Ignarh the capital of C.A. S. Smith's Mars to speak with the poor soul. Ignarh the capital of C.A.S. Smith's Mars is a decadent den of ancient inequity & Martian sleazy.
They meet with captain Jerry Soulth an atomic rocket jockey straight out of C.L. Moore's North West Smith stories or should I say what's left of him. He's not quite all there anymore. The lights to his soul have gone out. He speaks to them in a matter of fact monotone way telling them of the ruined city in the swamp and of the great treasure but then he fades away into babbling insanity. The Martian empaths & mentalists shoo the party of adventurers away as they try to restore Jerry again.
C.L Moore's Works Can Be Downloaded Here
The party's Black Gate warlock goes off into the local dens of inequity to do some checking where the rest of the party can't go. The player was surprised when he was met with stony faces and blank stares. He's got contacts among the local party of terrorists but they won't talk with him about it at all.


He reported back to the party about his findings and this spooks them right out of their skin. When the local political rabble rousers don't want to talk about the mysterious city in the swamp that isn't supposed to be there then you've got trouble. That meant they had to go to Bradbury. The party doesn't like Bradbury because he's an insane Red Martian scribe that they've used from time to time. So down into the disgusting streets of the city they go almost getting robbed by the local thieves/assassins guild for not paying the 'toll' they find Bradbury with a group of other Red Martian scholars in some dive called the Jeddak's Pleasure. This is not a good sign.  The party wants to pay Bradbury for information on the Thoolian swamp city. He offers to give them the information on the recently risen city in the swamp for free. Also not a good sign at all.


He tells them of the forefathers who came to Mars to begin life in the solar system and they were like unto the gods.But they were arrogant & made war with several of the others who were already here. The gods grew angry when they attempted to make life here. They placed them asleep and smote their city deep into the bowels of Mars. That was eons ago but now it seems they have risen from the depths but what of the treasure?! Oh they were rich beyond compare to be sure but beware their wrath. Outside they run into a group of Green Martian warriors who have a blood depth against the Old Timers and it becomes a running battle out of the city. The city guards became aware of murder & mayhem!


Will they make it out alive? Will they find the mysterious city in the Thoolian Swamps? What secrets does it hold?  Tune in Next Week!

1d20 Random Encounters In Ignarh
The Capital of C.A.S. Smith's Mars

1. 1d6 Rocket jockeys on leave looking for a good time and willing to fight anyone they run across hopped up on powdered 'Martian Rocket Fuel'. They have 1d100 gold on them and heat guns 
2. 1d4 2nd level Martian thieves with short swords looking for trouble and easy pickings 
3. A pair of Hyperborean scholars looking for adventurers to help them with a dig out in the red sands 
4. A pair of Green 2nd level warriors on a blood feud quest 
5. A lone Red Martian black gate sorcerer looking to start a riot among the human colonists 
6. A minor Martian princess/ thief on a mission to gather the brains of two humans for her black wizard master. 
7. A drunk mentalist performing tricks for the locals whose actually a Stellar Legion agent on an assignment 
8. A thief on a mission to steal the plans for a new rocket car from the humans 
9. Human 3rd level black wizard looking for relic technology weapons and supplies but quick with his ray pistol. 
10. 1d10 Red Martian prostitutes on their rounds (see appropriate table for harlots and trollops). They will sell information for 4 gold pieces. 
11. Lone human scientist on his way to an important meeting with a piece of relic technology that could make him millions there are assassins after him. 
12. A pair of city guards that are actually Black Martian pirates in disguise. 
13. A wizard selling Martian swamp joy juice for 5 gold pieces a bottle. He's actually looking for sacrifices for his latest project. 
14. Alien traders working for the MiGo looking for certain pieces of their lost technology here. 
15. Scores of Martian pilgrims foreshadowing the return of the 'Old Gods' and the end of the human colonists 
16. Pair of wicked Hyperborean  fops/swordsmen looking for duels to test their mettle against Martian metal. So far no one is taking them seriously. 
17. A pair of Deep One space pirates in bubble helmets looking for 4 Atlantian colonists missing in the city. They are dangerous rogues and sorcerers thousands of years old. 
18. 1d8 drunk Martian party goers out on patrol. But these are actually part of the thieves guild looking for likely targets. 
19. Red Martian minor noble on a quest for his princess that is hot headed and honor bound to find her. He's more then willing to get into a sword fight or two. 
20. A black gate wizard looking to slay a few humans  to prove a political point

Commentary On S1 Tomb of Horrors 's Nega Dungeon As Sword & Sorcery Campaign Build Anchor

So last night I put my focus on the excellent Beyond The Black Gate Blog's
Sword & Sorcery Greyhawk entries from 2010. If you haven't read those I would strongly suggest you do. They really do refocus the classic Greyhawk campaign setting into a viable sword & sorcery setting perfect for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. But reading through them got me thinking about the original Tomb of Horrors adventure (1978) by Gary Gygax. Now over the last couple of days I've been rereading a lot of Clark Ashton Smith & turning over in my mind how S1 is put together. Where its placement is and its form and function. This relates to my sword & sorcery version of Greyhawk which doesn't have quite the same style as Beyond The Black Gate's S&S setting because of its relationship with AS&SH.



I've been putting a lot of thought into Acererak the power behind S1 Tomb of Horrors, I've reviewed & made another commentary about S1 a while back.No I've been thinking about Acererak's rise to power & what function the Tomb of Horrors might have on the greater world around it. What got me thinking about this was reading through Wiki on Greyhawk characters;"Acererak first appears in the original Tomb of Horrors adventure (1978) by Gary Gygax as the main adversary. One of the areas in the Tomb is a "Chapel of Evil", described as "obviously some form of temple area - there are scenes of normal life painted on the walls, but the people have rotting flesh, skeletal hands, worms eating them, etc."^[2]:5 The adventure described him as "a human magic-user/cleric of surpassing evil" who took the steps necessary to preserve his life force as the lich, Acererak."  Now supposedly he was/is a half fiend which fits the Howard ideals for villains. So going on that could the Tomb actually be a celebrated right of passage for warriors,adventurers, & kings that have come to a cross roads in their careers or reigns? There might be a bit of the Aztec mythology about it.

Imagine if you will that the Tomb of Horrors is part of a world religion whose form and function is to keep the 'universe' moving. Occasionally it needs the blood of kings & idiots to keep the machinery oiled. Acererak the Devourer is described as a cambion which makes the traps, tricks, etc. all part of the torture & torment of those who enter the Tomb as a part of the machinery of the place. All of this might be part of a grand event where the souls of those who enter are used to keep life moving. Entire economies & infrastructure could be built around this sort of step up. The tomb might not be isolated at all but used as a part of state instituted religion ala some of the set up we've seen in various Robert Howard Conan stories. This could explain who resets the traps, why their maintained,etc. " The player characters must battle their way past a variety of monsters and traps, with the ultimate goal of destroying Acererak." But why?!? Could Acererak the Devourer actually be a sacred king whose a symbolic figure head who for the last eight hundred years has been a title given to various victims?Those who become the next victim of the demi lich's religion? Could the PC's actually be the ones to replace the demi lich as the next rex Nemorensis? Could the soul of the hero or last man standing be the fuel for the spirit of the demi lich? Yeah, I think so. It puts a whole different spin on the proceedings as only the most cunning, dangerous, and intelligent might be able to navigate all those tricks and traps. Acererak the Devourer might be a  "dying and reviving god" whose inner mysteries actually depend upon adventurers,outlaw,& kings being stupid enough to navigate his creation. Given the number of rulers in history whose egos would trap them this sort of an event. S1 would have a waiting list a mile long. In fact this whole thing could act as the center lynch pin for an entire campaign. High level PC's making the journey to the tomb to take on its demi lich ruler for the 'ultimate' prize.



This is a guy whose got eternity to play with so not only can he expand upon his tomb but he's got plenty of time to expand upon his bloodlines, family position, and even role out monsters to guard his domains. So what does all this mean to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Well two possible things, the Tomb & is environs might be a part of one of the far flung outer regions say along the rim of  Diamond Desert making Acererak the Devourer an ancient Hyperborean ruler before the Green Death. Or more interesting the invitation to S1 is announced each year as a part of a festival in which only the bravest (stupidist) rulers are given passage through one of the Borea gates into Greyhawk where S1 The Tomb of Horrors awaits them. 

The Arthurian Twist - Arthurian Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Campaign Set Up

Steve blew back in town over the weekend & I got a chance to speak with him about his new Michael Moorcock inspired Arthurian campaign!  This old school style campaign  merges Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & Deities & Demigods!

So I spent the weekend with some friends at one point on Saturday playing Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Then Sunday I got together with some friends for a beer, once again Steve & his crew of miscreants were bending my ear about their game of AS&SH up in the upper part of  New York state. Apparently he's busted out his copy of the original 1st edition Deities & Demigods making an unholy merger of Stormbringer mythology, Celtic, & Arthurian then merging it with AS&SH. This isn't the first time I've heard this bedtime story and it goes all the way back to when I merged Chaosium's Pendragon with their version of Stormbringer. 

My apologies to the wonderful Hill Canton's Pendragon D&D campaign, but this isn't that sort of an merger. No, Steve's Arthurian campaign is a straight up crossover with the Moorcock's Warhound & The World's Pain in which  the characters are drawn into the unholy land of the machinations of a sorcerer whose seeking to block the Von Bek family in their search for the 'grail'. 

The PC's are drawn the scraying pool of an alternative version of Merlin & sent off on a mission to deal with the forces of the sorcerer. They've had interaction with the Deities & Demigod's version of Arthur and a few of his knights, the Celtic gods, & some the more dangerous aspects of Elric himself.  This version of Merlin has proven to be far more unpredictable then the PC's at first realized adhering to the 'Neutral Good' aspect of his NPC alignment in many ways. He's sent the party into harms way in Hyperborea &  Underborea a few times. The players are not sure what his connection is to Clark Ashton Smith's mythos but I know Steve and its not going to be pretty. The fact is because of the lower levels of the NPC's in Deities and Demigods they're at the absolute pinnacle of character classes in AS&SH which is right in line with that system.

I was able to weasel out a few details over beer on Sunday such as the fact that Steven has been taking many of the giants, trolls, etc. from the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons monster books such as the Fiend Folio, The Monster Manual, & The Monster Manual II & the dreaded Creature Catalog. There has been planar travel & run in or two with a crew of giant troll mercenaries who really loath some of the party. There are eight players in this game & all of them are experienced players with long pedigrees in New York state, Vermont, and Canada. The party is a mix of Roman cataphracts , Hyperborean thieves, Amazon warriors, outlaws, wizards,Keltic necromancers,warlocks, & cut throats. In other words the party is sort of the scum of the Earth /damned souls one and all !

Giant troll (Russ Nicholson, AD&D Fiend Folio, TSR, 1981)

There have been two party wipes so far but this seems to make the players all the more eager to get into the next part of the adventure. They're next mission is the recovery of a certain set of nails from a fortress in Arabia. More to come as I pull out more details from Steve C.