I'm Thinking of Quiting OSR Blogging - Echohawk's RPG Musings ,Esoteries,OSR,and Homebrew Blog Is Made From Writing Stolen From Sword & Stitchery

 My writing is what makes me who I'm as Eric Fabiaschi as  OSR blogger, dungeon master, reviewer, commentator, and even friend to the community or at least I try to be. So when I found huge swaths  of this blog Swords & Stitchery's content copy & pasted onto Echohawk's RPG Musings ,Esoteries,OSR,and Homebrew Blog. I more then a little angry & in fact I'm down right pissed. This echohawk guy's entire blog is my writing across the board. And it's been going on for years! Since 2017 as a matter of fact! Since 2017 this Echohawk asshole has been passing my writing off as his by copying & pasting whole swaths of my blog then passing it off as his own.
This guy's entire blog is my work & my content from this blog! Over & Over again this Echohawk guy has been posting my blog's content! I feel violated & horrible tonight! If you were going to fuck me over Echohawk at least you could have taken me out to dinner! Pick a month any month on this blog folks & it's my content that this prick has copy & pasted! 
Now the offending blog has been removed. Now Echohawk I will be watching you prick! 

https://rpgmusingsandesoteries.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-cosmic-struggle-in-old-school.html?sc=1675458521785#c1370692813685976547

American Nightstalker - A Neon Lord of the Toxic Wastelands Adventure & Encounter

 The PC's are conscripted by a local warlord to find the daughter of a local duke whose military influence has a direct impact on the smuggling operations of  'The Black Star Order of Nightstalkers'. The Black Stars are connected with lots of shady operations including mutant trafficking, slavery, and worse.  The Black Star  also dabble in demon worship & summoning. 

What no one realizes is that the duke is actually an Earthman who crossed over into NeoTraxx decades ago during the late Eighties. The duke's  brother is current head of the Black Star order of Nightstalkers. The Blackstars have been infiltrating the region in order to establish roots for their current batch of cosmic cocaine to be sold to the locals. The cosmic cocaine is a heinous drug that will enslave the region & is a by product of the Black Star's demonic masters. 

There are currently 5 groups of mutants that the Black Star order are using for pushers & enforcers in the wasteland. There is a 3rd level blackstar soldier/nightstalker called The Wartoad overseeing operations in the area. Any disruption in the flow of money will bring this joker running to the party. He will have 5 low level mutant nightstalker mutant guards with him at all times. If 'Wartoad' is defeated then things get worse. 

This is only the beginning as the Blackstar order of nightstalkers take it upon themselves to personally stamp out the PC's. Every other encounter will be a Black Star nightstalker assassin that will begin to dog the PC's tale until they must turn & destroy the Black Stat temple complex deep in the wastelands of Neo Traxx

Rifts: Crazy PC class adapted for Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

 

The crazy receives a nano cybernetic enhancement that completely rewires the human mind down to the neuralogical level. They gain several abilites right off the bat, the crazy can or may the character  take two Significant Actions and two Minor Actions (or five Minor Actions) in each combat round, though this does not allow a character to move further than 12 meters in a single round. They also have enhanced senses gaining a +2 DMR to all tracking, physical actions involving thier senses. The Crazy can hear a conversation over a hundred yards away with their enhanced senses. 
The crazy also gains the equivelant enhancements or mutations  of robust & permanently gain 2D additional endurance.And once per day the crazy  can also        enter a trance that gives the abilities of the fast healing mutations heal minor Wounds immediately after combat &  heal severe wounds in 2D days.

The crazy will gain 1d4 minor mental mutations see Cepheus Atom for details.The crazy will develop mental problems associated with their enhancements within 2d6 months & their intelligent scores will go down by 1d4 points reflecting their slide into insanity. The crazy also gains the mutation of biazzare appearance. The crazies as a whole are percieved as powerful but very dangerous. Many communities of the wasteland want nothing to do with crazies as they sometimes cause as much destruction as they prevent. The slide into utter insanity makes these enhanced beings both a tragic thing to watch & simply another legacy of the ancients. 

Rifts Cyber Knight for Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

 Heroes of living the on one knows where or when the cyber knights came from but these cybernetically enhanced warriors scour the wilderness & wasteland in a never ending search for peace, justice, & the right to be free. This makes the cyber knight perfect for  Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

The cyber knight is able to sense what any weapon is used against them. They may also telepathically talk with any creature within line of sight. With a thought the cyber knight  can create a psi sword capable of doing 2d6+1 damage to any creature if they fail their knowledge of 8+ throw. The cyberknight also often has relic armor & weaponry this may include a cyber steed as well. 
It is rumored that some cyber knights are able to conceal themselves from photographic & other security devices with a knowledge throw of 6+ for  1d6 minutes. There are cyberknight chapter houses all over the wastelands across uncounted worlds. 

Rifts: Techno Wizard for Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

 Techno-Wizard is somewhat of an amalgamation of an alchemist, a spell caster, and an operator.  They are magic users who have learned to combine technology and magic. Techno Wizard PC classes are perfect for  Cepheus Atom & Barbaric!

Techno Wizards can sense sense magical potential within twenty feet of relics & artifacts. These wizard inventers have an innate need create magical devices. Techno wizard  can use scrolls and cast spells, they focus on the creation of magical devices. With a Techno Wizardry  throw of +8 the techno wizard can create a technological device that uses magic as its basis & energy source. 

Cha'alt / Godbound rpg Session Report - Bite of the Crocodile God

 Over the weekend there's been a rash of interest in our  Godbound/Cha'alt campaign that's been on going for the past two years. And to a certain degree there's been movement on a faction that wasn't expected & that's the Greco Roman version of Sebek. This version of the god appeared in Imagine issue#16 back in July of '85. Why do I say Greco Roman?! Because of the fact that ancient city of Alexandria had a thriving worship in many of the Egyptians gods with a Greek & later Roman spin on them. 

In the article 'Ancient Egypt A Brief Survey' By Graeme Davis we are introduced to a rather interesting & rather nasty version of the Egyptian god Sebek with a Neutral Evil dispostion. But wait I thought this game was taking place in Arizona, Nevada, California, etc. According to Mummies.com there was an exposition in California in  1884 and this was the source of one of the past lives of a Godbound cleric within our campaign. The other source?! Imagine magazine issue #16 July Eighty five. And this also relates to the source of some of the cleric's spells which are modified versions of the 'Magic of Ancient Egypt' by Rod Stevenson. 

But wait you've got a copy of Castles & Crusades's  Codex Egyptium?! Simply put this was player preference & she wanted her Godbound to be a bit different from our other Egyptian wizard. So with a bit of Eighty five sly flourish Constaince Keely daughter of Sebek  was born into our campaign. She's in dire opposition to our godbound wizard. Three museums are up for plundering by the forces of Cha'alt to destroy the mummies of three very important scribes who know the secrets of summoning some very ancient gods back to Earth. 
Our cleric of Sebek ate one of the ministers of Cha'alt's main corporations literally. Now its a race to the museum to see if they can save the mummies of these priests. 

Review & Commentary On Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium By Brian N. Young From Troll Lord Games

"Brian Young has delivered us the sixth in the Mythos Series, bringing to life the world of Ancient Egypt. From a history of that desert land, to the mythologies surrounding its creation and the gods who carved it from the ether, the realms they ruled and the monsters they commanded. More than that, Mr. Young explores the actual geopolitical and cultural world of Ancient Egypt allowing CKs to bring their players to another world, in another time!"

When it comes to the physicality of a game book I've gotten quite picky. So when it came to the arrival of Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium it was mail call of some excitement for me. The packing was up to Troll Lords standards which is great mot of the time. We're not gonna talk about my go around with the USPS or my current war with em when it comes to delivery of game books. 
First thing outta of the gate is the index! Yeah a solid index is a must with these books if your in the heat of play. 

The layout & cartography is quite good & the book really does cover the ancient Egyptian  history, culture,periods, ruins, etc. quite nicely. The author brings his usual flare to the works & that's not a bad thing at all. The artwork is keyed into Codex Egyptium & doesn't look recycled. This book is dialed into both the players & the DM. 

The layout is clear, the writing crisp if somewhat dry but this is Brian Young's style. The author makes extensive use of his material diving in deep to ancient Egypt. He brings this material into focus for using Egypt as center stage for Castle & Crusades adventures. Its here that we get into the history, culture, & background of C&C Egypt. 

The author knows his subject but there are plenty of opportunities for the DM to build on their own imaginations & deep dives into this land of mystery or adventure. The roll of Egypt continues as we dive down into magick, religion, & the mytological core of Egypt. These are all intertwined in a dance of the divine & incredible.The role of the gods is extensive, interesting, & very dangerous! 

Is the Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium worth getting & buying?! From where I'm sitting here at the table top level as a dungeon master (I'm sorry but the term Castle Keeper rankles me as someone whose been in this hobby since OD&D. So the term is dungeon master no matter the game) the answer is yes. There's a lot of care here on Troll Lords to take Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium to the next level. 

The spells, the magick, the extension of the divine is on point for where the DM wants to take an Ancient Egyptian C&C campaign. The use of social rank is going to be key here especially if the DM wants to take a party of adventures deep into an extended campaign. Mr. Young makes extensive use of his history here in the design. 

All of this ties into the mythological & historical take here in  Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium. Why because it all ties back into the cosmology of ancient Egypt and their view of the mundane vs the fantastical. Mr.Young has simplified it to a huge extent because we as dungeon masters don't necessarily have the time to plow through anthropological texts. There are some players & DM's who will & do. Personally for me there isn't time & its one of the reasons why this book is welcomed for me. This also gets into the monsters who are extensively tied into the gods here in this book & that's a good thing. 

Because this Codex plugs into not only its own campaign setting but into Castles & Crusades own house setting of Aihrde. But can it tie into say Greyhawk or classic Mystara?! Or your own home brew campaign?! In a word yes! The designers & writers had enough brains to make extensive use of the too box approach. 

There's a boat load of appendix that allow the DM to dive into Egyptian warfare, social classes, more options, etc. This is all useful from the prospective of the DM who wants to introduce adventure elements into their games from Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium without jumping into the deep end whole hog.

Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium takes its subject quite well & seriously allowing the DM to get to grips with a well though  out & overall campaign book to work with. There's enough here to take your Castles & Crusades game to either the red or black sands lands here. If this the quality & direction that Troll Lords are heading then it looks to be a solid build upon for both OSR & the Castles Crusades fans. 

Love the Egyptian monsters here, there's a pdf of the Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium available here. The physical book is available right here. 

 

Note that this review was also done to show case the flexibility of OSR blogs whose time in some OSR fans & minds has passed. Recently I was  told that only videos would be used for the future of reviews of  OSR books & pdfs. So I personally went all in on the Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium Kickstarter. This book was bought with my own money & this review was done personally by me. There are already several C&C  expansions for Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium. I will be buying those & sharing my thoughts with you dear readers coming up! 

HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands Cycle , Dark Albion, Astonishing Swordmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Original Dungeons & Dragons, & Campaign Session Catch Up

"THREE times Randolph Carter dreamed of the marvelous city, and three times was he snatched away while still he paused on the high terrace above it. All golden and lovely it blazed in the sunset, with walls, temples, colonnades and arched bridges of veined marble, silver-basined fountains of prismatic spray in broad squares and perfumed gardens, and wide streets marching between delicate trees and blossom-laden urns and ivory statues in gleaming rows; while on steep northward slopes climbed tiers of red roofs and old peaked gables harbouring little lanes of grassy cobbles. It was a fever of the gods, a fanfare of supernal trumpets and a clash of immortal cymbals. Mystery hung about it as clouds about a fabulous unvisited mountain; and as Carter stood breathless and expectant on that balustraded parapet there swept up to him the poignancy and suspense of almost-vanished memory, the pain of lost things and the maddening need to place again what once had been an awesome and momentous place."The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath  (1943) 
by H.P. Lovecraft

HP Lovecraft's Dream cycle is probably as important to me as Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique tales especially in setting the campaigns that I've run for over the last thirty years or so. All of this comes down to the fact that I've once again been talking with friends over the use of Elves, Dark Albion, the Lion & Dragon Rpg, European history, & mythology within the context of old school Dungeons & Dragons. Sure Appendix N is a set of guidelines from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide. But 'The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" is one of his foundation novellas & it ties in directly into the dream cycles of Edgar Allan Poe & Lord Dunsany. 




The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, HP Lovecraft - Ballantine 1970


Let me see if I can catch you up on some of what's been happening in my campaigns which have been disrupted due to lots of snow. But I've been debating & working the Elven Empire's  influence on Europe & the planes through debates with players & friends via phone calls, emails, etc. I use HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands cycle as a sort of Chaotic future catch all where the D&D races retreated after the fall of Camelot.
 I've used the Lion & Dragon rpg with a number of other OSR products & its been interesting to say the least.



Because both Dark Albion & Lion & Dragon are medieval authentic its easy to slot the ritual magic, some of the races, classes, etc. into the back ground of other traditional old school campaign settings such as Greyhawk, Blackmoor, & Mystara.  And of course I put my own spin on all of these which has both its good and bad merits. D&D Elves in my games are known as huldra("hidden being") from the  Scandinavian language. They along with other beings were bred from mankind in a wide variety of capacities that were needed for various jobs.  The Dreamlands & Zothique touch the far future of Earth millions of years in the future when the world grows strange & twisted by the forces of entropy. Leng & Kaddath themselves blur the edges of time allowing their alien appearance in Hyperborea. 
"Several of Lovecraft's short stories might be understood as laying the mythological groundwork for "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" to include: "Polaris (short story)," "Memory," "The White Ship," "The Doom that Came to Sarnath," "The Cats of Ulthar," "Celephaïs," "Nyarlathotep" (an Outer God and/or Other God), "Ex Oblivione," "The Nameless City," "The Quest of Iranon," "The Other Gods," "Hypnos" (an Elder God), "Azathoth" (an Outer God and/or Other God), and "The History of the Necronomicon." Reading these short stories before "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" and consulting a map of H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands can improve the readers understanding of Lovecraftian mythos."

This also helps to explain the appearance of some of the Dreamlands places within AS&SH's Hyperborea.



The appearance & mention of 'The Sign of Koth in the underworld of the Dreamlands &  is a clear indicator of its power especially since in 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'  it was inscribed on a tower in the dreamworld  to keep the gugs from returning to upper dreamland. and as having strange attributes. It is also inscribed in the catacombs under Curwen's long abandoned house. I would also hazard to guess that  'The Sign of Koth' also keeps the Dreamlands Underworld & Underborea separated & the planar gateways closed between the two worlds. 

"The Plateau of Leng is referenced in several of Lovecraft's other works including Celephaïs, The Hound, The Whisperer in Darkness and At the Mountains of Madness, although its location differs in each instance." It also appears in Hyperborea as one of the most forboding & insane areas within the AS&SH game settings. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the authorities of Albion not only know of Hyperborea & its connection to Leng but think of the place as one of the supreme places of blasphemy & Chaos. Going over my notes from dungeon master  Peter's old Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg mash up campaign with I5 Lost Tomb of Martek I suddenly remembered the foul workings of  Nyarlathotep in the Dreamlands& Hyperborea. 


"Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, is frequently mentioned in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos tales, but his appearance here is the only time during which Nyarlathotep interacts meaningfully with any of Lovecraft's human characters. Nyarlathotep also appears in the sonnet cycle Fungi from Yuggoth." 
And could be one of the key agitators in the history of Earth, & across the planes acting as a fulcrum for Chaos that seems to engulf various periods in Earth's history. His could be the occult powerhouse behind of the most successful witch families & cults we've seen.



Adventurers who run across giants in the back washes of Europe better be prepared for the fact that other dangerous monsters often accompany them. The more time that goes on the monsters from the Chaos laced unreality of Fairy become real in our world. The troglodytes, bugbears, &  carrion crawlers are all native to the Welsh 'Otherworld'  & can easily be an indication that giant henchmen working for witch cults are about. Nodens (an Elder God)  described in "The Strange High House in the Mist." appears in Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea as well as a god of chaos in Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. 


Demons are often mentioned here & there within HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands cycle but always as a background element in some of the terrible lands surrounding the main body of countries & kingdoms. Both 'The RPGPundit Presents: The Goetia'  &  The Lion & Dragon Rpg have perfect resources for creating unique demons for AS&SH as well as the Dreamlands. Demons are not to be used lightly however as they often have powers that transcend time & space. Their wrath could bring PC 's to their knees & they could wind up locked in nightmare realms of Hell for eternity.


Several of the Conan mythos deities have connections within the Dreamlands especially those of Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demigods, & Heroes. Jason Vey's Age of Conan 

"hack"for using OD&D in the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard

along with his free 

Age of Conan II: Secrets of Acheron, are especially useful here.

This brings me to the fact that we've got wide swaths of history that is open to the dungeon master to connect to the Dreamlands. Realms of Crawling Chaos from Goblinoid Games is very useful for flesh out those interesting Dreamlands artifacts, races, and even the psionics of the Old Ones. A
 second resource is David Baymiller's OSR Library Blog which has extensive OSR resources for the mythos, horror, The Dreamlands, & much more. May I also highly recommend Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets for spells & highly valuable Dreamlands like spells, magic items, & much more.

Next time more on the horror & fury of the Formorians, their connection to the Moonbeasts, & the deep end of the PC's in this week's game!

Some Commentary On The "Alpha Blue Rpg Campaign Manager" For Your Old School Sci Fi Campaigns

So Venger Satanis put together an  "Alpha Blue Campaign Manager"which basically let's you keep track of the sci fi elements of your Alpha Blue rpg sci fi references. This isn't that bad of a work sheet at all and in the words of the designer,"Specifically, I was imagining my sleazy sci-fi RPG Alpha Blue and how it's a mash-up of so many TV shows and movies.  It can be difficult to keep a wide variety of influences in your head while running a game.  Eventually, it becomes just one more thing to juggle.  However, instead of trying to keep another ball in the air, why not write it down?"
Actually this isn't a bad idea at all. It keeps things nice and organized whist in the midst of a game and its not just useful for Alpha Blue but Traveler or any other old school sci fi rpg.


So when it comes to campaign managers I've been using these for old school gaming ever since the Judge's Guild products & campaign notes way back in 77 or so. These were some of the first pieces of old school hard copy that we used to keep track of important campaign elements. These things can come in very handy for OD&D, Gamma World, Fasa Star Trek, Stars Without Number Style games, & of course Traveler.
It seems like its common sense to use this sort of arrangement but the number of dungeon masters who don't is pretty surprising. Yet in the middle of a game they get flustered when a player tries to point out an important NPC or two. All of this relates to adventure & campaign organization, on the whole sheets like this come in very handy. This can be true of science fiction or science fantasy games where you have tons of adventure elements in play during a campaign. Factions connections with NPC's and relations to who does what or knows whom is central to keeping events and things flowing smoothly.
So on my recommendation, I'd go and down load this little nifty piece of old school hard copy to keep your old school games flowing smoothly.
According to Venger, "The "Alpha Blue Campaign Manager" will also be included in the upcoming scenario High Stakes Q'uay Q'uar, but now's your chance to get it early."


You can grab this incredibly useful piece of real world hard copy right over here

Even More Commentary On Using The OSR Resource Book Dark Albion By Dominique Crouzet & RPGPundit For Extended Campaign Play

I just got back home after a very long industrial sewing machine repair job and I want to get back to talking briefly about the extended campaign play options available in the Dark Albion setting book. PC's in Dark Albion gain a social standing and have differences in their wealth in the beginning of character generation. Now one would think that this would make it rather restrictive for campaign or adventure play. Not so because there is one great equalizer going on. The Rose War which is tearing Albion apart from within. All of the violence, depravity, courtly intrigue, and more is going on right under the PC's noses. This is a grown up game of politics and violence set during one of the most brutal times Albion's history. This isn't a joke its a fact and it also brings up the fact that the events of Albion follow the real world history of the Rose War verbatim. One might think that this would make campaign planning a pain in the ass. Not at all. Here's why.

GRAB THE PDF RIGHT HERE


Albion's version of the Rose War opens up the wounds of society enabling various classes to rub elbows and even get along together. This means that adventures can be set against or around the battles, courtly politics, and more of the Rose War. This isn't some for the DM to ignore instead its a central spoke of and theme of the book's setting. By 1st level your characters are minor pawns on the board of the war, 2nd and you've moved up in the world of Albion, and by Third level your a mover and shaker because of  the fact you've survived and your reputation follows you around for good or ill. There is a "Prior Event Table" that randomly determines backgrounds for PC's allowing their history to mesh together both on the short term and the long haul.But your going to have to expect blood and guts on the pavement of history. Even though there isn't any remotely gross or adult in Dark Albion there is a degree of uncertainty that pervades everything in the setting.



With so many royals, backroom deals, simple good old boy politics, and black magic plus demons thrown into the mix Dark Albion delivers on its promise of extended play by giving the DM reams of history to pull from for their own extended campaigns. This also plays into the idea of the domain gaming being the end all of this sort of an rpg campaign. Domain play is at its heart a beginning and Dark Albion provides a robust set of guidelines to keep a campaign going for years at a clip.


Because of the nature of the Rose War being both royal driven and such a bloody affair the PC's are going to need the favors of a royal as a patron and that enables the idea for and extended campaign within a military slant to it. This sort of a campaign supports the PC's being mercenaries and sharing an adventuring life on the road and more as they follow the progress of conflicts within the Rose War's arena  and how it will impact upon their patron. Dark Albion is the perfect hex crawling or domain level game because everything is set up out of the gate but not etched in stone as some would have us believe.



He who gets to sit on the throne are going to affect the lives of millions for generations to come. And its going to be the PC's who are going to help or hinder this effort. This is almost the complete opposite of other old school games where the outcome in a module is predetermined or completely rail roadie. There is a wide open playing field when it comes to extended campaign settings and levels. Dark Albion is an adventure setting with lots of areas just off the map that has the perfect venue for PC's to set up their own domains or to take over someone else's domain or kingdom through circumstances of war, battle, or other factors. This is another place where Dark Albion shines by providing a ton of old school resources to really show off the wide openness of the campaign setting. All in all you get a lot of bang for your buck from Dark Albion and it really makes getting that campaign going for years to come a snap.

Revisiting The OSR Resource & Campaign Setting Book Dark Albion by By Dominique Crouzet & RPGPundit For Your Old School Campaigns

Blood, horror,war, English terror, Rome, and more is exactly the sort of thing that your going to find on the fields of an alternative historical England in Rpg Pundit's Dark Albion. Good evening kids, I'm taking off a bit of time to do a quick retrospective on one of last year's most evocative and weird historical setting books to come out. I'm talking about Dark Albion by By Dominique Crouzet, RPGPundit This book puts your characters front and center in an alternative Earth's War of the Roses setting right into the middle of England. But this isn't any England that you know, oh no this is a world of Gothic horror and a setting where the heroes can and might go from being no bodies to national heroes or vile villains possibly all in the same campaign.
This is domain game driven rpg in both setting sense and the sense that it drives adventures around the spokes of the history of the game's settings universe. Imagine if Rome had never given up England, magick is very real, dark things slink at the edges of Empire, and the throne is up for grabs as the events of the Rose War cascade around your PC's.
GRAB THE PDF RIGHT HERE

So is this a domain driven setting book? You can bet your behind it is! Here domain and station are everything and your PC's can be everything from knights, mercenaries, to adventurous souls who are ascending and threading their way through the pages of this alternative history setting. There are reasons why your party is adventuring and making a name for themselves in the world. Here's the dire events of the Rose War have taken a sinister turn and the cracks in the Empire are starting to show.

If your expecting the darkness to be there it is in both the interior belly of the beast of the setting and without as the forces of the world are watching the chaos of England with malevolent eyes. There are horrors outside of the edges of the world and they want to tear the place apart even as the Empire within England is striving to expand itself.

Dark Albion breaks two very old conventions of old school role playing, one is the domain as retirement or end game of adventurers and two is that lower level PC's can make a difference to the larger campaign world. The entire setting is one solidly constructed domain level adventure campaign setting  ripped apart by internal warfare & strife. This breeds all of the opportunities that PC's need to handle, exploit, and seek opportunities that will move them past their social rank and standing. Warfare and adventure breed opportunity as it feeds upon itself in Dark Albion. The second thing is that Dark Albion breaks the old school bollocks of lower level PC's not being able to affect change in the world around them. Because this setting is built upon the War of the Roses via an alternative Earth history conceit that Rome and not the Holy Roman Catholic church was one of the prime movers of history.This means there is plenty of opportunities for the DM to use the time lines of Dark Albion to make the setting their own. Even as the PC's are moving themselves through adventures,political intrigues and more as this is built right into the back end of  the character's stats via social rank.



Right from day one in Dark Albion the PC's are going to be wheelers and dealers in the politics of the dark fantasy setting influencing their liege or expanding his influence. This gives  you have something with immediate benefit to the game's background goings on and this is an on going issue that will haunt or help your PC's as they try to navigate the events and weirdness of the War of the Roses as it unfolds.
When I say that Dark Albion is a all encompassing setting I mean it, this was and is a passion of the author and we've already got a basic adventure right in the pipeline to set up the PC's in their new setting.

DAA1 - The Ghost of Jack Cade on London Bridge From  DOM Publishing  

isn't your usual first level adventure. This is both investigation and has a bit of political goings on in the background as well; "This is a low level (i.e. intended for 1st level, probably newly created, characters) introductory adventure, that occurs on London Bridge. This is mostly an investigation adventure, without dungeon crawls (though several buildings may be explored). It would be typically run in a single 4-5 hours gaming session. This adventure will be perfect to set the mood of a Dark Albion campaign."
I've gotten a chance to read through this adventure and I would say to thread your party of players through this one very carefully and there is a chance if played wrong with some bad dice rolls murders, PC death, and dismemberment may result. Some of the conceits to remember with Dark Albion is that this isn't our world at all but one seen through the dark glass lens of fantasy and the fantastic with its feet firmly in the grounding of real world history. The setting book even gives this sort of commentary and then twists it around. This makes Dark Albion have the sort of weird almost real world history vibe so disconcerting in some respects.


Here are ten o of my reasons why Dark Albion is highly regarded at my table:

1. Dark Albion is playable with any of the editions of the world's most popular fantasy role playing game. This makes converting or generating characters a snap. It gives plenty of utility for the table top and plenty of opportunities for the DM to mix or match their favorite OSR monsters as needed.
2.   There are seventeen (17) digital maps which blends in with the setting &  real world historical events while being true to the elements of the dark fantasy aspects of the campaign setting. This appeals to both the wargamer and DM in me. That means that things remain consistent throughout the product. 
3. A playable dark fantasy setting there are frog men in France waiting to rain down Lovecraftian horror on the countryside right across the way and there is the looming threat of the other worldly and weird that bleeds from every adventure aspect of Dark Albion. Pick a cult, region, and faction then expand upon it as necessary for your own home campaign. 
4. The setting is original & has a dark take on the deities,religions,and paganistic elements of Dark Albion which means there's plenty of room to put your own thumb print upon the setting and make it yours. 
5. The politics of Dark Albion are right there and in your PC's face they're not some extraneous background element that the players are not going to pay attention to. They are literally one of the motivating factors for the adventurers to get out and adventure so they can gain an advantage for themselves as well as their liege. 
6. An original take on magick that presents both reason and reward for those who wield the powers of the gods, supernatural, and tread the pathways in between. There is some very nasty pieces of the other worldly waiting for your PC's to fall off the razor's edge in Dark Albion. 
7. England is center stage and center of the PC's world with the back ground events of real history to abet one that has been twisted by the events of a weird world War of The Roses. This makes pull from history both easy and rational to get to the next leg of your campaign but it also means that a DM is free to customize things with a dark twist of their own. 
8. Royalty is both a blessing and a curse for the PC's as the world Dark Albion takes full advantage of the dark secrets, intrigue,and worse of the War of the Roses  to draw in the adventure right into the center stage of it all. 
9. There are plenty of foreign lands, weird mythologies, monsters, lost adventure locations, and more all in Dark Albion. You buy one book and its packed to the gills with everything you need to start a dark campaign at the edge of the world and beyond in one book! 
10. Dark Albion is a game which can be used over and over to create an endless sea of OSR goodness with your favorite version or retroclone so that you don't have to be tethered to an endless stream of splat and setting books. You can use it for Lamentations of the Flame Princess one day and AD&D 1st edition on another. There are so many uses for this book that its not even funny. 

Dark Albion is one of the best game setting books  of 2015 & its a solid background to set an OSR style campaign in, with the right group of players and a dungeon master this is a setting with the potential to keep you coming back to the table again and again.

Commentary On The Free OSR Resource The Hulks and Horrors Rpg System - Basic Black Edition From Bedroom Wall Press For Your Old School Campaigns

Hulks and Horrors is a solid free OSR sci fi rpg system, the game covers an nice range of  dungeon crawling in space and the PC's are easily disposable and yet quick to generate. Now I've seen lots of old school sci fi rpg action out there with the White Star rpg system based off of the Swords and Wizardry rpg system. But Hulks and Horrors is a completely different animal. To compare and contrast the two these are very different games with completely different approaches to similar material.
White Star is daring do space opera, and Hulk and Horrors is a free OSR resource game with its roots in an already established campaign background that's part of the game here. The interstellar scene is trying to recover from centuries of losing contact with colonies, worlds, ships, etc. This is a game intergalactic dungeon crawling with hazards at every turn. Basically it can be thought of as 'survival horror' in space.
If White Star is emulating Swords and Wizardry with space opera elements then Hulks and Horrors is Event Horizon with Lovecraftian and balls to the walls dungeon crawling.  And its been free for close to a year now!


GRAB IT RIGHT OVER
HERE

John Berry III did a hell of a bang up job with the game and it plays at some interesting old school science fictional elements.  There are some great fan resources as well for the game out there such as a nice PC spread sheet right over HERE. Quick Red Shirt and NPC generator right over HERE. A randomly generated Starship From Hell randomly determined space craft complete with crew work up, mock up for the NPC's. the layout, and details right over HERE. Finally a complete run through of how to generate a PC from the ground up. right over HERE.
Nice little system built on D&D's core strengths with something akin to Traveller's interstellar travel, coupled with some incredibly useful starship, sector, and solar system generating tables. I actually like the premise of exploring dead planets,failed space colonies, and dead planets. There's something to be said for the game's approach to how it handles random tables, and gives plenty of options to how to get the most out of the game. Hulks and Horrors knows how to play to its strengths mainly dungeon crawling , ruin exploration, and monster hunting is a sold part of the background.   The extensive use of random charts is always a plus, and I do like that there are multiple options for acquiring a ship.
All in all its easy to forget that there are some fantastic free options for OSR dungeon crawling in space with a more gritty feel and solidly dangerous  NPC action going on under the guise of random charts and much more. Hulks and Horrors brings a three things to the table great alien races as PC's, an actual interesting background setting that you can shoe horn in any sci fi trope in as a dungeon or adventure location, and lots of adventure creation and location add on resources already within the game itself. All of this is done in such a way as to make it actually usable. All of this is done with fast set up time in mind for a game. Oh and it's free packed with all of the above for a ready, set go, and jump in to a game adventure very,very quickly. 

Free Old School Warren Comic Magazine 'The Rook' Issue One And David Bay Miller's " Pay for your coffins....Django and Sartana are coming!" (OSR in the American West.) Rpg System

David Bay Miller is trying to break me, he's released his popular " Pay for your coffins....Django and Sartana are coming!" (OSR in the American West.)" rpg system and claiming that this is all my fault ;-) Well you can grab it right over HERE
And tonight he's release the unusual weapons tables and such right over HERE
But I'm one step ahead of him with a perfect time traveling campaign setting from one of the coolest of the Warrren titles from the 70's with a free download from Warren with the very first issue of the Rook. One of my all time favorites from the pages of Warren publishing! 

Right Over
HERE

I know your wondering whose the 'Rook' and what does this have to do with the 'Old West'? Well the Rook was one of the very best of Warren comic magazine's self published heroes and more often then not his time traveling adventures roatated around Warren's alternative historical universe.

According to Wiki:

The Rook is a fictional, time-traveling comic book character whose adventures were chronicled in 1970s issues ofWarren Publishing's Eerie magazine and then in his own 1980s title, The Rook Magazine. He was created by writer-artist Bill DuBay in Eerie #82 (cover-date March 1977).

he Rook debuted in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror/science-fiction comics magazine Eerie #82 (March 1977). Created by writer-artist Bill DuBay,^[1] who drew the character's cover illustration, the Rook debuted in the 20-page story "The Man Whom Time Forgot!" by writer Dubay and artist Luis Bermejo. He was featured in nearly every issue of the otherwise anthological title, through Eerie #105 (Oct. 1979), missing issues #86 and 96-97. His stories ranged from 11 to 31 pages in length.^[2]

The character was then spun off into his own comics-magazine series, titled The Rook on its trademarked cover logo and The Rook Magazine in its indicia copyright notice. This ran 14 issues (Oct. 1979 - April 1982), and also included, in various issues, the ongoing backup features by Dubay (either under his own name or his pseudonymWill Richardson) and others, including "Voltar",^[3] writer-artist Alex Toth's "Jesse Bravo", writer-artist Jose Ortiz's "Viking Prince",^[4] "Kronos", "The Goblin" and writer Jim Stenstrum and artist Abel Laxamana's "Joe Guy, America's Foremost Hero!". A handful of one-time features also appeared, such as "Buck Blaster and the Starbusters", "Bolt", and writer Don McGregor's "Dagger"^[5]

Following his solo title's cancellation, the Rook appeared in eight- to 13-page stories in Eerie #132, 134 and 136 (July, Sept., Nov. 1982). He had also guest-starred in the Vampirella story "Ghostly Granny Earloose" in Vampirella#70 (July 1978); Vampirella and Pantha likewise guested in the Rook story "Warriors from the Stars" in Eerie #95 (Sept. 1978). The first four Rook stories were reprinted in Warren Comics Presents #2 (May 1979).^[2]

^{The Rook travels throughout space and time, and over  the course of his adventures in time and space he's encountered a ton of heroes, doing cross overs with every major figure in the Warren line and sometimes beyond. Its not out of the realm of possibility that he might run into your adventurers as an NPC. But that's not all.} 

Fictional History

The Rook is scientist Restin Dane, who comes from a family of scientists whose members include the unnamed protagonist of the novel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Dane gains his nickname from the fact that his time machine resembles a giant chess rook. Taking to wearing Western-style clothing and a gunbelt, he has his first time-travel adventure at the Alamo in order to save an ancestor. There he succeeds in rescuing his great-great-grandfather Bishop Dane, who accompanies him on many of his adventures, along with two robots Restin has built.

In a later adventure, he meets the time traveler from Wells' book, who is revealed to be his grandfather Adam Dane, and helps him in a war between the Eloi and theMorlocks.^[6]

In the initial stories (Eerie # 82-85), Restin appears to be romantically involved with January Boone, while Bishop Dane is involved with Katie McCall. Later stories establish that Restin and Katie have a relationship.

Many of the Dane's adventures are rough,ready, and completely cinematic and are a perfect meld for David's Wild West material. The Dane family left a whole bunch of their time castles scattered throughout time and space. They could end up anyplace and anywhere, including post apocalyptic wastelands, the wild west, the far future, and beyond. But we really don't know what the end game is for Restin and Co. I've used him in the past as a time traveling patron for adventurers. A time traveling NPC invesigator, hero, and plain pain in the rear for my adventurers a couple of times.
Because of the very nature of the character he's a really nice fit for an old west style game and his comic book exploits were some of my all time favorites from Warren.

This post is in no way an attempt to violate the copyright or trade mark of the 'Rook' or the characters of his creation. This blog entry is for educational and entertainment purposes only.