Review & OSR Commentary On Talismundia Region 04: The Western Vales [Western Region] Talismundia, Region 05: The Shattered Realm [Central Region] Talismundia, & Region 06: The Falling Empire [Eastern Region] From James Mishler Games For Your Old School Campaigns

 "The next three maps from the Talismundia Campaign, the middle tier of the nine regions, are now available:

Talismundia Region 04: The Western Vales [Western Region]
Talismundia Region 05: The Shattered Realm [Central Region]
Talismundia Region 06: The Falling Empire [Eastern Region]

That's the southern half of the continent of Magnaregia; next, the three maps of the northern portion of the continent of Meridiarcanum, which will complete the Talismundia Region maps!

I've also added the 'Peoples of the Cold Steppes" PDF to Talismundia Region 01: The Cold Steppes; the "Places of the Cold Steppes" should follow soon."

James Mishler Games  just dropped Talismundia Region 04: The Western Vales [Western Region] Talismundia, Region 05: The Shattered Realm [Central Region] Talismundia, &  Region 06: The Falling Empire [Eastern Region]. These campaign setting maps are slightly different then other rpg setting maps that we've seen. This review continues the first part here on the blog. 

This is because these maps  highlight the serious OSR monster regions. These campaign maps are like instant campaign settings that you can drop into your own old school & OSR games.  These maps continue and expand the citystates of the lands of Talismundia. This is because these lands have a political scene that is dynamic and highly dangerous; "The world of Talismundia  is eternally stuck in the midst of a Late Medieval-Early Renaissance-Old West cultural, political, and technological phase.

Ancient civilizations and their histories go back tens of thousands of years, and that's merely what the sages know, not counting what has been lost.

Modern civilizations are built upon the ruins of an unknown and perhaps unknowable number of previous civilizations, the ruins of which are now buried beneath the feet of modern settlements and strongholds, either occupied by the descendants of those lost civilizations or monstrous creatures who have moved in since.

The treasures of those long-lost civilizations are there for the taking “ whether lifted from dusty, empty ruins; looted from the vaults of the (often decadent and degenerate) descendants of the original inhabitants; or won through wit or blade from the monsters that reside therein.

The world above and below is a patchwork of petty states  there a kingdom, there a republic, hither a theocracy, thither a tribal confederation. Now and again, for a few decades or centuries, an empire might arise, but such is rare, as magic  the great equalizer  of the fantasy realm “ is ubiquitous, though never grossly common.

And so wandering adventurers make their way from one realm to the next, looting their way through ruins, paid to be mercenaries, reduced to thievery, or maybe, once in a while, even acting the hero (as it might suit them). Perhaps, when the gold loses its luster, and the jewels no longer sparkle, the wanderer might take up their sword or wand and seek to conquer a kingdom “ or even an empire “ for themselves." 

And that's the whole cloth of world of Talismundia where the DM or players can customize the whole cloth of the settings. The maps and cartography are very well done. These are really nice maps & easily useful for over all campaign design and placement. James Mishler will be expanding the peoples, setting, and more of  Talismundia. But for the moment we  can expand and design our own versions of these settings using these fantastic maps. 
These campaign settings can easily be used with Castles & Crusades with little issue and would make an excellent Late Medieval-Early Renaissance-Old West cultural, political, and technological phase campaign. So if one wants a 'black powder and pike' campaign with lots of fantastic races and monsters  Talismundia might be the answer.   For Castles & Crusades this campaign has a highly compelling setting that can easily be incorporated into your games with the inclusion of the brass gateways scattered throughout  Aihrde to allow easy access. 

So I think that Talismundia might be worth looking into?! In a word?! Oh yes! This is a great set of maps by James Mishler Games that works on a number of levels to create a compelling game world for your old school or OSR campaign. 

Amazing Adventures Rpg Session - Face The Giant Bugs! Investigation of

 The PC's went up against a group of wrestlers & they survived!  But the wrestlers were out for blood! There was no reason for this?  So we started looking into the reason behind this explosion of violence. 
We were investigating & we're getting close to dealing with a force that was behind the violence within the wasteland! This session picks right up from the last session here on the blog. 

As we investigated the TV station that was a front for something. We went looking into the TV station & came face to face with giant mutant cockroaches! These things came up from the toilets as a swarm. We retreated into the hallway and threw in a few shock grenades! Then it was back into the bathroom! And we finished off the bugs leaving a mess for the TV station janitor. The bugs weren't done! 

Something was off however because our biggest fighter started to attack us. Jameson Saint John got a strange look in his eyes hit his best friend in the face! We knew it had to be the mutant roaches. The player failed his saves earlier. And from the hallway there were a horde of nasty small goblin like monsters. Our party retreated to snap our friend from his fugue state. We identified these horrors as Gibberling & these horrors are definitely under the control of 'something'. Our cleric Father Calahan was injured by a sword cut from one of these things. 

We began to search for a 'dimensional gateway''s energies and the readings were through the roof. These readings were in line with the bass gateway that we've encountered before. This is how we ended up on this post apocalyptic wasteland when we went though brass gate in The Ruins of Ends Meet. 

This picks up because  Battle Arena of Mr. Millennium adventure is back on the table top! There's more wrestling coming this coming up! 

OSR Review & Commentary On Voidhaven Outpost (MicroRed version) Rpg By The Red Room Crew

 "Voidhaven Outpost is a science fiction role-playing game inspired by Babylon 5, set entirely within a gargantuan space station at the edge of known space. The setting was originally conceived as a supplement for Wretched Space, a space opera sourcebook for the OSR game Wretched RPG. This standalone version has been adapted to use the MicroRed rules, a streamlined and condensed form of Red, an OSR-compatible system. While this book contains all the necessary mechanics to run a full game, the complete Red rule set is available free of charge in digital format at the Red Room store for those who desire additional information. Voidhaven Outpost draws from space opera tradition, it is not a hard science fiction game. It favors intrigue, action, and adventure within the confines of a vast and volatile station rather than interstellar travel."

 Voidhaven Outpost (MicroRed version) rpg is a self contained rpg built on the Red Rpg system from the Red Room. This rpg clocks in at two hundred pages because it is literally a self contained Science Fiction rpg. Everything one needs to run a Void Haven Outpost campaign is contained within it's pages. 
Voidhaven itself is a sprawling space station that is in point of fact a self contained adventure or campaign setting location. The station itself is sorta of Babylon Five meets Deep Space Nine with lots of Red Room 'adjustments'; "At the Federation's outer edge, Voidhaven Outpost looms, a vast station caught in a tug-of-war between control and disorder on the Outer Rim' border. It's a crossroads of peoples, plots, and rivalries, where every corridor and back passage holds a tale; every glance conceals a secret. Step into this starlit frontier, where the next twist could tear the threads of existence apart."  The PC's are deeply going to be involved in the day to day of the station's place in the cosmos. 
 PC generation is fast,simple, and reliable in the OSR style of Red Rpg system development. I'd say about 10 to 15 minutes of generation and then quick play. You've got everything from Androids to Knights of Caydonia available.  Adventure wise it could be anything from smuggling to full on diplomacy on the part of the PC's. 
This is literally intergalactic adventure straight outta of the gate with the PC's going deeply into the deep end of the pool straight outta of the gate. This game doesn't mess around. The skill system is simple and elegant with the usual flare of the Red Rpg system on point here. 

Make no mistake  Voidhaven Outpost is straight up space opera done in the Red Room flare. The central ring of Void Haven is the adventure setting right on the player's PC's doorstep. The station is the center of the point attracting all kinds of factions of the galaxy.  And this is the dichotomy of the station and the huge Red Room contrast. Voidhaven is in stark contrast & the high ground of the Red Room's Orbital Decay setting.  Because humanity is the johnny come lately of the galaxy. 

 Orbital Decay lays it out that we're late to the stellar scene.  Voidhaven outpost is the center point for the factions & politics  of the galaxy. This is an out and out space opera while Orbital Decay is 'by your bootstraps' interstellar scene & nasty space based horror. Voidhaven Outpost is straight up table top space opera & dangerous interstellar action. This is not a problem. These two Science Fiction rpg's can easily be combined. Void Haven is well written, very easily to get your players into and has a great vibe. Is it worth your time? 

Voidhaven Outpost is the light in the darkness of space and awaiting your PC's! Grab this one for interstellar adventure action! 

OSR Review & Commentary On Play Like A F*cking Boss By Venger Satanis From Kort'thalis Publishing

 "Once you get your slimy tentacles on Play Like A Fucking Boss, roleplaying your character will never be the same...

If the chief aim of RPGs is to create immersion, then taking a handful of numbers and stats from a character sheet into a dungeon isn't going to cut it. Not by a long shot, hoss."

"The PC you've generated (or were handed before the game) is a cardboard stand-in for any actual characterization that might have take place. When it comes to your one job at the table, play like a fucking boss!" 

Venger Satanis ran a new Kickstarter for Play Like A F*cking Boss a month or so ago. And it's now appearing on Drivethrurpg coming up this week.  Play Like A F*cking Boss By Venger Satanis is a DM book right from outta of the gate. Believe it or not the book & advice is solidly done. The book has tons of advice for the DM or players to take agency with their rpg games. This advice goes through a process of walking the DM step by step through how to run their games better, faster, and to get their campaigns to last longer. The advice takes the form of hands on and process for the dungeon master to move their individual adventures and campaigns forward! 

 Play Like A F*cking Boss By Venger Satanis moves the DM into the slot of the  adventure space & the look as well as the feel of a Gonzo campaign. He walks the DM through step by step adventure creation to get the maximum amount of coverage for their setting. There's lots of advice on tons of getting into players deep into the immersion of their games. This is done through examples, walking the players through the campaign steps, and more.  Lots of this advice what we see in Venger Satanis's Cha'alt. 

 Play Like A F*cking Boss By Venger Satanis has solid writing, good layout, and really nice editing. The material here takes the players and DM into the deep end of adventure & campaign creation. I think it's a solidly done supplement & worthy of your attentions as an OSR player or dungeon master.

Thirteen Parsecs: Beyond the Solar Frontier Rpg By Jason Vey & The Arduin Grimoire rpg - Through The Nexus Gate -

 The party got it's chance to do some salvage on a strange planetoid. They came into conflict with strange ancient mecha on the world. The party came face to face with ancient defensive and guardian cybernetic forces. This blog entry picks right up from April 26th's entry. 

 

 The party wasn't prepared for the Mi Go who were awakened by all of the action around their ancient ruins. The mecha were run by strange alien brains and gave the party trouble. The Mi Go added in psychic action to the mix and it gave the party pause. These aliens were guarding a strange dimensional gateway! And the adventurers came down hard on the Mi Go! Mecha were destroyed & then they started seeing the giant Yellow Signs around the Nexus gate! 

 The Mi Go then pressed forward on the party of adventurers! They came in wave after wave! They fought valiantly but had no wish to go through the Nexus gate. They concentrated on the Mi Go pressing the swarm away from the gate! 

 

 So we had the party out flanking the Mi Go and pushed past them. They don't want to give up on the gateway! They moved back to their ship for more ammo and perhaps to nuke the site from orbit! We ended here! 

OSR Commentary On Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique & Castles & Crusades rpg Campaigning. Session Three Report

Our party in our Clark Ashton Smith Zothique campaign adventure in  the ruins of Xylac! The dungeons of the damned and the devils of  Thasaidon, lord of seven hells was one where we survived by not taking one piece of treasure. Instead we got the artifact we needed and cast the spell on the scroll we were proved with. This was after parleying with a fiend who was feeding on the bones of the royal family of Prince Zotulla.

We left only to find ourselves on an Ilcar trader ship after being stranded out in the Zothique wasteland. Our party has dealt with the sand zombies that started tracking our adventurers. We found ourselves putting these undead things down. We were able to find ourselves in a nameless port after hiring on to a Naat merchants caravan. The party made a few gold pieces from this small job. 

 The player's PC's met their royal contact and handed over the artifact. And the contact paid the party. The adventurers hired on with Ilcar traders on board their merchant ship. Now it was guard duty against sea demons, monsters, and pirates. 
The sea is hijacked with all kinds of demon powers and sea horrors. This goes right into Clark Ashton Smith's descriptions of Zothique; "Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953:

Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north-west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin."

   The player's PC's picked up pigit trade language & made another 40 gold pieces. And they came face to face with some  Basatan missionary priests. These priests blessed our voyage with pleasant weather. We watched two sea serpents of incredible size who accompanied these priests. Our own ship's  Ojhal priest was very weary of these priests but kept his counsel until they left. We made note of these priests and kept on guard. 
The seas were calm but there was the feeling that the trade ship was being watched. 

 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Battlefield of Horror & Undeath Session One Report

  Our party of adventurers tonight got in way over their collective heads as they got involved in a small scale bandit war in Rpg Pundit's Baptism of Fire rpg.  This blog post picks up here and here on the blog. 

Each of our party were members of minor Polish royal houses & so the party knew each other from court. 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit got a workout with our players earlier in the last couple of months. 

Renegade smaller royal holdings have been going bandit because of the events at the capital. This ties into the Chaos cult that has been the engine of the bandits. The party has been assembled by the older royal family who want a challenge for their children. 
This is practice for the upcoming wars among the major houses. The player's PC's cleaned out a minor Chaos cult but it took a long time. There were tons of NPC's to deal with because the rot went so deeply into the country side holdings of the player's PC's parents. 
From priests to peasants had to be put to the sword to get things back on an even kilter. 
The bandits actions increased by seizing huge swaths of land and resources. Adventurers came riding into a battle field & came face to face with violence! Today I grabbed The Pundit Files: Issue 32 – Medieval War Zone Encounters which I rolled on several times today to get the PC's deep into the battle field's aura of depravity and horror. 

The PC's had bandits and scavengers waiting for them! They attacked right out and called down the wraith of Heaven on them. 
The party investigated the bodies on the battlefield and they had a ton of Chaos mutations! So the bandits were led by a Chaos sorcerer and the party concluded this after fighting them off. 
There were bodies arranged as an occult sacrifice. And the dead began to stir! We put the undead to sword and torch. These undead didn't stop and it took us hours of game time to put them down. Between magick, miracles, sword and shield the undead were put down. God's mercy and might put the forces of Chaos to route. 
We need to figure out how Chaos keeps rearing it's head in our parents holdings. 

OSR Commentary - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room, Red Novanexus, & The New Flesh Rpg Setting

 This blog post picks up right from this blog post here.  How does one balance Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room, Red Novanexus,  &  The New Flesh Rpg Setting. 

So over the past week or so I've been going over the Red Room's Micro Red setting lately. And I'm curious to see how I can incorporate Red Novanexus  into Orbital Decay & New Flesh. In Novanexus the future is quite different from New Flesh and then there's the Glitch; "The game is set in a retro-futuristic French metropolis where a mysterious phenomenon called the Glitch threatens to unravel the city's fragile balance."

Is the Glitch trying to even off the dimensional energy of these locations. Then reality shifts and we find ourselves in the reality of Orbital Decay's setting. We've just reached the stars and the bio technology of New Flesh has accelerated with our astronauts  & colonists have reached the edge of the solar system. 
Or is Novanexus the reality of Orbital Decay with the corporation's board rooms & Ultra-Modern Plaza dazzling with Neon Arcade's VR parlors and Crystal Galleria's elite boutiques feediing the masses appetite for the things they'll never have. 
Adventuring in the harshness of space leads to the alien of Orbital Decay. 

The alien forces of New Flesh rpg is waiting out in Orbital Decay's solar system. And this means that adventuring in Orbital Decay is all about recovering alien technologies from the edge of the solar system, dealing with the corporations, and making sure that the PC's can survive.

 Adventuring out on the edge of the solar system is highly dangerous because it's perfectly suited to uncover Lovecraftian horrors out in the edges of space. The world is fundamentally changed by what's found out in space. Orbital Decay presents a future where the universe is fundamentally not what we expect. We're the 'Johnny come lately's' of the galaxy and ancient powers have already been on the interstellar scene. 

Star Without Number Revised Campaign - Mixing Trey Causey's Strange Stars & Terra Arisen rpg - Synthborg Capture Session Two

 This session picks right up from here on the blog.  We made our way to the Human Empire's fleet. 

  We popped into the Human Empire's fleet and dropped our cargo. They paid us and we moved on. 
Our truckers moved through the hyper spacial gateway. And then our navigator flubbed up on the navigational rolls. 
Things went from bad to worse! 
The truck flipped into a hyperspacial shunt. We almost slammed into a number of hyperspace bound asteroids and planetoids. 
Our party managed to instantly get deeper into the hyper spacial shunt. And then a series of piloting rolls got them into a hyperspacial shunt tunnel. We placed our passengers from the Alliance into cryo. 

We took a hyperspacial shunt tunnel into a new area of space and this was my opportunity. We introduced the Synthborg campaign as our truckers were captured by Synthborg forces and had our truck taken away after being captured by Caliban bounty hunters 

 The players seemed to think it was the Zeta Reticulan royals  that set them up somehow. The PC found themselves aboard a Synthborg prison ship and on their way too a planet side mine! The Synthborg guards were amused by the party arguing themselves. The party's cyberdeckers started getting the party loose from their cells as fast as possible. They then made their way down to the prison ship's ship's holding area to grab their space hauler. As soon as the party left the hauler came under fire. We lost FTL drives, the sensors were on line, but we lost primary controls. Our hauler made for the nearest habitual planetoid. And lots of piloting rolls were made. The hauler made planetside but it's in bad shape and systems are very damaged. 

Stormbringer rpg Session Report Three - Guests of The Dark Empire of Granbretan! The Appearance of Kane.

  Our party was herded into two cages drawn by mutant horses and our weapons were taken away. Devices were also searched for and then it was a long trip to the capital of Londra. All of the while it was a miserable trip with animal headed guards watching our every move and our party was in mostly silence. This session picks right up where we left off here on the blog. 

We were briefly paraded through the streets on our way to the capital buildings & then it was our time to brought before King Huon. King Huon, also called Huon the Immortal and the  King-Emperor, The freak of a king emperor floated in a strange 25 foot bubble of biogenetic liquid who awaited us. 

'A strange melodious voice said, 'Adventurers, mercenaries, and villains a man of royal linage awaits you. Mr. Kane wants a word with you and then we'll have our way with you ourselves' 

Waiting for us was a warrior whose face was cragged over with tons of wrinkles and two very icy blue eyes surrounded by a wreath of red hair. 'Warriors, I have need of your skills and it's a deadly quest we've got line up for you!' 

'The staff of the demon stone is an artifact of Chaos that lies outside of the purview of Runestaff. We want it! ' the voice was horse and dire of purpose. 
'The Mantis sorcerers of the  Empire of Granbretan have opened a doorway deep into the Million spheres as a part of the holdings of a powerful wizard of the empire. We want you to grab this bauble for the emperor'  

'We will richly reward you warriors' , the voice was smooth as velvet but artificially weird in it's echoes & held an icy undercurrent of menace to it. 'Gold, slaves, lands, and titles could be yours if you bring us the artifact' the speaker barked in response. 
Given our current condition within the walled cage of steel and wood we were in position to refuse. We held out a bit and asked to discuss it among ourselves! And we did. We asked for further warrior retainers of mutant stock & two wizards who were on the execution rolls of the Great Empire. Actually two other players we'd added too our motley crew of scum! 
'Granted!' What else!?' 

So what's going on here is that we're sorta of connecting this Stormbringer campaign with my uncle's old campaign from the early 90's. The retainers and prisoners are actually PC's who'd been locked up by the dark empire back in the 90's.  And one of our players had the old sheets! So we connected the two campaigns through the PC's. One of which is Abe Sentient a mutant and psionic PC whose been locked up since the end of the old campaign. 

Victorious Rpg & Wretched Epoque rpg campaign Session Report Two - The Munitions Affair

  

We got together and our game picks right up where we dealt with the last session. Our party picked up in London with the missing English munitions that were stolen last game. These munitions & weapons were used during the Franco Prussian war and were actually mecha that were tested on the front lines.  

 The war was the first appearance of Supermankind, and the Prussians trotted out personal armor and mecha.  We followed the munitions and weapons to Paris & this Paris is the campaign world of Wretched Eqoque 2nd edition. Our adventurers settled in Paris after the war. We met with several criminal bosses and gang leaders who were dealing with the 'Brotherhood of Freedom'. The "Brotherhood of Freedom" is  a revolutionary organization of anarchists, nihilists, and socialists bent on ending the society of oppression and misery.

  When the party met with the Duke of Paris things went South fast. They came face to face with the Albino menace Prince Robor Zon Bek wielder of the trifecta Black Pistol again! He was waiting for the party with his minions! The party blew up the building that they were in for revenge against the prince for his attack against our party member Marrowind. The Lawful Order of Justice and Temperance group  showed up when the building came down. We got into a tussle with them! This is when the  Brotherhood of Freedom's airship showed up! Prince Zon Bek had his airship rain destruction down on the two groups!