Underworld Day...

Probably the last one Underworld Day related to DeviantArt artists - next pics (if any) will be connected to "random spawns" found on Google, or insolently ripped from Subterranean Design :D

Megadungeon design (preview)

Quick and simple idea - create megadungeon maps by copying / pasting / modifying plans of castles, churches, cathedrals and monasteries! This is only a preview of what can be created this way:

I'll try to complete it, post it and try to describe as many rooms as possible :D

Underworld Kingdom game report #2

Quick report from today's game:

• I decided to save life of previous PCs (one player who went home earlier could save them - none of the characters was dead - all was just unconscious - rules about it can be found here).
• Party sold two stinking chain mails looted from bandits and hired five new meatshields: Apti (female L1 Fighting Woman), Gith (one-eyed drunkard), Gork (fiddler!), Ong (deeply retarded shield bearer; once well-known poet, but his brain was destroyed by veneral disease) and Meur (young but well-equipped gambler).
• Atus got some strange and nasty veneral disease (effect of carousing table - I don't remember who made it :-( ).
• Party got info about some ancient graveyard west of the city of Aglor and went to search for it, especially that they had one 'little debt' to pay (some said that Necromancer was involved in it).
• Before party managed to reach the graveyard they were ambushed by a lone troll. After long and hard fight, in which Ong's head was bitten of and chewed (his body later ran away like beheaded chicken), Gith hit monster with a large frog (!) and Atus was almost killed, party managed to kill the monster.

Sorry for my strange and crippled English today, but I'm rather tired :D

(part one can be found here)

About Terminal Space blog...

For some time I think what to do with my first blog, dedicated to my Sci-Fi Old School supplement - Terminal Space. As you can see, keeping two blogs at the same time is not good idea - one of them is rather dead and nothing indicates that it will change in the future. My work on Terminal Space is done and now it's time for others to create additional stuff for it.

So now I'm considering closing that blog - not necessarily killing it outright, but rather merging its content with this blog - I'll repost all creative posts about Terminal Space here and put there links leading to Underworld Kingdom blog. I'm afraid that now - mostly due to the inactivity of the 'official Terminal Space website' project may be wieved as dead or inactive.

About additional materials for Terminal Space - remember to check out Hereticwerks and Sword & Stitchery for new, awesome TS resources!

(and drop me a message if you know some other blogs / websites with Terminal Space stuff)

Underworld Kingdom progress

As I stated on G+ few days ago, lately I was thrashing between various OSR-related projects. This resulted with good creativity increase but was rather harmful for all those projects - I was inventing new things but was no closer to the finish of any of my ideas. And that was kinda frustrating (and frustration often leads to suspension or even cancellation of the project).

Suddenly I realized that I try to complete Underworld Kingdom for almost 20 months! It was the kick I needed and I started to sort and arrange all my stuff and soon I began to create contents for Underworld Kingdom PDF.

Here are things that I finished so far (some of them you can find on this blog):

• Introduction (it's harder than you think!)
• Dead One character class;
• Two new stats;
• Options for Mystics;
• Rules for off-worlders;
• Rules for insanity;
• Names, quirks and prophecies;
• Rules about death experience;
• Huge list of equipment;
• Rules for magical burnout;
• 24 new spells (and still need about 20 more!);
• Over 280 alternate spell names;
• Rules about monster size;
• 33 new monsters, with detailed descriptions;
• Stats for 21 prehistoric beasts;
• Information about Cthulhu Mythos monsters in my campaign...
• ...and now I'm working on some demons (five are done and I'm not sure if I need more of them).

More to come next week!

And finally I have one bad and one good news. Bad is that most likely Underworld Kingdom PDF will be not available for free. Good one is that I'll try to make it even better looking than new edition of Carcosa :D

Ortix OD&D Character Sheet (150th post!)

Slightly altered version of Underworld Kingdom character sheer, fully compatible with OD&D.

LINK

1000 Bandits & Basilisks hits!

Today (probably today) my Bandits & Basilisks ruleset was accesed 1000th time. Thanks!

I wonder if someone use it (I don't :D At least no at this moment).

Underw... err, Megastructure Day

And again I'm running out of pics of caves, tunnels, mines etc, but still have good amount of industrial photos. If you want I may keep posting 'em.

Dickshield Crusaders

Dramatis Personae:

Jenix Estre - acolyte of Resh-Eiar.

Galia - Dead One.

Brane - off-worlder scientist, teleported to the Underworld Kingdom from his home spaceship.

Father Andrews - preacher from the Old West, who delved too deep into some mysterious mine.

Atus - mercenary from the medieval world.

Avan - shield-bearer and drunkard. Meatshield.

Medoc - swordsman and drunkard. Meatshield.

Party began in the city of Aglor, deep in one of the larger caverns of the Underworld Kingdom. They gathered some intel about adventurers that came to the west and never came back, but before they came out of the city they were ambushed by rampaging green scaly demon (I believe that its name was Rhan-dom Spawn) without eyes on its head, but with one on its... cock. After rather desperate fight, Brane managed to kill the monster with his needle rifle. Demon exploded, covering the hero with blackened, bloody gore. But who cares about little mess on his face and clothes? Show must go on.

As no one had a map, party and their two newly-hired henchmen (Atus: I can't pay you right now, but you can have ten percent of all of my share) wandered (not so) deep in the depths of Underworld Wilderness. They found crumbled and overgrown remains of some kind of old road but decided to delve into some rather unremarkable forest. Needless to say, they wasted almost two days there, only to be totally ambushed by six well-equipped bandits (chatting during watch is awesome idea :D). Avan, the guy with large wooden shield with huge dick pictogram on it was slain by thrown knife at the very beginning of the assault. Galia was almost killed, struck by a leader of the brigands (they managed to save her, however). Father Andrews threw his dynamite in the middle, but it wasn't a good throw. The last casualty was Medoc, who tried to clash with one of the bandits (but with 2 HP and no armor is not a good idea), but later all of the bandits was killed and their leader escaped.

Atus buried his fallen hirelings, took Avan's "dick-shield", stripped bandits from valuable goods (5 gp and two chain mails) and hanged their corpses on the trees. As every member of the party was heavily wounded they decided to return to Aglor... only to be lost in the woods.

They managed to get out of the forest after maybe three days of wandering around (I love my direction die :D) and found again the remains of the old road. After a day of journey they found old, crumbling shrine - seemingly perfect place to camp. Too bad that no one paid attention to the human bones scattered in it...

As all members of the party fell down unconscious, struck by ice-cold claws of the Wraith, it is assumed that they are no more.

20 sci-fi traps

1. Darts poisoned with rage-inducing toxins
2. Plasma furnace right beneath your feet.
3. Neural shredder (can transform your neural system into dust).
4. Laser-sharpened harpoon shoots from the ground when you step above it.
5. Extremely slippery fragment of the floor. Enough to break your bones.
6. Shrapnel bomb hidden in the beer can.
7. Gravity sets off and acid start flowing from the pipes in constant stream of floating drops.

8. Simple automated RPG launcher. Owner of the place clearly does not care about collateral damage.
9. Laser beam, calibrated to cut off your feet.
10. Disintegration beam (affects only non-living matter, such as weapons, armor and clothes).
11. Cannon shooting balls of ultra-fast hardening concrete.
12. EMP zap gun.
13. Color- and odorless hallucinogen gas start to fill the area.
14. Bottle of genuine Champaigne full of highly corrosive, poisonous, flammable acid.
15. Door handle connected to the electricity grid.
16. Metal robot being automated iron maiden, leaps out of his hideout and try to "swallow" you.
17. Mutation beam!
18. Gravity enhancer (from 1 to 10 G in 0.4 seconds).
19. Stuffed moose head with flamethrower in its mouth.
20. Cute little kitten, exploding when touched.

Tomorrow is the day!

Today I will run first Underworld Campaign since 2005 and first under this name and - what is more important - first with game mechanics - in the past we didn't used any dice, rules or even character sheets!

Wish me luck :D

And here is photo of my current handouts / books / prints:

Dice box, rubber hornet, printouts of still legal (quite ancient) 3LBB, Encounter Critical, Monsterless Manual, Terminal Space, Realms of Crawling Chaos, Cthulhu mythos creatures for Labyrinth Lord, some printed sheets, various notebooks with notes and house rules (can you see notebook with Qui-Gon Jinn? It's Terminal Space prototype notebook!), character sheets, Arduin Lost Grimoire, compilation of random tables found in OSR sites / blogosphere, complilation of AVES spells.

20 sci-fi locations

Well, maybe not exactly locations, but things that you can find in rooms of stations, spaceships or wrecks. Roll 1d20:

1. Sonic showers
2. Annihilation cube, about 3 feet wide, built-in the floor
3. Very small plasma furnace
4. Malfunctioning computer terminal
5. Bookshelf filled with alien porn magazines
6. Automated robot repairing system
7. Huge boiler
8. Chemical laboratory, ruined by explosion
9. Holographic projector, displaying random monster
10. Dentist's chair
11. Container with outdated (by years) medical supplies
12. Steaming grating in the center of the room
13. Malfunctioning teleporter
14. Strange, humming engine
15. Speakers emiting strange, religious chants
16. Locker with plumbing tools
17. Staked android head, screaming curses and insults in various languages
18. Jacuzzi pool
19. Large hydraulic manipulator attached to the ceiling
20. Cleaning robot wandering around the room

I have complete d100 table based on this one, but I keep it for PDF ;)

Banner for you

Use it on your blog if you feel it's true :-)
Feel free to alter and recreate it (it seems that brighter version would be better) - as you can see I'm not very good at Photoshop / Illustrator.
If you want I may send you picture of dice used to make this pic - just mail me (necro_cyber at o2 dot pl).

GM survey

Answers to questions from Zak's Playing D&D With Porn Stars.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

Games I run are 99% improvisation.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Last weekend of December 2011.

3. When was the last time you played?

Last sunday.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Postapo / ultra-tech (Blame!/Gigacrawler-style) setting, players are recently awaken cyborgs from the ancient past and they don't know about their nature.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

I invent something new for a game / draw obscene pictures on their char sheets / read my notes.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Almost everything. Noodles, snacks, sandwiches, cake... You name it.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

Never.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

I was on a date with beautiful noble woman :D

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Yes, definitely. We constantly laugh at our ideas / acts.

10. What do you do with goblins?

I haven't seen any goblin for years!

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

Ideas about spaceships, taken from Johji Manabe's Outlanders manga.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

One of the PCs thrown bucket full of human refuse out of window. Bucket hit the knight's horse in the head and killed it instantly. It was at Dark Heresy game session (on a feudal world).

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

World of Synnibarr, because of its notoriety.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Rodney Matthews, Katsushika Hokusai, Albrecht Durer, Caspar Friedrich. Other, less 'unavailable' picks would be Paul Bonner, Zak Smith (no shit!) and Erol Otus.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Yes, but maybe once or twice in my entire GM career.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

House of Dust and Ash for Dark Heresy and Power Behind the Throne for WFRP (in about 1999).

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

With both players and DM on acid. More serious - comfortable seats, big table and shitloads of food and beer.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

OD&D and 3e. Or maybe Amber RPG and Rules Cyclopedia.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Poetic Edda and Cave Story?

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Creative one, not caring about game balance and mechanics. And with sense of humor.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

Effects of illness and drug experiences.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

Exile series RPG, Outlanders RPG and mostly Dark Tower RPG.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

I don't think so.

Underworld Day

Aaaaand another set of awesome pictures. Click on image to go to author's DA site.

Nice stairs, eh?

Poll results

As you can see, most of the people want complete game rules in the book. It means that Battlestation Omega will be integrated with Bandits & Battlecruisers ruleset, but as I'm not fully convinced to this option I will also produce version without these rules (will work as ordinary supplement / campaign setting). When it will happen? I don't know - at the moment I try hard to write something every day but I'm not always successful.

If you have any questions regarding rules and/or campaign setting - feel free to ask :-)

100!

I just reached 100 watchers here. It's not bad result after almost a year of blogging (with almost six month long gap). It means much for me - I write things mostly because of inner need of creating the things but it's awesome feeling when I see people enjoying my stuff, watching blog, reading content, commenting and creating things related to my work.

Thank you all!

Pulp Sci-Fi covers

Another great graphical inspirations - 1950s Pulp Science Fiction covers by Ron Turner. Click on the image to go to the Flickr gallery.

Paperback Terminal Space on Lulu!

Do you like the new cover?

At last. Printed version of Terminal Space is available for purchase on Lulu store. Unfortunately it's stripped of most of its images (because they were granted to me for non-commercial use), but because of it file is smaller (thus cheaper).

LINK

The Blighted World of Zaoth

It seems that another potentially awesome science fantasy-related OSR blog is born. I'm very curious about it and wait impatiently for next updates and more info about it. Check it out!

LINK

Yellow City of the Empty Mountain

Click to enlarge

 

Map of location used in my Call of Cthulhu campaign. Ancient city of Yithians, ruined by Gugs. It's still possible to encounter wandering Gugs there, as well as savage tribesmen (probably originating from the Dreamlands) searching for metal scraps and possibly other valuable goods.

Opening the Door Leading to the Yellow City of the Empty Mountain (new spell)

Magic-user level 3 ritual. CoC SL: 1d2/1d8

To cast a spell, caster(s) must draw a gate on vertical, stone surface. Gate must be drawn with dust from burned bones (not necessarily human bones :D). Then caster of the spell, robed in black, must sing the invocation of the spell. If caster is holding human brain / nerve core, basic chance of success is 5%. If caster is holding yithian nerve core, basic chance of success is 50%. For each person that is chanting the invocation with the caster, chance of success is increased by 10%, but spell is impossible to cast succesfully if no brain / nerve core is used. If spell is succesful, nerve core transforms to dust, and door is opened. Each witness of this phenomenon loses 0/1d3 sanity. Door remain opened for 24 hours.

My free stuff and OCP page

I've added Terminal Space and Bandits & Basilisks to the OSR Conservation Process website. Now it shall outlive me ;)

Underworld Day

Spaceships from the Outlanders

Bio-ships from the Outlanders manga by Johji Manabe. Totally awesome!

Click to enlarge.

Poll!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but recently I try to focus on Bandits & Battlecruisers ruleset and quick (but probably rather massive) setting for it. And here goes a question - should I include complete game rules (fusion of B&B and Terminal Space space-faring rules) in my campaign setting PDF? Probably PDF will be not free this time, but even if you want to include ruleset in it, I will publih some free BnB/TS fusion files.

About setting: probably it will be exaggerated, pretentious and slightly absurd Space Opera game (currently I'm highly influenced by Multinauts and 1985-87 Outlanders manga).

EDIT: Unfortunately I can't edit poll's options now and I don't know if my question was clear - I meant complete game rules, not additional / house rules.

Underworld Day - the Megastructure (again)

There will be more of them (industrial-related pics), but not necessarily next week - unless you want to :-)