Review & OSR Commentary On Dirty Wars Corporate Armies In The Hostile Setting By Paul Elliot For the Hostile Rpg

 "​Private military contractors are the mercenaries of the Hostile setting, fighting the 'dirty wars' ... unconventional, irregular, unlawful, complicated ... 

"These forces are hired by corporations, governments and NGOs to secure locations, carry out patrols, peace-keeping, VIP escort and, more recently, full-on combat operations in high-intensity war zones. "


"This book helps you create a experienced veteran - the perfect PMC candidate. It also goes into PMC organisation and mission types, and on establishing your own PMC. New military vehicles are provided, a useful kit list and a run-down of all of the 'dirty wars' in the Hostile setting."

Dirty Wars Corporate Armies In The Hostile Setting By Paul Elliot For the Hostile Rpg is the latest offering from the prolific pen of Paul Elliot. Dirty Wars dives below the surface of the dirty world of corporate armies. The first part of Dirty Wars goes into PC creation, career events, and career rotation for mercenary character creation. 
The author does an excellent job of creating no nonsense, grounded PC's without diving into action movie cliches. Dirty Jobs takes the worry out of PC creation with easy and straight forward creation in the world of Hostile. And in the world of Hostile there are literally plenty of opportunities for a mercenary campaign according to the intro; "Private military contractors in 2225 have many opportunities for employment, not just amongst the crisis zones and battlefields of a crumbling Earth, but on the off-world colonies that orbit remote stars. The long, icy tendrils of the corporate interstellar supply lines must be protected from saboteurs, fractious colonies, economic collapse and jealous colonial authorities. Do you want a piece of the action? If you have the relevant experience and clean rap sheet, then sign up!" So Dirty Wars this gives the impression of the deep & dangerous corporate warfare world of Hostile. And it's a really good overview in Dirty Wars. 

 

Hostile's big time corporate warfare players next from Amadeus Group to Vigo's Combat Specialists. Then we get the payers & client list which are a group of mega corporation that PC's really don't want to cross in the  world of Hostile. 
And then we get into contract work and taking a job. The DM actually gets mission & adventure types with set up, victory conditions, and exacution. This is done for the DM with style. 
Then we get into the down and dirty of creating a PMC which covers;"a Record of 10 or 20, which serves as a measure of their professionalism, efficiency and reliability, important factors in attracting investment." again this is a well done compliment to the system.  
Then the 'Gear & Rules' section which gives us new weaponry, gear, and more for our PMC. And there's some neat little bits and pieces here for a party. Then we dive into vehicles for the player's PC's. 
Finally, we get a 'Creating The Enemy' section which is a small tool box for creating oppostion forces from elites to common foes. This sesction has a small selection of great NPC's ready to take down your PMC. And then we get a nice 'Mission Randomiser' generator for creating missions and adventures on the fly. Even deeper into Dirty Wars we get a Warzone Encounters which is a tool box for on the fly encounters. 
We then dive into the Dirty Wars section  of Hostile a cross section of Earth, and beyond warzones where your PMC can shine! Note that Dirty Wars is a lethal and highly dangerous universe where your a bullet away from a new PC. Dirty Wars continues this tradition. 
Given the over all sheen of Dirty Wars, I've got to say that I continue to be impressed with the quality of writing, the design ethos, the layout, and solid vision of Dirty Wars & Hostile. Dirty Wars is an excellent fit for  the universe of Hostile. The overall package of Dirty Wars is absolutely consisent with the world of Hostile. 

OSR Review & Commentary Dark Lonesome: The Ariel Sector Sourcebook By John Watts For The Clement Sector Rpg

"  Welcome to Ariel Sector! Ariel Sector is the sector to coreward (or “above” if you are looking at a Zimm map) of Clement Sector. While Clement Sector is analogous to the American “Old West”, Ariel Sector is analogous to the wilderness of the American frontier in the region of the Rocky Mountains in the late 1800s. Largely unexplored and almost totally unsettled, Ariel Sector is home to only a handful of established settlements."

" Of course, this doesn’t mean that the sector is unpopulated. It just means that there are settlements which aren’t widely known and places that a person can go to “get lost”, something that is much harder to do in Clement Sector. Indeed, it is for that reason that a lot of people came to Clement Sector in the first place and now, as the core subsectors of Hub, Franklin, Cascadia, and Sequoyah become more settled, many find it necessary to go further afield and get further away from civilization. Many of those people have chosen to come to Ariel Sector" 

Dark Lonesome:  The Ariel Sector Sourcebook By John Watts couldn't come at a better time. This book is due out for Thursday of this week but you can get an advanced preview of the Dark Lonesome:  The Ariel Sector Sourcebook.  The Dark Lonesome goes right along with last week's Clement sector adventure. The Dark Lonesome is actually home to more then a few pirate cartels & colonists who have pushed the boundries of the Black. The Ariel sector is the type of sector that sits between civilization and outright interstellar frontier. 

 The Ariel sector is a wild place where the waldläufers, colonists, and deep explorer rub elbows. The Ariel sector even boasts honest to God gunslingers. There are rules of conduct and more. 
The sector is perfect for the explorer, prospector, or thrill seeker and others attracted by the wild feel of it. And those who feed on them. 
Focusing on the Ariel sector, there are legends, details, worlds, and more. The Dark Lonesome focuses highly on the details of the sector while laying down an actual usable sourcebook. 

The Clement sector feels like more then a usuable campaign but a real place. John Watts's breath's life into his sector campaign. The Ariel sector  feels like a real place. 

Dark Lonesome:  The Ariel Sector Sourcebook By John Watts is a solidly constructed sourcebook for the Clement sector rpg. The sourcebook is well edited, well done, and has some terrific artwork. What this sourcebook does is push the edges of the interstellar Clement sector map & really ramps up the dangers of the Clement sector. Between the space pirates, the interstellar phenomena , & the powers that be there. There's also lots of opportunity for interstellar spacers & explorers. The Ariel sector perfectly set up for a humanity that is at the far end of the galaxy cut off from humanity. This encapsulates the power of this sourcebook. All of the good bits here are perfect for a 2d6 Clement sector campaign with details to spare. 
 Clocking in at 190 pages Dark Lonesome:  The Ariel Sector Sourcebook By John Watts is wall to wall useful information on a point in the Clement sector that is unto itself a complete compaign. This is a well done and well thought out campaign sector sourcebook and a great add on! 

Holy Martian Terror, Warriors of the Red Planet & The Gods of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs

 It's been a New York minute since I've written anything about Mars and the last time was back on March 29th. Our Warriors of the Red Planet rpg/Hyperborea rpg campaign has been on hiatus because of two of our player's personal business.  This hasn't kept me away from the Mars Appendix N material in this case the second book of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom books 'The Gods of Mars'. 

Everything Barsoomian that you loved from 'A Princess of Mars' is now turned up to eleven. We've got details on the shame behind the Martian religion is and how the worshipers become plantman food. Let's take a look at 'The Gods of Mars' plot summery from the Wiki entry; "As usual for him, Burroughs begins with a frame story that explains how he (Burroughs) came into possession of the text. At the end of the first book, A Princess of Mars, John Carter was unwillingly transported back to Earth. The story proper begins with his arrival back on Barsoom (Mars) after a ten-year separation with Dejah Thoris, their unborn child, and the Red Martian people of the nation of Helium, whom he has adopted as his own. Unfortunately, Carter materializes in the one place on Barsoom from which nobody is allowed to depart: the Valley Dor, which is the Barsoomian afterlife." 
'It's actually the second part of the plot summation that contains an interesting tid bit;"After John Carter's arrival, a boat of Green Martians on the River Iss are ambushed by the previously unknown Plant Men. The lone survivor is his friend Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak of Thark, who has taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find Carter. Having saved their own lives, Carter and Tars Tarkas discover that the Therns, a white-skinned race of self-proclaimed gods, have for eons deceived the Barsoomians elsewhere with the lie that the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor is a journey to paradise. Most arrivals are killed by the beasts who dwell here, and the survivors enslaved or eaten by Therns." 
The Holy Therns are not simply shame priests but a cult of holy cannibals who feed on spectrum of Barsoomian tribesmen and life. Let me put this into perspective for you as a player playing in a post Gods of Mars & Warlord of Mars  Barsoom.  The Holy Therns are on the run and very desparate! Who are they?! According to the Encyclopedia Barsoomia entry on the Cult of the  Holy Therns;"  The Holy Therns were a vicious Martian cult populated by the therns. Inhabitants of the Valley Dor, they worshipped the "living goddess" Issus (who is actually merely an ancient Black Martian woman), and sought to keep her happy with human sacrifices. For centuries, they enthusiastically promoted the idea that the Valley Dor is the gateway to Martian Heaven and decreed that any Martian who had reached 1,000 years of age or merely tired of living should travel to the valley to either spend the rest of eternity in paradise or be reborn. When the unsuspecting pilgrims reached the valley, they found a beautiful land where fruit and water were plentiful... which also happened to be heavily inhabited by white apes and plant men. Those who survived those creatures ended up enslaved by the Holy Therns, who would work them to death before feeding them to Issus or the Tenth Cycle. The Holy Therns' downfall came in 1886, when John Carter suddenly returned to Mars." 
The Therns are part of the social logical technological   pyramid of power on Barsoom with the Black Pirates, the Therns, and then The Red Men behind the movements of Barsoomian society. The Holy Thern cult is able to manipulate many of the Royal houses on Barsoom subtly. This is evident in the Dynamite series 'A Warlord of Mars'. The Therns agenda is one of survival, domination, rulership, and total power.  Then finally consumption through cannibalism. 

What does this mean for adventurers on Mars or Barsoom?! The fact is that the player's PC's could stumble upon Holy Thern operations & then be branded as outlaws in all Barsoomian society. At the center of this is the 'goddess' Issus  the Goddess of Life Eternal, Daughter of the Lesser Moon, Mother of the Nearer Moon, and the Goddess of Death. She is 'incharge' of the Holy Therns & the First Born. The Therns manipulate both her & all of Barsoom. Adventuring on a Pre John Carter Mars could be a death sentence for the adventurers. Or the means of living the outlaw life on a Mars  without the yoke of the First Born and the Therns.. 

There is literally no citystate on Mars that the influence of the Holy Therns can't reach which means that an outlaw PC campaign would have the player's PC's surviving in the city ruins along the dried up seas. There is literally no where the PC's can escape the Holy Therns in a pre John Carter campaign. The power of the Therns is legendary among Martians and thier evil agenda is one of power and domination throughout Barsoom. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Faster Than Light: Nomad Rpg By Omer Golan-Joel, Richard Hazlewood, Josh Peters, & Robert Garitta

  Faster Than Light: Nomad is the latest incarnation of the 2d6 classic interstellar & Science Fiction rpg. Well refer to Faster Then Light: Nomad.  This game is a great reinterpretation of the classic Science Fiction rules & that's what FTLN does. This set of rules is very streamlined and compact. It takes the classic 2d6 & makes solid edition choices too make rules and such simple as well as elegant. 

FTLN takes thier rules in some interesting directions as a variation on the Cepheus Engine rules. They make some bold rules, editing, and writing choices that separate at it from standard Cepheus Engine rules such as: "Streamlined 2d6 core mechanic with dice pool components. Instead of rolling 2d6 with a series of modifiers as in classic 2d6 games, in FTL: Nomad you roll a bunch of dice, and choose the lowest or highest two, then add them together and add the skill modifier." 
And we also get this approach with 

PC generation as well;"Fast but deeply customizable character generation. Distribute 5 points among 7 skills, choose an Archetype, choose a Talent, calculate Stamina dn Encumbrance, and choose a gear package. That's it. But this means that a wide range of combinations are possible!" This allows the player to take more ownership of thier character during creation.  Don't think that Stellagama Publishing skimps on the total role playing game package here. 
Faster Then Light Nomad is very well laidout, solidly edited, and has an easy to read font. As PDF FTLN has a complete table of contents, index, and is simple, straight forward, as well as being well organized.This book clocks in at two hundred & seventy seven pages of 2d6 rpg goodness including streamlined combat,  psionics, starship creation, robotics and cybernetic creation rules, and more. This means that the Faster Then Light: Nomad Rpg is a complete role playing game unto itself. This makes the 10.00 dollar price tag easier on the wallet. 
So that the Faster Than Light: Nomad Rpg  is the 2d6 go too for a fast, entertaining, and complete Saturday night adventure! And this is is what FTLN is good for! The pull of a solid evening's entertainment and enjoyable 2d6  game play.  

Fire Fight - Cities Without Number, Stars Without Number, & Trey Causey's Strange Stars Rpg - Session Report- Mirrors By Joseph Mohr

 In tonight's game the party went to talk with the captains of  several Suns of Gold style trade ships that came to Guiron in the past several months. In tonight's We're going to talk with the captains of these ships! Except that things went off the rails quickly. This picks right up from this session here on the blog. 

We got fired upon right out of the airlock on Guiron! And it took out one of our bio cyborgs! Things escalated very quickly & the local authorities were going to come down on us hard! We knew the locals were using Sisterhood of Morrgna mercenary forces and our crew wanted nothing too do with pissing these ladies off. 

And incase your wondering what's going on we're acting as skip tracers for  an undercover  Major Bartholomew Rodríguez of the Interstellar Police. We played Mirrors By Joseph Mohr like a Noir Strange Stars adventures. 

So we left the starport fast & covered our tracks with a psionic grenade or two blending into the crowd that was running from the scene at the starport. We time to think and regroup back at our starhauler! We pick up the two micro cams & holo recorders we laid back at the enterance to the starport. 
Back aboard our starhauler our cybersneak does a quick change with our starhauler's ID number and interstellar reg plates. And we change the holo signature of our starship as well. So we started doing some digging and found out that there have been lots of high end medical supply & equipment deliveries to Guiron! The players  think that thier PC's  way in over thier heads and we could have some serious interstellar players behind this adventure we've gotten ourselves into. 

The Crime Scene - The Red Room's Orbital Decay & Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers - Session Report

 Let's get into it from today's game session with DM Paul aboard the 'haunted' space station. Our party has been able to cut into the 'Engineering ' section despite attempts by the monsters to keep us out. Inside engineering after one of our psionists put up a protection zone we found an interdimensional door. This door was allowing the monsters to enter into our home space time contuum! We doubled our protection and began the task of clearing the room. This session picks right up from April 25th's session with the report right here on the blog. 

For our two psionists things got very difficult as they held off the monsters as we took over the disputed section of 'Engineering'. We began to go room to room after one of the psionists disrupted on the monsters mid phase leaving it trapped inside the station bulkhead as it's scream echoed into infinity! We then went room to room taking out any of the monster's victims. The rest of our party focused on making the Colonial Trooper's viewers & patrons happy with some good old fashioned violence as alien horrors tried to overrun our position. 
Because my PC is a pure colonial trooper he has a patron who backs him with money for ammo, maintence, and more. The patrons meanwhile keep an eye on the numbers of viewers who watch 'The Troopers' show. A zero net reality 3D reality show that finiances the escalating interstellar war. 

Things have been getting a bit desparate as the interstellar war is actually unfolding around the audience. Sometimes coming a little too close for comfort. 

We reached the reactor room and found evidence that someone aboard the station opened a dimensional doorway through ritual magick. Apparently for thier trouble they were turned inside out and the remains of the fool attacked us as a disgusting psychic slime! 
I swear the thing was trying to talk as we took it out with lasers and then a flame grenade. We left nothing of the 'crime scence' standing. Then it was more of the alien horrors but we were able too hold the reactor room for now. Then it was flamers all around! We didn't want to leave anything too attack us! 

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Four - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav & Gamblers Slaughter

 This half of our Ascendant rpg campaign picks up with the player's PCs getting done with second half of thier training under   Stan “the Lariat” Hansen in Japan at his training dojo. And then mopping up the last of  N.W.O. forcees  in our games from the Write Up's.org website. The PC's are being brought into Bluddville by Dreadnaught Security. And this loops around to last January's Ascendant session here.  Now a series of murders by poisoned blow dart on some of Bludville's high roll gambler's points up the return of one of the group's old villains Poker Face!  I used the character archtypes in the Ascendant Rogues Gallery supplement to sketch out Poker Face who doesn't appear in this session. But whose presence overrode the whole session! 

The events in today's session looped back around into Capital City Case Files#2 Served Cold. Several of the turfs and places in Bludville have been left in a bit of a vaccuum where Poker Face's gang 'The Fifty' have taken over. In this session the PC's got a chance to beat a bit on 'The Fifty before they brought out automatic weapons and RPG's causing the PC's to retreat or there could be more  collateral damage. 

PC's investigations revealed that the gamblers and thier funds were robbed as well as their finiances entirely drained. These gamblers had ties to the gangs and other criminals of the city. Poker Face is looking to buy his way into being a franchisee for Freak however this isn't his only angle.  Poker Face is looking for a substitute for  Freak (an Ascendant drug that grants temporary superpowers or triggers permanant powers in some users). The N.W.O. network is looking for a new distributor even though the leadership has been cut off & arrested. They don't believe that Poker Face is a good public persona for the drug. 

The player's believe that there's a third party interested in the lucrative drug trade within Bludville. And thier afraid that the series of murders could kick off a gangwar. All of the evidence they collected points to the fact that there may have been others at the crime scene. The party routed around looking for any tell tail signs of others at the crime scene. Of course they found that 'evidence' which was spur of the moment planting on the DM's part.  The party are planning thier next move and where to track down Poker Face (last time the vile villain got away with six murders of lotto winners).  

OSR Commentary - The Insidious Nature of The Blades Stormbringer & Mournblade In Original Dungeons & Dragons

 “Elric knew that everything that existed had its opposite. In danger he might find peace. And yet, of course, in peace there was danger. Being an imperfect creature in an imperfect world he would always know paradox. And that was why in paradox there was always a kind of truth. That was why philosophers and soothsayers flourished. In a perfect world there would be no place for them. In an imperfect world the mysteries were always without solution and that was why there was always a great choice of solutions.”

― Michael Moorcock, The Elric Saga Part I

When it comes to Stormbringer & Mournblade from Michael Moorcock's Elric saga no two enchanted blades have come close to matching the modern impact of these two blades on Sword & Sorcery. In Robert  Kuntz & James Ward's Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes Stormbringer appears and it's a beast; "Chaotic in nature, this sword has an intelligence of 12 and an ego of 12, is plus 5 when hitting, in the presence of Mournblade is as a Dancing Sword, and drains energy levels.On a roll of 11-20 it will drain all the energy levels from a being if it hits, with a roll of 7-10 allowing it to drain onehalf of the energy levels if it hits. The energy levels gained from the battle are transferred to Elric giving him an 18 strength, and a 100% on his exceptional strength. It also adds to his hit points by the method of rolling the proper die for the type of being hit. If a magic user is hit roll a 4 sided die and multiply the number gotten by the levels the magic user has. The same is done for all other classes and creatures. The sword becomes sated after draining off 300 energy levels, in which case after 10 melee turns Elric reverts back to his former strength and hit points. This sated state lasts for 50 full turns, at the end of which the sword will take another 300 levels." 
What makes the Black Swords so damn dangerous?! According to the Stormbringer fandom wiki entry on Stormbringer's history; "Before the Melnibonéans' ancestors, the Mernii, arrived on Elric's World, the Nihrain were a prosperous society who served the Cosmic Balance. To combat the Dead Gods and other powers of Law and Chaos that threatened to tip the scales of the Balance, the Nihrain forged the pieces of the Dragon Sword into the twin Black Swords, Stormbringer and Mournblade, and perhaps also forged their many brothers as well. Out of fear for the blades' power to slay them, the Dead Gods killed themselves (removed their physical forms and joined Eternity). But while both blades had the power to absorb vitality as did all Black Swords, Stormbringer was different from the others, because a mysterious power entered the blade at the time it was forged"  
And one of the most dangerous magical quality that both Stormbringer & Mournblade have is the fact that they can slay divinities & gods; "Godslaying- Stormbringer is fully capable of killing gods, even Chaos Lords and Lords of Law, and is greatly feared because of this. Though it is said that this does not truly destroy the Lords of the Higher Worlds, it just consumes their current manifestations in that world and ensures they cannot return there." 

This brings a whole other level of dangerous to both manifestations of the Black Blade or Sword; "Stormbringer is a manifestation of the Black Sword, a cosmic archetype that can exist in any world of the Multiverse. In some universes, it manifests in other ways. It has been seen as a black jewel, and even a large humanoid demon. It is even suggested that Stormbringer and perhaps any Black Sword's true form is that of the humanoid demon"

This maybe one of the most dangerous aspects of these blades because not even the gods themselves are safe from having thier divinity absorbed by the Black Swords. This means that the wielders of the Black Swords are the heralds for the 'End Times.' 

The second that the two swords are snatched from thier place in the Pulsing Cavern the world of the Young Kingdoms is doomed. Way back in the early Eighties we had a chance to run across Elric's cousin  Yyrkoon. And our PC's were adventuring in the Young Kingdom during one of my uncle's games. We were too get several sorcerous herbs & spell components for our employer. Ultimately, we got the items and completed the task. We figured out what he was going to do which was open the dimensional door into the Pulsing Cavern. Our party left the world of the Young Kingdoms for Greyhawk shortly there after withour us getting paid. Mournblade is the twin of Stormbringer and as such they are merely two parts of the same evil or malevolent entity. We wanted no truck with either of the demon swords and this policy continued into our years playing Stormbringer. 

Blood & Suffering - Into The SuperMax - Wretched Darkness Session Report

 During this morning's Wretched Darkness/Wretched Vigilantes game session the players wanted some insight into a cult calling themselves  the Acolytes of Pain. They got permission from thier government contact to visit one of the Supermax prison's on the campaign world. We reviewed Supermax over here on the blog.  

The trip in with the military escorts and the security checks went well. No one was stupid enough to attempt to egg the soldiers on. Down into solid bed rock the party went until they crossed into the international boundry. They were led past row after row of cryo sleep chambers and cells. The hiss of escaping gasses spooked the party. They felt as if eyes were watching them.. They were led to a glass room.  Inside dressed in strange fetish style robes and an orange prison jump suit a weird figure stood. There was a sharp intake of breath as the figure looked at them with strangely lidded eyes with alien eyes. 'You have thirty minutes for an interview. But no flash photography, please'.  

The PC's were investigating the 'Mansfield Masscare' which was actually the site of Wretched's Sexual Holocaust adventure which we ran at the beginning of the campaign. This marked the first entry into our world of one of the Disciplines of Pain. This bastard committed horrid crimes to come into the role of 'super villain' after his summoner was killed. 

The PC's are trying to stop another series of ritual murders by  a cult calling themselves  the Acolytes of Pain. They've taken on several ritualistic mutations from the Discplines of Pain. They must be taken to the Beyond for thier final conversion into demonhood. This is going to involve a lot of suffering, pain, and death that the PC's are trying to prevent. 
And the player's PC's want answers before the next new moon. Next week the interview! 

The Next Frontier By Joseph Mohr & The Clement Sector Rpg Session Report - Wolf Slaughter - Session Report

 We scrambled into fighters that were provided by the  Ginuk & blasted one of the pirate ships that had been attacking the Science station on Tormazonia. We were able to block the transmission from the planet side to the pirate's base ship deeper in system. This session report comes on the heels of the last session report.   And of course it's Wolf time thanks to Ian Stead's artwork. 

The uplifted pirates were only part of the issue because of the fact that they've been pushed deeper into the blackness because of the Clement Frontier Scout Service. This is because the Clement sector navies have been taking such a toll on the syndicate pirate fleets. Our guys in tonight's game didn't let the pirates make planet side at all. 
There are medical advances and planetary resources that make the Science station on Tormazonia far too valuable to advancing pioneers & the Clement sector's worlds. The players wanted to make sure that the pirate ships weren't leaving the planet alive at all. The player's PC's made sure that  the Scout Service and the Cascadia Colonization Authority which keeps close tabs on the Scouts were informed of the events on Tormazonia. The PC's had one pirate ship land on the planet and they engaged in a prolonged fire fight that took up the rest of the night. The party killed any pirates that they managed to take down except one who was then psionically probed and vital information was taken. 

Tonight's adventure picks up from the internal affairs described by  The Next Frontier By Jospeh Mohr which  is well done & well written. The Next Frontier can easily be adapted to any 2d6 Rpg Science Fiction.