Mos Eisley Vice

 To the tune of:

Low Rider

Spock,"This is highly illogical!"

Greedo,"Hurry up! I'm late for an appointment at the Cantina with a tramp freighter pilot!"

Thallo,"What manner of chariot is this?!""

Bionic Bigfoot,"Can I have a ride?!!...They act like they don't even see me!"

Threepio,"You said these were good seats?!"

Threepio 2," Why is this full of wine??"

Simian Saturday

 

Wow, I'm not sure what the heck is going on in this poster, I sure don't recall any of this in the original Planet of the Apes Movies, but man this is pretty crazy cool!  Not sure about the wings on the V-Necked Space Dude's ankles but whatever.  This looks like a perfect image for an Encounter Critical Game!  Lets see...  Flying Saucers! Apemen! RayGuns! Ruins!   Hmmm Ruins and Rayguns! That has a cool ring to it!!! 

Have a Great Simian Saturday!

Simian Saturday

Not sure what is going on in this picture but it looks cool!

Have a Great Simian Saturday!

Simian Saturday : If I could play Labyrinth Critical! oh wait I can!!!

Thought the above picture (70's era Cher with Planetary Apes!!) was quite appropriate for this Simian Saturday post.
Arcadian over at the No Signal blog has been working on some Labyrinth Lord write ups for Encounter Critical!  He is calling it Labyrinth Critical! Now why didn't I think of that?!  I can't wait to play a Planetary Ape!

Yor; Hunter from the future

Ok... I'll admit it, some things from the 80's...had...issues...  : )
Although this does give me some inpiration for an Encounter Critical Campaign!

More Lulu Orders En Route...

 I started a new job this past week, the good news is its a big career move for me, the bad news is it will take up most of my free time for awhile as I get a handle on everything.  Soo my posts may be infrequent, but  have no fear (LOL) I'm still around. To celebrate, I placed another Lulu order today, I had to order the new Labyrinth Lord supplement: Realms of Crawling Chaos it just looks too cool to pass up (plus it has rules for White Ape characters!!, and you all know what a Simian Fan I am!) I also spotted a new Tunnels & Trolls supplement: New Khazan. Sounds like Tunnels & Trolls in Spaaace!

 It was a whim purchase, but you all know from my earlier posts how much I loved Dragonstar back in the day, this seemed like a perfect match/resource for that setting.  I'll post about both products when they arrive. Later,
 -B

*Update* 2/5/11
Well both products have arrived.  Realms of Crawling Chaos far exceeded my expectations.  It's a great resource for injecting some Lovecraftian coolness into your LL/MF campaigns.
However, regarding New Khazan...I'm rather disappointed.  For the $19.99 price tag, I don't feel like I got my money's worth.  There just isn't enough to it for one thing, the art goes from ok to fair to poor, and the editing is rather poor. While I am in no way a spelling/grammar nut, in some places the grammar is so poor that its hard to even understand what the writer is trying to say.  There are some nuggets scattered here and there in the book, but I've seen way better out there for cheaper or even free.  As for using it as a resource for Dragonstar like I had hoped, there are a few items in there, some of the planets will work, a few of the critters/beasties are useable, but to be honest I see this as being a better resource for an Encounter Critical game than anything else.  It even has a brief reference to Planetary Apes er, I mean well you get my drift.

Jurassic Reich & Hamster Berserkers!

Here's another quick post about miniatures today!

While surfing the net I found these!

WWII Germans mounted on Dinosaurs!  Oh my Stars and Garters!!! They are from Eureka Miniatures.
These look soo cool and while I'll admit Pulp isn't necessarily my first game of choice, I see these as being perfect for Mutant Future, Encounter Critical and  all kinds of other games, in addition to pulp! 
You could even have them fight these guys!! Hamster Berserkers!!!
Just released by On the lamb games.

Man I love this hobby!
Hmmm now where did I put my debit card....

And for my next Campaign!!

My daughter found this picture and couldn't wait to show it to me.  Is that the makings of a great game or what?  LOL
Thanks Sarrah!

Simian Saturday; Giant Purple Gorilla Ranger!

Here's an interesting comic cover for Simian Saturday.  Sorry I'm a bit late getting this posted had to work today.

No its not Grape Ape, but what a bizarre encounter this would be for any party!  Might work better for an Encounter Critical game but who knows.  : )

I Defied GOMDULLA The Living Pharaoh!

     In doing research for my recent Gorlion post and another upcoming beastie I found a pretty wild (some would say silly) monster. I first came across this beastie many years ago in the pages of Dragon Magazine (oh how I miss the old Dragon mag. coming to my mailbox on a monthly basis *sigh*); anyways the monster was statted up for the Marvel Super Heroes RPG (now called FASERIP I believe). Back then there was no internet and I had a habit of using (scavenging) everything I could find for my games so I converted it to my AD&D campaign. My players loved it, well until it trounced half the party (very close to a TPK, they assumed it was "just" a giant mummy). I've long since lost those gaming notes, but Labyrinth Lord is so easy to use I decided to convert this monster to that system.

So without further ado I present…

GOMDULLA; the Living Pharaoh

No. Enc.: 1 (Unique?)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90'(30')
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 12+3
Attacks: 1 (fist, or telekinetic attack)
Damage: 6d6 fist, or 3d6 telekinetic boulder attack
Special Attacks: Telekinesis (using a special form of telekinesis he can mentally hurl rocks up to a range of 120' for 3d6 damage, he can also use this ability against living creatures but they are entitled to a save).
Save: F12
Morale: 12
Hoard Class : XVIII +5,000 gp, also if your campaign allows for ancient tech items, this is a great place to put them!!
Special Abilities: unaffected by Sleep, Charm, or Hold spells. May only be harmed by magical weapons, spells, and fire based attacks (energy weapons dull full damage!). Levitation 3x per day as the spell.

Optional : Gomdulla does have a weakness, in addition to being rather slow moving, on one of his feet, hidden deep beneath the layers of bandages is a small stud, which if pressed will render him immobile and put him in a stasis-like state.

In a forgotten corner of a lost desert lies a ruined ziggurat, somewhere deep inside an ancient evil slumbers…

     There is much speculation as to what exactly Gomdulla is. It appears to be a 20' tall giant humanoid wrapped in ancient wrappings like a mummy. Legends say Gomdulla came from another world and found the air of this world burned his skin, so he wrapped himself in special wrappings to protect himself. While he has some of the immunities of traditional mummies, he does not have their mummy rot attack ability. Nor has he ever been successfully turned by a cleric. Some sages have speculated that Gomdulla is not a living or unliving being at all but is in fact a construct (Robot) from another world sent here to conquer. Others have called him a mutant noting his abilities of telekinesis and levitation ,as well as, his size and the fact that he has only three fingers and a thumb on his right hand yet has four fingers and a thumb on his left hand.
Have fun with this one! If I get to run a Planet Algol Campaign I may just have to use this guy.  Maybe the party is in dire need of some Radiation Crystals or other hi-tech treasures, sounds like they need to seek out The Ziggurat of Gomdulla! Also I haven't done the stats, but Gomdulla would fit in just fine in an Encounter Critical game. Course you could just make him a giant mummy for your regular fantasy games, but I like to insert the unexpected and unusual in my games.
Good Gaming! -B
 
Gomdulla is copyright Marvel Comics and first appeared in Journey into Mystery I#61/1 (October, 1960).

4/12/10 Update     I found another cool picture of Gomdulla (or at least his precursor)

Post-Apocalyptic Strawberry Shortcake Leads 80s Toys' Rebellion against the Rolling Lego City!

Just a quick post tonite.  Here's a couple of cool toy related Post Apocalyptic links I found today.

 First one is Post-Apocalyptic Stawberry Shortcake Leads 80's Toy Rebellion

 Second one is an awesome Rolling Post-Apocalyptic Lego City

 They aren't related post, but I couldn't resist combining them in my heading.
The Stawberry Shortcake would work fine for Mutant Future or Encounter Critical Campaigns, and a PA Rolling Lego City is just darn cool!
Good Gaming!

It Was a Three-Eyed, Blurry, Wooly Scaly Hippo err...yeah that's it!

Tonight I got to sit down for a bit and read through some of my new gaming books. In reading my copy of The Random Esoteric Creature Generator I knew immediately I needed to get out my dice and get busy creating a beastie! Within minutes I had a handle on how the simple yet quite innovative system worked and I rolled up my beast!

The 3-eyed Wooly (phasic) Hippotasauroid!
Whoo Hoo!
No. Enc. 1 (believed to be a unique creature)
Alignment : Neutral
Movement : 120'(40) Swim 120' (40')
Armor Class : 0 (wooly fur over scales) + Blurred (see below)
Hit Dice : 9
Attacks : 3 (Bash x2, Bite)
Damage : 1d8 (Bashing Attack), 1d10 (Fearsome Bite)
Save : L9
Morale : 10
Hoard Class : XX
Special Defenses: "Blurred"- (out of sync w/physical dimension) the first attack against the beast always misses (this also gives an AC bonus and a Save bonus, already factored in). Multiple eyes (due to this it is surprised only on a 1 in 6).

Appearance : These large hippo beasts are covered in a thick wooly fur not unlike that of an ancient wooly mammoth, in addition to their fur they have a thick scaly hide. They have three eyes and a massive toothy maw.

Further Description: The beasts are quite territorial as well as hungry and will devour most anything they can catch. They often seem able to sense the weakest member of a party (Per the DM's screw with the players skill) and will go after that party member first. Their swimming rate allows them to quickly move up under boats, capsizing them and eating the floundering adventurers that are splashing about in the water. To add to their fearsomeness they are constantly under a blurred effect making it hard to even hit them in combat. Then if you actually hit them, you've got to get through their tough scaly, wooly hide.
    
This really was the first beast I rolled up, with little variation from the dice; I think I only rerolled one or two things just because they didn't make sense, the rest I kept. I think it took me maybe 15-20 minutes to work up this beast (mind you I make up a lot of beasts anyways so your mileage may vary). It actually took me longer to try to draw the darn thing, and I still hate my drawing, which is why you don't get a good look. Ha!
     Anyways, I think this critter is waay cool! I would never have come up with such a creature by myself. A Wooly Displaced Three-Eyed Scaley Hippo Beast! I mean that's just priceless. This would work for Labyrinth Lord (would be a darn tough encounter, although I had control of the HD range), I quickly saw this as a perfect mutant beast for my Mutant Future Campaigns. So I upped the Hit Dice to make for an appropriate challenge. I've mentioned in earlier posts that I want more variety amongst my mutants, especially beasts and such. This is perfect for that! While the book actually seems to be designed for fantasy games, you can see it works just fine for Mutant Future games. Also this creature would be perfect for an Encounter Critical game; I "borrowed" the phasic term from that game actually. If I toned it down a bit (or not) I could even see using this as a fearsome alien encounter in X-plorers, I just hope the X-plorers brought plenty of heavy weapons!
Anyways in case you can't tell, I really like this product!

*1/29/10 Update* Super Special Thanks to Eli!!

from the I See Lead People blog, after reading my initial post about this beast, he was kind enough to draw it and send it to me!  Thanks Buddy!  Eli said after "initially reading the description of the beast it would make a cool Hyborian-styled god. A huge, hulking, hairy, scaley hippo god with a third eye!" I gotta agree.  

Simian Saturday

Daniel Boone meets Planet of the Apes with Mutants!

Oh Yeah!

Simian Saturday

Well Jeff's Gameblog has Shatnerday, so I thought I'd start up Simian Saturday.  In case you all hadn't figured it out I'm a big fan of apes in comics, movies and fiction!  Thought the above comic cover might inspire your Mutant Future (or Encounter Critical) Campaigns.
Good Gaming -B

Word Verification Wednesday- Eyehot

 This one I had a little fun with.  It may not be for everyone, BUT there is a somewhat similar beast already in Mutant Future, so I'm not totally out there.  I've included Encounter Critical stats and info just because.
So without further ado I present the Eyehot!

Eyehot (aka Eyes of Searing aka flying eyes of hot burning death)


     These freakish mutant beasts are thankfully rare and are usually found only in the most remote wasteland areas, they most often lair in old ruins. They appear to be very large flying eyes wreathed in a flame-like aura. What they are exactly is not quite clear, some sages speculate that Eyehots are related to Insectoid Eyes, the Eyehots may in fact be a sub-species of Insectoid Eye, both are flying eye-beasts with a form of eye-based energy attack, although Insectoid Eyes seem to be more vindictive and more intelligent than Eyehots. Others claim they are some form of guardian beasts of the ancients that has run amok, their "gentler" treatment of Pure Strain Humans, almost supports this theory.
     Eyehots are always airborne, either flying about near their lairs (burning stuff) or hovering in place within their lair. There are no reports of them ever being encountered on the ground, and they don't seem to have any means of locomotion other than their psionic flight ability. Anyone that crosses into their territory is attacked, Pure Strain Humans are given a warning "shove" with their telekinetic powers first, if the humans remain in the area, the Eyehots then attack to kill. Mutants, especially those with mental mutations are attacked with a vengeance showing no remorse or mercy using the full power of their mutant heat ray. If an intruder can manage to flee the Eyehot's domain they will not pursue the intruder beyond this boundary. It is usually easy to tell the boundary line of an Eyehot's territory, they tend to burn everything to the ground within this area.
     Telepaths that have tried to communicate with Eyehots and managed to get through their Mental Barrier (and not get burned to death), have only encountered minds of gibberish and random nonsensical thoughts, apparently the thought processes of Eyehots are too alien for comprehension.

Mutant Future Stats:

No. Enc.: 1 (1d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: Fly 120'(40')
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 1
Damage: Heat Ray (4d6 damage, 50' range) also note anyone in direct physical contact with their burning aura must make a save vs. Energy Attack or suffer 2d6 points of heat damage per round of contact, this aura ceases one round after the Eyehot dies.
Save: L6
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: None (possibly some treasure within their lair, but they don't deliberately collect treasure).
Mutations: Energy Ray (Heat, 4d6 damage 50' range), Increased Vision, Sensory Deficiency (Deaf), Psionic Flight, Force Screen, Neural Telekinesis, Mental Barrier

Encounter Critical description and stats:

Eyes of Searon
Numbers : 1-4 % in Lair : 98% Size : 3' sphere Move : 12" flying # ATT : 1 ATT: 50% Damage : 2-20 Hit Points : 5-50 Save : 40% Edible: 17% Lurk : 32% $ Value : 120 Special : Heat Ray, Detect Psi Powers, Telekinesis
Description: They appear to be very large flying eyes wreathed in a flame-like aura. What they are exactly is not quite clear; many scholars in God City have debated for some time about their true nature. Legends say that the first Eyes of Searon were created/conjured by Searon, a Pyromaniac Warlock that had a particular hatred for Psi-Witches. Legends also say that he decided he needed to rid Vanth of all Psi-Witches so mounted on the dragon Smug and with a horde of orcs, goblins and a swarm of his "eyes" he attempted to do just that. Psi-Witches still exist, Eyes of Searon, though rare, still exist, the warlock no longer exists…What happened? Well according to Hobling folklore, the Hobling Hero (criminal) J.R. Trollkin realizing Searon's lair was probably unguarded broke into it seeking plunder. While deep inside Searon's Lair he was trying to steal and accidentally broke the arcane device that allowed Searon to control the dragon Smug, the dragon immediately regained its wits and promptly turned around and ate Searon. Searon's horde quickly dispersed.

Habitat: Any remote wilderness area, regions with ruins are preferred. Tend to inhabit dryer areas; little to no vegetation will be found in the immediate area surrounding their lairs. If an intruder can manage to flee the Eye's domain they will not pursue the intruder beyond this boundary. It is usually easy to tell the boundary line of an Eye of Searon's territory, they tend to burn everything to the ground within what they consider to be their domain.

Special Attack: Eyes of Searon have two attack options their primary attack for is a nasty Heat Ray that does 2-20 points of damage. This is their preferred mode of attack against Psi-Witches (Burn the Witch!). There second (and seldom used) attack form is a Telekinetic Repelling Push (damage 1-6), they may use this on human intruders as a form of warning, to try and "push" them out of their domains but if the humans don't leave (within a round or so) they will quickly resort to their heat ray attack.

Special Defenses: Anyone in direct physical contact with their burning aura must make a save or suffer 2-12 points of heat damage per round of contact; this aura ceases one round after the Eye of Searon dies. Eyes of Searon have amazing vision and able to see for three miles, they can also see unusual radiations and auras and can detect mental mutations within a 90' range. It is quite difficult to catch an Eye of Searon by surprise.

Albuquerque Starport & Terra Primate; Resources for Mutant Future

  I've been remiss in not sending my thanks out to an old Gamma Buddy of mine who frequents this blog. Check out his blog A Mutant's Journal.   As a Christmas/New Years present Joe a.k.a. Thorn sent me two awesome resources for Mutant Future.
The first one is *drum roll please*....

Yes I've already talked about and posted the screen, but do I really need an excuse to post this awesome Erol Otus artwork again, oh and my point is that Joe sent me the Albuquerque Starport Mini-Module that I was missing!! How cool is that? It's a great little adventure that I'll definately be running at some point.

The second gift he sent me is Terra Primate.

Here's the blurb about it from the net:
"From the creators of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, similar in style but this time . . . with apes! Terra Primate has no specific setting. The only constant is the concept of intelligent apes. Planet of the Apes is a movie about intelligent apes, but then again so is Congo. As long as the characters are interacting with intelligent apes - or are intelligent apes themselves! The game could be set in the pulp era of adventure, on a post-apocalyptic Earth, on a faraway alien planet, or downtown on Main Street. The main rulebook includes rules for character creation, combat and everything else you need to play in a world where man is the missing link! Also detailed are the multiple campaign settings so you can customize the type of "Apeworld" you wish to explore."
      I'm honestly not sure if Eden Studios is even still around anymore, but you should be able to find this on Ebay or elsewhere if your looking for it.  The mechanics are very basic, if you ever played All Flesh Must Be Eaten then you know what I'm talking about so adapting stuff from it to Mutant Future should be pretty easy. Since Carl over on his Mutagenic Substances blog has adopted Grognardia's scaling methodology, I guess I'll follow suite.
For Terra Primate
Presentation: 7 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 7 out of 10
Utility (for Mutant Future scavenging purposes): 8 out of 10 (especially if you want to use alot of Apes in your MF Campaigns!)
Also either one of these products would work great as resources/inspiration for Encounter Critical Games.

New Race for Encounter Critical; Lincolns

     I recently worked up a couple of villains for Mutant Future from one of my favorite Star Trek TOS episodes "The Savage Curtain". In the same episode working for the good guys was Abraham Lincoln! I didn't really even consider doing up a version of Lincoln for Mutant Future, sure I guess I could have made him a robot or something but that just didn't seem to be the right fit. So I did up the two villains then moved on to other stuff. Fast forward to today, Jeff's Gameblog did a big announcement about his upcoming work on Encounter Critical stuff and I got thinking about the game and how much I enjoy kitchen sink campaigns, it's what drew me to play Rifts back in the day.  I then got to looking at some blogs about EC, and in my search I found this cool picture over on Malevolent & Benign's blog.

When I saw the Lincoln picture I knew what I had to do!
So without further ado I present a new race for Encounter Critical; Lincolns.

Lincolns
aka "Logsplitters", "OldAbes" or "HonestAbes"
     Lincolns are humans but they are a special type of human. During the Galactic War the Vulkin Star Empire was being torn apart, the Vulkins found themselves with insufficient leaders to hold the line and inspire the soldiers of the empire. Logic dictated that something needed to be done. Humans possessed the raw ability and courage that many Vulkins lacked, time and time again humans motivated by a strong leader would rise up against impossible odds, odds that logically dictated defeat and failure only the humans would courageously fight on and somehow win, but humans were too unpredictable and too varied. For every heroic human there was a coward, or even worse a raging lunatic. The Vulkin's needed a special human leader one they could count on to act in a way that the Empire needed. So the Vulkin's devised a Top Secret plan in the hopes of saving the empire. DNA from an ancient human leader was obtained and a secret cloning facility was established in orbit around the planet Vanth in the Medieval Rim. The facility set to work immediately. Growing clones and educating them with experimental Psi Phasic Technology. Data from the life of the real Lincoln was downloaded into the clones growing minds.
     All went well until disaster struck…What happened isn't clear but what is known is that the orbital facility was either attacked or sabotaged, no doubt by enemies of the Vulkin Star Empire. In a last ditch effort the surviving Vulkin Scientists loaded up the Lincoln clones (all at various stages of age, knowledge and development) into emergency escape pods and sent them to the planet below.
     The Lincolns have survived on the planet since then. The pods scattered to all parts of Vanth and the Lincolns went their separate ways, Lincolns tend not to congregate amongst themselves, usually only one will be found in a given area and never will more than two or three be encountered at any given time, no doubt seeing an exact duplicate of oneself can be a bit disconcerting. A curious side effect of the cloning techniques is that when a Lincoln reproduces with another human, the offspring will always be male and will always be another Lincoln or half-Lincoln (if the mother's species is non-human), these offspring will be in effect clones of their father, not just a child of the parent but a copy of the father. They even have the psi-"memories" originally taught to their father (or father's father) on the orbital facility. However, memories their father gained after birth or after psi-education are not passed down, so different Lincolns will still have different knowledge, skills, attitudes and outlooks depending on their environment and upbringing. Appearance-wise it is only if the mother is not human that they show a genuine difference in appearance from their Lincoln father and even then others can still tell that their father was clearly a Lincoln.
     Lincolns are quite often in positions of leadership wherever they are found. Often they are warriors; seldom do they follow the path of the Warlock, tending to not believe in magic on a genetic level. Some may be Criminals, especially if they had a difficult childhood, although even if a criminal they will usually be in a position of authority. There is supposedly even a Lincoln running one of the main Crime Syndicates in God City.
Leadership +3 , Magic -2, +2 Intellect, -1 Luck, +20% Command, +20% Restore Courage

  So how insane is that!!!

Encounter Critical

And now for something completely different...
     I've been reading Jeff's Gameblog for awhile now and he has regularly mentioned a game called Encounter Critical .  Its available as a free pdf, and is set up as if it were a game designed in the '70's. When it first came out a couple of years ago some people actually thought it really was an old game from the late '70's early 80's that someone had rediscovered in a garage or somesuch. 
      Encounter Critical is first and foremost a "Kitchen Sink" kinda game! Everything is thrown in, stirred up a bit and then some more stuff is added. If you only play uber serious kinds of games this isn't for you.  If you need every rule locked down and clearly defined this game is not for you. If you don't ever mix genres then this game is NOT for you, BUT if you like the idea of having a party with a Mutant Elf Warlock, a Frankenstein Barbarian, and a Klengon Psi-Witch that have to steal a Damnation Van from some Planetary Apes, while avoiding the Crater Lake Monster then this game might be for you.