Troopers RedHack

 

     I've been on a bit of a Military Sci Fi kick lately.  Gaming-wise, I was recently posting about and looking at BlackStar, which is a fun rules lite Space Opera Sci Fi RPG, but it is very much a Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off game/setting.  Not that I consider that a bad thing, but those of you who know me, know that I love post-apocalyptic RPG's and I recently found a OSR game that allows me to run a Military Sci Fi game with P.A. elements or whatever else I want to throw into the mix! I'm talking about:  Troopers RedHack!  You can easily see the B/X elements of this one, and author Pertros Moros designed the game to allow you to use modules and adventures from your gaming library. Petros has used Mutant Crawl Classics adventures along with OSE adventures and other systems, just tweaking some things to fit into the Troopers setting. 

     Troopers RedHack, is a classless system, allowing players to create the kind of character (Trooper) that they want to play.  Wanna be a Combat Medic skilled in Guerilla Fighting or even a Psionic Trooper? easy peasy! The game is humancentric, although you can be an android and working up an alien pc looks pretty easy if you wanted to houserule some into the game.  There is a default setting loosely baked into the game, but you can easily tweak/adjust or do your own thing, which I love. The print book is even digest sized which is awesome!  

     Troopers RedHack has a nice Appendix N, and while I had read many of the books listed many I have not, so I've been picking those up and reading them to get me in the Military Sci Fi mindset. 

Some of my resent reading material, some are from recommendations from the book, others I just wanted to reread that seemed to fit the vibe I was interested in right now. 

      I also recently picked up the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual! This should be a nice resource for my campaign. Not that I am planning to go full blown ALIENS, but the Colonial Marines gear, general info, etc. should be a cool resource to help me fill in a few details to the Troopers Campaign. 

Well, that's all for now, I hope to post more about this game soon.  Work has kept me pretty busy of late, hope you can get some gaming time in, enjoy time with friends and family!

-Good Gaming  B.B. 

The Monkey Militia

      It's been awhile, but long time followers of my blog will know that I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego).  In particular I love the minifigs. Pictured above is the results of a rather long term project of picking up any of the Lego Chima Gorilla minifigures that I could find, while outfitting them with appropriate weapons and gear. Combat knives, Assault Rifles and Tactical Vests.  Not sure about the leader with the Katana and Owl, but we shall see.  Anyways, I present to you The Monkey Militia.  I should have waited till Saturday to post this, for a Simian Saturday post, but here it is early.  I'm hoping to work these into some Skirmish gaming soon. Maybe as a rival gang for Five Parsecs from Home, Space Weirdos, or something else?  Do any of you use lego Minifigs for your tabletop games? 

Love & Monsters

 

     Picked this up in the discounted DVD bin at the place that shall not be named "W".  I know the movie came out awhile ago, but I don't really go to the movies anymore and we purged majority of our pay TV Subscription channel stuff. The missus and I do more reading, gaming and yard stuff these days, TV just isn't our thing anymore. But to get back on topic, watched this one last night and really enjoyed it. The gamer in me found it to be loaded with usable gaming content, giant bugs and creepy crawlers!  Oh yeah! I can get behind that! Perfect inspiration for your Post Apocalyptic mutant bugs, or giant insect threats for your fantasy games! Plus the story-line in the movie was fun as well.  

Good Gaming! -B.B.

Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland

 

Taking a break from my Hyperborea posts to mention a new book for my collection. The just arrived Kickstarter I backed; Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland!  Gonzo Wahoo Post Apocalyptic Gaming!

Can't wait to run this one!! Anyone who knows me knows that Gamma World is what got me into RPG's, sure D&D is cool, but I love me some PA Mutant Madness!  Will be posting more about this one, so stay tuned!! 

Varanid Empire

Recently I read the "new" Turok : Blood Hunt Comic series by Chuck Wendig. This is a different setting/storyline from the regular Turok comic. Blood Hunt is set in a Post Apocalyptic setting that has a slight Rifts vibe to it. One of the main villainous factions is the Varanid Empire. The Varanid Empire is made up of a race of Fascist humanoid dinosaurs! 

 Reading the comic, I immediately thought these would be great in Troll Lord Games Amazing Adventures line.  For AA stats just use the Saurians as a basis for the Varanids give them WW II era German weapons instead of hi tech weapons. Amazing Adventures even has stats for the German era weapons used by the Varanid Empire. You can use stats for Velociraptors from the Amazing Adventures Manual of Monsters to represent the riding beasts used by the Varanids and presto you have a cool vicious Faction to unleash on your players.

The Varanid Empire could also be used in other settings from Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, to Gamma World, Mutant Crawl Classics, and more.

The Six-Pointed Star used as their symbol could strike terror in many a campaign! 

T-Rex Stats for this big fella!

What a great week!!!

 In spite of the heat and the storms it has been a good week. As I posted earlier I was able to try out online gaming for the first time with Christian. I wasn't able to participate in Free RPG Day, was out of town, but a good friend picked up an item for me that I really wanted. The Starfinder First Contact book.

I'm looking forward to giving it a read.
I'm blessed to be in a fantastic gaming group. Last night we played another session in our group's Curse of Strahd 5E Campaign.

The entire game session was role-playing. No combat, just the players interacting with each other and the different NPC's. The DM did a great job and the 4 hours just flew by. It wasn't until I was heading home that I realized we didn't have a single fight all night and it was loads of fun. I talked to the group and when we wrap up the Curse of Strahd Campaign (probably late Fall). They'd like me to run Starfinder!  I'm excited, the rules aren't even out yet, but I want to give them a spin. What we've heard about the game so far has everyone excited. So I've started working up some ideas for my upcoming Starfinder Campaign.

Also this week, I was a kickstarter for the Mutant Crawl Classics RPG. The PDF was released this week to kickstarters, so I've been reading through it in my spare (ha ha) time. It looks really cool, and I'm sure it will be put in the gaming rotation at some point.

I got some great books in the mail from my buddy since 8th grade, Tormentor. Somehow he always remembers my Birthday, even though I try to keep it on the down-low. Thanks Tormentor!

On a personal note, I got the best gift of all. I don't talk much about my personal life on the blog. Try to keep it about gaming. But felt this was appropriate. My grandson is getting close to 3 years old. He stays with us some of the time. He is developmentally delayed, and undergoing evaluation for autism We have worked hard to find ways to play, talk and interact with him. This week was the first time that he and I had truly interactive play. He was listening to me, following directions and truly playing with me. I'll never forget that smile and the gleam in his eyes when he and I were playing. That first magical moment is something I will treasure forever.  Well thanks for letting me share.
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Get some gaming in this weekend and spend time with friends and family! They are what makes it all worthwhile!
Good Gaming -B.B.

Simian Saturday (Kamandi & Mutant Crawl Classics!)

Happy Simian Saturday to everyone!
The above picture is from Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth Issue 7 from back in 1973.
I'm excited to see that the Mutant Crawl Classics Kickstarter continues to blow through its many awesome stretch goals. There are still 3 days left to get in on the action.  I personally can't wait for this to come out. The game draws heavily from P.A. sources from my youth, including one of my favorite comics from back in the day Kamandi!  A recent podcast by Sanctum Secorum delves heavily into the strong influence that this comic series, and Jack Kirby has had on the MCC RPG.
I hope everyone has a great Simian Saturday and I hope you manage to get some gaming in this weekend!

Happy Steamy Simian Saturday!

Hope everyone is having a nice Simian Saturday. It is a hot one here in the Southern Rad Zone, fortunately the Restorationists have been able to keep the ancient cooling device in working order, and scouts were able to find a cache of ancient filters to keep the machine running smoothly. I assume most everyone following this blog has already heard the Mutant Crawl Classics Kickstarter launched a day or so ago and has already funded.  I am happy to say that I have backed this one, can't wait to give it a go! From what I have seen it hearkens back to the original Gamma World rules in many ways, which is very cool to this aging wasteland wanderer.  Anyways, try to keep cool and have a great Simian Saturday!