Belated ASE 1 Review

AUTONOMOUS SUBSURFACE ENVIRONMENT, BOOK I, BELATED REVIEW

It may be totally unnecessary to write that I have enjoyed reading and enjoyed using Pat Wetmore's "Autonomous Subsurface Environment #1".  It may be my favorite DYI OSR game product yet.  It's pretty great.  Why is it great though - this might be worth a post.

Ably illustrated is ASE

So ASE is an amalgamate of ideas, this basic setting appears to be Thudarr the Barbarian (A Swords and Sorcery cartoon form the early 80's with a post apocolyptic feel).  There was a lot of this in the early 80's - He-Man also comes to mind. ASE isn't just Thudarr the Barbarian though - the world is similar, and might be the most perfect light (dim nasty light) in the darkness set up I can think of without being cliched, but there are many other influences.  A campaign could easily end up with Zardoz as the main villain, or be about discovering the ancient alien ancestors of demi-humans and goblins.  This larger world is not the point of ASE, it's just a lot of fun.  The core is a megadungeon with an incredible "gonzo" 80's cartoon "Sword's and Superscience" feel.  I suppose it's a bit of Gene Wolfe's Books of the New Sun as well if one wanted to get a bit fancier, but that's not necessary.

It's actually a bit hard to talk about the ASE product itself because I've been playing it for several month and have adopted my own conventions and hacks about the world of the Land Thousand Towers, but the product itself made this possible because it's wildly inventive, but leaves plenty of space for the players and DM to fill in while providing consistent flavor elements.  It also has a "don't be afraid of technology approach" that is refreshing.  If the players want a handgun - they can buy one, but won't be especially impressed with it's power.  A laser pistol is about as good as a +1 sword, and about as hard to find.  At the same time some of the technological opponents, especially the Steel Leviathans that make in town hi-jinx risky, are terribly deadly with their technological weaponry and make good of a few simple special rules.

Moktars!

The party now has two henchmen, a pair of young Moktars who have been indentured to Huxley (the party don't yet realize that they're paying the Moktar mob to hire the henchman) and I've been having a bit of fun with the idea of Moktar magic. Moktar are slightly goofy savages, generally lacking dexterity and making it up in strength. 

Moktar cuisine leaves much to be desired (Some guy from the comics)

This is Pat from Henchman Abuse's first draft of the class, and it hits the high points. I assume that the next installment of ASE will have full details.

My own shamanistic modifications of Moktardom as well as the stats for the two Moktars hired by the party are below.

Moktar are basically barbarians: 2HD to start, High Str, Low dex, light armor (max studded leather or non-metal scale) and natural AC 6. . High-level Moktars (Say 4 and up) might be able to wear specially made metal armor, but plate will only bring the average Moktar (Dex 8) to a 4 AC and chain will do nothing for them. I've decided that Moktars get -2 to int as well, but maybe that's not necessary. Moktars are both tough brutal combatants and bumbling!

I have allowed a special class for the rare Moktars that can work savage shamanistic magic – it's arcane magic, but terribly ritualized and the spells are limited to a special hard to find list. These Moktar “Holy Toms” gain XP as Elves, rather than Dwarves, but are limited to five levels in Magic (i.e. they will get a single 3^rd level spell eventually – that's it).  The class requirement is the same as Moktar 13 STR plus 13 INT (after reduction) they are also limited to wielding 'traditional' non-metal melee weapons, though they can throw clubs or stone axes. Holy Toms cast as magi-users off of a limited spell list and gain spells at the same rate. I figure that it's pretty hard for Moktar characters (or henchmen) to find new spells, because they can't cast regular magic-user spells and getting the rare Moktar shaman to teach one (they can be written in string ciphers but are usually oral tradition) is pretty difficult. The two Moktar youth's stats and three Moktar spells are below

Clownpocolypse!

So I got back from the bar last night and read/reread some of the Henchman Abuse Play Reports. A depressing tale of clown taunting and henchman betrayal touched me in some way, as it seemed like a plan my players wished they could think of in it's intricate, diabolic badness.  Bait the monster clown is his lair, what could go wrong? I decided to doodle the ignominious death of Netal the Elf.  Without further ado

 

Clownpocolypse!

Admittedly Netal's death is a bit sad, the sheer effort of getting an Elf to 3rd level is staggering.  Then again taunting a fire breathing, snake tossing, 7' clown thing is not especially sound planning. I can't but wonder if my PC's will face a similar fate as their new patron forces them back into the ASE tomorrow night...