Revised Road War Cards

These are updated cards for my roadwar game

Murder Highway - Schools out for summer

 Started a new season with new drivers and best of all Ray wants to bring in his Gloranthan Duck Fisherman in as a Deathrace Driver. As will be fitting in on hyper complex schedule of LARPers and BoffleLARPers which most of my players do. I did it and loved it but kept wanting to punch strangers and this didn't feel very me. The party Sheriff is becoming a Shaman, The Mutant ram raider christian and the clone corp Ninja are elsewhere.

Sherrif met Lunar mechanic whos family all killed in outback zombie blitz so met him and Clawhanded cyborg vet in his car Green Lightning. So sheriff took Clawhand and the Mechanic to Bathurst to hang out on the team farm and help them find work. On way came across burning red armoured hummer like vehicle with crying kids nearby. As the approached the sheriff muttered a spell and saw the souls of feral kids hiding under animal skins and dirt. Fired smoke grenaide one trench fled. Warned the others and Claw went over a crude mine so fired twin MGs at kids exploding one and cutting down rest of group. Sheriff sighed knowing the feral kids were well known cannibals but still felt sorry for the brats. Crying kids in nice clothes picked up by sheriff. The rest he had rounded up and handed to a nun militia group and local lawmen. Decided to hunt kids base and found a wrecked school bus. Sheriff had seen scraps of uniform on kids he traced to a wiped out town two years ago. So team charged and fired with mechanic acting as gunner for sheriff as his smart dna dinosaur per was still in training. Kids surrended quickly and survivors handed over to authorities. Little Billy Shakespeare threatened to kill whole team.

Wiped out another foot bandit ambush and reached Bathurst for steak and beer. The moon mechanic had a 100k cash payout and wanted a car. Got a Range rover and hotted up engine to high octane and gave it light ablative armour. Put a single MG on hood and planned to do more later. Tried to recruit a crew as each vehicle could have two and Dorathy the dinosaur was deemed not counted as crew. Interviews old drunks, keen kids, gamblers and saboteurs looking for cheapest or free crew. Got a kid and a drunk. Mechanic had his lunar gyrojet pistol and found a dealer selling specialist ammo and he got heaps including a clip which had 6 shots but could fire in any order. Got a wicker basket of frag greasiness.

After a week about the Farm and wrecking yards of Bathurst the motorsport mecca, team were looking for work. Agent in Sydney offered team to be on pilot for Deathrace Oz  Style (a licence version of Deathrace USA show that sought to bring Deathracing to the Family audience 6-8pm time slot. Met other racers. A horrible Sydney radio DJ team in a volkswagen hotrod. A wanabee try hard sex symbol been in a few racing scandals. A ex motor murdersport league driver kicked out for attacking race workers. A cheese heiress who was blowing her money to becoming a death racer. A youthful  cool brat marketed to youth, possibly a clone.

The race started with no guns rule so started with shoving and positioning themselves with the smaller cars being sent spinning through Claw's trail of caltrops. Several cars got in out of control spins and bumps. Volskwagen flipped three times in air and landed on wheels. Later smaller cars got aheadof mechanics rover but ahead was a new hazzard. A jacknifed semi truck was on road ahead. Smoke grenaides from Sherrif followed by claw targeting trucks fuel drums. Even though mostly vapor  was enough to expose hidden gang the Goanna Spanners, feral car strippers with some crustry rock hiphop hippie vibe. They had deemed the new TV show pilot doomed to fail to fight big media.

First night as they hung out in garage eating burgers at pitstop Dorathy was growling and wouldn't let anyone leave. Sherrif melded minds with her and sensed with her a reptilian predator was about. Stayed inside and heard another racer savaged b y a giant 4m gekko lizard. They helped shoot it and injured racer was the kid brat who's pretty looks were slashed by lizard bites.

So one day of three in first track done with third being a live fire race.
Second course is cross country and drivers welcome to change vehicles
Third is a mystery track

Each track has three segments each ending with a pitstops

$10 000 each for each track course
+$1000 per racer eliminated from contest this track
$4000 if first to reach pitstop
$2000 if second to reach pitstop
$1000 if third to reach pitstop
$50 000 if win final race
Silver med benefit and ammo an repairs included but not upgrades
Bonus prizes announced in game

Need to get weapons stats done soon
xtra vehicles - aircraft, boats, gev, ultralights, harrier fighter, apache copter, and some setting stuff, like renegade and the gentech interceptor v8, v10, v12 and v16 versions

Sanity, Sorcery and Super Science

Sanity, Sorcery and Super Science will be common themes in the Great Weird War campaign. Secret observer teams will enter the fortean zone in the heart of no mans land to document phenomena and see if their is any cause or intelligence behind it. While the normal war home sleeps in ignorant bliss the nightmares of those in the trenches is birthing real life horrors and weird phenomena.

Many troops experience phenomena including witnessing phantoms, feeling premonitions, seeing strange animals, religious visions. Range from personal to mass hysteria in trenches or battlefield with hundreds who experience events. Soldiers to comfort each other would tell weird stories of ghosts such as phantom Canadians, unholy dogs, angels, spectral hands, seeing the grim reaper, anachronistic troop types or strange soldiers. Will explore later.

Every power has begun to take this seriously and even exchanges with enemy have taken place. Governments hide information of anomalies and colonial clients are kept in the dark. Colonials often good recruits however. Except when those Tcho Tcho's got themselves recruited as colonial troops.

Germany leads it's allies but Austria and Turkey hold them back with religious interpretations of phenomena.

France and Briton are allies who disagree on some matters but share many case files and even cooperate frequently. Both have long established agencies. The Cabal is a semi military think tank with agents drawn from the allied powers and their colonies. The commonwealth have their own specialist Experimental Operations Command observers being sent in but they often support the more secretive Cabal.

Russia is held back by the occult loving Romanov dynasty, still in the shadow of Rasputin and Tunguska anomaly. Generally makes them a liability.  The revolutionaries prefer central European modern approach to phenomena. Some Russian factions willing to search phenomena for any weapon that can help cause. Their flawed occult theory and willingness to engage phenomena makes them dangerous. Sadly sometimes the wild Russian theories of a faction are right.

All sides have suspicions something is seriously wrong in the zone. Fortean phenomena and stranger activity has been increasing with , mostly with very little briefing. The dreams of Europe and millions of dead has created a psychic rift into a parallel universes. A dreamland of horror born from the nightmares of millions.

Possible ideas for tables
d100 Cabal recruits for the Zone
1 Sydney O’Reagan a 7 foot tall Australian galoot who is a master with his machete and drinking beer, always jolly, very willing to torture if ordered and might suggest use

d100 Paranormal apparitions
eg ghost hands, falling fish, strange sounds

d100 Great Weird War tech table

D100 Terrible letter from home

Sanity Ideas
SAN loss will obviously be important encounter possibility but vet soldiers will be used to horror. Also between sorties soldiers may get some leave home to recover sanity. Maarraige and children might result in a SAN gain but severely mad will probably moiss out on family life. Tragic or inspiring letters from home might add or subtract a d3 SAN shift. Besides those gains can be lost again if evil target your personal lives.

Veteran
(inspired by awesome CoC Green & Pleasant land book)
-1d4 SAN per year service
suffer minimum possible SAN loss from witnessing human gore or injuries
+20% extra in military skills as a bonus suitable for your service

New SAN Gains and losses:
Marry your one true love +1d6
Birth of your first child +1d4, +1 second
Adored by community +1d3
Promotion or commendation or medal+1
A month of prayer +1
Severe shelling 0/-1
Badly Tortured for at least a week -1/–d6
Discover you have been in hospital dreaming all along-1d3
Discover you were really in coma hideously burned all over -1d6
Die but resurrected somehow -1d20
Tragedy letter from home -1d3 Mom or dad died, fiance leaving you
Comforting letter from home -1d3 Your family proud of your sacrifice and prey for you

I am working on a new BRP sheet - my version has ideas for skills and bases from Ringworld and RQ3. Im going to get some sort of fatigue record and equipment page set up. One the HP/Weapons and Combat skills section will have boxes for HP with locations.

I will be running rules i have used lifted from top secret/gang busters. One slash [/] in a box is only temporary stun damage that recovers one per location per hour. A [X] is normal hurt real good like normal brp. This lets you have more fist fights and car accidents with less problems. The mook system with Morale instead of HP will be handy too.

Will use my card system booster deck

Players will have heavy military weapons so they will be deadly. Death should be quite likely for characters so a quick guide for new characters might be handy and allow players to adopt mooks on death of their PC.

Will look at Men's Sweat adventure mags also for ideas and mix with old popular mechanics tech.

My Cthulhu Metropolis setting would would be a feature linchpin dimension

Read some good fragments on war like underground military complexes - subterranean communities with own bakeries and newspapers and other services.

Of course JD has done it all before me....
http://aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.com.au/search/label/MutantFront

Weird WW1 supernatural beliefs
http://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/06/27/phantoms-in-the-trenches-historian-explores-the-supernatural-folklore-of-the-world-war-one/

d100 Strange encounters in or under no man’s land

d10 Quick strange encounters in and under no mans land
1 Madmen
2 Undead
3 Supernatural
4 Black Science 
5 Dimensional
6 Lost Race
7 Formless Horrors
8 Future Tech
9 Mystery Men
10 Mythic Entities


d100 Strange encounters in or under no man’s land1 Criminals (civilian or military) searching for loot opportunities
2 Madman berserker hiding in darkness
3 Crazed cannibals gnawing on rotten corpses
4 Robed cultists with prisoners
5 Robed cult assassins out to kill meddling intruders
6 Cult mercenary kill team in uniform led by robed cult masters
7 Lost soldiers totally spooked and wary
8 Sappers and trench fighters who have broken through into strange tunnels
9 Ill soldier carrying contagious disease like bubonic plague
10 Enemy explorers looking for weirdness
11 Skeletal soldiers make bayonet charge
12 Zombie soldiers risen from no man’s land graves
13 Reanimated insane troops from Herbert Wests Formula
14 Phantom troops marching eerily, immune to normal bullets
15 Spectral horde of insane gibbering madmen
16 Ghost seeks fresh flesh to inhabit so it can methodically murder more men 
17 Franken-soldiers made up from sewn together corpses made by black science
18 Black mould encrusted grinning ghouls joyfully screaming with hunger
19 A horrid wraith of evil darkness leading reanimated corpses of those it has eaten the souls of
20 Vampire officer leading thralls on a mission 
21 Powerful robed cult sorcerer will use spells or summoning
22 Naked witches having a ceremony
23 Werewolf soldiers hunting for intruders will change if shot
24 Ancient insane golem wandering underworld
25 Gargoyles from ancient catacombs guarding tunnel
26 Cave trolls or ogres or giants from Jotunland called by wizards to eat intruders
27 Dark elves that shape shift into soldiers of either side
28 Horde of goblins cackling insanely
29 Doppelganger spirits in form of d4 1=dead friends 2=living friends 3=family 4=superior officers
30 Summoned demon enjoying the hell on earth conditions
31 Dinosaurs summoned by time warp
32 Special trained and bred apes with military uniforms and kit
33 Anachronistic troops from long past battle charge
34 Rossum’s Universal Robotics corporation synthetic infantrymen
35 Dr Moreau made beast men in uniform on savage killing spree
36 Cyborg troops with mechanical body parts and armour, often controlled
37 Cyborg zombie troops reanimated by mechanical means
38 Superhuman soldier made in black lab destroying his enemies horribly
37 Tentacled Martians with heat ray projector seeking answers to strange phenomenon and human blood
38 Large automaton with two legs or tracks or tripod legs, with death ray
39 Mechanical spider with machine guns or heat ray
40 Temporal or dimensional gate way sucking in anything nearby
41 Effects like a Tillenghast Resonator, Visible otherworldly horrors from beyond
42 Superhuman adventurer attracted her by cult trail of clues and plot
43 Superhuman possessed by being from overspace, hostile arrogant claims godhood
44 Shoggoth feeding on corpses in between tunnel expansion chores
45 Dimensional shamblers walk through the walls to devour and steal away mortals
46 Odd men actually fungal lobster like alien beings from Yuggoth
47 Strange man looking for something actually possessed by time traveling member of the great race
48 Black liquid horror guarding tunnel for lord Tsathogua
49 White lumpy undead figures inscribing a glowing yellow sign
50 The god Nyarlathotep in form of the black beast, a clawed shadow demon unharmed by ordinary weapons
51 Morlocks hunting for human flesh
52 Serpent men sorcerers (possibly in human form) looking for ape dupes to fight enemies
53 Degenerate albino reptile men looking for food
54 Derro a race of psychic evil dwarfs assembling a hate ray broadcast antenna to spread war and terror
55 Hyperborean’s or Atlantean’s or Lemurian’s visit surface world to assess humanities growing weakness
56 Fish men hybrids disguised in uniform perform ritual to use sacrifices of war to revive the corpse city of Cthulhu
57 Tcho Tcho troops in colonial native uniform, deserted to perform horrible ritual
58 Mole men have heard thunder from from the surface and want to know what evils surface folk up to
59 Reptilian guardians protecting cryovault with dinosaur pets
60 Psionic grey skinned aliens using illusions of humanity to explore area
61 Hideous tentacle mutants, obsessed with food and sex, contaminative taint infects victims
62 A cultist has used formula to become a psuedo-shoggoth  horror but will attempt to pretend to be human a bit
63 A patchwork fleshy horror creature is collecting and rebuilding corpses into new monsters
64 Giant worm thing burrowing beneath erupts to eat men
65 Psionic giant land squid uses powers of illusion to attract victims
66 Psionic giant land squid bursts tentacles through the walls and try and snatch someone
67 A huge slimy mass of giant eggs or larvae will hatch into a strange swarm
68 A gigantic gelatinous mass of a creature fell from the sky like a weather balloon
69 A amorphous bobbling mass of no man’s land comes to life spawning creatures, mutagenic spores, mass growing
70 A invisible amorphous tentacled horror roams no mans land by night killing men for food
71 Aerial armoured dreadnauts rain hellfire of shells from above
72 Paratroopers and gas rain down from aerial dreadnauts in heavens
73 Troops with sealed suits and respirators transporting and spraying germ weapons
74 Mole machine bursts through ground and heavily armed and armoured sapper troops pour out
75 Mechanized combat suit or walker with heavy weapons
76 One man mini tank with machinegun, improved ones implanted with a human brain and a mechanical voice box
77 Streamlined deco tanks glide over area effortlessly
78 Rocket men soldiers with jetpacks and helmets, each with radio and low light goggles
79 Land leviathan tank, a mobile fortress or land ship spewing out troops and shells
80 Heavily armoured and armed troops with respirators lumber about clumsily seeking enemy
81 Cloaked and masked superspy with secret weapon skulking about, possibly in disguise
82 Masked psionic mystery person on some mission uses two pistols
83 Arrogant strange person in armoured black suit with web spinnerets and winches
84 Strange man with trench coat and protective magic crystal in hand seeking cause of anomalies
85 Intelligent bullet proof robot with boy sidekick come to lend hand to the cause
86 A flag man, dressed in colourful national hero costume for patriotic splendour with honorary rank
87 A famous stage magician and master of the occult
88 Agent X fights in a black flight suit with a gas mask and trick gadgets
89 Man of Gold, a superior man with awesome powers including flights
90 The “Professor” a strange eccentric genius respected by the establishment with civilian and military assistants
91 Angelic warrior woman fighting enemy and saving almost doomed allies
92 Prehistoric lord of the hunt and underworld with pack come to signal doom
93 Skeletal reaper leading soldiers away glances at you then vanishes
94 Dragon awakened by artillery  enraged and confused
95 Disappointed mythical god of past come to witness human kinds  failure
96 Devil dogs seen in dark howling for victims souls  keep everyone awake
97 Wotan (or something) in divine vision offers you power now and a short heroic life for victory
98 Weird shapeshifting telepathic grey Martian from parallel dimension has been adopted by one of the powers
99 Liogor entities feeding on psionic energy of war and channelling in hopes of restoring lost continent and god
100 Old spirits of underground like gnomes and kobolds or pixies secretly sabotaging human equipment

d100 No-Mans Land Encounters

Ok so front of house fell off and electricity down possibly helped my imagination. Didn't get my job but they offered to train me in being interviewed. So got my copy of Petty gods  - awesome and thanks to everyone - one of my fave game books already. Did spot typo and a editorial flaw that got bit about Pazzuzu mixed up with his dad. But over all awesome. Got set of Zombie zoo animals to work at 1/72 as animals. A cheap toy blister pack of birds and sea creatures but no 1/72 octopus i can give spare weapons to yet. Now can envisage packs of dogs, lions and other beasties attacking party better. Kinda slightly crude so could be giant rats or lotsa stuff. Lotsa Chimp and gorillas are cool but the polar bear more like a black or smaller brown bear. I might consider modifying toy plastic. Toys on hold for a bit but might try to resolve problems with  drive through rpg . More (early) ww1 Germans and Russian knights coming.

I have more like this coming

d10 Quick No-Man’s Land Encounters 1 Hazards
2 Wounded and lost
3 Soldiers with dirty jobs
4 Fur and feathers
5 Broken men
6 Every day in no man’s land
7 Witness war’s fury
8 Artillery
9 Infantry attacking
10 Vehicles

d100  No-Man’s Land Encounters

1 Minefield

2 Barbed wire

3 Concealed pit

4 Unexploded shell

5 Unexploded gas shell

6 Trip line with grenades or mines

7 Concealed spike filled pit

8 Exposure to horrible illness

9 Slippery mud filled crater

10 Horrible stinking miasma of rotten flesh makes everyone choke

11 Wounded soldier struggling for help in muddy crater screaming

12 Party of medics trying to recover wounded

13 Wounded lost soldiers in hiding burst out of cover for desperate attack

14 Blind soldier crying for help

15 Mule with wounded man on back

16 Wounded men of opposite sides helping each other walk

17 Mortar team sneaking up to drop explosives on enemy positions 

18 Medic running carrying wounded man 

19 Weeping shell shocked enemy trooper

20 Horribly burned victim of flame thrower or gas

21 Observer in concealed position reporting via signals or phone line

22 Team laying phone line for observers

23 Men burying land mines

24 Men laying barbed wire

25 Men digging observation trench

26 Forward observers with binoculars creeping towards enemy lines

27 Men digging up land mines

28 Men cutting barbed wire

29 Foot messengers running for lives

30 Lost sapper escaped collapsing tunnel

31 Wounded messenger pigeon

32 Lost dog of either side with satchel of papers

33 Aggressive enemy dog charges from a crater

34 Lost horse panicked and run away still wearing gas mask

35 Dead observer with cage of pigeons

36 Desperate rats swarm from collapse trench

37 Thousands of ticks and fleas

38 Water filled trenches filled with leeches

39 Lost animal mascot with unit insignia on coat (goat, pig, rat, cat, dog)

40 War dog wagging tail, human face (or other bits) in teeth

41 Man hitting a huge unexploded shell with his entrenching tool 

42 Madman hiding under mud leaps up with live grenade 

43 Soldier tired of it all walking into mine field

44 Madman spotted eating human corpse

45 Madman with entrenching tool hiding under rubble  

46 Crazed officer stabbing or flogging corpses yelling orders 

47 Madman calling for angels to come back and save him

48 Lone lost madman singing loudly ignoring everything around him 

49 Naked man in waking trance, no idea where he is

50 Man hanging in barbed wire like marionette, seems perfectly happy

51 Deserter running in fear 

52 Lost enemy troops surrender

53 Men attempting to loot remains of building

54 Men looting corpses for a cheap gain

55 Officer chasing and shooting at fleeing men 

56 Men disembowelling officer 

57 Men marching into no-man’s land

58 Man with trousers down taking a dump

59 Men resting with rations and drinking from canteens

60 Officer executing trooper with pistol

61 Man in enemy officer uniform insists he is allied spy, needs help getting to your lines

62 See fighter plane gun down men crossing no man’s land

63 See flamethrower attack on trenches and hear men screaming

64 See men working on broken tank

65 See tunnel collapse and sappers squirm out of earth in panic

66 Witness clouds of gas surprise soldiers, many fall screaming and coughing

67 Witness men machine gunned down by hidden soldiers with bipod machinegun

68 See and hear huge explosion from sappers using explosives under enemy

69 See dogfight between fighters

70 See airship or balloon shot down

71 Mortar fire nearby

72 Near miss artillery

74 Near  miss artillery shell blasts mud and rubble everywhere

75 Near miss artillery shell blasts mud and chunks of long buried flesh everywhere

76 Near miss incendiary shell covers area in burning chemicals and smoke

77 Poison gas shells explode chokes area with fumes

78 Smoke shells drown area in smoke

79 Flares illuminate area making it easier to spot targets

80 Continual shellfire drowns out all noise driving men into shelter

81 Sniper in hidden position

82 Wounded soldier in hiding lobs a grenade

83 Trench fighting team skulking about for weak spot to raid

84 Charging squads of men assaulting enemy lines

85 Hidden machinegun nest position

86 Team with rifle grenades fire a volley

87 Flamethrower team with support squad moving to raid enemy bunker

88 Retreating men run back to own lines with wounded

89 Both sides fix bayonets and charge to the death

90 Men locked in close quarter combat

91 Fighter plane strafes area with machine guns

92 Bomber or air ship drops bomb or gas

93 Spotter balloon reports party position to lines

95 Female tank (machine guns only) with infantry

96 Male tank  (artillery and machineguns) with infantry squad

97 Trapped tank with desperate crew

98 Major tank offensive with tanks on both sides

99 Burning tank with screaming crew trapped inside

100 Crashed fighter plane possibly with living pilot    

d100 Whats in that hole in no-man's land?

D10 hole entry
1 Partially collapsed entrance visible
2 Artillery shell crater left exposed entry
3 Visible under rubble heap and mud
4 Gaping pit into the earth
5 Old padlocked wooden door covered on mud
5 Semi exposed concrete plug or metal lid
6 Entry through cellar of blasted house foundation
7 Collapsed tunnel formed entryway
8 Shaft with a rope or crumbling ladder
9 Locked metal grill with shaft and steel ladder
10 A large air vent partially hidden by rocks

d10 Quick Weird Holes Under No Man’s Land 
1 Military tunnels
2 Subterranean waterway
3 Caverns and natural tunnels
4 Hazardous tunnel complexes
5 Agricultural and industrial
6 Religious structures
7 Mining and rail tunnels
8 Sappers tunnels
9 Strange maddening tunnels
10 Inhuman horror lairs

D100 Weird Holes Under No Man’s Land
1 Collapsed and abandoned trench, now partially buried
2 Trenches with complex of shelters and tunnels
3 Collapsed entrance into abandoned sappers tunnel
4 Concealed observers trench
5 Huge complex of underground barracks
6 Collapsed tunnel into abandoned bunker
7 Emergency military hospital abandoned
8 Artillery and bomb shelter abandoned
9 Ammo dump possibly from previous war
10 Storage with goods and vehicles
11 Old creek bed with entry into drain
12 Sinkhole collapsed into cave system
13 Cistern complex of underground water ways
14 Underground canal for transport
15 Underground stream connected to several well shafts
16 Entry into old sewer system still stinking
17 Collapsed and abandoned trench, now partially flooded
18 Drainage pipes crossing the area, some partially flooded in mud
19 Flooded old bunker system full of decay
20 Flooded industrial basement with factory machinery
21 Old creek bed with entry into cave
22 Huge crude animal burrow like a badgers but bigger
23 Stone age tunnels connected to natural caves
24 Prehistoric tomb cave with bones of man and beast
25 Prehistoric stone age art gallery
26 Tunnel like complex in masses of tree roots
27 Corpse choked tunnels full of war debris carried here by water
28 Slime covered tunnels dripping with mucous of uncertain origin
29 Mud covered tunnels of uncertain origin
30 Ancient grotto complex with spring
31 Tunnels made by criminal and smugglers, possibly flooded
32 Tunnels used by revolutionaries with printing press
33 Old vault used for storage with solid metal locked chambers
34 Stores of documents from state or business
35 Stores of leaking chemical weapons
36 Service tunnels and sealed basement of sanatorium with cells
37 Service tunnels and sealed basement of prison
38 Basement laboratories abandoned
38 Basement funeral home or morgue with stacks of coffins and crematorium
40 Tunnel complex full of graffiti and possibly insane deserters
41 Cold store tunnels with decayed fruit and vegetables, straw and ice
42 Wine cellar complex with huge storage tunnels
43 Cheese cellar storage tunnels
44 Underground smokehouse with thousands of abandoned carcases on hooks
45 Ice storage tunnels with plant room and remains of straw packed ice
46 Coal tunnels where coal delivered with light rail system to local basements
47 Steam plant basement with remnants of industrial boilers
48 Root cellars with stores of rotten potatoes and turnips
49 Mushroom filled tunnels former storage tunnels
50 Boiler room of industrial complex
51 Catacombs with buried Christians from middle ages
52 Basement complex beneath destroyed church complex
53 Tunnel through graveyard connecting crypts, filled with grave debris
54 Ancient grotto with remains of hermits home
55 Ancient grotto with remains of pagan temple
56 Complex of ancient tunnels more recently used by secretive cult as temple
57 Ancient vaults of religious documents, artworks and relics hidden long ago
58 Storage vaults of artworks, relics from around the world and stuffed animals
59 Subterranean masonic or secret society lodge with temple and library
60 Tunnel complex more recently used by several serial killers or cultists
61 Rail tunnels with service structures and workmen’s shelter
62 Underground train station
63 Pre modern mine tunnels, cramped and crumbling
64 Modern mine tunnel with rails and solid construction
65 Workshop and maintenance tunnels
66 Tunnels under construction with workers housing and rail tracks
67 Old coal seam with remains of old mining equipment
68 Major drain system with oil and gas lines
69 Garbage strewn old mine used as trash pits
70 Ancient mine system with zombie miners
71 Sappers tunnels with live demolition charges and mines ready to blow
72 Sappers tunnels with miners at work (pick a side)
73 Sappers tunnel with kill teams of soldiers battling
74 Sappers tunnels full of bad air and gas
75 Sappers tunnels abandoned choked in mud
76 Sappers tunnels riddled with corpses and abandoned
78 Sappers tunnels with crazed deserter dwellings
79 Sappers tunnels with remains of barracks and graffiti
80 Sappers tunnels abandoned part flooded sandy soil
81 Complex actively operated by cultists with sacrificial victims in prison
82 Deserters of several nations madly believing they can build a new civilization here
83 Sappers tunnel crawling with zombies
84 Madmen deserters turned cannibals and starting to develop ghoulish features
85 Tunnels with dwellings of feral children, possibly cannibals
86 Remains of Roman tunnels with zombie legionnaires
87 Tunnel tapped into plague era graves, rotting medieval zombies
88 Tunnel tapped into Napoleonic era graves with war ravaged zombies
89 Madmen cultists of both sides gathered to look for some secret in tunnels
90 Strange cave complex with anachronistic relics and zombies of various time periods
91 Ghoul tunnel complex connected to former graveyards
92 Dank dripping tunnels of fish men and temple complex
93 Ancient tunnels smelling of reptilians, hidden serpent men with dinosaurs cryo-vault
94 Muddy tunnel and anachronistic basement complex with squealing pig men
95 Ancient ghoul tunnels connected to prehistoric burial mounds, speak pre modern language
96 Degenerate morlocks, tunnels littered with bones and battlefield debris
97 Non human ruins with strange geometry, husks of ancient lost race
98 Ancient tunnel complex with slumbering god in statue form and degenerate worshipers
99 Hideous rat men and collections of stinking human remains
100 Weird mist shrouded tunnels with exits in other times and worlds

D10 Anachronism eras
1 Prehuman age of monsters or dinosaurs
2 Ice age tribes
3 Roman occupation
4 Charlemagne era
5 French revolution
6 Napoleonic war
7 Franco-Prussian war
8 WW2
9 Late 20thC
10 Post apocalypse future

Designing the perfect Retropunktechpulp genre Setting

I have a few more road war and ww1 and Retropunktechpulp tables to get out shortly plus d100 village idiots. I considered doing separate d100 teens for fantasy and cyber/supers/SF stuff.

Work hours cut so more relaxed and writing and some other projects - art for local game con, invited to a art fair and Paste Modernism 4 and a bit of effort getting more teaching work by writing a paragraph. Had interview for my job. Have two con games to do. Sorting room out and chucking every not quite working appliance. Will get some zine stuff done too.

Game Stuff
I wanna merge multiple ideas into a single setting but i don't think i could fit all into one world. Reading others debate about mars setting  at Timothy Brannan got me thinking more about this. Has been combing over silmilar territory in retro pulp. I must get the new Hollow earth stuff he has been reviewing.

I could pick and mix sources, stealing from the best into a coherent setting.

I could cram everything into one setting like Kim Newman novel or Alan Moore's league of extraordinary gentleman.

Or have a cluster of interrelated planes with overlapping content for a ultimate sandbox.

I could imagine multiple mars in different dimensions all linked and on some mars is lifeless and barren with only a trace atmosphere. Others have advanced civilisations of humans or aliens.

Inspired by fantasy mars settings talk i was reminded how could i choose just one of the awesome mars settings or fictions from comics, fiction and film. If I shove in everything might be ugly or hard work. I like all the human stuff in Space 1889 but not so keen on Martians (But do like Venus with swampy dinosaurs) and the moon (HG Wells first men in the moon). Id have fight over so many good mars settings - some tough choices.

Time Wars
So the setting I'm working on will be a cluster of realities between 1890 (steam) to 1930 but also with future like 1980 or 2020 as envisaged by SF writers of that period. I wanna do a steam and deco punk pulp setting with the flexibility of multiple realities, multiple emanations of time streams in a multiverse....

Besides influences from the above mentioned writers I will be drawing from the following. Steampunk of Micheal Moorcock (Oswald Bastable and Rituals of Infinity). 2nd DrWho Patrick Troughton Wargames Story in 1960s. and the Luther Arkwright comics (now with a RQ rulebook which will help - also this series very very Micheal Moorcock and is basically Moorcock's Rituals of Infinity).
.
The point of the last batch of references is they have the multiple realities and a strong story. Oswald Bastable books have great realities that are probably more horrible than most of genre. Oswald witnesses worlds at war and he knows wherever he goes he will witness that worlds first atomic detonation in a war. He is a bit too doomed for most RPGs. Rituals of Infinity features a agency aware of a few dozen parallel worlds with a force using psychically blank android/clone troops and agents to accelerate destruction of parallels. Luther Arkwright clearly uses this and other Moorcock ideas like Jerry Cornelius. Arkwright as a more detailed good and evil organisation, psionics and more. A little bit of Invisibles by grant Morrison might creep in(especially the 20s version of the team). TORG rpg has some nice ideas too. Dr Who wargames episode seems to be set in WW1 but really a time machine using race are stealing human soldiers to create a slave warrior race to conquer the universe. Other Dr who ideas might creep in. The main thing about these sources is time/plane travel will happen and their are multiversal threats like cthulhu mythos, dimensional warlords, and android disruptors spreading chaos.

Initially will be WW1 setting. I want to have it start historical with some biplane, tank and trench fights then have party sent into no-mans land to scout strange phenomena. This will keep up a bit and war will grow weirder. With divergent missions more pulp missions and plane shifting. Other time travel plausible too and will let me use miniatures from all time periods. Initially will be working (unknowingly) for a agency like the Laundry novels (Charles Stross) and Diogenes Club (Kim Newman). Later will hook up with multi planar agency - will be more planar factions introduced. The most dangerous reality travellers would be super heroes with inbuilt powers. Technology is more difficult to plane shift and has issues with local reality laws. Of course greys, evil germans and zombies will need a good thrashing or needle gunning.

I'm going to run this next year with a few teasers and a con one off this year.

Once gets into final form I can possibly keep it going for a long time and get very weird. Possibly drop in and new players can be kept ignorant of mega plot.

Psionics
Ideas include all your basic stuff plus this:

Plane Shifting - essential for metatemporal agents for good and evil

Incarnation Shifting - plane and time travel with new bodies embedded in local time space, temporarily merge with local self who might not remember much

Astral Travel - variants could send spirit to other times/spaces and possess a local body

Reality Stabiliser - stop meta-temporal anachronistic tech from working in non native local reality template. Or might allow tech to work if local laws more chaotic (magical)

Reality Harmoniser - can shift tech, magic and anachronistic tech without infringing on local laws

Reality Chameleon - blend into local reality and fit in, absorb local every day knowledge from planetary overmind. Advanced masters can change clothes and tools

Reality Warp - let chaos in and local reality matrix fractures and bad weird stuff happens. Might summon otherworlders like a elemental or demon. Often creates a vacuum or gust of air if pressure of other planes different and possibly light. Preferred power for madmen

Tongues - absorb and communicate in local language from local collective consciousness - might not work if no intelligence about

Planar Scan - find gates, sense dimensional dematerialisation's, sense dimensional instability or travel or weak points. Some entities can harm you if you percieve them

Self Resurrection - if killed or destroyed new body forms amid elements of nature over time, often more like a parallel self than a continuous selfhood. Some forms are a bit creepy like reborn as a baby and rapidly grow to adulthood. Some use as a extreme form of plane travel.

Incarnation communion - can talk with other selves on other planes for information or sending planar messengers

Planar Communion - can speak to entities from other planes, most stick to one and form a relationship. May entities are jerks who want you to summon them or release into our world, others just alien horrors.

Summon Incarnation - call for a parallel self to rescue you, might be same each time, might replace you in their position with skills to escape their peril. If one of you die the ripples effect all of your incarnations and you could tell if someone was hunting and killing your other selves.

Summon Entity - most stick to one entity type per time you take power. You call being or beings who appear rapidly and you can banish them with resistance roll. You have no power over them but may bargain with them. Offering to send home most common bargain. Many call on things from beyond that are horrible. Devils, angels, greys, elves, mythos entities, elementals, demonic gods, aliens, dinosaurs, insectoids

Some planes and powers
Inter planar tech like gates, suits, monoliths, multidimensional vehicles or the "black boxes" used by many cheap and dodgy shifters (who gave it to them?) may not work in some realities or dimensional zones. Psionics are most versatile but even they might have difficulty in some planes stranding the mentalist meta-temporal explorer. Who'd have thought esp might not work on some planes, gosh! Magic from high sorcery to divine evocation to occult lore can be handy for realm hopping. Magic dependent on communing with other planes or planar entities changes every plane. You can get to a world and be stranded as your plane shifting means might conflict with local axioms and you wont be able to return the same way. One of the crappier situations is a plane ruled by gods (Or a god machine) who can interdict travellers from passing. Forcing you to ask them for help or or forcing you to kill or bypass them.

Hyperspace - a inter dimensional medium tapped by interstellar travel and other ultratech engineers uses, takes a thousand years to go from FTL to teleporting to forcefields, anti gravity, dimensional tech. Occasional wreckage, space mines or lost space prison found. Some entities with and without bodies. Hyperspace corridors can be built at mid hyperspace era tech but oftn lower tech civilizations find old trails that make hyperspace travel safer and usable by less advanced civilizations. Gates are an alternate more secure system because they can also block unwelcome non gate using visitors by interdicting FTL travel drives. Very advanced surround ship in warpspace bubble and seem to travel and perceive universe better than entering hyperspace

The Void - quite possibly a misty quasispace with a atmosphere that supports life somehow, possibly inside a multi dimensional being. Has some inhabitants. Possibly used by ancient cultists for travel. Pretty creepy, makes everyone seem drained

Etherspace - other planar space overlaps with interplanetary space and used for in system trips in conjunction with a Phlogiston drive for reaction that pushes against the ether

Astral Space - mental planes of existence, the medium of ghosts, spirits, shamans, occultists and source of ectoplasm

Time Vortex - for time travel but look out for chronovores or time travellers

Overspace - ultra high density plane of mass, energy and mentality without time. Things from that zone tend to explode a human if they possess one. Summing or communion using chimes and other sounds ike chanting helps call them. Any contact increases air pressure and causes blood noses and hemorrhaging in exposed body parts like eyes, makes ears pop painfully. Entities may swallow you to prevent you being crushed or exploded if taken to overspace. Best avoided really

Subatomic planes - are accessible by scaling down through reality and vice versa (shrinking or growing)

Hollow World - not really inside earth a manufactured artifact pocket universe outside of time and full of remnants of strange lost and extinct things and lost civilizations. Possible many gates deep in the earth used by ancients to flee worlds

Mythical and Fictional possible - Mythical have gods fictional somehow based on books or published or broadcast fiction.

Things from Beyond - Some entities can harm you if you perceive them. Possibly entering our world through your perception of them. These planes are frightfully close and influence on us according to unfathomable cosmic cycles. Some say hyperspace travel drawing them closer as mass of universe changes

Other Stuff
I will be able to use my Cthulhu-Metropolis  and some of my other settings again.
I will use my card system using playing cards and my BRP
Must feature villain and seconds and henchmen
Making waves in a plane like overthrowing a state or introducing anachronism can attract trouble from many weird things. 

Konsumterra's Top 10 RPG Designs

Inspired by Zac S current discussion on terrible design, rather than let my inflamatory joints speak about things I hate I will discuss the best overall RPG products and lines I have seen in exactly 30 years of game book buying. I have some visual impairments and aversion to some paper stock which are my problem but shape my taste.

Things I rate on:
Good layouts - i like side bars and boxed clarifications
Good rules but enough to steal if i dont want system
Art - I like pretty books but lotsa tiny spot illos help alot
Value for money and completeness
Enough stuff to do a campagn or at leas one really good starting supplement
I am totally biased to games I focus on here lots
Dislike new editions for sake of cashflow - If it aint broke dont fix it
Wish I could buy maps and legit PDF's of some of these

1 Gammaworld 2nd Ed
Golden age of TSR box sets. Great art on cover and books. Great elmore spot illustrations that set mood. Good layout. Enough campaign detail for a few months play and room to do your own thing somewhere on bigger map. Pitzbourke and surrounding area well detailed with maps in several scales. Actually I think this was best game ever in terms of did not ever need changing. While I dont play the rules straight 3rd ed had a choose your own adventure instead of campagn info and was a organisational mess. Some interesting ideas but jumping on a Marvel style table was a mess too. Actually 2nd ed was best box set ever in terms of everything you needed and better value than DnD sets. I recommend the original Legion of Gold and Famine in Fargo which are a great expansions. I will buy a copy if anyone can hekp me as product I most regret selling ever.

2 Traveller 2300
I like Traveller and Megatraveller too which did some good things for layout but I never liked rules. GDW did good design and great settings but overly wargamer and militaristic settings. They did mostly bad adventures. The first box set of this was a beuty. The revised one even better. Some of the best technology ever presented as far as vehichles, weapons go. Insignia and cloth patches were also awesome. Cant say system was for me and I never used It. The vehicle and equipment guides are awesome. The Kafer source book great too. The universe is loaded with well thought out tech, some of best SF race ever in any setting (go Pentapods!). Actually this setting + Cthulhu would work or Aliens. Later cyberpunk setting ad ons felt like bandwagon after though but interesting. Kafer Sourcebook is a really good ad on. I still have this.

3 GURPS 1st-3rd Edition
I followed GURPS from first box set. I liked many ideas and stole add ons for my other games. The setting books came regulary from 1st to 3rd and was like a monthly release. Some of the best genre and historical setting books ever. Dont like horseclans? Dont get it. As system grownt to huge full colour books have lost interest. No longer interesting world books coming out. I regret selling many of these but PDF's readily available. Books are dense, well laid out and the sidebars really ad to the overall effect better than the box full colour modern version. Modern ones just feel cold and no longer interested in lots of new settings. Steve Jackson illustrations basic but set a tone, many recycled from decades of game products. They just add to mood and break up space nicely. Autoduel is a great example because first printing of guy in armour is one of my favorite bits of art and I prefer layout to later version. One of my favorite RPG books - a awesome cyberpunk setting.

4 Top Secret/SI
This was a really under rated system with a very good layout. The rules are quite good and I stole lots of Ideas. The emporary damage system (also in gangbusters) works well in Cthulhu so you can have fist fights without murder (but a woman accidentally murdering a cop is part of Cthulhus charm). Great Chase Rules. Good advantage/disadvantage system. Several of the sourcebooks were very good. Agent13 one of best Pulp sourcebooks - actually better than novels and comics based on. F.R.E.E.lancers setting was a great proto cyberpunk-superhero setting. Mercenaries/special ops sourcebook full of good military trivium if that floats your boat but still influences me. Guns, Gadgets and Getaway great book was very good with hundreds of cars and guns with distinctive differences. Highstakes Gamble box set is pretty but but just an overblown module with lots of props but some would enjoy. A far cry from the spy dungeon game of first version.

4 RQ3
It is no secret I love old Chaosium. Superworld was broken but a fun amalgam of Champions and BRP. Stormbringer 1st ed I liked. RQ 1&2 were nice but setting put many off. I love Glorantha and Greg's anthropology and mythology take on fantasy which DnD has never done. RQ3 is slick, detailed, lets you run a wide range of fantasy and a great System. Lots of core remains in BRP. I never liked strike ranks and fatigue a bit much to record and found skill category bonuses a bit painful but loved system that i played late 80s through to the 90s. More recent versions have things i steal from but did lots of stuff i dont like. Layouts were great. Most of the classic box sets are amazing and gloranthan bestiary, apple lane, snakepipe hollow are awesome. Elder Secrets and Troll Gods have some of most disappointing art ever but text good for hardcore fans. Even layouts seem hasty. Single volume book version with errata is great too i might have to get one. I have complte box st of rules, dm version and two players ones. Got a version bound by friend too. Kinda need lotsa books because rolling up stats on everything is hard work which is most painful element. At least foes are individuals. The first few years as a GM only got divine magic. Playing in another campagn i got how to abuse spirit and shamanism. A scientist among us got sorcery and i suits scientists well - later 90s supplements gave better examples of pre gen sorcerers. Dorastor book is one of best campagn settings ever. This continues to be core of my historical gaming. Luckily by calling games cthulhu gets peeps in but viking game has been doing very well and everybody loves vikings.  Will run Babylon and Rome in future. The generic Dark ages setting underrated and very good for Dark Ages Cthulhu.

5 Call of Cthulhu 1st-5th ed
I have most consistently played this game. A simple lethal version of BRP. I dont get why rules needed changing from 1st edition. I like they added extra ststs and book descriptions in new editions. No need to include HPL actual fiction. New edition 7 terrorfies me as seems designed for kids who cant divide or multiply by 5 but possibly more deadly. I have detailed in past how more skill points and less skills in clue finding and languages means more skills for combat. In older editions many characyers had no fighting skills. In 6th ed everyone has so many more skill points most have weapon skill. Has become more pulpy.

I liked everything in this system till orient express - too much real world mythology (not HPL in my book) and too many monsters (common problem in many new books) and too clive barker gore based 80s horror. I actually threw out the adventure part of the terrible barely a box set it came in. I got 6th ed and over design is rampant. Too many bug chewed holes and other useless decor that makes hard to read. Old Chaosium was textbook like and easy to use, best design in the hobby. I got 6th ed hardcover only to find it very hard to use and heard of new edition making it irrelevant when i got home from game con. I really liked games workshop edition but they just slapped content together with no editing but was good. Are some promising aspects to new edition rules wise but basically my 30 year love affair with with Chaosium is over. It's not me It's you.

Several really dud adventure out last year Im glad I only got PDFs. The 50s one I will go elsewhere for a good 50s sourcebook on atomic age horror. Cubicle7 Stuff is mostly superior and I look forward to the non Chaosium BRP Cthulhu game coming out. for the record I find Gumshoe depressing and more linear and less GM controlled. Finally saw d20 Cthulhu and I will read. One of my players said he thinks you should get stronger against the mythos with levels and he prefers but not really horror. I miss old Cthulhu adventure books with 6 or 7 short adventures to the mostly convoluted poor ones I cant be bothered digesting that I recently got.

The lovecraft county line was awesome why is "Adventures in Arkham Country" impossible to get at a good price - i have never even seen it or "Dead Reckonings" The CoC version of Dunwich book with stats for d20 and normal cthulhu is a ugly mess - glad i have first print. I have some issues with Australian Aboriginals in products too.

Still my favorite game but something really rotten sinking in.

6 Ringworld
Dense, detailed, beautiful, good art some very nice. Perfect BRP SF game with companion. A great book on known space setting which is great read. Wouldn't play setting as is though. Has some great variations on BRP and best version of stat derived bonus system im using in my vikings game. Really hey should do Spaceworld and release this stripped of setting. Most of you if you have not seen a copy probably never will. I like lots about Nivens work but he is a jerk. With very old characters in this setting you can have huge amounts of skill points so can take a while.

7 Mutant Epoch
This book and supplements really hit it with me. First the books are dense with text and spot illustrations. The monsters are really horrible. The game deals with horrible topics most games will not - like what if monsters capture you. There are some typos but I can forgive them with the volume of effort and detail. Handy for any post apoc setting and raidable for my gammg and psychon games. Has a fun vibe like 2000 AD comics i dont see in many American products. Modules a bit too box text but could run as solo or have own character with players and has even solo use. I like idea you could rerun and have different room contents each time. Would like to see write advenures for veteran gm without box texts though. The cross road region book is so huge and dense. If they do more of these books wil be a super busy world. I look forward to fantasy version.

8 DnD
The red and blue book editions from 1980 do everything very well with limited space. The famous red and blue box sets with Elmore art on front are very beautiful. Not as complete as Gammaworld 2nd ed but very nice. The cyclopedia edition is the best version of DnD to me and id love to get one again as mine stolen. The gazetters for the setting are pretty good too with very good art. I liked the black covers of late 2nd ed ADnD as less new age looking than first one and those monster folders were terrible. Later versions of DnD I cant read same as Pathfinder. Too much trying to look pretty with full colour totally distracting from readability. My favorite thing about ADnD 1st ed (later covers in mis 80s nice) was the older art with wargamer and historical arms and armour. When i see a crystal bauble in a product i usually lose interest. Same for fantasy computer games. I hate big crystals everywhere.

9 Warhammer Fantasy RPG 1st ed
I only lost this recently and regret it. Very complete setting and game lots of fun, great art with lots of resources for campaign and ideas for any fantasy setting with the UK grit I love. Older edition more unbalanced. Good. The 40k games are very pretty and over designed but get it right. Setting a bit too detailed and too much info but awesome.

10 Eclipse Phase
I dare say one of prettiest games ever rich in ideas, horror without supernatural and way beyond most cyberpunk genre stuff. Great art and layouts. Cant say i follow system but feels like most truly modern SF game with so much to steal.

Honorary Mentions

Star Fronteirs Alpha Dawn and Knight Hawks has a built in Universe I played for a while but lack of new stuff made me use own. Now with the free mags is better than ever and free. Space combat is good.

Buck rogers game I think was killed by mediocre art concept but actually a solid settig and early d20 SF game by mike pondsmith.

TORG had so many good ideas and some great art. Didnt care for the universe at war setting but made a good campaign for my Marvel game. The fantasy one had some good spooky stuff but was a bit generic and probably weakest. Kanawa and Cyberpapacy good for cyberpunk. Tharkoldu has that 80s horror i mostly dislike but i like here and the tech good for any sf game. Wished Id got space gods book. Mechanids were a bit pulpy for me but gave me some ideas. I used card deck and then made my own for RQ games I used for years. I rate mos for inspiration over usability.

Paranoia 1st ed and i had games workshop hardcover i ditched regrettably during a purge but great game, great art and settin with ideas for my sf, post apoc and other settings.

DCC i got for art. I wish someone would run it as i dont quite get it yet as I dont metabolize rule sets like i did when younger. Dont think would b a regular game but good for dungeon crawl fun.

Mega Traveller Journal Publications were amazingly better than GDW ones and I recomend the scout and races books as some of the best Traveller products ever. Robot and vehichle book good too. An adventure was probably was one of my favorites. FASA did nice Traveler books too -  a reprint of Skyraiders with great asteroid hab and geomorphs would be a good product to recreate.

TSR MARVEL MSH or FASRIP was of course lucky to have great comic art. But one table does all was a big feature of this game and the built in descriptive elements of stats and ranks was very goo design. Karma xp reward syste very flexible. Has its flaws but core is very good.

Gangbusters box set pretty nice too with good components. Im lucky to have revised modules with very pretty covers.

Cyberpunk was pretty good but the Solo of Fortune book looking like a Merc mag was gold - more supplements like this with items scattered everywhere and fake ads. Teenagers From Outer space and Mekton are awesome too.

Dark Future was a carwars type game from GW i use for all my cyberpunk/carwars games. Jack Yeovil novels are awesome. Great art and setting painted as sidebars and boxed text in a wargames rules.

Cthulhu Tech and Cthonian Stars both beautiful and sexy games, well\designed

Paladium stuff dense with ideas and some pretty art, plenty to plunder for DnD

Iron Crown MERP and historical books very good and dense with info

TORG WAR2 Ideas Revisited

http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/dungeons-dimensions-and-torg.html
previous post on topic

I may have original TORG invader worlds attempt to re- invade and even help core earth
I also forgot Carcosa so that can be invading Australia too
Would be funny to have Warhammer/40k chaos and space troops appear everywhere
and some super heroes invade too - New York!

This map indicates basic claim for low level influence in early days to total saturation towards TORG WAR2

Thule
Frozen land where Giant and troll armies assemble in the magical glacier ciradel of the Frost Giants king and god. Lots of vikings. Some areas settled with fairy tale villages.

DnD
Various editions and dungeon zones invading and competing, vikings, Templars and pagan Slav holy men and sorcerers

The Night Land
A horror sunless realm of vulcanism, evil mutant freaks, evil dwarfs, ogres and giants, ancient ruins and several mile high arcologies of psionic armoured knights - Tharkold cross over here too due to some shared axioms

Cvberpunk
Highly industrialized corporate lords with with AIs, private armies and fanatic security troops versus punks, rebels, terrorists and rogue replicates

Shadow Run
Mash up of cyberpunk, Native shamanic magic returns and DnD

Hard Times
Dark conspiracy, car wars and dark future mash up - probably evolving into judge dredd

Pirates of Atlantis
Voodoo priests, gods and zombies with carribean pirates and city of ancient evil Clark Ashton Smith type evil sorcerers and occasional prehuman elder races. Artist who did ghost in shell did some (adult) art like this.

Lost World
Aztecs, aliens and dinosaurs with 20s colonial explorers on coastal cities

Steam Age
Steampunk europe at war with monsters or dark europe

World of Darkness
Vampires, werewolves, slayers and cyberpunk

Mythic Babylon
Enchanted armies of Babylon with power of Marduk invading everybody

Spacegods
Hindu mythology, cyberpunk, espionage, psychedelia and ancient space god tech. Jerry Cornelius would be at home here. Rogan Gosh uk comic a good reference.

Shambala
Hidden underground kingdom of psionics, mystics and wonder workers here to save world with enlightenment.

Leng
A frozen plateau linked to dreamlands, inhabited by evil subhuman and inhuman hybrids who serve cults of the old ones. Spread unspeakable evil

Bug Wars
A hostile invading ecosystem of flora, fauna, micro organisms and monsters killing and hybridising everything - Armoured aliens sometimes appear to destroy spawn points. Was with Chtorr, Arachnids and space marines from starship troopers, Mecha, Tyranids.

Gamma Oz
Gamma world - 25th century space colony tech remnants in ruins with stone age mutants, androids, sentient animals and other weirdness. Mutant Cane  Toads and feral hordes battle natives animals. Orungs, Casawaries, CusCus and tree kangaroos up north.

Melnibone
The new Dragon Island with army of cloned Maurois. Breeding dragons and flesh eating moa birds and kia for riding in army. Building massive invasion ships with thousands of oars and demon hulls

Ashanti Empire
Michael Moorcock's the Land leviathan. African empire ruled from a mighty mobile war ziggarutt by the so called Black Attila. Early WW2 tech, mostly WW1 and late steampunk

Mountains of Madness
Old ones and the shoggoths and deep ones are arising, ancient sunken cities are sunlit again.

Dungeons, Dimensions and TORG

All based on the following 2 blogs

Tales of the grotesque and dungeonesque
http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/diy-torg.html?zx=2cbaa50d3a44872e


Dark Corners of role playing
http://darkcornersofrpging.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/diy-grind-house-torg-and-oasis-of.html

TORG
One of the most interesting games ever in the reality mash up days of the early 90s. Basicly other realities invade our cosm. I stole so much from it but couldn't have run as presented. I would have used marvel with karma tied to possibility energy, or BRP with links of magic points to probability energy. Depend on how gritty a feel. Even just using worlds as straight campaigns or alternate worlds for other games these books are great.

Where it was awesome

Reality source books were awesome - better than the basic game and were all more interesting for the other side world rather than the their-and-our-world-mash-ups

Art - Daniel R Horne and some tech illustrations that i will use forever

Card Deck - i didn't use but inspired my own deck - especially players get to intervene in narrative

Cosm conquering mechanics - while i didn't go for all the details, the basic way invading colums placed stelae to expand in a triangular grid was great. The Darkness devices were great villains too

Villains - Highlords of the invading worlds and an emphasis on a hierachy of villains. Down to gang of thugs to the ruler of a dimension.

Rules - While i disliked them as a whole there were innovative titbits i loved

Characters - Lots of interesting archetypes, aliens, any kind of character really, storm knights sounded cool

Monsters - lotsa good ideas

Cosm laws - local moral laws effected actions and made strange consequences for tech too


Where it displeased me

Game start point - setting with the war underway and weird stuff accepted was a sad loss of discovery and innovation.

Id started party at ground-zero in a shopping mall that has had dinosaur reality overlap and millitary trying to stop. When they escaped to core earth one player was a nudist lizard hippie cultist learning spells. The others had kept their identites but were changed by trauma and experience. While they were lost the world had gone to war.

My other start would be espionage based with agents finding anomalies in diferent countries and fighting x-phenomena till plot of invasion and plane travel revealed then start ground zero in the home cosm mid campaign. Of course my DnD long stair is about a dimensional battle of modern military vs oldschool DnD modules so isnt a big leap.

Adventures - all a mish mash of stuff - id prefer whole modules on alternate earths

Core earth vs invaders - too gonzo for start, needed to happen over years, i just never got the feel. Id rather be more gonzo - cosms invade superhero world, or more gritty like chaosium mechanics. Now id consider DnD but classes might be too limiting. Perhaps easier class shifting rules for plane hoppers.

Invading Cosms

Core Earth - boring mess

Living Land - dinosaur men hippies invade west coast USA, plant monsters of highlord cool


Aysle - dnd world, a bit average but cover is awesome, i probably least used this one

The Cyberpapacy - french medival papacy meets the matrix and cyberpunk - godnet was cool - weapons and vehichle art some of the best ever in a game book - steal for any near future game or even traveller.

Nippon Tech - a slightly better tech world of japan dominated corporate - feudal Japanese stuff. Corporate warfare rules - great for any cyberpunk game, martial arts vs tech

The New Nile Empire - pulp indiana jones vs ancient egyptian despot - good pulp fun

Orrorsh - Victorian englishmen unwittingly bringing demonic horror with indonesian and asian territories. Modern tech would fail in zone so 1890s staemships could wipe out non functional nuclear vessels. Good asian horror stuff. Killer video recorders. Amazing art. Like most games its version of Australia and Indonesia a bit strange.

Land Below pulp and dinosaur realities merged in subterranean lost world.  Idea of mashing realities like this should have been bigger.

Space Gods aztech space gods with psionics and biological weapons - really interesting for many games - only one i never bought but really wanted

Tharkold failed to attack russia and repelled. Psionic tech gargoyle demons. Lotsa 80s Clive Barker -esque masochism and flesh shredding torture and pain. Humans in bunkers with psionics, battlesuits, miniguns with plasma ammo, microfactories in suitcases that could refit guns and build custom ammo, or autosurgeon in a briefcase. Recyclers bots staving LA for invaders. Really fun book with really some of best cyberpunk art and tech anywhere.

The point of all this...
So the two links on the top of this article asks what games/genres would you invade your core earth with. With possibility of using your old underplayed game supplements. I kinda dont want to be replacing world with just fantasy honkeys either.

North America - Dark Conspiracy/Car Wars/Dark future for West coast, shadowrun for seattle and Canada, Superheroes in New York (probably more like wildcards and black ops than Marvel), Cadilcs and Dinosaurs for southern states and mexico

South America - Starship troopers/war against the Chtorr/Tyranids - biological invasion with armoured cyborg spacemen recruiting locals for resistance

Europe & Russia - World of darkness - vamps, witches, werewolves, horror, faerie tales and supernaturalism - some DnD and medieval leaking in too

Australia - Gamma World,will get onto gamma oz game anyhow

Asia - Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong all cyberpunk/martial arts. Some areas over run by kaiju. Folk monsters haunt rural areas. India - psychadelic espionage and psionics and hindu gods afoot (Rogan Gosh comic to blame). Leng has reappeared in Hymalayas and is spreading influence - mythos vs martial arts.

Antarctica - Lost world, sorcery and science, dinosaurs

Iceland - overrun by giants and vikings and trolls

Africa - Oswald Bastable stories of Micheal moorcock - Steampunk post colonial Africa with new warlord out to unite africa and rule the world.

Middle East - Assyrian Empire reborn with monster troops and sorcerors

Central Asia - The night Land by William Hope Hodgson - spilling out into russia, china, afganistan, pakistan

Melnibone, Atlantis, Cthulhu all possible