Different System, Different Genres, Same Game?

Running different games with different groups of players has allowed me to “self-populate” these same game worlds with ongoing, behind the scenes world building which may be the holy grail of what I am after with TTRPG’s. World building by borrowing elements from other campaign games I have or am currently running. For example, in my Blood of Heroes bronze age comics game PCs encountered “Trans-Arcana Radiation”. In my Traveller games PCs can uncover disturbances in the “G Band” which will lead to “secrets of the ancients”. If any of these characters have a chance to compare analysis, they are the same thing. So what are the wizards wielding in Rom’Myr. Some might call it magic, but at the scientific level it is the same. G Band disturbance, physics-defying radiation, pure Vancian magic… its all Trans-Arcana Radiation in these wildly different games.

Once I started tinkering with this idea it was only a short jump to keep PC events and encounters in play from other games. My next Traveller game will have built in the fallout from previous groups’ play. Since those previous groups were poking around in the “Secrets of the Ancients”, I now have built-in ramifications which can occur in the background of any new group’s actions and inclinations. Cosmic-scale occurrences and planet-shattering events are daily occurrences in your average comic book stories. The phenomena and powers encountered in my supers campaign give a bridge to walk over into my fantasy campaign, without even getting lost!

 

The Faceless Howl Kabuki Kaiser 2

Well the whole damn thing worked out. Here is how. Go with the crazy. And be willing to convert on the fly without much agonizing whether you got it right or not. Conversion you say? Yes, while I used the adventure material to run the session, we are also playing my game Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery DUSRSS), which is much different than the traditional d20, 6 attributes and a class type game systems. But you need to be good at this if you ae going to use any outside adventure material from other games. Which will be everything if you are playing DUSRSS. 

The Howl is another great example of quality adventure content available for peanuts from independent creators these days. As a Crypt Keeper, I know I do not need another version of the rule book. I need nightmare fuel to feed the campaign beast. Adding outside material is an essential part of my job at the table. The trouble is where do you find great stuff in a landscape of AI trash and poorly thought out ideas which made it to print? If you are playing Old-school DnD I recommend Bryce Lynche's adventure review blog Ten Foot Pole. He has you covered with curated lists of some really dope stuff.

Howl gives the right amount of intriguing detail and evocative writing so the DM can convey the feel of the place quickly and adroitly. There are factions in the village which further define the environment, opening up multiple avenues of play. This is one of the features of the good stuff available these days. Creators understand the importance of factions being played out in a living game world. In fact, factions make a campaign setting so much more then geography and scale. And you can run the adventure adequately at the table with the book in hand. But not recommended. 

Read the entire adventure before you decide how to use it, how it will fit into the game world if called. The nuance and hooks written inside the adventure will allow you to find the adventure's rightful place in your pantcampaign. But you are going to want to meditate and let the pieces jell. I didn't give myself that opportunity. I used the adventure with only preliminary reading of the content. This situation and site location offer many possibilites in any fantasy setting.

So I read hard and fast and we ended up with a nice nagical trip into the shadow world for a game session which would have been otherwise cancelled. What emerged was an adventure I used on the fly and found it easy enough to parse so I could make it "fit" into the current game and enough cool stuff going on (think factions) that even if the plot of the module was not the plot of my players I could use the adventure premise as a whole and shave where needed. I found the adventure intriguing. If you are looking for PCs to come across a town with problems, this adventure is a good pick.

World of Xoth Campaign Update

 Here is another installment of the PCs own game notes of the adventure so far;

Having gone through the dream quest given to me by my god Yaddar the god of secrets I have met a new ally her name is Frisco Shans she appears to be some sort of hunter who can commune with raccoons I think they're her spirit animal it is unnerving to see this but it’s no doubt a handy ability.

During this dream quest we ended up fighting our way through at large stone keep encountering many strange and wondrous things within its black stone walls. Globes that imparted knowledge but blasted our minds at the same time, driving us to madness, a strange haggard sphinx like creature that tried to give us riddles in return for safe passage but it seemed that its mind was broken and it just repeated the same riddle over and over again and no matter how we answered we still fell under the baleful influence of its strange black jewelled necklace which forced into our minds a bloodthirsty rage that meant we attacked each until the pain snapped us out of its baleful influence. We also came across huge grotesque corpse pale worms which seemed to be guarding a deep pit that went through the floor of one of the rooms, but we decided to that it was safer to bypass these terrible creatures.

We managed to sneak past them and into a destroyed library where we found the object of our quest the mask of Nerm, I do not know what this item does, but it must be important if my God sent me into this terrible shadow realm.

It was a shame that we had lost the brave Knight that we had met at the gates of this terrible place, Belmont the Gryphon knight it seemed he was never to return home and we saw no sign of Yarms bejewelled gauntlet but after recovering the mask of Nerm we decided to leave before we met the same fate. The final room held a strange creature half cat half chandelier, which transformed into a terrible feline knight armed and armoured and ready to spill blood. Fortunately, we successfully negotiated with her, and she permitted us to exit the chamber.

 Once we were able to leave her rooms, we were blinded by an immense brightness which drove us to our knees, with tears streaming from our eyes. And then after what felt like years we both awoke to find ourselves in a dirty back alley somewhere in the village of Hirot, back where we had begun but now, we have the mask.

Luckily much to the surprise of Genn who over almost stumbled over us while he was making his way to the village gates to speak to Nothan the sergeant of the night watch. He had been told by Brogan the innkeeper that this man is someone we could trust and after a hurried conversation it seemed to be true as Morgan was betrothed to him. He was able to convince a couple of other guards to come with us telling them it was better to fight than to await death by the Beast. So, with strong allies and the supplies given to us by Brogan we headed out into the rain swept woods towards the sacred circle to rescue Morgan before she could be sacrificed to the Beast.

Leaving the village was fairly easy now and we made all haste to the sacrificial circle hoping to get there before the Beast could take its grim payment and as we made our way through the dark woods through the rain it seemed that the gods smiled upon us as we seemed to be in time, as the beautiful young lady woman was still chained to one of the mighty stones which made up the circle. When she saw us and Nothan jogging towards her she cried out telling us to get back. She was a brave woman, willing to sacrifice herself for the man and village she loved, but we were set on our course and we would not hear of such a thing and so breaking her chains we told her to head back to her father but then from out of the dark woods we heard growls so deep they that made our bone shake and suddenly, impossibly the Beast appeared.

As we were told it took the form of a mighty wolf, bigger than a horse, its eyes blazing red with hunger and the promise of painful death. It's claws causing sparks to fly as it moved across the rocky ground of the circle.

And then suddenly battle was joined, one of the guards took Morgan and fled towards the village whilst the other two made ready buy them time and we also drew our weapons to battle the Beast and sell our lives dearly. It seemed that even though we had done our best to prepare for this moment we were still not ready to defeat this creature as its unholy vigour made it immune to our weapons. And all looked lost until the oil and flaming brands were thrown. The fire and flame were able to drive the Beast back and the purity of the fire did much damage it. The Beasts body now soaked in burning oil caused it to howl in pain, unfortunately the flames meant that we could not use the magic of the net as we feared that flames would destroy it but fortunately the flames were enough to drive the beast back.  It's oil-soaked fur burning now like some great bonfire and with righteous fury slowly destroying its physical form but not it's spirit.

 As when its body collapsed into a flaming mass, a shadowy mist with a foul-smelling odour escaped the burning body. This mist seemed to form a howling wolfs face before it was whipped away by the wind towards the marshes. We were victorious and had learned vital clues about the Beast, it may be immune to normal weapons, but it was not immune to fire. Though the battles was won it had cost us much, A guard was dead his body ripped asunder and his entrails were now strewn across the sacrificial stones and some of our party were wounded in the battle but with the Beast only driven away we still had to make sure it wouldn't come back. We needed weapons, weapons that could fight and destroy the Beast. So, with Morgan hopefully heading back towards the village and the safety of her father. We decided to head to the Serpent mound, the tomb of Ulfheonar where this had all started when those grave robbing fools had tried to   enter it all those days ago. Thus, releasing the Beast to cause havoc and to punish those who had not stopped them.

So, after bandaging ourselves up and taken a swig or two from the flasks of hard liquor given to us by Brogan, we convinced one of the guards to at least take us close to the forbidden tomb.

So, we headed to the tomb in search of the legendary Wolf spear a weapon so deadly, so blessed by the gods it would surely send the Beast straight back to the underworld.

After around an hour or so of hacking through the ever-present  brambles and the pouring rain we arrive at the clearing of the Serpent tomb it sat alone and it was truly a forbidding site even nature itself seemed to give it a wide berth, there was no sound of birds or insects in the surrounding area and even the moonlight seemed afraid to shine upon its cursed form. And so, the clearing itself was somehow darker than the surrounding woods. We searched the exterior and quickly found a strong door. It was still secured and it was covered in strange sigils, but there was no sign that it had ever been opened. Then one of us cried out, it seemed that the nearby stream had been diverted by time and the water had broken through one of the walls washing away the dirt and carving a channel through the stones. It wasn't much but it was enough for us to crawl through and gain entry into the tomb beyond.

This seems to be the same way that the tomb robbers had entered the tomb as well as we found pieces of fabric trapped by the thorns of the bramble bushes which ripped through clothing and skin with equal ease. So, after a tense moment or two where we had to submerge ourselves into this river to get into the tomb, we finally found ourselves inside a room. It was made-up of huge stone slabs mortared together with mud and dirt the stone walls were covered in strange paintings of serpents and writing that we could not decipher, lighting our torches we moved deeper into the tomb soon finding ourselves in a labyrinth of stone corridors. We were not sure which way to go and then a scuttling was heard and before we had time to prepare, we were attacked by the undead. No normal undead were these unfortunate creatures but human bodies hollowed out and controlled somehow by massive serpents that sprang from the dead bodies as we chopped them down.  

Again, we were strongly pressed finding ourselves fighting for our lives but after taking some grievous wounds we were able to dispose of the undead as well as the strange snakes that inhabited them. The snakes did not just deal physical damage though as their bite carried a terrible poison and we could only hope that the medicinal herbs carried by the strange hunter Frisco Shans would be enough to counter the effects of this poison as that would be no way for hero to die. So, with the first attack defeated we gathered ourselves and again began to move deeper into the tomb.

Review of The Faceless Howl part one

 Kabuki Kaiser was most generous to provide me a copy of his latest adventure. I am really thrilled to offer my opinion once finished reading. Unfortunately, at this time, I am unable to review after a playthrough. The Faceless Howl is a 42-page sword and sorcery nightmare for Many Sought Adventure and other OSR games, and concerns PCs stumbling into the trouble to be found in a troubled village. And I enjoy having a good catalogue of this village is suffering... scenarios on hand. But I am using one currently. DCC's Doom of the Savage Kings...

and then one of the PCs couldn't make the session and an old player resurfaced and I immediately grabbed The Faceless Howl off the shelf and contrived reasons for this material to fit into the current happenings in the game. The one thread I have to work is with the current player who hits all the sessions. Not his character though. No, he is on a new PC, but this is the second time in so many adventure arcs the price of success/aid is with dedicating oneself to marriage with the patron dispensing the goods. I decided there is a contest between the gods (as there always is) which requires mortal betrothal with a magical being.

Here is the PC Jacque, Knight of Jet's perspective of the insertion of this adventure material on the fly..

We enter the shadow realm of dreams and gods, and must enter the transformed Jarls' hall, which is now a mighty Keep, to recover the Mask of Nerm. Jaques is at first scared by this realm of shadows and the lack of colour, but is relieved to come across a beautiful woman who seems to know her way around this monochrome realm. She swaggers up and introduces herself as Frisco Shans, a hunter, and she seems to have expected to meet Jaques. So, with some suspicion but believing that this has something to do with his god Yadar, he agrees to team up with this wild woman. We then head towards the black yet gleaming curtain wall of the Keep and begin climbing up the broken statue-lined slope which leads to the Keep's massive gateway, and where we meet an armoured figure standing patiently by the open gates as if waiting for us. We approach slowly, ready for combat, but the figure greets us warmly and introduces himself as Sir Belamont, a knight of the Order of the Gryphon. And he is very glad to see us. He believes we have been sent to aid him in his quest to recover the infamous bejeweled gauntlet. This artefact will enable him to return home after many years of questing. So after a brief talk, we agreed to help him as it seemed the easiest way to get into the Keep and its Libarium for the item we needed. Gaining entry to the Keep is suspiciously easy, but as we cross the threshold, the temperature drops, as well as the portcullis; it seems we are now locked into recovering these artefacts, as well as the Libarium..

I am channeling the Shadow Plane from Moorcock's first book in his Elric series. Also the idea of different "champions" of the gods uniting to aid each other in similar goals I am lifting right from Moorcock as well. The second book in the Elric series, called Sailing on the Seas of Fate, has multiple versions of the same champion uniting into a single group dedicated to completing a deadly mission on behalf of the gods. So I'm working with competing nuptials in some mad contest of the gods involving the PCs (living and dead) for some greater goal. If I play faithful to genre tropes this should leave the main characters of the story doomed, with minds shredded and bones jellied. But this is roleplaying games so there must be an avenue of success. An opportunity to beat the odds and somehow win out.

How is the module working? Organized well to be able to use at the table very fast. This is because of the adventures layout. Large titles, bullet points and terse, evocative text gives a Game Master a decent chance of keeping the encounter coherent while leaning into the adventure's original features.

What are these features? I'll give my thoughts after this week's game session. We should finish the adventure and so I won't be giving out any spoilers.