Boosting...TMNT Is Back!

As most of you probably know, Palladium Books has brought back the much beloved TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES & OTHER STRANGENESS Role-Playing Game. 

An absolute no-brainer for me!

I went in for the old-school black & white, with red editions.

Kickstarter link below!

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES & OTHER STRANGENESS

 

Practical Insanity

 

So... After reading a page from the grotesque tome on the satanic alter, you must now save vs spells or roll for insanity... ah you failed... now you suffer from Equinophobia... the fear of horses... 

Huh? 

In most games, when you go insane, you accrue insanity points, which ultimately leads to losing your character, and/or, you roll on a phobia table to find your new fear. In either case, it's usually up to you to role-play the symptoms of your new affliction which may or may not make any sense at all.

On page 83 of the DMG, Gygax himself suggested that DMs should assume the role of insane characters.

Well, that's no fun.

Insanity should have real, immediate, in-game mechanical costs that make dungeon-crawling more difficult. Having an insane character should be an irritating condition that you'll want to be cured of, much sooner rather than later. In-game insanity doesn't have to resemble real world insanity. Your character is going mad and simply isn't functioning the way they're supposed to. Which leads to...

Practical Insanity

1. Amnesia: You've forgotten just who exactly you are and now function at half of your current level as far as, to-hit, saves, spellcasting, and turning is concerned. Or -2 if you're 1st level.

2. Kleptomania: You now have the pick-pocket ability of a thief of half your level (even if you're already a thief, because now you're sloppy about it.) Any time the party takes a rest, you must save vs spells or attempt to steal a random item from a random party member. If in town, you must attempt a theft at least once per day against a randomly determined target. You will always deny your theft (but you might have one person that you secretly brag to about it.)

3. Catatonia: Melancholia to the extreme. When a stressful situation occurs, save vs spells or retreat into yourself. You won't do anything. You can be carried. Lasts 2d4 hours.

4. Schizoid: You think you belong to another class. Determine the class randomly (use the 4 archetypes, 1-fighter, 2-wizard, 3-thief, 4-cleric, reroll if you roll your class.) You fight and save as if you belong to that other class at half your current level. Wizards and clerics must save vs spells in order to cast a spell or turn undead, but only if someone else reminds them that they are capable of doing so.

5. Delusional: You think you're better than you actually are and wonder why you don't experience better results. In combat, you attack with a +4 bonus but only do half damage. Targets save vs your spells at -4, but your spells only do half damage or only affect half the normal number of targets and only last half the normal duration. You only receive half of your XP earned.

6. Suicidal: If a trap is discovered, you must save vs spells or purposefully trigger it. If a chasm presents itself, you must save or throw yourself over -- hopefully your friends will stop you. You'll be the first into combat every time.

7. Schizophrenia: Like Schizoid, but the other class changes daily.

8. Panic Disorder: Your anxiety is extreme and your fear is all consuming. When a stressful situation occurs, save vs spells or retreat as fast and far away as you can get. Your anxiety builds with every successful save you make against this disorder causing any subsequent saves to suffer a cumulative -1 penalty until at last you're overcome by fear and flee. The DM should make you call split second answers to right, left, or straight as you race through the dungeon away from the danger and the other PCs until you are alone and lost. Only then might you get a grip.

9. Melancholia: Save vs spells every morning to see if you have the will to live. If not, all rolls suffer a -5 penalty. Save vs spells to see if you'll even try to help in any given situation.

10. Obsessive/Compulsive: You insist on doing things a certain way even if it doesn't make sense. A fighter will switch weapons every round or with every foe or will insist on using his least effective weapon, how else will he improve? A wizard will cast spells in a certain order (who cares if you need fireball, it can't be cast before feather-fall!) A cleric will always waste the first round of combat in prayer or spend 1d4 turns ritually cleansing their equipment after every battle -- if they don't do this they won't be able to cast any more spells that day. A thief takes twice as many rounds/turns to do his thing, etc.

11. Manic-Depressive: On any given day, you're either (1-3) Hysterical or a (4-6) Melancholiac.

12. Hallucinatory: In combat there is a 25% chance, after you've resolved an action, that you did so against a foe that isn't really there. 

13. Sado-Masochism: In any given combat, you're either a (1-3) Sadist or a (4-6) Masochist.

14. Homicidal Mania: You will murder any NPC that you think has failed you, lied to you, betrayed you, or even looked at you funny (yes I know, this is every PC that has ever existed. God Damn murder-hobos!) Even other PCs need to look out.

15. Hebephrenia: Any time a stressful situation occurs, you must save vs spells or behave as if you are under a confusion spell for the duration of the stress. Someone may attempt to snap you out of it with physical contact (slap!) in which case, you get another save.

16. Paranoia: You don't trust anything, every door, staircase, chest, ladder, every thing is a potential trap. Your movement is cut in half. Actions take twice as long. e.g., picking locks, searching rooms. Every NPC is lying to you, anyone who thinks otherwise is a complete idiot. You must save vs spells to be healed, because, fuck-no you don't trust their God! You will only eat rations and use equipment that you brought along yourself. And all gold is cursed...

17. Hysteria: Any time a trap goes off, or a party member dies, or you run out of rations or light, or you're lost, etc., you have to save vs spells or FREAK THE FUCK OUT!... causing an immediate random encounter check at +1 probability (most likely now a 2 in 6 chance.) 

18. Sadist: When you slay someone in combat you will keep on attacking that target until it becomes pulp (this includes casting spells on it.) Save vs spells to snap out of it.

19. Masochist: When in combat, you must save vs spells in order to attack, otherwise you just stand there and take it.

20. Psychosomatic Disorder: You keep insisting there is something wrong with you. Don't you see these sores all over my arm? And soon there will be. You must save vs spells or terrible sores start to appear on your body. They ooze puss and they bleed and you must save everyday to avoid this terrible malady from worsening. Every time you fail a save, more sores appear and you lose 1 hit point from your hit point maximum until you die or your insanity is cured. Once cured, your original hit point maximum will be restored minus 1 hit point per week afflicted.

On top of the above afflictions, all insane characters should suffer nightmares. A save vs petrification is required each night to acquire any benefits of a full night's sleep.

Only heal, restoration, limited wish, and wish spells can heal these afflictions. Natural healing is possible but requires two successive saves vs spells done on a monthly basis, one save at the end of each month.

Or something like that.

The Dream House Of The Nether Prince -- Hell Done Right!

Of course I had to draw the Big Guy (sorry Hunter, different Big Guy, this one takes his cut in souls.)

Yes, Hell done right!

If you've ever entertained the notion of publishing a brutal dungeon based in Hell, don't bother, here it is...

Though technically, this is the Abyss, but to mere mortals, what's the difference?

A rare module I can read without falling asleep.

Seriously, I can't read modules to save my life, rulebooks yes, modules no, mechanics yes, bland room descriptions no. There are many boring adventures out there, we all owe Bryce, Melan, and Prince a debt of gratitude for laboring through them.

The Dream House of the Nether Prince is written by Anthony Huso, whose blog is here.

(This is not a proper review ((those have been done; a good one is here and another good one is here)) just my initial thoughts on something I find ridiculously refreshing in its darkness and complete and utter devotion to AD&D. It makes me want to drop everything else...) 

In the preface, Huso lists the AD&D core canon, in order of importance (to him) as...

1. Monster Manual 2

2. Dungeon Masters Guide

3. Player's Handbook

4. Monster Manual

5. Fiend Folio

Aside from some monsters scattered throughout various modules, he calls everything else, interpretive dance. He's not wrong, really, if AD&D is the pinnacle for you. Though I think he's the first I've seen to  put Monster Manuel 2 on top. I would replace Fiend Folio with Deities & Demigods.

Dream House is designed for at least 6, 14th+ level characters. There is a culture of sorts here and a currency. Demons are explained, summing up every drop of reference to them in  AD&D. Their ranks, how they're made, how they're unmade, their amulets, what they eat... oh yeah, Huso hits on a core truth in (actual reality) that HUNGER drives everything, all things consume other things, eat or be eaten. Those of you who see the universe as beautiful and harmonious... you are wrong. Demons want to eat you, and the fatter you are the better (they would love modern America, in more ways than one.) In fact, the very fabric of the Abyss itself is made of corpse matter, the bodies and souls of the damned are broken down and molded into new demons or the raw materials of such. Remember how Lovecraft spoke of the human mind's inability to correlate all of it's contents as being a thing of mercy? Huso has correlated all of  AD&D's contents on demons... roll for insanity.

There is no hex crawl here, no rumors nor overland random encounters. You are of a high enough level that you're expected to simply arrive at the Dream House, a sort of, vacation home of Orcus called, Caedis High. Linger outside too long and the weather will kill you.

There are core AD&D references all throughout this book and every one of them includes a page number -- you need those books. E.g., The Fulivium (Black Soul Rain) weather condition threatens mutation and calls for a roll on the subtable on pg. 194 of the DMG, and I thought -- there are no mutation tables in the DMG. Oh, but this is a clever use of Appendix D: Random Generation of Creatures From the Lower Planes. There is also a d100 table in the back of Dream House for generating random undead, 100 entries from all over AD&Dland, the Core books, Modules, Dragon Magazine, White Dwarf, etc., a somewhat useless table for most, but this book knows its core audience.

As with all things Orcus, doom is the name of the game. You are but pawns in the machinations of an ancient unholy grudge match. There are actual battles to be fought here. I'm not sure I'd even attempt to run the finale. No, I think for myself, I would slice it down to -- that thing/person you need/want is somewhere in Hell. How bad do you want it? You've been warned! Nobody's gonna survive this place; nobody's meant to. I find it hard to imagine a party even getting far. Huso's players must have been immensely powerful in their own right, not just 14th level characters. At times, you'll be fighting through literal hordes of demons. There won't be much parlay and if the demons don't kill you, there are plenty of save-or-fuck-you situations that will. 

There are optional mechanics in here (for the final confrontation) pulled from a book called The Primal Order by Peter Adkison, published in 1992. Huso praises it here.

In the appendices there are new demons, new spells (Become Legend stands out), new magic items including some technology, and artifacts. All worth reading; equally as entertaining as the dungeon-crawl itself, if not more so, but that's the rules side of me kicking in.

And the art... by Valin Mattheis, stylized, a mixture of color and black & white, the closest comparison I can give is Scrap Princess. For all of this book's adherence to AD&D, its appearance (layout and art) does not. One critique I have is that stat blocks are literal blocks of text, lots of comas, not fun to read.

Many of the rooms are vast; not your standard little 20'x20' chambers. And with the rule of the Abyss that no vision exceeds torchlight (unless under the Abyssal sky) I wonder how this plays out at the table for those that use theater-of-the-mind. Hand-waving I suppose, lest the players hug all of the walls and rarely experience the center of a room. Yes, just set the mood as dark and give monsters an edge when it comes to ambush.

Properly run, this place is not for the squeamish. Glass-eyed corpses abound and they often whisper. Roll on a random table to see their crime, and then I suggest whispering something vile into the ear of the appropriate player. Creep them out. Did I mention that dead babies are a form of currency here? -- if that is not evil...

The Dream House of the Nether Prince. I think I've said enough.

As someone who has rarely run other people's stuff, I would run this.

No question.

The SHIFTERS Campaign

Circa 2006.

A one on one campaign.

Was supposed to be one on two, but you all know how that goes.

Using my own rules for a gritty-as-fuck, realistic super-hero setting called SHIFTERS. The premise was a dipole reversal, during which a chaotic lightning storm covered the planet. Those in the vicinity of the multihued lighting, if they survived, were "shifted" into super-human status. This was street-level stuff, the strongest could maybe lift 20 tons.

The system, of which I had three editions, was an amalgamation of Cyberpunk 2020, Mutants & Masterminds 2E, and Palladium's Heroes Unlimited. There were no hit points, but a damage track involving Stun/KO/Death checks and negative modifiers, what some refer to as a death spiral. All attacks were opposed rolls.

Hunter, a Wolverine type detective, was the main character, with Crow, an all black teleporter showing up later.

It was set locally, for us Detroit. It was bloody and gritty, involving missing persons, pimps, whores, and sex-trafficking. There was a trans-dimensional succubus brothel, a fundamentalist organization seeking to eliminate SHIFTERS called S.N.O. (The Society for Natural Order), evil SHIFTERS, ninjas, and later, an African Civil War. 

Part One: A missing girl who would never be found, but the search involved taking down sex-traffickers, pimps, drug-dealers, the usual scum of the earth type stuff, with an epic tangent involving a gunfight/melee with an agent of S.N.O. in a raggedy liquor store. Ultimately, a succubus brothel was linked but not responsible. Oh, and an epic showdown with ninjas!

My campaign notes...

Part Two: Civil War in Monrovia, Liberia. Members of the press and civilians in need of rescue. The government reluctantly contracts the SHIFTERS to attempt an extraction, a potential act of war. Heavily inspired by the Sierra Leone Civil War and the movie Blackhawk Down.

Hence: Monrovia Down.

Cobra was killed by Hunter on a rainy rooftop after a brutal hour long fight in an abandoned factory district. Shot in the head. 

Haraka was killed in the final battle of Monrovia Down, being thrown out of an office building window several floors up.

Ruby assisted Hunter and Crow during Monrovia Down.

Vertigo, A European mercenary, nearly ended the heroes, but was also killed in the office building battle.

First page of 16 I drew for another story in the SHIFTERS universe.

The SHIFTERS binder.

Version 3 of the rules, not the rules used in the above adventures. 150 hand-written pages.

Including a section for Fantasy.

Who knows, maybe I'll organize, rewrite and publish someday.

Don't hold your breath.

 

Between Two Cairns Reviews: DATE OF EXPIRATION

Between Two Cairns: DATE OF EXPIRATION

A thoroughly in depth, entertaining, and glowing review of DATE OF EXPIRATION by Yochai Gal and Brad Kerr of Between Two Cairns.

Yes, the arrow on page 89 points inside the structure, a valid critique for sure.

And I absolutely LOVE the art of Bill Sienkiewicz -- right on target here!

Thank you guys!

 

Field Trip: John K. King Books Detroit

 

One of the largest used book stores in the world lies about 20 minutes south of me in downtown Detroit, with a much smaller satellite about 20 minutes northwest of this one.

John K. King Books, here is the website:  https://www.johnkingbooksdetroit.com/

View from the parking lot.

Just outside the front door.

Burroughs section. More Tarzan books than you'll ever see in the same place. 

Most endcaps look like this.

One of the Fantasy aisles. Some of these shelves have books behind books. The dust is thick.

There was a glass case on the other side, but I saw no games.

Just to give you an idea of the scope, one of the perimeter aisles on the third floor. You receive a map of the layout upon entry.

Found no Tolkien here nor there.

Tons of old DAW books scattered throughout.

Glass case stuffed with books. Is that a copy of the Necronomicon? The Book of Skelos?

Even the stairs have books.

This was just a scouting mission; I bought nothing. Was kind of hoping to stumble into some Appendix N classics or some Clark Ashton Smith material. They could have been there. Your Holy Grail could be in there and you would never know.

Three Hearts And Three Lions

One of the inspirations for D&D as listed in Appendix N.

Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions, 1953/1961.

You have:

•  a paladin and his loyal and fierce warhorse
•  a shady witch
•  a dwarf (probably a ranger)
•  the exact swanmay from monster manual II
•  the land of Faery
•  devious and seductive elves
•  Law vs. Chaos
•  a fire-breathing red dragon
•  an ogre/giant and it's cursed purse of gold
•  Morgan le Fey
•  a werewolf
•  lay on hands is mentioned
•  a magician and his invisible servant
•  a Saracen knight
•  a beautiful but treacherous nixie, monster manual accurate
•  druids mentioned.
•  cannibal barbarians 
•  flint and steel and the need of a torch-bearer
•  a roughly 10x10 passage at the back of a cave
•  a mini dungeon crawl
•  the exact troll from the monster manual
•  the wild hunt
•  and a sword of destiny.

Great cover! There shouldn't be any plate mail though and the dwarf should have white hair.

Unfortunately, this cover is much more accurate.

Cons:

• I find, Holger, unlikeable. Whines to himself too much. Can't stand protagonists that feel sorry for themselves, even a little.
• Didn't like the real world connection and Holger's scientific solutions to problems. Cursed gold coins are radioactive. Defeats a dragon by throwing water in its mouth. Would have preferred this story if it was simply about a paladin with amnesia, from wound or spell.
• Morgan le Fey and the swanmay arguing over Holger like junior high brats nearly killed my desire to keep reading. This scene was downright stupid. I expect better from Morgan le fey.
• Not really a con, but the Saracen Knight seemed pointless, or incomplete, maybe I missed something. Strictly to make Holger jealous of the swanmay?

Pros:

• Plenty of darkness and adult themes despite some silliness, even the old hag at the beginning wants the hero. Werewolves eat babies. There's human sacrifice. Combat is surprisingly brutal compared to the tone of the book. Action scenes were good.
• The nixie, troll, and swanmay are direct verbatim inspirations for their D&D counterparts. The troll fight was fierce and followed a mini dungeon-crawl. The nixie scene was awesome (except for the magnesium dagger, conveniently acquired earlier.) The swanmay, while flying, would change to human form and fall, then change back to swan just in time for the thrill of it, reminding me of a trapeze artist -- very creative and insightful of the author. 
• The werewolf scene stands out, almost too much, as if it belongs in another book, but good none-the-less. Paladin almost becomes Inquisitor here.
• No wasted space, like all older fantasy, gets right to it, unlike the thousand page epics that sprang up in the late 80s/90s that were mostly hot air.

I finally read Three Hearts and Three Lions because I've been reading Brian N. Young's, Codex Celtarum, for Castles & Crusades where Poul Anderson is briefly mentioned and I figured it was high time... BTW, The Codex Celtarum is probably the best D&D source on Faery out there. 

THE SOULFORGE

Wherein I chronicle my doomed attempts as Raistlin Majere in his Test at the Wayreth Tower of High Sorcery...

Raistlin Majere:

• Hit Points: 9
• Reasoning: 4
• Agility: 3
• Presence: 2
• XP: 6 (can be spent to improve rolls, but will be judged by how many remain)

1st Level Spells Available: (specific components must be collected to cast most spells)

• Burning Hands
• Charm Person
• Hold Portal
• Push
• Comprehend Languages
• Magic Missile
• Sleep

2md Level Spells Available:

• Audible Glamor
• Invisibility
• Mirror Image
• Detect Invisibility
• Darkenss 15'
• ESP
• Web

This is from THE SOULFORGE, choose your own adventure style AD&D book by Terry Phillips. Be warned, I'm recording decision by decision and roll by roll. Spoilers will follow.

First decision after traveling for a month through the Kharolis Mountains with my twin brother, Caramon as an ominous forest appears out of nowhere, I know what lies ahead, he does not, I choose partial honesty as opposed to foolery.

He doesn't like the truth, doesn't like the danger he senses and I'm forced to make a Presence Test (roll d6 and add it to my score to beat a number (this test is 7) I roll a total of 5...

He refuses to let me enter the haunted woods. I hop on my horse and make an Agility Test. I succeed, which means I'm about to cast a spell... I choose Charm Person because certain spells require components that I have not collected. There's no roll here, but the story dictates that Caramon tackles me before I get the spell off. His feelings are hurt and he ties me to my horse and takes me home, my dreams of high sorcery are over! That quick.

Take Two... (wherein I pretend my initial Presence Test succeeded...)

Caramon reluctantly agrees to enter the woods and says I need his protection, something I resent, but then I start to feel guilty as I begin to worry for his safety. And so, I'm called upon to make another, easier, Presence Test, which I succeed.

We proceed into Wayreth, but the woods are terrifying and oppressive, we are both spooked as the foliage seems unpassable and the things that lurk in the shadows... I have to make a Reasoning Test to resist fleeing in fear. Here, the book hints that I might wish to spend XP to help the roll. I don't, but succeed anyway, saying to my twin that it's all part of the protection spell that keeps the forest hidden, we'll be fine, after all, we were invited. And then... the forest parts and a massive ogre-dog appears and launches itself at me for an attack. I need to pass a 7 Agility Test and decide to spend 2 XP to help my roll, which it does, I succeed by 1!

XP: now 4.

We jump from our horses using them for cover from the beast. Caramon dances before it, blade in hand while I cast a spell... Burning Hands and Magic Missile are my only real options as both do not require components (I don't know why I set off on this journey without spell components, perhaps I used them up on the way?) I choose Burning Hands which will bring me dangerously close to the beast. It yelps in pain and swipes at me with it claws sending me flying to the ground.

HP: now 7.

Caramon then takes this opportunity to jump on the beast and send his blade straight through it's skull into the ground. Then, another path opens up in the woods with ice cold voices taunting us that our flesh will be ripped from our bones. Do we retreat? I say no... Caramon reluctantly follows. The woods grow colder and spookier. Caramon mutters something about not trusting mages. Does he trust me? Our horses are spooked. I fail an Agility Test and I'm thrown to the ground.

HP: now 6.

An ethereal red-robed figure appears and I ask if he is to guide us to the tower. Caramon barks an insult and the figure insults us back. Caramon draws his sword and here comes another Presence Test. I'm spending 2 XP and it helps. My twin calms down a bit.

XP: now 2.

This spectral minion approaches, hand aglow in spell-craft and I feel fear, but Caramon attempts to intercept and I don't let him. I instruct Caramon to stand aside as fear consumes me. I must make a Reasoning Test of 9, which isn't even doable. I turn and flee and trip over a root. Then I find myself frantic and weeping at my failure. The figure leaves, but not before giving my twin a message for me...

I am not worthy to even take the Test, perhaps I can return one day, but for now I fail, deemed a witless dunce and a coward. I'm devoured by misery as my dreams of high sorcery have (once again) come to an end.

As has my desire to keep reading. 

And so Raistlin's Test will continue as vague a mystery to me as it was in the original novels. I know a book was ultimately written, but I have no interest in Dragonlance beyond the original 3 (or 6 if I'm feeling generous.)

Some things are best left unknown.

You Can't Play As Conan, But...

...you can play as one of his companions.

Conan has plot armor. He can't die. He won't die. Ever. Unless Howard willed it, in which case, it could only happen once. The same goes for Elric, Aragorn, and any other famous heroes whose worlds people like to game in. In order to showcase this, publishers often gave these protagonists bloated stats (just look at Elric in some of Chaosium's books) when all they really had to do was put an asterisk after their name that signified -- plot armor.

Role-Playing in these worlds never really worked for me. Much of the fun in D&D is creating your own world anyway. But gaming in Hyboria, not the same without Conan, because without Conan, who cares. Hyboria is his playground. Without Conan, Stygia simply becomes Egypt. Aquilonia becomes France.

Dragonlance was the closest we came to gaming in the world of novels. And yes, we had many of the modules, but never played them, we just liked referencing the stats. What eventually happened was we took ideas, like the Towers of High Sorcery and the tree town of Solace and came up with our versions for our worlds.

It's why I never got into the Star Wars RPG by West End Games, though I bought the book, I quickly traded it to my brother for his D&D books. (Star Wars is the one thing I loved as a kid that I now legit feel is the stupidest thing around.)

Anyway...

You see, you will never measure up to the iconic characters. You will always feel like wannabes, like supporting crew.

So play as them.

The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Issue 133, Feb, 1987. Features the story, Winter of the Wolf. This was the first issue of Savage Sword I ever bought and I was hooked... for awhile at least. It was this magazine that eventually lead me to dive into Howard's original stories, which until then, I knew very little about. By 1987, Savage Sword wasn't so savage -- still pretty violent, but the nudity was gone. At the time, I had no idea how cool the earlier issues were (70s/early 80s) and I should have been exploring the Warren horror mags, but, I wasn't.

Winter of the Wolf  -- I was cautious about revisiting this story; it has a mystique in my mind and I didn't want that ruined. It held up, the mystique stays, but I did notice some errors that aren't relevant here.

Summary: Conan and some Gundermen are part of a royal hunting expedition in the winter months. It goes poorly, the nobles are killed. Conan and the others decide not to return to Aquilonia proper, as they would be blamed for the deaths, so they head on and soon they are hunted by a pack of wolves which are actually, sort of, werewolves. They seek refuge in a fort manned mostly by farmers, led by a chieftain with a wicked daughter. Stuff happens. Eventually, when everyone is drunk, the fort is overrun by wolves and of course Conan is the last man standing.

Because, he has plot armor.

D&D characters don't have plot armor. They're not supposed to anyway. (Modern story-gamers probably beg to differ. Why do they even roll dice?)

But, what if you were one of the Gundermen?

Conan will survive the Winter of the Wolf... but will you?

You wanna play in Hyboria? You're a part of Conan's saga, not yours. Take any adventure, any D&D group, insert Conan (NPC). He cannot die, but you can. If Conan's hit points reach zero, he is knocked unconscious and left for dead or captured. Maybe he escapes. Maybe you rescue him -- maybe you die trying -- such is often the case. Your goal -- to see how long you survive as a companion to the mighty Cimmerian. You could build a whole campaign centered around Conan and his many companions, but HE is the main character, not you. In the end, most of your characters will have died and Conan will have ridden off, perhaps with a bag full of jewels, alone or with a half-naked woman.

Such as it should be.

By Crom!

Strontium Dog

We'll call her Petal.

Strontium Dog, the 2000 A.D. comic series set in the near future of the Judge Dredd universe. A world poisoned by three nuclear exchanges. A world of oppressed mutants. Dog eat dog in every sense. Space travel is a thing. Dimensional and time travel are things. Sorcery is a thing.  Aliens exist and every single one of them is every bit as bad as we are. It's violent, it's gritty and there's a touch of dark humor. A post-apocalyptic spaghetti-western where the only way a mutant can get ahead, or rather, just keep up, is by bounty hunting the worst of the worst.

Beautiful.

Mongoose tackled Strontium Dog along with Judge Dredd as part of it's Traveller line of books. Now called 1st Edition Mongoose Traveller as they've moved on to the 2nd Edition of their version of the game.

Speaking of this...

The Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition Core Rulebook is one of the most perfect RPG rulebooks in existence. That's the black book in the picture below. 

The Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition is also a nice book with some nice, but not altogether necessary, rules additions like -- boosts and banes, destructive damage, consolidated skills -- no more battle-dress as vacc-suit handles it all, and a new prisoner career.

An older, incomplete character sheet of mine.

The mutants in this game are supposed to be weird. Funny how stories about mutants who are supposed to be grotesque and deformed always have good-looking main characters, human looking mutants with only subtle mutations like Johnny Alpha, Durham Red, Cyclops, Jean Grey, etc. It's the surrounding cast that aren't so lucky. In this game, there's a very strong chance that your mutant will be quite bizarre. Petal, the one I just rolled up, has feathery stalks for eyes. The tables didn't exactly give me this, but as is often the case with tables, you improvise. With her eye-stalks, she can see into your soul, hypnotize you, and see dimensional rifts. Her stats ended up being average and she has no melee skills, but, she did manage to acquire the coveted jack-of-all-trades. I originally also rolled that her right leg below the knee was backwards, but when drawing, I forgot about it, so, never mind.

The mutants of Strontium Dog are discriminated against mercilessly. They are the garbage of society, forced to live in gutters and ghettos. They pay more and get less. Many have such severe mutations that they won't make it very long. Either way, short miserable lives, discrimination, and genocide are their lots in life. A few, with a modicum of skill and toughness are lucky enough to eek out a living as Strontium Dogs -- Mutant Bounty Hunters working for the Search and Destroy Department, scouring the galaxy for criminals wanted dead or alive...

A certain, ultra-woke gaming company would call this setting "problematic." 

I call it awesome.