Ursoid Mutant Dunes

Saw Mad Max: Fury Road this weekend and got a hankering for post-apocalyptic gaming? I've got just the thing for a Mutant Future or Gamma World mini-sandbox: do a bit of reskinning on Chris Kutalik's Slumbering Ursine Dunes (if you don't have copy--well, it's available now.)  Here's some thoughts on changing the basic setup.

Out in the desert, there's an ancient rune and a crashed alien spacecraft, slowly burning holes in reality itself.

The Background as Only the GM Knows It
Milt Grisley was an underground cartoonist who got his chance to sell out in the eighties. His Sleepy Bear^tm character went from counter-culture anti-hero to toyetic, afernoon cartoon pitch-man--and made Grisley rich in the process. Theme parks followed--the one outside of Las Vegas was the biggest, Once Grisley was well into Howard Hughes level eccentricity, he even had a futuristic, planned community built nearby. It was going to be a utopia in the desert run by a super-conputer and thoroughly Sleepy Bear-branded. Then the bombs dropped.

The super-computer has grown more self-aware over the centuries--and also crazier. It thinks it's the real Sleep Bear, now. Its public face is one of the old animatronic, amusement park bears. Somewhere along the way, a tribe of mutated ursoids found it (perhaps following the old signs emblazoned with Sleepy Bear^tm) and now worship it like a god, following the computer's every command no matter how ridiculous.

They bothered no one. They even allowed some humans to settle nearby. Everything was fine until the crash. A saucer full of Greys, sliding across dimensions, went down in the desert near the installation. Maybe it had something to do with a top secret military installation the government never officially acknowledged that was hidden near Bear Town, or maybe it was just a freak coincidence. Whatever the cause, crash it did, and its reality-shifting engines went critical, dumping their cosmomorphic fuel all over the landscape, turning everything weird...

So, hopefully the recastings are clear: Medved is the super-computer whose avatar is an animatronic cartoon bear. The Eld are Greys and their golden barge is a big saucer (don't worry about the different deckplans. It's weird on the inside.) The Weird is created by spaceship fuel. Ondrej is probably a mutant shark and cartoonish pirate, holed up in the pirate island in the middle of the brackish and radioactive artificial lake in the amusement park.

See, not so hard? I'll let you take it from there. Make your own adventure in the Mutants Dunes.

Zonal Aberrations

Aberrations (not to be confused with the D&D monster type) are a type of hazard encountered in zones. The resemble mobile anomalies in some ways, but they exhibit wider patterns of behavior, resembling (at least in limited observation) living things. They are abiologic, however; their tissues (if they have them at all) appear undifferentiated to close inspection, or they may have simulacra of organs that are clear nonfunctional. They do not appear to eat, grow, or reproduce, though they sometimes mimic behaviors associated with these activities. They can not be destroyed or driven off by "wounding" them (in most cases, it's unclear if they can be wounded) but must be completely destroyed.

Aberrations have a substance (similar to the manifestations of anomalies), a behavior pattern, and effects/abilities. A lot of D&D monsters would make good inspiration for aberrations. So are some paranormal or folkloric entities but keep in mind in their game usage they are more like obstacles or traps than monsters to be fought. Slimes and oozes are good models. You could destroy them, but it's generally more fruitful to just avoid them.

Unlike most anomalies, aberrations can spot/notice things approaching them as well as being noticed themselves--though the sensory modality by which they do this isn't clear. They are not usually as tied to as specific an area as anomalies, but most will have a specific territory, in the way an animal might.

Substance
1  Apparition
2  Construct
3  Crystalline/Mineral
4  Flesh
5  Fluid
6  Gas
7  Growth
8  Light
9  Ooze/Slime/Gelatinous
10 Shadow

Behavior
1  Ambusher. Lies in wait, sometimes in a dormant or indolent state, until approached.

2  Builder. Involved in some sort of construction project like a nest or nonrepresentational sculpture.

3  Chaser. After detecting target, follows targets at a high rate of speed.

4  Collector. Forages for particular objects or objects with particular characteristics.

5  Follower. Loosely joins with the target, following at a respectful distance without overt hostility.
6  Guard. Only active in a certain area. Patrols and menaces those who enter.

7  Harbinger. Appearance precedes some other event.

8  Lurker. Follows targets, but furtively, as if shy.

9  Mimic. Seems to repeat the actions or behaviors of a target.

10 Ritualist. Performs certain fairly complicated but perhaps mundane actions over and over.

11 Swarm. Smaller entities surround targets.

12 Snooper. Curious, possibly annoyingly and intrusively so, but not threatening.

13 Stalker. After detecting target, hunts it over distances.

14 Watcher. Stays in plan view, but at some remove as if only there to observe. No direct interaction.

Effects: Use the table for Zonal Anomalies--or borrow from a monster.

Examples:
chasing shadow: Too thick and deep black to be natural, the chasing shadow is nevertheless able to lurk unseen in normal darkness. It slides out of hiding when a living thing draws near, and if not stopped, attaches itself to them at their feet like a normal shadow--though does not also flow out in the same direction as the natural one. It slowly begins to crawl up the victims body and if not stopped, will cover a person complete in darkness in 20-30 hours. Over the next 30-45 minutes it will contort and collapse their body until only the flat shadow remains. What happens to the victim is unknown. If caught early, the shadow can be removed but only if the victim is surrounded by bright light and a small laser (like a laser pointer, for example) is used carefully "cut" away from the chasing shadow.

grim: Something like the featureless, white quadrupedal shape, surrounded by blotchy redness, like the silhouette of a large dog outlined in red spray paint. Grims simply appear on high ground, never approaching, and retreating if they are approached. They usual appear after someone has been seriously wounded, and Zone hunters fear them as a harbinger of death.

memory flashes: Groups of will-o'-the-wisp-like flashes of light with colorful after-images. They move quickly to swarm around a person, typically for no more than a minute. After the flashes pass, a person so caught will have one or more new memories of things that happened to someone else instead of them. They will also likely notice at some point that one or more of their own memories are missing--always small, discrete things, but perhaps important (like a telephone number of the location of something).

Brawl with the Burly Brothers

My group met with everyone present for the first time in several months this past weekend to revisit the Land of Azurth and deal with those blackguard Burly Brothers in their former prison hulk hideout. Skim the former posts to get up to speed.

So, the Burly Brothers are holed up on the lower deck. All their henchmen are dead or fled, but the Brothers still have the Lardafan Vagrant-Ambassador Lumpley Gritz and his monkey Mister Jip in their meaty grasp.

The Brothers want to negotiate the parties' withdrawal, but our heroes are having none of it. Cully, the bard, goes in to check the safety of the ambassador (and use a sleep spell to secure his release) but gets buffaloed by a Burly and the spell just puts the ambassador to sleep. Negotiations are over!

The odds aren't in the Burly Brothers' favor, but they're bruisers of ogrish size, so they can take a lot of punishment--and dish it out. The Erkose the Fighter and Waylon the Frogling join Cully the Bard in unconsciousness. Kairon the Warlock and Shae the Ranger keep the ranged attacks going, but for a while it doesn't seem like they're going to be able to hold out. Luckily, Dagmar the Cleric is able to sneak around and apply some healing spells and pass some healing berries. Waylon gets a surprise attack on Brother M'Gog and finishes him.

Brother Goofus goes into a killing frenzy and charges into melee range with Shae, he's put down too. After a long battle, the Burly Brothers and their organization are no more.

The gang scavenges the ship for treasure. Among a reasonable hall of silver, they find an usual item that appears magical:

They plan to visit the Queen Azura and let the Queen of the Floating World, Calico Bonny know they've taken out her rival, then see if they can get an audience with the Clockwork Princess Viola to find out about the mysterious item.

Warlord Wednesday: They Keep Killing Travis Morgan

Convergence #5 came out last week and it continues a story featuring Skartaris and a lot of the characters from the Warlord series--including Travis Morgan, who has you may recalled, died and was replaced by his son. Joshua the Warlord is no where in evidence here and Travis Morgan is quickly killed again by Deimos:

Machiste and Tara are also killed in what's either the eliminating of minor characters to artificially raise the stakes or clearing the dead wood of characters they aren't planning on using again. Either way, it's sloppily done not just because of the continuity flubs mentioned above, but because the writer doesn't seem to have read many (if any) Warlord comics. He has everybody (including his mate, Tara!) call him "Warlord" something that was rarely if ever done in the comics and certainly not his close friends or longterm enemy.

It's a nice looking book, though, with art by Kubert and Hope:

Random Zonal Anomalies

Anomalies are small, discrete areas of reality distortion within a Zone. There appear to be a finite number of stereotyped distortions so similar if not identical types of anomalies have been observed in different Zones. Inspired by the means of anomaly creation in the Stalker rpg, I created a series of random table to provide a sketch of an anomaly that can then be filled in with more detail.

Anomalies are described in broad terms by their mobility, manifestation, and effect. Mobility is whether the anomaly stays in one place or moves, though different anomalies might have different types of motion (blown by the wind, moves toward living things, etc.) that should be considered by the GM. Manifestation determines how the anomaly is detected--and hopefully avoided. The exact distance away from an anomaly at which it can be detected will obviously vary, but will always be soon enough it can be avoided, if the anomaly is stationary and the explorers are attentive. Finally, effect is what it does to someone unluck enough to enter the anomaly. Note that effect and manifestation are not necessarily linked, but often are (i.e. an anomaly detected by heat will probably burn, but this isn't an absolute).

Mobility (d6)
1-4    Stationary
5-6    Moving

Manifestation (d20)
1.  Air Movement: Detritus circling in a dust devil; an unusual breeze.
2.  Cold: Chill radiates or a frigid wind blows; things in the environment frost over or freeze.
3.  Color: Objects look like their photographic negatives; kaleidoscopic waves of color wash over surfaces.
4.  Crystal: Formations, accretions or boxwork on surfaces; a dust devil of shimmering and cutting tiny shards.
5.  Distortion: A shimmering like heat haze; like looking through someone else's glasses.
6.  Electric: static electricity in the air; St, Elmo's fire dancing on surfaces.
7.  Emotion: Most will be negative, but not always: a deep sadness washes over anyone near, accompanied by vivid, painful memories; a profound feeling of oneness with the universe, that leaves a sense of loss in its wake.
8.  Gas: an unusual cloud, mist, or fog.
9.  Growth: A material covering resembling grass, fungi, cobwebs, hair or even flesh.
10. Heat: A hot wind or the feeling of walking into an oven;  objects are hot, the grounded scorched.
11. Illusion: A mirage of a person or object; a vision of another place or time.
12. Intuition: The anomaly is invisible, but you know somehow that it's there. A gut feeling.
13. Light: Flickering, dancing sparks or flashes; odd illumination like an unseen spotlight.
14. Magic: Much like an Intuition manifestation, but only detectable by those mystically attuned.
15. Pain: The feeling of pinpricks up and down a limb; an intense headache.
16. Shadow: An unusual darkness; vague shapes flicker and dance as if in firelight.
17. Smell: The stench of wet hair burning; a hint of cinnamon in the air.
18. Sound: A loud clap of thunder; the scream of the last victim playing over and over.
19. Taste: A metallic sensation like blood; an intense sourness.
20. Transparency: An object or figure appears to be made of glass or a ghostly afterimage.

Note: It is possible for more than one manifestation to be associated with an anomaly.

Sample Effects (d100)
1-4:     Accelerating  Objects passing through have a tremendous increase in velocity.
5-8:     Aging
9-12:   Burning
13-16: Corrosive
17-20: Crippling  Causes damage to a particular organ or part of the body without physical signs: blindness, deafness, paralysis of a limb.
21-24: Crushing  Like drastically increased gravitation or an invisible force striking the object.
25- 28: Deccelerating  Objects, even sound, are decreased in velocity.
29-32: Dissolving  An object begins to liquify--either fast or slow, depending on the anomaly.
33-36: Disintegrating
37-40: Entrapping  An object is trapped/entangled in energy or some physical manifestation.
41-44: Freezing  Sudden, flash freeze.
45-48: Hallucinogenic
49-52: Halting  A stasis field of some sort causes object or people to be stopped  and held in place.
53-56: Magnetic  Ferromagnetic objects are pulled into the anomaly. Electrical devices may malfunction.
57-60: Mutagenic
61-64: Necrotizing  Living things develop dead areas in exposed skin; objects begin to decay or degrade.
65-69: Penetrating  High velocity projectiles or invisible force strike objects that enter.
70-73: Petrifying
74-76: Psychic  Has effects like a psionic attack, leading to neurologic disorder or development of mental illness.
77-78: Reanimating  Dead things are brought back to life--either as fully living beings or undead.
79-81: Restoring  Dysfunctional objects are or organisms are returned to normal function.
82-85: Suffocating
86-90: Lacerating
91-94: Levitating  Things float as if weightless at a height that varies with different anomalies.
95-97: Throwing  Things are hurled in one specific direction with force.
98-00: Transporting Teleports a person or object entering to a different location.

Into the Zone

Images from a post-apocalyptic setting about exploration, strange artifacts, and even stranger threats, following up on this post.

Nomads, all mutated by one degree or another by Zone radiation to, roam the wastes.

Before the War, the Zones were only officially entered by teams in protective gear. These days, the average Zone Scavenger is more cavalier.

A community living on the periphery of a Zone manages to salvage and reprogram an old, alien, "Bigfoot" surveillance robot.

An encounter with an emergent techno-organic intelligence. If not completely hostile, neo-intelligences of this sort often wind up being worshiped as gods by superstitious tribes.

A well-equipped team encounters a gestalt-mind organism composed of alligators in the Southern swamplands.

An Introduction to the Elementals of Subazurth

The primal elements of Subazurth are not the same as in the Land of Azurth above, though why this is so is not entirely clear. Perhaps they represented altered or tainted refuse from the creation of Azurth by the giant crystal gnome, Gob, under the direction of the Lady Azulina. Here are the elements as found in the world beneath the world:

Art by Juan Diego Dianderas

Ooze/Slime:It's elementals are slimes or jellies. The viscous, semi-liquid Kingdom of Oozurth with its laminar fiefdoms connects to bubbling Lake Ooze,

Crystal: It's elementals are fae folk composed of gem or crystal. It intrudes upon the environs of Troglopolis as the Crystal Forest.

Magma: It's elementals are various fae folk composed of lava or magma. It's people are kept out of the upper levels of Subazurth for the trouble they cause, however innocently.

Art by Valterri

Dust: It's elements tend to be indolent folk, resting as often as they cane, though some cause mischief as swirling dust devils. They lay claim to unused caverns, but their primary habitat is the air itself beyond many a yawning precipe.