James Blish's Faust Aleph - Null As Modern Day Old School Horror Campaign Setting

I'm an unashamed follower of the works of James Blish. This science fiction master shaped the modern science fictional novel as no one except the big three. Those will covered on Swords & Stitchery soon enough.
Blish wrote during a very dark time. Black Easter came out in 1968  & the 60s popular hippie utopia was slowly going to rot before the entire world's eyes. JFK had been assassinated & it was a wound the world still hasn't recovered. Hippies were rioting in the streets. The war dragged my father off to Vietnam & the world seemed ready to boil. Everyone was well aware of it. Horror felt it like no other genre before or since.
Yesterday I wrote about  Demons line from Mayfair games yesterday & today I'm going to show how I applied it into this world.
Be warned fair traveler there are major spoilers ahead for this book. 
The Devil's Day is a combination of the two books that comprise this work. They work under some pretty interesting assumptions about magic. This is not the traditional magic of OD&D or AD&D but the the writings and practising magicians working in the Christian tradition from the 13th to the 18th centuries
According to wiki : 

"Black Easter and The Day After Judgment dealt with what real sorcery would be like if it existed, and the ritual magic for summoningdemons as described in grimoires actually worked, and its background was based closely on the writings and practising magicians working in the Christian tradition from the 13th to the 18th centuries" 

  The plot is a ripper : 

In the first book, a wealthy arms manufacturer, Dr Baines, comes to a black magician, Theron Ware. Initially Baines tests Ware's credentials by asking for two people to be killed, first the Governor of California, Rogan (Reagan was governor at the time of writing) and then a rival physicist. When this accomplished to Baines' satisfaction Baines reveals his real reason: he wishes to release all the demons from hell for one night to see what might happen. The book includes a lengthy description of the summoning ritual, and a detailed (and as accurate as possible, given the available literature) description of the grotesque figures of the demons as they appear. Tension between white magicians (who appear to have a line of communications with the unfallen host in heaven) and Ware is woven over the terms and conditions of a magical covenant that is designed to provide for observers and limitations. Black Easter ends withBaphomet announcing to the participants that the demons can not be compelled to return to hell: the War is over, and God is dead.

The Day After Judgement, which follows in the series, develops and extends the characters from the first book. It suggests that God may not be dead, or that demons may not be inherently self-destructive, as something appears to be restraining the actions of the demons upon Earth. In a lengthy Miltonian speech at the end of the novel, Satan Mekratrig explains that, compared to humans, demons are good, and that if perhaps God has withdrawn Himself, then Satan beyond all others was qualified to take His place and, if anything, would be a more just god. However, the defeat of Satan is complete - He cannot take up this throne, and must hand the burning keys to Man, as this is the most fell of all his fell damnations - He never wanted to be God at all, and so having won all, all has He lost.

If  your thinking that I'm putting out there a major work of religion both Christian or "Satanic". The books are neither of the stripe instead they are a closely written  science fictional yearn with Goetha magic treated as another art that can be qualified by laboratory conditions & the players involved in major world spanning events.
There are some very clever in jokes woven throughout out the books  wiki again has a good run down of these : 

"It is likely that Blish got the name for his black magician, from the titular character in Harold Frederic's 1896 novel, The Damnation of Theron Ware.^[5] The quest for knowledge leading to damnation is central to the lives of both the black magician in Blish's novel and the Methodist minister in Frederic's novel.

Many of the white monks at Monte Albano are named after Blish's fellow science fiction writers:

• Anthony Boucher: "Father Boucher, who had commerce with some intellect of the recent past that was neither a mortal nor a Power, a commerce bearing all the earmarks of necromancy and yet was not;"
• Jack Vance: "Father Vance, in whose mind floated visions of magics that would not be comprehensible, let alone practicable, for millions of years to come;"
• Robert Anson Heinlein: "Father Anson, a brusque engineer type who specialized in unclouding the minds of politicians;"
• Roger Zelazny: "Father Selhany, a terrifying kabbalist who spoke in parables and of whom it was said that no one since Leviathan had understood his counsel;"
• J. Michael Rosenblum: "Father Rosenblum, a dour, bear-like man who tersely predicted disasters and was always right about them;"^[6]
• James Blish: "Father Atheling, a wall-eyed grimorian who saw portents in parts of speech and lectured everyone in a tense nasal voice until the Director had to exile him to the library except when business was being conducted;"
  
  
• 1d30 random "Real World" works of Magic Table 

1. Ars Magna by Ramon Llull
2. The Nullity of Magic by Roger Bacon
3. The Book of Ceremonial Magic by C. A. E. Waite
4. Enchiridion of Leo III
5. The Effects of Atomic Weapons by the U.S. Government Printing Office [1]
6. The Book of the Sayings of Tsiang Samdup
7. Grand Grimoire
8. Grimorium Verum
9. Clavicula Salomonis^{[disambiguation needed]}
10. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
11. Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Institor and Jacob Sprenger
12. The American Weekly
13. Ardshi Bordschi Khan
14. Siddhi Kur
15. Skaskas
16. The Divine Comedy
17. Talmud
18. Midrash
19. Perspectiva by Roger Bacon
20. The Gospel of Matthew
21. The Book of Job
22. Lemegeton by Rabbi Solomon
23. Grimorium Verum
24. Grand Grimoire
25. Comte de Gabalis
26. The Black Pullet
27. The White Devil by Webster
28. The City of God by St. Augustine
29. Confessions by St. Augustine
30. The Lesser & Greater Keys of Solomon 

The Plot of the Second Novel known as Day of Judgement really screws the world, the characters, & invokes even more unholy shannagans. The plot of that book is as follows again according to wiki : 

In the first book, a wealthy arms manufacturer comes to a black magician, Theron Ware, with a strange request: he wishes to release all the demons from hell for one night to see what might happen. The book includes a lengthy description of the summoning ritual, and a detailed description of the grotesque demons as they appear. Tension between Ware and Catholic white magicians arises over the terms and conditions of a covenant that provides for observers and limitations on interference with demonic workings. Black Easter ends with Baphomet announcing to the participants that the demons can not be compelled to return to hell: the War is over, and God is dead.

The Day After Judgment develops and extends the characters from the first book. It suggests that God may not be dead, or that demons may not be inherently self-destructive, as something appears to be restraining the actions of the demons upon Earth. In a lengthy Miltonian speech at the end of the novel, Satan Mekratrig explains that, compared to humans, demons are good, and that if perhaps God has withdrawn Himself, then Satan beyond all others was qualified to take His place and, if anything, would be a more just god.

Using The World of Black Easter In Your Old School Games 

This isn't your typical world of OD&D fame & nor should it be. This is a very stark incredibly dark world of malice & demonic intent. The whole world is plunged into utter hellish darkness. This is a world where adventurers are disparately needed. Imagine if you will for even a moment what happens when the very forces of Hell are unleashed across the modern world. 

Would the gods even begin to stand for it? I think not at all. This is when a call goes out across the planes for good & lawful to be called to the very heart of horror & darkness. This is where your Labyrinth Lord /Mutant Future cross over in a grand world spanning adventure.  

Time & again I've heard players complain about the lack of a playing field for cavilers & paladins. Here's your chance to go toe to toe with the forces of  Hell itself! 

Set a game during the time of either book & watch the fun begin! 

Of particular interest to DM's  are the "Tension between Ware and Catholic white magicians arises over the terms and conditions of a covenant that provides for observers and limitations on interference with demonic workings" 

The Demons line of products has such a compact between the gods & demons built right in & its very easy to drop out the "devils" of Black Easter & insert the ones from Demons. The Apocalypse box set provides the perfect frame work of how to play in such an environment. 

 There are other uses for the Sentinels as well as Slayers & Inquisitor classes here. This is exactly the sort of play ground they were created for. The whole can be treated as another type of waste land world. 

 A journey into the very heart of a Biblical landscape of adventure & horror as the characters are confronted with empty cities, weird sights, & horrors beyond imagination. 

The problem is that this environment is very, very, easy to offend the religiously faint of heart.  

Sure there are other examples of this sort of play in the OD&D & AD&D evirons, modules, even the monsters of the original monster manual. OSRIC as well as many of the major retroclones contain the high demons & devils. Plug in what's needed & off you go.
The ritual magic of the book isn't a problem. Given the form of its summonings,  bindings, & rites its something that should take time, give incredible results or at the end of the book Day of judgement have no effect at all. These would be the perfect place to encounter the half demon breeds of the Demons line.
This sort of game can also turn quite silly to a jaded or tar heeled player. Consider the DM who wants to jump on this type of game warned.
If you haven't read The Devil's Day the collected Black Easter & Day of Judgement do yourself a favor & seek it out. I don't think that you'll be disappointed!