DIY Grind House Torg Setting Take Four - Empire of The Petal Throne Cosmology -

You can read about my previous thoughts putting this setting together right over  The first part is right HERE  and the last part  HERE
Nothing in this post is original at all. This is my fourth thought experiment involving this Grind House Torg style world. I began a few weeks ago to think about a post from the Hill Canton Blog. Way back on Monday, March 7, 2011 there was a blog entry concerning a seldom talked about corner of the Empire of the Petal Throne rpg. 
"ca. 111, 912 AD Tékumel thrown into pocket dimension, the Time of Darkness. The same fate befalls 722 other worlds in Humanspace."
Hill Cantons threw in this little qoute - 
"It must be assumed that Tekumel and its solar system fell--or were thrust--through a warp in the fabric of space-time itself, a "hole in the sky," into a pocket dimension in which no other matter existed. The reasons for this terrible calamity can only be guessed: natural forces, stresses created by the incessant use of the Three Light Drive, the actions of a hostile race, interference from mighty inter-dimensional beings far beyond man and his allies on the evolutionary scale, the vengeance of God upon His arrogant and overweening Creation? No one knows. It may only be noted in passing that this same fate befell 772 other worlds of Humanspace within a century after the disappearance of Tekumel and its system."
 You can read the whole thing right Here  Then there was the whole taking the Empire of the Petal Throne rules minus the setting that Mike D over at the +1 Sword blog had done a Tekumel-less system. You can read about that right HERE
The idea here might be that these aren't quite the huge dimensional raiders but more of a mid level and above game. The idea that each of the pocket universes are collections of realms. 

 The world is invaded by various realms each controlled by a Highlord Dimensional Warlord.  First this is going to be a grind house version of Torg. In other words "B" movie versions of the standard rpg trope worlds. The worlds have changed slightly. 

1. Europe -Stormbringer The Young Kingdoms with touches of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. Nasty weird faced orcs, goblins, giants,trolls,etc. stalking among the ruins of France. 
2. Greenland and Iceland  - The Melnibone realms - Decadent pleasure palaces of the fallen Elven warriors/wizards among the volcanoes and green rolling hills.
3. The UK - The Great Britain of the future of Dorian Hawkmoon with an overlap of the Amerika of Jerry Cornelius. 
4. USSR - Crypts And Things With touches of Fire and Ice Ralph Bakshi Realm 
5. Canada - The Super soldier reality of Underground 
6. United States -  A. East Coast - Realms of Crawling Chaos - This is the pulp realm of New England. B. The West Coast - post apocalyptic world of Mutant Future/Metamorphosis Alpha. A "Road Warrior style world" think 80's television like Airwolf, The Highway man, etc. 
7. Mexico and South America - The Empires of the Petal Throne 
8. China and India - Carcosa reality 
9. Australia - The Talaslinta realms 
10. Japan and Indonesia - Cyberpunk 2020 
11. Africa- The Naked Lunch Realms - Over The Edge -  
12. Antarctica  - The "At The Mountains of Madness" Realms 

 Cross dimensional adventurers going at it balls to the walls against inter dimensional invader warlords and their minions. Yeah that sounds great but by this time the characters are going to be looking for a challenge and adding in some of the elements of Empire of the Petal Throne might help. See there's the game within the game. Here are some of the elements I'm talking about.

1. The planar artifacts and micro powered universe artifacts, eyes, globes,etc. 
2. Many of the alien races can be found elsewhere and the system allows them to cross dimensional hop with little problem. 
3. The multiverse of Empire is unique in its own right and doesn't have some of the  Gygaxian baggage associated with it. Magic and psychic abilities are iffy at best giving a more balanced approach to the Jack Vance like system. 
4. The cosmology is very versatile and interesting allowing for more challenging play. Also plenty of planar demons and seldom seen gods means more adventuring opportunities. 
5. Then there's the opportunity to bring in Human Space Empires as a "wild card" if needed. 

This brings me to Warriors of The Wastelands.Back in the ancient days of the 90's when I was working in the video store. Post apocalyptic movies were always on rotation especially really bad Italian films. 

Rugged individualist in a post-apocalypse world comes into conflict with bad guys when he sides with their victims. Easily recognized Road Warrior rip-off, but almost forgivable due to the Italian movie traditions of sword-and-sandal stories and westerns.

The Plot according to Wiki : In the year 2019, after a nuclear war, humanity is reduced to a few starving groups. A ruthless gang called "The Templars" constantly raid settlers in an attempt to exterminate everyone in order to purge the Earth. A former Templar, Scorpion, along with his allies, prevents a small band of religious colonists from being massacred by the Templars

 The idea here being that this is a blank slate of a post apocalyptic world. You can easily add your favorite science fiction or science fantasy elements with little problem. Because of the pocket universe element from Empire there is quite a bit of room to incorporate this as a mid level game. This allows anything from the creations of Hargrave to the Shen to show up.
The "Templars" might well be another faction of a minor alien sorcerer or demonic entity. Add in your favorite post apocalyptic menace and this could become a domain game as the characters begin to raise in levels.  This style of game is going to take place out on the  West Coast - post apocalyptic world of Mutant Future/Metamorphosis Alpha. A "Road Warrior style world" think 80's television like Airwolf, The Highway man, etc.  where the United States Police Force barely maintains control.  I'm placing most of this in or near Vegas. 

The Templars have appeared in a number of my games as good guys, bad guys, and folks caught smack in the middle of demonic activity  that cause loss of life and limb.

Full Movie Right Here 

This brings us to Carburetor City by FishWife games and this is the perfect little post acapyptic "High Way Of Hell" Style world for this world. Every party needs a place to operate from and this is a great place to do so. Weighing in at only five pages this little product allows a DM to customize a Post Apocalyptic Town of their own. 

 Here's the description according to Drivethrurpg 

Located within the ruined wastes of a metro area once known for its casinos and nightlife, Carburetor City is a twisted, post apocalyptic reminder of the local area's past history of good times and seedy decadence. The city is run by a council of four residents that consists of Mayor Jack Kilgore, Sheriff Taylor Mason, Pastor Miles Gordon, casino owner and local celebrity Dee-Jay Splendor. The sheriff and the good pastor tend to represent the community's struggling virtues of morality and order while the local dee-jay and casino owner promote the city's prosperous delivery of entertainment and decadence. Although the mayor's position is technically seen as being a neutral tie-breaker between the city's two struggling sides, it is well known that the community's mayor usually panders to the interests of the community's seedier prospects.

In many ways, Carburetor City is like a dream come true for most post apocalyptic survivors. With the majority of its territory nestled within the safety of bricked walls and razor wired metal fences, those living within the confines are at least safe from the ravages of the wasted ruins. The city has an operating radio station that broadcasts its transmissions across a number of frequencies, thus attracting the business of civil traders and wandering nomads for many miles around. Solar panels, automotive batteries, and experimental mini-power generators provide electricity for the population. Water is collected regularly in the two metal water towers in the community's confines. The tanker trucks used by the scavengers often return with a decent enough supply of recovered fuel, allowing the community's vehicles the chance to keep running. Although food remains a constant concern, gambling at the casino and a brisk trade in the recovered goods from the surrounding metropolitan ruins provides a chance to gain such needed resources from traveling peddlers. For those needing wheels, recovered automobiles, salvaged parts, tires, and mechanic work is also available for a price.

Page Count: 5 Pages (Includes cover, information, and blown up map pages)

Designed By: Dave Woodrum

You can get it right HERE  for one dollar .Carburetor City is perfect for just this sort of game. A way station, pawn spot, and oasis for a price in the middle of a desert that sees more then simply artifacts and the like.
 If this place is near Vegas then it might also be doing a brisk trade in Mexican/South American "Empire of The Petal Throne" technology and relics.
 I've been toying with the idea of casino owner and local celebrity Dee-Jay Splendor being a resource for some of the information for things happening down in Mexico and South America. 
 Happy Gaming 
Next Up 
Adventurers Of The Time Streams 

Messiah Of Evil For Your Old School Horror Campaign

Messiah of Evil is a 1973 horror cannibal zombie cult flick that used to grace my VCR on a Saturday evening at about two or three am shift over in Boston at the video store I worked at. 

Its a damn strange flick that has a bit in common with lots of later 80's horror films. It was done by the same folks who did Howard The Duck. Don't let that put you off. There is a hell of a lot to mine in this trashtastic film.

The plot according to wiki:

A young woman named Arletty (Marianna Hill) drives to the beach town of Point Dune, California, to visit her estranged father, an artist. She finds his house, abandoned. He left a diary in which he addresses her specifically. In it he complains about darkness consuming the town, and horrible nightmares he is having, and implores Arletty to never, ever look for him. His letter tells her to talk to the owner of the art gallery, who sells his paintings. The gallery owner says he has none of her father's paintings, does not sell them, no one ever comes in looking to buy his works, and says he doesn't know where he went. He says Point Dune is 'an artist colony', and he only vaguely remembers her father (his paintings are eerie pop art portraits of groups of people in black, white, and gray, standing; the men are always dressed in black suits, white shirts, and black ties, like dead men at a funeral). It is never clear if these are townspeople, or figures from his visions, or both.

By chance, Arletty meets a Portuguese-American aristocrat Thom and his two extremely provocative, groupie-like female companions, Toni and Laura. They are drinking, smoking, and walking around in states of undress, except for the man. He always wears an ivory three piece suit, 24 hours a day. He is fascinated by the town, and the legend that a blood moon rises above it periodically, and darkness then consumes the town. Back at his motel, he is interviewing Charlie (played byElisha Cook, Jr.) a village idiot/'wino'-type character. He tape records his bizarre rants. Charlie speaks at length about 'the blood moon' and 'the dark stranger' and how he has lived through both. He says very soon it will be the 100 year anniversary of the first appearance of the 'dark stranger', he will return, the moon will turn red, and the town will be overrun with evil. He says the stranger's followers do not kill him as they think he is a harmless hobo—they let him sleep on the sidewalk undisturbed every night. Charlie warns Arletty about her father, he says he is 'one of them' now, and must be killed, but with fire, as only fire will do the job. Moments later he is murdered off screen. Thom tells Arletty he also went to the gallery, and saw one of her father's paintings in the window.

The man and his women are kicked out of the motel, supposedly because the police questioned them about the wino, and it bothered the management (all the police in town are 'normal' and clueless about the vampires massing at night). They all move in together, at Arletty's father's house. Each night at the house, strange things happen, shadows crawl about on the skylights, and Arletty reads more of the diary. In it, her father reveals his body temperature is 85 degrees. This proves he is dead, but thinking and moving about, and suggests the local vampires are fully sentient and aware of what they do, and only Arletty's father feels remorse and is actively fighting his 'condition'. Meanwhile, each night, creatures gather on the beach in front of bonfires, staring straight up at the moon. The locals call it 'The Waiting'. These 'vampires' will eat anything: dead vampires, dead people, live people, live animals, etc. Each day 'order' returns to Point Dune.

These vampires are especially interested in eating Arletty, Thom, Toni, and Laura. First to die is Laura, devoured inside a Ralphs supermarket, in one of the film's two semi-famous scenes. Next to die is Toni, in the other semi-famous scene, she is literally devoured in a movie theater filled with blood red seats and greenish vampire-like creatures. These 'things' act like vampires, bite their victims necks, but then eat them like George Romero's zombies. The night Toni is eaten alive, Thom races downtown, realizing she is in danger. But he's too late. Things quickly get completely crazy as the 'blood moon' rises, every resident turns into a monster, and the titular Messiah of Evil - the dark stranger, a former minister, and a Donner Party survivor from the late 19th century turned vampire/cannibal, returns. He says he has come to lead his people up the coast and inland, to spread his 'religion'. Thom gets bitten on the neck, and then suddenly two policemen in riot gear drive up, and fire their guns into a swarm of townspeople/vampire/zombies; however one of them suddenly begins to bleed, causing his now-former partner to shoot him and flee. Undaunted, the undead cop shoots his former ally and he and the other vampire/zombies go to feast on his flesh.

Thom drives to the beach house, but Arletty is half-crazed; she is cold, cannot feel pain, thinks she may be dead or un-dead...she even finds a bug crawling around in her mouth and immediately vomits up various beetles, mealworms and an anole. Startled by Thom, she stabs him with garden shears. Later bandaged up and ready to go, the two of them flee to the beach. It is swarming with the ersatz vampires. They swim out to the breakers. Thom drowns, but Arletty survives. Instead of being eaten, she is tied up, to be 'sacrificed to the Messiah'. Instead of killing her, he turns her loose, and tells her to spread word of his religious movement throughout California and the world. Of course, once she is freed Arletty tries to spread word of the menace and of his cult. This causes her to be locked up in an insane asylum. She is the woman seen dancing in the hallway at the beginning of the film. Each day, all day, she sits in the sun painting. But she says she is really waiting for, and dreading the day the Messiah and his followers come to her asylum, and she is taken away to live forever as his bride.

Here's the Full movie 

Using Messiah of Evil For Your Old School Horror Game 

I've used this little gem of a movie time and again when a weird 70's style location is needed. The beach town of Point Dune, California, has this weird "Silent Hill" vibe going on with the whole "Blood Moon" business. "Point Dune is 'an artist colony', and he only vaguely remembers her father (his paintings are eerie pop art portraits of groups of people in black, white, and gray, standing; the men are always dressed in black suits, white shirts, and black ties, like dead men at a funeral). It is never clear if these are townspeople, or figures from his visions, or both." 

In Call of Cthlhu and Kult, Dune Point  is more then simply some "artist's colony" Its a location that has been lost to the pages of history and now belongs as a bauble to some ancient cult of evil.
 There are lots of weird props that seem to float through the movie. The diary of  Arletty's father and how it recounts how he feels remorse and is actively fighting his 'condition'. Meanwhile, each night, creatures gather on the beach in front of bonfires, staring straight up at the moon. The locals call it 'The Waiting'. These 'vampires' will eat anything: dead vampires, dead people, live people, live animals, etc. Each day 'order' returns to Point Dune. This is all very Kult like where the illusion of reality is shattered and we've got a real cult of  vampire like undead crossing the line and waiting for the next victim to come into their midst.
Then there is also the Nyarlathotep figure of the Messiah of Evil. Could he be simply another form of the god? 

"The titular Messiah of Evil - the dark stranger, a former minister, and a Donner Party survivor from the late 19th century turned vampire/cannibal, returns. He says he has come to lead his people up the coast and inland, to spread his 'religion'"

How To Use Messiah of Evil 
There are at least three ways that I've used this film. Number one is to use this film with a game like Dark Conspiracy and pick up the action right at the end of the film. Arletty is in an asylum and waiting for the return of her dark master. She actually is undead the PC's are brought into the case. The Dark Messiah is on the move and must be stopped.  Arletty is an undead NPC waiting for an accident to happen. 

Option number two is use the  beach town of Point Dune, California as it own self contained reality and the PC's stumble into this place thing of the Old Ones. This is the option that I've found that works the best for a group of six or more players. Best played with CoC. 

The third option is to have the world end with the madness of the Dark Messiah and bring the characters into the path of this entity and his cult of madmen and bastards.
The stats a ghoul cult from CoC are good for this. The vampires from Kult offer endless options. OD&D and AD&D have ghouls and they seem to fit the bill here. Each day 'order' returns to Point Dune. And this can be used as a hook. If the party gets caught in the town then all bets are off.
 The movie has some of the bizarre characteristics of "Carnival of Souls". The idea that the web of the undead crosses not simply lines but blurs into true religion. 
This film could in fact be connected with the realities of the Tall Man. The Phantasm films and this one were all entwined in a mega campaign I ran in the 90's. 

Why use Messiah of Evil? 

Unless your really into horror movies this one isn't even that well known. The sheer cheesy supernatural insanity of this film reminds me of " In The Mouth of Madness". That film is way too well known these days and in fact I've used this film as a bridge gap to the events of  "In The Mouth of Madness". 
The fact that this film is so surreal and bizarre works for portraying the impersonal insanity of the Mythos. 
The other reason is the tucked away, dreamlike quality of this small town. You can have all of the qualities of a sheer mad run without the issue of wrecking your regular horror campaign. 
This location also pervades a perfect place to get one of your PC's infected with the vampire madness that seemly hovers over everyone in Point Dune. 

The Meat Lovers Guide To The Post Apocalypse and The Zombie Out Break

 

Dave Woodrum over at Fish Wife Games is a clever bastard. He's gotten some very useful little niche old school rpg products. Bare in mind that the following is in part a repeat of the Swords and Stitchery blog.
 Here's the blurb from Drivethru Rpg : 

The Meat Lover's Guide To The Post Apocalypse...Because Even Half-Crazed, Mutant Road Savages Get Hungry Once In Awhile.

The Meat Lover's Guide to the Post Apocalypse is a small but information packed guide book that allows the players and the game master (GM) of a post apocalyptic setting a general set of rules for harvesting meat from slain animals and monstrous creatures. This book takes real world information, concepts, and methods of hunting and meat preparation and condenses such knowledge into a format that is readily accessible to the GM and minimizes the headaches of prior research. However, just because the information is condensed, this doesn't mean that this book lacks in diversity or flexibility in regards to the subject of harvesting meat. If you are a player or a GM that would simply be happy with just saying, “okay, you each have three days of food after butchering the atomic cow”, then this is not the guide book for you. Honestly, you simply make that up off the top of your head and it would be probably fine without further examination or research. However, if you are the type of GM that wants a more realistic approach to harvesting the meat from even the most unrealistic of mutated monsters, then this is the post apocalyptic supplement for you.

The contents of this book begins with a chart of several real world animals. Included in this chart is the average weight of such an animal, the type of creature it is, the amount of consumable meats, organs, etc. that one could expect to harvest from such a creature, and also the average calorie intake of 1 pound of the creature's consumable meat, organs, etc. From there you will find a section on how to establish the same general guidelines for mutated, monstrous creatures as well as other animals not already included in the basic charts. In addition to this information, the reader is provided with a wealth of additional information. Such information includes, but is not limited to, figuring out how many days worth of food a creature yields based on the calorie intake of the characters, issues with spoilage and how to properly preserve meat, and notes on the damage to potential meat harvests that is caused by wounding or killing a creature in combat.

On a final, but very important note, this guidebook is developed in a manner that makes it system generic. Thus, it is compatible with most, with not all, tabletop, paper and dice role playing games that are based on a post apocalyptic Earth. When developing the product, the author recognized that there are multiple takes on what a post apocalyptic environment would be like. Some simply incorporate the aspects of a zombie uprising, with no other truly out of the ordinary elements, while others go for a very exotic world full of strange, exotic mutations. Some, on the other hand, a middle of the road ground that is very gritty and full of skullduggery and desperation. The “road nomad” style post apocalyptic movies of the 1980's are good examples of this vision.

Whether your world contains exotic mutated creatures, or simply the currently existing animals of the world, this guide book will provide you with the basics of guiding the adventuring party in their quest of staying alive to fight another day.

Pages: 30 (counting cover and table of contents)

Written By: Dave Woodrum

Alright if your still reading there are some very interesting stats in the book regarding mutants, monsters, etc. The genre of survival horror has a propensity for running low on food the many vectors of the "zombie disease" it seems natural that a book like this is going to be very useful in a horror campaign when beloved pets, relatives, etc all become food. 

There is also the "Phantasm II" Factor. 

Given the propensity of the Undead in AD&D Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, etc. There is an under utilized AD&D mythos that hardly ever gets used these days. That's the Negative material plane which is one of the main animating forces of these creatures. Everyone I've talked with has said that there's a connection between  the demon lord Orcus & this plane.

 The Negative Material really came into its own in the hands of Jeff Grubb in the Manual of The Planes & several Dragon magazine articles. But it hasn't been heard from since. Personally I've used it as the abode of this gentleman &  the source his technology. 
The Phantasm movies allow a DM to throw in a zombie plague into a game but allow the undead to be a controlled burn off rather then a full on balls to the walls zombie infection. This saves the background of the campaign while having the threat of the shambling hordes in the background. Also psychic classes should be able to detect the negative energies.
 The guide also gives a bench mark so that a DM will know exactly how much food a zombie can eat. The undead of the Tall Man and his ilk aren't normal zombies. There's talk of a plague and such in Oblivion and some of the other films. Back in my video store days I knew a vital zombie expert. Mack was the sort of guy who could quote chapter and verse of any of the Dead movies and the Italian stuff as well. 

He had a very solid point on where the Tall Man and the others were different. The undead free willed mechanisms of the Tall all are animated by that Yellow Goo. That stuff gets into an ecosystem it will foul up the local food supply as well as anyone who comes into contact with it. 
 Half of my players of a "Phantasm" game that I was running at the time were gathering food. They were picked off one by one "Ten little Indians style". Why not take it one step further & have Orcus himself causing the problem. Cults of Orcus can be & have been the focus for countless campaigns. 
 The cross over factor alone between Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord is worth it. Given the hit points of Mutant Future characters this might even be very doable. 

The bottom line is that zombie plagues can be very different then the usual run of the mill shambling hordes and grabbing some calorie intake on this sort of thing adds a bit more to a game. 

The bottom line is that this a great addition to the weird and strange post apocalyptic landscape. 

You can get this wonderful little book right over at DriveThru Rpg right HERE

Five Shadow Touched Objects For Your Old School Horror Campaigns

Shadow Touched Objects 

1. The Errtuir Planar Crystal Ball - Created from the tears of a million demons and hardened in the coldest fires of some nether hell. This crystal globe shows the mirrored shadows of worlds that might be. Places caught between the shades of worlds. Each moon rise the crystal can open a gateway between these places. Such gateways always have a price. The user must tell the guardian of the gate their story or a reason for letting them pass through the mists of the crystal ball. 
2. The Door Handle of Forever - This cut and broken crystal door handle allows one to fix it into place on any door. The crystal cuts the user and the blood allows the demon trapped within the facets to open a door to the user's fondest desire. The demon has a warped sense of humor and has been known to twist the destination in its favor. The handle is currently in the possession of a carnival barker's trunk. He is touring the country. 
3. The Goblin Cup of Everrea - The cup is a cut crystal cup that belongs to the Goblin King Everrea. This tall and handsome fey has the heart of a demon and the cup opens to the darkest corners of his kingdom where the treasures of a thousand dreams are stored. He has a taste for ladies of any age and keeps a gallery of of them to gaze upon. He has been known to eat the eye balls of their husbands however. 
4. The Circle of Power of Spite - This incredible loop of pure crystal is made from the tears of angels and forged with the dreams of fire elements roasting the innocent. The loop allows the user to access the mind of a demon once per week. Its infinite knowledge allows one to discover many forbidden and dire secrets of magic and mayhem. The circle will corrupt the heart of anyone using it. They will become a pawn of a spirit of spite.
   
5. The Crystal crown of Thorns- This is a crown of metal and crystal thorns made from the branches of the forbidden tree of knowledge in Hell. It will grant its user power over an arch devil. The crown though drains the soul of the user with each new slave's task until the user is nothing more then another thorn among its many branches.
   

Free Original "Petty Gods" book And Commentary.

 Gorgon Milk continues to set a pretty damn high standard, he and Peter Gifford have released the original "Petty Gods" as a Free PDF. The book looks pretty damn good. But I have it on really good authority that the new "Expanded" edition will blow this one out of the waters.
In Gorgon's words -  the long-believed lost version of PETTY GODS designed by Peter Gifford and edited by James Maliszewski of Grognardia! To keep things straight, we're officially dubbing this "OPG" -- Original PETTY GODS --
 You can get the original version right over
HERE
 

Hmm, the original clocks in at around one hundred and fifty pages and there are are some really interesting minor gods in here. 
The artwork reminds me of some of the Mayfair games products and the stats seem fairly well balanced. The project seems to match writers up with artists and then present the artwork and entity. 
The entities look pretty useful and might function well in a mid level Labyrinth Lord game.
 The overall feel seems almost "Gothic" somehow and I'm reminded of Lamentations of the Flame Princess in the artwork and presentation.
A DM might be very creative and use these dieties as the center of a game adventure and the ideas presented in here.
The book seems to be in almost the final stages of release but there's a bit of the unfinished about it. However the book is rather well done and I'm grateful that this piece has seen the light of day. Its a nice bench mark to see this book.
 I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I have reading this book.
 Three out of Four stars. 

Memories of A Red Planet - Phantasm 1979 Commentary For Your Old School Horror Campaigns

There are a few films that have changed my life forever. Hellraiser I & II respectively and the Phantasm movies.
 I saw Phantasm when I was nine years old and it was during the same year as Star Wars. It was pretty vicious for its time and remains a favorite of mine.
Wiki describes it ever so subtly - It introduced the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), a supernatural and malevolent undertaker who turns the dead into dwarf zombies to do his bidding and take over the world.   Actually their used as exploited slave workers in another dimensional local referred to as The Red Planet. 

Major Spoilers AHEAD!
Here 's The Plot according to Wiki: 

Following the death of his parents and brother, 24-year-old musician Jody Pearson raises his 13-year-old brother Mike in a small town disturbed by the mysterious deaths of its citizens. Reggie, a family man and ice cream vendor, joins the brothers in their suspicions that the local mortician, dubbed the Tall Man, is responsible for the deaths. Mike relays his fears to a fortune teller and her granddaughter about the possibility of Jody departing and leaving him in the care of his aunt, along with his suspicions about the Tall Man. Mike is shown a small black box and told to put his hand into it. After the box grips his hand, Mike is told not to be afraid and as the panic subsides, the box relaxes its grip. The notion of fear itself as the killer is established and is what propels Mike toward his final confrontation in the film with the Tall Man.

Mike is pursued by minions of the Tall Man, alien dwarves (which are kept in a small room that houses a gateway device between the two worlds), who are made from the bodies of the recently deceased, and tries to convince his brother of what is happening.

After convincing Mike and Reggie, they find a strange white room with containers in the mausoleum; a gateway to another planet is also there that Mike enters briefly where he sees the alien dwarves that have hunted him being used as slaves. While trying to escape the Tall Man, Reggie is stabbed and appears to die while Mike and Jody barely escape. They devise a plan to lure the Tall Man into a local deserted mine shaft and trap him inside. After doing so successfully, Mike wakes with a start in his house, lying by the fireplace with Reggie sitting next to him.

Reggie tells Mike he was simply having a bad dream, something that has been a common occurrence since Jody died in a car crash. Mike goes into his room where the Tall Man is waiting and an alien dwarf pulls Mike through his bedroom mirror.

The Mega Dungeons of Morningside 

I used to pop this movie into the VCR up in Boston quite often. Often enough to drive the girlfriend of the time up the wall or the crew in the video store. Phantasm has become another "thought exercise" campaign.  The way I see it Phantasm is a coming of age story with horror, misery, grave robbing, the Tall Man, and puberty.
The world of Phantasm isn't our world at all. It's an alternative universe at the start of a Lovecraft alien invasion from another dimension.
This is a world on the razor's edge where the worlds of the dead, dreams, and power are colliding. This is a world on fire and its happening out in the middle of the Midwest. Right in the middle of Everytown USA and the implication is that this is only the beginning. 

 We get our first glimpse of psionic witchcraft with  the fortune teller and her granddaughter.There are overtones of "Dune" like psionics and its our first glimpse of such. It won't be our last in this movie. Countless times I've used the "Order of The Blue Star" in games. A spiritualist like movement that teaches the opening of the invisible eye the gate way to psionic or psychic powers. They usually use a blue star tattoo in the middle of their forehead or on their cheek.

The Morning Side Mega Dungeon  

The Morning side funeral home and cemetery boast a boatload of possibilities. This isn't simply one small dwarf infested funeral home with a space gate.  There might be an underground dwarf processing plant that we never got to see.
The whole of Morning side is covered by the "Tall Man's influence" and the psychic effects of them. He might me anywhere watching at any time.  

Another aspect that we don't get in any other movies is the succubus like "Lavender Lady" a demonic minion or aspect of the "Tall Man" collecting and seducing especially juicy mortals for "processing" or worse.
 The whole of Morningside wasn't explored at all in the film per say. There might be crypts of yellow blooded undead. Zombies, mutant things, and weird tech just waiting down in those vaults. 

Then there's the aspect that never really gets explained. What happened to Mike's cousin and the other girls at the end of the movie? Could they have warned the other locals before the shadow of the Tall Man engulfs them all? 

As I stated earlier the veil between dream and reality of this world is very thin and like all of the fiction of HP Lovecraft and the other pulp greats. The Tall man uses the collective human unconsciousness as a gate way to the past, present, and future.  Anyone messing with the Tall man should be send horrific dreams. And might even wind up in his clutches psychically. 

"After convincing Mike and Reggie, they find a strange white room with containers in the mausoleum; a gateway to another planet is also there that Mike enters briefly where he sees the alien dwarves that have hunted him being used as slaves. While trying to escape the Tall Man" 

Well the heart and "soul" of the cemetery of Morning Side is going to be the Space Gate.
 The Spheres guard it and they will come for anyone trying to break into the place.

Playing In A Version Of The Phantasm Universe 

I've been using this movie for years and the best source for a phantastic timeline of events from the movie is Phantasm Movie Archive. 

Francisco Gabaldón (aka The Spanish Phan) has valiantly written a broad chronicle of Phantasm history to help make sense of it all.Continue reading to traverse his completed timeline. You can find it right over Here

Alright gaming in the first movie universe is going to require a game like Call of Cthulhu or simply a game of "Mutant Future"with all human PC's.
The locals are just starting to wake up to the Tall Man's influence and are forming cells. You can expect a very high body count with PC's as well.
It has been suggested that for a game like Dark Conspiracy that the Tall Man is simply another alien Dark Lord of tremendous power.  In Torg I've used him as a Highlord of incredibly psionic potential who uses telekinesis throughout the film.
In Kult he's a forgotten god hell bent on taking back his  own portion of the illusion.
With D&D I've made him a death god in his own right and given him some psionic abilities. I also had him connected with the Mi Go as a god of theirs.
 Recently ,The Field Guide To Doomsday blog had a phan write up of the spheres In The Mutant Future Supplement Spawn of Devastation Drive In. A free download available right over HERE.

I'd like to thank The Phantasm Archives for their awesome site.
Right HERE
And of course The Official Phantasm site right HERE

This blog entry is for entertainment purposes and as phan discussion only. This is not meant as a challenge to the trade mark or copyright of the phantasm movies or their trademark holders. Opinions expressed are the authors.
Thank you. 

The Many Bloodlines of "The Bat" For Your Old School Horror Campaign

 The Bat is play that has weaved its way through the folk lore of America like a cancer. The play concerns not a hero but a killer looking for his ill gotten gain from the jaws of Hell itself.
 According to wiki: 

 The film is based on the 1920 mystery play The Bat, written by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart.

The Bat premiered as a Broadway play on August 23, 1920, at the Morosco Theatre in New York City. The melodrama mystery was produced by Wagenhals and Collin Kemper, who also staged the show. The play closed in September 1922 after 867 performances.

Two Broadway revivals of The Bat soon followed. The first of these opened on May 31, 1937, at the Majestic Theatre, and closed that June after just 18 performances. The second of these opened on June 20, 1953, at the National Theatre, and closed on February 7, 1953, after 23 performances.

The first version of the play was filmed in 1926 and has many of the elements of the hit play intact.
The second version of the film according to wiki :"Director Roland West remade his film four years later in 1930 as The Bat Whispers, which starred Chester Morris and Una Merkel."

The plot remains the same throughout the films and the original play(well mostly with slight variations and twists as well as turns on the theme.)
The plot according to Wiki: A mysterious criminal by the name of "The Bat" eludes police and then finally announces his retirement to the country, while a wealthy Cornelia Van Gorder takes up residence in the estate of a famous banker. Along with her maid Lizzie, her niece Dale, and a bank teller disguised as a gardener, she is terrorized by a series of strange events seemingly set in motion by the mysterious bat. Possible suspects include a doctor, an elderly police lieutenant, a butler, a handyman, and a big-city cop.

Here is a trailer of  "The Bat Whispers" cut into the style of the Dark Knight Rises and it illustrates where I'm going with this.
 My favorite version is the 1959 film with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead was no stranger to the world of the macab and eerie in her own right. She was a star of the Orson Wells Mercury Theater and was a character actress of no small repute with numerous plays,radio dramas, film and television credits to her name before the days of "Bewitched".
 


The Plot According to Wiki : 

Cornelia Van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead) is a mystery author who lives in a town terrorized by a mysterious murderer known only as "The Bat". The Bat is said to be a man with no face who murders women at night by ripping out their throats with steel claws. Early in the film, The Bat enters Van Gorder's house and releases a bat, which bites van Gorder's maid Lizzy (Lenita Lane). With Lizzy in a panic, fearing she may now have contracted "the rabies", an outbreak of which local papers have reported, Van Gorder calls her doctor, Dr Malcolm Wells (Vincent Price), who is conducting research on bats.

Meanwhile, the whole town is searching for a million-dollar stash of looted bank securities that were recently stolen. Dr. Wells discovers the location of the treasure when the thief confides in him. Wells then murders the thief in cold blood, presumably so that he can take the treasure for himself, which he believes to be hidden in van Gorder's house.

A series of break-ins and murders by The Bat brings the local chief of detectives, Andy Anderson (Gavin Gordon) to the Van Gorder house. The Bat then murders two people in the Van Gorder house, Mark Fleming (John Bryant) and Judy Hollander (Darla Hood). Anderson attempts to determine the identity of The Bat, suspecting both Wells and Van Gorder's new butler, Warner (John Sutton). Wells is removed from suspicion, however, when he is murdered by The Bat in his lab.

Miss Van Gorder cleverly manages to capture The Bat inside the secret room in her house.

The Full Film Right Here

Using The "Bat" For Your Old School Horror Campaign

Mining the bat is fun and easy. I've used these movies for horror games numerous times and every time the PC's never saw it coming. 

The "Bat" isn't a figure of good like a certain Dark Knight instead he's a figure of utter mystery and horror whose been operating  from 1920 till 1959. A murdering psychopathic killer taking lives and loot where he wants. He's a vile figure of horror in the grand tradition of the pulps.
A mysterious criminal by the name of "The Bat" eludes police and then finally announces his retirement to the country. This of course is a ruse and allows our "Bat" to move through the years with a series of grand thefts,flashy murders, and a trail of broken bodies in his wake. Van Gorder's house is a perfect megadungeon of horror right here in good old New England. This is only the latest in a series of lairs of the "Bat". In the Van Gorder's house I built in a series of underground passages, weird rooms, and horrid hellscapes for the players to stumble upon. 
Each and every time the "Bat" need to elude police another dupe was used to take the real one's place. 
For over 2 years the "Bat" appeared in The World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Kult as an awakened killer trying to shock people into dealing with the reality of Metropolis. 

I've used the Bat though out history as a sort of family tradition passed along bloodlines throughout history and every age. Dr Malcolm Wells doesn't acknowledge the family curse that stalks him and his kin through the ages but its there. Always lurking in the background and rearing its ugly head in every generation.
How many more will feel the claws of the bat that faceless killer who strikes from the shadows. A man with no face who murders women at night by ripping out their throats with steel claws.
 In Call of Cthulhu I created the Cult of the Bat. A family who worships " The Haunter In The Dark" taking their victims by ripping out their throats with steel claws. 
This same cult appeared in AD&D and OD&D quite often bedeviling a paladin in my games with regularity. 
 The sound track of the Bat is also very moody and eerie setting the stage for a great night's entertainment.