[Review] "Crit Or Myth" RPG Musical Comedy CD By Fugli

Although I don't typically review music CDs here at The Savage AfterWorld, I stumbled across a request on Facebook for folks to review an upcoming music CD focusing on old school role-playing gaming. Now, I'm a fan of filk and musical parodys, so I wanted to find out what this was all about. Sent away and in a few days, I got a preview copy of the CD illustrated above.

"Crit or Myth" is an upcoming music CD by "Fugli" (AKA Jeremy Fowler-Lindemulder) who typically performs in the Renaissance Faire community, but this new offering is a divergence from his normal Faire material, and focuses on his AD&D 1e days.

There's good stuff here for the OSR enthusiast with a variety of styles vary from medieval fantasy, to calypso, to rock, to folk parodies of  classic tunes. I enjoyed the variety of musical styles amongst the songs on this fully loaded CD (I'll explain more in a second). There are 12 songs that will have all role-players nodding along with the melodies as well as in agreement with the pithy situations mentioned in the melodious tales. Some of my favorites include...

"Epic Myth" - The odds are against you, and a TPK is imminent. The party is counting on you to pull their fat out of the fire with a Roll For The Ages. You throw the dice and, well, as the song refrain says, "I rolled a one..." A very funny song that I've come to call The Gamer's Lament. One of my favorites on the CD.

"Conga Line of Doom" - Those narrow dungeon corridors don't allow for much shoulder-to-shoulder combat, so line up for the slaughter! The problems with marching orders versus tight underground quarters feature in this calypso parody of pinch points and kill zones.

"Flavor Text" - Those descriptive paragraphs that paint a vivid picture in the minds of your players -- and how they then run berserk through the scene when you stop to take a breath. The creative lyrical prose of the DM versus the breathless impulsive actions of the PCs meet in this funny adventure summary.

Other songs on the CD include: "The Wild Roller" (How much dice you got? It's not enough.); "The Deck of Many Don'ts" (That deck you found in a locked chest? Leave it alone.); "Random Tables" (Almost everything you find and do will be eventually left to chance.); "Baba Yaga's Hut" (Chicken-footed house a-comin'!); "The Demon Prince" (The dance craze...from the Seven Hells!); "Parts is Parts" (You never know what monster part might come in handy later.); "The Hoard" (There's always one player who hoards EVERYTHING - encumbrance be damned.); "Alignment Blues" (Chaotic Evil is so much easier than Lawful Good, you know?); and "Eye of the Beholder" (Monsters, go figure.)

Remember when I said this was "fully loaded"? There are numerous other special features lurking within, such as video clips of live performances, web links to numerous sites of the band's other offerings, and -- most keen for the gamers out there -- "Striek Hollus: The Tomb of the Eighth Blue Wizard", an adventure written by Jeremy back in December 1980 for The Dungeoneer's Journal and is now re-released here! (Which WILL see table use in one of my upcoming home games!) There is a lot to like on this CD for the gamer as well as those who appreciate clever music parodys.

"Crit or Myth" will be released January 2020 through Amazon and fugli.bandcamp.com. You can follow the group at http://phi.povera.com/ or  https://www.facebook.com/fugli as well!

[Samson Sunday] Savage Menagerie: Ice Monster

In Mighty Samson Issue 4, Samson faced the threat of sailing vessels from Greelynd led by the ruthless warlord Thorr! Thorr captured Samson and his friends, and pitted Samson against post-apocalyptic mutants in his arena! Here's one of those threats!

Ice Monster: Init +1; Atk bite +6 melee (1d6+2) or claw +4 melee (1d4); AC 17; HD 3d8; MV 20'; Act 2d20; SP laser resistance, cryokinesis; SV Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +6.

The Ice Monster appears to be similar to the Ancient polar bear species. However, the bear-like creature is twice as large and, instead of white fur, it is covered in icy shards across its body,  giving it a crystalline shimmer when light reflects off of its hide. Because its surface reflects/refracts light waves, an Ice Monster only takes half-damage from light-based attacks (e.g., lasers and similar weapons).

An Ice Monster is a powerful ursine animal, able to bite for 1d6+2 hp damage or claw an opponent for 1d4 hp. An Ice Monster is "super-coldblooded", giving it the mutation of cryokinesis, which it uses to try to freeze its prey in place during combat.

An Ice Monster, however, is incredibly vulnerable to heat-based attacks and will take double-damage from any such assault. It is not unusual to see the massive beast melt clean away under a barrage of flame and fire.

NOTE: This creature was inspired by the interior tale from Issue 4 of "Mighty Samson." Stay tuned each week for Samson Sunday!

[Samson Sunday] Savage Menagerie: Rhinophant

Rhinophant: Init +0; Atk trample +5 melee (3d4) or gore +2 melee (2d4); AC 17; HD 3d8; MV 20'; Act 1d20; SP absorption; SV Fort +4, Ref -2, Will +2.

The Rhinophant is a large herbivore animal that roams the abandoned streets of post-apocalypse N'Yark . The Rhinophant is huge and heavy, standing nearly 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weighing in excess of 2000 lbs. The Rhinophant has two large horns growing out of its muzzle, and it has a line of bony plates that run down the center of its spine. The Rhinophant is also covered with a thick leathery hide, making it very difficult to injure the creature.

Although the Rhinophant appears at a distance to be no more aggressive than the Ancient cow, it is actually quite territorial and will charge once it sees an interloper into its territory. It will attempt to either trample a victim under its lumbering bulk, crushing them for 3d4 hp damage, or it will lower its head and try to gore them with its twin horns for 2d4 hp damage. Fortunately, the Rhinophant is not a fast creature and can be outrun if spotted soon enough.

The Rhinophant's hide makes it difficult to injure, but what makes it nearly impossible is the creature's latent absorption mutation. The Rhinophant absorbs kinetic energy and will only take half-damage from any melee or missile attack. Also, when hit, the Rhinophant will gain 1d4 hp (up to its max hp) from each attack. A team of Terrans may be surprised to see a Rhinophant actually healing as they inflict injury upon injury upon the beast!

NOTE: This creature was inspired by the cover and interior tale from Issue 3 of "Mighty Samson." Stay tuned each week for Samson Sunday!

(MCC RPG) Savage Menagerie: Glueworm

One of my favorite Mutant Future creatures now converted for Mutant Crawl Classics!

Glueworm: Init +0; Atk none; AC 5; HD 1 hp; MV 5’; Act 1d16; SP adhesive secretion; SV Fort -5, Ref -5, Will -5.

A slug-like creature measuring only 1-2 inches in length with a sickly yellow tint, the glueworm is hardly a threat to the usual cautious Terran, having no real attack/damage ability and a minimal hit point total. However, where the glueworm is a danger is that it secretes one of the most aggressive adhesives found naturally. If a PC steps onto a glueworm “snail trail” and/or crushes or otherwise injures a glueworm, they will find their weapon (or worse, themselves) permanently bonded to the underlying surface unless they make a DC 20 Ref check. (Even if the save is made, the PC will have the adhesive on their foot/hand/weapon, but it will not be bonded to anything...until it makes contact with something else!)

This adhesive will bond anything to anything permanently, with one exception: the adhesive does not adhere to glass or crystal. Even picking up a glueworm will leave enough residue on the mutant’s hand to be a hazard. Small bottles of glueworm secretion (called "snailhesive" by traders) will fetch a good price for its many uses.

The adhesive can be dissolved with the use of a strong acid, although anything thus bonded will take  damage. The glueworm secretion can also be burned off with fire, although the glue itself is not flammable.

Genghis Con/Weird Realms Game Room: Comics, Art, And "New Mutants"

Yesterday was the last day of a long Thanksgiving weekend, and what better way to round it out than by squeezing in one last con-run RPG session before the year ends? Yesterady I attended Genghis Con in Cleveland. The event is a small press/independent comic publishers convention, and one I've been wanting to attend for years. For the second year, Weird Realms game store hosted a game room where folks could try out indy RPGs and self-published materials. So I signed on to run a playtest game of my next MCC RPG adventure, "The Desk in Room 8-10".

Although this was just a one-day afternoon affair, I'd be remiss if I didn't post my usual travelogue so folks can attend vicariously and, perhaps, make plans to attend next year. As usual with these little travelogues, I'll share what I've seen and done to give you a feel for what happened. Here we go:

• The event was in the Tenk Building in Cleveland, which was in a old warehouse/manufacturing district that is being repurposed for event hosting. From the outside, the building was a non-descript warehouse, but the inside was quite nice with an industrial flair.
• One entire area was filled with artists and vendors hawking their wares. The indy comic scene alone was mind-boggling and I truly wish I had set aside more time to browse and shop. I love indy publishers and saw a lot of stuff that caught my eye.
• I did manage to find several things in the Weird Realms booth. A current obsession is horror comics and horror video mags, and I picked up some issues of Creepy, Fangoria, and Psychotronic Video magazine amongst other treasures. (Love my new "Weird Tales" button now on my convention ID badge wallet.) Beckett and I traded for some stuff, so I got a new horror book and he now has 5 new copies of "Dead In The Water" stocked on his store's shelves. Go pick one up today!
• The game room  had 5 tables set up and, at its busiest, each table was filled with players. Board games, RPGs, and other fun stuff was ongoing.
• Met and spoke at length with Jim Pozenel who recent ended a successful Kickstarter for his adventure "The House of the Red Doors" for DCC RPG. The adventure is a 0 level funnel for one player. That's right, just you and the judge going mano-a-mano. Jim had a table set up where he was running all-comers through a 15-minute death-dash through the adventure. He showed me a proof of the end product (which I backed) and I can't wait to see the finished product. We also talked about editing and future RPG projects we're each working on. Nice to talk with you Jim!
• I only had time to run one game, and I had Kurt and Sam show up for a crack at my next MCC project. Interestingly, they had never played DCC/MCC before! (Kurt had the rules, but it was an Xmas gift he's forbidden to crack open until then.) They had also never played in a post-apocalyptic game, so this was all new. Within 20 minutes, they were blasting stuff with lasers and battling mutants warped by radiation like old pros! After 3 hours, they had made short work of the dangers within my adventure, and I think they really enjoyed the system and the adventure!

And here are some photos from today's event (all environmental because I forgot to take pictures of, you know, people playing and stuff...):

Banner outside of the Tenk Building IDing the location for the fun!

This is just half of the vendors and artists showing off their stuff. Due to poor planning on my part, I didn't have enough time to see it all and I certainly didn't have enough cash to buy it all!

But I did pick up a few horrific tomes for future Cryptworld inspiration!

The Weird Realms archway ushered folks into the game room beyond!

[Samson Sunday] Savage Menagerie: Fanged Flyer

Fanged Flyer: Init +1; Atk bite +3 melee (1d6) or claw +2 melee (1d6); AC 15; HD 2d8; MV flying 40'; Act 1d20; SV Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +0.

A Fanged Flyer is an aerial predator descended from the common bat. A Flyer is monstrously large with a 20-foot wingspan, a furry torso, bird-like talons, and a canine's head. The beast typically attacks by descending on its prey then slashing with its sharp claws. Otherwise, the creature will try to bite with its fang-like teeth, which gives it its name.

One typical tactic the Fanged Flyer will use is to grab its prey with both talons. If successful, it will then carry its victim aloft. The Fanged Flyer is capable of picking up and carrying prey of up to 300 pounds in weight.) The beast will then either carry its prey back to its lair for feeding or, if the victim struggles too much, the Flyer will climb high in the sky then release the victim. The Fanged Flyer will then descend to feed upon the crushed remains that are left after the fall.

A Fanged Flyer is a flock animal and will typically be found in groups of 2d10. If a PC sees a mass of Fanged Flyers approaching, it's best to take cover as one is difficult enough to defeat. Fortunately Fanged Flyers are usually found only in large wide-open spaces where they can be seen approaching from a distance.

NOTE: This creature was inspired by the cover and interior tale from Issue 2 of "Mighty Samson." Stay tuned each week for Samson Sunday!