This is a review of the OSR setting, "The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence", described as "an old school weird science-fantasy campaign setting and wilderness hex-crawl". It is written by "Venger As'Nas Satanis", the OSR's resident Cthulhu-Worshiping Satanist Magician; you know, the type of guy I've written about in some of my "Real Magick in RPGs" blog series. His continued existence is proof that he's either not a real magician, or Cthulhu is not a real being. Or maybe both.
Anyways, "Islands" is a 106 page softcover, published by "Kort'thalis Publishing" (Cthulhu sure does like his apostrophes!), with a full color cover of a needlessly-salacious pair of female buttocks looking over a nightmarish sort of landscape; the words "caution: mature content!" appear in bright red on the front cover, but somehow 'mature' is not the first word the image brings to mind.
(http://www.drivethrurpg.com/images/5876/130556.jpg)
I should mention that in my experience Venger is definitely one of these guys (like James Desborough) who like to court controversy and outrage on purpose (could you really expect anything less from a guy who's no doubt chosen the last name "Satanis"? I assume that's not an old family name..); I know I'm sometimes included in that same list but in my case (as in some others) it's really that I just don't give a shit, as opposed to actively trying to find (sophomoric) ways to be 'edgy' about sex or violence with my RPGs in the hopes of getting negative attention.
None of that impresses me much, but I won't judge a book by its cover (in this case literally). The interior art is certainly filled with relatively good-quality art, mostly of Lovecraftian monstrosities of different kinds, most of which manage to be impressive (a few even actually creepy) without being needlessly offensive; though I'll note that in the entire book out of the half-dozen or so images that have identifiable female figures in them, all but one are either naked or very scantily-clad (with a predominance of bare buttocks and thigh-high boots). While none of the images are explicitly sexual several are being attacked by monsters while naked and/or bound. I guess that's the author's interpretation of 'maturity'. It's the kind of thing that would give Tracy Hurley conniption fits if she wasn't too busy being worried about how tight Aleena the Cleric's full-body chain mail looks.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/proxy/FDtCcwOg5xZBDeiaLH24TdoqjjIg0IYtVcdxdI1WqxvHqel5mTRXx0NW_z0r2uXky_-jLPjgW6K7k9a3YmYkwnc8K-EMJM_IalII9GTpfvSL3nogLOwbt3cF7KQ3PgC96UxlYjt4w0qBHWAIG5r4_vQVl5t644sW0civUaThIU4jk_zmzpFXV4Qyn0C8Fy5H0lvKAlQ=w506-h538)
(even the map has tentacles!)
But fine; let's accept that the art here is almost certainly an intentional ploy to get attention by causing outrage, and move on. The question then is whether the content is any good? Note: you'll need to read this whole review, to get the big picture, because it's complicated.
The book starts (after some in-game fiction that, like most in-game fiction, is forgettable) with a set of "optional rules for the GM". The first few of these are not particularly good; in the sense that while nothing is terribly wrong with them they don't really fit (to me) the old-school model. You get a system of task-resolution that the author admits is inspired by countless dice-pool mechanics (which are really, to me, outside the whole boundary-markers of what defines old-school), where you roll a number of D6 based on the perceived difficulty of the task and have to count any die that results in a 6. Then you have an optional rule for giving players a +1 to their d20 rolls if they are suitably flowery in their description of their actions (an example: instead of saying "I put up my shield" they say "just before he shoots something from his luminous fingers I raise my shield for protection"; in other words, precisely the kind of needless wordiness without meaningful value that I don't particularly want to encourage). Then there's a mechanic whereby if a player asks a question about whether there is something in the environment (example: "is there something down that well?") the GM should roll a flat 33% chance that there in fact is. None of these are mechanics I would want to implement in an old-school game.
After some suggested porting-over of 3e D&D's "attack of opportunity" and "flanking" rules (again, no!), and a checklist for how to frame a one-shot adventure, you get the advice that every player should (when creating a character) tell the GM one thing about their character that is not written on the character sheet, which is not terrible but not exactly brilliant either.
It does start to get better after that, however. At this point we start getting into some of the mods that specifically apply to the "islands" setting. For example, you have a "darker secrets" table, which PCs can roll at character creation that involves strange details like "you have a special fondness for spiders and spider-like beings", or "after losing your wife and children in a recent war you want nothing more than to see the world burn". There's still a few problems with this table: it only has 20 options (which really isn't enough for an OSR-type game where presumably a lot of characters will end up being cycled through), and some of the selections are kind of questionable in various ways: from "you were the product of incest, so you are either physically sensitive or emotionally cruel" to "you were convicted of rape and successfully escaped from prison" to "you're extremely nearsighted and this can't be corrected by lenses or magic" (for some damn reason not explained in the entry). There's a rule for randomly rolling a flashback scene for each character before start of play, which is better than a lot of the background-stuff just by virtue of at least being interactive; it's the sort of thing that works really well in Amber (minus the randomness, of course) but probably won't be to the liking of a lot of Old-school gamers (for their old-school games at least). Again on a better note, there's a rule for how magic-use is affected by the immensely unstable influence of chaos on the Islands: anytime you cast a spell, you roll a D6. On a 6, the spell is doubled in all effects; on a 1 the spell has a disastrous discharge (it either has the opposite of its stated effect, or it affects the caster instead of its target). On a 3, a random magical effect happens, most of which effects are harmful to the caster but a couple are neutral or arguably useful. It's also stated, on a slightly later optional rule, that wizards can choose, on rolling a 1, to become chaos-aligned instead of having a disaster happen; and subsequently start to become mutated (unfortunately, it doesn't provide a random mutation table, which is a pity).
(http://imaginary.enterprises/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The_Islands_of_Purple-Haunted_Putrescence_Page_018_Image_0011.jpg)
(note: in spite of Cthulhu-worship, this has not happened to Venger in real life)
We're also told that the Islands are full of dimensional gateways all over the place, so there's a random table as to where a given gateway leads. The selections are generally lovecraftian (a world of the Old Ones, the distant past or future, R'lyeh, the Dreamlands) but a couple are unusual (a world that looks like an Erol Otus painting, Earth in the present day).
After this we get a few other Islands-specific rules: there are apparently corpses of ancient worms lying around the island (not sure how that's an "optional rule"; maybe we switched sections without the reader being told?), and there are deep horrific things under the earth (again, that's all we're told, no 'optional rules' in sight). There's also an effect that happens when you travel in time called chronosis, which causes temporary disorientation and memory loss. There's some optional rules for fighting modifications after his first injury and when he's at death's door, and some rules for regaining hit points after resting.
Then we get an optional Monk class. It isn't radically different from other monk classes out there but with less special powers (only the ability to captivate an audience, and a sort of psychic attack that can potentially be deadly - literally blowing up an opponent's brain- but has a high element of chance and a constitution drain).
After this we find out about how magic swords work differently on the islands: they cause critical hits on a 19-20 if wielded by fighters; the crit effects are rolled on a table. Also, all magic swords that spend enough time on the island become intelligent, with a table of random personalities for said swords, and a random table for a sword's origin.
Finally, there's a random permanent injury table, rolled any time a PC gets to below 0 hp but somehow survives.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-magrj3hjLEQ/U18AX8tCrTI/AAAAAAAATQc/IuOFQgBt2Mw/s1600/dino.png)
(there's this thing too, which must have come through one of the Islands' dimensional-gateways from a RIFTS sourcebook, or something)
So the next section is called "Running Purple" and here we get a guide to the setting information. It starts with one of those lengthy past-history timelines, dating back from "20000 years ago". Back then the islands were apparently only one landmass, but later broke up. A snake-man empire rose up, who rode on the ancient wyrms. They ruled for 7500 years until a coalition of men, elves and dwarves drove them out using magic to kill the wyrms. Two thousand years later a powerful Azure Witch took power, but her rule was cut short by the rise of the Purple Putrescence (of the title), a horrible purple mist full of tentacles that even to this day floats over the islands that dissolves living creatures, causes mutations, and all other kinds of terrible things.
The islands were also infested with strange crystals some 3200 years ago; these crystals augment magic but make it more chaotic. There's other stuff too: the "tentacles from the water", a great inexplicable super-computer created by an unknown race, and in the last ten years some distant lands have started using the islands as a penal exile colony.
The islands, we are told, have a mind of their own, and there's a "what do the Islands want" table to roll on.
We are told that the Islands are intended as a sandbox, but in case a GM wants some more structure we're also given a table of potential adventure seeds.
We also have a random table that PCs can roll to determine what their own connection to the Islands are, why they're there.
There's also a good old 'rumor table', complete with a T and F rating for whether the rumor is true or false.
You can also get into truly gonzo territory with the "what happened when you were sleeping" table, which can cause a number of inexplicable effects, like having a severed head appear on a PC's bedroll, having a PC lose his memories, or a henchman getting his brain sucked out by something in the night, or a magic-user losing 1d6 memorized spells while they slept.
These various tables, and sections with interspersed detail, are not really put in any kind of coherent order as far as I can tell. Likewise, there are some of the sections in the previous chapter that I would have put in this one, and vice versa. Maybe Venger is trying to evoke the scrambled style that some old-school books had. Some people find that kind of thing quaint. I'd rather it had been put in some kind of more coherent arrangement, myself.
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/437/538/01714b04c7bfe78f19bbc596e183551c_large.jpg?1386875953)
(or maybe he spent too much time trying to do this?)
In regard to the economics of the Islands, we are told that gold pieces (or other forms of coin economy) are not really used here; instead, trade is mainly done in slaves (particularly human and elven women, which given the whole aesthetic of the setting comes as no surprise), in magic, and advanced technology, as well as shelter and information.
From there we switch to guidelines as to how to obtain a "sherpa", a local guide. And then, we suddenly veer to hearing about how if you profane the name of the Dark Gods you get a -2 penalty to saving throws for the next day, and if you profane the name of an Old One in the presence of a lead cultist you will get shot by a destructive wave of purple energy falling from the sky. Clerics, priests, and holy men do get a percentage chance of divine intervention, though.
There's also more details on the Purple Putrescence, which (when it shows up) can randomly attack people with a save-or-die type of situation.
There's some details on the dreamlands, and on randomly-occurring mutagenic rain which leaves behind a lethal purple mist in a way pretty much identical to the Putrescence itself.
The whole of the islands seem to be some kind of machine, too. There's random illusion-hidden control panels that can do various effects, and there is a "mechanical and mystical under-system" that is found deep beneath the islands that keep everything running, as it were.
Alongside this, there's also the mysterious "Black Pylons": trapezoidal monoliths that act as gateways to other dimensions, space and time, but only if you have the right crystals to use them.
The crystals are one of the more interesting details of the setting: they're all over the islands, mostly underground, though obviously a lot of people have ones that were already taken from under the earth. They come in a variety of colors; several of these allow you to use the Pylons to travel through dimensions or space/time. Many of them also grant you one or more powers if you carry them, but most of them also come at a serious cost (of temporary daily draining of an ability score). Sometimes, combining two or more crystals can have powerful or catastrophic effects. So they're good items in the sense of being a mix of powerful and dangerous.
After this, we get details on the various factions found on the Island. This include descriptions of the major ones that detail their leaderships, beliefs, numbers, behaviours, agenda, technology level, common trade currencies, and any special details. There's also random tables that simulate developments that may have happened with a faction since the last time the PC party encountered them; and a table for determining events that happen (between or at the start of adventures, presumably) if the PCs stay around with a certain faction for a while. Factions include the worshipers of the Purple Putrescence, the mysterious Overlords who operate the underground machine, the native monkey-men of the islands, the hapless followers of the god of light, the remnants of the once-great Snake Men empire, and the followers of a strange deity called Zygak-Xith
Then we get a wandering monster table, a one-number saving throw chart for monsters (that is, if you're using or want to use a system where all saves are based on a single base number, which is what's used in Swords & Wizardry, if I recall correctly, and Arrows of Indra, among others). There's a small outdoor-terrain trap table to finish off this section.
After this, we finally start to get to the section that details the islands themselves, arranged by hexes. There's a very short description of each of the three Islands: Korus is the biggest, with its prominent mountain range. It has populations of Mi-Go, Snake men, a necromancer with something called "doom hawks", and various other unnatural creatures. Kelis is a jungle-island that features the ruins of a previous civilization, and its main feature is something called the "Shattered Dome". Kravian is the island that features Zygak-Xith and his worshipers.
I'm obviously not going to detail every single hex; I will say that the hex entries cover 51 pages of the book, so nearly half of the total content. Almost all of them include small, medium or large-sized adventure/encounter hooks, with a wide diversity of subject matter. As much as I've been mocking the over-the-top 'heavy-metal turned-to-11' attitude of Venger's writing, and some of his other stylistic and structural foibles in the book, there's no question that the vast majority of the stuff he's got in the hex entries is spectacularly creative, playable, diverse, and interesting, if what you want is gory, sometimes sophomoric, occasionally sleazy, and highly weird gonzo-fantasy writing. If you look at his hex-crawl section, he writes the way I imagine Geoffrey McKinney only wishes he could write. That is to say, cleverly.
You won't find hex after hex of the same bullshit here, nor will it seem like he just randomly-generated the hex contents. They're all weird, sometimes ridiculously so, and rarely make much if any sense, but each one was obviously given inspiration and not just dialed-in. No "you encounter 2d6 bone-men" here, no fifty-hexes full of different-colored statues or hybrid animals that seem taken from mixing two randomly-generated normal animals and rolling on a randomly-generated special-attack table. This section was VASTLY better than I expected it to be based on the first forty pages of the book.
Discounting the Isle of Dread as vastly more vanilla than this product, when you look at the other important "lost island" or "weird world" products out in OSR-land, you have what? Isle of the Unknown, Carcosa, maybe LotFP's Weird New World.. are there any important ones I missed? As a setting (again, if you can bear the level of almost comical "extremeness" of the book), the Islands of Purple Putrescence kicks the living shit out of all of these, BOTH in terms of creativity and in terms of the level of Gonzo the book has.
The book concludes with a few pages of new spells (over a dozen spells, all of spell levels 2-4, of a suitably weird or badass-destructive nature), and some very interesting magic items; the latter (there's 28 of them, if I counted right) are of the dark-wizardry and nasty-chaos-sword variety, some of which are for all intents and purposes cursed items.
So what to conclude about this book? Well, it's clearly far from perfect; some of the style is grating to me personally. And some of the organization is haphazard. And given that I personal ADORE "gonzo" style play, there are parts of this book that feel like they're trying too hard, to be as "exxxtreme" as possible.
But ultimately none of this matters so much as all the good parts: most of the tables, and even a lot of the optional rules, fit the setting well, and at least some of them could easily be shifted over to other settings in a similar genre. The place where Islands really stands out is in the quality of the hexcrawl itself.
If you're looking for a weird-fantasy gonzo-sandbox with sci-fantasy, lots of lovecraftian overtones (does that make this Venger's equivalent of a really-Christian guy writing a Christian RPG?), and a "Heavy Metal" aesthetic, you pretty much have to get this book. Even if you want any of those component parts for use in your own D&D or OSR game, you'll get a lot of great stuff here.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Dunhill Shell Diplomat + C&D's Crowley's Best
I'm sold!!!
Quote from: Spinachcat;828579I'm sold!!!
The Pundit Bump at work!
Good review, thanks. I agree with most your points: I expressed similar sentiments in my own review.
However, I rather liked his VSD6 mechanic (even though, as you stated, it doesn't strictly "feel" OSR-ish). Not sure where/when I'd use it, but who knows...
Sounds like some good DCCish bits I can add to Monster Island.
I'm pretty sure those crystal structures are an 'homage' to Land of the Lost... that or World of Warcraft's old Un'Goro Crater area... which was their LotL tribute zone... which guarantees I'm gonna go buy the thing.
Thanks for the review, hoss.
Yes, the crystals and pylons are an homage to Land of the Lost. In fact, the whole book is a thousand references to various things trapped in my mind labyrinth. But I try to put some kind of sword & sorcery, scifi, or skin-a-maxxx spin on them whenever possible.
BTW, if you liked what you saw in the review, wait till you get a load of this:
http://www.geeknative.com/51622/10-ways-to-alter-your-purple-consciousness/
VS
QuoteI should mention that in my experience Venger is definitely one of these guys (like James Desborough) who like to court controversy and outrage on purpose (could you really expect anything less from a guy who's no doubt chosen the last name "Satanis"?
I think his grandfather's name was Grunberg and when he came to America, he figured that "Satanis" would be less offensive to Christians.
JG
Quote from: RPGPundit;828559Discounting the Isle of Dread as vastly more vanilla than this product, when you look at the other important "lost island" or "weird world" products out in OSR-land, you have what? Isle of the Unknown, Carcosa, maybe LotFP's Weird New World.. are there any important ones I missed?
Monkey Isle (free at basicfantasy.org) is pretty great, it's only slightly weirder than Isle of Dread though.
Mine arrived from Amazon this afternoon. Reminds me of Carcosa in a good way. I like it.
Quote from: Thornhammer;829250Mine arrived from Amazon this afternoon. Reminds me of Carcosa in a good way. I like it.
Glad to hear. Thanks! ;)
VSp.s. Amazon only has 2 reviews for Purple. After you've familiarized yourself with it, maybe write a couple sentences for me.
Quote from: RPGPundit;828559After some suggested porting-over of 3e D&D's "attack of opportunity" and "flanking" rules (again, no!),
Actually AD&D has an attack of opportunity rule. Page 70. Breaking off from Melee. BX has a sort of pasudo AO in that if you retreat then then any attacker gets a bonus to hit, and you get no shield bonus. (But its not an automatic attack)
Quote from: Omega;830656Actually AD&D has an attack of opportunity rule. Page 70. Breaking off from Melee. BX has a sort of pasudo AO in that if you retreat then then any attacker gets a bonus to hit, and you get no shield bonus. (But its not an automatic attack)
Yes, but that's clearly not what was going on in the book.
Mine is a more evolved, "modern" approach to old school. For example: in some ways, I see 5e as an improvement on original D&D and AD&D, nostalgia aside.
That's one of the reasons I invented the term O5R; it better defines my approach to the Old School Renaissance. Like RPGpundit, I don't slavishly cotton to the OSR fundamentalism which is occasionally encountered in certain corners of the internet.
VS
Quote from: VengerSatanis;831437Mine is a more evolved, "modern" approach to old school. For example: in some ways, I see 5e as an improvement on original D&D and AD&D, nostalgia aside.
You're welcome. :D
QuoteThat's one of the reasons I invented the term O5R; it better defines my approach to the Old School Renaissance. Like RPGpundit, I don't slavishly cotton to the OSR fundamentalism which is occasionally encountered in certain corners of the internet.
VS
That might be why your book worked for me. The thing is, you're a show-off and try to be 'edgy' like certain other pockets of the OSR, but the big difference is that what you produce lives up to the hype, unlike some of the others.
My copy arrived tonight. On first glance...it has buttcheeks on the cover. I read some of the entries about the Isles and its good stuff. Looking forward to reading it cover to cover in the next few weeks and doing a review.
Yes, I must give credit where it is due, RPGpundit. :) 5e rocks the house party and it kind of changed everything... even though it all looks like a slow, natural evolution that couldn't have gone any other way.
QuoteMy copy arrived tonight. On first glance...it has buttcheeks on the cover. I read some of the entries about the Isles and its good stuff. Looking forward to reading it cover to cover in the next few weeks and doing a review.
I think I just had a mini-revelation regarding the cover of
Purple. I'm such a colossal pervert that I don't even see "butt cheeks on cover!" To me, it's just a normal view of the world because if I'm standing behind a woman... I'm absolutely checking out her ass - and imagining it as close to naked as my imagination will permit. That's just life. So, because that's my everyday perspective, I'm also able to look past it and see what's going on in the background - because if all I could focus on were females every second of the day, I'd probably fall into a manhole or get snatched by a tentacle.
VS
Well, after being disappointed with production issues re Revelry in Torth (big column of missing printer ink on every right-hand page) this review inspired me to get Liberation of the Demon Slayer, which I thought would fit more easily into my Wilderlands campaign than Isles. Running it and it's been great so far! Doesn't in any way resemble anything I've seen of actual Satanism (which is a very good thing in my book) - it's basically gonzo '70s/early '80s pre-Political Correctness exploitation cinema type stuff, like much of the early Wilderlands material.
Quote from: S'mon;831846Well, after being disappointed with production issues re Revelry in Torth (big column of missing printer ink on every right-hand page) this review inspired me to get Liberation of the Demon Slayer, which I thought would fit more easily into my Wilderlands campaign than Isles. Running it and it's been great so far! Doesn't in any way resemble anything I've seen of actual Satanism (which is a very good thing in my book) - it's basically gonzo '70s/early '80s pre-Political Correctness exploitation cinema type stuff, like much of the early Wilderlands material.
I assume you got the DriveThru print-on-demand version of
Revelry in Torth? The Kort'thalis shadow/silhouette only appears on the left-hand pages, I believe. Long story short: that's how the people at DriveThru fixed the interior file. The first proof I received was pitch black on every page, making the words underneath the symbol unreadable. I don't remember there being any kind of problem with the PDF.
Since a few people have complained over the last couple years about seeing the shadow/silhouette (that it existed and interfered with their reading because of distraction or some crazy reason), I considered it a compromise. To be honest, I'm not sure what "big column of missing printer ink" means.
But I'm glad you liked
Liberation of the Demon Slayer. Depicting "actual Satanism" would be like depicting "actual Christianity"... depends on the individual, denomination, level of involvement, etc. It's got demons, magic, and women. That's all I care about.
VS
Been reading more and I'm very happy with the purchase. Thank you Venger! What I like so far about the Islands is how you can pick a couple and port them over to your campaign.
Considering the weirdness of the Purple Putrescence, it would even make sense for these isles to wander about dimensions and worlds showing up for only a short time in a particular game world before wandering again.
My own OD&D campaign has the Dragon Archipelago where isles are known to vanish and reappear, and I've already noted two Purple Islands would be good fits for my campaign.
I'm a big Carcosa fan, but Isles is much more fleshed out (and its got booty!). If I were to run a Weird S&S campaign (which would be great fun), I'd blend ideas from both.
Quote from: Spinachcat;831934Been reading more and I'm very happy with the purchase. Thank you Venger! What I like so far about the Islands is how you can pick a couple and port them over to your campaign.
Considering the weirdness of the Purple Putrescence, it would even make sense for these isles to wander about dimensions and worlds showing up for only a short time in a particular game world before wandering again.
My own OD&D campaign has the Dragon Archipelago where isles are known to vanish and reappear, and I've already noted two Purple Islands would be good fits for my campaign.
I'm a big Carcosa fan, but Isles is much more fleshed out (and its got booty!). If I were to run a Weird S&S campaign (which would be great fun), I'd blend ideas from both.
Awesome! Yeah, they can absolutely be used in that fashion. Take a couple at a time and place them in a different locale. Combine them and see what happens or introduce one into a potentially hostile environment. Wandering encounters based on dimensional anomalies or something else...
I look forward to reading your review at some point. ;)
VS
Quote from: VengerSatanis;831921I assume you got the DriveThru print-on-demand version of Revelry in Torth? The Kort'thalis shadow/silhouette only appears on the left-hand pages, I believe. Long story short: that's how the people at DriveThru fixed the interior file. The first proof I received was pitch black on every page, making the words underneath the symbol unreadable. I don't remember there being any kind of problem with the PDF.
Since a few people have complained over the last couple years about seeing the shadow/silhouette (that it existed and interfered with their reading because of distraction or some crazy reason), I considered it a compromise. To be honest, I'm not sure what "big column of missing printer ink" means.
I got both Revelry & Liberation off amazon. Liberation is fine, Revelry has a band of missing text on every right hand page.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JcZHw6IOUps/VViCu8e1cJI/AAAAAAAADaU/eV-NVkUm3xE/s640/WP_20150517_12_40_16_Pro.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PFwGyCkT5uY/VViERQ5tS8I/AAAAAAAADak/w7EMPkAuCpw/s640/WP_20150517_12_39_41_Pro.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xW6qMNsHwVI/VViERVy-_DI/AAAAAAAADag/rH6xWyE-Oag/s640/WP_20150517_12_40_09_Pro.jpg)
Edit: Could you maybe send me a pdf so I can at least read the missing text? You won't make any extra sale right away though since I'm going to go order
Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence off amazon right now anyway...
Quote from: Spinachcat;831934Been reading more and I'm very happy with the purchase. Thank you Venger! What I like so far about the Islands is how you can pick a couple and port them over to your campaign.
Great news, that will make
Isles a lot more useable in my Wilderlands game - I can make some of the current islands into Isles of Purple-Haunted Putrescence... :D
Quote from: S'mon;831984I got both Revelry & Liberation off amazon. Liberation is fine, Revelry has a band of missing text on every right hand page.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JcZHw6IOUps/VViCu8e1cJI/AAAAAAAADaU/eV-NVkUm3xE/s640/WP_20150517_12_40_16_Pro.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PFwGyCkT5uY/VViERQ5tS8I/AAAAAAAADak/w7EMPkAuCpw/s640/WP_20150517_12_39_41_Pro.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xW6qMNsHwVI/VViERVy-_DI/AAAAAAAADag/rH6xWyE-Oag/s640/WP_20150517_12_40_09_Pro.jpg)
Edit: Could you maybe send me a pdf so I can at least read the missing text? You won't make any extra sale right away though since I'm going to go order Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence off amazon right now anyway...
Whoa, that's fucked up! You should really contact Amazon for a re-do. Their printer messed that up. Yours is the first complaint like that I've gotten, so it's definitely a printing error and nothing to do with how the files were originally set up.
Yes, of course I can send you a PDF in the meantime. Email me: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com
Thanks for letting me know.
VS
Quote from: VengerSatanis;832017Whoa, that's fucked up! You should really contact Amazon for a re-do. Their printer messed that up. Yours is the first complaint like that I've gotten, so it's definitely a printing error and nothing to do with how the files were originally set up.
Yes, of course I can send you a PDF in the meantime. Email me: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com
Thanks for letting me know.
VS
Thanks, I've emailed you. IME with amazon* they'd want me to post the book back to them, which isn't really worth my time so I'll just suck it up and hope for no problems with
Purple Putrescence.
*Third Party retailers on amazon give great service and would likely give a full or partial refund or send out a new copy, but amazon themselves don't have to worry about being down-rated on the review feedback...
Quote from: S'mon;832025Thanks, I've emailed you. IME with amazon* they'd want me to post the book back to them, which isn't really worth my time so I'll just suck it up and hope for no problems with Purple Putrescence.
*Third Party retailers on amazon give great service and would likely give a full or partial refund or send out a new copy, but amazon themselves don't have to worry about being down-rated on the review feedback...
That's weird and hasn't been my experience with amazon in the last few years. Let me see what I can do...
VS
Quote from: S'mon;832025Thanks, I've emailed you. IME with amazon* they'd want me to post the book back to them, which isn't really worth my time so I'll just suck it up and hope for no problems with Purple Putrescence.
*Third Party retailers on amazon give great service and would likely give a full or partial refund or send out a new copy, but amazon themselves don't have to worry about being down-rated on the review feedback...
Great news! I had a little talk with a rep from CreateSpace and he's going to personally handle it as a special favor to me, sending you a replacement book. All he needs is your full name and mailing address. You can email me that stuff. He's going to call me back in 24 hours for that information.
VS
Quote from: VengerSatanis;832505Great news! I had a little talk with a rep from CreateSpace and he's going to personally handle it as a special favor to me, sending you a replacement book. All he needs is your full name and mailing address. You can email me that stuff. He's going to call me back in 24 hours for that information.
VS
Thanks Venger, great Satanic service. >:)
Back on topic - got Purple yesterday, I like it but it's extremely sci-fi, more sci-fi than fantasy really. Kinda makes me want to run it with a non-D&D system.
Quote from: S'mon;832535Thanks Venger, great Satanic service. >:)
Back on topic - got Purple yesterday, I like it but it's extremely sci-fi, more sci-fi than fantasy really. Kinda makes me want to run it with a non-D&D system.
Glad I could be of service!
Yeah, it's very scifi. Way more than
Liberation of
Revelry. Let me try to quantify
Purple...
31% scifi
23% fantasy
20% post-apocalypse
11% "modern" (20th and 21st century)
9% utterly gonzo WTFery
6% horror
BTW, I calculated those percentages with science... pure science. And boobs.
Could almost all of it be fantasy-ized? Probably, but that's a lot of deep thinking conversion. I think
Mutant Future or some other OSR scifi system would be easy to do.
Dungeon Crawl Classics fits the bill with it's science-fantasy gonzo aesthetic. Also, I just came out with
Crimson Dragon Slayer. To make up for Amazon UK's bullshit, I'll send you a free PDF.
VS
Quote from: VengerSatanis;832539Glad I could be of service!
Yeah, it's very scifi. Way more than Liberation of Revelry. Let me try to quantify Purple...
31% scifi
23% fantasy
20% post-apocalypse
11% "modern" (20th and 21st century)
9% utterly gonzo WTFery
6% horror
BTW, I calculated those percentages with science... pure science. And boobs.
Could almost all of it be fantasy-ized? Probably, but that's a lot of deep thinking conversion. I think Mutant Future or some other OSR scifi system would be easy to do. Dungeon Crawl Classics fits the bill with it's science-fantasy gonzo aesthetic. Also, I just came out with Crimson Dragon Slayer. To make up for Amazon UK's bullshit, I'll send you a free PDF.
VS
Thanks - Mutant Future with a dimension-shift theme was what came to mind; the ruleset being free is a big plus and I've enjoyed GMing it in the past. Looking at CDS (thx!) now...
Would this island work in a Planescape setting?
Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;832600Would this island work in a Planescape setting?
It's gonzo science-fantasy, it would fit well into a
Rifts type setting and I think I'll use it with Mutant Future (or the 4e D&D version of Gamma World would be a good fit) rather than try to shoehorn it into a D&D setting, even a D&D setting with sf elements like my Wilderlands game.
Planescape seems to me the exact opposite, with a universe built on mortal philosophical belief and cosmic Good & Evil, rather than the Cthuluesque amorality of
Purple. So I would think not.
Yeah, Rifts would also be a solid choice. Hey, isn't there a new Savage Worlds Rifts coming soon? I don't know much about Savage Worlds or Planescape, but maybe. A gonzo scifi Ravenloft would be pretty sweet. I'm sure a lot can be stolen from Purple and added to a wide variety of campaigns and settings.
BTW, just watched the new Mad Max: Fury Road a couple days ago. Wow, that was intense and awesome! Makes me want to do some post-apocalypse gaming.
VS
Quote from: S'mon;832610It's gonzo science-fantasy, it would fit well into a Rifts type setting and I think I'll use it with Mutant Future (or the 4e D&D version of Gamma World would be a good fit) rather than try to shoehorn it into a D&D setting, even a D&D setting with sf elements like my Wilderlands game.
Planescape seems to me the exact opposite, with a universe built on mortal philosophical belief and cosmic Good & Evil, rather than the Cthuluesque amorality of Purple. So I would think not.
Yeah but there's so many planes in Planescape. Couldn't you just pick some unknown part of one and say, hey, here's this weird island.
A combo of Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord would be a good rules combo for a Purple campaign.
Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;832600Would this island work in a Planescape setting?
Depends on your view of Planescape.
FOR ME, I could work Isles into Ravenloft or Spelljammer easier because the "weird science" flows easier there than in Planescape in my view. But there are plenty of Isles that could be assigned to a particular D&D God as their playground.
Remember there are 666 layers of the Abyss. You could have a Fallen Modron who became a TechnoDemon and this would be their playground. That would give you the weird tech, especially you made the robots more clockwork or even made them Modrons.
Quote from: VengerSatanis;832658Yeah, Rifts would also be a solid choice. Hey, isn't there a new Savage Worlds Rifts coming soon?
Hot damn that's a good idea!
Yes, Savage Rifts is supposedly being written currently.
BTW, there is also some kind of DCC Ravenloft-ish setting that was talked about last year, but I don't know if it was published.
Quote from: VengerSatanis;832658I don't know much about Savage Worlds or Planescape,
Both are worth reading and playing. If you like lots of minis in your RPG play, then Savage Worlds plays like a hybrid RPG wargame.
Quote from: Spinachcat;832891BTW, there is also some kind of DCC Ravenloft-ish setting that was talked about last year, but I don't know if it was published.
If you mean Transylvanian Adventures (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/121110/Transylvanian-Adventures), it's out. If you mean something else...I'm also intrigued.