1d8+DB

Interesting and evocative, if non-canonical setting.

I'm not  wild about the plot device of the  PC's bus getting that terribly lost: surely the driver knows  his route a little better than that.

Perhaps the bus was maliciously routed into the swamp? Or the driver was compelled out there by some malign influence, or he suffered some kind of fugue state?

Perhaps you're having  the PCs spend a little too much time on trying to  free the bus from its gluey trap: a futile endeavor as its pretty much a plot point that the bus is stuck fast. I would allow a simple Idea roll: if successful the PC pretty much realize that the bus is not going anywhere, rather than have them waste time trying to free the bus.

I wonder if it would be better to characterize Orelmark as a kind of semi-permanent encampment  than an actual town, as a town, with a generations of history, it would probably require further fleshing out.

As a work-camp, created solely to serve the  wells and refinery,  it'll only require  a minimum of infrastructure, and background detail.

A 'company town'  could be a pretty  brutal place, with the company bosses having ruthless and smothering control over everything that happens within the town.

Not at all canonical, but  might 'hazia' have its  own sect?  'The plant that brings life from the darkness'. If you wanted to go a little silly you could introduce 'haziafarianism' to Glorantha.

But why are the characters out  where they might run into Orcs in the first place?  Besides just killing the orc in front of them, what are they hoping to accomplish? Are Orcs just popping up everywhere, like the mooks in a video game?

Consider this example:

"I want to evade the Imperial tie-fighters."

vs.

"I want to evade the  Imperial tie-fighters, evade Lord  Vader as I navigate the Death Star's equatorial trench, and fire a laser bolt into the Death Star's thermal exhaust port."

In a simulationist game; each action requires a roll (or a opposed roll):  evading the tie fighters, evading Vader,  firing the laser that will destroy the Death Star.

In HQ you could fold everything into a single contest (or an extended contest, which would be better):  Vader's  skill in the 'Force', augmented by  his squadron of tie-fighters vs. Luke's skill in the 'Force', augmented by Solo's  piloting skill. The contest: "We want to destroy the Death Star by blasting the  thermal exhaust port." The contest  describes a whole series of actions and their outcome.

Parsing a contest down to a single sword-stroke is too granular, and not really in the spirit of the game.

I assume you're talking about  an Allegiance to Law, from  Elric/SB,  in which case I suppose the answer is no, it doesn't appear to be mechanically different from how   Passion would  be used to augment a skill in RQ6/Mythras/RQG .

Of course a bonus from an Allegiance would be a supernatural boon,  and  might have  the attendant trappings of a mystic manisfestation; a halo,  fiery eyes,  the rune or cult sigil appears on the character's brow, or the like.

In certain conditions it might be impossible or more difficult to  draw upon an allegiance: a champion of law in one of the chaotic hells,  might only be get a partial bonus from his allegiance.

The  'Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign', a a cult equipped with weird super-science (and perhaps they are the inhabitants of subterranean K'n-yan) are said to have a bitter enmity with the Fungi from Yuggoth, the origin of which is unknown.

There are few bands that work in a  SteamPunk genre:

'Abney Park'

'The Vernian Process'

'The Cog is Dead'

Combat in CoC\BRP games  is a lot more abstract than D&D/Pathfinder,  and the minimal stat-blocks of the  monsters and foes reflect this.

This means it is relatively easy to re-skin a monster; just  find a creature of the same relative size, and  simply  rename its attack, tweak its special powers and abilities, and create your own description.

You can also check out the Build A Better Monster II thread under the BRP  section for some ideas.

Don't think you have to have a new 'monster' for each session either.  D&D players may quickly tire of bashing kobolds, but in CoC you can get a lot more mileage out of the same creature (Deep Ones/Ghouls/Mi-go/cultists), just by changing  the conditions or numbers of opponents.  Fighting one Deep One on a sunny beach is a lot different than encountering a swarm of the batrachian horrors in a light-less, flooded tunnel.

I wouldn't consider it indispensable.

It details  the Melnibonean people and their island redoubt. There's a lengthy section  on drugs and narcotics used by the Melniboneans. A section  describing  the various theological practices of the Chaos Cults that hold sway on the island, and  a lengthy list of  some common demon-types that you might encounter there.

Would be the most useful if you were planning on  running  a campaign that took place largely on the Dragon Isle.

As an aside, if you do get a physical copy, Mongoose  for a short while were actually printing/binding their own books, with the result that  their books from that period have an unfortunate habit of separating from the spine: something all my  hard-cover Elric/Hawkmoon books from them (for the 1E books) have done.

Khandarian Demon, or 'Deadite'.

Malevolent entities from another dimension, that possess human hosts: transforming then into cackling

engines of destruction and malice. The Khandarian demons are summoned by incantations from the grimoire, 'The Necronomicom Ex Mortis.'

Interestingly, tales tell of another, even more malign and powerful, 'Necronomicon,' that contains rites to propitiate and appease inimical alien gods.

Deadite, Incorporeal.

Int 10+1d6

Pow 12+2d6

The demons possess human hosts via a simple test of POW vs. POW. If the contest is failed, the targeted host can never be targeted again. Furthermore, some individuals are never targeted for possession, apparently possessing a kind of immunity (character's POW X 2.5, to test for this fabled immunity). Once possessed, however, the victim is pretty much eternally the demon's slave (exorcism rites may exist, if so, they would be described in the 'Necronomicon Ex Mortis.'

Deadite, Possessed host.

This a kind of template applied to the host.

• +6 Hit Points

• +3 Dex.

• Uses the demon's INT and POW.

• Natural Weapons: Claws (+1d6)

• Attack with natural weapons: 35+1d10%.

• Hardy: (Impaling weapons, including guns).

• Levitation (Psychic Power).

• Intuition (Psychic Power | Limited to locating victims).

• Telekinesis (Psychic Power).

• Alternate form (see below).

• Leap (2 levels)

• Super-Sense ( 2 Levels | Night Vision & Hearing).

• Super-movement (Wall Walking).

• Ignores Major Wounds.

A possessed host has milky white eyes, and scabrous, sallow skin. The body gains a kind of freakish elasticity, and the Deadite revels in putting its stolen body through bone-breaking contortions. If SAN rules are being used, there is 1d6 SAN loss if the SAN test is failed . The Deadite can resume its normal appearance, but usually only does so very briefly (1-3 rounds).

I'm not aware right off-hand  of any published scenarios  that feature  Satan as the big-bad; it is after all   the 'Cthulhu Mythos' that drives CoC: though I'm sure, especially in  the Dark Ages,  that there was plenty of times when  the Crawling Chaos masqueraded as the Prince of  Lies.

And of course the original story is  M.R.Jame's classic, 'Casting the Runes'.

Keeping it abstract would be how I would do it.  Trail of Cthulhu's  Mythos Expeditions uses  a pool of supply points:  you could do something similar, say each supply point spent would  be worth 10% for a 'Equipment' roll.  Points for common items might be worth more. Points for  'special' items might be worth less.  Perhaps  you could ask for a daily 'average' survival roll;  a success means  no essentials supplies  were used that day (you're living off the land), and no supply points lost. A failure means  a loss of 1d6 supply points; a critical failure   means a loss of 1d10+2 supply points.

It really depends on how much book-keeping you're comfortable with I guess.

So, there would be nothing  like this world's periodic, predictable eclipses: if  a shadow crosses the face of the sun on Glorantha it is a singular apocalyptic event that would probably signal vast and cosmic upheavals.

So, does Glorantha  have solar eclipses; and what is the mythic explanation of these events?   Orlanth periodically humiliating Yelm?  A persisting ancient magic of the Elder Races?   The Red  Goddess  trying to seduce Yelm?

'Astounding Adventures' was written for  the BRP/6E rule-set, and while it does have  some good stuff in it, you will have to do a little tweaking to make it work with 7th Edition rules.  So bottom line, you could probably live without it.

As another  Halloween appears on the horizon, time to revive this thread.

The Tall Man

An invader from another dimension who is on this world apparently to necromantically raise an army of curiously shrunken revenants. He will always found plying the mortuary trade in an isolated part of the country Where-ever he is, you can be sure that the mortality rate will climb dramatically; as accidents, 'suicides', and 'death by natural causes' seem to sky-rocket.

STR 20

CON 16

SIZ 17

INT 15

POW 22

DEX 15

APP 12

Damage

Bonus +1d6

Hit

Points 16

Major

Wound 8*

Magic

Points 22

Move 10

Combat:

Weapon: % Damage

Fists 50 1d3+1d6

Mutations:

Hardy (Impaling weapons), Regeneration (Major), and Vulnerability: Cold.**

Psychic

Powers

Telekinesis (1 point)

Other Powers

Link of Doom***, Change Appearance †, and Teleportation‡.

* See Hardy Mutation.

** Is bothered by extreme cold (at least -32 F or colder): when exposed to such cold the Tall Man must be successfully resist each round at CONx3% or loose 1 point of CON.

*** For reasons unknown the Tall Man often selects certain victims to receive the full brunt of his dread attention. He engages them in a contest of POW, and spends one point of POW; if he wins the contest he has established a kind of bond with that individual. He is pretty much aware of where that individual is at all times, anywhere in the world! He can project his image to that individual, and speak to them at any time he chooses (spending 2 Magic Points to do so). This bond lasts until the victim is slain (at which time the Tall Man regains the spent point of POW). Most horribly he can Teleport himself to anywhere within the line of sight of a victim that he shares this bond with. If he fails the initial contest  72 hours must pass before he again make another attempt to establish a link with that specific individual.

† Change Appearance. Can take on the appearance, down to the last detail, of any individual he has seen (cost of 5 Magic Points). Note that in any other form, he looses the benefits of his Hardy and Regeneration powers, so he rarely uses this ability.

‡ Teleportation. Can spend 7 Magic Points to teleport himself into the presence of anyone whom with he has already established a Link of Doom.

Other Weaknesses: The sound of a pure music note (for instance the perfect tone of a tuning fork) can momentarily paralyze him (he must spend a Magic Point to avoid being frozen for a round).

Sentinel Spheres

The Tall Man's chief weapon are his Sentinel Spheres; shining orb-like drones that dart and swoop through the air, they extend cruel prongs, and then plunge into the heads of their targeted victims. The spheres apparently use infra-red to track and target their victims, as darkness is no protection.

Dex 25

HP 5

AP None.

Move 20 (may make short bursts of up to 90).

Weapon     %      Damage

Prongs       120*  1d8

Drill              **     Death

*Always specifically targets the head (60%).

**After a successful attack, and if the prongs successfully impale, the sphere extends a powerful drill, which plunges into the victim's brain-pain, causing instant death.

Note: Due to their small size, and rapid movement, attacks against spheres (that are not using area weapons), are considered Difficult.

Mooks! Lots and lots of Mooks!  I think I would try a a simple Resistance roll  when a faceless Mook get's hit: their CON vs. the rolled damage. They fail the roll, they go down. They make the round, they're still standing for another round.

Hmmm. An idea.

So there's an interstitial ('Middlemarch') world, primitive and probably largely unformed, that has been ignored by the Lords of Law and Chaos.

A number of refugees, from different worlds, have gathered there, and are trying to survive under  far from ideal conditions.

Among them are some fanatical followers of Law and Chaos, who are looking to resume the war that brought them here.

Of course the danger is that at some point the Lords of the Higher Worlds might notice this little pocket universe and decide to subjugate it.

Well Tanelorn is Eternal, and  Oone the Dream Thief certainly survived, probably by way of the Moon Beam Roads.

However...

It is important to note  one feature of MM's Eternal Champion fiction:  all the worlds of the Multiverse are linked in the same cycle. So Chaos was resurgent across the Multiverse, as the Balance had to be reset cosmically.

So there's no 'save haven': any plane you flee too is going to be in the middle of its own apocalypse (the raise of the Madben horde, the Granbretanian conquest,  Hitler).

Now the inevitability of  total destruction in those other worlds might not  be as dire as the Young Kingdoms; but  there's no  place not ravaged by war and madness.  Of course that probably means great opportunity for meaty gaming conflict.

I want to check  to see that I'm understanding the version numbers being thrown around.

1:  The original Chaosium game.

2:  The Avalon Hill version.

3: Mongoose's 1st iteration.

4: Mongoose's 2nd iteration ('Legend').

5: Design Mechanism's 1st iteration.

6: Design Mechanism's 2nd iteration ('Mythras').

7: This will be be filled by by the Chaosium 'Classic RQ'.

OpenQuest and and Revolution D100 are considered outliers.

I think I would advise the  OP to discard the idea that the Empire has near infinite resources: I think  that advantage, and their use of magic, will be insurmountable for the Moderns.

GM:  The Gateway opens, and out flies 5,000 ancient dragons, with each third one bearing a lich necromancer!

Players: How does the Empire's anthem go again?

Instead, they have limited resources, but good tacticians who know how to maximize their advantages. The campaign then becomes the Moderns fighting a desperate battle against time;  hoping to wear  down the invaders before their own ability to fight is broken. (I'm assuming that  the EE forces are retreating back through their gates after every engagement, to avoid being targeted by the Modern's nuclear weapons, or occupying urban centers and using their population as human shields).

I recommend that the OP use MOOK rules.

He might consider using some kind of Mass Combat system (its OOP but Mongoose's  Hawkmoon supplement Granbretan  had a BRP derived Mass Combat system): unless he's going to arbitrarily decide the outcome of each battle, and just play out what happened in the Player Character's section of the front.

So perhaps the Orcs have been 'engineered' so that they can only eat a  food-stuff magically conjured by the Empire's sorcerers ( a good way of ensuring loyalty).

This could be the Empire's vulnerability: take out the 'food-mages'  and the army begins to starve.

I'm also  curious as to whether the  OP is going to hand-wave away some of the logistics questions  his  scenario raises.

Ok. The Evil Empire can  put an army of 100  million Orcs onto this planet.

How much food and water does an  Orc soldier need daily?

Forget raising the dead as undead foot-soldiers:  those corpses might be the Empire's troop's rations.

I almost see the  Evil Empire as a locust plague, overrunning worlds and stripping them bare (an  Ork Waagh perhaps?), expanding not because of any imperialistic imperative, but because it must continue to grow or risk devouring itself.

I think the biggest problem  in running this is that its going to be extremely 'swingy':  in battles where the Evil Empire goes with brute force attacks, they're going be slaughtered (ever see the movie Zulu?), with the player characters rolling bucket-fulls of dice of damage  for their mini-guns, cluster-bombs,  artillery strikes, etc. . If the bad guys are cagey, using teleportation to make shock assaults , illusion and mind-control spells to befuddle the defenders, the Moderns are going to get quickly wiped out, as their  Command and Control gets shredded in the first few minutes.

Of course,  this could be exactly what the OP wants; a initial blood-bath to get the Player Characters over-confident before they get rolled over.

I'm currently reading Achtung Cthulhu! Elder Godlike,  which has meta-humans encountering the Mythos during the chaos of WWII, it does delve a little into how Talents can effect the outcome of set-piece battles; though I think the scale is much more limited than what  we're talking about; a few  Ubermenschen would still be be unable  to save the 6th Army at Stalingrad, though they might give the Soviets a few bad moments.

So the sinister warlord of the Evil Empire is not stupid: he has had  his agents on this world for some time, and what they've reported  of  helicopter gun-ships, smart weapons,  and tactical nukes has made him cautious.  Instead of the over-whelming assault that is his usual plan,  he has opted to engineer a near-apocalyptic conflict between global powers; in the chaos that follows the world would be easy pickings.

Campaign mode 1 | "Just Before Midnight" : The setting is some 3rd world war-zone, the site of a protracted civil war and a seemingly never-ending humanitarian catastrophe.  In the wastes the Evil Empire has established a base and assembly-point. The PCs are:

--Harried UN Peace-keepers.

--Contracted security for some corporate interest willing to risk the on-going strife in the pursuit of some valuable natural resources.

--Special forces, on a covert mission.

There are strange tales told in the refugee camps:  bandit gangs being routed by inhuman creatures.  The player characters discover the truth of these stories themselves.  The main thing is the Player Characters  are going to have very little in the way of support: no artillery fire-support, no air-strikes.  They are in the middle of a wilderness, surrounded by creatures from nightmarish myth, and they have a limited supply of ammunition.

Campaign mode 2 | "End Times".   The Evil Empire succeeded in tricking the superpowers into WWIII.  So this is pretty much a mash-up of  Twilight:2000 and  RIFTS.  The satellites are down. Cyber-warfare has pretty much shredded  most digital technology.  The major powers only sparingly used the nuclear option; but the global infrastructure has pretty much crumpled.  And now  the howling  orc hordes come pouring out of the dimensional gates.