Review: World of the Last Sun

 

"Gonzo" has become the buzz-word in tabletop roleplaying over the past three years, maybe more but I noticed it around then.  Adventures with loose settings that might be post-apocalyptic, multi-dimensional, Sphere Fantasy, furry-Tolkien, etc... etc... have boiled down into this catch phrase, which really has been helpful for inner librarian that most RPGers really are. No longer does the person have to say "Well, it's multi-genre..." and go into a list of those genres, maybe even subgenres, unless they really want to. As for myself, I have been picking  RPG products that mention the word "gonzo" like I did "weird fantasy" (Clark Ashton Smith, Tanith Lee, Lovecraft) during the early-80s for the same reasons, not so much for gaming ideas but for some strange reading.

John Tarnowski, AKA the RPGPundit, has released a compilation of selected works of his gonzo campaign known as World of the Last Sun. The material was released in bits and pieces through The RPGPundit Presents series over the last few years. In the book the best parts, at least in his estimation, of an OSR ("Old School" d20/D&D) campaign which has not stuck to boundaries of any strict type of fantasy and has been used to parody various aspects of gaming culture over the last fifteen years or so. So the subtitle Old-School Gonzo-Fantasy Setting though over hyphenated is very appropriate.

The world of the Last Sun, itself is a Dyson sphere where the ancient engineers that built the place are long gone. Those that were supposed to take care of it, such as a super-duper computer named G.O.D. and elves, have been warped and degenerated over time, to where everything is magical if not dysfunctional sci-fi.
The text takes one from the Middle Northern Lands, to the Northern Tundra, to the Zombie Empire, the Theocracy of Lariel, to the Floating Islands (both the Lower and Upper Bands), and then from there into the Ten Dimensions. Having caught their breath, the reader continues into City of Arkhome, the Freeport of Highbay, into the wastelands and environs around the Shithole. The chapters move to highlight the previously mentioned the Grand Floating City of Lol and Fuck Station Aleph (another floating city) . The Grand City of Goldhalcon, stronghold of a specific breed of mutant (off-color demi-human Character Kin/Race) returns one to the surface world. Other aspects like the Azure Order of Wizards, the Ice Dome, and the Ancient of Trees fill out the final pages of the 275 material enclosed.

As a setting for an RPG should be there is A LOT of material for the browsing GM. Specific details such as NPCs and in-game artifacts (including fantasy drugs) are scattered throughout the chapters. A campaign favorite PC, Bill the Elf, is mentioned complete with his impact on the campaign around him. There are plenty of charts to help the GM that wants to randomize sessions that they are running within the setting.
The box is without a ribbon though, so to speak. This is not a bad thing. Despite an interesting color cover, artist not specifically noted, there is not a lot of polish between the separate parts. That is not a bad thing for a guy like me. It is rough notes from a campaign that was played in. Works for me. I loved reading the pamphlets of the Arduin Adventure back in the day that was obviously designed for D&D (maybe AD&D) but left in rough note form while it was implied that it was another game altogether, which would be published seven years after their last installment during the big RPG boom of the mid-80s. But a lot of the RPG crowd these days are used to big time publishers like White Wolf and Chaosium with their paid-by-hour formatters and editors working in pages worth of babble and pointless graphics to make prettier book insides being called "small press," so this will be a negative to more than a few purchasers
It breaks a rule that setting books should heed to. From Dark Tower to Griffin Mountain to Wobble, the info needs to be there for the GM. Stats and highlights of various mutants and creatures are not often mentioned. Indeed, most are, relegated to the purchaser to go to the original RPGPunit Presents issues where the this book, I think, was copied and pasted from. I have only previously bought The Shithole from those issues but I did not find any variation in my copy and the included part in this work. Still publishing a setting as opposed to a whole Kickstarter-ed role-playing game is a brave move. Shows the confidence of Tarnowski as an Adventure Gaming GM/author and his publishing house.

World of the Last Sun was not going to be a Godzilla because of too little art. It is not quite a King Kong because it has no stats or a convention where I as a GM can make my own. As a cat owner, I am sure Pundit (Tarnowski) knows that other people's cats are nice to pet but your own is awesome and speaks only to you-- the point being I have too much gonzo stuff in my notes to be finishing stuff from other people's suggestions. It is still a damn fun read for the weird fantasy reader and "gonzo-GM" definitely a Big Foot and well worth the price. The magical drugs from Highbay and BOLT-1 were rather inspiring, as well as seeing someone else mention a Dyson sphere.

Rough Spuds In the Oven

Somebody, Samwise Seven from MeWe.com, happened to mention that Dennis Hopper and David Bowie broke into a mental health ward to give Iggy Pop cocaine. I heard this tale back in 2014. Rehearing it has not made me believe it anymore than I did back then. But upon rehearing it, I did remember that I wrote a scenario for Wobble back in 2017 or so. You see, Beckett, of Beckett fame, and me were sitting around during some downtime at GenCon 2016 talking about the potential scenarios that David Bowie could lead to. He came up with the premise where players play "good" David Bowie personas versus the "bad" David Dowie (somewhere around Station to Station and Low). While making my notes up for that daydream, I stumbled across the Hopper, now Harry Dean Stanton, and Bowie and Iggy Pop tale again. So in a quick session, I got the work out of my system. Thank you Pery, Sea Shelly, and Jack for the time of our lives up to that point. Michelle did the best BowieS one can think of, while the other two looked on rather bemused, while waiting to roll two six-sided dice at my request.

So I woke up last night, at around 2:45am, I went to bed too early, actually. Still, I just had to find my notes on the scenario again. After digging through some already filed away things, I found the "Works Book", the journal where one makes notes notes during the day-to-day playing of games at tabletops, not so much video spots. Finding a half-filled notebook, right around the first third, I found my "Aladdin Sane Versus the Radio Apes". Done before Wobble  was even going to be a product. I was still confusing the T&T MR versus  Red Bat's (was the system even called that back then?) the Quick.
Then I rediscovered about a dozen others. Well, I stayed up until 4:45am or so, reading and beaming with pride at all the scenarios that I had written within two pages. Even interspersed among Spacers notes, my Wobble  items dominated the schoolyard primer.

I really was on some rolls there. Perhaps, since releasing Wobble, I have been worried a little too much about how things look. I am going to to try to motorcycle start some sessions again.

Charlie Wylie: Not Your Average Coyote

Charlie Wylie,
Comic Book Expert, Public School Teacher, Roleplayer Extraordinaire
Born April 7th, 1977
Passed in January 2021

A friend has passed away. Charlie Wylie of Oklahoma was a public school teacher and comic book expert. Charlie Wylie was not a writer or an artist for us, but he was a damned good roleplayer and was all about being there for as many games as he could make it to. From our clique's continuing ICONS campaign, to the D&D campaigns, to the Red Bat sessions, he was there. With his death in late January PeryPubbers has lost one of our own.
While most of my intimates despite being hundreds of miles apart, we call caught COVID-19 around the same time, and it looked as though all of us would recover over time, but that was not the case.
He was a friend to my wife more so than me, but I know that he loved teaching and his students loved and trusted him. He definitely was one of the people that make Peryton Gamers such a great thing to be a part of.
On February 5th, our ICONS group got together to wake him. We did this in roleplaying fashion. His most famous character Disco, he like his mother, Sparkler, was a student of Dazzler. His PC saved the Earth and his native Marvel City New Jersey in the Scrapiverse by becoming a herald of Galactus.  The next day, his actual memorial service took place-- I did not know that when I ran the scenario, but I was so happy when I found out.
I apologize to him for taking so long to get around to memorializing him. He was and will be one of our best spirits.

A Valentine's Day Saga

Below is a Romance tale

So. Thessaly Chance, Mz. Thess, and me have known each other for about eight to twelve years now. I really can't remember how long. But as long ago as eight years ago, the woman approached me about publishing her T&T scribblings. I said yes. Her vision of Our Game fit into mine quite well. She likes to make up new creature-Kindred and isn't always trying to turn things into a d20 format. She, very flatteringly, tends to use the species that can be attributed to me from the T&T 7plus edition Codex Monstrum(?) published circa 'o8 or so, when running games as well as when playing in others.

This year she sent me yet another poke to see if PeryPubbers were still interested. Of course I was and would be still so. All my friends want some T&T, and while Tess and I don't always see eye to eye, we get roleplaying the way it should be done-- mostly with kewl Character-species in very imaginative settings. I wasn't expecting to see any results, I mean, I have only been waiting on them for eight years, but this time around she delivered. And how...
I have been staring at about 190 pages of material and accompanying original art for the last month. It is complete and the artwork is gamery wonderful. The work's been edited and just needs to be formatted. The only reason you all haven't gotten this product yet is because the writing is so good that I am reading it slowly.

There was a fight and I wasn't involved? Whaaaa....?
Wait. What happened? I was just sitting here minding my own business. Heck I wasn't even in the room.
Apparently PeryPub is the rebound publisher. There is some grief and gripe by folk representing at Flying Buffalo Incorporated; they feel jilted. You see, they were just this close to getting Mz. Thessaly's work published but then they got high or something or another. I've heard tale that the very day that "Uprising at Buzzard Gulch Monster Rez" was announced to be a Peryton Publishing product that the guy in charge over at FBI, quoted by multiple sources, was about to send the work to a, no, the format-person that very day,  a few seconds, most likely, after the announcement of another interested party had been brought up.
I don't mind being the rebound guy in this situation. Sure the woman has been keeping her options open, but I, like any true gigolo publisher, am all about the perks not the work.

A bit more seriously
Buzzard Gulch, actually having read it, I think the work is more suited for Peryton Publishing than an FBI product. Thess's, I prefer Tess but hey, work is what T&T used to be, a sideways comment on the world around the roleplaying hobby. You'll get the references without being hammered over the head. And it will probably piss off the Social Justice Warriors as well as the Alt-Right froggers, because the author and her backers are outside of both groups and we know things that neither of them have bothered to lookup.

It is full of the author's idiosyncrasy and tabulating compelling drama that can be used in the scenarios and adventure hooks provided. References to the world of Raaalph's background, such as multiple major conflicts known as The Monster Wars, help provide the unique Trollhalla feel to things. No less than thirty NPCs, I stopped counting around then, have enough detail to help even the most "sandbox" of GMs knit yarns without making too many notes to remember for themselves later. The locales have rhyme and reason, both ecology as well as economy, that helps with a Star Wars-like lived-in feel permeate throughout the work. Woven all together, if you're a fan of atmospheric pieces like Fafhrd and Gray Mouser or Dune AND play, or even thought about playing Monsters! Monsters!/ T&T this setting book is going be a gem.

So this work is upcoming. Hopefully with a color cover from Simon Tranter, because I am actually no gigolo. I am pretty sure you all will like the T.R.O.T.T. logo I have to present as well. A few of you might even run or play in some of the material inside. Welcome to the Elder world of Trolls and Tunnels when you do.