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.