Monday, June 3, 2013

Hartford Betamax Black Book Edition Stars Without Number Campaign


Introduction 
Its 1979/80 & I'm up in Hudson New York,for a moment while my memory pulls itself back through the misty corridors of time. I'm eight and standing in one of the highest technology stores on the planet! A video rental shop where they rent actual movies! They actually have a science fiction section with 'gasp' Star Trek on BetaMax tapes! 

The guy running the place is one of the players in the OD&D game! He's explaining the ins and outs of this new medium! And the memory is forever engraved on the interior of my mind! I don't think that I stopped talking about the Betamax players for a solid week. 

Recently, in my Stars Without Numbers game I been talking about the Splatterpunk Post Apocalyptic Horror game coming up. My players wanted to know if I could do something similar to that game using the SWN system. I remembered going over to my DM's house of the time and watching really awful science fiction films from the 40's, 50's, and 60's. Let's not mention the awesome television shows, Saturday morning kids shows, and the science fiction movies.
"It is now twenty five years into the future of the Talon Sector. The corporations have fought, bled, and continued to fight in small interstellar brush fire wars.  Then all wars were forgotten as the stars came right once again. Horrors beyond human reckoning  dormant for billions of years once again came awake! From out of the Chasm crawled the hands of the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones. Mankind and the near human races were doomed!
In less then a stellar cycle the universe changed! The stars wheeled with blood and fire as the Extinction Wars began! Mankind needed superior breeds of human and alien kind!  A breed of computer age high tech bionic soldiers, cybernetic seers, and psychics able to bend the will of any they meet. It was also the era that saw the rise of small tactic robotic power armor able to put mankind toe to tendril with the forces of the Mythos!
 The Extinction wars have begun again!"


Psychotic Aliens, weird vampire essence beings, horrid slimes,blonde bimbo space princesses, and Lovecrafian horrors stalking between the dead stars as post stellar colonies struggle to recover against the backdrop of the Interstellar Extinction Wars!" 

Please Press Play! 

Betamax never had a chance as a medium! Some of the first rental distributors were located right around the corner from me in Norfolk Ct. Vestron video was one of the first companies venturing into the new area of movies back in the late 70's then branching into full rentals back in the 80's. My DM back in 1978/79 worked for them. He told me that it was really a very exciting time to working in the industry.  The movie studios killed the company and their catalog was bought by other companies.
Chris got me into Arduin and OD&D but has since passed on. In his honor I'm grabbing the 'BetaMax' label. The players are playing new PC's with new retro technology, retrofuturism, and a higher action count! 
The Rules of sci fi / horror movies apply! Anyone can die at any time!


Please Make Sure Your Tape Is Inserted Correctly 
I'll be using Stars Without Numbers as the engine. Its quick, fast, reliable, and easily adaptable for my players! 

1d10 Random Appendix N Influences 

  1. Micronought toys and comics along with any Marvel series 
  2. Logan's Run book and movie
  3. The works of Ray Harryhausen 
  4. Iron Butterfly. Black Sabbath, and any heavy metal from the time period 
  5. Star Wars original 
  6. 2001 a Space Odyssey 
  7. Alien 
  8. The works of HG Giger, Heavy Metal Magazine, and comics 
  9. The Six Million Dollar Man 
  10. The Wild, Wild.West (The original was on television in reruns
    Starksty and Hutch television show
    Anything by Jack Kirby 
The cults are gathering their forces right now! 

More To Come! 

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