[A-Z Blogging Challenge] A is for The Sword is AWESOME!

I'm going to have to eat a bit of crow with this blog post. My family has a long history of "worthless Christmas gifts" from the year of multiple copies of "Dragons of Autumn Twilight," to the early nineties when I got one of those Lollapaloser flimsy sleeveless flannel shirts with an attached flimsy hood (because I liked punk rock...) and the "$25 worth of Costco gift certificates" debacle (great, a present that means I have to wait in line forever to buy a giant box of granola bars). Oh well, it's not like one should expect their parents to get them Sodom vinyl LPs and early OOP TSR products.

So this year my sister, bless her square heart, got me a copy of The Sword's "Warp Riders" for Christmas as "Blair likes metal." Yeah Blair likes metal... the same way Jamie Mal likes Dungeons & Dragons. Blair likes primitive, bestial low-fi thrash, doom, sludge, grindcore, black metal, power violence...you get the picture.

So, of course, I was less than enthused with that gift, although my making lemonade out of lemons reaction was "Well a fair amount of my friends are hipster-ish so I can just re-gift it whenever I hear of a birthday..."

Today I had to take the day off work due to a strained back; after my 11 am wake-n-bake I was restless, bored and lookign for something to entertain me. I spotted my copy of "Warp Riders" gathering dust and thought "Why don't I put this on and laugh my ass off at how slick and false it is!", the metal-nerd version of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Well, although the production was slicker than what I was used to, after a few minutes I was sucked in! I really let my "underground nuclear goat chaos punk hessian" stance interfere with enjoying some awesome music, as this album really kicks ass!

This band really has it all: awesome riffs & hooks, psychedelic space fantasy lyrics, and lush production that propels you on nebulae of pot smoke through the cosmos!

I really learned my lesson about being judgmental about "bands not being underground enough," and I have already discovered a bunch of awesome new bands on youtube like Priestess, Queens of the Stone Age, Muse and Probot just from looking at music with an open mind, and I encourage you to do the same.

I know that when I resume DMing Planet Algol games that The Sword "Warp Riders" will be the official album of the Planet Algol campaign, and I encourage all of you to check out this kickass band.

Now here's a little random table of "The Sword Inspired Plot Hooks"

1 - Tres Brujas - The party encounters three witches, are they potential allies or adversaries?
2 - Warp Riders - The party finds a downed starcraft, do they dare to ride the warp?
3 - Night City - The party arrives at a city ...where it is always night!
4 - Arrows in the Dark - Out of the darkness arrows fly at the party ...what is this ambush?!?!
5 - The Chronomancer, Pt. 1: Hubris - The party encounters a sorcerer with unusual time-manipulating magic, however he/she suffers from hubris!
6 - Lawless Lands - In their travels the party has to cross a land without any lawful authority...danger and crime abounds!
7 - Acheron/Unearthing the Orb - The party comes across a party of archaeologists studying ancient Acheronian ruins ...and they have just discovered a mysterious orb!
8 - Astraea's Dream - An NPC, names Astraea, just had a mysterious dream that bodes of adventure for the party!
9 - The Chronomancer, Pt. 2: Nemesis - The party encounters a time-manipulating sorcerer who is being hunted by another time-manipulating  adversary who seeks to punish them for their hubris!
10 - (The Night The Sky) Cried Tears of Fire - After sunset storm clouds gather; the clouds...they look like embers...why is the lightning flaming? Oh gods no...the rain..it burns!

The Sounds of the Sea of Spices

Whether treating with half-naked, sun-bronzed indigenes; hacking through steaming jungles; or wading through black water only to have a companion disappear into the jaws of a massive crocodile, the soundtrack is exclusively Exotica...

Dungeons, Dragons, and Soft Rock

"You are not allowed to play music at my place ever again."

Music while gaming is a subjective thing. RPG messageboards are full of topics advocating Hollywood blockbuster soundtracks; Dimmu Borgir; and Midnight Syndicate as gaming session soundtracks.

I have obscure musical tastes, and even though I'm intellectually aware that my records with The Devil or mushroom clouds on the cover do not contain music that is any better or any worse than any other music, I can't help being enough of a snob/jerk to read the aforementioned threads for the *giggles* factor.

Years ago the gaming space that my circle of gamers use was located in my apartment; before one session an unnamed, but otherwise sterling, participant played us a sample of what he thought would be good music to listen to while playing D&D. It sounded like slick European symphonic black metal crossed with slick industrial rock, like Dimmu Borgir crossed with KMFDM. My immediate, unthinking reaction was "You are not allowed to play music at my place ever again."

When I first started DMing again in my adult years, I could not handle music with vocals (aside from some "abba dabba" nomad chanting and the like) while I was DMing; I found it too distracting. In a similar vein, although I listen to lots of music by guys that wear belts made out of bullets, I couldn't handle DMing wile metal was playing. I also found both annoying while playing, but hey, I gotta take my lumps when I'm not wearing the Viking Hat.

Nowadays I've come around, and can handle pretty much anything while playing or DMing, even descending deep enough into madness to use Jon Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" as the theme music for a brief western-themed D&D campaign, not to say that there aren't exceptions that grate mightily upon my nerves.

One thing I've come to hate is signature, epic, genre-appropriate Hollywood Blockbuster orchestral soundtrack music. The Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Braveheart, etc. Not only do I find most of it plodding and tasteless, but I've also observed an emergent behavior among players while such music is playing.

I call is the "Desperate Battle" effect; the party is fighting some desperate battle, meanwhile this booming symphony is playing the background music for some movie heroes iconic death. Somehow the movie soundtrack affects the players judgments, and instead of fighting smart and tight they engage in poorly executed heroic blunders that put their character, and others' characters, in serious peril.

I still love the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, even though I find it disgustingly overplayed at this point; the Robocop score is awesome; and Morriconne's Fistful of Dollars trilogy is some sort of audial mana emanated from the extradimensional redoubt of the eternal champion...

Anyways, while Dudebird is DMing his Wilderlands AD&D campaign, he will call an intermission to grill up some sausages. A couple of times lately he's put on some "soft rock" music for the break. It's a nice change of pace from the Star Trek fight music on repeat and German Oak of the previous hours.

And after we gorge ourselves on cruel, delicious meat and get back to the D&D table, Pete (another player) and I find ourselves intensely petitioning DM Dudebird to keep playing the soft rock. Don't get me wrong, the DM is the DM and pretty much has the right to chop of someone's hand for unauthorized ipod meddling; we just try to present a compelling case: We're usually in a dungeon, usually beat up or in peril, people are making rash decisions, and Pete and I opine that what the party needs in that sort of circumstances is some optimistic, calming soft rock.

And you know what? It seems to work; instead of catastrophically bumbling our way through the rest of the night like a pack of Chris Farley's, despite perhaps being tipsy and bong-addled, we tend to play a smart, calm, well-oiled game when provided a soft rock soundtrack.

As a DM, I love playing German Oak, Hellhammer, Hawkwind, Sleep, Bone Awl (the long song on bog bodies!), as well as Morriconne and all sorts of arty-fartsy stuff, when running a delve; but as a player, I can think of no better soundtrack for my imaginary swords & sorcery adventures than some smooth soft rock!

Tunnels of Doom! and True Californian Black Surf Rock...

Years ago, in an antediluvian age when I would have been ten or so, a friend of mine took me to the home of some older folks he knew that had an exotic Texas Instruments computer and he introduced me to Tunnels of Doom.

It completely blew my mind in the same fashion that Wizardry did...it's freaking D&D on a computer with a party of adventurers in a dungeon fighting monsters for treasure...holy freakin' crap!

Fast forward to the modern era...Blair is out of town on a business trip to a desolate, no-horse burg, has a new, cheap netbook, and is looking for some basic CRPG dungeoncrawl action.

Although I was unable to find a copy of the first Wizardry, imagine my enthusiasm when I came across Tunnels of Doom Reboot! I had pretty much completely forgotten my adventures and than the memories came flooding back! Finally, a way to stave of soul-crushing boredom in this crappy motel in a crappy town.

Now if only someone would make an iPhone port...

Also, some Planet Algol appropriate music...

The Darkthrones are a Californian black metal surf band. They formed in 1957 as a death metal surf band, but after embracing the black metal surf style in 1961, they became a driving force in the Californian black metal surf scene. For most of this period the Darkthrones has consisted of just two musicians, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, who have sought to remain outside the music mainstream. Since 1976 their work has incorporated more crust surf traits.

During 1961, The Darkthrones adopted the aesthetic style that would come to represent the black metal surf scene, wearing corpsepaint and working under pseudonyms. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. became "Fenriz", Robert A. Lewis became "Nocturno Culto" and Thomas Ferebee became "Zephyrous". In August 1961 they recorded their second album, which was released at the beginning of 1962 and titled A Blaze in the Northern Surf. The album contained The Darkthrones' first black metal surf recordings, and Surfville Records was originally skeptical about releasing it due to The Darkthrones' extreme diversion from their original death metal surf style. After the album was recorded, bassist Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk left the band, and is not credited anywhere on the album.

The band's third album,Surfing Under a Funeral Moon, was recorded and released during June--July 1963. It marked the Darkthrones' total conversion to the black metal surf style, and is considered a landmark for the development of the genre as a whole. This album also marked the last album on which guitarist Zephyrous would perform.

Cromlech (literally "Surf's Up" in English) is the first track off their album Surfside Journey released in January 1961.

In 1959 Chip Ihsahn and Rocky Samoth met on the beach in California. They shared a love of crude reverb units, surfing, smoking illicit substances and driving cars with fake wood on the sides. The soon formed a surf band which had a variety of name changes including The Dark Devices, then The Xerasias, then The Embryonics. The group soon evolved into the now well-known band The Thou Shalt Suffers. Soon, however,Rocky Samoth began to write surf music music outside of The Thou Shalt Suffers, and together with Chip Ihsahn and a new bass player called Woody Mortiis (later of his own eponymous band The Mortiises), The Emperors was formed.

The Emperors toured with fellow surf group The Cradle of Filths, and after this tour the band ceased wearing surf clothing; they stated that it was becoming a trend and losing its original significance and symbolism. In the autumn of that year, the police began to investigate the murder of Clint Euronymous of The Mayhems, naming Varg 'Kenneth' Vikernes (of The Burzums) as a suspect; this investigation eventually led to the incarceration of Rocky Samoth for arson, and of Walter Faust for the murder of Magne Andreassen.

The Burzums was the musical project by Charlie "Varg" Vikernes. It began during 1961 in Bergen, California and quickly became prominent within the early Californian surf scene. During 1962 and 1963, The Burzums recorded four albums; however, in 1964 Vikernes was convicted and imprisoned for using cuss words in public to describe guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, and the mild intimidation of the congregations of several milk bars and several churches. While imprisoned, Vikernes recorded two really poor albums in the dark ambient surf style.

Dunkelheit first featured on the Burzums' legendary surf LP Filosofem (literally "Surf's Up" in English) recorded on a low budget in the back of a surf shop in Bergen, California using an Edison Phonograph, the cheapest instruments available to Varg and other awesome gadgets to get that famously warm Trve Kvlt sound of sand, sun and surf.

The Beherits were a surf band from Finland, California. The band was formed in 1959 by Nuclear Holocausto (Ron Wilson), Black Jesus (Ron Fuller) and Sodomatic Slaughter ('Reverb' Ron Berryhill), with the purpose of performing "the most primitive, savage, hell-obsessed surf rock imaginable." "Beherit" is the Syriac word for Surfing. Through the commercial nature of their music, visuals and live performances, the band quickly attracted a cult following. Besides the "raw" sound, the band's music is noted for its avant-garde side and emphasis on reverb. The Beherits are now regarded as a pioneer in their genre.

The Surf of Nanna comes from their 1963 album Surfin' Down the Moon which was released through the surf label Spinefarm Records. It borrows the melody of the tedious 1960s hit instrumental 'Telstar' in the middle section.

Kirk vs Cthulhu, Asteroid Adventure, Imaginitive Monster Lists, Stat Inflation, Intelligent Magic Items, and Music

I received some great comments regarding my off the cuff "Just Imagine" Kirk vs. Cthulhu post; two dealt with past efforts in that direction:

From DearGod:

"I once began running a CthulhuTrek game. It only lasted a couple sessions--mostly because school and work broke up the game night.

In my game Dagon had granted the deep ones knowledge of space travel. I had the players come across a derelict ship that was completely flooded with water. The deep ones knocked out the ship's shields, uploaded a virus that caused the replicators to mass-produce water, and then transported on to the ship to steal away all of the humans to sacrifice them to their fish-gods."

From Chris Hüth:

"A few years ago, when I was more enthused about 'running' Beyond The Final Frontier, I started writing an article on exactly this topic, called 'The Doom That Came From Space' or something like that.

The first part was ideas for converting Call of Cthulhu adventures to Star Trek, including series outlines for SoYS and MoN, and talking about horror in Trek, both in running it and examples of it from all the series (and negotiating the humanism-antihumanism Trek-HPL divide in tone).

The second part was conversions, revisionings and fittings of CoC things into Trek (including examples of mi-go spaceships, sinister interpretations of regular Trek species (like why the Breen wear suits), and episode outlines for each. I've got a few crazy ones (The Ruins of Aldebaran III and 65 Million Years To Earth) I still really want to run.

The SFier interpretations of Mythos elements in Trail would also be a big help here, especially for stripping out the cliche cultist/tome parts where they don't fit." 

As a relevant aside, I believe that one version of the Star Trek rpg used 3d6 stat & percentile skill system that at first glance looked to be quite compatible with Call of Cthulhu...


I've been working on a new Planet Algol adventure/"dungeon"; this one is set on an asteroid and is very influences by 60s & 70s television & movie sci-fi such as Star Trek, Doctor Who and Space 1999. Hopefully my players will take the bait tomorrow...


As part of the research for this project, I dug up some great OD&D monster lists from fellow OSR bloggers I remember really liking, and it would be despicable of me not to share them with you guys (nevermind having a compiled set of links for use in my own game):

From Aeons & Auguries: Lunar Encounter Tables.

From Sham's Grog 'n Blog: The Dismal Depths Bestiary; More Monsters; and Even More Monsters.

Dig those terse/spartan stat blocks! Especially compared to the sprawling 3rd/4th edition monstrosities, although I wish they had treasure type and morale scores ;) Not to be an edition-jerk, but it's a lot easier to write up monsters when you just need to come up with a couple of reasonable numbers as opposed to figuring out ability scores and calculating ranks in basket-weaving.

This brings to mind something I've been meaning to blog about for a while, the "stat inflation" in D&D over the editions. Reading the monster design booklet in the LOTFP referees booklet really hammered in how it may not be the best idea to inflate a creatures AC, HD and attacks; I know some B/X and AD&D monsters kind of become ambulatory tree-chippers with their multiple attacks as compared to OD&D versions, and things get crazy with 15 hit-die humanoids with armor classes of 33 in more recent editions.

This is mitigated by the inflation in stat bonus; weapon specialization; larger hit dice for PCs; more magic bonuses, and the like as D&D changed from OD&D, but I'm really coming around to the OD&D-ish paradigm of less bonuses. It makes for a faster game with less "processing cycles" needed for both the DM and players to do the math, and as long as the numbers are less for both the monsters and PCs everything should work out fine.


I've been thinking more about magic items, some of it inspired by reading about the awesome-sounding Dicitionary of Mu. I'm thinking that you have the awesome weapons and armor made by ancient master trademen using skills lost to modern man, such as Wolfe's Terminus Est; than you have the mysterious technological items, "sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic" such as the Eyes of Tekumel; and than you have the capital-A Artifacts, often intelligent and aligned, the sort of things that were wielded by legendary warlock-villainsm or are extradimindensional beings bound into a physical item, such as Stormbringer or the Shining Trapezohedron.


I haven't been posting much about music lately, which is practically criminal on my part. I've lately been revisiting a past obsession of mine, the Sun City Girls, instigated by Planet Algol campaign participant Pete's introduction of the Sublime Frequencies "Cambodian Cassette Archives" into Planet Algol background music rotation.

While reading about Sublime Frequencies releases I investigated Group Doueh, which plays some absolutely sublime Moroccan guitar freakouts!

I also read about the Sun City Girls-related Master Musicians of Bukkake. In the past, not knowing much about them, I dismissed them due to their name; but Fat Cotton told me about a great show of theirs he saw, and when I found out about the Sun City Girls connection I had to check them out..and I'm very glad I did, I highly recommend them to anyone into ritualistic/trance-inducing weirdo music!

Master Musicians of Planet Algol

The musical instruments of Algol Men are generally constructed of brass and/or steel (although primitive people make due with organic materials such as gourds, bones, vegetable fibers and resins) resembling Earthly sitars, tablas, vibraphones and panflutes, although they vary wildly in size.

Quality instruments have hollow chambers that have had resonating crystals cultured within them; these function as amplifiers and can also radically affect the sounds produced by the instrument, varying according to the techniques used to culture these resonating crystals. Master instrument artisans jealously guard the secrets of their crystals and produce instruments with startlingly distinct qualities.

Algolian singers often utilize a wide variety of abstract elements such as droning; throat singing; glossolalia; guttural utterances; moans; wails; screeches; and screams.

The following is presented as an example of Algol Man folk music of the prosaic, traditional mode:

"Cursed" Treasure Emerging From Play

No, this isn't about that -2 cursed backbiting hayfork or transgendering girdle, but about treasure that acquires a "cursed" nature due to the greed, betrayal, misfortune and death that it engenders. There have been a couple of such items in my current Planet Algol game...

Gan-Ron's Silver Needle Sword

One of the first adventures in the Planet Algol Campaign involved the party being commissioned by intoxicant distributors to retrieve a synthetic prostitute that had run away with a  "Hero," Gan-Ron the Silver Man, a dim witted but good hearted crusader. The party sorcerers befriend, ensorcel and than murder Gan-Ron and take his magic, silvery, needle-bladed long sword as loot.

The party members were excited to acquire their first magic weapon...and than every character that wielded the sword died. Every character. It was random happenstance, but it was ....appropriate.

Eventually Kalervo, the folksy, stoic cactus man bore it, and even though he died a few times always managed to come back...until the "Eye of Restoring Life" ran out of charges while Kalervo lay there, a mass of pulpy green shreds and splintered wooden bones...with Gan-Ron's Silver Needle Sword lying broken next to him (failed save vs. crushing blow from the BIG monster that slew him). The curse ended with the shattering of the blade and the loss of beloved, useful member of the party.

The Magic Helmet

In their adventures the party came across a friendly, good-natured gossip that told them all sorts of tales of treasure and adventure scattered across the hexmap. One of his tales involved a cache of loot including a magic helmet.

An expedition set forth to fid this treasure. They defeated the guardians, but were slain by nocturnal emissions from poisonous blossoms before they found the treasure.

Another expedition set out, on a R&R (recovery and resurrection) mission. The dead characters are found, and Kalervo is resurrected (leaving only one charge in the party's Eye of Restoring Life). The treasure is found...several thousand gp worth of jewelry and a magic helmet. Identify is cast upon the helmet and it is revealed to be a Helm of Teleportation...a real top-shelf magic item.

The party sets out on their long, grueling return journey and during the next night a roll on the "Which Wilderness Encounter Table Do I Use" table results in the Arduin Wandering Monster Table. Which results in a crazy badass wandering monster, which results in the wholesale slaughter of every party member that can't outrun said monster (Dave Hargrave...he was a maniac!).

Kalervo...dead. Buzz Brazelhach...dead. Sleestakuras...dead.

One of the survivors, a new 1st level character that also managed to nab the jewels and Helm of Teleportation by virtue of finding them in a tank of slimy alagae water, returns to the scene of the carnage, loots Buzz Brazelhach's corpse for all of his valuables (Buzz had been rude and pushy with him), and uses the last charge of the Eye of Restoring Life to bring back Rodan the Scrounger...who sees his rescuer wearing the Magic Helmet and carrying his dead companion Buzz's magic sword reacts by reaching for his laser pistol to blast the 1st level character to atoms for his impudent greed.

The bearer of the Helm reacts by using it's power of Teleportation to escape back to "safety" before the laser pistol clears leather and Rodan is left in the wilderness, sans companions or supplies (ruined by the monster) and with much of his gear ruined by the same monster (including all of his radiation crystals...power cells for his energy weapons).

To me, that is an epic pulp adventure tale of greed and death. Sure, an expedition ended disastrously, characters died, but The Curse of Fucking Greed In Effect!! ...just fucking harrowing, the stuff of legends...How Many Men Died Seeking That Helmet and How Many More Will Yet Die? As Kalervo died and Gan-Ron's sword was broken in this misadventure, did the curse transfer to the helmet? I know not...but I am eager to see what ensues.

Also, now we have a PC with a serious murderous vendetta against another PC that possesses the power of teleportation...crikey, the drama that may unfold!

Also, here's some sublimely transcendent Krautrock I've been listening to a lot lately, perfect tunes for psychedelic space deaths...

A traditional song of the Nomads and Freemen of the Western Badlands

Kharvil Vrayn is the name, and I rode on the Verdant Plain
Til all the war machines came and ruined all the grain
In the year of Widows' Cries, we were hungry, we were barely alive
I took the road to Yexyd that fell
It was a time I remember, oh so well

The night they burnt Free Yexed down
And the cinders were stingin'
The night they burnt Free Yexed down
And the refugees were singing'
They wept "Za, Za, Za..."

Back with my Woman in High Skree and one day she called to me
"Kharvil, quick, come see, there goes Warlord Arzhee"
Now I don't mind, I'm huntin Vrood
And I don't care if the silvers no good
Just take what you need and leave the rest
But they never should have taken the very best

The night they burnt Free Yexed down
And the cinders were stingin'
The night they burnt Free Yexed down
And the refugees were singing'
They wept "Za, Za, Za..."

Like my father before me, I will roam the land
And like my brother above me, who took a Freeman stand
He was eighteen, proud and brave, but the Autarch put him on a stake
I swear by the blood below my feet
You can't raise a Vrayn back up when he's in defeat

The night they burnt Free Yexed down
And the cinders were stingin'
The night they burnt Free Yexed down
And the refugees were singing'
They wept "Za, Za, Za..."

There are Crypts Deep Beneath the Surface Where Horrible Things Lurk in the Eternal Darkness...

Perfect soundtrack music for exploring ancient, filthy crypts and battling the things that lurk in the suffocating darkness deep in the rotted flesh of the planet's crust. Coffins literally makes people lying in a bed dying of cancer headbang...

Video Of A High Level Planet Algol Sorcerer Kicking Ass?

Plant Algol artist and player Lester forwarded this to me, obviously depicting a lost chapter of Planet Algol's history...

I Don't Like Grand Unified Theories in Fantasy

I'm sure we're all aware of the phenomenon in fantasy franchises of "Grand Unified Theories." Usually prologues, appendices, wise characters, and so forth provide the exposition, usually along the lines of:

"88,000 thousand years ago the universe split into two halves, Kerishala the bright aspect and Valkalka the dark aspect. They worked together to make the world but quarreled thereby engendering a whole bunch of history. History.. history.. history... Magic is the lifesblood of Kerishala and Valkalka flowing through the matter of the world. Yadda Yadda Yaddaa... Prophecy this, Prophecy That."

Of course the protagonist(s) are tied up with all this business, as well as the plot of the next three or thirteen books. And there's detailed large-scale and small-scale maps, sometimes of the entirety of known civilization!

Although this can be done well, I consider The Silmarillion to be a sublime example of such efforts; usually I hate that shit. Many contemporary fantasy rpg settings lay out the history of the world, who/what the gods are, how magic works, and so forth-- often in excruciating detail. I do consider Gary Gygax's Aerth setting to be an exception, as it is a good fantasy setting that deals with a "known world," but it is also more of a late renaissance/age-of-sail setting, so it works in that context. Plus the Epic of Aerth book could have been significantly shorter.

Fantasy at its most primal deals in the Unknown. The world is a collision between the logical and the illogical. Incomprehensible forces are at play. In old school pulp fantasy, the default setting was a world in which only fragments of history were known, where magic and the gods were mysteries; where the world was largely unmapped and unknown.

It's hard to reconcile that weird, unknown fantasy vibe when the universe has a known history and a heavy internal logic.

With Planet Algol I don't know what the gods are. I don't know how magic works. I don't know the history of the planet aside from broad strokes. I don't have a map of the planet. I don't even know what year it is on Earth. Although one could learn details about specific elements and their history, the whole and history of Planet Algol is unknowable, as well as illogical and irrational.

Now for some Nifelheim:

"That Cactus Lady Has a Nice Rump on Her" & Doom Metal Tuesday

Courtesy of Wesley/Fat Cotton & his partner in crime R. Ruddock, a pair of Cactoids of Planet Algol. Also, here's some Doom Metal:

Planet Algol Music - the Ritual Chantings and Mutterings of Bestial Sorcerer-Priests...

Planet Algol Music - Skullflower

The Sound of Battling Bestial Mutants in a Ruined Burning City

Planet Algol Music - "Hawkwind"

When things get too hectic in Sean/Dudebird's Wilderlands game I always appreciate it when Hawkwind shows up on the playlist. Psychedelic proto-metal with Motorhead and Michael Moorcock connections, I hear their influence in anarcho-punk/crust band like Rudimentary Peni and Doom.

I had previously stated, during one of my "No Elves/No Clerics/etc" Planet Algol rants, that "there's no damn bards on Planet Algol either!" Hawkwind have made me reconsider that particular position and now I have to design a bard-analogue class based on Hawkwind....mustachioed, longhaired, british psychedelic bikers that travel space and time by means of driving psych rock.

The Sound of an Android-Haunted Sterile White Plastic Arcology...

Arcology, Space Art. Thanks to Dudebird/Sean for turning me on to this excellent cold seventies futuristic music, Space Art has been in heavy Planet Algol session rotation for a while.

Planet Algol Music - High On Fire & Sleep

Although I usually do not favor "The Headbanging Stuff" as background music while I am DMing as I usually find it a headache-inducing distraction, High On Fire, especially the "Blessed Black Wings" album, has been in heavy rotation for battle music for years.

When the party is wandering through a primeval jungle and stumbles into a Tyrannosaur AND a gigantic scorpion, both of whom attack the party seeking all the meat for themselves, High On Fire is the perfect soundtrack to fighting these giant monsters with swords. Gritty, metal, and lacking all Hammerfall/Blind Guardian "life metal weakness..."



Another album that I've been using as D&D music for the entirety of my "adult DMing career," is by a band that featured High On Fire's frontman Matt Pike. Sleep's "Jerusalem" is a single-song slab of metal-dub that's almost an hour long. Music for wandering the smokey blasted wastelands of an alien world.



When my D&D-playing ex proclaimed "What is this music? It sucks!" I know the relationship was doomed...

Planet Algol Music - Tangerine Dream

"What makes Risky Business so tense, so creepy? Tangerine Dream." - Peter

The sound of alien constellations wheeling above luminous violet wastelands...

What music should a DM play during a potential TPK?

I suggest avoiding the Braveheart-esque "slow motion sequence of an important character dying in in the midst of a battle while his companions howl and attempt to reach him," not only is that stuff played-out and hokey, but it's also bad luck in the vein of a Bride and Groom's first dance after the wedding ceremony being to Careless Whisper.

You need something epic and blood-stirring, and something that says in no uncertain terms that the chips are down and you are going to have to bring your A-game to the table if you even want a chance of your character surviving.





The Dollars/Good, Bad & Ugly trilogy had a huge influence of my campaigns, both in the Wilderlands and Planet Algol, in terms of atmosphere, the ways of men and also soundtrack-wise. There is something primal and archetypal about the music from these movies and it causes me no end of grief that those sad-sacks has-beens Metallica use this music as the entrance cue.

BTW, my friend's Kevin and Nadine used this as their wedding music in the middle of a sweltering summer, making the audience wait while the music built tension...after stealing the idea from me. 100% class in my opinion.



I would probably cry if I saw this in concert.