6 Setting Crossovers for Your Savage Monster Hunter International Game

Unlike last time, as the current Monster Hunter International RPG Kickstarter has been going on, I've been refraining from giving constant updates on its status. Suffice to say that at this point, just 24 hours from ending, all the stretch goals have been hit and the deal is better than ever.

But perhaps you're unsure about how useful the new material will be. In that case, let me show you how it could easily mesh with some of your favorite Savage Settings:

East Texas University*: Probably the easiest setting to mesh with Monster Hunter International, as the basic premise is playing occult-investigating college students. As the typical ETU campaign has a built-in endpoint (graduation), it might be fun to have a recruiter from MHI show up to attract promising graduates. On the other hand, the college-town setting of Pinebox would be a good place to base a Hunter team out of, even if the PCs weren't enrolled in the school.

Chuck Finley: Zombie Hunter!

Tropicana*: A tropical island city-state crawling with spies, jet-setters, criminals, and modern-day adventurers of all sorts is almost guaranteed to have some monsters crawling around at the fringes. The company is called Monster Hunter International, after all, and wouldn't the PCs just love to take a job in a Caribbean paradise? Co-starring Bruce Campbell!

Deadlands*: It almost seems like cheating to mention this one, but as the Old West monster-hunting setting (now expanded to what the old MHI RPG called the Pulp Era*!) it's definitely worth a look. Of course it's a pretty crazy-gonzo alternate history, what with California falling into the sea, the Four Horsemen empowering undead monstrosities and mad scientists alike, and, worst of all for the Alabama-based Professional Monster Killers, a Union-Confederacy cease-fire.

Rippers*: For a slightly less gonzo 19th-Century monster-hunting experience, the world of Rippers is much closer to that of Monster Hunter International, by which I mean it's like the real world, except all the classic horror-movie monsters really exist. And while Bubba Shackleford may be reluctant to indulge in Rippertech, some of the other Hunter groups that existed back then may be less choosy . . .

50 Fathoms*: OK, this is an odd one, being a swashbuckling fantasy setting. It is, however, a swashbuckling fantasy setting that expects the PCs to be visitors from Earth, and there's nothing to say that those visitors couldn't be from the 21st rather than the 17th century! Whether they get caught up in the hag-curse related metaplot or just indulge in fish-out-of-water goofiness, a brief trip to Caribdus would be just the thing to shake up a Hunter team based out of Hawaii or Miami - or Tropicana, for that matter.

The Day After Ragnarok*: I love this setting, I really do. From the incomparable mind of Ken Hite comes an alternate world where Nazi sorcery unleashed a giant serpent on Europe, bringing about the ruin of every nation that touches the Atlantic. With the Confederacy on the rise (again) and snake-based monsters and magic popping up everywhere, there's plenty for WWII-era Hunters to involve themselves in, either as their standard globe-trotting adventurous selves, or perhaps pulling a Newton Knight and setting up their own independent settlement. Especially if they can navigate the wreckage of Europe and link up somewhere in there with Franks, who is undoubtedly beyond pissed at all this.

*Affiliate link. Provides extra gaming money to me at no cost to you.

Monster Hunter International Gets Savage!

Are you a fan of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International series, but not of the HERO system* used in the 2012 RPG? Well, fret no more, because there's a new MHI RPG in town:

Currently just over 200% funded after just twelve house on Kickstarter, this version is being published by Gallant Knight Games* and will be using the Savage Worlds* rules.

But there's a lot more of interest here besides a less crunchy ruleset. For one thing, there's about twice as many books in the Monster Hunter International novel series as there were five years ago - which means lots of new characters and critters to get statted up, though admittedly some of these are from the 1980s-set trilogy Larry is co-writing with John Ringo, and the sub-setting for that era is one of the upcoming stretch goals.

Speaking of stretch goals, one of them has already been hit - an Old West sub-setting starring MHI founder Bubba Shackleford and his Professional Monster Killers, whom Larry wrote a short story about for a Weird West anthology last summer.

Other stretch goals add more content, including the aforementioned Monster Hunter Memoirs sub-setting, a Larry-written adventure, and non-human character options; plus there's some fun stuff like a challenge coin and coloring book.

Amusingly, the new MHI dice will have the logo on the six.

Notably absent from the stretch goal list is custom dice, although they won't be absent from the project as a whole - they're already part of the reward structure, with every physical backer getting at least one (as well as a deck of MHI playing cards), which with the "single softcover" price point at $30 strikes me as quite the bargain.

Interested? The Kickstarter's right here.

* Remember, folks, DriveThru links pay me if you use them, and it doesn't cost you a thing!

I Have Nothing More To Add

Via Bang Bang Clear.

What a Lovely Day!

Via The Watch House comes word of a new miniature skirmish game with an . . . unusual premise.

Emerging from the heat shimmer they come in a roar of sound and fury, the nomad brigands and road pilots. Chrome, dust and rust in your rearview mirror are the first harbingers of impending doom. Then the incessant chatter of twin Vickers fills your ears and your auto begins to disentegrate around you.

It's the Dirty Thirties and you're having a bad day...

Pray Maximillian is out there somewhere!

The product of two (naturally) Australian companies - Eureka Miniatures and Mana Press - the cover art alone is evocative enough for an entire RPG campaign. I'm reminded quite a bit of Crimson Skies, that early-2000s computer/board game franchise with a similar pulp-era apocalypse feeling, only with an aviation focus. I expect certain conceptual similarities with Car Wars as well, although the alt-1930s setting should serve to differentiate it quite well.

Interested parties can get a digital copy of the rules from DriveThru, with the usual caveat about affiliate links.

When White Stars Are Right

Over at Tenkar's Tavern, the latest entry on the rumors table is that White Star* and White Star Companion*, the Swords & Wizardry-derived Space Opera RPG from James Spahn and Barrel Rider Games, are now priced on DriveThruRPG as Pay-What-You-Want. If you haven't already, I can highly recommend checking them out, as I think that White Star is my favorite entry in the admittedly well-trodden "Space Opera OSR" sub-genre. Certainly it's the one that has taken off (heh) the hardest, with a variety of other supplements available from both Barrel Rider Games* and others*, not to mention all the fan-made content in the OSR Blog community (a self-referential example). Much of this is designed with an eye towards tailoring your campaign to a specific sub-genre, or even recreating a specific franchise.

In a way, that gets at the heart of what I find so endearing about the system, or rather the implied setting. While most RPG settings, I suspect, have at their base the attempted emulation of a favorite genre or piece of entertainment, the implied setting of White Star is a glorious mash-up of influences, with only the tiniest effort made towards disguising their origins. I mean, you want "Star Knights" and their evil counterparts "Void Knights"? Check. "Qinlons" and "Assimilants", or alternatively Assimilants and "Cannicks"? Check. Something more classic, like "Thronks" or "Wellsians"? Check. All of these together? Go for it! And toss in anything else you can think of - heck, there are even two different versions of Ewoks, "Fluffs" for random encounters and "Yabnabs" for a PC option (capped at Level 4).

If you have even the slightest interest in the genre, there's really no reason not to check these out. It's even got me pondering some new ideas for a mashup setting based on not filing off those serial numbers . . .

*Remember, folks, that any DTRPG links on this blog are affiliate links that pay me a small fee when you use them. Relax, it doesn't cost you a thing.

On the Ghostly Horizon

File this one under "Things to keep an eye out for" - at the end of last year, The Renaissance Troll previewed an upcoming project from Osprey Publishing* called Frostgrave: The Ghost Archipelago. Now, I'm not much of a wargamer, but the setting description (via Amazon) sounds like it's right up my alley:

A vast island chain, covered in the ruins of ancient and otherworldly civilizations, the Archipelago appears every few centuries, far out in the southern ocean. At such times, pirates, adventurers, wizards, and legendary heroes all descend upon the islands in the hopes of finding lost treasures and powerful artefacts. A few, drawn by the blood of their ancestors, search for the fabled Crystal Pool, whose waters grant abilities far beyond those of normal men. It is only the bravest, however, who venture into the islands, for they are filled with numerous deadly threats. Cannibal tribes, sorcerous serpent-men, and poisonous water-beasts all inhabit the island ruins, guarding their treasure hordes and setting traps for the unwary.

If nothing else, it sounds like it could be a great addition to the vaguely-imagined World of Pirating setting I'd like to run someday. I'm not so sure about this whole pool-granted superpowers thing, but I suppose it parallels the setup from the original Frostgrave game** (which this announcement has got me vastly more interested in) of the party being basically an adventuring wizard and his hired help. Time will tell if the Ghost Archipelago has the staying power of the Frozen City, but given the genres involved I think it's quite promising.

* Which, in the past few years, seems to have gone from "Research materials for historical wargamers" to "Research materials for historical, fantasy, and High Weirdness** wargamers" to "You know what? We're just going to cut out the middleman here and publish the wargames themselves".

**All Drive-Thru links go through their affiliate program, which means that if you use them I get paid, and it costs you nothing extra! Such a deal.