Tag: OSR

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Mokuy Evolution

The idea started after I saw the statues below. I thought, hmm, why not an OSR setting of bushranger era Australia, say around 1820? Could have lots of things apart from bushrangers: pulp vigilantes, monsters, exploration, super science cities, time travel….

Random Fridays: Mokuy
Images from the above

Mokuy statue

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Significant Dates in Australian Colonial History

1486Diaz rounds Cape of Good Hope.
1497Vasco da Gama sails to India via the Cape.
1512Portuguese discover the Moluccas.
1520Magellan enters the Pacific.
1567Alvarez discovers the Solomon Islands.
1595Cornelius Houtman pilots Dutch ships to the East Indies.
1598Dutch established at Java.
1606Quiros discovers the New Hebrides.
Discovery of Torres Strait.
The DUYFKEN in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1611Brouwer’s new route to the East.
1616Dirk Hartog on the Western Australian coast.
1622English ship TRIAL wrecked off the west coast.
1627Nuytsland discovered.
1636Van Diemen Governor of Dutch East Indies.
1642Tasman discovers Van Diemen’s Land and New Zealand.
1644Tasman in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1688Dampier in the CYGNET in Australian waters.
1699Dampier in the ROEBUCK in Shark’s Bay.
1768Cook’s ENDEAVOUR voyage.
1770Cook’s discovery of New South Wales.
1772Cook’s RESOLUTION voyage.
1779Banks suggests founding a convict settlement at Botany Bay.
1782End of the American War of Independence.
1783Matra’s plan of colonization in New South Wales.
1785Sir George Young’s plan.
1786Determination to found a settlement at Botany Bay.
1788Foundation of Sydney.
Laperouse in Botany Bay.
1789Establishment of New South Wales Corps.
Settlement of Norfolk Island.
1792End of Phillip’s governorship.
1792-5Administration of Grose and Paterson.
1795Hunter Governor of New South Wales.
1795-6Bass and Flinders make voyages in the TOM THUMB.
1797John Macarthur buys merino sheep.
Discovery of coal.
1798Bass discovers Bass Strait and Westernport.
Bass and Flinders circumnavigate Tasmania in the Norfolk.
1800King Governor of New South Wales.
Voyage of the LADY NELSON from England.
Flinders’s voyage in the INVESTIGATOR.
1802Murray discovers Port Phillip.
Flinders meets Baudin in Encounter Bay.
1803Flinders circumnavigates Australia.
Wreck of the PORPOISE.
Flinders imprisoned in Mauritius.
Collins’s Port Phillip Settlement.
1804Foundation of Hobart.
Settlement at Port Dalrymple.
1806Bligh Governor of New South Wales.
1807Arrest of John Macarthur.
1808Mutiny in New South Wales; deposition of Bligh.
1809Macquarie Governor of New South Wales.
1810Extinction of New South Wales Corps.
Liberation of Flinders.
1813BlaxIand discovers a way across the Blue Mountains.
Evans discovers the Bathurst plains.
Davey Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
1814Death of Flinders.
Establishment of Civil Court in New South Wales.
1816Bank of New South Wales founded.
1817Oxley explores the Lachlan.
1818Oxley explores the Macquarie.
1819Commissioner Bigge in New South Wales.
1821Brisbane Governor of New South Wales.
1823New South Wales Judicature Act passed.
Oxley in Moreton Bay.
1824Wentworth’s AUSTRALIAN.
Foundation of Brisbane.
1824Annexation of Bathurst and Melville Islands.
Hume and Hovell’s expedition to Port Phillip.
1825Alteration of western boundary of New South Wales.
Lockyer explores the Brisbane River.
Arthur Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
1826The ASTROLABE at Westernport.
Settlement at Westernport.
Darling Governor of New South Wales.
1827Lockyer’s Settlement at King George’s Sound.
Darling’s law to regulate the press.
Alan Cunningham explores the Liverpool Range and the Darling Downs.
Stirling examines the Swan River.
1828Enlargement of the Legislative Council of New South W ales.
Westernport Settlement abandoned.
Sturt discovers the Darling.
1829Annexation of the Swan River.
Whole of Australia claimed as British territory.
The PARMELIA conveys first immigrants to Swan River.
Publication of Wakefield’s LETTER FROM SYDNEY.
1830Accession of William IV.
Act establishing trial by jury in New South Wales.
Sturt explores the Murray to the sea.
Perth founded.
Governor Arthur’s ‘Black Drive.’
1834Act to establish Colony of South Australia.
The Hentys settle at Portland.
The Dorsetshire labourers transported.
1835John Batman in Port Phillip.
1836Mitchell explores Australia Felix.
Adelaide founded.
Lonsdale takes charge of the Port Phillip Settlement.
Bourke’s grazing licences policy.
1837Accession of Queen Victoria.
Melbourne named.
House of Commons Committee on Transportation.
1837-40George Grey’s explorations in Western Australia.
1838Gawler Governor of South Australia.
Military settlement at Port Essington.
1839Latrobe appointed superintendent of Port Phillip.
Strzeleeki finds traces of gold.
1839Death of John Batman.
Lord Durham’s report on the state of Canada.
McMillan’s first expedition to Gippsland.
Abandonment of Moreton Bay Settlement.
1840Order in Council discontinuing transportation to Australia.
Eyre starts for the centre of the continent.
Strzelecki’s journey through Gippsland.
1841Grey appointed Governor of South Australia.
1842Robert Lowe in New South Wales.
Act for the Government of N.S.W. and Van Diemen’s Land passed.
1843Ridley invents the stripper.
1844Convicts shipped to Port Phillip.
Sturt’s journey to the interior.
Leichhardt’s first exploring expedition.
1845Grey appointed Governor of New Zealand.
Burra copper mine discovered.
1846Fitzroy ‘Governor-General’ of Australia.
Lieutenant Yule hoists British flag in New Guinea.
1847Gold found in Port Phillip.
The Gladstone Colony at Port Curtis.
1848Melbourne elects Lord Grey to the Legislative Council.
Leichhardt’s last expedition.
1849The RANDOLPH in Hobson’s Bay: resistance to convict immigration.
Port Essington abandoned.
1850Western Australia becomes a penal colony.
University of Sydney founded.
Australian Colonies Government Act passed.
Railway from Sydney to Goulburn built.
1851Separation of Victoria from New South Wales.
Hargreaves digs for gold on Summerhill Creek.
Gold found at Ballarat.
The diggings commence.
1852University of Melbourne founded.
1853Tasmania named.
Town of Gladstone founded.
French annexation of New Caledonia.
1854The Eureka Stockade.
Hobson’s Bay railway built.
1855Transportation to Norfolk Island ceased
1855New constitutions come into effect in New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, and Tasmania.
Ballot Act passed in Victoria.
First anti-Chinese legislation passed.
1858Torrens Real Property Act passed.
1859Colony of Queensland proclaimed.
Kingsley’s GEOFFREY HAMLYN published.
1860McDouall Stuart reaches the centre of the continent.
1861Burke and Wills expedition.
Cowper’s quarrel with the New South Wales Legislative Council.
1862McDouall Stuart crosses the continent to Port Darwin
Duffy’s Land Act.
1863South Australia undertakes to administer the Northern Territory.
New Caledonia a convict colony.
1865McCuIloch proposes protection in Victoria.
1867End of transportation to Western Australia.
Gold discovered at Gympie.
The Darling grant controversy.
1868First Queensland Act to regulate Kanaka labour
1869John Forrest’s journey in search of Leichhardt.
1870British troops withdrawn from Australia.
Adam Lindsay Gordon died.
1872Overland telegraph line from Adelaide to Port Darwin constructed.
1873John Forrest explores the interior.
Moresby’s discoveries in New Guinea.
Stephens’s ‘free, compulsory, and secular’ Education Act.
1874University of Adelaide founded.
John Forrest’s journey from Perth to Adelaide.
Fiji annexed by Great Britain.
Clarke’s FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIFE published.
1875Ernest Giles’s inland journey.
1877Dispute as to payment of members in Victoria.
High Commissionership of the Pacific established.
Brunton Stephens’s poem, THE DOMINION OF AUSTRALIA, published.
1878Black Wednesday’ (January 8).
1879First Australian Trade Union Congress.
1880Capture of the Kelly Gang.
1880Payment of members carried in Victoria.
1881Reform of the Victorian Legislative Council.
1882Discovery of Mount Morgan.
The Kimberley gold rush.
Henry Clarence Kendall died.
1883Silver discovered at Broken Hill.
McIlwraith annexes New Guinea.
1884German annexation of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, the Bismarck
Archipelago, and Samoa.
1885Federal Council established.
Soudan contingent from New South Wales.
1887Anglo-French Condominium in the New Hebrides.
First Colonial Conference.
1888Intercolonial Conference on Chinese immigration.
ROBBERY UNDER ARMS published.
1890Great maritime strike.
University of Tasmania founded.
1891First Federal Convention.
1892Coolgardie gold-field discovered.
1893Corowa Conference on Federation.
1894Women’s enfranchisement in South Australia.
1895Victorian Wages Board system established.
Paterson’s THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER published.
1896Henry Lawson’s IN THE DAYS WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE published.
1897The second Colonial Conference.
1897-8The Federal Convention.
1898First Federal Referendum.
1899Second Federal Referendum.
First Labour Government (Queensland).
Australian contingents sent to South African War.
1900The Commonwealth Constitution before the Imperial Parliament.
1901(May 9) First Commonwealth Parliament opened.
1902Immigration Restriction Act passed.
Third Colonial Conference.
1903First Deakin Government.
Amended Naval Agreement.
1904The Watson Government.
Reid-McLean Government.
Dalgety selected as site for federal capital.
1905Second Deakin Government.
1906Amended Anglo-French agreement as to New Hebrides.
1907Act for construction of Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta railway passed.
Imperial Conference.
1908First Fisher Government.
Revocation of choice of Dalgety. Canberra finally selected as site of federal capital.
1909Third Deakin Government.
Imperial Defence Conference.
Compulsory military service instituted in Australia.
Lord Kitchener’s report.
1910University of Brisbane founded.
Second Fisher Government.
1911Referendum for amendment of constitution.
Admiral Henderson’s naval report.
Imperial Conference.
1912University of Perth founded.
1913Cook Government.
Referendum for amendment of constitution.
The AUSTRALIA completed.
1914Third Fisher Government.
Great European War.
Fight between the SYDNEY and EMDEN at Cocos (November).
1915Hughes Government.
Anzac.
1916First Conscription Referendum.
1917Second Conscription Referendum.
Transcontinental Railway opened.
1918Great battle on the Somme (August 8); capture of Mont St. Quentin by Australian forces.
Defeat and surrender of Germany.
1919Ross and Keith Smith fly from England to Australia by aeroplane.
1920Visit of the Prince of Wales to Australia.
1923End of Hughes Government.
Stanley Bruce Prime Minister.
1924Visit of Special Service squadron of the Royal Navy to Australia.
1927Federal Parliament opened by Duke of York at the Commonwealth capital, Canberra.
1928Flight by Bert Hinkler from England to Australia, and by Kingsford
Smith and Ulm from America to Australia and from Australia to New Zealand.
1929J. Scullin Prime Minister.
1930First Australian-born Governor-General appointed: Sir Isaac Isaacs.
1931Statute of Westminster.
1932Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge.
J. A. Lyons Prime Minister.
Imperial Conference at Ottawa.
1934Victorian Centenary celebrations attended by the Duke of Gloucester.
1935Italy attacks Abyssinia.
Jubilee of King George V.
1936Death of King George V
accession and later abdication of King Edward VIII
accession of the Duke of York as King George VI.
1938The ‘Munich Crisis.’
1939Death of J. A. Lyons; R. G. Menzies becomes Prime Minister.
Second World War begins.
1940Australian forces share in North African campaigns.
1941Tobruk.
A. W. Fadden Prime Minister, August-October.
John Curtin Prime Minister.
1942Darwin bombed and Rabaul captured by Japanese
Battle of El Alamein.
1943Italy defeated and Mussolini overthrown.
1944Invasion of Europe and Battle of Normandy.
Defeat of Referendum on increased powers for Commonwealth.
General MacArthur lands in the Philippines.
1945Defeat of Germany (May).
United Nations’ Charter signed.

http://gutenberg.net.au/timeline.html

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OSR Guide For The Perplexed Questionnaire

1. One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:

Today, I like this FASERIP Wildstorm supplement, Wildstorm being one of my favourite things.

The_Ultimate_Origins_Book_-_Wildstorm
There are some MSH groups on facebook doing things, for some reason not sensibly available on the internet in general, consistently. Don’t know why.

Just found there is an internet compilation of several of these at :- Gaming Nerds R Us Downloads

2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark:

Have fun.

3. Best OSR module/supplement:

Bloody hell,hard to pick that one.

Today I will pick Frostbitten & Mutilated, as we have been adventuring there recently. Consistent, nasty, useful setting that can be dropped in a game pretty easily. Say, north of Vornheim for example Frostbitten & Mutilated. A very nice book in print.

4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):

Today, it is :-

So Many Bullets, So Little Time: Exactly how is it that Spider-Man is able to dodge automatic weapon fire from half a dozen armed thugs when, according to the rules, the most actions that any character can make in a single round is three?! Easy. Under the Agility FEATs listed in the Judge’s Book, dodging bullets is an Incredible Intensity Agility FEAT. So if the player controlling Spider-Man states that he is doing nothing else that round but Dodging, all he has to do is make an Agility FEAT versus the listed Intensity and viola! He’s dodged them all! Of course this only works if the hero has gone TOTALLY defensive. Any offensive actions made in the same round negate this option.

5. How I found out about the OSR:

In 2007 Phil Reed proposed a project to do a public domain version of TSR’s Marvel Superheroes, which I donated to, and 4C System was born. This got me interested in game stuff again after working basically 7 days a week for years. This led to OSRIC and to everything else from content to online gaming.

6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:

The Classic Traveller character generator is excellent.

Scout Rin Itō B57AA5 Age 22
1 term Cr50,000

Skills: Jack-o-T-1, Mechanical-1, Pilot-1

Service History:
Attempted to enlist in Scouts.
Enlistment accepted.
Chose not to reenlist after first term.

7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:

Google+ certainly was it.

8. Other places I might be found hanging out talking games:

RPG Talk, OSR, Stars Without Number discords, and now MeWe. Occasionally facebook.

9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:

The CR thing is waste of time, many decades happened without it.

10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:

Currently, Mindjammer :- Mindjammer RPG Which has a Traveller supplement I have linked to!

11. Why I like OSR stuff:

There is tons of great, creative stuff. Even some amazing quality published books that are lovely artifiacts.

12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet:

Monster & Magic is a 3d6 resolution D&D game designed to work with all the old modules. Monsters & Magic RPG

13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:

The first one I think of is Christian Lindke’s Advanced Dungeons and Parenting

14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:

Superhero Random Encounter Generator which distills a lot of stuff from a lot of games into a crazy mega-agglomeration of results to give gaming prompts.

15. I’m currently running/playing:

Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

16. I don’t care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:

It is arithmetic. I always think descending in my head and then have to convert, however.

17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:

X-Men vs Sauron in the Savage Land

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Death Kittens of Rah-Tlu

Death Kittens of Rah-Tlu

These little monsters usually appear in the form of a bedraggled kitten. Generally with some sort of black colouration, even if only in part.

If someone takes possession, every day roll 1d20. On a 1 the beast will attack when the owner is not paying attention. A successful scratch or bite requires a save vs poison or die.

If the save is successful for 2d6 days the survivor has an irrational attraction to possession and protection of the Death Kitten. If the beast is threatened or someone or something tries to remove it from the possession of the current owner, a save vs Wisdom must be made not to fly into a berserk rage.

FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 9
MOVE: 18"
HIT DICE: 1d2 HP
% IN LAIR: 0%
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d2 - 1/1d2 -1/1 point
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Death Poison
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Average (low)
ALIGNMENT: Chatoic evil
SIZE: VS
PSlONlC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil

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