RPG Campaign Tour: Day 16 - Are There Any Direct Threats?

Day 16 of  the #RPGCampaignTour for my Gamma World campaign "This Is Not a Test", and I again defer to my players to answer the question, "Are there any direct threats?"

Sneaky Pete, Mutant Weasel - Dogs.  Dogs of any shape and size.  Whether it's roving packs of Podogs terrorizing the countryside, or mutant wolfmen who claim they have a soul, but their actions prove that claim false.  The whole world would be better without them.  

Podogs

Dr Sonny Helianthus, Mutant Sunflower  - Alchemical Lasers falling into the wrong hands.  The fact that the Ancients developed the science to create such a device is unimaginable, but the fact that they sold this super-science as casual consumer appliances boggles my mind!   The fact that we possess one (and know the location of a much larger one) brings me nothing but fear, for if it were to fall into the wrong hands....

Lathar, Pure Strain Human - Yeah, those Alchemical Lasers suck.  I was turned into some kind of green stone by one, then some sort of hard candy, then some other substance, before Sonny to fix the device and get me back to normal human.  And that was one they labelled as a "Children's Alchemical Laser!"

For Ages 8 and Above...

Squiggles, Mutant Earthworm  - Birds.    And the giant alchemical laser that can not only turn rusty nails into gold, but also imbue them with a freakin' soul.... and telepathy begging us for the sweet release of death to relieve them of their unwanted consciousness.  

(Savage4) Tomb of Serpent 4.5 - The Evil Below

When her only son marched off to fight the king's enemies in Africa, Mama Vinadio was quite proud.  When he returned in a box two years later, she was still proud.  All she could say as they laid him to rest was "He's sleeping with the angels."

The cemetery north of Savigliano is small, walled, and laid out in sensible straight rows. On the surface it appears peaceful and orderly, but madness and chaos lies right below the surface... clawing for the relic! 

After her last dream, Dolores "El Dobbie" Gato compiled her trusted friends and associates and traveled to a Manor House in Scotland to unsuccessfully obtain an artifact.   The night before they departed back to America, Dolores had another dream, cancelled the tickets, and after some research, she and her party were heading to Italy.

Savigliano Cemetary

Dolores "El Dobbie" Gato was already on her third career.  Disgraced nobility, turn rooftop cat burgler, turned South American explorer, she only really trusted her right hand gal, Diana "Dibby" Boyle, a former nightclub singer known to go toe-to-toe with famous boxers who got a bit too frisky after the performance.   "Mango" Tangier was a seaplane pilot who needed to ditch his last plane (and very illegal cargo) into the Carribean, and Aurelio was a former reporter who fell in love with the concept of treasure hunting and adventure, but... just wasn't very good at it. 

"Mango" Tangier, Dolores "El Dobbie" Gato (Wild Card) Diana "Dibby" Boyle (Wild Card) , and Aurelio Farmer

Of, the agents of evil knew their every move, and came in force.

Objective:   Legend had it that the artifact could be found beneath the pedestal of the Wailing Statue.    As the group quickly discovered, the statue was a cursed spirit who moved from pedestal.     The heroes would need to pass two tests in the same turn to capture the statue.  Destroying the other pedestals would limit places the statue could teleport to (it could always stay in the same spot.)

And all in six turns. 

Turn One: While Mango and Dibby snuck through a hole in the wall and dashed to pedestals, El Dobbie and Aurelio quickly hop the wall.   

Dibby swallowed hard and moved to the statue in the center of the cemetery (passed horror check), prepped to seize the entity... and the statue had the audacity to move toward El Dobbie and Aurelio!

Turn Two:  El Dobbie was the target of the Serpent Priest's, but pushed the the troubling thoughts with ease, firing at and killing, one of the cultists.... but unable to focus on the statue.

Aurelio tried to play hero, but was quickly reminded he was just a goon/thug/minion.  The terror of the entity was too much, forcing him to flee, but not so much that he couldn't take a shot at the cultist sneaking around towards Dibby. 

Mango and Dibby quietly pushed over two of the pedestals, but of course, at the of the turn, the statue moved to the farthest pedestal.

Turn Three:  Another cultist killed, another exchange with Dobbie and the Priest.    The statue moves again, still out of touch.

Turn Four:  El Dobbie rushed to the Wailing Statue, in hopes that the others would push over at least one of the remaining pedestals.   They did not, instead getting locked in hand-to-hand combat.  As she looked up from the base of the pedestal she was at, she saw the Wailing Statue disappear, and reform exactly where she had just been at! 

Sonnuva! 

Turn Five:  The rest of the group's stalemate with the cultists seemed to be taking a drastic turn for the worst with the flame-haired Dibby taking a point blank shotgun blast.    With the familiar feeling of the ground rumbling beneath them, El Dobbie knew she needed the Wailing Statue to teleport back the previous pedestal if they had any chance.  

At the end of turn five... The Statue satisfied the her hopes...

Turn Six: And with another cultists killed, and the minions tending to Dibby,  Dolores "El Dobbie" Gato successfully unearthed the artifact, dispatching the tortured spirit.  

In dreams that night, El Dobbie confirmed what they all already knew.

Next destination: Egypt. 

Next: Episode 4.6 - 

RPG Campaign Tour: Day 15 - What Are Some Things About the Setting That Are Best Avoided?

Day 15 of the #RPGCampaignTour for my Gamma World campaign "This Is Not a Test".  I figured the question, " What Are Some Things About the Setting That Are Best Avoided?" could be better answered by my players, so I asked them after our last Monday night online sessions.

* Girls of the World Ain't Nothin' But Trouble - From Our Six-Foot Tall, White Furry Mutant Earthworm "Squiggles".   A member of the White Hand called it "Interpersonal Relationsships,"  but to Squiggles and his Pure-Strain Human friend Lathar, women have been a headache... and other pains.  Squiggles has managed to hook up with another mutant earthworm, Ubenda, and twice he's  the one that's been knocked up!  

And Lathar simply needed a discount on the river ferry to get the group across to meet a group of Hisser emissaries.  The catch?  Going on a date with the ferryman's peculiar sister, Thunnelda.

Lathar and Thunnelda are now married... and she's pregnant! 

And she's not a little unhinged, she's VERY hinged, as in she collects hinges! 

Sorry guys, she doesn't have a sister....

*Only you can prevent glow reactions.  - From our ten-foot tall mutant sunflower, Dr Sonny Helianthus.  "The Glow" is the dangerous power than randomly resides in destroyed places of the ancients.  Sometimes it makes you sick.  Too much of it can kill you.  

Toting around metal a metal skull and spinal column that's imbued with it might make you docile, intellectual sunflower grow an extra set of arms!  

Sure, they're helpful, but the distress of the Glow's blessing is something people should avoid, because you can't tell the difference between living and dying until it's too late. 

Glow Radioactivity
Robot Skulls with Spinal Columns in the Foothills beyond the Big River

(Painting) Makeshift Cemetary Pedestals

 I'm prepping another session of our Egypt game, wrapping up the prep encounters for Tomb of the Serpent.  

The next scenario is a searching for another artifact in a cemetery, and although I have a wide variety of gravestones, to make obvious objective markers, the description puts them as more bases for statues.

Without spending way to much on part of some Reaper Bones packs, I simply perused the dollar store. 

I honestly can't remember if they're shot glasses or with votive candle holders, and I know some more drybrushing might generate a better result, but they work.  

(BackerKit) Food & Evil RPG by Goosepoop Games #Zinetopia2026

Another great entry from BackerKit's #ZineTopia2026 is Food & Evil, the tabletop roleplaying game where you don’t hunt demons…you are the demons. Your party runs a food truck, serves questionable cuisine, gathers cursed ingredients, and causes just enough chaos to keep business booming.

RPG Campaign Tour: Day 14 - What to Order to "Eat Like a Local'?

Day 14 of the #RPGCampaignTour for my Gamma World campaign "This Is Not a Test" continues with local businesses and customs:  "What to order to eat like a local."

We're going to swerve in a totally different direction and travel to Fair-Town to partake in... The Wrong Celery.

No, we're not going to make you partake in some questionable stalk vegetables.  The Wrong Celery is actually the only plant-only/specific bar in Gamma World we've documented as of yet.   It's proudly located on the Main River Boulevard in Fair-Town. 

It's the only bar in the region where you'll find a tulip playing an organ grinder, a host of dandelions dancing beneath it, an old plant with cybernetics, claiming he was once a human, and a full-fledged coffee bush tending the the bar.  

Yes,  the clientele is skewed heavily to plant-kind, but it was the mammals of the De Facto Explorers who discovered and fell in love with it.  So long as you like your martinis literally dirty, this is the place for you!  

The bartender, Duncan, a coffee bush who uses his own output to make drinks, is an honorable plant.   Clark, the only human on the staff, has fully photosynthetic skin. 

 

The back of the bartender

The days and nights are pretty chill for the plants, unless there's a rousing radish game, involving radishes, nailed to a string and swing at a hook.  It's more exciting than it sounds.

The Wrong Celery is know for it's mead, as recently a new drink called The Mutant’s Regret, recreated stolen experiments to duplicate the Regret have led to rumors of  “temporary evolutionary instability.”

Nobody is quite sure what that means....

Day 15 - What are some things about the setting that are just avoided?

Happy Valentine's Day 2026