Black Friday CHA'ALT Hardcover Sale!!!

 

$25 Cha'alt hardcovers... WTF?!?

Cha'alt?  Yes, it's my own eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse campaign setting with humor, sleaze, pop-culture, and grindhouse exploitation!  Fully compatible with any RPG resembling D&D, but definitely of the old school renaissance.

Basically, if you combine bits and pieces of Dark Sun, Carcosa, Tatooine, Dune, Mad Max, Beastmaster, and Blake's 7, you'll have some idea what Cha'alt is like.

I still have a significant number of Cha'alt hardcover books (I originally ordered two-fucking-thousand of them after seeing how well that blue maze book sold just the year before Cha'alt came out).

Incidentally, I've heard from dozens of people over the years that Cha'alt and its Black Pyramid are superior to Maze of the Blue Medusa.

So, without further ado, the lowest price Cha'alt ever!  This deal is only good until the last day of November...

$20 + $5 shipping/handling (within the United States).  If you live outside the USA, the shipping is going to be $30.  Sorry, but it's super expensive and I can't just eat that cost.

You get a signed and numbered book along with the PDF (if you don't already own it).

Paypal me the funds at Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Got a question, just ask!

VS

p.s.  Have summer gaming plans?  Want to game with Venger Satanis, High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing and Archduke of the OSR?  Attend VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR this July in Madison, WI.  A whole weekend of nothing but old school, OSR, and traditional RPGs.

 

Sure, I've drilled-down the aesthetics of Cha'alt, the tropes that make the campaign setting what it is, thanks to my latest (free PDF) product Cha'alt X-Cards, but what about general knowledge about the world for noobs?

I was inspired by a Twitter post of this Hyperborea Primer, basically a bullet-point outline of what the native PCs would already know about where they lived.

This is one of those simple, useful RPG things that most people (including myself) just don't do.  I'm now kicking myself for having neglected it.  So, without further ado...

Cha'alt Primer

All player-characters who've lived on Cha'alt for at least several months will have general knowledge about the world they inhabit.  Consider the following general knowledge.

• The word Cha'alt means triumph by way of suffering; the kind of victory that is only achieved after long periods of struggle and hardship.
• Cha'alt's terrain is predominantly radioactive, inhospitable desert dotted with many small, tribal settlements and a few major cities, the largest of which is A'agrybah, closely followed by Kra'adumek... city of the purple, alien, demon-worm (both located in the northern hemisphere).
• Currency in urban areas is predominantly the talon, a triangular metallic coin.  Three talons equal one gold piece, which is the standard currency outside of cities (the Dome City uses colorful plastic shapes).
• The sky is fuchsia, turning deep-purple at midnight.  Cha'alt has twin suns and seven lavender moons, each having its own lunar cycle and are said to influence the destiny of men.
• The most valuable substance on Cha'alt is a viscous, glowing, chartreuse ichor known as zoth, and is the actual blood of Great Old Ones who've died - many perishing in the apocalypse that occurred 80+ years ago.
• The humanoid culture of today has been built upon millennia of demon civilizations that existed before humanoids "evolved" from primitive creatures, raised by tentacles of the Great Old Ones.  Self-interest, for example, is not just a commonplace notion or "necessary evil," but something to take pride in or celebrate, just as Cha'alt natives take pleasure in the cruel treatment of those different than themselves.
• Zoth is the ultimate substance, a super-science liqueur of transcendence.  It fuels magic, heals the sick, those afflicted with curses, and supernatural alterations.  It is raw, primal energy.  When refined, zoth is key to travel amongst the stars by folding space and granting access to the multiverse.  It's a religious sacrament, allowing brief communication with one or more Gods.  Drinking it is both an aphrodisiac for women and "power potion" for men.
• Crystals can be found all over subterranean tunnels and caves of Cha'alt, as well as, inside dimension-hopping pylons.  They are said to have collected the soul-energy of departed Old Ones, giving them spiritual properties.  However, the Federation uses these crystals to power their starships and high-tech weaponry.
• The Federation have repeatedly tried to colonize Cha'alt, but the natives have always proved resistant, forcing the Federation out when too many off-worlders try to steal the planet's natural resources.
• Even though Cha'alt has never been fully colonized, due to weakness, greed, and moral corruption, shadow politicians have instituted enough Federation-backed puppet regimes in order to change societal norms, culture, and living conditions.  Various aspects of the Federation cannot be questioned or criticized.  Mandatory vaccines allegedly preventing the outbreak of extraterrestrial contagions are disseminated quarterly.  On certain days, water is rationed, people are forbidden from worshiping the Old Ones, trafficking with demons, gambling, eating meat, or imbibing worm-wine and other hallucinogenic drugs.  In their place, State-sanctioned orgies of unrestrained sexual freedom and drugs specifically engineered for their effects of apathy on Cha'altian nervous systems (such as Fuchsia malaise) have pacified the masses.  
• A plurality of humanoids worship the Great Old Ones (Yog-Soggoth being the most prominent), though each God has his own unique vision for Cha'alt, if and when he should awaken.  But nearly as many people worship the New Gods, eschewing the ancient ways of infernal individualism and familial bloodlines for collectivist revolution subservient to The State who prefer alien culture (lots of weird sex stuff) and technology over sorcery and esotericism. 
• A lot of strange things happen on Cha'alt, which has led to various paradigms attempting to describe reality on this particular world - what is reality and how does it functions?  Leaving many to speculate that perhaps Cha'alt isn't real at all but some kind of holographic super-simulation or dream within the collective imagination of a Demon-God pantheon?
• The city of Qada'ath, known as the tangerine veil under fuchsia sky, is a rising metropolis built upon the secret of organic, arcane flesh-technology or flesh-tech known only to the civil authority of Qada'ath.  The tangerine veil is currently the fastest-growing city in Cha'alt's southern hemisphere.

Thanks for reading and sharing.  If you'd like to comment, I value your feedback.

VS

p.s. Attend VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR this July in Madison, WI.  Details about the basest RPG convention and grabbing your weekend badge is here.  Want your own Cha'alt trilogy in luxurious hardcover?  There you go.  

Adventure Time + Cha'alt

 

Ok, as mentioned in my latest video, I'm creating a random table that can be used to juice-up your Cha'alt one-shots, linked adventures, and long-term campaign.  

Some of this stuff I'll be using on my own in Crystals of Chaos (see prior blog posts for details).  It's not my favorite animated TV show, but I do love Adventure Time.  Let's do this...

Adventure Time Your Cha'alt 

1. Strawberry flavored - some monster, NPC, or magical thing in the adventure tastes like strawberries!
2. Talking dogs that may or may not have been genetically spliced with Ka'arl's DNA (Karl from the show Workaholics). They also have elasticized limbs.
3. The ability to kill with sheer cuteness - unless one is actively averting one's eyes, save or die!
4. Rainicorns - Cha'alt doesn't get a lot of rain, and I don't know anyone on Cha'alt who's ever seen a rainbow... but it's possible.  And if you see one... what happens?  TBD
5. The slimy tentacled princess is at war with the candy colored clown princess, and for those getting in the way of their righteous fury, life is cheap.
6. Pieces of candy are actual people walking around whining about stupid shit.
7. Whenever something is stolen, there's a 2 in 6 chance that whatever it is gets immediately re-stolen away from the thief.  
8. ???

I want to hear from you... what else does this random table need?  And what else do you want me to riff-off of?  Vintage Doctor Who?  Blake's 7?  Thundarr the Barbarian?

Thanks,

VS

Cha'alt Hardcover Sale

 

This statement was posted on SJG's website, smearing conservatives, centrists, and just an unnecessarily wide swathe of Americans.  

To me, it sounds like Steve Jackson Games doesn't want your money if you're pro-life.  I believe in the sanctity and preservation of human life.  Additionally, I believe it's fitting that states, their representatives, and the people get to decide abortion laws for themselves.

Prior to VENGER CON (and at the convention), I'm offering a HUGE sale on hardcover Cha'alt books. Cha'alt is my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic campaign usable with any RPG that vaguely resembles Dungeons & Dragons.

They're limited edition, signed and numbered, deluxe production values you won't see from the big RPG companies.  Hardcovers always include the PDF (just let me know your DTRPG email address).

Want to read a review?  There's over a dozen right here!

Each hardcover will slither off the shelves for the utterly ridiculous price of $30 + $5 shipping/handling, assuming domestic shipping.  Outside the USA, it's $30 + $50 (sorry, shipping was incredibly expensive even before the pandemic).  You can paypal me at Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Support independent creators who share (or at the very least respect) your values!

VS

Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise

Yesssss!  It's out.  GET IT HERE.

This isn't the tippy-top final version, mind you.  But it's farther along than a beta.  The bookmarks, hyperlinks, and index is coming soon.  Also, I'll be spotting and fixing typos over the next couple weeks.

What's in it?  So much, dude.  So much.  225 pages of the awesomeness you've gotten to know from Cha'alt.  Some of that page count is previously released PDFs, such as OSR Like A Fucking Boss.  That'll be in the fancy hardcover edition coming out this fall, so I wanted to include it in the PDF, as well.  Everything in one place for convenience. 

It took me almost a year to create Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.  It's jam-packed with gameable content.  Some stuff you're probably expecting... the rest out of left-field.

I'm hoping to get some promotional boost from DriveThru, that's why it's ridiculously priced at $5.  If you'd like to help out, blog about it, mention it on social media, or maybe write a review. 

Thanks,

VS

Cover Art for Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise

In a couple weeks, I hope to have Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise uploaded onto DriveThruRPG.  Then you'll see what I've been working on for nearly an entire year.

Here's the cover art by Monstark.  He does outstanding work!

Briefly, Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise goes deeper into the campaign setting of Cha'alt.  It provides GM tools for running the game (so many random tables!), exploring cities like A'agrybah, the desert wasteland, and various "dungeons" throughout the world... such as the offworlder complex Elysium.

If you enjoyed Cha'alt, you'll enjoy this.  If you preferred the rest of the setting outside The Black Pyramid, then you'll really love Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.

Stay tuned,

VS

Kickstarter Concluded

It's over.

Thank dread Cthulhu and His one-hundred-and-eleven slimy green tentacles!

Now, I can breathe a sigh of relief before diving back into the writing side of self-publishing.

What am I referring to?  Only the greatest Kickstarter comeback in the history of everything.  That's all.  Yes, Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise secured just over $13,000.  Less than I dreamed, but more than I realistically expected after the first 20-25 days where we seemed to be irrevocably stuck at about 7 grand. 

If you decide you want in, don't worry.  You didn't miss out on your chance to secure a luxury, signed, numbered, off-set printed hardcover edition of Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise (or it's predecessor... Cha'alt).

I can't keep this eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse campaign all to myself, now can I?  Simply email me and we'll get you squared away: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

This past week, I ran three playtest sessions.  Two on Roll20, and one face-to-face.  I'll be blogging about them either tomorrow or the next day.

Besides saying THANK YOU to all my supporters, backers, fans, and fellow gamers, I'm done here.  ;)

VS

Cha'alt PDF Released

At long last, my campaign setting and dungeoncrawl extravaganza Cha'alt is now available on DriveThruRPG.

This thing is almost double the size of anything I've done before.  218 pages... I almost can't even count that high.  That's nuts!  And it's just jam-packed with content.  The thing is dense, my dudes.  And so beautifully laid-out by Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design, I can't even believe it.  Yeah, it's a dream come true.

I've talked about it for a long while, but now it's time for Cha'alt to speak for itself.

VS

p.s. If you get the PDF ahead of any print version, there's going to be a price break.  So, try it out now because I'm pretty sure you'll want this in either soft or hardcover soon enough.

Cha'alt on Roll20

I'm opening up Cha'alt to the world, at least those who frequent Roll20.

So, if you're interested in a 5e D&D game that's part cyberpunk, part mutant wasteland, part dungeoncrawl, here's the link.

These weekly sessions will only be about an hour long (Thursdays, 11:30 - 12:30pm central standard time) and text only (I'll be sitting at my desk in a fairly public space).  So, we'll dive in ASAP. 

Come with a character concept ahead of time.  check out these character classes!  Races can be any standard fantasy thing you want to come up with... as long as it's not too immersion-breaking, I'm fine with it.  Half centaur, half stalk of celery, and half nuclear bomb?  Umm... no.

If this turns out well, I will most likely blog about it... perhaps even self-publish the campaign as an adventure or setting book down the road.  So, signing up to play means you're cool with that.

VS

Cha'alt: Character Classes

So, a couple weeks ago was session -1, and yesterday we finally got to session zero.  Although, to be completely honest, it's more about having lunch with friends than pre-planning D&D.

Regardless, some campaign discussion happened.  For instance, here are the available character classes in Cha'alt: Sun-bleached death!

Basically, it's Shadowrun within the domed cities and Mad Max / Gamma World / Dark Sun everywhere else.

• Dragon Priest: Dragons rule the world of Cha'alt and they are perceived as Gods by the inhabitance.  However, there are priests who worship other god-like beings too... such as, worm priests (yes, giant sandworms burrowing in the wasteland).  Focus: non-offensive spells, such as healing, protection, divination, flight, creating water, etc.  HD: 1d6 [max HP at 1st level]
• Sorcerer: They wield the magic; this was a land of fantasy and technology before the apocalypse.  Focus: offensive spells; destructive sorcery such as fireball, lightning, acid arrow, magic missiles, etc.  HD: 1d4 [max HP at 1st level]
• Urban Ranger: They live in the domed cities, detectives, investigators, blade-runners, and bounty hunters.  Metropolitan killers in nice slacks.  Focus: tracking, locating weaknesses of their prey, and surviving in city environments.  HD: 1d8 [max HP at 1st level]
• Brutalizer: If you're going to live in the wastes, you either have to be a hunter or gatherer.  These are the hunters - they tussle with big game out in the radioactive ruins.  Focus: killing!  HD: 1d12 [max HP at 1st level]
• Scavenger: Thieves of the wasteland, scavengers who search for necessities, tech, magic, and anything that can be used to survive.  They know how to get in and out of the ruins and sewers beneath the domed cities.  Focus: detecting and disarming traps, skulking around silently, getting into hard-to-reach places, hiding in what little shadow there is and striking death-blows.  HD: 1d10 [max HP at 1st level]
• Techno-mancer: They plug into cyberspace in order to access the network, repository for all the available knowledge.  Focus: creating, repairing, operating, and maintaining machines, electronic equipment, and any kind of high-tech gear.  HD: 1d4 [max HP at 1st level]

For the dragon priest, sorcerer, and techno-mancer, magic (even techno-magic) is rather free form -player describes what he wants his character's spell to do and rolls a d20 (adjusted by modifiers).  The GM describes what happens.

Spells / day = character's level.  For example, a 3rd level character can cast 3 spells per day).  Additional spells may be cast at a cost of 1d4 HP per spell.

Next time I blog about Cha'alt, I'll talk about PC races!

VS