World of Algol pdf

The people who I’ve run Planet Algol for have all got copies of the World of Algol booklet, but now there’s a pdf available for everybody else.

World of Algol 1: The Iridium Plateau

What is this?

This document gives you some new playbooks, races, and spells so you can make Planet Algol characters with the Apocalypse World rules. It gives the MC some new tags, a new type of harm called contamination, and some advice on using the existing Apocalypse World rules to run Planet Algol. It’s fairly modest, really, and you’ll need to be familiar with both Apocalypse World and Planet Algol to get full use out of it.

What is Apocalypse World?

Apocalypse World is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game written by D. Vincent Baker. It’s written in the Story Now style, so you can start playing with as little prep as possible (though it still requires some between sessions). You can find it here.

Please note that, even with the Apocalypse World rules, you’ll still need to prepare unexplored locations if you are going to run a game in the Planet Algol setting.

What is Planet Algol?

Planet Algol is a weird post-apocalyptic science fantasy setting for old-school D&D that Blair Fitzpatrick started running in 2009. Think of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Geoffrey McKinney’s Carcosa, M.A.R. Barker’s Empire of the Petal Throne, and David A. Hargrave’s Arduin, then throw in some Heavy Metal magazine, some Gamma World, and as much pulp sci-fi as you can. He’s used 1st edition AD&D and the deluxe edition of Lamentations of the Flame Princess to run it. You can find the Planet Algol blog here.

I hope you like it.

-Johnstone

EDIT: Now with character sheets! They are double-sided, you can fold them in half, and the instructions are on the inside.

15 Responses to “World of Algol pdf”

  1. I do like it. Have you made any changes since the copy you gave me at FR?

  2. Nothing substantial. I think the Viisstri grey men special power and the Robot’s armour are the only changes, other than maybe a word or two here and there for clarification. The pdf has fewer races than the booklet, because of the pictures.

  3. I like it too. Do you have a separate character sheet pdf?

  4. Excellent – especially the Bard !

  5. Awesome. Thanks again!

  6. Sean, glad you like the Bard. Hopefully this version is more fun than the usual D&D Bard!

  7. Cool stuff! Few questions:
    1. All the basic moves remain the same as in AW, I guess?
    2. When casting spells, only some of them count as moves (that is, the ones I have to roll for), am I correct on that?
    3. What is an “Algol men”? Everything except Terran and synthetic? Do Pulvi and Shereshi count as Algol men?

  8. Hi juliusz,
    1. Yes.
    2. Exactly. A spellcaster may have to act under fire to cast a spell (or continue to concentrate) in a difficult situation, but if the spell description does not call for a roll, you don’t make one.
    3. This is one of those places where Blair’s setting material comes in handy. All the races except Terrans, synthetics, Pulvi, and Shereshi are human ethnicities native to Planet Algol, so they are called Algol men (even the Nire witches). Pulvi and Shereshi are very much inhuman.

  9. Thanks for answers, everything is clear now. I’m going to give World of Algol a try soon – looks more sexy than Dungeon World 😉

  10. Whoa! Staying loyal with TSR… admirable! Means I am not the only who knows that Monte Cook didn’t really write all those books on his own, too. Perhaps I should get back to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition as well.

  11. I’d really like to check it out, but the link doesn’t seem to work anymore. Any chance you could upload the material somewhere?

Trackbacks

Leave a comment