Saturday, August 30, 2014

Free from & Magazine — Book of Low Level Lairs

& Magazine has really picked up the slack when the first wave of 'zines shut down (Fight On, Knockspell, etc), and best yet, their stuff is free, including a new collection of lairs for low level parties.

Friday, August 29, 2014

New PWYW Modle—PO-1 The Stolen Child from QuasarDragon Games

 A lot of pay what you want modules seem a bit slapdash, but this one seems quite professional.

A Real Life Dungeon

This is pretty neat. 50 years ago, a guy in Turkey was renovating his home, and came across a series of underground chambers and tunnels. 
The underground city at Derinkuyu is neither the largest nor oldest, but its 18 stories make it the deepest.
(thanks to thedroid at TBP)

Thursday, August 28, 2014

New OSR Products at RPGNow—August 28th, 2014

Another busy week. I remember one week we had two adventures involving "fanes". Looks like this week it's mines.

Adventures

FN13 - Kroast Caverns - Yup, another week, another Adventures in Filbar module. For mid level characters. 12 pages, $3.

Hare and Gone - Another pay what you want module from  the Gagmen. Seems like the goal is to herd rabbits past some goblins

Inkling Adventures #1: Raiders of the Forgotten Treasure -  For Swords & Wizardry, this is apparently meant to be a kid friendly module and suitable for use with other rules meant to kids, like Dagger and presumably Beyond the Wall. Seems a bit small, only 5 rooms. 8 pages, $2.

Mazestone Dungeon - A mini-dungeon for Sword & Wizardry from Creation's Edge games.  I love the tag line for this: The king’s wizard is dead. His legendary mazestone has been stolen. The good news is its been located in the castle’s dungeon. The bad news is the maze has escaped, along with the monsters it contained...  

For 4-6 characters of 4-6 levels. 11 pages, $1.50

The Overrun Mines - From 3 Toads:  The local mine has been overrun by foul creatures, stopping all mining operations! The Lord has dispatched a call for brave heroes to clear out the mine, but what lurks below the surface?.  15 pages and a whopping 50 cents.

PFE5: Calamity Mine -  a "pocket sized encounter" for Swords & Wizardry from Iron Tavern Press for level 1-3 characters. Seems to involve an old abandoned mine, oddly enough.  21 pages, $2.

Rules

Eidolon - This a new class for Labyrinth Lord. Play some sort of undead creature looking for revenge. 6 pages, $1.

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods - 20 new monsters inspired by the early 20th century book of the same name. 24 pages, $1.50

Misc

Obscene Serpent Religion - Random gibberish generator. $3.33, 32 pages.

The Manor, Issue #7 - OSR fanzine. 27 pages, $2.50

MM4 Roadside Respite now available for pre-order

Almost missed this one, MM4 Roadside Respite, a mini module for OSRIC, 4 to 6 characters of levels 4-5. Indeed, I've missed the entire line, although this seems to be the first in it (so why is it 4? I don't know)
While travelling the road a weary group of adventurers has come upon a long abandoned farmstead. It seems to be remarkably peaceful and even protected. Soon dreams of other lives, other times, and terrible deeds take over until sleep just becomes a heart breaking nightmare. Heroes never ask for such a curse, but tortured souls from the past are pleading for help, and there is no rest for the noble until help comes. What secrets did this farmstead hold?
Will sleep never come for our heroes until they too are invading the dreams of living?

Anyway, apparently the first 50 will be numbered and signed (it's a print product), and there are only 27 left as I type this. Only $6.95

I dunno if the module is any good, but he's a hell of a good artist.

New at Lulu—Obscene Serpent Religions by Rafael Chandler

This seems to be another LoFP, "look at me, look at me" sort of product with tables of random gibberish supposed to be edgy...

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

1974 D&D Variant, now for download at Playing at the World

I haven't gotten around to buying that book, but the author has a blog where he sometimes posts interesting things, like today, an early D&D variant from 1974.

I say variant, but really it's sort of an alternative take on dungeon crawling, sort of like Tunnels and Trolls was....

Dwimmermount Review — A Mountain of an Adventure


 The story behind Dwimmermount could probably span a short novel (or at least a long essay), so I won't go into that. Suffice it to say, it's a megadungeon for Labyrinth Lord by James Maliszewski and polished up by Alexander Macris and Tavis Allison of Autarch, who published it. It's a megadungeon in just about every sense of the word. But what is a megadungeon, you ask?

Well, a megadungeon is essentially a really, really large dungeon. At least eight levels, and hundreds of rooms, I'd say. But where Dwimmermount answers the megadungeon call is not just in those areas (13 levels and 750 plus rooms), but in the level of detail. Many megadungeons are content to have a line or so of description for each room, or perhaps even leave dozens of rooms blank, even whole levels. But Dwimmermount doesn't cheap out, each room is described in at least a paragraph. Oh sure, a few rooms are empty, which only takes a sentence or two, but even those get a description beyond "Empty room".

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Kickstarter for Maximum Mayhem Dungeon #2: Secret Machines of the Star Spawn


I don't have the first one in the series, the one about the Vampire Queen, but it looks good. This one, now on Kickstarter, looks much less traditional but even more awesome.

Goal was $500, which has been met, but there are a bunch of stretch goals. Interesting, the creator has backed something like 700 projects...

Monday, August 25, 2014

DM2 The Dungeons of Diremirk Review


This Labyrinth Lord adventure from New Realms Publishing is something of a follow-up to DM1 The Secret of Eberon's Manor. It's not directly related, but is located in the same general locale (more detailed in one of their other products, Borderlands of Adventure) and is for slightly higher level characters, 2nd-4th level.

It's a site based adventure, with no real plot except that a man wanders into wherever the PCs presumably are, collapses while saying the word "Diremirk". When he wakes up, he relates a tale of his companions exploring the ruins of the place and getting mauled by monsters, so he fled. Presumably the PCs will go and avenge and/or rescue his companions.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Blood & Treasure Monster Tome now on sale at Lulu

Blood & Treasure Complete or the GM's Guide actually already came with 500 monsters, basically everything in the SRD and more, but in case you want even more mones, here's another 250. Right now, only in hardback form for $22, but you get the PDF for that if you email him the receipt.

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods released


This is something of a mini-monster manual from Spes Magna Games, based on a real life (if tongue in cheek) book of the same name, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods by William T. Cox.

19 critters statted for Swords & Wizardry, 24 pages for $1.50

Advanced Adventures #25: Beneath the Heart of Empire Review

Beneath the Heart of Empire by Benton Wilson is a fairly short dungeon crawl for OSRIC (the retro clone of 1st Edition AD&D). It is #25 in the Advanced Adventures line from Expeditious Retreat Press, and meant for 1st to 3rd level characters. At 8 pages, it's rather short, though it manages to have 47 keyed locations, plus a smattering of background.

That background makes it perhaps a bit tricky to fit into most games, it's essentially set benearth a fantasy version of Rome. Not a few fantasy settings have a Rome analog, but it's not overly common, either. And you can't really divorce it from the setting, as many of the encounters have a Roman flavor, like gladiators, or a former arena where they fought.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Expeditious Retreat Press having a 50% off sale at RPGNow

They seem to have a sale fairly often, actually, but they are having another one. I've got all these (save #31) in the hardback compendiums. Many of them aren't really worth $6 (some are only 8 pages), but certainly worth $3

They also have the Old School Gazette, which is like a 3-4 page 'zine.

Little late, but new issue of Underworld Lore at Gorgonmilk

Issue #4 of Underworld Lore is available for download at Gorgonmilk.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

New OSR Products at RPGNow—August 21st, 2014

Oh boy, what a busy week this was.

Adventures

Dwimmermount - A huge megadungeon for Labyrinth Lord. 400 pages, $10, probably the best deal outside of Stonehell Dungeon. For levels 1 and all the way up

FD2: Graveyard of the Battlelord - An Adventures in Filbar module for 2 low level AD&D characters. 17 pages, $3.

Forge of Shadows - This is a Swords & Wizardry mini-dungeon from Creation's Edge Games for levels 3-5. Set in an abandoned Dwarf hold. $1.50 and 12 pages

The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen - A high level OSRIC adventure. 40 pages, $10. Obviously it pales in comparison to the value that Dwimmermount delivers, but has a lot of cool art which ups the production cost.

Pigetto's World of Pure Transfiguration - Another adventure from "The Gagmen", who aren't that funny, but are generous, releasing their modules as Pay What You Want. 26 pages. No level listed, and presumably for Basic Fantasy RPG. Involves Teddy bears and magical toys.

The Tower of the Were-Toads - A mini, pay what you want adventure.

The Valley of the Seven Sisters - A mini set of encounters  2 pages, pay what you want.

Rules

The Mystic - a new class from Gaius Ludus Games, seems to be a new sort of magic user. 10 levels, no system specified beyond old school.  $1, 1 page

Sourcebooks

The Island of the Conatiki-aru, or the Lost Island of the Sea Rogue! - This seems to be a comical (allegedly funny at least) pirate setting for numerous simple RPGs, including OSR (and Tunnels & Trolls)

One Page - The Big Deal - This is a bundle of 20 different one page products. I have no idea what they are, to be honest, they seem to be maps and random tables. $14.59 and a lot of pages, I would guess.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The Towers of the Weretoads is now Pay What You Want

I think this was a freebie from a few weeks ago. If you liked it, you can support the author by buying it (for more than 0 cents, at least) at RPGNow

Frog God having a 400 Frog Bucks Raffle

It's mostly tied to their Kickstarter (bleh), but you can enter just by answering a few questions, and win up to $400 to spend in their store.

(hat tip to SpinachCat at RPGSite)

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Freebooter's Guide to the Razor Coast free in PDF for a limited time



This is a bit iffy. The Freebooter's Guide comes in a Swords & Wizardry version, but it's very much a Pathfinder orientated product line.

Still, ordinarily a $1,000 value, or something like that (Frog God's products are really overpriced...)

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Small Niche Games having a $1.50 Adventure sale


Until September 1st, all Small Niche adventures are on sale for $1.50 each at RPGNow. I don't have any of them, but some of them seem to have been well received, like the Shrine of St. Aleena

Friday, August 15, 2014

Dwimmermount PDF on sale!


As a Kickstarter backer, I've had the PDF for a week or so now, but it's now gone up for sale at RPGNow.

$10 gets you a 400 page megadungeon (well 300 is dungeon, the rest is filler), with probably close to a 700 rooms. Only a few with giant rats. You don't really need the map or illustration book. It has single page versions of each level map (the map book has each map spread out on two pages) and quite a few illustrations (including some that are in the illustration book).

Issue #10 of & Magazine is out





Many fanzines, pay or free, have sort of fizzled out. But & Magazine started up a few years ago and is still going strong with issue #10 now for download for free at the & website.

As you can see from the cover, this issue is (they are usually theme) dedicated to Shapechangers and runs about 100 pages.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Coming for AS&SH—Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess

North Wind Adventures have released a few adventures for their game, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, but most of them have been retreads from other magazines (Knockspell usually) and honestly, you can buy the magazine cheaper than you can buy the standalone adventure. But they have a new, original adventure coming:

Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess by Joseph Salvador. This adventure is set in the micro-setting called The Lemurian Remnant, an island at the rim of Hyperborea. The micro-setting is described by the author as so:

Eons ago, before Atlantis disappeared below the waves of Old Earth, the lost continent of Lemuria was itself subject to destruction and chaos. Volcanoes and earthquakes rent the land asunder and great storms swept across the continent creating impossible cyclones and whirlwinds. One of those vortices, caused by the North Wind, consumed part of Lemuria sweeping it away from the doomed continent and holding it in limbo until finally dispelling the remnant of the lost land into Hyperborea. Now, this Lemurian Remnant exists in a dimensional anomaly at the ultimate edge of Hyperborea, where the seas spill into the Black Gulf. Those wishing to reach Lemuria face the ceaseless windstorms which surround the archipelago and the deadly pull of the Rapids at the End of the World. Couple this with the Lemurian's isolationist mentality and consequently, the Lemurian Remnant continues to be a place of mystery to the varied peoples of Hyperborea._

In other news we've brought in Val Semeiks as the cover artist for _Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess

First Edition Bard Released

From the author of Full Metal Plate Mail and the First Edition Monk, comes the First Edition Bard for OSRIC, which doesn't include it.


New OSR Products at RPGNow—August 14th, 2014

Seems like another fairly busy week!

Adventures

Crypts of Cardak -  A Swords & Wizardry mini dungeon from Creation's Edge for levels 2-4. 11 pages, $1.50

Curse of Cragbridge - Already mentioned, a pay what you want adventure for 1-3 levels.

The Dungeon of Crows First 28 Rooms: - Another module I already mentioned, this is the first 28 rooms of a megadungeon.  Low levels, pay what you want.

FP5- Temple of Si Hur - An Adventures in Filbar module for mid level parties. $3 and 18 pages.

Rules

Fortune Teller A new Labyrinth Lord class from Barrel Rider games. $1

Optional Skill Resolution Rules - From Spes Magna Games, rules for skills  $1.50


Sourcebooks

The Complete B/X Adventure - From the author of the B/X Companion, this is a bunch of new classes for B/X or similar games. $10.99, 62 pages

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures Review


Although the D&D phenomenon started with wargamers and quickly spread to college goers, children also flocked to the game. Almost everyone I knew in elementary school played it. The very original D&D rules were confusing even to hardened wargamers, and the AD&D books were extremely dense and written in a curious style. What largely formed the gateway for kids was "basic" D&D, first that of J. Eric Holmes, then later by Tom Moldvay and then Frank Mentzer. That child friendliness was lost in more recent editions, which was marketed essentially to existing gamers (at least in my opinion).

Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures from Flatland Games is an attempt to not only reverse that trend of child friendliness, but to actually make a game for children and young adults. That's not to say childish, but trying to capture the feel of young adult fantasy literature, where a young person is thrust into adventure along with his friends.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Free Drizzt Audiobooks

I'm not sure if this qualifies as OSR, but they certainly did start back in the TSR era. But at any rate, for a limited time, some audiobooks, or at least stories, are free at Audible. Including the one Ice-T read.

Sadly, Mr. T hasn't read any. 

Saturday, August 9, 2014

The Complete B/X Adventurer is out



The Complete B/X Adventurer from Running Beagle Games, who did the excellent B/X Companion (basically a variant version of the Companion rules, meant for B/X (Moldvay and Cook), instead of Mentzer's Basic and Expert.

Anyway, basically it's a bunch of new original classes, 17 in all. So while the price of $10.00 might seem a little steep, compare it to all those $1 classes.

Woohoo! Dwimmermount Finished!


I backed this Kickstarter a couple of years ago (28 months to be precise). Originally the target date for release was August 2012. But now in August 2014, it's finally done, thanks to the people at Autarch, with the final PDF going out to backers today, and the print versions shipping this week (hopefully, presumably they are using print on demand for it, so it shouldn't take more than a week or two).

Despite the delays, I've been pretty happy with it. We did have a word manuscript from James done in about November of 2012. But then basically nothing happened for a year after that, before Autarch finally picked it up.

As to the quality, I think it's excellent. The rant about the giant rats and 2000 coppers was overwrought, I thought. Barrowmaze and Stonehell Dungeon get praised, yet they have more rooms with rats than Dwimmermount does. Heck, probably half of Barrowmaze is rooms with rats. (Okay, hyperbole, but it's got to be at least 10 rooms with rats).

Thursday, August 7, 2014

The Dungeon of Crows - First 28 Rooms released


This is the first part of a megadungeon for Labyrinth Lord. I'm actually not familiar with the authors work, but it's Pay What You Want, so you can check it out for nothing.
From the author of Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror, The Imperishable Sorceress, and The Revelation of Mulmo!
Welcome to the Dungeon of Crows, a megadungeon for Labyrinth Lord and other Old School Role-Playing Games!
Within you will find what remains of the Skullheap Goblins, a few vermin known and surprising, a mysterious rhizomatic growth, and the blue and red goop PCs will surely interact with.
This product contains the first 28 encounter areas, as well as a map for the western half of Level 1.  (The eastern half requires navagating the underground lake, or coming up from below.)
If you liked my previous stuff, you might like this. Really.
Pay What You Want. If there is enough interest, I will continue.

New OSR Products at RPGNow—August 7th, 2014

After a few slow weeks, things have really picked up!


Adventures

FA3 - Darkwood Forest — A free Adventures in Filbar module. At the risk of being mean, I'm not sure the free stuff does a very good job of selling their pay stuff.

Sorrowblight Fields — Low level mini-dungeon for Swords & Wizardry. $1.50, 11 pages

Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine - Pay What You Want adventure.

VS2 - Bearing a Grudge. Low level adventure from Infibadger Press in OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and Swords & Wizardry editions.  $2.99, 34 pages

Misc

Goldmarsh Village — A complete village in 12 pages. $2.

Rules

Aquatic Depths & Denizens — Rules for underwater adventuring, including new races, for OSRIC

Half-Ogre — A new class for Labyrinth Lord from Barrel Rider games. $1

Scoundrel — Another new class for LL from Barrel Rider games. $1. Seems to be a gambler type.

Watchman — Yet another new class for LL from Barrel Rider games. $1. This seems to be like a city guard.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

VS2—Bearing a Grudge now out for OSRIC and LL

Infibadger's first module wasn't so great (IMHO just a small cave by the water), but at least its heart was in the right place and it was free.  Now they are back with a second, hopefully better product, Bearing a Grudge, in both OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord form.

PWYW OSR Module—Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine



From Logan Knight comes  Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine. Fairly big, albeit single column.and includes some new spells. Uses a generic OSR format.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

First Edition Monk available for OSRIC



OSRIC, as written, lacks an official monk. There have been a couple attempts at making them, including one by Stuart Marshall in Footprints #19. Now there is a new one by Leonaru, The First Edition Monk.

I like the Footprints one, but one is free as well, so worth a look.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Creation's Edge starts publishing OSR materials


Creation's Edge, a fairly prolific 3e/Pathfinder/4e low end publisher, has now dipped its toes into the OSR waters with a module, Sorrowblight Fields for Swords & Wizardry. It's an 11 page mini-module for $1.50 and 1-3 level characters.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Gutenberg—Life on a Mediaeval Barony

Although I think D&D probably resembles the ancient era more than medieval/feudal, a lot of people feel otherwise, and this book, Life on a Mediaeval (sic) Barony by William Stearns Davis has a lot of information about 13th century life on a manor, with tons of illustrations.

The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen available for purchase



Well, this is one Kickstarter I missed.  Dark Corners of Roleplaying (which is from the Swords & Stichery guy) has a nice preview of it. Apparently it's for OSRIC

If you are like me and missed the KS, you can order copies of it from their Facebook page