Wednesday, October 26, 2016

New OSR Products at DTRPG/RPGNow — October 25th, 2016

A rather slow week.

One interesting item is the Legend Quest Omnibus, which is apparently a compilation of all the books for a 1980s RPG that got decent reviews in Dragon (I think). However, at $30, I'm not that curious.

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I3-5 Desert of Desolation - Compilation of the I3-5 modules from the Hickmans, not set in the Forgotten Realms.  I love Ancient Egypt, but these didn't do much for me. $9.99 and 128 pages

PC3 Creature Crucible: The Sea People -  Racial classes for basic D&D for all sorts of underwater races.  $4.99 and 96 pages.

REF3: The Book of Lairs - Basically a bunch of short encounters. $4.99 and 96 pages.

REF4: The Book of Lairs II: Electric Bugbear - More of the above. $4.99 and 96 pages.

Adventures

Dark Colony - Big sci-fi horror adventure from Eldritch Enterprises - aka Jim Ward and Timothy Kask. Uses their generic (and really crappy) stat system, but it's not too hard to convert to D&D/Gamma World/MA/OSR. 123 pages and only $6.

Rules


Sexbots -  For one of the more overlooked OSR Sci-Fi games, Machinations of the Space Princess (which is close to being Lamentations of the Flame Princess in space, but actually good). Seemed to be completely forgotten until this popped up, though it hardly qualifies as a major product. 18 pages, .89 cents

Misc


Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 10-21-16  This is a very interesting map that features cros-over tunnels. $1 for the enhanced version

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Poetry Book by Clark Ashton Smith on Gutenberg

I always thought Clark Ashton Smith was unfairly omitted from Appendix N. He gave D&D the Geas spell and his Zothique stories essentially gave rise to the language and themes of Jack Vance's Dying Earth tales.

But before he wrote short stories, he wrote poetry, another volume of which, Ebony & Crystal is now available on Gutenberg (along with The Star Treader)

Personally, I don't really like poetry (though I did like Data's poem about his cat). But still, worth a look, I think.

Monday, October 24, 2016

RIP Jack Chick

Okay, to be honest, I didn't realize he was still alive until I read the mention of his death.

But it's funny how much flak/mockery he still got, while others from that era, like say Tom Hanks or certain politicians escape any sort of repercussions from their attacking D&D (which AFAIK, they haven't retracted)

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd Edition now on Kickstarter

And already funded!

Seems to basically be more of the same - more classes, more artwork, though that seems to be a step back from the artwork of the original, going with a more comic book look. (Though at least it's an old school comic book look, not the crappy art comics have nowadays)

Anyway, $15 for the PDF and $59 for the hardback book (and map).

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

New OSR Products at DTRPG/RPGNow — October 18th, 2016

Not too busy this week. While not my cup of tea, there's a bunch of Arduin stuff listed

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HWQ1 The Milenian Scepter -  Pretty good basic adventure set in the Greek/Roman themed Milenian empire. $4.99, 64 pages

Kara-Tur The Eastern Realms -  The boxed set for the setting for 1e's Oriental Adventures, possibly meant for Greyhawk, but ended up in the Forgotten Realms.  192 pages, $4.99

MC14 Fiend Folio - 2e coverage of the monsters from Fiend Folio, at least the ones not covered earlier.  $4.99, 64 pages.

The Magic Encyclopedia Volume II - The second part of the listing of all the magic items in TSR D&D. $4.99 and probably only about 90 pages (it says 155, but that's because the page number starts at 74)

Adventures


Maze of the Blue Medusa -  The dungeon (not a megadungeon in my opinion, only about 300 rooms) from Zak S makes an appearance on DTRPG. 288 pages and $5, or $10 for the bookmarked version

It's a remarkable product and definitely designed to be played, but honestly, it's a really high brow product, meant for people who are into modern art and such.

Ten Buried Blades - An adventure for Godbound. $4.99 and 56 pages.

Misc


Enhanced Friday Freebie Map - $1

Nod 30 - While the possible exception of Michael Curtis, I think John Stater is the most prolific OSR author, somewhat unheralded at that.  His 'zine content alone outstrips virtually anyone else. 50 pages, $3.99

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

New OSR Products at DTRPG/RPGNow — October 11th, 2016

Almost to the Ides of October. Not too busy this week, most notably the new version of Crypts & Things

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DDA4 The Dymrak Dread -  I know absolutely nothing about this latter day basic module. By John Nephew, who is probably my least favorite RPG author (in terms of product quality). TSR loved him though, he seemingly had dozens of bad adventures in Dungeon. 16 pages, $4.99.

Quest for the Silver Sword - Another last days of basic module that I know nothing about. Apparently it's set in Thunder Rift. 16 pages, $4.99

Adventures


AW1 The Hills of Death - Looks like a wilderness adventure. 20 pages, $2

AW2 Sloven Hills -  Details the lands of a witch queen, easily my favorite kind of queen (well, besides the band). 12 pages, $1.20

Rules


Advanced Mutant Companion -  Bunch of new stuff for Mutant Future, the vaguely Gamma Worldish OSR Game. New mutations, new races, and other stuff.  $2 and 39 pages.

Crypts & Things Remastered -  One of the best OSR games gets a new version with more content - specifically more classes, more world info, and some sample adventures.  $13 and 247 pages.

Dungeon Questing New Races Volume 2 - Apparently for a specific OSR game that I've missed (or forgotten), this has 6 races - Minotaur, Rat, Bird, Golem, Lizard, and Centaur. 18 pages, $1

Misc


Friday Freebie Enhanced Map - Another enhanced map from Paratime Design. $1

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Against the Goblins Review — Not Your Usual Goblins


Mathew E. Kline and Creation's Edge Games (which I guess is just him) have put out several mini modules in the "Dungeons of Dazegoneby" line for Swords & Wizardry and a similar line for White Star. I quite like them, as they are short, but not too short, and reasonably priced. Not to mention competently done and a great example of how you can put together a quality product using stock art and maps. Unlike his previous modules, A1 Against the Goblins is actually a full sized adventure, weighing in at 65 pages and a slightly higher price tag (though still very reasonable) of $5.

In essence though, it's really close to being three different modules with a connected plot (not unlike G1-3 Against the Giants, which I always want to type when writing the title of this). Basically the PCs must save a village from three different tribes of goblins, each with their own special ability imbued by a magical device called a chaos stone. One tribe can spew flame, another is plague-ridden, and the third can raise dead, at least zombies.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

New OSR Titles at DTRPG/RPGNow — October 4th, 2016

Another quiet week on the OSR front.

In the spirit of Halloween, I started working on the second floor of my dungeon, The Charnel Pits of Reynaldo Lazendry, loosely inspired by Re-Animator and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It's always surprisingly hard to translate a dungeon from notes into a module. Some rooms are just vague scribbles. Sometimes you see what you've written and think "That doesn't make sense" and then you likely want to change the things that the players didn't like.

Also, why is "charnel" not in any spellchecker? I keep thinking I spelled it wrong, but nope, it's just not in there.

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HWA1 Nightwail -  Somewhat strangely, the Hollow World was my introduction to Mystara. I had picked up the boxed set for cheap and really liked it. There weren't all too many adventures set there, this is the first of a trilogy, which I can't remember much about (which says how meh it was). $4.99 and 64 pages.

HWA2 Nightrage - Sequel to the above. Set in psuedo Egypt and pseudo Meso-America. $4.99 and 64 pages.

HWR2 Sons of Azca - This is a sourcebook detailing the Hollow World's pseudo Meso-America. 96 pages pages, $4.99

HWR3 The Milenian Empire - This is sort of a combination of Greece under Alexander and to a  lesser extent, Rome. 96 pages, $4.99

Adventures


None

Rules


Mazes & Perils: The Holy Knight -  New class for Mazes & Perils, the Holmes inspired game. $1.99 and 10 pages.

Misc

D100 Minor Magic Items - 5 pages of minor magic items from 3 Toadstools.

Friday Freebie - Neat amp of an underground temple. $1 for the enhanced version.