Friday, April 26, 2019

New OSR Products at DTRPG — April 25th, 2019

While as far as I know, he's not dead or anything, for some reason Troll Lords has a special Jim Ward bundle.

Also, Fat Goblin seems to be having a $1 sale for their stuff, including a lot of stock art. The trick is, in most cases, I'd rather have the $1. Their main artist is good technically, but his characters look too real. Ugly real. If I want realistic looking people, let them be models, not Wal-mart customers. They also have a Lovecraftian selection, but their take on most of them doesn't really resemble the conventional take, or HPL's writing.

Official


GW8 Gamma Base -  Rather lazily named GW module. $4.99 plus more for print.

GW10 Epsilon Cyborgs -  Cyborg adventure and book for Gamma World. $4.99 plus more for print

Polyhedron 44 and 45 - 45 has a Dawn Patrol scenario. I remember playing a WW1 fighter game back in the day, but I don't remember if it's Dawn Patrol or not. 99 cents each.

Adventures


100 Clones of Timothy the Wise -  This silly sounding name belies a fairly epic, if gonzo adventure. $9.99 and 126 pages

Rules


Into the Jungle -  Seems to be a Viet Nam inspired game. Free 16 pages.

Space Dungeon Book II - Aka Monsters and Treasure for this sci-fi version of OD&D (first book was like a month ago). $1.49, 52 pages.

Misc


Alarms & Journeys - Fanzine. Vague content listing. $1, 14 pages

Friday Enhanced Map 4-19-19 - Another section of what I think is a large dungeon. There's sort of a highway that connects each of the maps for the last couple months. $1.

Wizard Funk Issue 1 - Fanzine. No content listing. $1, 10 pages.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Eyrie of the Dread Eye Review — Creative Homage to Dwellers of the Forbidden City

New adventures from Autarch have slowly been trickling out in the last year or so, with the latest being AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye by Courtney Campbell. It's purely a site based adventure for levels 6-8 (ACKs or B/X), with no plot, but it does have a fairly detailed and interesting back story. The Dread Eye of the title is not a euphemism for the classic D&D beholder, but a strange demonic entity called the Occulus, who was summoned and imprisoned in a city long, long ago. The Occulus reminds me more than a bit of Yog-Sothoth from the Cthulhu mythos, as it's both a gateway and an entity. There also a few other Lovecraftian flavored encounters, such as proto-oozes and intelligent apes.
 

Monday, April 22, 2019

New Maximum Mayhem Dungeon Kickstarter



I can never get the embed things right, but the series of 1e/OSRIC modules is getting its 6th entry, Moving Maze of the Mad Master.

Honestly, most of them aren't very good. They are gimmicky/joke dungeons, but the last, #5, was pretty good. This seems to beheading back into gimmick territory with a maze that moves on a wheel.

Still, he's one of the few people actually making 1e modules and the artwork is original and usually well done. Even if you'd never actually want to run or worse, play in them.  $15 for PDF, $30 for softcover + PDF, and more expensive options as well.

Friday, April 19, 2019

New OSR Products at DTRPG — April 18th, 2019

Fairly slow week.

Adventures


DIRE: Tome of the Fallen -  System neutral (but somehow for levels 3-5) module. 30 pages, PWYW

The Haunted Theatre -  Low level dungeon for a system I'm not familiar with, "knave", but also says other old school RPGs. 4 pages, $1

The Tomb of Xenophon - 7 room "microadventure". 2 pages, $1.99. At least it has original art.

Rules


Old School Essentials - Basic Rules -  Only covers 1st level, though. Free.

Misc


GVSZ1: The Mutant Insurrectionist - A seemingly gonzo zine from David Lewis Johnson, whose treasure chest appears in approximately 22.55% of all OSR products.  $5, 20 pages.

Tales of the Splintered Realm: Trove of Treasure - 100 new magic items. PWYW

Thursday, April 18, 2019

The Sunken Temple of Chloren-Var Review — Would Work Better As a Text Adventure


The Sunken Temple of Chloren-Var from Wolfhill Entertainment first caught my eye because of the odd phrase in the description, "area variations based on light sources". I can't honestly think of another module that mentioned light sources. I kept my eye on it because it seems to be a product from a new company/person, and after seeing his promotional posts over on ENWorld, I pulled the trigger. At $5.99 it's right on the cusp of my price range for maybe products, but it is quite lengthy at 100 pages (100 real pages, not the padded sort that some people use that only have a few lines of text per page).

It's something of a weird beast in that it's supposedly system neutral, but that system neutral is obviously an older school D&D. There are levels (this is for levels 1st to 4th), but instead of hit points, there are life points. Armor class is given as an equivalent to armor, ranging from leather to field plate, but with some oddities, like bronze platemail (which is just the same as banded or splint, which it uses elsewhere). With that said, there's very, very, very little treasure, and for that matter, not much motivation for the adventure in the first place.

Monday, April 15, 2019

B/x Essentials is apparently now Old-School Essentials and has a Kickstarter

As someone who started with AD&D and a mix of OD&D (since the DMG hadn't come out yet), I always think of Basic as being somewhat newfangled, not old school. As to why it's supposedly so hard it needs new easier versions, I don't get, but as of this writing, 858 people and nearly $60,000 of their money do get it

Still, Mr Norman is a talented man so his success is well deserved. I just wish it had been for his more original products (like the Complete Vivimancer) than a re-hash.

One amusing thing, though

Compatibility: Old-School Essentials is a 100% accurate restatement of the original Basic/Expert rules (B/X), with nothing added, changed, or removed. All material written for the B/X rules over the last 38 years can be used with Old-School Essentials, without any conversion effort whatsoever!

B/X as a rules system literally lasted for 2 years, replaced in 1983. It is literally the least successful version of D&D ever produced (even Holmes lasted 4 years)


As near as I can tell, it only had 5 modules written for it - B3, B4, X1,X2, and X3. (B1 and B2 being for Holmes)

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Ah shoot

When you start your day off by chasing off someone who is trying to steal your car, you think "Hey, at least nothing else today will be worse than that."

Unfortunately, that was not the case, I am very saddened to learn of the passing of James Smith of the Dreams of Mythic Fantasy blog

While I only knew him from that, he was one of the my inspirations to start OSR blogging myself. He'll be missed

Friday, April 12, 2019

New OSR Products at DTRPG — April 11th, 2019

No review this week. Was working on one, but then I got robbed on Wednesday. Nothing major, really, 2 guys in a white truck comes in. I thought they were someone else, a guy who cuts my hay (he's got a white truck and I live on an old 100 acre farm) so I ignore it as he goes and goes at least once a week. Then about 15 minutes later, it comes flying out and I notice it's full of my furniture that I kept in an old shed (no room inside).  I yell at them, get out of the way of the truck, then chase them futilely.

As they were mostly family old heirlooms (most notably being an old 5' globe from the 1800s and an old sea chest of my grandfather's), I wasn't ever going to sell them and so I have nothing to replace. But it's left me shaken up.  The whole brazenness of it, driving up and taking stuff while the owner is at home. And then I wonder if I should have been more suspicious.

And then I get angry because they had a newer truck than I do. And the local police didn't even call back, who knows if I will ever hear or get a visit from them.


Official


Polyhedron 40, 41, 42, and 43 -  These are from when the Living City dominated the magazine. 99 cents each.

Rules


Dungeons Nights -  Sadly, not a soap opera about the torrid romances that monsters have, but another "modern" take on the OSR. 59 pages, PWYW

RPPP Medieval Authentic (TM) Aristocracy - I think this really depends on what country. But whatever. 20 pages, $2.99

SCA1 The Best of Cavalier Attitude - Haven't been impressed by his adventures, but his zine is pretty good. This includes his take on the scout class (which was actually a very late 1e class from Dragon). 56 pages, $7.50

Misc


Psionic Platypus Vol 1 -  Apparently a one page zine. PWYW

Wilderlands of the Magic Relams, Revised Guidebook -  Doesn't this come out (again) every 6 months? Update of the old Judges Guild setting $4.99, 38 pages, also available in print.

Color Maps for above -

Friday, April 5, 2019

New OSR Products at DTRPG — April 4th, 2019

The best time of year, baseball season is once again upon us. Also, a lot of adventures this week.


Official


Polyhderon 36, 37, 38, and 39 -  These seem to be from the late 80s. 99 cents each.

Adventures


House of Illthrix -  Apparently the first of three for the Avremier setting for OD&D. $2.99 and 29 pages.

No Sun for a Wicked Moon -  Haven't heard much from Unbalanced Dice Games and apparently this is why, a 250 page mid level adventure for Labyrinth Lord where apparently the PCs go to the Moon.  Even considering the rather spacious page format used, that's a big adventure (probably 70 regular pages). $6

Shrine of Ptallo - Possibly a comedy adventure (the description starts off with a half-naked man) for S&W for levels 3 to 5.  20 pages, $2.50

The Labyrinth of Cull the Chaotic -  I got excited from the description, then saw it's 2 pages. 2 pages. The one page dungeon has to be the most obnoxious fad of the last 10 years. That and wearing pajamas as regular clothing. PWYW

The Sunken Temple of Chloren-Var - This seems to be system neutral, but with an old school style, strangely emphasizing lighting as a resource. 100 pages, $5.99

Rules


Men & Magic Compilation -  Basically a reorganized OD&D, including the ranger, illusionist, and bard.  Free!

Misc


Back to BasiX Issue 8 -  B/X fanzine. $2, 29 pages.  Highlights seem to be two comics and a Jaquays interview.

Echoes from Fomalhaut #04: Revenge of the Frogs -  Latest PDF of Gabor Lux's excellent fanzine, including an adventure (from the title) and more. 44 pages, $6

Friday Enhanced Map 3-29-19 -  The latest in what I think is a multi-part dungeon.

Mazith Random Cave Maker 2.5 - Program to generate maps of caves. PWYW.

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Class Catalog for B/X Essentials Review — 5e and old favorite classes for B/X


Perhaps the most notable thing about Basic/Expert D&D (and its later Companion, Master, Immortal successor) is race as class. In some ways it's both a strength and weakness, as it provides all sorts of different game play experiences by allowing monster characters, but it can also be restrictive when playing more human like creatures. What if you want to play an elf that isn't basically a fighter/magic-user?

Class Catalog from Crossplanes Game Studio brings a variety of racial classes to B/X Essentials, a grab bag of AD&D 2e races (aasimar and tiefling), 5e races (dragonborn and pixie), as well as variants of existing ones (dwarven thief, dwarven priest, elven rogue, halfling burglar), plus the gnome and half-orc.

Jim Ward posts on ENWorld about Meeting Gary Gygax....

Jim Ward is not exactly a stranger to the online world, but recently he's started posting some stuff over at ENWorld, a site not really known for old school D&D (as it was started for 3rd edition), but nevertheless, in a recent post he goes about how he met Gary Gygax and his first game of D&D


On that Tuesday the store had quite a few new books from different series I liked to read. There was an L. Sprague DeCamp Conan novel; a Michael Moorcock Elric book; I think there was a Robert Heinlein in the batch. Anyway, as I picked up the seventh novel, a rough looking dude was grabbing books as well. As I selected the last book of the seven he took a copy of the same book.

We looked at each other and smiled. He had sort of a biker air about him. He was wearing an old pair of jeans and a ratty blue-jean jacket. As we looked at each other's stack of books we realized we had picked the exact same novels. We got quite a laugh out of that.

Then we got into a discussion on the merits of Robert E. Howard or L. Sprague DeCamp's version of Conan. During that discussion he hit me with the fact that he had a game where I could play Conan fighting against the priests of Set. Gary had set the hook and I was being pulled in like a ten pound trout. He gave me his phone number and told me the game was every Saturday.

Much more at the link...