Saturday, January 31, 2015

Jeff Perren needs help

As our hobby gets older, so do many of the people who created it. Many simply die, but others have lingering health problems. Jeff Perren didn't contribute much to D&D directly, but he did co-write the Chainmail rules with EGG which led to D&D.

He's had to have a leg amputated but is fortunate enough to have a daughter willing to take him in. However, they need a stair lift and are running a GoFundMe to help pay for it.

Friday, January 30, 2015

The Caves of Ortok now in print on Lulu

I can't remember if it always was or not, but at any rate, the adventure The Caves of Ortok is available on Lulu in print for for $7.99. Comes in three different versions, one for S&W, LL, and OSRIC.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

New OSR Products at RPGNow—January 29th, 2015

Thank goodness January is almost over. Another quiet week, mostly stuff I've already covered.


Adventures


FA5 - Gortelburg Pass - This week's Adventures in Filbar product, and adventure setting for mid to high level characters. 16 pages, $2

The Android Underlords - Adventure for Metamorphasis Alpha from Michael Curtis, 16 pages $6

The Temple of Modiboga -  Free temple crawl adventure from the creator of Inferno. Requires minor adjustment to work with OSR games.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Expanded Petty Gods Preview—Tsathoggua and Friends

The whole product should be out in late February, but there's a preview up on RPGNow with stats on everyone's favorite bat-toad god and his followers, the Voormis and Formless Spawn, all written by James Mishler.

Quite a bit tougher (275 hp and 28 HD) than the "official" Labyrinth Lord version in Realms of Chaos (80 hp and 14 HD).

Ran into him once. Had to use a portable hole and bag of holding to send him away.

North Wind Adventures has a new website

Hyperborea.tv, where they have previews of their upcoming adventures which they plan on running a Kickstarter for.

Pretty bad-ass covers at least!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Free Adventure from Geoff Dale—The Temple of Modiboga

The Temple of Modiboga is a small temple crawl adventure from Geoff Dale, best known for his classic Judges Guild module Inferno (which he has updated/continued).

While it is for his retro-clone, Portal to Adventure, it's pretty much standard OSR stuff, other than some slightly different terminology. Not sure how his Armor Class works, as it seems to range from 6 to 30, but it seems to use standard monsters, so not a real problem.

New Calidar product announced

CC1 "Beyond the Skies",  focusing on the gods of the setting. Apparently it will be a Kickstarter, eventually

I plan on finishing most of the writing before launching a Kickstarter.  Crowd funding will be necessary to commission new art.  Since a good portion of the writing has already been accomplished, I’m hoping to reach this stage by late spring/early summer.

One more day in Grimtooth's Ultimate Traps Kickstarter

Essentially it's a compilation of their previous books, with some new stuff, all in one book for $35 softcover and $50 hardcover which is a heck of a deal.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

New Module for Metamorphosis Alpha

The Android Underlords by Michael Curtis
An all-new adventure for Metamorphosis Alpha, the first sci-fi RPG created by James M. Ward in 1976!
The Knower of All Things has been kidnapped! Mysterious agents have abducted the village shaman in the dead of night, leaving a hideous trail in their wake. Now it is up to the bravest and strongest members of the tribe to rescue the shaman before he falls victim to his captors’ nefarious plans. Before their journey is through, the village heroes will find themselves in an undreamt-of place, battling faceless foes. Is your mutant up to the challenge?
This adventure module is designed for Metamorphosis Alpha first edition, as originally published in 1976 and re-published by Goodman Games in 2014

$6 pages, 14 pages.

Now only if they'd publish some more 1e AD&D modules.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Grandpappy Cromdar's Whizbang Zoo! Review

Grandpappy Cromdar's Whizbang Zoo! is a module from David Lewis Johnson, who is perhaps best known as an artist, including some of the art that Kevin Crawford (Sine Nomine) put into the public domain after his successful kickstarters for Scarlet Heroes and Spears of the Dawn. You've probably seen a treasure chest he drew — it's been used in a number of OSR products (including one of mine).

As you might guess by the name, it's something of a gonzo style product. The zoo in question is literally a modern day sort of zoo, complete with many modern items, albeit a trashy zoo meant for tourists and that has apparently broken down, Westworld or Jurassic Park style. So it's perhaps not suited for your usual D&D game, even though it's statted for it (no specific system, but the armor class starts at 9).  Seems almost like it's best suited for something like Mutant Future or possibly Starships & Spacemen 2e, though the tech level is modern, not futurisitc.
 
Similarly, the new monsters (22 of them) are mostly chimerical sorts of mutant animals. For instance, the Hazbroca seems to be part cobra, part orca or at least dolphin. The floppelope is part walrus, part giraffe, and part peacock. The muggerbeak is part gorrila, part turkey. The quincy raptor is part lynx, part kangaroo. Not all, though. Some are alien creatures, though most seemingly have some similarity to an Earth animal. Besides the usual stats you also get what they smell and sound like, as well as their hobbies and turn-offs.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

New OSR Products at RPGNow—January 22nd, 2015

Another slow week, but a long awaited new Advanced Adventure makes up for it.

Adventures


Advanced Adventures #32 - The Place Beyond -  A new module for OSRIC, meant for characters 6th-9th level. Seems to have those funky isometric maps. 16 pages, $6

FD4 - Hunt for Charon - This week's Adventures in Filbar module, meant for low level players, so I'm guessing it's not the Charon. 19 pages, $3

Rules


Inferno Bestiary, Second Edition - From the guy who made the Inferno module for Judges Guild back in the day comes 200 more infernal (and angelic) monsters.  It's meant for his own retro-clone, so not quite identical, but usable in most OSR games without too much trouble. 139 pages, $17.75

Gygax Magazine Issue #5 shipping soon?

Honestly, I'm surprised it's still going, but apparently issue #5 is finished and should be soon finding its way to subscribers.

Amazing how Dragon came out once a month...

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Advanced Adventures #32: The Palace Beyond is out!

At least it's out at RPGNow/DTRPG. Although the quality depends a lot of the author, in general, I am a huge fan of this series, and they are pretty much the only real ongoing products for OSRIC/1e.

The Palace Beyond is an OSRIC(tm) module designed for 4-6 adventurers of levels 6-9.

The Palace Beyond is ancient, and the race that built it is long gone. The palace exists on many levels of reality, and it is said it is everywhere and nowhere at once. It connects different parts of the world: it is possible to walk through a magic portal, into one of the palace’s corridors, turn around a corner, and then walk through another portal to end up in a far away land. But now the palace is deserted, and the magic that made it possible is slowly crumbling. Its pocket dimension is collapsing, and large sections of the palace have already fallen into Nothingness.
$6, 16 pages.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

The Warlord's Vault Review

The Warlord's Vault is the 6th in the Dungeons of Dazegoneby line of modules from Creation's Edge Games, meant for a party of 6th to 8th level characters. The modules are for Swords & Wizardry (a Original D&D retro-clone) and are meant to mimic the modules TSR put out, at least in the general sense. They are more like mini-modules, to run for a single session, in this case 13 pages total, including map & credits page.

The setup is a bit non-traditional, being almost like a game show. The warlord of the title was a great adventurer and when he died, a friend created a tomb to serve as a proving ground to see who deserved his magical gear.

In order to reach his tomb, and more importantly, his gear, the PCs have to knock down 7 prismatic walls, essentially similar to the prismatic sphere spell. To take down each wall, you need to either cast the spell that counters it (which is probably not an option for the PCs, since most are higher level than this module) or use a corresponding prismatic key, which are found in various parts of the dungeon.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

New OSR Products at RPGNow—January 15th, 2015

This is pretty much the slowest week yet in terms of new OSR products since I started this blog. Even this week's Adventures in Filbar product is 5e, not OSR


Adventures

HS2 The Forsaken Burial Vaults -  A tomb crawl for 7th-10th level characters from me. Pay What You Want, 14 pages including maps/covers. Someone rated it a 4!

Rules

War Rider - A new character class for Labyrinth Lord, this is for dwarven cavalry who apparently ride on war pigs or goats. $1

Misc

Ancient Temple - Really nice series of maps for an ancient temple and the dungeons below from Tim Hartin and Paratime Design. 7 maps (each in keyed and unkeyed form), $4.99

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Micro Quest Cards Kickstarter

 This is one I had completely missed, Micro Quest Cards for 1e/OSRIC, basically a short adventure printed on a greeting card.

Already funded with 12 days left to go. Pretty clever idea.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

HS2 - The Forsaken Burial Vaults released

My second attempt at making a module. This time a bit longer, 25 rooms, and for character levels 7th to 10th. I ran it with 7th, but that's using 1e rules and with pretty good gear (comparable to the stuff in GDQ).

As I didn't have any suitable color cover art, I took a B&W Dore illustration and colored it to look somewhat like the monochrome modules. I think it looks pretty neat.

You can get it here for free, or from One Book Shelf also for free (well, Pay What You Want)

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Adventures in High World—Free Town Supplement

 From Corey Walden, probably best known as Rastus Burne on Dragonsfoot (and maybe elsewhere) comes Adventures in High World, a small supplement designed as a starting out town.

This supplement is for any DM who needs a town, and needs a town fast! Designed to be compatible with any fantasy role-playing game system, Adventures In Highwold is the perfect starting point for any campaign. Includes two full colour maps, a table of random encounters, area descriptions, fearsome foes and numerous adventure seeds for exciting adventures ahead.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

New OSR Products at RPGNow—January 8th, 2015

Most notably, Frog God Games put up their newer stuff on RPGNow/OBS this week. Mostly Pathfinder/d20 to S&W conversions though.



Adventures

Cyclopean Deeps Volume 1 - Seems to be a compilation of 4 adventure modules from Frog God Games. 161 pages, $16.99

FQ0 - Codex of Gamer Dauch -  This is sort of a player guide for the FQ series for the Adventures in Filbar setting. Free

Kanthor's Den -  Simple adventure from Chubby Monster Games with a lot of old school feel. Pay Way You Want

Rappan Athuk 2014 Expansions - More of the world's most overrated megadungeon. 165 pages, $16.99

The Curse of Ravenmere - Incredibly dark, gory adventure for ACKS. Pay What You Want.

The Lost City of Barakus -  Perhaps the only reasonably priced Frog God Games adventure, this is an adaption of a pretty nice d20 site based adventure that includes a large dungeon complex, a city, and a wilderness area (the real highlight). The conversion is a little odd in places, but not too bad. 143 pages, $19.99

The Sword of Air -  5 new adventures from Frog God Games set in the Lost Lands. 432 pages, $39.99


Misc

Chenel -Map - This was originally the map some came up with for a city in Greyhawk, now it's been renamed. $4.99

Baldur's Gate Midquel in the works

Not a sequel, not a prequel, but a game set in between Baldur's Gate 1 and II. Presumably it will also use the AD&D rules (2e) that I & II use.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Alchemy and Herbalist supplement for For Gold & Glory now available...

For Gold and Glory is a good 2e retro clone, and Moses Wildermuth just put out an Alchemy & Herbalist supplement for it. It's only in print, but there is a fairly big free preview in PDF form.

Pyramid of the Lost King Adventure on Kickstarter

From Genius Loci Games, which honestly, I haven't heard of, but they have published a few small OSR  adventures before, comes a kickstarter to fund a larger adventure, Pyramid of the Lost King: Adventures in Basq

Pyramid of the Lost King is a decentralized sandbox adventure centering around an area of the Desert known as the Narrows. The Narrows is a section of desert that is divided into a northern and southern half by a massive slab of sandstone over 200 miles wide and 300 feet in height. The only way (aside from walking around) past this slab of rock is through the narrow canyon the area gets its name form. The Narrows and the desert around it have become a hot bed of activity as the merchant guilds have come to rely on it for their caravans to the Last Lands. However, the desert around the Narrows is still unexplored and dangers, both ancient and new, encroach.

It's for Swords & Wizardry

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Free Stock Art



There's not a great selection yet, but artist "Jeshields" has about a dozen character portraits usable as free stock art as part of a Patreon project, with more to come, hopefully.

Only a couple are fantasy right now, a fighter (shown above) and a wizard, but it's pretty decent quality.

Compiled OSRIC Monster Listing Released

Kellri, famous (among OSR circles at least) for releasing an excellent set of 1e netbooks, has just released a spreadsheet compiling almost every OSRIC monster around.

Monday, January 5, 2015

I thought it was just another stupid monster from Fiend Folio...

well, I guess it still is, but apparently a "hugger mugger" was a real thing from British folklore (or literature), as there is a book, The Last of the Huggermuggers.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Grimtooth's Ultimate Traps on Kickstarter

Honestly, I always thought the Grimtooth books were overkill, more something to read and to enjoy the excellent illustrations rather than something to seriously use in a dungeon. But at $35 for a 460 page print copy, it's a really good deal however you use it. (Hell, for a lot of Kickstarters, at least the batrachian kind, you can't even get a PDF for $35)

No wonder it's already got nearly $35,000 in only a day or so.

Two new Pay What You Want Adventures

The Curse of Ravenmere which seems to be for ACKS, and Kanthor's Den, which seems to be for 1e (but generic)

Friday, January 2, 2015

New OSR Products at RPGNow—January 1st, 2015

Woops, almost forgot it was a Thursday. The week between Christmas and New Years is just so strange.

Adventures


FQ2 - The Poisoning of the Elba River - This weeks Adventures in Filbar product. It's an adventure meant for beginning level characters. $3, 29 pages

Oil & Water - A Pay What You Want dungeon  for original D&D

PSE1: Kajak's Kave Labryrith Lord Edition - The first "Pocket Sized Encounter" module for 4th-6th level characters, now in Labyrinth Lord form (originally published in Swords & Wizardry). 16 pages, $1.75

The Smoking Pillar of Lan Yu -  This is Kevin Crawford's sample "make your own school module". Free.

The Sword of Three Parts -  This is a statless dungeon crawl, but apparently originally designed for AD&D 2e. Mostly features puzzles though. Pay What You Want, 23 (single) pages

Rules


Cultist - Barrel Rider is back with their new classes for Labyrinth Lord, this time a Lovecraftian style cultist. $1.

Misc


47 Gods & Heroes For Your Campaign World - If one of them isn't named Fred, I'll be disappointed. $1, 19 pages

Delve! Zine Issue 2 - Delve! is a zine dedicated to exploring the weird fantasy side of Old School Gaming.  Operating heavily under the influences of the oft proclaimed Appendix N authors, Delve! also explores other influences such as comics luminaries Jack Kirby, Mike Mignola, Steve Ditko and more as well as 1950's-1970's horror/sci-fi/fantasy film, and a dash of old school punk rock. $3.99, 48 pages.  Had me until "old school punk rock". Ugh, that's more pretentious than a Woody Allen movie.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Frog God Christmas Sale extended

Woops, I didn't realize they even had a sale. But apparently their 30% offer (using the coupon code XMAS2014 ) will be good until Midnight the 4th of January.

Still too rich for my blood. 30% off $60 PDFs is what, still $40? Especially as much of their stuff is 3e and poorly converted to S&W/0e. (I guess the exception being The Black Monastery)

Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols Vol 1 available at Lulu

This rings a bell, but I'm not familiar with it off hand. I think this is a compilation of fanzines,

Within lies a taste of the world of Fantasy before it was clipped and trimmed and placed in a neat box. Animators and Musketeers delve dank dungeons teeming with Nosferrogu and Flamingodiles, where mutant tribes battle coldly calculating Luminites with poisoned spears and blazing lasers. Shitoth the Spider Daemon and Bitlinktaknerekt the Hell Gnome stalk their deadly lairs. The mummified head of the ancient sorcerer TuattaTan berates you for your obesity. Genres mix and epochs mingle, arcanotech and dinosaurs, Thundarr meets Cthulhu! Dreams coalesce and nightmares take on reality. What is this glorious mess?! It’s WIZARDS MUTANTS LASER PISTOLS! the fanzine of old school weirdness