New OSR Products at RPGNow—April 30th, 2015

Busy, busy week, though much of that is new classes. Lots and lots of new classes.

Lots and lots and lots of new classes. Do they actually sell? Or get downloaded? For two of the three that I put out, I didn't even get enough back to pay for the stock art. And more importantly (since I didn't make them for money), they didn't get downloaded much, despite being PWYW.

And do they get playtested? I used the three I released in my game for several levels, but how do you playtest dozens of new classes? Shrug.

Beyond that, two different charity products this week.

Adventures

Death Ziggurat in Zero-G - This is a Metamorphosis Alpha adventure. 16 pages, $5.99

Double Feature Module - Bonespur Glacier and The Tomb of Bashyr -  This had two modules for OSRIC with the proceeds going to a children's charity. This version is 4.99 and 23 pages, and there is also a PWYW version

Rules

Avreal Divine Theurge - Apparently an angel like racial class for Labyrinth Lord and Adventurer, Conqueror, King System that uses divine and arcane magic. $1.49, 10 pages.

Avreal Knight Divine - Apparently some sort of racial class for Labyrinth Lord and ACKS, about an angel. $1.49, 10 pages

Black Mage - A new class for Labyrinth Lord and ACKS. $1.49, ten pages.

Class Compendium - 50+ new classes for Labyrinth Lord from Barrel Rider Games. $9.99, 235 pages.

Dwarven Paladin -  This is exactly why I don't like class as race, you end up having to make new classes for every combination. But anyway, new class for LL and ACKS. 6 pages, $1.49

Elven Arcist - A new class for LL and ACKS. $1.49, six mages. Seems to be something like a warlock.

Iron Falcon  - Another OD&D clone, this from the author of Basic Fantasy Role-Playing. Free

Paladin - A new take on an old class for LL and ACKS.  $1.49, 9 pages.

Warden - Guess what, another new class for LL/ACKs. Sadly, not a spaceship class. $1.49

White Mage - A new class for LL and ACKS. $1.49, ten pages

Misc

Game for Nepal - Charity Bundle - This includes several OSR products with an Asian theme: Arrows of Indra, Mad Monks of Kwantoom, Qelong, Red Tide, Ruins & Ronin, and Valle of the 5 Flames as well as some print out thingie. $15 and all of it goes to charity.

Gods of Wor - This is a book describing the gods of the Wor setting, which was the location of the adventure, The Beast That Waits, which I liked a lot. $4, 36 pages.

Saga of the Splintered Realms Book 2 - This is a whole bunch of stuff, classes, adventures, and what not. 144 pages, Pay What You Want

The Black Ruins—Free Adventure

From Corey Walden, better known on message boards as rastus_burne, comes The Black Ruins, a free 12 page adventure for characters level 1 to 3

Blackened esoteric obelisks, henceforth known among most folk as ‘The Yore Standing Stones’, dot a strangely unnatural hill. The runes are inscribed with runic scripting, but it is what looms below the forlorn hill that should chill any good serf to the bone. Maintaining compatibility with any old school fantasy role-playing game or retro-clone, this is an adventure for 4-6 players arrayed around levels 1-3.

Barrel Rider Games releases Class Compendium

Barrel Rider has released a lot of classes for Labyrinth Lord. A whole lot of them. So many that I have lost count, but 50+, apparently. At $1 a piece, they were a bit pricey, but now they've been collected in one volume for $9.99, with a print version on the way.

New Kickstarter from Small Niche Games — Guidebook to the Duchy of Vainwall

A few days late, and it's already funded, but you can still get in on this Kickstarter for the Guidebook to the Duchy of Vainwall for Labyrinth Lord. The end result will be a free (well, Pay What You Want) sourcebook.

Small Niche previously did this with Dolmvay, which turned out quite nicely.

Free One Page Sandbox — In the Moon Bog

From the new blog of a cartographer for North Wind Adventures comes In the Moon Bog. This was apparently his entry in the 2015 one page dungeon contest.

New OSR Products at RPGNow—April 23rd, 2015

A pretty good crop of titles this week. I've been busy thanks to a double XP week in SWTOR and getting hooked on this David Hasselhoff video (theme song for the upcoming Kung Fury)

Adventures

Temple of Greed - 25 page (single column) adventure from D-oom Products. Not sure what levels it's for.  $1.70.

The Flayed King - Free adventure

The Tomb of Gardag the Strange - Pay What You Want adventure for Labyrinth Lord from 3 Toadstools

Rules

Black Box Books - Tome Five: Enchantments and Effigies - New class for Swords & Wizardry White Box. 8 pages, 95 cents

Lamentations of the Flame Princess Referee Book (Old Grindhouse Edition) - This is the old GM's for the game which will be superseded, I guess (don't follow LotFP too much) by a new edition

Metamorphosis Alpha: Warden Armory - 150 new combat related items. 24 pages, $5.99

White Box Demihumans - Eight more demihumans for Swords & Wizardry White Box from Barrel Rider Games. $1.99

Misc

Ivanhoe Swords & Wizardry Bundle - $3.49 for a number of assorted S&W products.

The Tomb of Gardag the Strange—New PWYW Adventure from 3 Toadstools

A new module from Shane Ward of the 3 Toadstools blog. If you follow that (it's on my blogroll), he's been working on a megadungeon but put this out to take a break from it. I am a fan of his previous stuff, so I've been eager for both.

A long time ago lived an evil and very eccentric warlord named Gardag.  Over the years he up aa cult following, many flocked to him and worshipped.  He sent out his cultists to pillage and burn the surronding lands.  Eventually he ammased a huge stock pile of treasure. 

*A OSR module for 4 - 6 Characters Levels 3 and up.  Compatible with Labyrinth Lord (TM). 

Includes Pre Generated Characters

Interesting Henchemen

One Hand Drawn Map 

24 Encounter Locations

New OSR Products at RPGNow—April 17th, 2015

Not too many adventures this week, but a big monster book and a couple of zines.

Adventures

Fury of Thringalesh -  Part two of a trilogy of modules, the first was released back in December. Seems to have something to do with evil dwarves. For 3rd to 5th level characters, 1e or B/X.  20 pages, $2.50

The Shrine of Sruukor - This is a beginner module for Swords & Wizardry (but gasp, not White Box, who'd have thunk?). 18 pages, Pay What You Want.

Rules

Black Box Books - Cannibals & Confusion - More monsters for Swords & Wizardry White Box. $1.01

Classes of Fantasy - Triton. For Labyrinth Lord comes this somewhat fishy class. 50 cents.

Demihuman Delvers Volume 1- Want a whole bunch of new races for Swords & Wizardry White Box? Well, you could play other flavors of it, but if you still want the "purity" of White Box you could buy this for 50 pages worth of new races. $3.99. (Have I mentioned, I really don't grok White Box?)

Lusus Naturae - Another week, another monster book. 100 new monsters for Lamentations of the Flame Princess from Rafael Chandler. 128 pages, $14.99 (7.5x the price of last weeks Creature Compendium and half the monsters, if slightly more pages. But then LoFP is like the Cadillac of OSR, you pay a lot for the name).

MA - The Mutation Manual - More mutations for your Metamorphosis Alpha (or gonzo D&D) game. 24 pages, $5.99

Misc

Oubliette Issue 9 - The old school zine returns. $1 until the end of April, 22 pages

Zine O Morph #2  - This is an old school sci-fi zine, this issue focusing on military stuff. 26 pages, $1.99.

Another level of Castle Triskelion available

The good people over at & Magazine have just released another PDF compilation of the ongoing Castle Triskelion mega-dungeon

Mischief Inc pondering making their own OSR game/retro-clone

They've produced two modules (with a third due out soon, I believe) and apparently are considering making their own OSR game

What would you all think about Mischief, Inc. releasing our own OSR Core Rule Set?  We're thinking about something based on a hybrid of the 1st and 2nd editions of the world's most popular advanced fantasy role playing game with a few innovations relatively new to the rpg industry, along with one or two house rule elements that we have found to enhance our games from a 1980s-90s time frame.

We obviously can't give much detail at this point, but we'd certainly be interested to know if the OSR Community is still looking for the heir apparent, or if folks have generally settled in with their favorite by this point.

Such an effort would of necessity require a Kickstarter campaign.  On the upside, we'd not even begin the campaign until all three manuscripts were complete or at least nearly complete.  And we'd be able to pay some of the industry's best artists from the 80s-90s era to illustrate the books.  We are thinking of three case-bound volumes, a Player's book, a Game Master's book, and a Monster book.  Perhaps each would have its own KS campaign, or perhaps we could do all three at once.

Please tell us what you think via these forums, our Facebook page, or our email address!

As I've said twice, once on Dragonsfoot and once on their forums, I think there is room for another retro-clone/OSR game if it's AD&D based, since there aren't a lot of those (OSRIC, For Gold and Glory, Myth & Magic, Adventures Dark & Deep), and honestly, none that I think solve the problems with 1e.  Myth & Magic is a good attempt (albeit more 2e-ish) but its Kickstarter was a disaster

1e is probably my favorite version, but the classes aren't balanced (as Roger Moore showed in Dragon), the Bard is completely bonkers, there are annoying level limits and restrictions, and the thief just sucks unless you multi-class as fighter/thief or some-such.

A new, free megadungeon...in Spanish

La Montana Soberana is a free 100 page megadungeon in Spanish.

"I don't know Spanish," you say, well, it's released in a word document as well as PDF, so you could presumably copy and paste that into a translation program. (I can't speak it, but I can read Spanish fairly well.)

Actually, the website for the Spanish Mentzer clone, Adventures in the East Mark has a ton of free modules. While they are in Spanish, the monster stats and what not are pretty much the same. The only confusing thing is hit dice, which is "Dados de golpe", and armor class is reversed (CA), as it is "Clase de armadura"

The Sinister Stone of Sakkara from Autarch on Kickstarter

Autarch doesn't put out a lot of products, but the ones they do put our are pretty high quality. Their latest Kickstarter is a starting adventure, The Sinister Stone of Sakkara. It uses the ACKS rules, presumably, but that's really, really close to B/X except for the weird armor class they use.

The adventure is intended for six to ten characters of 1st to 3rd level, with a combined total of 8-12 levels of experience in the party. In the tradition of classic TSR adventure scenarios such as The Keep on the Borderlands and The Village of Hommlet, The Sinister Stone of Sakkara features a detailed starting base and small wilderness sandbox in addition to a dungeon. 

• The adventure scenario is approximately 40,000 words.
• The starting base includes a villa, headquarters, hospital, chapterhouse, infantry barracks, cavalry barracks, bathhouse, traveler's inn, and forum, all mapped and keyed.
• The dungeon features two levels, the first with 75 rooms and the second with 39 rooms, mapped and keyed, along with two custom wandering monster tables. 
• Additional delights include the "Adventurer Motivation Table", "Random Philosophical Meditations Table", "Profligate Imperial Banquet Table," and "Settlement Demand Modifiers Table" (for the mercantile venturers!), as well as a menu of options available at an Auran fast-food restaurant, excerpts of Zaharan prayer-verses, and more!

The PDF is only $5, so pretty good deal there, and the print version is $25, which is perhaps not, depending on how many pages it is (I'd guess 90?)

Oubliette Issue 9 is out

Guess I was wrong about it being defunct! $1 for issue 9 in PDF until the end of the month

Creature Compendium released

From New Big Dragon comes a book of monsters, statted for both 0e/1e and B/X, all for a staggering low $2.

ABYSMAL • ADARNA BIRD • AIRWALKER • AQRASETH • ARASSAS • aziza
BAT, ARCTIC (ICE) • BAT, DEATH • BATAR • BEETLE, GIANT FLAYER • BESTIAL BEAST •
BILOKO • BLOODBEAST • BLOODGILL •
BRAIN BAT • BRAINCRAB • BURU
CACTUS CAT • CACUS • CADEJO •
CALYTAUR • CENTAUR, CYPRIAN •
CHÖTGÖR • COW DEMON • CYCLORC
DEVIL MONKEY • DINGONEK • DJETABI •
DOBARCHÚ, GREATER • DOBARCHÚ, LESSER •
DONESTRE • DOVER DEMON • DRACOPEDE • DRAGI • DRAGONBOAR, WOOLY • DRAUGR • DUNTER • DWARF, BLACK • DWARF, RED • DZEE-DZEE-BON-DA
EAGLE HOUND • ELEMENTAL, MUDMIST •
ELEMENTAL, SAND • ELEPHANT, WHITE •
ELOKO • EMERALD STINKBUG

New OSR Products at RPGNow—April 9th, 2015

Only one adventure this week (and a comedy one at that), but a lot of little rules items

Adventures

Beer of the Gods - New Basic Fantasy RPG module from the Gagmen. 19 pages, Pay What You Want

Rules

Black Box Books - Tome One Astronauts & Ancients. Two new races for Swords & Wizardry White Box. 8 pages, 98 cents.

Black Box Books - Tome Two Buffoons and Blasters - Three new classes (clown, fool, and heckler) and some technological items for Sword & Wizardry White Box. 8 pages, 98 cents.

Classes of Fantasy - Gnome -  For Labyrinth Lord. 1 page, 50 cents.

The Log Creature -New monster for D&D, doesn't say which flavor, but stats wise it works well enough for old school games. 3 pages, Pay What You Want.

Metamorphosis Alpha - Creatures & Gadgets - More stuff for the game from Jim Ward himself. It's funny to see a RPG finally get lots of support, 40 years after it was first published. 24 pages, $5.99

White Box Companion II - New classes for Swords & Wizardry White Box, including the Acrobat, Cavalier, Barbarian, and Jester (except for the last, very Unearthed Arcana-ish). But er, isn't the whole point of White Box supposedly because it's unsullied by new classes and such (especially the "thief"), and thus "pure" role-playing or some claptrap? Anyway, $1.99, 13 pages.

Misc

Dungeon Warper - Random dungeon map generator. $20


Hundreds of Wonderous Wands - Random tables to describe what a wand looks like, beyond being a stick

Oubliette Issues 1-8 Bundle - One of those names I could never figure out how to pronounce, but this a old school fanzine. Pretty decent, too, shame they quit after 8 issues.

The Unusual Encounters - 19 strange encounters. Pay What You Want

Update on Jeff Perren

A few months ago, the family of Jeff Perren, who helped created Chainmail, asked for donations to pay for a stair lift so he could live with them, as opposed to a horrible nursing home. The update is mostly the photo above, showing him with his family at Gary Con.

Whisper & Venom is the Deal of the Day at RPGNow

Whiper & Venom is normally $13, but now only $5.20 over at RPGNow.

Whisper & Venom is a comprehensive OSR adventure and regional setting for character levels 3-5. It was written using the Labyrinth Lord rules but was designed to be as portable to other OSR rules systems as possible.
The interactive version was completely redesigned to take advantage of the strengths of digital publishing. Layers, chaptering, comprehensive linking and interactive buttons that give immediate access to relevant table and maps are on every page.

8 or so hours left as I type this.

Vague OSR product announced by a guy who apparently worked on Exalted

The Dreams of Ruin is a long rambling account of the plans for an upcoming OSR book. What's the book about? He doesn't say, but at least he has a snappy title for it.

Nod #25 now available in print

I guess this is now the longest running OSR 'zine. I guess Footprints is still going, but has fewer issues. But at any rate, John Stater's 25h issue of Nod is now available in print at Lulu (for $10 plus shipping), as well as in pdf form for $4.99

NOD 25 - First issue of 2015! In this issue, the Klarkash Mountains hex crawl through weird, goblin-infested mountains. Also - The Thirty Years War Camapaign, the Landsknecht class, a Pen & Paper Football Game (American Football), random tables for making weird ecologies and a couple magic items. 76 pages.

New OSR Products at RPGNow—April 2nd, 2015

Somewhat slower this week compared to the last two, but still a lot of stuff. Nothing really leaps out though.

Adventures

FA8 - Numb Island - This week's Adventures in Filbar module. Has a new cover look. 39 pages, $3

GM Screen Pin-Up Gnome's Deep  - The name confused me at first glance, and second and third and even fourth. But apparently it's a short dungeon complex, a mine that is now full of gnome zombies, perhaps the best kind. $1.99 and 5 pages.

Serpents Below - A Lost Age Adventure - Second module from Moebius Adventures, this Swords & Wizardry adventure is for 3th to 4th level characters. 23 single column pages, $1.99

Rules

Advanced Ape Class -  Mentioned this earlier, it's a Pay What You Want class for an ape. Ook.

Classes of Fantasy - Orc, Pixie, Sprite, and Dr. Pepper, er, Leprechaun . New racial classes for Labyrinth Lord. 50 cents each.

Misc

Hack & Slash Blog Compendium II: Electric Blogaloo - Articles from the blog of the same name, now in PDF form. PWYW

Silent Legions Art Pack - free art to use from the Silent Legions game. Really awesome of Kevin Crawford to do this (and the artists to go along with it).

Further Afield now available in print (on demand)

The sourcebook (really a GM's guide more than anything, should have a review soon) for Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures is now available in print, a color hardback for $22