Wednesday, September 28, 2016

New OSR Products at DTRPG/RPGNow — Sept 27th, 2016

Slow week, a couple of monster books

Official


M3 Twilight Calling -  Adventure somewhat ironically by Tom Moldvay for Mentzer's Master Box rules.  $4.99, 32 pages.

M5 Talons of Night - Master level adventure set in the Known World. Don't know much about it, actually. $4.99 and 48 pages

XSOLO Lathan's Gold - Solo adventure (gee, ya think) from Merle Rasmussen. $4.99, 32 pages

XS2 Thunderdelve Mountain - I guess TSR thought the SOLO was too obvious and just went with XS. $4.99 and 40 pages.

Rules


Blood & Treasure Monsters 2nd Edition -  The monster book for the 2nd edition of Blood & Treasure. $9.99 and 216 pages.

Chance Encounters - 26 new monsters for Swords & Wizardry. 20 pages, $2.25

Misc

Axioms Issue 3 - Oops, kind of missed the first two issues, this is the quarterly official magazine for ACKS. This issue seems to be devoted to economics, though really, the game should be called Accounting Conqueror King System. 40 pages, $3.99

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 9/23/16 - As it says, enhanced version of a free map from Paratime Design. $1

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

New OSR Titles at DTRPG/RPGNOW — Sept 20th, 2016

I should probably be doing some reviews here, but I've been busy enjoying the last weeks of Summer. Someone has been busy though, being responsible for 8 of the products below.

Official


DDA 3 Eye of Traldar -  One of the last basic D&D adventures, nominally set in Karameikos.  32 pages, $4.99

The Magic Encyclopedia Volume 1 -  Not to be confused with the Encyclopedia Magica, this is a listing of every AD&D magic item, basically just listing the name, gold/xp value and its original source. Useful, but the Encyclopedia Magica has that as well as the actual description of the item. So this is largely a pointless product. $4.99 64 pages.

MC8 Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes -  The return of demons & devils to 2e, albeit under new names.  96 pages, $4.99

OA5 Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw - Adventure for Oriental Adventures.  $4.99, 56 pages.

Adventures


BS1 The Little Baroney in the Far Far in the Western Frontier -  The first of many adventures from Eldad of Dragonsfoot, apparently detailing the first floor of a megadungeon called The Black Stairs. 36 pages, $3.50

BS2 The Creeping Shadow of the Witch Queen - Level two of the above dungeon. 36 pages, $3.50

BS3 Drow Unercity of Death -  You probably get this by now. 28 pages, $2.50

BS4 The Drow Sewers - Full of scrubbing driders, I'd guess. 28 pages, $2.50

Too Many Kobolds - Adventure for White Box. 9 pages, $1

Rules


Back to the Dungeon Book 4: Advanced Races & Classes -  Aanother rulebook for Eldad of Dragonsfoot's OSR-ish game. 44 pages, $4

Back to the Dungeon Book 5:Even More Races and Classes - $4, 40 pages.

Back to the Dungeon Book 6: Dungeon Arcana - This seems to be GM tips, though possibly a rant based on the large text in the product description.  $2.50, 28 pages.

Back to the Dungeon Book 7: Dungeon Alchemy -  Yet another rulebook for Eldad of Dragonsfoot's OSR-ish game. 24 pages, $2

Misc


D100 Things Overheard in a Tavern - From the good proprietor of the 3 Toadstools Blog comes this handy idea generating product. 4 pages, PWYW

Dungeons in Blue Expansion Triple Pack Five -  Old school blue maps. $8.79

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map - Enhanced version of a free map from Paratime Design. $1.

Swords of Kos Fantasy Setting - From Skirmisher Publishing comes this large setting book which was partly developed through old school D&D. 360 pages, and $35.99. I like some of their stuff, but not nearly $40 worth.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — September 13th, 2016

Fairly busy week.

Not OSR, but I am partial to the old gamebooks (A couple months ago when my internet was down, I played a bunch of the old Fighting Fantasy ones), so check out The Dungeon of Abkadev, a PWYW gamebook.

Official


FRC1 Ruins of Adventure -  This is one of my favorites. It's an adaption of the first SSI Gold Box computer game, Pool of Radiance. Although it follows the same basic premise and uses the same maps, much of the details are different and changed for better play at the table. It's really basically a sandbox - the PCs are left to their own devices to explore and help restore a ruined city. 96 pages, $4.99

WG8 The Fate of Istus - This large Greyhawk adventure was meant to change your campaign from 1st edition to 2nd edition. I didn't think much of it at the time, but it has a few nice bits, like describing some of the cities. $4.99, 128 pages.

WG10 Child's Play -  This is a 2e introductory adventure (though somehow meant for high level characters) that showed that post Gygax TSR had no idea what to do with Greyhawk, as this is Greyhawk in product name, but not actually in Greyhawk. 32 pages, $4.99

Adventures


The Curse of Harken Hall -  A first level OSRIC adventure, the players are hired to investigate a secret door in a manor. $5.45 (I'm guessing this makes more sense in a different currency, probably pounds given the author is named Simon which is perhaps the most common English name besides Ian and possibly Nigel) and 35 pages

Necromancer's Bane - The sequel to the above (which is why I didn't put it first) meant for 2nd to 5th level characters and more of a dungeon crawl. 57 pages, $5.45.

The Tales of Highguard Cliff  - More an adventure setting than adventure, but meant to provide background for The Curse of Harken Hall. 73 pages, $5.45

Rules


Back to the Dungeon Book 1 Races and Classes -  I'm not sure this is really OSR in my point of view (as it's not particularly close to TSR era D&D), but the guy has been working on it for years over at Dragonsfoot. $2, 44 pages

Back to the Dungeon Book 2 Monsters and Traps -  See above. 44 pages, $4

Back to the Dungeon Book 3 Games Master's Guide to the Ancient World - This seems to be more about GMing than a description of a world. 44 pages, $4.

Misc

Enhanced Friday Freebie - Improved version of one of Paratime Design's free maps. $1

Lamentations of the Fire Princess Everything Bundle -  For $168, you get pretty much everything. Personally, I'd rather have the money. I bought most of it back during their $1 a product sale. Most of the stuff just isn't very good, more pretentious than anything else. Maybe if you like masochist players who like getting railroaded. A few exceptions though, like World of the Lost (though even that traps the PCs)

Hobgoblin Lair - Nice 2 pages map of a hobgoblin lair. $3

OSR NPC Generator Cards - Because dice are apparently just so hard. $5, 22 pages

White Box Character Sheet - Free character sheet for S&W White Box. But wait, doesn't the very concept of character sheets go against the White Box school philosophy?

White Box Referee Screen - See above. PWYW.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — September 6th, 2016

I really don't know what day of the week to do this. Originally I picked Saturday which seems to make sense since it was the last day of the week, then Sunday because sometimes I was busy on Saturday night, then Monday because that's when my internet started working again and when WOTC uploads the new official stuff, but then they sometimes do it late on Monday so I'd have to go back and edit it in. Blargh.

Official


Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1e) -  I'm not a big FR fan, but the early versions were undoubtedly the best. $9.99 and lots and 192 pages plus maps.

M2 Vengeance of Alphaks - He was sort of the villain in the backstory to the magical empire of Alphatia in Mystara. Well, he's back and wants vengeance in this Master level (28-36) module. 32 pages, $4.99

REF5 Lords of Darkness (1e) - Adventure anthology set in the Forgotten Realms involving Undead. $4.99 and 96 pages.

Adventures


Villains of the Undercity -  A new Maximum Mayhem Dungeon. These really sum up the early gonzo style of D&D that some try to evoke and fail. Not cheap though at $10 and 36 pages.

Rules


d30 Random Tavern Generator -  If there is one thing that pisses me off more about the OSR than the single saving throw, it's the d30. PWYW.

Misc


Hobgoblin Lair - 2 pages map meant to represent a hobgoblin lair. $3.

Enhanced Friday Freebie Map - More of these from Paratime Design or $1

Stock Art Dungeons Map 1 - The Catacombs - While not as good as the above Paratime Design maps above, this has the benefit of having a commercial license, so you can use it in a product. And $2.99, it's cheap enough that your miodule you might just break even.

Stock Art Dungeons Map 2 - Electric Boogaloo Caverns - I can draw passable dungeons, since I can just copy and past rooms and corridors. Caverns and caves are beyond my skill. So this is nice. $2.99.

Stock Art Dungeons Map 3 - The Fortress - As above, but a fort.  $2.99

Stock Art Dungeons Map 4 - The Secret Grove - As above. Hopefully no one makes a module based on Nancy Friday's books, who was 50 Shades of Grey back in the 1980s. Only much grosser. $2.99