The Witches of Hagswallow Review — Solid Adventure with no Witches or Swallowing Hags

Despite the name, The Witches of Hagswallow deals is not about witches or former porn stars. On the surface it's a fairly simple adventure meant for 3rd level characters involving a rescue of townsfolk from a harpy's lair in a tower, but there is a much more, a sinister secret below. Or at least a fair sized dungeon devoted to the ghoul led cult of a Great Old One.

It's written for the author's Sword & Wizardry based game Battleaxes & Beasties, which I do not own. From looking at the large list of pregenerated characters it seems to be quite a bit more high powered, with magic-users (called wizards) having a more spells and at will cantrips and fighter type characters doing a lot more damage, generally 2d6 or 2d8 with their primary weapon, plus a bonus. Sadly, it keeps the worst part of S&W, the single saving throw. Regardless, the system doesn't really show up much in the module and can be used as is with virtually any other OSR game or old school version of D&D.  At worst there are some differently named spells, but they are obvious

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — December 19th, 2017

Slow week, at least product wise. But I have to work extra at my part time job because it's in retail, so good timing for it, I guess.

Adventures

CA1 Calidar Dreams of Aerie -Not strictly an OSR product as I think it's statless, but it's by Bruce Heard of Princess Ark/Mystara fame and is about a literal flying circus. $14.95 for the 132 page PDF, also print versions

Rules

RPGPundit Presents $12: 2 More Medieval Grimoires.  -  If nothing else, his titles are descriptive.  8 pages, 99 cents

Misc

Art of Nod 3 - One of the more impressive things about John Stater's Nod 'zine, besides the 33 issues, is that it often has original artwork (which ain't cheap). But now you can get that art for your products at a much cheaper price, $3 for 11 pieces.


Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 12-15-2017 -  Oooh, very classic looking dungeon. Well, not classic classic, but AD&D era classic. $1 for enhanced version

Village Map 007 - A rarity, an actual village that looks like what a fantasy village might really look like, with a defensive motte and bailey. Released as  PWYW in honor of Paratime Design.'s page getting 1000 facebook likes.

New and Free Module from Guy Fullerton

From the author of the two modules, F1 The Fane of the Poisoned Prophecies and F3 Many Gates of the Gann (still no F2) comes The Hyqueous Vaults, available from Lulu

The Hyqueous Vaults is a site-based dungeon with water and necromancy themes, some tricky/puzzling situations, and plenty of opportunity for combat.
 A challenging and lucrative module for 6-8 characters, averaging 3rd level. A centuries-old map leads to a mysterious cliffside complex, rumored to be flooded, and supposedly holding a dead necromancer’s fortune. Sages believe the arm-length metal implement accompanying the map must be some sort of key. The complex stands ripe for exploration by a party sufficiently strong and sneaky to wrest any treasures from the depths

Apparently written in honor of the 10th anniversary of OSRIC, which is a bit odd since this two modules were notable in eschewing the use of the OGL and so advertising as being used for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.  But very nice of him, regardless.

D&D Movie arrives in 2021

July 23, 2021, that is. Or so says Deadline Hollywood

Dungeons & Dragons will open on July 23, 2021. New Line made a go at a feature version of the popular 1970s/1980s role-playing game 17 years ago making only $33.8M. There was also a Saturday morning CBS animated TV series which ran for 27 episodes from 1983-1985. Currently, it’s the only title on the calendar on that date.

Amusingly, I got into a heated (but good natured) argument at work last week with a late 20s co-worker and D&D player who claimed D&D was never mainstream until 3rd edition...

No word if it will be set under the sea

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — December 14th, 2017

Meant to do it last night, but got caught up in a Doctor Who marathon, watching all of the Leela 4th Doctor episodes.  She probably has the highest body count of any companion, killing probably 3-4 people (or aliens) an episode.

Adventures

A Ring for the King -  Another Creation's Edge mini-dungeon for levels 6-8.  12 pages, $1.50

Cavern of the Fish Folk -  Low level (1-3) adventure involving Kuo-Toa.  A bit pricey at $4.95 and 14 pages, but apparently it's illustrated by the author, Casey Hoekstra

SO5 Krampusnacht -  If there is any Christmas related thing beaten into the ground more than The Last Christmas in recent years, it's the Krampus. This case it's a level 2-4 adventure for OSRIC. 16 pages, $3.50

Rules

Lion & Dragon -  Another probably pretentious pseudo medieval OSR game from the RPGPundit. I liked his Arrows of Indra but Dark Albion was snooze inducing.  130 pages, $9.50

Misc

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 12-08-17 -  Looks like another underground lake and cave complex. $1 for enhanced version.

RPG Pundit Presents #11: Crazy Wizards = Seems to be a rogues gallery of wizards inspired by real world ones. $1.99 and 11 pages

Seven Years of Fantasy Weather Volume 3: Indea -  104 pages of weather. I'm sure there are worse ways to spend $7, but I'd be hard pressed to name one, except maybe a meal at Arby's. And even they have good curly fries.

The Manor, Issues #9 - Another issues of the OSR 'zine from Tim Shorts.  28 pages, $2.50

Pacesetter Games & Simulations having a Holiday Miniature Sale

Not the Goblinoid Games guy, but the other one. Part of me hates to mention it, as they apparently have some problems actually delivering orders in a timely manner and I'm not sure they finished that Kickstarter from a couple years ago, but still their first bundle contains six figures for $20:  Two hellhounds, a night hag, glacial demon (ice?), horned, and a erinyes. Also a chance at Orcus.

Unpainted, but still, they look pretty good.

Sleeping Griffon having a 50% off sale at RPGNow/DTRPG

They have a couple of OSR products, most notably Battleaxes & Beasties, a retro clone, and their adventure for it, Witches of Hagswallow  (Only 49 cents). It seems S&W based so pretty easy to use in other stuff.

They also have a small series of adventure locations which are more generic D&D (actually OSR and 5E) but interesting. Now only 75 cents each.

All include VTT maps.

"Blue Foil" edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea now available...

I have no idea what "blue foil" means, I guess it's maybe some sort of comic book deal to go in with the comic-book-ification of AS&SH

Only $99.99.

I'd rather have the money and that's something who mostly likes AS&SH.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — December 6th, 2017

Seems like everyone and their elderly aunt has come out with a 'zine this week.

Somewhat interestingly, Cubicle 7 has posted the 1st Edition Warhammer rulebook for $9.99, complete with color plates (or colour).

Adventures

Grave of the Heartless -  LL adventure involving a plane near the netherworld, 17 pages, $2.45

Of Beasts and Men -  The Merciless Merchants are back with another 2e/For Gold & Glory adventure for levels 3-6 involving a treasure map in a wilderness location.  49 pages, $2.99

Rules

Monsterarium -  Monsters from Knight Owl Games who have done a handful of pretty solid products. 28 pages, $3.50

Misc

Black Dogs Vol1 -  From a new face comes this 44 page zine for LotFP. 44 pages and PWYW.

Cavalier Attitude Issue 2 -  For OSRIC from the high priced Starry Knight press. $1.99 for 11 pages.

Fantasy Ark Pack (High Quality) -  14 high quality images usable as stock art. PWYW. Definitely check this out.

Friday Freebie 12-1-17 - Looks like an underground lake and its environs. $1 for enhanced version.

Megadungeon #1 -  Not sure if this is for OSR or 5e, but seems like a generic zine either way. 38 pages, $5.99

Nod 33 - John Stater's remarkable zine continues revisiting Cush. $3.39 and 108 pages

RPGPundit Presents #10: The Kitchen Sink - His comedy 'zine continues, this time about dungeon plumbing.  7 pages, 99 cents.

The Inadvertent Wizard Review — Great Back Story, Okay Adventure

The Inadvertent Wizard is a short adventure by Richard Kropp ("Coach K"), currently costing $3.50 in PDF and running about 20 pages. The title refers to a troll who has come across a variant magic item, a helm that lets the user not only read languages, but use scrolls (albeit only 1st level). He uses his new found powers to terrorize, or at least mildly irritate, the locals of a swamp or bayou. Presumably the PCs will put an end to his reign of irritation by killing him, which involves a short wilderness journey and small dungeon crawl.

It's meant for 4th to 5th level characters and includes stats for the three main flavors of OSR: 0e, 1e, and B/X. I think that level range is probably a bit too high, 3rd to 4th is probably closer to the mark, at least for 1e. There's basically one possibly difficult fight, with the troll, or more specifically, his pet, a giant alligator gar with 8 hit dice, doing 4-20 damage and the ability to swallow a character whole.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — November 29th, 2017

I didn't forget, just didn't get a chance to last night. It's been an awful week. Had to work Thanksgiving, then I got sick (which I still am) and a couple days ago my next door neighbor and friend that I've known for 20 years died of a heart attack. He didn't show up for work, so they sent someone over to check on him and he was in his yard, collapsed. And then came to me. So I had to spend much of the day dealing with that. Ugh

Anyway, it seems like Wizards of the Coast finally remembered they actually owned Star Frontiers and they have started to put it up. Also should have a couple reviews up soon.

Adventures

SC1 Wondrous Adventures - Has 4 adventures previously published separately from Starry Knight games. I never bought any 'cause of their high price, this volume, 66 pages at $25.49 doesn't convince, either. I might that pay that much for Advanced Adventures from XRP, but that has a long pedigree.

Rules

B/X Essentials: Classes and Equipment -  A more strict/faithful retroclone of er, B/X. 44 pages, $4.99

B/X Essentials: Classes and Equipment: Plain Text Edition - As above, but with no art and free

Castle Oldskull Treasure Tables -  Random gibberish in table form, this time for magic items. $4.99 and 767 pages of very large text.

Seven Voyages of Zylarthen Supplement 1: Book of  Spells - Seven Voyages of Zylarthen is an original edition re-imaging (named for the sample character and mostly notable for ditching clerics) and this adds more spells. $6.95, 64 pages

Seven Voyages of Zylarthen Supplement  2: Book of Monsters - Mo' monsters for said game. 64 pages, $6.95

White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventures Game (B&W) - This is actually just a print version of an older game that is free in PDF form

Misc

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 11-24-17 -  Looks like an underground temple for cricket players. $1 for enhanced version.

RPGPundit Presents #9: The Book of the Art of Hours -  I guess another medieval inspired thing from the Pundit, this time dealing with a saint or something.  $1.99 and 9 pages

Seven Years of Fantasy Weather: Vol 1: Medieval England - I guess good if your campaign is actually set in Medieval England.  96 pages, $7

The Illustrated Usherwood Adventures Vol 1 - Usherwood Adventures is a setting/sourcebook for OSRIC/1e similar to the Dragonlance or Greyhawk ones, some new rules/classes and a smattering of setting.  This though takes the art from that and turns them into a coloring book? Shrug. $5

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — November 21st, 2017

I've been meaning to post more, but it's amazing how having 30 fewer free hours a week can affect your spare time. I still have time to spare, but I'm too tired to do much.

Adventures

SCh1: The Purloined Pachyderm -   This is a mini-adventure and sort of a tribute to a deceased gamer and involves the PCs rescuing an elephant taken by an evil wizard for nefarious purposes. 12 pages, $2.50, levels 2-4.

SO4 Wayward Maiden - Sort of like the above adventure, only with a shieldmaiden and for levels 6-8. 20 pages, $10.

Swamp of Secrets -  The 32nd mini-module from Creation's Edge Games, this one for 5th-7th level characters. $1.50 and 12 pages.

Rules

Malcon's Tome of Magic -  60 pages worth of new magic items for OSRIC/1e. PWYW

The Midderlands: OSR Bestiary (and setting) - For S&W comes this 224 bestiary and setting book, seemingly based on the part of England where the author lives. $15.90 (probably likely to change since I'm guessing it's in pounds and will fluctuate with the exchange rate).

Misc

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 11-17-17 -  This looks like a small-ish cavern.

Old School Interviews #2 -  Shane Ward of 3 Toadstools interviews several OSR people I've n ever heard of (I'm sure they haven't heard of me) plus the Basic Fantasy guy. Free.

RPGPundit Presents #8: 3 Medieval Authentic Grimoires - Because crazy stuff made up by people hundreds of years ago is much more authentic than modern stuff. 15 pages, $2.99

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — November 14th, 2017

Somewhat interestingly GURPS products are now on there. I absolutely hate GURPS (despite liking The Fantasy Trip) but their sourcebooks are solid.

Otherwise, slow week.

Adventures

DNH3 The City of Talos -  I wasn't impressed by the first adventure which was vaguely linked to Hastur, but its heart is in the right place. 105 pages including illustration and map book, $8.99

Floaters in the Mozz Caves - Short low level LL adventure.  22 pages, $2.50

Misc

Castle Oldschool: 1,000 Rooms of Chaos II -  1000 doesn't seem like a chaotic number, though. $1.99 and 53 pages

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 11-10-2017 -  Looks like an underground temple. $1 for the enhanced version.

RPGPundit Presents #7: Medieval Authentic Spellbooks - Because fantasy worlds where magic actually works needs fake magic make up by crazy people or something. 7 pages, 99 cents.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — November 7th, 2017

Pretty sparse week, but features an adventure from a new company/dude.

Adventures

Beware of the Spirits in the Wood -  More encounters than an adventure, this is for LotFP. PWYW and 6 pages.

Statues -  Despite the minimalistic name, this is a fairly hefty adventure set in a Byzantine style city. Although supposedly for "advanced" edition, AC seems to start at 9 not 10. Pretty interesting though. $4.99 and 39 pages.

Under Tenkar's Tavern - The first 3 levels of a mini-megadungeon? 10 pages and PWYW.

Rules

RPGPundit Presents #6: Pipes & Pipeweed -  For whatever reason, pipeweed is one of those things that was very popular in the 1970s and is mostly forgotten now. Which is odd, because it was obviously considered to be pot back then and that still seems endlessly amusing to some. $1.99 and 10 pages.

Misc

Castle Oldskull - The Oldskull Deck of Strangest Things - Add on for the Deck of Many Things. $2.99 and 103 very small pages with giant text.

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 11-3-17 - Relatively simple underground lair. $1 for enhanced version

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — November 1st, 2017

I was going to do this last night, but I was playing the space 4x game Stars in Shadow (very much a Moo2 clone with turn based combat, but a good one) and in the midst of crushing an alien empire. Hard to pull yourself away from that, especially as they had been winning.

Adventures

Advanced Adventures #38: White Dragon Run II -  Evidently there were a bunch released when I was away since they are up to 38 now. This is a sequel to a module that was more a town with some side quests than a typical module. This adds more sidequests/sandbox stuff.  $7, 18 pages

Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival -  Another Kabuki Kaiser sandbox deal, this time Asian horror. $4.99 and 96 pages.  These are a must buy for me even if they weren't cheap.

RPGPundit Presents #5 - The Child Eaters -  This issue of his periodical is an adventure about witches meant for his Dark Albion setting. 9 pages, $1.99

SO3 Wycked Summons -  Shouldn't that be "Wyckyd Summyns"? (and the u with an an umlaut). This is a one shot adventure for 1e/2e and 4th to 6th level characters. $10 for 24 pages.

The Dying Sword - From Unbalanced Dice games comes another LL adventure, this one short by his standards at 16 pages and $2.50

Rules

The Puppeteer -  New class specifically for LotFP but probably usable in most basic games. I have one called that in the works but this seems somewhat different than mine, and is bard based. 8 pages, PWYW

The Witch for S&W Continual Light -  From the witch guy of course. $1.49 and 13 pages.

Witch S&W Bundle - Whatever witch is which this has you covered.

Wizardry Unearthed for S&W Continual Light - Let the cash ins for a new flavor of S&W begin, I guess. $1.25

Updated Version of Engines & Empires

Engines & Empires was a rules addition and setting for Labyrinth Lord, basically a steampunk/Victorian era game by John Higgins.

It's still the latter, but apparently now it's a stand alone game, with the setting separate. The PDFs are free (from Lulu) and reasonbly priced hard copies are also available

I have not looked at the new version yet (and won't get a chance until Monday night, likely), but the old version was exceptionally well done and this should be a must download.

New OSR Products at DTRPG/RPGNow — October 24th, 2017

Bad time to come back, what with the Frank Menzter stuff and the Frog God Guy stuff going on.

But on the bright side, it's also a busy week, lots of interesting OSR products, particularly adventures.

Official

Guess they finished releasing everything?

Adventures

Deadly Delves: Reign of Ruin -  Seems like Jon Brazer Enterprises is publishing Swords & Wizardry modules now (they did a lot of Pathfinder and 5e stuff).  This one is for 6th level PCs and has them pitted against a black dragon and a ruined temple. Sounds good until the price tag, $10 for 34 pages.

Dungeon Full of Monsters -  From Red Box Vancouver comes this large dungeon. I'm not sure it qualifies as "mega" as it's 5 levels, but each level has 5 sections, so I shouldn't quibble, I guess. And it's 352 pages. Only $15, which seems like a very good deal (hard covers are pricier, but what you'd expect)

Eructation of the Goblin Troll -  No, he's not happy to see you, he just is burping. A mid level LL adventure from Unbalanced Die Games. 35 pages, $3.50

Fever Swamp - .Swamp hex crawl for LotFP. $7.99 and 32 pages.

Wrath of Grapes -  There's trouble brewing at the winery. Well, fermenting. This is a mini-adventure from Creation's Edge for 4th to 6th level characters. $1.50, 13 pages.

Rules

Microlight81  Complete Digest  Epub - E-book format for e-readers (as opposed to tablets and PDF) the excellent game. $7.50 and 382

Sabres & Sorcery - Seems to be inspired by Sabres & Witchery, which was sort of a Solomon Kane styled game, though this seems to have more traditional fantasy races as well. $7 and 170 pages.

Space Age Sorcery 1.5 -  This is non-fantasy spells for D&D style games. Free, 29 pages

Misc

Castle Oldskull: 1000 Rooms of Chaos -  Thankfully Rob Zombie had nothing to do with this. But it's another random table product. $2.99 and 63 pages.

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 10-20-17 - Looks like a combination temple and cave complex. $1 for enhanced version.

RPGPundit Presents #4 - Hipster Elves -  The 4th in his series of comedy products, though at $2.99 and 10 pages< I think the joke is on the buyer.

Weird Zone - After Richard Tucholka's death Tri-Tac products are showing up on DTRPG/RPGNow instead of just being sold on cd-rom from their website. But they are a bit overpriced. This systemless game premise seems to have the PCs as dimension travelers in a starship. It's $17.95 and 38 pages

800 1930s-1950s Fanzines online at the University of Iowa's digital library

Hopefully someday we will see this for RPG related 'zines. But until then, this is still pretty cool, this is how nerds argued before the internet

( BTW I've finally settled in at my new part time job (working weekends) and probably will start posting regularly again soon.)

Update of sorts

Thanks for the emails. I'm still somewhat frazzled by dealing with the aftermath of my father's passing. Having to make arrangements for the body, contacting people to notify he passed (and inevitably having them choke up when they hear the news), dealing with this or that (and since I was the only family he had, I'm the only one to do it).

Beyond that, he did have any life insurance or leave any money (as he was living off of social security) and left a lot of debts, most of which I will ignore (like the $1500 3 mile ambulance ride), but some stuff needs to be paid. I tried a GoFundMe on his Facebook page but that failed spectacularly (I got angry comments from his friends) so I have to get another part time job for that (in the next week or so) and I have no idea how much free time that will leave me. 

So time will tell if I have time to do this in the future. And thanks again

Taking a short break

I believe I mentioned my father had been in and out of the hospital for the last month or so. Well, he passed away this last week somewhat unexpectedly (he had thought he was getting out of it in a couple days, but this was not how he planned) and I've been trying to clean up his affairs and what not. Dealing with his friends, dealing with body arrangements, and the fact that he didn't leave any money but a lot of bills and debt has been seriously stressed out.

Anyway, there's an Xmas in July sale at DTPRG

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?filters=0_0_1300_0_0&page=1&sort=4a

New OSR Titles at DTPRG/RPGNow — July 12th, 2017

Busy week with lots of adventures, And I mean a lot of adventures.  And most are actually for OSRIC/1e

Official

Night Below -  Not unlike the D series, only for 2e and in Forgotten Realms  Generic. But basically players get involved into going underground and exploring and killing stuff. Actually quite good  192 pages, $9.99

Space Lairs - Essentially another entry in their Lairs series, but for Spelljammer. 64 pages, $4.99

WGQ1 Patriots of Ulek - I'm guessing they also probably cheat at football. $4.99 and 32 pages

Adventures

Orb of Undying Darkness -  1 page S&W adventure. PWYW (and looking at the average, clearly I should stop making 15-20 page modules)

OWB09: Stalingrad on Fire - That was also a song by Rock Master Ivan (er, audio NSFW).  Actually a module for Operation White Box . 26 pages, $3.99

SK1 The Corrupt Temple -  An adventure for OSRIC/1e for 3rd to 5th level characters. Sadly not about televangelists, but "a stirring journey into the temple of an aquatic goddess".  44 pages, $10

SK2 Scoundrel's Run -  An adventure for OSRIC/1e, for 1-3 level characters. Seems like a sandbox style adventure focusing on the exploration of a valley. 44 pages, $10

The Destruction Contraption -  A love level adventure from Unbalanced Dice Games who seem to be quite busy of late. 70 pages, $5

The Folio 14 - The start of a new series of Folio brand adventures for 1e/5e. As such it's for 1st level characters. Seems to involve the rescuing of a princess from a necromancer.  36 pages, $5.99

The Folio 14.5 The Pearl of Madness -A side adventure for above. Apparently the PCs go pearl diving in a hidden cover (as this is presumably before they find the princess).  8 pages, $1.99

The Folio 14.6 The Tomb at Dragon's Spine -  Explore the manor of a sea dwarf. Aren't those called penguins? 8 pages, $1.99

The Folio 14.7 Candon Shamen of the Dark Fen -  Sort of like a mountie only for lizard men. The PCs must do something or other to him. 8 pages, $1.99

The Oracle of Stone and Flame -  10 page S&W adventure. PWYW

Rules

OWB10: Tactical Combat - Expanding Operation White Box into a miniature game.  What, no retro clone of Tractics? $4.99 and 53 pages

S1 The Harquebusier -  Not to be confused with the Harpybustier, this is apparently a firearm using class for OSRIC/1e with a short adventure. $10, 24 pages.

Misc

ACR 1 - Advanced OCR Character Record -  Almost as much of an overkill as those "wheelies" for combat comes this from the Castle Oldskull guy. PWYW and 100s of pages.

Back to BasiX Vol 1 -  Fanzine devoted to B/X. 12 pages, $1.50

Friday Freebie 7-7-17 - Looks like an older style dungeon with diagonal corridors. $1 for enhanced version.

OSR Deluxe Character Sheet - Ironically from Bloat Games comes this single page character sheet, Free,

OWB Tactical Combat in Stalingrad - Bundle of  the tactical combat expansion and the adventure. $6.98

The Folio Digital Quarterly #2 - As with the other Folio stuff, they support 1e and 5e. This is apparently rules for running a steampunk style game. 28 pages, $4.99

Flying Buffalo's Citybooks up on Bundle of Holding

These are generic, but being old school, they are pretty easy to use with D&D

$7.95 gets you the first 3, plus the first 2 Grimtooth Trap books and beating the average (currently $18.76) gets you the rest plus Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes which was the system used in the original Wasteland.

Inferno: Oasis of Koessa Review — Banana Throwing Polymorphed Dwarves in Hell

Inferno: Oasis of Koessa is an adventure module from Paul Elkmann and Geoffrey O. Dale, the latter known to old school gamers as the author of the Inferno hex crawl for Judges Guild, which was literally set in hell as envisioned by Dante.  That only had 4 circles of hell, but he included a 5th circle in one of the issues of Fight On! and then apparently finished the rest in a stand alone product.

As the name implies, Inferno: Oasis of Koessa is set in hell (the 7th Circle), basically a small oasis consisted of some sphinxes, a funerary temple, a tower (obelisk), and some small pyramids, ruled over by a mummy king. In practice, it's a collection of dungeons. The largest is a sphinx, with just over 100 keyed locations and 20 pages. The funerary temple is 14 locations and 5 pages, the tower 11 floors (one per floor) and 4 pages, the tomb is 16 locations over 6 pages, and the pyramids are about 12 locations and 5 pages each.

For the most part, all of these places are old school dungeon crawls. Very old school, they very easily could have come out of a Judges Guild product circa 1980 (as did the original Inferno).  Lots of combat, lots of death traps (two or three saving throws per room seems to be about the norm), with the occasional very strange thing that makes you laugh and say "That's crazy!".  My favorite example of the latter is a dwarf polymorphed into a chimp that throws bananas at the PCs, some of which explode.

Castle Oldskull Products Apparently on Sale

For 99 cents each. Basically these are huge books full of random tables to generate various things.

While I personally am not too crazy about random tables, these are remarkably comprehensive. The PDFs are rather bloated by a huge font and unnecessary public domain art which can cause a table to be several pages instead of one, but still, at 99 cents, they are worth it to mine for ideas.

New OSR Products at DTPRG/RPGNow — July 4th, 2017

Sigh. My father had yet another operation this week (after one on Friday). Two actually. Apparently they botched it the first time and had to go back and fix it. But he's stable and conscious, but still in ICU.

I am not a BRP fan (at least for fantasy, it's okay for CoC), but there is an interesting product, Ki Khanga, a Sword & Soul based game like Spears of the Dawn. To me the best way to promote diversity in the hobby is to quit talking about it and put out diverse products, in this case, a fantasy Africa game.

Official

A Light in the Belfry -  Apparently one of the 2e era audio adventures, this time for Ravenloft. No audio though. 32 pages, $4.99

AC3 The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina -  TSR really had a thing for paper miniatures for some reason (also in their Indiana Jones game) and this was an attempt to add them to B/X.  $4.99

AC8 The Revenge of Rusak - See above. And Rusak's Revenge is much catchier. $4.99 and 16 pages.

Savage Baronies - Another audio cd enhanced product, again sans the audio. This time it was an expansion for the Savage Coast, which was sort of a mini-setting of Mystara in the 2e era. $4.99 and 96 pages.

Adventures

Zip

Rules

Microlite74 3d6 Edition - 68 pages, Another variation of the Microlite rules. PWYW  68 pages.

Misc

A Field Guide to Hot Springs Island -  I have no idea what this is exactly. An adventure? A location sourcebook? Fiction? Seems like it's all of them. No idea what rules it uses but it says "OSR" in the category, so who knows. And at $19.99, I won't be finding out. It's 240 pages, though.

Friday Freebie Enhanced 6-30-17 - Smallish underground temple, looks like. $1 for enhanced version.

The Lunar Library of Thurindisar Review — A Trip to the Moon with (almost) Jedi and Daleks in 15 pages,

The Lunar Library of Thurindisar is a short adventure module from John Fredericks and Sharp Mountain games, the third one of his that I've bought. The first two were good but not great, but this one hits the great mark and then some. Like his other modules, it's meant for low-mid level (3-6) Labyrinth Lord and is set around a town called Adela. But as the name of the module implies, the adventure might start at Adela, but most of it takes place on the Moon.

Essentially the local mage is looking for a certain rare spell, which was known to be in the spellbook of a magic-user named Thurindisar. While most mages seem to be make do with towers, Thurindisar wasn't satisfied with that and lived on the Moon. So the PCs are hired to go there, sent by a magical telescope, to recover the spell.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — June 26th, 2017

I sometimes think the best way to stay healthy is to avoid being sick. I mean, besides the obvious, there seem to be complications from getting treatment. My father goes to the hospital for pneumonia. While there, he chokes on a sandwich. He recovers from that and gets discharged. But he was given some sort of drug that causes internal bleeding and he has to go back to the hospital to fix that.  That was cured and he was discharged again, only now he has to go back to the hospital because he got bed sores during his stay that aren't healing right.

Official

Jakandor, Land of Legend -  As if late 2e era TSR didn't have enough settings to support, so they decided to put out a series of mini settings. Jakandor was one of these and this is the 3rd book for it. 146 pages, $7.99

Sea of Blood -  Last of a trilogy of modules about sahuagin. $4.99 and 64 pages

The Sylvan Veil -  Otherwise known as leaves. I guess. 112 pages and $9.99. Some Dragonlance thingie about wood elves

Adventures

Blue Crystal Mine -  Creation's Edge starts up a new series of S&W modules with this, for 1-3 levels. 11 pages, $1.50

Broken God's Pain -  Like when Thor drops his hammer on his toe. Apparently a conversion of an older adventure to Labyrinth Lord, but I have no idea what the original adventure was for. $6 and 81 pages and for low levels.

Metamorphosis Alpha: Epsilon City -   Huge sourcebook for MA from Goodman Games, detailing the largest city about the ship. Essentially turning MA into a small scale Gamma World, I guess.  348 pages and $25

SO1 Eternal Knight - Short adventure for AD&D and clones, levels 6-8. 15 pages (including pregends), $5

Rules

PC12 - The OSR Rogue -  This is my attempt at a replacement for the thief class. 15 pages and  PWYW or get it from my google drive  (if I have it working right)

The Green Witch for Swords & Wizardry - From that guy that really love witches. A woodsy sort of witch, not the giant vegetable selling kind. $2.99 and 74 pages

Misc

Castle Oldskull: The Oldskull Necronomicon I -  I'm not sure what this is, the description if vague, but his previous products were largely random gibberish tables formatted so they take up about 5x the pages they should. $4.99 and 246 pages

Friday Freebie 6-23-17 -  This looks like a very old school (diagonal corridors) tomb complex. $1 for the enhanced version.

Legends of Krshal - For Towers of Krshal, which I believe was a skethcy megadungeon, comes this supplemental book. 46 pages, $4.50

Medieval Roadside Inn -  Floorplans for said sort of inn. $1.99

The Nevermore Mines — Excellent Halloween Themed Adventure

The Nevermore Mines is an adventure module from The Merciless Merchants for the AD&D 2e retroclone For Gold & Glory, meant for characters 4th to 7th level. Unlike a lot of OSR projects that are single person efforts, it's actually done by a number of people, written by Jon Bertani with Aaron Fairbrook and Mark McAllister, who also do maps and editing respectively.  An OSR product with editing? Who'd have thought. It's 56 pages and ordinarily goes for $5.95 in PDF, but I got it on sale for only $3.

It's meant to be a Halloween themed module, or at least inspired by it. The basic premise is that ages ago, some dwarves imprisoned an ancient evil in some mines, which they then abandoned. Then humans came along and re-opened the mines, including breaking open the sealed "Do Not Open" area and of course, the ancient evil ran amok. But they eventually realized their mistake and re-imprisoned the ancient evil. Only they didn't do as good a job of it as the dwarves and the ancient evil can get loose every "Harvest Moon". And he does, not just committing atrocities, but recruiting evil followers that can harass the nearby town year round.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — June 20th, 2017

Summer is officially here, or just about will be and things seem to be perking back up.

Official

A Darkness Gathering -  Late 2e era module that is a start of a trilogy about mind flayers. $4.99 and 32 pages

Dawn of the Overmind -  Apparently the last adventure of a trilogy about mind flayers and a Spelljammer crossover of sorts. 64 pages, $4.99

FR8 Cities of Mystery -  An aide to help you design cities, originally including cardboard fold up dealies which I guess you'd now have to print out. 64 pages, $4.99

Masters of Eternal Night -  The middle part of a trilogy about mind flayers $4.99, 32 pages

Night of the Shark -  2nd part of an adventure trilogy about the Sahuagin, a name I still cannot spell very well 40 years later. 32 pages, $4.99

Adventures

An Invitation from the Blue Barron -  Free multi-author dungeon meant for Blueholme, now on DTPRG.

The Flooded Temple -  Calls itself OSR but has no stats. $1.95 and 17 pages.

To the Aid of Zig -  From Creation's Edge Games comes another mini-module for S&W, this time for 8th-10th level characters. 12 pages, $1.50

Ud: Labyrinth Lord Edition -  I don't remember the original (and it's not on his page) so I don't know what system it was for.  51 pages, $5

Misc

AS&SH 2e Character Sheet -  Probably works with the 1st edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers  of Hyperborea as  well. Free

Friday Freebie 6-16-17 -  Lake and caverns. $1 for enhanced version.

Old School Adventurers Miniatures - PWYW paper minis to print out.

The Unicorn Cookbook - Fantastic Beasts and How to Eat Them - Free novelty book

Pretty nice online city generator

Medieval Fantasy City Generator it is called. Not perfect by any means (and I would argue that medieval and fantasy cannot exist together as medieval Europe required several specific things to exist which don't in fantasy worlds), but works very quickly

The Merciless Merchants discount their products for Father's Day weekend

As near as I can tell, they are reducing their two adventures from $5.95 each to $3 each (they also have a PWYW one).

That's one of the annoying things about publishers who use DTPRG's feature to put a higher list price, then put a lower real price just to make it seem like they are giving you a big discount. Because when they actually do give a discount, you aren't sure how much the actual discount is.

Dungeon of the Selenian Conclave Review — Something of a Tease

Dungeon of the Selenian Conclave is the second module from Starlight Games and Alessandro Dellamotta. Like the first, it's meant for B/X. While his earlier effort was for low-mid levels (4th or so), this is intended for 1st and 2nd level characters.

The premise is somewhat similar to Arsenal of the Warrior Princess, his first module, in that the party explores an abandoned wizardrly research facility. In this case though, rather than being for weapons research, it's research meant to enable travel to the Moon. While this is generally possible with a simple teleport spell in most settings, apparently not the author's. (I don't know about the Mystara moon, though I do remember that's where the Immortals had their city. It also has a second, invisible moon full of Japanese cat people).

Gary Gygax's FBI Files

I've always been wary about studying a person's life too much. But this is kinda interesting, a journalist at Reason Mag filed a FOIA to the FBI about any files related to Gary Gygax and TSR

He finally got an answer, a year later

Mostly seems to be rumors from one of the Blumes.

Apparently this was somehow part of the Unabomber investigation.

Bruce Heard's latest Kickstarter is up

Bruce Heard, mostly notable for his Mystara work, particularly the Princess Ark series, had to come up with a new world once he left TSR/WOTC and they had no interest in giving him a Mystara license.

So Calidar was born, a world where he could continue with  Princess Ark style products.

The last one was kinda meh, but his newest Calidar entry is about a literal flying circus

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — June 13th, 2017

This has been a much better week than last, my father is out of intensive care and should be out of the hospital tomorrow. He needs to get some physical therapy to walk, since he's been bedridden for basically a month.

And we've got a couple of high profile releases. A new Gamma World inspired game and a new Advanced Adventure!

Official

Comanthyr: Empire of the Elves -  Sourcebook about an elven country in the Forgotten Realms. Apparently in Ed Greenwoods it was originally called Keeblerville. 160 pages, $9.99

DLC2: Dragonlance Classics 2 -  Compilation of the 5th-8th original Dragonlance adventures, converted to 2e.  120 pages, $4.99

DLC3: Dragonlance Classics 3 -  The last part (9th-12th) of the original Dragonlance adventures, compiled and revised for 2e, 128 pages, $4.99

Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium Vol 3 -  Contains the guide to Vistana, the guide to Fiends, and the unpublished (before this) guide to Witches.  288 pages and $9.99

Wyrmskull Throne - One of the last 2e adventures for the FR, $4.99 and 64 pages

Adventures

Advanced Adventures #35: The Desert Shrine of the Sightless Sisters -  New OSRIC/1e adventure from Keith Sloan, whose Witch Mounds I (and my players) really, really loved. This seems quite a bit darker though, about a cult that kidnaps girls, cuts out their tongue and eyes and turns them into brainwashed soldiers that the PCs must presumably kill.   For level 5-8. 12 pages, $7

The Storm of Yizhao - Adventure for Godbound. Comes with epub and mobi versions as well.  $4.99 and 74 pages.

Rules 

Mutant Bastards - Adventures in the New West -  Inpsired by Gamma World and AD&D 2e comes Mustant Bastards. It seems to have something of a wild west theme as well, reminding me of Deadlands Hell on Earth.  155 pages and a very reasonable $5.75

Misc

Deck of Many Things for Labyrinth Lord -  This PDF seemingly automates it or something. PWYW.

Friday Freebie June 9th 2017 -  Looks like another underground river map, this time leading into a lake. $1 for the enhanced version.

Nod 32 - John Stater's excellent 'zine continues. Has a new class, gods of Mesopotamia, and a hex crawl. 140 pages, $3.39 (probably temporary price)

Dark Dungeons Deluxe in the Works

Over on Dragonsfoot someone ("Peter") is working on making a deluxe version of Dark Dungeons, the BECMI retro-clone

So far, changes include:

Layout
Reduced to 2-column layout.
Different color choices.
Header and footer images.
Color class and monster art.
New Cover.
Spellchecked for American English.

Classes
New Classes: Gnome (PC2), Mountebank (Darker Dungeons).
Druids are now a full class (DRGN177).
Thief ability progression to level 14 reverted to expert set. After level 14 progresses similarly to RC.

Skills
New Skills: Snares (RC)

Equipment
New Equipment: Flail (Darker Dungeons), Kite Shield (GAZ15), Morning Star (Darker Dungeons), Small Shield (GAZ15), Tower Shield (GAZ15)

Spells
Elves have a new spell list, with some new spells (GAZ5).
Some spells now function differently when cast underwater (PC3).

Monsters
New Monsters: Bhut (DMR2), Bird of Prey, Lesser Haunt (DMR2)
Changed Lesser Phoenix to Firebird (I12+MCSA2)

I'm not sure about the Druid change, but the rest is excellent. He's looking for any input help, so check it out if you have any interest in that sort of D&D.

New OSR Games at RPGNow/DTRPG — Jjune 6th, 2017

I think the worst part of getting old yourself is your parents getting older and having health problems. I spent the night at the hospital waiting room for my father who was in ICU with a combination of a heart problem and pneumonia.

Curiously, it turns out the ICU nurse (male) plays D&D.

Official

Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad -  A late 2e dungeon crawl set in Greyhawk. $4.99 and 48 pages.

Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark -  A guide to the underdark of the Forgotten Realms. Despite the title, it's a well written guide. $9.99 and 128 pages.

For Duty & Deity -  Sounds like a sourcebook but is actually a Forgotten Realms adventure seemingly involving rescuing a god from the Abyss. 48 pages, $4.99

The Star Cairns -  2e Greyhawk module by Sean Reynolds, who I still have a strong dislike for from his days as TSR's guy that harassed people who had D&D fan material online. it might be decent though and it's a dungeon crawl. $4.99 and 48 pages

Adventures

S3 The Way O' the Fae - An actual adventure for OSRIC! Who'd have thought. At $10 for 30 pages, I won't be buying it.  Seems to be set set in the land of Faerie and involves a leprechaun.

Personally I never thought having a separate land of Faerie in a D&D setting make sense. Because the D&D basically is a land of Faerie

The Ruined Tower -  A mid level adventure for Labyrinth Lord. From Unbalanced Dice Games, who is quietly putting out a lot of stuff. $3, 35 pages.

Rules

Zip

Misc

Castle Oldschool Adventure Generator - I personally am not a fan of randomly generated dungeons/adventures. But if you are, this is a huge book at 700 pages and $4.99

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map - This week's map looks like a section of the underdark. $1 for enhanced version.

John Turcotte's Mistress of the Ghost City is now available

I have a tendency to overlook Dragonfoot's modules since I shy away from Dragonsfoot, as like most OSR forums, they are kinda toxic to anything not "their" edition and are remarkably rude to past designers, TSR and other. (Frank Mentzer and that guy who originally made the thief class most notably).

Still it's mostly on a few members that are bad, and they do produce some nice stuff, a good fanzine, and a host of adventure modules, their last being John Turcotte's (aka Gnarley Bones) Mistress of Ghost City, the 4th and final module in his Her Dark Majesty series.

The other 3 being Where the Fallen Jarls Sleep, Beneath Black Towen (not a typo for Tower), and Stormcrows Gather (Not a typo for Stormcow, sadly.)

All worth checking out, but this looks like the best. Also took a long time to come out to due various problems that always seem to come up when you are putting out a module.

A Lot More Planet Stories at Comics Book Plus

Zounds! By my count, 12 more issues of the sword & planet magazine since the post I made the other day.  Well, they started off sword & planet, they gradually moved more towards 1950s sci-fi as they er, reached the 1950s.

Some highlights:

British Versions #3 - Warrior Maid of Mars

Spring 1942 - Stories by Gardner Fox and Eenry Kuttner

Fall 1946 -  Dread Flame of M'Tonak by Henry Hasse (who I believe was on the very outskirts of the Lovecraft circle) and a story by Carl Jacobi

Nov 1950 - This issue is getting away from sword & planet and more is cowboys in space. Also a glowing review of Dianetics from James Blish which caused some controversy at the time (and I believed was rebutted by someone in Galaxy Magazine, which they have a full run of at the Internet Arvhice. I don't think that's actually PD though, they aren't real picky)

July 1952 -  Has a Philip K Dick story, Beyond Lies the Wub which is pretty funny.

November 1952 - The Conjurer of Venus by someone I've never heard of and a Leigh Brackett story.

Summer 1955 - Has a Leigh Brackett novel

July 1951 - Story by Jack Vance, Frank Belknap Long, James Blish, and Poul Anderson

New OSR Titles at RPGNow/DTRPG — May 30th, 2017

May is one of those months that seems to last forever, which is okay with me, as the weather is usually great.

OSR sale is still going on, but the discounts and selection still suck.  Still,, the AD&D 1e bundle, the Known World bundle, and the Advanced Adventures bundle are very good deals

Official

City System -  Encounters and maps (and I think originally cardboard cutouts) for Waterdeep in the FR. $4.99 and 32 pages.

Council of Wyrms -  in OD&D, EGG suggested that you could play a dragon. Then in AD&D he kinda changed his mind (presumably due to players being players) about tthat. But in 2e, they decided, why not? $9.99 and 196 pages.

Mark of Amber -  This is an AD&D 2e sequel to the classic Castle Amber, though it's almost more one of those sequels that is also kinda a remake. 72 pages, $4.99, no idea if the audio is included.

Rise of the Titans - TSR tried to turn Dragolance into a storytelling game with the SAGA rules. But they still kept putting out AD&D stats, too, like in this book, which is actually about ogres (as in DL they are descended from Titans, I think). $4.99 and 96 pages

The Apocalypse Stone - WOTC wanted everyone to move to 3e, so they came up with this module to destroy your existing 2e campaign, not merely change it like Fate of Istus. 96 pages, $4.99

Adventures

House of Flowers -  Some sort of pretentious artsy adventure. 72 pages, PWYW

The Folio #12 -  I had the first few of these, but I've completely lost track/interest of them.  2nd part of a trilogy. For 5th to 7th level characters, 1e/5e statted. 36 pages, $5.99

The Folio #13 - Concluding part of a trilogy. Otherwise as above.  28 pages, $5.99

Rules

Dungeons & Delvers -  Besides being trademark lawsuit bait, this seems to be some sort of OSR D&D with a bunch of tweaks.  $6.99 and 135 pages.

Witches & Wyverns -  This is kinda why I dislike a large portion of the OSR. Think OD&D Whitebox isn't old school enough for you? Well, this sucker is Chainmail based. Never mind that Chainmail is even clunkier and crappier than even Whitebox. Yes, I should probably lighten up, but Chainmail just really sucks. Sometimes older is not better, it's crappier. 21 pages, $1

Misc

Dice Rolling PDF -  Rolling dice too hard? Can't use a virtual program? Well, this PDF will roll dice for you somehow. PWYW

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 5-26-17 -  This week's map looks like a seaside cave

Star Sword Magazine #1 -  Official magazine devoted to the inexplicably popular White Star, though 3rd party stuff for that has basically stopped. 39 pages, $3.99

Death in Reik Caverns Review — A Relic of the 1e/2e Transition Era

Death in Reik Caverns is a modern day rarity, an OSR module actually meant for 1st Edition (either actual AD&D or OSRIC). In truth though, it's not so much OSR, as old school. It was an AD&D module used at Gencon in 1992, though in a way, it feels much older with that, more like '79, as it completely uses standard monsters and has a rather pedestrian premise — archmage dies, monsters come in and take over his lair and use it as a base to raid a nearby town. However, its true age is betrayed by a number of 2e-isms sneaking through, which honestly does represent how a lot of games were played then, using both 1e and 2e material somewhat haphazardly.

It's meant to be set in Greyhawk, dubbed "Darkhawk" here, but the tiny included map includes Maure Castle, Cairn Hills, Safeton, and Abbor Alz, all unchanged from Greyhawk. Still, it doesn't literally use the Darlene map. It is however set in a new town, Breehaven, 2 hexes away from Greyhawk. At least as far as I know it is new, I was never really into Greyhawk beyond the original folio and early modules.

Some New Pulps at Comic Books Plus

Not directly OSR related, but this is the literature that inspired the game. On issue of Planet Stories and 3 issues of Avon Readers, which basically just took old pulp stories and reprinted them, sans illustration or ads.

Planet Stories v2 08 - Most notably has a sword & planet tale from Henry Kuttner, The Eyes of Thar

Avon Fantasy Reader 15 -Has a sword & planet adventure from Stanley Weinbaum (and a heck of a cover), a story about a guy with ape servants and some other stuff.

Avon Fantasy Reader 17 -  Featuring (and the cover) The Sapphire Siren. It's funny, while 1950s male heroes went shirtless, they still pulled their pants up to their navel and some older tales by HPL and William Hope Hodgeson

Avon Science Fiction Reader 1 - This has a cover like from a Venger Satainis module, but is actually for a story from Edmond Hamilton, and has stories from A. Merritt, CAS, Frank Belknap Long, and Donald Wollheim.

OSR sale at DTRPG

Not much of a sale, only 15% off.

And from what I can tell, it's mostly titles from the commercial, as opposed to the hobbyist side of the OSR. Still, as most of those are priced high to begin with, you can save a few bucks.

Edit: More interesting is the sale at DM"s Guild

Has bundles of TSR products at really low prices and a nice bundle of Advanced Adventures.

New OSR Releases at RPGNow/DTRPG — May 23rd, 2017

After a very slow last week, things have picked up a little with a couple of new race supplements and a couple of adventures

Official

Cult of the Dragon -  There was a Forgotten Realms book with a Dracolich on the cover. I may or may not have read it, I can't remember. But this has the same cover and presumably is about it. 128 pages, $4.99

Hail the Heroes - As part of their new take on Mystara, bringing it into AD&D, they also put out adventures with accompanying cds.  I don't know if it comes with audio files or not. 36 pages, $4.99

Monstrous Arcana: The Sea Devils -  Sadly, not a Jon Pertwee Doctor Who crossover, this is instead a sourcebook about those lovely sharkmen, the sahuagin. $4.99 and 96 pages.

Night of the Vampire -  Another one of these adventures. Didn't have this one either (I did own the Castle Amber one. $4.99 and 36 pages

Wizard's Spell Compendium Vol 2 -  More spells for 2e wizards. Unfortunately they lump in illusionist spells, so it's not as useful as it could be for earlier editions. 288 pages, $9.99

Adventures

Dungeon of the Selenian Conclave -  From the author of the pretty nice module Arsenal of the Warrior Princess comes a new B/X adventure with a seemingly similar premise, the remains of a wizardly research lab. $1.99 and 18 pages.

Peepee Soaked Heckhole - The name is a Simpsons reference, but it seems to be a standard "I'm so edgy"  LotFP module from the usual bunch. 8 pages, PWYW

Rules

Book of Fantasy Races -  This book introduces 31 new races for use with Advanced Labyrinth Lord or 1e. So they are races, not race classes. $3, 36 pages.

The Nephilim -  Children of angels for Sword & Wizardry. Complete 6 pages, 99 cents.

Misc

Friday Freebie 5-19-17 - This week's map from Tim Hartin is a cavern with one looks like to be a bottomless pit. $1 for the enhanced version

Giant's Perch Review — It's Not a Huge Fish

Giant's Perch is a short adventure for Labyrinth Lord, written and illustrated by John Frederick of Sharp Mountain Games. A couple years ago I bought another adventure from him, Witch of Tariswoods which was good but not great. Both adventures use the same town as base, though it's not really described here save for a tavern. (He's also released 2 more adventures, all available in a 4-pack for $6 total)

Also like that adventure, this has a couple of wilderness encounters, then a small dungeon. It's pretty much linear, the party has the first wilderness encounter, which then leads them to the next, then finally the dungeon. Basically they run into an elf being attacked by frogmen, they rescue him, who enlists them on his quest to find a magic flower.

Rob Conley's Majestic Wilderlands now has its own rules

Sort of an unholy combination of Swords & Wizardry and 5th Edition, but eh.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — May 16th, 2017

Quiet week on the OSR front. On the other hand, we have the 2017 One Page Dungeon Compendium. Personally I am not a big fan of that format. Just because you can make a dungeon on one page doesn't mean you should. Also an old school, if not D&D favorite, Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes which is like a modern Tunnels & Trolls, only good.

Official

Dungeon Builder's Guidebook -  Sometime in the mid-90s after eschewing dungeon adventures (particularly in Dungeon magazine), TSR realized "Hey, maybe those dungeon things aren't so bad after all". This is a fairly useful guide. 64 pages, $4.99

Dungeon Master's Design Kit -  This is a late 1e era product on how to design adventures, not so much dungeons, $4.99 and 96 pages


Wizard's Spell Compendium Vol 1 -  The first of 4 volumes of every D&D and AD&D magic-user (I mean, wizard since it's 2e) spell up to its compilation, which I think was mid 90s. 288 pages, $9.99

Adventures

None

Rules

None

Misc

Castle Builder - More a guide on how to describe castles to players. PWYW

Monster Wheelies For Labyrinth Lord Vol 2 -  More combat charts for 190+ more LL monsters. Because having a separate chart for each monster is so much simply than THACO or Ascending AC and attack bonus. PWYW, but I swear, this makes less sense to me than a single saving throw.

Friday Freebie Ehanced Map 5-5-2017 - Which despite the name, is actually May 12th's map. $1 for enhanced version

Ward's Warrens - A collection of hand drawn cave maps from Shane Ward. Free.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons: Monsters of Mayhem #1 Kickstarter

While his stuff is a little pricey for me, Maximum Mayhem is one of the only remaining lines of OSRIC/1E products these days. This time with a monster book

It's also got that gonzo, Heavy Metal sort of style that I like

Arsenal of the Warrior Princess Review — Very Good Short Tomb Crawl

Arsenal of the Warrior Princess is a short-ish module for 3rd to 5th level characters from Starlight Games, written by Alessandro Dellamotta. It's meant for B/X but should work with any OSR game. Perhaps the most unusual thing is that the author being European, uses the metric system. I'm not sure if European editions of B/X actually used that, but it's fairly easy to convert, 3m = 10', so 18m = 60, 24m = 90, and 36m = 120

The premise is that the dungeon complex was a weapons research facility of a long lost ancient empire, run by the daughter of the emperor. There was a magical accident and it killed everyone inside. Rather than the ancient empire using raise dead (which in B/X can be cast by a 7th level Cleric) or reincarnation or anything that you'd think an empire would have, they just buried her. But they did re-animate some of the dead in the complex to serve as guardians. Beyond that, they also buried the warrior princess with her magic sword. She really, really loved her magic sword.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — May 9th, 2017

Fairly busy week.

Official

DLE1 In Search of Dragons -  Apparently there were 100s, maybe even 1000s of Dragonlance adventures. This was apparently the first 2e DL module. 2e really beefed up dragons, so I'm not sure how effective a dragon lance was against them. $4.99 and 62 pages

DLE3 Dragon Keep - Apparently unrelated to DLE1, save both being DL and 2e and Dragon related. 64 pages, $4.99

DLT1 New Tales: The Land Reborn -  Apparently not Dragon Lettuce and Tomato sandwich, but Dragon Lance Tales. An anthology of adventures. 96 pages, $4.99

Jakandor: Island of War - At this point in the 2e era, I think they were just putting out whatever idea came to hand, this apparently was inspired by Glorantha. 144 pages, $4.99

Priest's Spell Compendium Vol 2 -  I think this was meant to come up last week with the other 2 volumes of this collection of every TSR era Cleric/Priest spell. 288 pages, $4.99

Tales of the Comet - I have this boxed set someplace. It's another mash up of science fiction and D&D, but not a very good one. $9.99 and 176 pages.  Apparently there was a tie-in novel by Roland Green but I haven't read it.

Adventures

Death in Reik Caverns -  A 1st Edition AD&D adventure! Little pricey at $7.99 but it's 56 pages.

Perfectorium of the Golden Tentacle - Details are sparse, but seems to be a high level adventure for BECMI. 166 pages and $6, though going by the preview the pages are very small.

Special Area: The Rangers Hideout -  Something of a mini-sandbox in the wilderness. Lots of art. 22 pages, PWYW.

The Fall of Whitecliff - This is actually a Pathfinder adventure with OSR conversion notes. 22 pages, PWYW

Rules

White Box Zombies Dark Elf Zombies -  I don't think Dark Elves are White Box compatible, but eh, if you think otherwise, here you go. PWYW, 7 pages.

Misc

d30 NPC Background Generator -  While I think the d30 is an annoyance, this is useful enough to put up with that. PWYW

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 5-5-17 -  Another map from Tim Hartin and Paratime Design, this time a cave complex. I can't draw caves. He can. $1 for enhanced version.

Wheelies for Advanced Edition Labyrinth Lord Players -  Offended by ascending AC and attack bonus? THACO too mathematically complex? Looking up numbers on a chart too much of a hassle? Well, this seems to be an even more confusing way of figuring out what you need to roll. 642 pages, PWYW

Wheelies for Labyrinth Lord Players - As above, but because LL is simpler, only 122 pages.

The Ranger's Hideout, PWYW Adventure, is now available for For Gold & Glory

For Gold & Glory, the 2e retroclone, has seen a fair number of products lately. Almost all have been pay, but this one, The Rangers Hideout,  is PWYW.

Despite the odd name, it's basically a sandbox style adventure, a small wilderness area for characters to explore.

It's well worth a look. As most of the changes in 2e were to character classes, this is probably entirely compatible with older editions. And the creator probably spent a good $30 on stock art.

The Place of Forgetting Review — Sorta like Diablo Lite

The Place of Forgetting by M.A. Packer is something of an odd product. If you had to categorize it, it would be an adventure module, but it's really more an outline of a campaign than an adventure. And not your standard campaign, something more akin to Diablo (the computer game) than anything else, though more with an undead than demonic theme (though it does have demons). Essentially a neighboring kingdom has been taken over by a demon prince and the inhabitants have been turned into undead and other evil monsters. The PCs go there, kill everything they encounter in one area, progress to another, repeat, until a final showdown with the demon lord.