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