New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — February 27th, 2018

Lots of adventures this week, including one by Shane Ward

Adventures

 

Dark Places & Demogorgons Jeffersontown Survival Guide - Apparently it's for a game called Dark Places & Demogorgons which apparently came out in January and is an 80s horror RPG (I guess inspired by Stranger Things). Oops.   140 pages, $9.99

Dungeon of the Selenian Conclave -  Weird, I bought (and reviewed this) last year. But apparently it's being released by a new company and at twice the price. $4.00, 24 pages and a middling adventure.

Dusty Door - A Blueholme adventure from Shane Ward of the 3 Toadstools blog  12 Pages and PWYW

Quests of Doom 4: Between a Rock and a Hard Place -   7th level adventure about dwarves and hobgoblins. $7.99, 29 pages.

Quests of Doom 4: Desperation of Ivy -  Sounds like a soap opera episode, but seems to be a house crawl. By a pretty good author, though, Lance Hawersomething. For 3rd to 5th level characters, 24 pages, $7.99

RPGPundit Presents: Hecate's Tomb -  Sounds more like a mystery than a tomb crawl. 18 pages, $2.99

The Cracked Lantern - The 34th module from Creation's Edge games, this one is for 7th to 9th level characters. $1.50 and 11 pages.

Misc

Friday Freebie 2-23-18 -  A smaller dungeon this time. $1 for enhanced version

Dark Fantasy Basic Review — New School Meets Old School. Or Vice-versa.

One of the things I dislike about the OSR movement is the repetition of OD&D and B/X clones, simply republished with minimal house rules (sometimes not even that). Another thing I dislike is the tendency toward simpler characters with no special powers in the assertion that is more "old school" and how the game should be played. Yet the rapid proliferation of character classes in both official magazines and fanzines in the early days argues to the contrary.

Dark Fantasy Basic from Eric Diaz isn't just a rehash of OD&D or B/X, but takes an old school framework and uses concepts from more modern incarnations of the game, particularly 5th edition, but beyond that, new ideas. The basics are the same, character classes, traditional abilities scores (using the B/X scale for bonuses) but most of the details are quite different, and it allows a good deal of character customization without the bloat or paperwork of 3e.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — February 20th, 2018

Slowish week, though many of the products are rather pricey. 

Adventures

Quests of Doom 4: Awakenings -  1st to 3rd level S&W adventure from Frog God, presumably converted from 5e. 19 pages, $7.99

Quests of Doom 4: A Little Knowledge -5h level adventure. $7.99 and 29 pages.  By Tom Knauss, so presumably originally for 3rd edition.

SO7 Shrine of the Titans -  Apparently a giant (er, the tall humanoid) adventure, actually, not titan, but still probably for higher levels. 14 pages, $2.50

The Folio 16.6 Pirate Lords of the Dark Sargasso -  Side adventure for the Folio #16. $1.99 and 6 pages (yikes).

The Folio 16.6 The Ogre Magi of Jade Rock -  Side adventure for the Folio #16. $1.99 and 12 pages.

Rules

Keeps & Towers -  Very short (6 page) guide for costs and such. Probably covered in may old editions anyway. 99 cents.

Most Monsters  - I have to admit, this is a subject that hasn't really been covered. 10 pages, $1.99

Misc

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 2-16-18 -  Looks like an underground shopping mall or something. $1 for enhanced version.

RPGPundit Presents #20; The City of Arkhome 2 -  21 pages, $2.99

New OSR Products @ RPGNow/DTRPG — February 13th, 2018

Somewhat interestingly someone has created a retroclone of the WEG Ghostbusters game and released an SRD for it.

Adventures

Advanced Adventures #39: The Dark Tower of Arcma -  Looks like it's time for another AA compilation! This module is for 6th to 10th level characters and involves them exploring a mysterious and odorous (oh wait, not aroma) dark tower. 14 pages, $7 which is a little pricey, but usually these have tiny print and are a good bang for the buck, even at a low page count.

Kidnap the Archpriest - He'd just cast Word of Recall, though.  $4.99 and 54 pages with a lot of background material

SO6: The Bloody Barrow - For levels 6 to 8. 28 pages, $7.50

Two OSR Dungeon Crawls -  This is much more imaginative than the name. While basically the author (John Battle) as just filled out keys to some of Dyson Logos's maps, he's done so rather creatively with a dungeon in a snow globe and a witch's dream. Worth a look, especially as it's PWYW. 29 pages.

Rules

Classes of Fantasy: Assassin -  Because playing 1e or 0e with Greyhawk is just too hard, I guess. PWYW

Classes of Fantasy: Gnome -  This might be interesting, though gnomes can be anything from tinkers to lawn protectors to tricksters. PWYW.

Classes of Fantasy: Treant - Seems like a treant character would be even more of a stick in the mud than a paladin. PWYW

Gregorious Notes on Weird Fantasy - More like a grab bag of stuff for LotFP.  9 pages, 50 cents

Misc

Friday Freebie Enhanced Map 2-9-18 - Looks like an alchemists lab. $1 for enhanced version

RPGPundit Presents #19:  Frabulous Gonzo Robot Generator -  14 pages of silly robots $2.99

Wormskin Issue 8 - B/Xish zine from Gavin Norman, $4.99 and 44 pages.

Sleeping Griffon Productions goes Pay What You Want

I recently reviewed one of their adventures, The Witches of Hagswallow and was intrigued by the rules it used, Battleaxes and Beasties so put it on my wishlist. And so looking to buy something else, I noticed it and the rest of his products are now all Pay What You Want

The above adventure is definitely worth a look. B&B isn't as interesting as I hoped it would be, it's basically another White Box rehash, but try it and make up your own mind.

One of the Merciless Merchants is making modules on Patreon

I don't follow Patreon much, much like I don't follow G+, Instagram, ham radio, the Kardashians, etc. I vaguely know they exist and are popular for reasons I don't grok, but I normally just let it filter in and out of my consciousness without it registering.

One on a while though something makes me notice and in this case, it's that Malrex, aka Aaron Fairbrook of the Merciless Merchants is now making modules on Patreon.

If you aren't familiar with them, they have released a small number of modules for the 2e retroclone For Gold and Glory. I reviewed one of them, Nevermore Mines, but have the rest. They are really quick good adventures (if a bit heavy on the stock art), not just interesting adventures to read, but ones you might actually run (which is kinda rare among OSR modules, IMHO).

Anyway, it's only a $1 a module and seems to put out one every month or two (hard to see how many he's made so far, 3 or 4 it seems) so worth a look if you like adventures. He's got a very good track record.

Issue 14 of & Magazine is out

Lots of zines, but this is about the only one that supports AD&D (or even OSRIC), and best of all, it's free

New OSR Products at DTRPG/RPGNow — February 6th, 2018

A number of adventures from The Folio.  I am not a real fan of the Folio stuff because they are often railroady, but they are at least written with 1e/OSR in mind and then converted to 5e (usually with the author complaining about 5e being dumbed down) which is more than most multi-system adventures, even by supposed old school companies where they are written for Pathfinder/3.5 or 5e and back converted.

Adventures

The Folio #15: WS2 The Forgotten Plateau - Second module in the "White Ship" campaign, which is somewhat inspired by the Isle of Dread. Levels 3 to 5, 32 pages, $5.99

The Folio #15.5 The Ruins of Alaxar -  Adventure for 3-5 level characters involving a ruined pirate fortress. $1.99 and 8 pages

The Folio #15.6 Lost Among the Crystals - Follow up to above, only it seems the party's pet triceratops is having some sort of problem (as I said, a bit raidroady). 8 pages, $1.99

The Folio #16 WS3 Distant Turtle City - Continuing the White Ship adventures is a trip for 5th to 7th level character into the Orient, where the PCs must save a city. 32 pages, $5.99

The Folio #17 WS4 Samurai's Fall - While the 4th part of the WS series, it's pretty much standalone, a dungeon crawl set in an Asian castle. Inspired by B3. For levels 6 to 8. 36 pages, $5.99

Rules

B/X Advanced (no art) -  Want AD&D mashed with B/X? Well, here ya go. PWYW

B/X Essentials Cleric/Mu Spells No Art - Descriptions of the spells for B/X, in case LL wasn't good enough for you. Free

RPGPundit Presents #18: Advanced Authentic Medieval Astrology - I am skeptical that any astrology actually believed in astrology, but eh. $2.99

Misc

Dungeon Room Generator -  4 pages of tables. PWYW

Hydra #1 - This seems to be a Swedish OSR zine. Maybe. The text is sparse and not very helpful but it mentions OSR. 32 pages, $2.49

Monsterarium Review — Two Handfuls of Monsters, One Handful That Is Useful

Monsterarium is a short monster book from Knight Owl Games, written by Ahimsa Kerp and illustrated (and written) by Nahid Taheri. Although usable in pretty much any OSR game, it's really meant for Lamentations of the Flame Princess and so the creatures tend to be low powered, with most hit dice being 5 or less.

The eighteen monsters are a mix of real work monsters from Persian folklore as well as some made up stuff and some re-imaging of existing monsters (the faun and night hag).  They are separated into two different sections, "Monsters" and "Creatures of the Wood", the first being likely encountered anywhere while the latter are in an enchanted forest type deal. Though there is some overlap, a "Peri" from Persian folklore is in the "Monsters" section, but its rules is in the "Creatures of the Wood" section.