The Thousand Year Sandglass Book 1 — A Gem of a Product

When I first started playing D&D in the 1970s, pretty much the only fantasy movies around were Monty Python & the Holy Grail and the two '70s Sinbad movies (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger). So the Arabian Nights has always been a big part of what is "fantasy" to me in my head, at least second hand.

The Thousand Year Sandglass (Book I) by B.J. Johnson is an Arabian Nights themed sourcebook for Labyrinth Lord (either original or advanced). It's part campaign setting, part rules, and has a number of adventures.

The setting is literally a giant hourglass. That is the whole world. I've used something similar in my game (coin worlds, each themed to a different god and culture), borrowing the idea of A. Merritt's Ship of Ishtar (in which an ancient world was accessible by a ship in a bottle). It's a good way to add an alien micro-setting to your game.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — July 26th, 2018

Should have a review of the Thousand Year Sandglass Book 1 up in the next day or so.

Adventures

DNH4 Confronting Hastur -  The 4th (and I guess last) module in the series of modules about fighting Hastur. Actually pretty decent quality, though features terrible (but original) artwork.  $8.99 and like 38 page plus illo book.
 

RPGPP #40 - Tower of the Mad Astrologer - Did medieval authentic astrologers actually live in towers? I doubt it, but it makes for better dungeons. 18 pages and $2.99

The Dragon's Secret - A new adventure from Jennell Jaquays, who designed some of the best modules/dungeons around back in the old days when she was Paul. 52 pages and $14.99, includes some S&W house rules.  (She also just released the system neutral Quack Keep setting

Rules

d20 and Roll High for 2nd Edition -  I guess correcting the "Roll high is better for combat" and "Row low is better for NWPs/Ability Checks", though I never understood why that was a bad thing. $2.49.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 7-20-18 -  Pretty nice dungeon. $1

Friday Enhanced Map 7-27-18 - A map from the future, or maybe I'm just late and he uploads at midnight. Looks like a partially flooded dungeon. $1

Spell List Maker 2 for LL -  I'm not a spreadsheet person. But if you are, maybe this makes sense to you. PWYW.

The Quest of the Claw Comic Vol 1 -  This comes from the early 80s and is probably funnier than most of the Dragon comics. PWYW

Cut to the Chase Games having a sale on DTRPG

They've produced a number of modules for various different systems, including Swords & Wizardry.

Probably their best is the Toad God series, of which I have the first two and like (probably should review them). I think they are normally $6 and now $2.99.  Apparently they were all originally funded by individual kickstarters, so they do have original art and whatnot.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — July 18th, 2018

OBS seems to have changed how preview works as it seems to currently be disabled.

Official

Gamma World Game Rules 4th Edition -  This version of Gamma World is from 1992 and is probably the most old school D&D compatible of the bunch and is where ascending armor class was first introduced.  $9.99 for PDF, $24.99 for print version

Gamma World: Gamma Knights -  Really more of a board game than supplement. $4.99 for PDF

S4 The Lost Cavern of Tsjocanth - Presumably now updated for the print version ($9.99) or PDF + Print ($11.99). This is one of my favorite modules

Adventures

Book of Lairs: Abandoned Places - 13 monster lairs for ACKS. $3.27 and 36 pages.

The Barbarian King -  Adventure from Melan/Gabor Lux, probably one of the most original (in a good way) adventure designers in the OSR. $4 and 24 pages.

Misc

Dolmenwood Rogues Gallery Vol 1 - Some pregens for LL. PWYW

Friday Enhanced Map 7-13-18 -  Part dungeon, part cave. $1

Thief Skills Totaliser for LL - Spreadsheet or something because apparently for some it's harder to copy numbers from a table in a book than to use a spreadsheet, I guess. PWYW

Hero-U: Rogue to Redepemption finally out on Steam

I usually only mention video/computer games when they are old school related, which is the case here. Remember the old Sierra Quest for Glory Games? They were adventure games with some RPG elements and were designed by the Coles, one of whom (Corey) wrote a module for Judges Guild

Anyway, ages ago, they decided to make a new computer game, Hero-U, based on their website. Originally it was a fairly simple design, but they slowly made it more and more like the Quest for Glory games, first by using Kickstarter to fund development, and then apparently latter taking another mortgage on their home

But it's finally out on Steam. At $35, it's perhaps a bit pricier than similar games being released today, but cheaper (especially factoring in inflation) than the Sierra games back in the day.

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — July 12th, 2018

Woof, the dog days of summer are here. Not only do I have to drive to work not wearing a shirt, I have to change them a couple of times during work. Ah, the joys of working for a company too cheap to set the themostat below 85 in the backroom.

Adventures

Rememberance - Modulo 1A -  Pretty sure this is in Italian. It's a Labyrinth Lord adventure.  112 pages, $2.92

RPGP Presents 20 Medieval Authentic Supernatural Encounters -  31 pages, $3.99

Times that Fry Men's Souls -  Not sure when this came out, but the author is promoting it now. Basically seems to be a hex crawl set in Revolutionary Era NY and New Jersey, so presumably horror.  139 pages and $10

Rules

B/X Essentials: Monsters Plain Text Edition -  Free

Microlite 74: Perilous Adventures -  House ruled version of ML74. PWYW

Old School Fantasy Roleplaying Alternative Rules Bundle -  3 supplements totaling 25 pages for only $4.97

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 7-6-2018 -  Lot of funky shaped rooms in this one. $1

Image Portfolion Platinum Edition - Matt Forsyth -  Holy crap, this is an amazing picture of a female swashbuckler type and also a picture of a weird looking female mage.  PWYW

As an aside though, I don't get why some really talented artists sell through Louise Porter Design and not direct. I mean, presumably they are giving a cut to him and DTRPG. I don't think it's art he bought and is reselling (Purple Duck does that), though maybe I'm wrong

I mean, when you buy art, you a) search for "Subject stock art" and then look at the various bits for sale. You don't generally go by company name. Also doesn't help in this case that it's in packs.

Last day (or so) for Autarch's moderately sized dungeon Kickstarter

Secrets of the Nethercity which is apparently about 240 rooms, which I would say is just a dungeon

I'm not a fan of ACKS (or rather, I think it's not particularly innovative as it's 90% BECMI with some other stuff that makes the game worse, like the weird to hit system), but really liked their previous module, Sinister Stone of Sakkara, so probably worth a look even if you don't like ACKS.

I also like their ancient inspired setting. I always thought that was a better fit for D&D than medieval feudalism (since that requires a conquered population and dominant church)

Woodfall, a dark fantasy OSR mini-setting, now live on Kickstarter

I've never been able to get the damn embed code from Kickstarter to work properly, so just check out the page for it.

Explore a dark fairytale setting, wade through a misty swamp, get caught up in the fighting between warring monster clans, discover a strange town of witches and thieves, and search for forgotten treasure.
Woodfall is a swamp belonging to a king where witches, thieves and outlaws are squatting. They have built a town on top of the swamp and have resisted several evictions. The town is a hub for black market activity and magical folk. 
The surrounding forest and swamp is a hexcrawl filled with various monster factions.

Book Content

• Approx. 100 pages of content
  
• New monsters
• DIY magic item creation system
  
• Hirelings
• Villains
• Weird shops
• A hexcrawl with 12 keyed locations
  
• Lots of random tables
• Flora and Fauna
• Rules for the setting changing over time
  
• Various random tables
• Legal system for the town
• Thieves guild
• Monster hunting content 

Looks pretty good. I am quite fond of mini-settings. Perhaps a mite expensive for the PDF at $12

New OSR Products at RPGNow/DTRPG — the 4th of July 2018

Probably the laziest part of summer so not surprisingly it's a bit light this week as well

Official

Castles - This is one of those fold up cardboard deals. Have no idea how it translates to a OBS printed item.

Adventures

SC2 Amazing Journeys -  Apparently 4 overpriced adventures from Starry Knight Games now available in one overpriced PDF. $20 for 76 pages.  Still cheaper than Frog God's recycled 3e/5e stuff, I guess.

Tyranny of the Black Tower -  2nd adventure from the Verisimilitude Society Press, again for S&W (personally, I don't think verisimilitude and the single saving throw go together) and 3rd to 5th level characters. 24 pages (two column this time, apparently), $3

Rules

B/X Essentials: Monsters -  Apparently how to milk the B/X Essentials is to put everything out in separate books. $3.99

B/X Essentials: PDF Bundle - See above. Only $11.99!  Bear in mind the original Basic and Expert are only $4.99 each and the Rules Cyclopedia is only $9.99

Misc

Castle Oldskull - Game World Generator Deluxe -  Twice the amount of random gibberish tables as the regular edition, but still poorly formatted to take 5x the room they should. Only $4.99

Friday Enhanced Map 6-29-18 -  Some sort of spikey looking building. $1