New OSR Products at DTRPG — December 30th, 2019

Somewhat quiet end to 2019, but a number of PWYW items, so there's that.

Adventures

Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse -  So a ghoul, then? 1st to 3rd level (presumably B/X) characters, 44 pages and $6

The Dungeon of Kursh Velgont -  About a floating dungeon. Air that is, not water. 16 page S&W adventure, no levels given. PWYW

Rules

Epic Legends Basic Rules Cyclopedia -  Not sure how OSR-ish this is. 46 pages, PWYW

Machine Gunner Class - For Operation White Box, the WW2 game. PWYW

Misc

Echoes from Fomalhaut #6 -  New issue of Gabor Lux's excellent zine. 45 pages, $6

Illustrations from the Dictionnaire Infernal - Usually I frown on collections of public domain art being "sold" on DTRPG, but this is PWYW

New OSR Products at DTRPG — December 22nd, 2019

Ho ho ho, it's that time of year. Personally I wish all this was in January, because December really isn't that bad a month, while January is pretty clearly the worst month of the year and you could use the distraction of the Holidays. At least in February, you know spring is coming. But January it's just miserable.

Also of note, there's a whole bunch of new products for The Fantasy Trip,   And a 5th Edition of Chivalry & Sorcery  at 600 pages (who says old school games were rules light?) and $30

Adventures

SM12 The Trials of a Young Wizard -  From Dunromin (who did that big city setting for OSRIC) comes this beginner adventure.  48 pages and PWYW (suggested $3.95)

SO17 Revenge of Krampus - Tis is the season for Krampus modules. Surprised there's only one. 26 pages, $5 for 1e levels 2-4.

The Sky Tree -  A giant floating tree is apparently going to destroy a halfling village and it's up to the PCs to save it in this new adventure from Sharp Mountain Games. Looks like it's for lowish levels. $3.50 and 37 pages.

Rules

Adventures Dark & Deep Bestiary Index -  I guess this is meant to be a gift for the holidays. "Woohoo, I got a free index!"

Lost Classes: The Arnesonian Classes -  Curiously, for Old School Essentials, but seemingly not for B/X but 1e or 0e? Seems to have the Merchant Class, the Sage, and apparently Ducks. $5 and 30 pages.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 12-20-19 -  Looks like two separate dungeons on one map. $2

The Hexanomicon #1 -  Seems to be some sort of random gibberish thingie aimed at the artsy sort of OSR gamer. $12.99 and 40 pages

New OSR Products at DTRPG — December 16th, 2019

Lots of adventures this week, including a big pair from Autarch. While I know they are supported by Kickstarters, their products are amazingly low priced. Certain batrachian companies do Kickstarters for old 3e conversions and charge 3x what they should.

Official (?)

Palace of the Vampire Queen -  The original module from Wee Warriors is now back, this time published by Precis Intermedia (I think Pacesetter had it for a while before that). $4.95 and 26 pages.

Adventures

AX2 Secrets of the Nethercity -  Big adventure book for ACKS.  $10 and 186 pages



AX3 Capital of the Borderlands -  Setting and sandbox adventure for ACKS. 224 pages and $10

Brutal Games -  Apparently the PCs get kidnapped by pirate minotaurs and are forced to fight in their maze. 60 pages, $8.99

Misthollow Castle -  PCs are hired to clean out a noble guy's castle in this Basic Fantasy RPG/Odysseys & Overlords adventure. For 5th to 10th level, 9 pages, and $1.25

SC4 Perilous Expeditions -  Compilation of 4 Starry Knight adventures for OSRIC. 112 pages, $20

Rules

On Downtime and Demesnes -  Stronghold and such book. 254 pages, $19.99

Romance of the Perilous Land -  Purportedly (no preview) OSR game from Osprey about Arthurian roelplaying. $24.50 and 256 pages.

Misc

Cavalier Attitude Volume III, Issue 4 - Contains a high level 1e adventure and some other stuff. $2 and 16 pages.

Friday Enhanced Map 12-13-19 -  Not sure what it is, but it seems modular and likely designed to work with the past few maps. $2

The Sea-Wolf's Daughter Review — The Sea-Wolf's Daughter's Adventure, not the PC's

As a huge fan of Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard, C.L. Moore, etc, I liked the general premise of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, that is an OSR based sword & sorcery game inspired by the pulps, but I have found the game to basically be a incoherent mess, both thematically and rules wise, taking random stuff from everywhere and just dropping them down into a giant mess. It's like how Michael Bay makes movies.

The Sea Wolf's Daughter is pretty much the distillation of this, as well as being, what in computer/video game RPGs, an escort quest. The PCs are engaged to rescues Gunnhildr, the daughter of a Viking, taken by another Viking. But upon infiltrating the stronghold, they discover that she's freed herself, escaping to the dungeon being the kidnapper's lair. But she doesn't want to be rescued, she wants to go on her own quest, which just happens to involve exploring said dungeon.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — December 8th, 2019

I will have more reviews soon, really. Between work being insane, a new kitten (well, can't really have an old kitten) and my computer dying and being replaced by a new PC (which can actually play games made in the last 3 years) I've been remarkably busy

However, from the dearth of releases lately (and not just OSR, in general) it seems like I'm not the only one.

Adventures

None

Rules

None

Misc

1E Character Sheet Uncluttered -  Not bad at all. 75 cents, though.

Dungeons in Blue: Just Geomorphs 19 and 20 -  Two more packs, if you like those sort of thing. $3.49 each

Friday Enhanced Map 12-6-19 - Looks somewhat like a secret base. $2

Three Hexes Zine 2 - Seems to be ideas for campaigns. PWYW, 7 pages

New OSR Products at DTRPG — December 1st, 2019

Looks like a couple of AS&SH adventures this week, though neither sound terribly interesting.

Adventures

SO16 The Dark Chanterie - Seems like a crashed spaceship adventure for high level 1E/OSRIC parties (12th-15th). 26 pages, $6

The Lost Treasure of Atlantis™ -  Isn't there a Match-3 game named this? This sounds just as generic. 68 pages, $10.

The Sea-Wolf's Daughter (™) (™, really?) - Save a Viking's daughter in this AS&SH adventure. Perhaps inspired by a Turlogh Dubh O'Brien story. 64 pages and $10

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 11-29-19 - Looks like a bunch of clocks. $2

New OSR Products at DTRPG — November 24th, 2019

This will be the third year I will have worked retail on Thanksgiving (formerly known as Black Friday), so will be a busy week for me.

However, doesn't seem to be that busy in RPG land, as there is almost nothing released this week.

Adventures

The Isle of Forgotten Gods - Adventure inspired by Mesoamerican mythology. $5, 36 pages.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 11-22-19 - Looks like an underground base of some sort. $2

Gangbusters B/X Edition — More like Gangbusters White Box Edition, by way of Eldritch Tales

Back in the early '80s, TSR branched out from D&D into other genres - Star Frontiers for Sci-Fi, new editions of Boot Hill and Gamma World, Marvel Superheroes, Top Secret for Espionage, and Gangbusters for 1920s crime in the vein of The Untouchables. Although I owned it, Gangbusters was the one I never actually played or ran, presumably because by the 1980s the cops & robber thing was sort of passe.

It featured a fairly simple d100% system, with 4 ability scores and a few derived ones, like hit points and driving skill. It had levels, and you could spend XP to improve ability scores and gain skills (which were also d100% based).  It sort of had classes in the sense that characters had a job and some of these had some special abilities.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — November 17th, 2019

Hmmm, not exactly a busy week, a couple of PWYW adventures, though, so those are worth a look.

Adventures

Stairs of the Immortal: S&W: Gnomes of the Northwest -  PWYW 18 page Gnome adventure for Swords & Wizardry.

The Palace of Al Karam - OSRIC adventure from Joseph Mohr. PWYW, 25 pages, 9th to 12th level.
 

Misc

Ashdown for Starships & Spacemen 2e -  A setting for that game. $3, 53 pages.

Dungeons in Blue: Just Geomorphs 17 and 18-  $3.49 each

Friday Enhanced Map 1-15-19 -  Looks modular, with exits/entrances all at the same spots on the map. $2 

Hex Flower Game Engines - An Overview -  I still don't grok them, but hexes are old school or something. PWYW

New OSR Products at DTRPG — November 10th, 2019

Awaiting the first snowfall of the year, early this morning. Oh wait, it's not January. Er, the first snowfall of Winter? Oh wait, it's not even Winter yet.

Adventures

CH2 The Final Dream I: The Temple of Zeus -  This is confusing, because it seems to be the second in a series of modules, the first being The King's Castle despite that not being CH1 and this saying The Final Dream I.  The preview looks interesting enough, though. $10 and 33 pages.

Four the Hard Way -  Apparently adventures for Gangbusters B/X, but they have to be awfully sketchy to fit in 6 pages. $1.99

OWB16 - Wunderwaffle Launch - Defeat the Axis's new weapon, the flying pancake in this Operation White Box adventure.  $4.99 and 37 pages

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 11-08-19 - Either a small keep or a large inn. $2

Race & Class Hex Flower Generator -  I don't get what this is, but it's PWYW so you can see for yourself

The Northern Tier Color Map - For the Rosewood Highland setting from Rosethrone Games who have produced a number of interesting adventures. Free.

Three Hexes Zine #1 - About hex crawling. 7 pages, PWYW

Temple of the Bear Review — Bears and Bores

Sharp Mountain Games has put out a lot of mini-adventures for Labyrinth Lord over the last few years, and being a person that finds short-ish adventures the most useful, I've bought most of them. They tend to be a bit formulaic and can be a mixed bag, but once in a while there's one that's exceptional and they are cheap enough ($2.50). Temple of the Bear is perhaps the most generic of the bunch, although it's aimed at a somewhat higher level (7th) than the previous.

Originally SMG's modules were centered around a town of Adela, but recent ones have moved, this is in a village named Fastholme. Basically the place has been beset by animal attacks (bears) and recently a farmer's son has been kidnapped. There's no real detail about the town, only about a half-dozen townsfolk who are are given half a paragraph of background each. But presumably the PCs will investigate, with the mayor offering 4,000 gp. That's not a princely sum for 7th level, but it's better than the miserly amount many other modules offer.

Last Two Days for the City of Solstice Kickstarter

Only about halfway there, so it may or may not make it. It's a first edition city setting from Charles Rices who wrote a large number of OSRIC products in the early days of OSRIC

The City of Solstice is a low-magic fantasy campaign set in an ancient city, now ruled by the forces of evil. The PCs in the campaign are members of the Vigilant, the city watch. Imagine if “The Untouchables” were set in a fantasy city, rather than 1920’s Chicago. In addition to the Star Society, there are gangs, petty crime, and corrupt guards to deal with, along with every sort of crime you can imagine: murder, prostitution, drugs, and theft.

There's a free (PWYW) quickstart guide on DTRPG which is interesting.  On the flip side, it seems almost radically different from most fantasy settings and might be hard to incorporate into an existing game. I like stuff I can drop into my world. And getting PCs to play cops, even fantasy cops, might be a tough sale.

New OSR Products at DTRPG/RPGNow — November 3rd, 2019

More stuff than I thought, given DTRPG had some problems this week.

Adventures

SO15 Headman's Revenge - From Starry Knight comes this Halloween (oops, too late now) adventure. $7.50, 44 pages and for mid level parties.

Rules

Gangbusters B/X Version - The original Gangbusters was something of an odd beast, with classes and levels but using a d100%.  64 pages, $4.99 and also in softcover for $14.99

Planet Eris Gazetteer -  I still cannot spell that word correctly 35+ years later. But this is for the OD&D Planet Eris rules set and the unfortunately named Empire of Spam. 64 pages, $5.99

SM2 Dullahan -  Aka the headless ghost rider. $1.50 and 12 pages.

Streets of Blood - Rules for playing anarcho-punk vampires in an OSR vampire game. $1.50 and 20 pages.

The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Space Tradition - $2.99 and 64 pages.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 11-1-19 - Looks like an alien base in a cavern. $2

Lowcountry Crawl Vol 1 - Random tables and stuff for a hex crawl. Wow, never seen that before. $5 and 30 pages. 

Starships & Spacecraft - For Stars Without Number and presumably other OSR space games. $2.95

New OSR Products at DTRPG — October 27th, 2019

Is it me, or are some of the stock art pieces getting a bit obnoxious? Like 4 variations of the same piece, each sold as a separate product. At least the crappy CGI stuff is a distant memory.

Somewhat light this week. Hopefully we'll see some Halloween adventures.

Rules

City of Solstice Quickstart -  Introductory book for an upcoming setting for OSRIC/1e from Charles Rice. Seems to be gritty and urban and features several new classes. PWYW and 42 pages.

Combat Medic Class -  While meant for Operation White Box, the WW2 game, it might be okay in gritty settings. PWYW

Dearly Departed - A handful of magic items. Well, two handfuls (13). 12 pages, $2 

Deathly Ills Monster Supplement -  18 Halloween themed monsters for OD&D. 17 pages, $2

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 10-25-19 - Looks like an X-ray of Batman's skull. $2

Nalfeshnee-Kin Racial Class — I Want My Flying Monkey-Boar Demon Class

Racial Class Nalfeshnee-Kin is the third demonic racial class from James Mishler Games, meant for Labyrinth Lord but should work with any B/X based game. Nalfeeshnee demons, better known at Type IV demons are perhaps a strange choice for a racial class, as they are giant winged boar-apes, but this works surprisingly well.

Nalfeshnees are normally 11 hit dice monsters (at least in 1e and Advanced Edition LL), which are more than other demons and to reflect that, they start off with 2 hit dice. Amusingly, they off start off as very small, only a foot and a half tall, growing half a foot or so per level. Their appearance is also randomized, with each body part potentially being from a different type of ape or pig, as well as random assortment of wings.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — October 20th, 2019

Fairly slow week, it looks like

Adventures

The Temple of the Bear -  Adventure from Sharp Mountain Games, so presumably somewhat short and for mid level, but with tokens and maps and all that. $2.50, 30 pages (half of which is probably pre-generated characters)

Rules

Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Cleric & Magic-User Spells - Plain Text - Free

Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Genre Rules - Plain Text - Free

Nalfeshness-Kin Racial Class -  That would be the ape demons. $1 and 5 pages

RPPP: Pocket Planes - Not the flying kind, nor medieval authentic, but rules for randomly coming up with smaller demi-planes. $1.99 and 11 pages.

The Nocturnal Table -  Random city encounters from Gabor Lux. $6.50 and 60 pages.

Misc

Dungeons in Blue: Just Geomorphs #13 -  Sounds like an adult video series, but just maps, suitable for use with a virtual tabletop. $3.49

Friday Enhanced Map 10-18-19 - sort of looks futuristic. $2

Balor-kin Racial Class and Marilith-kin Racial Class Review — AD&D Demons in Racial Class Form

Perhaps the biggest thing that sets Basic D&D apart from AD&D (or later editions) is the idea of race as class. While the original ones in the basic game were simply combinations of class (the Elf being a fighter/magic-user) or just a fighter (the dwarf and halfling), as the basic game grew, the idea of more monstrous races as classes was realized, primarily in the Creature Crucible series.

James Mishler Games introduces two new racial classes (nominally for Labyrinth Lord, but should work with any B/X game), this time for demons, the Balor and Marilith in two separate products,  Balor-kin Racial Class and Marilith-kin Racial Class (with more on the way, apparently). It's not entirely clear what a "kin" is, presumably it's the offspring of a human and demon, or possibly just a lesser or younger form of the demon.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — October 14th, 2019

While I have no use for DCC as it deliberately tries to not be old school D&D (which annoyed me back in the day when ever FRPG took the same philosophy), they just put up a bunch of Lankhmar stuff

Adventures

A Magical Society Aggressive Ecology - The Slaver Fungus -  I'm not sure what this is exactly, but it's not just a monster, so... 14 pages, $6.00

A Magical Society Aggressive Ecology - The Undead Leviathan -  This one is apparently about a dead whale. 11 pages, $6

Plague, Famine, & War II: Electric Pestilence -  Seemingly a somewhat dark adventure for OSRIC. 18 pages, $2.99

The Mapmaker's Mistake Inn - The mapmaker's name? Howard Johnson. Actually more a small town setting with adventure hooks. 75 cents and 18 pages

Rules

Balor-Kin Racial Class -  For race as class game (B/X, LL, and Old School Essentials) comes this from James Mishler Games.  $1 and 4 pages

Marilith-Kin Racial Class - As above, but for the classic Type V demon. Although I wonder how you would get one of those pregnant, since the lower half of their anatomy is a snake. $1 and 4 pages.

Dungeon Wanderers -  Apparently a quick way of coming up with them. 1 page, free.

Hex Crawl Basics -  Did this come out earlier? Or was there something similar? Anyway, this is a free rules thing for hex crawling.

Old School Essentials Core Rules - Plain Text Edition -  Free. While I think OSE is superfluous at best, at least it's open content

RPPP Medieval Authentic Magic Rocks -  "Look at this! It falls to the ground when I let it go from my hand. Magic!" 16 pages, $2.99

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 10-11-19- Not sure what to make of this one, except it has a lot of stairs. $2

New OSR Products at DTRPG — October 6th, 2019

On a semi-related note, I also came across the existence of DMR Books, who publish sword & sorcery fiction, both actual old school stuff and modern stuff that feels old school. I just read Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria which collected several stories by Manly Wade Wellman about Kardios, a swordsmen and bard from Atlantis, and some not so great stories by Frederick Kummer Jr. Actually the first one was great, but in the later stories, the character was somehow changed from a Cretan to an American that uses slang of the time.

Adventures

Hide in Plain Sight, Mystery at Morfurt, A Trick on the Tain, etc - Old C&C adventures pretending to be new OSR ones. $5 each.

Plague, Famine, & War 1 - Beginner OSRIC module about evil insect invaders. $2.99, 14 pages.

Shipwreck at Har's Point -  1st to 3rd level module for OSRIC. 12 pages.

The Haunted Mansion of Baron Astrophel -  1e/OSRIC adventure from Joseph Mohr that seems like it might be a murder mystery.

The Misty Halls of Kalavorka - The third "Dungeon Delve" title for OSRIC, levels 5 to 7, about a clan of mysterious giants who have disappeared. $9.99 and 44 pages with a lot of original art, looks like.

The Mud King of Stoney Creek -  5th to 7th level S&W adventure about a blues musician. Or trolls. $1.99, 19 pages.

The Psionic Crucible of the Fat Cannibal - Not to be confused with the similar titled Orson Wells biography. PWYW, 28 pages

edit:

AA03 Purging Woth Nrld Oekwn's Muddy Hole -  Not entirely sure if this is in English or not.  40 pages, $3.99

Rules

Class Ideas 1e (Art Sketch Version) -  No, no Bob Ross class added, but instead an illustrated version of a past product. PWYW, though money will go towards future illustrated products

RPPP: Alternate Material Planes -  Random tables for same. $2,99 and 19 pages.

Sword & Spell Core Guidelines - Compilation of yet another White Box clone PDFs. $15.95.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 10-4-19 -  If you squint hard enough, it could be a truck stop, but looks more like an underground temple. $2

Olde Skill Back2basics Monster Counters #1 - With a name like that you'd expect parachute pants and giant clocks around their necks.  $2.50. 

Paratime Design Presents...Multi-Dungeon -  Now that is an old school dungeon map. Only thing missing is an interior lake and island. $5

Hide in Plain Sight Review — Bait & Switch? Old C&C module advertised as New OSR

Hide in Plain Sight by Bill De Franza is one of the new modules in the new "Ballista" line of OSR modules from Arcana Creations, meant for 1st to 3rd level cahracters. At least that's what the line purports to be. In reality, it's a 10 year old Castles & Crusades module repackaged and re-released. I don't normally cover Castles & Crusades here because I don't think it's particularly OSR-ish, even though you could argue it started things off, it still does a lot of things differently, like the "SIEGE" system and the ability scores as saving throws.

However, since I just spent $5 on the 36 page, single column PDF of it (not knowing its history), I will break that rule. It's got a fairly complex plot. Basically a doppleganger wants to free his imprisoned master, an evil wizard, whose prison is guarded by a couple of former adventurers who have become rulers of a small domain.

The doppleganger somehow managed to murder one of them, taking his place, and then rather than murdering the other and just freeing his master directly, comes up with a complicated scheme for the adventurers to do it for him. He's kidnapped the living ruler's daughter and asks the PCs to rescue her, then pretends to be the kidnapped daughter and as her, tells the party that her uncle (the one the doppleganger killed) killed her father (who is still living) and is pretending to be her father. However, her father is being hidden in an ancient enchanted sarcophagus and they need to open it to rescue him.

I suppose it makes some sense, if the doppleganger can't touch the sarcophagus. But I'm not sure why he couldn't hire people to directly. Or why the two brothers didn't just bury the bad guy under tons of concrete. So presumably the PCs go rescue the doppleganger pretending to be the daughter, then come back and storm the castle (well, manor) and free the doppleganger's boss. Who then murders the surviving brother (the father) and then runs off, instead of killing everyone, even though he's unkillable.

Then they have to go back to the doppleganger lair, look deeper this time, and rescue the real daughter. Which somehow redeems them for their mistake in the eyes of the manor butler. In any event, there's really not much of a reward, with the base pay being 150 gp each and maybe a horse if they bargain hard.  There's virtually no loot, either.

The dungeon designs are fairly straight forward, with one exception of sorts. The secret lair where the real daughter is hidden is guarded by a gelatinous cube (named Gladys). However, its movements can be controlled by a number of potions and concoctions they can find. So they can avoid it, if they realize it's there.

As mentioned, it's 36 pages, but single column. Easy enough to read, but the maps are in the interior, which I find cumbersome to use while running the module. There's a smattering of art.

Hide In Plain sight is not a bad adventure, but it aside from the system, it doesn't feel very OSR-ish. It feels like something you'd find in the 2e era in Dungeon magazine, when the adventures eschewed dungeon crawls and focused more on plot based adventures. And even then, it doesn't seem like it plays very fair.  If this evil guy is so important, why is he guarded in a place where low level adventurers can stroll in and release him? And while experienced players might catch on to the scheme, if someone is actually new to the game, they'll be completely baffled. And the doppleganger villain basically has plot armor.





While I don't think there is anything wrong with taking older modules and republishing them, I do think if they are advertised as OSR or in this case, specifically name dropping Swords & Wizardry, then they should at least be modified for those game systems.  It would have taken, what, maybe 2-3 hours at most to change the stats, references to game mechanics (like saving throws or opening locks), and add loot, something key to character advancement in virtually all OSR games.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — September 29th, 2019

Another not so busy week in the world of RPGs, OSR or not.

Adventures

A Doom to Speak: Like Family -  Seems to be one of those one page dungeons. $2.44

Ragnar's Keep -  This seems to be a Keep on the Borderlands style thingie, sans dungeon, just the keep. $2.95, 36 pages, and vague on system.

Rules

RPPP #94: Medieval Authentic (TM) Bestiary -  14 new critters, mostly just variations on cows. 18 pages, $2.99

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 9-27-19 - Sort of intestinal looking. $2

New OSR Products at DTRPG — September 22nd, 2019

There's an old school bundle at Humble Bundle. Most of it is stuff you've seen before (Necromancer and Troll Lord stuff almost 20 years old at this point), but there's some AS&SH stuff and what seems to be a new module from iThrow games.

Not much new this week.

Adventures

Hexed Places - Shimmering Coast -  Hex Crawl from PBE. Apparently that's just the tourist name, actually name is the Bone Beaches (though to be fair, that could be a beach for swingers). 16 pages, $2.69

Rules

Sword & Spell - Supplement 1 -  Like seemingly every other "White Box" clone, they then sell you the stuff for later editions in later supplements. $9.95 and 42 pages.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 9-20-19 -  Underground something or other, looks sort of like a honey bun. $2

Mountain & Hill Encounters -  Random tables. PWYW

The Hobgoblin Bride Review — 5 Hobgoblin Brides for 17 Hobgoblin Brothers

I like adventures and I like short, cheap adventures, since they tend to be easier to use. Aegis Studios has put out a line of those for their Basic Fantasy RPG based Odysseys and Overlords, but for the most part, they have been unspiring and formulaic.  Get a Dyson Logos map (a tiny one at that), slap down a few encounters with standard low level monsters, pad the page count with a long cut and paste intro about the setting and the system licenses and boom, you have a module.

The Hobgoblins Bride by Megan Irving sticks to that formula, but manages to transcend it, at least somewhat, it's still limited in scope. The premise is that a bunch of hobgoblin women have been kidnapped by an all male hobgoblin band. One of the lady hobgoblins manages to escape and seeks help to rescue the remaining ones. Which the party is asked to do. Here it's somewhat assumed the PCs will do it because they are good and a church asks them to. I'm not sure that's a good enough motivation for typical old school players.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — September 16th, 2019

What with my new completely erratic and random work schedule  I'm losing track of which day is what, and Buster (my kitten) is taking up a lot of my free time (they don't seem to sleep much and when they do, it's on your lap).

In the spirit of Halloween and the worst fad in the history of mankind (except eugenics) comes the pumpkin spice hardcover (so print only) edition of Advanced Labyrinth Lord. 
 

Adventures

The Elven Tomb -  Medieval Authentic (tm) Adventure from the RPGPundit. 16 pages, $2.49.  Although elves aren't authentic, medieval or not. Best you get in real life is some people having pointy ears.

The Hobgoblin Bride - Lowish level adventure for Basic Fantasy RPG about freeing kidnapped hobgoblin women. $1, 11 pages.

Misc

A bunch of small pdfs/forms for A Ghastly Affair -  PWYW material for the really excellent gothic OSR game.

Friday Enhanced Map  9-13-19-  $2

Saving Throw Fanzine for James D. Kramer -  I am actually not overly aware of the Usherwood stuff for OSRIC, I guess it mostly came out in the very early days of it (when I was out of gaming), but apparently its creator is suffering from medical problems. This is meant to help his family.  62 pages of misc stuff for $13

More Wilderlands Stuff - I'm not sure which gets remade more often, B/X or the maps for the Wilderlands.

Wealth by NPC Level - Tables to accurately calculate the wealth an NPC should have at any given level. What's the fun in that? 50 cents.

Old School Class: The Necromancer — Solid Addition to First Edition, But Does It Have a Niche?

The Necromancer is one of those fantasy archetypes that really didn't exist in mythology or folklore (the name really just means someone who talks to the dead), but something everyone knows immediately what is.  As far as I know, there wasn't one for AD&D 1e, though 2e had a whole book devoted to introducing the class (Complete Book of Necromancers) and one described in the Diablo adaptions. Old School Class: The Necromancer from Charles Rice (a notable d20 author who also did many supplements in the early days of OSRIC) is aimed to fill that void for 1e in a 20 or so page PDF priced at $2.50.

It's built along the lines of the illusionist, having 7 levels of spells, which are a mix of existing ones and original ones just for the necromancer.  The descriptions of these new spells (almost 40) make up the bulk of this PDF, though there's also a small section on new monsters and magic items for the necromancer.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — September 8th, 2019

Seems like a quiet week.

Rules

Domain Building -  Pretty much what it sounds like. Free and definitely worth a look.

Human Race as Class for Old School Essentials -  Okay, sort of funny. 2 pages, PWYW.

The Children of the Gods: The Classical Witch for Basic Era Games - Seems to be for Blueholme. $2.99 and 84 pages.

Misc

Alarms & Journeys -  An OSR zine, presumably no relation to the similarly (if more British) named classic zine of the 70s. 56 pages, $2.

Friday Enhanced Map 9-6-19 - At first glance, I thought perhaps it was the intestines of a giant or something. But it's a weird looking cavern. $2.

Halls of the Bonelord Review — No Frills Low Level Dungeon

Halls of the Bonelord is a short-ish adventure for low level characters by Alexander Langley.  It's actually not that short, 20 rooms, but it's in only 5 pages (including map and title page), so the level of detail is fairly sparse, though not nearly as found on the one page dungeons. It's aimed at lower level parties and perhaps even beginners, and while it says it's intended for one sessions/foray, it does only have about seven or eight combat encounters.

There's really not much of a backstory about the titular bonelord. He's not even the toughest undead in the dungeon, merely being a three hit dice skeleton, though the PCs probably won't want to fight the other (a shadow), should they even find him (he's in a secret room).

Seven days left in The City of Vermilion Kickstarter from The Merciless Merchants.

I am a big fan of their modules (well, mostly by one guy, Malrex, whose Patreon I have a link to), but they never really seem to have gotten much traction in the OSR community. Maybe because they aren't artsy or pretentious but just good? Especially good to actually run and not just read?. Maybe because they use the AD&D rules (2E for most of them, For Gold & Glory)

Anyway, presumably for that reason, they started a kickstarter for their latest module, The City of Vermilion 

However, the KS is only about halfway funded with a week left to go.  It's reasonably priced, too. $12 for a PDF of a 165 page adventure, $25 for softcover (at cost printing at DTRPG)

New OSR Products at DTRPG — August 31st, 2019

My work schedule keeps changing the last few weeks (and next few) so I'm not sure what day of the week I can post this (as I get home at almost midnight).

Also, there's a new OSRIC module from Anthony Huso over at Lulu, Geir Loe Cyn-crul. No idea if there is an Earl Geir in it, but worth checking out ($10 for 78 pages in PDF, also a print version)

Adventures

Citadel of Terror -  Low level 1e/2e (or so it says, no preview) adventure about a visit to a wizard's lair (to see if he's okay). $14.95 (down from $99.99) and 64 pages.

Halls of the Bonelord -  Low level generic dungeon. 5 pages, $1

SO14 Blood Moon - 4th to 6th level adventure about investigating a farm. 30 pages, $7.50

Rules

Class Ideas 1e - 4 new classes and 4 tweaks to existing classes. 23 pages, PWYW

Cult of Diana: The Amazon Witch for Basic Era games -  From the Witch guy. 26 pages, free (for now?)

Old School Class: The Necromancer -  From Charles Rice (who did several OSRIC supplements in the early days of OSRIC) comes this take on the Necromancer for 1e.  23 pages, $2.50

Sword & Spell; Might & Magic Supplment: Knights and Warders -  Make White Box clone. Then sell people back the stuff you took out. Profit! $1.95 for 1 page (apparently the Ranger and Paladin)

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 8-30-19 -  $2

Adventures Great & Glorious Review — Three Things Wrong with the Title

Adventures Great and Glorious is a sourcebook for Adventures Dark and Deep (an AD&D 1e variant) meant for domain and high level play. Domain level play basically means when PCs run strongholds and such. This was sort of something Dave Arneson's D&D game seems to revolved around more so than Gary Gygax's and you never really had proper rules for domains in AD&D.  Later they were added in the Companion Set for the D&D line, along with a mass combat system.

I had somewhat high hopes for this, as AD&D has lacked a good domain system, and sadly, I can say that still is the case, as AG&G mostly rehashes what was in the 1e DMG on strongholds and followers. This does have a mass combat system, but it's somehow remarkably cumbersome and yet still vague.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — August 23rd, 2019

No review this week. Nothing screamed out to be reviewed.

Pretty slow week unless you want re-hashes of existing games.

Rules

Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy -  Apparently only I think this has reached the cash grab stage. But rules to play AD&D using the B/X rules (I mean, Old School Essentials) because Advanced Labyrinth Lord is just not trendy anymore. $6.99

Old School Essentials: Druid and Illusionist Spells -  Because apparently $6.99 is too cheap to give them to you without charging you another $6.99

Swashbuckler Class for D&D and AD&D -  Pretty much as said. Nice to see some people still make stuff for fun. 11 or so pages and PWYW.

Sword & Spell - Book 1, 2, and 3 - Hey, gee, another retro clone of OD&D! My goodness, never saw that coming. This one has a free Book up but 2 and 3 cost $9.95 each.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 8-23-19 - Temple? $2

New OSR Products at DTRPG — August 16th, 2019

Doesn't seem to be a very busy week in terms of releases. On the other hand, in real life, I seem to have acquired a kitten, so I've been busy with him.

Official

S1-4 Realms of Horror - Compilation of the S modules. $9.99

2E Wizard's Screen - Not sure why anyone would buy this in PDF. But it's $4.95

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 8-16-19 -  Looks somewhat phallic. $2

Middenzine Issue 3 -  For S&W, 24 pages, $3.64

Gambler: A Class Review

One of the biggest problems of old school D&D is the thief.  Many people just don't like it on principle, or dislike the idea of thief skills. But my main objection to it is that it really sucks as a class. So I enjoy alternatives to the thief class (and have come up with three alternatives for my game, the tomb robber, the rogue, and the scout. The latter two have similar names to "official" classes in 2e and late 1e, but mine are different) and am always on the lookout for more.

The Gambler from Sharp Mountain Games is one of those alternatives. At least somewhat. It's a class meant for Labyrinth Lord and Basic Fantasy RPG, but it's easy enough to adapt.  Although gambling was important enough back in the day for the DMG to have a whole appendix devoted to it, it really never was covered much since, nor does it really make much of an appearance in the OSR.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — August 9th, 2019

Not much new this week, the highlight being a high level campaign supplement for Adventures Dark & Deep.

Adventures

QF3 - Malady of the Moor King -  Yikes, this beats even Frog Grab prices, $5.98 for 9 pages.

Rules

Adventures Great & Glorious -  This looks interesting. Stuff for higher level characters to do - rule domains, create planes, and even make penguins fly.  123 pages, $9.95 (also in print)

Boons for Swords & Wizardry - They're totally not feats, cause they're random or something. PWYW

Shapeshifting -  As near as I can tell, artsy furry White Box. When you think it couldn't get any lower.  PWYW, 120 pages.

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 8-9-19 -  Not sure if this is a continuing map of that megadungeon he was doing. $2

The Vaults of Obryn Sapravda Review — Old School Feel with Printable Maps

With there nothing new that really caught my interest, I went back to my wish list for older stuff I hadn't got around to buying and bought this, The Vaults of Obyrn Sapravda, apparently published way back in 2010 for 1e (amazingly enough, adapted from 4e).  The price of $7 is probably what put me off, but it's 110 or so pages. Alas, most (say 60% ) of that 110 pages are maps meant to be printed out and used as battle maps, not unlike TSR's experiment with that in the Indiana Jones days.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — August 2nd, 2019

Also interesting, there's a handful of new adventures for The Fantasy Trip. I remember when that was a "Microgame". Dark City Games did a good job of carrying on that tradition

Official

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Revised (2e) - I was never too big of a fan of the FR, but for those that are, this is now back in PDF form. $14.99 and multiple files of about 280 pages.

Adventures

Cha-alt -  This is a mega-dungeon from Venger Satanis. Part of me hesitates to include this, since I'm not sure if it's OSR statted or not (even his OSR products aren't arguably OSR statted, as he has no grasp of any rules system, even his own). Probably at least has some interesting art. 218 pages, $20

Descent into Madness : First Steps - Part of a megadungeon, continuing from their module The Sunken Fort.  72 pages, $4.99

Grinding Us -  Apparently a spiritual sequel or something to the Grinding Gear module for LotFP, which made a big deal of the fact that it had a MU with the sleep spell in it. This seemingly has more of a premise like The Assassins Knot, a testing ground for would be thieves. 34 pages, PWYW

September Short Adventures 2 -  10 adventures from 2011 for use with Labyrinth Lord.  18 pages, Free.

Rules

Dark Fantasy Magic -  Small magical supplement from the author of the excellent Dark Fantasy Basic to make magic more , well, dark. 12 pages, PWYW.

Dark Places & Demogorgons - Martial Arts Mayhem -  What would an '80s game be without martial arts? I took Tae Kwon Do back then. (Amusingly this came up at work, I was talking with a 20-something co-worker who asked "Who in the breakroom could take him in the ring?" and was amused when I answered "Me", mentioning I had actually fought competitively before.  "When?" "30 years ago", which caused him to scoff, when I mentioned Bolo Yeung from Bloodsport who was like 50 when he did that. And he hadn't seen Bloodsport, which I found even more depressing.

Anyway ,$4.99 and 89 pages.

Luminous Bristlemaw -  Some sort of aquatic monster. 1 page, Free.

Old School Fantasy: Distinguished Characters - Dual and multi-class characters for B/X.  12 pages, $1.99

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 8-2-19 -  Level 5 of the Eye of Shumway dungeon. $2

Megadungeon #4 -  Dual statted zine for B/X and 5e. $4.99 and 56 pages.

RPPP: Medieval-Authentic (TM) City Guide: Kingston Upon Hull -  Doesn't get any more British sounding like that (maybe throw in a Nigel and Ian in the name). $2.99 and 33 pages.

The Warren Review — Tucker's Goblins?

When I think of fantasy fiction, I think of powerful swordsmen cleaving hordes of enemies, defeating monsters, and foiling the plans of gods, and reaping overflowing hoards of treasure. Apparently others read fantasy fiction and see nothing but drudgery, misery, and toil, apparently some sort of cathartic re-living (or pretending to) of the Viet Nam and Korean wars.  Part of this is the obsession with low level monsters being super tricky and planting traps and such and thus challenging for high level parties.  (To be fair, this idea goes back to the old days, with articles in Dragon and White Dwarf about it)

The Warren is the first module in the Dunromin (or rather, Barnaynia) setting and is one of those modules, meant for 1e/OSRIC characters, levels 5th to 8th. There's a rather nasty bunch of goblins with a rather extensive cave complex, or warren, and the PCs are hired to clean them out, at the munificient rate of 3 gp per goblin head. It's hard to fathom why any 5th level party would accept that offer, much less 8th.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — July 26th, 2019

Somewhat slow this week, but a couple of 1e adventures, a S&W setting and adventure book, and stuff for two different White Box hacks.

Official

R2: The Investigation of Hydell -  the RPGA module for 1e about zombies being disguised and sold as servants. But given the ease of undead animation in AD&D, wouldn't it be readily accepted? 35 pages, $4.95

RPGA2: Black Opal Eye - I think part two of a model for Basic. 20 pages, $4.95

Adventures

Adventures in Great Lunden -  Adventures set in the Great Lunden setting (see below) for S&W. $11.15 (probably will fluctuate due to currency differences) and 198 pages.

SM06 - The Warren -  Dunromin setting adventure for OSRIC/1e involving goblins...but for levels 5th to 8th.  I'm not sure my players would be too interesting in still fighting goblins, but we shall see. 76 pages, $4.95

The Banshee's Tower - New OSRIC/1e adventure from Joseph Mohr. 30 pages, PWYW

Rules

The Armiger: Avremier Character Supplement I -  I have no idea what this is, other than it's a new class and a lot of rules for White Box.  $4.99 and 46 pages.

The Isle of the Amazon for Untold Adventures -  Apparently it's additional Amazonian rules for yet another White Box game. Because apparently people never get tired of making additional rules for White Box or White Box hacks.  $4.99, 69 pages.

Misc

Dungeon Dressing: Dungeon Names and Legends 2.0 - " presents loads of tools to help you give your dungeons evocative and exciting names and legends". Oh yeah, that's totally what I need, exciting names. But if you do, it's $3.45 and 22 pages.

Friday Enhanced Map 7-19-19 - Level 4 of the Eye of Something Dungeon. $2.

The City of Great Lunden -  I hope it's more creative than the name "Lunden", but apparently a gritty city setting for S&W. $18.58 and 224 pages, plus nearly a gigabyte of maps. Yikes. Pass on all the above.

The Lost Valley of Kishar — More Trouble Than Treasure, For Misery Tourists Only

 The Lost Valley of Kishar is a site based adventure from Gabor Csomos from Gabor Lux's (better known as Melan) imprint, EDMT. As such, it's not surprising that it has a strong sword & sorcery feel, though this is almost taken to the point of cliche. While apparently for 1e (levels 6th through 8th), it uses its own house rules, including things like morale, and is extremely stingy (by design) on the treasure, both magic and mundane.

Essentially it's a small valley with a number of locations, though even calling them mini-dungeons would be a stretch. It seems that the valley has a magic tree and this magic tree was worshiped by followers of a fertility deity (Kishar). They lived there for a while until an evil magic-user came in and took over the valley, corrupting the tree and using it to create magical beasties. But the priestesses recuited an army of heroes who defeated them, but all died in the process (and despite being D&D, didn't have access to raise dead for some reason), leaving the valley more or less deserted and open for the remaning monsters people to slowly fill the power vacuum.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — July 19th, 2019

Woops, a day late. I lost track of time.

On the flip side, the Christmas in July sale there has started.  I really don't know why July is when it happens, since Christmas Season these days starts in October, running concurrently with Halloween. It would make more sense for it to be in May or June.

Doesn't seem like a whole lot of OSR stuff is on sale, misc stuff. OTOH, Raging Swan's stock town maps and Rogue Genius's stock are on sale

Official

M1 Blizzard Pass - Solo adventure (with hidden text shown). 35 pages, $4.99

AC6 D&D Player Character Record Sheets -  Going by the sample, they are orange, so I'm not sure this is even with the 99 cents it costs.

Adventures

Annihilation Rising - This short adventure from Fail Squad Games features the Tarasque, though more like the French original (which amusingly enough, surrendered to the townsfolk). $4, 16 pages

RPPP Cave of the Hawk - Medieval Authentic about a drunk vicar. (Everyone was drunk back then, as the water was not fit to drink). 17 pages, $2.99

The Lost Valley of Kishar - This is a mid level 1e/OSRIC module is by Gabor Csomo, featuring several mini-dungeons in a wilderness area, $6, 36 pages.

Temple of the Blood Moth - Sci-Fantasy Horror modules. No preview, but I know the price is scary, $8 for 24 pages.

Rules

Draugr & Draculas -  Comedic look at OSR Vampies, apparently. $7, 64 pages.

Far Away Land OSR RPG -  Seems like another "light" Swords & Wizardry hack.  $10, 130 pages.

Floating Magicians: A New Class -  As near as I can tell, this seems to be Orko from Masters of the Universe. $1, 13 pages.

Wherein Evil Lies - B/X zine of sorts from New Big Dragon Games that has some new classes (including the Half-Orc, which continues NBDG's trend of turning B/X into AD&D and IMHO, ruining both - let B/X be B/X and AD&D be AD&D), some spells, an adventure and other stuff. 44 pages, PWYW

Misc

Echoes from Fomalhaut #5 -  The latest PDF issue of the excellent Hungarian zine from Gabor Lux, including an adventure and more. $6, 44 pages.

Friday Enhanced Map 7-12-19 - Looks like another level of that eye dungeon. $2

Odysseys & Overlords World Map - PWYW

Robots: A New Character Class Review — Not Enough Distinctive Mechanics For Mechanical Men

 Robots! Although arguably the heyday for them in fiction was the 1950s, I discovered Isaac Asmiov as a teenager in the early 80s, a man who probably put more thought into his robot stories than anyone. I also later discovered the works of Clifford Simak, who although lacking the scientific background of Asimov and typically writing stories in a pastoral setting, absolutely loved robots. Not as props, but heavily developed characters. 

Robots from Sharp Mountain Games is not the first attempt to bring a robot character class to the OSR.  The first was perhaps the Automaton class from Barrel Rider Games (flavorful, but like the UA Barbarian, saddled with huge XP costs), and a couple years ago, I came up with the OSR Android. This though is more like the more traditional SF robot, the sort favored by Simak. At least in flavor.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — July 11th, 2019

Sick this week. Slept 13 hours last night. So no review.

And on a completely different subject, it's amazing how many typos there are in product descriptions. I'm not immune to it myself (and it's always remarkable how obvious they are when reading something again a week or more later), but it seems to me when you're charging $10 for a product, you could at least proofread your description.

Adventures

HighFell: The Drifting Dungeon - From the author of Barrowmaze (which I thought was pretty meh, to be honest) comes this new megadungeon. 246 pages plus maps, $35

Rules

OSR Solo -  Rules for running games without a GM. 8 pages, $1.99 and apparently the whole thing is available as a preview (which is what I do for my stuff, but I don't really charge for it, so nice of this guy.)

Robots: A New Character Class - From Sharp Mountain Games comes this racial class for B/X and LL. 14 pages, $1

Misc

CAL2 Calidar on Wings of Darkness -  From Bruce Heard comes this Calidar gazetteer about that world's version of a magocracy (seems more like Glantri than Alphatia), with the added complication there it's also full of demons (which B/X and BECMI didn't really have). $8.50 and 132 pages.

PG2: A Player's Guid to Caldwen - Small guide for above meant for players. $2.99 and 20 pages

Friday Enhanced Map 7-5-19 -  Underground dungeon with caves. $1

New OSR Products at DTRPG — The 4th of July, 2019

No review this week since I am battling either allergies and/or a summer cold, plus there isn't anything that I've bought lately that cries out to be reviewed.

Also, somewhat of note, is there is a kickstarter for a new version of Chivalry & Sorcery.  Which if nothing else, is a reminder that old school is not necessarily less rules.

Adventures

Death at the Oasis -  Apparently for C&C (which I really consider more 3e-ish than OSR, and not very good in any event), but has OSR conversion notes. 20 pages, $5.99

Dead Arising - Apparently for C&C, but has OSR conversion notes. 30 pages, $5.99

Forsaken Pyramid -  Apparently for C&C, but has OSR conversion notes. 30 pages, $5.99

Mystery of the Cursed Monastery -  1st-2nd level adventure for Odysseys & Overlords/Basic Fantasy RPG. $1, 10 pages.

Spiral Isles -  Apparently an adventure about coming back from the dead, because raise dead is too easy or something. Dual statted for 5e and S&W. 54 pages, $10

Towering Temple -  Apparently for C&C, but has OSR conversion notes. 24 pages, $5.99

The Port of Dakhalla -  Apparently the setting for the above C&C modules (with notes for OSR). 36 pages, $9.99. Cover art is really nice.

Rules

From Distant Lands -  Barbarian expansion for Beyond the Wall

The Blackest of Deaths -  Seems like another entry in the OSR eliter than thou pissing contest of who can be the most grim/deadly.  104 pages, $9.99

Misc

Friday Enhanced Map 6-28-19 - Level 2 of the Eye of Shum Murak. $2

SPC1 Old School Character Sheets - For 1e/OSRIC $2.95

Free Megapack from Wildside Press (until Sunday)

Wildside Press is something of an odd company, partly parasitic in that they take public domain stuff (often scanned and corrected by others) and sell them for cheap (in Megapacks), but they also do have stuff that doesn't seem to be PD and sell them for cheap (also in Megapacks).

Case in point, the Kothar the Swordsmen novels from Gardner Fox. He was a favorite of EGG (even publishing him in early issues of Dragon), but his work is very hard to find

Anyway, my point is, they are having a 99 cents off coupon (and their megapacks are 99 cents) with the code HAPPY4TH

Two different collections of Kothar novels are in the fantasy section, there's also a lot of old pulp horror in that section, and you might also look at the Lon Williams weird western megapack, the dude more or less invested the Weird West genre.  I came across them via Pulpgen and Mobileread (a guy there would convert Pulpgen's PDFs to mobi/epub) and they are very good.

New (and Free) Add-on for Beyond the Wall

From Distant Lands is an add-on all about barbarians for the excellent OSR game Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures,

Basically includes a playbook for a barbarian character, rules for mass battles, a scenario, and barbarian themed monsters. And it's free.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — June 27th, 2019

Seems like June is dragging on. Which is sort of a good thing, since I like the weather, but it's painful waiting for my internet cap to replenish. Ah, the joys of Hughes.net

Something interesting this week is the reprint version of Man, Myth, & Magic, originally by Yaquinto and advertised like hell in Dragon.

Adventures

Black Label #1 -  From the people behind The Folio, comes this dual statted (1e/5e) 3rd to 5th level adventure homage to 80s B movies. 36 pages, and $14.99, but just might be worth it for the art.

In the Company of Thieves -  Odysseys & Overlords/Basic Fantasy RPG module for 2nd-3rd level characters. 9 pages, $1

Rules

Colonial Troopers: Knight Hawks -  Spaceship combat rules for OSR space game (including the rather disappointing Colonial Troopers). 80 pages plus combat map and counter sheet, $7

Odd Objects: Magic Items for OSR Games -  50 new magic items from Unbalanced Dice Games. $2.50, 65 pages.

Misc

Equinox - Apparently an Italian fanzine for something OSR. I know enough Spanish to get the gist of it, but not the specifics. 38 pages, PWYW

Friday Enhanced Map 6-21-19 -  Looks like the first level of an evil temple. Price increase to $2

A Player's Guide to Dunromin Review — Old School D&D City, British Style

One of the things about the OSR is that most of it is newer stuff, from newer campaigns people have started playing, with very few products/ideas from the old days themselves, other than the occasional kids styled nostalgia product. Very rarely do you see anything from actual campaigns back then, updated and done seriously.

This, A Player's Guide to Dunromin (there's also a GM's Guide which I will review later) by Simon Miles is one of those exceptions. Apparently it dates back to 1986, which is perhaps not old, old school, but certainly still in the late heyday of AD&D. Dunromin is actually the name of the main city of the setting, the world itself is named Barnaynia. If that name sounds funny, there's a reason for it, it's a presumably comical British pronounciation of banana, which is the shape of the world.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — June 20th, 2019

Still working on reviews of the Dunromin books. They are big. But good reads. I'm not sure I'd use the setting, but it's basically a look at someone else's game world.

Somewhat notable, the official Princess Bride RPG is now available.  Alas, it's written for Fudge, which kills any interest I have in it

Adventures

Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon -  Braineaters, I guess. As it's by Casey Christofferson, presumably it's written for 3.x and converted to S&W.  $7.99 and 25 pages.

Magical Murder Mansion - "Magical Murder Mansion is a challenging funhouse dungeon in the style of Tomb of Horrors and Tegel Manor.   Hopefully more like the former, as Tegel is just plain incoherent. $6.99, 30 pages.

Operation Shattered Bow -  Very short adventure for the OSR Special Ops game, Ghost Ops. 6 pages, $2 (that's almost Pentagon pricing...well, add a few zeroes)

SSolo2 The Endless Lair II - You really shouldn't rhyme 2 with II.  Solo adventure for 1e/OSRIC. 18 pages, $2.50

Temple of the Harpies -  Odysseys & Overlords/Basic Fantasy RPG adventure for levels 2-3. 14 pages and $1.99 and looks like one of the better in the line (as it's not just 5 rooms).

Worms -  Possibly comic horror adventure set in medieval times. $5, 18 pages.

Misc

AD&D Character Sheet for use with Unearthed Arcana -  A scan of an old '87 computer made (Mac) character sheet. PWYW.

Friday Enhanced Map 6-14-19 -  This one has a name, Shrine of the Sunken Trident. Pretty creepy looking design. $1

RPPP: 100 Strange Features of Towns -  If there's a nadir of DTRPG, it's 100 thing supplements.  $1.99

Apparently there's now a sequel to the Hidden Shrine of Tamaochan

Written by the original author, Harold Johnson. The strange catch is that it's written for Pathfinder, of all systems.

New OSR Products at DTRPG — June 13th, 2019

Has Hell frozen over? The St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup after half a century of futility. And I have had to run my furnace in June. Coincidence?

Adventures

Beneath the Temple of Edea -  This B/X adventure is full of thouls, apparently.  10 pages, PWYW

OPD7 - The Lone Lighthouse -  Full of fishpeople. 50 cents, 1 page.

Shrine of the Wolf Maidens - Rescue a wolfnapped merchant's daughter in this 2nd-3rd level adventure for Odysseys & Overlords/ Basic Fantasy RPG.  10 pages, $1.95

Vobleavira Haven Complex - This B/X Essentials module is apparently a tribute to B1 (which was a Holmes module, BTW). 19 pages, PWYW

Rules

White Box Tome - Arioth I -  Compilation of several small collections of magic items, spells, classes, etc, for White Box. $9.99 and 87 pages.

Misc

Advanced Labyrinth Lord Adventure Record Sheets - Pretty much what it says. $1

Friday Enhanced Map 6-7-19 - Looks like a keep. $1

S1 Henchmen - This is an odd product, it's a series of 10 illustrations of henchmen, but it has spots for ability scores. 16 pages, $3.99

Quick Start Character Race & Class Sheets: By the Book Review

One of the great advantages of OSR games (and by that I mean old school D&D specifically) is that characters are pretty quick to generate. Roll some dice, pick a class and race, write down some modifiers, buy some gear and you're ready to go. For those of us that have been playing games for 30+ years, you really don't even need the books anymore. But what about newer players? And games we aren't totally familiar with, as some retro clones do things slightly different? Rules can be scattered all over the rulebook.

Quick Start Character Race & Class Sheets: By the Book from James Mishler is designed to walk people through creating a character of a given class or race, all on one page of paper (or PDF). Like pretty much all his stuff, it's for Labyrinth Lord, containing both basic and advanced classes.