The Folio: Black Label #3 on IndieGoGo

I don't keep up on Kickstarters/IndieGoGos as much as I used to, but here's one for 1E/OSRIC.  The Folio Series from Art of the Genre wasn't very good, to be honest, being very railroady, not unlike the Dragonlance modules, but less creative.

The Black Label is a bit better, less story driven and more site based, but is mostly notable for featuring nudity in its art and is a bit more sword & socery-ish

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.

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 Maximum Mayhem Dungeon Kickstarter

I can never get the embed things right, but the series of 1e/OSRIC modules is getting its 6th entry, Moving Maze of the Mad Master.

Honestly, most of them aren't very good. They are gimmicky/joke dungeons, but the last, #5, was pretty good. This seems to beheading back into gimmick territory with a maze that moves on a wheel.

Still, he's one of the few people actually making 1e modules and the artwork is original and usually well done. Even if you'd never actually want to run or worse, play in them.  $15 for PDF, $30 for softcover + PDF, and more expensive options as well.

Footprints #24 now available!

The long running free zine from Dragonsfoot had sort of run out of steam, but Malrex (of the Mercilous Merchants) picked up the editing reins and a new issue is out

Contents
 
The Experience Check (article)

Centaur Background (article)

Revisiting the Ghost Tower (article/adventure)

Shards from the Workshop (creatures)

Dwarf Backgrounds (article)

The Western Monk (class)

The Skald (class)

Performance Spells (article)

Ruins of the River Gates (adventure)

New Free Adventure — The Beholder Contracts

The Beholder Contracts (free at DTRPG/RPGNow) by David Whiteland/DWK Games is not about the eye monsters, but more literal. It's a very interesting twist on the "person hires characters to retrieve object" trope. Apparently it was first published in the 1980s in a magazine (don't know which) but has been revised and re-laid out.

It's for 1e and makes some references to the diseases tables, but should work with most OSR games.  Very much worth checking out.

Malevolent & Benign II Review — Solid Monster Collection

Malevolent & Benign II is the second monster book from Expeditious Retreat Press for OSRIC/1e featuring 150 new monsters. It could be more accurately called "Mostly Malevolent" since as in most monster books, it's mostly stuff for the player characters to kill. As with the first volume, it collects many of the monsters from their Advanced Adventures line of modules, though the bulk are original to the volume.

Each entry consists of the statblock (which lists chances for treasure by name, not letter code), then "General Information" (which includes special attacks and such), then "Languages", "Physical Description", and then "Variants", though sometimes the 2nd and 4th are omitted where they aren't applicable. I have seen similar formats, but it always makes more sense to me if the physical description of the monster are first, because it helps to visualize it while reading about the attacks and such.

Midnight Oliviah Review — Good Read, Not So Good Adventure

Midnight Oliviah is a module for first edition (and OSRIC and Advanced Edition Character Labyrinth Lord) from Lloyd Metcalf Inc, meant for 3rd to 4th level characters. I bought the PDF, but it's also a print product. It's described as a "mini mod", but at $5 and almost 30 pages, albeit single column, it's a bit more than that, but still likely representing a single play sessions.

Oliviah is also the name of an NPC, a tavern owner who hires the PCs to work as security for an auction of a special suit of magical armor . An artifact, actually. However, much to their dismay, part of that armor was stolen, so they must track down the thief. This requires a small amount of detective work, but after talking to a few people, they are pointed in the right direction of the suspect. Which involves a dungeon crawl of a necromancer's lair.

1e Player's Handbook up on DND Classics

A pdf of the relatively recent reprint is now up on DNDClassics. Little pricey at $9.99

Creature Compendium released

From New Big Dragon comes a book of monsters, statted for both 0e/1e and B/X, all for a staggering low $2.

ABYSMAL • ADARNA BIRD • AIRWALKER • AQRASETH • ARASSAS • aziza
BAT, ARCTIC (ICE) • BAT, DEATH • BATAR • BEETLE, GIANT FLAYER • BESTIAL BEAST •
BILOKO • BLOODBEAST • BLOODGILL •
BRAIN BAT • BRAINCRAB • BURU
CACTUS CAT • CACUS • CADEJO •
CALYTAUR • CENTAUR, CYPRIAN •
CHÖTGÖR • COW DEMON • CYCLORC
DEVIL MONKEY • DINGONEK • DJETABI •
DOBARCHÚ, GREATER • DOBARCHÚ, LESSER •
DONESTRE • DOVER DEMON • DRACOPEDE • DRAGI • DRAGONBOAR, WOOLY • DRAUGR • DUNTER • DWARF, BLACK • DWARF, RED • DZEE-DZEE-BON-DA
EAGLE HOUND • ELEMENTAL, MUDMIST •
ELEMENTAL, SAND • ELEPHANT, WHITE •
ELOKO • EMERALD STINKBUG

The Outpost of the Outer Ones released

This module took longer to make than previous ones. It's basically a dungeon crawl set in a Mi-Go base, suitable for sixth to tenth level characters (sixth for 1e, closer to 10th for 0e or B/X). It ended up being more gonzo than first planned.

Grab it for free from here, or over at RPGNow

Delver's Dungeons

In case you missed them (I know I have), the author of Delver's Dungeons just posted a roundup of all his past AD&D modules, and is teasing a new release

Advanced Adventures #32: The Palace Beyond is out!

At least it's out at RPGNow/DTRPG. Although the quality depends a lot of the author, in general, I am a huge fan of this series, and they are pretty much the only real ongoing products for OSRIC/1e.

The Palace Beyond is an OSRIC(tm) module designed for 4-6 adventurers of levels 6-9.

The Palace Beyond is ancient, and the race that built it is long gone. The palace exists on many levels of reality, and it is said it is everywhere and nowhere at once. It connects different parts of the world: it is possible to walk through a magic portal, into one of the palace’s corridors, turn around a corner, and then walk through another portal to end up in a far away land. But now the palace is deserted, and the magic that made it possible is slowly crumbling. Its pocket dimension is collapsing, and large sections of the palace have already fallen into Nothingness.

$6, 16 pages.

Micro Quest Cards Kickstarter

 This is one I had completely missed, Micro Quest Cards for 1e/OSRIC, basically a short adventure printed on a greeting card.

Already funded with 12 days left to go. Pretty clever idea.

HS2 - The Forsaken Burial Vaults released

My second attempt at making a module. This time a bit longer, 25 rooms, and for character levels 7th to 10th. I ran it with 7th, but that's using 1e rules and with pretty good gear (comparable to the stuff in GDQ).

As I didn't have any suitable color cover art, I took a B&W Dore illustration and colored it to look somewhat like the monochrome modules. I think it looks pretty neat.

You can get it here for free, or from One Book Shelf also for free (well, Pay What You Want)

Compiled OSRIC Monster Listing Released

Kellri, famous (among OSR circles at least) for releasing an excellent set of 1e netbooks, has just released a spreadsheet compiling almost every OSRIC monster around.

Two new Pay What You Want Adventures

The Curse of Ravenmere which seems to be for ACKS, and Kanthor's Den, which seems to be for 1e (but generic)

Folio 1E funded

Probably won't make any stretch goals (which were more modules), but at least the first one will be released.

1E Module Line on Kickstarter

I don't know how I missed this (thanks to Eric Andres for mentioning it to me), but over on Kickstarter is a new project to bring out a series of 1e folio adventures. While the art is clearly quite different (though some interior art is apparently by Jim Holloway), it will have the detached cover with the map inside like the old modules (and not something you can do at POD printers)

My Project: The Folio is a 1st Edition gaming module. It will be produced as an 8x11”, removable cover [11x17" once removed], adventure with mostly b/w interior artwork.  The final size is 30 pages of content.
Who’s it for? ALL gamers, both new gamers and old gamers as it is easily expandable or playable as is.The concept is to allow gamers a starting point for adventure that can be modified to their liking while providing excellent reference content and framework.The base mechanic will be for 1st Edition, but I’ve designed it to be readily modified to any fantasy game.
What’s in it? All original content. It has been written by myself and my OSR compatriot Mark Timm, with incredible cover art from old school masters and interior artwork by skilled black and white illustrators Travis Hanson and Michael Wilson, and even a bit of Jim Holloway because I can never get enough Holloway. We are intent on providing a polished and modern design with creatively nostalgic content that transcends a particular age. The Folio will contain a 3-D map, a Gazetteer, a monster section, a new monster unique to the setting, DM’s notes and guides, and a full adventure. 

Also very reasonably priced, $5 for a PDF, $15 for a print copy. So check it out.

Advanced Adventures #24: The Mouth of the Shadowvein Review

Advanced Adventures #24 The Mouth of the Shadowvein by Joseph Browning is the final module in a trilogy first started in Advanced Adventures #1 The Pod Caverns of The Sinister Shroom and then continued in Advanced Adventures #23 - Down the Shadowvein. It and AA#23 form an underground hex crawl very much in the vein of the old D1-D2 Module from TSR (Descent into the Depths of the Earth).