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.

Expeditious Retreat Press is having a half off PDF Sale

These things always seem to happen just after I've spent all my credit there (did I really need all that flumph stock art?). But apparently he's moving to the Netherlands for some reason (wouldn't have minded living their in the 1990s for the music) and in honor of that, is having a half off sale

He's probably been the most consistent supporter of OSRIC/1e since OSRIC existed and while the adventures are of varying quality, even the worst is still worth $3-4. 

There are also two excellent monster books, each with 100 or so critters.

Expeditious Retreat Press having a PDF sale on their newer Advanced Adventures

Dunno what the deal is, actually, but the recent AA are down to $3 each at DTPRG. While that is perhaps still a bit pricey compared to the page count (generally 12-16 pages) compared to other OSR modules, bear in mind that they are two column, not one, like a lot of OSR modules, and use fairly tiny print. Often a 16 pages adventure is pretty damn big.

And the quality is high (if you exclude the ones by Alphonso Warren, anyway), I've used more AA modules in my games than any thing else. Okay, true, I own the first 35 or so, but still, I wouldn't keep buying them if they suck (Mr. Warren notwithstanding)

Expeditious Retreat Press looking for 1e/OSRIC modules

Over at K&KA Joseph Browning is soliciting for adventure manuscripts for the Advanced Adventures line.

Right now only two more are in the works

The Desert Shrine of the Sightless Sisters (will probably be out in June) - and after that I've only the one I'm working on, Aerie of the Cloud Giant Strategos (follow up in the Giant series)

OSRIC/1E seems to be the red headed step child of the OSR these days so it will be nice to have more adventures for it. 

Expeditious Retreat Press having a half off sale

While apparently not officially part of the GM's Day sale (and probably a good thing, since that's only 30% off), they have joined in unofficially with 50% off their products, including their newest Advanced Adventure #32 (which I don't have yet, but will probably buy) and #26 The Witch Mounds which is really excellent for $3 each in PDF

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.

Advanced Adventures #25: Beneath the Heart of Empire Review

Beneath the Heart of Empire by Benton Wilson is a fairly short dungeon crawl for OSRIC (the retro clone of 1st Edition AD&D). It is #25 in the Advanced Adventures line from Expeditious Retreat Press, and meant for 1st to 3rd level characters. At 8 pages, it's rather short, though it manages to have 47 keyed locations, plus a smattering of background.

That background makes it perhaps a bit tricky to fit into most games, it's essentially set benearth a fantasy version of Rome. Not a few fantasy settings have a Rome analog, but it's not overly common, either. And you can't really divorce it from the setting, as many of the encounters have a Roman flavor, like gladiators, or a former arena where they fought.

Expeditious Retreat Press having a 50% off sale at RPGNow

They seem to have a sale fairly often, actually, but they are having another one. I've got all these (save #31) in the hardback compendiums. Many of them aren't really worth $6 (some are only 8 pages), but certainly worth $3

They also have the Old School Gazette, which is like a 3-4 page 'zine.

Half Price Advanced Adventures Sale (Print)

I own the compilations, but now you can get them individually for half off each (with #2 and #3 being $2 each).

#1 is really good, as are the ones by James Boney, I'd say. In general, avoid the ones by Alphonso Warden. They tend to be almost as deadly as a LoFP module, although in a less random way.

Advanced Adventures #21 now Pay What You Want

Advanced Adventures #21: The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates is now Pay What You Want.

I've got this, and honestly, it's not that great. It's a tournament module. Apparently the gods have just decided to toy with your party and put you inside a giant robot.

If you are running a tournament, I guess it's okay, but it's not something you could really use in a campaign, unless you have players that like having their characters screwed over arbitrarily. 

Half-Priced Advanced Adventures PDF Sale at Paizo

I sometimes forget that there are other PDF stores besides RPGNow/DTRPG/OBS.

But Paizo has a notable one, they are currently selling the Advanced Adventures lines from Expeditious Retreat Press for half off, $3 to $3.50 per PDF.

I bought the compendiums in print for about that price at Lulu (during their annual 40% off in December sale) and it's certain worth the price

(thanks to chiius81 on Dragonsfoot)