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.

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.

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.

Ghosts The Incorporeal Undead Review — This must be what a sage's treatise is like

One of the staples of the RPG industry since about 1990 or so is the "sourcebook", basically one really detailed look at one aspect of the game (or setting), be it a class, a place, or a type of monster. Perhaps because of the rules light nature of the OSR, there really has not been much of this — a few books on cities, detailed looks at witches by that guy who really likes witches, and a few general supplements on magic.

Ghosts — The Incorporeal Undead from James Mishler & Jodi Moran-Mishler is another exception. It's one very detailed look at the ghost, or incorporeal undead, as monster. In many ways it reminds me of one of the Von Richten's Guides for Ravenloft 2e, but it's written in a much more casual, breezy style (and a number of jokes). Plus it's written for Labyrinth Lord and thus the old Basic/Expert D&D set as opposed to AD&D. (As I am mostly an AD&D guy I am not always familiar with D&D monsters and their differences.)

It essentially consists of three parts: different types of ghosts, once for every hit dice from 1 to 10, unique powers said ghosts might have, and various additional rules to deal with ghosts.

Monstrous Miscelleany #01 Review — A Handful of Monsters

Monster Miscellany #01 is the first (presumably) in a series of small supplements from James Mishler Games introducing new monster for Labyrinth Lord. How small? Well, four monsters, one to a page. But each page is packed with a huge amount of detail (and text). While Labyrinth Lord is a Basic and Expert D&D retro-clone, the format here is more akin to the monstrous manuals of 2nd edition of AD&D, with sections on ecology, organization, where they are found, and in some cases, unique examples of the monster.

Miscellany certain describes the variety of the four different monsters, they share nothing in common. The first is the abnokh, a type of minor demon. They are tall, red, and emaciated to the point of looking skeletal. They hunt humans to eat and other unpleasant things. They are not terribly tough though, with only 3 hit dice. However they do hunt in packs, so could be a challenge. They remind me a bit of the Xill.

Myrkridder: The Demonic Dead Review

Myrkridder: The Demonic Dead is a small supplement from James Misheler detailing a new type of undead monster. The name sounds like it's something from folklore, but a google search didn't turn up anything except one mention on an RPG blog  which seems quite different. Maybe it means something in German? I dunno.

At any rate, they are undead animated by demonic (or devilish) spirits and thus are intelligent. More than anything, they remind me of the deadite army from Army of Darkness. There are six different types of them, though 3 are just increasingly more powerful variations of the same type, undead soldiers. You have the regular rank and file member (2+2 hit dice), then a sergeant (3+3), and finally a champion (7+7). While the latter two have some minor magical powers, all three primarily attack with weapons, doing base weapon damage. I'll admit that I mostly play 1e, but a 7 hd monster only doing weapon damage (so probably 1d8) seems a bit low even for Basic games. If nothing else, they should have some sort of strength bonus, perhaps a +1 for every hit dice they have.

Review—Barbarian Class from James Mishler Games (Labyrinth Lord)

Thanks pretty much to Conan (along with Red Sonja), the barbarian is seen as a classic fantasy archetype. So it's not too surprising it's often the subject of a new character class, originally (as far as I know) in White Dwarf #4, then an official version by Gary Gygax in Dragon magazine and then later Unearthed Arcana.

The Barbarian Class from James Mishler Games, written by James Mishler & Jodi Moran-Mishler, is pretty much the AD&D 1e barbarian, restated for Labyrinth Lord, and with some tweaks. So essentially a fighter that has a d12 for hit points, can jump, track, and climb while outdoors. Also something I didn't remember well was that the barbarian could use first aid and had something of a danger sense. The original barbarian had some skills related to the area he was from. That is true here, but instead of only a few different types of homeland, there are seven, which is quite nice.