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.

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.

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.

Wyrd Ways of Walstock Review — Rush to Save an Absurd Town

Wyrd Ways of Walstock is the first (and maybe last, since it came out in 2017) adventure from Dan Osarchuk and OSRDan games, who has produced a number of supplements called  Divinities & Cult(which I do not own). While it's an adventure (and meant for 1st to 3rd level characters), it's largely a small town that happens to have a dastardly plot going on that the PCs will presumably get caught up in and presumably try to foil. The tone of the module veers between satirical and light hearted. The villain of the module is a cult that worships the arch devil of health insurance, and there's a long (and depressingly adequate) description of the town hospital.

Tomb of the Lovelorn Review — Undeath Will Tear Us Apart

Tomb of the Lovelorn is a short dungeon from M. Greis for lowish (3rd to 4th) level Labyrinth Lord characters, though there is some fuzziness in both the system and level range. Apparently it was originally written for a Danish RPG convention and translated into English, and although it's quire readable, it does have some odd phrasings and many minor errors.

While it's a tomb crawl, it's definitely an unusual one, with no standard undead. Instead its basically a prison created by an evil magic-user to keep his romantic rival in a state of undeath, to prevent him from being reunited in death with his lover (that the evil magic-user also fancied). This is done by two undead crypt keepers, who apparently abduct nearby residents and "feed" them to the imprisoned lover, who has become a giant blog of flesh.

Crypt of the Shadow Lord Review — Simple But Deadly Solitaire Module

Crypt of the Shadow Lord is a short solitaire adventure for Labyrinth Lord and the first product from DPC-RPG Games (which I'm guessing are the initials of the author, David Cronin). D&D actually works fairly well as a solo RPG. But what it doesn't really do is work well as a single character game. Perhaps because of this, solitaire adventures have always been rare, especially so among the OSR. (Note that Kevin Crawford created rules to address this problem).

The premise of the adventure is pretty much stated in the title. You play a 1st level cleric sent on a mission to investigate a crypt and rescue a missing farmer. It follows the basic Choose Your Own Adventure structure, you start at entry 1 and then are directed to read other numbered entries, based on your choices and your die rolls.

Advanced Labyrinth Lord is finally on Kickstarter

He's been thinking about it for years, but too busy with his Pacesetter stuff and monkey-RPG. But he finally went with it

After a day, it's funded.

Unlike the AEC companion, which was an add on to the basic Labyinrth Lord rules (mimicking the Basic and Expert set) that provided 1e AD&D options like AD&D classes and races not as classes, this will be one simple coherent product for $30 in hardcover.  

Correction (thanks to James Mishler for pointing this out), it's $30 plus the cost of printing and shipping from DTRPG. So probably closer to $50 (figure 15 for printing and another $5 for shipping, which might still be lowballing) and maybe a better deal to just buy the 1e books on ebay.

The Kickstarter is also offering a hardback version of Realms of Crawling Chaos, his book on Lovecraftian D&D (which is for both regular and advanced LL). I reviewed it ages ago and am too tired from work to link to it, but it's solid, though not spectacular. Probably wouldn't pay the $25 for it, and again, it's plus probably another $10-15 buch, so probably $40 or so.

I participated in one of his previous Kickstarters (for Starships & Spacemen 2e) and it went well. When I couldn't use the DTRPG link (because back then it didn't work with my crappy ISP, the book marking would go in an endless loop), he emailed me a copy. And the print version was nice (though at $40 and 88 pages, a little pricey, this is much better deal all around)

Be sure to check out the new adventure at 3 Toadstools

A little late, but things have been surprisingly hectic the last couple weeks besides the usual holiday stuff. My pipes froze which screwed up my plumbing in way I don't really understand but have to cope with and fix.

But this has brightened things up, a new (and free) adventure from Shane Ward of 3 Toadstools, Troubling Events, for Labyrinth Lord , a nice sword & sorcery style mini-dungeon. Well, not that mini at 24 rooms, but probably one session.

Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall from Small Niche Games is now available

Last year (or maybe before that), Small Niche Games put out a free sourcebook on the City of Dolmvay, first mentioned in the Labyrinth Lord rulebook

They've followed it up with the similarly free (or pay what you want), Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall, where it's located, along with many of their adventures.

Definitely check it out if you are a fan of LL. While I think it's a far cry from the Known World/Mystara, it's not bad at all in its own right.

Enchanter Class for Labyrinth Lord — PWYW

This is kind of neat, it's based on Prospero from Shakespeare's The Tempest, which also indirectly gave us Star Trek.

Free racial gnome classes for Labynrith Lord — CX1 Extra: Gnomes

While the B/X rules are really quite elegant and fun, I've never really understood the point of racial classes, at least for humanoid races like elves, dwarves, & hobbits.  But if you do, and are dying to add gnomes to your game, New Big Dragon just released a free supplement with gnome racial classes, apparently a preview of a larger book of classes.

I did like the Creature Crucible line for D&D, where you could play monsters.

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.

From the Vats — New Free Labyrinth Lord supplement from Gavin Norman (and others)

 I was a big fan of his Theorems & Thaumaturgy, so was a bit disappointed when he stopped doing OSR stuff in favor of 5e (which I have less than zero interest in). But apparently he hasn't given up the OSR entirely, as he's back with something of a supplement to the Vivimancer class, From the Vats.

Essentially a Vivimancer is like the opposite of a Necromancer - dealing with creating new (and often icky) life forms and modifying life.

Tranzar's Redoubt Review—No Doubt About It, It's Good

One of the things that has puzzled me about the OSR (and old school D&D fans in general) is the love of randomly generated dungeons (or wilderness). I've never found those particularly appealing because D&D is far more than just monsters in rooms and killing them for their treasure. Oh sure, some of that is fun, but it's also about exploration and encountering weird and unique stuff, which gives a sense of wonder, a sense of the unknown.

Tranzar's Redoubt, a Labyrinth Lord module by Joe Johnston and Task Boy Games, has exactly that air of mystery in its encounters that I think is essential to D&D. In its 20 locations, players will encounter an ettin salesman, a casino full of undead, a dragon who talks in his sleep, and a tea party among other things, like traps and riddles. Just exactly the sort of thing you can't generate randomly. Yet it doesn't descend into silliness, all the things are there for a reason, and are plausible and rational given its design.

Ruins of the Undercity updated

I don't usually mention updated files, since if you've already bought them, you get told when they get updated.

But I thought this would be a good exception (for one, I have nothing else to post) but also because I really enjoyed his Mad Monks of Kwantoom. Ruins of the Undercity is essentially the prototype for that product, essentially a solo way of playing (generating dungeons and visiting the town).

The original Ruins was solid, but he Kwantoom was really, really well laid down (and apparently done in Open Office). The update brings Ruins up to Kwantoom's standards. If you don't have it, it's well worth the $5. (I thought so, anyway)

Dreams of Ruin released early (for free)

The old school sourcebook from the author of Exalted was slated to be freely released on May 15th, but perhaps because of the lackluster Kickstarter, it's been released a few days early.

New Kickstarter from Small Niche Games — Guidebook to the Duchy of Vainwall

A few days late, and it's already funded, but you can still get in on this Kickstarter for the Guidebook to the Duchy of Vainwall for Labyrinth Lord. The end result will be a free (well, Pay What You Want) sourcebook.

Small Niche previously did this with Dolmvay, which turned out quite nicely.

Androids, Aliens, and Aberrations Review

Although I never played Gamma World as much as D&D as a kid, some of my favorite gaming memories were of a game of it set in a theme park. While it seems like every incarnation of old school D&D has been retro-cloned over and over, there's really only one Gamma World retro-clone, Mutant Future. Fortunately, it's very well done, if not terribly well supported by material (third or first party). Still, a few products for it come out, and this one, Androids, Aliens, and Aberrations is essentially a bunch of new player races. There is also some support for Labyrinth Lord, but it's mostly a Mutant Future product.

The new races are mostly things from pop culture. The Ender and the E9000 are basically the Terminator and the T-1000 from the Terminator movies and the Evolved human which is the big headed sort often found in science fiction (that one Planet of the Apes movie where they blew up the world). There is the Grey alien from UFO lore, a Reptoid, and a Serpent Noble from the weird conspiracies of David Icke (where the world is ruled by lizard people). Lastly there are three races inspired by the Fallout series, the most interesting of which is the "Rotter", essentially a ghoul, a person who looks like they are dead but are not. Not goths, but walking, semi-rotten corpses.

Lesser Gnome launches Kickstarter for new Labyrinth Lord module

Too rich for my blood, but their previous boxed set was well received. Seems like a manor crawl. Those are actually some of my favorites. And it's well on its way to being funded, despite just starting.

The Caves of Moreau County—Modular PWYW Adventure for Labyrinth Lord

Pretty neat looking, presumably inspired by the Verne novel.