Ragged Hollow Nightmare Review

Ragged Hollow Nightmare is a low level (1st to 4th level) starter adventure from Joseph Robert Lewis that comes in both an OSR and 5E version, separate downloads for the same purchase price of $5. Despite the separate PDF, it's pretty clear that it was originally written for 5e and converted to a generic OSR format. It's also written for his campaign setting, under the "Dungeon Age" brand that seems drawn from the real world more than the typical D&D fantasy world, including an allusion to Christina Rosetti's deservedly famous poem, Goblin Market.

The basic premise of the module is that an evil force has been accidentally unleashed inside the local Temple (the local clerics apparently not using the augury spell) which has caused a force field, or veil to surround the temple keeping the evil in. Unfortunately it also has trapped much of the townsfolk who were at a bingo game or something. The PCs want to get inside the temple to rescue the townsfolk, but they need to find a way to climb up and over the forcefield/veil (which is about 60 feet high).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Dryad's Sanctuary Review — Slightly More Exciting than an Old Man and a Bunch of Cats. Only Slightly.

The Dryad's Sanctuary is a short adventure from Brian V. Molina, the first one from him, at least on DTRPG. Although apparently meant for OSR games, it seemingly uses a more modern conception of the dryad (rather than the old school sexy chick living in a tree), as well as stats that don't seem particularly compatible with anything, though it does seem to use the reverse reaction tables from Labyrinth Lord (where higher rolls are unfriendlier).

The basic premise is that the PCs have entered this magical wood ruled by the dryad. The only way out is to kill or negotiate with her. But first they have to find her, by wandering through the forest. And I really do mean wandering, as there is no map, the players just go to the different encounter areas by random chance (roll of a d12). Mostly. There's one area that is connected to another.

Spire of the Kobolds Review — Spire or Molehill?

Spire of the Kobolds is a short (very short) adventure by Megan Irving for Odysseys and Overlords, a new OSR game by Travis Legge and Aegis Studios based on the Basic Fantasy RPG. Did I mention it's very short? The premise is also simple, there are kobolds, the PCs want to go there to kill them and take their stuff. However, like the trope involving kobolds, they aren't mean sword fodder for 1st (or even 0) level characters, they have the place trapped.

Not terribly elaborate, nothing like you'd find in say, the Grimtooth's Traps books. Tripwires and caltrops mostly, but there is one section that is oiled that the kobolds will then try to set on fire when the party enters. If not for the traps, they would really be a cakewalk, as there are only about a dozen kobolds in total, across the 7 keyed locations.

Odysseys & Overlords Player's Guide Review — Very Slightly Tweaked Basic Fantasy RPG

When I first saw Odysseys & Overlords I was somewhat excited, because it was that rare thing — a new OSR rules system that isn't simply house rules based on or a hack of Swords & Wizardry. Firstly because there are so many of those, and secondly because I just really, really hate Swords & Wizardry. Mostly because of the single saving throw, but also because I don't think OD&D was all that well designed, and that 1e, for all of its own problems EGG introduced, fixed most of OD&D's problems.

But then I realized it was based on Chris Gonnerman's Basic Fantasy RPG. While that is a solid, if flawed, OSR styled game, the question then becomes, what does Odysseys & Overlords do different than BFRPG? And the answer is, not a whole heck of a lot. At least in the Player's Guide.



Essentially, in Odysseys & Overlords, there's only four races & five classes. You've got humans, "Abyss-kissed" who are basically tieflings from 2e, "Spellscorched" who seem to basically be elves (only they live as long as humans), and "Wild Folk" who basically are beastmen, essentially half-orcs but with claws.